Charged - Book One (29 page)

“I know,” I said. I placed her back on the ground and
gently wiped the tears from her face.

Kye then went to the com screen next to the door as I
started to clear the table. She punched in four suite numbers and
four faces populated on the tiny screen. It was our small group and
one other Tanjennian that I didn’t know. I could hear them greeting
her.

“He said he’d try,” she said.

I heard Danel say, “excellent!”

Aaron said, “fantastic.”

And someone else said, “this is great news.”

Then Collin spoke, “Timing must be perfect on this.
When does he want to start? It takes 24 hours to reanimate
them.”

Kye looked at me for an answer. I walked over to the
com and bent down so everyone could see me.

“The sooner, the better,” I said.

“Okay, we’ll go down tomorrow morning to start the
process. Everyone wear something warm. Tonight I’ll prep the clone
room,” Collin said.

Everyone agreed and switched off their screens. Kye
was beaming with excitement and I felt like I’d given all of them a
new hope. I knew I made the right choice. She hugged me again and
proceeded to clean the table.

“Who was the other Tanjennian?” I said.

“Kuyen, he’s an Elder like Danel. He came here the
minute Danel told him that you charged my core. I heard he had a
companion too once. He’s older than Danel and runs station 10,
artillery. I’ve never actually met him until he arrived here. Up
until now this station has been pretty much vacant.”

“But you know of him?”

“Yes, he’s Rigden’s boss. And Kuyen, Danel and Ben,
were at one time very close. It was Rigden who brought the coverts
from station ten when the Drid came.”

Drid
. How did I know this name? I searched
Ben’s memories and found it. The Drid were those horrible black
creatures that attacked us. I pushed the thought back quickly as an
icy shiver ran over me.

“They called them the Drid back on their home
planet.”

“Yes, Danel told me about it,” she said.

“Did he tell you everything?”

She was finished doing dishes and sat down in her
favorite Queen Anne chair.

“You mean about how the Tanjennians were their food.
How the Drid travel from planet to planet consuming everything. And
how they blew up their suns attempting to kill billions of the
Drid. Yes, he did. He told Aaron and Jessica too. Collin already
knew. When he woke up from merging with Alma, he knew everything.
And his memories weren’t jumbled like yours. He had many questions
for Danel. But not all of the children know, so please there’s no
need to tell them. The Drid are all dead.”

“I have no intentions on stirring up the past. I’m
just shocked he told you,” I said.

“Even Danel, can do the right thing, sometimes.” Then
a smile rolled across her face at what she’d just said.

She then started peeling off her red suit piece by
piece and headed to the bedroom. Of course, I followed.

WHEN WE WOKE the next morning, I wasn’t sure what to
expect. I didn’t even know if the other hybrids were human looking
like Kye. I had on a thick sweater and jacket and was already
sweating, but not in a human way. Kye was wearing jeans and a long
sweater that was wavy in the sleeves. She looked fantastic as
always.

After a quick bite we headed to the clone lab and our
little group was already there and waiting. Jessica, Aaron and
Danel were all wrapped in coats and jackets. My eyes were then
drawn to the other person in the room. I turned to the side and
almost gasped when I saw him. It was Ben. The same height, same
eyes, same curve of lip on the left side. He walked toward me and
held out his hand and I thought I was hallucinating but I didn’t
care. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tightly. I
didn’t realize how much I missed him.

“I thought you were dead, are you a clone? It’s me.
It’s Lewis. This is what happened when I absorbed you.”

He hugged me back and everyone in the room was
staring at us. Kye put her hand over her mouth for a second. She
seemed shocked at what I’d just done. She’d obviously forgotten to
tell me something.

“It’s refreshing to see and feel the compassion you
had for my brother. My name is Kuyen.”

He then let me go and my wall was immediately back up
blocking my emotions. I was completely embarrassed. And I was
baffled by my own feelings. I did miss Ben, even though he’d
murdered almost all of the companions.

“They don’t look that similar, Kuyen is much younger
than Ben,” Kye said.

