Nascent Decay (The Goddess of Decay Book 1)

by Hash, Charles

  “I would not have let it get that far,” Isaar said reassuringly. “I will always come back to you.” Drasce stiffened in his arms.

  “You can say that,” Drasce said softly. “But that doesn’t make it true.”

  “As long as we believe it is true, then it is true,” said Isaar. “And nothing else matters.” Drasce shrugged his shoulders.

  “She is going to be even more dangerous now, you know,” he said as he began tracing circles idly on Isaar’s abdomen with his fingertips.

  “She is not dangerous,” Isaar said irritably. He was tired of having this conversation over and over with everyone. “She is just a scared little girl. Like Mersi when we found her.” Drasce snorted.

  “A good purchase that one was,” he said dryly. Isaar pulled himself away from Drasce and propped himself up in the bed.

  “We could not just leave Mersi there. You know what they were forcing her to do in that brothel,” he said with a hint of anger. Sometimes it seemed like Drasce just enjoyed pushing the wrong buttons, and Isaar was protective of Mersi. She was the closest thing to a little sister he had. Even Noura had never needed him like Mersi did. “I do not know how I would have been able to live with myself if we had left her there.” Drasce sighed with frustration.

  “I compliment you on your masculinity, and then you turn around and remind me of how sensitive and kindhearted you are,” he said with a hint of mockery. “One day caring for all these strays will get you killed.” It was Isaar’s turn to shrug his shoulders.

  “They are not strays,” he replied. “They are people, just like us.”

  “If you say so,” said Drasce with a sassy tone. He was trying to be playful, but it just came across as obnoxious. “What about Rahve? Is he people like us? Sometimes I think you just like having his muscles around.” Isaar stood up and began getting dressed without responding.

  “Ohhh, don’t be like that,” Drasce cooed from the bed. “There’s no reason to go and put your clothes back on. I like having Rahve’s muscles around too.” He was easily the snarkiest person Isaar knew. “I was talking about Vorcia anyway. It fits Rhylie too, though.” Isaar froze for a moment. Sometimes he felt like just walking out in the middle of these conversations with Drasce. But then he remembered what Drasce had given up just to be with him. Sometimes he felt chained to him. He surely felt responsible for him. And at the same time, he didn’t know what he would do if anything ever happened to him.

  “Rhylie will be awakening soon, I want to be there when she does,” said Isaar coldly. Drasce snorted derisively again. It was one of his habits that Isaar couldn’t stand.

  “She’s the one that’s going to get you killed,” he said bitterly. He had resented Rhylie since the first time Isaar had failed to kill her. He had wanted the contract to be over and done with as soon as possible. Even their benefactor hadn’t pressed the issue as hard as Drasce.

  “She is the one that is going to change things, and help us bring about peace and equality in the galaxy,” Isaar said stubbornly. “Behind her, we can end slavery and oppression. We can put an end to the Masters and their stranglehold on technology and progress.”

  “Or we could all die horrible public deaths as traitors,” Drasce said flatly.

  “You knew the risks when you signed up,” said Isaar.

  “I knew you turned me on when I signed up,” Drasce replied playfully. Isaar was no fun when he was being all serious, a side he felt as though he showed all too often lately. Drasce managed to help him loosen up when things were stressful.

  “That is all you think about,” said Isaar with a weary tone of voice. “There are other important things as well.”

  “Yes, like food,” said Drasce. “When are we going to eat? We haven’t had a meal alone in for-ev-er.”

  “I know. Soon. I am waiting to hear from Mersi,” Isaar said. He knew if they didn’t eat soon, Drasce would become whiny. Still, he was the only stable thing left in Isaar’s life. There was something about his not-so-serious approach to life that was refreshing and invigorating. Not for the first time, he thought about giving everything up and disappearing to start a new life.

  He could still run away with Drasce if he wanted to, and find some uninhabited world to build a new home with him and the so-called strays he had liberated, if they chose to accompany them. There was no shortage of refugees in the galaxy that would love nothing more than to start a new life in a new community void of technology and wars. The simple life, they called it. It sounded intriguing to Isaar. A slower pace without all the stress and struggle.

