warning: off-screen violence. still with the bad science.

Chapter 5

Jane waved to the guards as she passed through the aboretum doors. Captain Lee had warned them ahead of time that she was coming, so thankfully there wasn't any hassle to get inside. The main part of the arboretum was empty, so she wandered down the left wall, opening the doors to the alcoves, until she finally managed to stumble upon a long-haired figure sitting on one of the benches facing the fountain which was set into the wall. Alcove 7 was filled with white and blue flowers, fragrant ones which lent a strong-yet pleasant-scent to the air.

The man looked up as she entered, body brave where her nerves were not, and watched her approach with a neutral expression.

"Hi," Jane said. She introduced herself and came to sit beside him on the bench. Still he looked at her with that blank expression. "Do you like it here?" She waved her hands to indicate the surroundings.

"It smells." When he spoke, she could see the beginnings of a sharp, pointy tooth coming in at the front of his mouth. It looked like it would be deadly sharp.

She gave a nervous laugh. "Yes, it does, doesn't it? But do you like it?"

He hesitated a moment before answering. "Yes." That was it. That was all. Apparently, he wasn't much of a talker. She wondered if all Entaggens were like this. One of his teeth, barely glimpsed when he moved his mouth, was sharp and pointed, short as if it had just started to grow in.

x

Back at the entrance to the arboretum, Ray and Carl still stood guard, shooing away anyone who tried to enter. They still had a 6 hours before the evening relief came, so it was with surprise that Ray greeted the two men who approached them, guns resting in their holsters.

The night guards were out of uniform and yet still carrying their guns. Something was up. Ray shot Carl a warning look, resting a hand on his own gun.

"Hey, guys. Did you forget something?"

The two in front of him raised the weapons. Ray began to lift his-and Carl gripped his wrist to stop him.

x

"Guns," Entaggen Kou said, raising his head. He stood, staring at the door.

"What?" Jane glanced around at him nervously. "I'm pretty sure I can't get you-"

Kou stood, ignoring her, and stepped to the door, moving so that he stood slightly to the right of it, out of sight of anyone who might enter. Jane stayed seated, waiting.

One of their guards-the big, silent one-burst into the room, gun drawn, with two others beside him.

What happened next was a blur of gunfire and violence and when it was over, Kou was the only one standing, covered in blood. He'd killed all three of his attackers with his bare hands, ignoring the shots fired at him. He ripped them apart and open, revealing their insides. Now he stood staring around him, barely noticing Jane huddled behind the knocked over bench for protection. When he began to sway on his feet as if from some injury-and, really, it was hard to tell if he was injured, as so much of someone else's blood covered him-Jane dashed for the door. She tripped on the way out on the still form of the other guard from that morning. It looked as if he'd been hit in the head instead of shot, though there were bullets lodged in the wall near where he'd been standing.

The hallway was deserted, of course, due to the careful manuevering of the guards at keeping innocent civilians away-mostly young couples looking for a romantic spot to make out-so she had to speed to the end of the hall so that she could grab the emergency phone.

x

Delaney Harris was patrolling her end of the assigned Section 23 of the Uoniwa-one of the engineering sections-when she heard her name being paged over the ship's intercom. Perplexed, she picked up the nearest phone and dialed.

"Where is he?" Captain Lee's voice was low and angry.

"Sir?"

"Your father? Where is he?"

"I-I don't know, sir. Have you tried his personal phone?"

"Of course I have. No one's seen him since yesterday. Now-you're his daughter, so get him here."

"Where's here?"

"The infirmary. Tell him to hurry." With that, the line went dead. Sighing, Delaney hung up the phone.

It took her thirty minutes to reach the deeper parts of the ship, in a section long abandoned by not only civilians but to the military, as well. She was surrounded by old crates covered in dust-except for the trail of clean, gray metal which lead her to a door set inconspicuously behind the relics of a small courier ship.

Conrad Harris turned from his work with an alarmed expression on his face, which relaxed when he saw who it was. He let go of one slimy tentacle, lettitng it drift lazily back into the water of the fish tank, "Delaney. What are you doing here?"

Delaney gave the limp body nearby an assessing glance. Its eyes were open and unfocused, breathing low and even.

"The captain's asking for you. Demanding, actually. What should I tell him?"

Silence.

"Do you want me to finish this up?"

Conrad hesitated. "I don't know...are you sure you've got it down?"

