She grimaced. It wasn’t pretty.
Blood still seeped around the green body of the symbiont, though it was slowing as if the thing was working with her nanos to speed up her already accelerated healing. Despite the slowing trickle of blood, the skin was still swollen and flushed a painful red. What was more alarming might have been the weird green fluid that dripped out along with her blood, and the fact that her arm felt like it was on fire, the pain spreading upwards. Around the imbedded symbiont, tiny tendrils of green light could almost be seen flashing under her skin like a spiderweb of metallic veins.
Veral brushed Azan aside, and the female reluctantly moved away, giving Terri’s mate full access to her. His claws were still out, betraying the lingering heights of his anxiety as he lightly touched the symbiont with his claw.
He frowned and brought his claw up and slashed down at it. Terri’s entire body tensed with horror, but even as he brought his hand down, the symbiont exploded into action. Several tendrils shot up, weaving rapidly into a pair of barbed whips that slashed at her mate. He only just barely moved out of the way on time, his lips pressing into a thin slash of concentration.
What in the holy fuckwas that?
The corner of his mouth turned up, his mandibles vibrating in a soft hum as he let out a sharp trill. The asshole was utterly delighted that the thing attached to her just attempted to flay him. Terri’s mouth dropped open as his claws retracted, and he nodded with satisfaction.
“You did that on purpose! Are you fuckinginsane?” she shouted.
Veral leaned forward and brushed his nose against her jaw, his mandibles caressing the sides of her neck in a show of affection, stepping away before it occurred to Egbor that they were breaking his precious rules.
“It was a calculated risk. I suspected that it would seek to protect you even when not summoned if a direct attack was made.”
“As sickeningly sweet as this all is,” the captain interrupted, “you still have not explained just what exactly it is meant to have protected them from.”
Veral’s lips parted, his brow furrowed. She knew this look. He was attempting to put together a reasonable reply that the pirates would understand when a horrible, screeching roar blasted over the wreckage. The sound was hollow like air blowing through a mechanical tube, and yet with all the ferocity of something very big, and very angry.
Egbor turned around as everyone slowly faced the gaping hole in the side of the wreckage. A head suddenly dropped down, its wide, shovel-like mouth parting, revealing rows upon rows of jagged metal teeth. A large violet eye, glowing with small threads of light, peered at them as it let out a terrible hiss.
As it leaned forward, a large metallic hand descended, flattening against the ground. Although it had the appearance of a matte metal, Terri could see veins and musculature, as if it were living flesh. Like something organic, but made entirely of metal. Its claws extended farther, tearing up the dirt as it dropped its head lower. A long silver tongue whipped through the opening to curl around the nearest pirate before he could gain any distance from it.
The tongue didn’t just wrap around the male, but the tip stabbed into the struggling Igwin’s abdomen. His mouth gaped open, his screams echoing. The tongue pulsed like a muscle, and Terri watched as his belly caved in and his skin shriveled over his frame. The male didn’t move anymore at that point, hanging limp, his eyes staring out lifelessly as the monster’s tongue snapped back, drawing his body into the enormous waiting mouth.
Veral pushed her back behind him, moving her deeper into the ship as the pirates fled from the creature lurking at the gap in the wall. “I believe that may be one of the things that were created on theEvandra.”
“Oh my fucking gods,” Terri whispered. “They were creating monsters.”
“Engineering the perfect war machines,” he observed.
“But why create something like this?”
Claws scraped at the opening, the metal screeching in protest. The metal folded back a little where it was weakest, but otherwise held.
“Because it would bring certain death,” Veral hissed. He turned to address the captain. “As far as I can tell, this particular tech organism requires nocturnal conditions that it would be programmed tohuntduring. We happened to be within its territory during its active time and it scented our presence. We are fortunate that we found shelter in something that deters it from killing us. This gives us time until sunrise. If we remain where we are until then, it will depart. I must insist that we take that opportunity to return to the ship and abandon our mission.”
Egbor’s head jerked up in surprise as he turned from the creature to stare in disbelief at Veral. “But you just said it will leave the area before sunrise. It is only another rotation or two until we arrive at the crash site.”
“And there will be more of its kind—or worse—and we may not be so fortunate next time. According to the scientist’s records I found there were many such experiments that he suspected got loose on the starship. The closer we get toEvandra, the more of these bio-techs we will discover. Death waits for us at the wreckage. Nothing more.”
“I disagree,” the captain said coolly. His face broke into an excited smile as he rounded on his crew. “Just think! If they are creating things such as these, then they must be protecting even greater wealth than suspected onEvandra. Can you imagine the treasures that these guardians must oversee?” He turned his head and fixed Veral with a smile as the pirates murmured uncertainly around him. “And we have little to fear with a legendary Argurma warrior and expert salvager leading the way. These would be the kind of potentials he would have trained for.”
Veral’s face clouded with fury. “There is a good possibility that if you do this, you will be sentencing my mate to death.”
“If you do your job well, that should not be a concern. Besides, does she not have protection now? And Azan as well. She is better protected than all of us.”
Her mate stalked forward. “And what makes you think that I will not kill you now if she is so protected?”
The pirate met the obvious threat with a knowing smirk. “Because we all know that, while that symbiont is impressive, it is doubtful that even it can stop a blaster shot, or several, directly to the head… Azan.”
Terri felt the nudge of metal at the back of her head followed by an instinctive surge of fear. Desperately, she wiggled her fingers, trying to get the symbiont to react and protect her.
Nothing.
Fuck!Why couldn’t the tech just have a magical on switch? How the hell was this going to be of any use to her?