25. The Kids Arent Alright
Chapter twenty-five
The Kids Aren't Alright
He was back on board the mothership for the first time in weeks, and it all felt… foreign, not like a place he had ever called home. The soft tissue walls vibrated and smoothly pulsed faint light, like a silent alarm alerting the true inhabitants that there were intruders in their midst, it wouldn’t take long for the hive mind to alert Stathos-6.
They were in an intersection, a clearing of sorts. The tunnels that crawled off in all different directions, up, down, and to the sides, were more dark than lit, wide in some places and narrow in others, like being inside the chambers of a bloody beating heart. Long fungus-like strands reached for him, little slimy hairs full of static electricity seeking out anything to attach themselves to.
Stathos-2 stood shivering and eyes wild next to him. “Ya know, on second thought, I don’t need a new body, this one is just fine.” She twisted her hands. “I got you here, now, I’m out.”
Estrellas, holding The Speaker, Mr. Garcia, unconscious in Angela’s arms, as easily as if he were nothing more than an infant and not a full-grown man, looked at Stathos-2 sharply. “You will not leave me now.” His words rang with the finality of a cross mother putting their child in timeout.
They had too much history for her to abandon him. He had saved her life more times than either of them could count. Blocking a sword during the battle of Marathon. Pushing her out of the path of a war elephant during the battle of Zama. Everything from taking the brunt of the impact during a car collision, all the way to shooting in the head a vengeful and sneaky lover during one of her less than ideal assignments to a drug lord.
His face softened when he saw the pitiful trapped look coming from Stathos-2. With a kind voice he said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had to fight, huh?”
She shrugged her shoulders, and Estrellas tried a new topic of conversation as a way of a distraction. “I mourned your death you know.”
She had a regretful look on her face, as if saying ‘sorry’.
He gave her a sad smile. “How did you end up falling in love with The Speaker? Seems like quite the serendipity seeing as how I was later assigned to his daughter.”
She looked up with her hands on her hips. “To be honest, I’m not sure I ever really loved him, passion for a time, sure.” She paused. “Do you recall? It was my idea first to infiltrate the Speaker’s life, but I was overruled, told it was too big a target at the time. Of course, a while later, when no one was looking, I took matters into my own hands.” She laughed and shook her head. “I abducted Talia’s mom, hid her consciousness elsewhere on the ship for safekeeping,” she waved her hand in the air like she was merely relaying a task list and not messing around in someone’s life, “and planned on gathering some reconnaissance to bring back, to prove it was a good plan. But suddenly, and don’t ask me why, I saw what this planet could offer besides just a place to live.” She glanced at him sideways. “For the record, I knew Stathos-6 had his issues, but I had no idea what had happened to you, or I would have returned.” She gulped. “Probably… maybe-certainly.” She chuckled uneasily before continuing. “My severance to the hive mind must have been right before your assignment to Talia, I don’t think the cause is love, I think-”
The light from the walls turned up a notch, and the long fungus-like strands doubled their efforts, waving around crazily as they extended their reach for them.
“Showtime.” Estrellas said and adjusted his hold on Mr. Garcia. Stathos-2 switched into soldier mode, pushing the version of her that could be vulnerable in front of Estrellas, down and away. Face stoic and feet firmly planted, a warrior once again.
His voice, Stathos-6, rained down on them from all directions like surround sound speakers on full blast. “TRAITORS!” He bellowed, except his voice was all wrong, broken, raspy and wet. Silence. Heart pounding. Listening strained. Then crunchy slippery sounding footsteps that echoed to his ears as his figure slowly emerged from one of the many tunnels. Cloaked in a long-hooded robe like the penitent brothers they encountered once during Catholic holy days, except this cloak was dark red and lacked a masked face.
Fitting.
Stathos-6 stretched his arms out wide to the sides of the tunnel he was coming through, relishing in the touch of the fibroid-like strings calling out to him as though they carried him more than he walked. Their brothers and sisters, imprisoned and waiting to be released into a body. Emerging from a tunnel that slanted upwards, clinging onto the sides like a spider in its web, Stathos-6’s figure became clearer as he got closer. He wasn’t wearing a human body; he was in a lizard suit. It’s skin, thick, rough and slimy, and height twice as tall as the average human. Red glowing vertical slits for pupils narrowed at him.
