Free Forbidden Worlds - Box Set by Bernadette Gardner

The fact that such a transformation could happen to formerly civilized men was one of the few things in the universe that made Damon Cantor afraid. “Just remember, two days is all we can spare out here,” he said before following Lea inside.
     
    * * * *
     
    Lea paced inside the transport until Damon returned. “I had no idea,” she said when he settled in one of the seats along the bulkhead. “How does this happen? Is it a virus?”
    Mojar came up behind her and dropped a hand onto her hip in a familiar gesture that drew a disapproving glance from Damon. “It’s not viral. That much, we know. In fact, the DNA of the coverts remains intact, which is why we’re still able to identify them. Only those of us actually born on Ambrax seem to be immune, and we have yet to figure out why. We estimate the population of converts to be in the hundred thousands only, and their life spans are short. Where they live, the growth rate in the jungle doubles as if the planet itself takes sustenance from them.”
    “It can’t be cured?” Lea asked. She didn’t care if Damon shoved her in the storage compartment again. She needed to understand this.
    “It’s against our beliefs to try.”
    Lea moved out of his reach. “But you keep letting people land here, knowing what will happen to them?”
    “It is not our place to stop them. Many feel those who undergo the evolution are blessed.”
    “How can you call what happens out there an evolution? People turn into animals. You ban them for your society and allow them to run wild, killing each other—”
    The healer addressed his comments to Damon, though Lea refused to lower her eyes and glared at him while he spoke. “Ambrax feeds on the souls of those who land here. We have taken steps to prevent too many from being lost, allowing our world to be designated forbidden among the galactic community, even though that leaves our society terribly isolated.
    “Our science has yet to explain it fully, but those who convert provide a form of energy that contributes to the ecology. It’s our belief that over time, they become one with that energy, thus evolving into a higher form despite appearances to the contrary.”
    “I apologize for Lea, she’s—”
    Mojar raised a hand. “No need. I have no illusions that your society on Spartha mirrors ours. Nevertheless, you are fortunate her outbursts were not public.”
    Lea closed her eyes. It seemed hopeless to think she could rescue Troy now. She couldn’t bring a beast back to Darya. She would have given up then, except her heart went out to Alor, taken from her sheltered world to God knew what kind of torture in the lawless jungle.
    “We have other places to search before dark. We should go now,” Mojar said.
    Damon agreed and turned to Lea. “If you’re done asking questions, you should lie down and get some rest. It’s going to be a long evening.”
    She obeyed though she had no intention of sleeping. Her mind was a kaleidoscope of images that she would never be able to erase.
     
    * * * *
     
    Mojar had them follow two more bands of converts, dozens of individuals who seemed to be moving in parallel lines through the jungle along the meandering path of a deep gully. Their movements had purpose, which left Damon confused. The creatures he’d seen in the jungle before seemed only slightly more evolved than early primates. The tribes they followed now moved like pilgrims, slow and plodding along the jungle floor as if they were participating in some type of ritual journey.
    “Where are they going?” he asked over the healer’s shoulder.
    “Nowhere. We believe they retain some memories of having lived in ordered societies. They form groups and mimic some types of structured behavior, but it never lasts for long,” Mojar explained as he directed Edmun to a landing site at the wide mouth of the gully.
    Whoops of fear and perhaps anger greeted their landing, and a dozen converts rushed from the deep cover of the foliage when