by Mina Carter
He had Eris. He had his heart… and that was all he needed.
Epilogue
“There was no access to the alien female. All we knew was that there was a source for the genetic material. I had to dig around to find out she was even at the same location. A simple look proves that it’s not entirely human.”
Skinny sat back, his arms folded over his broad chest as he listened to Eris’s brother during the debrief. They were gathered at the back of the bridge again, the ship’s “briefing area” since the Sprite was too small to have any sort of conference room.
There had been a brief discussion about turning the two stern cargo storage compartments on the main deck into a conference room, but that had been nixed when Red moved weights in there. So the area behind the boss’s command chair had served dual duty since then.
“A simple look?” Beauty cocked an eyebrow at the human, his stark features illuminated by the lights from the holo-display, currently what looked like a strand of human DNA. “Pretend none of us have advanced-level degrees and talk to us like we’re stupid. In fact, don’t pretend.”
“Hey, you talk for yourself,” Skinny snorted. “Some of us have an advanced-level education, you know.”
Several eyebrows rose as the group turned to look at him.
“You have advanced education?” Red’s voice echoed the sudden surprise reflected in his comrade’s expressions.
His lips quirked. They all saw him as the dumb grunt heavy-worlder. He often cultivated the impression because it meant people underestimated him. All. The. Time.
“Yeah. Got AL certs in agriculture and pharmingpharm’ing, including genetic modification,” he said, arms still folded. “Family had a farm out on a colony near the Tricerdonian Reach.”
Had was the operative word. They’d been dead so long he had to rely on holos and plasti-images to remember what they looked like.
He nodded toward the display. “This… I recognize. Genetically speaking, humans are one step off the base Lathar coding.” He’d never seen Terran DNA before, but he’d seen his own and he could make the leap. His eyes narrowed as he studied the helix rotating slowly in the air in front of them. “It looks Terran in origin, but there are modifications I’ve never seen before.”
“Exactly!” Eric pointed at him, his eyes bright, almost feverish.
He had to admit, the male looked a lot more comfortable now he was cleaned up. Oh, and not terrified out of his mind. That was never a good look on anyone. But Eric’s manner had completely changed once he started talking about his work. His nervousness disappeared and he was filled with confidence. Maybe a little arrogance... but given the guy seemed to have as much brain mass as the average Warborne member had muscle mass, perhaps he could be forgiven.
“So… this coding here and here,” the scientist continued. “We couldn’t work out what it does. A little deeper investigation and we found this…”
He shoved his hands into the display and spread them, breaking apart the chain on the screen. Skinny and Tal both leaned forward.
“Whoa!” Tal breathed. “Is that… that’s a sub-DNA strand. What the fuck is all that there?”
Eric was practically hopping from one foot to the other. “We don’t know. That’s what’s so great about it. This is human DNA but with a completely new section retro-fitted. Whoever this is… they’re not human. Not anymore.”
“Fuck…” Skinny leaned back. His wrist bracer buzzed an alert at him, but he ignored it in favor of looking at the human scientist. “So that means another new version of the Lathar? Another lost colony?”
Eric shook his head. “No. I don’t believe so. We managed to get a section of Latharian DNA and we tracked the changes you guys made to your code… this is not a Latharian alteration—at least not one that is consistent with any change your scientists have made before. This is something new.”
The alert buzzed again. He frowned and silenced it. He was logged onto the operations console at the moment, so all shipboard alerts were routed to him. It was probably a bulb gone on the lower decks again. He’d go down and deal with it after this.
“Whoever this person is,” Eric continued. “I don’t think they’re from our reality.”
His bracer buzzed again, more strident than before. With a hiss, Skinny looked down at the screen. T’Raal looked over.
“Problem?” he asked.
“Ugh. Movement on the lower deck. Probably picked up some kind of pest while on Tarantus.” He pushed off from the wall. “I’ll head on down and check it out while you guys figure out where our little friend came from and where she is now. Then we can go fetch her.”
With that, he left the bridge, sliding down the ladders to the main deck and heading for the lift. Pausing by engineering, he lifted a fire-axe from the emergency station. He hefted it in his hand as he made his way toward the aft compartments where the readings had originated.
“Okay, you little shit,” he murmured as the door slid open. “Come out, come out wherever you are. I got an airlock with your name on it.”
Whatever he’d expected, it wasn’t movement in the corner of his eye, nor the blinding pain in the back of his head. Agony forced him to his knees. Blood dripped to the deck plate by his hand. A small foot in a delicate slipper graced the edge of his vision.
Then the darkness consumed him…
Thank you so much for reading ZERO’S HEART!
I hope you loved reading Zero and Eris’s story.
The next book in the Latharian universe will be ALIEN PALADIN’S REDEMPTION coming in June 2020!
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About the Author
Mina Carter is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of romance in many genres. She lives in the UK with her husband, daughter and a bossy cat.
Connect with Mina online at:
minacarter.com