Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (20 page)

“Here we are, here we are.” Yipper pushed
the rolling tray to her side and climbed back up on the white stool he used to
reach the operating table.

“What’s that?” Mei-Li looked at the plain
black strip uncertainly. It was about three inches long and two inches wide and
looked like a miniature bumper sticker.

“Your dispensation counter. Now let me
see…where should we put it? Where, where?” Yipper murmured, scanning her with
his big brown eyes. “Perhaps your forehead? That would be most prominent—yes it
would, yes it would.”

“I don’t want anything stuck permanently
to my forehead,” Mei-Li objected quickly. “Absolutely not!”

“Oh, it’s not permanent. No it isn’t, no
it isn’t,” Yipper said. “You will come back here to have it removed in one
lunar month when your Claiming Period is over, yes you will, yes you will.”

“Oh…right.” Mei-Li cleared her throat.
“Because this is all just an assignment for Six—he got me on orders from his
boss and he’s going to take me right back again after it’s all over.”

“No,” Yipper said patiently. “It has
nothing to do with One's orders. You will be going back home because a Dark
Kindred cannot bond with a female—not with his emotion damper still in place.
It inhibits the formation of a soul bond, yes it does, yes it does.”

“A what?” Mei-Li frowned.

“When a Kindred and his mate have bonding
sex, their two minds join, yes they do, yes they do. That is a soul bond.”

“Oh, I see. That’s…weird.” Mei-Li shook
her head. “You know, you hear all kinds of things about the Kindred on my home
world but I didn’t know they formed a 'soul' bond with their wives—whatever
that means."

“It is not nearly as invasive as it
sounds. Bonded males are much happier and healthier, yes they are, yes they
are,” Yipper lectured. “All Kindred desire to be bonded—it completes them.
Which is why I tried to convince Six not to get his damper but to wait until he
was ready and try to find a female instead.”

“Why didn’t he?” Mei-Li almost whispered.
Yipper seemed to be in a sharing mood again and she didn’t want him to remember
he wasn’t
supposed
to be sharing.

“Because getting an emotion damper meant
he could place his troubling memories in a cache and forget about them. There they
could cause him no more pain, no they couldn’t, no they couldn’t. Ah…” The
little Tolleg sighed mournfully. “So sad, so sad, I didn’t blame him for not
taking my advice. No I didn’t, no I didn’t.”

“So sad? What happened to him?” Mei-Li
asked.

But Yipper only shook his head. “Never
mind, never mind. He will be back soon and we need to have your counter placed.
So where do you want it?”

They finally settled on the inside of her
left forearm which would hopefully be prominent enough to satisfy Six without
making Mei-Li feel like some kind of a freak.

She was a little apprehensive about its
placement but it turned out to be even easier than the lenses. Yipper simply
licked her arm and pressed the patch to it. As soon as it made contact with her
skin, it flashed once and then three sets of glowing green numerals
appeared—00:00:00.

“What does that mean?” Mei-Li asked,
frowning at the counter. As with the lenses, it was completely without
sensation. It was as though the black strip had become a piece of her skin.
Only regular skin didn’t have glowing green numbers on it.

“It won’t start counting until you reach
Z4,” Yipper explained. “Then it will give the exact amount of time you are
allowed to spend on the planet. Be very certain that you’re back here on the medical
barge when the counter zeros out again. If you’re not, you will be subject to
punishment by the full extent of the law. Yes you will, yes you will.”

“Yes, Six told me about ‘Feel-crime,’”
Mei-Li said. “It’s bizarre that they can arrest you just for having emotions.”

“They will do more than arrest you, yes
they will, yes they will,” Yipper said darkly. “Just be certain you are back
here when you ought to be. I would not wish you to be harmed. No I wouldn’t, no
I wouldn’t.”

Mei-Li was touched by his concern. “That’s
very sweet of you, Yipper. I’ll be sure that Six brings me back in time.”

“I will make certain of that myself,” said
Six, striding back into the Enhancement Area. He was wearing his exoskeleton
again which made him look huge. As big as the white room was, he still seemed
to fill it and his heavy boots clanged loudly against the white plates of the
metal floor. He looked at Mei-Li. “I see that you have had your counter fitted.
Are you ready to go?”

