Awakened by the Giant Read online

  “Commander, I think it’s…Kindred. But maybe some branch of the Kindred we’ve never seen before,” Raren told him. “The insignia on the side looks familiar but distorted somehow. Oh—and it’s hailing us now!” he exclaimed.

  “I’ll take it here. Route it to my living area viewscreen,” Sylvan ordered. This was a mystery that couldn’t wait for the morning. Moving quietly, so as not to disturb Sophia, Sylvan pulled on his clothes and hurried out into the living area, closing the door to the sleeping chamber quietly but firmly behind him.

  What met his eyes when the viewscreen flickered to life was one of the strangest faces he’d ever seen—strange because it seemed like it should be familiar. It was a Kindred face—no doubt about that, Sylvan thought. But such a different Kindred face, his brain could hardly process it.

  The male had gray skin, for one thing and glowing topaz eyes, a shade darker than the gold of a Beast Kindred’s for another. He wore his long hair plaited into many braids bound in metal bands. The topaz eyes were intense with need…but that emotion abruptly gave way to shock when they took Sylvan in.

  “Who are you?” the strange Kindred warrior asked. He had a very deep voice and the way he spoke the Kindred standard language was strangely accented. “Who are you and what have you done with Bram and Ren?”

  Sylvan shook his head.

  “I don’t know who Bram and Ren are. My name is Commander Sylvan, Chancellor of the Kindred High Council. I’m in charge of the Mother Ship—what can I do for you?”

  “The Mother Ship? But…my friend, Bram is the leader of our Mother Ship.”

  Sylvan frowned. “Another Kindred Mother Ship? Are you Kindred?”

  “I am.” The male straightened up. “I am Calden of the Jor’gen Kindred and I am in great need of help.”

  “The Jor’gen Kindred?” For a moment Sylvan was at a loss, then tales from his childhood came rushing back to him. A race of Kindred who had disobeyed the Kindred High Council and gone off to mate with a species of people so large all their descendants were giants. “But your people were said to have left the Kindred hundreds—maybe thousands of cycles ago,” he said, frowning. “I thought that you were just a legend.”

  “We’re real,” Calden told him grimly. “And I am in need of real help—though I don’t know if you can give it. Still, this is where the Goddess sent me so I have no choice but to ask.”

  “The Goddess?” Sylvan asked. “You have had a visitation from her?”

  “Indeed I did—I will never forget it.” There was a tone of awed reverence in the Jor’gen Kindred’s voice. “I have with me an Earth female—one I love dearly—who has a device implanted in her neck which will kill her if it isn’t removed very soon. Can you help us?”

  Sylvan frowned. “I am a surgeon and physician myself—I’ll be happy to take a look for you. I’ll clear you to land and meet you in the Docking Bay.”

  “Thank you,” Calden said fervently. “I just pray that you can help us or Madeline will die.”

  “Where is she, this Madeline?” Sylvan asked, frowning.

  Calden sighed. “She is in the back of the shuttle and she is not speaking to me right now. She’s angry with me for cloning her.”

  Sylvan’s eyebrows raised in surprise.

  “You cloned her?”

  “It is a long story.” Calden shook his head. “I will tell you all of it if you can only help us.”

  “I’ll meet you shortly,” Sylvan promised and signed off the viewscreen. After contacting Raren and telling him to give clearance for the strange vessel to land, Sylvan pulled on his boots and went back into the sleeping chamber for a moment. As he always did before leaving in the middle of the night, he dropped a kiss on the sleeping Sophia’s cheek. Though he didn’t wake her, the corners of her mouth curved up into a smile.

  Sylvan smiled too and sent a gentle surge of love through their bond before he left—he had business to attend to.

  “So you say this device—this self-termination unit—is set to go off in less than two standard hours time and stop your bride’s heart and lungs from working?” Sylvan asked, frowning up at Calden.

  Calden nodded. He was still getting used to these smaller Kindred who were apparently descendants of his ancestors before they had left to join with the Jor’gen people. But though they were about two feet shorter than he was, they seemed intelligent and helpful. Their leader, Sylvan, in particular had grasped the situation and the need for speed quickly.

  “But if the self-termination unit isn’t deactivated first, it will act like a miniature bomb and blow off her head instead,” he said, speaking in a low voice, though he was certain Madeline couldn’t hear him. She was sitting in an exam room in the med center, still clutching Snuffy to her chest and talking intently to one of the human nurses. It was a female Sylvan had called in especially to comfort her—a woman with the same pale skin coloring as Madeline but with long blonde hair and silvery-gray eyes. Calden watched through the clear glass window that separated them and hoped that the special nurse was being helpful. Madeline still wasn’t speaking to him and he was worried about her.

  “Well, that does make things more difficult, since we don’t know what technology we’re working with. I take it you are unable to deactivate it yourself?” Sylvan asked.

  “Unfortunately not. The only being capable of deactivating the self-termination unit was an AI called FATHER. It was the overseer of the Mentat science station where I lived and worked…and where I cloned Madeline.”

  Sylvan shook his head. “I would like to hear your entire story, Brother, but we have no time right now. I would like to call in an expert—we have a Tolleg surgeon aboard our Mother Ship who is excellent with integrating flesh and machinery. Since he specializes in enhancements, I’m hoping he can help.”

  Calden nodded gravely. “I have heard of the Tollegs, though I have never seen one. Yes, please—call him in.”

  In just a few minutes, a small, hairy creature with long floppy ears and large, liquid, intelligent eyes bounced into the room.

  “Commander Sylvan, Yipper is at your service—yes he is, yes he is!” he exclaimed in a high, excited voice.

  “Yipper, have you ever heard of a self-termination unit?” Sylvan asked.

  “A self-termination unit? Why yes I have, yes I have.” The little creature nodded his head until his ears flopped. “They were sometimes used by The Collective in prisoners they wished to make use of only for a short period of time. Why do you ask, Commander Sylvan?”

  “This is Calden of the Jor’gen Kindred.” Sylvan nodded by way of introduction at him. “He has brought us an Earth female with just such a unit implanted in her neck. It is set to go off in less than two hours—”

  “Less than an hour, now.” Calden couldn’t keep the anxiety out of his voice.

  Sylvan nodded. “As you say, in less than a standard hour it will go off and stop the nervous impulses from the female’s brain to her heart and lungs, effectively killing her unless it can be removed.”

  “Well, I can take it out—yes I can, yes I can!” Yipper exclaimed. “Why are we waiting? Come to my surgery area at once please!”

  “There’s a problem though, Yipper.” Sylvan held up a hand to stop the excited Tolleg. “Unfortunately, this unit has not been deactivated and if it is removed without deactivation, it acts as a bomb. So we have a very delicate and dangerous situation here. Can you still remove it?”

  The little Tolleg looked troubled.

  “Oh dear, oh dear. Let me think, let me think,” he exclaimed. He paced back and forth several times, his ears flopping in agitation but gradually the worried expression on his face cleared. “Yes,” he muttered to himself. “It might work, yes it might, yes it might!”

  “What might work?” demanded Calden. He was trying not to look at the chronometer strapped to his wrist but he couldn’t help seeing that the time was ticking away and with it, Madeline’s last few remaining minutes of life.

  “The self-term