Conduit - M J Marlow (best short books to read txt) 📗

out of a very unique metal combination that blocks your talents quite adequately. Remember?” “Why are you doing this to me? I asked as he started to go. “What possible benefit can you gain from keeping me prisoner?” “Are you kidding, girl?” Winston laughed at me. “The Sylenni bred you; turned a human female into one of their own. The Vyrashtu were quite happy to turn you over to us. They do not want the Sylenni to breed again.” He was smiling happily. “In exchange for our keeping you as our ‘guest’, they supplied us with Sylenni genetic materials for our own experiments.” “You’re insane!” I snapped at him. “You’d force people to become other than they were intended to be? Just to see what happens to them?” “It’s how we learn, Queenie,” Winston smiled at me fondly. “Get some rest now. We’ll get started in the morning.” He laughed as I cursed at him and I watched him go. I sank down on the boulders at the top of the waterfall and sobbed. How could he mean to do such a horrid thing to innocent people? I read minds and saw that the ones he was using for these ‘experiments’ were quite willing to do so. They were all insane! I was locked in a cage in a hidden base with insane people. I dozed off and felt a familiar mind as I came back to wakefulness. I woke up to see Mary being shoved into the cage. “We thought you might like a little company, Queenie,” Winston laughed as I came down to help her to her feet. “Mary was being a bit disagreeable…” “I’m not letting you turn me into an alien,” Mary hissed, “if that’s what you mean!” She looked at me. “No offense, Dulcie, but I was born human. And I will stay that way!” “It’s already too late for that, Mary,” Winston laughed. He nodded towards her wrists. “Look!” Mary looked at the smoky lines on her wrists and screamed. I tried to comfort her and she shoved me away, her eyes wide with terror. I reached into her mind and comforted her and she collapsed. I turned to find Winston looking at me with interest. “I could turn them against you, Doctor,” I said to him. “Those you haven’t protected from my abilities.” “There aren’t that many of them, Queenie…” “Quit calling me that,” I hissed and tossed him back against the wall. I put my arms around my friend and stroked her back to calm her further. “You are a hateful man, Michael Winston.” I had a sudden thought. “You really think you can control a base full of Sylenni?” “Of course we can, princess,” Winston smiled as he got to his feet. He winced as he felt the pain in his arm. “Only those of the royal line have the abilities you possess.” He looked at Mary. “The Vyrashtu were very careful about supplying us only with the genetic material of the lower class Dyhazri. Our pretty Mary will be just a hen when her transformation is complete. All she will want to do is lay eggs.” “You bastard!” I hissed at him as Mary began to shudder. “She’s getting off easy, child,” Winston smiled at me coldly. “You will be locked away here when your mating urge kicks in with no Sylenni to mate with. I have been told the pain of being denied is bad enough; but,” his eyes grew quite deadly, “the pain of your wings coming out will be quite excruciating.” He left then, and his laughter was like a lash on my mind. How could he honestly believe he had a right to do what he was doing? I could see the horror in Mary’s mind as she felt the changes in her body and I knew I could not let it happen to her. I looked into her body and saw what was happening, but I didn’t know enough to help her. If I changed anything incorrectly I could do far more damage to her than the transformation was. “They’ll find us, Mary,” I said as I rocked my friend to sleep. “The princes will come and they will make this stop.” “Be…before I become a chicken?” Mary sobbed. “Do I look like a chicken, Mary?” I said as I raised her eyes to mine. She shook her head. “I can’t do anything about the physical changes,” I told her bluntly; “but I am going to do everything in my power to stop this from destroying your mind.” Mary fell asleep then and I left her sleeping on a patch of thick grass by the pool. I went back to my place at the top of the waterfall and put my mind to just how I was going to keep that promise. The aliens seemed very determined to keep me from the Sylenni, so there must be something special about me. Winston had said it was to keep them from breeding again. Did they have to have me to do that? I wished I were older and understood more about such things. I slipped into Mary’s mind and shared her medical knowledge and began to see. But why just me? That was something only the princes could answer and they thought I was dead now. Despite what I had told Mary, they wouldn’t be coming for me. I would have to find my own way out of here. * Everd was pacing as he listened to the others preparing to bury me. He had just about had enough about human customs versus Sylenni customs. He hissed when he was told to stop being restless and left the conference room. Jason and Jonas joined him and he could see they felt the same way about what was going on. It was Sally who finally spoke what they were all feeling. “Dulcie isn’t dead,” she said simply. They all looked at her. “I don’t believe for one minute that the aliens would just dump her like that. They went to too much trouble to get her in the first place.” “We don’t know how these aliens think, Sally,” Jason