by Zara Zenia
“Leave. Now.” I told Lainey. “Don't come back until I tell you.”
She got up and ran out without asking any questions. I shifted the second she was gone, and let my Fiori neutrality takeover.
Once my body stopped shaking and my ruffled fur fell back into place, I took one last breath and grabbed the crown. It sealed to my head and transported me down to the surface, past the vacuum and the thick atmosphere, into a tower sitting at the head of an enormous complex of carbon buildings.
I fell on my knees in a dimly lit room where my brother was laying naked on a mat with a human woman, seemingly enchanted by a curl of black hair that fell over her chin.
“You may stand.” He got up, and with superior grace walked toward me, wearing a look of pure excitement. He lowered his human eyes. “Markathus.”
“Brooks.” I lowered my eye out of respect.
“Oh, don't you prefer your human form. It's too hot here for fur.”
I shifted.
“Much better.” A sly smile crossed his wide, comical lips, and his green eyes went bright. “Do you like my body? It took a week to design it.” He moved his hands down from his slicked back black hair over his artfully sculpted chest, down to his feet.
“You have style.” I said.
“So who is she? Tell me about her? Are you in love?”
“Love?” I did my best to sound shocked. “Heresy.”
“Bullshit. Love is the most powerful instinct I've come into contact with. It's intoxicating. I make it a habit to fall in love at least once a day.”
“Can't we have one thing that we keep to ourselves?”
“Not this. It's too intriguing. I want you to bring her here, show me what she's like. I'll assure her safety and yours indefinitely.”
“Why?” I stepped forward with my chest puffed out.
“Don't be intimidated. I'm tired of our people living like monsters. I want everyone to understand what you and I are experiencing.” He walked a little closer to emphasize what he was saying. “It's worth something, Markathus. Love is what our species is missing. Without it, we're incomplete, and I can't live without sharing it with the rest of the Imperium.”
“I don't want her here.”
“Why not? I just want to meet the woman my brother is going to spend the rest of his life with.” There it was, the one thing I thought I'd never hear from a member of my family. He was being sincere.
“I'll bring her.”
“Markathus!” Lainey slapped me in the face, knocking me out of my trance. “What the hell was that?” She was standing over me.
“A summons.”
“What is a summons?”
“Some elite Fiori are capable of summoning a member of the species. When the crown glows red I have to put it on or else I could be arrested. Once I put it on I can't leave the trance until they release me.”
“We need to leave.” She demanded. “Now.”
“Bu—
“No. Markathus. You've got to just turn this ship around and take us somewhere else, because I don't want to be here when the Fiori come swooping in.”
“Tha—
“Do what I say.”
“Will you just listen to me!?”
She sat down quietly.
“Finally.” I exclaimed. “The Fiori that summoned me was Brooks, my brother. He setup a base on this planet and has fallen in love with a human. He wants me to bring you to visit him. I think it's a good idea.”
“No.”
“When you've seen Fiori learn about love the way I have, you know what it looks like after we've undergone the transformation. You know what he told me Lainey? That he just wants to meet the woman that I'm going to spend the rest of my life with.”
“You're sending me into a death trap.”
“When I begged Ferryn to get you out of the reproduction facility, he made me promise to spread love and compassion to everyone I can. My brother has the same goal. He can help me create a social movement that would spread throughout the species. He can also keep you safe. This is our best chance for survival.”
“Do you trust him, Markathus?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitating. “I do. You can have the child in modern, well equipped facilities with trained medical professionals who will have more of a chance of keeping you alive than I will. It's safe, Lainey, and it's our best option at having some quality of life.”
“He's connected to the other Fiori.” She shook her head.
“He's in love, Lainey.”
She sat still, staring straight ahead, past the ship toward the northern continent. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I rested my hand on her shoulder. “I'm not going to put you in danger.”
I took her hand and squeezed it tight while I waited for our ship to switch to autopilot. It descended through the atmosphere, over a black green forest, past hundreds of miles of avon until we reached the vast blank tundra where the compound sat, blocking the skyline. It was a structure built out of cubes stacked on top of one another, spanning the size of a small country.
Just before we entered the hangar, I thought I saw a tower with a green light piercing the icy haze sit on top of the highest cube. That was where my brother summoned me.
Lainey turned to me when we land and said, “It looks like a city.”
“Everything the Fiori do is on a large scale. We're an intergalactic species. Think of this as a winter home.”
“Still, what would he need all this space for?” The stairs opened up before I could answer, and a young human woman walked in wearing a translucent gold robe.
“Follow me.” She addressed us with a smile, a gesture that only served to emphasize her strange head.
“No.” Lainey whispered just loud enough for me to hear.
I ignored her and followed the woman down the steps into the miles long spaceship hangar where humans were waiting at the docking ports holding tablets. Some of the spaces were already taken up, and people were streaming out, all of them guided by a woman with a shaven head.
