Feral Series V: Feral Foretaste Read online

  "I will humor your wishes,Vult. Know she has already chosen."

  How in the hell am I going to function with that killing machine breathing down my neck? He's going to turn me into Frankenstein's bride if I'm not careful. I'm not going there. Not bolts in the neck. No augmented ass or whatever he finds attractive. And after what Theone's !Dako transfusion did to her hair and skin, I just don't want anything to do with !Dako nanites. I turned away from the towering blond hulk and peered out the transparent wall at the closest star, a yellow sun, growing to the left.

  We were in the space station's ring. Slowly spinning. The glass wall had to turn enough to allow sunlight to reach to the vegetation. For whatever limited access to the light was worth to the plants. Interesting. The sun, the engine of life in the blackness of space, penetrating a planet's womb.

  Crazy.

  "Cassie?” Goro asked.

  Great. Now he's standing behind me with my guardian cyborg. I pivoted to lock onto his fiery orange gaze anchored about a head's length beneath Vult's silver gaze.

  "Shall we walk around the station?” Goro asked.

  Apparently, I have no choice. “Lead on."

  The other cyborgs were gone when Vult and Goro stepped aside.

  Good. One hovering killing machine was enough.

  Anwa chattered on as we toured the slowly rotating ring. The entire space-station's system was fascinating, actually. The ring's purpose was to house various habitats. Each section could be sealed to prevent fire from completely destroying the gardens. And gardens is what the !Dakos called the habitats. Kind of sounded spiritual. Instead of merely functional.

  The wall's heavy glassy material wasn't glass at all. Rather, some sort of polymer embedded with metal. What confusing technology! But the substance kept the vacuum of space at bay. And made for happy plants. We'd see if that state of bliss extended to humans.

  Although the space station stored an enormous amount of genetic material, apparently, surrounding themselves with living specimens kept the Five Fathers content with their prolonged sentences as DNA donors. You had to put your hands together for five guys who gave up sex to live in space as celibate sperm banks. Five scientists. Then again, why would that bother a machine?

  Machines with goals?

  Strange.

  Rather, personal agendas. That so wasn't something I'd expect from machines.

  Anwa lead me back into the central sphere's enormous chamber where two of the Five Fathers hovered over the console's blinking lights. “And this is where the Five Fathers tend to my inner workings."

  Really, the computer's spin on everything was a bit odd. Almost detached, self-sufficient, but circling back to make a connection in requiring assistance.

  Goro's soft voice hummed behind me. “You spoke of a colony. Is this a place all !Dakos wish to live?"

  "That's difficult to answer,” Vult replied in a disturbingly biased manner.

  It's as if he had an opinion. I kept my gaze forward and descended the stairs to the console where the black-haired cyborg and his white-haired companion waited.

  Both cyborg Fathers looked like superheroes. Maybe that's what they really were in saving their planet's genome. I guess if I had to act like a kick-ass machine and do the same for Earth, I'd jump on the opportunity. But the issue at hand didn't involve me and my home world. No. Rather the !Dakos and their screwed-up lives requiring me, the only Handler available in the universe, to do the impossible with the touch of my hand, turn back the clock, cleanse their world until I burned out my vision, to live the rest of my life dependent upon these moronic humanoids who had destroyed their planet's fragile ecosystem, to live my life blind. Maybe this was just a really bad dream.

  "When will you be departing?” Vult asked.

  My heart stopped.

  Okay. I can deal with staying here. With my damned unavoidable mission to create peace in the universe.

  "I don't see any reason to prolong my stay,” Goro replied.

  Lovely answer. Yes, I am the sacrificial lamb with the magic hand. Just dump me here. Let me clean up the toxic waste with my magic glove. Maybe I should start turning everything to gold? Make a fortune for myself? That would teach Goro never to just drop a cadet into a pot of boiling water.

  "I'd like to speak with Cassie before I embark,” Goro added.

  To hear how much I'm going to relish getting a grip on his ass? Don't get too close, commander. I'll turn you into a pile of mush. Wait. Gold would prove more valuable to me in the end. I pivoted to find Goro studying me with interest.

