The Next Thing I Knew (Heavenly) (19 page)

I pulled up a list of NSC-BIs.  Twenty names came up.  Besides the Rrilk and two more, every single one was marked extinct.  Humans were last on the list.  It made me so angry I wanted to kill my host.  I had to withdraw from her before I did something irreversible.  I hovered over her, my fists balled and teeth clenched to keep from screaming at her.  They had no right to determine sentience or to snuff out anyone who didn't meet their qualifications.  I wanted to totally possess Diana and walk her into the mouth of a giant centipede.  These assholes had messed with the wrong planet.

I tapped into her again after I wrestled my mind back to a state of calm.  The Shaval had thousands of pages of legal code defining and classifying life forms.  It all boiled down to a few basics.  If a species could protect themselves from the Shaval, they were regarded as sentient.  If not, they'd be lumped with the rejects.  If their species didn't present any advantages to the Shaval, they'd be scheduled for eventual extermination depending on how desirable the planet was and how likely the species was to develop into a threat over the next few hundred cycles.

Humans had been discovered several thousand Earth years ago but not studied until sometime in the caveman days.  There was even a graph that factored in thousands of qualities to determine our threat vector.  That vector was a plateau until the early 1900's when it shot up sharply.  Apparently within the next two hundred years we might have posed a threat.  I had news for the Shaval. 

They'd fast-forwarded the timeline.

We info-dumped all over each other the next day.  Harb showed up looking pleased as the cat who ate the canary.  Surely by now he'd figured out that Azriel was nothing more than a Shaval thug.  I didn't mention it to him.  No sense stirring him up.

"I know how we died," Kyle said.

All eyes focused on him.  I spoke first.  "Well spit it out."

"About fifteen years ago they captured a hundred humans from all over the planet and infected them with a DNA-based virus that spread by skin-to-skin contact.  They tried the same thing over two hundred years ago but our immune systems adapted and bred out the strain."

I almost said Nick's name aloud.  He'd been a carrier.  There was no other explanation for it.  "So the virus activated after a certain time?" I asked.

"It activated on a signal from a probe they stationed near Saturn.  Someone flipped a switch and we died."

"How the hell could they infect the entire planet in fifteen years?" Mike asked.  "That's over six billion people."

"Skin-to-skin contact would spread like wildfire.  It probably remained active on surfaces infected people touched for a while too."

"Monsters," Bethany said, tears in her eyes.

I still hadn't spilled the beans on the list of species the Shaval had made extinct.  I figured now was as good a time as any.  Mike was nearly apoplectic by the time I finished.  Anil simply closed his eyes and shook his head.  Harb, who hadn't said a word, was grinning.  I wondered what was going on in that insane little mind of his but I didn't ask.

The same two people who'd had problems tapping into their hosts were still having issues.  I pulled them aside after the meeting.  Alex and Missy were two of the most dedicated people I'd met but I would replace them with Beta team members if necessary.  No sense fooling around when you've got the End of the World Part II to worry about.  I told them what was on my mind.

"I'm sorry, Lucy," Alex said.  "If there's someone better, maybe you should replace me now."

They'd worked out so well with the Rrilk and I couldn't understand why they were suddenly having issues with the Shaval.  There were no guarantees anyone else would be better.  "Two more days," I said, holding up two fingers to emphasize my point.  "Please make it work.  Talk to Anil right now and see if he can point out what you're doing wrong."

I checked on the Shaval as they ate a breakfast consisting of earthly fruits.  Diana was praising the qualities of mangos in her singing voice.

"This planet has potential.  I may apply for the resource committee," she said.

Alex's host, Kutiel, seemed uneasy, an unnatural look for such angelic looking creatures.  "Something is wrong in this place.  I cannot sleep without dreaming about the creatures who once dominated this world."

"We've done nothing but study this place since joining the
Committee on the Irregular Communications Trace by Worker Zhrrii
."  Diana sampled another bite of mango.  "I suffer dreams after studying things in great length.  It could also be an implant issue."

