by T. M. Catron
Doyle snorted. “It’s not a bear at the zoo. You are looking at one of the most intelligent beings in the galaxy.”
The Glyph began following Nelson around the cage as he made another turn around the outside.
“What’s it doing?” Mina asked.
Grace shuddered. “Sizing him up.”
At six feet six, Lincoln was taller than the Glyph, but the monster outweighed him considerably. Just the thought of coming into contact with its long claws made Lincoln shudder too.
“If it can’t get out,” Alvarez said, “why are you all afraid of it?”
All four hybrids turned to her. She stared back at them in defiance. Lincoln was beginning to think all of his team were off their rockers. They were needlessly antagonizing their hosts. And Lincoln didn’t think the hybrids would appreciate it very much.
Alvarez glanced at Lincoln and saw the look on his face. Then she turned back to Doyle. “It’s pretty obvious you’re just as terrified of having it here as it is of being here.”
A muscle twitched in Doyle’s neck as he considered her. Then he said, “You’ve lived a privileged life, Alvarez.”
“Me? Hardly.”
“Have you ever been a slave?”
“Well, no.”
“Then I would call that privileged. You can’t possibly understand our fear.”
“Help me understand, then.”
Doyle turned back to look at the Glyph. “We weren’t even allowed to look directly at them. Can you imagine taking orders from a master you could never see? From the moment we were born, they dictated our every move. Where we slept, ate, how we thought. And now… The situation is reversed.”
“And yet you don’t seem to mind telling the rest of us what to do,” Nelson said as he finished a final round of the cage.
“Yes, but you’re free to go,” Doyle said. “I don’t expect you to understand—never been in the military, have you?”
Nelson frowned. “It wasn’t for me.”
“That’s obvious.”
But Nelson had a point. As Lincoln stood watching the Glyph, he felt a little bit sorry for the creature.
Until it began staring at the group without blinking. Its gaze slid from Lincoln to his team, then on to the hybrids. Finally, it settled on Doyle and Mina. Lincoln leaned forward and tapped on the glass—er, wall. Anything to stop it from analyzing Mina as it did. But the Glyph kept staring.
Mina didn’t back down, but she glanced up at Doyle, and another look of understanding passed between them. Those looks were starting to creep Lincoln out.
“Why’s it so small?” he asked. “The others were bigger.”
“We don’t know,” Grace said, shaking off her revulsion and stepping away from the glass, forcing Lincoln to move back with her. She acted as if she’d just come out of a trance. “Doyle?”
“It’s young. I didn’t know the Condarri had offspring too.”
“Well that only makes sense,” Mina said, smiling. “Where did you think they came from?”
“They live to be very old, I think. But all the Condarri are asexual.”
“Even asexual creatures reproduce,” Carter said.
“Yes, but I always assumed cloning.”
“Why?” Lincoln asked.
“Because they are all exactly the same. Except for their adarria, which we know aren’t actually Condarri. If the Condarri were reproducing like any Earth species, there would still be some differentiation. Or at least mutation.”
Nelson shrugged. “So, they kill any that aren’t up to standard. Sounds like something they’d do. Or they don’t reproduce like any Earth species. Do we know enough about them to draw any conclusions concerning their biology?”
“They successfully developed human-Condarri hybrids,” Grace said, “so there’s that.”
“Speaking of hybrids,” Alvarez said, “what happens next?”
She almost sounded eager. Lincoln and Carter stared at her. What had happened aboard the Nomad?
“We need tissue samples from the Glyph,” Grace said.
“And how are you going to get those?” Lincoln asked.
Grace looked at Doyle. “We don’t have anything to knock it out with.”
Doyle frowned.
The Glyph put its hands on the glass and leaned on it. It was still staring at Mina. Lincoln noticed that she grabbed Doyle’s hand before looking away.
Then Mina gasped and turned back to the Glyph. Everyone looked at her.
