Seed
A Dark Sci-Fi Omegaverse Romance
Penelope Woods
Reader: Be Warned
If you are easily offended or under 18, please stop reading.
Contents
Reader: Be Warned
1. Out Now!
This book is dedicated to the alien I met when I was a little girl
Prologue: Mia
2. Mia
3. Talis
4. Mia
5. Talis
6. Mia
7. Talis
8. Mia
9. Mia
10. Talis
11. Talis
12. Mia
13. Talis
14. Mia
15. Talis
16. Mia
Epilogue: Mia
17. Out Now!
Penelope’s Dungeon
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About the Author
Penelope Woods
1
Out Now!
God in the streets. Devil in the sheets.
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This book is dedicated to the alien I met when I was a little girl
“Sometimes I think that I’ve never been so free as during that couple of hours when I’m trotting up the path out of the gates and turning by that bare-faced, big-bellied oak tree at the lane end. Everything’s dead, but good, because it’s dead before coming alive, not dead after being alive.”
― Alan Sillitoe
Prologue: Mia
Year: 2028
“Roger, Roger, four-niner. Copy. Starship T1-95 Pandorum, coming at you live from the outer edges of the universe. Is there anybody out there?”
Silence. That is all you’ll hear and know.
“Copy, breaker. Starship T1-95 Pando—oh, forget it,” I muttered.
I used to feel like there was a chance. For us. For Earth.
I saw the color of the world change, felt the irritability in people turn worse. Most of us stopped going outside. I tried to ignore the knocks on my door, the escalating panic as people begged to be let in. To be given an ounce of water.
The heat was unbearable. The cold, even worse.
Earth was dying. Started so long ago, but it spread like a fucking wildfire.
We had to leave. It was for the good of our species. And I had my work. Project Onyx. The Fertility Ark.
Onyx Corp provided me with a dream. I took it and escaped.
The fertilization tests had been inconclusive, to say the least. The fertility rates were shit in deep space. And I… well, I found out I couldn’t have children.
I had to put that out of my head. Everyone was gone, and I wasn’t sure if we’d even survive once we reached planet Nyela. Up here, I counted on nothing and no one.
Most likely, I’d never feel that wonderful feeling again. Love Lust. Passion.
I’d never feel the heavy mount of a man. And I wasn’t about to find a connection with any of the crew.
No, I’d never feel the power of a man again. I’d never get fucked so hard it broke me.
But I could still use my imagination.
I wondered what we’d find when we got to our destination. I wondered if there was someone strong enough to take my heart as his own.
2
Mia
“Starship T1-95 Pandorum to Mission Control. Another day away from finding sanctuary, as they say. All systems are go. I repeat. System check is showing superb efficiency marks. The crew is robust and healthy. Well, as healthy as those bastards can be. The remaining travelers in the cryo-chamber—you know, the rich patriarchs who paid their way to be the wonderful colonizers of the first crappy rock they found suitable? Vitals are better than butter. Surprising, but I think we might be looking at Earth’s first real success story.”
The machine scanned my retinae and beeped, displaying green into my pupil. I was good to go. I could finally rest.
I leaned my cheek against the window near my bunk and let the cold barrier calm me. There was always darkness. Sometimes, we’d pass by the occasional planet or treacherous asteroid belt.
Most of the time, there was nothing but… time.
None of the crew wanted to discuss what happened.
We all witnessed the weather patterns change below our starship. Hurricanes swept through our glorious waters. We saw entire landforms flood and disappear. The calming lights from the fishermen of the South Atlantic went out, one by one. They never came back on.
I still made daily recordings to the flight log because I yearned to interact with another one of our own. I wished for the touch of someone who wasn’t as crazy as some of the crew. Up here, we were closed off. Tensions were high, and you never knew when someone needed restraint.
I knew my recordings would never be heard by a soul. The alarming truth about space was there wasn’t a soul out here other than us.
If there were, we would have found it by now.
Regrettably, the pilot and I were paired with the last people desperate enough to sign up. Death Row inmates. Besides us, they were the only ones to sign up.
The idea was approved by the Onyx board of directors. They were to colonize our future home with some guidance. In essence, they were duped into believing they were noble men leading the cavalry. They were going to repopulate the heavens.
They had no idea what they were up against. The board expressed that there was no surety in any of this, but that’s the way all missions went. Lewis and Clark didn’t set out without worry.
I learned how to deal with them. It was important to know what tactics to use to calm them down. I learned how to fight and win. We established control, and for six years we roamed the darkness.
I had nothing left to stay for. My brother and I had a falling out over my decision to sign up for the program. He told our parents, our cousins, and everyone he could find. No one could understand my desperation. I wanted to find a way to save humanity.
With the help of the Fertility Ark, sponsored by Onyx Corp, I’d learned all I needed to know about keeping our species safe.