“We're leaving.” Lainey grabbed my hand, trying to keep her voice down.
“No.” I hissed.
“This isn't right.”
“It's alien,” I reminded her.
She hunched her shoulders and kept walking, cradling her stomach.
The group stopped at a tall set of double doors with my family crest projected onto them.
“What is that?”
“My family crest. The rise of the golden moon is one of our oldest symbols. It represents our desire to collect resources from space.”
“Thank you for coming” A woman with long black hair was waiting for us in front of the doors. “All of you have something in common. Look around.”
I held Lainey's hand, shocked by what I was seeing. Every male Fiori was paired off with a pregnant human female.
“All of you have learned about something called love. It's a sacred instinct, one to be cherished and respected. We're here to celebrate love and honor the Fiori and humans that were able to harness its power to successfully mate. Together, we'll work to create a lasting partnership that will ensure the survival of our species and spread love to the entire Fiori race.”
Lainey was staring at a small woman in the center. She wasn't a woman really. She was barely a teenager, but she seemed to have an air of authority. She scanned the crowd, looked over the couples and she was the first to turn around when the doors opened up to a long hall with cathedral arches.
“If you'll follow me, we'll show you to your accommodations. Then we will meet for our evening meals.”
“Each meal is specially formulated to meet the mother's needs…”
The younger woman, who I had decided was a Fiori shifter went on about the merits of the health equipment, their nutrition plans, even the childcare and tutoring facilities that had been setup. Brooks went a long way to make this place a success.
I was too busy walking that I barely noticed when we were herd
ed into another hall where the young woman cut us off. “I want all of you to know that you are safe. We've heard of the atrocities that the council has ordered against humans. We know that many of you are being treated like cattle, dissected and enslaved. We can't make up for the things our species has done, but we can try to find another way. This institution is built on love, compassion and partnership.”
One of the humans, a short, frizzy-haired red head, started sobbing uncontrollably. One of the robed women came up to give her a tissue and usher her into another room on the right.
“I think we can all agree,” the young woman started back up, “that the most important thing right now is the health of the women and the well being of their children. With the permission of the fathers, we'd like to take the women aside so that we can begin testing.”
There was one robed woman for every pregnant woman. They quickly walked to Lainey's side, and the sides of all the other women and started urging them to get in line.
“Would you like to see pictures of the baby?” The woman asked Lainey.
“Would you like me to shoot your face off?” Lainey countered.
“We've got a hot meal waiting for you when you're done.” She grabbed Lainey's wrist.
Lainey kicked her feet out from under her. “Don't you EVER, EVER touch me!”
Everyone froze when her voice traveled throughout the corridor. I grabbed her and held her close, so I could reach into my pants and pull out one of the handguns. She took it just in time for the Fiori to begin rushing out from hidden doors built into the hall.
They held bright red plasma guns capable of burning through anything in seconds. The men surrounded the group on three sides.
The young woman amplified her voice and grew to twice her size so she could look down at the rest of us. “Men on the left,” she pointed, “women on the right.” We did as she said. I had the gun in my pants and several grenades as well, but I saw no point in causing a scene, so when she yelled march, I marched through a door on the left side of the end of the hall.
I turned back before I walked in and saw Lainey at the end of the line with her head held high. I knew that that would be the last time I saw her. At least she was going to die with dignity.
Chapter 21
Markathus
The men were led through a series of arched corridors that slanted upwards toward the higher levels. We were given simple, solitary rooms, similar to those found in alien holding pens with nothing but a thin window on the door and a hole in the floor. None of us fought. We never spoke. We all knew what was coming.
As it turned out, I was not the only Fiori to have successfully impregnated a female. I looked through the group of men, reading their markings, their failures and successes that had been permanently etched into their fur.
Many were pirates and criminals, smugglers who dealt in pleasure compounds and sexual creatures. They had all somehow found Earth to be a haven for lost Fiori looking to build a good life. Some were older fur falling down their bodies in long strands. They had already built their families and were fleeing, presumably because of the increased Fiori activity around the planet.
In a universe as vast as the one we lived in, it amazed me that so many of us had ended up there, on that small, watery planet with the disgusting air and the primitive people.
I laid down on the floor and listened as one by one the doors were opened and the Fiori were brought out. I knew where they were going. We all knew. The judgment process was swift and efficient. If you're put on trial for heresy, you're taken to a judge who decides which punishment you'll be receiving, then you're taken directly to the torture chamber to begin the process.
It takes about 20 minutes, and they were moving fast, pushing from cell to cell, processing the frantic Fiori men in a line that went quickly. One Fiori after another was pushed outside a door to the right.
I got to be with Lainey and make certain that she was going to live. I risked my life to give her a chance. I could hold onto those things and try to forget about the fact that she was about to be punished just like I was.
