by Abel, Regine
They, too, I hoped to spare during this war. I had no quarrel with the Workers. Despite the abuse some of them had subjected us to in our youth, they were not a threat to the galaxy. You didn’t slaughter an entire species because a small fraction of their people had been bullies. Thankfully, they usually sought refuge in the hive, dug deep underground, whenever an armed conflict erupted near a colony.
The Vanguard’s drones preceded us into entering Zekuro’s atmosphere. No missiles or torpedoes had been fired yet from the surface. While hoping it meant Khutu hadn’t detected us through our stealth shields, I couldn’t rule out that he was playing dead to lure us into a trap.
“Silzi, we’re approaching,” I mind-spoke to the Mimic, now that we were in close enough range.
“Sending you the coordinates,” Silzi said, her mind-voice thick with tension. “Everyone is on high alert. They know your fleet is near. You waited too long before you all entered stealth mode. The latest broadcast estimated your arrival in two hours from now. That you got here sooner only gives us the tiniest of edges.”
“The drones’ first strikes should hit in the next ten minutes. We will reach your location in twelve. Wait until then before you start disabling any of their defense systems that you can.”
“Understood,” Silzi replied.
“Bane out.”
I rose to my feet as our ship pierced through Zekuro’s atmosphere, the cloudless, golden sky giving us an unobstructed view of the city. Despite being made of reddish stone and metal, the buildings had an organic feel to them reminiscent of anthills but with multiple windows.
The utter stillness of the city belied its current state of alert. If I didn’t know better, I’d believe it abandoned.
“Let’s get ready,” I said to my brothers before making eye contact with Varnog.
He nodded at me and indicated for Reklig to take over the pilot seat so that Viper could join us. With Varnog tagging along, we marched in an almost solemn silence to the hatch, my brothers and I shifting into our battle form in the process. Three other Scelks, fully suited up, swords and blasters in hand, greeted us as we entered. I nodded to them and reached for one of the vials of Miegly toxin on the shelves, next to the weapon’s rack. Images of Tabitha danced before my eyes as I brought one of the vials of Crinax to my lips, Reaper and Viper imitating me.
Varnog adjusted around his neck one of the necklaces their females had made for them. The dark stones nullified the effects of psychic disruptor devices on the Scelks, but we didn’t have enough stones to make extra ones for us Dragons. Thankfully, the Vanguard had provided us with a powerful alternative.
“We’re about to land,” I telepathically said to Tabitha.
Just as I spoke those words, the first explosion went off, following in quick succession by too many more to count, the drones unloading their payloads on strategically chosen targets.
“Stay safe,” Tabitha responded, giving me a psychic caress.
Seconds later, I felt the protection of a Shield wrapping around my psychic mind. As long as I remained within range of their power, this powerful ability of the Asian psychics would keep my brothers and me safe from the effects of psychic disrupting devices.
Reklig performed a smooth landing in a large plaza about three hundred meters from our destination, and we activated our stealth shield before opening the door. The streets remained empty in that area. The loud siren blaring over the city, the firing sounds of the ground to air missiles being vomited out of the Kryptid’s defensive positions, and the explosions from the torpedoes launched by the drone vessels onto the city were deafening.
Smoke and ashes quickly blanketed the air and the streets, reducing visibility. As we closed in on the laboratory, which also served as the detention center for the Mimics, Varnog and Tremak—Sumin’s mate—took the lead. The four Soldiers manning the guard post at the entrance all slightly jerked, as if stung by something. But it was merely an instinctive fight response at their consciousness being invaded by the Scelks who sucked them into a dream walk. In seconds, they went still, standing in position, but their eyes vacant. From a distance, they appeared normal. Under the current state of emergency, we could only hope no one would spare time to subject them to a more intense scrutiny as their unnatural stillness would give us away.
“We’re outside,” I mind-spoke to Silzi who, under my mentorship, had become almost as talented a hacker as me. “The guards are taken care of.”