I fell into my work.
Our ship had thousands of DNA samples to choose from. Some were brought from home. Others were from the men on board.
It was in the women’s contract to conceive, but Juliana pulled the plug on that after we lost a handful of the good ones. In solidarity, I volunteered, but I wasn’t special. I’d never get the chance to be pregnant.
It didn’t matter. The radiation was far too strong for any of them. Life wasn’t supposed to be here, and I was aware of how small my chances were of succeeding.
I walked through the narrow enclosure, and stopped to check on the cold samples in my lab. The incubator stared back at me, and I scoffed. Sex was supposed to be a mandatory event, but Juliana also put an end to that. Thank God.
But even with the lack of good men on this ship, I still wanted what I could not have. A family, a new home, a man I could depend on – each day that passed, I obsessed over it until I couldn’t take it any longer.
It was difficult to look at the nursery with hope, and once I closed the door, the worry did me in. The silence of my lab was growing on me, and not in a good way.
I walked through the elongated hallway, making my way toward the cafeteria, perhaps a bit too ready for my compulsory hour of interaction. I had to give the inmates their pills, do a headcount, and take their samples. There was also the joy of eating the fine breakfast paste.
“My favorite,” I whispered as the doors automatically opened for me.
“You’re late,” Juliana said, motioning me toward her. Sh
e was already finished with the headcount, and most of the inmates had already started eating.
I handed her my tray and waited to be served. “I did all of last week, remember?”
She smirked. “I remember, I remember,” she growled. “Now get out of the line so I can feed the rest of the monsters.”
I found my place in the corner, away from everyone. Keeping my head down, I started to eat the nutritional banana paste. Delicious.
I swallowed and tried not to hurl. “Gross,” I whispered.
Right as the word left my mouth, I felt the presence of one of the inmates stop. Without thinking, I put my hands against a thin remote inside of my jacket. If he fucked with me, we’d lock him down and administer a sedative with force.
I slowly glanced up and narrowed my eyes at the prisoner. It was Cade Fryer, the man I put in solitary. There wasn’t one person on this ship who trusted him.
“You want to sit?” I asked, sliding my tray back. I was acting far too nice, but it was we were trained to deescalate. From behind, I could see Juliana focus in on us.
“Prisoner 31. Give me a reason to toss your ass back inside the hole.”
His grin was awful. His teeth were black, and his eyes were always shot. He was no saint. Rape. Killings. There were plenty of terrifying incidents on this ship.
“Just want to converse. I’ve been lonely, doctor. Been a few days since I got out, and I don’t feel so good. I might need a check-up.” Cade’s gaze pierced right through me, and I suddenly wanted to be anywhere but here.
I motioned toward the open space of table. “Go ahead. Sit,” I said, hoping my face didn’t betray my false confidence. “Just remember, it wasn’t us who threw you in. You chose to make the shiv.”
“You’ve always been one of the good ones, Doctor Thompson.” He smiled, eyes searching up and down my body. I sat up and thought of all the ways I could break his bones if he came at me.
“Just doing my job. Like you. Like everyone,” I said, diving back into my food.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about something,” he said. “Your job here… you’re just like Johnny Appleseed.”
I darted my eyes toward his hands to make sure he hadn’t tampered with his wrists like the last time. The government surgically fitted magnetics into each of the prisoners. In case someone tried to escape, we could lock them down with the touch of a button.
However, Cade had tampered with his magnets before.
“Johnny Appleseed. Is this some kind of joke?” I asked.
He put two fingers in front of his mouth and licked. “Come, honey pie,” he said.
Juliana sat down and squeezed my hand under the table as a friend might. I felt relief wash over me. Thank God for Juliana. She was more than our captain. She was someone who understood me. She was a real friend.
“Keep your ears closed to the devil.” Juliana stared at Cade before baring her teeth like a wild animal might before his prey.
Like me, Juliana came from nothing. Used to fly her dad’s plane down in Iowa, so she thought it might be fun to fly a ship into space. She signed up for the program, learned the protocol, and had served honorably ever since.
I took a breath and nodded. She knew how easily people’s words could sink into my skin. Up here, we had all been dealing with each other for a very long time. I had learned to keep my mouth shut, but it was hard not to get emotional sometimes.
Cade leaned his head down near the table, wrists locked in place. He stretched out his teeth like a horse and took a bite of his apple, chewing so the juices seeped against his lips, taunting me like the devil himself.
“Your purpose is to spread come, far and wide. Your purpose is to make sure rapists and animals like me get the chance to populate the stars. It’s strange, but we are going to be the only humans in the universe to have heirs in the modern world,” he said.
I would have to collect his and every other male’s samples in an hour, a portion of my day that I hated. I’d hook him up to the pump and turn it on double speed for extra chafing.
