Chapter Twelve: The Savior's Voice

Chapter Twelve

As a twelve-year-old, I had been a feisty headache to my elders. Like most children that age, I had had a potty mouth. My all-time favorite method of greeting someone back then was sticking my tongue out as far as it would go. I even got into fights.

There was one scrap, during one of my dad’s deployments, which got me in massive trouble with my mom. There had been a boy named Leon who was about the same age as me; the reason my fist kissed his jaw was his obnoxious attitude. I could ignore his bullying antics but his idiotic recital of a poem about a man from Nantuckett was too much.

There hadn’t really been any dialogue between he and I before I hit him. I simply slugged him so he’d shut up. The tactic was crude but effective, even though it resulted in me getting punched back.

In the middle of the dusty schoolyard, the scuffle was broken up just before I would’ve come out on top; my mother screamed at me as Leon’s body turned upside-down, suspended by his ankles from my tail.

Although it had been a long time since I was twelve, I acted no differently, except Leon was a Catrion. Three of them to be exact.

I had sensed that Cations were drawing close to me, and for some odd reason, I knew they were coming to take me back to the tank of liquid I had been in before. Confident in my premonition, I flung my clothes into the bench storage area; it was only for Victor’s sake that I even bothered undressing. Personally, I didn’t care if the Catrions found me naked or not, but they’d wonder where I’d found them, thus putting Victor in danger of being discovered.

Barely able to rid myself of the grungy garments I had on, I found myself shocked to be right about the approach of the Catrions. Nervous and apprehensive, I sat there as the three Catrions entered my cell. Instinct suggested that the Catrions weren’t thrilled to be coming for me; once I even thought I had an out of body experience because I glimpsed a figure whose shape and surroundings were not unlike my own. That experience came with a shudder of pain and the realization the tailed figure in the vision was a much younger version of my father on a much older ship.

The Catrions approached me with caution evident in their gate. I couldn’t say what inspired my attack, but whatever it was, it sure motivated me.

Using their own momentum against them, I kicked off from the wall behind me. Our collision happened in less than a second. Oiginally I had aimed for the center Catrion so that the other two would be well within my reach. Unfortunately however, I had misjudged the rate at which the Catrions were moving and hence I ended up hitting the one on the far right. The other two Catrions froze, unsure of what to do; again I saw my father imprisoned on a spaceship at somepoint in the past.

Pink ooze trickled from the first Catrion and a shrill cry hammered the inside of my head. Ignoring the headache-inducing racket, I turned on the nearest Catrion. While that one was held in a stiff bear hug, the last Catrion placed one of its arms on the wall I’d kicked off from and it tried to back away from me as far as possible. Had my adrenaline not been pumping to the extent it was, my tails reaction would have stunned me.

One vertebrae popped beneath my coccyx as my tail jerked between my legs and around the thorax region of Catrion-number-three. For the last time, the image of my father accompanied by the quiver of pain associated with that scene flashed in my mind; my tail paid no attention to the surreal sensation. If it had, I felt the violent spasm my tail produced next might have been rude to the Catrion—well, ruder than it already was.

With the Catrion’s bottom section grasped tightly, my tail slammed the Catrion into the intersection of the floor and adjacent wall. The sides of the Catrion’s head hinged inwards, molding to the pointed shape of the corner.

Meanwhile, the first Catrion I’d attacked sidled out of the room, despite its cracked midsection, and returned seconds later with an orange Biosphere.

In a panic, I scrambled to get out of the room but my efforts were in vain. My attempt to escape only trapped me in the thick noxious fumes just released. Sneezing several times in rapid succession, I surrendered to the numbness enveloping every muscle of my body.

Even though I couldn’t move, I remained conscious while more Catrions came to carry me to wherever they needed me to be. Because my eyes were as immobile as the rest of my body, I couldn’t really map out the way to the new room I was in.

A shudder trickled up my spine as the Catrions lowered my feet into an icy, gelatinous fluid; it was the same stuff I’d been in before reuniting with Victor. While submerging me, they shoved an oxygen tube up my nose and spun me inside the tank so that my back faced the entrance.

Before they’d gotten me in my final position, I thought I saw a pair of wings. Actually, I was sure of it.

The sight disturbed me.

Once in the liquid, I was left to my thoughts. At first, I felt guilty about the two bald wings I glimpsed. More than that though, I thought about Victor and what he would do when he discovered I wasn’t where I had been. In all honesty, I prayed Victor would be okay and that he wouldn’t do anything stupid.

