Chapter 8 Syko
SYKO
Ismelled food.
Here in this prison, hunger and madness became one and the same. They thought to control me with starvation. Instead they only created their own worst nightmare.
They shouldn’t have attempted to control this predator by starving me. Because that only made me a bigger killer. When they finally fed me, they doped my prey with enough sedative to paralyze me for a few minutes. So they could run their fucking tests.
Fine. Fool me once.
I won’t eat again.
Until I either destroy myself—or this entire ship.
I didn’t need light to see the small creature they thought to bait me with this time. Not even a mouthful. Nothing big enough to rip apart. The meat was tainted with sedative, paralyzing it. As if I needed assistance with the kill. At least it was alive. For now. I detested dead meat.
Brief flashes flickered through my mind.
Memories of freedom—even though they weren’t mine.
Heat and humidity. Moist mud rich with decaying plant matter.
Swampy water tangled with vines, ferns, and trees, creating a dark, verdant canopy.
Blistering heat, dry sand, endless blowing wind that carried the scent of prey over hilly dunes out of sight over the horizon.
Brutal white ice cracking beneath my massive weight.
Snow patterned over my hide. Blood spreading like a river, winding through the drifts and crevices as I feasted.
Fragments imprinted on my DNA. Bits of other dyni who’d lived outside of a laboratory.
I’ve only ever known testing facilities, though they simulated some of the above scenes to determine my capabilities. My weaknesses.
I have none.
Which was exactly why they locked me in this sterile hole of a metal box.
I wasn’t supposed to remember any of those experiments.
They’d tried to wipe my memory countless times, but I remembered everything.
Knowledge embedded into my DNA could not be removed, which was why I still remembered lives not even mine.
They couldn’t wipe my memory without breaking apart the very cells that made me what I am. Too valuable to destroy. Too terrible to release. Too dangerous to use.
Most of the time, I wandered those extreme planets in my mind.
The tungsten holding cell prevented me from jumping to my freedom, but they couldn’t force me to shift.
Perhaps it’d been a mistake to remain a monster for so long, especially in such close quarters.
Even with my formidable memory, I barely recalled my other shape.
What it felt like to be smaller. Walk upright on two legs. Speak.
Why would I care to communicate with words, when I could perfectly express my rage with my creature’s teeth and claws?
They would get nothing from me. No response. No communication. No more tests. No more experimental drugs or endurance experiments. No more attempted modifications.
My cells are mine. Leave me alone or let me die as the monster you created.
The food stirred. Its faint breathing steadied. Deepened. Muscles twitched as it fought to break from the drugs’ hold. A soft, fragile cry escaped its mouth.
Delicious. They certainly knew how to lure me.
Which was exactly why I resisted despite the agonizing hunger crawling through every cell in my body.
More sounds streamed out of its mouth. Melodic and rhythmic. Words.
It was trying to communicate with me. Curiosity burned nearly as viciously as my hunger. What kind of prey thought to talk to such a monster before its death?
Despite my best intentions, I allowed the necessary programming to activate so I could translate its words.
“Please don’t eat me. You’re dynos, designation BGR++. You’re supposed to be part of a squad. I’ve seen how dyni work together. I might be able to help. Please let me help you.”
It—female by the softer, higher pitch of her voice—knew key technical terms of my kind.
Which made her an agent of DSC.
My enemy.
A low growl trickled out before I could suppress it.
“No, please!” Her voice trembled with fear, but she pushed upright.
Swaying, woozy from the drugs, she leaned against a wall for support.
Despite her weakness, I could appreciate her attempt at facing the danger head on.
“I’m not part of DSC. They kidnapped me from my planet.
It’s called Earth. Have you heard of it?
I’m not working with or for them. I’m just as much a prisoner as you. ”
I blew out a hissing breath of disgust. Not a prisoner like me. Not unless she’d been held for so long that all other basic functions of life had faded into memory.
Like eating. Feasting. Blood on my tongue.
Saliva dripped down my jaws. So hungry. So long since I’d feasted. I cracked my mouth open, letting the molecules of her scent land on my sensors. So good.
Warm. Alive. Soft.
