by L. Fergus
“As long as my last days are with her, I don’t mind.”
Kita woke feeling fine. She nuzzled Snowy, before checking on Zidin. He woke only a few minutes before Kita and was instructing the others on the proper application of the Arconian healing balm.
“What exactly did you do?” Cowboy asked Kita after he applied the balm to Zidin.
“I made an antivenom, but I had to have the actual venom to do it.”
“You couldn’t have just taken a little from one? You needed to drain three spiders?”
“The more I had, the faster my body would react. Once I knew how to make the antivenom, I was able to make it in my barbs.”
Once everyone felt ready, the group moved out. Kita stayed behind Bart as they moved forward. Cowboy and Snowy stayed with Zidin to watch him and provide cover for the others.
They discovered two more spider nests and eradicated them. Shortly after, they reached a solid wall of webs. On the other side was a ladder leading up.
“I think we’re here,” said Kita.
A door opened into a large rectangular room divided by a chest-high counter with a wraparound desk that stretched along the counter and wall. On the far side of the room, a large table with a glass top was in the center. Against the walls sat six comfortable chairs. In the far and left walls were doors. There were tracks in the fine layer of dust that covered everything.
Cowboy lifted his hat. "I'll be a son-of-a-bitch. This place has a holotable."
Snowy gasped. “You think it works?”
“Lights on,” Cowboy commanded. The room filled with light. “Help me dust it off, D—Snowy.”
Using their arms and sleeves, Snowy and Cowboy dusted the large table. Kita exchanged looks with Zidin. He smiled. Bart smiled, too. Kita batted her lashes and smiled shyly. I feel sick.
Cowboy went behind the counter. He came back with a bottle and a rag and cleaned the glass.
Kita ran her hand over the table. It looked like a panel, but the surface wasn’t smooth. One-inch bumps covered the surface. What does it do that makes them both excited?
“Found the plug and the on-switch,” said Cowboy. Nothing happened. “It takes a few moments to warm up,” he explained.
A dot appeared three feet above the table. It expanded to the size of the table and five feet tall.
Snowy hung on Kita’s arm. A picture appeared and Snowy bounced and squealed in a pitch that made Kita's ears ring.
A holographic movie played, explaining a biological artistic area known as Razor's Reef. According to the movie, this area was to be a shallow coral sea based on a region called the Great Barrier Reef on a place called Earth. The large spires anchored the reef and served as observation platforms for visitors. Along the coast, large sandy beaches would extend for miles. The region would join a park system containing other artistic areas: Grand Trench, Olympic Rainforest, Amazonian Rainforest, Broken Lands, Sulferstone, and Serene Plains. Vacation condominiums could be reserved through the central vacation system for the cost of three vacation days per day.
Snowy sighed. “It’s too bad it wasn’t finished. It would have been beautiful. I never got to see the Serene Plains or Grand Trench.”
“They’re still there," said Cowboy. "But they are shadows of their former glory. I believe those damn vatborns stripped Olympic Rainforest and hunted Serene Plains to extinction.”
Vatborn?
“What an awful thing to do. They were so beautiful. I loved the lions of Serene Plains and watching the cats in the Amazonian. Do you remember?” Snowy had a faraway look in her eye.
Cowboy nodded.
“What the blazes are you babbling about, furball?” Bart demanded.
Cowboy gave him a dirty look. “What she’s talking about are things that were constructed before you were a gleam in your daddy's eye. When The Mass was settled, tracks of land were left open for artisans to create areas inspired by regions on Earth. Originally, there were to be over a hundred, but The Mass wasn’t big enough. Instead, the top seven environmental wonders were selected to be created. Part of the art was watching them being made. Even I’m not old enough to have seen that, but my parents and grandparents were.”
“No one is that old,” said Bart.
“Tomorrow, I’ll be over eight thousand six hundred and thirty,” said Cowboy, and his eyes lit in amusement as Bart tried to comprehend the number.
How can anyone be that old?
“I forgot tomorrow is your birthday. I’m sorry,” said Snowy.
