Devoured Read online

  “Bye, Tess.” Becca waved at her. “When you get back, we need to get together again. If you can’t come to the Mother Ship, I’ll come down to Earth to see you.”

  Tess smiled. “That sounds great. I’m, uh, not sure where I’ll be though. Probably not in Tampa until the situation with my ex gets resolved.”

  “You’ll have to tell me all about it. In the mean time, take care of yourself.” She pointed at Garron. “And you take care of Tess. I like her.”

  Garron nodded shortly. “I will protect her with my life. Not a drop of her blood shall spill unless all of mine has first been shed.”

  “Wow…” Tess looked at him uncertainly. “Is that…”

  “It’s a Kindred oath,” Becca assured her. “But you can be sure he means every word of it—Kindred don’t take such things lightly.” She winked at Tess. “I know—it’s a lot to take in, isn’t it? Call me if you have any questions—seriously, any time of the day or night. Okay?”

  “Sure. Thank you,” Tess said but she was still looking at Garron.

  The big Kindred faced straight ahead as the viewscreen went dark, his face lit by the faint glow of the instruments.

  “Garron—” she began.

  “Hold tight,” he murmured. “We’re about to enter the rift. When we come out the other side, you will be further than you have ever been from your home world.”

  “But I’ll be with you,” Tess said softly. “So I’ll be all right.”

  “Yes.” He gave her a quick sideward glance. “I swore to protect you and I will.”

  “I know,” Tess whispered. “I know.” And then they entered the red gash in space and she closed her eyes.

  * * * * *

  Garron watched anxiously for the appearance of the silver-black planet that was Zeaga Four in the viewscreen. Though he had never been there, he had heard that it was a completely industrialized planet ruled by sentient machines though how it had become that way, remained a mystery.

  It came into view soon enough, spinning slowly in space. Its metallic surface reflected back the light of its sun—a bloated red giant in the first stages of its inevitable collapse. A million years from now, the inhabitants of Zeaga Four would have to find a new home. But in the meantime, it appeared to be business as usual. Machinery glittered in the pale red sunlight and the many white and red medical barges that orbited the silvery-black world were busy with smaller ships constantly landing and departing from their vast docking bays.

  Garron chose the largest barge he saw and headed for the bay. Opening a frequency, he called in the Kindred universal tongue to ask for permission to land.

  “What language is that?” Tess asked, after he was granted permission and began their descent to the barge. “It sounded almost like German but more guttural.”

  “It’s the Kindred’s original language—the one my people spoke on First World,” he said. “Here…” He put the ship on auto for a moment and stood. After rummaging in several of the secured cabinets, he found what he was looking for near the first aid kit. “Take this,” he said, handing Tess a pill.

  “Um, what’s this?” she asked, examining the pill in her palm.

  “Universal translator bacteria—an oral dose.” Garron sat back down and resumed piloting. “I was told they were standard with all long range vessels now—it’s a good thing too. Otherwise you wouldn’t know what anyone was saying.”

  “Is it safe for humans?” Tess still looked doubtful.

  “It was developed especially for them—for human brides who visit their Kindred mates’ home planets,” Garron assured her. “You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to but—”

  “No, I’ll take it.” She swallowed it dry, with some difficulty. “Okay, so now I’ll be able to understand you when you speak another language?”

  “It should take effect almost immediately,” Garron assured her. The ship was entering the vast, pulsating, translucent atmosphere bubble that protected the docking bay from losing air. “All right—we’re docking now. Just stay close to me and you’ll be fine.”

  “Of course.” She nodded quickly. “All that talk about this being such a dangerous place though…”

  “Zeaga Four—the planet itself—is very unsafe. Deadly, even, for the unenhanced,” Garron said. “But the medical barges are quite safe. They exist to service anyone who needs medical attention, supposedly free of charge.”

  “Wow—aliens who offer free health care.” Tess sounded impressed. “That’s great.”

  “I said supposedly,” Garron said darkly. “Nothing is ever completely free. Stay close to me and don’t accept anything from anyone. All right?”

  “Yes, all right.” She nodded and Garron killed the engines.

  “Here we go.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  “Wow, this is huge—even bigger than the Mother Ship.” Tess looked around in awe at the vast, bright white room they were standing in. It was bigger than a football field—bigger than several football fields, in fact. Despite its daunting size, everything was completely spotless even with the many, many strange spacecraft she saw parked for what seemed like miles in all directions. Above, the glittering, translucent bubble they had passed through to get into the medical barge was the blackness of space.

  But the scenery wasn’t the only strange thing to be seen. As Tess watched, a huge creature with gray skin and a horn for a nose climbed out of the ship beside theirs. It was draped in a long purple robe and it looked a little bit like a rhinoceros standing on its hind legs. It was eating something—when Tess looked closer it appeared to be some kind of bread or muffin—at least it was muffin shaped. That was where the similarity ended, though, because it was twice as large as her head with green flecks speckling its grainy surface.

  The rhino-thing took a large, messy bite of the giant muffin, spraying crumbs everywhere across the pristine white floor as it chewed. It paid no attention to the mess it had caused but someone noticed—or rather, something.

  To Tess’s surprise, a tiny creature smaller than the palm of her hand suddenly whizzed into view. It moved in a quick, herky-jerky way that reminded her of a toy remote controlled car but it had purple and green fur that stuck up in whorls and swirls, almost like a guinea pig’s.

  Its long purple whiskers twitched when it detected the crumbs on the floor and it began to eat them at once. But it wasn’t nibbling so much as sucking them up—almost like a tiny vacuum cleaner. Soon it was joined by other creatures similar to itself but with different colored fur. Tess watched in amazement as the vacuum guineas made short work of the stray crumbs. In a moment, every single crumb was gone and the little creatures scattered, leaving the floor as spotlessly white as it had been before.

  “Did you see that?” she asked, turning to Garron, who had been securing their ship. “Those little things? Those—”

  “They’re just cleaner-bots, oh my yes. A type of furskin, so they are, so they are. The barges are infested with them but at least that type provides a valuable service.”

  Tess whirled around to see another strange creature staring at her. It was staring up, for she was about twice as tall as it was. Tess was quite glad of this fact when she had a moment to examine it. She felt certain if she had turned around and seen something that looked like it did which was much larger than her, she would have screamed.

  The creature had a body like a chimpanzee, hunched over and covered in patchy, light gray fur. It also had a long, mournful face with long, drooping ears. Large, intelligent eyes were looking up into hers. If Tess had been tempted to think that the creature was some kind of non-sentient animal, the look in those large, brown eyes would have decided her otherwise.

  “Hello?” she said to it uncertainly. “Are you…?”

  “I’m Yipper, so I am, so I am.” It nodded at her gravely. “I am a Tolleg. And yourself?”

  “I’m Tess—I’m human,” Tess said. “And this is Garron.”

  “Of Kindred stock, so you are, so you a