Adrift (14 page)

"I estimate I will need seventeen," the General told them.
"Single births are preferred as the nutrient bath we put the hosts in, eventually kills them.
Hosts suffer irreversible brain damage after the first 48 hours, not something we have to worry about though as it does not affect the development of the child.
Your journalist has been in for almost that long.
She was a remarkable woman and very dedicated to her career.
The lengths she went to—well, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks.
Your surrender, Colonel.
Let me have it."

"I will let you have it," Norik told him as he swung his rifle at him.
It connected with the side of the General's head and knocked him off his feet.
The remaining gunmen jumped up to take Norik down, but Singer squeezed off two perfect shots that ended their lives before they even started to crumple.

Norik stood over the General who clutched at his ear.
The man scissored his legs around Norik's and brought the part Lyssirian to the floor with him.
Norik twisted and landed on his good side.
He rolled back to his feet and knocked the General down again.
He threw as much force as he could into the few left-handed punches, he was able to pummel onto his opponent before the General's fist smashed into his right shoulder.
The General used his hips to roll Norik off him.
Then he staggered to his feet and stomped on Norik's ribs.

"Hey!"
Singer yelled to warn the man off.
He had gone to check on Avery once he had dispatched the two gunmen, believing his CO could handle the General.
He ran over with rifle raised, ready to shoot the General but the man dashed off before he was able to get a clear shot.

"You all right, sir?"
Singer asked Norik, who lay curled up around his ribs.
"You want me to go after him?"

"No!"
Norik said and winced.
"We stay together.
Avery?"

"Dead sir," Singer said glumly as he offered a hand up.
He blinked when his CO made a series of sounds that Singer assumed were Lyrissian curse words.
It was something of a surprise as the Colonel usually went to great pains to hide the differences between him and his mostly Human crew.

Norik glared in the direction that the General had escaped in.
As much as he wanted to kill him with his own two hands, separating now would be a grave mistake.
The General had greater numbers, Norik had two small infiltration teams and a ship above which had given them the element of surprise.
Separating would allow the General to pick them off one by one.

"We'll get him, sir," Singer assured him.

Any response from Norik was cut off when his radio clicked.
"What part of radio silence do you not understand, Xon?"
he growled in response.

"This would be your Doctor speaking, Colonel," Nancy informed him.
"And it'd be the part where I tell you that we've found something."

"What?"
Norik asked.
His heart in his throat.

"We're two floors below you.
We've found some kind of storage devices, about five of them," Nancy informed him.
She paused for a moment before she continued, "It looks like there is a Humanoid in each one.
At a guess all female and in varying stages of pregnancy."

"Get them out!"
Norik ordered.

"But sir, I have no idea how to."

"I do not care," he told her.
"Just get them out.
We will be there soon."

Singer returned Norik's rifle to him.
"What about Avery, sir?"
the Corporal asked.

"He comes with us," Norik told him.

"He said to get them out," Nancy told Xon.

"Did he say how?"
Xon asked.

Nancy shook her head and looked up at the large transparent canisters before them.
All they could see was what appeared to be a magenta goo.
The scanners told them there were women in there.
While Nancy marveled at the science behind it all, she was also horrified by what this was enabling.
Genetically engineered beings, able to kill people with a mere thought.
It was what every non telepathic being was afraid of.

"Yoohoo, Nancy?"
Xon said and waved a hand in front of her face.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Xon looked a little worried but repeated himself, "I'm gonna break one.
Much as I'd like to see you covered in viscous fluid, I'd rather we were naked.
You might want to stand back."

Nancy's face flushed red but she did as he suggested.
Only then did she realize Xon had a chair ready to smash into the nearest canister.
She glanced down at the scanner and said, "You might want to hurry.
Their low brain activity worries me."

"OK," Xon said and arced the chair through the air and into the lower part of the device.
Magenta goo gushed from the hole and a heavily pregnant woman fell down into Xon's arms.
He eased her onto the floor and watched as Nancy slipped toward them.
"She all right?"

Scanner out, Nancy shook her head.
"Brain dead," she informed him and pressed her lips together tightly.

"Did I do that?"
Xon asked.

"No," she said and looked up into Xon's eyes.
"Get the rest out."

Xon nodded and repeated the process until he held the fifth and final woman.
"She doesn't look pregnant," he called out to Nancy.
"Maybe this is the Colonel's woman."

"Hopefully you aren't brain dead too," Xon said quietly to the unconscious woman as he wiped goo from her face.

Norik burst into the room and looked frantically about.
Singer was several meters behind him, with Avery's body slung across his back.

"Sir!"
Nancy called out to get his attention.
Both she and Xon were completely soaked in the goo, as was most of the room.
"Careful it's slippery."

"Stay here," Norik ordered Singer, who lowered Avery to the floor.

Nancy waited for Norik to slip and slide his way over.
She watched him study each of the women as he passed them and her heart went out to him.

