Clutching a blanket to her chest, Tracy did as he asked. Then, she made use of the waste unit. Her hips were scratched and bruised but had been cleaned and bandaged. She dressed in clothing from Jazon’s pack, a black long-sleeved thermal shirt with matching elastic-waisted pants, and a pair of thick socks. Her boots and clothing were drying by the fire. Thoughts of the ice bears and the clones made her shudder.
She looked around the clean room. It had been used recently. She could tell because of the logs stacked by the fireplace and the addition of the portable waste unit. Jazon must have appropriated its use from one of the mercenaries. Tracy grabbed Jazon’s blaster and fastened its holster around her waist, adjusting it so it didn’t touch her scrapes. The clones had unnerved her more than her husband was letting her realize.
She could hear Jaimie now. “Tracy, tell me all about your honeymoon! Did he take you to Sinope? That’s where I’m going with my husband.”
“No, we spent our honeymoon fleeing from clones, ice bears, and mercenaries, but thanks for asking.” With a sigh, Tracy sat on the pile of furs and wrapped the blankets around herself.
“Hello? Are you there? Can you hear me?” asked an unassuming older man through a communications system Tracy hadn’t noticed.
She got up and walked over to the wall panel beside the door and accepted the call. An old man with white hair appeared.
“Aww, hello there, dear. I knew I sensed another mind somewhere nearby.”
“Who are you?” Tracy asked.
“I am Dr. Arellano.”
Tracy stared at his solid black eyes and then at the white bushy eyebrows above them. “Are you the one responsible for creating the clones?”
“Why yes. Yes, I am,” Dr. Arellano said. “Yes, I heard you trapped yourself down with the boys, the ones who ran into some developmental difficulties.”
Tracy’s eyes bulged. “They hunted me and acted like they were going to rip me apart so they could each have their own limb with which to play.”
“Yes, well, I’m terribly sorry about that. You see. We were sold a serum that promised to accelerate the regeneration of cellular growth. It didn’t work as promised.” Dr. Arellano looked around him with apparent worry on his features. “No, no. You stay right there where daddy can watch you. That’s a good boy,” he said to a clone that smiled sweetly at him.
Tracy shuddered.
Noticing, Dr. Arellano said, “It’s alright. He won’t hurt you. Mentally, he is a small child, and the memory transfer apparatus has been destroyed.”
“What makes you think he won’t turn feral like the others?”
He made his white eyebrows move up his forehead. “Well, there’s no more of that blasted serum for one thing.”
“Was it made to replicate the sea star’s ability to differentiate stem cells?” Tracy asked.
He looked at her with surprise. “Why, yes.”
Tracy calmed herself with a deep breath. “My father was killed for his research. He would be glad it wasn’t successfully used for such a vile corruption of nature.”
“That very well may be so. However, in an attempt to recuperate some his financial losses accrued with the purchase of the serum, Lord Ajani has attempted to weaponize it, make it into a chemical weapon. He tested it a few hours ago in an attempt to neutralize the hybrid and the Parvac soldiers. The weapon did not perform as planned.” Dr. Arellano was startled by something that hit the plasti wall of his containment room.
When the occurrence happened again, but at the glass directly behind the doctor where Tracy had the misfortune of seeing it, Tracy gasped. A soldier with half of his skull missing ran into the clear wall again. He left dark-red smears behind to prove he wasn’t a nightmare. Chills ran along Tracy’s skin.
“Aww, yes. Do you see? Lord Ajani released his chemical weapon. However, instead of making the victim’s cells shut down, the cells healed the virus used to weaponize them from within the dispersal unit. In the moments they were airborne, the cells found hosts in the dead. You see, they find living tissue to be an inhospitable environment. They began sending orders to cells and healing the ruined tissues. The deceased soldiers have begun to rise and continue to heal. However, their souls, motivations, and their very minds have gone to the afterlife. They should die again on their own in a week or so, but my young charge and I won’t last that long in here without food or water. Also, I have observed that these subjects seem to display the same violent tendencies expressed in their last moments.”