  But there were some things that were worth fighting for, no matter what anyone told him. And now that he had the tools that enabled him to fight back, he was not going to turn back. As long as he could keep Drasce safe from harm, he could keep going. He hadn’t wanted him coming along when they’d rescued Rhylie, but he had complained that they had not been spending enough time together.

  “What are you thinking about,” Drasce asked, breaking the sudden silence.

  “Nothing,” said Isaar, brushing the thoughts away and sitting back down on the bed beside Drasce. Drasce curled up and placed his head in Isaar’s lap. There would be time for all of those things when the Siirocians had paid for everything they had done. “Let us have someone bring us something to eat and eat it in here. I am starving all of a sudden.” Drasce smiled contentedly and snuggled his head in Isaar’s lap.

  But there was time for the little things now, too.

  25

  Rhylie awoke some time later to find herself connected to a myriad of cables and a network of tubes. She was alone, other than Mersi, who had her back turned to Rhylie and was in the process of monitoring multiple screens at once. The largest of them appeared to be a sort of hardcore alien porn, although it was like nothing Rhylie had ever seen before. A nude, muscular alien from a race that Rhylie had never seen before was being held down and sexually assaulted in a very brutal and violent fashion by a cluster of ropy, angry tentacles that had glans for heads. Rhylie didn’t want to know what they were connected to. He was very human-like, except he had four slanted eyes on his head, two positioned in the front, and two on the sides where his temples were. He didn’t appear to have ears or any body hair. The tentacles were a vibrant pink with rigid, flaring tips that appeared to be leaking seminal fluid. It was shocking and strange, like some of the cartoons she had caught her older brother watching. Only this was real, and the man did not seem to be enjoying it in the least. His gurgling screams were already beginning to die on his lips as they trailed off. She had a feeling he would not survive this encounter.

  “That’s…um…weird,” Rhylie said. Mersi jumped in her seat and then rushed to shut the feeds down.

  “I was just…keeping up with what was going on, you know, around the galaxy!” Mersi exclaimed, spinning around in her seat.

  “Yeah, I know,” said Rhylie with a dry tone. She tried to sit up from the medical table she was lying on, but the cables and tubes held her down. “What the-”

  “I’ll have you free in a minute. Your skin absorbed incredible amounts of energy and radiation. Absolutely massive amounts,” Mersi reiterated for emphasis. “More than we thought would be possible. It’s a good thing you weren’t on Earth.”

  “Yeah,” Rhylie retorted with dry sarcasm. “Good thing.” The realization hit her hard, like a sledgehammer to the chest. Earth was gone. She recoiled inside herself, detaching from the moment. The images of her mother dying began playing on a loop in her head, fractured portraits of her last moments of suffering. She tried to push them away, but they remained there, lurking, flickering in the back of her mind.

  “I’m sorry,” said Mersi, concern playing across her face. One eye blinked followed by the other. “I wasn’t thinking. All of us had our homeworlds destroyed in a concerted strike. Pretty much simultaneously. Mine, Isaar’s and Noura’s, Reskle…and Drasce, too. The feeds all came through at the same time.”

  “Have you been in contac
t with Isaar?” Rhylie asked, raising her head from the table.

  “Oh yeah, we’d been following you two the whole time,” Mersi said. “We were prepared to rescue you when the outpost was captured, but you escaped. You know, just keeping an eye on you guys. We were in orbit around Mars when…it happened. Isaar tried to warn them, but they wouldn’t listen. He was afraid this would happen. We all knew it would.” Mersi grew somber for a moment before adding, “But he was relieved to know you were still alive.” Rhylie wondered if Mersi ever took a breath.

  “What do you mean, you all knew it would?” she asked.

  “Vorcia never had any intent to take you prisoner again,” Mersi said shrugging her shoulders. “She really turned up the propaganda after you escaped. The Masters have finally authorized the Extinction Decree, and she wants you destroyed. If you had been on Earth, you’d be dead.”

  “She must have thought I was on Earth then,” she said, remembering the Council’s lies.

