“Doesn’t matter. That’s six more females plus me. Ash said there had been lots of fighting since they tossed ten females in with thirty males. Sarek needs to recruit a few more of his full aliens and we’ll have ourselves a big old diversified alien-human tribe.” Dia grinned when Kyra laughed. “I’m joking because I’m scared shitless. I won’t deny it to you of all people. Ash is the only reason I’d ever volunteer for this.”
“I would be scared too in your place,” Kyra said.
Dia patted Kyra’s hand that was still gripping her arm. “Losing Ash a second time is more scary to me. Fuck being afraid. I’ve got to take the risk.”
Kyra eased her grip and released Dia. “Spoken like a true hero. Now I have a question. You don’t have to tell me the answer, but if you do, I promise nothing you say will change my opinion of you. What did you do to your boss?”
“Paralyzed him for a few days. Killing him would have been over too quickly. Any chance of my vid being broadcast? I want to make sure he sees it.”
“Sure,” Kyra said. “But I can tell you already that the UCN and World Security will deny that it’s real. They’re going to pass around the story that you found out your husband was dead and committed suicide out of delayed grief.”
Dia snorted. “The public may not believe my story now, but one day, when the whole aliens-do-exist thing comes out, people on Earth will know that somewhere out there in the cosmos human hybrids can be found. They’ll learn that I was right and maybe go looking for us. Sarek said he’s been here working on our planet for two hundred years. Ash and I are definitely not in his first hybrid group. My guess is that we’re in something like group four or five.”
They removed their blindfolds and set them aside in the seat. Inside the building, two tall, lean figures waited for them.
“It’s still not too late to change your mind,” Kyra whispered.
Dia turned and put her arm around someone who’d been a true friend. “Sarek has arranged for one of his Earth military people to fly you back. Kyra, it was too late for me the moment I saw Ash again. I still love him. Whatever life brings to us, I choose to face it at his side.”
“Then I’ll be looking up at the stars and thinking of you out having adventures, Dia.”
Dia didn’t answer back as they walked inside. But she decided it was a nice thing for Kyra to say.
Three months later…
Aya had hovered around her since the first moment she’d woken up. The alien-earth hybrid scientist had to wear a mask to be in the same room with her. It was a strange reversal of circumstances.
Dia inspected herself in the glass shielding them from the dome. “Am I bigger? I feel bigger.”
“We do not measure such gains, but Sarek says your genetics make the determination in what happens to you physically.”
Dia nodded. “I feel stronger as well. Now I understand what Ash meant when he told me he felt eighteen again. I feel that vital too.”
“It is not human youthfulness, but rather the mixture of vegark and human that creates greater vitality. This is why my people were honored to be the next species to blend with humans.”
Dia didn’t respond to that comment. Not that she even knew how to do so. Alien politics didn’t interest her any more than human ones ever had. What was done was done in terms of agreements between their cultures. Though Ash and the others had been deceived, at least she would mostly get to live a life she’d chosen for herself.
She turned to Aya. “Did Sarek take the other women Kyra brought?”
“Yes, but they will take much longer to convert than you. They required extensive healing first and some complicated replication of tissue. Some of them may take years and have to be included in the next hybrid group. You did not need anything except the genetic infusions to invoke change.”
“I’m glad Sarek’s working on them. I bet Kyra’s glad as well.”
Aya nodded. “I personally heard her say she was pleased.”
“Good. I’ll be looking for the women when they enter the program. Are you and I going to be able to talk to each other once in a while? I’m going to miss our chats.”
Aya lifted one shoulder. “If you wish to commune with me, I’m sure I can arrange it. No protocol prevents us from talking to each other.”
Dia nodded. “Good. If I’m going to be your astronaut for this program, I will need to be as prepared as possible. You and Sarek will find me to be an interested student.”
“I will tell Sarek of your willingness to assume flight responsibilities as soon as possible. I think he will most pleased to hear it.”
“Good. Open the door for me, Aya. I’m ready now.”
Aya nodded. “I bid you well in your reconciliation with your mate, Astronaut Diana. Remain here please. I must first go back to the other side.”
“Sure.”
Dia watched Aya exit the transition chamber and moments later the door to the dome slid open. She stepped out into the jungle-like atmosphere and looked around in wonder. She breathed deep and felt her mind come more alive with every life-expanding breath.
Inspecting her hands, she promptly decided she liked having talons instead of fingers. But they’d definitely given her an appreciation for clothing that fastened with grips instead of buttons or zippers. Maybe this was adapting. She felt like she was adapting.
Picking up the duffle bag of essentials Aya said she would need, Dia headed off walking. She hadn’t gone far when a scratching over her head drew her gaze up to the limb of a tree. When the creature leapt from the branch at, Dia grabbed instinctually with her free hand and caught the creature around the neck.