  Anwa smiled serenely. “Vult will show you to your quarters, Goddess."

  I bet he and his mega-sperm bank would. He probably had some kind of mega-augmented penis too. I shot Goro a pleading glance. Anything to prolong his stay.

  "I'll walk with you,” he said.

  Joy.

  So, Goro chattered away with Vult like they were old friends. I tried to tune out the madness. To pay attention to the turns and numbers of steps down each corridor. To remember how in the heck to find my way around the space-station's shadowy rat maze. That's what I was. The lab rat facing the lever. If I pushed the little bar, I'd either get fed or shocked. Even though, the outcome remained to be seen at the moment.

  Neither could be good for my soul.

  But I'd be facing the bloody bar any moment.

  Vult stopped outside a hissing door.

  Light blinked on inside the space.

  Not much there but a bed covered in a silver blanket, an ergonomic-looking cushioned chair that tilted back enough to make me gaze at the ceiling if I lingered to rest, and a plain metallic desk beneath a view port. Boring. Life as the lab rat. Maybe I deserved this end after abandoning the rhinos?

  Surely my life saving what I could of rhinoceroses had earned me a bit of honor. Okay, maybe working for the government in a Third World country had been too terrifying. Heck, crazy people ran around with guns. But here's a bunch of enormous warriors with four-foot long slightly curved blades on their backs.

  Maybe I should have just hung in there a little bit longer. Found purpose beyond listening to sniffling patients who wanted to change their futures like having babies with blue eyes or some mind-boggling talent with music or sprinting. But you can't control those things. Not yet. On Earth. The insanity of the requests was as ludicrous as cryogenics. Like people could be frozen and revived!

  "Cassie,” Goro called.

  Crap. I so needed to pay attention.

  Vult stood inside the doorway, looking back at me. “Your personal quarters."

  A shiver ran through me.

  I shrugged off the chill and crossed the threshold.

  Smoky bacon bombarded me in my quarters.

  Why? How? I slowly spun, inhaling.

  My mouth watered.

  "What's the matter, Cassie?” Goro asked.

  He stood next to the closing doorway, opposite Vult.

  Fu Dogs. “I've smelled bacon everywhere we've gone on this space station. And now it's in here. I'm losing my mind."

  Vult clicked his black heels together, bowing slightly. “Commander, Goddess,” he said shooting us each a silver glance, “I'll be outside.” And he disappeared through the shushing doorway without a sound.

  Goro sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “The food you smell is from the !Dako pheromones. Theone's husband explained the pheromones trigger a chemical response in a female's olfactory nerves that make her brain think she smells one of her favorite foods. It's a method of luring a female for mating."

  Joy. “So, I'm going to be drooling every time I get close to one of these cyborgs?"

  "Most likely.” Goro sauntered over to claim a space next to my viewport's large opening. “Do you understand what you have to do here?” He anchored his stoic gaze on me.

  "You want me to help this space station unload its genetic material somewhere.” And mate with one of these killing machines who smells like bacon. But if I utter the subject, somebody is goi
ng to pay for my irritation with the extremely-demented irony in bacon being meat. Meat! Like a big honking penis.

  Goro nodded and slid his gaze to the red planet beyond the polymer barrier. “You can end this war, Cassie."

  I know. Stop reminding me how significant my measly existence is. “Fine. But I don't understand why I have to change things back to the way they were eons ago. Hell. The !Dakos did this to themselves. My people are doing the same thing back home. I wouldn't return and cleanse my world if I could turn back the clock. That's what reason and logic are all about. Understanding. Comprehending. I could heal a person. Yes. I could stop bleeding. I could erase pain. But change a whole damned planet? Goro! That's ludicrous."

  Anwa channeled the discussion from inside Cassie's quarters through the central node to Vult's mind where he struggled to forgive himself for all the evils he'd brought upon his people as their geneticist. But how could one forgive himself after hearing Cassie's rational argument with her commander. We had brought each disaster upon ourselves. !Dakos once had enough food to feed the planet's population. Then the population reproduced itself out of food and shelter. Scientists tried to help with the populace's hunger by engineering stronger crops with greater yields. But that only caused invisible issues manifesting in our women being killed off by a deadly allergy caused by tweaking crop genomes.

