Twisted: Brides of the Kindred 23

by Evangeline Anderson

  “It will? Why?” Nikki frowned.

  “Why, because if you truly have the Shannom-rah, then soon I will be able to encode my Replicants with the original personalities stored on it. You do have it, do you not?” The Knower asked.

  “Oh yes—yes of course. Malik?” Nikki looked at the big Kindred.

  “Yes, Mistress—I have it here.” He drew out several objects and handed her the multicolored, multi-faceted crystal. Nikki knew the other thing he held was the device to turn back time. As she took the Shannom-rah from him, her heart was pounding. She just had to keep the Knower busy a little longer…

  “Here you are.” The crystal hummed in her hand like a live thing as she held it out to the Knower.

  “Ah—very good!” The Knower nodded and before she could close her hand, it had plucked the crystal out of her palm and was examining it.

  “Hey!” Nikki exclaimed. “I thought you were a hologram!”

  “Oh, I am—but I have the ability to become solid when it suits me. That was one of the first technologies I perfected.” The Knower continued to study the crystal. “With this I will make an army of Replicants,” it said, almost as though it was musing to itself. “New Replicants, worthy of the city I have built for them. No longer will my creations have to learn from vids and recordings—soon they will have their own life experiences to draw from.”

  “Um, you mean like regular people?” Nikki asked, frowning. “If you don’t mind me asking, why would you want to create creatures who can think for themselves when they already exist?”

  “Yes—and why did you murder so many of them—the ones who depended on you to run this planet?” Malik demanded roughly.

  “Why, because I cannot control Organics.” The Knower spoke as though it was perfectly obvious. “The original inhabitants of Uriel Two had to go because they would not do as I said—it was a necessary sacrifice.”

  “Necessary sacrifice? The murder of two billion people?” There was a muscle jumping in Malik’s strong jaw and Nikki could feel the rage coursing through him once more, through their link. His big hand closed in a tight fist over the time device he held.

  “Yes, unfortunately. As I said, I could not control them.” The Knower shrugged its glowing blue shoulders as though it was talking about how it had found it necessary to exterminate the bugs that were infesting the house it wanted. “Of course by using the Shannom-rah to transfer consciousness to my Replicants, they will all have original personalities but at any time I wish, I can enter one or all of them and direct their actions,” It went on.

  Once more Nikki was reminded of herself and her cousin, Rene, playing Barbies when they were kids.

  The Knower is like a big kid, she thought. It just wants to play dolls. And it built this whole planet-city to be like its very own Barbie Dream House. So it can play with its dolls all day long—forever.

  But the Knower’s next words made her think there was a much more sinister motivation behind its plan.

  “Once I have manufactured the required number of Replicants, I will have enough for every man, woman, and child Organic to inhabit one,” It said. “I will wipe out those who will not bow to my superior wisdom and place them into bodies I can control—for their own good, of course.”

  “What?” Nikki exclaimed. “But if you have the Shannom-rah, why don’t you just use the trillions of personalities already recorded on it to fill your Replicants? Why do you need to go murdering regular people to put them into Replicant bodies?”

  “My dear Mistress Hellenix,” the Knower said, arching one blue, glowing eyebrow at her. “Did you really think the only reason I wanted the Shannom-rah was because it already had past personalities stored on it? Of course not! I want it for its storage capacity. I want it so that I can use it to record the personalities of the New Replicants I will make from Organics who are living today.” It shook its head. “I only regret I was unable to record the personalities of the Organics of Uriel Two before I was forced to eliminate them. The Kindred are a fine race—if somewhat difficult to control.”

  “But I guess if you put them all into bodies you’re personally able to take over, you’ll be controlling them all right,” Nikki said, feeling numb.

  “Exactly!” The Knower brightened. “And so I think the best place to start my little project will be with the Kindred Mothership that is orbiting a little-known world its inhabitants call ‘Earth.’ It seems to have the highest concentration of available Kindred and it has many different kinds of them as well.”

