Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 (46 page)

Terex/Ur waited impatiently. If
One did not agree to his deal…

Just then the black lenses
cycled opened and the Mouthpiece of the Collective nodded.

“All right, the Collective
agrees to your proposal. I will send Six to claim the Earth female he is dream
sharing with and we will join the war against Earth when it breaks out. In
return, I will expect full access to the natural wealth of the world as well as
DNA samples of all the inhabitants.”

“Done.” Terex/Ur nodded
smoothly. “But see that Six claims her quickly.”

“At once,” One promised. “And
now I must go. I have other matters to attend to.”

“Of course.” Terex/Ur nodded. “I
will speak with you later as events unfold.”

“Agreed.” One nodded once more
and then his image dissolved into the blue screen.

Terex/Ur sat back in his chair,
an evil grin spreading across his face. Now he had just one more call to make.
His fingers tapped over the controls, bringing up the image of the person he wished
to speak to.

“Yes, Chancellor Terex?”

“Commander Sylvan,” he said,
putting on his most earnest face as he stared into the viewscreen. “It is
possible that I was too hasty in my decision earlier. On further reflection, I
believe that you were right. We
should
start
calling brides from Earth again. Please make it so.”

On the viewscreen, Sylvan
nodded.

“I am grateful you reconsidered,
Chancellor. The Unmated Males will be overjoyed to hear it.”

“Of course they will.” Until
they heard that Earth had declared war on them and refused them any more
females. And then they would have no choice but to join the war in order to
claim their brides. But Ur
would allow that to unfold on its own.

After all, the first bride to be
called would be Mei-Li Hastings, Senator Hastings’ daughter…

Read on for the first chapter of Brides of the Kindred 12,
Enhanced coming this summer 2014…

Enhanced

Chapter
One

“Who
are you?”
she whispered.
“Why am I here?”

“I…do
not know.”
Six’s voice
sounded rough and uncertain in his own ears. The slender, tiny shape of the
girl who haunted his dreams stood before him, her dark eyes wide with fright.

“I
don’t know why I can’t stop having these dreams.”
She looked around her at his service room
which was where she always seemed to find him, when he was resting in his
docking station.

Her hair fell in a long,
straight waterfall of black down her back and her big eyes were partially
obscured by strange glass and wire oculars. Six wondered what they were for.
They didn’t seem to have the range of his own ocular scanner, the one he’d had
implanted over his left eye. Could they be to correct her vision? But if that
was the case, why did she simply not have some enhancements done?

“What
is your designation?”
he
asked, since she continued to stand there. Usually she faded almost
immediately. It was disturbing to note that this time she wasn’t leaving.

“My…designation?”

“I
am Six.”
He thumped the
breastplate of his exoskeleton impatiently with a metallic clang.
“What do you call yourself?”

“Oh.
Mei-Li. My name is Mei-Li.”

“May-Lee?”
Six frowned at the strange mixture of
syllables.

“It
means ‘beautiful flower’ or something like that, I think. My mother picked it
out when my parents adopted me from China because it sounded exotic
without being too hard to pronounce. I…”
She took a step back.
“I’m
sorry, I’m babbling. And I’m still here. These dreams never last this long.”
She
looked around.
“Why am I still here?”

“I
do not know why you remain or why you come at all,”
Six said.
“You certainly do not belong—you have no enhancements and clearly you
are consumed by emotion.”

“Enhancements?”
For some reason she looked
down at her small, barely rounded breasts.

Through the sheer white garment
she wore, Six could see that they were tiny but perfectly shaped. For a strange
moment, he wondered what they would feel like in his palms. Would the pink
points of her nipples, pressing innocently against the thin white fabric, feel
good against his fingertips? And what would her reaction be to his touch? Would
she moan—illicit emotion overcoming her as he stroked those delicate buds?
Would she—?

He shook his head, trying to
clear the strange thoughts away. Where had they
come from? And what had he been talking about with the little
female? Oh, right—enhancements.

“Enhancements
like my own.”
He motioned
to his enhanced left hand and the ocular scanner in is left eye.
“You have no enhancements. You are not
authorized to be here.”

“That’s
what you always say—that I’m not authorized to be here… That you’ll hunt me
down and make me pay…”
She
began to back away from him, fear growing in her eyes.

