Subcutis (Bona Dea Book 1) Read online

  “Flora?”

  “No.”

  “Oh. You sound kinda like her. Just a bit more … mechanical, I guess.”

  “As so I should – she was my mother. Both she and my father died giving birth to me.” The hybrid looked hard at Annie. “You were her friend. My condolences on your loss.”

  Tears sprang into Annie’s eyes, her worst fears confirmed. “I knew that she’d probably … I mean, I just thought maybe, somehow …”

  “That was always the deal; two lives for one.”

  “She did it to save us.”

  “I know. I felt both their minds for a little while before they dissolved into mine. She gave me a name. She gave me a purpose, too: saving the lives of her crewmates. By drawing on the power of my third parent, I succeeded.”

  Annie wiped her face and tried to focus on the conversation. “You said you have a name?”

  “Yes. Call me Chamonix.”

  “Oh. Yeah, that sounds properly alien.”

  “It’s French. You always were rather weak when it came to geography.”

  “How do you know? You remember your mother’s life?”

  “And my father’s. Or at least, I can access the memories. There’s a certain … immediacy that’s missing when the images come to you second-hand.”

  “You really do sound like her.”

  Chamonix smiled, showing lovely white teeth, incongruous in the inhuman face. “I’ve a lot of her in me. Children are always continuations of their parents, aren’t they? More so in my case. Flora and Charlie sleep peacefully inside me. Together.”

  They stood in silence for a moment. For once, Annie couldn’t think of anything to say. There were a thousand questions bouncing around in her mind, but they seemed to be getting in each other’s way, a mental traffic jam from which nothing coherent could escape.

  “The captain’s here,” said Chamonix, indicating a point behind Annie. Hunter, who had evidently been running, had come to a stop about forty feet away. “I imagine she’s less than thrilled with your rather rash decision to talk to me.”

  “You know me. I’m not happy if I’m not in trouble.”

  “Hmm.” Chamonix chewed thoughtfully at a steel fingertip. “Has the new Chief Technician been decided yet?”

  “Yeah, it’ll be Lorna.”

  “I see. Experienced. Good all-round knowledge. The smart choice. But she doesn’t have your gifts.” She smiled at Annie’s slight blush. “My mother never told you just how good you are. She thought you were big-headed enough already. But, Annie, your crew’s going to need you badly on the trip home. I think it’s time for the Joker in the pack to become an Ace.”

  “Meaning I need to grow up a bit? Easier said than done, but … if your mother’s still in there, tell her that I’ll try. And that I love her.” On a sudden impulse, Annie stepped froward and embraced the hybrid.

  Chamonix felt cold and clammy to the touch. Squeezing her produced a soft squelching sound, and Annie found that her chest and arms were thoroughly soaked with the mysterious sap when she drew away. The hybrid stood frozen in place, looking mildly surprised.

  “Perhaps I shouldn’t have done that,” offered Annie.

  “I think you just gave your captain a mild heart attack. But you needn’t worry. I’m not contagious. And I … appreciate your show of affection.” Chamonix plucked the little flower that had sprouted from above her left breast, tucked it amongst Annie’s orange braids. “For you. Would you ask Hunter whether I can speak with her, please?”

  * * *

  Hunter’s face betrayed no nerves or suspicion as she advanced. She smiled at the hybrid, extending a hand in greeting.

  “I understand your name is Chamonix. Delighted to meet you.”

  “Likewise, Captain.” Initially, the grey eyes stared without comprehension at the hand Hunter had proffered. Then she reached out and awkwardly shook it. “Ah, yes, a handshake. Certain aspects of my mother’s knowledge are buried deeper within me than others, etiquette among them.”

  “Well, your manners have certainly improved since last month. Might I ask why you’re talking to us this time?”

  “I’ll explain as best I can. In fact, I’ll try and answer any questions you might have. Then I’ll have a request for you.

