by Anna Carven
I listen as a conversation between Abbey and the Human doctor from Nova Terra is replayed. They are speaking in a Human language called English, so I don’t understand much, but the conversation quickly becomes heated, with Abbey sounding angry.
Could this doctor possibly have had something to do with Abbey’s abduction?
Perhaps the call was traced. My anger grows, both at the Humans and at myself. I curse myself for not eliminating the link-band when we first arrived at the property.
As we speed towards the coastline, the familiar signal of Infinity II, the stealth craft used by the First Division, appears on our tracking screen.
I open the comm-link. “It’s about time you showed up,” I say dryly.
“Hello to you too, Sir.” Rykal’s the one to answer. “What’s up?”
For once, I don’t berate him for his casual speech. Only the First Division can get away with such things. “Are you fully armed?”
“Naturally.”
“Good. Some foolish Humans seem to think they can take my mate away from me.” On the other end, I hear a sharp intake of breath. Ignoring it, I continue. “We are in the process of tracking her location. Once that is verified, we will do a retrieval operation. The objective is to take her back alive and unharmed at all costs. I don’t care about the collateral. Do what you have to do.”
“Understood, Sir.”
“Good. Follow our path. I see you have activated cloaking, but if anyone, Human or otherwise, gets in your way, you have my full permission to do whatever is necessary to clear your path. My only concern right now is for the survival of my mate.”
I clear the frequency, and we wait. After a while, I receive another comm from Silence.
“G-General Akkadian?”
“Yes, Yuris?’
“We’ve shot the Human surveillance device back to Earth inside a re-entry vehicle at near light-speed. It should be clearing the atmosphere shortly. Once it’s in, we’ll uncouple it from the re-entry vehicle and switch it on; hopefully, we’ll get a trace on it. Do you want to stay on the channel in case we get a clear location?”
“Naturally.”
“Stand by, then. It’s entering the atmosphere now.”
I wait. Everyone onboard Darkshadow is silent. Below us, the arid landscape rushes past, giving way to the outskirts of some kind of Human settlement.
Infinity II is matching us in speed. She won’t be able to catch us, but she isn’t far behind.
“Entry has been successful.” Yuris’ thin voice echoes through the cabin. “I’m going to ditch the re-entry vehicle now and switch it on.”
“Go ahead, Tech.”
“Tracing the signal now.” There’s a pause. “Uh, Sir?”
“What is it, Yuris?”
“We got a brief receiving signal, before the thing was quickly switched off. But-”
“Spit it out, Tech.”
“It doesn’t make sense, Sir. The signal came from over the ocean, but based on our topographical surveillance, there’s nothing out there but water.”
“Hm.” I stare at our course, which is mapped out on the holoscreen. “Do you have the co-ordinates of the signal?”
“Yes, Sir.” Yuris taps away on his datapad and a location appears on our map. It’s in the center of a large ocean, at a point between this large landmass called the Oceanic Republic and an icy territory at the lower pole of the Earth.
“Send surveillance units to the area. Look for anything that might indicate Human activity.”
I peer at the screen, trying to understand why these insane Humans might possibly want to take my pregnant mate to the middle of an ocean.
I pray to the Goddess that she is safe.
Hold on, my amina. I will be there soon.
Humans, Ifkin, Kordolians; it appears they were all working together to steal my mate from me. I clench my jaw in anger as we pass over land and out onto the dark waters of the ocean.
“Lodan, are you at maximum velocity?”
“I am, boss.”
“Fly faster,” I urge, staring at the holoscreen, wishing it could give me some kind of clue or signal, but there’s nothing out there. It’s just a vast, empty ocean.
“General.” I spin at the sound of Zyara’s voice. She’s looking at me with her usual analytical gaze. “You’ve been injured,” she says disapprovingly. “Look at you. The nanites are starting to look for an energy source.”
I look down and see that my hands have become slightly gaunt. My muscles and ribs and bones have all become more prominent. I’ve been too worried about Abbey to even care that I’m still completely naked, my exo-armor having retreated to repair my internal wounds.
And every single part of me aches.
“Let me give you an infusion,” Zyara says. “You need to be in peak physical condition for what’s about to happen next.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Abbey
When I wake again, I’m relieved to find that I can actually sit up. There’s nothing strapping me down this time. I squint under the harsh lights, trying to clear my foggy thoughts.
I lift up my gown and check the blue star on my belly. It’s still glowing blue, but it seems a little darker than before. Is that just my imagination?
But the main thing is that it’s still blue.
Blue is good. Anything else is bad.
I rest my hands on my belly. “Are you okay, little one?” I say softly. “Don’t worry. Mommy’s not going to let anything happen to you.” I will fight like a fucking she-wolf to keep these idiots from doing anything to my baby.
And if I’m a she-wolf, that makes Tarak the goddamn papa-wolf, and he’s a hundred times more scary than me.
My Little Monster flutters reassuringly. She seems to be a very active kind of child. That’s good, because it means she’s going to keep daddy on his toes.
“Don’t worry, baby,” I coo. “Daddy’s coming for us.”
