by Ken Rivers
Kaiju Queen
Ken Rivers
Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
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Copyright
Kaiju Queen
Ken Rivers
Copyrighted Material.
Kaiju Queen Copyright (c) 2019 by Ken Rivers. Book design and layout copyright (c) 2019 by Ken Rivers. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are product’s of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from Ken Rivers.
1
It was my job to keep the Earth occupation’s forces tech up and running. A mechanic by training and trade, I worked for CONTROL, which blew so much smoke up everyone’s asses, I could never be sure what was real and what was subversion. Humans didn’t care much for alien races and it showed. The message from CONTROL headquarters was the same every day: Don’t get involved. Get in, then get out. The faster you work, the more money you make.
Simple as that. Because if you lingered, if you listened, you’d hear stories of dark magics, horrible berserker demons, and mountain-sized planet-crushing monsters. I figured it was probably all bullshit. But figuring too much got you involved. Getting involved got you dead.
I had arrived at the temple, green-eyed and dark-haired in my favorite vintage brown leather work jacket, and asked the two there to produce their Life-Tech for inspection. The priest was a tall gaunt-featured man, with impeccably attended to silver hair hanging obediently down his white silk-covered back. Expressionless and stoic like every Levani ever born. They were all the same.
Then there was the girl. I had never seen a Levani like her before. Thick, full-bodied blue hair down to her feet, warm emerald eyes with a button nose between them. I would have thought she was another race but for the telltale slender spinnaker ears. An anomaly amidst a sea of long, pointy ears and hair made out of white-gold.
Every Galactanet nerd’s wet dream.
They stopped their prayers and the rigid man, with all of his insulated culture and obligatory religious beliefs, resigned himself and his flock of one to the check-up.
Life-Tech, a bracelet designed to be un-invasive and respectful of the people required to wear it, tracked the Levani any and everywhere they went. The tech was foolproof, but CONTROL still required lengthy diagnostic checks from time to time. Seemed like a waste to me, but it was the best work for two reasons. One, because I knew exactly what to do so I did it quick and I did it good. And two, no Levani would be caught dead making small talk while a human was checking their leash.
Get in, get out. Done.
He spoke to the girl first. “We will begin again when it’s finished.” He closed a book they were crowded around and rose from his knees.
“Yes, Father,” the girl obediently droned with a slight bow at the waist, then she rose as well.
“Mechanic,” he called for me, like calling me somehow made him in control.
It didn’t.
“You may check her first, then—”
“I’ll check who I wish,” I said, irritated at the need to do so. “Unless you want me to add this to the diagnostic report?”
He bowed, face as welcoming as rain-soaked concrete. “Apologies. I only wished to have her checked first, she’s been so looking forward to it. You see, it’s her first diagnostic. Very special day. At least, a special day here.” He bowed again with palms open. “Let the differences be and be celebrated.”
There was already more talk going on than I liked to endure on the job. But, to his credit, I might have just met the most progressive of all sexist and misogynistic Levani alive. Men on this planet were first to start, and first to finish everything, even sex.
I straightened my tech-belt. “Personally, I like how you think, priest. Where I come from, ladies going first is the rule, not the exception.”
That got a neck bow, for all it was worth.
“Come here,” I said to her, “let me take a look.”
I wasn’t checking her wrist for long before she began prying.
“That checks my vitals, right?” She pointed to my Clear-Tech tool.
I rubbed my nose. “Yup.”
The scan began as I held my tech over hers. I imagined that she wouldn’t have the first clue about what I was doing. It probably looked like I was just holding a thing over another thing and by technical magic, the job was done.
The girl bent and her blue hair cascaded around my hand and hers. “When are the boundaries for our potential set? It’s thirty cycles into the check, right? What’s actually accomplished per cycle?”
“Uh, what needs to be, I suppose. Gets difficult to manage right before the new cycle begins. Kind of like—”
“What’s that do?” she asked as she touched my tool screen and swiped right.
I slapped her hand away, but I was kind of digging her curiosity. “Knock that shit off,” I said. The priest was oddly pre-occupied.
“Sorry, I thought I could help. I know that function regulates…” she paused with a finger on her chin.
Sighing, I kept it tight and sexy. “Were you raised reading parts manuals without knowing what to do with them or something?” I looked up from the device and met her eyes for the first time. I acted cool but inside, it was screwing with my concentration. Then, she lit me up with one sweet smile and I decided right there that I wanted to see her again. “Looks like you’re all good. I have to check him now.”
She bowed her head but hung onto my hand. The priest was right behind us and she was right in front of me. I squeezed her soft, tan hand, winked, then let go. She blushed then begrudgingly let me.
