Dia turned to Sarek. “I’ll manage. I appreciate this chance to get close to Ash one more time. Thank you, Sarek.”
Aya opened a door and Dia walked through it. On the other side of the tiny space, a second opening slid aside to let her into the dome where Ash waited for her.
Sarek observed Dia as she looked around with open curiosity. The female either didn’t know to be afraid, or she was the bravest female he’d met on Earth. One of the sangers that the group hunted for food could be lying in wait and pounce on her. Not that the alpha would allow any animal to harm her, but it could happen.
“Diana is a shuttle pilot,” Aya said.
Sarek nodded once. “Yes.”
“This group could use a shuttle pilot.”
“Yes.”
“Perhaps she will want to go with him as his mate.”
“They’ve been apart for a long time, Aya. Her mate is more vegark than human now. I do not know what might motivate her to make such a choice.”
Aya turned to face her mate. “The same thing that motivated me, Sarek. I do not need your supreme intelligence to understand the bonding between human pairs. I think you should prepare yourself to answer a request from her.”
“Changing her would be a delay of at least three months. The elders would not be pleased.”
“It would be a delay for the worthiest of causes. The elders would understand and commend your cleverness in finding a way to give the alpha hybrid what he most wants,” Aya insisted.
“We shall see,” Sarek said. “Perhaps he will take one of vegark females after seeing his human mate’s fragility today.”
“His mate has high intelligence for a human. You chose only those vegarks with the lowest ratio. I think you underestimate the alpha’s human mind and what it is attracted to in a mate.”
“Humans are too easily controlled, too easily angered, and none listen to reason.”
“I won’t disagree with you, but we can say the same about those vegark females you threw into the dome. You could have given them one or two female scientists at least.”
“There is a full vegark colony on the planet where they are going. It has all the scientists that are required. Dia Daniels is not a scientist.”
“They refer to her as an astronaut.”
Sarek nodded. “Kyra Winters might be the one exception I’ve come across in human scientists. Her choice of mate quite surprises me.”
“I have read much about her, Sarek. Her first mate had high intelligence without compassion. He did much harm to the people of this planet. She is safer with a male not her mental equal. It makes sense to me why she chose a cybernetic alpha to keep her safe.”
“Kyra altered him and others like him. She made her own mate. This I can respect but not applaud,” Sarek said.
“I admit the facts sound cold, but Kyra also looks to her mate before she speaks. She relies on his support. She got upset when you showed your ability to control him. I was watching from the viewing room,” Aya pointed out.
“Fine. Come watch this, Aya. You wanted this to happen. Let’s see what comes of their meeting. I’ll even turn on the sound so we can listen.”
Aya stepped to her mate’s side and peered through the glass.
Dia felt something emanating from Ash—something raw and nearly animal-like. One look at the love in his eyes for her though and suddenly nothing else mattered. Inside the being he’d become, Ashland Daniels was still her husband.
“Ash,” she whispered and walked straight into his arms when he opened them. His grip on her so was tight that it made Dia want to sob. “I’m so, so sorry it took me so long to find you.”
Ash growled as he ran one large taloned hand over her hair and down her back. “They were going to put me into the Cyber Husband program. Scott convinced me this was the only way I’d avoid that and maybe get to see you again. He implied you’d be in this super-secret program one day, but at no time did he tell me what the hell it was. When I woke up, and you weren’t here, I knew he’d lied to me.”
Scott had betrayed both of them and Dia had not idea why. They’d done nothing to the man.
Dia lifted her face to Ash’s. “Look at you, Ashland Daniels. You’re taller than me now.”
Ash smiled or what he hoped was a smile. He was still adjusting to his reflection. “I’m also green and my teeth are pointed. I kept my tats though.”
Dia chuckled and patted his shoulder. “Honey, you rock the look. Beast is very masculine on you.”
“You don’t look like a beast. You look the same to me,” Ash said. “I don’t understand any of this, Dia.”
“Me neither. I’ve been trying to find you for ten years.”
“Ten years?” Ash turned loose of her and walked a short distance away. “Is that how long I’ve been in this place? I’ve only been able to count less than two years. They observe dark periods that I think are supposed to pass for night. We all seem to require some amount of sleep.”
Dia hugged herself at the shock in his voice. “What do you remember from before, Ash?”
“I remember some strange-looking scientist guy telling me he would make me better than new. Next thing I know, I woke up inside this place and looked like I do now. That guy turned out to be Sarek who refuses to tell me much about what’s happened.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ve learned. They put thirty cyborgs into this program with none of them being told what it was about. Sarek said they kept you all in comas for years while your limbs regenerated. The first thing they did was remove your cybernetics. The last thing they did was genetically change you. That probably happened a couple years ago.”
Ash nodded before turning back. “My body feels vital, like it did when I was a teenager. We have to hunt our food in here—whatever here is. Apparently, we’re more carnivorous than we used to be. We end up eating these prehistoric tiger-leopard looking things with six legs.”