  “Yeah,” said Mersi. “She’s gonna be pretty mad. But in the meantime, Mars is in chaos. I’ve had a hard time figuring out who’s in charge. Apparently all of Earth’s council of leaders were killed by the mininova.” Rhylie sat in stunned silence as Mersi continued to babble on in her almost effervescent voice. “So after we rescued Isaar, we headed to where Earth had been to scan for you. It took us a little while to figure out you were on the moon. Rescuing him was easy, all he had to do was stealth out when we got there. Finding you was the hard part. We may need to install a communication mod on you to make it easier to find you.”

  Rhylie didn’t like the thought of being tracked, but she had to admit that it could come in handy. Besides, she had not liked being cut off from Isaar after they had reached Mars.

  “I’ll have to think about that,” Rhylie said cautiously. She didn’t know what she was going to do now.

  “You have time. We’re still a nano away from the base,” Mersi said.

  “And then what?” Rhylie asked.

  “Isaar has something planned I think, and I’ve been in contact with a few people. You’re really important, Rhylie,” Mersi stressed. “Isaar thinks you can help put an end to all of this.”

  “All of what?” she asked.

  “The Masters. Slavery. Extermination and oppression,” she said. “Everything.”

  “I don’t know,” said Rhylie numbly. “Everything I try to do the right way just makes things worse.”

  “If you do nothing, things will continue to get worse anyway,” Mersi said. Rhylie smiled half-heartedly.

  “What about the rest of humanity?” she asked. “What will they do?”

  “Quasar is in the process of evacuating most humans to uncharted systems,” said Mersi. “Places they won’t be found for a long time.”

  “Who is Quasar?” Rhylie asked suspiciously.

  “Quasar technically doesn’t exist,” said Mersi, wrinkling her nose. “They’re an underground splinter-cell of a galactic charity that promotes equality and freedom for all races. Quasar’s existence would violate the restrictions placed on legitimate resistance groups, those that openly call for change and oppose the Masters and Galactic Council.”

  “Ugh. Now you’re just trying to impress me,” said Rhylie sarcastically.

  “Maybe,” said Mersi smiling. Rhylie rolled her eyes.

  “You need to see if you can contact General Daryl Omertin,” she said. “Find out if he survived. He is the leader of the United Allied Forces. I’d assume he would be the one to help organize everything.”

  “That’s a good thing to know,” Mersi said as she spun around in her seat to pull up a screen. “I’ll pass that info along to Drasce. We put him in charge of that kind of stuff…since, well…he’s good at talking. And that’s about it.” Rhylie almost laughed.

  “Where is Isaar?” Rhylie asked. Mersi spun back around.

  “He’s, um, with Drasce right now, since they haven’t seen each other in awhile,” Mersi said plainly. The realization shocked Rhylie. She hadn’t even realized.

  “Oh-I- really?” she asked, her eyes widening.

  “Yeah, they’ve been together awhile,” said Mersi. “You didn’t know, did you?” She giggled, a squeaky, tittering sound. She sounds like a damn cartoon character, Rhylie thought, suddenly irritated. “But now that you’re awake, he’ll probably be in here to see you soon.”

  “How soon,” Rhylie stated more than asked.

  “Soon. Just a nano probably,” Mersi said. “I just sent him a message.” Rhylie groaned audibly and rolled her eyes. “You’ll get used to it,” Mersi said, spinning back around in her seat to face Rhylie.

  “Median Earth Time is meaningless without an earth,” Rhylie said sadly. Mersi frowned and furrowed her brow.

  “I never even had a chance to visit my homeworld,” Mersi said with a melancholy expression. “It was always something I was going to do later…you know?” She gave a deep sigh as though suddenly realizing it would never happen now. “I guess I didn’t slow down to give myself a chance to think about it.”

  “I visited Earth a few times, on vacation,” Rhylie replied in a distant tone. Suddenly she felt overwhelmingly depressed. Everything was gone. Her parents, her life…then she remembered that her brothers could both be alive still. She had no idea how to contact them, or if she even should. The look of fear on Ben’s face had been enough to make her not want to traumatize him further. She knew her Aunt would take good care of him. Rhylie knew she would probably be blamed for all of this somehow. An alarm beeped, causing Mersi to spin back around in her seat.

