Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 (30 page)

Garron chose the largest barge
he saw and headed for the bay. Opening a frequency, he called in the Kindred
universal tongue to ask for permission to land.

“What language is that?” Tess
asked, after he was granted permission and began their descent to the barge.
“It sounded almost like German but more guttural.”

“It’s the Kindred’s original
language—the one my people spoke on First World,”
he said. “Here…” He put the ship on auto for a moment and stood. After
rummaging in several of the secured cabinets, he found what he was looking for
near the first aid kit. “Take this,” he said, handing Tess a pill.

“Um, what’s this?” she asked,
examining the pill in her palm.

“Universal translator
bacteria—an oral dose.” Garron sat back down and resumed piloting. “I was told
they were standard with all long range vessels now—it’s a good thing too.
Otherwise you wouldn’t know what anyone was saying.”

“Is it safe for humans?” Tess
still looked doubtful.

“It was developed especially for
them—for human brides who visit their Kindred mates’ home planets,” Garron
assured her. “You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to but—”

“No, I’ll take it.” She
swallowed it dry, with some difficulty. “Okay, so now I’ll be able to
understand you when you speak another language?”

“It should take effect almost
immediately,” Garron assured her. The ship was entering the vast, pulsating,
translucent atmosphere bubble that protected the docking bay from losing air.
“All right—we’re docking now. Just stay close to me and you’ll be fine.”

“Of course.” She nodded quickly.
“All that talk about this being such a dangerous place though…”

“Zeaga Four—the planet itself—is
very unsafe. Deadly, even, for the unenhanced,” Garron said. “But the medical
barges are quite safe. They exist to service anyone who needs medical
attention, supposedly free of charge.”

“Wow—aliens who offer free
health care.” Tess sounded impressed. “That’s great.”

“I said
supposedly,”
Garron said darkly. “Nothing is ever completely free.
Stay close to me and don’t accept anything from anyone. All right?”

“Yes, all right.” She nodded and
Garron killed the engines.

“Here we go.”

Chapter
Twenty-eight

“Wow, this is huge—even bigger
than the Mother Ship.” Tess looked around in awe at the vast, bright white room
they were standing in. It was bigger than a football field—bigger than
several
football fields, in fact.
Despite its daunting size, everything was completely spotless even with the
many, many strange spacecraft she saw parked for what seemed like miles in all
directions. Above, the glittering, translucent bubble they had passed through
to get into the medical barge was the blackness of space.

But the scenery wasn’t the only
strange thing to be seen. As Tess watched, a huge creature with gray skin and a
horn for a nose climbed out of the ship beside theirs. It was draped in a long
purple robe and it looked a little bit like a rhinoceros standing on its hind
legs. It was eating something—when Tess looked closer it appeared to be some
kind of bread or muffin—at least it was muffin shaped. That was where the
similarity ended, though, because it was twice as large as her head with green
flecks speckling its grainy surface.

The rhino-thing took a large,
messy bite of the giant muffin, spraying crumbs everywhere across the pristine
white floor as it chewed. It paid no attention to the mess it had caused but
someone noticed—or rather, some
thing.

To Tess’s surprise, a tiny
creature smaller than the palm of her hand suddenly whizzed into view. It moved
in a quick, herky-jerky way that reminded her of a toy remote controlled car
but it had purple and green fur that stuck up in whorls and swirls, almost like
a guinea pig’s.

Its long purple whiskers
twitched when it detected the crumbs on the floor and it began to eat them at
once. But it wasn’t nibbling so much as sucking them up—almost like a tiny
vacuum cleaner. Soon it was joined by other creatures similar to itself but
with different colored fur. Tess watched in amazement as the vacuum guineas
made short work of the stray crumbs. In a moment, every single crumb was gone
and the little creatures scattered, leaving the floor as spotlessly white as it
had been before.

“Did you see that?” she asked,
turning to Garron, who had been securing their ship. “Those little things?
Those—”

“They’re just cleaner-bots, oh
my yes. A type of furskin, so they are, so they are. The barges are infested
with them but at least that type provides a valuable service.”

Tess whirled around to see
another strange creature staring at her. It was staring up, for she was about twice
as tall as it was. Tess was quite glad of this fact when she had a moment to
examine it. She felt certain if she had turned around and seen something that
looked like it did which was much larger than her, she would have screamed.

