Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 (45 page)

Epilogue
# 2

“But they’re bonded now—she’s
his bride.” Commander Sylvan leaned across the large, smooth desk, his handsome
face concerned.

“I understand that, Commander.”
Terex/Ur put a suitably concerned look on his own face. “But I cannot reverse
my ruling for one warrior without reversing it for many. We are not calling
brides from Earth right now—how will it look to all the other Unmated Males if
I allow…what was his name again?”

“Garron.” Sylvan appeared to be
gritting his teeth. “Or, G’ron, now as I understand it.”

“Yes. Whatever his name is…”
Terex/Ur waved a hand dismissively. “Anyway, how will it look if I allow him to
bring his new bride on board the Mother Ship while all the other males are
denied?”

Actually, Ur knew
exactly
how it would look—like one warrior was being favored over another. And the
last thing he needed was a mutiny on his hands. He wanted the anger of the
Unmated Males turned squarely on Earth, where it belonged—
not
on him.

“That is another issue we must
discuss,” Sylvan said. “The Unmated Males are growing restless. The ones that
are dream sharing especially—they want to claim their brides. We
must
start calling brides from Earth
again.”

“But if we allow our own males
to call brides, we must also support the claims of other factions,” Terex/Ur
pointed out smoothly. “We must allow our Dark Kindred brother, who is dream
sharing with Senator Hastings’s daughter, to call his bride as well.”

Sylvan shook his head. “That, at
least, shouldn’t be a problem. Tess—the same human female you refuse to allow
back on the Mother Ship—actually met with the male who is dream sharing with
the Senator’s daughter. His name is Six and he told her that he was
not
planning to call her after all.”

“
What
?” Terex/Ur could barely suppress his anger. He’d been counting
on the conflict between the Dark Kindred and the senator’s daughter to boil
over into a witch’s brew of anger and hostility. Only that morning Senator
Hastings had placed another irate call to his viewscreen. He had assured
Terex/Ur that if his daughter was taken, he would consider it an act of war.

“And
I’m not just talking about a personal war,”
he’d said, his face growing red with anger.
“I’ll take it to the World Council and get
it pushed through. You may have a mighty arsenal of weapons, Chancellor but the
united governments of Earth have been developing some pretty devastating
weaponry as well. And we have the entire planet at our disposal. We’ll knock
you out of the sky!”

“Oh,
I very much doubt that, Senator,”
Terex/Ur
had replied smoothly.
“But have no fear.
We are not calling brides from Earth…at the moment. Though if we start again,
your daughter will likely be one of the first called.”

The call had ended with anger
and vitriol on the senator’s part and satisfaction and glee on Ur’s. And
now
Sylvan told him the idiotic male
wasn’t planning on calling his bride?

“When did this happen?” he
demanded. “Why wasn’t I immediately informed?”

Sylvan raised an eyebrow at him.

“Why, Chancellor Terex, you
sound
upset
that a global crisis has
been averted. Senator Hastings is a powerful male on the World Council. If he
called for war with the Kindred because his daughter had been taken…”

“Of course I’m not upset.”
Terex/Ur tried to school his features into a smooth, blank slate. It wouldn’t
do to have the fool of a Kindred suspect him. “I simply want to be kept
informed of all such important happenings. It is your
job
to inform me, Commander Sylvan.”

“Which I am doing now,
Chancellor Terex,” Sylvan replied icily. “But can we get back to the business
at hand? We
must
start calling brides
from Earth again before the Unmated Males mutiny.”

“Let them go to the Pairing
House.”

“That is no longer a viable
option. Most of the Pairing Puppets are broken and the technical team which specializes
in their care has somehow been redeployed away from the Mother Ship.” Sylvan
frowned. “I do not know by whom.”

He didn’t know because Terex/Ur
had taken care to cover his tracks. He’d been very careful in the slow but
regular decommissioning of the Pairing Puppets and the redeployment of the team
that fixed them. And at the same time, he’d been stoking the fires of Senator
Hastings’ rage. He wasn’t
about
to
let Commander Sylvan ruin all his hard work.

