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Chapter Three
Kendra rushed into
her dweller unit, nearly running Dara over in the
process.
“Hey, hey
hey,” Dara soothed, stumbling back, though attempting to hold onto
Kendra. “What’s
up?”
Kendra held her
groan to herself. She’d
expected her friend to be in to work by now.
She was dressed
and ready to go, but hadn’t left yet, it seemed.
Embarrassed to be
caught showing such emotions, Kendra forced her breathing to
slow. Averting her face, she
replied, “Nothing.”
How shallow, she
thought.
“Does nothing
have a name?” she asked flippantly.
Kendra
froze. His name echoed in her
head.
Daylon.
Daylon of V’Lar of
Earth. She’d not
forget that.
“He’s
not even human,” Kendra replied.
Flipping off her cloak, she
scooted around Dara and headed toward her respite area.
Dara followed.
Of course.
Kendra sighed, knowing
it wasn’t over.
“Human
enough,” Dara said, a small smile in her voice.
Kendra tossed her
cloak down and swung around.
Reaching up, she grabbed her hair and flipped it over her
shoulder. “He’s not
human. He’s one of the
beasts who killed my father!”
Dara’s smile
faded. “I know that,
shala,” she said using the term of
endearment. “So why don’t
you tell me what’s the matter?”
Kendra admitted
defeat. Sinking down on the
edge of her mat she said quietly, “He acts like
us. Oh, Dara,” she
sighed. Looking up at her, she
admitted, “I was so angry and out to prove something when I went
in. I would go in, take samples,
find out what made this alien tick and then what type of things they are
doing to our population to change them.”
She clasped her
hands, glancing back down at them.
“But he didn’t react like the beasts we’ve
seen.”
Looking back up
at Dara, she met her eyes.
“He’s intelligent and can converse, though his language
skills aren’t the best.”
Dara
frowned. “What do you mean?”
She shook her
head. “He was pronouncing
words wrong and putting the accents in odd places, as if our language was
hard.”
Dara
nodded. “I’ll make sure command knows
that. We hadn’t noticed that in any of the
others. Of course, part of those
were our kids.” A look
of pain crossed her face.
Kendra
nodded. Rubbing a weary hand across her forehead she added, “He
begged me to ask him questions. He
felt pain, Dara. He reacted
just as anyone else would. It
was…unnerving. I wanted
to feel for him—it—the beast.”
Dara moved across
the room and pushed the cover that covered the window until she could look
out over the landscaped grounds.
“Beast,” she
reiterated. “We’ve
seen how they attack and kill. But
you’re right, this is the first one we’ve seen that’s tried
to manipulate us.”
Kendra
nodded. “Exactly.
He was trying to manipulate my
emotions.” Relief flooded
her. “In all of my years
of experimentation, I’ve never encountered a problem like
this. It was never expected
that a specimen would be able to talk
back. I have to
wonder…”
She paused.
“What?”
Dara asked, turning to study her friend.
Kendra glanced away,
unable to meet her friend’s gaze.
“I am questioning how ethical it is to work on a specimen who
exhibits such intelligence.”
Dara shook her
head. “Don’t think
that way. These monsters are
cold-blooded murders.
They’ll do whatever they can to pass on this metamorphosis to
our children. Kendra, they are
attacking our children from the inside out, changing our children into replicas
of them and forcing them to kill our people.”
“I
know. I
know!” Kendra jumped up
and began to pace. “I
don’t know…I know you’re
right.” Emotions in turmoil
she nodded, backing up what she said, as if that would take away all
doubts. “He rattled me
so that I actually lied to him about the others,
Dara. I’ve never met someone
like this.”
Dara
nodded. “The shock of your father’s passing is affecting
you. It’s obvious
shala. Confronted with this living specimen, it’s simply
thrown you. You said he was
willing to talk to you, right?
Maybe you should have a night meal and then return to the
lab. See if he’s still
willing to talk. Finish your
tests and then he’ll be off your hands.”
Dara glanced at
the small cube strapped to her side.
“I’m going to be
late.” She walked forward
and leaned down, pulling her friend up into her
arms. Hugging her closely she
whispered, “Trust me on this.
Finish this up and then let us have
him. Our intelligence office
will find out what’s going on.”
She released her
and then started toward the door.
“Then go out and have some
fun. You work way too
much. And after today, you deserve
some time at the litina,” she said referring to the small nightspots
where she loved to hang out. They
had great music and just about anything else you wanted, legal or
illegal.
“That sounds
good,” she said though she didn’t plan to take Dara up on her
offer. She just wasn’t
the type. “No
go. I’ll be fine.”
Dara smiled and
waved.
Kendra watched her
go.
As she sat there
she thought Dara was right.
She’d go eat and then return to the
lab. She’d finish as many
tests as should could tonight and then, if Daylon was still willing to talk,
she’d allow him to tell her everything he
would. Then she’d allow
Dara’s company to come in and take him off her hands.
And maybe she’d
finally have closure on her father’s death.
Maybe.
He’d been waiting
patiently for someone to come back in.
As he’d waited, he’d thought about his situation and planned
carefully. People were curious.
And for some reason, they were more than just a little curious about
him. He got the feeling from
this woman that something was out of
control. Perhaps there was a
war going on right now and he was Out-Territory where Gens didn’t trust
Simes.
