“Kaylar, increase your rate of speed.”
“As you know, increasing speed beyond safety limits is highly dangerous and not…”
Veral snarled impatiently and transmitted his visual recording and the downloaded files. Silence fell as he waited for Kaylar to open the files.
“Data received. I will be there in sixty-five standard galactic hours.”
Nearly three standard rotations early. It would have to suffice.
17
Terri stirred, her brow furrowing. It couldn’t be time to wake up already. Something was tickling her nose. She groaned and swiped her hand at her face to brush whatever it was away. It moved away, and she grumbled unhappily. She hated when Azan messed with her while she was sleeping.
Something touched the bridge of her nose again.
“Azan knock it off, already,” she mumbled, slapping at whatever the pirate was tormenting her with.
It moved, and a weight landed on her head.What the…?Her eyes opened, and she squinted at her hand in the dark. A soft green glow illuminated her hand, and her breath stuttered in panic as it scurried up her wrist.
No, no…No!
With a shriek, Terri jerked up, stumbling to her feet as she whipped her arm around, trying to dislodge it as it scurried beneath the opening in her armor at the wrist. A hair-raising scream left her, her fingers digging at her sleeve, attempting to push it back out from beneath it.
It’s not working!
Her breath came out in ragged pants as terror coursed through her. Giving up on trying to push it out, she slammed her wrist against the wall, hoping that would crush it.
She could hear Veral’s panicked roar, but it sounded faint, distant. The sound that was more immediate was the one that came from the pirates leaping up, shouting out in alarm, pistols and blades drawn as they looked around for a sign of danger. She ignored them all as she cried and slammed her hand repeatedly on the wall.
Terri didn’t care if everyone saw her blubbering like a baby. She was justified in losing her shit as she frantically attempted to get that thing off her arm.
Pain pierced her forearm just as Azan shoved her firmly against the wall. The pirate’s scales were dull and pale pink. As one pair of arms held Terri in place, another pair yanked her arm forward, stretching it out. Terri was distantly aware of Veral shoving his way through the gathering crowd, his hard snarls threatening males who had leveled blasters at her. Azan pushed up the flexible sleeve of her armor, and they both gasped in horror as numerous tendrils whipped out from the body of the bio-tech. Blood flowed around its body as its primary legs assisted it as it burrowed into her forearm.
“What in the name of the gods is that!?” Azan shouted. “Cursed shit of all things profane! I am going to try to dig it out.” Yellow eyes met brown, the female’s pinprick pupils dilating with emotion until they were clearly visible black sideways ovals. She yanked out her dagger and placed the tip at the side of the glowing green body. The tendrils were flowing around her forearm, jabbing into her and sinking into her.
“Please…” Terri said. “Get it off of me.”
A spurt of blood appeared at the side of the blade seconds before a dark hand spun out and knocked the dagger away. Azan hissed as the clatter of metal hitting metal echoed through the room.
“Do not,” Veral snarled as his face lowered threateningly. “Can you not see that it has fully attached itself into her arm? It is a symbiont. Bio-tech created by the Elshavan.”
“What is a symbiont?” snarled an Igwin.
“A parasite,” Azan returned, her lip curling at it.
Terri was half amused to note that, for once, an Igwin looked at her warily rather than with the usual carnal hunger. It was a refreshing change. In fact, all the Igwins were drawing away from her. Hysterically, Terri wondered if alien tech suddenly made her foul to them.
Well, good. That was one good thing to come from the crap ton of pain.
“A tech symbiont is different. Its programming drives it to link to a type of being it has been engineered to recognize. The Elshavan, though they have scales, have a softer appearance like my mate. In order to fulfill its purpose, it must do as it is programmed to do. At this point, now that the merger is complete and it has joined to her body, it is nothing more than a tool that she must learn to use. One that cannot be removed without irreversible damage to her body. Tech implants are not to be trifled with except by experts in the field, and only in dire emergencies. Some Argurma weapons operate it in this fashion, though they lack the obvious sophistication of the bio-tech that has bonded to my female. One thing would be noticeably the same, however. It cannot be removed.”
“For what purpose was it created?” Egbor asked as he pushed through the crowd. His pistol was still primed in his hand, but it hung lax at his side rather than pointed at her. “Will it harm us? Or do you think it might be valuable?” Greed lit his eyes as his tongue swept over his lips hungrily.
Terri instinctively wanted to tuck her arm out of sight before he got an idea to attempt to hack it off.
Veral frowned and shook his head. “I do not know if it would have any value since we do not know yet exactly what it does. Even so, given the way that it has bonded to her, if you did remove it, you would end up damaging it in addition to killing her. For anyone else, it is just a bit of metal and biological material. I do not think it will harm anyone in the crew as it is now a part of her. I found a lab, and from what I understand, a scientist designed the tech to protect against something far worse.”
“What can possibly be worse thanthat?!” a pirate shouted, gesturing to Terri’s exposed arm.