"Dad. I've been helping you do this since I was five. I think I've got it by now."

"Okay, okay." With a sigh, he wiped his hands and then pulled her to him to land an abrupt kiss to the top of her head. "Be careful with him."

Once he was gone, Delaney walked up to the tank and tapped lightly on the glass. "Good morning, Cassius. How are you today?"

x

Entaggen Kou looked much smaller than he had before, laying unconscious in the infirmary, cleaned, stitched, and hooked up to all that medical epuipment. Three gunshot wounds, the doctor had said. And something else...something not quite right.

"It happened so fast," Jane Hart was saying. She stood beside him, still trembling, and stared down at Kou. "We were just talking and they burst in there-" A sick expression crossed her face and she turned away as if unable to look at him anymore.

The men responsible for this new calamity had been ripped apart, not by any new weapon or some such things, but from Entaggen's Kou's bare hands. The blood had left stains under his fingernails and the nurses had to wring it out of his long hair, undoing the braids and gathering all of his hair to the side of his neck and over his shoulder. He looked like a waxen doll lying there and hardly looked capable of so much violence as had been comitted.

On the other side of the bed, Ray sat. The side of his head had been bandaged where he had been hit with the butt of a gun. After telling his side of the story, he'd sat down and stayed there, silent, with his lips pressed together in pain and anger.

"Captain! I'm here. What's going on?"

Lee turned to glare at Harris. "Where were you? We've been trying to get ahold of you for two hours!"

"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't get my messages-something must be wrong with my phone."

Lee stared at him silently for a moment, thinking. It was too...convenient...that the man who was in charge of the whole security of the ship would be out of reach at just that moment. Harris was looking at him innocently enough, however. There was too much room for doubt-maybe he wasn't involved in this at all. Then again, maybe he was...

Doctor Simons interuppted his musings when he entered with a sheet data in one hand and a medical scanner in the other. He gave Kou a quick look over before turning back to his captain.

"Well?" Lee asked, waiting for an explanation.

"It's strange." Simons rubbed at his stubbly chin. "He's very anemic and there's something odd about his blood type."

"Odd how?"

"It's not any of the types we know of-we tried giving him a transfusion, as it was very touch-and-go there, but it sent him into a seizure. He's worse now than he was before. Also, Captain-" He handed the file over the bed to Lee. "If you'll read that second bit."

Lee kept his expression neutral but his mind raced as he read. 'Evidence of cloning in DNA...mixed with alien...genetic tampering...body seems to be going through abrupt changes-'

"Changes? Changes how?"

Simon pulled back Kou upper lip to reveal sharp, pointy teeth. "The people I sent in after Kou left his room found six, normal teeth lying on the end table next to the bed this morning. All these woulld appear to have come from the place now occupied by these-canines, I suppose you could call them. Plus, his nails. I've gone over the tapes of when he first arrived, and took care to examine his image as thoroughly as possible. They weren't like this before. There are other, smaller things, that seem to have evolved. I'd say that it's only now he has begun to take on the characteristics we know of as Entaggen-like."

"But, he-he's not very Entaggen-like," Jane said. "He doesn't have much interest in killing-if anything, I'd say it was almost like he was...waiting."

"He killed three people with his bare hands," Simons said, looking at her like she were crazy.

Ray snorted. "They went in there to kill him. Something like that, it's pretty much a given that he'd fight back."

"There's something else."

They all turned back to Simons.

"I've said that he's anemic, but there's more to it. His blood count has been dropping steadily since he's been here. I suspect it has been since before he ever stepped foot on this ship. We can't give him a transfusion, so there's not much we can do for him, except-"

"To wait. So that really is what he's been doing, waiting."

He nodded at Jane. "I'd imagine so."

"Captain." Harris wedged himself between Jane and Lee. "Here. Cassius told me to give you this." He held out a small vial filled with a thin, amber-colored liquid. "He said you'd figure out what to do with it."

"Cassius," Lee murmured, holding up the vial to study the contents. "He and I are going to have to have a talk." He handed the vial carefully to Simons. "Check that out. See how it will help."

"Yes, captain."

The captain sighed, staring down at the pale face of what should have been their enemy. Was it paler than it had been before? He couldn't help but feel some sympathy for him. Stuck on a strange ship (albeit by his own choice) and simply waiting to die. It would have to be lonely, if a creature such as Kou could be lonely.

I'll do my best to save you. Though even I may have to let you die.