“This place is an eco-dome that contains an environment similar to the planet we call Proxima Centauri B. You will eventually be sent there to populate the planet with alien-human hybrid people. The goal is preservation of Sarek’s species and ours. As I just found out, aliens have been on Earth and doing things like this for hundreds of thousands of years. First, they made us into the humans we became. Now they’re helping evolution again.”
Ash growled. “Great. Welcome to my alien laboratory. I feel like I’m living in some science fiction vid.”
“Sarek calls you his alpha. He said you emerged as the leader from the get-go.”
“What—alpha like in a wolf pack?” Ash chuckled as much as his new body would allow the expression of humor. “Somebody had to step in and keep the killing to a minimum. Those damn annoying females they threw in here two weeks ago have taken us back to the early days again. Fighting and bickering and more fighting. They should have at least given us enough to go around. They brought in ten females. You can do the math.”
“Sarek said you haven’t chosen a female and talked like you could have your pick.”
Ash turned and showed her all his pointed teeth. “They changed how I looked, and to some degree how I acted, but they didn’t change my feelings for you. In my mind, you’re still my wife, Dia. Did you have me declared dead? I wouldn’t blame you if you did. A decade is a long time. You must have thought about it.”
“No,” Dia said. “I couldn’t do that because somehow I knew I would one day find you. I just didn’t think it would be like… this,” she said, sweeping an arm around. “If it hadn’t been for Kyra Winters, I’d still be looking for you. She’s the one that found you.”
“Ironic, since the infamous Dr. Winters is the mad scientist who converted me to a cyborg.”
Dia nodded. “There’s a lot you don’t know, Ash. Kyra tracked down every cyborg that was converted and she’s the one who made things as right as she could. The UCN worked against her for a decade and she had to hide her work. While all that was happening, her crazy ex-husband was doin
g some horrible things to make money for the UCN. You wouldn’t believe everything that’s happened since the war ended. It’s like Earth isn’t the same planet anymore.”
Ash raked his face. “I missed a whole decade of my life. This is so surreal.”
Dia walked closer. “I know. Peyton—Kyra’s current husband is a cyborg—Peyton says all restored Cyber Soldiers feel the same way. They lost a decade of their lives. I’ve been feeling that way too since Kyra tracked me down and told me what had happened to you. I’m happy you’re not dead, Ash, but I can’t believe what they’ve done to you.”
“Scott said he couldn’t tell me what this program was about. He said he was hiding me here and that you would be happy to find me alive and in it. He said to trust him and that this was significantly better than being enslaved and sold as a Cyber Husband. They wouldn’t let me get into contact with you. I had no choice but to trust him.”
“Why would Scott lie to both of us? I’ve been working with him all this time. He never said one word about knowing where you were or about any of this. He knew I was looking for you. He’s been holding a leave of absence open for me for when I found you. I just freaking used it in coming here.”
“I have no idea why he did what he did,” Ash answered. “But if Scott were here, I’d kill him for coming between us. He took my life from me and kept you in the dark.”
All Dia heard for a few moments was her own breathing. “You mean that literally, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Ash said. “I’m not the man—the person—hell, the being that I once was. I kill to eat and devour the food raw. I keep the others like me in line because if I didn’t, they’d fight all the time which would drive me crazy. I feel like a shark stuck in a fucking fish bowl.”
Dia put her arms around him again. “I can’t live in here with you and you can’t live out there with me. We’re not the same species anymore. I don’t know how to fix this, but I want to.”
Ash wrapped her close again. “Do me a favor, Dia. Have me declared dead and move on. It will mean a lot to me to know you got to have a normal human life. One of us deserves to be happy.”
“I don’t want to declare you dead. That would be just another lie,” Dia said.
“I know, but you need to do this,” Ash replied. “I’m glad you found me. I’m glad we got to see each other again. This wasn’t the homecoming I dreamed of happening after the war, but some soldiers never made it back at all. At least I got to see you one more time. That makes me damn lucky.”
“Ash, it’s getting harder to breathe. My oxygen is running low. I will ask Sarek if I can come back again. We’ll figure something out. You and I together—we’re an unbeatable team. Right?”
Ash set her away from him but didn’t let go of her. “Coming back is not a good idea, Dia. It’s not like I got a few mechanical parts this time. You stood by me when I was converted into a Cyber Soldier and you let me go fight in a war that I believed was worth that level of sacrifice. When I was out there fighting during those awful years, I’d look up at stars at night and know you were up there in the sky sometimes too. I’ll be doing that same thing from wherever they send me.”
“This is not fair, Ash. You gave up everything. They tricked you into this. There has to be something we can do.”
“Nothing about life is fair, honey. You and I had a better run at happiness than most people on the planet. Now listen—I will make the most of my shitty situation because that’s what survivors do. And you will do the same. That’s how it has to be. I will always love you no matter how far away I am, but our lives don’t fit together anymore. This is bigger than any war. This is bigger than us.”
Ash pulled Dia close, kissed her forehead, and then turned loose of her to stride away.
Feeling helpless, Dia watched her alien hybrid husband disappear into the jungle he called home now. The exit door slid open behind her and she turned to duck back through it. Allowing herself to die from the lack of breathable air wouldn’t help their situation.
