Awakened by the Giant Read online

  It will be fine, he told himself as he walked to his work station and logged in. He seated himself and began to work at the hand-board. Above it hovered the 3-D monitor cube which showed his research notes and findings from every angle. To his right, growing in a little pot beside the hand-board, was a small, green bush—a bonding fruit plant.

  Calden still didn’t know why he had planted the seed and grown it in the first place. Maybe to remind him of his home world and the Kindred Brothers he had left behind. Though he found his work here fulfilling, he still missed Ren and Bram and the rest of his friends aboard the Jor’gen Kindred Mother Ship. He wondered if they had ever found a new race of females to bond with. Had they also planted bonding fruit seeds in the hope of finding new mates?

  “Well if they did, I hope their seeds worked better than mine,” Calden muttered to himself as he studied the holo-cube of the 3-D monitor which glowed softly in the air in front of him. The seed he had planted had resulted in a sickly, stunted piece of vegetation which had never borne a single piece of fruit. It was almost as though the plant knew it wasn’t needed, so why bother to grow properly?

  Which was a silly thought, Calden told himself. You couldn’t go around anthropomorphizing plants or getting attached to specimens like the tiny, fluffy branthas with their big eyes and their affectionate way of rubbing their heads against your hand as though begging to be petted and stroked. His heart fisted in his chest as he remembered the way the last of the little specimens—his favorite if he was being honest—had collapsed in his hands as he held it and stroked its lithe body, waiting for the inevitable end. His throat got tight at the memory and his eyes seemed to burn.

  But that was emotion he was feeling—unnecessary emotion. He tried to push it away and concentrate on the task at hand.

  Calling up the controls to the nutrient tank where he had already planted the DNA for his new specimen, he gave it the command to start the growth sequence. Luckily, the subject’s brain had been preserved, though the body had been frozen solid and mangled by some heavy machinery aboard the ship. She must have died of shock and been instantly frozen the moment her ship was torn in two and the vacuum of space found her.

  Not a pleasant way to die but it was lucky for Calden. Her body was of no use since he intended to grow a new one anyway. But an undamaged brain meant that the clone he would grow in the nutrient tanks would have all of the original owner’s knowledge and the personality should be intact. It might take a little while for the memories to come back but that was just as well—it wouldn’t do to have her wake up in the tanks remembering the moment of her death. Such traumatic recollections could be emotionally scarring and were best left for later in the acclimation process.

  She’s going to be perfect, Calden thought as he entered the command to begin accelerated clone growth. Perfect inside and out and I’m going to learn so much from her…

  He had no idea how right he was…or how painful that knowledge would be.

  Two

  Madeline Harris woke up covered in warm green goo.

  It was everywhere—coating her arms and legs, sliding between her fingers and toes, under her breasts, in her long, auburn hair—even inside her. As she sat up with a gasp, she could feel a cold finger of slime sliding into her sex. Ugh, what was this stuff and how could she get it off—and out—of her?

  “Ah, you have awakened,” a strange, burbling voice said in her ear.

  Madeline looked up for the source of the voice—and shrieked aloud when she saw it. A strangely elongated face with wide black eyes that held no white at all was staring at her. There were slits for nostrils and a thin, lipless mouth. Worse if all, when the creature reached for her, it did so with four, strangely-jointed arms, all of which had seven fingers and two thumbs apiece. Its skin was grayish-green and pebbled like a lizard’s hide. In short, there was nothing remotely human about it.

  “Oh my God, what are you? Don’t—don’t touch me!”

  She scrambled upright in the strange glass tank she found herself in and nearly slipped in the green slime. Crowding to the far end of the tank, she tried to cover herself and stay away from the weird, alien-looking creature at the same time. What was happening here? How had she gotten into this tank and why was she naked?

  Old memories flashed through her head suddenly.

  “Can’t believe you’re going to go off beyond the stars and leave Earth behind forever,” her little sister, Tabby had said, hugging her. “Oh Maddy, I’m going to miss you so much!”

  “I’ll miss you too.” Madeline had hugged her back, fiercely. “But we have to go. The Scourge are threatening the entire planet and the government is pushing up the launch date. I just wish I could take you with me!”

  “Maybe if I’d studied as hard as you but I’m no scientist or doctor or anything like that,” Tabby reminded her.

  “I’m only a veterinarian,” Madeline said. “They want me to help with the animals once we find someplace to settle—if we ever do. It’s Pierce they really want. I’m just part of the package.”

  Pierce…Pierce… Madeline frowned at the memory as an image of a tall man with thinning black hair on his shiny scalp and thick spectacles perched on his nose surfaced in her brain. Pierce had been her husband, right? Yes, that was right—she was sure of it. But the word “husband” didn’t exactly engender any tender emotions inside her. Why not?

  Suddenly she remembered—Pierce was married to his work. They had needed him on the expedition because he was the leading ecologist and if they found a new planet that needed terraforming, he was the only one who could do it. Maddy had come along with him because only fertile couples who were capable of having children were welcome aboard the expedition. She had hoped that the excitement of searching for a new world together would rekindle the spark between them…

  “You have woken too early. You must go back beneath the slime,” the strange creature with four arms said.

  Madeline blinked, wiping the slime that ran into her eyes away and fresh terror filled her. How could she have gotten lost in the past that way? How had her memories taken center stage when she was naked in a tank of green slime and a terrifying alien creature was trying to grab her? Focus, Maddy!

  “Get away from me,” she said in a low, shaky voice. “Don’t touch me or I’ll…I’ll…” She looked around for a weapon—any weapon at all. She was standing up in the high glass tank which was half-filled with the green slime. The tank came up to her waist and there didn’t seem to be any weapons around.

  Since there was nothing else she could fight with, she leaned down and tried to cup a handful of the green goo. Her hands didn’t want to make cups though—her fingers felt strangely numb and useless which was something else to be scared about. Still, one fear at a time. The slime was fairly viscous so Maddy simply dragged her useless hand through the slime and flung it in a karate-chop motion at the alien.

  Her aim was good. A generous glop of the green goo landed right in the alien’s big, black eyes. It snorted through its thin, slit-like nostrils and raised a seven-fingered hand to wipe the muck away.

  “You are agitated,” it said, its lipless mouth turning down into a frown.

  “You’re damn right, I’m agitated,” Maddy exclaimed. “Get away from me right now or I’ll throw some more of this weird stuff at you. I mean it!”

  The alien—because what else could it be—began backing away.

  “I told Calden it was a mistake to grow a sentient species—especially a female,” it said, sounding disdainful. “I told him it would be much more trouble than it was worth.”

  “Just leave me alone!” Maddy shouted.

  She was glad when it seemed like her shouts and threats were working. The alien turned and went out of a sliding metal door, leaving her alone in the slime tank.

  “Thank goodness!” She nearly drooped in relief but the next minute she realized she couldn’t afford to relax. Wherever she was, she had to find her way out of here and get back to the