Before he could attempt to stop it, his uncle’s words spiked Xenon’s flame. As a prince who was second in line to rule, he wasn’t used to being addressed as an underling by any drakkon. Even his brother, who bothered not to mask his red and black flame when it came to his younger brother, had never addressed him as such.
His uncle, however, was correct. Xenon was technically but an assistant to the Lead Investigator on this trip. Also, if anyone could solve the female’s genetic mystery, it would be his uncle. He had studied all manner of sciences before and after being given the title of Royal Overlord. And during his last speech to his people, Xenon’s father had claimed that his youngest son had inherited his brother’s curious mind, which was why he decided to accompany his uncle and cousin on this expedition.
Those words had been mostly untrue save for the curious part. And in this case, one curious mind could not deny the other. Especially when said curious mind was technically in charge of this trip.
In the end, Xenon agreed to bring the female anomaly to his uncle with a sharp nod.
But then his uncle said, “As soon as you can, Prince of Drakkon.” Like many on the trip, his uncle insisted on using Xenon’s royal title as opposed to the one assigned him for the mission. “This might prove the Royal Geneticist performed experiments not included in his initial report, and if that be the case, we can declare this investigation null and void.”
His uncle’s flame colored in a way that suggested the idea of ending the investigation before it had even begun appealed to him. “Yes, I will make my own study of her. And if necessary, I will cut her open to ensure the Royal Geneticist didn’t splice her genes to ensure a false positive result for a civilized evolution in his report.”
Cut her open. That meant his uncle would euthanize the female anomaly to conduct a thorough autopsy. The thought did not sit well with Xenon. And it continued to distract him even after he took wing. Flying north and then east, back toward his glacier habitat.
The sleeping drugs he tubed into the female would wear off in less than half a day’s turn of the planet. And he’d already risked much by letting her remain alone in his lab while he flew to consult with his uncle. It wouldn’t do to have Female 7-133 wake up on her own.
Not that it mattered, he thought grimly. He was under explicit orders to bring her back to his uncle. She would spend the remainder of her days being poked and prodded on a Zone 6 examination table…and that was only if his uncle decided not to euthanize her from the start.
After all, if she were an outlier side experiment belonging to the Royal Geneticist, as his uncle suspected she might be, that would be it for their thousand-year study. The Royal Geneticist’s claims of having successfully created a shifting sub-species with the utmost of scientific care would be summarily dismissed. And royal ships would be dispatched to the planet to begin the long-delayed hunt.
Xenon should not care how this study turned out either way. Unlike his brother, he did not consider anthros such a rare delicacy. Nor did he appreciate that they were something only royal drakkon could eat. This hunting business struck Xenon as elitist and silly. He was much more interested in conducting his research and experiments on Group 7, which could lead to fertility breakthroughs on his home planet. But other than that, he had no interest in the Royal Geneticist’s spliced hunting beasts.
Indeed, he should be relieved at the chance to return to his planet, where he could study the research he had gathered. Quietly, and without the nuisance that came with living in proximity to Experiment Group 7. He should be happy his uncle might be that much closer to truncating this trip. And yet…
The thought of the large lupin female being euthanized, so the drakkon on this mission might return home earlier, turned his flame a strange mix of colors.
His thoughts circled back to his first examination of her. As they had so often over the last few day cycles. Mostly he was perplexed at how his male works had responded to her. They had never stirred so before. Not on this planet, nor the one he called home.
He could not help but think how the formerly dormant flesh beneath his soft underbelly had risen. Seeming to swell, much like that of the advanced primates he’d been studying. The ones who seemed to have only two prime directives: eating and breeding. Indeed, though the Royal Geneticist had claimed these lupins a worthy species, Xenon had yet to observe them do anything that didn’t pertain to those two imperatives.
Still, the glacier station had seemed…different from the moment he’d escorted the female into it. Better somehow. Less isolated. Even after he’d put her to sleep. After the initial consult, he was certain he would be the one to run further experiments on her. In truth, he’d been excited at the prospect of keeping her there for a little longer before handing her over to the Group 7 wolves for mating.
