by Regine Abel
“No,” she whispered, looking devastated before running to the door.
Shuria opened the door just in time for the adult Mimic named Herina to storm in, closely followed by the third adult Mimic whose name I didn’t know. However, the last one didn’t fully make it inside. She stumbled forward as something sharp stabbed into the meaty part of her calf. She screamed with agony.
“Deisha!” Shuria shouted, reaching to catch the screaming female’s hand.
We all jumped to our feet, traumatized at the sight of another mutant Mimic having gone feral. While Herina tried to pull the third Mimic named Deisha into the shelter of the room, Shuria began shifting into a Xian Warrior’s battle form. Through a series of blows, she managed to slice off the spear-like limb with which the mutant had stabbed Deisha and was trying to drag her out of the room.
The mutant screeched and Shuria barely managed to dodge a black mouth dart that flew far too close to her face before embedding itself in the back wall with a loud thud. With the severed appendages still embedded in her lower legs, Deisha continued screaming as Herina managed to drag her to safety. Summoning her energy shield, Shuria bashed at the mutant to force him back out before slamming the door shut in his face. Even as she attempted to lock it, the mutant kept slamming into it to try and force it open. But Shuria eventually succeeded.
“We’re coming in,” I said in a tone that brooked no argument. “Any traps we should be aware of?”
Visibly shaken, Shuria shook her head while rushing to the side of her wounded sister.
“Please don’t hurt them. The others…” Shuria said with a trembling voice. “It’s too late for him, but maybe the others can be saved.”
“We’ll do what we can,” I said. “How many are out of control?”
“Just the one,” Herina said.
I cast a swift glance towards Wrath and then Bane. They both nodded and started removing their shirts as we headed towards the exit of the ship.
“Shield Wrath and Bane,” I telepathically said to Yumi.
Although we probably wouldn’t need it, I wanted to make sure no psychic disruptor would interfere with their ability to communicate with their Soulcatchers or for their women to rescue their souls if needed. Unfortunately, a Shield could only simultaneously apply her power to two Warriors and one psychic female or three psychic females and one Warrior.
Stopping by the armory, we finished discarding our clothes before changing into our battle forms. I was stunned to realize that Sabra had followed us along with Tabitha.
“You are not coming with us,” I said sternly, staring at my mate.
For half a second, her face took on a mulish expression as she clearly fought the urge to argue. Thankfully, she wisely realized there would be no winning this argument. She gave me a stiff nod, although her pinched lips spoke volumes. I didn’t miss the envious glance she cast towards Tabitha as she donned her weapons belt and clasped her armband onto her wrist.
“You’re staying, too,” I said to Tabitha, who eyed me with a stunned expression. “That mutant is rabid and clearly extremely strong. I don’t want any of you there until we have a better understanding of the situation. You can’t be resurrected.”
Under different circumstances, I might have been amused by the way she pinched a lip just like Sabra had just done. There was a time, Tabitha would have given me an earful and argued this into the ground. But marriage and motherhood had given her the extra layer of maturity she had been lacking back then.
“Be safe, out there,” she said, somewhat stiffly.
In a move I never would have dared, Bane tilted his head to the side to kiss his mate’s lips before the shuttle ramp’s descended. With the crazy spikes adorning our foreheads in our battle form, I would never risk it. And yet, with slick confidence, they exchanged a kiss and he parted from my former Soulcatcher, leaving her unfazed and unscathed.
Forcing myself not to look at Sabra again, I turned around and hastened down the ramp of the ship, closely followed by Wrath and Bane. Shields up, we ran to the entrance of the cave. The reinforced door blocking its access parted upon our approach, no doubt activated by Shuria or Herina.
While adrenaline coursed through my veins in the anticipation of battle, this time, I took no pleasure from it. Knowing that we would shortly be killing a young being, gone vicious because of manipulations forced upon him, held no glory.
