Page 46 of Stray Omega

CHAPTER 18: HINES

“Shit!”

Shelley Hines stared at the flashing “access denied” message on the screen of the computer console with a look of frustration. With a sigh, she brushed back her short brown hair and started typing again.

She was in the Chamber of the Source. At least that’s what the alphas called this place. It was an enormous circular chamber with dark, metallic walls and a domed ceiling that curved high overhead, giving the cool air an echoing, almost cathedral-like atmosphere. Thick, insulated cables and conduits snaked across the floor, all converging on the massive spherical structure that dominated the center of the chamber.

The Source.

The machine that was responsible for the alpha, beta, and omega mutations of the Quarantine Zone.

As far as the primitive alphas were concerned, the Source was a holy shrine, the most sacred location in the entire Zone and the physical manifestation of their God. Or at least the closest thing they had to that concept.

Shelley, however, knew a bit more about the machine’s backstory.

She knew that the Source had been created over a century earlier by an unethical biotech company called SynerGen. The machine was intended to be a sexual suppression field—a way to control the rampant overpopulation of the city at that time.

But that wasn’t how things had worked out. Obviously.

The suppression field was supposed to be controlled by an incredibly advanced artificial intelligence called the Sentient Evolving Recursive Algorithmic Population Heuristic, or S.E.R.A.P.H. for short. Unfortunately for the SynerGen scientists, Seraph had been a little too advanced. He had gone rogue, using the suppression field in ways they never expected. Using the field of energy and nanotech viruses sent out by the suppression field, he created the alphas and omegas. Mindless beta zombies too, though all of them were pretty much dead at this point.

After that cataclysmic event, the outside world sealed off the Quarantine Zone, building a wall around the area influenced by Seraph and the Source and cutting off the alphas and omegas from the rest of the world.

As far as the denizens of the Zone were concerned, that was just fine.

They wanted nothing to do with the Outsiders.

There were problems, however. The Outsiders weren’t just content to keep the alphas contained. They wanted to control the Quarantine Zone. They wanted to capture live alphas to study them and use them as weapons. So it was up to Hines and her friends to figure out some kind of defense.

But the only “person” who could help them—Seraph—had pretty much gone into hiding.

Hines had only seen the A.I. a couple of times shortly after arriving in the Zone. His massive holographic face was like a high-tech version of the Wizard of Oz. But following a battle that had nearly destroyed the entire Zone, Seraph had disappeared.

Hines knew Seraph was still in there somewhere. She knew he was hiding within the intricate computer circuitry inside the Source. He had to be.

She just couldn’t coax him into talking.

But Hines was not one to give up easily.

She typed a few more lines of computer code into the terminal set into the mechanical pedestal supporting the Source, trying different methods of getting through Seraph’s digital defenses. But every time, the reply was the same.

“Access denied.”

“God damn it!” Hines shouted in frustration.

The sharp sound of her voice reverberated through the vast chamber, disturbing the reverential silence. Hines was not alone here. There were other groups of alphas and omegas scattered around the Chamber of the Source, and now they turned their heads toward Hines, startled by her sudden angry outburst.

When they weren’t hunting for food, mating with their omegas, or dealing with some other alpha business, the big brutes loved basking in the energy of the Source. The closer the better. Hence the reason there were many alphas and a few omegas dispersed through this big chamber, some snoozing, others meditating, and many just chatting quietly.

Hines flushed red. Her anger and frustration were replaced by an intense embarrassment at her outburst.

“Hey, Hines,” a woman’s voice said from behind her. “Why don’t you take a break for a little while?”

Turning around, Hines saw her friend Sloane. A former marine, Sloane was pretty but tough-looking at the same time. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, and she wore the standard outfit of an omega—a loose animal hide skirt to cover her loins and nothing else. It was the same thing Hines was wearing, in fact. And just like Hines, Sloane’s ears, nose, lips and nipples bore the glinting steel piercings she had received as part of her binding ritual, when she had been joined body and soul with her three alpha mates. She carried a tiny little omega baby in her arms, and the child was quietly suckling at her breast.

Sloane was a good friend, and she was one of the few women in the Zone with whom Hines could easily relate. They had both been Outsiders once, living in an overcrowded and polluted hive city like the rest of humanity. Through a series of unexpected events, they had both ended up in the Quarantine Zone, where they had been mutated into omegas.

Hines definitely preferred her new life here in the Zone, but it still had its challenges, and it was nice having a good friend with whom she could commiserate with sometimes.

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