  “So you’re planning to use the Shannom-rah to take over the Mother Ship?” Nikki demanded.

  “Of course. It doesn’t bother you, does it? As a race who believes that males are inferior, I would think you would be pleased,” the Knower said. “The Kindred are, after all, mostly male.”

  “I don’t care if they’re male or female, it’s wrong to kill people and put them into big dolls just so you can control them and play with them,” Nikki said, frowning. “Give me back the Shannom-rah please.”

  She held out her hand but the Knower only shook its head.

  “I think not, Mistress Hellenix. I’m afraid I need it too badly. And I need you as well.”

  Suddenly two of the assembly bots were on either side of her and two sets of metal claws were gripping her by the arms.

  “Hey!” Nikki exclaimed. “What are you doing?”

  “Keeping you here with me,” the Knower said. “I need Organics so that I can test the transfer system of a personality from the Shannom-rah to a Replicant. You and your slave will do nicely as my first test subjects. Look—I already have top of the line Replicants ready for the two of you.”

  It waved its hand and a pair of naked Replicants—one male and one female—came forward. They looked eerily like herself and Malik, Nikki thought. Except their eyes were completely blank. A feeling of dread crept over her—how horrible to see yourself replicated as a soulless robot. It was like seeing your own dead body standing right in front of you!

  “These new Replicant bodies may feel a little strange at first, but you will get used to them. Now if you will kindly just hold still so that the crystal can record your personality…” The Knower approached her, holding the Shannom-rah out in its glowing blue hand.

  “Let me go!” Nikki shrank back. She couldn’t think of anything worse than a clone of herself ending up as a permanent Barbie doll for the Knower to play with here on this fucked-up planet. “Get away from me!”

  “Take your claws off my mate.” Malik’s words were slow and measured but Nikki could see the bright sparks crackling from his fingertips and his silver eyes had turned blood-red with anger.

  “Oh, I think not,” the Knower said calmly. “And please don’t think that you can scare me with your little electrical display, Kindred. I know what you are—I know you are one of the few Volt Kindred I failed to eliminate during my take-over of this planet.”

  “If you knew that why did you bring us here?” Nikki demanded, still struggling in the metal claws of the assembly bots.

  “Why, because as I told you earlier—I regret eliminating all of the Volt Kindred. I welcome the chance to add one to the collection of other Kindred I will have once I take over the Mother Ship,” the Knower said, as though it were obvious.

  He sounds like any collector I ever met, Nikki thought sickly. Kindred—gotta catch ‘em all.

  “I said let her go!” Malik growled. A consuming rage poured through their link and suddenly the tendrils of lightning that had been growing in his hands lashed out and struck both of the bots holding Nikki.

  A scream rose in her throat and she was absolutely certain she was about to be fried. Instead, she felt nothing but a faint vibration, though the bots on either side of her rattled and shook with the direct strike.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart—you’re protected from my power by our bond,” Nikki heard Malik say in her head.

  But as devastating as the lightning strike had been, it seemed to have almos
t no effect on the bots—they didn’t even let go of Nikki. In fact, if anything, their pinching grip seemed to tighten.

  The Knower looked at Malik.

  “Please don’t imagine you can hurt me or anything here with your electrical energy. I grounded everything years ago, back when I first decided I would take over Uriel Two. I know all the capabilities of the Volt Kindred and I planned for them accordingly.” It stepped towards Nikki with the Shannom-rah once more. “Now if you’d be so kind as to hold still so that we can do the personality recording and transfer…”

  Malik looked like he was about to move towards her but Nikki shook her head.

  “You’re wasting time, baby! None of this is going to matter in the long run—you need to use the time device while it’s distracted with me!”

  “I know I must—I just wanted to hold you one more time before I did.” His mental voice was desperately sad and still laced with rage that someone had dared to touch her—had dared to hurt his mate.