“Shuria has left the safe room,” Sabra mind-spoke to me, her voice tense. “I believe she’s going out there to fight the mutant. She’s panicked. Something is happening over there.”
“Understood,” I replied.
One glance at Bane and Wrath confirmed their own Soulcatchers had shared the news with them. Contrary to our first assumption, the facility wasn’t a rushed job that the Mimics hadn’t had time to complete, but appeared instead to be an abandoned facility, probably from a scientific team who had come to study the flora, fauna, and primitive inhabitants of Fobos a few decades ago. Beyond the fairly wide, winding stone corridor that greeted us, angry shouts and the clashing sounds of battle reached us.
We ran, weapons drawn and set to the highest stun. There was something eerie about clearing the last turn of the corridor and stepping into the exact same large room that we had seen in that strange Dream Walk. Only seven of the two dozen hover-stretchers still carried a patient. I could only guess what had happened to the other five that had previously occupied them. One of them, in the mutated, deformed shape Sabra had described, was engaged in a savage battle against Shuria.
The mutant was clearly out to kill.
From what parts I could make out of his body, the young Mimic was unable to properly shift into the Kryptid battle form, with his twisted chitin armor protruding in all kinds of weird angles from his body, his left leg—although stunted—was humanoid in shape, while his right leg had three segments like the bugs. And the lances on his forearms, instead of extruding in alignment with his arms, had grown at odd angles which had to be extremely awkward to battle with. His right lance still bled from Shuria slicing part of it off to free her sister. With the other, he stabbed at Shuria in a frenzy of failed attempts to hit his mark.
At first, I wondered why she kept only blocking his attacks while retreating instead of seeking to inflict crippling damage to her opponent. And then it dawned on me. As they moved past one of the stretchers, the mutant looked at one of the young Mimics lying unconscious on top of it and appeared to want to attack him.
“Look at me!” Shuria shouted before violently striking him in the face with the back of her scythed-limb.
“Get him away from the others,” I mind-spoke to my brothers, although they had probably already figured it out as well.
We couldn’t risk shooting him the way he was moving all over the place as we might hit one of the unconscious Mimics or Shuria instead. In his madness, the mutant would kill her the moment she went limp, heedless of us closing in on his location. Reaching him first, I bashed the mutant with my shield, sending him careening one meter from the back wall. Having seen my approach, Shuria waited until the last second to throw herself on the side, rolling onto the floor and out of the way. The mutant only managed to get halfway up before Bane was bashing him with his shield, sending him crashing against the wall. Dazed, the mutant collapsed to the floor. But Wrath didn’t give him a chance to get back on his feet, stunning him with his blaster. The mutant’s body jerked then flopped onto the floor with a deflated sigh.
“Leave him!” Shuria shouted.
She ran to his side while shifting back into her new default form. The look of concern on her face was odd considering only seconds ago the mutant had attempted to murder her.
“He cannot be saved,” Bane said in a sorry voice.
Ignoring him, Shuria held the mutant cradled in her arms, rocking him gently as one would a sick child.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” she whispered into the young Mimic’s ear. “We tried, but we were too late. Be at peace now.”
>
With one swift movement, she snapped his neck, and the boy slumped in her arms. Without a word she picked him up with an unexpected strength—probably inherited from the modifications she had been subjected to—and carried him to one of the hover stretchers. She laid him there gently then kissed his forehead before turning to look at us with a harsh face.
“How many are also at risk of turning?” I asked in a gentle voice.
“All of them,” she answered in a clipped tone. “We’re out of loxia plants. Temrin was supposed to bring us more, but we’ve been hailing her without success for the past twenty-four hours. It is possible the General has captured her.”
“What does that plant do?” Bane asked with curiosity.
The baleful gaze Shuria gave him indicated a lot of hatred still burned within her for how things went down between them. I would need to keep a close eye on that.
“It prevents them from shifting and keeps them sedated without negative side effects,” she replied reluctantly. “We were trying to acquire cryogenic chambers to keep them in stasis until we’d found a way to stabilize them.”
