“It is late—very late. But I hope not too late. So I hope, so I hope.” For some reason Yipper seemed anxious and preoccupied. He was wearing the bulky pouch he had brought with him from the medical barge and now he pulled a short metal tube out of it. It was only about a foot long and there were two sensor light disks, one on either end. It looked like a modified version of the emotion sharing contraption he’d put together in order to allow Six to share his feelings and memories with Mei-Li earlier.
He hopped up on the back of the couch and shoved it in Six’s face.
Six recoiled as both of the sensor disks lit up green and the machine hummed softly.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” he growled. Though he was grateful to Yipper for allowing him to bring Mei-Li back from her emotionless state, he still hadn’t made peace completely with the terrible memories which had been released as a result.
“It’s all right. I’m here to help you bear them, remember?”
Mei-Li slipped her small, cool hand into his and Six felt immediately better.
“Yes, I remember,” he sent back.
But before he could send more, Yipper was already shoving the modified contraption at Mei-Li as well. When both disks lit up green and it hummed again, he nodded to himself.
“I knew it! Yes I did, yes I did and the soul finder confirms it. Two souls bound together as one—you are bonded, aren’t you?”
“Well, yes,” Mei-Li confessed, blushing. “But how could you—?”
“And when did the bonding take place? How long ago did you inseminate her and seal the bond?” Yipper demanded of Six.
“That’s uh, kind of a personal question, Yipper,” Mei-Li protested, her cheeks turning bright pink.
“But I must know. Please, Six, it is vitally important. Yes it is, yes it is,” the Tolleg insisted.
Six frowned. “As Mei-Li says, it is difficult to say. It was not a sudden process. She took quite a long time ah…seducing me. I believe that is the right word, is it not?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
For some reason, Mei-Li’s cheeks went even pinker and he felt a wave of embarrassment rolling through her.
“I suppose you could call it that,” she murmured.
“Why are you feeling shame?” Six asked, completely perplexed. “It is true you seduced me but I am glad you did. If you had not teased me with your erotic black panties and led me step by step to making love with you we would not be bonded now.”
“Six!” Now she sounded positively mortified. Which he still didn’t understand. Why should their love or the physical expression of it embarrass her?
“As long as the bonding took place less than twelve standard hours ago we should be all right. Yes we should, yes we should,” Yipper chattered. He looked sharply at Mei-Li. “Where is the serum I gave you? I know you did not use it on Six but please tell me you did not dispose of it.”
“It’s in here.” She found the small handheld bag she’d been carrying the night before lying by the side of the couch. Opening it, she handed the Tolleg a familiar looking syringe filled with dark blue liquid.
“Oh good!” Yipper snatched the syringe from her hand. “Still blue means still good. Yes it does, yes it does,” he chattered.
“Still good for what? Does someone else want their emotions removed?” Mei-Li shivered, obviously repulsed by the idea.
“No,” Yipper said shortly. He was up on the back of the couch, right beside Six. “But other things need removing. Yes they do, yes they do. And there is not a minute to lose.”
Then, before Six could register what was happening, the little Tolleg turned and stabbed him in the side of the neck. Pressing the plunger home, he injected the blue serum into Six’s blood stream, filling his veins with fire.
* * * * *
“No!” Mei-Li jumped forward as Six fell to his knees. But it was too late, the syringe was empty and the dark blue liquid was already coursing through the big Kindred’s body. “Six!” she gasped, pulling the needle out and throwing it away. “Oh no! Please, Six—please stay with me!”
“Burns.” His voice was low and choked. “My blood…it burns.”
Mei-Li turned on Yipper who now appeared perfectly calm.
“How could you do that? Why did you take his emotions again? Why?”
“I didn’t take his emotions, no I didn’t, no I didn’t.” The little Tolleg looked shocked. “I simply neutralized the pathogens in his blood. Yes I did, yes I did. Look.”
