Feral Series V: Feral Foretaste Read online

  * * *

  New Concepts Publishing

  www.newconceptspublishing.com

  Copyright ©2011 by Skhye Moncrief

  First published in 2011, 2011

  * * *

  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

  * * *

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  * * * *

  Feral Series V:

  Feral Foretaste

  By

  Skhye Moncrief

  (C) Copyright by Skhye Moncrief, December 2011

  ISBN 978-1-60394-670-4

  New Concepts Publishing

  Lake Park, GA 31636

  www.newconceptspublishing.com

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

  Chapter One

  2014, Deep Space

  Sometimes the snowball doesn't stop at the bottom of the hill, Earth biologist Cassiopeia Krol thought, contemplating spitting bullets at her commander. When the commander's damned spacecraft crash landed on planet Prall, a planet with a micro-organism that killed anything with two X-chromosomes, a woman would have thought nothing could top that heart-stopping experience. No. Nothing. But we hadn't even partied on Prall for forty-eight hours when a cyborg spacecraft arrived to whisk him and I away. Not just back to our safe little Marshal haven on planet Luvk crawling with glorious over-sized muscled tiger-striped warriors packaged in the sexiest black leather pants in the universe. No. No. We were headed into deep space toward a space station.

  A time capsule of some sort.

  A vault containing genes and seeds from twelve centuries ago.

  The genetic imprint of days gone past.

  Lost to the cyborgs on their home world. Or saved.

  The Dakos’ DNA bank. And these cyborgs seemed to think someone in the universe could help them fit their sacred genes back into their planet's ecosystem.

  Me?

  How was I the answer? Yes, I'd just spent six months on planet Luvk with a blue alien teaching me how to use my unusual healing powers. Handler powers that allowed me to control elementals.

  So what?

  I'm supposed to shock the elements within these !Dako seeds and DNA strands to get everything they screwed up over the course of twelve-hundred years happily rewoven back on track on their home world like slapping two distant relatives in the heads and making them get along? To crown that sweet delight, I would become blind in the process. Blind! My eyes would burn out and glow white with the cleansing light my dear commander wanted me to use to corral the centuries of metaphorical shit these !Dakos didn't bother heaping upon themselves.

  Come on. Every scientist knows that once you botched up something as beautifully intricate as DNA you had to pay the piper. Synergistic effects were pretty terrifying in that respect. Every gene controlled multiple unrelated things. So, you jack with one thing like a deafness and maybe caused crooked toes and obesity. But, God help me, I couldn't find a thing wrong with these !Dakos.

  No crooked toes. No obesity. No deafness. I scanned the perfect four-man crew of the !Dako spacecraft shuttling us to the space station.

  Tall. Massive musculature. They had tweaked their DNA for beauty. And for some bizarre reason, they looked like the most beautiful Earth males I'd ever seen. Magnificent. Except they were immortal.

  Their bodies seemed stuck at about the age of thirty. And they had bizarre eyes that glowed like gemstones. Beautiful. Just different. They wore silver stretchy material for pants, black knee-high leather boots, and silver metal cuffs covering their forearms from wrist to elbow. Other than that, each had his long hair pulled back into a leather-wrapped queue and one massive sword slung diagonally across his broad back.

  Kick-ass? Yes. Frightening? Well, once I heard that when their children reached the age of one year they had metal skeletons implanted into their bodies and brain-transplant surgery, I totally couldn't look at them as humanoid anymore. !Dakos are machines. Or so the King of Prall snarled. But his wife, my friend and Marshal peer, swore her !Dako mate had a soul, a conscience. So, I was supposed to look beyond the freakish cyborg custom of giving their infants bio-metallic skeletons that grew as they aged. Oh yes even though my brain couldn't wrap itself around bio-metallic anything. And look even further beyond these people's machine brains... To find something to buy into. To connect with. Because I had to help them. To stop the war between Prall and the !Dakos. To sacrifice my sight for the greater good of two cultures.

  Like my friend marrying one male from each of these cultures wasn't the super glue to lock their hands in an eternal handshake.

  The slow squeak of heel against metal floor warned someone approached.

  Not one of the !Dako crew that was fiercely warned to keep their pheromones at a distance. Beyond thank goodness. I just don't think I could hold myself back after what my peer experienced with her !Dako mate.

  "We should arrive in less than an hour,” Goro said.

  "Yes, sir.” The commander probably wore a calm mask. Emotionless. After he'd gone and sent my friend to break into the !Dako prison to help free the Prall King, and after I'd learned what happened to her in the process, my gut wasn't happy with the commander's sudden revelation that I was destined for his next great plan—to end the cyborg war.

  How other than losing my vision? Did he have another plan?

  The moronic !Dakos bio-engineered themselves out of the classification of people for God's sake. They connected with each other like computers in a network. They communed in said network. Planning. Plotting. Hell, they weren't even telepathic anymore. So, why send a Marshal cadet to create a were-assassin blood bond with one !Dako when they were no longer psychic telepaths? There could be no mystic union unless one lesser-evolved psychic like an intuitive me mated with a higher-evolved telepath.