Also…
He shook his head, not liking the direction of the latter thought much. But his dislike did not change the truth of it. And he had the distinct feeling when he reshelled and went back into his lab, he’d find his male works swollen with the sweet pain he could not quite identify—but also could not say he disliked.
Either way, he suspected the problems with his long dormant male works would abate once he’d delivered the female anomaly to his uncle’s cave. I should be relieved to almost be rid of her, he thought, when his glacier lab appeared over the horizon.
Yet, he wasn’t. In fact, the closer he got to the Zone 7 lab, the more dread pooled in his belly.
Eat. He should eat, he thought to himself when he saw a pack of hooved tundra beasts sipping at the small stream he’d redirected to flow through the station. They were but a few feet from the entrance, which was strange. Not as strange as the female anomaly, of course. But usually the pack animals did not veer so close to his station, perhaps sensing something strange and unnatural about both the stream and the structure it ran through.
But he had not hunted while so focused on his study of Female 7-133, and real meat would be a welcome diversion from the peculiar emotions upsetting his flame.
He dived toward the sure to be delicious midday snack, neatly cooking one of the bigger hooved tundra beasts before he touched ground.
However, even as he ate, he couldn’t stop himself thinking of her. He found himself wanting to both rush back into his glacier habitat, and delay his meal so it would be that much longer before he was compelled to wing her back to his uncle’s lab.
In fact, so distracted was he by the dilemma, he did not sense the group of anthrohominids sneaking up behind him with raised spears. Not until it was too late.
7
“Thank God you’re okay!”
The facility nurse barely had time to announce Fensa’s visitor before Koko pushed past her. She ran over to Fensa’s bed and grabbed her hand. “I was so worried when I got the call.”
The usual guilt rose inside of Fensa as her cousin scanned her with worried brown eyes.
The only reason she’d been assigned as Fensa’s emergency contact was she was quite literally her closest living relative—at least in terms of proximity. She lived only a few blocks away in student housing. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in history at Arizona Mountains University, Koko hoped to follow in the footsteps of her famous historian aunt, Alisha Ataneq-Nightwolf.
However, with one call from the facility, Koko had dropped everything to check on Fensa.
“I’m okay,” Fensa assured her.
“You have fifteen minutes,” the nurse said, before slamming out of the room.
Tu Wulfkonig had made a handsome donation to the facility to get Fensa a last-minute room here the summer after she turned eighteen. But it wasn’t like the nurses saw any of that extra bribe money. To them, Fensa was just another pain in the ass patient who’d tried to escape from the facility a record sixteen times in four years.
“You’ll have to lay low for a while,” Ola advised Fensa behind Koko’s back. She was standing in the corner since the facility didn’t allow Fensa to keep a chai
r in her room. “They’re going to be watching you like a hawk from now on.”
“What happened?” Koko asked after the nurse was gone. “I thought we talked about this after the last time you tried to run away. You were going to stay on your meds. Work with the doctors so you could finally start at U of A with me. I was hoping we could look for apartments together next summer.”
“I know,” Fensa answered, guilt curdling her stomach. Because Lord knew she’d rather be living in an apartment with Koko, her favorite cousin and best friend, aside from Ola. But...
“Is this because of what happened with Knud?”
What happened with Knud.
She hated how the facility personnel and everyone who’d visited her since the incident refused to call it what it was. Knud’s suicide.
And yes, she’d stop taking her meds shortly after finding her cousin hanging from the ceiling of his room, with no explanation but, “I’M SORRY” written on the wall above his cot with a soft tipped marker. Nothing like watching your dead cousin swing from a belt he’d stolen off a facility worker, unable to feel real horror because of all the emotion modifiers in your system, to make you second guess your medication.
