Page 81 of Tribute
Aled tried to gather his scattered thoughts.“I’m not female.”
“Human.”
“I have human DNA.”He tried to swallow and gagged on the thick column stuffed down his throat.“What do you fucking want?”
This time there was no answer, and he slipped back into the void, felt the coils of the two connectedUngrichsupport his weight, then knew no more.
“Why isn’t Palk stopping us?” Kai asked.
“I have no idea. Maybe I killed him.” Rehz shrugged. “I damn well hope I did. All I know is that we are getting close to getting through, and that’s all I care about.”
They had moved on from the main training facility to the inner area where the second stage of development took place. It was close to the only known entrance intoUngrichspace below the planet surface.
Kai sighed. “Your single-mindedness is admirable.”
“Whatever Palk wants will have to wait. If we get back here alive, we’ll find out, won’t we?” Rehz surveyed the armory. “Is there anything here that can hurt theUngrich?”
“Plenty, but nothing they won’t detect as soon as we enter their space.”
He considered that. “What about a bluff?”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure.” He started looking through the archive material on the screen. “I’ll get back to you.”
“I’ll check out theUngrichportal. We’ve both had access to the security code sequences to open the portal. Let’s hope they still work.”
“You can do it manually, right?”
“Yeah, if we have to. They designed it that way in case the power ever failed, but it’ll take a while.”
“Human.”Aled was gently shaken awake by his hosts.“Come.”
He didn’t waste his breath arguing, and was soon drawn deeper into the goo, past many otherUngrich, and finally into an area bathed in bright light.
“Don’t fight.”
He was suddenly catapulted forward through a thick membrane, leaving only one tentacle wrapped around his neck like an umbilical cord. The thick soup dissipated, and for a few seconds he forgot how to breathe air and floundered on the spongy floor like a grounded fish.
Curled up beside him was another person. He crawled over to her and touched her face.
“Anna Lee?”
She opened her blue eyes, and he flinched at the combination of terror and anger within them. “Aled. What happened?”
“I don’t know. One minute I was having my final medical, the next Palk turned up and everything went black.”
“Did youtellhim?”
“No! Gods, no!”
“Then why the fuck am I here?”
He stared at her helplessly and reached for her fisted hand. “I don’t know, but I reckon we’re about to find out.”
“Mate.” TheUngrichcontrolling him thrust the thought into his mind like a spike through the tentacle embedded in his brain.“Human male and female.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” he thought back.
