Ride the Stars/once Bitten

by

Autumn Dawn

(c) copyright January 2005, Autumn Beaudreault

Cover art by Jenny Dixon, (c) copyright January 2005

ISBN 1-58608-318-x

New Concepts Publishing

Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

Earth, 2765

"Daddy?" Bali asked softly. The deeper they went into her daddy’s laboratory the more nervous she became. It was dim down here, sterile. The concrete blocks were unpainted, and there was an odd smell, something that set her short hairs on end.

Something was very wrong.

Rudriv Itara smiled and patted her hand. His white hair fluffed in that adorable way it had and his cheeks were ruddy with health. "Do not be frightened, my child. I promised to show you something wonderful, and so I shall. You’re a very lucky girl." They stopped before a heavy wooden door and glanced through the tiny bars on top. Whatever he saw made him smile.

His smile warmed her, for Bali knew her daddy loved her. Hadn’t he always taken good care of her?

But this was different. Though she was only nine, she was a perceptive and thoughtful child. The moment they’d entered his lab it was as if her daddy had become a different person, a frightening stranger.

He removed a key and opened the massive door. It didn’t squeak, but there was something chilling about the silence. Reluctantly, she preceded him into the cell-like room.

The light level was very low, so the first thing she saw was an elevated, tub-like pool. There were controls on the side and it had a glass cover over the top. A green glow came from inside. Curious, she peered at it. The transparent, viscous liquid warped as fat bubbles slowly rose to the top and popped.

The holes left behind slowly filled with glowing goo.

"It’s a genetic pool," Rudriv said cheerfully. "Ordinary life forms go in and extraordinary beings come out. It’s for you."

Horrified, Bali glanced at him, then froze. There was a youth chained to the wall behind him. Incredibly thick links and massive cuffs led from his wrists to big rings sunk deep into the floor. His shaggy hair covered part of his face, but the hellish glow to his eyes was unmistakable. Low growls came from his throat.

Stiff with fear, she took a step back, but Rudriv caught her wrist.

He patted her shoulder. "Don’t be shy, dear. I wanted you to see one of the best examples of my work.

I’ve found the pool works best on the young," he said confidentially. "Unfortunately, the prisoners of war I’ve had the most access to have been older. This fellow here is big for his years and I suspect he lied about his age in order to enlist. Didn’t you, lad?" he asked the boy fondly.

The lad snarled at him and lunged against his chains.

Bali jumped.

"Don’t worry, dear. He’s Draconian. They dislike being caged. They’re more animal than reasoning being, which makes them perfect test subjects. I made certain to perfect the procedure before trying it on you."

"Daddy...." Fear made her tremble. Surely he was not going to do an experiment on her?

He pulled her small, resisting body to an upright frame and secured her wrists and ankles to it. She fought, but he was far stronger. "Don’t worry, child. It’s no different than getting your teeth cleaned or receiving a shot. There’s a slight discomfort involved, but the results are well worth it. Just think, you’ll have almost unlimited healing potential and a longer lifespan. You’ll thank me."

"No!" Bali struggled. For a moment her eyes met that of the boy. Something that might have been compassion flashed in his eyes, then was gone. He couldn’t save her.

"It will all be over soon." Rudriv stood back and flipped a switch. The platform hummed as it lifted her up, then reclined and slid directly over the tub. There was soft shush as the glass top slid back.

The platform started to lower. Terrified, she screamed, "Daddy, no!"

The warm liquid hit her back. Any second now she would be under the goo. She would drown. Another piercing shriek rent the air.

"The pool is oxygen rich. You’ll be able to breathe. Just relax," Rudriv advised. His tone was patient, as if this was the ordinary sort of thing one might do to a child. Perhaps for him it was.

The green closed over her head, burned her eyes. Pain made her gasp, and the gel rushed into her lungs, searing her throat. She fought against the restraints and the terrible itching that invaded every cell. It felt as if a million ants were crawling all through her. The burning seared deep, clear to her marrow. The pressure built. For a moment it felt as if she might black out and be spared the pain, but it didn’t happen.

Eternity passed in that pool before she was finally lifted out. The instant Rudriv released the straps she fell to the floor and vomited. He tried to steady her but she pushed him away with what little strength she had. Coughing brought up more gel.

Fever and chills seized her, and she became too limp to fight as Rudriv helped her to a cot.

"Now you just lay here and rest while I run some tests," he said pleasantly. "You’re a very lucky girl, you know. Not every child has the chance to experience this."

Bali closed her eyes on a whimper. Suddenly she understood how the chained boy felt.

Earth, 2786

"How do you feel about your father’s assassination?"

Bali stopped on the steps of the courthouse. Rain drizzled on her face as the wind tugged at her coat and hair. For a moment she simply stared at the reporter who’d shoved a microphone in her face. Of all the questions....

Encouraged, the woman went on, "It’s known that you and your father have been estranged for years.

Now that he’s dead, would you care to comment on the reasons behind your separation?"

Her lawyer would tell her to answer that. "He thought he was out to reinvent the world. I thought he was a fanatical psychopath." She made it two steps before she was halted again.

"But what about the lawsuit against your father’s medical research company? If the mutant faction wins its case you stand to lose out on a substantial inheritance, yet they say you refuse to align yourself with the company. Why?"

Bali looked straight at the camera. "As far as I’m concerned they deserve whatever they can get." And then some. She moved on.

"But what about the rumors circulating about yourself?" someone demanded. More microphones were shoved her way.

Tired of it all, Bali moved on. "I’m not responsible for rumors." There. She was at her transport, had her hand on the door.

"They say you’re a mutant yourself."

