“Alright, Khala now you’re going to tell me why you did this to me and this time I want a real answer! Don’t pussyfoot around! ”
“Should have figured you’d ask me that! You don’t understand… you could never understand what it means for my kind to find another race to which we can become joined. For over ten thousand years we have been the faithful servants of those you call the gray skins and what do we get in return for our service?! We are treated little better than trained beasts to do their bidding!” She yelled her eyes alight with rage as she spoke her anger seeming to build with each syllable, but it didn’t just show on her face. It swirled around her in whirling ribbons of fire and great bursts of illusory smoke.
“You think I don’t know what it’s like to be trampled under the feet of the Qharr!? They invaded this world, my home, and murdered billions of my people. When I was four years old I watched a hunter murder my parents right in front of my eyes and was forced to serve that same bastard as he rose through the ranks of the Ascendancy for over twenty-four years! Don’t tell me I wouldn’t understand!” I screamed that all too familiar rage bubbling inside of me.
“I suppose you do…” she admitted staring down at the floor and biting her lip. “If we worked together maybe we could–”
“Okay stop right there!” I interrupted. “I’m not buying the act. You expect me to trust you?! For all I know this is just some big show put on for my benefit! And you still haven’t explained why you did this!” I proclaimed grabbing at my breasts.
“I was getting to that… I didn’t want to just spring it on you without an explanation,” she said standing up and started to pace back and forth. “The truth is I’m no ordinary K’teth. I’m a H’ra, I guess you could call me a queen, I’m one of only a handful of my kind capable of reproduction and I need a female host along with her womb and ovaries in order to breed.”
My insides froze and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, “Oh God. Oh hell… you can’t I won’t let you! You’re not going to use my body for that!”
“Use your body for what?” Kaya interrupted suddenly and my eyes shot toward her having completely forgotten that she was there.
“To spawn more of those… things!” I howled.
“Oh god! How?! Why!?” Kara asked her eyes growing as big as saucers.
“Yes, why?!” I said rounding on Khala.
“The K’teth were engineered so that our ability to reproduce was contingent on whether we were joined with a host. Because of thast we have always been dependent on the Qharr, but now…”
“But now you have me,” I finished folding my arms across my chest and clutched at my gut feeling the bile rise in my throat. What the K’teth wanted to do with my body made me want to run away screaming, but there was no running from the K’teth. Anywhere I ran I’d be taking her with me.
“So you understand now why having a human host would be important to me. You’ve brought hope were before there was none,” she said grabbing me by the shoulder and stared into my eyes intently.
“Oh, I understand… I understand that I have absolutely no reason to trust you or to believe anything you said. You could just be telling this to try and gain my sympathy and if you are telling the truth I’m not going to let you use my body to create more freaking parasites!” I shuddered screaming at the top of my lungs.
Khala glared at me, before disappearing with a suddenly flash of light accompanied by a loud boom, like a thunderclap. ‘It is already too late. My daughter was already growing within Jahal for nearly three months when you killed her. I was able to save her by bringing her into your body’ the symbiote’s voice reverberated through my head howling with inhuman intensity.
“Oh god!” I yelled out loud and clenched the side of my head.
My hands shook and I looked over to where Kaya was still staring with her saucer-like wide eyes. God, she was so beautiful and I wanted so badly just to lose myself in her comforting embrace, but I couldn’t. Oh, I had no doubt she would comfort and hold me, but our relationship had been changed dramatically. When she held me it wouldn’t be as a lover, it would be as a friend. I couldn’t hold the tears back and longer and they come pouring out of my eyes as Kaya grabbed hold of me and held me in her arms.
“You must know that I find this revelation particularly disturbing,” Mara said thrumming her hand against the desk her lips pursed in a thoughtful expression.
It had been almost two hours since Khala had dropped her bombshell on me and since then I had this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that just wouldn’t go away. It had been Kaya’s idea to tell Mara, and while I had resisted at first I was beginning to think that maybe it was for the best. If I was going to gain the rebel’s trust I had to be upfront and honest with them, but a part of me worried that they’d turn me out and leave me to fend for myself. I didn’t have anywhere else to go and I think Mara knew that. If I allowed the Qharr to recapture me I kind of doubted that they would take too kindly to a human joined with a K’teth.
“Yeah,” I muttered folding my arms across my chest. “You’re not the only one.”
“I can imagine.”
She pursed her lips then let out a long sigh. “Well, I appreciate you coming to me with this. It shows you’re willing to cooperate.”
“So what exactly do we do?” Kaya asked her hands clasped in her lap.
“To tell you the truth, I have no idea. This is an unprecedented situation… I suppose we’ll have to wait the creature out and see what happens when the infant K’teth fully matures,” Mara replied as she continued to tap her fingers against the surface of the desk.
“Since you are here, there is something I’d like for you to try.” Mara abruptly stood and slowly moved across the room.
“This belonged to your uncle Harold,” she said setting a small cylinder about as wide around as my index finger on the desk in front of me.
