Twisted: Brides of the Kindred 23 Read online

  “It will? Why?” Nikki frowned.

  “Why, because if you truly have the Shannom-rah, then soon I will be able to encode my Replicants with the original personalities stored on it. You do have it, do you not?” The Knower asked.

  “Oh yes—yes of course. Malik?” Nikki looked at the big Kindred.

  “Yes, Mistress—I have it here.” He drew out several objects and handed her the multicolored, multi-faceted crystal. Nikki knew the other thing he held was the device to turn back time. As she took the Shannom-rah from him, her heart was pounding. She just had to keep the Knower busy a little longer…

  “Here you are.” The crystal hummed in her hand like a live thing as she held it out to the Knower.

  “Ah—very good!” The Knower nodded and before she could close her hand, it had plucked the crystal out of her palm and was examining it.

  “Hey!” Nikki exclaimed. “I thought you were a hologram!”

  “Oh, I am—but I have the ability to become solid when it suits me. That was one of the first technologies I perfected.” The Knower continued to study the crystal. “With this I will make an army of Replicants,” it said, almost as though it was musing to itself. “New Replicants, worthy of the city I have built for them. No longer will my creations have to learn from vids and recordings—soon they will have their own life experiences to draw from.”

  “Um, you mean like regular people?” Nikki asked, frowning. “If you don’t mind me asking, why would you want to create creatures who can think for themselves when they already exist?”

  “Yes—and why did you murder so many of them—the ones who depended on you to run this planet?” Malik demanded roughly.

  “Why, because I cannot control Organics.” The Knower spoke as though it was perfectly obvious. “The original inhabitants of Uriel Two had to go because they would not do as I said—it was a necessary sacrifice.”

  “Necessary sacrifice? The murder of two billion people?” There was a muscle jumping in Malik’s strong jaw and Nikki could feel the rage coursing through him once more, through their link. His big hand closed in a tight fist over the time device he held.

  “Yes, unfortunately. As I said, I could not control them.” The Knower shrugged its glowing blue shoulders as though it was talking about how it had found it necessary to exterminate the bugs that were infesting the house it wanted. “Of course by using the Shannom-rah to transfer consciousness to my Replicants, they will all have original personalities but at any time I wish, I can enter one or all of them and direct their actions,” It went on.

  Once more Nikki was reminded of herself and her cousin, Rene, playing Barbies when they were kids.

  The Knower is like a big kid, she thought. It just wants to play dolls. And it built this whole planet-city to be like its very own Barbie Dream House. So it can play with its dolls all day long—forever.

  But the Knower’s next words made her think there was a much more sinister motivation behind its plan.

  “Once I have manufactured the required number of Replicants, I will have enough for every man, woman, and child Organic to inhabit one,” It said. “I will wipe out those who will not bow to my superior wisdom and place them into bodies I can control—for their own good, of course.”

  “What?” Nikki exclaimed. “But if you have the Shannom-rah, why don’t you just use the trillions of personalities already recorded on it to fill your Replicants? Why do you need to go murdering regular people to put them into Replicant bodies?”

  “My dear Mistress Hellenix,” the Knower said, arching one blue, glowing eyebrow at her. “Did you really think the only reason I wanted the Shannom-rah was because it already had past personalities stored on it? Of course not! I want it for its storage capacity. I want it so that I can use it to record the personalities of the New Replicants I will make from Organics who are living today.” It shook its head. “I only regret I was unable to record the personalities of the Organics of Uriel Two before I was forced to eliminate them. The Kindred are a fine race—if somewhat difficult to control.”

  “But I guess if you put them all into bodies you’re personally able to take over, you’ll be controlling them all right,” Nikki said, feeling numb.

  “Exactly!” The Knower brightened. “And so I think the best place to start my little project will be with the Kindred Mothership that is orbiting a little-known world its inhabitants call ‘Earth.’ It seems to have the highest concentration of available Kindred and it has many different kinds of them as well.”

  “So you’re planning to use the Shannom-rah to take over the Mother Ship?” Nikki demanded.

  “Of course. It doesn’t bother you, does it? As a race who believes that males are inferior, I would think you would be pleased,” the Knower said. “The Kindred are, after all, mostly male.”

  “I don’t care if they’re male or female, it’s wrong to kill people and put them into big dolls just so you can control them and play with them,” Nikki said, frowning. “Give me back the Shannom-rah please.”

  She held out her hand but the Knower only shook its head.

  “I think not, Mistress Hellenix. I’m afraid I need it too badly. And I need you as well.”

  Suddenly two of the assembly bots were on either side of her and two sets of metal claws were gripping her by the arms.

  “Hey!” Nikki exclaimed. “What are you doing?”

  “Keeping you here with me,” the Knower said. “I need Organics so that I can test the transfer system of a personality from the Shannom-rah to a Replicant. You and your slave will do nicely as my first test subjects. Look—I already have top of the line Replicants ready for the two of you.”

  It waved its hand and a pair of naked Replicants—one male and one female—came forward. They looked eerily like herself and Malik, Nikki thought. Except their eyes were completely blank. A feeling of dread crept over her—how horrible to see yourself replicated as a soulless robot. It was like seeing your own dead body standing right in front of you!

  “These new Replicant bodies may feel a little strange at first, but you will get used to them. Now if you will kindly just hold still so that the crystal can record your personality…” The Knower approached her, holding the Shannom-rah out in its glowing blue hand.

  “Let me go!” Nikki shrank back. She couldn’t think of anything worse than a clone of herself ending up as a permanent Barbie doll for the Knower to play with here on this fucked-up planet. “Get away from me!”

  “Take your claws off my mate.” Malik’s words were slow and measured but Nikki could see the bright sparks crackling from his fingertips and his silver eyes had turned blood-red with anger.

  “Oh, I think not,” the Knower said calmly. “And please don’t think that you can scare me with your little electrical display, Kindred. I know what you are—I know you are one of the few Volt Kindred I failed to eliminate during my take-over of this planet.”

  “If you knew that why did you bring us here?” Nikki demanded, still struggling in the metal claws of the assembly bots.

  “Why, because as I told you earlier—I regret eliminating all of the Volt Kindred. I welcome the chance to add one to the collection of other Kindred I will have once I take over the Mother Ship,” the Knower said, as though it were obvious.

  He sounds like any collector I ever met, Nikki thought sickly. Kindred—gotta catch ‘em all.

  “I said let her go!” Malik growled. A consuming rage poured through their link and suddenly the tendrils of lightning that had been growing in his hands lashed out and struck both of the bots holding Nikki.

  A scream rose in her throat and she was absolutely certain she was about to be fried. Instead, she felt nothing but a faint vibration, though the bots on either side of her rattled and shook with the direct strike.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart—you’re protected from my power by our bond,” Nikki heard Malik say in her head.

  But as devastating as the lightning strike had been, it seemed to have almos