Tracy jumped again at the sound of blaster fire.
“Yes, indeed. That is the case,” Dr. Arellano said.
“Well, what do you expect me to do about it?”
“Perhaps, you could ask one of those fellows with you to come to my lab and gather a few things for me. I believe I can neutralize the effects before the situation progresses.”
“Progresses how? I thought you said they would die in a week.”
Absently, he said, “Yes, unless the cells again mutate which begins to appear like a distinct possibility.”
Tracy watched in horror as one of the risen, dead mercenaries began to eat from the wound of one of his former team members. “Excuse me,” she said. She went to the waste unit and lost the stew she had eaten.
When she returned to the small wall link, Dr. Arellano didn’t give her a chance to speak. Instead, he rushed to say, “Yes, it would be wise of you to bring help. If they are driven to feed themselves through cannibalism, they won’t die in a week and will become increasingly insane. Be careful, they may have been left where they fell. This virus must be contained. To unleash something of this nature on Leucon would create a plague.”
Tracy stood there. She was afraid and wanted nothing more than to huddle in fear in front of the fire.
“Heintz, is it?” Dr. Arellano asked. Tracy looked up at him. “We have an opportunity to end this corruption of your father’s work, but we must act quickly before it further mutates. Will you work with me? Think of what will happen if this gets out. Hopefully, the freezing temperatures outside will help to contain the virus for now. I need samples, but I’m trapped within this containment room and have been unsuccessful in my attempts to override the shielding. It took a great deal of ingenuity to establish this link. Will you help me, or not?”
“Can’t you ask the soldiers who are working for you for help?”
“No, their communications have been deactivated. I tried to contact them before searching for sentience elsewhere.” Dr. Arellano rubbed tiredly at his eyes. The motion sent his bushy white eyebrows going in different directions.
Tracy tried to reach out telepathically to Jazon, but his mind was shielded while he hunted for Lord Ajani, who was also a telepath. “I’ll try to help. Leave this channel open. When Jazon returns, he will want an explanation.” Tracy grabbed her damp boots. “What am I doing?” Tracy asked herself.
Jazon had told her that the remaining mercenaries were two levels above her. She had to get up to them, free them, and get their help. Otherwise, she wouldn’t make it past the reanimated guards in the lab. Suddenly terrified of what could be waiting on the other side of her door, Tracy kept the blaster in her hand as she deactivated the shield and peeked outside. She didn’t see or hear anyone.
Jazon, Vasco, and Agata geared up and took their gliders out onto the snow, pushing the machines to travel as quickly as possible in the snowstorm. Vasco had linked their wrist-coms with tracking devices, so fear of becoming lost wasn’t an issue. With the suits they wore, freezing wasn’t an option either. With proper environmental modifications, the suits could be worn in space. Agata took the lead once his scanner pinged on the shuttle’s location. They wanted to take Newlin Ajani alive. The man would be like a gift to Parvac’s inquisitors. As far as Jazon knew, Newlin had been in recent communication with Felix, the traitorous bastard. Through a thorough questioning of Newlin and search of his communications, they might be able to discover Felix’s last know location.
Specks of snow hit Jazon’s mask and stuck to it before melting and becoming horizontal streaks that marred his already obscured vision. He would have to keep a firm control of himself not to kill Newlin. The piece of shit had taken Tracy, his wife, off of his starship, with the intent of using her to control him before selling her to Lord Radford for his pathetic, cowardly, little puke of a son.
“I’m gonna kick Lord Radford’s ass first. Then, I’m gonna put Strass over my knee and spank him. He’s not man enough for a proper beating.” Jazon nodded to himself.
“I wouldn’t mind observing. It sounds intriguing,” Vasco said.
“No problem. We’ll stop on Aurilius on the way home. Tracy may want to pack her things.”
“One mile ahead,” Agata reported. Leaving their gliders, they ghosted in. A loud, angry roar had the three men looking at each other. “Another one? They’ve really let the population get out of control,” Agata commented.