“I’m sorry,” he said blandly.
“But we are not calling brides from Earth right now.”

Sylvan frowned. “But the Unmated
Males—”

“Will simply have to keep their
shafts in their trousers a little while longer,” Terex/Ur said, frowning. “That
is all, Commander Sylvan. You are dismissed.”

“But—”

“I said,
you are dismissed.
Is that clear?” Terex/Ur frowned at him.

Sylvan bowed stiffly.
“Understood.”

“Good. Then leave my office. I
have things to attend to.”

The other male turned without
another word though his anger was clear in the stiff set of his shoulders.

Ur
frowned as he watched him walk out of the
office and the door
swished
shut
behind him. Commander Sylvan would bear close watching. Should he expel him
from the High Council? But, no…that would cause too much suspicion. Besides, Ur was a firm believer in
keeping one’s enemies close.

In the meantime, he had more
pressing matters to attend to. Such as how he could provoke a war between the
Kindred and the humans when that fool of a Dark Kindred, Six or whatever his
name was, had decided not to call his bride after all.

And yet…Terex/Ur steepled his
fingers on his chest and leaned back in his chair, considering the
possibilities. And yet, how often had a Kindred who had begun dream sharing
with a female actually foregone the chance to call her voluntarily? After
living among them for awhile—and living
inside
one of their bodies—he knew their internal drives quite well. Possibly
better than they knew themselves.

If Six was being driven to call
a bride, his urges to come and find her would be strong. In fact, the Kindred
mating instinct was stronger than any other they had—even the will to live.
That was evidenced by the stupid way a Kindred warrior would so easily give up
his own life protecting or defending his bride.

So maybe…maybe this Six simply
needed a push—a little nudge in the right direction. Of course, he might be
worried that his need to call a bride would be construed as having illegal
emotions, which would be grounds for termination on Zeaga Four. Ur knew all
about that—he had been studying the Dark Kindred—or the Enhanced Ones as they
called themselves—from the moment Senator Hastings came to the Mother Ship
complaining that his precious daughter shouldn’t be claimed by one.

Terex/Ur tapped rapidly on his
desk, raising the viewscreen. Rapidly, he placed a long distance—a
very
long distance—call to Zeaga Four. A
blue screen appeared and a smooth, mechanical voice began to speak.

“You have reached the service of
One, the Mouthpiece of the Collective. Do you care to leave a message?”

“No. I must speak to One at
once.”

“That will not be possible. One
does not take outside calls.”

“He will take this one. This is
the Chancellor of the High Council of the Kindred of the Mother Ship.”

There was a pause in which
Terex/Ur straightened his official robes. Then the blank blue screen dissolved
and a Dark Kindred of around the age of Ur’s
stolen body appeared on the screen.

One, the Mouthpiece of the
Collective, was scarcely distinguishable from the machines he served. He was
shaved completely bald and the top of his skull had been replaced by a clear
plexi-steel cap which showed multiple wires and electrodes embedded in the
pulsing pink and gray matter of his brain. In addition, both eyes had been
enhanced with black ocu-scopes and his ears were thin silver fans, no doubt
designed to collect low and high frequency sounds inaudible to the Unenhanced.
A black plug emerged from one nostril and both arms had clearly been
replaced—one was completely metal and the other ended in a claw. His
mouth—which was the only unenhanced thing about him—was a thin, bloodless slit.
He looked at Terex/Ur completely without emotion.

“Yes, Chancellor?” His voice was
without inflection. “Why do you call on me when our factions have not spoken in
many cycles?”

Terex/Ur leaned forward a little.

“I have a deal which I think may
be beneficial to both our peoples.”

“You have my interest. Go on.”