“Opening the door,” she responded, her psychic voice filled with excitement and fear.
The reinforced doors slid open, revealing a sleek corridor made of dark metal panels that contrasted sharply with the rough and organic exterior of the building. Two sets of doors on each side led to rooms that my scanner indicated as empty. We hastened to the large hall at the end of the corridor, one of the Scelks staying behind to control the guards and any other potential visitors.
Three elevators graced the back wall of the semicircular hall, with two connecting corridors on the left and right sides. The huge doors of the central elevator clearly indicated it was meant to transport large equipment or stretchers. Its doors opened on a single Kryptid Worker. Generally similar in overall appearance with the Soldiers, the female was smaller, with a much tinier Deynian horn on her forehead, and baby-sized mandibles framing her mouth. As she took a step forward without exiting the lift, her unnaturally narrow, ant-like waist made her hips sway in a sensuously alien way that I always found disturbing whenever I observed a Worker.
“I’m here, in the elevator,” Silzi said. “I’ve hacked into the surveillance cameras. They’re displaying a loop of empty corridors.”
“Good job,” I replied, deactivating my shield.
The smile of relief and hope on her Kryptid face unnerved me. I wished she would switch back to her Mimic appearance, but for the time being, it made sense for her to maintain it. If we were discovered, she could pretend to have been our prisoner.
“What’s down those corridors?” I asked, pointing at them as I reached the elevator.
“Things that need to be destroyed while they’re still in their embryonic stage,” Silzi said with a shudder.
I looked at Viper then Reaper. Words were unnecessary between us. They each took a Scelk with them, Viper taking the left corridor and Reaper the right one.
“Bane, hurry,” Tabitha’s voice said in my head. “Thing are escalating quickly on our end, and there appears to be a large contingent of Soldiers headed your way. Don’t get trapped.”
“Acknowledged,” I said, hating to be the cause of the worry in her psychic voice. “Let’s make haste,” I said to Silzi and Varnog.
The elevator doors closed and Silzi selected the fifth of six floors.
“The majority of the Workers are taking shelter on the lowest floor,” Silzi explained. “Only a handful are still monitoring the patients.”
“They will cower the minute we enter,” I said dismissively. “Any of those patients worth saving?”
Silzi hesitated then nodded. “Khutu has ordered his geneticists to begin the procedure on four of my sisters to make them like Shuria. I believe it is still early enough to revert most of it. The other patients are abominations; Soldiers whose larvae have been spliced with various other species. They’re true monsters, half of them more feral than anything else.”
The elevator door opened on a circular hall similar to the one through which we’d entered. Silzi exited first with me behind her. As soon as I stepped out of the cabin, a blaster shot whizzed past me, hitting Varnog dead in the chest. The close-range shot sent him flying backwards, slamming his back against the back wall of the lift. At the same time, Rogue’s speared hand sent Silzi crashing into the side wall with a vicious swiping blow. I barely managed to dodge a second blaster shot aimed at me as I ducked into a roll.
Even as I summoned my shield and pulled out my blaster, my mind reached out to Varnog and then Silzi to make sure they still lived. To my relief, they were merely knock
ed out cold. However, I suspected Silzi had broken or fractured a limb under the force of the blow and the bad way she’d impacted the wall. But I couldn’t dwell on that right now as two of the modified Mimics turned their attention to me. I couldn’t tell who they were, one having taken the appearance of Rogue and the other one looking like Dread, both of them in their battle form.
I raised my shield just in time to absorb their joint blaster shots. The fake Rogue issued a vocal command in Kryptid, and the elevator doors closed before it flew up, cutting off any potential escape attempt.
“It’s a trap!” I broadcast to Reaper and Viper. “Varnog and Silzi are down. Two modified Mimics on my ass.”
“We’re coming,” both Reaper and Viper replied almost simultaneously.
“I’m not your enemy!” I shouted to the Mimics, while setting my blaster to the highest stun.
