by Terry Persun
Consciousness—it wasn’t that at all, was it? The chip pushed another charge through her. That’s right. Kek-ta volunteered for this duty. For science. For her race, her dying race. This was her memory returning.
She poked a foot at the body that shared the shell with her using a developing muscle. The other moved. At least it was alive. Was it still in low-level-life? Had its bio accelerator kicked-in?
Wow. She tried to shiver as another charge traced through her system. Her body expanded; it grew. For a moment, her mind went fuzzy, which caused her worry. “No, no, no,” she murmured. But even as she begged she understood that she had her consciousness back, or she wouldn’t know to beg, to question. As soon as the rush passed, Kek-ta checked in with herself. She felt clearer. Oh, more information. Like any scientist, she wished she could record everything, take notes, monitor her progress.
Another rush. How often would this happen? She went fuzzy again, but waited for the recovery this time…and it came. Along with each bio-acceleration charge, came more information, more recalled memory. The two were tied together, body and brain.
Life. She recalled that, unless the accelerator had failed, it only engaged if the support shell came into contact with a DNA strand similar to hers…and his. She now knew that the other body inside the support shell was male. A mating pair—the only downside to the excitement of the experience. But again, it was necessary if they were to create life.
Question: did she know who rode inside the pod with her? Not so far. A protector, though, that would be logical.
Her body growth, she imagined, stretched from inside itself; not stretched, then, but inflated, like an environmental suit.
Another bio-acceleration charge. She waited.
Her heartbeat picked up. To accommodate her increased size? Or was it worry? If the life form that discovered them were to find a way to extract the shell, they’d most likely die. Her body bios were pliable, chemically-compromised until it was time to emerge. How long was set-up time, and how could she be sure in this atmosphere, on this planet, that it would be accurate to their calculations? Maybe it hadn’t been calculated.
She tried to move. The other body inflated to take up any space she didn’t. She allowed understanding to swallow her. They were still forming; their bodies actually flowed around one another at the moment.
She longed for her own periphery, her own space.
ALSO BY TERRY PERSUN
Mainstream Novels:
Ten Months in Wonderland
Wolf’s Rite
Giver of Gifts
Deception Creek
The Witness Tree
Science Fiction Novels:
Backyard Aliens (A Neil & Mavra Altman adventure)
Hear No Evil
Revision 7:DNA (A Neil & Mavra Altman adventure)
Cathedral of Dreams
Fantasy Novels:
Doublesight
Historical Novels:
Sweet Song
