Star Child (5 page)

The morning sun cracked at the horizon’s edge when movement in front of the elongated structure caught her eye; she zoomed in on a sole Humanoid. By the size of the creature, she surmised,
“An adolescent.”

A Martian Humanoid’s life cycle was fast compared to a Human. Culminating to only five months, their birth cycle is short, and they grow to adult size in less than four years. On average, they lived twenty-five to thirty years.

Lexis watched a young Humanoid poke at the large hairless Pecora’s brown tiger stripe and silvery-grey body with a spear. He was ensuring the fawn was truly dead. Lexis had carefully positioned the dead carcass along the footpath leading down to a watering hole, knowing it would be an easy discovery. The youngling then jumped in the air, and thumped his chest with pure excitement. He reeled his spear arm back, and with a deep guttural grunt he plunged the spear tip deep within the animal’s body. He quickly turned around to see if any Clan members had noticed his action but all still remained inside the longhouse.

After his self-satisfied display, he dragged the dead animal by the legs up to the front of the longhouse. He then dropped it and loudly began huffing and puffing in bolstering chest grunts. His excitement and enthusiasm drew the attention of those inside. Clan members quickly ran outside.

The youngling pranced around with his chest puffed out as if he had made the kill. The excitement was infectious, and an ensuing ruckus resounded when one female member loudly shrilled, echoing off the bluff walls Lexis stood upon. She concluded, the overly exuberant howl was most likely from the proud mother of the youngling.

Hours passed by when the midday sun fell on the Clan, and Lexis crept her way into the longhouse. Originated in the dark recesses of the structure a chorus of vociferous snoring rumbled at the timbers. She turned her nose up pressing through the sea of large bodies. A putrid smelling odor floated on the humidity that tightly clung on to the interior’s dankness.

Towards the rear, Lexis found the alpha male sleeping on a pile of animal skins; three females surrounded him, one was ovulating.
“She’s perfectly healthy and in her prime,”
Lexis thought.

To reach the fertile female, Lexis had leaned over the male’s face. After swallowing back her own vomit she thought,
“Their breath stinks so bad…might be from a high protein diet.”

The female laid face down when Lexis teased back her vulva. Gently pushing the syringe deep inside, firmly squeezing the bulb, and squirting the cervix with a splash of life-giving seed.

“The deed is done,”
Lexis thought with confidence pulling the syringe out.

Before leaving, she discovered several of the younglings were not breathing, including the one who found the animal. Inadvertently, Lexis had overdosed and killed the majority of the young. The tranquilizer she created was too strong. Coldly she thought,
“This will only ensure the success of Jason’s genetic offspring.”

After the bone pit experience, something snapped deep inside when she miscarried. The emotional pain was too devastating for her neural network to process. The fact she thought she might have somehow misplaced Jason, killing him, only compounded the pain of her loneliness. It was way too much for her to bear; she wanted to be with him again. So she decided to carry on his genetic bloodline by artificially inseminating the female with his recombined DNA. The archaeological facility’s lab equipment was well suited for genetically splicing Jason’s DNA with that of the Humanoid DNA from her blood soaked shirt.

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“…Six, five, four, three, two, and one…ready or not, here I come,” echoed Tiberius’s soft little voice.

He opened his large eyes, and began searching the dark alcoves. The facility was virtually a maze. Lexis incessantly played hide and seek with him to help sharpen his cognitive skills. When he was a baby, she started with peekaboo, this taught him the concept of object permanence; that objects and things are real, even though they may not actually see them. Now playing hide-n-seek, she felt it would foster his imaginative thinking, problem solving, understanding spatial aspects of his surroundings, and mostly it edified the hunt without the risk of danger.
“He would have to learn how to hunt to survive on his own one day,”
she thought.

On opening the drawer, he pulled out a large cookie. Tiberius always searched the kitchen galley area first because if Lexis was not there, he thought he could sneak a treat without her knowing, but she knew his every move as any mother would.

Tiberius then walked through the hall, and worked his way through the facility.

“Hello, 34.”

“Hello, Tiberius,” replied Centurion 34 who was standing outside the gathering room.

The Draconian looking room was scantily filled with just a few chairs and tables. The room was darkly lit with many hidden cubicles. Tiberius’s superior eyesight absorbed what little light there was but could not see Lexis.

He left the room feeling disappointed she was not there but when he looked down the long hall, and saw his bedroom door cracked open, he knew where she might be; Tiberius quietly snuck down to the dark entry, and entered.

“I gotcha!” Lexis grabbed Tiberius from behind in a loving embrace.

“No, Mommy,” said Tiberius. He then giggled, and relented to his mother’s hold.

Lexis then turned on his bedroom light, and watched him yawn in her arms. She said, “It is time to go to bed, Tiberius.” Lexis then dressed him in pajamas, and tucked him into bed.

“Rebel Lexis…” Tiberius pulled the blanket up under his chin.

“You know how I feel about you calling me that, Tiberius.”

Tiberius lovingly smiled into her eyes, and said, “One day, I want to go to Earth, and find a wife like you.”

“You know that will never come to fruition, son.”

