Awakened by the Giant: Brides of the Kindred Page 15

  He was so strong but always so careful of her that she had absolutely no fear of her gentle giant anymore. And since both of them loved studying animals—and Maddy enjoyed caring for them as well—it was almost a perfect life.

  Well, perfect except for the Mentats, Maddy thought with a shiver as she tried again to get her hair into a bun. Though she and Calden attempted to stay away from the big, scaly aliens, there was no avoiding them completely. They would still pass some of them in the long, circular hallways of the station as they went from Calden’s quarters to his lab and they occasionally still saw one or two at the enzyme baths.

  Grack-lor, especially was liable to be lurking around wherever they went. At least the big Mentat didn’t say anything to them anymore, Maddy thought to herself. He just stared—which was almost worse, in a way—but still better than him trying to start a fight or get one of the other Mentats to start a fight with Calden.

  “Ignore him,” Calden had advised her. “He cannot do anything without FATHER’s permission and we have given FATHER no reason to censure us.”

  “So you’re saying he’s harmless?” Maddy had asked.

  Calden shook his head.

  “No—don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that. The stories of things he has done to females from his home world…the things he brags about…” His stern features twisted in disgust. “Just the thought makes me ill. No—he’s not harmless. Whatever you do, don’t ever be alone with Grack-lor, Madeline. That would be a grave mistake.”

  “I promise I’ll give him a wide berth,” Maddy said. “You don’t have to tell me twice that he’s bad news.”

  But other than the silently hostile Mentats, the only thing that brought her down was the fact that she knew that Snuffy, the littlest brantha, didn’t have much more time.

  Madeline had tried not to get attached to the furry little guy but it was no good. Every time she came into the lab he ran to the edge of the enclosure and tried to climb over the side, trumpeting and burbling through his tiny trunk as he begged to be picked up and held.

  Though she tried to hold out, Maddy caved every time and found herself holding and cuddling the sweet little animal. Snuffy was a little like a dog in his desire to be loved-on and she had always been a dog person. Though Maddy knew she was setting herself up for heartache, she couldn’t help getting attached.

  Thinking of the little animal made her wonder anxiously if he was all right. Since it was getting close to a week since Snuffy and the rest of the brantha brood had been cloned, she had started getting anxious every time she went into the lab. What if they died during the night and she didn’t get to say goodbye? It was a terrible thought, although she wasn’t eager to have the little brantha die in her arms either, as Calden had told her had happened to him.

  “How many times have you cloned them then—the branthas?” she’d asked, as they worked in the lab together.

  He had frowned. “This is only the second time, although I have, on occasion cloned some subjects multiple times if I felt that I didn’t have enough information to complete my study of them.”

  “Isn’t that cruel, though? Maddy had objected. “Bringing them to life only to watch them die every time?”

  “It can be difficult, especially if you allow yourself to get emotionally attached to a specimen,” Calden had admitted. “But they do not die in pain—it is more like going to sleep and not waking up again. And while they live, I try to be certain they are well cared for and have as happy and complete a life as I can give them.” He had gotten that wistful look on his face again as he spoke. “Though I do wish I could keep some of them alive for their natural life spans—like your little Snuffy there.”

  “I wish you could too.” Maddy had been holding the little brantha in her arms and a few tears had rolled down her cheeks and fallen on the animal’s soft, orangish-red fur. “Do you think you’ll ever figure out why your clones die so early?”

  For some reason Calden had looked uncomfortable.

  “It is an ongoing problem,” he admitted stiffly. “One I have been unable to rectify.”

  His sudden stiffness had surprised Madeline but she’d thought that maybe he was touchy about the subject because he had been working on it for so long without success. She had let the matter drop and they had talked about something else instead.

  As though thinking about Calden had called him to her, she heard a knock on the door of the bathroom—or the “fresher” as he called it.

  “Madeline? Are you all right in there? You haven’t fallen in, have you?”

  Maddy smiled to herself. It was a valid question, considering that his toilet was built for someone his size and not hers. She’d had several narrow misses back when her hands were nearly useless. But now, after nightly treatments with the “slime gloves” as Maddy thought of them, her hands were pretty much back to normal in terms of fine motor skills. She still lacked strength in her fingers and palms but that was coming along too. In fact, Calden estimated that one more night in the gloves might completely restore her back to where she’d been before she was injured in the wreck of the Kennedy.

  “I’m okay,” she said, opening the door to let him in. “I’m just trying to get my hair up so it doesn’t get into the enzymes when we go to the baths—I think they’re drying it out too much.”

  “Your hair looks beautiful to me,” Calden rumbled. “Do you need some help with it because of your hands?”

  “No, it’s more because I can’t see what I’m doing,” Maddy grumbled. “I’ve never been in a bathroom without a mirror before. I would ask how you fix your own hair but I guess you just leave it in braids and let the enzymes clean it.” She smiled at him shyly. “Although I’d love to see it down sometime. I’ve always liked long hair on a man if he knows how to take care of it.”