The creature had a body like a
chimpanzee, hunched over and covered in patchy, light gray fur. It also had a
long, mournful face with long, drooping ears. Large, intelligent eyes were
looking up into hers. If Tess had been tempted to think that the creature was
some kind of non-sentient animal, the look in those large, brown eyes would
have decided her otherwise.

“Hello?” she said to it
uncertainly. “Are you…?”

“I’m Yipper, so I am, so I am.”
It nodded at her gravely. “I am a Tolleg. And yourself?”

“I’m Tess—I’m human,” Tess said.
“And this is Garron.”

“Of Kindred stock, so you are,
so you are?” Yipper sounded hopeful as he looked at Garron.

The big Kindred nodded shortly.
“I am.”

“That is good, very good.”
Yipper bobbed his head up and down eagerly and rubbed long, clever-looking,
hairy gray fingers together. “Fresh Kindred DNA is always useful. And what kind
of enhancements will you be needing today? I’m to be your own personal
technician so whatever you need, I’ll provide. So I will, so I will.”

“At least take us out of the docking
bay before we talk business,” Garron growled.

“Of course, of course! To the
lounge we go. Mayhap your female would like a refreshing libation? So she
might, so she might?”

“Maybe,” Garron said
noncommittally. “But let’s get out of this damned docking bay first.”

“Naturally, naturally!” Yipper
led the way with a strange, loping gait that was somehow simian, but as far as
Tess could see, they could walk for hours in any direction and not reach the
end of the vast white room. She was just beginning to wonder why there weren’t
any kind of trams or scooters to shorten the journey when they came to a thick
yellow and black striped pole that extended about seven feet up from the floor.

“What’s this?” she asked as
Yipper beckoned them forward.

“The way to the lounge, I
assume,” Garron muttered.

Tess had no idea how the yellow
and black pole could take them anywhere but when Yipper motioned for them both
to stand close and touch it, she did.

“What now?” she asked, looking
at Yipper who had also placed his clever looking little hand against the yellow
and black striped side of the pole.

“Now we go, now we go.” He
nodded quickly and they dropped suddenly down through the floor.

Tess gave a short, sharp scream
and then Garron grabbed her and dragged her close, wrapping one massive,
muscular arm around her. Looking down, Tess saw that a circular section of the
white floor they had been standing on had detached itself and was taking them
downward, into the bowels of the medical barge.

They were in some kind of a clear
glass tube and she saw glimpses of other areas as they whizzed down past the
levels of the ship. Some looked like medical areas—the theme of pure, blinding
white was repeated and she saw some patients strapped to upright boards while
others were lying face down on floating beds or gurneys. Each of them had a
creature like Yipper performing a procedure on them though from what she could
see, the Tollegs—Tess thought that was what he had called himself—didn’t appear
to be using any instruments. She wanted to see exactly what they were doing but
the circular section of floor they were standing on moved too fast.

Soon they were passing other
levels which appeared to be devoted to recreation. In one, a vast pool filled
with pale pink water seemed to extend in all directions. Tiny translucent fish
with glowing red eyes were swimming in the water and all kinds of alien
creatures were floating and playing in it as well. On another level, there was
what looked to Tess like some kind of a squash court. But the players were
using a living creature as a ball. At least, it
looked
alive—it fluttered around like a bird and landed on one of
the player’s heads.

There were about a million
questions she wanted to ask but before she could, the circular disk they were
standing on came to an abrupt halt and the glass tube they had been traveling
in melted away completely. They were left standing in the middle of a dim room
that appeared to be lit by little balls of blue flame which floated in midair
around the perimeter. There were tables and chairs of various heights as well
as a long, curving bar at one end of the room. A creature with multiple eyes
and several long, many-jointed arms was standing behind it serving drinks. Tess
shuttered—
Looks like a cross between a
spider and an octopus! Ugh!

“Come and sit, come and sit,”
Yipper invited, motioning them to come to a table by the side of the bar. It
was extremely tall with chairs to match so of course, it fit Garron perfectly.
Tess managed to get seated but her legs dangled as though she was a little girl
sitting at the adult’s table.

“Sorry,” Garron said, seeing her
plight. “This furniture must be made for Kindred.”

“So it is, so it is,” Yipper
agreed. “Let me get you a libation. What will you have?”

“Nothing that will impair my judgment,”
Garron growled. It was clear he didn’t exactly trust the hairy little Tolleg.

“I know just the thing, just the
thing.” Yipper disappeared, giving Tess a chance to look around the dim lounge.

