Star Covenant

Chapter 4: Resonant Frequencies and Cloned Heartbeats

Erin's fingertips hovered over the holographic projection of the genetic map as Kane's spinal tentacles cast cobwebby shadows behind him.The cold temperatures of the lab caused her wedding ring to shrink, the edges of the metal strangling into her knuckles, the pain like a precise axis reminding her of her irrevocable quantum entanglement with this man.

"Clone 14 is experiencing brainwave anomalies."The AI's alarm cut through the silence, and the embryo floating in the incubation chamber suddenly opened its eyes-they were Kane's silver-gray pupils, yet they were flooded with the hexagonal iris patterns of the Thrawn.Cold sweat oozed down the back of Erin's neck; she recognized this symptom of genetic contamination, having seen it on a sample of Serena's parasite only three hours ago.

Kane's mechanical prosthetic eyes flashed red, and his tentacles snapped around Erin's waist to yank her away from the console.Almost simultaneously, the reinforced glass of the incubation chamber exploded into a crystalline mist, and the umbilical cord of the cloned embryo lashed like a steel whip across the spot where she had just been standing."Get back behind the quantum barrier!"His voice was wrapped in an unfamiliar trill, and the fluorescent slime secreted by his tentacles condensed into a protective film in the air.

Erin's back slammed into the cryogenic storage cabinet, the cold air gushing out as the doors popped open wrapped around dozens of genetic disintegrators.Her hands were faster than her mind, grabbing two and inserting them into the injection slots of her wedding ring.The quantum chip read the formula and flared violently, branding scorch marks on her palm."Catch!"She tossed the modified potion at Kane, only to find the other woman strangling another pod-breaking clone with her tentacles.

The potion vial traced a parabola through the air, only to be intercepted by the suddenly materializing Thrawn data stream.A humanoid made of liquid metal burrowed out of the ventilation ducts, its hexagonal pupils locking onto Irene, "Your Majesty, it is time for you to return home."Its vocal cords vibrated at a frequency that overloaded the lab's lighting system en masse, and the moment darkness descended, Erin felt cold fingers against her temples.

The quantum wedding ring erupted into a ghostly blue glow in the darkness as Kane's tentacles curled around her wrists after penetrating three clones.Electrical sparks exploded at the contact of their skin, and the star map of the Thrawn's home planet suddenly appeared on Erin's retinas-the symbols she'd dreamed of during the union ceremony.Kane's mechanical prosthetic eye began to ooze blood, and his genetically resonant frequency was frantically washing through her neural net through his tentacles.

"Read my bio-key!"He flung her toward the main control terminal, his tentacles smashing the markings of the escape route on the wall.Erin bit her lip as she slammed into the keypad, her blood-mixed fingers tracing over the iris recognizer.The beep of the genetic firewall disarming coincided with Serena's shrill whine as the lab's self-destruct sequence began its countdown.

The cloned embryos awoke en masse in a red light, their umbilical cords connecting into a mesh structure that blocked the only exit.Kane ripped open his uniform to reveal the Leapfrog Core embedded in his chest, the energy device that should have belonged to a starfighter was now pulsing in sync with his heart."Hold on!"He leapt into the ventilation shaft with Erin in his arms, the blast of air behind him lifting both of them off the ground.Her eardrums caught a strange sound in the roar - Kane's heart rate, after all, resonated perfectly with the ticking of the self-destruct countdown.

They crashed through the sewer pipe for seventeen seconds, Kane's tentacles scraping streaks of sparks against the walls.Erin, her cheek pressed against the leap core in his chest, heard two heartbeats coming from inside: one was the dull thump of a human heart, the other like the electronic pulse of some precision instrument.As her blood seeped into the tatters of his uniform, the two heartbeats suddenly merged into the same frequency.

"Your blood..."Kane pushed her away violently, the tentacles on his back skyrocketing into defensive form.Erin stumbled, holding onto the slippery tube wall, and realized her palm prints glowed with a pale golden shimmer in the darkness.The sound of the clones' fingernails scraping metal came from deep within the ventilation shaft, closer and sharper, like a countdown to a genetic riot.

The quantum wedding ring suddenly emitted a piercing chill, and Erin looked down to see a line of Thrawn script emerge from the ring's surface.Kane's mechanical prosthetic eye scanned and then suddenly died, he covered his blood seeping right eye and hissed, "They're not here to kill you."Ghastly moonlight filtered through the end of the drainpipe, illuminating the last clone creeping in - the embryo had grown into a teenager's form, holding the meteorite necklace Erin had lost in the explosion.