“Yes, and they are starving. There isn’t enough prey to sustain so many large male predators. Males will think nothing of eating unprotected cubs, too. We better take him down quick,” Jazon said.
“It’s a good thing everyone likes ice bear,” Vasco said.
“Say, we each get a hide. Correct?” Agata asked.
“Yes, but we need to hire a processor before we leave,” Jazon said.
“I will present my wife with an ice bear rug. All of the ladies are envious of them because the Princess has them,” Agata said.
“Tracy is getting a coat and boots out of mine.”
The large male ice bear stood on his massive hindlegs and pushed at the shuttle with his front paws, rocking it. The shaggy hair on his hindquarters swayed with his movements. Agata and Vasco began firing at it. Then, a second one joined his brother, but from behind them. Jazon had sensed the ice bear’s approach. He turned and took aim at the massive beast that charged at them. Its mouth was open on a deep growl that seemed to journey from its tail and out past its thick sharp incisors. Taking careful aim for as quick of a kill as possible, Jazon aimed his blaster rifle at the ice bear and fired.
While the men were distracted by putting down the ferocious animals, the mercenaries from within the shuttle emerged and struck. Leaving the ice bears to the inquisitors, Jazon began stalking the more dangerous prey. One of the mercenaries tracked their heat signatures. Jazon laid on his belly, concealed by a pile of fresh snow, took aim with his sniper blaster, and shot the device from the merc’s hands. Pieces of the tech flew with the man backwards and scattered about him in the snow.
Another soldier attempted to surprise him from behind. Twisting in the snow, Jazon moved to the side, grabbed the barrel of the blaster that had been aimed at his head, and drove it up into the man’s shoulder. An ice bear roared in fury as it charged through the trees to the right of them. The merc pulled a knife. He slashed down with the speed of an ice bear’s claws. Jazon caught the edge of the blade with his rifle and kicked out with his right foot. His kick sent snow swirling up in a blinding white cloud. While his opponent was disoriented, Jazon was not. He used his senses to disarm his opponent, but he didn’t kill him. This one could be turned for the right price.
“Ready to renegotiate?” Jazon asked through his mask.
A short time later, the lure of credits along with their continued existences had inspired the mercenaries to change employers. Newlin Ajani was livid. Jazon smiled at him from within the shuttle. Jazon’s four hired mercenaries harnessed the ice bears to the shuttle. Agata had Newlin in restraints, and Jazon had already begun sifting through the man’s mind.
“So, Jarreau screwed you over?” Jazon asked.
“He and his partner both did. Their serum, which seemed so promising, has destroyed years of hard work.”
“Yes, but the four clones locked in the basement served as a tasty distraction for the ice bears that almost ate Tracy,” Jazon said.
“The girl was never meant to be in any danger. I learned what Jarreau did to her father. I had nothing to do with that.”
“Right. You just keep supplying clones to Felix Jiri,” Jazon said.
“Yes, I have and hoped to continue to do so. The Laconian universities and research facilities refuse to endorse cloning experimentation, just as they condemn the creation of hybrid children. Dr. Arellano and I put Lord Jiri’s funding to good use.”
“Why clones? Nanite technology can repair tissue damage.”
“Repair, yes. However, if a person were to lose a leg, nanites would be useless.”
“So, you want to use clones for body parts? That seems cruel even to me.”
“No, our intention was never to grow an entire being. We work to regrow and replace organs. Lord Jiri offered us funding in return for clones of himself, not of any other individual. We would have refused such a proposition. However, he required replicas of his own body.”
“Taking us up,” Agata said. He flew slowly and low to the ground since the shuttle was towing ice bears behind it. The mercenaries followed on the gliders.
“Who is Duran Jarreau’s partner?” Jazon asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Is it Lord Radford of Aurilius?”
“Who?”
Jazon exchanged a look with Lieutenant Vasco. Newlin Ajani didn’t know anyone with the name Radford.
“Something is very wrong,” Jazon said as they approached the fortress.