Transformation, M J Marlow [thriller books to read .TXT] 📗

Transformation

** The caverns were pitch black as he hurried through, the gloom dispelled by the light of the beac flies that had been sent by his naïve cousin along the tunnels. He came to the blank walland pressed his thumb into the recess. He winced as the blood sample was taken, analyzed,and verified. The wall split openand he stepped through into a large laboratory chamber. The beac flies settled itself into their cageand waited for the next order to be given. He pulled up the collar of his thick padded coat as the chill of this cave struck him. It was dimly lit. In fact, the only light source was the beac fly cage over the table in the center. Tiny translucent creatures; they had begun to appear from the moment their revived being had opened her eyes. There were now hundreds of them in the cages nearest the cylinder holding the girl. “You’re late,” Bemin Tor said simply as Omri Snow removed his outer coatand hung it on the wall. “You almost missed the memory share.” He held up a disk, then slid it into the machine. “Zen is going to share her last memories with us.” “The pass was blocked again,” Omri answered, already moving to the other side of the tall, lean-faced man. “It took my men several hours to clear the way.” He rubbed his fingers to warm them. “How is it doing?” “The princess is restive,” Bemin corrected his cousin’s statement. “Zen believes it is time for release.” He nodded towards the glass cylinder in front of his table where the princess Zen was enclosed. Physically, she was only a child of fifteen, but her brilliant golden eyes showed great intelligence as she fixed them on something only she could see. Her warm copper hair was braided into two thick plaits that fell to her hips. She wore a simple lucen garment belted with a cord of rain-hued silk braid. They had found her several months ago, during an excavation of a cavern system in the eastern reaches of the planet, locked away in a cylinder fashioned from the ancient gemstones in every color of the spectrumand thought she was dead. A knife was held clasped in her hands, still bearing traces of her own blood. But when they had opened the cylinder, her eyes had openedand the pain of her last memory brought her screaming back to life. Omri rubbed the blue constellation tattoo on the right side of his face that marked him as a priest of the Celestial Temple absently. His calling, however, was not to serve gods, but to be as a god.And his associate had promised him exactly that if he kept his cousin, Bemin Tor, a brilliant geneticistand biochemist; working on the girl. His cousin had been quite easy to manipulate in this matter; all he cared about was the knowledge he was rediscovering; the ancient person they had brought back to life. Heand Bemin leaned over the machine eagerly as one of Zen’s memories was displayed visually for them. Light flooded into the preparation room where she had undergone the process to make her ready. She opened her golden eyesand looked up dazedly. The drugs were keeping her confusedand making it impossible for her to use her mind to free herself. She was helped to her feetand the thin white silk gown they had put her in swished to the floor around her bare feet. Her wavy copper hair flowed down around her body to her knees,and added a layer of protection against the chilly air in the cavern complex. “Princess,” a woman’s voice sounded coldly from the doorway, “it is time for the bonding.” Bonding? For a moment, her mind could not focus on the reason she was here in this place. But then it came blazing back to herand the horror of her situation came flooding back into her mind. She tried to break free of the men holding her, but she had been weakened by the drugsand could not. If she allowed this act, she would be mated to her own father. It was an abomination, what Zoran was planning,and Zen would have no part of it. “This must not be, lady Sarit!” She protested as they led her down the tunnel. “I will not agree to this abomination!” “Your agreement is not required, Princess,” the woman said as she led the way. “The great lord Zoran has decided this must be,and he will be obeyed.” She took a chanceand feigned a stumble. The men went off balanceand she was running for her life. She was running past what she knew were other laboratories when she heard a man’s screams. The terrorand pain in the man’s mind struck her ownand she was stunned. She opened the doorand saw her cousin,and her chosen, Daren, strung up in a surgical harness. His terror-filled eyes met hers for just a moment,and then she was being dragged away. “What are you doing to him?” Zen demanded as she tried to get past them. “Your cousin,” the woman said coldly, “is being punished for his treachery against your father, Princess Zen. He will be transformed into a beast of service.” “It is too much!” Zen cried in protest as she tried once more to push past the menand the woman in the house silks. “You will let him go!” “You have no command here, Princess,” the woman laughed, as she shoved Zen to the guards. “Bind her, if you must. We must hurry.” The guards bound her wrists tightly in front of her body, their hands bruising her as they kept hold. They walked for what seemed nearly an hour as the cold bit even more deeply into her. Then, just as she began to believe she would freeze, they entered the main cavern. She remembered her wonder at seeing the