Chapter 5 Holly #2
The woman disappeared from the small room. A second later, the video displayed a large dark space. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust, where I could make out trees, shrubs, and even grass. The woman suddenly appeared from nowhere, startling me.
Snyder paused the video. “See the silver bracelet on her arm? It’s a mini jumping device, calibrated to her specific body.”
I wasn’t sure why he pointed it out, but I was grateful for a slight breather before the video continued.
“Introducing squad O114R to the interaction chamber,” the narrator continued. “Orders: explore. No other restraints or programming specified to allow instinctual responses.”
My stomach quivered with dread. I had a terrible feeling I knew what “instinctual” meant.
A chime sounded and the far wall of the chamber began to rise. In the low lighting, it appeared to look like the darker metal doors surrounding this laboratory, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Point, survey,” a male voice said.
A raptor sprinted into sight, smaller than Kroktl’s beast with yellow stripes down its spine. His yellow eyes burned like tiny suns. He made a quick loop around the chamber. “One life form identified. No threats detected.”
“Acknowledged. Squad, deploy.”
One by one, the rest of the dyni moved into view.
A Tyrannosaurus rex with blue markings like Axxol, making him the alpha, the one giving the orders.
One of the long-necked four-legged sauropods.
A horned, armored stegosaurus. Lastly, a furry massive bat creature with wings, who slowly circled the chamber, illustrating exactly how large the room was.
The poor woman still lay on the grass, apparently unconscious. While five ginormous monsters surrounded her.
The raptor bumped her with his snout, nudging her body on the grass. “I’m not sure what it is, but it smells good.”
“Test subject remains sedated,” the narrator said. “Our hypothesis is that humans’ flight responses triggered the associated predator responses in previous trials. By keeping test subject immobile, we’ll determine how the squad interacts with a potential female.”
My teeth ached, my jaws clenched shut. Trying not to cry out. Warn her. It was too late. This was a recording. I couldn’t help the poor woman. But I trembled with helpless rage. She was a living, breathing human being.
But to DSC, she was nothing more than an interesting animal used in an experiment.
Me too. I was just another test subject. Snyder might be trying to remind me of my past interactions with him as my professor, but he wasn’t human. He didn’t care about me, Natalie, or any other woman on this planet.
The T-Rex came nearer. He cracked his jaws open, inhaling deeply as he lowered his huge head closer to the prone woman. “Smells like meat to me.”
He opened his jaws wider, and I jerked my head to the side, closing my eyes. Unable to watch. The sounds were horrible enough. At least she slept through it. But there’s nothing like the sound of a human body being torn apart and eaten.
“Test subject A99B47 deceased. Lack of flight response had no impact on the squad’s natural inclinations to feed.”
“There are over a hundred versions,” Snyder said quietly.
“They tried ordering the squad not to eat the subject, but it made no difference in their instincts. They sent squads shifted into their humanoid forms. Only one member of the squad. Every variation they could think of. But mating instincts were never triggered in any of the tests.”
His hand settled on my shoulder, making me jump.
He didn’t hurt me, but my own flight or fight response perked up, ready to flee.
Or at least kick him in the nuts again. Unfortunately, I accidentally looked at the screen again, paused on a dark, wet, bloody spot where the woman had been lying.
The only thing left was the silver bracelet lying in the trampled grass.
“Why, Miss Price? Why was Natalie successful when over a hundred women just like her weren’t?
There’s nothing especially interesting in her appearance.
In fact, the professor would argue she was plain, slightly overweight, and nowhere near as attractive as you, for instance.
Yet if you had been in the jungle that night, the raptor would very likely have torn you apart rather than decide you were his mate.
Don’t you want to know why? Prove one way or the other if we’re right? ”
Intellectually, I knew what he was doing.
Demonstrating compassion—which I knew was fake.
Trying to pique my curiosity. Even probing at my inherent jealousy that Natalie had been the one to find her squad and not me.
Sure, I was envious, but I didn’t begrudge her in the slightest. I’d only seen a tiny sliver of what she had to go through to mate the squad and deliver Akylla.
Yes, she was happy, but she’d been injured, scared, and nearly killed, even by her own alpha.
Dyni didn’t understand humans. If Axxol had been the one to find her that night rather than Kroktl, would she still be alive? Or would she have suffered the same fate as the poor woman on the recording?
“You have an advantage over every other human woman, including Natalie herself. You already have completed mrions in your body. They’re making you more compatible for the dyni. What she did accidentally, you can do purposefully.”
“If you’re wrong…” I started to say, my voice hoarse.
“As you saw, we have the ability to teleport you in and out of the squad’s vicinity. We can do it—or you can press the control yourself and immediately remove yourself from danger.”
“I’m here without my consent. You could sedate me like you did her.”
“If I wanted you dead, I would have dropped your unconscious body into the holding cell with a rabid dynos and skipped the demonstration.” His tone sharpened slightly with frustration. Snyder was running out of patience trying to convince me. Then what?
I was under no illusion that he’d simply drop me back at Lake Atitlán and let me return to tell Natalie about everything I’d seen here.
No, if I wanted to get out of here, I’d have to beat him at his own game.
I wanted a squad of my own. Evidently, he had dyni here. Ready.
If I had the courage to try.
I turned to face him, holding his gaze. “I decide the level of risk I’m willing to take.”
His eyes flashed silver. “Agreed.”
“I choose which dynos to meet first. I control how it happens. How long. If I decide he’s too dangerous, you’ll have to find another way.”
“Agreed.”
I inhaled deeply and held the breath for a long count. “How can I possibly have any assurances that you’ll keep your word? I don’t have leverage in this arrangement.”
“You do. You have all the power, Miss Price.”
I scowled at him and crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s not true, or I wouldn’t even be here. As you said, you could have simply dropped me into a holding cell with one of them already.”
“That’s true, of course, but I suspect there were other factors in Miss Whit’s success. Especially when it came to mating the entire squad and carrying their young.” He paused, letting me think about it.
Her willingness—no, her love—was the secret to winning Axxol over. For each member to feel wanted and appreciated rather than excluded. It wasn’t just the mrion fragments that made it all possible.
But her.
“Suppose I am successful,” I said slowly, watching his face. Trying to read his expressions. How much of Snyder’s ticks did this construct still have? “Then what? I refuse to stay on this ship bearing little dyni babies for you to continue experimenting on.”
“Let’s get a successful mating accomplished first, yes?” He lightly slapped at his thigh. Something Snyder would’ve done with his ridiculous Indy hat. When he was lying his ass off. “Then we’ll renegotiate your terms on how you wish to go forward.”
My spine tingled. Nerves fired up and down the length of my back, my scalp prickling, goose bumps rising on my arms. There would be no renegotiating.
If I wanted off this ship—with my squad—it’d be up to me to figure out how to break them out.
“Show me who you’ve got locked up on this ship, and I’ll think about it.”