Genus: Unknown Adaptation by Kaitlyn O'Connor Read Free Book Online

him, though, and it was easy to see that, despite their intelligence, they were weak, fragile beings. They had made themselves that way as far as he could see. They depended upon their ability to make things to protect them. Without their 'things' they would not survive long for they had very little strength to oppose threats, no gifts beyond their intelligence, and no physical shielding against the harshness of nature. Sheva's light and heat would bake the flesh from their bodies.
    Mother Ra would freeze it when she turned her face away from Sheva and Ne would tear their breath from their lungs when she blew the rain and wind across Mother Ra's surface.
    He had, in fact, considered discarding the notion of breeding upon one, begun to question whether adding their gifts to his clan would actually be beneficial. Beyond their intelligence, their form, as fragile as it was, was an adaptation that would be of benefit, though, he decided. True, it had been adapted for making things so that they could conform their world to their needs instead of conforming themselves to their world as his clan had, but he thought it would be good to have that ability if they ever had need. The gods could be unpredictable and harsh. There had been times in the past when they had conspired together to make survival for his clan very difficult, when so many had perished that their numbers had dwindled to little more than a handful. The gifts of this species, he thought, just might make the difference between surviving or not if and when the time came again that the gods decided to test them.
    He was brought from his thoughts when the lift halted and more humans climbed on. He tensed when they glanced at him but relaxed again when they merely presented their backs to him and spoke to the wall. It took him several moments to realize that they were commanding their machine to take them to various places, for the pod/lift would stop, it would open to show a corridor that only differed by the symbol on the wall in front of the opening and then it would close and move again.
    He sifted through the thoughts that he had captured from the security team and finally settled on their name for the place where they had taken Kate. He had to travel up and down many times before he had the lift pod to himself again and had the opportunity to test his ability to mimic the sounds he needed. "Z-cur-ty lok."

    The pod remained stationary and irritation and uneasiness flickered through him, even a touch of panic as it dawned on him that he might be trapped in the lift/pod if he could not verbalize. Ignoring the uneasiness, he tried again. "Sss-cur-ty lok-p."
    "Holding for prisoners is on level 2. Is this destination correct?"
    Noo searched his mind. "Ye-sss."
    The pod/lift, to his relief, began to move again. In a moment, the doors opened. This time when they opened, he saw a human like those who had come to kill them stride past the opening. Tension instantly tightened every muscle, making it difficult to fight his instincts to transform for protection, but he ground his teeth and stepped off when he caught a stronger taste of Kate's scent and, very faintly, the chatter of her mind.
    Ignoring his survival instincts, he moved along the narrow corridor, testing the air for Kate's scent and searching for a stronger connection with her mind until he reached an area where her thoughts were clear enough he could understand them. She was close. He knew she must be for the humans did not have the ability to project their thoughts and the knowledge that he was close to her made it difficult to fight the urge to find her at once.
    He had to assess the situation before he could free her, however, and he found a place where he could not be seen by the other humans and could still hear Kate, a small, dark pod that contained all sorts of things he had no idea of what their use was.
    She was worried about them, he discovered, feeling a strange mixture of pleasure that he was in her