Awakened by the Giant Read online

  She still had no strength in her hands or fingers, so picking up the little branthas was out of the question. But she could at least pet them, so she sat down in the middle of their enclosure and did exactly that.

  By taking off the gloves and presenting her with the frisky, cuddly branthas, Maddy thought Calden was probably just trying to take her mind off the incident that had almost taken place at the enzyme baths. There had been a really scary moment when the big Kindred’s eyes had turned red and he had seemed to get even bigger and more menacing as he prepared to fight the big-mouthed Mentat who kept insisting that she and Calden were “mating” with each other.

  Maddy was fairly certain Calden could have taken him but there was that awful Grack-lor smirking in the corner and if he had joined in, it might not have been such a sure outcome. She’d been glad and relieved when the big Kindred had simply scooped her up and taken her back to his living quarters instead, so they could both get dressed and go to his lab.

  What’s wrong with these jerks anyway? she thought, as she stroked one of the baby branthas gently with her weak right hand. It’s like Calden said—they seem to think women are something to be owned and used and they’re jealous of him—like kids get jealous when one of them has a toy the others want and can’t have.

  She wondered at the differences between them. From what Calden had said, his people—the Kindred—had also had a shortage of females on their home world. But instead of squabbling like spoiled children they had gone out in search of new brides. Why didn’t the Mentats try that instead of being nasty with each other and Calden?

  Well for one thing, it probably doesn’t help that they’re such ugly, scaly bastards with those awful, cawing voices like crows and parrots on steroids, she thought with a shiver. She couldn’t imagine any human women being willing to mate with the Mentats, even if they were sexually compatible—which they thankfully were not.

  Being sexually incompatible didn’t stop you from doing things you probably shouldn’t with Calden, though, whispered the voice of guilt in her head. Maddy felt her cheeks get hot with shame but at the same time, her body burned with the memory of his big hands on her. How was it she could feel so guilty for what she had done and still want to do it again? What was wrong with her?

  One of the branthas—the littlest one—nudged her hand and made a demanding burble like someone trying to talk out of a snorkel. Apparently Maddy had been too caught up in her own thoughts to pay attention to what was important—giving the little creature pets and skritches behind his floppy ears.

  “Oh, sorry,” Maddy told him, smiling. “You know what you look like?” she asked, stroking around the bases of his ears and the back of his neck. “You look like a baby Snuffleupagus. And you’re ridiculously cute—but I guess you know that, don’t you? Hmm, don’t you?”

  She used the soft, soothing voice she naturally fell into when working with animals and the little brantha and his litter mates responded to it just as Earth animals did. Maddy smiled as he made another burbling sound and nudged her hand for more attention. The others crowded around her as well—she was sitting in the middle of their pen, which was enclosed by a fence made of stiff white stuff which looked like cardboard but probably wasn’t. At Maddy’s suggestion, Calden had simulated some balls for the branthas to play with and now she picked one up awkwardly, because her fingers were still so weak, and tossed it to the far side of the enclosure.

  Most of the branthas ran eagerly, chasing the brightly colored object with excited hoots and burbles. But the littlest one stayed, still nudging her hand. In fact, he seemed to sense an opportunity. Now that his litter-mates were preoccupied, he busied himself with climbing into Maddy’s lap and making himself comfortable.

  “Well, just make yourself at home, why don’t you little buddy?” Maddy laughed and stroked the soft little head and neck again.

  The brantha rested his head on her knee and gave a sigh of deep and total contentment that she envied. But then, she often envied animals their uncomplicated lives. She wished she could have the little brantha’s life at the moment—no guilt, no complications, no worries about the future—which she was definitely beginning to have herself. After all, how long could she go on living in a place where most of the residents were hostile towards her? The Mentats all seemed to resent her and only Calden seemed to care for her at all so…

  Her thoughts broke off when her weak but sensitive fingertip found a tiny bump under the brantha’s fur, right at the base of its skull.

  “What’s this, little guy? Some kind of a parasite?”

  She frowned and bent forward, parting the fur with a fingertip to see. Of course there shouldn’t be any parasites. Calden had just grown these little creatures—she assumed from frozen embryos—and the lab was a mostly sterile environment. There couldn’t be any pests or parasites here.

  Sure enough, the lump on the back of the little brantha’s neck wasn’t a parasite—not a tick or a flea burrowing into the skin. But Maddy couldn’t tell what it was. It didn’t seem to be part of the animal’s anatomy. Maybe it was a chip of some kind to monitor the brantha’s vitals or keep track of its location?

  “Here—come here, you guys,” she called to the others in the pack—about five in all—and they all scampered over to her and started begging for attention again, much to the smallest one’s irritation. As Maddy checked the backs of their necks and noted that they did, indeed, all have similar bumps at the base of their skulls, he sat up on Maddy’s knee and bugled his dissatisfaction with the situation angrily. It was almost as though he was trying to claim Maddy as his own, which made her laugh.

  “Take it easy, little guy,” she told him. “Don’t worry—you’re definitely my favorite, little Snuffy.” Which seemed like a good name, considering that he really did look like a miniature version of the giant, hairy Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street.

  “He was always my favorite as well.”

  Calden’s deep voice made her look up and Maddy saw that he was crouching beside the brantha enclosure and looking at the little creatures fondly, though he made no move to try and pet any of them himself.

  “What do you mean ‘was’?” she asked. “I thought you just gestated these embryos earlier this morning? It really is wonderful how you’re able to accelerate their growth by the way,” she added. “We had some artificial gestation tubes aboard the Kennedy that we were going to use with our embryos but they weren’t nearly as fast as yours are.”

  For some reason, Calden was looking uncomfortable.

  “These branthas weren’t grown from embryos that I had in storage,” he said, haltingly. “They were… made from the DNA of the last litter I had been studying.”

  Maddy looked up at him, her eyes wide as this information sank in.

  “You mean they’re clones? You can do that? You can clone things? I mean, we could back on Earth in a very limited capacity but it was usually an expensive and lengthy process and the clones didn’t always survive for very long.”

  “They don’t…” Calden cleared his throat. “They don’t always survive here, either.” He hesitated again. “I would…advise you not to get too attached to them.”

  “Oh no! Are you afraid they’re going to die right away?” Maddy put an arm around Snuffy protectively. “Please say they won’t! Oh Calden, there must be something we can do!”

  “I’m afraid not.” He looked regretful. “You should have several days with them—maybe a standard week at most. But these will almost certainly not live out their natural life span.”

  Maddy felt heartbroken. “Only a week? What is the natural life span of a brantha anyway?”she asked, stroking Snuffy’s fur gently.

  “As far as I can figure, they ought to live at least twenty standard solar years,” he said thoughtfully.

  “About the same as a dog or a cat—maybe little longer,” Maddy murmured to herself. She looked up at him again. “And there’s nothing we can do to help them live longer?”

  He sho