“I suspected such devices would be useful based on what Sabra reported seeing during your first encounter,” I said. “We have brought twenty cryogenic chambers and twenty salt water stasis tanks in our frigate.”
Her eyes widened and gleamed with a sliver of hope quickly replaced by suspicion. “What made you think it might be useful?”
“We have promised your sister to do everything in our power to bring all of you back to your people, safe and sound,” Bane answered. “Seeing how aggressive the young have been in that Dream Walk you shared with Sabra, the safest way for us to bring them back unharmed would be in stasis. After all, we had no idea what was causing them to go feral or if we could control it.”
Shuria blinked, her eyes flicking from side to side as she processed this information.
“Then if you brought them, we should use them right away,” Herina said in a soft voice, startling us.
We’d been so focused on Shuria that we hadn’t heard her come back; a major failure for Warriors such as we.
“The effects of the plants are wearing off. The young haven’t been able to hydrate in the pond. The salt-water chambers would do them a lot of good, while keeping them from turning. Let’s avoid losing anymore of the children, if possible,” Herina continued.
“Agreed,” I said, looking around the room. “Is this all of them, or are there more?”
“There are twelve more in the back, already in stasis chambers, but non mobile ones,” Shuria conceded, although her voice continued to drip with suspicion, worry and a bit of aggression.
I would need to keep a very close eye on her.
“Sabra, we’re going to need nineteen stasis chambers brought in immediately,” I mind-spoke to her.
It felt odd and yet quite exhilarating to be interacting with her as I would with my regular Soulcatcher.
“Tabitha and I will get right on it,” she answered, an unmistakable thrill in her voice.
“Our women are bringing them as we speak,” I said to both adult Mimics.
“I will go help them,” Wrath said.
I nodded, although my gaze never strayed from Shuria. “Let’s go bring the ones in the back in here so that we can get this whole thing going faster.”
“No,” Shuria said in a tone that brooked no argument. “It is too risky to get them out of stasis, even for a few minutes, while waiting for the new chambers to arrive. Until we have a cure, those currently dormant must remain as such or we risk losing them forever.”
I wanted to argue, but everything about her demeanor and the look on Herina’s face confirmed it would be unwise to get them out. This only increased my concerns as to what exactly was destroying these children.
“Very well,” I said. “What of your other sister, Deisha? Her injury seemed severe. Is she in need of medical assistance?”
“I was able to stabilize her,” Herina said. “But she needs far more advanced medical treatment than what we can offer here.”
“Then let’s get her on a hover stretcher, and into our infirmary,” Bane said.
Shuria gave him the same angry glare but didn’t argue. With one last caress on the cheek of the dead mutant, she turned on her heels and headed for the secret room, with Bane shadowing her.
For a moment, I considered going with them, but he was a grown man and didn’t need me to babysit him.
“Are these Queen Pahiven’s children?” I asked Herina who was staring at me with an intense gaze.
“Yes,” she answered, going no further although she knew I wanted more.
I thought of pressing the issue but changed my mind since we would be going over all of this again with everyone else present. The real question, once we were done loading the stasis chambers back onto the frigate, was how cooperative these three adult Mimics would be in terms of surrendering themselves to us and remaining in confined quarters until our return to Khepri.
“We should start unstrapping them,” Herina suggested, gesturing at the young mutants laying on the hover stretchers around us.
I nodded and went to work. It was disturbing to see how savagely the straps had been ripped off on some of the empty stretchers. It didn’t take a genius to understand under what circumstances that had occurred. Minutes later, the slight hum of hovering devices approaching through the hallway had me looking over my shoulder with anticipation at the thought of seeing my woman again, even though we’d only been separated minutes prior.
Chapter 7
Sabra
There was something a little creepy about being back inside this room in the flesh. But, more importantly, it was realizing the difference between perceiving emotions through a virtual setting versus feeling them in reality. I didn’t know what exactly was affecting these teenagers, but I could sense them on the verge of waking from whatever drug was currently keeping them subdued. Fear and uncontrollable rage clashed within them.