“What?” Lincoln asked.
“Did you see that?”
The Glyph's adarria were slowly shifting, but other than that, Lincoln couldn’t see that anything had changed. It was still staring at Mina, its chest heaving as if it were still getting over the exertion from its tantrum. Then he paused, watching its chest. Lincoln looked at Doyle, hoping for someone to shed some light on the mystery.
But Doyle stood with his mouth open. He stared at the Glyph’s chest too, putting his hand on the glass as if to support himself.
“What is it?” Lincoln finally asked in irritation.
“It’s breathing,” Mina said.
“So what? Don’t we need it alive?”
She shook her head.
Then Doyle said, “It’s breathing oxygen.”
Doyle couldn’t believe it. But the young Condarri was unmistakably breathing the air of the chamber.
“Why is this significant?” Lincoln asked.
“It means,” Doyle said, “that the Condarri have evolved. They don’t need oxygen—or they didn’t.”
He turned to Grace. “Pump the oxygen out of there. See what happens.”
Grace transferred Lincoln to Nick’s shoulder. Then she walked away, disappearing among the other empty chambers of the detention center. Nick eyed Lincoln like he was a piece of trash stuck to his shoe. Doyle caught Nick’s eye, and the hybrid had the decency to look chastised.
“What if you kill it?” Mina asked.
“We won’t.”
With a whoosh, the chamber evacuated its atmosphere. The Glyph screeched again and then began hissing at Doyle.
Traitor!
That’s all it had said since the moment they’d brought it aboard. The force with which it spoke had diminished for Doyle. Apparently, the smaller ones didn’t have the power of a full-sized Condarri. Usually, their speech could send a hybrid to his knees.
Traitor! Its mouth opened wide, baring its fangs at Doyle and then Mina. Doyle was fascinated by the way it had fixated on her. Did it have something to do with what had happened on the beach?
The Glyph didn’t exhibit any more distress since the oxygen had left. Doyle moved back to the glass.
“You’re like the adults too, aren’t you? You can breathe oxygen, or do without it. How?”
“Traitor!” it screamed. To the humans, its voice sounded like water. But Doyle had no trouble understanding it.
He put both hands on the glass, looking it straight in the eye. This seemed to infuriate it even more. It hauled back and rushed the wall, throwing its entire body up against the glass. The whole cell shuddered with its force.
Doyle smiled. If you ever get out of there, come and find me.
The Condarri threw itself against the glass again and paused. Gladly, it said.
Mina moved up beside him then. The creature looked from Doyle to her, then back to him.
“What’s really going to happen to it?” she whispered.
“Not feeling sorry for it, are you?”
But one glance at her face told Doyle that’s exactly how she was feeling. He needed to get her out of here; she didn’t need to form any sympathy for it.
“What did it say to you?” he asked.
“Nothing. It hasn’t said anything. Why does it keep staring at me?”
“It knows something’s different about you.”
“Nothing’s different about me. Not really.”
Don’t let it know you have adarre.
Mina’s face reddened.
<
br /> With a sinking feeling, Doyle realized she already had. When? On the beach? He became alarmed, needed to get her out of there. But he also didn’t want to alert the others about her predicament.
“Want me to leave the atmosphere at its current level, Dar Ceylin?” Grace asked, returning from the control panel.
“I don’t know why it would matter. But I’m curious. Change it to Earth’s atmosphere. Let’s see what happens.”
He stepped away from the glass. “In the meantime, Nick and Li are going to prepare the labs to receive the Glyph’s tissue samples. I don’t know how this development will affect our goals, so be prepared to gather several samples. Once I restrain it with the aether, we’ll need to move quickly, just in case.”
Nick and Li nodded and trotted off to the lab.
A few minutes later, Doyle led them back to the hospital. Grace supported Lincoln once again. His hobbling made their going slow. Doyle wanted to go on ahead. But he needed to be present. Just in case.