protested. “It might be their custom to murder prisoners when their leader dies.” “I don’t care,” Sally frowned and stamped her foot like a child. “I know she’s alive somewhere and she needs us to find her.” “It would appear that ferocity is a normal human trait,” Everd smiled as he saw the child’s eyes blazing. “We had thought it unique to Dulcie.” “Dulcie is unique,” Sally protested, then saw what the handsome alien meant. “Maybe someone took her so they could find out more about her?” She nodded back at Wainwright who was standing in the corner, arms crossed. “Maybe General Wainwright knows people?” “Wainwright!” Everd slapped his forehead. “Of course!” He burst into the room where the older princes, Gramps, and Antonio were deliberating. “General,” he asked as he ignored their dark looks. “Are there any people from the original base who would like to get their hands on our Dulcie again?” “We cleared out the base,” Wainwright replied. “All the scientists are on other assignments now. Except…” He paled. “Oh God! He wouldn’t.” He was running now and the others watched him go in confusion. They followed to see him on a cell phone in the backyard, barking out questions without allowing time for answers. When he hung up, he was raging. “The base has been reopened. The classification level is so high, not even the President is aware of what is going on there.” “Then how do we know it has anything to do with Dulcie?” “Because Doctor Michael Winston is the Head Researcher,” Wainwright replied; “and he is obsessed with the genetics you Sylenni used to produce her.” He sank down on a bench. “He will try to recreate your experiment, Ashad.” “Is he insane?” Bindri hissed. “He can not possibly understand it. And where would he get the …” He went white. “The Vyrashtu! They are supplying him in exchange for his keeping Dulcie away from us.” “We must find out the truth,” Ashad nodded. “If Dulcie is alive and confined, we need to get to her soon.” “Why the rush?” Antonio asked, seeing their expressions and recognizing anxiety. “Is something going to happen to her?” “Your granddaughter is our queen, Prince Antonio,” Dovid provided the answer. “The only female in our race to have wings. If we do not reach her soon, she will go through this last transformation without us there to ease her through it. The pain could very well drive her insane.” “Then the resources of my family are at your disposal, gentlemen,” Antonio told them. He pulled out his phone and began to bark out his own orders in Spanish. He hung up. “My men will join your forces there in eight hours.” “I’m flying recon,” Everd said and rose into the air before they could stop him. “He’s going to get himself killed,” Dovid protested as he was prevented from going along. “He has been taught,” Chandri shook his head. “It is past time he was allowed to learn the reality of combat.” He looked at the others. “You know he must. He has already bonded to our queen.” “Then if anyone can reach her,” Ashad frowned, but acknowledged the truth, “it will be Everd.” He shook his head. “I do not envy him the rage that he will experience.” “Rage?” Antonio frowned. “The closer Dulcie comes to maturity,” Bindri explained, “the stronger the mating urge will grow; for her and the male she is bonded to. By the time she is ready, Everd will be berserk with his need to be with her. Anyone who gets in the way is going to hurt.” “And if he can’t get to her?’ “Then they will both be locked into that rage,” Bindri answered, “until they can be with each other. It will not lessen until a mating occurs.” He was laughing. “Your Doctor Winston doesn’t realize what he is about to face.” He looked at his brothers. “We might not need to invade the base.” “You really think this pair could be that powerful?” Dovid asked his fellow medic. Then he thought about me bringing down alien space ships with mere touches of my mind and he nodded. “They are going to regret keeping her caged. There is a reason why the queen mates in isolation.” “What are you all talking about?” “On our home world,” Ashad replied as the two medics flew off towards the castle, “the queen and the royal males are the only ones with what you call ‘paranormal’ abilities. They are powerful on the norm,” he continued as he saw Wainwright’s face. “An angry fledgling queen can send men flying hard enough to break bone.” “I saw it,” Wainwright nodded. “It was impressive.” “Now,” Ashad smiled, “imagine that same talent fueled by the most intense rage a mind can experience. Our mating nest for our queen is kept more than one hundred miles from every colony for this reason. The force of a joining will send out ripples of power that are known to strip islands bare of vegetation, disintegrate rock, and send nestlings screaming to their hens in terror.” “And Dulcie is going to do all that?” Jason queried; his eyes round with astonishment. “Dulcie and Everd together,” Chandri corrected him. “If there is anyone within a hundred miles of them when they come together, they will hurt.” “Wow!” Jason whistled. “Of course,” Ashad said as he thought it over, “she is only a fledgling and this will be Everd’s first union. They may not be quite as powerful as we fear.” “I say we get moving then,” Gramps told them all. “So Dulcie and her Everd can find a place where they won’t hurt anyone else.” He saw Wainwright’s look. “I agree, Winston probably deserves what is going to happen; but