My gaze locked with Chaos’s. Even though he was blocking his emotions from me, I still felt warmed down to my core just being in his presence. Sensing Herina eyeing me with curiosity, I turned to her, only for the Mimic to shift her attention towards Tabitha. The surge of aggression and resentment that coursed through her took me aback. Although Tabitha noticed it as well—and felt confused by it—she did a masterful job keeping a neutral expression on her face. It intrigued me that she would provoke such a reaction and have no clue what might have caused it.
A slight frown marred her forehead as she examined the room, no doubt looking for her mate. That unspoken question was quickly answered moments later as he returned into the room with a hover stretcher floating between him and Shuria. The tension between the two of them was thick enough to slice with a knife. Whatever resentment Herina felt towards Tabitha paled by leaps and bounds in comparison with the one Shuria felt towards Bane.
“I can take her back to the infirmary while I go fetch more stasis chambers,” Tabitha offered, clearly relieved to see her mate unscathed.
“We don’t need help from you,” Shuria hissed, her voice dripping with venom as she glared at Tabitha.
“Right now, you need help from all of us,” Chaos intervened in a clipped tone. “Whatever your personal quarrels, you would be well advised to cast them aside and focus on the true priorities.”
Pinching her lips, Shuria gazed down at her sister, looking a little groggy from whatever painkiller they had given her.
“You will be all right,” Shuria said, caressing her cheek before letting go.
Without a word, Bane led the hover stretcher to his mate. Tabitha took it quietly and pushed it out of the cave. Working in pairs, Chaos and Bane started moving the mutants into three of the four stasis chambers I had brought while Shuria and Herina did the same with those Tabitha had brought. I took care configuring the settings on each chamber. I noticed Shuria sneaking in behind me to double-check what I had done on the first couple o
f chambers. It didn’t offend me. Until we had earned their trust, which wouldn’t come easily, I couldn’t blame her for being extra cautious in wanting to ensure the welfare of her sister’s offspring.
Wrath and Tabitha had to perform two more trips to get us enough chambers for all the young Mimics. A few had started to awaken while we were moving them from their stretchers. Every single one expressed the same relief and gratitude that they would no longer feel for a while. It broke my heart. Thankfully, the ones already in the standing stasis chambers embedded in the walls of one of the backrooms didn’t stir during their transfer.
By the time we were done, the temporary truce that had been tacitly agreed upon by everyone suddenly shifted as tension rose once more in the room. Surrounded by all the chambers, Shuria and Herina stood in front of us, their backs to the room where they had initially hidden from the mutant.
While I sensed no aggression from either of the Mimics, suspicion and distrust rose at an exponential rate from Shuria. And then she began shifting into a Xian Warrior’s battle form. My companions—Chaos, Bane, and Wrath—immediately activated their energy shields while Herina gaped at her sister with a shocked expression on her face.
“Stand down,” I said to my companions, raising an appeasing hand towards them. “She’s not planning on attacking, right now,” I continued telepathically to the group. “She wants something, but not battle.”
“Something like what?” Chaos asked.
“What are your plans regarding us?” Shuria asked, before I could answer his question.
“What do you mean by that? Isn’t it obvious we’re trying to aid you?” Bane asked with a confused expression on his face.
It was subtle, and even harder to be certain of because of her black eyes devoid of any sclera, but I could have sworn she looked slightly above his head, no doubt to check his aura. The modified Mimics could make use of any power the creature they morphed into possessed. Her shifting into a Xian to use their ability to read auras therefore made sense. However, the Dragons—the hybrid children of the General and the former Soulcatchers he had abducted decades ago—had learned very young to hide their auras so that it wouldn’t betray their true feelings of hatred towards their sire. If my suspicions were accurate, she was trying to assess to what extent she could trust us not to betray her and the young Mimics.