  “I will take it down for you tonight, if you like.” He smiled at her. “But as for seeing yourself, I have no mirror but will a 3-D viewer do?”

  “A what?” Madeline frowned.

  “This.” Reaching far above her head, he pressed a small, recessed button which was the same color as the scale-like tiles around it—no wonder she hadn’t seen it before, Maddy thought. As soon as the button was pressed, a soft humming sound began and a long, thin, horizontal strip of silver began to push out of the wall below it. Calden grasped the strip and pulled it down, revealing a mirror-like surface that showed Madeline from the waist up to the crown of her head. He pulled at the sides of the mirror and two more silver panels came out, at an angle to the first one. They showed Maddy from the sides and then, a third panel, which appeared at the top of the first one, showed her back.

  “Wow…” She looked at herself from all angles. “I never knew you had such high-tech mirrors here. I just assumed…wait a minute.”

  “What’s wrong?” Calden asked, looking anxious.

  “My freckles…” Maddy leaned forward, taking a closer look at the girl she saw reflected in the mirror. It was the first time that she’d caught more than a fleeting glimpse of her reflection since she’d gotten out of the slime, she realized. It seemed funny to think of but there really weren’t any mirrors or many reflective surfaces at all at the Mentat station. Now that she was finally looking at herself, she wasn’t sure what to make of what she saw.

  “What are you talking about?” Calden asked. “What do you mean ‘freckles’?”

  “They’re little brown spots of pigmentation,” Maddy explained. “In most people they’re hereditary but with some—like me—they kind of pop out when you’re exposed to the sun too much. I was always outdoors walking my dogs when I lived on Earth so I had about a ton of them. Now…” She frowned and leaned forward again. “They’re just…gone.” She looked up at Calden. “What happened? Where did they go?”

  He was getting that uncomfortable, tight-lipped expression on his face again.

  “Madeline—” he began but just then a tinny, disembodied voice interrupted him.

  “Calden,” it said, so
unding like it was coming from somewhere near the ceiling. “You are requested to attend a conference with FATHER.”

  “What, now?” Calden looked up in apparent irritation but was there also worry on his face? Maddy thought there was. “Can it wait until later?” he asked. “I have to go to my lab and check on my specimens.”

  “Negative,” the disembodied voice declared. “Please report to FATHER immediately.”

  Calden looked even more troubled but he only said, “Very well. I am on my way. Calden out.”

  There was a crackle and then silence. Maddy looked at him uncertainly.

  “Calden, is everything all right?”

  “I’m sure it is.” But the set of his broad shoulders was tense and the corners of his mouth were tight. “I shouldn’t be long,” he told Maddy. “Please stay here and wait for me. When I get back, we’ll go to the baths together.”

  “All right.” She nodded. “Do…do you think FATHER is upset with you?” she asked in a half-whisper, wondering if they were being spied on.

  Calden frowned. “FATHER is an AI, Madeline—he has no emotions. He probably just wants to discuss my latest batch of specimens. I have made rather a lot of them lately which can be a strain on the station’s resources.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She nodded. “Well, I’ll see you in a little while then.”

  “See you soon.” Calden bent to kiss her briefly and then left, his white lab coat swishing around him as he walked.

  Maddy watched him go and then turned to view to the silvery surface of the 3-D viewer uneasily. Looking at her reflection brought back her earlier unease. She couldn’t believe she didn’t have a single freckle left! Where had they all gone? Her skin was as clear and pale as it had been back when she was a baby—not that she remembered that time but her mom had lots of pictures of her since she was the oldest of her sisters.

  She had a sudden thought and moved her hair to one side to look at her back. The top panel of the 3-D viewer showed it easily and she was able to see that something else was missing.

  “My Barbie scar,” she whispered, frowning. “Where is it?”

  Back when she was eight and her sister, Tabitha was seven, the two of them had been playing with lit candles, fascinated with the wax and the way it dripped. Then Tabby had gotten the bright idea to try and melt other things with the candle flames besides wax. She had gotten her least favorite Barbie doll and started to melt her feet in the flames. Just as the Barbie’s feet were a mess of nearly liquid melted plastic, they had heard their parents coming back from shopping.

  “Quick!” Maddy had whispered, “I’ll blow out the candles and you hide the Barbie.” She knew perfectly well if they got caught there would be hell to pay—her parents had told them again and again never to play with matches or fire of any kind.

  Tabby had nodded in agreement, gripping the Barbie with the melted feet in one hand and jumping up to run behind Maddy, who was already bending over to blow out the candles.But in her haste, her little sister had gotten too close. A huge blob of melted plastic had fallen right down Maddy’s back—directly onto her right shoulder blade.

  Maddy remembered how she had shrieked as the burning melted plastic had eaten its way through her t-shirt and branded her back like a hot coal. Her mother, who had just walked in the door, came rushing in and pulled off Maddy’s shirt at once. But it was too late—the molten plastic had burned into her skin.