“You would return for that human?” Its ragged voice snarled at him. Stathos-6 turned its lizard head like an owl, no neck, towards Stathos-2. “And you. I thought you were dead.” He looked back at Estrellas. “No matter-”
“Stathos-6.” Estrellas said firmly, loudly. “I’ve come home to you, my memories have returned and I have seen the error of my ways.” He took a step towards Stathos-6. “And I’ve brought a peace offering.” He unceremoniously dropped Mr. Garcia and his body rolled to Stathos-6’s feet. “I’m sorry Stathos-6, for allowing myself to be led astray, from the mission… from you.”
Bile built along the back of his throat as Estrellas forced the words out.
“LIAR!” The lizard sprang towards him, knocking Estrellas to his back, its long, split tongue was hot as it shot into Estrellas’ ear, paralyzing his human body in seconds with its toxins. Stathos-2 charged, and Stathos-6 effortlessly swatted her away, as if she were nothing more than a bothersome bug. She landed hard and unconscious.
Why’d he have to be in a lizard suit? We’re fucked.
Estrellas’ heart raced within his frozen body. Tension built with nowhere to go.
Stathos-6 grabbed a handful of hair the painfully pulled against his scalp, and dragged Estrellas across the ship. “You want your human so bad?” He rasped. “Allow me to bring you to her.” Stathos-6 kicked The Speaker’s body out of the way. Keeping one dactyly claw tight on Estrellas’ hair, the other clutched a handful of fabric on his back; sharp talons pierced through his clothes to scratch against his soft human skin. It leapt up a diagonal tunnel and heaved Estrellas along like an oversized piece of luggage.
The long stretch twisted and curved like the real inner workings of a putrid beehive, hundreds of minds were the bees, buzzing within the walls, until they clambered out into a different kind of chamber, all smooth, sterile, and gray. The assessment room. The tall metal slab rose from the ground and Stathos-6 tossed Estrellas onto it. The lizard crawled over to a far wall and stroked it until a holographic screen in an alien language lit up. Stathos-6 plucked at a sequence of symbols until a loud hum vibrated Estreallas’ body where he lay.
From the ceiling a pod slowly emerged from cold storage, a breath of fog clung to the outside of the tube as it came down. Inside… was Talia. Peacefully asleep within the liquid interior. Her long curly hair floated around her naked body like a dark blanket.
“What do you think, Stathos-1?” The lizard groaned. “Should we eliminate her mind? Hmm?” He hissed. “Eraaassse her soul, empty the body?” Fast as a snap he slithered over to Talia and tap, tap, tapped on the glass-like shell. “I can be her for you. I can enter this body… is that what you want, Stathos-1? A human life with her? I can give you that. Just one more mind wipe and you won’t know the difference.”
Estrellas’ inner turmoil worked on overdrive. He was screaming in his mind, unable to move anything except his eyes. He wanted to shout, ‘don’t touch her!’. His skin crawled and his belly rolled with nausea.
Stathos-6 crawled on all four lizard claws over to him and rose to a stand slowly. He dragged a talon down Estrellas’ cheek and whispered in his throaty lizard voice. “We can be together this way, forever. I’ll stay inside her until you love me, then we’ll body hop for the rest of time.” His breath stunk of rotten insects as he got even closer. “Fuck the mission. We’ll just fuck each other.”
Estrealls choked on his vomit, apparently his body could still throw up but he couldn’t move. Stathos-6 finally noticed, rolled him to his side so the sick could fall, and spoke again. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon.”
Estrellas watched in terror as Stathos-6 walked to another wall and stroked it until a tray popped out with a pink goo filled syringe. Estrellas hollered on the inside, kicked and screamed in his mind, desperate to move.
Stathos-6 squirted a bit of the goo, clearing any air from the top of the syringe, and turned towards him.
The needle pricked the surface of his skin and just before it was plunged in, the lizard let out a hissing screech like a sick baby’s cry.
Stathos-2’s arms were wrapped around the lizard's head, her fingers rammed deep into its eye sockets. Stathos-6 wailed and flailed his scaly arms, clawing at Stathos-2. He raked through her clothes leaving behind deep red scratches that oozed blood, but still Stathos-2 held on. Pushing her fingers in deeper, two, three, to four at a time until nearly her whole hand was inside the lizard's brain. Neon blue and eggplant purple brain matter oozed from its eyes around Stathos-2’s hands, until it collapsed with her on top of its back.
