Chapter 16
The three Kelbrids were unforgiving. With each punch or kick I attempted, I received a much more accurate one right back. By the time they had located a suitable room and dropped me through the door, I was beyond exhausted, and the aching in my legs barred me from any quick movement. I wasn't on the floor of the dimly lit room long before new hands took hold of me and lifted me once more to my feet. All the while, voices rang in my head from disgruntled Kelbrid workers and the indecisive mutterings of my four comrades.
There was only one that stuck in my mind. From far off, just barely audible, Tobias said, Menderash says we have sixty-three minutes left in morph.
I was forced to drop down onto a soft, cushioned seat that faced away from the door I'd entered through. I focused my bedazzled mind long enough to take in my new surroundings and discovered that the room was empty but for two large containers in each two adjacent corners and a Kelbrid eyeing me over in between. He wore a red cloth over his chest, decorated with three golden stars. He must have been a relatively high rank.
Over my shoulder, I could just make out the door in the corner of my eye. Two blue Kelbrids quietly spoke to one another. One of them was armed, but the weapon lowered and attention half-absent.
The three-starred Kelbrid finished his observations and huffed with disinterest. He said something to his cohorts, and I watched as he slowly left the room. One of the Kelbrids in blue took his place before me, a computer-like device in hand.
Somebody hit the lights. It was dim before. Now, it was blinding. I recoiled, wincing to adjust my vision.
Guys, I called out. They've got me in some empty room—two of them in here, one with a weapon. Just saw a red Kelbrid with three stars, but he left.
Did you see how many doors you passed to get there? Jake asked.
No, I growled. I was too busy having the shit beat out of me!
How big is the room? he continued. What's in it?
I put my frustration aside, realizing that assessing the room was in my best interest. It's about… Fifteen feet long, ten across. Nothing in here but a couple of boxes and some damn ugly alien freaks!
Got it. I know where you are. Just don't do anything dumb, and we'll get you out.
"Unnit yrufjur. Deru tredifurn akit nevso," the Kelbrid in front of me said. He gazed from the computer in his slimy hand to me and then back to the computer. I couldn't tell if he was talking to me or muttering something to himself.
He's talking, I told Jake, fidgeting anxiously in my undersized seat. Man, I have no idea what's going on…
Try to repeat to me what he's saying.
Unnit yi… yuh… I can't even remember.
Keep trying.
The Kelbrid looked sternly at me. Then he repeated what he'd said previously, and it became clear that he had been addressing me. I listened closely and tried again. Unnit yurfur… Deru tedifur akit nevoso.
Jake hesitated. If you're saying what I think you're saying, then he's telling you you're not authorized to be here. He wants an explanation.
What do I say? I asked with a hint of desperation.
Try this: Akit veno porfurtiknor ak ak urentyi itnun varra.
I cleared my thick throat and attempted to repeat. Akit vena porfukitor akah kurenti iknun varra.
The Kelbrid was utterly dumbfounded. He exchanged an uncertain look with the other one somewhere behind me.
Jake, I don't think that worked. What did it even mean?
It means: I have amnesia. I'm looking for a doctor.
Great, I sighed. Is that the best you can come up with?
Jake grumbled back, Doing what we can. Thinking on the fly.
Then, the Kelbrid spoke to me again in a much less accommodating tone. I repeated what I could back to Jake.
He seemed puzzled. He wants you to tell him where the fridge is? I think you misheard him, dude.
With each mistranslation, our efforts became more hopeless. I was giving up, more focused on the snarling Kelbrid that crept ever closer than on the feeble attempts at speaking through Jake.
The computer clattered to the ground. It was clear to the Kelbrid that I was no worker and that I wasn't going to speak any sense, if anything at all. His face came closer. Closer.
I felt his warm breath against my face with each scream for clarification. I saw his claws turn to fists, wrapped in anger and confusion. I was getting nowhere. There was no escape.
The room was no longer so bright. The white of the walls dripped purple and red. The Kelbrid's golden eyes were beacons that placed on me a spotlight.
They were everywhere. Behind the walls. Scuttling above and below. They were dense with anger and the pursuit of violence. I was in their path…
The claws, like monstrous spiders, opened their spindly digits. The black, empty eyes of the demons cameoed between them as they flexed and gripped at the air. They stroked my sides, and then the clutch tightened. They squeezed me, locked my limbs to my body like ropes.
A tailblade flashed before my face, and the sinister laugh of its late bearer was the last thing I heard before the real Marco shut down.
Marco? You there?
The Kelbrid was watching me, puzzled and annoyed by my silence. His eyes were glued, unmoving, and there was no escaping his focus in the dire, empty room. The harsh lights would give away every movement. Every change. And yet, still, he wouldn't be quick enough.
My mouth was opening, not by desire but by the lack of space for expanding teeth. My tail began to shrivel.
"Ing talla mootun ar!" one of the Kelbrids called. My focus was too blurry to tell which one. They were noticing that something was happening. How long until they figured it out? Would they even know?
I waited as the changes continued for that precise moment when the muscles gave me the needed power. I had to remain seated and hope that it came soon.
I didn't need the others to escape. I could tear them up just fine by myself.
The moment arrived just as their confusion was peaking. I sprang up on thickening Kelbrid legs and thrust my meaty right hand at the vulnerable neck. My fingers wrapped around warm flesh, and the bulging eyes of the bewildered Kelbrid became the only thing I saw. But I felt him squirm in my grasp and sensed the desperation in his airways.
There was a second. I twisted sharply, flinging the pathetic alien with me as a red flash of light doused the room.
The desperation in my fingers came to a sudden end. The minuscule weight of the Kelbrid halved. I dropped what remained to the ground and switched my attention to the second Kelbrid, whose smoking weapon had unintentionally finished my job for me.
The gorilla's power took control. I was a big black ball of energy and ferocity. When he began scrambling for the door, there was no chance I would let him get away. I barrelled forward, and with only a couple meters between us, I was on him before he could think to raise his weapon again. With minimal effort, I battered it from his hands, and it clattered against the far wall.
"Umah! Umah!" he cried, cowering against the wall. The orange flashing lights of an alarm finally going off imprisoned my dense shadow, and not a drop fell onto him.
I didn't reconsider, didn't waste time thinking about anything. I simply raised my fist and launched it forward with as much power as the gorilla would allow.
They had been dispatched. I needed to get out. I needed air.
Marco!
I bellowed out and stumbled! A deep, searing pain shot up my arm!
I remembered that pain… I'd felt it once before, back on Makroovi, the Mak planet…
The blur left me just as fast as the pain came crashing in a second wave. I twitched, collapsed back against the far wall. Two dead Kelbrids lay before me, and their blood coated my hand.
Shit! I cried out. Ah! It hurts!
Santorelli was the first to reply. What's goin' on down there, man?!
The agony of the Kelbrid toxin was too much. I couldn't think to respond. I could only think to get rid of it the only way I knew how before every option left the table.
I concentrated as much as I could on the Kelbrid body stored within me. The changes began, and my body decreased in size. Throughout, I writhed and gritted my teeth. I was numbing, and the lights were starting to fade with the pain.
But as the black hair subsided and the teeth of my gums sat neatly behind purple Kelbrid lips, it all came back. The pain was gone, and the lights were shining again.
Orange lights… And a loud, booming alarm. My actions had certainly not gone unnoticed. I needed to escape before I was overrun with more blue Kelbrids.
Goddamn it! Respond!
I'm here! I replied. I've gotten rid of the security. I'm on my own in the room now.
Jake sighed. Probably with relief. Alarms are sounding, dude. We've got to move.