In spite of everything, killing them was the last thing on my mind. But killing me seemed very high on their priority list. They charged me, both summoning a mouth dart as their throats undulated while it rose to their mouths. I called on my wings, parrying Rogue’s attack with my shield and forcing Dread to veer off to the right with my blaster.
“We’re here to free your sisters and you as well!” I exclaimed before flying upward to dodge the darts they simultaneously fired at me. But the low ceiling didn’t give me much wiggle room, and I dove sideways to avoid Dread eviscerating me with the razor-sharp tip of his forearm lance.
“The elevators are locked. Trying to hack them,” Reaper said.
I cussed inwardly, spitting acid at the floor to keep at bay the Mimics who were trying to corner me. Although they were making a better use of their battle form ability than Shuria had during her first encounter against my mate, they still had a ways to go before mastering that body. Had they been more experienced, two against one, I’d already be long dead. The fight soon turned into a dance of attack then dodge, dodge then attack. Our forearm lances clashed, and our scorpion tails bashed. With my wings, I could have sliced them both in half, but I refused to believe they were beyond redemption.
However, with my shield on the verge of collapsing from their concerted attacks, I needed to take one of them out to be able to subdue the other. I fired a barrage of acid darts at the ceiling from my scorpion tails, ignoring the increasing number of slashes and cuts the Mimics were managing to inflict on me. With a large section of the ceiling weakened, I bashed Dread in the face with my shield then kicked him square in the chest. As he stumbled backwards, I fired three shots of my blaster at the ceiling, causing large sections of it to collapse on top of the Mimic. Disoriented, Dread was unable to avoid the two stun shots from my blaster and collapsed to the ground, out cold.
Rogue seized the opportunity to strike my shoulder with a one-two punch of his scorpion tails. The chitin plates protecting me there in my battle form cracked under the force of the assault. This being a more vulnerable spot, the first hit should have cracked it, and the second should have allowed the tail’s stinger to inject me with its lethal poison. However, bonding with my Queen had further thickened my armor, saving my life.
I slammed my shield into Rogue, then again a second time as he stumbled backwards. My shield collapsed on the second hit, having lost the last of its integrity. But that was fine. Jumping up to give myself a bit more momentum, I flapped my wings while darting towards him at maximum speed. I smashed him against the metal plating of the walls, the back of his head banging hard against it with a thundering sound. Rogue, dizzy and standing on shaky legs, threw an uncoordinated swing at me. I easily avoided it then knocked him out with a stun shot from my blaster.
“Where are you?” I demanded with annoyance while rushing to Silzi’s side.
“Trying hard, brother,” Reaper said in an apologetic voice. “We do not have your hacking skills.”
Groaning in frustration, I pulled a small stylus from my weapon’s belt and used it to inject Silzi with a stimulant. She gasped, her eyes jerking open before she moaned in pain.
“How bad is it?” I asked, kicking myself for not bringing painkillers. With my high pain tolerance threshold, it had never been a necessity.
“Feels like I fractured something,” Silzi said with a strained voice while I helped her up. “But I’ll live.” She froze, an expression of sorrow on her face at the sight of the crumpled forms of Rogue and Dread.
“They aren’t my brothers, but two modified Mimics,” I said. Her head jerked towards me, sorrow turning to horror. “Relax,” I said reassuringly. “I wouldn’t kill your sisters. They’re merely unconscious.”
Silzi’s shoulders sagged with relief, and she blinked her eyes rapidly to chase the tears prickling them.
“Based on the Mimic anatomy, the stun should last close to an hour, but we can’t be certain with those two,” I said pensively. “Help my brothers regain control of the elevator. I want the Scelks to keep your sisters in check while we free the others. Time is not on our side.”
Silzi nodded and whipped out a datapad from the accessories pouch hanging on her hip. Wincing, she frantically tapped a series of instructions on it, while I stripped the unconscious Mimics of their weapons. I replaced my depleted shield with one of theirs and hung the second one on my weapons belt as backup.
