Free Earth's New Masters by Adriane Ceallaigh Page B

voice in the void.
    It felt desolate. To think she might be the only known sentient creature on the entire planet. Sure, there’d been sightings of something, but they didn’t know for sure and that’s why they’d called her.
    ***
    Several days later, she stood on the edge of the wood watching a billowing dust cloud headed in her direction. She scowled at it. “Magnification three hundred percent.” A swirling mass of tumbling weeds danced in an intricate pattern.
    “Magnification five hundred percent.” She gasped, unable to help herself. As a weed stopped, thick branches became flowing hair down the back of its dusky grey form. The tall, thin creature turned in her direction. Even from this distance she could see grace in its movements.
    It stared at her a long moment. Then it turned back and glanced over the mass of tumblers. Three broke from the dance and sped in her direction. They moved with incredible speed. She couldn’t keep her eyes off the first figure, but the advancing party needed her immediate attention.
    “Magnification normal,” she whispered and pulled out a long, thin blade. There would be no infiltration on this mission after all. She sighed. She’d be lucky to make it out alive.
    The station had bigger problems than just a few illegal colonists. These people had to be natives to the world. She flipped her blade around and braced herself. She was about to meet Earth’s new masters.
    They came, swirling in one direction and then another around her body. They left her no room for retreat.
    Their constant movement made her step toward the plain to avoid being touched. She allowed herself to be herded onward, wondering why they hadn’t attacked.
    Shura stumbled on the uneven ground. She felt a sharp jab from behind. Blood trickled down her spine as she spun and brought her blade down through the one who’d broken her flesh. She didn’t think, only reacted, as her body took over and did what she’d been trained to do.
    The vibrating shock hit her system first as a forced transformation overwhelmed her. She couldn’t control the shape. Her screams echoed through the plain. They’d injected her with undiluted D.N.A. Her body was absorbing and morphing to fit its new instructions.
    She lay there among the creatures she’d butchered, changed and unable to move. She slipped into unconsciousness, not expecting to ever wake up.
    ***
    She woke looking at the millions of lights in the Dark Father. She saw one flare brighter than the rest and shoot across the twilight blanket above. She’d often wondered what they were. She rolled over, her bracken slithering around and covering her in warmth.
    She lifted a tendril, twirling it between her fingers. It shifted, hardening and softening in seconds. The clan cried through her mind, their pain palpable. An outsider had sent two brethren to Wind Father. A third lay unmoving in her bracken. Shura slid over. She paused momentarily as odd designs flittered in her vision.
    She shook her head, sending her suddenly tense bracken rattling against each other. She stiffened and rolled them around her frame, hooking her legs into place. The hooks on her knees and the backs of her heels locked her lower half into the hardened tendrils. She stared, fascinated at her thin, wood-like legs.
     They seemed odd. She frowned. Why? Her elbow and wrist joints had the same hooks that locked in, immobilizing her as she spun in circles across the clearing. She sent her outer mind across the plains, detecting shapes and movement. She found the still form of the wounded one as the others milled around.
    They were tumblers migrating where Wind Father blew them. She shifted subconsciously, flicking hardened bracken this way and that, propelling herself towards her fallen sister. She rolled up and hovered on the outside of the circle, unfurling into her standing form. Her tendrils hung in limp sections down her back. A few of them curled around her wrist, and some of them around her