Swallow's Wings

by Seven


Disclaimer:  Earth: Final Conflict and its characters are copyrighted by Tribune Entertainment Company.  All rights reserved.



Note from Author:   This is my attempt at a skrillfic, drawing from Emancipation.



**********



She awoke in the night, cold sweat beading her skin. She shook all over as she slid from her bed to the floor in a tangle of sheets. She staggered out the door, down the hallway that was fully heated, but seemed to freeze her exposed skin.

As she collapsed in the bathroom, her stomach heaved. She retched a little, curling up like a baby and trying to keep herself composed.

There was a faint hissing from her skrill.

****

Hours later, she awoke on the cold, tiled floor. Her hair was soaked and matted with the sweat that poured had poured from her damp skin.

Slowly, she pushed herself upright, a bone-shattering shiver running along her long limbs. Tears poured down her cheeks as she steadied, staring at the wan face in the mirror, framed with waves of dark hair. There was a soft hissing noise from her wrist.

She glanced down at Swallow and smiled a little. "You're hungry, hey?" she whispered, her fingertips stroking him.

She stumbled out into the kitchen of the tiny, boxlike apartment, the roaring headache blurring her vision and dulling her hearing. She pulled a box of cereal from the immaculate kitchen counter and ate a handful, absorbed in trying to muffle the pain. Some detached part of herself noted the incessent beeping of a global nearby, but primitive urges had taken her over...

As the headache dulled, and Swallow stopped his incessent hissing, she slowly reached for the global on the counter and yanked it open. The pale, bright-eyed face of a Taelon stared at her.

"Ms. Delany?" Da'er asked, his head tilting to one side slightly. "You are nearly four hours late. Are you ill?"

Diane felt a stab of horror as she glanced at the clock on the wall. Almost nine! How could I sleep in like that?

"You recall that today is the conference with Da'an?" Da'er prodded gently. His pale blue eyes scrutinized her wan face and stringy, matted hair. "You are unwell?"

"Just woke up with a headache," Diane said hastily, snapping to attention. "I'll be there in fifteen."

Slapping the global shut, she staggered to the bathroom and stepped into the shower, shedding her nightgown around her ankles as she walked in. Her heart pounded as the heavy pain in her temples returned in full, and Swallow began to hiss again.

As her long hands cranked the hot water taps, she began to shake, whispering, "What's happening to me..."

***

The headache had faded to a dull roar as Companion Agent Diane Delaney, personal protector to the Companion to Canada, arrived in his office, breathless and rumpled.

The Taelon was seated in the center of the room, in his natural energy state. The alabaster facade rippled over him as she entered, giving his narrow face a slightly startled appearance. His bright blue eyes sized her up critically.

She mentally cursed her rumpled appearance, flyaway dark hair and hastily straightened her silk shirt. "Da'er," she said with a hurried bow of her head.

If only Swallow didn't hurt so much! The skrill's tentacles, interwound in her forearm, felt like red-hot iron bands, wound around her bone. She kept her arm limp and dangling at her side, to keep the dratted appendage from trembling.

Da'er inclined his head, as if considering his implant's appearance. "Agent Delaney... are you sure that you are well?"

"I'm perfectly well," Diane replied forcefully, then grimaced at the involuntary harshness of her tone. Da'er's face took on a look of mingled dismay and hardness. He looked ready to send a soft, sharp reprimand at his implant.

She deliberately lowered her voice. "It's just... a headache. And my skrill's been aching a bit today."

Da'er's face softened slightly. "You should not have come, if you are unable to attend with the full benefit of your CVI and skrill," he reproved quietly. He began to turn away to summon his datastream, then paused, hand poised in mid-air. The odd, catlike eyes swiveled toward the implant. "Have you experienced any bleeding?"

Diane shook her head. "This.... isn't that kind of headache. It's sort of a hot, heavy feeling." She wondered momentarily whether she should mention the bone-crunching ache that Swallow was giving her, and decided against it. Skrills didn't get sick... or did they?

Da'er frowned slightly, as if disturbed. "Taelons have no experience with such things... perhaps you should consult Doctor Tanner."

"Perhaps when we get back," Diane replied, with a ghastly attempt at a smile. Da'er stared at her for a moment, then nodded his agreement.