I knew when a girl was into me. I also knew when I was dangerously into a girl.
The priest waited as I readied my diagnostic tool, functions dialed in for male.
He held his arm out for me and watched like a hawk. “For a mechanic, you talk a great deal.” I could feel his eyes pushing down on my skull.
“The ability to communicate is a human thing. You wouldn’t understand. I’ll be done soon.”
“I’m sure you will be.” His voice was as flat as a snake hiding against desert rock.
The girl chimed in again from behind, one hand on my shoulder and both eyes on my Clear-Tech. “Is the diagnostic really that different for men and women? Why?”
I coughed, trying to act to cool and continued my work. “It’s fairly common knowledge,” I turned my head and made sure she was listening, “Levani men don’t require much brute force to control, but they do need complex locks on their physical actuators, so their diagnostics usually take more time. Although according to some—”
Looking back at her, I didn’t catch when the red ebb of the priest�
��s Life-Tech light faded. My eyes went uncomfortably wide. He pulled his arm away, continuing to stare down at me. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up, and then he smiled. “Your services are no longer required, human.”
I moved back and bumped into the girl, who was as dumbstruck as I was. But when her light began to fade as well, my actions were fluid and instinctive. I didn’t know what was wrong with the damn devices, so I didn’t blame her for gasping and falling to her knees. Both malfunctioning at the same time was statistically impossible. I slipped my multi-tool out and popped the tech bracelet off her wrist.
I didn’t know how long the priest’s skin was just a coat for the black thing that stood before me and the girl. It stepped forth from the steaming folds of pink on to the glossy white marble of the pulpit stairs. He was all but gone save for his crystal blue eyes, lidless and already beginning to bleed.
A routine maintenance run couldn’t have gone more wrong.
“Get up, girl,” I hissed, trying not to move at all.
“My name isn’t Girl.” I could see that she was young, although her blue hair spilled over her shoulders and veiled her true age. She had started rocking back and forth, hands clasped tight to her chest and praying in her ankle length white gown while the priest had gone catatonic then full-tilt spaz.
I pushed my words harder through my pursed lips, “I wasn’t hired for this. We need to call for help.”
She continued to pray. “That’s what I’m doing.”
“I hope your gods have guns.”
The details of the work order were still on my Clear-Tech screen. Life-Tech units: two / Actuation Systems Error. Then address, pay scale, perks. I shook my head. Fuckers at CONTROL skimped me on fuel even though I had perks. Last were names. I had never got that far down the list.
“Yari, is it?”
No answer.
My eyes darted back and forth. The wooden benches had no backs, and we were bathed in the glow of the torchlight from the high-pitched walls of the temple. The creature took its first breath.
No place to hide.
“Do you have any weapons?” I asked.
No answer.
“Can you stand?”
Eyes shut tight, she was waiting for her display of faith to save her. I had been to more planets and systems than I wished to count. I had heard of a thousand gods. The buildings and their owners charging for the connection to an infinite array of omnipotent pseudo-beings. I knew something for free that they didn’t.
Prayers were never answered.
“Yari!” I growled at her. A quick whip of my head to check if the creature had moved. I winced as she sank her fingers into my leg. Stronger than her size suggested.
“I’m sorry, I—”
I grabbed her hand. “We have to go, now.”
A scuffle of something rough on stone and a dark shimmer from the corner of my eye caught my attention before the impact. My feet left the floor and I slammed back into the wooden wall, ribs and muscles ignited in a fire of pain.
All six feet two inches of me lay piled in a heap of thirty-something Earthling. Flashes of purple and yellow stole my bearings from me as I struggled to my knees. I had never been hit like that.
I saw the black thing that had climbed out of the priest’s body plod toward Yari, its maw filled with white gums covered in thick inky muck. It bent down. Three quick sniffs followed by one long inhalation lifted the hair covering her features and pulled the color from her face. They were eye-to-eye.
She covered her mouth, tears cascading down the backs of her hands. Staggered wheezing and the crunching of bone came gurgling out the back of its throat. It arched its back, the suffocated suck growing louder.
I reached for my tech belt, sliding my fingers along the few etherboard drivers and one thumb-sized proton torch. Nothing violent enough to make a difference.
Shit.
Then it spoke. What seemed like words slipped in and out, garbled within the long exhales and short purposeful inhales. The words, clear enough to hear, raised the hairs on the back of my neck even higher.
-Inssside, we are all giantsss…Mother-
Its rasping suck and heave ended and a slow measured clicking began. It contorted its maw into a twisted grin like it was happy with what it said.
