Chapter Five
Wallace
Nothing could have prepared me for the change in my body. The uneven weight of my new tail pulled at my spine in odd ways. I found myself compensating with bowed legs and a stilted step.
Nothing could have prepared me for the sloughing flesh, either, like slipping out of a bad sunburn after a long bathtub soak.
Fel stood at the end of my bed, eyes bright with excitement. “Friend! Your changes were successful!”
I looked at my largely unchanged hands and touched my chest, which had become flesh instead of scale, though that wasn’t quite right, either.
Tougher than flesh. I plucked and pricked around with my sharp nails until I got to my ni—I’d not had nipples before.
Tal didn’t, and I was more Tal than most. “Yeah—”
He almost squealed as I spoke, my tail twitching behind me. It did a little shiver. The emotion? I was happy to see him. I was confused about my nipples, but curious. Curiosity!
As if understanding, Fel pulled a viewscreen up and the view that met my gaze was… Not me. An image of someone else—no… As I moved, so did the picture.
My flesh was darker than Noel’s. I wasn’t sure what human percentage I was made from, but they were darker skinned, I assumed.
I touched a face with soft skin pliant under my fingers, lips full and plush.
I reached up to touch my scalp and instead of the eternally smooth expanse of scales, I felt the light fuzz of hair, coming in dark.
And in my pattern of scales over my arms and legs, the rainbow of colors reflecting through the brownish-gray tinge shone through.
“You’re an attractive alpha.” Fel craned his neck to look me over, his tail giving that suspicious curl that drew my eye. When I didn’t reciprocate, his tail wilted, clear disappointment.
“Sorry.” I glanced away, but he shrugged.
“I’m such a plain creature. I understand. I’m the color of moss.” He sighed.
“Oh, no, that’s not it. You’re pretty and definitely attractive, but I need emotion and we don’t have that sort of thing together.
I rather like your scale color.” As I gave him a second look, my tail did the little curl.
I stomped a foot down on it as my face did something weird.
“It’s hot in here. Is it hot in here to you? ”
“You’re blushing!” Fel laughed. “I feel better. Thank you, friend.”
“This is what blushing feels like? I’ve never done it before!” I patted at my cheeks. “But, there, yes, I think you’re attractive. I’m selective about—that.”
“He’s a prude.” A new voice spoke up when the door to my medical room opened. Doc.
“I am not a prude! You and I have done—things.” I scratched the back of my neck.
“You’ve watched.”
“I watched and jerked off! And I fucked Gorm!”
“Everyone’s copulated with Gorm.” Fel gave me a long stare. And for him to know that after such a short time on this planet…
“Noel hasn’t.” My point earned a sneer.
“Noel and Vil are mates. There is no tearing apart an omega once he’s chosen his alpha.” Fel sighed dreamily.
“Finding my chosen omega. I like that.” I caught myself grinning as Doc reciprocated. “Though… Wouldn’t I need a beta, too?”
“Well, Gorm is always willing to donate some tadpoles.” Doc’s upper lip curled a bit, as if he weren’t the one riding that thing on the regular until not too long ago.
“No, the fuck, I’m not!” Gorm’s thick accent piped up from down the hall, voice hoarse. “I feel like I’m gonna die, fellas! My spirit? Totally willing and all that, but my schmeat keeps giving me this sad look like he’s ashamed of me! The lil’ fella’s depressed!”
“What is schmeat?” Fel wrinkled his nose. “Is this another euphemism?”
“Yes,” Doc and I said simultaneously.
“I understand the meat subtext, but where does the sch- come from?” Fel rubbed at his chin, brow furrowed.
“His ass,” I said, earning a swat from Doc.
“It’s a Mater Terra-ism where they add the prefix to some words for added social effect and it has no other derived meaning other than social context and verbal memetics.” Doc wilted a little as he rubbed his temples before stomping off. “Where the fuck is Noel? This is his territory.”
I didn’t know, but Fel beamed. “He came by this morning and got scanned. He’s gravid, and so soon after the first. Practically unheard of without chemical intervention, but stranger things have happened.”
“Ahh, damn. I’ll go by and check on him. How upset is he?” Doc straightened up his jacket and readied himself to head out.
Fel shrugged. “Vil seemed pleased. And you are friends with Vil, so you will be very busy come nesting time.”
It took me a moment to realize his meaning, but when I did, it jarred me. “Oh, right. Uncle Wallace can be counted on, I suppose.” I took a seat, careful of my tail, as I continued to study my body.
A chirp went off around the room, the tone eerie and jarring. Fel reacted with wide eyes and glanced toward us nervously. “That is the approaching vessel warning.”
