Discovery (Hybrid Book 1) (2 page)

Huang could see her point; he hadn’t been able to think about much else when he’d been in the room with her for a while either. Even now, he was a distance away and he still felt the pull.

“I take it you don’t have a way of physically isolating her?”

“That has been tried. Although without her in the room the stock behaves more normally, but they are still somewhat distracted. However, the almost constant attention of multiple males, her vital signs drop alarmingly. We tried putting one male at a time in with her, but he mated her till he was unconscious. He had to be rehydrated for three days before he came around. But the males aren’t the only problem. She attacked all four of the females we had, and the males didn’t stop her. My guards had to intervene. It seems that female Dakarans do not like to share their harem. Although I can quite understand the urge to both secure adequate males for her needs and to remove rivals. It is far more logical that the standard human reproduction arrangement.”

“The men didn’t prevent the assaults or fight over her?” Huang asked. It seemed very peaceful in the holding area.

“Surprisingly not. She seems to produce a soporific effect on the males, although none of them protested the removal of their own females. They only have eyes for the Dakaran.”

“It’s all very interesting, but how can I help you?”

“You can take her off my hands my dear Commander. For a price.”

This time, Huang didn’t wince as Ichannat showed her teeth.

“We tend to keep our slaves in groups Commander; it makes managing large numbers of them easier. On our home world, if Panaya continues to have this effect on human males it would be, shall we say, inconvenient. However, there are collectors of oddities that would pay a high price for her.”

As his mind continued to clear, Huang decided he was getting a little tired of this negotiation. His medical bay had an isolation unit so he could transport her safely, and there were enough male crewmembers to keep her satisfied. The women in the crew could just stay out of the med bay. The kudos he’d gather from introducing the first example of a humanoid sentient species to the Federation was unlimited.

“How much?”

Ichannat hissed in amusement. “How much indeed for four examples of a rare species?”

“Four?” Huang repeated in confusion.

“She’s carrying a litter of three, and you are far more likely to keep her healthy if she is with her own kind.”

They had reached the airlock to his ship, so Huang paused. “What do you mean by that?”

“I told you they are a social species. The few adult males we have acquired die within a year of capture. Juveniles seem to do far better as they are able to bond socially with humans. How a female would react we don’t know, but so far, the indications are positive, don’t you think?”

Huang’s mind flashed back to the scene on the platform and he became painfully hard again. Using all his military training, he pushed the distracting thought behind.

“What happens to the males?”

Ichannat did an approximation of a shrug. “They fight until it becomes clear they cannot escape, and if they do not die in the attempt, they attack their owners till they are killed. If violence is prevented, they stop eating until they die. It’s such a waste as they are prodigious fighters in the arena until the ‘death wish’ occurs.

“So you think that this Panaya and her offspring will survive as a group?”

“I am saying nothing of the sort Commander. As I truly do not know. The question is, will you trade your entire cargo for the possibility?”

“I’ll make the arrangement for her accommodation immediately. Please sedate her and I’ll have a contingent of female crew waiting to collect her in say, a standard hour? I can start sending over your cargo right away, so we can both get on our way.  Forward all her medical records, please.”

With that final request, Huang performed the throat exposing gesture the Garians preferred to a handshake and hurried across to his own ship.

F
ifteen months later.

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F
iona Torres checked her watch once more and sighed at the length of the line waiting at her check- in desk. Only another few hours before the drive home. Before looking up at the next in line, she carefully plastered the ‘happy to see you,’ required smile onto her regulation coloured lips and carefully made up face. Sometimes she wondered if there had been a mistake in her ability scores as a child as some days she hated her job. Nevertheless, this was where the scores had said she should be, so there wasn’t a great deal she could do about it anyway.

“Good evening, may I see your ticket?” she asked the figure in front of her. Fiona had carefully missed out the ‘Sir or Madam’ as the person was swathed in dark cloth that covered him/her from head to foot with only the eyes showing. As the figure was around six feet tall, she didn’t want to offend by assuming a gender, who knew what was under there.