  The Synergism.

  The beginning of The Changing Times.

  And whatever came thereafter was as Cassie said, our luck or misfortune. She was right. The hardships we faced are ours to bear. But Anwa wanted more. She wanted her seeds cast to the wind where they would be nurtured into existence. And to balk at what the others thought imperative would only cause me a far greater shame. They would wonder where my loyalties lay.

  "Just give it time, Cassie. You will see what Theone saw in Flonn. You will find there is more than meets the eye,” Goro cooed. “That there is a way for you to help the !Dakos."

  Just like a father to his baby.

  "They're aliens. And if I submit to one of them, I will be injected with poison. Turned into one of them. What will that do to my humanity, Goro?"

  Excellent observation from one so young. How old could she be? She'd studied for years. Perhaps she neared the thirty-year mark?

  "You don't understand them. The Order of the Marshals doesn't understand them. But the !Dakos requested our assistance, Cassie. You must search deep inside yourself to make a difference here. You explained to me that you helped people when they learned they had genetic conditions back on your world. You were a counselor. Well, consider this the biggest problem you could encounter. A challenge. Take the bull by the horns and—"

  "I cannot believe you're comparing my explaining the pros and cons of a person's newly discovered genetic anomaly with that of an entire race's culturally-modified genome. And these warriors are so distanced from what started their augmentation of their bodies that this way of life for them is the norm. How can you rationalize turning back time, Goro? It's a ridiculous idea."

  "I must be departing soon. Will you stay and help the !Dakos?"

  Would she? I could ease her discomfort by explaining what had occurred. The Pralls had probably filled these Marshals with all sorts of interesting tales.

  "Hell. Thanks, commander. You're making me out to be the problem here. I guess I'll have to now. You know, blind myself like M'yote did when he cleansed Prall. Is that what the Order wants? Me to live the rest of my life without my vision as a reward for doing their dirty work? Because I can't rationalize that tiny aspect of cleansing the !Dako world just to be immortalized by the fame I'll earn. For what? Explain the logic to me again. It's like I'm supposed to throw my life away for some organization I only realized existed beyond my home world a year ago. You're asking a lot, Goro. And if I find out the Five Fathers are all metal and machine beneath their black armor, I'm ending this nightmare."

  So, my task was more than a guardian. I would have to think of another way she could deal with our problem beyond cleansing our planet, Treusch. Only then would our sons find places on this side of the Rift to have families. Wives. Bear daughters once again on Treusch. Because now the home world was nothing but cursed. A sick womb that spat out mutant females who hunted psychics as prey. Until we could eliminate the mutant aspect of our females, !Dako males would have to have their skeletal systems and brain converted with bio-metallics to survive on the home world as well as transect through the Rift to reach the Colony and grasp at an existence.

  Cassie's door hissed with a vengeance, spitting out a straight-lipped commander.

  How could I do anything but pity the commander's all-too-familiar plight? Goro was a warrior who understood the !Dako plight in how he was the last of his kind. A far worse situation than mine.

  Goro nodded at me. “Vult.” He cleared the doorway for Cassie's curvaceous form and turned to her.

  She merely stared at us.

  "I haven't eaten since this morning, Vult.” Goro eyed me over. “I was thinking I'd sample that spicy dish Flonn described to me."

  Of course. A meal might help ease her anxiety. “I would be honored to introduce you to a !Dako delicacy."

  The Five Fathers sat around a long rectangular metal table with silver trays in front of them, sporting a variety of foods. Everyone in his own chair. Goro beside the black-haired male, Olwan, the leader of the Five Fathers. And Vult across from me. For some reason, he didn't stare. Thank goodness. It's bad enough I've got to sit and eat with them. Besides, would machines stare? Maybe to assess. Or gather information?

  Okay, I've got to mate with a machine. How difficult can that be? Lean over, spread them? My future totally sucks. Maybe I could use my Handler power to keep myself from getting pregnant with a child their doctors planned to alter into an abomination on its first birthday.

