“Bree! Please wake up.”
Lifting her eyelids took effort, but Bree forced them open and found Jason a few inches from her face. She groaned and pushed him back. A modern looking three-story building loomed in front of the Jeep. Well, actually there were two buildings, but Bree knew only one was real.
“I guess we’re here,” she mumbled and blinked a few times. The double vision disappeared. Her vision remained cloudy, however, like looking through a dirty window or being underwater.
Holy hell, her head hurt. Maybe she did need help.
“We are indeed. Do you need help getting into the building?” Ipeshe asked.
Bree turned her head to give the healer a hate stare, then she opened the door to climb out of the Jeep. Instead, she stumbled out. “Let’shhh do thishhh.” She staggered toward the building.
Jason tried to support her as she walked, but she shrugged away from him, determined to make it in on her own.
“She’ll be ok, Jason,” Nina assured him.
Ipeshe led them into the building. Bree squinted against the bright light coming from… she didn’t see any lights to explain the brightness. The grand atrium had giant visual displays on some of the walls, like huge movie screens. The floor looked like tile, but felt soft like padded carpet. The crisp, clean air tickled her lungs. She felt like she’d stepped into the future. Or another world.
“This way. Quickly, please.” Ipeshe rushed toward an opaque glass wall that had a digital screen showing a map. A portion of the wall disappeared and Ipeshe stepped through the opening and turned around.
Bree was the last one in what she assumed must be an elevator. Before the wall reappeared, she noticed the atrium opened up to a square balcony on the second floor. She leaned against a wall when her knees wobbled, hoping it wouldn’t vanish like the one in front of her had. The four of them stood in the small enclosed space. Instead of assessing her surroundings, Bree focused on staying upright and conscious.
The front wall vanished again. Bree frowned at the Commander, standing there.
Zuhl moved to the side to let the group join her in the hallway “The room is ready for you.”
“This is so incredible,” Nina said.
Jason’s excitement was palpable. “I feel like I’m in a spaceship or something.”
“This building is designed with advanced technologies. You might call it a smart building. It responds to our needs and commands,” Zuhl said.
Bree could barely hear her. She hoped they’d reach their destination quickly because the pain worsened with each passing moment. She needed to sit down soon before her brain melted and poured out her ears. She shivered, though sweat dripped down her forehead and back.
Focus. One foot in front of other.
“We have arrived.” Ipeshe stopped in the middle of the hall. “This is the room.”
With a click, a door-sized portion of the wall disappeared, revealing a room. Bree launched toward the chair in the center of the room, which looked like a cross between a dentist chair and a recliner. “Whoa!” The fucking chair shifted to envelop her in its cozy plushness.
“Wait a minute. What the fuck is this thing doing?” Bree struggled to stay upright, but the damn chair forced her into a reclined position.
“We need to move quickly. I need you to relax. I will run a scan first, then we will determine the best plan,” Ipeshe said as she moved toward Bree’s head.
Bizarre tentacles slid out from the sides of the recliner and arched over her body.
Fear snaked through her gut. She tried to protest, but couldn’t make a sound. What the fuck is happening? Why can’t I talk? What have you done to me? I knew better than to trust you bitches.
Ipeshe tells me that your brain is overloading again. You need to do as she asks. Do you understand? Bree noted concern in Zuhl’s mental voice. Yes, I am concerned. You’re in danger. I implore you to allow Ipeshe to help you. Please do not fight any longer. It does not mean that you have given in to us or that you agree with Instant Karma. Please do this for your brother and your family. They need you. This world needs you.
Zuhl’s mental voice faded. Unconsciousness threatened to take her. Damn it! She couldn’t fight it any longer.
But instead of blackness, she saw lights and people below her. They were gathered around a recliner with a woman in it. Oh, fuck! That’s me in the chair. Am I dead?
No, you’re not dead. Not yet.
Bree floated near the ceiling. Well, not her body - that was still enveloped in the weird recliner. She was having an out-of-body experience while Ipeshe worked the alien medical equipment and Zuhl escorted Jason out of the room.
