Chapter Fourteen #2
Sarge’s face appeared in an instant. “We’re on lockdown. Roan, you okay? Where’s Wallace?”
“I’m perfectly fine. Noel’s having the egg. Wallace is at the bakery. We have a Colthraxian out of body. What percentage do purity meters test Colthraxians at?”
“Zeroes it out unless they’ve hosted or are born from one. Then they pick up two to three percent. Why?” Sarge, as orange as his child, stared me down in panic.
“Nexus brought me a dead worm as a present, and we have one out of body that’s scoring zero.” I waited for a response when a dawning look of horror flashed across his face.
“Fuck. That means it’s never been fully assimilated into a Naleucian body. Or even any creature in Paradise. The genetics would have some similarity.” Sarge took a deep breath. “Wasn’t even birthed from one.”
“That’s all I needed. Any ideas on where a spare one with zeroed genes could have come from?” I raised a brow.
“Fuck… Sonderson sent you, didn’t he? He’s a Colthraxian—but he’s lemniscate…” Sarge paled visibly. “I’m on my way.”
My chest went cold.
I walked to the children to make sure they were turned away and gave them each a quick hug and kiss. I approached the corpse with intent as I ran the scans—and sure enough. “It’s Kimlar, alright, but here.”
I expanded the screen and pointed to the inside of their body. The ganglion mass of Kimlar’s original Colthraxian host was freshly severed. Still present. And where a lung once was, was an eviscerated and half-healed void. “I know the answer, but is there any way to save him?”
“No.” Zurok’s hoarse voice cracked.
“It’s an entirely new Colthraxian.” Zurok’s conclusion turned his ire toward me, accusation steeped in the kink of his tail and scrunch of his face.
I held my hands up and let my tail fall limp. “Your decision, Zurok. I’ll do whatever you tell me to. You’ve not had a new Colthraxian on this planet—”
“That we know of,” Zurok sighed heavily. “The fact is, we have a Colthraxian that bred.”
“I don’t think so. Can the 4D detect foreign DNA masses?” I tapped about the options and Fel shook his head.
“There has to b—” I pushed through options as Fel brightened and took over the interface, bumping me aside as he overlayed a few filters.
A glowing mass in the lung fluoresced. Streaks of glowing matter twinkled through the body in dendritic branches, and a pool of fluorescing liquid sat still in their stomach. “Colthraxian cells fluoresce under certain spectrums!”
“Brilliant!” Zurok’s eyes traced the image. “The foreigner tried to breed him and infiltrate his corpse…”
“Belly full of Colthraxian—excretions.” I had no better word because it was neither sperm nor egg, but a mass of gametes and nutritional and conditioning fluid, best I’d learned upon researching.
“With how broken down it was, there was no way it was conditioned properly. It wasn’t aware of the venom situation of an omega that has had Noel’s little spicy addition.
Even you guys couldn’t infiltrate an omega unless it was still in the egg.
” I wagged a finger at Fel, who averted his gaze shamefully.
“Now, let’s see if it has Tal or Terran… ”
“On it, boss,” Merriel’s voice piped above as my purity meter made a few buzzing noises.
Tish spoke after, a little laugh in her voice. “Merriel’s very good at hacking.”
After a few beeps that rattled the internal speakers in a crunchy sort of way, Merriel declared it good.
I scanned the creature on both settings and got neither Tal nor human. “Either Merriel botched the hack, or the creature had never hosted in any of our three known hosts.”
“Hit the button again, man. I put one in there for shits and grins. Revulon. They’re fantastic Colthraxian hosts.” Merriel’s piping voice made my stomach clench as I panned the option menu and pressed the button once more.
It buzzed and displayed four percent and some change, the last digit flickering between two and three as if it couldn’t make up its mind. “Well, that’s a hint.”
Zurok flinched. “I know where this creature came from.”
“It isn’t Sarge,” Merriel said in a hurry. “He’s headed from the hunting grounds to Noel’s.”
“That was the furthest from my thoughts.” Zurok took a deep breath and gave Fel an apologetic squeeze to his ankle and bolted. He shouted over his shoulder as he ran. “Everyone needs to go home. Send an alert out for everyone to express venom. And douse the children.”
“Douse?” I frowned and glanced at Fel.
“You’re mated. When your egg comes, rubbing against it is a defense mechanism. It was why…” Fel flinched. “We kept omegas from being mated and nesting, which virtually eliminated venom enough for Colthraxians to infect eggs.”
My stomach clenched unpleasantly, as if my body was guarding the eggs within me from the mere suggestion.
But, I did make a point to give each of the little ones a hug and nuzzle.
While Noel was far more rife with the venom than I, the very act of giving the little ones a snuggle each was enough to assuage some of my anxiety. Instinct had its reasons, I supposed.
“Where did that Colthraxian come from, then?” I caught Fel’s uneasy gaze.
“I’ll refrain from comment, but there are a few infected Revulon on the planet in other communities.
There’s some tension among the others about not immediately sending samples out.
Our community isn’t hoarding you. We were always meant to be first contact and the experimental community alpha.
We’re more isolated for that reason.” Fel rubbed over the surface of his belly.
“So we have an invader from another community?” I clenched a hand in the slack of fabric at my thighs, relishing the soft feel of it against my scales. The lack of hair on my body made things distracting to wear.
“That’s my guess. I think we all need to go home. I’m better off in my nest. We’ve others that can stay on call. I’ll be in if something’s necessary.” Fel stood and shrieked when Kris scooped him up in his arms.
“I’ll help you get Nexus and Noah to Wallace.” Robard gave Fel a kiss before scooping Nexus into his arms. “Grab Noah and let’s go.”
A flush of annoyance turned into anger at the command.
Because of my designation, it made it easier for betas and alphas to want to assert dominance.
Naturally, it was due to an intense need to protect what they considered precious, but it was belittling.
Part of me wanted to defy him out of sheer defiance.
“Please. I know you don’t want to like… I’m not your partner and Wallace wants that role to himself for now at least, but let me do some things, okay?” Robard’s tail gave a snug squeeze to my ankle.
The eggs within me were part Robard’s after all. “You sure Fel won’t mind?”
“I don’t think so. It wasn’t a consideration.
Would Wallace care that I was walking you?
” Robard reached for my midsection, hesitating before I allowed him to pat the surface and smooth his hand over it.
“The egg Fel is about to have—it likely isn’t my blood, but the egg is more mine than these guys are. ”
It made sense in an odd way. “I don’t think Wallace would mind at all. And it does make sense, I suppose. I’m far more accustomed to it being more competitive…”
“Come on, squirt.” Robard adjusted a sleepy Nexus on his hip and waved for me, tail giving my ankle a little squeeze as he headed out and let me step ahead, leading the way.
“Where go?” Nexus gave a sleepy little whine and rubbed at his eyes.
“We’re going to the bakery to see Uncle Wallace.” I adjusted Noah as he snuggled his face into my neck and huffed a sigh of irritation, ready to nap as well.
“Wanna teetee!” That had Noah awake and squirming on my hip and I stifled a laugh.
“I’m sure Wallace will have a treat for you.”
“No tree. Wanna teetee!” Noah climbed up to hang on my neck and shoulder with a little growl of frustration.
“Cookie it is, runt.” Robard reached a hand out to scruff the kid’s hair. He accepted it with a giggle, messy pale hair sticking up every which way, much like Nexus’s dark-black mess of hair that had grown into quite the impressive infant mullet.
“Onward toward cookies and safety.” I shook my head and trudged on, very glad for Nexus’s little gift.