by Kyanna Skye
“I hope you’re right,” Kirin replied. “Don’t we lose part of who we are if we forget?”
“Yeah, if we could forget. Which we won’t. We still have the blood of our people within us.”
“And their fire,” Kirin said, completing the old maxim.
He longed to find a place where he could roam free in the sky, spread his wings and feel the fire burst through his body. There was no feeling like it, the freedom of being one with the elements of fire and air. Back home, it was believed a dragon had entered the last phase of life when they were no longer able to shift into the animal form. It was the beginning of death. As much as Kirin would keep a positive outlook in front of his men, he feared that this was what was already happening to them because they could not allow themselves to shift properly. Not a physical death, but a spiritual one.
Kirin and his men had been in search of a safe place for the better part of a month. While it was important to be selective, Kirin was very aware of the passage of time. Once they were assured they had found a good location for the settlement, there was still the matter of moving everyone there. He could only hope that people were sitting tight and following orders in their various corners of this alien world.
***
Not long after they arrived on the planet, Kirin had “convinced” an unassuming human to give them his SUV, and to even show the men how to drive it. The man walked away with a smile and no memory of the exchange. He was thankful to have secured the vehicle.
Kirin’s superiors had told him that some humans would be easier to influence than others; some would follow orders without thinking twice, while others were quite stubborn and were harder to influence through mind control. He’d been shocked at how easy it was to control the man.
“Smoking him still would have been faster,” Pol complained.
“messier though,” Fenn said.
“You’re complaining because you’d be the one who had to clean up the ashes. The youngest in the unit always gets the dirty work,” Jerrod sneered.
Jerrod and Pol both laughed. Fenn was not amused.
“It’s beside the point,” Kirin said. “We’re not here to kill these people for folly. We’re supposed to work without attracting attention.”
Pol sighed. “Yes, sir.”
There were a grudging agreement and a murmur from the men in the backseat. Kirin smiled. Sometimes he thought to be a good leader was much akin to being a father. There was a need for affection and toughness to make a Commander worthy of the loyalty his charges gave him.
***
According to their estimates, the lake they sought was one hundred miles away from their campsite, one of many in this region. It was treacherous land to reach, with mountain passes and lonely stretches of broken road before they dipped down into the valley. It would have been much easier to reach by air, but for the moment they were stuck using manmade modes of transportation.
As the water came into view, sparkling in the bright afternoon sunshine, Kirin felt his heart leap. There were similar reactions from the other men. Though they were silent, he could feel the movement of their emotions. This could be home. It could be a new beginning.
Kirin parked the SUV at the shore, and all the men climbed out and looked around. Before them was a mountain, the remnant of a long-dead volcano. The water was beautiful, reflecting back the blue sky. It was a well defensible space, only accessed by
“It reminds me of Mt. Spaura,” Tarik breathed.
“The home of kings,” Kirin affirmed.
Fenn was the first to toss aside his backpack and shoes, and go running into the water. The other men followed suit, even Tarik. They played and splashed in the water, hollered and screamed in joy, their voices echoing through the canyons. Kirin watched them from the shore, laughing. They needed this release.
He turned away from them a moment, took out his cell phone and placed a call. In lieu of a greeting, he gave his coordinates and last name instead. “I believe we’ve found a place,” he said.
“Remain where you are. We’re coming to your location, Commander.”
Tarik yelled.
The Blackhawk helicopters were silent, flying towards them so fast Kirin barely had time to move. Kirin had seen a white flash before everything went dark.
Chapter 2
Rayna Michaels double checked her reflection in the mirror, turning one way and then the other. She had bought a new suit for this day, but when the alarm clock rang at six that morning, the first thing she did was rush to the closet to see if she had anything better to wear. After making three wardrobe changes, she was back in her original pick: a black skirt with matching fitted blazer and a white, sleeveless blouse with a ruffle down the front. She thought about wearing heels but decided on flats instead. She had no idea how much walking she would need to do on her first day of work, but orientation usually meant being shown around the facility.
DynamicTech was a huge building. She’d read somewhere that it was over ten thousand square feet, with four levels, including a subterranean floor that held most of the company’s research laboratories. Though she was intimately familiar with the building, Rayna reminded herself she couldn’t expect to be treated differently than any other laboratory research assistant the company hired. And frankly, she didn’t want to be. As the daughter of one of the company’s founding members, Ashton Michaels, she had a lot to prove. Already there were rumors floating around about nepotism, and she couldn’t blame people for thinking so. She intended to prove anyone with doubts about her professionalism wrong.
One of the things that made her choice about what to wear even harder was that Rayna was a little shy about her body. She was curvy with generous, breasts, hips, and butt. Often times she felt like dressing for work was a fine line between wearing something close fitting enough to draw attention to the fact that she was voluptuous, or wearing clothing that hid her body under shapeless forms that made her look like a chunky square. Sighing, she decided the current outfit would have to do. She pinned her red-brown hair into a sensible bun, rimmed her green eyes with brown eyeliner, and applied a light pink gloss to her lips. With a nervous, breathless smile, she grabbed her purse and was out of the door.