  What followed was a trip to the ER, a spanking for Tabby and a grounding for Maddy, as well as the promise that the two of them wouldn’t be left alone unsupervised for a long, long time. Indeed, Maddy didn’t think her mother had trusted her enough to leave her in the house alone—even if she was only going to run to the corner store for some milk or bread—until Maddy was nearly thirteen.

  The scar had remained with her through adolescence and adulthood and since it was shaped a little like a Barbie head and had come from the melted Barbie’s feet, Maddy had dubbed it her “Barbie scar.”

  But now it was gone. Just…gone. Like her freckles.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Maddy murmured to herself. She began to examine her body in more detail. Along with the Barbie scar, she was also missing the spot high on her upper thigh where a scratch from her cat, Sigourney, had gotten infected. Why hadn’t she noticed it was gone?

  Maybe because you’ve been too busy playing house with Mr. Muscles instead of paying attention to what really matters, whispered the accusing little voice in her head. Something’s going on here, Maddy—something strange and you need to get to the bottom of it.

  Maddy tried to push it away but it wouldn’t go. She wanted to ask Calden more about her missing scars and freckles—if he knew where they had gone or how they had gotten erased. But at the same time, she also wanted to find out for herself.

  There was a growing suspicion in the back of her mind—a thought so nebulous and strange she couldn’t quite make it out. It was like a shape in the darkness of her subconscious—looming like a huge, menacing figure in the fog. Maddy had the idea that if she could see it clearly, it would explain everything but she was afraid to see it, somehow. Afraid to know the truth.

  “What truth? This is ridiculous,” she said out loud to herself. “I’m not going to stand here one more minute tormenting myself with crazy fantasies and half-baked ideas!”

  Hearing her own voice made her feel a little more steady and sure of herself. She turned away from the 3-D viewer and its troubling reflections resolutely and marched out of the bathroom.

  She wished Calden was there to reassure her, but he was still gone and she had no idea when he would be back. For a moment she stood there in the middle of his quarters, looking around at the oversized furniture as though she was seeing it for the first time. Everything in here was so big…it made her feel so small. The only thing that seemed to be her size was the little plant by his work station. It had finally dropped its flowers, Maddy noticed, and now small, hard green fruits were growing among its silvery-green leaves instead.

  That was interesting, but she couldn’t stand around looking at a plant forever.

  I know what would make me feel better—holding Snuffy, Maddy thought suddenly. I wonder if he’s okay—poor little guy!

  She felt a surge of worry for the little brantha and a wish to hold him, as much for her own comfort as for his. In her new world where everything was so much bigger than she was, it was nice to have something smaller than her to take care of and love.

  Calden had asked her to stay in his rooms and wait for him but surely he wouldn’t mind if she just went to the lab. It was just down the corridor a short way and it ought to be safe to go—it was the time the two of them usually went to the enzyme baths and all the Mentats would be working in their own labs now.

  Making a decision, Maddy went to the door and waved her hand over the sensor. The light turned from red to green and then the metal door panel slid to one side. She peeked out carefully but the corridor was deserted. All right—good—she was going.

  Taking a deep breath and telling herself she was being needlessly nervous, Maddy stepped confidently out the door and listened to it slide shut behind her. She took a left and headed down the long, curving corridor of the Mentat station, noting as she did that it was still completely deserted.

  Calden’s lab was right ahead—she was already worrying about Snuffy again when one of the many silver door panels that lined the corridor slid open. Suddenly, a huge, scaly shape stepped out into the hall right in front of her, blocking her way.

  “Hello, little female.” Grack-lor grinned evilly at her, showing long, sharp teeth as his ink-blot eyes narrowed in anticipation. “Imagine finding you out here all alone.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “What is this about, FATHER? My next review is not set for another standard week,” Calden said, as he seated himself on the too-small stool in the scanning booth. He noted that the lighting in the booth, instead of being a cool, soothing blue, was hovering in the r
eddish-orange color range—not a good sign.

  What if FATHER knows what I have been doing with Madeline? What if he suspects that I have broken my vow?

  But that was impossible. With the exception of the first time he had touched her in the enzyme baths, all the other illicit activities he and Madeline had engaged in had been done exclusively in the privacy of his quarters. And personal privacy was never violated here at the Mentat station—it was one of the guarantees which all the inhabitants were given when they came. This was important because many of the scientists here were secretive about their research and jealous of their findings. The research, like the secret formula of the nutrient bath which was used to grow clones, was a closely guarded secret.

  Taking a deep breath, Calden resolved to keep calm—making his breathing deep and even with a conscious effort.

  “Calden.” FATHER’s voice was calm and without inflection. “I have called you here because there have been complaints from the other residents of the station.”

  “Complaints? From who?” Calden demanded. “Grack-lor? That misogynistic bastard—”

  “Grack-lor and Jong-tar are among those who have complained,” FATHER said, its voice still neutral. “But their complaints seemed nebulous and ungrounded. It was not until our oldest and most venerable member, Nusper-veis, came forward that I was forced to investigate.”

  “What?” Calden couldn’t keep the surprise and concern out of his voice. So the old Mentat had seen himself and Madeline in the baths. But how much had he seen?