“What is it?” Kaya asked reaching out to touch it.
“The both of you are probably too young to remember, but before the invasion these were quite common. It’s called a biometric key, it’s keyed to the genetic code of the owner… in this case your uncle Harold. He and I both had one, but mine was destroyed during the invasion. Because we never had any children he had the key imprinted with both you and your sisters genetic patterns as a failsafe. There were a total of five keys, one each for both Harold and myself and three others for the other founders of the resistance,” she said picking it back up and twirled it around in her hand.
“Why didn’t he have his key imprinted with your genetic code?”
Mara smiled. “These keys are designed to hold a maximum of three patterns. My key was encoded with mine along with my sister and her son’s patterns. We felt it was better to imprint the keys with the maximum possible number of genetic patterns rather than have redundant ones. Unfortunately, since my key was destroyed and the other three are unaccounted for this is my last hope.”
“And my sister is the only one who can use it,” I added. “What does it open, if I might ask?”
Mara frowned and I felt her eyes on me as she studied me thoughtfully, “Something important to humanity’s survival.”
I bit my lip and fought down the urge to ask her for clarification. I knew she was holding back and I really wanted to know what the key opened, but I had the feeling that she was holding out because of Khala. If she didn’t want the K’teth to know it was probably best that that she didn’t even if it meant keeping me in the dark.
I grimaced then reached up to touch the key. As soon as my fingers wrapped around the small cylinder I could feel its energy pulsating from a tiny power supply encased within just begging for me or rather Khala to drain it all away. I fought against the sudden urge and flipped the cylinder around in my fingers before holding it out to Mara. “How can you tell if it works?”
Mara let out a long weary sigh and picked it out of my hand. “The end would have lit up if it
recognized you, but I would venture a guess that there isn’t enough of your original genetic pattern for that to happen.”
“Shit, well… I hope it’s nothing too important,” I said staring up at her and cursed Khala silently.
“More than you could ever know,” Mara said with a very slight tremor. She bit her lip then turned to Kaya, “Kaya, I hope you don’t mind I’d like some alone time with Jellfree here. There are some things I think the two of us need to discuss.”
“Sure, I mean, why wouldn’t you? I bet you two have plenty to talk about.”
“I have something you may be interested in,” she said pulling open a nearby drawer once Kaya had left.
“I don’t have many possessions left over from before the invasion, but I did manage to squirrel away a few photographs among other things. This one in particular, I think would be of interest to you,” she added holding out a plain off-white envelope.
I took it and glanced up at her before carefully opening it and pulling out the photo within. As I examined it, I found myself looking upon the face of a vaguely familiar looking woman and a man who shared a striking resemblance to my former male self. I took a sharp intake of breathe and traced my hands across the image of my parents. I felt tears well up in my eyes then reverently slide the picture back into the envelope and gently set it down on the desk in front of me.
“Thank you,” I muttered, wiping the tears from my eyes.
Mara picked the envelope up then help it back out to me. “Take it. It’s yours.”
“Oh no!” I protested. “I couldn’t!”
“Jellfree,” Mara said looking at me flatly. “That photo has more meaning to you than it ever will to me. Please, I insist.”
“Thank you,” I said smiling gratefully then grabbed the photo off the desk and looked up at Mara thoughtfully. “What were they like, my parents, I mean. I don’t remember them that well and I was hoping that maybe you could tell me something about them.”
“Oh, child,” she whispered softly. “I wish you could have known them better. Your mother was one of the kindest and most caring people I’ve ever known. She was one of those people who could light up a room just by stepping inside. Your father, was a quiet man, but when he spoke it usually to say something important,” she paused a moment and a smile touch the corners of her mouth. “He had a way of unexpectedly saying the most insightful things at the most pertinent times.”
I swallowed hard trying to fight down the surge of emotions that threatened to overtake me. All my life I’d wanted to know more about my parents, but now that I had the opportunity I couldn’t think of anything to ask or say.
“Were they good people?” I finally managed to choke out.
Mara nodded. “They were wonderful people and they loved you and your sister with all their hearts.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. “And…Harold, your husband, what was he like?”
Mara frowned and smiled wistfully. “Harold was a colonel with the United Earth Defense Fleet and he was a good man. Stubborn, like your father, but that’s where the similarity ended. Never, have I met a set of twins who were so different yet they were as close as any two brothers could be. Harold was outspoken, the man had an opinion about everything,” her smile expanding into a grin. “Sometimes I thought he never closed his mouth. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him. I miss him.”
“He died during the invasion?” I asked.
Mara shook her head. “He died about about ten years ago when the gray skins attacked the base he and his team were hiding in.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. One day soon they will pay for what they did to Harold, and your parents… and all the other people they murdered!”
“God, I hope so,” I muttered staring back at her.
“Now,” Mara said finally. “Enough about that. I think I’d like to hear a little about you, Jellfree. Tell me about yourself.”