It was only a twenty minute drive through morning traffic, but when she arrived at the building her hands were shaking. She cracked her knuckles, popped a peppermint into her mouth, and took a deep breath in. When she entered the lobby, her father was standing at the front desk. The receptionist was looking at him nervously.
“Well you’re early, so that’s good,” Ashton said to his daughter. “I hope you know I’m expecting you to do me proud,” he said coolly. Bending down towards her, he whispered in her ear. “Don’t blow this.”
“I won’t,” Rayna replied, with more certainty than she felt. This was her first job post graduate. Up until then, she had worked on a couple of internships at other companies and a couple summers at the local coffee shop. College students from all over the country applied to DynamicTech for jobs which they were roundly rejected for. She knew exactly the kind of talent she was up against. The company did major work for many contractors, including top secret work for the federal government. Her own security clearance had taken eight weeks to complete.
“Good!” Ashton patted her shoulder. “I’ll leave you to it then. Dr. Edwards will be here to take you on a tour,” he said. Rayna took a breath when he walked away. Rayna looked over at the receptionist. “Hi Tina,” she said.
“Hey Rayna,” Tina smiled. “If it makes you feel any better, he does that with all the new assistants.”
“Good to know,” Rayna admitted.
“Want some coffee while you wait?” Tina asked. “Dr. Edwards always takes longer than expected.
“No, I think I am amped up enough as it is.”
“Water, then?”
“Sure.”
True to form, Dr. Edwards did arrive late.
He whisked her away to a room with three other new employees.
A woman gave them a long list of forms to sign, and a speech about confidentiality and how they would soon be privy to sights and information they must not share with anyone. Once this formality was completed, he whisked her away from the others and onto a private tour. He explained that they would all work in different areas, with their own labs, and other staff to show them the ropes.
Rayna had known him since she was a small child, and it was a bit of a comfort to her that he was the one showing her around. He was a gray-haired, mild-mannered man with thick, black-rimmed glasses, which appeared to be the same ones he’d worn since she was five years old. Over the years he seemed not to have aged much, other than his hair, which was chestnut brown when he was younger. She remembered him having dinners at her house. Afterward, he would sit with her father in the den of their home, where they would debate science theories, ethics, and politics. Though she had never called him an uncle, Rayna thought of him that way.
It was Rayna’s understanding that he did orientation for all the newbies, but he spoke with the excitement one would expect from someone doing this for the first time.
He showed her through the upper levels; the administrative offices, marketing and development, and the secretarial pool, before taking her down to the subterranean floor.
“This is where the magic not only happens but is created,” he said as they took the elevator down. Rayna felt her pulse quicken. It was obviously a nerd reaction, but she was excited to see what was down there. She had never been. There were all kinds of stories about what might or might not be in the laboratory, and she wanted to know which were real. Even her father didn’t tell her these things. He always said it was indeed a matter of national security. He always said it with a wink and a grin, but something on gut level told Rayna her father was very serious. He wasn’t the kind of man to kid about anything.
“Your primary job will be to take specimens from the subjects on a daily basis, and to monitor any changes- chemical or behavioral- for each one. You’ll deal with five subjects alone, which is a procedure we have established over years of trial and error. One person will easily spot what several different people will miss.”
“Specimens?” Rayna asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Edwards said with a smile. He slid his key card against a reader attached to the wall, and a pair of steel doors slid open with a mechanical whoosh. This was the lab, the secret heart of the company.
The doctor walked her over to what looked like an aquarium, with a small, octopus-like creature floating inside it. Rayna blinked when she realized the squid was floating in the air, not water. Rayna guessed it couldn’t be longer than five inches in diameter. Its tentacles were pink. The creature swam towards the doctor as he tapped his fingers along the glass casing.
“We’re not encouraged to give our friends here names, but I do anyway. We spend so much time with them, it’s almost impossible not to. This is Johnny. He’s the smallest we have here but don’t be fooled. If he gets out of his casing its hell to get him back in. Last time that happened it took a week to find him, and he’d somehow managed to get into the air conditioning vent. Very slippery little fellow.”
Rayna wasn’t sure what to say to that. Dr. Edwards ushered her through another door.
“We keep each of these creatures in separate rooms,” he explained. “We can’t have them colluding or exciting each other.”
“That would insinuate they’re sentient.”
“Well of course they are!” the doctor exclaimed as if this should be completely obvious.
They came to stand in front of the next glass enclosure. “Umm. Is this alive?” Rayna asked.
The thing inside the glass appeared to be a blue, gelatinous goo, the same blue as window spray or toilet bowl cleaner. No sooner than the words were out of her mouth, the thing began to move, flowing up the glass. It curved into something like a face.
“It’s mimicking you,” Dr. Edwards said. “We don’t know why exactly it does that, but we believe it’s a social adaptation rather than a predatory behavior. This would be its way of saying hello.”
“It?” Rayna echoed.
“Well, we haven’t been able to determine the gender, or of this species even has distinct genders, to be honest. We believe it breaks off in pieces as a form of reproduction. We call it Mimi. You won’t have to open this one’s cage. We have a tube that will allow you to catch its secretions in a cup, and you’ll use that for your daily specimen.”
