Page 33 of The First Alpha on the Planet
I obeyed as he readied the 4D and scanned my body, throwing up a rather intimate view of my insides and my perfectly nestled eggs. He inspected me from head to foot as the images generated and rotated, layers sliding away section by section as he studied my slowly ossifying eggs in great detail and moved all along my spine with fingers tracing the image, to turn and study every fiber. He made notes in the system and gave my body a once-over again before muttering, “Clear.”
“Clear?” I was afraid to ask, but the fact that I held my own mind meant a lot, I supposed.
“You’ve not been infected, nor has an attempt been made. They’re checking the whelps.” Fel sighed in deep relief before rubbing over his face and belly.
“I’m a mated omega, so wouldn’t my chance of infection be low?”
“Extraordinarily low, but a young Colthraxian may not know better or be controlled by impulse.” Fel sat on a nearby stool and huffed, rubbing over the small dome of his belly.
“I’m putting word out for everyone to be inspected.” Fel sighed halfheartedly. “There’s only a few hundred of us in this district. We’ll send word through other districts if Zurok gives the command.”
I swallowed hard and Fel brought up a window after a high-pitched beep signaled a call coming in. Zurok, as thought. “Good, Roan’s there. The kids, too?”
“Yes.” Fel rubbed at his head, exhaling deeply. “Gonads?”
“Intact, recently expressed. Left their host to find another, and looks like they were mauled to death.” Zurok’s face twisted on screen.
“We find out who didn’t take the therapy and see which of them is missing.” Fel drew up a few documents and began taking notes.
“That’s the problem.” Fel held up a glassine dish holding thewormthat Nexus had brought us. It’d degraded even more since last I saw it. Aside from some purposeful incision marks, the damage to it looked aggressive and ongoing.
“I found their body nearby. It’d brooded. They supposedly underwent the therapy. Kimlar.” Zurok stared back down at his dish.
“How is that possible? I verified with my own scans.” Fel glanced away from his files, face twisted with frustration that his tail showed in spades.
“How, indeed, Fel?” Zurok sneered, and something about his posture made me and Fel flinch.
“You cannot believe I had something to do with this!” Fel stopped, pulling his hands away from the interface. “I understand. What can I do to assuage you? I am to lay within the next day.”
“I think you should be in a holding cell until—” Zurok’s cold voice cut off when I shouted out.
“Hey!” I stood, stepping into a clear field of view. “Bring the corpse in. Both. I have an idea.”
“Why?” Zurok narrowed his gaze.
“I…the corpse. When Nexus put it on my bed, it looked like it’d been soaked in bleach—”
“What is bleach?”
“Corrosive sodium hypochlorite.” I stared him down and gears were turning. “Do Colthraxians degrade very fast after they die? Do they have any sort of lyse agent internally that causes rapid degradation like that?”
“No.” Zurok and Fel answered at the same time.
“Then I really want to see that corpse and the host.” I crossed my arms, frowning at the camera until Zurok nodded once and cut the feed.
I called out to Tish. “Leticia, please have someone bring the purity meter.”
“What for? Everyone on this fucking rock is full lizard.” Her piping voice and sudden diction change made me weary. She’d been hanging out with Merriel’s programming too much.
“Protocol green. Do it.” I sighed in relief as she beeped out without another word.
“Purity meter?” Fel’s look of concern made me flinch.
“Religion met racism. It’s something the Naleucian worshipers implemented as a way to track hybreed percentages.” I cleared my throat, and Fel nodded once.
A sharp beep pinged in, Doc’s screen coming up. “Fel, oh, and Roan. Great! Noel is nesting hard. Whatever this is, sent him into panic and now he’s having contractions. The little ones are clear.”
“Come, bring the runts. Wallace is at the bakery today. They’ll be fine with Uncle Roan and Fel.” I waved him on, wincing as I thought better of the corpses about to come. “They may have to cover their eyes, though.”