“Hey, evil kitty. I read about you. You’re what passes for dinner in this place,” she said as she watched it struggle. It made her stomach rumble. It had taken her a good amount of time to adjust to a vegark diet, but her new body hadn’t withered away yet.
Bringing along the creature she’d caught might distract Ash from getting super mad at her, so Dia carried it along with her. She didn’t know how big the biodome was, but she’d walked a good ten minutes before she finally heard voices. The chatter was mostly in English and mostly male. She was standing at the edge of their camp circle when everyone seemed to notice her all at once.
She didn’t see Ash at first, but he suddenly emerged from the trees with a squirming creature in each hand. He froze to stare at her in shock. Everyone else looked at her then looked at him.
“Oh, I see you already took care of dinner,” Dia teased. “Damn it, I knew I should have called you before picking up food.”
Ash slowly unfroze and began inching forward. A male stood and Ash shoved both his squirming prey at him. Still not speaking, he walked through the middle of the camp circle, and straight up to her. She looked him in the eye without tilting her head up. The realization that she was as tall as him had her showing him her mouth full of pointy teeth.
“Hi, honey,” she said, holding up her creature. “They were out of pizza.”
Ash took the creature from her hand and held it out behind him. Someone must have taken the creature because suddenly both of Ash’s hands were around her waist and pulling her close. The duffle dropped from her other hand as his welcome swept through her. His matching primal groan of relief echoed in the air and through Dia’s body as she stood within his arms. His physical reaction to being so close to her thrilled her and Aya had already told her nothing in the important physical areas had changed.
Dia leaned her forehead against her husband’s and slid her arms around his shoulders. “Tell me you have somewhere private we can go later.”
Ash chuckled. “I’m their alpha.”
“Yes, well, that doesn’t answer my question about a private place where we can get naked together, Ashland. I’m not letting people watch us make out. I may be an alien-human hybrid now, but I’ve not changed that much.”
At first, he laughed in her ear, then Ash turned his head and roared. The people in the camp circle disappeared
in a flash.
“Wow. Nice trick. I hope you don’t expect that to work with me. And that still doesn’t answer my question,” Dia said.
“You are alpha too then.”
“Maybe. Sarek said it would take a while to figure out what I was.”
“You caught a sanger bare-handed. Did you require a weapon?”
Dia wrinkled her nose. “That cat-like thing? No. It jumped at me from a tree. It happened so fast I didn’t even set down my bag.”
“They’re from the planet where we’re going,” Ash said, then buried his face in her neck. “I can’t believe you’re here and that you did this for me.”
Dia moaned and held him close. “There’s nowhere else I want to be right now unless you have a private little hut of your own hidden in this jungle place. I’d really like to be alone with you for a while.”
“They gave us portable domiciles. They’re a few minutes walk from this gathering place. Our camp is loosely organized into areas with specific functions.”
Dia stooped and picked up her bag. “Well, let’s get going to your domicile then. We have a whole decade to make up for and I have it on good authority that sex still works the same.”
Ash smiled and linked his hand with hers as he slipped her bag away to carry it. Dia looked back at the glass wall and tried to aim her gaze at where she thought the one-way view screen was. She lifted her free hand in a wave and smiled as she followed her husband to their new home.
11
Sarek turned to his mate. “You were right about Astronaut Diana, Aya. To get a second alpha is a great achievement for us. For the first time since coming here, I feel our sacrifices have proven worthwhile.”
Aya bowed her head. “Thank you for the compliment, Sarek. It is rare for you to admit my rightness, especially in front of a witness. This is only the second time in nearly two hundred years I can recall it happening.”
Kyra giggled at their conversation. She doubted their attempt at humanizing themselves had changed their personalities or their mate dynamic. “Thank you so much for letting me come watch their reunion. I don’t get to witness many happy endings that work out as good as this one.”
“You are welcome to be present at each female’s entrance to the dome.”
“I sincerely appreciate that offer, Sarek.”
Sarek folded his hands. “I have changed my mind about something else. I have decided to teach you some simple genetic manipulations. Not brains, of course, those are too complex for you, even the simplest human one. I was thinking I might show you how to grow back a simple digit or perhaps a human foot. It would reduce the need for you to create cybernetic versions of missing body parts.”
Kyra put a hand on her chest. “I’m honored, Sarek. I would appreciate learning anything you wanted to teach me.”
“We have given you and your cybernetic mate clearance to visit whenever you wish. No one will stop you. You’ll still require an escort from the landing station to here, but that has to do with the electro-magnetic field we have to keep in place to protect the eco-dome. You will not be blind-folded any longer. You have won my trust.”