"I've been having very unsettling dreams too," Missy's host, Cassiel, said.  "I see rotting corpses.  I feel hate and anger to the point that I almost hate myself when I wake up."

"That's very similar to my experience," Kutiel said.  "Could there be dangerous disease vectors on this planet left unaccounted?"

"Absolutely not," Diana said.  "
The Committee on Alien Environmental Disease Control and Prevention
ran many tests on this planet with our nanomed immune system and found it easily defended against all forms of infection here."

"What about the
Committee on Alien Environmental Toxic Studies
?"

Diana warbled a melodic sigh.  "All committees charged with health studies gave their full reports some time ago.  Your implant should have all pertinent information.  Really, you two, I would not want to report you for failure to understand the duties charged by being a member of this committee."

I wondered how many damned committees the Shaval had.  Did they have a committee meeting about bathroom breaks too?  This conversation worried me.  Alex and Missy were not holding back their own thoughts from their hosts.  I called Anil and confirmed that he was working with the pair.  Both of them had acute inferiority complexes about the Shaval.  He advised me to look for replacements.

Not what I wanted to hear, but I didn't have time for mistakes.  I called on potential candidates.  Only one of them was an original member of my group.  The rest were from Harb's contingent.  I agonized over the decision.  Nibbles paid me a visit.  His motorboat purring soothed my nerves.  Then he bounded away, fascinated by the downy wings of a Shaval.

As the next sleep cycle drew near, I brought in Alex and Missy.

"I need you to be completely honest with me," I said.  "If you can't do this, tell me right now.  I've chosen replacements who can take over tonight."

"I feel much better about things today," Missy said.

Alex looked toward the Shaval ship.  His shoulders slumped and a tear streamed down his cheek.  "I don't think I can do it, Lucy.  I'm a failure."

Missy put an arm around his shoulder and hugged him.

"Thanks for being honest, Alex," I said.  "You're very valuable to us no matter what.  You've done great work with the Rrilk and I want you to continue to help out with them."

He wiped away the tear, nodded, and left.  Missy departed for the Shaval ship.

I breathed a partial sigh of relief.  At least I wouldn't have to assign a Shaval to one of Harb's lackeys.  I called Ben, my candidate, and told him I'd need him.

"Lucy, I've done a lot of thinking, and I don't think I'm cut out for this assignment.  My religious upbringing is going to make this…difficult."

"Ben, I really need you."

He shook his head.  "I can't get it out of my head that they might actually be working for God."  He snorted.  "I didn't think it would be a problem.  But it is."

I tried to talk sense to him but it was no good.  I felt the rock against my back and the hard place against my chest.  Damn.  Picking someone I felt remotely comfortable with from Harb's group had been hard.  The girl, nicknamed Pandi, seemed the best choice, mainly because she was the only female in Harb's group of immature boys.  Although very young, her green eyes sparkled with intelligence but also an unsettling hint of mischief.  I got the feeling that Harb felt threatened by her and that was a good thing.  Being female didn't hurt.  Call me biased.

She agreed immediately with delight on her face.  It must have been quite a move up going from orphan to angel.  Something about that thought nagged me.  Then again, it would be pretty cool taking control of Diana and flexing those big pretty wings of hers.  I hadn't felt that with Zhrrii and she was far more noble a being than these uppity Shaval.  What sort of universe gives dominance to the alien race that wins the intergalactic beauty contest?

Okay, so maybe humans did that very thing all the time.

I sent Pandi on her merry way to her host.  Anil called me and asked how things had gone.  He wasn't surprised by Ben's decision.

"He's been uptight since the Shaval came.  I had a feeling he might decline."

"A warning would've been nice."

"Sorry, Lucy, I've been busy.  A lot of people are concerned about what the Shaval represent symbolically if not literally."

"Maybe they visited our planet back in the Stone Age and that's where this entire angel myth came from.  I know I'd be freaking out if I was Mr. Joe Caveman and saw a dude with wings."

"You may be right.  The Shaval implants have an impressive amount of information stored on them, but for a race as ancient as theirs, I'd bet they have larger databases on Zalista."

