Chapter 7
Hali was not just a tall woman. She was a giantess. She had to be eight feet tall, and perfectly proportioned, not tall and gangly. And even as big as all the doorways were, she had to duck to pass through. She would have to more than duck to come aboard Onuka. She would likely be able to stand only on the flight deck. She was professionally dressed, trousers, long sleeve shirt with mandarin collar, and boots. She had a team with her.
“May my repair team board Onuka,” Hali asked.
Lilith chuckled. “She speaks funny,” she explained to Jon.
“They’re not going to do any funny business, are they?” Jon asked.
“They are bio-engineers,” Hali said. “Not comedians.” “Are they clones?” Jon asked.
“They are not,” Hali said. “Captain, I assure you, we would not in any way jeopardize the ship or your life. This is a very expensive commodity, and the process for linking pilot and ship is extremely delicate. You returned to your nesting site in under two months. You appear to have good data. We want you.”
“And, if it’s your coordinates are where we think it is, it has great strategic value,” the man next to her said. “Captain Harister, my name is Admiral Rotan Keets. That system is maybe seven thousand light years from the nearest Kelindy outpost. Both we and they have been doing a slow push towards that system, kind of a race if you will, but you got there by a blind jump.
You sell us these coordinates, we win.”
“Could that not also escalate hostilities between you and the Kelindy?” Lilith asked.
“You’re really smart,” Jon said.
“Oh, thank you, Jon,” Lilith said, hugging his arm and drawing closer to him.
“This is why Biocorp thinks it’s a bad idea to sell these coordinates to the militia,” Hali said. “We are already having difficulty with Kelindy. And if they know, and there is reason to believe they do know or that they will know, that you kidnapped one of their citizens, this could damage already tenuous relations between Biocorp and the Kelindy.”
“Wait wait wait,” Loxy said in Jon’s ear. “They think you kidnapped Lilith?” “I didn’t kidnap Lilith,” Jon said.
“Why would they think that?” Lilith said.
“All species within the domain of the Kelindy Protectorate are considered property,” Hali said.
“I don’t agree with that philosophy,” Jon said.
“Most humans don’t,” Keets said. “Seeing how Earth is part of the Kelindy Protectorate.”
“So, you bought me from the Kelindy?” Jon asked.
“Are we going to do this here, or with the arbitrator?” Hali asked.
“Arbitrator,” Jon said.
“Follow us,” Hali said.
Jon and Lilith stepped off Onuka and onto the Indigo Station proper. It was a bridge that extended away from the station that Onuka had latched onto with its mouth, making a seal. Jon had found it interesting and kind of scary at the same time, wondering what would happen if Onuka sneezed. The moment Jon and Lilith stepped onto the station, and alarm Klaxon began to sound. The warriors accompanying Keets drew their weapons, and immediately pointed at Lilith.
Jon pulled her behind him, backing them back into the ship.
“She is not human,” Hali said.
“Um, no,” Jon said. “Neither are you. Are you?”
“This could be a problem,” Hali said, speaking to someone not there. “I know that, but…” She smiled pleasantly at Jon. “Please, tell me, you did not allow this vampire to feed on your blood.”
“Ummm, I cannot tell you that,” Jon said.
The militia put away their weapons. Hali looked to them as if they were crazy.
“If she is bonded with Jon, then she is not a threat to us,” Keets said.
“She’s a vampire. What if Jon dies?” Hali asked.
“Why would Jon die?” Lilith asked.
“He’s a clone. He is programed to die,” Keets said.
“Seriously?” Jon asked.
“As long as you return to receive you annual injections, you will live a long and healthy life,” Hali said.
“Seriously?” Jon asked.
“We have to insure a return on our investment,” Hali said.
“I am not an investment,” Jon snapped.
“Oh,” Lilith and Loxy both said. “You have value to us.” “Your value is going up all the time,” Keets asked.
“OMG, I hate working with clones,” Hali said.
“So, why did you clone me?” Jon asked.
Hali sighed. “Let’s retire to the conference room.”
There was a food table in the conference room which Lilith went crazy over and immediately began making a plate.
“I thought vampires don’t eat,” Hali said.
“Oh, this is for Jon,” Lilith said. She shoved something visually interesting into his mouth while saying: “OMG, try this.” She watched his expression in high expectation, and swallowed as if she could taste it. “That is absolutely lovely!” She threw more of those onto plate.
“Wait,” Jon said with his mouth full. He finished what was in his mouth. “You can taste what I taste?”
“Absolutely,” Lilith said.
“Everything?” Jon asked. “Everything,” Lilith said.
“Everything?!” Jon asked.
“Yes, Jon,” Lilith said. “We are genetically bonded. We are emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually bonded. We are one creature. It is only natural I would be affected by what you eat, and so it’s my job to make sure you eat well. That said, those little nanite things may have hyper-inflated that telepathic taste channel.”
“I am glad it’s a one way channel,” Jon said.
Lilith kissed him. “Go sit down, I will be right there.”
Jon made his way to the table and the spot arranged for him and Lilith. There were quite a few people in the room. They were all watching him as if he were an alien. It took a moment to be introduced to everyone. There were lawyers representing Biocorp, the militia, the pilots union, and the clone union. There was the arbitrator, a huge blue woman with tentacles that reminded Jon of the Fifth Element Opera singer. There was a representative of the state specializing in clone rights, and a government representative for alien rights, and there was a priest and a priestess from a local religious group ready to provide sanctuary to Lilith. The priest and the priestess made it abundantly clear they were not happy that Jon had enslaved Lilith through a blood bond.
“Oh, he didn’t enslave me. I bonded with him while he was unconscious,” Lilith said, putting the plate of food in front of Jon, along with a drink. She sat in his lap, put an arm around his neck, and started feeding him.
“I am not pleased to know you enslaved my Biocorp client,” Hali said.
“Lilith, slow down, I am going to get fat,” Jon said.
“You’re eating for two, Papa,” Lilith reminded.
“Did she just refer to you as a father figure?” the priest asked. “This is outrageous.”
“Is that against the rules?” Lilith asked. Keets tried to hide his amusement.
“Hyper-sexuality could be a clone defect,” the clone representative said.
“Or a byproduct of the blood bond,” the priestess said.
“Or the fact you made a clone of a person who experienced hyper-sexuality due to past trauma, and who is from a consumer producer culture that is already hyper-sexualized,” Jon said.
“The cloning process could have exaggerated that gene complex due to multiple triggering vectors,” Hali said. “I request legal guardianship of the clone, seeing that he could be a danger to himself and others.”
“Hyper sexuality is not something that would warrant legal guardianship,” the clone lawyer said.
“Jon, cooperate with me, and I could make it worth your while,” Hali said.
Jon sorted her statement, almost choking. Lilith hit his back, surprising hard, and he nearly spit everything out of his mouth. He didn’t have to wonder if she was suggesting what he thought she was saying, as the reaction from several, especially Keets and the priest were disapproving. If he had been negotiating with her in private, he would have accepted. Yay for people present!
Lilith looked at Jon. “Did you just get a rise out of that?” “She’s a giantess,” Jon said.
“This negotiation is unfair,” Lilith said. “My partner has a weakness for females. Tall females. And aliens. And…”
“Pretty much everything in a skirt,” Jon said.
“Oh, that’s nice to know,” Lilith said.
“I am sorry,” Jon said.
“No worries. I am just a little more selective than you, but not judging,” Lilith said. She whispered in his ear. “I am curious how blue people taste, though. See if you can hook up with the arbitrator.”
Keets coughed. “If we could get back to negotiating for the live coordinates,” he said.
“Didn’t we invite the STC girl here??”
“I am.” This came from a person who had not been introduced, sitting between him and Keets. She was gender non-specific in appearance and dress, and rather a train wreck of a person that made it hard to look away, as you were stuck trying to figure out what gender the person was.
“Umm, you’re…” Jon said, but that was he could say. The person voice sounded female, but what he saw was so ambiguous that he was at loss.
“In transition,” she said.
“Oh! Post op? How’s it going?” Jon asked.
The person indicated no with a head shake. “Not post off. My species cycles through genders. I am presenting in between. The between state is the respite from the madness, a time of greater clarity of emotional and intellectual thought… “Oh,” Jon said.
“Why I was I invited?” the person asked.
“To be honest? You sounded nice,” Jon said. “Like nice, attractive wise. And you were helpful. And I need some friends. And a witness to this event sounded good. I didn’t expect there would be this many people here.”
“This is a big deal,” the person said. “Are you disappointed?”
“No! Yes. No. I am glad you’re here,” Jon said. “Really. Yay.”
“So I am not just a witness?” the person asked. “You are interested in a relationship.”
“Clone or not, Sir, you need to put a lid on your libido,” the priest said. “You’re clearly already in a relationship with her.” He was meaning Lilith. He apparently didn’t approve of Lilith, but why Jon could only speculate.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Lilith said. “Flirting is healthy. People should be playful with each other.”
“I have been nice to you! I got you the job you always wanted,” Hali said. “And I am willing to offer you a whole lot more. More than what Keets is offering, that’s for sure.”
“At least I am negotiating fairly, not taking advantage of a clone’s weakness,” Keets said.
“Negotiating? You’re offer is a joke, given the details we know,” Hali said.
“It’s enough to buy off Jon’s clone contract and pay off his ship, making him a free agent,” Keets said.
“You just want to mechanize him and make him a military scout ship,” Hali said. She turned to Jon, leaned into the table. She was using her looks to hold his attention. She gave clear insight to her cleavage. “Jon, your ship will continue to need maintenance. There is no way around that, for the next ten years, once a year, you and your ship will each need injections. This stuff is not cheap. While under contract with us, this is automatic, regardless of the quality of your finds. Being a free agent isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.”
Loxy was in Jon’s ear. “Ask her how she managed to clone you against your will.”
“We did not clone him against his will,” Hali said.
Jon could see Loxy biting her lip. Transmitter not yet fixed?
Hali pushed her fingers along the desk. Electronic files arrived on the desk top at every seat. Jon and Lilith could only see the desktop window in front of him. There was a written statement by Jon which was accompanied by visual-audio clip of him saying: “I swear, if I ever find a real spaceship I am so off earth and not coming back.” Jon sorted that, trying to remember when or if he had ever said that. He and Loxy arrived at the memory at the same time. He had been having a really hard day at work. Loxy was trying to cheer him up, saying as soon as they got home they could meditate themselves into nice fantasy world. He demanded real UFOs, abductions, and having lots of alien lovers from a species that needed more males.
“Ummm,” Jon said. “In context, this doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it
means…”
“Seriously? That’s all you got?” Loxy asked. “When and how were they recording this?”
“The gods heard you and granted your wish!” Lilith said.
“There are no gods,” Jon said.
“Oh!” Lilith said. “Jon, there are gods everywhere. We live in a universe of high tech. We are immersed in tech. It surrounds us, it penetrates us… It is us! It is everything.”
“Nice paraphrasing of the text,” the priestess said. “You’re a druid!” “I have studied the words of the founders,” Lilith said. Hali pushed another picture.
“Oh, yes, that’s the gods,” Lilith said. “You know them?” “Those are the Kelindy,” Hali said.
“They are not gods,” Keets said.
Jon had a realization that the Kelindy were also giants. He looked to Hali. A blond hair, big breasted, blue eyed giant. She was like Scarlett Johansson on steroids, bigger than life.
“You’re Kelindy!”
“My grandfather was full Kelindy,” Hali said.
“OMG,” Jon said. “You’re people abducted me, cloned me against my wishes, and you’re trying to keep me from selling the coordinates to the militia because…”
“Not against your wishes! You asked for this, consciously and subconsciously, and even if you suddenly started consciously saying no, no one could have abducted you if you had not made a subconscious contract for initiating contact. I am a loyal Republic Citizen and I want fair market value,” Hali said. “It is absolutely true that my Kelindy representative would pay triple what Keets is offering. Yes, I get a percentage, but it’s not about me. It about my arrangement with Biocorp. I am loyal to my company and Indigo Station.”
“Jon, if you join the pilots union, I could help negotiate a better deal,” the union lawyer said.
“Oh, I have had my share of unions and though I like the principle of the thing, well, short to suffice, you can go fuck yourself,” Jon said.
“Jon, be nice,” Loxy and Lilith said.
“I was being nice. And very clear,” Jon said. “Cause they say they want to be your friends, but they’re in cahoots with someone, and that is usually the people they pretend to be protecting you from.”
“Everyone needs someone,” the pilot union said. “We’re all in this together.”
Lilith seemed disturbed by his statement. “Jon, what he said is correct, but I don’t know that I believe him. You are right. He can go fuck himself.”
“Jon,” Hali said, ever so nicely. “Look, Biocorp has a legitimate contract with you. We are entitled to those coordinate. I could be really harsh on demanding the letter of the law, and there are more stringent ways to pursue that, but those ways are harmful to relationships and increase animosity. I am authorized by Biocorp to re-negotiate our contract with you. Surrender the coordinate to me, and your ship and your contract will be considered paid in full. You can continue to fly premium status for the company, which will include maintenance and medical. Biocorp offers the best of both, better than any market value medical, and quite frankly, you don’t want to just take a bioship to a second hand maintenance and veterinarian clinic. This is our product. We specialize in live ships. There are other benefits I am willing to provide.”
“We, also, offer benefits,” Keets said.
“Hali, what do you get out of this?” Jon asked. Hali frowned.
“Yes,” Keets said. “What do you get out of this?”
Hali gave Keets a crossed look. “The stipulation of my contract with Biocorp requires that I generate a certain sum of revenue and acquired real-estate for the company. In addition to that, in order to retire, I must have a minimum of ten active pilots flying for me, and ten active agents with a minimum of one pilot each.”
“Kind of like a pyramid scheme?” Loxy asked.
“It’s a marketing plan,” Hali said.
“Like Amway?” Jon said. “It’s a pyramid scheme.” “Is that bad?” Lilith asked.
“Does your holy book have a story about selling your soul to the devil?” Jon asked.
“Oh, your poor woman!” Lilith said.
“You should talk,” the priest said. “You are consorting with a filthy creature of the night.”
“Don’t listen to him,” the priestess said. “He is jealous that the goddess is more powerful than all his gods.”
Jon rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands. Lilith reacted. “Oh! Be nice to you.”
“My head hurts,” Jon said. Lilith instantly put her hand on his head. That was surprisingly helpful, and distracting at the same time. He tried to speak coherently. “This is convoluted. I don’t know what the right decision is.”
“That’s why you have an agent,” Hali said. “Let me do my job.”
“This system could be a game changer in terms of minimizing conflict between the Republic states and the Kelindy,” Keets said.
“The Kelindy Protectorate is a recognized state within the Repubilc,” Hali said. “Any hostilities is likely due to poor negotiating skills on both sides.”
“You guys are playing a game and I am an unwilling pawn,” Jon said.
“You signed up for this!” Hali snapped.
“Why don’t you just take it?” Jon asked. “You probably have a gene override in me and my ship.”
“We don’t operate that way, Jon,” Hali said. “We operate on good faith.”
“Basically, to avoid theft of priority data, coordinates are contained within a system: a pilot, a ship, and an AI,” Keets said. “It is the only way to guarantee security. If any one of the components is missing, or there is an unwilling participant, things get locked out really quick.” “How many clones did you make of him?” the clone lawyer asked.
“Twenty,” Hali said.
“OMG, there are twenty of me?!” Jon asked.
“There is one of you,” Hali said.
“One of me?!” Jon asked.
“And the original, still on Earth,” Hali said. “The contract with the original is that he would receive regular telepathic downloads of his experiences in space.”
“What happened to the others?” Lilith asked.
“They died when the nest light was extinguished,” Hali said.
“You killed them?!” Jon asked.
“Creating a symbiotic relationship between pilot and ship is an arduous process, requiring an increase in neural networks, specialized networks that are shared between ship, AI, and pilot.
If the pilot doesn’t leave the nest at the appropriate birthing interval, they will remain in a vegetative state for the remainder of their lives. Irradiating the nest is a mercy killing, and prevents the possibility of future ships mating and carrying on bad genes.”
“Oh! So, Onuka could have children?” Lilith asked. “Like puppies?”
“She can be bred. She has returned to Indigo Station in good time with good coordinates. Her performance over the term of the contract will determine whether or not she will be allowed to mate,” Hali said.
“You brought very good coordinates,” the person from STC said.
“Jon, I am sorry you don’t remember making this contract,” Hali began.
“Did you do regular cloning process, or flash cloning?” the clone lawyer asked.
“We needed pilots. We were short for this harvest,” Hali said.
“You flashed clone a participant that may not have known what he was getting into?” the lawyer asked.
“Flash cloning?”
“It’s like instant coffee,” Loxy said.
“Oh, that’s doesn’t sound good,” Jon said. “Why me?”
“You created a tulpa. In doing so, your implant was activated due to your unusal brain activity, you were retrieved, flash cloned, and sold to Biocorp,” Hali said. “Humans from earth make the best pilots for bioships. Humans who have mastered tulpamancy make even better pilots. Creating a secondary personality increased your neural connectivity.”
Everything Hali said after implant was ‘bla, bla, bla…’ “What implant?” Jon asked.
“All earth humans are tagged with implants for monitoring and locating,” Hali said. “All species within the Protectorate are tagged. Lilith is tagged.” “Am I still tagged?” Jon asked.
“You haven multiple implants designating you as property of Biocorp,” Hali said. “Your
Protectorate tag was not duplicated in the cloning process because you were purchased by
Biocorp.”
“I want all the tags out of me. And out of Lilith,” Jon said.
“Neither of you are free. You are Republic Citizens. You belong to Biocorp. Lilith belongs to the Protectorate. There will be repercussion for stealing property from a Kelindy planet,” Hali said.
Jon turned to the militia. “Does selling to you come with removing all locator and property identification tags?” Jon asked.
“I could throw in Citizenship,” Keets said.
“Jon,” Hali said. “Being a citizen doesn’t mean what you think it means. Being liberated doesn’t mean what you think it means. We all serve each other. Even