“You earned the right to forget it a long time ago.”
“Still, maybe we can find you a treat. I don’t think I can come up with that many candles.”
Cowboy chuckled.
“I’m no fool,” Bart snarled. “How old do you think you are, furball?”
“A girl does not tell her age. I’m younger than Cowboy, but I’m much older than you, you little baby brat.”
“No one can live that long. It’s impossible.”
Cowboy’s eyes narrowed. “It’s possible, though I slept for some of it. I woke up about fifteen hundred years ago.”
“As did I, but I woke roughly three thousand years ago,” said Snowy. “It doesn’t seem that long. Life goes by so fast living in the mountains.”
Bart sneered. “You’re both making this up to mess with the rest of us.”
“Believe what you will, you tiny narrow-minded twit,” Snowy snarled. “Your entire life will be nothing but a momentary anomaly in mine.”
“Then, so will she.” Bart pointed at Kita.
Kita’s mouth fell open, dumbstruck. She'd followed the back and forth, impressed with Snowy. The implications of what they said hadn't sunk in until Bart pointed it out. Big tears pooled in the corner of her eyes. She fled behind the counter, collapsing in a chair. She buried her head in her arms to muffle her sobs.
Snowy scruffed Bart by his robes and snarled while sliding her claws out.
Cowboy caught her arm. “Go take care of your girl. We’ll handle him.”
Snowy regained her composure and thrust Bart to the ground. She hurried around the counter after Kita.
Cowboy hauled Bart to his feet and pinned him to the wall. “What did I tell you about doing that?”
“What do you care about that furball? She should be destroyed for being an abomination.”
Cowboy lifted Bart off his feet. “She was my wife. I suggest you start treating her with the respect she deserves. She is not an abomination. She represents thousands of years of genetic research that is her life’s work as a brilliant scientist. I’d kill you, except Kita wants you for something.” Cowboy slammed Bart against the wall hard enough to knock the dust off a picture.
“Wife, huh? Couldn’t keep her satisfied? It’s got to burn you to see her with someone else—especially switching sides.”
Cowboy slammed him into the wall again. “Son, we split five thousand years ago. You can only spend so many thousands of years together before you both decide it’s time to move on. I’m glad she’s happy. If Kita’s what makes her happy, then you better believe I will kill anything that tries to mess it up.”
Cowboy drew a revolver, shoved it under Bart’s nose, and pulled the hammer back. “Got it?”
Snowy found Kita and knelt next to her, putting a hand on Kita’s shoulder. “Kita?”
Kita pulled away. “Go away.”
“Kita, please talk to me. It’s not what it seems.”
Tears streamed from Kita's eyes as she choked back her sobs. “Go away! Leave me alone!”
“I’m sorry, I really am.” Snowy tried to stroke Kita’s hair, but Kita shook her away and dove under the desk.
Snowy sighed. Maybe if I give her a few minutes to cry. She didn't remember her adolescence, except for some vague memories of it not being a good time. Her body and mind were ruled by a volatile cocktail of hormones driving emotions she didn’t fully comprehend, accumulating into actions that seemed rational at the time and unfathomable later.
/> Cowboy’s angry voice drifted from the other side of the room. Snowy hoped he would knock some sense into Bart. When Kita’s sobs quieted, she ducked under the desk to try again.
Snowy went to put her arm around Kita, but she scooted away. Snowy followed her and tried again. Kita let her this time. She held Kita, trying to relax her. Kita snuggled against her, clinging to her tail.
“I don’t want to be a momentary anomaly in your life,” Kita whispered as tears flowed down her cheeks.
What do I tell her that won’t upset her further? It’s the truth. Kita would be a momentary anomaly, but unlike the rest of her life, Kita would be a good anomaly. “Kitten, you’ll never be a momentary anomaly in my life. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me, and I’ve had to wait over eight thousand years for it.”
Kita smiled. “Really? But you’ve had so long to live. There must be better things out there than me.”
Snowy shook her head. “All my time here has only shown me what I don’t want. There are many great things in this world, but none of them compare to you. I keep imagining what it would be like to share my life with you and how happy I would be if I could. You’d be the most important thing in my life.”