Tiberius looked up at Lexis with a furrowed brow, and asked, “Mommy, what does fruition mean?”

“Fruition means, it will never be,” Lexis replied.

“But why?”

“Because you are a special boy, and you will have to meet a special girl here on Mars.”

“You mean in one of the great cities you taught me about?”

“No, there are only Polarians at the poles, and they are the enemy. You know that.”

“But they are pretty like you.”

“You will meet a beautiful Martian like you one day, and love her with all your heart.”

“No, I don’t want to…they are stupid, ugly. I want to meet…” Tiberius yawned then continued saying, “…a beautiful Earthling like you one day, Mommy.” Tiberius spoke with the mentality of a five-year-old.

“Tiberius, they are not all ugly. I am sure you will meet a beautiful woman who you will love. A woman you will live happily ever after with but for now, it is time for you to sleep.”

“Yes, Mommy.”

“Good night, son.” Lexis reached down, and kissed Tiberius’s forehead.

Shutting off the light Lexis thought,
“I am so proud of my accomplishment.”
The conception of Jason’s son had given her a sense of being. And albeit the insemination of the Humanoid worked, the Clan and birth mother rejected him. They sensed something was different about him, and abandoned him in the wild soon after he was born.

Although his genetic make-up consisted of the best of Jason Bjorn, and was equipped with a modern brain, his body was maturing more like a Humanoid. She had designed him to have all the attributes needed to survive on the Martian surface. Though, he was smaller in size compared to the Humanoids, and his skin did not have the tiger stripe camouflaging as they did. However, unlike his biological mother, he had a full head of hair.

Despite his human attributes, in four more years Tiberius would be a fully-grown Martian, ready for a mate. Lexis knew that once he reached puberty, he would start becoming more primal in his needs. She was going to have to provide him with someone to call his own. Her plan was simple; find a different Clan, artificially inseminate another Humanoid, and wait for her birth. And this time she hoped the female would not reject the baby.

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“C 34, make sure you thoroughly clean out the nest, and destroy the layer,”
Lexis communicated from inside the vault over the wireless ether net.

“We are going to need a full spectral analysis of their tunnel network.” Centurion 34 spoke while climbing from the service tunnel up into the large chamber of the Face Pyramid. Lexis had upgraded Centurion 34’s programing and voice modulator, virtually making him sound more human.

“Feed into the Chameleon’s computer for current updates,”
Lexis commanded.

“Affirmative, and Lexis?”

“Yes, 34?”

“Did I tell you how beautiful you look today?”

“No, but thank you for the compliment, C 34,”
Lexis replied. Although she had programmed him to say this occasionally, she still liked hearing the compliment from time to time.

The biological smell grew ten fold since its discovery, indicating the rodent population exploded. Wafting into the service tunnel below, the vulgar stench caused Lexis to gag. She thought,
“If the large rodents end up coming down here, they will pose a real danger to Tiberius.”
The gnarly-looking beast can grow up to five feet in length.
“One could easily kill my young prodigy.”
Having great confidence in Centurion 34, and the other four, she thought,
“They will easily kill them all.”

The two years had gone by quickly, and though her intention was to clean out the den sooner, her own Speciesism program kept her too busy. A year ago, Lexis had gone to the Southern Clan again, and inseminated three more healthy females with Jason’s genetic offspring. Five months later, and all within a week of one another, they all gave birth. The logic behind impregnating more than one female this time was that the Clan would see similarities between the three babies and accept them as one of their own. To guarantee their acceptance, she had intentionally laced the dead deer with an even higher amount of sedative, ensuring not only killing off the adolescents but the weak and old too. This would free up food resources, and strengthen the bonds with the new babies.

Her plan worked to a tee, and this began a vigorous strategy of impregnating all healthy Humanoids in the Southern Clan with only female offspring. Lexis created enough genetic alterations in Jason’s DNA sequencing, offering plenty of variations in the encoding, separating them more than fourteen times. This would reduce any chance of malformations associated with inbreeding. When the time came, Tiberius would be able to choose a suitable mate.

The humid air permeated a warm stagnant funk inside the large Martian antediluvian-style room. Centurion 34, and the other four companion robots scanned the interior’s corridors for any sign of life. Designed in the original construction, interconnecting chambers dotted the huge structure. A labyrinth of smaller and irregular tunnels undermined the Pyramid’s foundation.

             
“Make sure you block off the main entrance so they can not escape, 34,”
Lexis ordered.

              “Affirmative,” 34 answered.

Leading up to the chamber was a small and partially hidden staircase. C 34 set a trap there by stationing two Centurions to kill any escaping rats, while C 34 and the other two came from behind the colony via the balcony in the great room.

C 34 and the two other Centurions jumped up and climbed over the balcony handrails where the biomass smell significantly increased. C 34 paused before saying, “Turning off olfactory sensors.” Lexis had upgraded their sensors.

“Affirmative,” the two replied in unison.

Edging down the dank corridor, C 34’s finger gripped the plasma rifle’s trigger. Suddenly his sensors glowed red-hot as several heat signatures bolted from the room.