Star Covenant

Chapter 10: Genetic Resonance and the Antimatter Key

Erin's fingertips were trembling on the genetic encoder, and Kane's spinal tentacles were wrapped dead center around her waist and stomach.The sound of the lab's alarm resonated with the fluorescent particles on the surface of the tentacles, synchronizing their heart rates to 120 beats per second.

"Let go!Your genetic rampage will destroy the vaccine sample!"She tried to wrench the translucent tentacle away, but instead felt a patch of hot goo - a precursor to Kane's berserk phase.They had just escaped the Thrawn three hours ago, and at the moment the man's pupils had turned the silver-white color of fully mechanical prosthetic eyes.

Kane suddenly pressed her against the cryo-hatch, the tips of his tentacles stabbing into the interface of the quantum wedding ring on her wrist, "The Alliance has ordered me to acquire the Earth's gene pool key within 72 hours...Where have you hidden it?"His voice was laced with an electronic murmur, revealing the runaway alien genes in his body.

Erin took the opportunity to jab the vaccine syringe into his carotid artery, "Is that the real reason you got married?"The moment the fluorescent blue liquid surged into his veins, Kane's tentacles suddenly erupted with intense light, and all of the lab's DNA models levitated into the air, forming a spinning star map.

"Warning!Antimatter Safe authentication failed."The AI's alarm was swallowed up by the star map's light.Erin stared blankly at the symbol in the center of the star map - the very same double helix galaxy she had dreamed of for three weeks straight.Tears of blood suddenly flowed from Kane's mechanical prosthetic eyes, and he clutched his throat and hissed, "Don't go near that symbol..."

The entire blast glass exploded in response, and the liquid metal bodies of the Thrawn warriors seeped through the cracks.Erin tugged the unconscious Kane and rolled him into the cryo-pod, the slime from her tentacles dabbing the star map symbol before the hatch closed, activating the hidden holographic projection - which turned out to be her adoptive father's log from twenty years ago:

"June 7, 2143, Thrawn queen mark found in Erin's genes, must be sealed with antimatter key..."

The resonant voice of a Thrawn warrior came from outside the pod, "Welcome to the awakening of Queen Astra."Erin suddenly had a splitting headache, and the cryo-pod's display reflected her pupils - which were splitting into the hexagonal hive structure characteristic of the Thrawn.

Kane suddenly rolled over on top of her in his stupor, tentacles automatically wrapping around their clasped hands.His mechanical prosthetic eyes flashed with the last vestiges of human consciousness, "The wedding ring...The password is..."The unfinished sentence was interrupted by the sound of a Thrawn particle blade running through the hatch.

Erin held Kane's progressively colder hand and realized that his tentacle slime had written in blood on the glass of the hatch, "Love is the supreme command."The moment she reads the words, the cryo-pod suddenly plummets into a dark tunnel beneath the lab floor, and a key with a double helix structure emerges from the burst of light from the quantum wedding ring.

At the end of the dark tunnel came a recorded message from her adoptive father, "When you hear this, it means that the Thrawn have found you.The anti-matter key must be combined with a hybrid gene to..."The voice ended abruptly, and Erin turned around to see Kane's tentacles curled in a death grip around the pursuing Thrawn warrior, who had a half-dozen particle blades sticking out of his chest.

"Live..."Kane used the last of his strength to push her towards the key authentication table, and the mechanical prosthetic eye projected a string of numbers before it completely went out - the exact date of the day they were forced to marry.Erin trembled as she entered the date and key, and the authentication screen displayed a line of scarlet warning:

"Insufficient genetic match, is the activation of the Queen Astra form mandatory?"