Kita stopped crying. “I must be acting like a baby. I’m sorry.”
“You’re not a baby. I understand and there’s no need to be sorry. We can work through these things. We just need to be patient and work together and we’ll make it through.” Snowy hugged Kita to her chest.
Kita pouted. “I know, but I don’t want to be patient.”
Snowy laughed.
Kita came out from behind the counter to find Cowboy with a revolver pointed up Bart’s nose. “Let him go.”
Bart slapped Cowboy’s revolver aside. “At least some people are decent around here, unlike the rest of you.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far,” Kita cooed. “I just don’t relish the idea of making Zidin carry your body out of here or cleaning up the mess. This room is too nice to leave a bloodstain. Now, play nice with everyone or the next person you tangle with will be me, and there won’t be anyone to tell me to stop. Understood?” Kita smiled sweetly and batted her lashes.
Bart nodded.
“Good. Now, let’s go find what we’re here for.” Kita moved to the doors in the room, touching each one. “This one.”
“Why?” said Bart.
“That one’s warm to the touch; this one is cold.”
“So?”
“The warm one goes outside, and the cold one goes deeper into this facility.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“This is some kind of antechamber, so it stands a good chance that it leads outside. The prints in the dust going to the cold door have sand in them. The map on the desk said this was the door to the bio-labs. What more do you want? Now quit second-guessing me and come on.”
Kita crossed a three-story room on a catwalk to a control room. Her nose twitched at the stale smell of the recycled air. Below her, rows of green-liquid-filled jars full of specimens stretched out as far as she could see. “They’re filled with elves, hogs, dogs, sharks, seals, and few things I don't recognize.”
“Kita, can you open this computer?” Cowboy asked, standing in front of a workstation. “I might be able to shut them down and destroy those things before they’re uncorked.”
Kita stuck her finger in the biometric scanner and the panel unlocked. Cowboy flipped through the screens. He slammed his fist down. “Son of a bitch! Whoever is running this place is using my research, the thieving bastards!”
“What was your research?” said Kita.
“I studied ways of building animals, atom by atom, from a blueprint. It cut the amount of time you had to wait for offspring. Normal gestation can take several weeks to years, depending on the species. This would allow offspring to be made in less than two weeks.”
“I thought if you did that you got a breathing vegetable?”
“You do—if you want something smarter than a dog. If you want it to run by instinct, this method works fine. I designed it for ranching. But I’ll be damned if I’ll let them use my work any longer.” Cowboy switched to a screen displaying the controls for each tank. “We’ll need to get to the master computer to destroy the blueprints. From here, we can at least destroy the contents of the tanks. Dar—Snowy, can you help me? There must be three hundred tanks on this level, and they have to be done manually.”
“Of course.”
Kita unlocked another workstation for Snowy.
A string of obscenities came from Cowboy. “The tanks on level three are ready for their sparking. We need to empty those first, and we need to hurry. It looks like it’s going to do them all at once.”
“I thought that wasn’t possible,” said Snowy.
“Someone's figured it out. Come on; hurry.”
The pair frantically tapped at the workstations.
“Blazing suns, we’ve been locked out of the second group," snarled Cowboy. "But they can wait. They’re still a few days away from being completed. Someone else knows we’re here.”
Kita frowned at Zidin. He shrugged. Glad I'm not the only one lost.
“Damn. Five tanks have opened, and we’re only half done,” said Cowboy.
Something I do know how to handle. “You keep working. The rest of us will go kill them as they come out.” Kita motioned Zidin and Bart to follow her.
They took a ladder on the far side of the control room. Climbing down among the jars, they found the first group of elves and dog-men. Without breaking stride, Kita drew her swords and charged the group. She killed two elves while Zidin dispatched two more, and Bart torched the remaining dog-man. Wet, gooey corpses littered the floor as most of the tanks emptied their contents. The last ten emptied in quick succession. We got lucky if only a handful escaped destruction.