He pointed at Six who was still on his knees, a look of agony on his face. In fact, Mei-Li could feel the pain he was experiencing through their link—a burning sensation that seemed to run through all his veins.
“What pathogens? What did you do to him? He’s in pain!” Mei-Li exclaimed.
“Just look at him,” Yipper insisted. “Look at his eyes. Look, look.”
“Six?” Mei-Li took his face in her hands and stared down into his steel gray eyes anxiously. The right one remained normal looking but as she watched, something strange happened to the left. The scarlet ring which had been around the outer rim if the iris slowly began to fade. After a moment, it was completely gone and the left eye looked the same as the right with no trace of red at all.
Yipper was also looking and he nodded with satisfaction at what he saw.
“Good, good,” he said excitedly. “It worked. And if my calculations are correct, I was in time. Yes I was, yes I was.”
Six shot out a hand and made a snatch at the little Tolleg but his fingers closed on empty air as Yipper skipped nimbly away.
“What did you do to me?” he asked hoarsely. “I can still feel emotions but my blood is boiling!”
“The pain will fade, yes it will, yes it will!” Yipper chattered. “And you will thank me later, Six. Especially if your bonding made Mei-Li pregnant.”
“What?” Mei-Li felt her cheeks heating again. She hadn’t even considered pregnancy last night when she was trying to get Six to make love with her. In fact, the thought of birth control hadn’t crossed her mind once—all she’d been able to think about was how much she wanted him.
Wow, I really wasn’t very responsible at all last night, she thought with a twinge of shame. But somehow she knew that if she had been, she and Six wouldn’t be bonded right now. She had needed to have him bare and fully inside her in order to make the connection possible. Strange but true.
“Explain what you mean, Yipper,” Six growled, stumbling to his feet. “And further explain why you couldn’t tell me what was in the syringe before stabbing me in the neck with it and frightening Mei-Li half to death.”
“Yes, you told me it was emotion blocker when you gave it to me,” Mei-Li accused him. “I thought when you injected him with it you were taking away his emotions again!”
“I would never do that, no I wouldn’t, no I wouldn’t,” Yipper declared. “I knew that wasn’t the right path for Six. I knew the two of you belonged together—but I also knew that Six was a carrier of the Scarlet Plague.”
“Gods, he’s right—the Plague.” Six went suddenly pale. “Why did I not think of that?”
“But I thought that only affected someone with the carrier’s DNA,” Mei-Li said. “I’m from Earth and Six is from a whole other galaxy. There’s no way it could hurt me—could it?”
“No, but it could hurt or kill any child the two of you conceived together. Yes it could, yes it could!” Yipper exclaimed.
“Oh my God!” Mei-Li’s hand went involuntarily to her belly. “Oh no, what if I am pregnant?”
“Even if you are, you and the baby will be fine. Yes you will, yes you will,” the little Tolleg explained quickly. “I have been working on a serum to eradicate the plague in carriers for years, ever since Six’s family came to the medical barge too late. Yes I have, yes I have.”
“But why didn’t you tell me the serum was to get rid of the plague?” Mei-Li demanded.
“Or tell me?” Six asked, glaring.
Yipper’s eyes
widened. “And give you another excuse to leave Mei-Li and all your emotions behind? I could not do that, Six. No I couldn’t, no I couldn’t. If you had known that the plague inside you could be transmitted to any child the two of you conceived, you would have convinced yourself even more strongly to leave and not return.”
“He’s right,” Mei-Li said, turning to Six. “You were all ready to go as it was. I mean, I barely got you to stay.”
“You seduced me with your lacy undergarments,” Six growled. “But I would never have bonded with you if I had any idea it could hurt you or our baby. If we made one. Which we certainly might have,” he added thoughtfully. “Since we took each other over and over in various positions.”
“Six!” Mei-Li felt her cheeks getting hot. She was really going to have to have a talk with him about what was an appropriate topic of conversation in public.
