Page 34 of The First Alpha on the Planet
I slipped my clothing back on as Doc ended the call, bringing the little ones by right as Zurok arrived with a hovering gurney and the covered dish. “Hello, little warrior! You did a very good job at catching this worm.”
Zurok’s tail didn’t match his face, but it was good enough for Nexus as he puffed up with pride. “Kill’d it!”
“That’s right.” Zurok smiled and flinched as a drone whizzed through the hall and dropped a handheld device beside me.
“Have fun,” Tish said as I grabbed for the device and pushed a few buttons.
“Kiddos, close your eyes while Uncle Roan does something pretty disgusting.” I gave them my best smile and Noah obediently covered his face, but Nexus blinked at me defiantly. “Okay, Nex. Keep an eye on Noah to make sure he’s not scared, okay?”
That seemed to sate his curiosity, and I pushed just outside the hall to scan the Colthraxian’s corpse with my meter. It blinked an error twice as I tried to scan its remnants.
I used it on myself and earned a 99.2 percent. The thing had been standardized to Noel’s, so it was no surprise I was that high, especially as an omega, meaning, I already had mitochondrial contributions from him. I was an omega long before I knew it. I scanned the corpse again, and it briefly flashed a 0.001 percent. It errored again.
“Tish, call Sarge.” I focused on the corpse as I scanned it again and moved to the pale-yellow body of a Naleucian omega with no mate mark to speak of. “Get him onto the table and 4D.”
Sarge’s face appeared in an instant. “We’re on lockdown. Roan, you okay? Where’s Wallace?”
“I’m perfectly fine. Noel’s having the egg. Wallace is at the bakery. We have a Colthraxian out of body. What percentage do purity meters test Colthraxians at?”
“Zeroes it out unless they’ve hosted or are born from one. Then they pick up two to three percent. Why?” Sarge, as orange as his child, stared me down in panic.
“Nexus brought me a deadwormas a present, and we have one out of body that’s scoring zero.” I waited for a response when a dawning look of horror flashed across his face.
“Fuck. That means it’s never been fully assimilated into a Naleucian body. Or even any creature in Paradise. The genetics would have some similarity.” Sarge took a deep breath. “Wasn’t even birthed from one.”
“That’s all I needed. Any ideas on where a spare one with zeroed genes could have come from?” I raised a brow.
“Fuck… Sonderson sent you, didn’t he? He’s a Colthraxian—but he’s lemniscate…” Sarge paled visibly. “I’m on my way.”
My chest went cold.
I walked to the children to make sure they were turned away and gave them each a quick hug and kiss. I approached the corpse with intent as I ran the scans—and sure enough. “It’s Kimlar, alright, but here.”
I expanded the screen and pointed to the inside of their body. The ganglion mass of Kimlar’s original Colthraxian host was freshly severed. Still present. And where a lung once was, was an eviscerated and half-healed void. “I know the answer, but is there any way to save him?”
“No.” Zurok’s hoarse voice cracked.
“It’s an entirely new Colthraxian.” Zurok’s conclusion turned his ire toward me, accusation steeped in the kink of his tail and scrunch of his face.
I held my hands up and let my tail fall limp. “Your decision, Zurok. I’ll do whatever you tell me to. You’ve not had a new Colthraxian on this planet—”
“That we know of,” Zurok sighed heavily. “The fact is, we have a Colthraxian that bred.”
“I don’t think so. Can the 4D detect foreign DNA masses?” I tapped about the options and Fel shook his head.
“There has to b—” I pushed through options as Fel brightened and took over the interface, bumping me aside as he overlayed a few filters.
A glowing mass in the lung fluoresced. Streaks of glowing matter twinkled through the body in dendritic branches, and a pool of fluorescing liquid sat still in their stomach. “Colthraxian cells fluoresce under certain spectrums!”
“Brilliant!” Zurok’s eyes traced the image. “The foreigner tried to breed him and infiltrate his corpse…”
“Belly full of Colthraxian—excretions.” I had no better word because it was neither sperm nor egg, but a mass of gametes and nutritional and conditioning fluid, best I’d learned upon researching.
“With how broken down it was, there was no way it was conditioned properly. It wasn’t aware of the venom situation of an omega that has had Noel’s little spicy addition. Even you guys couldn’t infiltrate an omega unless it was still in the egg.” I wagged a finger at Fel, who averted his gaze shamefully. “Now, let’s see if it has Tal or Terran…”
“On it, boss,” Merriel’s voice piped above as my purity meter made a few buzzing noises.
Tish spoke after, a little laugh in her voice. “Merriel’s very good at hacking.”
