Page 20 of Wrath

“Doubtful,” Dread said, shaking his head. “I believe this room was completely full of eggs when the Kryptids abandoned it. There are enough slots for thousands of them. I think the membrane has been eating them for the past five years. Otherwise, it wouldn’t still be this healthy after all this time.”

To my shock, Dread approached the egg being eaten. By now, the trunk had sunk inside the opening of the 60 cm high egg. He raised his right hand towards the trunk. His claws came out, and then poked it in three different places in a manner that spoke of experience. As the third born hybrid son of General Khutu, he would have had some experience with them. In response to his touch, the membrane retracted, leaving the rest of the almost empty shell.

Dread picked it up and brought it away from the trunks, plopping it down on a worktable near the entrance of the room. That was a smart idea. Enough of the slimy substance of the egg still sat inside to be analyzed.

“There isn’t any membrane in the hallway or in the lab,” Linette said. “Did it die there?”

“There wouldn’t be,” Dread countered matter-of-factly. “Never in the lab. The risk that the membrane could contaminate the experiment would be too high. However, I am surprised that there isn’t any membrane on the floor for maintenance or on the ceiling for ventilation.”

“The base is not very deep underground,” I said while giving the membrane an assessing look. “It was probably easier for them to implement a ventilation system instead of waiting to grow a ventilation membrane. I have a feeling this was a recent and short-lived project.”

Varnog nodded. “You are correct. From what I gathered from Khutu’s mind, this project operated for only a couple of years before they cancelled it. But it would make sense to have a membrane here for the maintenance of the eggs.”

“Let’s get Nathalie here so that she can test this stuff,” I said with a frown. “I need to know if the membrane feeding from the eggs has acquired some of the Jadozors’ properties.”

“Now that would suck,” Linette said, making a face.

Varnog chuckled and gently caressed his mate’s cheek. I smiled, moved as always to see the depth of the love between the two. My little Half-Pint had more than deserved this happiness.

And soon, I hope, I will also share that kind of happiness.

Reining in my wandering thoughts, I telepathically reached out to our medical officer.

“Nathalie, I need you to come down to test the membrane and the eggs. We don’t want to take the risk of destroying them before you confirm that it’s safe,”I mind-spoke to her.

“On my way,”she said.

For a brief instant, I considered asking Varnog or Linette to go back up to the Defiance so that Kwan wouldn’t be by herself in the ship. But I immediately chastised myself for the thought. Despite my need to protect my mate, she wasn’t helpless. I wouldn’t have done this for any other member of my team. The surface was secured, the Coalition crew was locked in the brig, and Kwan was still running long-range scans. If anyone showed up, she’d have plenty of time to react, and call us for backup if needed.

While I waited for Nathalie to arrive, Linette, Varnog, and Dread moved forward to continue exploring the base. Although we didn’t expect any threat from the membrane, I preferred not to take any chances. Our medical officer arrived a few minutes later with a portable analyzer and a scanner. She first took a sample of the mucus-looking substance inside the egg, which she put into the analyzer. Strangely enough, the egg had no particular scent. For some odd reason, I had expected a rotten or sulfurous smell.

While the device worked its magic, Nathalie retrieved a few samples of different sizes from the membrane before putting them inside sealed containers. For half a beat, the way it shuddered in response to the scalpel on the last sample, I feared the membrane might retaliate. Thankfully, it simply shifted away from her, but didn’t lash out.

Nathalie placed all the samples—but one—in the temperature-controlled biohazard container before turning back to the analyzer. The tension in my shoulders lessened at the sight of the smile stretching her lips.

“The eggs do not seem to have any particular properties that would enable regeneration. I find no traces of the Jadozor novel progesterone in the yolk,” Nathalie said, relief flooding her voice, while she placed the membrane sample in the analyzer. “That would confirm what I have read so far about the Jadozors. From what we’ve gathered, the regeneration is triggered by a hormone akin to progesterone called zogesterone. It is produced by the creature’s pituitary gland as well as their gonads. Neither of those organs have formed yet in those eggs. So, there are no risks in destroying them.”

“That’s excellent news,” I said with a feral grin.

“And the same applies to the membrane,” Nathalie continued with an even bigger grin. “I also see no traces of Jadozor zogesterone in it either, which isn’t surprising since there are none in the eggs.”

“Perfect,” I said while initiating a partial shift.“Dread, Varnog, Linette, we’ve got the green light to smash some eggs,”I telepathically said to the rest of the team.

Nathalie burst out laughing when the sound of our teammates stampeding back to the room reached us from the hallway. They all took way too much pleasure destroying anything Kryptid.

I stepped towards the first row of eggs, my scythed limbs protruding from my forearms while my two scorpion tails extruded from my shoulder blades. Using my scythes and tails, I began smashing the eggs. The others quickly joined the fun. But instead of us swimming in a slimy mess, the trunks of the membrane immediately gobbled it all up.

Still, when we finally finished, I pulled off my shirt to wipe off the excess slime on my arms. We filed out of the egg room, walking past the next two rooms which Dread informed me were the staff sleeping quarters as well as another lab. That one had already been emptied. As we were approaching the huge set of reinforced doors at the very back of the base—the room from whence Marcelle had come out, Myriam emerged from the main lab where she had been downloading data.

We waited for her to catch up with us, an inquisitive look on my face.

“I’ve got all the data,” Myriam said. “The Coalition crew had already grabbed everything worth recovering, and we have all those files transferred to the Defiance and Liena.”

“Good,” I said. “Let’s hope we can wrap this mess up really quickly and be out of here.”

I opened the massive doors, and my stomach dropped at the sight of the spectacle that greeted us. Three vertical rows of gigantic tanks filled mostly with adult Jadozors in stasis covered the walls of the circular room. There had to be at least 500 creatures. In the middle of the room, more tanks were lined up like a six-pronged revolving door.

“There are a few tanks missing,” I said, worry eating away at me.

---