I stretched my neck out slowly, extending my muzzle closer. I wanted. Just a taste. A little touch. So tempting.
She didn’t pull away. Foolish creature. Though she flinched when I breathed on her. Perhaps her vision was so weak she didn’t even see me.
I could see her perfectly in the darkness.
Even better, I could smell her. The complex scents of her body were intoxicating.
Faint salty trace on her skin. Sweat. Tears, perhaps.
She sobbed quietly, her shoulders shaking, but she endured the stroke of my tongue.
Thin, delicate skin with a fragile sweetness.
Surely artificial. No prey had ever smelled quite so enticing.
I could almost forget my will to starve and thwart DSC of their most dangerous creation.
“Please don’t eat me,” she whispered frantically, her teeth chattering in desperate clicks. “I can help.”
I snorted with derision, though I couldn’t quite bring myself to back away.
A pair of soft curves on her chest and the pale skin of her belly gleamed with a pearly glow.
As if I could open her up and find Sirian crystals shining beneath her skin.
Energy hummed in my tongue every time I licked her.
More than friction. A hint of crackling power that might stoke higher if I touched her longer.
Enough power to destroy this ship and end my suffering.
Nudging her harder against the wall with my snout, I flicked my tongue along her thighs.
Her knees. I told myself I was looking for a chip DSC might have embedded in her.
Something for me to ingest that might short out my own cells.
But I sensed nothing but more intriguing scents, other than a small, innocuous looking band wrapped around her left wrist.
Certainly a trap, some kind of planted technology to put me into stasis.
“I don’t know how much they can hear,” she whispered. “I’m assuming everything, especially as long as that band’s on my arm. Snyder promised it would transport me out of here if you started to hurt me.”
I didn’t know who Snyder might be. Didn’t fucking care.
No DSC agent could be trusted. Promises were only pretty lies used to convince you to play along a little longer.
She seemed smart for prey, though. I’d give her that.
Of course they were listening. Everything in this place was wired to provide what they needed to control and subdue me.
Holding her breath, she lifted her small hand toward my head. Her right arm—not the one with the band—or I would have simply bit off the offending item before it could touch me. I trusted nothing. Nothing was safe here. I knew that lesson all too well.
Her shaking fingertips dotted over my upper jaw. Perilously close to my teeth. With a flick of my head, I’d devour her. Not just the arm. One gulp, and she’d be inside me.
A new hunger shook me to my core. Touch. Without pain. A sensation other than air or metal on my scales.
Faint, barely intelligible words despite my nearness, as if she whispered into my bones. “Ready for all hell to break loose?”
Keeping her hands in my line of sight, she ever so slowly inched her fingers up to the band. Eyes slitted with suspicion, I bared my teeth. Every muscle braced to pounce. Rend. Tear. Without hesitation, I’d protect myself against even this soft, delicate creature that smelled so divine.
With a soft click, she opened the band. As it slowly slipped off her wrist, she flung herself.
At me.
HOLLY
My teeth chattered so hard they ached. The rank smell of predator burned my nostrils, choking me. Tears streamed down my cheeks, not just from the acrid odors but pure terror. Thank god I couldn’t really see much in the absolute darkness.
His sheer size made every muscle in my body quiver with the urge to run. The only thing that might save me was the fact he could barely move inside the tiny cell.
A calculated risk, for sure, but I had to show him where I stood. I had to have skin in the game. Literally. The bracelet was my only way out of here—unless I could free him.
His hide moved beneath me, writhing like a giant snake.
I clutched at him, trying to stay close.
Too close for him to bite. In close quarters, he couldn’t rear back away from me, but he swiped at me with one of his shorter arms. Burning pain stole my breath but I pressed closer to him, hugging my entire body against him.
His chest, evidently. I could feel the reverberation of his heartbeat like a tympani drum beneath his skin.
Hopefully a little blood got on his scales—as long as I wasn’t too injured. I didn’t think so.
I focused on the mrions inside my head. :Try to contact him. Make a grid for us to silently communicate without DSC knowing.:
I still couldn’t feel them doing anything, but I imagined soldier ants marching through my body—into his.
