Warrior Chronicles 5: Warrior's Curse (21 page)

“It’s going to be a boon for genetic diversity back home.”

“Agreed. We’re taking DNA samples from all of them now, and establishing identities as best we can. There are quite a few trained former military among them, dating as far back as the army of Kublai Khan.”

“You said something about gladiators, too.”

“Yes, sir. I’m not counting them among the former military. They were fighters, not warriors. But the fight seems to have left them, to be honest.” Liz pointed at two men who just stared at the ground in front of them. “I’m not sure how many will come back from whatever hell you found down there.”

“I don’t think even they know what hell they were in, Liz. What about our people? The Marines we sent over?”

“I don’t understand why, Cort, but we’ve only found the males.”

“What about Havisim? She is female.”

“She was born male, Cort. She went through gender reassignment when she was thirteen.”

“Okay. Why do you think they would kill Marine women?”

“Not just Marine women. We haven’t found any post-Cull human females. I have no idea why, but the medical people are working on it.”

“I’ll add questions about that to my next interrogation.”

Cort touched his ear and said, “Ares. Go.”

A minute later he added, “Fuck.”

“What is it?” Liz asked when he disconnected.

“We know what they are doing with the babies’ heads now.”

Thirteen

Cort left the shuttle and immediately went to where Quinn and Voss were standing. “Quinn, where’s Bowtie?”

“While you were on your way down, he shot himself, sir.”

“What happened?” Cort demanded.

“He was questioning the prisoner.”

“I specifically ordered that no one be around the prisoner! What the hell was he doing?”

Voss shook his head and said, “I told him that sir, and he told me that you had enough on your mind so he was going to do some legwork for you.”

“Godsdammit!” Cort looked at the corner of his HUD and opened a channel to his entire force, both on the ground and in the skies. “This is Ares. Under no circumstances is anyone except old-brood Jaifans and myself to interact with any prisoner. Prisoners are also to be blindfolded at all times. Ares out.”

Cort turned back to Quinn. “Give his company to one of your LTs. I’d rather have a captain, but we don’t have any more, so a lieutenant will have to do for now. Make sure it’s someone who doesn’t have their head in their ass.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay Voss, what’ve you got?”

Voss pointed Cort to a part of the building the General hadn’t been in yet. “It’s in there, sir. When we found the area that was producing feed, there was another conveyor belt leading into the area. We traced it back to there.”

“So that’s where the heads went?”

“Yes sir.” Voss held the door for Quinn and Cort, then followed them inside.

Inside, there were hundreds of infant skulls in various states of dissection. There were two bins beyond a work table, one containing skulls and jawbones, the other nearly full of gray matter, skin, and eyes. Fighting the bile for what seemed like the hundredth time, Cort looked at the bin full of tissue, which his CONDOR’s spectral analyzer told him had started to rot.

“That goes into the feed, I take it?”

“Yes,” Quinn said. “The bones do too, but not until they are pulverized.”

“This just keeps getting darker and darker,” Cort said grimly. “Do we know why they dissect the brains?”

Quinn called Ceram over. Cort looked up and realized he hadn’t even seen the medico until she said his name.

Ceram clicked, “The pineal glands have been removed from all of the brains, General. I would like to dissect one of the uncut infant heads to see if I can find out why.”

“Absolutely not!” Quinn nearly shouted at the medico. “These babies have been through enough.”

Cort held his gauntlet up in Quinn’s direction. “We do autopsies on dead people all the time. If you think it will help, Ceram, do it. But get me some answers.”

Ceram looked from Cort to Quinn. He flexed his mandibles sympathetically toward the woman and clicked, “Colonel, I will be as respectful of the remains as possible. We need to know everything we can though. I hope you understand.”

Quinn sighed. “I understand. It’s just overwhelming.”

“Yes it is, Colonel. Even for me,” Ceram clicked. Turning back to Cort, he added, “General, I believe it would be best for me to perform the examination here, in this room, so that I will not upset any other humans.”

“Good idea, Doc. Voss, I want you to stand guard outside this room until he’s done working.”

As the three humans started for the door, Cort saw a small tub of gray-brown paste. “What is that?”

Ceram answered, “That is the substance they make from the glands.”

“Put some in a vial for me.”

Ceram did as Cort asked, then went back to his gruesome work.

Outside, Cort went to the area where the prisoner was being held. Skinback had a hood over his head, and was standing in the same place he had been the last time Cort saw him. H’uum walked to Cort and clicked, “I am sorry about your captain, Cortland. I was resting at the time he convinced the guards that he was allowed to be there.”

“It’s not your fault, H’uum. How is the prisoner?”

“He has not moved other than to get the water we placed at his feet.”

“How long has he rested today?”

“I was going to talk to you about that. I don’t believe he has. Until we covered him with the hood, he was very interested in everything going on around him.”

“Okay, thank you. Remove his hood.”

“Are you sure, Cortland?”

“Yes. George is going to monitor me and has locked down my weapons. He can even take over the CONDOR and walk me out of here if I lose control. I’ll be okay.”

“Very well.”

After H’uum removed Skinback’s hood, Cort began to question him again.

How did your people come to be here?

Our creators were being abducted, so they engineered us to come here and effect a stop to the disappearances.