****

The shuttle was waiting when Da'er and Agent Delaney boarded it, the implant slipping into the pilot's chair. As she pulled up the holographic controls, her headache seemed to lessen its pressure on the inside of her skull. Swallow uttered a purring sound, as if pleased by the sudden change.

So you're finally satisfied, are you? she thought with an inward smile, glancing at the glowing creature on her arm.

But it crashed back down on her as the shuttle lifted off the padd, making her outstretched hands wobble alarmingly. Da'er glanced around in surprise as the shuttle rocked from side to side.

For a moment, her mind seemed to glaze over, her eyes and ears cut off from sight and sound, except for a plaintive, earsplitting scream. Not human, not Taelon... something else, something sad...

"Agent Delaney!"

Da'er's sharp voice intruded on her thoughts. Diane winced as light slashed through her sensitive eyes, the roar of the shuttle into her ears. Her lips parted in astonishment as she saw the landscape below her buck and tumble. Her hands were shaking spasmodically, but she managed to steady them, levelling out the course of the shuttle.

She bit her lip as her rigid hands and arms guided the shuttle towards the blue dot that grew slowly, to become a Taelon building. She had nearly thrown them into a death spiral—Da'er couldn't possibly believe that she was all right now...

****

Liam glanced up as Canadian Companion Da'er and his implant, Diane Delaney, entered the room. The dark-haired, dark-eyed implant nodded curtly to him, standing at attention next to Da'er. Da'an slipped down from his thronelike chair and nodded to Da'er, heading into a small alcove and waving a wall into view behind them.

Liam glanced over Delaney. She was pretty, in a wan sort of way, but the air of cold devotion she wore like her leather jacket kept everyone at arm's length. It never ceased to shake him when he saw someone with that kind of total obsession with a Taelon...

Diane could feel Liam's gaze on the back of her head, but she didn't care. A faint gasp escaped her as she stared at him, her pale face turning even paler as her dark eyes stared.

"Agent Delaney?" Liam asked, taking an uncertain step back.

With a cry of pure rage, she launched herself at him, slamming him against the wall and groping at his neck. Liam gasped in shock, his startled fingers barely able to work under hers. "Where is she?" Diane screamed hysterically, her contorted face only centimeters from him. "Where did you take her? Where is she?"

The seal to the alcove fell away, and the two disturbed Taelons emerged. Liam turned his head slightly, gagging something incoherent as Diane's long fingers dug into his throat.

"Agent Delaney," Da'er said, his voice horrified.

Delaney looked up, her eyes shimmering with rage, and Liam's fist slammed against her jaw, tossing her off of him and slamming her against the wall. Delaney sagged to the floor with a moan, unconscious...

Her eyes flew open, flaming almost red. As Liam struggled to his knees, she was at his side, her heeled boot slamming against his ribs over and over. Liam was trying to stop her with weakened, bruised hands, but she was relentless.

"Delaney," Da'er said desperately.

Her leg stopped on its path toward Liam's head. The young man gasped and coughed, curled up on the floor, almost unconscious. Delaney slowly turned towards Da'er, her eyes locking on his. She took a step forward and raised her skrill... and stopped. Emotions warred on her pale, drawn features, her skrill squeaking in protest.

As if the effort cost her a great deal, Delaney slowly lowered her skrill and began to stagger towards the back exit. Da'an quickly strode to his fallen protector, who was painfully creeping onto his knees and wiping blood from his cheeks.

"FREEZE!"

As the blue-clad security guard came into view, his gun drawn and aimed at the back of Delaney's head, she stopped and slowly turned. Da'er drew back a little at the sight of her eyes—seething with anger.

"I said freeze!" the security guard said again, his tanned face paling a little.

"No-" Liam gagged, staggering to his feet.

Delaney's arm flew up before the man had a chance to react. A white-hot skrill blast hammered into him with a deafening scream, and Liam had a brief view of flesh and bone dissolving under the energy blast. Da'er flinched at the sight of what his protector had done.

When he looked back, Delaney had vanished.

Liam stumbled to his feet and began to run after her, hearing her footsteps ringing through the long blue corridors. He felt as though someone had been whacking him on the skull with a sledgehammer, sending ripples of agony along his skull.