"She made a noise!"
Xon yelled out from the next row.
"Either that or she farted, which would still be a noise, but it didn't come out that end.
Sounded more like 'glub glub'."

Norik spun around and sailed through the goo to where Xon still cradled the last woman.
"Jasmine," he breathed the moment he set eyes on her.

Xon looked up at his Colonel and grinned, "This is her?
I gotta say boss, you have great taste.
Look at that body!"

"Xon no!"
Nancy called out a warning.

Norik growled at the Duarr.
Xon was touching his woman, his very naked woman.

Xon's grin faded as his Colonel barreled straight at him, violence evident in the Lyrissian's face.
"Oh shit," he managed before the punch sent him sliding backward.
Norik however, wasn't finished and bore down on him to continue the assault.

"Sir!"
Nancy yelled but to no avail.
She had little recourse left to her but to fire her weapon.
"Please tell me that was the stun setting?"

Xon cupped a hand to his nose and looked from Norik who was unmoving on the floor, to Nancy.
"I fwink so.
What habbened?"

"You were touching his mate," Nancy said as she tumbled down to the floor between them.
She first checked on Norik, who was still breathing, then Xon who seemed intent on avoiding her ministrations.
"I saved your life.
Now take your hand away from your nose, before I break your arm."

Xon immediately complied but winced as she examined him.
"What habbened to da peadful Nanzy who woulbn't hurt a buman being?"

"I didn't kill anyone," she reminded him as she administered a pain killer.
"It's broken.
I'll have to fix that when we get back to the ship."

"Obay," said Xon.
"Hhanks."

"You're welcome," Nancy said and smiled.
She made her way to the woman that their CO had taken as a mate, and hoped she wasn't in the same state as those she'd already examined.

"Oh thank God," Nancy breathed at the conclusion of her scans.
She turned around to Xon who was being helped back to his feet by Corporal Chavers.
"We need to get them both back to the ship.
Now."

"You hearb da woman," said Xon.
"We geb dem to safedy and blow dis plaze."

Nancy pointed to the women laid out on the floor and asked, "And them?"

Xon stopped and asked, "What you want me to do wib dem?"

"They're all brain dead," said Nancy.
She stared at their pregnant bellies a moment and pictured all of the future victims of the abominations that still grew inside.
It went against everything she as a Doctor believed in when she said, "Leave them."

* * *

Jasmine gasped.
She felt gentle, feminine hands on her shoulders and let them ease her back.
"Where am I?"
she murmured.
The memories of recent events flooded back to her and she sat upright again, worried that nine months had passed and she was about to give birth to a baby.

"You're safe," the owner of the hands quietly assured her.
"You're on the Callisto.
Just lay back, while I finish with this scan."

"The Callisto?"
Jasmine repeated and frowned.
She slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings.
"Norik's ship?"

"Yes," the woman, presumably a Doctor, said with a smile.

"Where is he?"
Jasmine asked and tried to get up again.

"You're as stubborn as he is," the Doctor complained and this time pushed her down more forcefully.
"He's in a private medical suite.
I finished operating on his shoulder about an hour ago."

"Is he OK?"

The Doctor gave her a tight smile and said, "He should recover.
With physiotherapy, he should regain most of the use of his right arm.
If he had let me operate on him sooner..."
she trailed off.
"Huh.
That's odd."

"What's odd?"
Jasmine asked, distracted from her concern about Norik.
"The baby?"

"When did you say you impregnated yourself?"
asked the Doctor.

"I don't know, a week?"
Jasmine replied, not even sure what day it was at the moment.

"Do you know how old the fetus was at that time?"

"Approximately one month," said Jasmine.

"Well this fetus isn't that old.
I'm seeing only a few of days of cell division here," she explained.
"Have you had any sexual contact in the intervening time?"

Jasmine grabbed the scanner from the Doctor and studied the screen.
"How did this happen?"
she asked.

The Doctor blinked at her and started an explanation of intercourse but Jasmine waved her to silence.
"I mean, what happened to the evidence?
I risked so much."

"I can only assume that the conditions weren't right for that fetus and it just didn't take," said the Doctor.
"I can tell you that Lyrissian males have the ability to
encourage
the right conditions, at least in Lyrissian females."

"The ridges on his penis," Jasmine said and looked to the woman who blushed.
"You've seen them?"

"I'm the Doctor on this ship, I've seen everyone naked."

"Lucky you," said Jasmine.
"Does he know?"

"That I've seen him naked?
I would think so, he's usually conscious for that.
Oh, you mean about the baby.
No.
He's been unconscious since he attacked his Second-in-Command," she said.

"He attacked his Second?"
Jasmine asked and this time she managed to get into a sitting position on the bed.

"Well Xon wasn't very tactful when he found you," the Doctor said slowly.
"You were naked in his arms and covered in goo and he did tell the Colonel how good you looked.
The Colonel got territorial."

"He mentioned something about that," Jasmine said with a sigh.
"Can I see him?"