How long ago was that?

In our universe, it was over one million years ago. Here, it was about ten thousand years ago.

Cort made a note in his HUD. The timeline for the Gryll universe was similar to his own. Same universe?

What happened after you got here?

We killed the occupants of the planet.

And you started abducting others?

No. We never stopped the abductions. We do not understand the mechanism.

How old are you Skinback?

I just told you. I am ten thousand years old.

You’ve been here all that time? You haven’t aged?

Yes. We do not age as humans do.

What are the other species I have seen here?

Failures. They are not compatible with our needs.

So you have abducted other species as well?

We have no control over the abductions.

Cort held up the vial of pineal paste.
What is this?

Skinback began to shiver and stepped toward Cort.
Give it to me, Ares!

The sudden spike in telepathic energy caused Cort to collapse and George took over the CONDOR, running the suit into the room where Ceram was working.

H’uum and the other Jaifans moved as quickly as George did. A single, blade-like Jaifan wing spread from a guard and decapitated Skinback before his second step.

--

Cort awoke on the
Kalashnikov.
Ceram was on one side of the bed, with Kim and Liz on the other.

“What happened?”

The doctor explained, “Skinback got too excited and his mental energy spiked.”

“Skinback?”

Kim said, “He’s dead. H’uum killed him.”

Cort turned to her, then reached out and fondled her breast. His other hand began stroking his crotch through the bed sheet. “Who is,
was
, Skinback?”

“Oh gods!” Kim cried out as she tried to restrict his hands. “Do you know us, baby?”

Ceram vocalized nothing but began touching his flexpad. It was nearly a minute before Cort quit struggling against Kim. He looked at her accusingly. “You’re my wife. Kim. Why won’t you let me play with your tits? They’re mine aren’t they? Or have you been cheating on me like Angela did?”

Ceram clicked, “Pledge Father, you have suffered a stroke. Skinback spiked you with telepathic energy.”

Cort frowned up at Ceram. “I like you better when you’re reading in the library, Ceram. You piss me off as a doctor.” He looked down at his swelling crotch and asked, “Tell me something. Can a human male fuck one of your queens?”

Kim began to quietly sob. When her hands relaxed, Cort slipped his own out of them and reached for Liz’s crotch. “When was the last time you had some dick, Admiral?”

Liz jumped at the touch, pulled back just out of his reach, and touched Kim’s shoulder. “It’s got to be the stroke, Kim. He’ll be okay. But for now, I’ll leave you alone. When I get back to the
Remington,
I’ll message Quinn about this situation and put her in charge of ground ops for the time being.”

Kim pulled on Cort’s arm that was still reaching toward Liz. “Thank you, Liz. I’m sorry.”

“Before you leave, Liz, at least show me your tits,” Cort said.

Liz’s voice was kind as she spoke to Kim. “It’s okay. It’s the injury. I know that’s not Cort.”

When Liz was gone, Ceram clicked, “In a sense, it really is him, Pledge Mother. According to medical data from pre-synthetic human society, a common side effect of strokes is the loss of inhibition. Clearly the Pledge Father has lost his. He will likely act on his basal instincts until his brain is rewired.”

Cort began to stroke himself as Ceram spoke. Kim openly wept as she tried to restrain his hands again.

“What is the last thing you remember, Pledge Father?”

“Give me a steak and some whiskey.”

“I don’t understand, Pledge Father.”

“I’m not answering shit until you feed me, you fucking cockroach.”

Ceram touched his flexpad and a few minutes later a male orderly walked in with a plate of food. After Cort cleared the plate, Ceram repeated his question.

Cort belched loudly before he answered. “The Threm woman. Ttanda I think was her name. Have you looked at their anatomy, Ceram? Her tits were as long and skinny as a horse dick.”

Kim squeezed Cort’s hand and looked at Ceram. The Jaifan said, “You don’t remember the crash on Mars?”

“I haven’t been to Mars in over a year, Doc,” Cort took Ceram’s sweetwater and drank it in one long pull.

Kim looked at Ceram with confusion. He said, “Another symptom of the stroke, Pledge Mother.”

Ceram touched his flexpad and Cort felt a coolness in his arm. As he drifted toward sleep, he heard Ceram tell Kim, “It’s not as bad as it could have been.”

“Ceram, if he can’t remember any of this, how can I tell him about who we found?”

“Give him time, Pledge Mother.”

“Are you sure he will get better?”

“No. But he should.”

--

Three hours later, Quinn Faulks landed on the
Kalashnikov,
showered, and went to the medical bay. Ceram was gone, and the unknowing orderly pointed her to Cort’s room. She opened the door just enough to see inside, and a sliver of light passed across Cort’s face, causing him to stir. He looked at her and waved her inside.

“How are you, General?” she asked, stepping to his bedside and steeling herself for what she hoped was coming.

Cort reached out and cupped her mound in his hand. “I’d be better if you didn’t have pants on.”

Quinn instinctively pulled back. “General…”

Cort pushed his bedsheet down, exposing himself. “No one’s around. Let’s fuck. I’ll bet you’re a wildcat.”

Quinn watched as Cort filled with blood, then she turned and walked to the door.
Do or die, Quinn. You’ll never have this chance again.