Alliance of Serpents Read Free Page A

he dug through some of the drawers beneath the cabinets. "Ah,
here we are!" A long, rolled up piece of paper came out and was
promptly unfurled across Arus' bed. It was mostly black, dotted
with thousands of tiny white specks across its entire span. After
donning a pair of round eyeglasses, the doctor cleared his throat.
"The universe. You've looked up at the stars at night before, I'm
sure?" Arus nodded. "Well, this is a graph of those stars." He
pointed to a tiny cluster of dots near the left side of the
diagram. "Terranias is here. We are currently orbiting Terranias,"
he made a circular motion with his finger, "like this."
    Arus' jaw dropped open. "You mean we're in
outer space?"
    "Precisely!" Nori nodded with a smile.
    "You mean, you're not from my planet? You and
Damien are aliens?" Another realization hit him. "And Kitreena, too?"
    The doctor bellowed with laughter. "My boy,
I'm just as human as you are. My ancestors came from Terranias many
years ago, fearing that the planet was about to be destroyed. I
grew up," he pointed to a dot near the upper left corner of the
map, "right here. Tynest, it was called. Oh, what a marvelous world
it was. And still is, I suppose. Haven't been back there in a long
time, oh no."
    "And Damien and Kitreena?"
    "Well now, Damien is as alien as they come!
He was born on the planet Zo'rhan, a cold planet near the Lycosite
Quasar," he said, pointing to a group of dots near the bottom of
the graph. "Kitreena is from a planet called Lavinia. The people
there were once human, you see, but an unknown element in the
atmosphere of the planet changed their genetic structures over
time. Now, they are what most people refer to as Morphers, but she
is still basically human."
    Images of her transformation—and those
terrifying eyes—flashed in his mind again. "I don't know that I'd
call her that."
    "Nonsense!" Nori laughed again. "I understand
you witnessed her first transformation, eh? Well, do not be afraid.
If what Damien says is true, she may have the potential to be the
strongest Morpher in centuries!" He rolled up the map and returned
it to the cabinet drawer.
    The thought brought Arus no comfort. She had
little control over her anger, whether it be in human form or
otherwise, and he wasn't sure he wanted to be around the next time
she blew her top. Still, she was beautiful. A part of him
would be willing to take the risk just to be near her, but the rest
of him knew that it was foolish. She's not interested in you,
you love-struck fool. She'll tear your throat out just as quickly
as she'd tear out Truce's. "Is she going to be all right?"
    Doctor Nori was working at the terminal
beside his bed. "Hmm?" He looked up. "Oh, yes, she'll be quite all
right. Smitten with her, are ya?"
    Arus' eye bulged. "What? No! Why would you
think that?"
    Another chuckle from the old man. "I do
apologize, but it just came across the terminal screen here. You
see, we're plugged into the implant at the moment, so any thoughts
your mind processes are sent to this terminal. You were thinking
she was beautiful but deadly. Can't say I disagree with you there!"
He laughed again.
    The idea of having someone read his mind was
unsettling, at best. Moving his thoughts away from Kitreena, he
decided it was time to ask the question he'd been avoiding for fear
of the answer. "Can you remove the implant?"
    For once, the doctor didn't laugh. His face
became somber, which pretty much told Arus the answer without the
words. "I'm sorry, but it is permanently embedded within your
brain. The two have a symbiotic relationship; they need each other
to survive. Removing one would effectively kill the other."
    Arus sighed and wiped another tear away. "So
I'm stuck like this forever?"
    Nori held up his hand as he studied readings
of the terminal. The fact that Arus even knew what he was looking
at bothered him; his time as Truce's slave had introduced him to
computer terminals and their many uses. "I wouldn't go that far,"
the doctor said.