pillars of crystaland gold lining the walls around her. At the far end, she saw her father seated on a throne of the same crystal. His dark eyes shone with triumph as she was brought to himand forced to kneel. “You have been a very disobedient child, Zen,” her father said as the woman came to her side, holding a goblet. “I wanted this to be as painless as possible…” “You do not care how this affects me, Father,” Zen broke in coldly. “What you mean to do is an abomination!” “My dear child,” her father, Zoran, self-made dictator of the world of Zenas, laughed at her. “Do you honestly believe I had you created to share your gifts with just any man? I am the only man on this planet worthy of sharing your power; so you will bond with me. Through you, I will have all the power I need to chain this world to me forever.” He nodded to the woman. “Begin.” They forced the liquid into herand Zen screamed in pain as it burned through her. She had to stop what they were doing to her, Zen’s mind cried out in protest as she was dragged to her feet. She knew she had only moments before the drug took effect so she looked aroundand saw her escape, hanging on the belt of the guard nearest her. She ripped it off of his beltand locked eyes with her father, smiling as she saw the disbelief in his mindand in his expression. He was rising to his feet, his hands reaching out to stop her, as she cut her bonds. She sent the guards coming to subdue her flying,and then she drove the dagger into her heart with all the force she could muster. Her last thought as life left her, as her fathers horrified expression as he realized that she had beaten him faded, was one of intense joy. “So that was Zoran,” Omri said in awe, “the Great Dictator.” “The most deranged being in creation,” Zen replied weakly, as always, overcome by what she had relived for these men. “My father.” “Is there any pain, Princess?” Bemin asked as he turned to look at her, concerned. “That was a very disturbing memory.” “The pain was felt at the occurrence,” Zen told him. “Remembering it now brings only sadnessand regret.” She closed her eyes a moment to calm her emotions. “It is in the past, Bemin Tor. Let us focus on the present.” “We were mapping the third sequence,” Bemin said, as she stepped out of the cylinderand went to one of the machines she had showed him how to build, bringing a holograph of a DNA strand to hang in the air inside the cylinder. “The region of abilities.” She touched itand a small section was magnified. “There will be an area there you will find unfamiliar to one of your level of knowledge. I, myself, do not fully understand its purpose.” Bemin Tor knew every last twistand turn of her ancient DNA sequence, thanks to her willingand patient instruction,and had been astonished at its complexity. She was now teaching him what each last one was capable of producing. Something about that should have bothered the man, but it had only fueled his desire for knowledge. Zen had not questioned it, she had an increasingly uncomfortable feeling that this new world she had awoken into would require her to have all of her abilities to face what she would find in it. “Omri Snow,” she said in her melodious tone, warmand mellow. “You were followed.” Omri did not question her statement. They had learned almost immediately that Zen was gifted with paranormal abilities. If she said someone had followed him, then someone had followed him. He went to the other chamberand checked the perimeter markers. They were greenand glowing, indicating that no one had passed through them who was not cleared to enter. As he turned to contradict the child, one of the beacons went red. The alarms went offand the display in the cylinder vanished as the machine shut down. Omri opened the secondary entranceand exit to their complexand watched as the girl went out. This was their escape sequence: Zen would leave first, taking all of Bemin Tor’s research with her; locked away in that brilliant mind of hers that seemingly knew no limits. Heand Bemin would destroy the lab, seal the primary entrance,and then leave, parting once they got outside. When the time came, they would call Zen to themand the research would begin again. “Come with Zen, little ones,” Zen saidand called out a tone that shattered the cages. The beac flies went with her, lighting her way to the outside. “She is a strange being,” Omri said as he set the self-destruct sequence. “Are you certain we are doing the right thing releasing her?” “Zen needs to learn of this world as it is,” Bemin replied as he added his code. “She has been in our keeping long enough. Frankly,” he smiled that hungry,and yet child-like, smile of his, “I am looking forward to seeing how much she does learn before we are together again.” The men moved outand hurried through the secondary passage. They parted ways, knowing that it might be years before they could restart their research. As Omri hurried over the northern face of the mountain, the complex blewand the repercussions knocked him off his feet. He got upand spotted the ones who had tracked him, an entire squad of hunters; those men sent by the Science Directive to wipe out research into fields of study banned by the Directive as detrimental to the betterment of the galaxy. Worry flooded through him as he tried to figure out if they had been tracking him personally, or were just following rumors. Whatever the case, heand Bemin had ended this phase of their research