Star Covenant

Chapter 2: Tentacle Resonance and Liquid Lies

Erin's gene repairer projected an eerie blue spectrum in the lab as the 37th generation of the anti-serial virus vaccine finally completed its molecular folding.She held the sample tube close to the quantum wedding ring, and the chip immediately sent an encrypted signal to the alliance headquarters-a monitoring program that Kane had forcibly implanted, like an electronic shackle wrapped around his ring finger.

"Alert! Unauthorized genetic recombination detected in Sector B3!"The scarlet pupils of the mechanical guards suddenly turned toward Irene.Kane's tentacles pierced the ventilation ducts and descended from the sky, wreathing her in ionizing sparks and pressing her against the glass of the incubation chamber.His mechanical prosthetic eyes scanned the data of the vaccine samples, and his translucent tentacles secreted corrosive mucus, "The Earthlings really are all traitors."

The station's gravity field collapsed in an explosion, and Erin grabbed Kane's tentacles and floated in the weightless chamber.The liquid metal skin of the Thrawn warriors was penetrating the alloy walls, hexagonal pupils locking onto the vaccine cooler.Erin interfered with his neural net with her wedding ring quantum comms, only to crash into Kane's arms in an electromagnetic pulse-his tentacles shook so violently from contact with her neck wound that they spontaneously wove themselves into a biological bandage to stop the bleeding.

"Your DNA..."Kane's mechanical prosthetic eye's data flow was suddenly disrupted, and Erin took the opportunity to inject the vaccine into his spinal junction.The tentacles instantly burst into galactic light patterns, generating an anti-phase force field to bounce off the Thrawns.As the two of them fall into the escape pod, Erin realizes that the same galactic totem as in her dream is appearing on Kane's back.

On the abandoned Vega 7 space station, Irene uses a medical bed converted from an incubation chamber to stabilize Kane's genetic outburst.His tentacles unconsciously wrapped around her wrist, revealing DNA-stranded patches of light where his skin touched."So you're the perfect host."Kane awoke and suddenly grabbed her by the throat as the mechanical prosthetic eye played a holographic record of the vaccine tampering.

Erin bites the tip of her tongue and sprays blood foam into his pupils; the Thrawn corrosive fluid actually crystallizes in the beads of blood.Kane's tentacles suddenly softened and trembled as he brushed over her bloodstained lips, "There's no way a Terran could have the Founders gene..."

At that moment, the sound of Serena's liquid metal palms knocking came from outside the escape pod, her hexagonal pupils reflecting the entwined figures of the two.

"Dear Commander, that's not a mouse you're holding in your arms."Serena's vocal cords mimicked Erin's adoptive father's intonation as liquid fingers penetrated the hatch's slit, "She's the one the Thrawns have been waiting for for three hundred years-"

The escape pod was suddenly thrown into a wormhole, and in the last light Erin saw Kane tear off a piece of his bloodstained skin and deposit it into a genetic holding tank, the label of which read, Human Removal Program - Sample #914