“If Yipper says I can.”

“A moment only. I must check one last
time, yes I must, yes I must.” The little Tollege stared intently into her eyes
and told her to blink and look in different directions. Then, apparently
satisfied, he helped her sit up.

“Thank you,” Mei-Li said, smiling at him.

“You are most welcome. Yes you are, yes
you are.” He smiled at her—an odd but endearing expression on his doggy face.

Impulsively, Mei-Li hugged him. “Thank
you,” she whispered into his long floppy ear. “You’ve been a wonderful doctor.
I just wish procedures at home were so painless.”

“Well, we do our best. Yes we do, yes we
do.” Yipper looked pleased when she drew away. Pleased and perhaps a bit
embarrassed if she was reading his expression correctly. Probably not many of
his other patients thanked him since they were emotionless cyborgs. “May
Fortune favor you, my lady. If you have need of me, you can always call me here
on the med barge. Yes you can, yes you can.”

“Thank you, Yipper. I’ll remember that,”
she said gravely.

“I will see you in one lunar month. Yes I
will, yes I will.”

Mei-Li smiled and got off the table. “Yes
you will.”

She was sure of it.

Chapter
Sixteen

“So this is the female you have claimed.”
One looked Mei-Li up and down, a slight frown on his pudgy face.

For her part, Mei-Li returned his gaze, her
chin lifted in a challenging way.

“You have a lovely home,” she said to One.
“It’s very…utilitarian.” It was clear to Six that she felt she was being put on
trial, though it certainly was not the case. One was probably simply interested
in her because of the rarity of females on Zeaga Four. Indeed, they were almost
nonexistent since the Collective had seen no reason to grow any in the
incubation tubes once the original organic females had died out. Mei-Li was
indeed a rare and beautiful creature here on his dark gray planet. Her pale
cheeks and flashing dark eyes filled with emotion stood out in a world filled
with machinery and monotony. She was—

“Six, will you not introduce us?” One
asked, breaking his meditation on the small, fierce female before him who was
still staring daggers at his mentor.

“Of course. This is Mei-Li,” Six said,
trying to bring his wandering thoughts back to order. “She has had ocular
enhancements and also her counter has been installed.” He nodded at her and
Mei-Li pulled up her tight fitting white sleeve and showed the older organic
her dispensation counter where the numerals 00:00:00 still glowed green.

“I see that it has not begun its count
yet, however.” One raised a nearly hairless eyebrow, the overhead glow light
glinting off his clear skull cap.

“We have not yet been to my domicile. We
came straight to yours as Ter told me you instructed.”

“I simply wanted to be certain things were
moving along on schedule,” One said. “The sooner your Claiming Period is over,
the sooner I will have your undivided attention for…other matters.”

Six frowned. “What other matters?”

“My dear, perhaps you would care to
inspect my Nature Simulator,” One said, addressing Mei-Li instead of answering
Six’s question. “Only those of the upper echelon, close to the Collective have
one. It’s quite fascinating, I assure you. Located just through that doorway in
my living area.”

Mei-Li raised an eyebrow at him. “If you’d
like privacy to speak to Six, I’m perfectly happy to give it to you. You don’t
need to show me a shiny new toy to distract me just because I’m a ‘Feeler.’
Having emotions doesn’t equate with mental incompetence, whatever your people
happen to think.”

One blinked at her with an expression that
was almost surprise on his round face.

“Very well,” he said. “I would like to
speak to Six in privacy if you please. You are welcome to explore my domicile
while we converse and I promise not to keep him long. I know you must be…eager
to start your Claiming Period.”

“That’s not exactly the word I would use,”
Mei-Li said dryly. “Excuse me. I’ll be in the other room.”

She turned and exited One’s work space,
letting the door whoosh shut behind her. Six found himself watching the sway of
her slim hips as she left the room and had to force himself to stop. When he
turned back to One, the older organic was staring at him with a thoughtful
expression on his face.

“She is…quite sure of herself, is she
not?” he asked, nodding his head in the direction Mei-Li had gone.