“Because
you are not.”
Six reached
up to disengage himself from his docking station and took a step toward her.
His exoskeleton made a mechanical
hiss
and his boots
thudded
heavily against
the metallic floor panels.

“No—please!”
She backed away from him,
almost stumbling in her haste.
“Please
don’t!”
She looked around.
“Oh God, I
just want to wake up! Just let me wake up…”

Suddenly Six’s eyes opened and
the dream—if that was what it had been—was over. He looked around, searching
the room with his scanner but it was empty—it was always empty. The girl in his
dream was nothing but a figment—an insubstantial wisp who disappeared the
moment he opened his eyes.

But he could no longer dismiss
her as nothing but a figment and the dream as nothing but a slight aberration
during his recharging period. It was coming more frequently for one thing—the
girl was disturbing his sleep on an almost nightly basis now. And for another,
the dream seemed to be lasting longer. He had been able to have an actual
exchange with her this time—not a good sign.

Reflexively, he reached behind
his head and felt the small metal button of his emotion damper, embedded in the
flesh of his neck, just below the base of his skull.
Still in working order,
he assured himself.
I feel nothing.
But then why did the dreams keep recurring? And
what could he do about it?

Suddenly the speaker at the door
of his service room buzzed to life and the voice of Ter, his domicile’s informations
system, spoke.

“Six, you are requested in One’s
domicile at once.”

For some reason, Six’s heart
began pumping harder.

“Why?” he demanded. “It is not
my day to communicate with One. Please clarify.”

“No clarification possible,”
Ter’s mechanical voice said. “One has requested your immediate presence. He has
given no reason for this request.”

Nor did he have to. As the
Mouthpiece of the Collective—the group of mechanoids which ruled Zeaga Four
with an iron hand—One was entitled to make any request he desired and expect
immediate obedience.

“Will you come?” Ter asked.

“I will. Tell One he may expect
my presence momentarily.”

“Very good.” With another buzz,
the speaker fell silent.

A vague feeling of unease
settled over Six as he left his domicile and entered the busy, dark streets of
Prime, the main urban center of Zeaga Four. Six frowned to himself as he
walked, threading his way through the busy traffic of wheelers, trackers, and
mechanoids as well as the organic Enhanced that made up the diverse life in the
city. High walls of metal and tempered glass rose all around him, blocking out
the sky but he was so used to the view—or lack thereof—he barely noticed it.
Instead, his thoughts were turned inward. This unease that would not leave
him…it was almost like…like an emotion.

But that was foolish, surely. He
was simply concerned for his future, as any rational being would be. And
possibly the dream, which kept coming over and over again, was getting to him.

Not that he planned to do anything
about it, he reminded himself. The girl was light years away and obviously a
feeler. There was no place in his neatly ordered life for such as her.

Still, his thoughts kept
returning to her slight, frail form and her large, frightened eyes. What if
someone threatened her, so far away on that tiny planet where she lived? How
could she protect herself? She didn’t even have an exoskeleton…

Before he knew it, he found
himself standing outside the featureless metal door that led to One’s domicile.
It was exactly the same as any other organic’s residence. There was no class
distinction among the inhabitants of Prime—not even for those close to the
Collective.

He pressed a sound activator in
the center of the door and waited for the resulting alert to ring within.

“Name?” the voice of the
domicile’s informations system demanded.

“Six. One is expecting me.”

“He is with Two, now. A
momentary delay.”

“Understood.” Six crossed his
hands behind his back and stood at ease, waiting impassively.

Only a moment later, the metal
door panel slid open. He started to step inside but a low, robotic form
suddenly appeared, blocking his way. It looked up at Six and growled, a
metallic buzzing sound that vibrated its entire body from its blunt snout
filled with jagged metal teeth down to the tip of its segmented tail.

A sniffer.

Six stood perfectly still,
eyeing the mechanoid impassively. It growled again and sidled closer. The metal
portals in its snout that comprised its nostrils irised open and began inhaling
air.

The process reminded him of his
induction into the Collective—when, as an adolescent, he had first had his
emotion damper installed. Had he failed that test, the jagged metal teeth would
have closed around his throat and his life would have been over.

Now, as he had so many years
ago, Six looked impassively into the glaring red mechanical eyes and waited for
its decision. The sniffer continued to inhale, stalking around him on stiff,
metal legs until at last it seemed satisfied. With a final buzzing growl, it
backed away and sat on its haunches by the side of the domicile.