She was right there was a difference, but it was
slight. He didn’t radiate the same colors as Ben. His glowing
circular veins were almost all white. Of course, I could only see
them on his hands and neck because he was bundled up like the rest
of us. But his face looked just like Ben’s and the eyes were the
same too. But she failed to mention that they were brothers. I gave
Aaron a,
how the heck did you know
, look and he only
shrugged his shoulders at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s alright. I wish all of my introductions were
that pleasant. Being the head of station ten, doesn’t make me a lot
of friends. Some don’t believe weapons are necessary at all. Even
after the Drid attacked your station,” he responded.

I stepped back a little still embarrassed and Kuyen
let me link with him. He was not like Ben. He was strong
emotionally. I felt no weakness inside of him or despair. He was
very controlled. He could sense Ben inside of me and memories
started to flash in my head.

Ben and Kuyen fought. They fought over the clones,
the hybrids and weapons. It wasn’t really fighting. Tanjennians
don’t do that. But from a Tanjennian perspective, it was like a bar
fight. Kuyen was yelling, actually yelling and slamming his hand
down on the table.

Quickly, the memories faded away and I realized that
Kuyen wasn’t like the rest. And I wondered what flipped the switch
in him emotionally. Besides Danel, he was the only Tanjennian that
I heard yell. I knew it was just a memory but it was so real, it
felt like he was yelling at me. I searched Ben’s memories a little
more and I did find some good ones. Although, there was love, I
sensed it was Kuyen that convinced his people to blow up the suns
back on Tanjenna.

I pushed my wall back up and cut my emotional link
with him trying to shake Ben’s memories from my mind. I was getting
much faster at this. It only took a second this time. I nodded at
him and he nodded back.

“So you appreciate firearms?”

“Yes, everyone has the right to protect themselves,”
I said.

“You should visit station ten sometime. You could see
the weaponry we have. I think you’d be impressed. We’ve designed
our weapons so that only our race can make them operational, you
must be able to link with the equipment.”

This was an interesting thought; linking with
weapons.

“I would like that, thank you,” I said.

“How do you link to something that doesn’t have a
living core?” Aaron said.

“Who said the weapons weren’t alive?”

Of course, Aaron’s face beamed with delight.

“I would like to discuss this more later, if that’s
possible?” Aaron said.

“I’m sure I can make time. And maybe you can share
with me why Lewis survived the merge with Ben. I’m very
interested.”

“Well, so far it’s a mutation in his DNA that we have
yet to replicate or find another example of.”

This was startling. They were trying to replicate my
mutation and no one had mentioned anything to me about it. I wasn’t
sure what this meant, but in the long run, it suggested they
intended to merge with humans. I didn’t know if I liked this idea.
I gave Aaron a slight frown and he raised his eyebrows and gave me
the,
what did you expect
, look.

“Gentlemen, the pleasantries are over. Can we please
descend to the companions?” Danel said, holding his hands out in an
impatient way.

Danel was bearable now, but still kind of a jerk and
we were all lighting up the room because we were sweating so
much.

Collin hit a button and the clear wall separating the
clone lab from the cryo dome slid down as frigid air released into
the room. I followed Kye as she walked out onto the platform beyond
the glass and I tried not to look down into the abyss.

I’d seen part of it once, the day when Kye showed me
the clones for the Elders, but I’d never been in it. It was beyond
cold. It was almost freezing. I could see my breath and Kye’s.

“How long has it been since you’ve been down here?”
Kye asked Danel.

“Two hundred and thirteen years,” Danel said.

The lift we were on was only large enough to fit a
few people so everyone crammed in pretty close and I was pushed
back to the edge of the rail. Now, I felt sick. There was only one
rail about three feet high and everything else was exposed. I
gripped it so tightly that I thought I would rip it off.

The lift ran down the side of the dome wall and when
I looked down, there was nothing but blackness. I knew we were
hundreds of feet high. I felt vertigo kicking in and unfortunately
so did everyone else, except Aaron. The rest gripped the rail at
the same time and the fear of the falling rippled over us all.
Quickly, I pushed my wall up and Danel and Collin straighten
themselves.