I pursed my lips, closed my eyes then told her about my life being with the death of my parents and my enslavement to the gray skins. I took me a long time and when I was finally done, I felt almost as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I’d never really told anyone my story, save Kaya, and to do so now… in a way it felt pretty good to get it all off my chest. It wasn’t easy, I’d witnessed a lot of horrors and had suffered a great deal at the hands of Qharr and by the time I was done, I couldn’t keep myself from sobbing.
Suddenly, I felt Mara’s arms around me. “Oh Jellfree, I wish I could take some of your pain away,” she whispered then with a trembling voice she started to tell me her story.
During the war she served as an intelligence operative, and when it became obvious that humanity was going to lose, she and a small group of others, including my uncle, began to stockpile weapons and supplies. They searched through old historical records and found mention of places like the old shelter Mara had made a home, where they could hideaway and start their rebellion.
They continued to fight against overwhelming odds never giving up and never letting setback destroy hope. Then about ten years ago, they were betrayed and the gray-skins found many of their bases, including the one run by Harold. In just a few days the rebellion had suffered a terrible blow and only a handful of the original members remained, including Terreth Roggin, Mara, a woman by the name of Soula Marcone, and a fourth known as Alica Penrod.
It was only recently that they’d begun to recoup their losses and pose a threat to the Qharr again. They recruited from the slave populace often selecting members who were old enough to remember what earth was like before the invasion or else young men and woman who still hadn’t had their spirits broken by their masters.
The strike against the Overseer hadn’t been the first offensive after those gray-skinned bastards had decimated the rebel’s numbers, but it had been one of the most bold in some time. Time would only tell if taking down such a prominent official within the ascendancy would prove to be a boon or bane to the cause. I just hoped if things went sour I wouldn’t be around to find out just how bad they could really get.
Chapter Ten
For three days I sat around and did well… nothing. For more than twenty-four years I had worked every day of my life and then to suddenly have nothing to do with myself well it was a new feeling. I felt antsy, and I didn’t like it at all. I needed something, anything to do, but the rebels seemed content to let me sit around and twiddle my freaking thumbs. Kaya kept me company, but sometimes having her around hurt more than being alone.
Of course, being a woman was beyond strange and I every time I so much as moved one of my fingers I could feel the difference. Having breasts was the strangest part of it all; they bounced and jiggled along with being tender and sensitive in unusual ways. It was a little strange having wide hips, but not as odd as a freaking clit between my legs. You don’t truly appreciate something until it’s gone and believe me I was really missing having a cock and balls.
Things did finally pick up after the third day which is probably a good thing because I think if it had been much longer I’d probably have driven myself slightly mad…
“Hey,” a familiar soft-toned voice muttered.
My eyes snapped open and I let out a soft groan and blinked away the grogginess from my eyes. I sat up and found Jaysen standing just off to the side of the bed. He frowned and stared down at the floor as he fiddled with his fingers, “I-I didn’t think you’d be sleeping at this time of day.”
I shook my head and let my hair slide off my shoulders and down my back. “It’s not like there’s much else to do.”
“W-well um, actually Terreth stopped by and asked that we join him. He thought you might want to train and maybe learn to use your new abilities,” he mumbled.
“You mean Khala’s abilities, don’t you? The things I can do they’re all because of her. Do you really think it’s such a good idea if I learn how to use them?”I asked running a hand through my hair as I let out a long si
gh.
“I-I don’t know, but what else are you going to do? Live your life holed up in this room and let the world pass you by? You have a life, live it or else that thing in you has won.”
I blinked and stared at Jaysen in surprise, the statement was downright startling coming from him. “You’re right. Maybe I can do some good with these abilities, but I wouldn’t ever find out if I sat around all the time moping about.”
I slid off the bed and stood up, but as I did so I caught a brief glimmer of envy flash across Jaysen’s eyes and I remembered what Farris had said about Jaysen being a sissy who wanted to be a girl. I had ignored the comment before because I had figured it to be a lie, but after seeing that look in Jaysen’s eyes for the second time I was beginning to think it there may have been some truth to it after all.
“Jaysen,” I pursed my lips. “When Farris said you wanted to be a girl. He was telling the truth, wasn’t he?”
His eyes mists up and he shuddered. “Yeah.”
It was strange just a short while ago I would have been incredibly uncomfortable with the notion, but having been transformed into a woman I could understand how he must feel. I’d only been living in the wrong body for a short while, but that time had been absolutely miserable. For Jaysen to have lived that way his entire life, it must have been pure torture.
“I’m sorry it must be hard for you to see me end up like this while you’re stuck in that body.”
“Yeah, you could say that, but it can’t be easy for you. I know what it’s like being trapped in a body that you don’t belong in. You can never forget your pain because the very skin you live in is a constant reminder of it. No one understands, they all treat you like some sort of freak even if they pretend to tolerate you there’s always that spark of doubt in their eyes,” he said then clamped his mouth shut as if suddenly realizing that he’d told a little more than he intended.
Battle For Earth Page 10