  “I wish you could too,” Nikki sent. “But we can’t risk it. You’ll never have a better shot at this.”

  “You’re right. I love you, Nicole.”

  “I love you too!” She sent it with all her heart, trying to convey all that she felt in that one phrase.

  “Knower,” Malik said, calling its attention away from her. “I think there is one consequence of your genocide of my people you failed to take into account.”

  “I have taken everything into account.” The Knower sounded slightly irritated at his interruption—if an AI could be irritated, Nikki thought.

  “Everything but the fact that the Goddess of the Kindred—the Mother of All Life—loves and protects her children,” Malik growled. “And she will not stand by and allow anyone to wipe them out.” He was holding the little stone carving openly in his hand now and he was standing right beside the pulsing blue pole of light.

  “You see—that is one of the illogical beliefs I intend to eliminate in my new Replicants,” the Knower said, taking its attention from Nikki for a moment to frown at him. “There is no supreme deity who created you and who loves and cares for you. It’s against all logic to think so.”

  “I would say that you’d think differently after I do this.” Malik brought the time device disguised as a carving closer to the pulsing blue light. “But the fact is, you won’t be thinking at all. Because you’ll cease to exist.”

  “What?” The Knower’s eyes widened—it seemed that Malik had finally said something that surprised and upset it. Again, if an AI was capable of such emotions, Nikki thought.

  “You heard me.” Malik held the carving only an inch from the lighted pole. “And in just a moment, you’ll never hear anything again.”

  “No!” The Knower’s eyes widened even more. It motioned and the two naked Replicants that looked exactly like Nikki and Malik rushed towards him. But it was clear they would never reach him in time. They were too far away and all Malik had to do was bridge the final inch and press the time device against the Knower’s core processor.

  He shot Nikki a look of longing and sorrow.

  “I love you, sweetheart! Forever!” Nikki heard him say and then he pressed the small stone carving into the blue light.

  “I love you too!” she shouted, her voice breaking. Her eyes were fixed on Malik’s form and his hand pressing the device against the processor.

  At first nothing happened but then a brilliant white light began to grow at the point of contact. It started as a pinprick and then grew and grew, getting larger and larger until it looked like a small supernova had started where Malik’s hand met the processor and it was growing larger all the time. Soon it would encompass the whole room and then the whole building and then the whole planet, Nikki thought.

  She imagined the blinding whiteness rushing over the surface of Uriel Two, crumbling the many empty buildings to dust and restoring the natural beauty the Knower had destroyed. She thought of the people who had died coming back to life, living their normal lives, unaware that ten years of their history had been rewritten in the blink of an eye.

  And she thought of Malik, either fading from existence completely, or forgetting her forever. As she would forget him.

  No, never—I’ll never forget him! she swore to herself. No matter what, I’ll keep him in my heart!

  She watched as long as she could, but the ultra-brilliant white light eclipsed Malik and then became too bright to look at. She turned her head away in pain and saw the blue holo-figure of the Knower wavering. Then it said something she didn’t understand.

  “Breech imminent. Protocol Extremis activated.” Without warning, its gender-neutral form blinked out, just moments before the slowly growing supernova of white light reached it.

  The Shannom-rah, which the Knower had been holding in its hand, began to fall. But before it could hit the floor, the growing light swallowed it up.

  And I’m next, Nikki had time to think. Would the light hurt? Would it disintegrate her on contact? Would it—

  And then the light reached her and she knew no more.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “Shall we land on the beach as Mistress Hellenix specified?”

  “What?” Nikki blinked and looked up. For just a second, she had a dizzying moment of disorientation.

  Where am I? What am I doing here?

  Then her vision seemed to clear and she remembered everything. She was on Mistress Hellenix’s long-range cruiser and her head chef and main bodyslave, Dark, was doing the piloting. Dark was a Kindred, she remembered—like the ones in the Mother Ship that orbited the Earth. He had helped Nikki navigate Mistress Hellenix’s life and now he was flying her safely home so that they could switch places and get back to their own lives.