Her child would be ripped out of her stomach and forced into rigorous Fiori training that would purge it of all compassion and love. It would never feel sympathy for anyone or understand what it meant to want to be close to somebody else.
By the time he was fully grown, he'd gladly kill me if he was given the order. Our species deserved to go extinct. Letting us die would've been the right thing to do. We sucked everything good out of life in order to transform our society into a monstrous machine that needlessly collected resources and destroyed lives.
Even now, when we were trying to find a way to keep the species alive, we still held onto our barbaric practices.
I opened my eyes and looked up. Something clicked in the door and my brother in Fiori form was staring inside. When the door opened, he told his attendants to wait inside so he could come and talk to me.
I shot up and tackled him to the ground. He pushed me off him effortlessly and stood up. Then he offered me his hand. “There was a mistake. I only meant for them to take your human.”
I stood up without his help.
“Come on.” We took a lift to his quarters at the top of the compound. When the door opened, I felt like I was walking into space. The walls and ceiling were invisible, and offered a perfect view of the solar system complete with a fake sun that hovered in the center of the room.
He pointed toward a sitting cube that emerged from the wall and motioned for me to sit. He did the same. “When you spoke to me before, you talked about love. You said you thought it could change the species.”
“So it's true. You're a heretic.” He shook his head. “The Markathus I grew up with used to hunt every day. You used to use flying primates as target practice, and you made sure to keep them alive as long as you could. You loved it.”
I didn't want to admit that that's who I was.
“Some species have worth.”
“Markathus, I want to help you.”
“By killing the mother of my child!? You're blind.”
“Do you know what's been happening? People have been migrating to Earth en masse, and most of them are coming back infected. They are destroying hierarchy, refusing to perform their duties and talking about ending the practice of invasion. They want to destroy Fiori civilization. It's a disease Markathus. Now you're my brother, and yes, I know that means something, so I am giving you a chance. You can either let the woman and the child die, and get the help you need, or you can go in front of the judge right now.”
Something chimed on the invisible console sitting next to his cube. He tapped it to check the notification.
“Have you ever tried to understand love?”
“I've felt it, but I experienced it in a healthy, detached manner in order to keep the instinct from taking me over.”
“But you know its merit.”
“Of course it has merit,” he snapped. “It's the result of millions of years of evolution, and the instinct belongs to another species, one that has the potential to destroy our society. We found another species that can carry our children to term, not the defects that came out of the humans.”
I wanted to break his nose. He was talking about my son.
“The dhurka are sturdy, lesser life forms with the same amount of intelligence as an Earth cow. The children they've produced for us are exactly the same as our own natural births. I want you to be the first Fiori outside this planet to see one.” He pulled up a star map on the wall and zoomed into the Arwen cluster where he singled out a planet. It was almost entirely blue, and covered in thick fields where trillions of red insectoids the size of cars swarmed through the air and swam in the grass. “Now we have no use for Earth and we can begin harvesting the planet's resources.”
I reached down toward the seam of my pants.
“I know how you feel, Markathus. That's what's so insidious about this infection. It changes your fundamental values. You love tha
t planet, because you've been taking human form for too long. You love that woman and you don't want her to die, because human instincts have warped your body, but I know you. I know you are stronger than this, so I'm going to give you the chance to redeem yourself.”
I was visibly trembling and covered in sweat. I had already lost Lainey. I had my family and my race to think about. I had changed, and even though those changes seemed beautiful, they made me betray my species and that was unforgivable.
“All I need you to do is to command the console to activate the plasma cannon on the lower continent. The coordinates for Earth are already programmed into it. I'm going to destroy the planet no matter what you do. I just can't stand seeing you degrade like this any longer. You need to reclaim your nature.”
Didn't I? Wasn't I trying to be something I wasn't? My species evolved into one of the most powerful species in the universe. Why was I emulating a species that could barely take care of itself? What was so beautiful about them?
“If you hurry, you might make it in time for the concert.”
All it took was a single, metallic click, a twitch of my finger and a deafening crack. His black red blood covered the corner wall, gushed out onto the floor and created a warm puddle that stained my bare feet.
I walked to the end of the room and put my hand on the wall, hoping to find a door there. Just like I knew it would, the wall drew back to reveal a ship's bridge. The top tower was a detachable escape pod and the plasma cannon my brother was going to destroy earth with was attached to it.
I heard the buzzing sound before I registered it. Then I looked to my right to find a crown glowing red. I had no choice. My actions would be made public soon enough. I had to answer the summons.
It brought me back to my father's ship where I found myself kneeling in front of his throne where he was standing and pacing around with a miniature plasma cannon in his hand. “Where is he?” he roared.
“Brooks had my lover and I under threat of punishment. Naturally, I killed him.”