  No triggering of hidden genetic code to create a policing Marshal. I'd never become a were-wolf to maintain order in their world.

  This mission was freaking nuts.

  And Goro stood here like everything went as smooth as key-lime pie. Tart. Sexy enough to lure you into eating the whole damned thing if my vision wasn't at stake. Talk about glory pie. Surely he had a stronger plan that my burning my vision out. And I hadn't had a piece of kick-ass key-lime pie since I left Earth. But something told me Goro knew where the damned pie was in my future. And he wasn't talking.

  The bastard.

  "You should know the five Anwa guardians have the purest genetic material in the entire !Dako population,” Goro almost whispered his words.

  Okay, where is he going with this? “How pure? Are you saying they are part of the genetic stock kept on the space station? Actual samples?” Quiver-down-in-your-bones creepy.

  Goro's standard almost nonexistent nod spoke m
ore than he did. “I see you think about genes like I think about culture."

  "After studying zoology in graduate school, I worked my way into genetic counseling. Genes are my job."

  "You mentioned that before.” He fiery orange Xquine gaze slid to the busy !Dako crew. “The guardians have never mated. Never passed on their genes through generation after generation of reproduction. !Dakos call these guardians the Five Fathers."

  Why fathers if they'd never sired offspring? “What does that mean?"

  "They believe when the Anwa returns her seed to their planet, the Five Fathers will bring pure !Dako seed back to the home world."

  "But you said they don't have females. If they don't have female !Dako genes, then their offspring will never be pure.” That was simple basic genetic computation taught in high school.

  Goro sighed, an almost desperate sound. “In your assessment lies the problem. I think you are the solution."

  Just crack the mystery and tell all. Enlighten me on how I'm going to come out of this with my eyesight. “How?"

  "You'll do what M'yote did on Prall. You'll cleanse the !Dako home world with your Handler powers."

  Shit. M'yote was blinded by that duty! And why right twelve-hundred years of fuck ups? They did this to themselves. And just where will correcting their problem leave me? I can't form a blood-mate relationship with males who have machine brains. I need a telepath. “Commander?"

  His eerie glowing orange gaze bore a hole through mine. “Yes?"

  Okay, maybe I was arguing. But I'm not military. “Aside from the fact cleansing the planet will wipe away my vision, are you taking me to my mate? Am I supposed to mate with my were-mate? And be blinded in the process?"

  He inhaled very slowly. “I think there's another solution to cleansing the planet as M'yote has done his home world. But this will involve your searching for an alternative solution once you mate with one of the Five Fathers."

  At least he was thinking about the recipe for key-lime pie. But mating with a !Dako made no sense. “How do I form a blood bond with one of these !Dakos? They've augmented themselves out of telepathy."

  "Mate with one. Mate with all five. Just find it within yourself to overcome your preconceived ideas of right and wrong. It's time you embraced Destiny. You must finalize the peace agreement. You are the Marshals’ secret weapon. You have the capacity to understand and accept the !Dakos. Without you, I can't end this war."

  Great. Throw me into the gator habitat. We're talking aliens. Stupid ones who aren't even as human as humanoids could be anymore.

  The spacecraft docked with the space station, and the door hissed open with a gust of air. Huffing at Cassie with a vile foreboding breath. It's like I stood at the mouth of an enormous whale. Albeit, nothing smelled fishy. But biologists always see organisms in everything. A contained system. So goes my reality.

  Two !Dako warriors with their huge swords strapped to their backs kicked up another wind in passing me to enter the space-station's jaws.

  What's that smell? Bacon?

  My mouth watered.

  Gods, one big greasy salty smoked bite of bacon would do it for me right now. Help me cross the threshold of extraterrestrial insanity. Hell. I'm the one who joined the Order. What am I bitching about?

  "Ready, Cassie?” Goro asked, taking my elbow where I leaned against a wall.

  About as ready as I'd ever be heading in to meet aliens who monkeyed with their genome and whined about the results. Just what kind of DNA did these fathers have? Pure? Totally foreign to me. Absolutely nothing like what I got back home. And I'm supposed to mate with one? My mating with one would affect my children's genes. And God knows children come from mating. Talk about being screwed. I sighed and followed Goro into the muted artificial soft white lighting of a long space crisscrossed with pipes and ducts.

  Not what I expected after traveling in two different spotlessly-clean brightly-lit plain-walled spacecraft. The conduits traversing the walls and ceiling seemed crude and archaic. But this vessel was twelve-hundred years old. Ancient. What should I expect? Cutting-edge technology in a dinosaur?

  The !Dakos’ broad shoulders created a wall ahead where our two escorts walked shoulder to shoulder, blocking everything that might give me some sort of idea of just what to expect of my future. Mind-boggling cyborgs laced with pheromones. Freaky alien sex games? Were they part of the equation? I don't want to go there. This was a science vessel. Surely, the Five Fathers were scientists.