  “I’m sorry about what happened. But you see, I’m a creature of three parts: human, inherited from my mother; robot, courtesy of my father … and, through Vitana, something beyond either. To fight the Legans I had to let that alien part of me take charge, giving me full access to the power of the Earth God. It is a cold, emotionless being, Captain. Aloof. I barely knew that you were there.”

  “I suppose that explains your rather ruthless butchering of the Legans.”

  Chamonix’s lips tightened for a moment. “The fight was their idea, as I recall? The ship certainly had to be destroyed, as they had explosives in there that could have hurt us. As to the rest, they would have happily killed all of us. As they killed Tarvis.”

  Hunter raised her eyebrows slightly, and Chamonix’s face abruptly softened.

  “But you’re right; I should have spared as many of them as possible. I shouldn’t have just walked away while Little and Jones were fighting to save lives, even though there wasn’t much I could have done to help. The gentler aspects of my personality are coming to the fore now, and I find myself regretting some of my actions.”

  “Well … you did save us. And the Bona Dea is free again. I assume that was your doing.”

  “Yes, I reverted your ship to its natural form.” As they had been talking, a matan manticore had padded over to them. It sniffed curiously at Chamonix’s legs, and she stroked its shaggy mane. “I’m very much connected with everything here. Vitana’s influence is stronger in some places than others, but it permeates the whole planet … down to the smallest blade of grass, as you have seen.”

  “And what is Vitana?”

  “Ah … now that I’m not sure of. I have the memories of my organic and mechanical parents, but not that other. All I’m given are fleeting impressions. It’s old, certainly. Perhaps tens of millions of years. I don’t think it’s native to this world, though it’s inextricably tied to it now. In its youth, I believe, it travelled the stars.

  “One thing I can certainly tell you is that you did the right thing by not trying to break free after the ship became anchored here. Vitana was dormant, acting on instinct. It wouldn’t have responded well to the disturbance – most likely it would have simply swallowed you. Ship, crew and all.”

  Hunter looked back at her shipmates, most of whom had come out to watch. That question had been preying on her mind, no doubt about it.

  “That’s a relief. But I’ve made mistakes here. Three of my crew are dead.”

  “Blame Vitana. It let the Legans land.”

  “Yes, that’s another mystery. I’m guessing our presence here had something to do with it?”

  “Bingo,” said Chamonix. It was so incongruous hearing that flippant word from such a forbidding creature that Hunter had to smile. “Not long after the exile of the unwanted Matans, the cyborgs who had been left behind began to feel a strong desire to go beneath the surface, to unify with the planet more than ever before. You’ve seen the results. They settled into a state of blissful communion, which in time lulled them all to sleep.

  “Vitana also slipped into a dormant state, first creating surface-to-space missiles to guard against attacks from Lega, but when we came – when you came – you were identified as non-Legan. The missile launchers shut down and didn’t come back on again. Even Earth Gods make mistakes.”

  Hunter felt a light precipitation on her face; Chamonix looked to the sky and smiled.

  “Flora liked the rain,” the captain remembered. “You’ve inherited a lot of her traits; I’m glad. But I personally prefer to be inside while it’s falling. You’ve answered my outstanding questions, though I think Ms. Winters will want to conduct a proper interview with you before we leave.”

 
“Captain.” The pale face was serious again. “There’s something I need to ask you.”

  “Of course, you said you had a request. Name it.”

  “Take me with you.”

  Hunter was briefly stunned into silence. Having a lifeform aboard that’s one-third clinical alien killer? She can’t be serious.

  “You want to leave? I’d have thought you’d think of this place as home. A whole world to explore, companions underground who’re very much like you. They’re showing signs of waking now …”

  “Yes they are, but they aren’t like me, not in the ways that matter. The Matans were a different species, a different culture. They venerated artificial intelligence, and cherished the concept of being at one with nature. The robots they built were programmed with the same values. Burying themselves in the earth, losing themselves in a collective consciousness … it’s heaven to them. But not to me.

  “Those people will never fully reawaken as individuals, captain. At best, they’ll come halfway back. I doubt whether they’ll ever walk the surface again. The thought of me going in the same direction is frightening, but it will happen if I remain here. Vitana is awakening, moving out of its dormant state. Its influence over me will grow stronger; my individuality will fade, and I will be lost.”

