It was the Harvesters' global web icon.
"We're in.” Almost giddy with relief, he grabbed Kiera's face between his hands and kissed her. It was only supposed to be a quick, congratulatory peck but the minute his lips touched hers, his original intentions were forgotten.
Her lips were soft and supple against his and he drank her in, lost in the taste of her. The sound of her soft moan drove him crazy. All he wanted to do was sink himself deep into her and forget all about Harvesters and missions.
Grabbing her by the upper arms, he gently eased her away, brushing his lips across hers once more to ease the sudden transition.
"God, you taste good. You don't know how much I don't want to stop but—“ he cleared his throat, “not the place and time."
She blinked as if trying to clear her head. "No, of course.”
He would have liked to study her expression a little longer to know what thoughts raced through her head, but she pulled the hood down to hide her expression "I should go watch the door and let you work."
She was right. He watched her leave and reluctantly turned back to his work. Now that he had accessed their global web, inserting his own code was easy enough.
"Done," he announced five minutes later. "Now we wait for it to finish running and then we can shut it down, with no one even knowing we were here."
"What's it doing?" She asked, stepping away from the door she'd been guarding.
"It's setting up a series of off-planet data relays that will systematically copy all their files. My ship’s computer will then access the data and analyze it.”
Once he'd learned their strengths and weaknesses, he'd destroy the entire race.
“Hello? Brother Nathzur? Are you there?” A voice called from the outer waiting room, catching them by surprise.
Their time had run out.
Before Nicoli could devise a plan of attack, Kiera pushed through the door, intercepting the man before he could come into the back room. Nicoli started to race after her, intent on protecting her, but stopped as he reached the door.
“Ah, there you are," Nicoli heard the man say. Through the crack in the door, he watched the man approach her.
“Time is running out,” the man said. “We must hurry before it is too late. Is everything ready?” He started for the back room but then stopped beside Kiera, giving her robe a gentle tug.
"Nathzur," he said in a playful, reproachful tone. "I know why I wear these disgusting things, but why are you still wearing one? Did the rejuvenation go poorly yesterday?"
Nicoli saw Kiera shake her head "no", which seemed what the Harvester expected.
"Good. I want you to come with me, in whatever capacity you choose.” He sighed. “It’s so exciting. A new beginning - a new life. I can hardly wait.” He glanced at a clock on the wall and Nicoli could barely make out the numbers. They were moving backwards.
"Now, let me see the body you've chose for me."
Pulling the robe over his head, Nicoli tossed it into the corner. His boots quickly followed. He barely had time to lie down on the gurney and close his eyes before the door opened and Kiera and the Harvester stepped into the room.
“Nathzur.” The Harvester's voice held a note of awe. “He is spectacular.”
Nicoli felt a gloved finger-tip touch the top of his shoulder before trailing down along his arm. When the Harvester ran out of arm, he moved his inspection to Nicoli's hip and continued down the length of his leg.
Nicoli was not a squeamish man, but still it took everything in him to tolerate the man's touch.
“Thank you for this fine gift - but what of you? Are you satisfied with your choice?"
Nicoli heard the man take a step and then heard Kiera gasp. Concerned for her safety, he opened his eyes just in time to see the Harvester pull the hood from her head.
Only the subtle shake of her head as her gaze briefly caught his kept him on the table instead of attacking the Harvester.
“It’s okay,” she said, perhaps realizing Nicoli's internal struggle.
The Harvester, of course, thought she was talking to him.
“Okay? Nathzur, by Ha’lah, your new body is better than okay. You are lovely.” His head fell forward slightly as he shook it. "You shame me by making the ultimate sacrifice." He reached for her hand with his gloved one. "Some of us, I know, had to become female. But I never thought you would volunteer. You did this for me? For us?”
She nodded.
“You've made me very happy my old friend. Our time at Rebirth should be fruitful indeed.” He clapped his hands together once. “Let’s get started.”