  The !Dakos stepped into a large lift. The elevator door slid shut. And the floor tried to shove my ankles into my knees.

  Well, the two !Dakos I stared at looked just like men back home. Gorgeous men. Shirtless. Muscles bulging. Everywhere. Including down there. Good thing they were three feet away. Because I smelled smoky bacon again.

  My mouth watered.

  Haven't had a piece of my favorite meat since the day before my loss of sanity when I voluntarily strode into a beam of white light beneath Goro's spacecraft and wound up shuttled across the universe. To stand here among machines.

  I'm a freaking biologist.

  Why am I going on a solo assignment among machines?

  Genetics.

  Damn my academic interests. Why couldn't I just be happy immunizing rhinoceroses back in Africa? That ranger job had been so noble. So gratifying saving an endangered species. And somehow I wandered off the golden path. Somehow, I wound up inside this elevator drooling over imaginary bacon.

  "Welcome aboard the Anwa, Commander Goro,” an electronic female's voice cooed.

  Computerized. Fine. I'll have a girl to chitchat with. Always loved computers. They weren't nosey. But the fact everyone in the universe seemed to speak English floored me.

  "Thank you, Anwa,” Goro replied.

  "Our search for the Goddess is over."

  Okay. Which Goddess? I eyed Goro's blank expression.

  "It is our great pleasure, Anwa, to join you on this occasion.” His orange gaze flicked away from mine to the two silent enormous warriors.

  Chinese Fu dogs. That's what they looked like. Two guardians at a building's entrance. Bizarre. Wait? We're joining the computer for some monumental occasion?

  Goro wouldn't make eye contact with me.

  He's playing me. Like he did with Theone and her mission dumping her inside that political prison. Oh shit comes to mind. I should have expected covert operations. Why would he behave any less manipulative with my mission than others?

  The momentum ceased, leaving my gut a bit shifted.

  Or maybe my apprehension set that somersault into motion.

  The door swooshed open.

  The enormous cavern beyond the hunky Fu Dogs wasn't what I expected. The ceiling hovered so many stories high I couldn't guess the distance.

  "After you,” Goro said.

  Great. I get to lead the way. Right into a trap. I sucked down a deep breath and stepped onto metal grating below a handy handrail.

  A nice supportive handrail for someone with a queasy gut who just might want to take in her surroundings before being led to Destiny by her manipulative commander. I grabbed the smooth cold metal pipe and peered down at two males in black leather armor.

  Both stared right back at me. One with long black hair, the hair on one side of his head braided into a rope but hanging loose on the other side. The other male had pulled his copper hair back into a short chopped-off queue. Easy guy hair. Nothing fancy like Goro's long completely-bound tail encased in black leather. The males stood around a central console embedded with small blue, green, and white lights. Nothing too intimidating. Whereas the entire wall from the floor to the ceiling appeared open to the heavens.

  Nice view. Not too deadly. More scientific. A nice friendly observatory feel.

  "Ready?” Goro asked.

  Oh, they waited beside me. I'd completely blanked in my state of assessment. I pivoted right and headed along the metal grating.

  The level of walkway hugged the tall flat wall until
stopping shy of the observation window. My change in position provided a view of a red planet off the ship's port side.

  "We're going down, Cassie."

  Goro was being awfully helpful. Think about it later. No time to ponder atypical behavior when facing blindness. I followed stairs fashioned from the same metal grating down to the bottom level.

  Down to now three males staring at me. The third with chocolate brown wavy hair left hanging loose around his face.

  A blond stepped through a doorway.

  Just as tall as the others, his hair as white as Frosty the Snowman, pulled back into the shortest topknot capable of staying put with a leather tie. That's four. Maybe one more. Add the two with ringing footfalls behind me made seven cyborgs if the other two remained on the transport.

  How does a girl escape seven invincible men hell-bent on forcing her to shock their planet back to the way life was twelve-hundred years ago?

  The four gathered around the central waist-high console's twinkling lights. Each with his sword's hilt jutting out beyond his shoulder. Staring at me. Like they hadn't seen a female in a thousand years. And that's how long. Right? Gods. Did I look presentable enough to represent the female half of the universe? But if I started tugging at my clothes or hair, they'd know they were putting me on the spot.

  Think about something else.

  Like the amazing musculature on their chests covered in shiny black body-hugging armor. Was that plastic, metal, or leather? And how did they look like cover models from Earth? Too weird. Beefy guys who couldn't be more than thirty-four years of age.

  Goro grabbed my elbow and arched a black eyebrow at me.

  Wonder what he meant. I'd find out when he allowed me to halt. That didn't happen until we stood across the console from the stoic Fathers.

  The black-haired warrior nodded. “Commander.” His gaze slid to mine. “Handler. Welcome to Anwa."

  Oh, big deep voice. Sexy voice. Not good.

  All the other Fathers nodded at me.

  Bizarre. Like their minds were synchronized. A part of the network.

  Goro's hold on my arm slid away. “We thank you for this opportunity to assist you in your efforts to find peace for your home world."