Page 15 of The First Omega Made (Scales and Tails of Fate #2)

Sarge

“Space zombie.” Noel’s dry voice spoke to me in an echo-chamber haze.

“Space lizard zombie,” Merriel corrected.

Noel grunted. “Hmm.”

I made to move my hand to rub at my face—instinct taking over. My entire body spasmed and flopped around against restraints. “Wha?”

“Best you not try to move. I think there’s a synchronization period…” Noel stared at a row of view screens with pages upon pages of scribbles that I’d not known too well—until then. Naleucian cursive. “Talking is probably off the table, too.”

I wondered how he’d repaired my vessel. Serjio’s body had been my home for decades and I writhed my true form and found it stuck and pinched.

New body, who this?

I opened my eyes…eye. Lids didn’t want to cooperate. Shit.

“You’re not going to listen, so I might as well spoiler shit for you.” Noel sighed and waved a hand, sending a view screen above my head.

A bubble of flexine silicate obscured the window from full view above me, and I stared at a prone form of Shafa’s body.

Stitches and staples spidered in neat rows over my chest, already healed in places.

When I moved my true body again, I startled as the view screen above me showed Shafa flopping around in a spasm. My entire true body burned and stung.

“I’m not versed with Colthraxian biology. Is there anything I can give you that would anesthetize you?” Noel flicked his hand at a screen and scrolled through an unreasonable amount of text. He could read damn fast if his whirring eyes were any indication.

“Wahnl Akta—” When my mouth moved—so did Shafa’s.

“Eugenyl acetate,” Merriel said. “I speak fluent stoned.”

“Dosage and route of administration?” Noel searched through cabinets and hummed to himself, as cold and calculated in his movements as his counterparts. I’d never tell him so, but he held a lot of the Naleucian mannerisms. Humanity hadn’t rubbed off on him nearly enough. Maybe Vil would, though.

I fought my tongue, thick, and tried to speak.

“300ppm aerosolized in the oxygen.” Merriel’s voice practically had a smile to it.

“Wonderful.” Noel stepped out of my limited field of vision, as my head didn’t want to move. Nothing of me wanted to move. But it was okay, I was alive and… I could ask how later as the overwhelming scent of cloves drew me under.

I woke again, staring at the ceiling of the quarantine room. Trying to move was more successful than before as I clawed my way to sit up. “Merriel. Mirror, please?”

My slurred words came out in a voice I wasn’t accustomed to. Shafa’s baritone came in place of Sarge’s gravelly tones.

“Morning, Sarge.” Merriel threw up a view screen in midair, reflecting back my orange flesh, the darker patterns of burnt umber winding through it like stripes, almost. My deep-set red eyes blinked back at me, and my chest heaved, free of staples and stitches.

I traced my hand and dark nails over unblemished flesh—not even a scar. Just as Shafa had been.

“How? We cannot take over a Naleucian body.” I strained and as I tried to move my true body, to reacquaint myself, nothing happened. Just a hollow dissociation that made my stomach churn.

“Well, man, you can , but it’s the last body you’ll ever take.” Merriel silenced as I took in his words.

“The last?” My last had been two bodies ago.

“Yeah, removing Shafa from this body was hard AF, man. The body takes you over as much as you take it. It destroys the conscious part of the host’s brain, but you’re effectively a Naleucian. The parasite is just a separate host to your mind.”

I traced my new chest. Mine. My mind couldn’t reacquaint myself with my true form and if what Merriel said was true, there wasn’t much left of my true self to be a Colthraxian any longer.

“Yeah, your little worm body will be gone in a few solar rotations, just a little brain and some accessory organs. I don’t even think Shafa had been in that body long enough to fully host it.” Merriel changed the position of the camera as I moved to sit up fully.

“My little worm body… My true form… This is my host, but my mind says it is my body. It’s home.” Wearing Shafa’s skin fit like a glove. I had greater senses as scents and colors assaulted me.

“Yeah. Noel is coming so like, cover the dick up, dude.”

I glanced down and stared. Nice.

And my only thought was what Doc would think.

If what he’d said about how Shafa scented—I may have been fully compatible with him.

Orange hair slicked down my back, a shade lighter than my flesh, almost ginger, but coordinated into my tigerish appearance.

At the last moment, I pulled a blanket over my lap and tucked my tail with an uncoordinated gesture. So, when Noel barged in without a knock, I stared at him and hoped my face’s expression lined up with my intent. Confusion.

“Merriel fill you in?” he asked as he immediately approached me and grabbed my hair, tilting my head back.

“Ack! Yes, what are you—” I flinched as he prodded at my face and neck.

“I had to implant you into his other lung since Shafa had already laid a neural network down. Once I removed his body and flushed my venom free, it was only a matter of stimulating your space leech into chomping down onto a major artery.” His cold touch pricked along my chest as I huffed.

“Thanks for asking permission, by the way. That body was supposed to be my last.” I flinched when Noel tightened his grip.

“You did not take over a body. You were forcefully implanted into one. As for your death—it was inconvenient for me to have Doc moping about. Also, my child would be short an uncle and I couldn’t have that.

” Noel’s flat voice didn’t show a flick of emotion in it, only succinct fact.

So cold. It was like his freezing never wore off.

“And you’ve not infected a host. You’ve been absorbed by one.

Any attempt to remove yourself will result in death.

I’m confident there’ll be nothing left of your space leech body in time.

” He prodded at one of my eyelids with his thumb and frowned.

“Get some more rest and get accustomed to your body. I don’t want to show you off until I’m certain you’re going to survive this. ”

“What were the odds of me dying?” I huffed.

“Like 97 percent. I’m not certain, really. According to my assay, you already had Naleucian DNA in your core body—likely as a result of whatever you’ve been doing with Doc. Fucking. I suppose that makes me an STD at this point.”

“Life seed,” I said, staring him down.

“Hmm?”

“The correct word for you is not gene bomb. It’s a life seed. You’re part of the terraforming process. You weren’t spread fast enough, so the small percentages they used were doing more harm than good. It never was you, Noel. They fucked up.”

“I’m aware, now. Merriel showed me the letters. Thank you, by the way.” He opened a view screen and typed something in midair, storing notes away, I was certain. “I think you’re ready to drink something. No solid food, yet. I don’t think your digestive tract is fully enervated, yet.”

At that, he turned and left, closing the window as he did so. As the door opened, the scampering of claws preceded Nexus running in and onto my bed to wallow around and laugh, eyes bright with mirth. “Dada!”

“Nope! Nope!” I glanced around, lips pursed. “Sarge. I am Sarge !”

“Sard…” Nexus stood on his hind legs, balancing with his tail unsteadily as he sniffed and leaned against me, getting close to my neck and mouth. “Sard!”

He beamed and rubbed his head to my chest with a slight purr, saying my name again.

Serjio Vaskez had been my old name. Sarge. I was accustomed to taking the name of my host, but Sarge still fit me. It was me.

Noel smirked over his shoulder, a hint of fang in the gesture before he left my field of view.

I had another chance, and I’d make the most of it.