Star Covenant

Chapter 1: Quantum Wedding Rings and Mechanical TentaclesErin stood under a holographic projection of a galactic dome, her nano wedding dress refracting the streaming light of the Sagittarius Nebula.She gazed at the quantum wedding ring on her ring finger—a masterpiece of Alliance technology with an embedded microchip that was currently reading her biodata and synchronizing her heartbeat rate to her strange husband ten meters away."By Article 17 of the Earth-Alliance Genetic Optimization Agreement, the newlyweds are invited to exchange consciousness codes."The AI emcee's voice echoed over the ruins of St. Peter's Cathedral. Kane Vesta's mechanical prosthetic eyes flashed with streams of data as he held Erin's wrist instead of her palm and stabbed a black chip into her wrist. Sharp pain sent Erin staggering into his chest, only to smell a strange metallic sweetness - from the translucent tentacles extending from his spine, where the dominant traits of those alien genes were glowing a dangerous blue.The bridal suite was a laboratory disguised as a honeymoon cabin. Kane ripped open his collar to reveal the genetic monitoring ring under his collarbone, "Submit your oocyte activity report by 07:00 daily."Erin smashed the petri dish, light blue cloned embryo fluid splashed onto the wedding ring, and the quantum communicator suddenly projected fragments of an interstellar map."You treat me like a birthing machine?"She held up the wedding ring to him, "This hides the Alliance's jump coordinates."Kane's tentacles snapped taut, his mechanical prosthetic eyes switching to battle mode red. Alarms tore through the silence as the hexagonal energy matrix of a Thrawn warship flashed out of the porthole.Kane's tentacles instinctively wrapped around Erin's waist as the blast of air toppled the lab module. They slammed into the escape pod in weightlessness, and Erin's back brushed against the fluorescent slime secreted by the tentacles, and the wound healed instantly."Hold on tight!"Kane flung her into the pilot's seat, exposing himself to the pod against the Thrawn's plasma beams. Erin glimpsed the genetic coding surfacing on the back of his neck-exactly the same as the star map projected by his wedding ring.The escape pod plummeted into the ruins of the undersea city in the Pacific Ocean with only 3% oxygen left. Kane ripped open the pressurized suit and pressed Erin against the bulkhead, tentacles wrapping around her legs to form a protective exoskeleton."Breath-sharing mode activated."He bit the tip of his tongue and the oxygen-rich cells of his hybrid blood were ferried into her mouth. Erin tasted a rust-flavored heartbeat in near-death vertigo as the quantum wedding ring suddenly overheated, branding burn marks between their lips.When the rescue team broke into the cabin, they saw only Erin floating alone in the seawater-filled cockpit. The wedding ring on her ring finger disappeared, while Kane's genetically encoded totem surfaced at her collarbone. The swarm of mechanical jellyfish in the undersea city suddenly turned en masse and spelled out the Thrawn warning, [The Queen has awakened] with their tentacles.