Good move. He shouldn’t watch her die.
Nina and Ipeshe spoke to each other, but Bree couldn’t hear their voices. Giant crystals of varying shapes and sizes glowed with different colors and moved around on the ceiling. Some were nearly three feet long. Bree hadn’t noticed them when she’d entered the room. Either they’d been hidden in the ceiling or she’d been worse off than she thought.
Bree, do you hear me still?
I do, but you sound very far away, Bree replied. What’s happening? What are those things?
They’re crystals that store the programs and energies needed to diagnose and treat you.
27
Bree’s consciousness - or maybe it was her spirit - floated up near the ceiling, watching her lifeless body below. Things had gone from fucked up to very fucked up when her heart had stopped. She’d been helpless to do anything but watch as Ipeshe and Nina worked to jump start her heart.
Despite the alarming situation, Bree felt calm and peaceful, and a little curious. She’d heard about out-of-body experiences before. In fact, her mother had an OBE while giving birth to her brother. Hearing about it was one thing. Experiencing it was a completely different thing.
“Hey guys. I’m up here.”
Neither woman looked up.
“Hey! What’re you doing?”
Again, no response from below.
Oh fuck me running. If she’d had a stomach, Bree would’ve puked at the sight of Ipeshe inserting a super fine wire through her left eyeball. Yuck. Thank the Universe she didn’t have to feel that.
But, wait… What the hell was the alien doc doing? Holy shit. Ipeshe fed the wire deeper into Bree’s eye socket until it vanished. What had the alien just put in her head?
Hello, what about consent. Nobody asked for my consent. Bree sent the thought to Zuhl.
No response.
So, a good news, bad news situation. The good news was, she didn’t seem to be connected mentally to the Kusharian Commander anymore. Although that might be due to the whole out-of-body thing. Bad news was, she had no way to communicate to the folks below to tell them to stop poking shit in her eyeballs.
Although she enjoyed the weightless floating, Bree needed to get back in her body to stop the Kusharian. Why hadn’t she popped back into her body when they’d restarted her heart? Bree attempted a swimming move to get closer, but nothing happened. Maybe because she didn’t really have any arms and legs. She was more like a blob of conscious energy.
Down below, Ipeshe fed another wire into her right eyeball. Why didn’t Nina stop this? She couldn’t wait to wake up and kick someone’s ass.
The two women moved the recliner bed and her body to another room. Bree’s consciousness followed, like a balloon on a string. Ipeshe aimed three large crystal points that hung from the ceiling toward Bree’s head and body. Lights shone through the crystal points and bathed Bree’s body in beautiful hues of color. The bed transformed and shifted Bree into a more upright position; the wire-like cage around her torso moved with it.
The wires didn’t seem to be a restraint system - although they certainly would’ve kept her from going anywhere. They appeared to be part of the Kusharian medical equipment. The wires lit up, flashing in-sync with the colored lights from the strange crystals above. Torn between interest in the awesome looking technology and being
pissed that she’d been implanted with some sort of Kusharian tech without her consent, she wished more than ever to be back in her body.
She wanted out of that room. Out of the Kusharian center.
Everything went black.
“Will she be ok?” Nina’s voice quivered.
“We must hold on to hope. I have done all that I can,” Ipeshe answered. “We now wait to see if her body will accept the brain comp devise.”
“Jesus! What happened?” Jason demanded.
Bree’s heart nearly stopped again at the pain in her baby brother’s voice. She wanted nothing more than to answer him. Open her eyes. Raise a finger. Anything to let him know she could hear him. That she was alive. At least, she hoped she was alive.
She could hear, but couldn’t see anything and she couldn’t move. What the hell?
She had to find a way to wake up. She couldn’t leave Jason.