“I didn’t know you suffered from acrophobia. How did
you clean the ventilation system two months ago?” Collin said.

“Well, I kind of laughed myself through it, like in a
crazy way, plus, I had a harness.”

I took a deep breath and Kye grabbed my arm. It was a
real bummer that being genetically altered didn’t fix my fear of
heights. As the lift started to move down, the side of the dome lit
up at each section we passed and it seemed that we passed over
twenty sections.

The lift just seemed archaic for such an advanced
species. But what it lacked in appearance it more than made up for
in speed. We were moving down at an incredible rate. It was so fast
and smooth that I couldn’t tell we were even moving except for the
blue lights that flashed on every time we passed another level.
Every couple levels the lift would slow a little, then glide along
horizontally before we started moving down again. And my heart was
pounding until we were twenty feet from the bottom.

The dome was massive. When we reached the bottom, a
relief swept over me that we were on the ground but it was clear
that something wasn’t right.

We walked off the platform and headed down a dim row
of units mounted on the walls. Only twelve of the units were lit.
Collin activated the side panel next to them and the thirteen dark
oval cryo units blinked on for two seconds and then blinked off.
Instantly, my stomach turned. The lights were on just long enough
for everyone to see the remains of thirteen dead companions.

Collin and Danel both exhibited subtle hints of
distress. Collin tapped the screen again and all thirteen units lit
up and this time they stayed lit.

They looked almost mummified. Bodies with skin sunken
to the bones, hallowed sockets for eyes, mouths gaping open. Some
of them still had hair on their heads. Danel and Collin’s emotions
seemed to saturate the air with disappointment.

I wondered if the containers were opened, if their
remains would just turn to dust when the oxygen hit them. They were
lifeless, with their heads hanging to one side or the other. I
looked at Kye and a hint of sadness slid across her face as Collin
examined the units.

I couldn’t shake the image. Their white cryo suits
were hanging off their skeletal bodies. The suits were fastened
inside to the back of each cryo unit suspending their limp
remains. 

“The units in this dome are on alternate circuits in
case the ship was ever damaged in flight. These thirteen were on
the same one,” he said, tapping on the screen. “Looks like one of
the dishes topside malfunctioned.”

“You never checked on them?” I said.

“We couldn’t expose them. It was hard enough just to
keep the emotions to ourselves,” Danel said.

Danel seemed irritated by my question as if the
answer should’ve been obvious.

“But it was only Ben that you had to hide them from.
Surely someone could’ve monitored them,” I said.

Danel then turned and looked at me shaking his head,
“true Tanjennians do not need to be physically close in order to
feel each other’s emotions.”

This was, of course, directed entirely at me, the
untrue Tanjennian. I tried to ignore him then I felt Kuyen’s
surprise and gratitude when he saw the last cryo unit at the end of
the row was still functioning. It affected him greatly and the
others seem to take notice also. He walked up to it and immediately
masked his emotions. It had me thinking that maybe it was his
companion. I caught no emotional hints from Danel who was studying
Kuyen. I looked to Kye and she shrugged her shoulders.

The view of the other units disturbed me. They only
live for 3 days without a charge. For three days, they waited for
someone to come and get them and no one did. From what Kye told me,
being unable to charge is agony. If a hybrid’s core isn’t charged
it starts to consume them. It wasn’t just sore muscles and
shortness of breath. It included blurred vision, incoherent
thoughts, severe migraines and the inability to use their digestive
systems. She’d experienced it when Danel was too weak to charge her
on multiple occasions. She described it as having every ounce of
liquid slowly being sucked out of her body.

“Computer, start the reanimation process for the
functioning units on this level,” Collin said.

Each one started lifting off the ground, still
attached to the side of the dome and slowly moved up toward what
use to be the clone room. This happened again and again and we all
stared at them as they rose as if ascending to the heavens.