"Keep me informed," I said then realized how bossy that sounded.  "You know, uh, if you have a chance."

He laughed.  "If anything really alarms me, you'll be the first to know."

I disconnected and found Diana.  She had just finished cleaning in her mist shower thing, whatever it was, and was drying.  As I had with Zhrrii, I felt time nipping at my heels.  Tonight I planned to merge completely with her and to take control.  I felt reasonable confident.  I'd identified her important thought processes and had a basic understanding of how her body worked.  She went through her typical ritual, complete with shedding a few tears for whoever the hunky angel man was and went to bed with a soft sigh and flutter of her wings.  She looked kind of cute for an Amazonian with wings.

Before attempting the merge, I tapped into her and eased myself into her mind.  The first night had been like listening for the faint noise of a radio while a tornado roared nearby.  The complexity and depth of her thought processes rivaled those of Nick's when he wasn't drunk.  She had the same worries as most humans.  Money, relationships, family.  She worried about how her students were doing while she was away.  She worried about the upkeep in her apartment.  She wondered what the hunky angel man was doing and whether he'd found someone else.  Apparently he'd been her life mate at one point, but I hadn't dug much into her personal business so far.  Now that I wanted to control her, it was time to learn some of that stuff so I could at least act like her when the time was right.

As Diana entered the deepest stage of sleep, I decided it was time to try.  One by one I felt her senses come to me.  I felt her toes (all twelve of them), her twenty-four fingers, her four arms all send tactile information to me.  I left Diana's consciousness slumbering and opened her eyes.  She slept without a pillow, her head turned to the side.  I hated sleeping like that, but her neck seemed flexible enough that it didn't cause discomfort.  I wiggled her extremities.  I'd thought tentacles felt weird to control.  Four arms was something entirely different.  At least with Zhrrii the feeling was completely alien to me.  Diana felt almost human so the addition of two more arms threw me off.  I pushed up to her knees with all four arms.  Her wings--my wings slapped convulsively against the bed and I fell off balance onto my back, flailing with all four arms.

My wings retracted by reflex and braced my fall.  I couldn't figure out how to relax them so I could roll over on my stomach.  I lay there for several minutes feeling stupid and helpless.  I experimented until the wings curled around me.  I rolled to my stomach and eased myself onto my knees.  I stood.  One wing flared for balance automatically.  It startled me and I jerked to the other side, nearly capsizing myself again while chirping like a startled sparrow.

After a quarter hour of practice, I was able to flex, spread my wings and retract them.  The feeling was indescribable.  I wanted to get a running start and fly.  Flying as a ghost felt light and sometimes immaterial.  Actually flapping wings and feeling their raw power against the wind would be incredible.  I flapped them hard, sending a breeze through the room and lifting off the ground a few inches.

I see Father as he takes me into the fledglings park.  He laughs as I flap my tiny wings, newly dusted with down.  They are just large enough to provide the lift I need.  I run and flap, flap, flap.  The wind rushes against my bare legs.  My feet come off the ground.  I chirrup in surprise, lose my balance and fall.  Father and I laugh.  I brush myself off and try again.  This time I keep my legs stiff behind me and keep my balance.  I climb into the air, laboring for several minutes before gliding back to the waiting arms of Father.  I am exhausted but the pride in Father's eyes make everything worth it.

I snapped back from the sudden onslaught of memories, dizzy but full of joy.  Diana's father looked awfully familiar.  He and the hunky man angel looked very much alike but they weren't the same individual.  Did she have daddy issues?  I mused over that and stretched my wings, eager to fly.

But now wasn't the time to take my naked host outside for flying lessons.  Nor was it the time to be reminiscing about her father or fairy tale childhood, considering this was going on while an anonymous committee on Zalista was planning to wipe out human civilization.  At the very least, it showed they were every bit as mortal as we were.  They were just as vulnerable and just as killable.  I hated the thought of killing such perfect beings.

I cringed.  My host's thoughts were starting to affect me more than I'd realized.  Perfect beings my ass.

And then Diana woke up.