He’d never doubted his subordinates before. Part of going rogue, he supposed, was never really trusting any of them again. If they had betrayed Condar, would they betray him?
They betrayed Condar for you.
“I’m sorry,” Mina said, coming up beside him.
He sped up until they were a few more paces ahead of everyone else. Mindful of Grace behind and her superhuman hearing, he said, Did you speak to the Glyph with your adarre?
Yes, I’m sorry! I was just so scared.
I was on my way.
But you weren’t there.
I know. But now it could tell any one of these hybrids at any time.
And then what?
Doyle looked at her, but he kept walking. Any hybrid who even looks at you the wrong way won’t ever look at you again.
Mina looked alarmed. Do I even want to know what you mean by that?
Probably not.
At the door to the hospital, Alvarez stopped Doyle. “What exactly is the procedure for making hybrids? How did the invaders do it?”
“The procedure is minimally invasive. From what I’ve found out, they can use any part of human tissue and form the embryo in the lab. They’ve unlocked genetic mysteries humans have been trying to solve for decades.”
“So I could donate blood, and you could use it to make hybrids? And you know how it all works?”
“Blood is ideal since the body replaces it quickly. I think they left the original humans alive for some time so they could have a fairly unlimited supply of DNA.”
Alvarez shivered.
“Doesn’t sound great, does it?”
“No. You know how it all works? You could duplicate their results?”
“I can simply because everything is already set up in the lab. At some point, the Condarri turned the lab into a factory. A computer takes care of everything, right up until birth. I don’t know how it all works and at the moment, I don’t have to. We can do what we need without even getting our hands dirty.”
Alvarez snorted. “Aside from the ethical concerns.”
“Am I that different from you, Alvarez? Look, the hybrids like to say they are half-human, but they’re obviously more human than anything else. If I said we were genetically enhanced humans, using DNA from a different race, would it make you feel better?”
She sighed. “So, it was more like cloning, with some changes.”
Doyle nodded. “Literally all they needed was the human genetic code, taken from the nuclei of adult cells. Everything else is synthesized.”
Nelson had been listening from behind them. “What about the stories of alien abductions and people being returned after procedures?”
Doyle shook his head. “All were false, as far as I know. Any humans that were taken would have lived out their last days on Condar’s ship or the Factory. Sorry, Nelson.”
Alvarez humphed and went to argue with Lincoln about lying down on his hospital table.
Nelson had suggested they bring the mattresses from the Nomad, and someone had brought them up and already left them with blankets. The dormitory had the rest. Doyle led the other three back there.
When they arrived, Mina looked like she couldn’t wait to try her mattress out. Doyle wished he’d had one brought up too, but Dar Ceylin couldn’t be seen sleeping on a mattress. He sighed. They’d all grown more comfortable on Earth than any of them wanted to admit.
He thought about staying with Mina. He wanted to. When had that happened?
But Doyle knew exactly when it had happened, although he wasn’t ready to tell her. He missed sleeping near her in the woods. Missed listening to her breathe and seeing her wake in the morning.
He wanted to tell her how he felt, but something was stopping him. Maybe it was the voice in the back of his mind that sounded like hers. It kept telling him that he hadn’t earned her yet. Sometimes, the voice was almost audible.
Steeling himself against their parting, Doyle turned to leave.
“Hey,” she whispered, following him to the door.
“I thought you wanted to rest.”
“I do. I’m so tired my bones hurt.”
Doyle glanced at Nelson, who was closest. But he was already settling into his own bunk and pulling a blanket over his head. Carter had disappeared further down. Doyle hesitated. Mina hadn’t wanted him to touch her. She’d been angry. And he wasn’t going to make the mistake again of treating her like another one of his hybrids.
But she surprised him by wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him tight.
“Thank you,” she whispered into his chest. “I should have said it earlier. It seems like I’m always thanking you for saving my life. I hope someday I can repay you.”
