Found(34)

One which caught her eye looked like an ant farm but all the insects had human-looking heads and were wearing clothes. Another frame appeared to contain fireflies with colored neon lights. They formed a picture of Lauren’s face as Xairn rushed her past. Her eyes, depicted in the fireflies’ brilliant yellow glow, followed them down the hallway.

“Wait a minute,” she protested. “Did you see that? It was amazing! Can’t we go back and look?”

Xairn shook his head. “There is no time. We’ve already kept Slk waiting long enough. Every parsec his price rises.”

“Sorry.” Lauren made more of an effort not to drag her feet, even though she was dying to examine the other strange things on the walls.

Soon enough the hallway opened up into a huge area that looked like a cross between a laboratory and a throne room. There were rich looking tapestries on the walls but there were also tables filled with strange equipment and cages housing even stranger looking animals. Some looked vaguely familiar to Lauren—A monkey crossed with a fish? What the hell? A miniature giraffe with a shell like a turtle? How does it get its neck all the way in?

“It doesn’t.”

The voice which answered her question startled Lauren so much she nearly jumped out of her skin. Looking around, she saw that what she had taken for another one of the strange, hybrid animals was actually the one who had spoken.

“I…I’m sorry?” she said, looking at the strange creature. It had a vaguely humanoid face but its eyes were vertical ovals instead of horizontal and it had three of them—two where human eyes normally were and one on its broad forehead. Its nose was a mere indentation and its mouth was a mass of purple tentacles. If that is a mouth, Lauren thought doubtfully.

“It is, in fact, my oral cavity. I use it to speak and also to consume comestibles,” the creature said, speaking again in that same, deep, resonant tone. Lauren imagined it was what an elephant would sound like if it could speak English.

“How can you read my thoughts?” she demanded, looking at it. She turned to Xairn. “I thought you said he wasn’t a thought thief.”

“I am not.” The creature—which she supposed must be Slk—rose from the throne-like chair it had been sitting in and slithered over to them. It had a human-seeming torso but from it sprouted four arms with two hands each. Its legs were simply a mass of purple-grey tentacles. “I do not use the thoughts of others against them,” it said as it came to a stop a good deal closer than Lauren really liked. “But I cannot help hearing them and responding in kind. Especially when I sense curiosity about myself.”

Xairn gave a short, formal bow. “This is Lauren, the Earth female I told you about, Slk. Her DNA must be altered in order for her to return to her home planet in safety.”

“And you want your own altered as well, I believe?”

Xairn nodded. “Yes.”

“What you ask is not an inexpensive procedure.” All three of Slk’s vertical eyes blinked slowly in unison.

“I am aware of that,” Xairn said grimly. “Though I still don’t fully understand why. All we’re asking is a simple alteration.”

“The procedure itself will be exceedingly simple,” Slk acknowledged. “But finding a match for your female’s DNA will be well nigh impossible. She is an exotic of the first order. Of course, if you do not mind altering her appearance and physical capabilities, I can use less compatible genes.”

“What do you mean ‘less compatible’?” Lauren put a hand to her throat.

Slk made a strangely fluid motion which appeared to be his version of a shrug. “It depends on which strains I choose to mix into your double helix. If I use neenya genes you might grow gills and webbed appendages. Of course, the advantage to that would be that you could live in an underwater environment. Or I could use brrn DNA. But that would cause you to grow a thick coat of soft, purple fur. Advantageous if you live in an extremely frigid climate. Otherwise, it might be considered something of a nuisance.”

“Yeah, that might put a little bit of a damper on my social life,” Lauren said flatly. “Not to mention the money I’d have to spend on laser hair removal since I live in a subtropical climate.”

“Ahh, hmmm,” Slik hummed thoughtfully. “In that case, brrn genes would not be the optimal choice. If you like I could use pardock strains instead. That would cause all your body and head fur to fall out and your sweat glands to enlarge rendering you smooth and most efficient in elevated temperatures.”

Lauren shivered. “No thanks!” She looked at Xairn. “I hate to be negative but I’m beginning to think I’d rather take my chances and go back to Earth as-is.”