  “Isaar is on his way. He’ll be in here in a few nanos,” Mersi said without turning around. “He’ll know what to do next.”

  “Good,” said Rhylie.

  She needed a purpose more than anything right now.

  26

  Rhylie lay on the operating table with her arms folded behind her head, idly watching Reskle and Mersi operate on her. Noura was behind them, monitoring her vitals on a series of translucent screens. It was more than a little uncanny, watching them stick their hands inside of her chest. They were actually installing a piece of new hardware on her cyberbionic skeleton.

  “So I’ll really be able to fly with this?” Rhylie asked. Mersi looked up from the opening in Rhylie’s abdomen.

  “Yup!” she exclaimed exuberantly. That was the only way Mersi seemed to know how to do things.

  “How does it work?” Rhylie asked. Maybe she should have asked that sooner. It had been kind of a surprise.

  “Just like your atomorphic skin and cyberbionic skeleton. You’ll need to focus on it at first, but sooner or later you won’t even have to think about it,” Mersi said. “Eventually, with enough practice, it becomes instinctual, or second nature.”

  “Why don’t more people have them installed?” Rhylie asked. Mersi dropped her eyes back down to watch what Reskle was doing. Reskle raised his eyeless face as though he were glancing at Rhylie before lowering it back down.

  “This kind of technological enhancement is…ahem…heavily regulated in most parts of the galaxy,” Reskle said. “You have to have the proper permits and licenses to install and own and operate a personal gravity well. As well as many other cyberbionic enhancements or genetic alterations. The process itself is quite exhaustive and expensive. Only a select few can afford the permits, and that doesn’t even include the cost of the gravity well or any other tech you may want.” Rhylie pursed her lips together.

  “I see. I guess I should take care with it then,” she said. Mersi giggled and grinned.

  “You should definitely be careful with it,” Mersi said. “People have gotten themselves killed in all kinds of crazy ways with personal gravity wells. There are millions of feeds of morons just slamming themselves through walls and into the ground, and even launching themselves into space. Some of those people were never seen again. I can show you some of the feeds, sometime.” She paused for just the barest of moments. “They tend to underestimate the power
and speed these things have. That’s why there are all kinds of rules and regulations and licenses for owning one. That’s what they say, anyway. They really just want to keep the technology under their control.”

  “I can’t comment one way or another on their motivations,” Reskle cautioned. “But I would like to strongly reiterate what Mersi said about them being dangerous. Just take it easy with it at first.” Rhylie’s brow furrowed deeply.

  “Why didn’t you install the communication device sooner?” she asked. Reskle and Mersi paused what they were doing for a moment.

  “Isaar didn’t want it to seem like we were…invading your privacy. He wanted to give you your space,” said Reskle slowly, after a long pause. He seemed altogether unnerved by Rhylie, even though he had been the one that had performed the procedure. “He thought you needed time to adjust and wanted to gain your trust first. And we didn’t know if you would try to contact Vorcia or not.”

  “But I was given this skin…and this skeleton,” she said, confused. “Why trust me with that much power?”

  “Even those have their limitations, as you’ve seen,” Reskle replied. “You are not invincible, Rhylie.”

  “So you have a way to shut me down if you need to,” she said.

  “I didn’t say that either,” Reskle said. “But we were prepared to do what was necessary should you become unstable.” Rhylie narrowed her eyes. Was he hiding something? she wondered. “But Isaar believed in you. He claimed to have seen a side of you that we had not.” Rhylie relaxed and nodded her head in response.

  “Just think, we’ll be able to talk allll theeee tiiiiime, Rhylie,” Mersi said, looking up with a bright grin. “We’ll be like sisters and stuff!” She giggled and looked back down. Rhylie closed her eyes, wrinkling her nose.

  “I will be able to shut this thing off, right Reskle?” she asked.

  “Absolutely. Wouldn’t want to drive you crazy,” he said.

  “You mean crazier, right?” she said, opening her eyes and giving Reskle a long glance. He flinched as though she had poked his face, but quickly regained his composure.