I don’t know where the hell we are right now or how he’s supposed to find us, but I know he will. He’s got an entire freaking hi-tech Kordolian army at his disposal.
They think they can get away with anything, but these SynCorp idiots don’t stand a chance.
My idle thought catches me off-guard and a soft, ironic laugh escapes me. It’s almost as if I’m starting to think like a Kordolian.
I will have to be very mindful about teaching our child proper Earth manners.
I glance around the room, taking in my surroundings. I’m sitting on a bed covered in white linens, and there’s a small sofa against the opposite wall. Beside the bed is a trolley with a whole bunch of medical monitoring equipment on it, and on the cold floor is a dull grey rug.
There’s no color in here; no personality. It’s sterile and stale and it feels a bit like a jail cell.
There aren’t any windows either, and even though I can’t see any monitoring devices, I’m sure they’re watching me.
There are two doors opposite me. I slide off the bed and try the first door.
It slides open. Great. A bathroom.
I try the second door, which is obviously the exit. Predictably, it’s locked. Punching the panel beside it doesn’t do anything, and attempting to pry it open with my fingertips doesn’t help.
I’m effectively a prisoner in here.
I can suspect what they want to do. They want me to carry the baby to term and then take her from me, to fulfill some sort of dark SynCorp agenda. Cold anger rushes through me.
Who do these people think they are?
Sighing, I lie back on the bed and close my eyes. My stomach rumbles, reminding me I haven’t even had breakfast yet.
All I can do is wait. Someone’s going to come along sooner or later, and until then, I need to rest. At thirty-four weeks pregnant, even if I did manage to escape, what am I going to do then? Duck-waddle out of a highly guarded corporate facility?
It’s too risky. I’m going to have to sit this one out and wait for Tarak and his cavalry to com
e.
I put my hands behind my head and try to relax. I fall in and out of sleep as my little one moves about.
Then, I hear it. It’s so faint, I’m not even sure it’s real.
Music.
It sounds like ancient music, from an old-fashioned piano.
My eyes flutter open. As I look around, searching for the source, the sound disappears.
Maybe I was just imagining it.
I close my eyes, and there’s the sound again. I only catch snippets of it, and it’s nothing I recognize, but it’s amazingly soothing. I don’t know where it’s coming from, but it’s helping me to relax.
I’m about to fall asleep when the main doors slide open, and Lorelei appears with a man in a dark suit. I sit up, fixing my gown. The man looks at me with cold grey eyes that remind me of a dead fish. “This is the mother of the hybrid?” he asks, looking at some information on a datapad.
“That’s right. Based on scan data, she’s thirty-four plus two. Apart from the fetus being a bit large for gestational age, the pregnancy is progressing no differently to a normal Human pregnancy, and there are no complications so far. We’re expecting a normal delivery.”
“Very good.” The man glances at me as if I’m an animal in a zoo. Although his face appears young and unlined, his hair is streaked through with grey. His suit is charcoal grey and expensive looking, trimmed with cufflinks that look like rare Jentian bluemetal.
I resent the fact that they’re talking about me, right in front of me, as if I’m just another statistic. I think of something snarky to say, but instead settle for a venomous glare as Lorelei finally acknowledges me. “Do you understand, Miss Kendricks? You’re to stay here until the birth of the child. If you co-operate, you won’t be harmed.”
I say nothing. The man looks me up and down with detached curiosity, but remains silent.
Lorelei tries to interpret my silence. “Look,” she says, attempting to inject some warmth into her voice. “I know this whole situation seems harsh, but we don’t have any ill intentions towards you. We just want what’s best for you and your child, but at the same time, the work we’re doing here might potentially save the Human race.”
I raise my eyebrows, unimpressed. The last time I checked, the Human race didn’t exactly need saving.
A snippet of piano music filters through my mind.
I look back at Lorelei and the creepy man, wondering if they can hear the music too. They don’t seem to be responding in any way. Little Monster goes still. I’ve noticed she does that whenever it plays.
Is it possible she can hear it?
“Is that all, then?” My voice is cold. “Do me a favor and spare me the bullshit. We all know I’m here because you had your eyes on my child’s genetic material from the start. I’m surprised you would go to this extent, but for your own sake, you should really give up and let me go now.”
Lorelei presses her lips together in a grim smile. “I’m sorry, but your alien lover won’t be coming for you. This facility is impossible to locate.”
“You call yourself an alien specialist, but you don’t know the first thing about Kordolians, do you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I caress my belly as the music continues to play. A strange sense of calmness has come over me. “In my experience, Kordolians display a few interesting traits. One, they never give up until they get what they want. Two, they have a vicious mean streak when provoked. Three, they’re insanely protective, and they really, really hate it when you take what belongs to them.”
Lorelei and creepy man stare at me, not seeming to comprehend anything I’ve just said. I roll my eyes. “Whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Tarak
A storm has blanketed the ocean, whipping the water below into giant waves. Darkshadow hovers just below the cloud-line, giving me a good view of the water as I stare through a lower hatch at the sea below.