Whatever the case,
these people didn’t trust him and they wanted something from
him. It stood to reason, if
they thought something was the matter, they’d become worried.
He’d worked
hard to relax, force his body functions to
slow. He knew they monitored
them.
There was a small
screen that constantly scanned his left temple and he was almost completely
certain it was hooked to something that he couldn’t zlin, in a place
where a group monitored his movements.
If he could just
convince them that all wasn’t right, then possibly, just maybe, he could
get away.
This woman—Kendra
was her name—was someone very important to this
society. Her father had been
in charge of some united peace effort, much like Klyd Farris of
old. He’d been a great
historian, wonderful negotiator and some believed he seized power at an opportune
time to unite society.
If this was the
case of this man who had been killed, then it stood to reason that the daughter
would be especially valuable to them.
He could use that,
if she’d only come back.
As if on cue he
heard the clicking of the door.
Time to put his plan into action.
**
“You’re sure these readings are
correct?”
Kendra backed into the room, chart in hand, scribbling notes from
the scanner the employee held before her.
“Yes, ma’am.
His readings lowered after you left and have grown infinitesimally
lower until this latest reading only minutes before.”
She nodded. “Thank
you. It’s
late. You can go.”
“Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
Kendra paused and glanced up.
Realizing the young eager man wanted in on such an august event, she
smiled gently. If he only knew
just how terrible this was likely to turn out…
“He’ll be here tomorrow,
Wranto. I
promise. You’ll have plenty
of time to record more data, but the questioning I have to do…well,
I’d rather not have an
audience.” She glanced
to both guards on either side of the door who stood at attention, hearing
every word but pretending to be invisible.
The young boy deflated but nodded and left.
Turning, Kendra allowed the door to shut behind her.
Head down, she studied the bodily readings as she crossed the
room.
***
Reaching up, she slipped the intricately created crest and allowed
her cloak to slip from her shoulders.
Catching it on her arm, she dropped it to a nearby chair.
“So, what is going on with you?” she murmured,
frowning.
Truth be told, she was worried he was
dying. That was the last thing
she wanted. She had too many
questions and too many more tests she’d like to perform on a live
subject.
Turning around she allowed her gaze to travel over the beast.
Someone had covered him with a sterile black sheet from the waist
down.
He looked almost dead the way he lay there.
Dropping the chart on a nearby table she glided forward to his right
side. She tapped his
shoulder.
No response.
Resting her hand on his shoulder she ran her fingers over the muscle,
down the arm to the restrainers.
No movement at all.
Studying him she noted his chest didn’t seem to be moving.
Going past the restrainers, she touched his hand and then held
it.
It was cool to the touch.
“Who are you really?
Why are you doing this to us?” she questioned low, hoping the
monitoring devices wouldn’t pick up her whispers.
Frowning she finally released the hand, crossed to one of the cabinets,
and pulled out one of their many instruments that, in the hands of scientists
promised answers to all of life’s problems.
Except this one it seemed.
Returning to the side of the beast she ran the instrument over his
arm and then, pulling the dark sheet down, she ran it over his chest.
The scanner to the side of his head was operating normally according
to this.
“What have we ever done to you to cause this?”
Flipping a switch on the oblong hand held machine, she reached up,
lifted an eyelid, and then ran the scanner across the exposed pupil.
Turning it sideways, she read the
results. “Now if I only
knew if these were normal for you.”
Sighing she turned her back on the beast and leaned against the
table.
Out of sight was not out of mind,
unfortunately. She could feel
his presence. “Could it
be with his arms clamped down that this is causing his death?”
It was possible, she realized.
After all, just how much did she really know about these
beasts? She’d dissected one and knew they had a secondary
system within them—at least a few
did. It was very different from
everything she knew. They had
a chamber within them like a second heart, but yet it
wasn’t. It didn’t
pump fluid. It looked similar
to a backup system.
She really had no idea what it
was. She did need to know what
it was. It was like great tentacles
running through the entire body, entangling itself with all of the major
systems until it became indistinguishable from that of the normal systems.
Perhaps that was the conductor, that empty chamber within
them. And perhaps these things
on their arms had to be loose to keep that working.
It made as much sense as anything.
One way to find out.
Turning, she said one last time, “Wake up.”
When he didn’t answer or respond in any way, she crossed to
retrieve the electronic key. It
was encoded to her id and those who had direct access only.
Picking it up, she ran her wrist across it and then turned back
to the table.
Slipping it into the small rectangular hole, she waited for a
click.
In a flash the beast had his arm out and wrapped around her neck.
She gasped but had no time to react.
He jerked her up against him, close, his hand tightening suffocatingly
so around her neck.
She reached up and clawed at his hand.
One tentacle shot out and snagged the key from her.
He hauled her across his body to slip the key into the other
lock.
She kicked and fought.
He’d seemed small and helpless laying there, she thought wildly
as she fought.
Oh, how he’d fooled her!
Dara had been right.
He was the enemy.
“Be still.”
She was seeing spots before her eyes and her mind was turning gray
and fuzzy. How could she be
still while he killed her.
He leaned over her, his body enveloping her as he unlocked his
feet.
And then he slid off the table.
Standing there, naked, his tentacles still wrapped around her neck,
he said softly, lethally.
“Now, you’re going to help get me out of here.”
And he started dragging her across the room.
© Cheryl
Wolverton 2002. Do not reprint without permission.
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