Awakened by the Giant: Brides of the Kindred Read online

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  “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-termination units that were used by The Continuum were quasi-sentient, yes they were, yes they were,” Yipper explained. “If they were not deactivated, they knew enough to blow up if they were detached from the living flesh that nourished them—their host, if you understand me.”

  “Yes—go on,” Sylvan urged.

  “So what if we did not remove the unit from living flesh?” Yipper asked, looking up at them, his big eyes shining.

  “What—you mean cut out a piece of Madeline’s flesh to keep the unit from knowing it’s being removed? But it’s implanted in her spinal cord,” Calden protested. “That could paralyze or kill her!”

  “No, we would not cut out her flesh, no we wouldn’t, no we wouldn’t,” Yipper exclaimed. “We would transfer the unit to a new piece of living flesh. I have many tissue samples in my lab which I use in making my enhancement devices. We could try to extract the unit while keeping a living tissue sample in contact with it. The unit would hopefully not even realize it was being moved from one piece of living flesh to another, no it wouldn’t, no it wouldn’t.”

  Sylvan looked thoughtful. “So as long as it continues to receive nourishment from the flesh, it should remain quiescent.”

  “Yes it should, yes it should!” Yipper nodded excitedly.

  “Can you do that? Are you sure it would work?” Calden asked anxiously. Inwardly he cursed FATHER again for refusing to deactivate the damn self-termination unit. He’d already taken revenge on the AI but if Madeline died, it would all be for nothing. His whole life would be nothing.

  If she dies, I want to die too, he thought bleakly. I don’t want to go on without her.

  “I am almost certain it will work—and I can do it quickly, yes I can, yes I can.” The little Tolleg surgeon sighed. “I just wish I was able to practice first, yes I do, yes I do. It’s going to be a difficult and dangerous operation, though it should be over quickly once I start.”

  Calden’s eyes strayed through the window of the room where Madeline was sitting and clutching the littlest brantha.

  “Actually, I believe there is a way for you to practice,” he said. “And if you succeed, you’ll make Madeline very happy—as well as saving her life.”

  “Always glad to help, yes I am, yes I am!” Yipper exclaimed. “Tell me what you mean, please.”

  Calden leaned down to get closer to the little creature’s furry, floppy ears and began to explain.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Maddy hadn’t expected to open her eyes ever again so when her eyelids fluttered open and she saw two strange girls sitting on chairs at the end of her bed, she thought she must be dreaming or dead.

  “Who are you?” she murmured, looking at them. “Are you here to welcome me to Heaven?”

  “Heaven?” One of them—a girl with red hair and blue eyes burst into laughter and shook her head. “No, doll—this isn’t Heaven. If it was, my triplets wouldn’t have spilled oatmeal on the couch today and then decided to rub it in with their faces!”

  “And my twins wouldn’t have gotten in trouble in school today,” the other—a girl with long brown hair and green eyes—remarked.

  “Oh, did they really?” the red-haired girl asked.

  The other nodded. “Yup. Apparently one of the little boys called Kara a name and you know how protective Kaleb is of his twin. He pushed the other boy down and they had a knock-down-drag-out right on the playground.” She sighed and shook her head as if to say, “kids…”

  “That’s kind of why I prefer dogs,” Maddy volunteered, waking up a little more, though she still wasn’t sure what was going on. This whole scene seemed surreal—maybe she was still dreaming.

  “Oh, is that what that little animal at the foot of your bed is? Some kind of alien dog?” the girl with the twins asked.

  “It sure doesn’t look like any dog I ever saw,” the redhead remarked.

  Maddy looked to see what they were talkin