“I would be surprised if the Kindred Goddess blesses your first union with a child,” Yipper said. “She usually waits a little while until the bond is settled. But I knew it was possible she might have, so I had to come make sure you had the injection in your system. Yes I did, yes I did.”
Mei-Li frowned. “What do you mean ‘the Kindred Goddess? And how will you injecting Six affect me or the baby—if I’m carrying one?” The thought seemed strange but not terrible. She had always loved kids and if she happened to be pregnant, well, she was okay with it. As long as the baby was healthy.
“Some of the immunity Six now possesses will carry through your bond, yes it will, yes it will,” Yipper explained. “And the next time you have sexual relations, his seed will carry the rest to your womb. I just had to be certain that he got the injection before it went bad. Yes I did, yes I did. I knew I wouldn’t have time to make another batch before the pathogens that used to be in his blood affected the fetus. If there is one.”
“Oh my…” Mei-Li felt faint. “That was close, I guess. But you’re sure it will be okay?”
“I am absolutely positive. Yes I am, yes I am.” Yipper nodded. “But it would be best if you had sexual relations sooner rather than later. Yes it would, yes it would.”
“I am not adverse to that.” Six gave her a hungry look and Mei-Li felt herself blushing again. “Especially if you will put back on the lacy panties and let me pull them off with my teeth again.”
“Six!” She felt like she was blushing all over but she was more than willing to comply with his idea. However, there was still something bothering her. She turned to Yipper. “There’s one thing I don’t understand—if you’ve been working on the serum all these years, why didn’t you give it to Six before?”
Yipper shrugged his hairy little shoulders. “Well, he didn’t need it before. No he didn’t, no he didn’t. And besides, I was missing a few compounds that are difficult to find near Z4. Luckily Commander Sylvan was able to give them to me. So now, even if the Mother of All Life should bless your bond with a child, it will be healthy and well. Yes it will, yes it will.”
Mei-Li suddenly felt weak.
“Wh-what did you say?” she managed to ask Yipper. “About the Mother of what?”
“The Mother of All Life—the Kindred Goddess,” Yipper explained patiently. “She is the deity that all Kindred worship—all but the Dark Kindred who bow only to the Collective. She does exist, however and now that the two of you are living on the Mother Ship, you would do well to acknowledge her. Yes you would, yes you would.”
But most of what the little Tolleg was saying went right over Mei-Li’s head. All she could concentrate on was the strange dream she’d had the night before. But it wasn’t a dream! screamed a little voice inside her head. It really happened! The Kindred Goddess came and talked to you specially and gave you a specific warning to give to Commander Sylvan. And instead of doing anything about it, you’ve been lazing around in bed and having lots and lots of unprotected bonding sex!
“Quick,” she said to Six. “Do you have any idea of when the next Kindred Council meeting is?”
He shrugged. “How should I know that?”
“I know,” Yipper replied unexpectedly. “It is going on now. I saw Commander Sylvan this morning before I came to your suite and he was on his way to it. Yes he was, yes he was.”
“Oh no! No, no, no!” Mei-Li gasped. “Oh, we have to get there! Where is it being held?”
She started to run look for her dress from the night before, but Six caught her by the shoulders. “Mei-Li—what is wrong? I can feel your anxiety through our bond.”
“It’s the Goddess—the Mother of All Life,” Mei-Li babbled, scanning the living area for her discarded dress as she spoke. “She came to me last night and told me all kinds of things—that you were going to remember something important. And also that there is some kind of intruder here on the ship. Somebody plotting to hurt the Kindred.”
“Well we knew something of that already,” Six said, frowning.
“Indeed.” Yipper nodded. “You told Commander Sylvan that Two had said someone here was working with him, Six. Yes you did, yes you did.”
“Yes, but he didn’t seem to believe it was possible,” Mei-Li said. “And the Goddess said to tell him he had to be ready to catch this person—this dark one she called it—and lock them up in prison. If they escape, all hell is going to break loose!”
Suddenly she saw the edge of the green sheath dress sticking out from under the couch. She reached down to grab it and started pulling it on while trying to keep the sheet around her shoulders.