  "Why don't you tell the Five Fathers about your home world, Cassie?” Goro lifted a knife and two-pronged fork to focus on his food.

  Joy. Let me tell them all about the wonderful planet they can go conquer.

  All five cyborgs locked their gemstone gazes upon me.

  Well, except Vult who had those dark silver, almost metallic, eyes. And for some reason, I thought curiosity danced in those orbs. It's not like they can find Earth. Nor can I tell them how to get there. I'm just a biologist. Maps of the universe aren't something I warm up to. “Okay,” I exhaled so deeply that Goro flicked a glance at me.

  So, I'm uptight? Can anyone blame me? I'm sitting here facing sex with a machine for the rest of my immortal existence as a converted humanoid. For cyborg use. Pleasure?

  Joy. Whatever. “It's blue. Most of the surface is covered with water. Blue water. The land used to be covered in enormous forests, but the imbeciles I call fellow man are cutting them away or burning them to clear land. It's such a lovely place though. I highly recommend avoiding any property purchases on Earth. It's going to Hell in a handbag.” I speared a purple stem, something cooked, and popped it between my lips.

  Sweetness danced across my tongue.

  Don't these Five Fathers talk? Idle chitchat must be beyond their mechanized parameters. I scanned the four Fathers I hadn't spent much time around. Occasionally, one would meet my gaze. But everyone seemed too preoccupied with dining to socialize.

  Yes, lovely future ahead. Mine is definitely one of a rat on the exercise wheel.

  By the time I surveyed the males again, Goro's arched black eyebrows questioned something.

  What? Don't tell me I was rude.

  Excuse me, he's mating me off to a machine. Without any real notice. Just dump me here and race away. Leave the rat in the maze and becoming blind. I guess one doesn't need vision to run that damned wheel for eternity after being pumped full of nanites. God, when would that sweet deed take place? It's like some bizarre inoculation against malaria. But for immortality. I guess it only made sense that I couldn't see when immortal or I'd be omnipotent. Dangerous.

  Goro tucked another morsel into his mouth and
chewed, never releasing my gaze.

  Just what did he have planned for dessert? Probably throwing me on the table for all the machines to devour. Like key-lime pie! Easily divvied up between them.

  Goro cleared his throat. “I'll be leaving after we eat, Cassie."

  Vult's yellow-tinted eyebrows arched in what appeared to be curiosity.

  Or was that speculation as to what he could do to me afterward?

  The beautiful female's apprehension only made Vult want to choke her commander where he sat a few feet away down the table. Her terror resonated so strongly it was impossible to eat, he thought. I just shoved back my tray, slowly met the gazes of the other Five Fathers, and accessed the space-station's central node.

  "I don't care for this arrangement, Olwan,” I directed my thoughts to our leader. “We aren't into taking captives. !Dakos never take an unwilling female unless she gets close enough to a !Dako warrior for his pheromones to completely enthrall her, leaving nothing but a female demanding to be taken. But this Marshal is different. She's been brought here against her will and placed in our care for what? To cure our people of their problems? This entire arrangement is sickening."

  Olwan didn't look at me. “You already made your feelings clear when you told Anwa you didn't want the Goddess for a mate. We understand where your perspective is founded. We will discuss this after your charge retires to her quarters for her rest cycle."

  How could Olwan claim something so false? “I never said I didn't want her. There isn't a Father here who doesn't want a mate. But she fears me. I won't force myself upon her."

  "Let Fate follow its course. Her commander will depart shortly. Then we can deal with the damage he's done with the Goddess.” Olwan shot each Father a clipped commanding glance. “Nobody does anything to upset her. We need her help in discovering a future for all !Dakos. Even if that means without Vult's assistance."

  How dare he insinuate I had no intention of bringing peace to my people?

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  Chapter Three

  I'd lived as long as the other Five Fathers. I'd suffered as much in my forced celibacy. Maintaining the purity in my !Dako genes. All for the sake of finding a solution to our race's inability to create viable female offspring. But we all have honor. All five of us. It's why we were chosen to carry the Sacred Seed and turn off our desire to mate with our nanites. Until meeting the mesmerizing Goddess.