Chapter 277: The Temptation of the Sheloran Continues and the Psychopath Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

Chapter 277: The Temptation of the Sheloran Continues and the Psychopath Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

Sheloran snuggled Dwight as they drove through the countryside of the aft end of the Bannon cylinder.

She still couldn’t believe that she was in love.

It was wonderful...

...if it was real and not just—

Hey! We agreed that this part of the brain is mine! Stay on your side!

“We agreed to no such thing,” Sheloran muttered quietly with a little smirk.

Why are you still overthinking this? You’re in love. He’s in love. Tonight, you are going to MAKE love!Why are you being such a grumpface?

“One of us has to be,” Sheloran chuckled, “One little taste, and you turn into Craxina.”

Hey, I’ve gone without a LOT longer than you have! Forgive me for enjoying myself! What’s wrong with letting ourselves be happy?

“Oh, I’m happy,” Sheloran whispered, “Happy is great. But do you know what isn’t great? Stupid. I’m not letting myself be stupid, something you don’t have a problem with.”

Plblblbbbth.

“Did you just ‘blow your gills’ at me?” Sheloran giggled.

“Did she say something funny?” Dwight asked.

“No, she was just being pooping rude,” Sheloran laughed.

:P

“And now she is using emoticons?” Sheloran blurted in surprise. “Weird me is getting weirder... but a lot easier to deal with.”

She looked up at Dwight mischievously.

“Apparently, she just needed to get laid,” she grinned, “You may have just saved the galaxy.”

“So, what is my reward for all my hard work?” Dwight laughed.

“You’ll find out tonight,” Sheloran giggled as she kissed his cheek.

***

As they drove through farms, actual farms, Sheloran crooned with delight.

It was so much like home.

“We’re here!” Dwight exclaimed happily as he turned off the narrow gravel road onto an even less paved drive.

“It’s beautif...” Sheloran started to say. “What’s... that?”

Standing in a field was a large, awkward-looking, vaguely chicken-like white bird roughly the height of a human with gigantic “drumsticks”, shaggy poofy feathers, and an overly large head on a very long and muscular (because of the head) neck.

It turned to look at them with a vaguely confused expression, its overly long comb flopping over one of its eyes, causing Sheloran to giggle a little bit.

“That’s Martha, I think,” Dwight replied. She’s one of our birds.

“Is that where the eggs come from?”

With cosmically perfect timing, a huge egg dropped out of Martha and plopped onto the grass.

Martha didn’t give a shit. She just ambled towards Dwight’s truck curiously as they pulled to a stop.

“Yep,” Dwight smiled, “That’s where freedom eggs come from.”

“What is it?” Sheloran asked. She had seen pictures of chickens and had even eaten a few (they were yummy). That was not a chicken.

“That is a cockatrice hen,” Dwight replied smugly, “One of the best in all of Bannon.”

“A cockatrice?”

“Yep, the result of a genetic experiment back in the twenty-third... or was it the twenty-fourth century. They were an attempt to make the ‘ideal poultry’, fast-growing, high-quality meat...”

Martha plopped out another egg without looking back.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

“...and first and foremost, egg production,” Dwight chuckled. “And they are all of that and more.”

He laughed.

“It’s the ‘more’ part that got the project scrapped. They were labeled as a failed effort and were to be destroyed, as was the practice where genetic projects were concerned back then. The lead researcher, Doctor Gilmar, couldn’t destroy his life’s work, so he fled to the belt with a few breeding pairs, all of the genetic material, and his notes. He was convinced he could fix the problems and then return to Earth, rich, famous, and forgiven.”

“I take it that he didn’t?” Sheloran asked as she got out to get a better look.

“Nope,” Dwight said as Sheloran reached out to pet Martha’s outstretched head, “He was killed by ’em. They found his partially eaten corpse the next day.”

Sheloran stopped reaching for Martha, causing the bird to make a crooning noise as she stretched her neck to the limit, causing her massive head to floop downward onto the fence.

Dwight laughed as he picked up Martha’s gourd head and scratched it, causing Martha to close her eyes with satisfaction.