The transition room suddenly flooded like a pressurized transport. Dia ripped off her mask and gulped in several lungfuls. She’d definitely pushed the mask to its limit. When the second door slid open, she climbed out to find Sarek and Aya looking expectantly at her.
“In case you were eavesdropping, I’m coming back no matter what you heard Ash say to me,” she told them.
“Your mate is correct, Diana Daniels. Returning will not make things easier for either of you,” Sarek said.
“Returning will make all kinds of sense once you make me like him,” Dia said.
Sarek slowly turned to his mate. “Will you be reminding me about this for the next century?”
“Perhaps two,” Aya said calmly. She lifted her graceful hand. “The alpha and Diana are true mates, Sarek. It is her only option to rectify the situation they have found themselves in. This zest for life is the very thing you are working hard to save in humans. No other species surpasses them in the sheer will to live life on their terms. This is what the cosmos requires to thrive.”
“Well, I guess I know who won the bet.” Dia handed the mask to Aya. “Thanks. Seeing Ash up close and personal after so long was just what I needed. I told him I didn’t know what to do, but I’d already made up my mind when I hugged him. He may be green and vicious now, but he’s still my husband. I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I know there’s only one way that can happen.”
“It will take three months… or longer,” Sarek said.
Dia’s mind rushed to her other plans. “I need to see someone first. Can you make arrangements for me to come back here?”
“Perhaps you should take some time to reflect on this decision…” Sarek suggested.
“Two days,” Dia said firmly. “I’ll be back in two days. That’s more than enough time for what I need to do.”
9
Dia carried the papers into Scott’s office and threw them on the desk. “Here’s my resignation. I’m done here.”
Scott leaned forward and sighed at the forms in front of him. “Why, Dia? Because you discovered your husband was dead after all?”
Dia’s gaze narrowed. “How do you know what Dr. Winters told me?”
“Because not so long ago that woman was a threat to global security. The UCN called and asked me to investigate what she was doing with you. She made twenty-nine com contacts for those on her mysterious list informing families of their soldier’s death. She made one in-person visit to everyone’s favorite global hero. You probably blew up at her for having the nerve to burst that bubble you’ve been living in. I also suspect that you flew to see her afterward to make amends for getting so angry because you’re a nice person. How am I doing so far?”
Shrugging, Dia paced in front of his desk. “And the trackers? Were you the person who put them in me? Norton almost put me in a cell over them.”
“Everyone at your level has trackers.”
“Not installed without their permission, Scott.”
He lifted a hand. “You’re in front of the public all the time. You could have been kidnapped.”
She wagged a finger in the air.
“Fine. You’re right. I overstepped in seeing they were installed.”
“Oh, you did a lot more than that. Who’s been paying Sergei to fuck me?”
“Now you’re being absurd. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Scott protested.
“So Sergei is on someone else’s payroll. Interesting. Probably the UCN’s since I’m obviously as much of a global threat as Kyra Winters is thought to be.”
Dia pulled something from her pocket and walked around Scott’s desk. Knowing he’d never suspect her of violence, Dia grabbed his hair and shoved his head down with good whop to his forehead on the desk.
Killing him was appealing, but it would spoil the story she needed to weave.
“There’s something you need to learn before I leave, Scott. Share it with ‘the powers that be’ that nobody fucks with
my life and gets away with it.”
She dispensed a syringe of fluid into the back of his neck. After that was done, Dia used her handful of hair to hold his head up.
“What did you do to me, Dia? I can’t move.”
“Good. Glad to know it’s working so fast. Now, if you don’t start telling me the truth, you will spend the rest of your life paralyzed and floating around in a transport chair. After a certain amount of time an antidote won’t even be helpful, so you’d better be real honest real quick if you want to beat the clock.”
“This is crazy. You’ve gone mad with grief.”
Dia snorted. “Why would I be grieving? My husband is still very much alive. Ash is a green alien-human hybrid, but very much alive. He says hello by the way. He doesn’t understand why you did this either. It’s unfortunate that all I can do is be pissed at you for keeping me from finding him sooner. Nothing will change what they have done to him. You made sure of that, didn’t you, Scott?”
“That meddling bitch. You faked being mad at Winters.”
“Yes. Kyra brought me the truth whereas you have been dishing out lies to me for ten years. Kind of puts the whole friend question into a different perspective for me. You are definitely not my friend. I’m not sure you ever were.”
Dia removed Scott’s necktie and used it to tie his head to the chair back. “There. I need to put some distance between us so I can remember that I came for information and not to kill you outright for tricking Ash into entering that hybridization program. You told him I would be in it too, which is the only reason he agreed.”
“You were supposed to be. I was supposed to be. The aliens wanted astronauts.”
“But they got unsuspecting Cyber Soldiers instead who are just now learning what happened to them.”
“Yes,” Scott ground out through his clenched teeth. “It’s starting to get hard to talk.”
“Yeah, I heard that happens to some people.” Dia shoved her hands in her jacket pockets. “Here’s the tough question, but I have to know. Why would you do this to us, Scott?”
Ashland 297: The Alien Agenda Page 6