“Hurry up and get dressed, Six!” she said, throwing a glance at him. “We have to go find that Council meeting now!”
Chapter Thirty-eight
“The next order of business is one I fear cannot be put off any longer,” High Chancellor Terex announced regally, looking around the council table. “It is the sad business of war. Just this morning I have received an official declaration signed by all the members of Earth’s World Council. It avows that they intend to keep us from calling any more brides from their planet and if possible, to drive us from their sovereign air space—indeed, their very solar system!”
Sylvan frowned and the other Councilors muttered together anxiously. This was indeed terrible news. Although the Earth had been boiling over with tensions against the Kindred for some time and several nations had declared war over the open airwaves, he had still been hoping that somehow the unrest could be settled. But now, to hear that a formal declaration of war had been issued from no less than the entire governing body of Earth, well…it was bad. Very bad.
“In light of this very serious news, I feel we must arm ourselves and fight back,” Terex continued. “After all, Earth is our main source of brides right now.”
“This will be no easy task,” one of the other Councilors said. “Their armaments have grown—they have been building and stockpiling new and better weapons since the Scourge attacked them years ago. They may well be a formidable enemy.”
“We must not consider the people of Earth the enemy, no matter what misguided things their leaders say,” Sylvan protested, rising to his feet. “Think how many of our brides have kin there! If open war breaks out between us and the killing starts, how will it affect them? And how will it affect the willingness of other Earth females to be called as brides in the future?”
“So you recommend we should continue to parlay with them?” Terex scoffed. “No, Councilor Sylvan! They are training their weapons on us as we speak—already we must stay to the far side of their pitiful moon and keep our shields at maximum strength.”
“They’re jamming communications too,” one of the other councilors said. “One by one our viewscreen connections to Earth are becoming useless—all but the direct lines. They’ve even found a way to keep us from bespeaking those on Earth that we care for.”
“Most of our warriors have been evacuated,” Terex said. “Though a few do remain here and there.”
“Among them is Garron,” Sylvan said, speaking up again. “The male you have kept from coming b
ack to the Mother Ship again and again because he will not return without his bride who you had banned from the ship.”
“The one who can turn himself into some sort of beast?” Terex raised an eyebrow. “Well, I dare say he can take care of himself, Councilor.”
“Another remains with him—Commander Stavros who commanded the HKR building in Asheville, North Carolina in the US,” Sylvan continued. “He refuses to leave while even a single warrior in his care is stranded on Earth, even though he is one of the Cursed.”
“The Cursed?” Terex frowned. “Whatever are you talking about?”
Sylvan raised an eyebrow at him. “Surely as a fellow Blood Kindred you know of the Cursed, Chancellor.”
“Oh. Oh, of course—the Cursed.” Terex frowned and for a moment, Sylvan could have sworn he saw a flash of red in his ice blue eyes. “Forgive me, Councilor, for my momentary lapse of memory. I have had other things on my mind—more important things like war. Now…” He raised his voice and stared around the table. “As Earth’s weapons have become so advanced and there are considerably more of them than there are of us, we are going to need allies in this war—brothers in arms to help us take what is rightfully ours.”
Sylvan felt cold all over. He remembered Six’s warning and suddenly knew what was coming next. But he felt frozen to the spot, unable to move or speak. Surely Terex wouldn’t…he couldn’t…
“Behold.” Terex pressed some buttons and a large, transparent viewscreen rose from the center of the council table. “I would like to introduce you to our allies—this is Two, of the Enhanced Ones otherwise known as the Dark Kindred.”
The viewscreen flickered to life and a tall, thin male with a metal prosthesis covering the right side of his face was suddenly revealed. He was wearing a black leather coat and part of his skull had been cut away to reveal his brain, where several blinking electrodes had been implanted.
“Greetings, brothers,” he said, smiling to reveal a mouth full of spit-shiny gray metal teeth.
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