Insurrection
Page 3

What if it wasn’t?
Could he be a human using some kind of magic or drug to disguise his real features? The documentaries all warned that humans were extremely cunning.
Highly dangerous. Capable of any imaginable treachery. They were unpredictable animals. A shiver ran down her spine.
“Are you all right?”
She almost screamed as Tamira came up behind her to speak in her ear. “Don’t do that!”
“Do what?” she asked innocently.
“Sneak up on me when I’m scaring myself with really creepy thoughts about humans being here in our school!” Daria waved her hand in front of her unit to open it automatically and pull out her sweater and gear for gym.
Like her, Tamira Czaren was slightly taller than average and rather muscular, with pale gray skin and dark ebony eyes and hair. They were both from warrior caste families, but Daria’s father had been granted a special dispensation to attend university after he’d scored exceptionally high on his entrance tests in upper primary.
Now he was one of their top-rated scientists—like her mother. Daria was hoping to follow in their footsteps. If she could stop being late to her classes all the time ...
She closed her unit and paused as she caught Tamira staring at the images, too.
They were mesmerizing. As all good nightmares tended to be.
It was impossible to turn away, even when you tried.
Tamira jerked her chin at the human they showed transforming himself into the unerring image of a Materian, right down to the dual noble birthmarks Daria had been fortunate enough to inherit in perfect symmetry at the edges of her mouth. It was something all of her friends envied her for as it made her one of the most desirable to date and ultimately breed with.
“You think we’ll ever see a real human?”
Daria clutched at her designer bag that her father had brought to her all the way from their home world on his last trip there. “Hope not.”
Tamira arched her brow at that. “Why? Aren’t you curious about them?”
Not even a little.
“They’re disease-ridden, for one thing.”
Tamira laughed. “Oh please! How can you say that? We’re the ones who brought our illnesses to them. Besides, it was a simple cold that killed them off.”
“Exactly! Humans were so weak a species, the sniffles killed them all. How can you admire a race that can’t even survive a mere head cold?”
Tamira scoffed. “You are so cynical. No wonder they chose you for the Invarium committee.”
Lifting her chin proudly, Daria patted her badge that proclaimed her chairwoman of HELL—Human Extermination Licensing Leaders. It was now officially her job to help investigate and find any humans who might infiltrate their school or youth community and report them promptly to the authorities. She couldn’t wait to fulfill her obligations. “Yes, well, the humans are a threat we need to eradicate.”
“Why bother? You just said they were so weak as to be ridiculous.”
Daria growled in frustration of her friend’s continued churlishness. Sometimes she swore Tamira would argue with a sign post!
And not one possessed of artificial intelligence—one that was inanimate.
“That doesn’t mean they couldn’t mutate it into something worse. Like bird flu and wipe us out with it!” That was, after all, what her people had fought a civil war over when they’d first landed on this planet a hundred years ago.
Gah! How could any Materian have ever wanted to save a single human for anything? Never mind have actually killed their own in defense of one of those disgusting things?
That she’d never understand.
Rodents and humans. Same revolting thing. Parasites could do all kinds of damage to higher organisms like them.
Basic biology.
Besides, everything she’d read about their subspecies said humans were a barbaric lot who’d been on the brink of civil war with each other all the time back then. For every little imagined insult and slight. No culture. No higher tech. They’d never done anything particularly noteworthy as a race.
Mass extinction had been the greatest kindness for them. The humans should be grateful for eradication.
Not that it mattered. They were gone from existence and the Matens were in charge. This was their planet now, and it would remain so. It’d been theirs since the last of the major human cities had succumbed to the final wave of plagues, and the Matens had burned the last of the human bodies, and shed this beautiful planet of the humans’ feeble disease-ridden remnants.
All that was left now were bits and pieces that only the most daring Matens collected as curiosities.
“Hey Day!”
She paused as she heard Frayne’s deep voice calling out a greeting to them. Her heart quickened uncontrollably. It always did.
Tamira’s eyes darkened with jealousy an instant before she caught herself. As did most of the girls in the hallway. But then Daria was used to that. Erian Frayne was one of the most eligible boys in their city. The son of their territorial regent, he would one day rise to a seat of political power to rival or surpass his mother’s. And because Daria was a third cousin to their ruling family, he had his eye on her as a prospective spouse.
Daria liked to pretend he had other interests in her as well, but she wasn’t completely stupid. If she were someone else, he might still talk to her and date her from time to time.
However...
Her prestigious bloodline would guarantee him a number of extreme advantages.
He pressed his cheek to hers and took her bag. “Did you not get my message?”
“What message?”
He tsked as he tapped her wrist comm. “My maja’s been called out of town tonight.” He wagged his eyebrows at her. “Want to come over and study some basic biology? Up close and personal?”
She snorted at his less than subtle innuendo. “Nice. I’m surprised you didn’t announce it over the intercom.”
“Want me to? I will.”
“No, thank you. I don’t have anywhere to hide your body and prison doesn’t look good on my Post Prime applications.”
He laughed. “But it would give you a leg up for the military.”
“Possibly.” Daria sobered as she glanced over his shoulder and caught the peculiar expression on Xared’s face as he stared at her badge.
What a strange thing ...
“Something wrong?”