Starbleached Read Online Free PDF Page B

feeding process is very intense. They can’t just drop a
victim and expect them to survive. Newly created slaves require days of TLC
just to function physically. And all the evidence we can gather says they give
it to the slaves in spades.”
    “What about people in…in Abram’s situation?”
    Paige took a deep breath, like someone about to jump off a
cliff. “You’ll need to get Bryan or Mich to give you the full story.” She
tapped a pen on the desk, uncomfortably. “He was Michel’s best friend. They
went through basic together. Bryan…he blames himself for what happened. Hell,
we all blamed Bryan for what happened.”
    “I don’t even know what did happen.” Adry said.
    “Bryan won’t talk about it?”
    “Not to me.”
    Paige nodded. “I don’t know how it started. It was well
under way when I…” she stopped and shuddered. “The Overseers attached
this…thing to Abram’s head. It began a very slow, very painful transformation
from a human being into…” Paige swallowed, very pale.
    “Into the thing in the cryo tube, back in Bryan’s office,”
Adry said, numbly.
    “When I came on base, he was about half changed. Soft
tissues, lungs, heart, skin. The skeletal changes began, he screamed for four
days, passed out, and when he woke up the man we’d known was…gone.” Paige
sighed. “He attacked three guards and killed two of them. Snapped one neck and
he…fed on the other one. That’s why they keep giving us suicide pills every
time we leave the station. Winding up like that…I’d rather go out the air lock
without a suit. Bryan killed Abrams.” Paige shrugged. “He wouldn’t let anyone
else do it. Mich wanted to save him, wouldn’t admit that the fight was over. I
thought it would put him over the deep end. I even filed a mental health
complaint, which I haven’t withdrawn.” She shrugged. “Mich has…issues. Be
careful around him.”
    Adry nodded, shivering even though it wasn’t cold in Paige’s
office. “You know, it was all straight forward before I found out about
subsumation. You hate them, you kill them. But now that we know they can make
us into them…who’s on the other end of the bullet? Can we save them?”
    “Those questions are how soldiers get killed.” Paige sighed.
“We’re sitting on this information because we think, when it becomes common
knowledge, it’ll break us. It’s why Bryan’s working so hard. So that when the
population do find out about subsumation, we’ll have an answer. He’s leveling
the playing field for us.”
    Silence in the room. Artificial breezes fluttered the long,
sand colored curtains Paige had hung in the windows. Adry rubbed her hands
together, feeling strangely haunted. Funny. Millions of light years from Earth,
humanity still believed in ghosts. “What should I do if I get taken?” she
whispered.
    “Suicide pill.” Paige said. “Unless Bryan comes up with a
miracle.”
     
    *****
     
    Now:
    The lights were switched to human bright, and the alien left
her alone. A folding chair of human design sat at what could, possibly, be a
desk. If, that is, one ignored the glowing lights and cords of hardened
exoskeletal fiber. A canteen, an MRE and a knife sat on the seat. A clear
invitation. Cut your bonds, eat, drink, and do work for me.
    Not a prayer.
    Leaning back, she ignored the hollow throb in her gut. Not
that it was easy to avoid. There was no sunlight here, no ticking clocks.
Nothing to prove time passed at all, save for the burn in her stomach and
throat. She closed her eyes. Distraction, before she went insane. Anatomy
books. Torso, ribcage, lungs, heart, shoulder blades, shoulders. Biceps,
triceps, elbows…hands…red scars twining up wrists, opening to reveal sharp,
white teeth. No! She opened her eyes. There, in the pool of pale light,
was the knife, the bottle, and envelope of food.
    Fine. She twisted her wrists against the zip-ties. You’ll win eventually. But not yet, monster. Not yet.
    Movement behind the