Dero ran the whetstone over his favorite blade, the scraping rhythm soothing his nerves. In a few hours, he was joining others to travel through the mountains in order to put a stop to the government’s lies that had wreaked havoc on the Norlanian people for generations. Dero’s own people, the Ligaru, were descended from the Norlanians but had defected years earlier to start their own way of life on the other side of the Issizlik Mountains. They’d claimed a vast wilderness as their own and carved out an existence for themselves, relying not on the Norlanians’ notion of machine-aided soul mates but on finding love.
Not that he’d had any luck in that department. There were over seventy people in the city he called home deep in the forest, but none of the few unmated females were his soul mate. He had no idea when he’d meet her, but he knew that the moment he laid eyes on her, he would just know.
“Are you done with mine?” his brother, Carus, asked.
Dero stopped sharpening his own blade and picked up his brother’s, which was safely tucked into a hide sheath that would be attached to his belt.
“Thanks,” Carus said as he took it, pulled it from the sheath, and whistled appreciatively. “What are you thinking about so seriously?”
“How we’ll find our soul mates.”
Dero picked up the blade and whetstone and began to work again.
“I’ve wondered that myself. Mama says we’ll meet our mates at the right time, but unless there’s a mass exodus of females over the mountain, I don’t know what will happen.”
Dero chuckled. “Ashleigh said that, on her world, there are myths of beautiful females with wings called angels. It would be nice if a few beautiful, winged females came our direction.” Ashleigh was from a planet called Earth. Her soul mate, Eden, had gone on a soul-walk for her, using a government-run machine that found soul mates from other planets for the Norlanian males. Their own planet’s females had, unfortunately, become sterile. But not on Dero’s side of the mountains, where females were still able to bear young.
“I’d like an angel,” Carus said. “Wings would be handy.”
“My mind will be on the task at hand for our mission tonight. I was just daydreaming.”
“Good. I’ll see you soon,” he said, leaving Dero alone to finish his task.
For most of his life, he hadn’t given much thought to the other side of the mountain. His papa, Nelari, had grown up in the hidden city of the ligaru, but his mama, Yelda, had lived in the capital, Kyvern City, on the other side of the mountains. Most males on the other side wouldn’t choose a female on their own, relying instead on the soul-walk machine, which used drugs to send the males into a dream state to show them their soul mates. A male had gone on a soul-walk and seen Yelda as his soul mate, bringing her to a place high on the mountainside called a wooing chamber. Nelari and several other males had patrolled the chambers, breaking into them silently, drugging the males, and offering the females the chance for a new, different life.
Once the females on the other side had gone sterile, the soul-walk machine stopped looking for soul mates on Norlan and turned to the stars. One of the ligaru’s newest residents, Sloan, was a medical officer from the other side. She was sterile and had been cast aside by a male who had promised to mate her. Warrick, a soldier in the military, had gone against societal norms and taken her as his soul mate. They’d come to live with Dero and his people, along with their family and friends. It would’ve been wonderful if one of the unmated females had been his soul mate but they weren’t. His only hope was that he might one day stumble across his soul mate, and that she’d be willing to live in the hidden city with him.
* * *
Like most other buildings in Kyvern City, the medical center was dome-shaped, with multiple entrances. One section was for emergencies, which was always staffed, so Dero and the men were avoiding that area. The other sections contained a large room for the workers to eat meals and rooms for the medical officers to see patients. It hadn’t been difficult for their small group to sneak into the building, but that didn’t mean they were safe. Getting in, finishing the mission, and getting back home required quick work, good planning, and a dash of luck.
His brother Villi was leading their group, and Dero followed silently behind him as he moved through the building using a map that Sloan had drawn. Once they reached the room where the prenatal injections were stored and the main computer system was located, they quietly entered. Sloan believed that the prenatal injections that were given to pregnant females for generations, contributed to the sterility of their females, as well as causing blue hair at birth for the males. On the other side of the mountains, Dero’s people weren’t born with blue hair or sterility and didn’t use the vaccinations, which lead him to believe that Sloan was correct in her thinking.
Dero sat at a computer and lifted a piece of parchment from his pocket that contained instructions from Sloan on how to corrupt the computers. Although he wasn’t familiar with computers, Sloan’s instructions were simply written, so he was able to enter the information that would upload a virus to destroy the information contained on the computer.
Dero turned in the chair and watched his brothers destroy the prenatal vaccinations. “What do you suppose the Norlanian government will tell their people when they discover that the vaccinations and computers were destroyed?”
Villi shrugged. “They can’t tell their people how important the vaccinations are in keeping the males’ hair blue without revealing their deception. Sloan said that there might be some older medical officers who had been part of the creation of the vaccinations and would be able to manufacture them again, but she thought it was unlikely.”
Carus said, “The government will spin the destruction as a terrible event. They’ll be scrambling to recreate a vaccination so that any males born now will still have blue hair.”
Males on this side of the mountain were born with blue hair. When they went on the soul-walk, they were given a serum that turned their hair brown after they mated with their soul mate. If a male chose not to use the soul-walk machine and picked a soul mate on his own, he would still purchase the serum. In Norlanian society, blue hair was a sign of being unmated, but a mated male with blue hair was considered of poor stock because he couldn’t afford the serum. Sloan’s soul mate, Warrick, hadn’t taken a serum, yet his hair had turned brown after he mated with her, which led Sloan to believe that the government was behind their people’s problems.
The computer beeped when the virus was finished uploading, and he turned his attention to the task at hand. The screen flashed several times in warning as the virus spread through the files and corrupted them.
“All done,” Dero said, grabbing the paper and stuffing it into his pocket as he pushed away from the desk.
He stepped aside as Villi and Carus set small bombs on the computer, which were set to go off with a remote once they were out of the city. Just destroying the computer files and vaccinations wasn’t enough; they also wanted to cripple the doctors’ and scientists’ abilities further by destroying the computers.
Dex – a male from the other side who had defected with his soul mate, Bella – was in the soul-walk building with a few other males, taking care of the computers, and then setting bombs to destroy the soul-walk machines.
When his brothers were finished setting up the bombs, they quietly moved from the computer room and headed toward an exit. As they passed a large desk, Dero caught the scent of something amazing. He moved closer, resting his hands on the surface and inhaling deeply. His people had a strong sense of smell, using it to their advantage in hunting.
The scent was sweet and wild, like a seccu flower after a rainstorm. His whole body reacted – his skin flushed, his gums ached, his cock went rigid, and a growl rumbled in his chest. Ignoring the curious looks from his brothers, he stalked toward the doors, following the lingering scent. As he left the room, he caught the scent once more and heard the soft footfalls of the female he was certain was the source.
He rushed toward it, not caring that he was in a hostile city and needed to return to the safety of his people. He only cared about the source of the scent, a female he was sure was his.