“Oh, Martha’s not the problem,” he laughed. “She wouldn’t hurt a fly. Well, she would eat it, but there isn’t a mean bone in her body. The hens are just big feather pillows and about as smart. The thing is that to get more hens, you have to have something to fertilize the eggs. That’s the problem. See, Doctor Galmar sampled pre-existing birds, a lot of them, including domestic chickens, geese, swans, and emus, among others, including cockatoo, in order to try to increase their lifespan... See the problem?”

“Problem?”

“Well... Oh, speak of the devil...”

Bounding up from a barn was a brilliantly colored mass of feathers, talons, and hate bearing down on them.

“That’s Lucifer,” Dwight said cheerfully, “Luc-I-Fer! Hey, Boy!”

The beast continued to build momentum at a terrifying pace.

Sheloran started to back away.

“Try to remain calm,” Dwight said quietly, “If you get anxious, he gets anxious. He doesn’t handle being anxious very well. Actually, he doesn’t handle much of anything very well...”

Hissssssssssquak!

Lucifer bounded over the fence like it wasn’t there and collided with Dwight, wrapping his muscular python-like neck around Dwight’s and letting his head flop onto his chest.

“Aww, I missed you too, boy!” Dwight said affectionately. “Lucifer, this is Sheloran, my girlfriend!”

Lucifer looked over at Sheloran with angry eyes that shone with a feral, alien intelligence.

Sheloran’s breath caught as she looked into his eyes.

He was fundamentally... wrong. His genetic code butchered, manipulated...

He was built, not natural. Nothing about him felt quite right... and he knew it.

It is just like me.

Lucifer released Dwight and approached Sheloran.

“Lucifer?” Dwight said uncertainly as he reached for his stunner.

“It’s alright,” Sheloran said with a distant voice as she reached for the cockatrice.

Lucifer wrapped his neck around her and held her tight.

“I know,” Sheloran whispered to Lucifer as he clung to her.

***

“WelorangeJuice dkutist thang!” Dwight’s mother, a tall, spindly woman with an unfortunately round head and large, almost protruding eyes, exclaimed as she stepped out of her very normal twentieth-century-looking house to greet them as they approached.

“Orange juice?” Sheloran asked, confused, as she fumbled for her phone containing Jessie’s translation program.

(American to Terran translation app active. Remember. It doesn’t matter! Smile and nod!)

“She said that she thinks that you are very cute,” Dwight said with a smile.

“Lookit yew tokkin lieka inner!” (Look at you, talking like an inner!)

“It helps if my girlfriend can understand me,” Dwight replied, “You know, the same reason you speak Arabic?”

Sheloran was definitely not a pooping terrorist. Okay, she may have killed a few people... but there were a lot of extenuating circumstances.Yes, she did escape Tartarus, and it wasn’t her fault!(Sigh) Yes, she did run a brothel... But it was by accident! Yes, it is the one from the infamous commercial. (facepalm)The giant holographic graven image was NOT her pooping idea, and she is turning it off the second she gets back!She had never brainwashed anyone!

She was impressed. Force-feeding your researchers drugs? That was kind of hardcore. It was the sort of thing she would do.

“Um... It’s not quite ready. We still have a few things to work out.”

“And when do you expect to be able to deliver a prototype?”

“General, if I may,” Doctor Waycroft interjected, “They are playing video games and...”

“And just putting a scope on an old 22nd-century rifle?” Bella smirked. “Yeah, that’s what I told Clarissa to tell you.”

“What?!?”

“When you started leaning on her and the others, trying to intimidate them concerning their future academic careers, they came straight to me,” Bella smiled, “I’ve been feeding you a steady stream of bullshit ever since. Drug-fueled orgies? Video games? I’m extremely disappointed you didn’t tell gran about me running around topless, wearing a sex toy strapped to my head. I was proud of that one.”

Doctor Waycroft turned scarlet as snickering broke out.

“Is this true, Doctor?” Jessica asked, “Did you use undue influence to spy upon another compartmentalized project?”

“I... I was concerned... because...”

“Because I don’t have a doctorate, and he believes I was given my project solely because I’m your ‘granddaughter’,” Bella replied coolly. “He has also repeatedly said that he deserves control of my project in addition to his own and the berths on the future research ships that would provide, of course. Berths that he is dangling in front of the academic community like so much bait. Doctor, you are correct, but you completely missed the point. Yes, I am the General’s great-granddaughter. That means that I am a Morgan. And you, Doctor, tried to fuck over a Morgan. Bad move.”

