Devoured Read online

Yipper nodded. “Oh yes. But you don’t have to worry about being sanctioned for that up here. Feeling is safe aboard the medical barges. At first, of course, they harbored only the incubation tubes to grow new organic inhabitants for the planet but now there are far too many visitors to expect them to all get emo-dampers.”

  “Of course,” Garron murmured. “So you probably don’t implant them much.”

  “Except in the tube grown, no,” Yipper said. “Though it was the first enhancement ever offered, back in the beginning. Then, because the organics wished to be able to keep up with the Collective physically, we began offering other enhancements.”

  “They certainly seem to have kept up.” Tess shivered and Garron wondered if she was thinking of the two Dark Kindred they had seen in the lounge the night before. “But why do you offer free medical care and enhancements to everyone?” she continued. “And is it really free?”

  “It is free in that we only take what our clients would have left behind anyway, yes we do, yes we do,” Yipper explained earnestly. “We get paid in genetic material.”

  “Meaning?” Garron raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Growing new organics in the tubes requires fresh DNA on a regular basis, lest we fall into a rut by growing mindless idiots, as the Scourge did before their end,” the Tolleg said. “As we work, any blood or tissue left behind is banked—stored for future use.”

  “So you mean cloning?” Tess looked horrified.

  “No, no—not exactly. We mix the DNA some before we use it. And we never use it in the lifetime of the donor, no we don’t, no we don’t. Maybe a hundred solar years from now there will be an organic male who has some of the same characteristics as Garron, here. He may even look a bit like him. But he will not be exactly like him. Not a true clone, no indeed, no indeed.”

  “Even if he was a true clone I doubt he’d look anything like me,” Garron growled. “He’d probably have robotic legs and a metal arm and a camera for an eye or some damn thing like that.”

  “It is true that the organics that live on Zeaga Four tend to get many Enhancements, yes they do, yes they do,” Yipper admitted. “Of course, part of that is because the Collective doesn’t allow anyone to visit the surface without some form of enhancement—however minor.”

  “Even the visiting dignitaries that are allowed to have emotions?” Tess asked.

  The Tolleg nodded. “Even them, even them. The policy tends to…discourage all but the most determined of visitors.”

  “I bet it does,” Tess muttered.

  “But the law makes perfect sense,” Yipper said earnestly. “For now you can scarcely tell the organic inhabitants from the mechanized ones. The two have almost completely merged—a truly blended society.”

  “A blended emotionless society,” Garron muttered bitterly.

  “True, true.” The Tolleg nodded again. “But they have no more war on Zeaga Four. No conflict or unhappiness. Everyone knows his place in the Collective’s Rubric. It is a truly harmonious place. Well, except for the purges…”

  “The what?” Tess demanded.

  “Nothing, nothing,” Yipper said quickly. He looked around the white room as though someone might be listening. “We have spoken enough, yes we have, yes we have. I have, perhaps told you, more than I should. Are you ready for your implant, Kindred?”

  “Not quite.” Garron frowned. “I have a few more questions.”

  “No more about the Collective or Zeaga Four, no indeed, no indeed,” Yipper said quickly, looking around again.

  “Nothing like that,” Garron assured him. “I just want to know exactly what I’m getting into before I let you do this.”

  “Let me show you the implant. Truly, it is a work of art—yes it is, yes it is.” Yipper climbed up on a tall white stool to reach something in a long row of cabinets along the wall as he spoke. He searched in several cabinets until at last he seemed to find what he was looking for. He climbed down and turned to Garron, holding something in his hairy little fist.

  Tess stared at it mistrustfully when he opened his hand, revealing a long, shiny silver metal tube as long as a finger but as thin as a hair. Attached to the tube was a silver and black button about the size of a fingernail.

  “Why does it look like that?” she demanded. “What’s the tube thing for?”

  “Basically it is a medication delivery system, yes it is, yes it is,” Yipper explained. “This is the reservoir and production unit…” He touched the black and silver button gently. “It will make a lifetime supply of a powerful emotion damping drug. This is the delivery unit.” He indicated the long silver hair. “It feeds directly into the brain stem to stop emotions at their source. People speak of their ‘heart hurting’ when they fall in love or similar foolish statements. But it is your brain that tells your heart to feel, yes it does, yes it does.”

  “Of course it does,” Tess said dully. “But…you’re really going to implant that in Garron’s brain?”

  “Only the delivery system. The reservoir will be seated at the back of his neck.”

  “But…why couldn’t you just give him less of the drug? Maybe just enough to get through a few days until…”

  “Until it wears off. But what happens on my next name day, a year from now? Or even the next time I have any strong emotions?” Garron asked. “What do I do then, Tess? Worry about hurting you all over again?”

  “I just wanted…I’m just trying to think of a way…any way at all…” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said raggedly. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “More sorry than I can say but I have held back my dr’gin for years—I cannot do it anymore. Not without help. And if I let it out…”

  “I understand. I know.” Tess nodded. “I’m sorry, too.”

  “I am afraid the unit does not work that way, anyway. No it doesn’t, no it doesn’t,” Yipper said gently. “You see, the reservoir holds enough of the drug for the first day only—that is only until the production unit can start stimulating the enhanced one’s body to begin manufacturing the drug on its own.”

  “What? I don’t get it.” Tess frowned.

  “It is a difficult concept,” Yipper admitted. “But you see, the genius of the emotion damper’s production unit is that it introduces the drug to the subject’s body which quickly becomes dependant on it. When the reservoir runs dry, the brain is stimulated to make more on its own, using cerebrospinal fluid and the brain’s own chemistry.”

  “So basically it gets the patient hooked on the drug and then uses the brain as a chemistry set to make more,” Tess said dryly.

  “Essentially, yes.” Yipper nodded. “The emotion dampening drug is constantly produced, stored in the reservoir, and then re-introduced to the brain via the delivery unit. An elegant and self-contained system, you can see, you can see. And one that can never run out of medication because it depends on the brain’s own chemistry to make more.”

  “But you said they were prone to failure,” Garron said, frowning. “How would I know if it was failing?”

  “Well, you would start feeling again, yes you would, yes you would. But I will make certain that doesn’t happen because it would be a bad thing. Very bad, very bad.” Yipper frowned.

  “What? Why?” Tess, drew closer to Garron, holding his arm protectively as though she could shield him from harm with her curvy little body.

  “Well, because,” Yipper frowned. “Any emotions you are feeling that are interrupted by the emotion damper would return the moment the unit failed—but three times as strong. It’s called a threefold reactions and honestly, most life forms are not able to withstand such intense emotion, no they aren’t, no they aren’t.”

  “That sounds bad.” Garron frowned. He didn’t like the idea of going through the pain and guilt of losing Tess times three. What he was feeling right now was already bad enough—he didn’t need any more. “Can you guarantee it won’t happen to me?” he demanded.

  Yipper spread his long, hairy fingers