Kita led the others back to the control room. A loud thud came from outside. She walked onto the catwalk but didn't see anything.
A deafening roar from behind caused Kita to jump as the catwalk swayed. A huge featherless black chicken-lizard with teeth stepped around a jar that went from floor to ceiling. A giant bay door was behind the tank.
“What in the stars is that thing?” cried Bart as he dashed to the back of the control room.
“A t-rex—and a grumpy one,” said Cowboy. “Now get over here and help put it down.”
“I did not volunteer for this.” Bart ducked behind a workstation.
The t-rex struck out with its tail, smashing the catwalk and sending Kita tumbling to the ground. She jumped from the twisted wreckage, missing the massive tail slamming down where she had stood.
Zidin jumped down from the control room. He charged the t-rex, connecting several times with powerful swings, but the blows didn’t faze the creature. It countered by swinging its head and throwing Zidin into a wall.
Kita darted from her hiding spot between Zidin and the t-rex. She somersaulted in front of the creature’s face, letting her cloak flap to draw its attention. The t-rex moved faster than Kita anticipated, kicking her across the room with a clawed foot. She rolled to her feet and charged. Weaving between the giant creature’s feet and tail, Kita left numerous slashes in the creature’s thick hide.
The t-rex roared in frustration at its inability to catch Kita. It spun, crashing its tail into the catwalk wreckage and sending nearby machinery flying. A large metal barrel crashed into Kita from behind, sending her sprawling to the ground, and the t-rex’s foot pinned her down.
Snowy and Cowboy appeared on the edge of the broken catwalk. Snowy jumped to the ground and charged, and Cowboy unslung his rifle and fired at the t-rex’s head as it sniffed Kita. It looked up and roared at the new irritant.
Snowy leaped onto the t-rex’s back. She struck at the black leathery hide with her claws, leaving long gashes. The t-rex spun to dislodge its rider while kicking Kita into the far wall.
Kita lay on the ground recovering her breath. I hope whatever’s
injured heals in a hurry. The t-rex’s tail struck Snowy, sending her into the catwalk wreckage. Kita screamed as Snowy lay still, entangled in the twisted metal.
The t-rex grabbed Snowy in its jaws then roared. Snowy let out a spine-tingling scream when it pressed down with its teeth.
Kita jumped to her feet, pain and injury forgotten. She charged the beast, and Zidin attacked from the opposite side.
Cowboy’s shotgun went off. Half the t-rex’s head was obscured in a large fireball. It threw Snowy’s broken body aside and charged Cowboy’s perch.
Kita flipped onto the t-rex's back and plunged both swords through the creature’s spine above its hips. Below, Zidin struck one of the t-rex’s lower legs. When the t-rex roared in pain, Cowboy fired another round into the open mouth. The head disappeared in an explosion.
The t-rex collapsed on top of the catwalk wreckage. Kita sprinted to Snowy’s lifeless body. Tears streaming from her eyes, Kita cried out at the bloody streaks and the multiple bones protruding through her fur. Blood leaked from her nose, mouth, and eyes. Her spine bent in an unnatural position, but Kita could hear a faint heartbeat.
Omega! Answer me! I need you NOW. Omega, answer me! I know you’re there. I need you! Answer me!
What do you want?
I need you to save her.
The chances of her survival are nearly zero. It wouldn’t be worth the time or resources. Why would you consider trying?
Because there’s a chance, that’s why. Whatever the cost, it’s worth the chance to try.
I fail to understand your attachment to her broken body. She is gone and will be dead shortly.
I LOVE her, that’s why. That’s my attachment to her.
What does love have to do with this? Love is nothing more than a complex chemical reaction to something your brain craves.
Listen, you oversized abacus. You wanted to experience what it is to be alive. This is what it means to be alive. Life is not the complex chemical reactions that take place in the brain. Life is the emotions that those chemical reactions cause in the mind. It’s what drives the living to do what we do, to go against all the odds. Reason may tell us not to, but our gut, our emotions are what drives us forward to try anyway. Think of love as the ultimate compilation of all other emotions. It is what we live for.