Rayna frowned. “How dangerous is this job?”
“Not at all if you do it correctly, dear,” the doctor replied.
She braced herself as they went through the next door.
This exhibit contained what looked to be an ordinary gorilla. Until he stood. Primates usually bent, their knuckles dragging the ground. This gorilla stood up straight and tall like any man. Apparently, he was also modest. He’d been supplied with a pair of tan shorts. He slipped his hands into his pockets and nodded congenially. “Dr. Edwards, good afternoon,” he said. “Miss,” he nodded towards Rayna.
“Um, hello sir,” Rayna answered. She couldn’t believe she was talking to a gorilla.
“His name is Poe,” Dr. Edwards informed Rayna. “You’ll find he is the friendliest of our guests. He’s been with us since he was an infant. One of our old research assistants used to read Poe to him regularly, and when he spoke for the first time, he quoted the author. So that’s what we named him. Poe, this is Rayna. She’ll be working with you. I do hope you’ll be nice to her when she attempts to draw your blood.”
“Yes. Pleased to meet you, Rayna,” the gorilla said.
“Same here,” Rayna muttered. She pinched herself, just in case she was in bed still sleeping. No such luck.
As they passed into the next room, Rayna couldn’t help but ask. “Where did we get these creatures from?”
“Different parts of the universe. Exactly which planets, I couldn’t tell you. That’s information which the military doesn’t give us.”
“Oh,” Rayna said. “Right.”
“Well, we’ve come to the last of your charges,” Dr. Edwards said. “I know it’s quite a lot to take in at once, but you’ll get used to it, dear.”
The doctor flipped a switch, and the lights came up inside the glass enclosure. This one was huge, the size of an airplane hangar. Rayna’s mouth dropped open. At first, she couldn’t believe what she was looking at. A huge dragon loomed above them, its eyes a brilliant amber. They were close enough to see scales and claws. The dragon opened its mouth, revealing a serpent like tongue and fangs.
“How am I supposed to get a sample from him?” Rayna cried. She trembled.
“Oh, he has a human form. You’ll take a blood draw from him when he’s not so testy. He’s only been here for forty-eight hours, and I suspect it hasn’t been a good couple of days for him. He’ll calm down.”
Rayna could have been imagining it- she highly suspected that she might have imagined the entire last thirty minutes of her life- but the dragon looked her in the eye. She was rooted to the spot as it inhaled, breast heaving, and then exhaled fire.
The glass (which was heat resistant) protected Rayna and Dr. Edwards.
Rayna still felt the heat. The animal’s eyes were angry, but she could have sworn there was something pleading in the look as well. She was reminded of a hysterical, terrified animal at the shelter who understood his number would soon be up, barking and hurling himself at walls and anyone who dared approach him. Begging for attention before his protests were too late.
Only this was no puppy. This was a thing with scales and teeth and fire, at least five stories high, tethered down by chains. A vision from the depths of hell itself.
Rayna felt like the floor beneath her was flipped upside down. She was going down fast but couldn’t do anything to stop herself. She was aware of the doctor’s arms coming around her before she hit the concrete floor.
“Oh, my!” he exclaimed. “Rayna, dear…!”
Well, this isn�
��t a good impression on my first day, she thought, as she slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter 3
Rayna woke up.
She was lying on a couch in a dim room, with a cool compress against her head. She sat up and was relieved to see Dr. Edwards smiling at her.
“How are you feeling?” he asked kindly.
“Better now,” Rayna said. “I am so sorry and embarrassed.”
“No need for that. You handled it well. I have seen others react much worse than you did.”
“My father will be humiliated once he finds out.”
“No, that’s not necessary,” he said. “As soon as you can give it another try, I don’t see any reason he should be told. We don’t say anything about what’s going on in the lab unless it’s something he absolutely must know, and I don’t think this minor mishap qualifies. Agreed?”
Rayna tried for a shaky smile. Even though she didn’t want to go back to the lab, she was aware her father would never let her hear the end of it if she didn’t. “Agreed,” she said.
“I will give you credit Rayna, we don’t usually have dragons in our keeping,” the doctor said as they made their way out of his office and down the hallway. “He is a magnificent beast! I am told he’s calm now. Since he is the one that really scared you, I think we should go back to him first.”
Excellent, Rayna thought. All I need is to fall over again to prove I’m not cut out for this job.
Rayna attempted to brace herself for what she would see when the door opened this time. Pulse racing, she held her breath.
The door opened, and she exhaled.
Standing near the glass was perhaps the most good-looking man she had ever seen. His amber eyes followed her across the room. With some shock, she realized this was the dragon she’d seen, in his human form.
He had black hair which laid in waves across his crown. His skin was tan. He had full lips, and aquiline nose, and a cleft chin. His thick muscles and long body were close to masculine perfection. And his muscular, sculpted form was completely nude. Rayna blushed. The dragon held her eyes. He seemed not at all uncomfortable naked in front of these two strangers.