Bite This

by Michael Anderle

  Eric looked over at Bethany Anne who had been watching the two of them go at it like siblings. “A little help here?”

  Bethany Anne shrugged her shoulders. “Personally, I think you are lucky and it was an invaluable lesson. You should know better than to push a woman on certain subjects and if you didn’t, now you do! That you joked to a female vampire that she was fat was insanely stupid on your part. If Killian hadn’t been cleaning up his act, I would swear you got that comment from him.”

  Eric turned to John who just shook his head and pointed to Bethany Anne, “What she said.”

  As Bethany Anne got ready to head in the direction of the cave - at least the direction according to TOM - she thought about the last time she had seen this type of stupidity from a guy. It was on the school playground when the boy liked the girl but didn’t know how to say anything. Fucking great. She looked over her shoulder at Gabrielle, “You don’t have any sisters, right?”

  “No.”

  Bethany Anne turned back around and started going through the snow. “Good. Let’s go people… and you too, Eric.”

  John had put the skis under a nearby tree. He sure hoped no one found them and thought the four of them dead.

  He turned around, shouldered his pack and started walking towards the group, where Bethany Anne had stopped and was beckoning him. “Hey, mountain, get up here and break trail for the little woman, would you?”

  John grumped, “The little woman can bench press me.”

  “Stop your excuses you big hunk of man meat. I considered throwing Eric, but then I would have to heal him if he went over a ledge.”

  Eric piped in, “Geez, you ladies really stick together. Would it help if I apologize?”

  Gabrielle stopped to look at him, “It might at that.”

  Eric spread one of his arms out as if he was a gallant gentleman. “Then, please accept my apology for my lack of decorum and irresponsible comment before.”

  “Apology accepted.” Gabrielle nodded her head and Eric smiled in return.

  John passed the two of them by, “If you guys get any nicer to each other I might have to throw up.” Both of them turned and looked at John, their eyes squinting.

  Oh, fuck. Now he had the two of them gunning for him. He sure hoped they found the saucer quickly.

  He passed Bethany Anne. “Which way?”

  She pointed up the side of the mountain. “See that crop of trees?”

  “Barely.”

  “Oh, crap. Sorry, forgot your sight isn’t as good. Tell you what, Beefalo, go straight for a hundred yards through those two trees fifty feet ahead of you and maybe I can lead from there.”

  John decided to bite his tongue: he already had two in the party aiming his way, he didn’t need all three! Now, he needed to figure out a way to get Eric in trouble with Gabrielle again. “Right, one snow path coming up!”

  Bethany Anne looked behind her, “Eric, get your skinny ass up here too. No need to let all that manly meat go to waste, use it to make my path easier to walk!” She smiled at Eric who wasn’t sure which way to take that comment. Did he reply to the ‘skinny ass’ part or the ‘manly meat’? Or neither since he was still reminded of her question to John back on the plane and he didn’t want her bringing that question up again.

  “Yes ma’am!” Eric took off behind John.

  “We will catch up in a second.” Bethany Anne turned to Gabrielle and waited a couple of seconds. She barely whispered, “You know he likes you, right?” Gabrielle looked stricken, and then her eyes followed Eric as he walked away.

  Gabrielle whispered back, “Well, this is a pickle, isn’t it?” Gabrielle was happily connecting with Ivan right now and didn’t want a three way romance. She had grown out of the desire to pit two men against each other back in the 20’s, the 1820’s to be exact. Her shoulders slumped, “I’ll have a talk with him.”

  “See that you do, I can’t have my Guardians dealing with internal trouble, capiche?” Gabrielle just nodded her head. Bethany Anne turned around and double timed it to catch up to the guys, Gabrielle right behind her.

  TOM was true to his word of knowing where to go, they were safely in the cave system that went to his ship by midnight. They stopped a little ways in to rest, eat and drink before working their way through the caves out to the other side. They were going to get caught in the early morning, but no direct sun if they hurried. Bethany Anne told the guys which direction and they headed off in a hurry.

  Bethany Anne, don’t you want to warn John?

  Huh? Bethany Anne had been thinking about Paul Jameson and hoping that he had gotten the new pilot situation sorted out.

  Warn him about what?

  About the ship?

  What about the…

  “Ow! What the Fuck?” John was twenty yards ahead of her, rubbing his forehead with one hand while the other was placed in front of him.

  Oh yeah, it’s invisible.

  Not invisible, it warps light around the ship.

  Got it, that distinction isn’t important right now TOM.

  “John, you ok?”

  “Yeah, I think I found the ship.”

  Bethany Anne hurried to catch up to the two guys. “Yeah, sorry I forgot to mention it has a method of bending light to make it seem invisible.”