“Well, well—so you passed the
test.” The voice belonged to Two—the Eyes of the Collective. He was second only
to One and they were often in company with each other, consulting on matters of
importance. He was a tall, skeletal male with a skull-like face and an advanced
multi-spectrum scanner that took up his entire right eye socket as well as the
right side of his face. It was permanent—not built over the existing structure
like Six’s was. Instead of an exoskeleton, he wore a long, black leather coat
which buttoned at his boney chin and fell to the tops of his black boots. When
he spoke, he appeared to have too many teeth.

Two was also in charge of the
sniffers—the mechanoids whose sole job it was to ferret out Feel-crime in the
general populace. Six supposed he should not have been surprised to see one of
Two’s pets in attendance but nonetheless, it bothered him. He had not been so
thoroughly inspected since his first initiation into the Collective. It was
almost as if Two was
hoping
to find
something wrong with him. Something illegal.

“Yes, I passed.” Six spoke
without rancor though he did not enjoy the other male’s company. “What did you
expect? That I would be guilty of Feel-crime?”

“I would not be surprised.”
Two’s mouth stretched in a humorless rictus of a grin showing his many sharp,
yelllow teeth. “After all, One informs me you have been dream sharing with a
female.”

“Why would he inform you of
that? It is none of your concern.” Six’s heart began beating faster again and
the sniffer, which was lying down now, its snout on its metal paws, raised its
head and whined.

“That’s right, Gurn.” Two
snapped his fingers and the sniffer came to heel at his feet. “Six protests
much for one whose innocence is in question.”

“I have done nothing wrong,” Six
said stolidly, willing himself to be blank once more. “The dreams came to me—I
did not seek them out.”

“Of course you didn’t,” One said
from the doorway of his domicile. The clear skull cap which showed the electrodes
of the Collective implanted in his brain glinted faintly in the weak sunlight
which had somehow made its way between the towering buildings of Prime. “Your
guilt or innocence is not in question here. I merely wished to speak with you,
Six,” he said.

“One.” Six looked up with
something like relief. “May we speak privately of this matter? I do not feel it
concerns Two.”

“
Everything
approaching Feel-crime concerns me.” Two gave him that
grimacing, humorless grin again which showed too many teeth.

“There is no Feel-crime here,”
One said stolidly. “You may go, Two. I will speak to you at a later time.”

“Of course.” Two nodded slightly
and glided away, the sniffer jogging at his heels.

One nodded at Six. “Please enter
my domicile and make yourself comfortable.”

“Thank you.” But Six cast a last
glance over his shoulder at the thin, retreating figure. He did not care for
the Eyes of the Collective. The male was too eager to find wrong-doing and he
displayed smug satisfaction when he was able to punish those found guilty of
Feel-crime.

Six touched the back of his neck
again, almost without knowing he was doing it. The emotion damper implanted in
the back of his neck was a good one—installed by the best Tolleg surgeon aboard
any of the medical barges. Even a sniffer with the most sensitive olfactory
apparatus would never scent Feel-crime on him. He was safe. Two couldn’t touch
him.

One stood aside and allowed him
to enter the cool, dark domicile and then sealed the door behind them.

“Now, Six,” he said, leading the
way down the long, dim hallway to his work room. “As Two said, I understand you
have been dream sharing with a female.”

“Not on purpose!” Six protested.
“The dreams come and I cannot make them go. They don’t mean anything,
though—they simply disturb my rest during my recharging period.”

“Dream sharing is a Kindred
phenomenon,” One said, seating himself behind a plain black metal desk with a
smooth, clean, empty top. “It is to be expected that it would happen to you
eventually.”

“What? But why?” Six took the
stool in front of the desk, hooking the leg sockets of his exoskeleton into the
power grids along the metal sides of the stool reflexively. It was like One to
have such a seat for the recharging of a guest’s armor. He was thoughtful in
that manner.

“You are pure blooded Kindred,
are you not?” One raised an eyebrow at him. “The rest of us who have had our
DNA mixed by the Tollegs and were grown in the artificial incubation tubes have
traces of other races mixed in. But you came to us already formed as an
adolescent. Your genetic heritage is more pure…and thus more prone to this kind
of deviance.”