  That’s right—I’m finally getting back to my own life. I’ll see Gary and the kids again—if he hasn’t already moved out, she reminded herself. The thought brought a mixture of happiness, anger, and sorrow. Her life certainly wasn’t going to be any better just because she’d had a week-long vacation on another planet in another woman’s life.

  But it wasn’t just the unhappy life she was going back to that bothered her. For some reason she felt a deep sadness welling up inside her—a feeling of loss so great it was nearly overwhelming. But what had she lost? Why was she so upset all of a sudden?

  “Nicole?” Dark said, frowning at her from the pilot’s seat. “Are you all right?”

  “All right? Of course I’m all right—why do you ask?” Nikki said, frowning.

  “Well…because you’re crying. Are you upset to be going back?” His dark bronze eyes were filled with concern for her. They shimmered—metallic in the dim light of the instrument panel.

  Metallic. I knew someone else with metallic eyes once but they weren’t bronze. They were…were…were what?

  Nikki couldn’t remember, although it felt as though the memory was just at the tip of her brain. That was weird. But no weirder than the fact that she seemed to be crying for no apparent reason.

  She wiped her eyes, which were indeed wet.

  “Am I upset to go back? No—no of course not. I want to see my boys,” she said firmly. “Though I’m sure Gary will be less than pleased to see me.”

  “Your unfaithful ex-mate, correct?” Dark said. He had been very kind in listening to all of her troubles on the flight home. After all they’d been through together, Nicole felt as though he was a good friend, though nothing more than that. Thank goodness she’d gotten out of that weird demonstration thing they wanted her to do at the Banquet of Pain or she certainly would have had to push the boundaries of their “friendship!” But as it was, she and Dark had been able to maintain a careful but friendly distance between them, which was only right since she was barely even divorced yet, Nikki thought.

  You didn’t maintain a distance with him—with the man with the silver eyes, whispered a little voice in her head. You gave him everything—gave him your heart.

  Nikki shook her head, trying to ge
t rid of the little voice. Man with the silver eyes? What was that all about? She didn’t know anyone with silver eyes!

  “Sorry,” she said, realizing that Dark was looking at her expectantly. “Yes, my unfaithful husband. The one whose been cheating on me and wants to leave me alone and sell the house and only see his sons every other week.”

  Just thinking about it made her mad—which was good. She was glad to have a distraction from the unrelenting sorrow that had welled up inside her for some strange reason.

  I’m fine, she told herself firmly. Everything is going to be okay. I’ll get back to my normal life and make things work somehow!

  Except she definitely wasn’t going to let Gary get away with selling the house out from under her, she decided. If he wanted out of their marriage, he was going to have to do right by her and the kids. And if—

  “We are approaching the coordinates Mistress Hellenix specified, Nicole,” Dark said, breaking her train of thought. “Do you want to land on the beach where you first found the E’lo stone, as she asked?”

  “What? Oh yes—I suppose so. Do you think we can trust her?” Nikki asked uncertainly. “I mean, you don’t think she’ll try anything, do you?”

  Dark got a grim look on his face.

  “She is scrupulously truthful when she makes a deal—I think because she feels she has no need to lie or cheat. She already gets everything she wants without having to resort to double-dealing.”

  Nikki saw his expression and felt bad. Here she was worrying about her own problems and her good friend was in a bad spot too.

  “Are you really going to go back with her?” she asked. “I mean, Earth is a whole new planet and the Kindred Mother Ship is orbiting our moon. This could be your chance to get away—to start fresh. I know the other Kindred would help you.”

  “Thank you, Nicole, but we’ve talked about this.” Dark shook his head sadly. “Mistress Hellenix has my younger brother—she captured him the same time she took me from my restaurant on Rigelis Prime. If I try to run from her, she will surely kill him. So I must go back.”