  Eric looked excited, “You mean like in Harry Potter and the …” He looked as all three adults turned as one to stare at him. “Hey! I like the story, it’s my weakness…”

  Bethany Anne snorted. “I thought the History Channel was your weakness.” She reached around until she found the indention that covered the locks. Pressing the indention it slid aside and she keyed in a sequence from memory and the cloaking stopped. The door opened and Bethany Anne strode on in. She called out, “Watch your head, especially you, John!” The four of them got on board and she keyed the door closed. She couldn’t believe she was back here again so soon.

  She went to a portion of the wall and slid her hand across an area a little lower than where a normal location would be on a human sized door, she pushed it and the door slid to the side. “This was TOM’s old quarters.” She walked in and turned around, “This was where the pilot slept. Except for the medical room and the science room everything else is built smaller. TOM’s race isn’t as tall as ours. You can drop your packs here, gentlemen.” The three of them followed her into the smaller cabin.

  Both men and Gabrielle were looking around in wonder. They had followed Bethany Anne because it was what they did. However, they all had to admit that until they got on the space craft it had seemed rather fantastic. Now, they were really on an alien spacecraft and everything Bethany Anne had been telling them was true.

  They really did need to save the world from aliens.

  “Hey!” Bethany Anne snapped to get all of their attention. “The piloting area is cramped as hell, so no one can join me there. I’m going to go and work with TOM for a few minutes. You guys camp here or look around. If you look around, and I’m looking at you Eric, don’t touch anything or we might just drop out of the sky later. Hate to go splat on the birds first flight in a thousand years.” Bethany Anne walked out of the room.

  The three of them broke out in huge grins, Gabrielle was the first to break the silence, “We are on an alien spacecraft! Can you believe it?” The two men just smiled with her, until Eric stopped and looked back at the door, “Did she say this was going to be the first flight in a thousand years?”

  Both John and Gabrielle stopped smiling and looked back at the door as well. John spoke up, “Does this ship have liquor?”

  Bethany Anne smiled as she listened to the three of them talk. She thought that they had followed along too agreeably. Now she realized it was because they hadn’t considered the reality of getting on the space ship in the first place. Now, they not only were on the space ship, but she was prepping the little girl to come online again.

  TOM, what do we need to do?

  We will need to bring the main subsystems back to rea
dy status and then check all of the results once that occurs.

  How long will this take?

  Probably hours would be my guess.

  So, we aren’t leaving tonight, that’s for sure. I don’t want to take this out during the day. Since we have at least eighteen hours, will that help the planning?

  Sure, a proper prep time is about twelve hours, so taking into account we are using your body to do this and you will have to hunt around for the correct controls we should get done in plenty of time.

  You know I can swing over to vamp mode and we can run through this pretty damn quickly, right?

  TOM hadn’t considered that.

  It won’t help in this case, we need to bring the subsystems online in order. The power should be good for another few thousand years so we will start with that system.

  The spies in the sky won’t see a thermal bloom, will they?

  No, this craft goes through the icy edge of space, we don’t lose any energy. We won’t even melt the ice on top of us until I want to.

  Bethany Anne smiled. Listen to yourself, you’re getting a little big for your britches back in your crib, aren’t you?

  She felt the satisfaction TOM was giving off.

  Yes, It feels good to do something I know how to do, and can do it well.

  Well then, Pilot TOM, let’s get this craft ready to rock and roll!

  Yes Ma’am!

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Carpathian Mountains, Romania

  While the power was coming online, Bethany Anne went to find Gabrielle and together they went into the medical room. Bethany Anne shut the door behind them. The room stood just as clean as the last time she was here. The pod was in the middle of the white room with about four feet of space all around it.

  Gabrielle looked at the pod in the middle of the room, “So, this is where we all started?”

  Bethany Anne nodded, “Yes. About one thousand years ago, Michael stumbled across this ship and into that pod. How? I’m not really sure yet. Neither Michael nor TOM have ever told me that part. TOM started the genetic modifications but due to ignorance, they were incredibly painful for Michael and while he struggled through most of the pain, he woke up before TOM was able to tweak anything. He got out of the pod and left this area. His nanocytes weren’t properly modified for the human genotype and each time a vampire created another vampire, the mutations got worse. That is why the children can be anything from almost as strong as the parent to pretty weak.”

  Gabrielle walked forward and put her hand on the pod, “It looks like a white coffin.”

  “You don’t watch much science fiction, do you?”

  “No, not so much.”

  “It shows. No, this is a medical pod. All of the instruments are inside this shroud. Once you lay down inside, you will go to sleep and the medical process is handled by the computer inside this pod.”

  “How does it know what to do?”

  “I have to program it. If you come around to this side, there is a …” Gabrielle used her vampiric speed to join Bethany Anne and started looking at what she was talking about, “dashboard right here.” Bethany Anne looked at the vampire who was suddenly at her side, “Um, are you a little anxious?”

  Gabrielle looked at her and shrugged, “Does it show?”