Nicoli snapped his eyes closed just as the Harvester turned. He heard the sound of the man's footsteps walk to the far end of the lab where they stopped. Then came the sound of another gurney being rolled into place beside Nicoli.
“I can no longer tolerate being in this useless body that can’t even respond properly to the sight of a desirable woman. Get what you need for the procedure while I ready myself."
Nicoli heard the tentative steps of Kiera as she walked across the room and made a show of rifling through the various drawers and hoped she found something there that could be used as a weapon.
“Nathzur, are you sure these bodies are Coronadian? With their dark hair, they don't match the profile.”
“What?” Kiera asked, pausing in her search. "Coronado. Yes, of course." It was spoken softly, with a note of awe.
The Harvester sighed. “Good. Brother Joh'nan was most specific that we only use the bodies taken from Coronado. Shall we get started, then? I'll just--”
“What is going on here?”
At the sound of the newcomer's voice, Nicoli automatically cracked open an eyelid to see a robed figure standing in the doorway. His hood was pushed back and the eyes looking out of the marred face stared accusingly first at the other Harvester and then at Kiera.
“Brenneth, will you explain to me what you are doing in my lab with this...this...”
“Nathzur? But I thought...” Brenneth's voice trailed off as he stepped away from Kiera and the gurney. He'd removed his hood and his gaze shifted back and forth between the Nathzur and Kiera in obvious confusion.
Knowing the situation was only going to get worse, Nicoli jumped off the gurney. Both Harvesters stumbled back, startled and staring at him in horror.
Nicoli gave them no time to recover before rushing the larger of the two men. Nathzur stood frozen in place, staring wide-eyed as Nicoli’s fist slammed into Brenneth's face with the sickening smack of flesh and bone hitting flesh and bone. The man’s eyes rolled up into his head as his body slowly collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
At the sight of his fallen friend, Nathzur started screaming.
"Quiet, or you're next," Nicoli growled, rounding on him.
The man fell abruptly silent, a quiet desperation reflected in his gaze which darted first to Nicoli and then to Kiera, and back again.
“Now what?” She asked, coming to stand beside Nicoli.
“Now? We kill them.”
Nathzur’s eyes grew round and a sound escaped his mouth just before he sank to the floor in a faint.
She looked down on the unmoving figure. “That was effective. But seriously, now what do we do?”
“We kill them.” Nicoli’s tone was cold and hard.
“You can’t.”
“Yes, I can.”
“That's not what I mean. I know you can physically, but it's not right.”
He stared at her in shock. "Have you forgotten the rooms downstairs? I found you in one of those rooms. These men are part of a race that goes from planet to planet kidnapping and killing hundreds of people and I guarantee you they didn't give a moment's thought to the morality of it. As far as I'm concerned, they don’t deserve to live.”
“You have no respect for life.”
“Of course I do. Just not theirs. I say, let the punishment fit the crime.”
Nicoli's glare met her pleading gaze. Everything
in him told him he was right, so why did he hesitate? Disgusted with his own reaction, he stepped forward planning to carry out his plan only to have Kiera block his way.
“I won't let you,” she warned him, raising hands clinched into fists like she intended to fight him.
In a move too fast for her to anticipate, he lifted her off the floor and set her aside. “I don’t fight women,” he growled.
It was obvious that she could never best him in a test of wills or force, but she had other weapons in her arsenal that were far more effective and she must have realized it because she moved in front of him again, but this time, pressed her hands flat against his chest and tilted her head up to meet his gaze.
"Please. For me. Don't do this."
Nicoli felt himself falling into the deep violet pools of her gaze and knew he was lost. Swearing under his breath, he managed to tear his gaze from hers. “This is a mistake.”
Stepping away from her, he missed the warmth of her touch immediately and would have given anything for a quiet moment devoid of danger to pull her into his arms and find out if his touch had the same dizzying effect on her as hers had on him.