“Jason, I am sorry. Your sister’s heart stopped while we were trying to slow her brain waves down and release the build up of the neurotoxins. We were able to revive her, but her brain sustained too much damage from the combination of the MBG pulses, the energy waves that she endured at Kozeb’s lab, and the continued mind sync with Iziqa. I had to insert one of our brain comps into her brain. I hope that it will regulate her brain frequencies and disperse the toxic buildup. We have never placed one in a human before, so we do not know the precise results.”
“You did what? Oh my god. Take it out! She’s not going to want that in her brain!” Jason yelled.
Exactly. Tell ‘em Jase!
“Jason, she didn’t have a choice. Without it, Bree would would be dead.” Nina’s voice was no longer shaky.
Well, shit. That didn’t sound good at all. Fuckety fuck fuck. Dying hadn’t been on today’s to-do list. Then again, neither was getting a damn Kusharian implant in her brain. She desperately wanted to get out of there, but exhaustion held her down like a leaden blanket.
She no longer had the energy to try to move or talk. Or to care what would happen to her if - no, when - she woke up. The peace of oblivion called to her and she couldn’t resist it any longer. Her tiny hold on consciousness slipped and the blackness overtook her.
“Can you hear me? Bree, can you hear me?”
Pain. Stiffness.
“Bree. I’m here.”
Someone talking through the fading oblivion.
“Uhmmrm.” That didn’t sound anything like what she’d wanted to say.
“Arghh. Hrrr.” Bree’s mouth wasn’t cooperating at all.
“You’re awake! Oh my god, you’re awake!” Jason yelled.
“Ssshhut up.” The words were no louder than a whisper, but at least they were words this time.
“She’s awake!” More yelling.
“Ffffuuck, Jase. Shhhhushh.” Words came easier.
“I knew you’d come back.” Jason said in a hushed tone.
People squeezed her hands. Bree figured Jason was clinging to one. Whoever had the other one had very soft skin. Maybe Nina?
Bree pried one eye open. Yep, Nina stood on her left and Jason on her right. The wire cage was no longer in place. The room had a lavender tint to it.
Ipeshe stood at the foot of her recliner bed. “How do you feel?”
“Like shit, but I’m gonna ring your fucking scrawny neck.” Bree’s bed elevated to an upright position. She took the cup that Nina handed her. The cold water soothed her dry and sore throat.
“Bree, Ipeshe just saved your life.” Nina looked appalled.
“With some fucking Kusharian implant in my head! Without my fucking permission! I didn’t ask to be a freakish Kusharian cyborg, so pardon me if I want to kick the ass of the person who made me one.” Bree’s vision swirled and a wave of nausea threatened to bring the water back up.
“I understand your feelings and I am sorry. It was the only option we had to keep you alive.” Ipeshe took the cup from Bree and put it on the table that slid out of Bree’s chair. “I will be happy to address your anger and your questions later, but you need to rest right now.”
“How long until she feels better?” Jason squeezed her hand, then looked at Ipeshe and then Nina. A sparkle lit his eyes.
“It depends on how her body reacts to the implant and the healing treatments. It could be as soon as a few hours or it could be a few weeks. Or months. This is new territory and we have no human trials to guide us. Kusharians heal very quickly and adjust to the brain comps with ease because all of our cells are programmed before we emerge from our developmental pods. Obviously, Bree does not have that advantage. However, the healing treatments should activate some of her dormant DNA - I believe you call it noncoding DNA - and awaken advanced healing potential. I wish I had more information, but we will have to wait to see how she responds.”
“What do you mean by advanced healing?” Jason asked.
“Her body will likely heal from injuries at a faster rate than typical for humans,” Ipeshe answered.
Bree flashed back to the cleaning closet after breaking free from Kozeb’s lab and remembered that one of the cuts on the bottom of her foot had looked a day or so old. She’d healed freakishly fast before undergoing this strange alien medical crap.
Suddenly aware that someone had removed her boots and socks, Bree bent her knees up so the bottoms of her feet were flat on the recliner and not visible to any wandering eyes.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but can you all just shut up and give me like a minute of peace before we talk about superhuman cyborg abilities, for fuck’s sake?”
