Page 29 of Monstrous Baby
Dread spiked my ruff in sharp points around my throat, even while my designation reveled in such power. Immediately, I captured a screenshot of her viewpoint and started logging movements and estimating distances.:None are on Earth.:
:I know.:
But she didn’t sound relieved. Instead, the lacy sparkling web of her mind trembled.
I felt her skin beneath my hands. My arms slid around her shoulders, protecting her. Shielding her without even realizing I’d stepped closer to her.:What’s wrong?:
She pointed to a swirling dark mass moving across the glittering grid of space. I locked onto its location, already estimating its arrival to Earth. Hours, maybe a day, if it continued the same velocity and trajectory.
:A pod of Balaenoptera,:Lohr said on the grid.:How interesting. I’ve never seen them swim so quickly.:
:Look inside them,:Natalie whispered.
:It appears they’ve fed on something with unusual purple bioluminescence,:Lohr replied.
:It’s Myrm. I’m not sure if they’re fragments or full drones, like the one I saw in the cave.:
A single word echoed around the grid from all directions.
:Fuck.:
14
NATALIE
Even though I was scared, I had to take a moment to appreciate the fact that none of them doubted me or questioned my perception of the grid, the stars that were other squads, or the pod rushing toward us that might carry a multitude of Myrm.
They trusted me. Even if I didn’t fully understand my new gifts or trust myself to use them correctly.
I reached out to the purple mass, trying to sense how many Myrm might be coming. If they were full-sized drones or the microscopic mrion cells the squad used to hunt before Earth.
Pure energy pulsed from them at my mental touch. A surge of frenetic excitement and urgency made my heart hammer.:We’re coming, Mother.:
One voice, but many, echoing through my skull. Vibrating my teeth. My pulse skyrocketed even higher.Mother.
:HQ is sure to detect such a large pod, especially given its unusual velocity,:Lohr warned. :If they scan them and detect mrions, they’ll neutralize them long before they can reach you.:
:It’s too dangerous,:I told them.:You’ll be killed by DSC.:
Undeterred, they replied,:We will reunite with Mother or be obliterated. Yet a remnant may still reach you in time.:
:Time for what? What’s coming?:
:Death. Death. Death.:Echoed all around me.:The full might of Draco. Sirius. Syndicate. All pathways converge on you.:
:What does that mean?:
Blue waves of fire pulsed through my mind, blinding me. So powerful I jerked and would have fallen out of the chair without Rizan’s and Kroktl’s arms around me. Huge rolling waves crashed into me, whipping my head back, blasting my hair as if hurricane winds tore through the house.
Visions rippled through my mind. Jungles leveled, mountains torn apart as if devastated by bombs. Acrid dust and smoky chemicals in the air, burning my lungs. The stench of dying animals and people for miles and miles in all directions. Towns turned to rubble. Oceans rising, lightning and winds howling along the coast.
Complete and utter devastation.
:They’ve done it before,:the Myrm said.:Many times. Even on your world. Nothing will survive the destruction this time.:
:We’ll jump through a dozen fucking worlds again,:Axxol retorted.:They won’t find you or the youngling.:
:Wrong, wrong, wrong,:echoed on the grid.:They can and they will.:
