Page 27 of Bred

“Precisely.”

“Why?”

That is a deeper question than she can imagine. I try to answer it in a way she will be able to understand.

“The universe is constantly expanding.”

“Right,” she nods.

“Our scholars calculated that, in time, all things in the universe would expand so far away from one another as to be out of sight. Existence will, in time, become nothing but a void.”

“Our scholars came to the same conclusions,” she agrees. Good. She understands so far. Perhaps she will understand all of it.

“So we began to toy with the fundamental rules. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be shuffled about. It is our mission to bring matter from the very edges of creation and densify. We do not do this for ourselves, or for our children. We do this for life itself, a sacred mission in which we take little sparks of creation and ensure that the ever expanding universe is not devoid of existence.”

“So you’re basically making a subdivision or gated community for aliens in space,” she says, taking our solemn sole purpose and turning it into a cheeky tagline. I should have expected as much. This creature is pure rebellion.

“I thought you’d appreciate what you’re seeing, but apparently you’re unable to understand the...”

“I understand perfectly. I just don’t agree,” she snaps. “You’re playing God, that’s what you’re doing, and you want credit for it. Every egomaniac since the start of history tried to play God. It never ends well.”

“God?”

* * *

Lyra

He doesn’t know what God is. There’s no recognition in his eyes at the word. Maybe it doesn’t translate into his language.

“Yeah, like, the creator of everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything,” I repeat. “The universe itself.”

“The universe didn’t need to be made.”

“What, it just sprang into existence, all at once, ready for you to go around fucking?”

“It may as well have,” he shrugs.

I have nothing to say to that monumental arrogance.

“We meld material to our will with every breath we take,” he says. “You can choose to do it mindlessly, make small, insignificant changes which will nevertheless ripple throughout all creation, or you can take the power into your hands and turn the world to your whim.”

Talon is more than a captain. He’s a megalomaniac force of nature. He sees nothing wrong with what he’s doing, and I doubt he ever will. He took me for the same reason he’s going to seed that nebula and make it produce new stars—because he can. Because the power of one being who is willing to wield the full force of their potential can change the course of all creation.

I wish I didn’t find that so incredibly hot, as well as disturbing.

“Are the torpedoes loaded?” He turns away from me and gets things underway.

He’s going to fuck a nebula by firing torpedoes at it. Of course he is.

I stay silent and watch as Talon takes the captain’s chair, leaving me adrift in the wake of his magnificent madness.

“Fire!” He gives the order in a booming voice and a moment later the ship judders with the displacement force of two torpedoes speeding from the belly of the beast. They hurtle toward the nebula as two bright lights, free in space only for a few moments before they reach their target. The nebula undulates as the twin torpedoes enter. I am reminded of how it felt when Talon’s cocks were inside me.

“I think she likes it! Give her another load,” he orders with a laugh.

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