“You know how sensitive she is, especially when it comes to you. If you tell her that, she’s going to make you talk about it, Fenny,” Ola pointed out before Fensa could answer her cousin’s question with the truth.
So Fensa replied with a sort of truth. “I just…the drugs make me so drowsy. And I hate…”
She trailed off, knowing the way she wanted to finish that sentence would only worry Koko more. Instead, she said, “I hate not feeling like myself.”
“I bet,” Koko answered, her tone sympathetic. “But the drugs are the only thing that will allow you to live a normal life. If you just stick with the program, they’ll let you out of here with only six more months of observation. Then you can pursue your theoretical physics degree. Maybe even get married someday—no, don’t roll your eyes at me. I’m serious! There is so much life for you beyond these walls, Fensa. You have no idea how great it could be if you just stopped running away, and started working with the doctors.”
“Just tell her you’re sorry and she’s right,” Ola said behind Koko’s back. “That’s all she wants to hear.”
“I’m sorry…and you’re right,” Fensa repeated dutifully. “I’ll try harder.”
“Good,” Koko said. “Maybe I can bust you out of here for spring break, and we’ll visit my sister in Alaska. She’s been telling me all about this crazy new animatronic park King Nago invested in. They’ve got these sexbots, but check it out! Instead of tongues, they have vibrating dildos! Like eeeee-eeee—eeenh!”
Both Fensa and Ola fell out laughing when Koko waggled her tongue around while making an electronic vibration sound.
“Fenny, that sounds like fun!” Ola said, cackling behind Koko. “You need to ditch my ass and go see about that!”
But Fensa suddenly stopped laughing, a new memory coming back to her.
“What’s wrong?” Koko asked off of Fensa’s stricken look. “I know you’re a virgin, but really this is just a few steps up from getting yourself off with a vibrator. Seriously, nothing to be afraid of.”
Fensa shook her head, honestly confused. But maybe the facility hadn’t told Koko the details of her latest escape attempt when they called her.
“Koko, I actually stumbled into an adult animatronic park yesterday,” she confessed. “That was where they found me…I think. I just got…I don’t know…lost, maybe? Really lost. In this weird theme park with these little Inuit shifters with spears. But here’s a story you’ll love. They had this weird sexbot. It totally went down on me, and he had a forked tongue!”
Koko’s forehead scrunched. “A forked tongue,” she repeated. “That’s a strange customization.”
“I know, right?!” Fensa agreed. “And get this! He had, like, a dick. Like a real and GIGANTIC dick. I could feel it against my stomach. I couldn’t believe it!”
Fensa expected Koko to act just as shocked as she’d been, but she only stared at Fensa, her face upset to the point of looking haggard.
“Koko? Are you okay?” Fensa asked.
But Koko shook her head, and Fensa could now see tears brimming in her eyes. “Koko, what’s wrong? Tell me, so I can fix it!”
“You can’t fix it,” Ola said behind Koko, her face suddenly just as grim.
“Robots don’t have dicks,” Koko whispered at the same time.
“What? Oh that…yeah, that’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Fensa explained. “This place was so freaking weird and illegal. You’ve never seen anything like it.”
“No, Fensa, you’ve never seen anything like it,” Koko said, dropping her hand.
And then a nurse appeared in the doorway. “It’s time for you to go,” she informed Koko. Her annoyed eyes then landed on Fensa. “And it’s time for you to wake up.”
“What?” Fensa asked, so confused, she wondered if she was having a weird reaction to the meds they’d forced her to start taking again.
But no, Ola was still there. Still standing in the corner. Her face as grim as an undertaker’s. “It’s time to wake up, Fensa,” she repeated after the nurse.
“But—” started Fensa. Then she remembered: Ola was missing. “Ola, where were you yesterday? Why couldn’t I find you?”
“It’s time to wake up!” Ola shouted. “Wake up, Fensa! Wake up right fucking now!”
Fensa woke with a start in a hot, dark room—only to choke on her own gasp as what felt like a slimy tentacle snaked out of her mouth. What came next was even worse.
