The Kinship of Stars by Julie Ishaya

Author:Julie Ishaya [Ishaya, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Geeknugget Studios
Published: 2014-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

They took him down a winding stairwell lit by dim energy sconces that emitted a chorus of buzzes. He got his feet under him, allowed the guards to do the rest of the steering. The pain in his head died to a low throb. The steps ended on a wide landing boxed in by the stone walls and a multitude of those slimy, crawling neural vines.

The door ahead slid up, revealing a field like the one in Kieriell's cell chamber. Moments later, it faded out, and Kieriell blinked his eyes into focus. The guards dragged him into the expansive room, and he almost stopped breathing in defense against the strong chemical odor that met him. The circular chamber wall was covered with the thick neural vines, winding in and out of each other, veined on their fleshy surfaces. Some were more grotesque, swollen and glossy as if filled with fluid. Ropier vines tangled over the fat ones, contoured around each other. A mechanical apparatus, installed in the ceiling, supported various tube modules that looped down and up from its exposed circuitry.

Following the guards and the captive, the kai gestured to several Shiv working around the room at consoles that emerged from the vines as though half-swallowed into the wall. He spoke in rapid Shiv, hissing various words.

Kieriell craned his head around as far as he could to see the others. They wore black skinsuits overlaid with matching black tabards tied at the waist with sashes. Some had the addition of a utility belt with pouches and tools. Many had hair cropped close to the skull so that their long ears were accentuated.

Kieriell turned his attention to the walls again and found that the vines parted in several sections where screens were installed. The largest of the screens was divided into six sections, each alive with a view of a membranous, pulsing object inside a pinkish, fleshen chamber. He had seen the neural core of the Dyssian tabernacle enough to know that he was looking at something similar. Gleaming trunks of vines branched out from the thing and joined with the walls of the chamber. Tubes and wires fed the core the nutrients and electrical flow necessary to keep it operative.

Overall, the structure looked tattered. There were brown pits in the surface that resembled bruises, and remnants of the outer tissue hung torn along some of the wires which had apparently snapped and never been removed for the possibility of disrupting more of the tissue. The Dyssian core was far healthier than this pathetic construct, which hung onto life as its creators forced it.

Kieriell recalled the psionic event two and a half years ago, which had brought him and Rai Jinn to meet, and ultimately led to this whole abduction. It had all begun with this sad, corrupted thing.

Before Kieriell could ponder it further, he was pulled toward an area of the wall where the population of vines extended outward and looped back. He cried out as the clothes were stripped from him, his limbs pulled in each direction.

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