Not many people from the other Earth colonies visited Terra Prime, but she’d had all the training days about xenophobia. The company policy was that humans were humans. It didn’t matter what colour or shape their bodies were, or their choice of clothing, As long as everyone performed the work assigned to them by the Federation.

Therefore, even though the person’s eyes appeared to be golden with slits like a cat she didn’t react.  Instead, she wondered where they had obtained such fascinating contact lenses. Two tickets were silently passed over the counter by a gloved hand, and Fiona noticed a baby’s carry seat in the person’s other hand. The tickets were in the names of Mrs. Mina Sharazi and her, as yet unnamed, three-month-old daughter.

“Enjoy your flight,” Fiona said brightly and clicked the buttons on the console to indicate a successful check in.  ‘Mrs. Sharazi’ nodded, picked up the carry seat and walked away. Fiona briefly noticed that the baby’s face was also covered, although the cloth moved a little as the baby kicked. ‘Different people, different ways’ was her passing thought before she carefully composing her ‘happy to see you’ face for the next in line.

Three hours later, she’d booked in the last passenger of her shift. Fiona shut down her console and made for the ‘employees only’ door leading to the locker room. She was dreaming of the comfy shoes she was dying to get into, the pain from the blisters her new ‘regulation’ heels were causing was intense.  Her footsteps echoed loudly as she walked across the departures hall. It was strange to hear it so quiet, but a recent well-publicized campaign by local residents had curtailed night flights from the airport. Despite the familiarity of her environment, she felt distinctly uncomfortable.

Air travel was still one of the main ways people moved around the planet, now commonly referred to as ‘Terra Prime’ instead of Earth. She’d given up wishing for a promotion to one of the three spaceports on the planet, she was too old and certainly not pretty enough anymore to represent the home planet to the passengers from other Federation worlds.

The same ‘end of shift’ routine she’d followed for the past fifteen years gave her comfort as her mind wondered. She punched in the entry code on the wall panel, and pushed through the heavy blue door. Limping down the shabby 'employee’ corridor, her mind focused on her painful feet as pushed open the scratched and battered fire door to the locker room.

As she entered the familiar, dimly lit space filled with dark blue lockers, she breathed in the all-encompassing smell of old socks unsuccessfully covered by various pungent perfume products. When she was in front of her locker, she kicked off her shoes. The sight of a bloody blister on top of her right foot confirmed her fears. Those bloody rotten regulation shoes did this every time she had a new pair.

A slight sense of unease prickled the back of her neck as a rustling noise drew her attention to the back corner of the room, where the old, unused lockers were stored.

“Eww, those bloody mice are back!” she exclaimed to the empty room and instinctively raising her purse as a defensive weapon while she peered around the central block of lockers.

Instead of the expected small furry terrorists, she saw a baby’s carry seat the same type as her covered passenger had been carrying. As the grey blanket was moving slightly, she hurried over and lifted it off.  Her breath caught in her throat as a pair of vivid green eyes with vertical pupils gazed up at her.

Fiona bent down to the mesmerizing infant and a small hand with a remarkable pattern of spots, which matched the ones on its face, reached out and held her finger. The infant had a full head of dark, slightly curly hair and pale yellowish skin. Warmth travelled through her body, and she automatically smiled at the infant.

“Well what are you doing here all alone little one,” she cooed. “We’d better see if we can find your mummy hadn’t we?”

After calling security from the com panel by the door, Fiona talked to the infant, and played peek-a-boo with her, but she didn’t lift her out of the carrier as the baby seemed quite content and she didn’t want to be asked any more questions than necessary by the authorities. The infant looked far more knowing that the three months old her passport had indicated. Fiona felt just a little uncomfortable as the baby smiled at her. It was one thing decorating yourself as an adult with tattoos and using contact lenses to make yourself look more exotic, but doing it to a baby was totally out of order. She hoped the sweet little thing wouldn’t be returned to her obviously abusive parent. Babies shouldn’t be treated as fashion accessories.