The temperature has dropped, but I find this biting cold most welcome after having to endure the blazing desert sun.
The thick cloud cover above filters the sunlight, casting the world below in tones of dark blue and grey.
We have entered a fierce, unrelenting environment.
It feels like Kythia.
I watch the waves as they form impressive crests, showcasing the power of nature on this planet. There’s not a single Human structure or vessel in sight, even though the last known trace from the drone-camera I caught on Nova Terra has led us here, to this patch of wild ocean.
The signal from Abbey’s harmony star also showed she was heading in this direction before it went out of range.
She has to be here.
I just can’t understand how or why they would take her to a place like this.
Zyara appears behind me. “The signal’s back,” she says, as I turn.
“The harmony star?”
“The baby’s fine.” Zyara stares down through the hatch, the wind whipping at her lilac hair. “That means Abbey’s fine.”
Relief surges through me, tempering the rage that has been with me ever since we left the desert. But if the trace is being picked up, why can’t I see anything but rough seas below? I turn towards the medic, my eyes narrowing. “What is the exact location of your trace, Zyara?”
“Straight down.”
“Down there? There’s nothing down there.”
Our surveillance units haven’t picked up anything except for the swell of the waves and the biting wind. There’s been no sign of Human activity at all.
I stare at the ocean for a while, watching the angry, white-tipped swells of the giant waves. Perhaps this was what the endless frozen seas of Kythia were like, before the Dark Planet’s star died.
“I can’t pinpoint it any further. My monitor tells me she’s right here below us, but beyond that, I can’t give you specifics.”
The wind howls, rushing through the lower deck. In the distance, electrical discharge falls from the sky, followed by a loud bang.
I clench my fist. My mate and my unborn child are nearby, and yet I have no idea where to look.
Where are you, my love?
The solution seems terribly obvious, but anger is blinding me to it. I close my eyes, listening to the roar of the ocean.
This place is wild and brutal and beautiful; it’s the first environment on Earth that’s made me feel truly at home.
“She’s below us,” I say, opening my eyes again, meeting Zyara’s orange stare. “Beneath the waves.”
“How is that possible?”
“It’s not done on Kythia, but on many aquatic planets, there are colonies beneath the oceans. Do you remember Sorquath?”
“The ocean planet? It was an aborted mission.”
“Do you know why it was called off?”
“Something about too much water?” Zyara frowns. “I was too busy at the time to take much notice of it.”
“It was deemed to be of too little value to conquer. Sorquath is an aquaplanet; there isn’t any land there. It’s been this way ever since their nearest star expanded and melted all the oceanic ice, forcing the Salquath people to build contained underwater civilizations. Perhaps the Humans have done the same.”
“That seems like a bit of a stretch. Humans don’t appear to be that technologically advanced.”
“There’s another species that used to build underwater colonies, before we took over their home planet.”
Zyara’s eyes widen. “Ifkin?”
I nod. “But since our invasion forced them to flee to Kelidor, we thought the tradition had been lost.” I pull the hatch closed, rising to my full height. “I need to know what’s down there. I’m going in.”
“Isn’t there a better way to do it?”
“Not with the equipment we have. Trust me. It’s easier this way.”
“You don’t know what kinds of creatures might be down there.”
I laugh grimly. “I doubt anything down there would be more danger
ous than a lamperk.” I don’t fear the stormy waters of this Earth ocean. On Kythia, I used to free-dive in the dark waters beneath the ice-sheets of the Vaal. It was part of my training when I was the sole member of the First Division.
That was a long time ago. Since then, everything has changed.
Zyara looks at me dubiously, but holds her tongue.
I gesture for her to follow me up the ramp, heading towards the upper decks. “I’m not going to waste any time fucking about, Zyara. If my mate is down there somewhere, I need to find her.”
I try to roll the stiffness out of my neck as I pass into the weapons hold. The plasma-protein infusion Zyara has given me has restored the nanites to their resting state and replenished my energy.
I select a few weapons from the racks, including my favored twin Callidum blades. The simple weapons are old-fashioned, but they have a few advantages. There’s no risk of malfunction after water exposure, and they’re good for close-quarters fighting.
I take one into my hand, testing its weight and balance.
It feels good. I feel ready to fight.
It’s time to take back what is mine.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Abbey
I fall asleep to snippets of strange piano music and wake to the sound of the door swooshing open. A large server-bot greets me, completely blocking the doorway.
It’s a square, metallic thing designed to store and process food. I briefly wonder whether I could somehow push the thing out of the way and escape, but against a robot of that size and power, I don’t think I have much of a chance, especially in my current state, and I’m not about to do anything that might put my baby at risk.
“Patient C3105, lunch is served. Please take your food.”
Great. So I’m reduced to being referred to as a number, now? A metal tray pops out on an extending shelf. There are various covered containers on it, and an unappetizing meaty smell fills the room.
The bot is a workhorse. It’s clearly designed for mass-service, making me wonder how many other ‘patients’ are holed up in this facility.
As I take the tray, the server-bot rolls backwards, the doors to my room sliding closed at the same time, leaving no window for escape.