Bali started to sweat. She hadn’t heard this latest story, Long practice at hiding her feelings made her turn to the reporters and smile as she spread her hands. "Do I look like a mutant?" Ignoring the rest of their questions, she unlocked her transport and slipped inside. Only when she had driven a block did she start to breathe normally again.

Rudriv Itara had gotten more than he bargained for when he transformed his POW’s. Once their nations cried peace and he’d been forced to free his prisoners, another war had nearly broken out. Knowing he’d eventually be tried for his war crimes, he’d tried to destroy as much ‘evidence’ as possible, but the military had been too quick. More experiments than he’d liked had been discovered and released.

Fearing imprisonment, he’d fled, leaving thirteen year old Bali in the care of an exclusive boarding school.

Bali had been grateful. There had been more experiments over the years. Rudriv was forever ‘tinkering’

with his favorite creation. He’d augmented her eyes to allow her to see in the dark, leaving her with acute photosensitivity. The implant he’d used to alleviate it helped, but sunny days still left her with excruciating headaches if she left her protective contacts or sunglasses at home. In the end she’d been left with enhanced night vision, extraordinary powers of self-healing, nightmares and a blinding fear of green water.

She’d only seen the boy once, but Bali often wondered what had happened to him. She’d never seen the final results of any of her father’s other experiments, but what she’d heard made her feel fortunate her father hadn’t done worse to her than he had.

There were rumors of amphibious men and men with the many times the strength, speed and agility of normal men. Part of her father’s research had been funded by the military, so those traits made sense, but Rudriv’s dream had been larger. While in his lab and gripped by his scientist persona, he’d told Bali that it was his dream for her to someday mate with one of his creations. He’d wanted a whole race of superior beings stemming from his blood.

Rage made her grip the wheel until the housing cracked under the pressure. Not in my lifetime, Bali vowed. Swearing at the damage to her transport, she hit the freeway and accelerated until she was just one more moving blur on the highway.

She needed to escape.

Flashing blue lights caught her eye, and she slowed to watch a ship slowly settle onto the spaceport tarmac. The city lights drowned out the stars the ship had come from, but the hiss of decompressing vapor shrouding it testified to its journey.

An idea flickered to life and grew stronger by the heartbeat. Why not? She had her pilot’s license and enough money to buy a ship. There was nothing keeping her here. Maybe there were places that had never heard of Rudriv Itara or his daughter.

Could she make a new life for herself? Adrenaline and the first surge of joy she’d felt in a long time hit her. Where there was a will....

She whipped her transport around and floored it for the spaceport, ignoring the honks and muffled curses sent her way.

She had a ship to launch.

"What you need is a man."

Bali whipped her head up to stare at her friend and personal doctor. Icki had always had a wacky sense of humor, but at a time like this.... "Unless he’s going to help me pass the flight physical, a man is the last thing I need."

Icki snorted and picked up one of her hands. The fine trembling that had gotten her grounded was still there, pending further testing. He waved the appendage like an exhibit, his handsome Asian features pulling into a grimace. "You have your father to thank for this. Your genes are going bonkers, changing your body in ways Itara could never have predicted--kind of like an ancient plastic surgery victim.

Remember the pictures of that rock star’s aging face they showed us in school?"

Bali cringed. Multiple surgeries had done ugly things to that African. Every year the school had shown the slides in its "Just Say No to Cosmetic Surgery" campaign. If that kind of thing was happening to her insides.... "Can you fix me?"

He shook his head but reached purposely for a stack of magazines and binders, handing the pile to her.

He tapped the guy on the cover. "This is what you need."

Bali stared at the golden-eyed alien on the cover. Shoulder length black hair, trademark zebra stripes on his forearms, a stylish goatee. Wild, dangerous, and so gorgeous that she became a little breathless just looking at him. He was posed with one knee drawn up, looking seductively at the camera. Or maybe that was his normal look and the camera couldn’t capture anything else. A club with the name "Domino’s"

was shown in the background in shades of red.

"I’ve been looking into this for some time, anticipating this moment. The binders have snapshots of other therapies, but they’re experimental, dangerous and have a huge failure rate. This guy--or rather his race--is the only treatment I can recommend."

Bali frowned at him. "I don’t get it."

The only true aliens in the human galaxy, Draconians, had crash-landed on Antarctica and promptly declared it theirs. None of the Earth governments had argued. They hadn’t been using it. Besides, all efforts to eradicate the Dragon Lords had been met with a frightening rebuff. Nobody messed with them.

And then there were the rumors. Men whispered that Dragon Lords were secretly vampires who devoured women, which is why they had so few. Women swore that Draconian women must die in bed--of pleasure. They pursued the handsome males with a zeal that infuriated human men. Some warned that Draconians would soon out-breed the native population, for they always bred true.

Except for that captive boy, she’d never set eyes on one. Guilt over that one still ate at her, making her unenthusiastic about seeking out an adult, as if they might know just by looking at her who she was and what she’d witnessed.

But Icki said they could help her.

"So what do they have, superior medical technology?" she asked unhappily.

"They have fangs." Icki grinned widely, exposing his own unimpressive canines.

"What?!"

He pulled out a short binder from her paper pile. "This report says it all. And I promise you; it was hard to get. Don’t worry, I charged it to your account." He smirked when she rolled her eyes and flipped open the cover. "Their hollow fangs contain needle-like spines full of adaptogen. When triggered by feelings of passion, these needles fill. The Draconian is overwhelmed with the instinctive need to bite his mate, inducing climax in a woman of his species or adaptogen in an alien woman, thus enabling impregnation."