“Thank you, and your requirements are fine for me. I’m grateful you could help those women I brought to you.”
“They pose another delay, and some will not regenerate as well as others, but the elders have given me their support for whatever can be done.” Sarek tilted his head. “If you have any others…”
Kyra shook her head before he finished. “I don’t. Those were all the unfixable cyborgs I had. I have a few males who would give anything not to be a cyborg, but you seem to have your full quota of males.
“There are enough vegark females for all males I take in. All I have to do is request more. Bring me males if you wish. They can go into the next round of those headed for the new planet.”
“Okay. I’ll look into the matter and see if they’re interested. Thank you for the offer, Sarek.” Kyra looked at the glass wall. “You may not have gotten the volunteers you originally asked for, but you probably have the best of humanity in there with your alpha couple.”
“And when the Earth is no more, their offspring will populate the next planet. Humans will live on.”
Kyra sighed. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen for a few million years. Will you let me know before this groups leaves the planet?”
“Yes. I will inform you,” Sarek said.
Kyra put a hand on the glass wall. “Goodbye, Dia Daniels. I’ll be watching for you in the stars.”
“No. No. They’re going to a planet. I promise you. We would never send them to a star. They would die the moment they entered its orbit.”
Aya put a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Kyra was not being literal. She was being poetic, Sarek. Her words were meant to comfort her heart. She realizes Diana can’t hear her, and she knows the words mean nothing to us. Her speech rises only from her fondness for the woman she helped.”
“Humans,” Sarek said with head shake. “I will never understand them.”
Because there was nothing else to do, Kyra looked at the two aliens masquerading as human and laughed.
— THE END —
Note From the Author
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Book Description
The war is over, but the fight for their humanity is just beginning.
Her cybernetic studies in genetic engineering were supposed to make the world better. Dr. Kyra Winters never meant for her work to be used for anything evil even though that’s exactly what happened.
No matter how long she lives, Kyra will be paying for her sin of helping create the techno-slavery code condoned by Norton Industries and the corrupt world government. Ten long years have passed since world peace was declared. Cyber Soldiers don’t even know the war they signed up to fight is over.
Or that a fight for their humanity is just beginning
Regret weighs on her daily even thought Kyra secretly struggles to undo her epic fail. If Norton or the government had any proof of her reversal experiments, she’d be killed. Not that she’s any better than them. Kyra is under no such delusion. She’s already killed two cyborgs trying to restore them to full human.
Are Peyton 313’s chances any better? Having bought herself one last chance to atone, failure is not an option she can even consider. The fate of all cybernetic humans rests on her successfully restoring the cyborg who was once Marine Captain Peyton Elliott.
1
“Dr. Winters, how can you refuse this kind of money? Chancellor Li and I approved Norton’s offer of twenty million solely because you are the last original cyborg creator. More is simply not a possibility. Now if it’s the lead scientist position you crave, perhaps that can be discussed as an additional incentive for your return.”
Kyra tried her best not to react too negatively to the giants glaring at her through her monstrous living room com. Jackson had abandoned the seldom used device during their divorce many years ago. She was only using it for the conference call so the UCN chancellors would see her relaxing on her sofa instead of staring intensely at her lab console.
She could handle the pressure they were exerting on her to return to Norton because she had no intention of going back. But it was
not fun to face down several frowning impatient men whose every frustrated expression was being projected directly into her wide-eyed retinas. Luckily her far beyond Mensa level brain discarded her rising nervousness as it reminded her there was no reason to be intimidated by an optical illusion. She had met all the chancellors many times. Most of them were much shorter than her five foot ten inch height.
“Gentlemen, I am deeply honored you have taken the time to contact me this morning. But however inconceivable it might be for Norton or the UCN, my retirement has nothing to do with money. My plan is to find a more satisfying use of my skills. As you know my specialty has always been military cybernetics, but the final war has been over for almost a decade. There is no research being done at Norton right now that suits my desire to better the world we live in. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I am morally opposed to installing the behavior modification system in children.”
Kyra watched as Chancellor Owens fought not to roll his eyes at her adamant statement. He was a thoroughly detestable man, and she didn’t understand how someone like him had managed to become the UCN’s head chancellor.
“Yes. We are all aware. Fortunately, there are other cyber scientists willing to lend their talents to that specific project. If Norton has nothing that interests you at the moment, perhaps a paid consultancy would suit you more than a permanent position. I’m sure the personal loss of not one, but two costly Cyber Husbands over the last seven years, has been traumatic for you. And we are all aware that Jackson left you no choice but to deal with his own death recently. What I’m trying to say is that we understand this may be a time in your life where it’s natural you would be doing a lot of... self-reflection.”
Ashland 297: The Alien Agenda Page 8