We all paused as I hesitated. Doc and I could gather our crew and get off-world pretty damn fast. Doc made a polite call off to the side to check on Noah. Noel answered the call, and they had a quick conversation that made his face go stern.
“I think Roan’s found us.” Doc stared at the floor, face twisted. “Fuck.”
“We do not have to drop our cloaking if he’s bad news.” Fel stared him down.
Doc groaned, and I shrugged. “They have a longstanding feud with Vil.”
“He’s a pain in my ass.” Doc rubbed at his face. “If he’s on his way, he’s got a crew full of roided-up hybreeds.”
Fel glanced over with interest. “What is roided?”
“Channeling Noel here!” Doc took a deep breath. “An elder Mater Terra-ism from back in the day, where athletes, in order to enhance their performance, used synthetic hormones to increase muscle mass to make them more like their dominant sex.”
“Dominant sex… So everyone wanted to appear as an alpha?” Fel tilted their head.
“In Noel’s younger years… That term referred to a toxic subculture of patriarchal…” Doc waved his hand a bit.
“They idolized sires to the point that it became custom to disrespect their bearers and eventually, the disdain grew both ways. Birth rates fell—and that’s about the time that the Progenitors arrived.
” I shrugged it off. I’d never even set foot on Mater Terra, but the airspace was still open when I was young.
“And then half the population up and died sixteen or seventeen Mater Terra solar rotations after that.” Doc huffed. “Trying to play gods with Noel’s body.”
Fel’s face went hard as Doc mentioned it. “A lifeseed is never meant to be conscious because of what they do to them. The whole barbaric practice is unethical.”
I nodded in agreement. “And they didn’t even try to make it bearable, as long as they got their money, their status, and what they wanted in the end.”
Fel shook his head. “I cannot imagine what would happen… Nevermind. We wouldn’t permit them to leave.”
“Excuse me, what? Who to leave?” Doc whipped around, eyes wide.
“If Noel bears an omega child, they will also be a lifeseed. It is how they are born. Eggs retrieved from a lifeseed are fertilized. The result, if omega, is a lifeseed. If he bears a lifeseed, we will not permit that child to leave. We know what many would do to him.”
“Lucky for you, Noel doesn’t seem to want to leave.” Doc huffed and approached me with a strange device that they used to draw my blood. I tilted my head and winced as they pulled a small sample from my neck.
“That is for the best.” Fel nodded once. “The universe is vast and our enemies line the world.”
“When you say our?” I glanced over and his tail went limp.
“Naleucians… And Colthraxians. As a parasitic union, I understand what I am. I have never known another body. I infected an egg before I truly had consciousness, and once I knew what I was, truly, I knew to make more of myself was wrong, because in my mind, I am Naleucian. We were never meant to infect infants. And that is how the resolution came to be. But the damage had been done.” Fel’s tail stayed limp.
“You couldn’t have known.” Doc rested his hand on Fel’s shoulder. “You were an infant with an adult’s knowledge. Your one impulse was to survive.”
They’d sent all their betas and alphas into the stars, carrying unburdened progeny, or what they hoped was, at least. And those that remained?
The alphas and betas kept behind? The very act of being bitten by an omega, mating with one, killed them.
And they’d birthed one egg after another.
Those that remembered had documented sending them into the stars, praying they’d bring back healthy new life, unaffected by Colthraxians.
In the end, though? Nobody had followed the resolution.
They kept infecting their own young. So much wrong.
So much, so fast, and as always, too late.
“Is Noel truly uninfected?” I caught myself asking as I glanced up at Fel.
“Can’t be infected. That was part of the lifeseed’s design; their venom concentration was so high that it made infection impossible, and that was unmated. Mated? A mated Naleucian omega was uninfectable most of the time, too.” Fel sighed dreamily.
“Don’t you worry about…” I glanced Fel up and down as he shrugged.
“What happens to us will be what happened to Sarge.” Fel rested a hand on his chest. “And we won’t ever have to feel like… This. It’s like I’m in the wrong body, or I am the wrong body. My Colthraxian body has never seen the world outside through its own eyes. I never want them to.”
I beckoned for Fel to come over and opened my arms, the gesture making him tilt his head. “Oh… Right, yeah.”
With an awkward angle of my tail, I reached over to give a casual wrap and squeeze around his calf, a loose and passing gesture that made him smile.
As if reciprocating my custom, he stepped into my space and opened his arms, mimicking what he thought a hug was, which was more of a bear-hug assault that made me wheeze.
“Hey, guys, this is touching and all, but I want to go find my kid and hide for a while. New people make me nervous.” Doc slipped out, his tail flicking anxiously as he did so.
And I followed, steps unsteady, wondering what fresh hell I was in for.