  “A little. Here, use this.” Bethany Anne reached for a long rectangle which she pulled out into a bench. “Sit there.” Gabrielle sat down. “Here is the story, so you know what you’re in for. This is on a need to know basis and unless I tell you otherwise, no one needs to know, understand?” Gabrielle nodded her head.

  Bethany Anne started walking around the little room. “You know Michael was changed here. The original pilot of this craft, who I call TOM now, was in charge of changing this whole world to get ready to fight aliens. The problem is that this craft might, or might not, be able to lift again after the next landing. TOM rather messed up this landing.”

  I did not ‘mess up’ this landing.

  “TOM, shut up for a second, will you?”

  Gabrielle started when she realized that Bethany Anne was talking to the alien. She looked around, “Is TOM able to hear us in the ship?”

  Bethany Anne smirked, “Gabrielle, TOM is able to hear anything I can hear.” Bethany Anne pointed to her ear.

  “What?” Gabrielle looked both surprised and perplexed.

  “TOM is a part of me. He deconstructed a large part of his body centuries ago and when I was being changed he hitched a ride inside of me to try to continue his mission of protecting his race. His only choice was to become a symbiont in me.” Gabrielle looked at Bethany Anne’s body and seemed a little freaked out. “Yes, I get that. I wasn’t asked if I was ok with this idea. Imagine my surprise when I woke up and I have this extra voice in my head. We are getting a little off track. The reason I am sharing this information with you at this time is to help you understand I’m not the one who will be programming the medical pod. TOM will literally be using my body to make it happen.”

  “Um, can I talk with him?”

  Bethany Anne started at this. “Ah, one sec.”

  TOM, what do you think?

  It is certainly possible. I know how your vocal cords work so I can process the data; however, it would be a lot easier if you just allow me permission to take control for a minute in the area of the brain where you conceive of speech.

  Wait one second, I don’t like the idea of ‘taking control’ of anything.

  Sorry, wrong choice of words. I mean to jointly be in that area of your mental efforts. You will be able to interrupt at any time. However; I will be able to issue speech and you will hear my discussion at the same time that Gabrielle does. You truly won’t be able to censor my speech if you choose to allow me to do this.

  Bethany Anne thought about this for a second. Gabrielle could see the different emotions on Bethany Anne’s face.

  Bethany Anne looked at Gabrielle, “Yes, it’s possible. However; TOM tells me that I won’t have a clue what he is going to say before he says it, so be forewarned. Also, I’m concerned about anything that messes with my brain which is what he is going to have to do to make this happen.”

  “I’m sorry, I hadn’t realized what I was asking.”

  Bethany Anne waved the concern away. “I understand, you have been alive for a long time and now you are facing an alien medical pod that could change you. It’s about trust. I need you to be able to walk in the day to help me with what we have coming up so both of us need to trust TOM in this.”

  “Is he trustworthy?”

  “Well, if you had asked me right after I woke up, I wouldn’t have been so agreeable. Now? Yeah. It is going to take the whole world working together to get ready to fight these aliens and TOM has a better overall grasp of the political situation and what needs to be done than he had before. For better or worse, he is as stuck with me as I am with him. Believe it or not, I’m not sure I would choose to have him separated from me right now if I had to make a choice. Certainly not if it meant he would die.”

  Really? That’s… I don’t know what to say.

  Well, just don’t say a thing and ruin it for yourself.

  “Wow, I’m not so sure I could say that.”

  “Trust me, I’m surprised it’s how I feel as well right now. Looking around this room I realize that it all started here, and it all started with TOM. I would be dead if it wasn’t for him and his alien genetic nanocyte technology. What you have in your blood are corrupted versions, third generation. TOM is going to fix the main corruption issues with your nanocytes. This will fix the problem you have going out in the sun.”

  A tear was forming on Gabrielles face, “That is beyond my wildest dreams.”

  “Here, why don’t you talk with TOM.”

  Go ahead TOM.

  Tom took over Bethany Anne’s speaking. She felt a little disoriented and could ‘feel’ a pressure in her head.

  “Hello Gabrielle.” Bethany Anne’s voice was her tone, but not her infle
ction. Gabrielle could tell the difference between the two voices.

  “Hello TOM.” Now that she had access to talk with him, Gabrielle was at a loss for words. “Sorry, just got lost for a second. I understand you are going to change my nanocyte programming? Is this going to have much risk involved?”

  “No need to be sorry about getting a bit lost for words, I understand completely. Yes, I will have the medical pod change the programming of your nanocytes and get them to correct the mistakes. Some of the severely damaged will cease to function. It will take maybe a week based on the information I was able to confirm when you provided us the syringe of your blood. You will sleep during the process. To my knowledge, there is no risk involved. It is one of the reasons we didn’t change your Nanocytes outside of the pod. If we had chosen to try and do it with Bethany Anne’s superior nanocytes inside of your own body, we could not direct exactly which mutations would occur.”