Ignoring him didn’t work. When I remained fixed on eating, he taunted me more. “What’s your obsession with spunk, anyway?” he asked.
My cheeks heated, and I shuffled against the plastic seat. “Don’t embarrass yourself. Life is worth saving. Everyone knows that.”
Cade turned silent. Slowly, he opened his mouth, allowing for more mashed bits of food to roll onto his shirt before dropping against the table. “What about my life, doll? Is mine worth saving?”
Not all the criminals were bad. I got the sense some merely wanted a second chance. Most kept to themselves, of course. Others were wrongfully accused. There were, certainly, the mentally ill, but in the space station we connected to, all of us could be diagnosed with something.
Cade was, at his best, a sociopath. He was a power hungry man, searching the sky for a pure feeling of dominance that could not be sustained. He was not one of the good guys.
He was a brutal rapist. Killed one woman and found a thirst for power. Killed a second. The number went up to fourteen bodies found.
I had heard the story too many times from his own mouth. The details were too precise to be faked. He shouldn’t have been allowed to fly, but he got through their system. The program was desperate and, as the climate reports were released to the public, society began to break down.
When you and your crew are this deep into space, there is no turning back. We all knew altercations could happen when we signed up, but it was hard to decipher if we were on the right path toward Nyela. That fact alone kept us all on the edge.
The computer and tracking systems were antiquated. The screens above the cockpit were not only outdated but also displayed maps filled with inaccuracies.
We only had weeks to go until we reached Nyela. We just had to stick it out for a little longer. We were finally near, but Murphy’s Law was in full effect.
Cade calmly ate his mush and stirred his finger inside of the disgusting nutritional paste. His eyes were relentlessly locked on me. I looked down at the table, hoping he would quit.
Another man stood up, hands visibly shaking. Runt, we called him. His bad deed was petty theft after his friend shot at a cop. He wasn’t a bad man, but he sure as hell didn’t know how to function in any collective society.
Bolstered by Cade’s behavior, Runt walked near my table, hands lightly brushing my shoulder. Scooting back, I threw the paste onto the floor and stood, feeling out of control.
Runt simply laughed. “My turn,” he said.
Juliana smacked his hand, distracting him. “Mark my words. It’s starting,” she said.
“What is?” I asked.
But before Juliana could reply, Runt mimicked Cade and dipped his finger in her food. “Why do you eat the space garbage when we have an entire garden to eat from?” he asked.
My attention was directed toward the nearest hallway. The door was closed tight, so that nothing would disturb the Garden’s growth, but in the window, one could see thick layers of green.
Juliana grabbed her tray and knocked it straight against his throat. He fell to the floor and choked. “Stand down, inmates. Both of you. You’re two seconds away from going back in.”
“Solitary,” someone said behind me. The hole. It was supposed to be darker than space itself.
No one was ever sent to solitary except for Cade. I would’ve been surprised if he didn’t know that room inside and out. Despite it acting as a decent hold for prisoners acting out, it never cured him. And a part of me wondered if it didn’t make him smarter.
Solitary gave some men courage. Others, it would break them.
Most of the time, we relied on the magnetized walls and floors to control any outbreaks. In six years, we’d suffered few incidents. It may sound like we let them roam free, but the metal implanted inside their wrists only allowed them certain access throughout the ship at certain times. We felt sure we’d be safe if any crisis unfolded.
Runt wasn’t
one of the bad ones, but he was easily manipulated. And he was fond of helping Cade.
He kept the garden thriving. Fresh fruits and vegetables were a necessity, and, for a while, the growth unified us. But now, not too many people cared enough about the plants’ health. The garden was hardly used.
“All right. Look. We’re deep in this, together. That means we need to stay on each other’s sides. If you don't act out, you won't get thrown in solitary. Do you copy?” Juliana asked.
Cade stood, saluting for good measure. His tattoos looked like a mess of chaotic ink. Thick scars ran over each wrist and legs. This man wanted to die. “An ecosystem not only requires a delicate touch…”
“Cade,” Juliana interrupted.
“But,” he continued, “maintaining balance is essential to its survival.”
I ignored his pompous monologue. Instead, I took the core of his apple and tossed it into his face. “The more you take, the more you are robbing all of us life,” I said, swallowing.
“It’s unfortunate how easy it is for you to prove my point,” Cade said, thoughtfully.
I yearned for that sense of balance. But when you’re floating in the absence of everything material, you have nothing to grasp.
Aggression takes over a man’s cowering guilt. A man knows what’s wrong.
Cade turned deep red, even underneath his heavy set of tattoos that coiled around his face like snakes. Each scale seemed to move. His mouth twisted.
Seed: A Dark Sci-Fi Omegaverse Romance (Alpha Unknown Book 2) Page 1