Eventually, I regained control of my body. As before, I had a limited spectrum of movement but I could look around as much as I liked.

Just as Alaric had been next to me, I found two beings naked and neighboring me. One of them was the same sex as me and the other one, though male, I’d changed the diapers of years earlier so it was only a matter of dignity.

Although seeing both humans nauseated me, Leroy’s confirmed presence yanked my gut out of my body like a lure out of the water on a fishing rod. Wanting to force Leroy out of my mind, I turned my back to him (letting my tail find his hand) and stared at the female on my right.

Positioned clumsily, her body pointed away from my own. Recognizing her would have been hard enough if all I had to go upon was the smooth contour of her left shoulder blade, and the slight pimple behind her ear, but the relative position of her body to mine wasn’t normal. To recognize her, I had to deal with a hundred-and-ten-degree tilt; the clearest part of her body I saw was her upper back, ribcage, and underarm.

Her muddled blond hair hung motionless in an untrimmed bush encapsuling her head. Suspended in the liquid as still as her hair were her arms; she probably hadn’t moved since the Catrions put her there.

The speck of a mole on her right flank looked too familiar to me for this unconscious girl to be a complete stranger. Dwelling on the shape and position of her mole, I thought about who I knew with one like it.

At my last birthday party, Nellya and Victor had spent the night at my house. My mom had arranged it so we’d had plenty of activities to keep us occupied; she’d pulled some strings and gotten us a few movies and four six packs of fruit-flavored soda imported from Mars. Meanwhile, Mrs. Borealis had baked a triple batch of snickerdoodles for us. Due to the cookie inspired sugar high, each of us had been relatively hyper. As such, it came as no surprise when a soda can exploded after a fierce shaking. The violent grape explosion peppered Nellya’s sunflower yellow tee shirt in chilled purple dots

In response to the unwanted graffiti polka dots, Nellya immediately balled up her shirt, trying to squeeze the offending liquid out before the inevitable stains set in. Two inches beneath her shirt, I’d seen that very same shaped mole.

It was Nellya!

“This one is different,” A voice in my head speculated, preventing me from brooding over my most recent discovery; as a result, I spaced out, concentrating on the conversation at hand.

As if I were watching a video clip, I watched one of my recent treks through the corridors, carried by multiple Catrions. “Are you referring to the Desert Arachnid?”

“No,” Back at the scene of Mr. Dabahov’s demise, Aidyn twirled her make-shift bow staff so fast she might as well have been a helicopter. “This one.”

I felt like there was an agreement from the second voice, sort of like a nod.

“I tried modifying it like the others but the organism terminally rejected my changes.” The first voice explained. “I suspect the best thing to do is to start again from scratch. It’s a shame that the only humans available are postnatal.”

“Yes, postnatal humans are difficult to modify however it is doable.” The second voice said; I was reminded of the little engine that could. “I have always enjoyed the challenge of postnatal failures.”

“Challeng? Why don’t you sustain it then!” Voice number one took offence to voice number two’s statement.

“I would prefer not to assume ownership of your incompetence, however there is a way to preserve the life of your specimen.” Voice number two was high-strung, arrogant, and overtly proud.

“Can you support this claim? I think not!”

“You dare to mock me? That only evidences your mediocrity!” Voice number two laughed, sort of. “It is simple really; the mere act of blending your living failure with a genetically perfect specimen would arrest the terminal rejection of your failure.”

“Now you’re the one mocking!” Voice one seemed annoyed, as if by sarcasm. “It is not like we have the Animal in capacity!”

“Then, perhaps, you should let your failure cease to exist.”

My thoughts buzzed so chaotically, my mind somehow blocked me from overhearing any more of the conversation.

Aidyn was in danger, that I was fairly sure of. Although it was entirely possible I’d imagined the entire conversation and I hadn’t just heard two Catrions debating the effects of a failed experiment involving Aidyn, I couldn’t let myself accept such a possibility. A gut instinct convinced me Aidyn needed help or she was going to die; one of those Catrions had the ability to stop her from dying.

If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with Aidyn’s presumed fate, I would have noticed Leroy and Nellyas’ absence.

As much as I would’ve liked to claim otherwise, my Aidyn-associated anxiety had nothing to do with me leaving the slimy fluid I was in; I’d had no choice in the matter.

Yet again, the Catrions plucked me from my gooey prison; there seemed to be no order or reason or motive for incessantly moving me. This time, they neglected to remove the oxygen tube from my nose, causing it to sting my nostrils and make my eyes water as it yanked out and splashed back into the clear liquid. As I emerged from the liquid, half-pint globules of the stuff floated out of the tank and coalesced around the room.

