Breaking the surface, he forgot to expel the water his gills held. He forgot to open his lungs. For a moment, he was drowning and choking in the air. Eventually, the ligaments in his throat pushed his gills shut and he sputtered out gouts of violet fluid. He huddled at the edge, pulling his furred legs to his scaled chest in an attempt to find calm. It was easy for his three hearts to fall out of sequence. He had to slow the beat. Concentrate. Find peace.
D’yanna’s head broke the surface. She eased herself onto the rim of the pond and stood to her full height. Water glistened against green scales, but her body was different now. Where her underside was once smooth, there were six nipples that hardened against her flesh. Between her legs, there was now an opening.
She remained standing, shaking off the water, staring at him. The nipples were reabsorbed and the opening between her legs closed. Taking sharp, ragged breaths, she held his gaze.
His own breathing now came in sharp gasps, pain echoing across his back to his chest. He fought the urge to yell at his old friend.
“This is why you must go.” D’yanna moved close, her forked tongue tasting the air of Sidesa. She eased her body onto the warming stones, spreading arms and legs, her bulbous tail flattening behind. “I’ve made you a citizen. I’ve even given you ownership of a power station in a mining region. That’s status. Wealth. Power. You should not want for anything.”
“Except my best friend.” His own forked tongue mirrored her action, tasting the air. It was a mix of lilac and a sweetness that was not like sugar or honey. It was unique to Sidesa Four.
“You fool.” D’yanna’s sharp teeth appeared and Jadis understood a carnivorous smile from years of being her friend. “We stopped being friends the moment I drank you in. If I let this continue, I will be unseated. My father may even lose his crown. You would be hunted. At least if I send you away, I will know you are alive and safe.”
“If I can get the surgery to make me full reptilian, then we can be together again, right?”
D’yanna sighed. “You know it is not possible.”
“I’ll find the scientist, the one that made me like this, and then I’ll come back to you,” he pleaded.
“You’ll stay where I put you, Jadis Ter. There is more wrong with you and I than just what you are. It must also be who you are. May you taste the stars of Ku’Las, Jadis.”
With that she swiveled around, her tail splashing a bit of the pond on him in passing. She walked steadily toward the clearing where their shuttle waited.
When Jadis stood, there were several reptilian males from the outer circle surrounding him. The one directly in front of him blocked his view of Dyanna and said, “it is best if you come with us.”
Lowering his head, Jadis Ter pulled on his robes and allowed himself to be escorted to a separate vessel that would take him to his new future.
Chapter Two
Lessons Learned
Betta used her time outside of stasis to study all the information she had on the districts. Having an eidetic memory meant that she could quickly access any information she’d seen once. One of the many drawbacks was that most of it was useless and random until it wasn’t. It was also necessary for her to use ways to access information quickly. Mnemonics helped her classify certain information for easy retrieval, but could be time consuming.
The areas marked on her console were separated by districts. These districts were allocated based on how much mining was allowable and the safety specifications for each area. For instance, Green District was where the docks resided. Absolutely no mining was allowed in this area to keep cargo and employees safe. A footnote indicated that the area was surveyed and known to have the least evidence of resources that Pilo considered useful.
The Yellow District was where Betta sat at her console within a federal facility only a few kilometers from the miners’ barracks. The area consisted of service shops for mining equipment, transportation kiosks, and oxygen replenishment areas. There were other districts farther out, separated by the 20 kilometer mark. This was due to anticipated growth as other business ventures built and spread. Grey District was reserved for expansion, but as yet lay empty. Orange District housed higher ranking officials such as managers, officers for the Federation, and royalty from alien species such as the reptilian-humanoids known as Drafers.
The Red District was where a majority of the mining was done. The area expanded across most of the open areas on the planet.
All districts were connected by a single mode of transportation. Gliders could travel through tunnels underground, above ground and even low in the atmosphere if there was little electrostatic interference. The gliders were equipped with cutting heads on both ends for boring through rock and soil. It was a hybrid of the mining equipment used on-planet to reach the core, like the A-10 Digger her father operated.
Betta spent her days familiarizing herself with all of the equipment used by Pilo and the independent ventures she could access online. This included space vessels, heavy-terrain vehicles, automated machines used for extraction, and even weapons the federal agents equipped to keep order in the sector.
The federal agents once fascinated Betta. All federation employees were cybernetically altered. The changes dampened their emotions, enhanced logic, and increased physical prowess. It was well-known an agent could not be influenced or hacked. She’d considered attempting it once or twice in order to find her freedom or even get extra time with her father and the miners. Time and familiarity soon dampened her fascination.
What were once tense and often cautious relationships with her father’s co-workers became familial as she grew. It was like she belonged to them all. The miners told her about their worlds. They weren’t all Humans, and there were no others like her and George, those born on Old Earth. This made them unique and while their fellow miners had many questions, so did Betta.
“On my world,” Tys Va Lia said, “our tongues could taste the very air before Pilo took it over. It was so sweet. Ruined.” Her forked tongue flashed in the dim light of the bunks. “Now only the royalty and elders know the old tastes. It’s all metals and artificial replicas now.”
“Are you an elder Drafer?” Betta asked.
“Oh yes. I’ve been rejuvenated twice now.”
“Rejuvenated?”
“When the body gets old, which takes far longer for a Drafer, you can pay to have it made like it was young again. It’s an expensive process, and the body isn’t the same, but close enough.”
“Better than dying out,” Olak grumbled as he rubbed his sleek fur.
Olak reminded Betta of a bear, though he had a human face. It was covered in curled fur that he rubbed constantly with an oil to combat the dry air. He was a Lyten, which she looked up later, when the miners were gone.
Those meetings were rare since she had graduated the feds training program and been placed into stasis.
The galaxy knew the federal agents were Enhanced Humans with cybernetic implants that increased their reflexes, inhibited their emotions, and created a communication link that allowed them to work as a hive mind. Though it was public knowledge, few knew where these recruits came from or the training involved to reach the title of agent.
Betta was indoctrinated with these recruits. They were all in their early teens. Many suffered from mental disorders controlled by a regimen of drug therapy, others were considered unstable or emotionally sensitive. Others were there for an escape. The promise of a cybernetic overhaul meant freedom from those issues, but first they had to complete the test laid before them by the Federal Entity.