“Are you aware that one of your
number is dream sharing with a human female from the planet Earth? The planet the
Mother Ship is currently orbiting?” Terex/Ur asked.

A slight frown creased the slit
of a mouth.

“That is not possible. We of the
Dark Kindred have foresworn ourselves of all contact with females. In addition,
each of us is implanted with an emotion damper to curtail the need to call a
bride.”

“Nevertheless one of your
number—a male called Six—is dream sharing. It is causing…much consternation
among the humans who inhabit Earth.”

“Six, is it?” One nodded. “That
would explain much. He came to us as an adolescent instead of being grown in
the artificial womb tubes. Perhaps his emotion damper has finally begun to
fail.” He looked at Ur.
“What do you wish me to do about it? I refuse to have him purged without
adequate proof. He has become very useful to me—a protégé of sorts.”

“No, no, no—I do not wish you to
purge him,” Terex/Ur said hastily. “On the contrary—I wish him to come and
claim his bride.”

The thin, bloodless mouth
creased into a frown again.

“Impossible. The Enhanced Ones
do not call brides.”

“This one
must
,” Ur
insisted. “The current political climate demands it.”

“I thought you said the dream
sharing was causing much consternation? We of the Zeaga Four do not seek war
with another planet.”

“What if the planet in question
was rich in heavy elements needed for advanced circuitry?” Terex/Ur raised an
eyebrow at the Mouthpiece of the Collective. “Not to mention that the humans
are a genetic match with Kindred. There are billions and billions of fresh DNA
samples waiting for you here.”

One frowned. “We collect many
samples from the various sentient beings who visit our medical barges. But it
is true that not many are suitable for genetic mixing.”

“All
of the inhabitants of Earth
are suitable,” Terex/Ur said enticingly. “And I can guarantee you free access
to them. All you have to do is come and take them.” He raised a finger. “But it
must be at the right time. First Six must claim his bride and bring her back to
Zeaga Four for their Claiming Period.”

“Impossible,” One said again.
“The Unenhanced are not welcome to the surface of our planet. She would have to
be modified or enhanced in some way to step foot on Zeaga Four.”

“So much the better.” Terex/Ur
tried to hold back a grin. “The more enhancement the better in this case.”

“What of her emotions? Is she a
feeler?”

“I am certain she is—all these
humans are.” Terex/Ur grimaced. “But do you not have special dispensations for
such entities?”

One nodded slowly. “We do. But
she cannot stay here indefinitely flaunting her emotions. It might
cause…problems. Eventually, if she wished to become a permanent inhabitant, she
would have to take an emotion damper implant.”

“Of course she would.” Terex/Ur
could scarcely keep from rubbing his hands together in glee.

One raised one thin, pointed
eyebrow.

“And this is the ‘deal’ you
mentioned? I must allow Six to claim a bride and in return you will grant us
access to the Earth’s natural resources and the humans’ DNA?”

“Of course. Subject to
my
timeline, of course,” Terex/Ur
emphasized. “The Kindred of the Mother Ship must already be at war with the
denizens of Earth before they will accept ‘help’ from another faction to subdue
the humans. After the war is won, of course, you will have access to all the
Earth’s riches. Both organic and inanimate.”

One nodded thoughtfully. “It seems
a generous proposal though quite risky for Six. If the Claiming Period he
spends with this female causes his emotion damper to fail entirely, I will be
forced to purge him. I would…regret that.”

“What value is the life of one
compared to the gains of so many?” Terex/Ur argued.

“True. And Six has a very strong
character. I do not believe he would allow himself to be corrupted. Perhaps it
is an acceptable risk.”

“Your reasoning seems sound.
Surely the Collective would approve of such logic,” Terex/Ur said gravely.

“True…true.” One nodded again.
“A moment while I consult with them.” The black lenses of his ocular implants
flickered briefly shut and there was a faint humming sound. The electrodes
implanted in his brain, visible beneath his clear skull cap, lit up in a
complicated series of patterns.