Nina rolled her eyes. “Clearly, the treatments haven’t helped your personality.”
A flash of guilt flooded Bree, then quickly receded. Yes, they’d saved her life. But then they ruined it by putting a fucking Kusharian brain comp in her brain. An alien implant in her head! Her body tensed and she tried to loosen her jaw before she broke a tooth.
Bree did her best imitation of Jason’s sad puppy face. “Don’t suppose I could get a cold beer and some nachos?” Now fully awake, she couldn’t ignore the growing hunger in her belly, like she hadn’t eaten in days. As if on cue, her stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear.
Jason snickered.
“You can have water and some Lhox, but I do not suggest any alcohol or complex food yet.”
Bree turned her nose up. “Ugh. I hate lox.”
Ipeshe walked over to a wall where a small door slid up, revealing a square opening that had a tall silver cup with steam rising out the top.
“L.H.O.X.O.S.A. Lhoxosa is our main crop and provides all of the nutrients that we need to survive and fuel our brains. We consume the roots, the leaves, and the berries in various ways. We use the bark and stems to create fibers for clothes. Lhox leaves are packed with amino acids, protein, and the sugars your brain will need now. I’ve added medicine that will help with the DNA activation to speed your recovery.” The Kusharian healer brought the cup to Bree.
“Yeah, thanks, but I think I’ll stick with water. I’ve had enough alien crap today.” Bree refused the cup, but caught a whiff of the steam. It smelled a little like coffee. Coffee, with a hint of spice. Cinnamon? Pumpkin pie? No, it smelled like coffee and snickerdoodle cookies. Damn it! Why did it have to smell so good? Practically salivating, Bree turned her head away, but the smell permeated the room.
Maybe a little alien coffee wouldn’t be so bad. Couldn’t be any worse than having a fucking Kusharian computer in her head, right? Or maybe she needed to avoid that slippery slope. First, Lhox, then… what? An Instant Karma fan? Never!
Ipeshe put the drink on the table.
Nina and Jason both glared at her before following Ipeshe out of the recovery room.
Bree squirmed in the recliner. Screw them! They couldn’t possibly understand. She still believed that the Kusharians were the enemy and now she had one of their motherfucking computers in her brain. Talk about an op going FUBAR. She reached for the cup of water, but her hand
paused by the cup of Lhox. Shit. Water or the yummy smelling hot drink? She snatched the water and downed a few gulps.
She pulled her left foot up to examine the cuts from stepping on the bits and pieces of lab equipment.
“Motherdick!” She mumbled when she found the bottom of her foot completely normal.
No cuts. No stitches. No scars. Nothing but smooth skin.
A mixture of emotions swirled through her.
Wait, maybe she’d only had cuts on one of her feet. Even though she knew better, Bree checked the bottom of her right foot. Her heart beat faster at the sight of another perfect sole.
Had she only imagined those cuts? It’d been a crazy fucked up situation. Adrenaline can mess with memory.
But the gashes on her arm from the mountain lion were real. She looked at the bandage on her arm. Maybe she should leave it. No. She needed to know. She peeled the edge of the large bandage up and peeked underneath.
Fucking shit on a stick! Her arm had healed!
The room spun and her stomach churned. Her hands clenched. She couldn’t hold it any longer. Bree leaned over and puked - sort of. She’d only had a little water in her stomach.
Breathe. Calm down. Breathe.
Bree used the corner of the sheet to wipe her mouth. The room stopped spinning.
The Kusharian hadn’t lied about advanced healing. Great, she could join the freaking circus.
Bree leaned back and closed her eyes. Her mind reeled trying to figure out how she felt about being a total freak of nature. On one hand, it could be badass. But did this mean she was becoming a Kusharian? Ipeshe had said something about her DNA, but she hadn’t been awake enough to understand. Fuck, did she have alien DNA now or something?
Mind Sync Page 21