There were many strange patrons
around them, some standing at the bar and others sitting at the various tables.
To her right, Tess saw some with long pink necks and slender heads with black,
beak-like mouths. They would have looked like flamingos except for their large
purple and green eyes and the green suits they wore on their skinny, elongated
bodies. There were other even stranger people in the lounge but the ones that
drew Tess’s eyes the most were a pair of Kindred-looking men who walked up to
the bar to the right of them. Or at least, they
would
have looked Kindred if they hadn’t had so many weird
accessories on their faces.

Both of them were wearing black
metal, full-body suits of armor which made their huge forms even huger and more
imposing. One of them had black goggles where his eyes should have been and a
bald head with wires sticking out of it. He had metallic cones that swiveled in
different directions where his ears should have been and one of his arms moved
with odd, robotic precision as he tilted his drink to his mouth.

The other man at least had hair.
It was dark brown and combed straight back to reveal a high forehead and sharp
cheekbones. He had stern features that made it look like he was constantly
frowning but when Tess looked closer she saw that was just the set of his
face—his expression was actually completely devoid of emotion.

One of his eyes had some kind of
device screwed into it which turned it into a red, glowing light. Tess wondered
what he could see with it—more detail? Or maybe it let him see things farther
away. Whatever its merits, it made him look like some kind of a cyborg—half
human and half robot. The effect gave her the creeps. Somehow that one
mechanical eye in his otherwise normal-looking face made him look more alien
and intimidating than any of the other weird creatures she saw drinking at the
bar including his companion.

“I see you are admiring the
enhancements on display, so you are, so you are,” Yipper said at her elbow.

Tess gasped and nearly jumped
out of her chair. She had been studying the two cyborg-looking Kindred so
intently she hadn’t even noticed the little Tolleg had come back from the bar.

“Who are they?” she asked in a
low voice, still looking at the men.

“Some of the Enhanced Ones, so they
are, so they are. That one is Six—quite high in the rankings and close to the
Collective.” He nodded at the Kindred with the dark hair. “Do you see the
ocular device? That is my work, so it is, so it is.”

“Impressive,” Garron muttered.

“Right, impressive.” Tess tried
to smile. “Was it difficult to uh, install?”

“Tricky,” Yipper admitted. “Eyes
are always tricky, so they are, so they are. But Six let me build on his
existing structure instead of replacing it completely. That made it easier, so
it did, so it did.”

“Oh…” Tess snuck another look at
the Kindred with the one mechanical eye. Suddenly he turned to stare back at
her, the red light flashing like a search beam. There was no expression on his
face but she felt a sense of menace coming from him—as though her curiosity in
him had been noticed and was most certainly
not
welcome. Tess gasped and looked away quickly.

Garron seemed to notice her
concern because he covered her hand with his and glared at the Enhanced Kindred
Yipper had called Six. A low growl rose in his throat as they locked stares.

“Garron…” Tess squeezed his
hand, worried that the brewing conflict would erupt in violence which might
bring out his
dr’gin
. But after a
moment, Six shrugged and turned away, as if they weren’t worth his time. He
knocked back his drink and motioned to the octo-spider bartender for another.

“Let us discuss enhancements,”
Yipper said, as though nothing had happened. “But talking is thirsty work. Here
you are, here you are…” The little Tolleg was holding two long, thin metal
flutes filled with green, frothing liquid. He handed them each a flute before
scrambling nimbly up onto the tall chair across from Garron.

“Um…” Tess held the strange
looking concoction at arm’s length. “Unless this is an alien version of an apple-tini,
I don’t think I want it.”

“It’s a Berthon fizzing mellow,”
Garron said. To her surprise, he took a swallow of his own drink and licked his
lips. “A pretty good one, actually.”

“Oh, uh…okay.” Tess still looked
at the green, bubbling mixture uncertainly. Anything different had come to mean
danger to her. Any break in routine, anything out of the ordinary had been
cause for a ‘punishment’ while she was with Pierce.

Come
on, don’t be so boring!
whispered
the voice of Tess BP in her head.
You’re
literally over a million miles away from that jerk and he’s your ex! Live a
little.

The voice made Tess feel brave.

Well,
why not? Garron drank it so it’s obviously safe. Can’t hurt to give it a try.
Aware that the big Kindred and Yipper were
both watching her, she took a careful sip of the foaming mixture.

To her surprise, it was
absolutely delicious. Subtle flavors that reminded her of pear, pineapple and
cinnamon swirled in her mouth. There was another flavor too—something that had
a hint of cool, minty creaminess but she couldn’t think what it was like. She
only knew it was wonderful.