But as he sprinted down to the shuttlepad, the last thing he saw was the insectile form of the shuttle lifting off with a huge gust of wind, then vanishing into a wormhole of spun white light...

****

Diane shivered as the shuttle spun into interdimensional, and wrapped her arms around herself. Tears came to her eyes at the urgency, the incessent screaming to come to the place. She didn't even know what or where it was... but she wanted to go there. She would kill to go there.

Tears rose to her eyes as the shuttle came out of ID. A sprawling rainforest was below her, the wet green treetops shrouded in ghostly mists that melted gently in the morning sun. A flock of multicolored birds fluttered below her. She began to cry quietly, not knowing why she cried.

The shuttle dove down and settled in small, sheltered grove. Diane wiped the tears from her eyes and climbed out, her legs wobbling uncomfortably under her.

The mists that covered the rainforest seemed to be fogging her mind. More tears streamed unnoticed down her cheeks, soaking into her long hair. Her knees buckled, collapsing her tall frame to the ground. For a moment, she only lay in the moist dirt, gasping wildly.

Then she rolled onto her stomach, her long fingers clawing through the dirt and fallen leaves. Hundreds of animals watched her, this strange new beast who cried and gasped as she crawled through the woods.

Diane fell onto her face, smelling the warm, wet smell of the ground beneath her. Swallow was squeaking, jerking his rubbery body on her arm. Pain shot along the side of her body like pins in her blood, and she thought for a moment that there was blood in her tears...

And then she saw them.

*****

At first, she only saw glowing pinpricks of light amidst the wet green leaves near the ground. Swallow was uttering a thin squeal now, his body glowing. Diane gasped as they approached, glowing the same bluish hue as her skrill, bound tightly to the flesh of her forearm.

They were insectile, with narrow glowing bodies and long, slender legs. Their heads waggled at her, tipped with tiny pale eyespots, glowing and chirping in confusion and curiosity. They clustered around her prone form, watching her but not making a move forward.

A scream tore from her throat as Swallow began to thrash, his long tentacles straining against her muscles. Her other hand locked around her pain-paralyzed wrist, tears trickling down her dirt-streaked cheeks. Please, she sobbed. Please don't leave me! Swallow...

The pain stopped as the skrill went limp on her arm. At the same time, feelings of misery and sorrow filled her mind—thoughts not her own, thoughts of the bioengineered lifeform that had shared her life for the past six years.

It hurt... it hurt so much to let go.

Slowly, she released her grip on her wrist, held her arm out rigid toward the other skrills. They skittered away cautiously, but showed no inclination to leave.

You need to go, she whispered. Just... remember me.

A loving chirp echoed through her fading mind, as two of the skrills slipped forward and pressed their heads to Swallow's tentacles. A pure white light washed over Diane's arm, as the bioengineered skrill slipped from it, and began to totter across the leaves on its weakened limbs.

Swallow was deformed, mangled by Taelon procedures, hobbling alongside the other skrills. But he was one of their own, and Diane distantly realized that they would care for him, no matter what.

As she slipped from consciousness, the glowing spots of the skrills melting into the darkness of the rainforest, she whispered, "I love you, Swallow..."

****

"She's here!"

Liam Kincaid dropped to his knees beside Delaney, smeared with mud and lying on her side on the rainforest floor. Iridescent bugs dotted her torso and head. With a grunt of disgust, Liam swept them off and gathered her limp form into his arms.

Da'er was only a short distance behind, and he blushed a little in bewilderment at the sight of his implant crumpled in a muddy heap in Kincaid's arms.

"She's still alive," Liam said, heavily making his way past the Taelon with Diane. "But she needs to get to a hospital."

Diane moaned and shuddered against his shoulder, a tiny tear making a wet path on her dirty face.

****

Agent Diane Delaney recovered her physical and mental faculties completely, and continued to serve Da'er. Her skrill was never found, and Agent Sandoval eventually concluded that it had been stolen, since no marking or injury was left on the muscles of her forearm.

Agent Delaney was given a new skrill, affectionately nicknamed "Dove," a few days after her recovery. But she never had the level of mental intimacy with Dove that she had with Swallow.

And deep in the Amazon jungle, in a realm that no one ventures to, a rescued skrill told his young of the strange human who had carried him for all those years, and of how she had let him go free into their new world...