  Hunter rubbed her brow thoughtfully. “I don’t pretend to entirely understand how communing with Vitana works, but it seems certain to change how your mind works. You might feel differently about your fate after a while.”

  “But I don’t want to! I want to move, to learn, to do things for myself.” She waved dismissively at the earth. “What’s happening down there is stagnation, pure and simple. I wish to better myself. I got that from my father, and a fear of burial from my mother. If I lose those qualities, what’s left of me? An irrelevant cog in a planet-sized machine, that’s all I’ll be!”

  Hunter frowned. “I must admit, I hadn’t thought of it like that. But you have to appreciate, I’ve got seventeen other women to think about. A spaceship’s a bundle of sensitive equipment; there are a thousand different things that can go wrong, leaving us stranded or dead. Given your strange transformative powers, and the fact that you don’t really seem to have them under control, it’s an unacceptable risk.”

  Chamonix looked down at her feet, which had by now firmly taken root, then back up at Hunter, the pure grey orbs of her eyes filled with defiance and determination.

  “I’m already well on the way to mastering my body, and putting some distance between me and Vitana will, I feel sure, help me master my mind. Captain, I promise you I will never harm a member of your crew.”

  Hunter sighed. The thought of marooning their saviour here against her will was an ugly one, especially as she was all that remained of a friend and crewmate. Flora had sacrificed herself to give life to this creature. She would want them to trust it.

  But could Chamonix truly guarantee her own behaviour? If she was wrong, they might lose everything. Not only their lives, but all record of their accomplishments and discoveries here ...

  The rain was picking up. This wasn’t the time to decide anything.

  “I’m going to need to discuss your request with the crew.”

  “Of course. I’ll respect your decision, Captain … whatever it may be.”

  Halfway back to the ship, Hunter paused to glance behind her. Chamonix stood unmoving, the manticore lying at her feet. She was looking fixedly after the captain.

  Upon the strange, hybrid face there was a very human expression of hope.

  Epilogue

  With a thunderous roar, the Bona Dea departed the planet her crew had dubbed Mahi Mata, jets of fire propelling the vessel back into space.

  Isik Karteeb watched them go.

  He had been with them for most of their stay on the planet, an invisible companion observing from light years distant; his omniglobe had become a second home of late. Surna and some of his other critics had mustered half-hearted jabs at his shift in focus, but they were plainly just as intrigued by the humans as he was. Certainly, the Legan conflict had been exceptional theatre.

  More than that, though, recent events underlined how right he’d been to divert the humans to this part of the galaxy. His “rogue element” had proven every bit as disruptive as he’d hoped. True, the changes wrought on the old homeworld hadn’t been especially helpful, but they nonetheless represented a ringing endorsement of his theory: where the Earth ship went, change would inevitably occur. The nature of that change was hard to predict, but any disruption of the current ruinous equilibrium could only be beneficial.

  Under his watchful gaze, the Bona Dea cleared the outer atmosphere and plunged into the vast black ocean of space. Its surviving inhabitants hoped that their next destination would be Earth.

  Karteeb had other ideas.

  Author’s note

  Thank you for giving my debut novel a try - I hope it was as much fun to read as it was to write! I’m hoping to get the sequel Amygdala out there by the end of 2018.

  If you’ve any feedback or criticisms about this story then I’d love to hear from you. My email address is [email protected], while my Twitter handle is @HarperJCole.

  Alternatively, you can find me at www.writingforums.com, an online home for aspiring poets and authors. They helped get me this far, and if you’re just starting your own writing journey, they can help you too.

  HJC

  Index

  Prologue

  PART ONE – BONA DEA

  I

  II

  III

  IV

  V

  VI

  VII

  VIII

  PART TWO – MAHI MATA

  I

  II

  III

  IV

  V

  VI

  VII

  VIII

  IX

  X

  XI

  XII

  XIII

  Epilogue

  Author’s note