The instant I was free of the icy snot, I snapped out of prisoner mode; I could move and move I did.

Snatching the twiggy appendages of both Catrions holding me, I clapped my captors together. To my dismay, the black rubbery armor on these two Catrions bounced them off each other. Not deterred, I brought them back together.

“Where is she?!” Feeling particularly intimidating, I shook the Catrions and spat out my next demand; the Catrion-esque squeals I heard boosted my confidence significantly.

“Where the,” My daddy taught me not to swear, but dramatizing the intensity of the moment couldn’t hurt. “Is Aidyn?!”

The Catrions smelled of fear, sort of like charred wood. Even so, they weren’t responding to my demands yet I knew they could. Exasperated, I tried again.

“Take me to the girl who terminally rejected the changes you freakin’ made to her!” Scowling at the two Catrions cowering at the end of my arms, I thought of another way for the Catrions to understand me. “The failure!”

Feeling their presence before they’d entered the room, I trembled under the might of many, many Catrions flooding into the room. Shaking off my hysteria, I looked around and counted what must’ve been three dozen Catrions.

“What’s the cause for the Desert Arachnid demanding the location of the object of its interest?” This in-my-mind voice sounded authoritive yet defamatory.

“We will subdue it, Lord Nosamar.” The second voice was generic, submissive, and slavic.

Suddenly enfuriated, Lord Nosamar reprimanded the lowly Catrion. “Has my inquiry been reconciled?! We cannot afford the costs involved when dealing with a being such as the Desert Arachnid!”

A shudder of fearful respect rippled through my mind yet I was the one afraid.

“It referred to a terminal failure; I need not question who is responsible for this shameful embarrassment.”

In my head, I heard what sounded like nervous chatter; the focus of Lord Nosamar’s demands had shifted inexplicably.

“Yes, only one Catrion is incompetent enough to to fail in such a simple task, thereby erasing one much needed human from our scarce supply.”

A single Catrion gulped.

“That’s right, I’m talking about the Yrohtsi Theoro.”

Buried in Lord Nosamar’s second-to-last word was a tinge of racism.

In response to the statement made by Lord Nosamar, a brave, stupid Catrion exploded in outrage.

“Even you have no right to accuse Lord Theoro of such an atrocity!”

Lord Nosamar, insulted by the atrocity but able to keep his composure, smirked.

“Unwiser words could not be spoken,”

Before whatever rebellion or act of discipline that might have ensued could happen, a human’s voice intervened, resonating through the ship’s intercom system.

“Attention unidentified spacecraft, this is Captain Jamieson aboard the E.S. Pheonix Ash. You are entering into restricted space. Please turn aroung and head towards the nearest Martian Spaceport for inspection. Failure to comply with this message will result in confiscation of your vessel until further notice. You have one Earth week to comply and after that your ship will be boarded.”

For a fleeting instant, I thought my nightmare was over. Lord Nosamar however, snapped me back to reality.

“Take it to the terminal failure and keep their pulses operating. Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action equal to that of the creator of the terminal failure.”

Amidst grumbling protests and obedient salutes, every Catrion that could grabbed me. I didn’t fight them off because the intercom had given me hope, and forced me to forget my original plan. As far as I was concerned, my demands had been met; there was a chance Aidyn would survive.

Victory within my grasp, I stuck my tongue out at the crowd of Catrions; they flinched.

They took me to a nearby room with a tank. Eager to help Aidyn, I moved towards the familiar tank entrance, even going as far as to enter the fluid without being forced into it.

Due to my elation, I couldn’t make out what had been said when a Catrion spoke right before my head dunked into the chilling liquid.

I did however catch the response.

“As you say, Lord Theoro.”

The Catrions still holding my hands tugged them back out of the tank. Confused and angry, I thought they were taking me out so Aidyn wouldn’t get help.

If only that were the case.

A narrow edge pressed into both my wrists, slipped sideways, and drew a red line across my arms. Shrieking in pain and betrayal, I sucked in a mouthful of liquid and began choking.

Shooting up my nostrils faster than normal, oxygen rushed out of the breathing tube and blasted the foreign liquid from my lungs, igniting my tear duct fire sprinklers in the process.

Lashing out at the Catrions who’d slit my wrists wasn’t an option; the hatch on the tank sealed too quickly.

There was nothing I could do except watch the clear liquid which had nearly killed me welcome the life flowing from my body.