“Got it,” Silzi said as the elevator, previously stopped at the third floor, flew up to the first floor to pick up my brothers and their Scelks.
Moments later, they joined us on the fifth underground floor, with Varnog looking mightily pissed and still a little groggy. I bit the inside of my cheeks and looked away to stifle my smile. His pride was stung to have been so easily bested by two rookies. I could relate. It still shamed me how effortlessly Shuria had played me, then murdered me, leaving my mate to save both of our lives.
Not trusting our scanners this time, we slightly spread out as we opened the first lab door along the sole corridor on this floor. Four Workers huddled in the back of the room, casting wary glances at me. Silzi touched minds with the females and confirmed they were not Mimics in disguise. A quick survey of the room showed no threat except for the nightmarish creatures inside reinforced glass cages. Two of them were strapped to examination tables with tubes running into their arms and necks. Under heavy sedation, they almost appeared dead in their stillness.
They were like chimeras; deformed Soldiers, some missing an arm or leg, some with a few limbs too many. In odd places, their chitin armor looked as if it had caved in while protruding at awkward angles in others. Wet, fleshy appendages hung from their chests, backs, or the side of their faces like giant tumors. The abnormal position of their eyes, noses, and mouths made a few of them look as if their faces had melted.
I brushed my psychic mind against the consciousness of a couple of them. Mindless, primitive, their world could be summarized by instinct, rage, and incommensurable pain.
“Put them out of their misery,” I hissed at the Workers, barely suppressing the rage boiling within. For too many years, I had watched helpless creatures condemned to a life of agony in the demented games of my sire.
They exchanged a hesitant look, then one of them—the oldest of the group judging by the thickness of her scales—licked her lips nervously before addressing me.
“The General will not—”
“FUCK THE GENERAL!” I yelled, violently kicking a cart burdened with medical tools. It crashed loudly against the wall, causing the freaky creatures in the glass cages to thrash within their confines. “You do it now, or so help me, I will tear you limb from limb.”
The Workers jumped into action, grabbing some syringes and vials of a bluish liquid from one of the cooling units.
“Painlessly,” I added in a menacing tone.
The oldest Worker hesitated, the other females looking at her fearfully. She put the blue vial back inside the cooling unit and picked a different one, with an amber fluid. The others followed suit, and they began to inject the two males on the tables before injecting more of the soluti
on in the feeding tubes of the creatures in the cages.
I cast a glance at Reaper, who immediately understood that I wanted him to wait for confirmation that the experiments were dead. He nodded. Tremak stayed with him while I made my way to the next room.
Four Mimics were lying on examination tables, in a manner similar to the abominations we’d just left, with tubes plugged into them, including their legs. A single Worker stood in the room.
“I… I will unhook them,” the female volunteered with a trembling voice, having no doubt heard me shouting at the other females through the wall.
“Make it fast,” I said between my teeth. “Can this be reverted?”
“Y… yes. Well, m… most of it should,” she amended, while diligently removing the tubes, cleaning the wounds and applying bandages over them. “It’s still early in the process.”
“Give them what’s needed to initiate the reversal process and provide my brother sufficient supplies to complete it,” I said in a clipped tone. “Will they be able to walk out on their own?”
“Not right away. Not for an hour at least,” the Worker said apologetically.
“Then get them on hover stretchers and ready to go,” I replied, hiding none of my irritation. This was an additional complication we could have done without, especially with troops coming our way. “Viper, handle it.”
My brother nodded. I left him with his Scelk and moved rapidly with Silzi and Varnog towards the large room at the back. Using the same interface she previously had to hack into the elevator, she unlocked the reinforced doors of the holding area. Its massive size blew my mind. Considering over one hundred Mimics were held within, it made sense to keep it spacious. But Khutu had never been one to care much about the comfort of his experiments. However, the divisions in the ceiling made me realize the area had been designed to create multiple isolated areas, probably to contain species possibly hostile to the other detainees.