She jumped as the baby suddenly let out a heart-rending wail. There didn’t appear to be anything to justify the sudden change from a peaceful chuckling infant to this inconsolable bundle. Cooing and rocking the carrier didn’t seem to help in the least, and she was more than grateful when a knock on the locker room door turned out to be a retrieval party from security.

Handing over the carrier containing the still screaming infant to the three security guards, she was surprised she didn’t recognise any of them.  She knew most of the personnel at the airport, if not by name, then by sight. Telling herself that it wasn’t her business, it was the authorities’ responsibility to care for abandoned children, didn’t help. A pang of guilt shot through her as the guard merely glanced dispassionately at the infant before pulling the blanket over her wailing, red face.

“Hang on a minute, she’ll over heat like that,” Fiona reached for the infant, but the guard holding her held out a hand, stopping her in her tracks. The man was large, and although neither he nor the others had even spoken to her, she felt intimidated and very out of her comfort zone. The guards glanced at each other, then the one holding the baby nodded to the other man who was standing just a little bit too close to her.

“Listen carefully, Torres is it?”

She nodded quickly. The man crowded her, and when she stepped back to increase her personal space, he stepped with her, backing her up against the lockers.  The clang of her heels on the metal only increased her anxiety. She took a sharp breath in, her pulse racing as he leaned in until his face was scant inches from hers.

“You will not tell anyone about this incident, Torres. You will forget it ever happened, or you will be ‘encouraged’ to forget, along with your family.” The smell of his slightly sour breath, and the bruising grip on her arm had her nodding frantically. Being ‘encouraged to forget’ meant either a memory wipe and relocation, or something even more sinister. There were always rumours of people disappearing. Some said they just got fed up with Terra prime and emigrated to another colony, others said they’d been killed. Those that brazenly talked about government murders soon ‘emigrated’ as well.

“Are you sure you understand?”

Fiona’s skin crawled as the man leaned even closer and then licked her face, thrusting a hand between her legs. “I could always help you make up your mind.”

The door banged back open, and another guard popped his head back round the door briefly.

“Get a move on numbnuts. The Boss is ready to go.”

“Crap,” murmured the one that had assaulted her. He didn’t give her a second glance as he followed his colleagues out of the room.

Fiona heaved a shaky sigh, before retching as she leant against the lockers. After a few moments, when she felt a little steadier, she moved to the sink in the corner and splashed some water on her face. Doing her best to comply with the man’s orders she shakily retrieved her purse and got her ‘home’ shoes out of her locker. Putting them on, she noticed that the painful spot on her foot and the bloody blisters on her heels were now perfectly smooth skin.

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O
utside the locker room, the three men walked quickly down the corridor, the guard that had stopped his companion from assaulting the receptionist tapped an area behind his left ear.

“Sir, we have F2B. Do we need to assist in the capture of F1?” He paused for a few moments as if listening, before replying. “Yes, it’s unharmed. Glad to hear F2a and F2c are safely away, returning to base ASAP.”

He turned to his colleagues. “Base has ordered the recall; the other two infants are safely away. Beta squad managed to kill the F1. The idiots darted her up on the roof, and she jumped before they got to her. They’ve got clean up duty, it’ll take them all night to sanitize the scene and haul the body back for the lab guys to play with.”

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E
ighteen years later

A pounding on the door of her quarters pulled Chesara out of a deep sleep. Grabbing a robe, she ran to the door, palming the panel as she tried to push a least some of her long dark hair out of her eyes. She found a wide-eyed young female ensign, panting as if she’d been running almost bobbing up and down in distress outside the door. Ensign Took wasn’t one of her favourite people, but this was obviously a ‘business’ visit not a social one.

“Madam Envoy, please come quickly, we need you in the med bay. There’s been an accident in the shuttle bay.”

Nodding, she quickly shut the door, ran the few feet back to her bedroom and quickly grabbed a set of clothes from her closet. Chesara put on the regulation deep red leggings, white shirt, and black slip on shoes in record time before she headed out the door. She could shower and attempt to tame her wild mass of black hair later.