Struggling in vain to find anything useful, my hand slid over my palm-sized Clear-Tech com pad and set off the most recently played song. Poetry and master musicianship, hundreds of years old.
The clicking stopped and the black thing cocked its head and hissed. Maybe it didn’t like the sultry sweet rock of the D. I cranked it to full volume and chucked it to the back of the pulpit. The creature rose, tracked the arc of my throw and took off, covering the distance in half a heartbeat. Stone fragments shot into the air, showering down around its sinewy black legs as it ripped and clawed and howled at the ground.
Please, just stay there.
I started for Yari, stumbled, then caught myself on one of the benches. A few more strides and I slid up to her on my knees. “I’m sorry I called you here,” she said, wiping her forearm across her eyes.
“Move now. Talk later,” I said.
We turned and ran for the tall iron-clad oak doors that led outside, pushing our way past them and stumbling into the cool night air. I heard the rock of the D fade behind the closing doors as we ran from the temple steps into the flat courtyard, then the music stopped.
Shit.
The entryway exploded behind us, chunks of wood spraying over the dimly-lit blue grass. A chunk slammed into Yari’s back, ripping her hand from mine. She hit the cobblestone walkway shoulders first and rag-dolled into a heap. I wheeled around to get her up and reached for her just as the black thing’s hand reached for mine.
The snap came right before the pain. My arm hung limp in its spidery fingers. It leaned over and grinned at me.
“Stop it!” screamed the girl.
It turned to her, hissed and chittered, then its hand blurred and lodged under my ribs. Hot pain shot through my abdomen. My knees shook and hit the ground. It let go and grinned. One of its slick, lanky arms cocked back, ready to end me.
There I was, never once going down without a fight, broken and shaking like a little bitch. Was I gonna go out on my knees? Not that day. Definitely and hopefully not that day.
It swung and missed as I threw my limp excuse for a hero’s body in between Yari and the creature. Then she screamed. I was awash in blinding light and frozen in mid-dive. I could feel her. Her desperation and her fear. I felt it as clearly as I felt mine. But it started to build upon itself, from sound to something more. Then an explosion of white fire surrounded the black thing, hovered there, then jack-hammered down on its gnarled body. The bite of its hiss and chitter was squeezed into a high-pitched shriek.
Eyes slammed shut, I was half caught up in the light and half hanging in the air outside of it, unable to free myself.
The black limbs of the creature twisted and faded into the white fire and its shrieks turned to the whimpers of a broken animal. I felt relief wash over me as its death thrall faded under the thrum of the pulsing phosphorescence.
But the fire began to burn into me, too. Numb from the shock of the injury, the light bored into me. The flesh on my right side began to flake up and disappear into the white blaze. Yari’s scream had turned into a thunderstorm of deafening, whirling wind and light. I was being consumed by it as blood soaked through my brown leather jacket, making vertical pools of shiny pitch.
“Yari…”
Who was this girl? I only held her hand for a brief moment, but the embrace was seared into some untouched part of me. When the hand slid over my forehead, I knew it was her, but my eyes wouldn’t open. I saw neon orange and purple on the fringes of my vision.
Aside from my casual and consistent sexual desire to see how all women tick, I hadn’t had the slightest interest in her, until she saved my life.
I felt a jarring blow against my face, like a boat oar sm
ashed into it. My eyes opened and I saw another slender-armed slap swinging my way. Was she putting her whole body into it? Jeez. “Please, don’t hit me again.”
She pulled back, startled but not afraid. “Sorry,” she struggled for a second.
My sight blurred, dark smoke billowing around my field of vision. I sucked in a deep breath that strengthened my consciousness but at the same time gave life to the pain engulfing my abdomen and ripping through my right arm. I didn’t want to look at any of it.
“Did you have to hit me so hard?”
“You need to get up. You are not safe here.”
I was a little foggy on the rules of engagement since I had never had any issues. “Why am I not safe? I’m an occupation mechanic. Your people can’t touch me.” I coughed up red mist that settled over my neck and face. “Do you have a med-pack?”
“No. We do not believe in them.”
I laid my head back down on the soft grass with a grunt. “What’s not to believe? We have mountains of them just a few hours ride from here.” Which meant the only tech around was what I had on me. I felt like I was slowly sinking into the warm grass under me so I let my fading eyesight settle on her.
If there was ever such a thing as a perfect wrinkle, it showed when she furrowed her brow and looked away from me. The Levani were notoriously shy of direct eye contact. “I can try to heal you,” she said. “But it’s forbidden to practice on humans.”
“Why?”
“Human pain thresholds are far too low.”