Relief would be an understatement for the feeling that flooded through Estrellas’ body, if only he could move and jump, and pump his fists in the air. He could hear Stathos-2 breathing heavily from wherever she lay on the ground.
She popped up, wobbly, and smiling with Lizard insides splashed across her face. “Miss me lover boy?” She laughed. “Just like riding a bike!” She chuckled again at her own joke as she squeezed her sides and gasped for air. “I know you’re laughing on the inside.” She pointed at him and winked.
Hardly.
She patted his shoulder and went to the holographic display. She hummed to herself as she scrolled through. “Let’s find you an anti-toxin, shall we? Speed up this process and get you out of that paralysis.” She kept scrolling until she found what she was looking for. “Ah, here we are.” She tapped a few symbols and another tray slid out from the wall. Inside was a large orange wafer, like an extra-large, flat thin cracker. Stathos-2 pulled it out and walked over to Estrellas. She opened his mouth, shoved it in, and held his mouth closed.
He could feel the wafer dissolving on his tongue, bitter, and bubbly. A tingling sensation slowly spread from the tips of his fingers and toes inward to his middle, until finally, he could move again.
He sat up, wiggled his jaw side to side and cracked his neck, sighing with relief. “Perfect timing, as always.”He gave her a sly smile. “I wasn’t sure if you still had it in you, after being sedentaryfor so long.”
Stathos-2 dramatically bowed and laughed again. “My pleasure , your highness .” She said mockingly as she flung her hair back and lifted her head like she was in a shampoo commercial while doing a little shimmy, like she hadn’t just murdered someone. “And you obviously haven’t met many politicians’ wives, they’re vicious.” She said with a shiver before marching over to Talia’s tube. “Let’s get your girlfriend out of here, shall we?”
“Wait.” He said as he swung his legs off the table. “There’s something I need your help with first.” He gestured up. “In cold storage.”
“Stathos-1, it’s freeezzing up here.” Stathos-2 shivered and rubbed her arms. “What are we doing up here?”
“You wanted a new body, right?” He stated as if it was obvious.
“Ah, right, I just didn’t realize that was a priority.” She grumbled. “These humans aren’t exactly built for the cold.”
“I want to surprise Talia. You are giving her mom back, and I’m giving her Angela back, and we are picking out new bodies.” He said with finality. “So, what’s your type? Young, old, black, Asian?”
“Rich.” She said, “I’ve gotten quite comfortable in the lifestyle.”
Estrellas tapped a wall to bring up a display and scrolled through a list of human profiles. “Ah, here we are, tech mogul. Net worth, 40.2 mil.”
“That’ll do!” She glanced at Estrellas. “You should have told me what we were doing, I hid her mom’s soul on the complete opposite end of the ship. You wait here and pick someone out for yourself. I’ll be right back.”
Estrellas nodded and continued to scroll profiles. Searching for someone within the right age range, and he was pretty sure Talia cared more about the person than their gender, but did have a slight sexual preference towards men, and no preference on ethnicity. He’d just have to fib a little bit about where the body came from. Maybe he could tell her that they were grown from scratch. Even though he was aware the cloning and growing thing never really worked out, they could never really hold a soul well, but she didn’t need to know that. Besides, what was one tiny human life compared to the expanse of the universe, and their love?
Finally, he found a suitable male, he selected the profile and the hanging bodies, which were vacuum sealed, rotated like clothes in a dry cleaner. This human had golden brown skin, south Asian most likely, honey brown eyes, and shoulder length dark curly hair. He was muscular, but not overly so, and an artist. He was an orphan with no close friends, which would make life with Talia much easier. No baggage.
Estrellas tapped a few more symbols and the male's body swung over to a waiting tube. The clear doors opened and sucked the body in before closing tight. Liquid began filling and in no time the body would be ready for modification and inhabitation. Super strength, and rapid healing were standard, but Estrellas thought a few extras might come in handy.
Stathos-2 returned, out of breath. “Damn, I forgot how big this ship is.” She held up a small jar in triumph, that had a shimmering light shimmery gas like substance inside. “Got it!”
“Great! Your new body is ready, I’ll do you first.” Like it was just another day at the office.
Estrellas administered a sedative and began the process of removing Stathos-2. He secured her soul in a jar and brought Talia’s mom to a new tube where any modifications would be undone, then her soul reinserted.
When Stathos-2 awoke in her new body she repeated the process for Estrellas.
Easy peasy.