Doyle felt strange whenever Mina held him. He’d never felt warmth—not from anybody. Not Grace or the other hybrids, not Calla, and certainly not the Condarri. Only the adarria had come close, when Doyle was a small, dejected offspring. When Mina held him, Doyle was safe. Before then, he hadn’t even known he was afraid.
He wrapped his arms around her and said, “I think you already have.”
Mina looked up at him. A question was forming. He could read it in her eyes.
Doyle smiled and shook his head. Then he took a chance and kissed her forehead. “I’ve got to go. Please sleep?”
She nodded.
Reluctantly, he let go of her. And he didn’t look back as he walked out. His resolve was quickly fading when it came to Mina. If he didn’t keep a clear head, he’d make a mistake.
And he couldn’t afford any of those.
Later, Doyle leaned against the wall of the training room.
Let me help you, he told the adarria.
Nothing.
The adarria on the Factory were different from the ones he and Mina had discovered in the bunker. What was different? Although these seemed to have more free will now than previously, they hadn’t responded to his questions.
Then help me.
Still nothing.
He dozed standing, knowing he should get some real sleep but unable to turn off his mind long enough to do it. Then, the dream started.
Fire. Always fire. Burning everything, especially him. But it didn’t hurt.
Dar Ceylin.
Yes?
Your answer is on Condar.
Doyle jerked awake. The room was quiet. The adarria were quiet.
What’s on Condar?
But his question wasn’t answered. He would have thought he was dreaming if he hadn’t felt the adarria. They had spoken to him.
Doyle stood and paced around the room, running a hand over his face and feeling the stubble there. Condar? He must have misunderstood.
But he hadn’t.
Why wouldn’t they just tell him? He couldn’t leave now. They’d barely begun with the young Condarri. And what would he do with the humans while he was gone?
Mina thought Doyle had been acting strangely. He seemed preoccupied—why? She slept a few hours then rose to pace up and down the dorm
itory, thinking about the conversation she’d heard between Alvarez and Doyle. She was shocked Alvarez had even asked. Was she changing her mind about helping the hybrids? Mina hadn’t exactly volunteered, but she had assumed she would be the first to do it, not Alvarez.
If Alvarez saw things Doyle’s way, what was holding Mina back? She wanted to question Doyle further, but he’d disappeared again.
She stopped at the door, which was sealed by the aether. The adarria lined the doorway and the wall. Would they carry a message to him?
A light flashed from behind.
“Mina? What are you doing?”
She turned to see Nelson.
“Just thinking. Can’t sleep?”
“You know, before I saw aliens swoop down out of the sky, I thought I’d love to see the inside of a spaceship. Now all I can think about is being warm, having light, and eating normal food. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. Why can’t they have light?”
Mina smiled. He didn’t seem too upset. Actually, Nelson’s attitude had improved since coming on board.
He smiled back. “You think Grace has a thing for Lincoln?”
Mina smirked. “I have no idea. Why do you ask?”
He shrugged and then grinned like a little boy. “Do you think hybrids would even go for humans?”
Mina considered whether Nelson was blind, whether he was being coy about her thing with Doyle, or whether she and Doyle had just hidden their feelings well. Did Doyle have feelings?
Yes, he’d made that clear.
“Do you?” asked Nelson, interrupting her thoughts.
“Are you asking if I think Grace would give you a chance, Nelson? Because I have no idea. I don’t know her any better than you.”
“I thought maybe since you and Doyle seemed close, you could give me some insight.”
Mina sniffed. “I can’t really.”
“Don’t get offended.”
“I’m not offended.”
Nelson sank onto the nearest bunk. “I wish we could wander around on our own. The longer we sit here waiting, the more useless we become.”
“Maybe. I’m guessing you wouldn’t be upset if you had to sit around waiting in the hospital wing.”
Nelson smiled. “I should have volunteered to keep Lincoln company, huh?”