“She is,” Six acknowledged. “From the
dreams we shared, I feared she would be timid and frightened of everything,
especially me. But she has shown herself to have a warrior’s spirit, even when
faced with grave danger.”

One frowned. “You sound almost as if you…
like
this female. Tell me, Six, is this assignment too much for your emotion
damper to handle?”

“Of course not.” Six lifted his chin. “I
will, of course, protect Mei-Li with my life—that is my duty as a Kindred. But
I feel nothing for her. My damper is working perfectly.”

“Good.” One nodded. “I would hate to lose
a warrior so close to the Collective—one I consider my protégé—over something
so inconsequential as a female.”

Six frowned. “Mei-Li is
not
inconsequential.”

One frowned back. “So you
do
feel
something for her.”

“Nothing but admiration for her
indomitable spirit and intelligence,” Six said firmly but he wasn’t sure who he
was trying to convince—himself or his mentor.

“Very well.” One nodded, apparently
satisfied. “Then if that is truly all you feel, you will not mind if we
consider your Claiming Period to have already started.”

“What?” Six frowned. “But the Claiming
Contract states—”

“That the moment you bring the female to
your domicile, the Claiming Period starts,” One finished for him. “But for our
purposes, we are considering the ship you took her on as your domicile.”

“I don’t understand.” Six shook his head.
“Our Claiming Period is already going to be much shorter because the length of
our weeks is considerably shorter than those of her own planet or the Kindred
Mothership. What is the rush?”

“We have plans involving a coming
conquest. I cannot discuss them right now but things are escalating quickly
there. It is the will of the Collective that your Claiming Period be as short
as possible, while still staying within the boundaries of the Claiming
Contract. Do not be concerned…” One raised a hand in a calming gesture. “I have
already spoken to High Chancellor Terex aboard the Kindred Mothership and he
assures me this will be perfectly legal as long as you strictly follow all
other rules.”

“Actually, I wish to speak to you about
Chancellor Terex,” Six said, frowning. “I communicated with him as well before
I went to claim Mei-Li. He appears to have some very strange and wrong ideas
about how females should be treated.”

“Yes, yes—because he is a Feeler. All
Feelers are strange and irrational.” One waved his hand dismissively.
“Nevertheless, I believe he is to be trusted in the bargain we have struck, no
matter how illogical his views.”

“But some of the things he suggested that
I do to Mei-Li—”

“We need him—at least for now,” One
interrupted. “So, if we say that your Claiming Period started when you first
took the female aboard your ship, this is technically the last night of your
first week. But then, if you count the time you lost crossing the rift—”

“Folding space allows for almost
instantaneous travel from one part of the universe to another,” Six objected.

“Yes, but for our purposes, it can count
as another day. In which case, your second week begins tonight.” One nodded to himself.
“I will send the command to the Collective to reprogram Mei-Li’s counter to
reflect the new timeline.” Before Six could object, he closed his eyes in
concentration. Through the clear skull-dome he wore, Six could see the wires
and electrodes permanently implanted in his brain lighting up in patterns. At
last he opened his eyes. “It is done.”

There was a knocking on the door that led
into the living area and Mei-Li’s voice said, “Excuse me.”

“Enter,” One called.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said politely,
coming in. “But my counter suddenly just flashed and started counting down.”
She held out her left forearm which had formerly read 00:00:00 in glowing
green. Now the numerals were yellow and read 9:21:58. “I’m a little concerned
since I know I’m considered a criminal once this runs out,” she said, motioning
to the glowing yellow numerals. “What exactly does it mean?”

“It is the number of days, hours, and
minutes left in your dispensation,” One explained.

“What, only nine days?” Mei-Li asked,
raising an eyebrow. “But I thought we had an entire month for this.”

“Our weeks are only three days long,” Six
explained. “And our days are only twenty-two hours long.”

“But that
still
doesn’t make
sense,” she objected. “In that case
this
number—” She pointed to the
glowing yellow 9, “Ought to be 12.”

“I am afraid your schedule has been
adjusted,” One said blandly. “The Collective is choosing to count your time
aboard Six’s ship and the medical barge as your first week together. Therefore
today, or tonight rather, is the beginning of your second week.”

“The…the bathing week?” Mei-Li’s voice
came out in a strangled squeak and her cheeks went suddenly pale.