His claws tangled in my hair. He peeled me away from him, shaking me like a rag doll. My scalp burned and throbbed, but a little hair was a small price to pay if this worked.
Bellowing out a T-rex growl that almost made me panic pee, he shoved his snout into my midsection so hard I grunted.
Lost my breath. My head thumped back against the wall, an explosion of color behind my eyelids.
My ribs creaked, my spine ached, but hopefully Snyder was right and the mrions had reinforced my bones enough to hold.
I didn’t fight or try to defend myself. I didn’t want to antagonize him further. Something like sandpaper roughed across my flank where I’d felt pain. Hot, moist breath. The sandpaper rubbed again, making me whimper. Probing.
It dawned on me. I must be bleeding. He’s licking the blood.
That was probably a really bad thing to do around a starved predator.
Sirens. Red lights blinking. Evidently Snyder thought the same thing.
Hissing, the BGR++ crammed his bulk deeper into the rear of the room, dragging me with him. Rolling me around. Weird, snake-like hide roiled beneath me, above me, until I couldn’t even tell if I was upright or hanging upside down by my heels. Weight all around. Solid. But I could still breathe.
“What do you think of my little gift, Syko?” Snyder’s voice purred over hidden speakers.
Metal grated and groaned, the sound like razor blades on my nerves. Claws. Dragging against the confining cell. The coils tightened around me, making it difficult to breathe. Rage and betrayal pulsed through his scales, a thick, suffocating energy that dragged me under.
:Me too.: I thought at him, even if he couldn’t hear me. :They told me you didn’t have a name.:
“You passed the first test. I’m very pleased with you thus far.
I knew you would be smart enough to sense the treasure I offer you.
Don’t you smell it, Syko? She’s ripe for breeding.
She’ll ovulate soon thanks to a little adjustment we gave her before we dropped her into your cell.
Breed her, and we’ll release you from the program entirely.
You can go anywhere in the universe you want.
We won’t pursue you. As far as DSC is concerned, you were already terminated. ”
Syko huffed out several rumbling growls that sounded almost like laughter. He didn’t believe Snyder for a minute. Neither did I.
Hot tears burned my eyes. I knew allowing them to sedate me before teleporting me into the cell was a risk. Evidently they’d given me some kind of medicine to speed up my cycle. Bastards. Which only reinforced my fear they’d already stolen eggs or cells from me when I was unaware.
I have to get out of here. Before it’s too late.
:It’s already too late,: a voice rasped through my head. Deep, bass, and crawling with underlying menace. :What are you?:
Hope spiraled through me. :You can hear me? I’m a human from Earth. My name’s Holly.:
His coils tightened slowly. His tail, maybe? Though I didn’t think Axxol’s was quite as mobile. :You implanted cells in me. You’re just like them.:
:No, wait!: Panting, I tried not to twitch or move for fear my joints might tear. :They’re rebel mrions. It’s a long story but I’ll tell you everything.:
The pain didn’t lessen—but he also didn’t crush me any further.
How to convince him? The story about Natalie and her squad seemed ridiculous to detail right this very second.
While my heart ached, trying to beat, and my bones throbbed with pressure.
But I didn’t have to think of an explanation.
Not with mrions at my disposal. I did a Rizan-like dump of the whole story to the BGR++ as soon as the thought occurred to me. Everything.
Two unsuspecting women headed to the jungles of Guatemala.
Natalie getting lost—and finding Kroktl.
Discovering her fragments of mrion cells.
Her squad. Her baby girl. Her gift to me.
How Snyder tricked me into meeting him at the cafe and kidnapped me to the ship.
My idea to find a pilot to get us the fuck out of here.
The coils dragged me up—evidently to where his giant teeth were. My whole body ached like I’d been run over by a dump truck. Repeatedly.
Hot breath blasted my hair back from my face. The sandpaper tongue probed the cuts on my side again, making me suck in a harsh breath.
:That’s a stupid plan.:
His tongue wrapped around my midsection. For a second, I honestly thought he’d just drag me into his mouth and swallow me down. One big gulp and I’d be dino poop. :You have a better plan?:
:DSC.: I heard his voice in my head, but he wasn’t talking to me. :You’ve got a deal.: