Purity (Pure and Tainted) (2 page)

“Why do they sit there like that?” murmured
One
.
“They aren’t even trying to escape—their life buoy is still attached.”

“Maybe it’s disabled,” Three said. “Sensors show an increase in
heart rates among all aboard. Clearly they fear us.”

“As they should.”
K raised her voice and addressed them
all. “Purge squad, are you ready for battle?”

They answered as one. “We are ready, Commander. We fear nothing.
We feel nothing.”

“Good.” K pressed the pressure tab behind her right ear. The cowl
of her skinsuit slid over her face, forming an airtight seal that doubled as a
helmet. She could see out but no one else could see in. Her features were completely
obscured allowing her to be the faceless, anonymous instrument of Purity she had
been born and bred to be. “Let’s go.”

The squad moved smoothly into formation around her and K heard the
hum of their weapons being primed. She carried no external machines of death herself.
The plasma gauntlets strapped over the forearms of her skinsuit were more
powerful than any pulse pistol or smart gun. They were so deadly, in fact, that
only a fourth level Paladin or higher could control them effectively. K thumbed
them on and felt the familiar sharp pain as the needles in her suit dug into her
flesh. Immediately she was flooded with the cool nothingness of Purity, all her
emotions utterly purged at once.

This is how it will be,
she thought as the squad marched
through the metal corridor that led to the airlock. Their pneumodrill had
already bored a hole in the side of the Erian ship and they had only to cross
over and take them.
When I am fifth
level, when I have passed the trials and I stand at the High Sentinel’s right
hand. When my eyes are perfectly black without even the thinnest ring of white,
I will never feel again. I will be as cold as space.
Filled
with Purity.

The thought brought neither sadness nor satisfaction with it which
was just as it should be. The High Sentinel had been right—K
was
ready for her fifth level trials.
She was closer to Purity than even she had suspected. And after she purged the
Erians and fed their bodies to the cleansing blackness of deep space, she would
return home and embrace it completely.

The airlock cycled with a hiss and the purge squad assumed fighting
stances all around her. K stood solid and steady, taller than all of them, even
the males, and readied herself for the assault. The lock swung open, revealing
the gaping, jagged hole in the hull of the Erian ship. And then—

K shook her head as the memory dissolved into blurs and blackness.
What had happened to her? How had she gone from her own ship with her purge
squad in formation around her and the familiar safety of her skinsuit to
this
? Naked and possibly contaminated in
the middle of this bare little room with only her own image in the inactive
viewscreen for company. The dull, dented silver door panel had a blinking red
light at its top—a clear indication that it was locked. If she’d had her suit
and plasma gauntlets she could’ve blasted through it with no problem. As it
was, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do.

Have to find a way out of here. K
slid off the table and tried to
stand on shaky legs. The long black braid of her hair uncoiled from the base of
her neck with the motion and slid over one shoulder. Silky ends brushed against
the bare skin of her wounded thigh, making her wince. She couldn’t remember the
last time she’d felt anything but her suit’s protective webbing in that area.

From her first fitting at the age of nine cycles the skinsuit had
never left K’s body. It grew with her, hardening into armor that kept her safe
in battle and molding itself to the contours of her body to cradle her at
night. It fed her nutrients through its needles and kept her hydrated even in
the driest conditions. K looked longingly down at her forearms. A row of tiny
white scars ran up the inside of each one, reminding her of her loss. Already
she missed the comforting sting of her suit’s injections.

Where is it? I’d have a lot better
chance of getting out of here if I had it on.
Yes,
and the skinsuit would hide the
stitches that marked her as possibly contaminated. No one would ever have to
know…

Immediately K was ashamed of her thoughts. If she had been
contaminated by the touch of another she would have to be cleansed—a rigorous
and painful process performed in the temple
of Purity on the Purist
home world of Athena. The priests of Purity—the Sage-kind—would execute the
necessary ritual. Unless, of course, there had been prolonged contact in which
case no cleansing was possible.

K shivered and pushed the thought away. She looked at her thigh
again. How much time had it taken to place that long row of orderly black
stitches? Whose hand had done the deed? On Athena a medical mechanoid would
have done the work but K didn’t think that was the case here. The stitches were
neat but not completely uniform—there were tiny variations in the length and
spacing that indicated a human touch. And it wasn’t just the stitches. Who had
removed her suit? How much had they touched her to get it off?
Can’t worry about that now.
Have to find it and get out of here.

Leaving the sturdiness of the exam table took more effort than K liked.
Why was she so weak? Her head throbbed and the room spun around her,
threatening to throw her down on the scuffed metal floor. More through force of
will than anything else she managed to stay upright—barely. She stumbled a few
short steps across the room and reached for the nearest set of metal cabinets,
grimly determined to conduct her search. Yanking them open she found plenty of
medical supplies—gauze pads, hemolysers, insti-coagulents—all wrapped in
plasti-seal, but no suit. Swearing under her breath, K moved methodically to
the next set of cupboards and found more of the same.

She was shivering continuously now and not only from cold.
Something was wrong—she needed her suit.
They
must have put it somewhere
…
it has to
be here somewhere…

“If you’re looking for your suit it isn’t here.”

The deep voice behind her made K’s heart jump. She whirled around
unsteadily and had to grab the nearest counter to stop from falling. She looked
up…and up and up. The man standing in the doorway had to be almost three meters
in height with the heavy musculature to match his massive frame. Spiky brown
hair framed the light-on-white eyes of the Impure—his irises were a strange
bluish-green color K had never seen before. But it wasn’t his eyes that worried
her as much as his size. His shoulders were more than twice as broad
as her own
and his huge hands were balled into fists at his
sides. There was only one thing he could be.

A giant.

Chapter Two

Boone frowned as he took her in. Her long black braid swayed past
her thighs and her lean, pale frame was more asexual than female, despite her
delicate facial features. Aside from the strange black-on-black eyes, he found
himself surprised all over again that she looked so ordinary without the damned
suit that had covered her body in fibers as sticky as a spider’s web.

Growing up, he’d heard horror stories about the Paladins, the
elite warrior class of the Purists who inhabited Athena. How they were
ruthless, emotionless killing machines, perfectly trained and completely
unstoppable. And yet, without the suit, they were just like any of the other
littles that inhabited the other planets in the Prometheus system. Or this one
was, anyway. She was so slight that without her protective covering she
reminded Boone of a hairless cat, one of the few species from Earth-that-was to
thrive on his home planet.

Of course, not many animals from the original home world had been
able to withstand life on Colossus. It was a heavy G planet with gravity that
was twice Earth normal, forcing those that chose it to adapt or die. Over the
centuries since the original migration, his people had changed in order to live
there. The inhabitants of Colossus were about thirty percent bigger than what
was considered Earth normal, with the huge bone structure and heavy musculature
that was necessary to survive in their demanding new environment. Boone was no
exception and his size was nothing special on his home world. But from the way
the Paladin’s black-on-black eyes widened, he wondered if he was the first giant
she had ever seen.

“I said it’s not here.” He lowered his voice, trying to make it a
little softer and less threatening. She probably thought he was here to kill
her—and with good reason. Her fellow Paladins had done considerable damage and shot
several of Boone’s crew before they’d been able to take them out. The murdering
bastards were all dead now—all but the pilot who had gotten away and this one,
standing naked and shaky before him.

“Where did you put it? Give it to me—
now.
” Her demanding tone was at odds with the way she was
shivering.

Boone smirked. “I don’t think you’re in any position to be making
demands, darlin’.”

“What have you done with it? And what did you do to me?” She nodded
down at her inner right thigh and the row of black stitches it had taken him
almost half an hour to place.

Boone frowned.
“Had to cut it off you in order
to stitch you up.
And that’s
all
I
did,” he added, seeing the look on her face. “I’m a physician, not a damn
pervert.”

“You
cut
it? You cut my
suit?” The expression on her face was neutral but the tone of her voice was the
same as though he’d announced he’d had to amputate one of her arms for her own
good.

Boone took a step toward her, hands outstretched in what he hoped
was a nonthreatening gesture. The table was still between them and he wanted to
get closer in case she fell. “Take it easy, I didn’t destroy it—it’s just going
to be out of commission for a little bit while it regenerates.”

“Where is it?”

“Some place safe. You’ll get it back later if you cooperate. Look,
I
had
to cut it. You’d nicked your
femoral artery and I had to get to it fast or you would have bled out.”

“So you did this?” She nodded down at the stitches again. “Not a
mechanoid?”

He nodded. “Yeah, not my neatest work, I’ll admit, but you littles
are so damn tiny and like I said, I was in a hurry.” Then her words sank in. “Where
the hell would I find a mechanoid that could do such a delicate procedure?”

“We have them.” Her voice was faint.
“On Athena.
The mechanoids there do everything.”

“Must be nice.”
Boone took another step toward
her. “Now look, darlin’, you need to sit down. You’ve lost a lot of blood and—”

“Stay back, don’t touch me!” She seemed to be keeping herself on a
tight leash but Boone could see a thin ring of white all around the edges of
her black-on-black eyes, betraying her panic.
Well, so much for Paladins being emotionless. You’re scaring the shit
out of her, Boone—great going.

“Look, I’m not gonna hurt you,” he tried to reassure her. “But
you’re pretty damn shaky and you need to sit down.”

“Just tell me how long it took to put them in. How long were we
in…in physical c-contact?” She seemed to be having a hard time getting the
words out and not just because her teeth had started chattering.

“What does it matter?” Boone took another step toward her.

“Stay back!” She tried to back away and fell.

* * * * *

“Shit!” K heard him say. He ran to where she lay on the cold metal
floor jittering like a broken thing, her muscles seizing and locking. Her
stomach rolled and her eyes blurred. Her vision had narrowed down to a
pinpoint.

“Christ, what the hell is going on with you? Hang on.” His voice
sounded concerned instead of angry but K didn’t care anymore—couldn’t care. She
was too busy shaking herself apart.

She heard him rummaging around in one of the cabinets and then
something sharp stabbed her in her upper arm. The pain was unexpected but she
locked her jaw against it, refusing to cry out.
I fear nothing, I feel nothing. I fear nothing, I feel nothing.
She
chanted the Paladin’s code over and over in her head, trying to get control of her
mutinous body. She guessed he must have given her a drug to stop whatever was
happening to her but so far it wasn’t working.

“Damn it, what the hell’s wrong?” she heard him muttering. “Those
are the strongest anti-seizure meds I’ve got. They should have worked.”

“What’s going on? What’s wrong with her?” The new voice in the
room barely registered. Through her new tunnel vision K saw a pair of dainty
white and gold boots, much smaller than the huge black clodhoppers the giant
was wearing. They were just at eyelevel and right in front of her or she
couldn’t have seen them at all.

“She’s seizing. You didn’t tell me removing the suit would fuck
her up this badly.”

“I didn’t know. I’ve never seen this kind of reaction before. It’s
almost like…”

“Like what?”

“No, that wouldn’t make any sense. Never mind, just get her up—on
the table.”

Huge hands bigger than K’s head reached out for her.
Bare
hands.
And
she was still as naked as the day she’d come from the artificial womb.
No!
She cried out weakly and tried to
roll away but there was no place to go.

“Hold still, I’m not gonna hurt you.” The giant’s voice was
exasperated and oddly gentle, as though he was talking to a hurt animal which
was basically what she had been reduced to. As his hands touched her bare flesh
K felt as though every muscle in her body was contracting at once.
Contaminated,
her mind babbled.
Purity
help
me,
contaminated!

But the strangest thing happened. Around her shoulders and back
and under her knees where she could feel his hands and arms, the muscles began
to unclench. Wherever he touched her the horrible seizing pain suddenly stopped.
It didn’t matter though—K preferred the pain.
Would rather
have it a thousand times worse than it was now than to have his hands on her
for even a micron.

“Don’t touch me!” she gasped as the giant lifted her. “Don’t…
contaminated
.”

“What the hell is she talking about?” the giant rumbled.

“They don’t like to be touched without their suits. Or
with
them, come to that,” the second
voice answered.

“That must be why she kept asking if I’d touched her or not. Take
it easy, darlin’. I’m putting you down.”

K felt the cold metal of the table against her back again but then
the second voice said, “Wait.”

“What, Loki? I don’t have time for this. I need you to hold her
while I try a different drug.”

“You don’t need any other drug. Look—she’s getting better. She’s
not jerking as much. See?”

Two faces leaned over her. The giant’s and another that was much
smaller. K couldn’t tell if it was male or female but the eyes were a brilliant
green with gold rings around the outer edge of the irises. They were set in a
sharp, cat-like face and surrounded by a halo of dark red hair. Both of them
studied her intently and dispassionately as she struggled to keep hold of herself
and remember her training. She had to be strong, had to survive.
But Purity help me, he’s touching me.
Then,
mercifully, the giant’s hands were withdrawn, leaving her alone on the cold
metal table.

At once her muscles began contracting again and she thrashed
helplessly, nearly falling off the narrow surface.

“Shit! She’s at it again. Hold her while I get a shot of—”

“No shots, Boone,” the one called Loki said. “Just touch her.”

“What? You said she didn’t want to be touched,” the giant
protested. “Besides what she needs is—”

“What she needs is to be touched. Do it,
now
.”

“May I remind you that
I’m
the
physician here, Loki and
you’re
the fucking
pilot,” the giant grumbled but then K felt his hands on her again, pressing
down on her shoulders and knees to keep her from thrashing off the table and
onto the floor.

“No!” she gasped weakly. “
No
.”
Despite her protests, she felt the pain easing where he touched. Her stomach
was still tied in knots and her vision was blurred but she no longer felt like her
body was turning itself inside out.

K didn’t care. She wanted the pain back and his hands
off
.

“You may be the Goddess damned physician, Boone, but I’m the one
from Eros.” Loki sounded smug. “I know touch deprivation when I see it and
she’s got the worst case I’ve ever seen.”

“Touch deprivation? Thought only you Erians got that,” the giant,
whose name was apparently Boone protested. “She’s a Purist.”

“Purist or not, she’s got it all right.
Got it
bad
.
Look, she’s still having a
hard time. It’ll be better if you take off your shirt and hold her.”

“What?” Boone sounded shocked—almost as unwilling to touch her as
K was to be touched.

“Skin-to-skin contact is the only thing that eases it. You don’t
do it, she could die.”

“Why me though?” The hands left her for a minute and K heard a
rustling sound. She turned her head to see a broad, muscular expanse of tan
skin being revealed as Boone removed the dark red shirt he’d been wearing.
Bare
skin.
More
bare skin than she’d ever seen in her life. K felt like she was going to die.
Wished
she could die.

The one called Loki shrugged—an effeminate, almost cat-like
gesture. “You touched her first. She’s imprinted on you.”

“
Imprinted
on me? Oh
great—this just gets better and better.” But despite his protests, Boone
scooped her up again. Before K could try to get away he was cradling her in his
arms, her entire right side pressed against his bare chest.

“No, please. Purity
help
me, please
no
.” Her voice was little more than a
whisper and to her horror, she actually felt a lump in her throat. She hadn’t been
subject to such strong emotions since before she had first been fitted for her skinsuit.
Somehow she choked the unwanted feelings down and tried to make her voice dispassionate.
“Let me go.”

“Can’t, darlin’.
Much as I hate to admit it, seems
like Loki’s right about this. You do better when I’m touching you.” Boone
peered down at her, his blue-green eyes filled with a mixture of irritation and
concern. “Don’t worry that I’m getting off on it, though. I don’t want to be
near you anymore than you want to be near me.”

“Put me…put me down.” K struggled weakly against him. The wall of
his chest was solid and warm and his scent was like nothing she had ever
smelled—spicy and ineffably masculine somehow. It was very different from the
bland smell of
her own
suit-cleaned skin.
Vital.
Alive.
Bare
.
Contaminated
.
Contaminated beyond hope
of cleansing.
They’ll have to purge me. I should purge myself.

The thought penetrated her brain with a finality that made her
stop struggling and go limp. Her head dropped against Boone’s chest and she
heard a slow, steady drumming in her ear. At first she couldn’t think what it
was and then K realized it must be his heart. A random thought skittered across
her brain.
Never been
close enough to anyone to hear their heartbeat.

No, and she had never wanted to be either. The very thought of
this much skin-to-skin contact was alien to her.
Unthinkable.
Deplorable.
And yet it was happening and there was no
way she could stop it. She, Commander K, who had always been so strong and in
control of
herself
was suddenly too weak and sick to
avoid contamination.