An image of Doctor Waycroft’s weapon appeared on Bella’s screen.

“Before you ask, no. I did not spy on Doctor Waycroft to get this,” Bella smiled. “I got it from the same place he did.”

“What?” Jessica asked with an incredibly dangerous edge to her voice.

“This is preposterous!” Doctor Waycroft spluttered.

“No, it’s plagiarism,” Bella replied. “As you are aware, Doctor Waycroft still teaches engineering, and it seems that he issued a rather interesting assignment to his students. This weapon was submitted by one Gareth Neilson... who was told that his ideas were garbage and was given a C, by the way. You aren’t the only one with academic contacts, Doctor.”

“Doctor,” Jessica Morgan said calmly, “Is this true?”

“It... It’s a completely different design!”

“Really?” Bella replied, “How?”

“I wouldn’t expect someone like you to be able to understand...”

“What about me?” Jessica smiled. “Would I be able to understand? Would a team of engineers that I can make appear in moments understand the complexities involved?”

So, he shares a floor with you? appeared on Bella’s screen.

Yep.

Bella, what do you think of the situation?

You want me to kill him, don’t you?

So we are in agreement, then?

Bella just made a sour expression on the screen, got up with a huff, and walked out of frame.

Jessica just sipped her tea, tuning out Doctor Waycroft’s explanations, desperate flailing, and continued accusations concerning Bella and her team.

“And furthermore...” Doctor Waycroft started to say and then fell silent.

“Bella... What...” he started to say as his eyes widened, “BELLA!... NO!... WAI—”

There was a strangely sharp crack...

...and Doctor Waycroft’s head exploded, spraying his office and the camera with what was inside his head just a moment ago, leaving only a flap of skin and hair.

“Goddammit!” a voice shouted.

“Again?!?” Bella exclaimed.

“Same fucking thing!” it barely penetrated the skull before it exploded. It was nowhere near dead center! I’m talking like maybe a centimeter of penetration... tops!”

“Shit!” Bella shouted from off-screen.

“I don’t get it,” the other voice moaned. “It works in the simulations, but every time we test it on a real human, the same thing happens!”

“Gawd!” Bella cried. “I guess it’s back to the drawing board... again!”

“Bella!” Jessica snapped her voice carrying over the panicked chaos from the other people on the conference call.

“Yeah?”

“General!” someone shouted, “She killed him!”

“Really? Are you sure?” Jessica asked sardonically, “Bella.”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Wipe off the camera so I can see you.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

A rather blurry Bella stepped into frame.

“Bella,” Jessica said gravely, “Is the reason your project isn’t ready is that the explosive round isn’t exploding exactly in the center of the brain?”

“...”

“Bella...”

“I mean, there are other issues, too!”

“Such as?”

“Um... the stock?... and the trigger needs a little work... and the color... I mean...”

“Bella!”

Bella looked down.

“I know you,” Jessica smiled. “Have you let your perfectionism get in the way again?”

“No...”

“Bella. This is like your recital all over again, isn’t it? You remember the one, the one where you locked yourself in your room and threw a very valuable violin out of your window?”

“This... This is completely...”

“Or the infamous ‘birthday cake incident’?”

Bella flinched.

“Bella Morgan,” Jessica said firmly. “You will meet me tomorrow morning at ten thirty with what you have right now, and you will demonstrate it... In its current version at that time. You will not make any frantic last-minute adjustments to anything. In fact, you and your team will go home and not touch anything until the demonstration. Is that clear?”

“Yes, gran,” Bella said glumly.

“General!” someone cried, “She killed Doctor Waycroft!”

“And she will kill you, too,” Jessica smiled approvingly. “Wait. Did I overhear the fact that you’ve tested your weapon on live subjects?”

“Um... Yes?”

“How many?”

“Five?” Bella replied uncertainly, “But they were all real assholes. That’s how we found out that our simulations were off... somehow... However, our simulations of projected tissue damage were right on the money.”

Jessica nodded approvingly.

“Who pulled the trigger?”

“I did,” Bella replied, “It’s my project. It’s my responsibility. I’m not putting that on one of my people. They are academics. Not killers like us.”

Jessica smiled.

Bella was turning out very promising, indeed.

“I will see you tomorrow.”