But they didn't have that moment - and they wouldn't if they didn't leave soon. While Yanur might ignore his orders to leave the planet if he took too long returning to the ship, he doubted the young Michels would suffer the same pangs of leaving a close friend behind to certain death.
Grabbing Nuzthur’s still unconscious form by the ankles, he dragged it to the center of the room to lie beside Brenneth's.
“Help me get their robes off. We'll tear them into strips and use them to bind them. I don’t want them getting loose.”
A few minutes later, they stood looking down at the two unconscious aliens. The nude bodies of the Harvesters revealed that the patchwork skin grafting was not limited to just their faces. The robes had hidden other deformities as well – muscle atrophy in some places, abnormal swelling in others. There even seemed to be a skin rash, but Nicoli couldn't be sure and he wasn't about to get any closer in case it was contagious.
He gagged each man using the remaining pieces of robe and then dragged each one to the closet, safely concealing them behind the closed door.
By now, the computer's holographic image had disappeared. Nicoli hoped that meant his program had finished running. If it worked, then all of the Harvesters' data from their main database was being uploaded to an off-planet server, where Yanur and others could safely search it.
The entire process should only take seconds and once the data transfer was complete, a red-skull icon would appear.
"Shouldn't we go now?" Kiera asked, though for some reason, she wouldn’t look at him.
"Can't. Not yet.” Nicoli stared into space, willing the red skull to appear, feeling the passage of time like a heavy weight pressing him down.
When the red skull suddenly appeared, Nicoli let out a sigh. Entering a quick sequence of numbers, he activated the Holocaust virus which would work its way through the Harvesters' entire network and wipe it out. Once activated, there was no way to stop it.
“Okay,” he said. “Now we can go. In forty-eight hours, the entire system is going to crash and I want to be off this planet before that happens.”
He started for the door, stopping when he noticed she wasn't following. "What's the matter?"
"Forgetting something?" With her gaze still averted, she held out his robe and boots. "You might want to put these on."
Smiling to himself, he dressed quickly, remembering to pull the hood over his head. "Better?"
“That’s a matter of opinion,” he thought he heard her murmur, but she’d pulled her own hood over her head and he couldn’t be certain.
Finding an exit was easier than he expected and once again, the thought that everything was going much too smoothly, struck him.
He pushed the worry aside and focused on finding a form of transportation they could take back to the landing field. Exiting the building, he was please to find they were in a parking lot. Five hover-shuttles stood waiting.
“Shall we?” Nicoli asked, gesturing to one.
“Do you know how to fly one of these?”
“Of course.” He walked over to the first and found it locked. He tried the second and third with the same result. The hatch of the fourth shuttle, however, opened easily.
They wasted no time climbing aboard with Nicoli taking the pilot’s seat.
“Ready?” He studied the controls for a moment and then turned to make sure Kiera was securely strapped in beside him. Satisfied, he looked for a way to engage the engines. Most modern societies used electronic scanners and ID tags, but he hadn't found any tags in the Harvester robes and a thorough look at the console revealed no scanner on the panel. There were plenty of lighted buttons though.
"This might take a minute," he said, trying to figure out what the symbols on the buttons meant.
Before he could stop her, Kiera reached out and pressed a series of buttons. "Whoa - are you crazy? You don't know what--"
The sound of the engines roaring to life cut off his words and he stared at her, impressed despite himself.
She smiled. "Seemed like the thing to do."
She was full of mysteries and he realized he was looking forward to unraveling them.
Nicoli flipped the lever to raise the craft off the ground. As it did, the locks on the outer hatch doors automatically engaged, causing the two of them to exchange questioning looks. Without having to be asked, she walked back to the doors and tried to unlock them.
“It’s no use,” she said, coming back to sit next to him. “They won’t budge.”
Then the shuttle started moving. Using the steering column, Nicoli steered toward the airfield where the Icarus waited. The shuttle's response was sluggish and when it did finally change course, it was not toward the airfield.