“Indeed.” One nodded, apparently not
noticing her signs of distress. Six did though—his scanner informed him that
her heart was beating much too fast and her pulse was racing.

He wondered what was causing her
disquiet—surely she didn’t
want
to spend more time with him on Z4 than
she had to. She ought to be glad that their time together had been reduced. But
the physical signs of her emotional state—which he was learning to read with
greater and greater accuracy—did not show this to be true at all.

“We can speak more about it later,” he
said quickly, taking her by the arm. “One is a busy person with much to attend
to.”

“So I have.” One nodded genially enough.
“It was pleasant to meet you, Mei-Li. Please enjoy your time on our planet.”

“Enjoy?” Mei-Li gave a forced sounding
laugh. “I…I guess I’ll try.”

“Very good. Now if you will excuse me.”
One closed his eyes and the wires and electrodes in his brain began pulsing and
glowing, clearly showing that he was communing with the Collective.

“Come.” Six urged her gently away.
Whatever was bothering her, they could speak of it later. He found himself
strangely unwilling to discuss her emotions and their causes in front of One.
As much as he esteemed the older organic, there was no way he would be able to
comprehend Mei-Li’s feelings. Not in the way Six thought he was beginning to,
anyway.

* * * * *

The minute they got outside the weird
metal door, Mei-Li shook his hand off.

“I’m fine. I can manage on my own,” she
said curtly, not looking at him. Instead, she tried to focus on the strange and
busy city street in front of her.

The pavement was silvery gray with no
plants or trees or bushes at all to break it up. Incredibly tall buildings laid
out in neat rows soared up around them, so high they blocked the sunlight,
casting the entire street in shadows.

All sorts of people and machines and
combinations of the two were walking past. Some looked like they might be
robots, others seemed to have minimal enhancements like her own. Still others
were cyborg-like with obvious machinery added on to their faces and bodies. But
they all had two things in common—they were all male, at least as far as Mei-Li
could see—and they all moved in absolute silence. Oh, there was creaking and
jingling and clanking of the machinery and in some cases, wheels going by. But
none of them was communicating in any way that she could see.

No one was talking on their cell-phones—or
whatever the Z4 equivalent of that was. And even when two or more were walking
together, none of them were making conversation. They simply marched along in
the shadows of the impossibly tall skyscrapers, with dull, uncaring looks on their
faces. Those of them that had faces she could read, anyway. Even by using her
new enhancement lenses to bring distant faces into focus, she couldn't make out
more than blank, impassive expressions.

But why should they talk or laugh or joke
when none of them had emotions? They were all living dull gray lives on this
dull gray world. Even the air smelled gray—like dust and old motor oil. Mei-Li
reflected that she was the only one on this whole planet who cared about
anything—who had any feelings. And right now she was wishing she didn’t.

“Are you well?” Six asked, breaking her
concentration on the grim cityscape.

“Just fine,” Mei-Li lied. Inside her
stomach was churning and her mind was a seething mess but she wasn’t about to
show it—not if she could help it.

“My scanner tells me this is an untruth.
Is there a problem?” Six asked, just as if he really cared. Which he didn’t—not
even a little. Mei-Li had heard him telling his boss so before she moved away from
the door and went to look aimlessly around the weird house. Not that it could
be much weirder than One—who in the world wore a clear plastic cap over their
exposed brain? Ugh!

Of course she told herself Six’s words
hadn’t hurt her a bit. After all, he’d been telling her all along that he had
no emotions. Why should he care anything at all for her, even after the way
they’d kissed and touched each other back on the medical barge? Apparently that
had been no big deal to him. Well, fine—it had been no big deal to her too.

But that wasn’t what was bothering her
most right now. No, what was freaking her out was—

“Clearly you are upset. Will you please
enlighten me as to the cause of your distress?” Six said, his deep voice
rumbling in her ear.

“Fine!” Mei-Li rounded on him right there
in the middle of the street. “You want to know what’s bothering me? I thought
we had more time.” She held out her arm where the counter was meticulously and
mercilessly subtracting minutes from her time as a non-criminal. Or a law-abiding
citizen. Or whatever you wanted to call it.