Her hips jerked in shock at a strong, but painless, tugging sensation as another tentacle slid out of her nether regions.
What. The. Fenrir. Wolf?
Where am I? When am I? she wondered, trying to make sense of the pitch black. And why is it so damn hot? Was she sick? Had facility workers finding her at the time gate, and native shifters with spears, and the Keanu-esque giant been nothing but a fever dream?
She sat up, naked and more than a little afraid. But then bright blue lit up the lab walls, and she could finally see…
An outfit? Yes, an outfit. It hung from a hook on what looked like a standing rack made of gold. A knee-length hide shirt and leather pants. And right below them on the glowing blue ground, a pair of furry boots that looked like a pair of Uggs and traditional moccasins had a baby. But they didn’t smell at all like the material they appeared to be made from. More like…industrial chemicals, but not the same ones she’d smelled on fake leather and suede in her own time.
Whatever—the clothes and boots looked warm enough, so she’d wear them. Even though staying warm was less of a priority in the overly warm room. But never mind, she needed something to cover her naked body, and these things were better than nothing.
After dressing, Fensa took some time to look around, trying to figure out where she was exactly. Apparently a lab of some sort with the same glowing blue walls as the ones she’d seen in the probably-not-a-robot’s outer room. The bed she’d woken up in was most likely an examination table, she realized. It was made of an unusual shiny red metal and stuck out of the wall under a row of five, quarter-sized holes.
Fensa peered closely at the holes, shutting one eye to get a better view inside. However, she still couldn’t see much. And an ancient form of self-preservation wouldn’t allow her to stick a finger inside. She thought back to the feeling of something slithering out of her when she first woke up…and put two and two together. Maybe these holes housed medical tubes of some sort? Maybe they retracted when they weren’t down a patient’s throat and…she shivered…up her hoo-ha?
Okay, enough about the tubes, she decided with a grimace, moving on to the next wall. This one featured a row of hanging green devices, all glowing and arranged neatly about a foot above her head. They resembled jade versions of the “smart phone” her mother had once taken out of a memorabilia box to show her when she was a te
en. Except the bottom of each rectangle extended into a large-ish hand grip that reminded her of the handle of a ping pong paddle. I’ll call them iPaddles, she decided, laughing at her pun.
But Fensa quickly sobered, realizing she had no clue what they were. In fact, she’d never seen anything like them in her life. The metal used on the examination table and the devices was so smooth, and so blemish-free, she couldn’t be 100% certain any of it had been made using a machine.
Fensa recalled a Clara Quinn sci-fi novel set in a future where all metal objects were constructed at the atomic level, binding the elements of the various materials together using a magnetic field, rather than melting them down and casting them. The metal in this room was a close match to how she’d always imagined the author’s poreless, non-reflective metals would look.
And then there were the items she discovered in the way back of the gigantic room. A huge pile of golden rocks, and what appeared to be mounds of precious gems the size of fists. She’d never seen anything like it—except she had. In movies featuring treasure hoards…of the sort that typically existed in caves or, her mind eagerly filled in, lairs.
More than a little unsettled, Fensa’s eyes kept moving nervously around the room, only to stop short yet again when she spotted a pile of blankets. These looked but did not smell like the ones in that other room. That first pile had been just big enough to sleep a seven-foot person. Whereas this one was much larger in diameter. Large enough to comfortably accommodate seven seven-foot men. For the life of her, Fensa couldn’t imagine why anyone would need a sleeping palette that large.
Panic rose anew within her chest. Seriously, where the hell was she?
“WARNING, WARNING! Your GoGen device cannot connect to the local server. Please check your host’s settings and try again.”
Well, at least she knew she was somewhere with a local server. That was a relief. But her bio-chip couldn’t connect. Not great.
NAGO, His Mississippi Queen: 50 Loving States, Mississippi (The Brothers Nightwolf Trilogy, Book 1) Page 21