Nicoli tried to alter its direction but nothing he did had any effect. He didn't have to tell her they were in trouble, trapped in a vehicle that was taking them to an unknown destination; she'd been watching.
"Now what?" she asked as the shuttle picked up speed.
"Now we go for a ride."
Chapter 10
“Welcome to Rebirth. My name is Tomas and I’ll be your Acclimation Guide.”
The young man standing outside the newly landed shuttle smiled up at Nicoli and Kiera who were staring at him out the side viewport. He looked to be in his early twenties, with a clear, smooth complexion Nicoli had yet to see on any Harvester and his sparsely clothed body boasted excellent health and a superior physique. Beneath the sun’s rays, the man’s blond hair shone like a halo about his head which, in turn, caused his violet-colored eyes to sparkle like two gemstones. Nicoli couldn't help but notice their color was the same as Kiera's the same color as all the eyes of the donors who'd been in that room It was further proof that Nicoli's suspicion was valid.
Yanur may have discovered how to extract a person's life essence from its body, but the Harvesters had learned how to transfer that life essence into a different body altogether.
Nicoli had arrived at this conclusion in the last two hours. Trapped in the shuttle, all attempts to alter or terminate their course having failed, there'd been little else to do but think. That's when the conversation back at the lab had replayed itself in his head and he'd realized what the Harvesters were doing. He'd kept his suspicions to himself, though. Kiera already had enough to worry about.
She'd spent the majority of the flight staring out the front viewport. Not that there had been much to see once they'd flown away from the city. Just vast stretches of barren ground, until they'd arrived at this remote encampment.
When the shuttle began its descent, Nicoli and Kiera had pulled their hoods over their heads and helplessly waited while the shuttle approached the small airfield and landed. The locks had automatically disengaged when the engines shut down, but upon seeing the welcoming party waiting for them, neither Nicoli nor Kiera had made an effort to lea
ve the ship.
Now seeing Tomas move toward the hatch with the clear intent of opening it, Nicoli rose from his seat and moved to put himself between the opening door and Kiera.
“Please feel safe, Brothers,” Tomas said, upon seeing Nicoli's defensive stance. "You are among friends." He smiled again and gestured toward their robes. "We will find you more suitable clothing shortly, but please, remove your hoods. We have no need to cover our faces here."
With only a slight hesitation, Nicoli uncovered his head and then nodded for Kiera to follow suit. For a long moment, Tomas simply stared.
“Very nice,” he finally said. “Brothers Brenneth and Nathzur, I presume? We expected you tomorrow morning, but I can understand why you came earlier. You’ll wish to be partners, but should you have a change of mind,” he looked pointedly at Kiera, “please don’t hesitate to ask for me. I assure you, I may look young, but I get the job done – to everyone’s mutual satisfaction.” He gave a small chuckle. “Now, if you’ll come with me?” He turned to leave, clearly expecting them to follow.
Nicoli exchanged glances with Kiera. He could tell she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of leaving the shuttle, but resisting the invitation would alarm their host. Besides, Nicoli saw this as an opportunity to learn more. If his suspicion was correct, then introducing the Holocaust virus into the computer system hadn’t been an exercise in overkill.
Nicoli held his hand out to her. “Shall we?”
Her hand fit perfectly in his. Leading her off the shuttle, he paused outside the hatch to look around. The small encampment lay at the far end of the landing field and it was surrounded by - nothing; kilometers of nothing in all directions.
Still holding hands, they followed after their host, who was already heading across the landing field.
“Who you were is no longer important,” Tomas said once they’d caught up to him. “You are Reborn," - he emphasized the word - "and we ask that you not discuss your former identities while you’re here. You’ll be given an identification band.” He held up his arm to show them the small metal band around his wrist. “And you'll be asked to select a new name. This is a fresh start for all of us.” He smiled over his shoulder, then continued on.
Too Close to the Sun (The Sun 1) Page 11