Morfphology (eBook)

Chapter One

The Unveiling

Pearl

Pearl sank deeper and deeper below the surface of the dark, fetid water. She couldn’t remember why or how, but her hands and legs were tightly bound and a heavy stone was lashed to her feet. All conspired to make her descent rapid and struggle futile. She held her breath as long as she was able—until it exploded from her lungs and sent a burst of bubbles upward to a sky she could no longer see.

Just as she knew she must breathe in the foul water to re-fill her emptied lungs, Pearl jerked awake, sat bolt upright, and gasped for air. Sweat and fear soaked the silk sheets of her bed. Laying her forehead on bent knees, she calmed her rapid breathing and pounding heart. She was safe, she told herself, safe in her own bed and in her own Niche.

The night of vivid dreams, however, had left behind a hunkered dread curled up tightly in her mind and body, and it was not so easily dislodged.

Then she remembered.

It’s my Pairing Day.

A fresh wave of panic washed over her as another thought struck.

And nothing will ever be the same again.

She’d be the first of the Morfphs to go. They’d even had a party to celebrate. All twelve Alphas and their Caretakers dressed in their most colorful clothes and gathered in the Pod’s Common room to eat cake—a rare treat—and to dance in whirling circles. It was the culmination of all they had all been working towards for so long. Pearl and her sister, Ruby, had sat out the dancing, held hands, and looked on with worried eyes.

“We’re so proud,” Pearl’s Caretakers said when a Patron was chosen for her. “So very proud.”

Then why does it feel like I’m going to my execution?

Pearl’s official name was Alpha One of Twelve, and she was not only the first of them to go, she was also the very first Morfph. The first one born alive and healthy, anyway. And until about three months ago, she’d been fine—fine with all of it. Excited, even. But that was before Ruby—Alpha Two to the people at Geneti-Search—said all those awful things, using words like murder, annihilation, and bondage.

“Morfphs are just genetically engineered human sacrifices,” Ruby whispered to Pearl one morning as they lay together in the beds they had pushed together the night before. “Sacrificial virgins offered to today’s gods, the ones everyone seems to worship now—”

“Oh stop, Ruby. So much drama. Why do you say things like that? It’s not true and you know it. We’re not being murdered; we’re being Paired, for Goodness’s sake. To a person. A carefully selected one, but just a person. Besides, everyone at Geneti-Search loves us,” Pearl had said. “They wouldn’t let anything bad happen to us.”

“Billionaires, Pearl. I meant billionaires and trillionaires and—What comes after trillion? Gazillion? Don’t be so literal. I know they aren’t actual gods,” Ruby said and snorted.

“Okay, okay, Ruby. Geez, calm down. I just—”

“But only the super-wealthy can afford us. And do you really think Geneti-Search is doing all this because they love us so much? Out of the goodness of their hearts? They’re grooming us, Pearl. They need us sleek, healthy and cooperative. Just getting us ready for the coming sacrifice. To increase our value.”

“You don’t think Mama and Papa love us?” Pearl said, appalled at the thought. “You think they’re lying to us?”

Mama and Papa were the Caretakers she and Ruby shared. Papa had a soft spot for Ruby and let her have access to the unmonitored web occasionally. It was strictly forbidden, and Ruby and Papa could get in terrible trouble. Exactly what kind of trouble Pearl didn’t know. But what she did know was it didn’t seem to be doing Ruby any good.

Ruby’s face slackened, and she shrugged.

“Oh, I don’t know. Probably not on purpose, I guess. But they really have no more say in all this than we do.”

And then, days later, Ruby said something else about the impending Pairing—something that hit closer to Pearl’s fears and that chilled her to the bone.

“Afterwards, the person you are now—this minute—will be gone, you know. And someone else entirely will be in your place. You won’t be you anymore. Your Patron, the person you’re Paired with—enslaved to—will determine who and what you are. Everything down to what you think and feel. Their desires will become yours. Their wishes will be your wishes. Your very body will shape-shift to the form they crave. You will embody their desires. Forever. End of story. ‘Bye, bye, Pearl,’” Ruby said, snapping her fingers.

“Not now, Ruby. Please don’t start—”

“That’s murder, Pearl,” Ruby interrupted. “How is that not murder?”

Pearl really hated it when Ruby talked like that, but now, as she lay alone and isolated from the others in her Niche, she wished Ruby were with her. Until a month ago, before they had both fully matured, she would have been. The night before they would have shoved their two beds together and then, after talking for a while in low murmurs, they would have gone to sleep, wrapped around each other like two puppies from the same litter.

Last night Pearl had to sleep alone, just as she had done for the twenty-nine nights before. Not that she had slept that much.

It hadn’t helped, of course, when Pearl learned from her Caretakers who her Patron was going to be.

“What an honor,” Mama said. “What a tremendous honor... for all of us. Who would have thought that they would pair you with The Mother of Morfphs?”

“No,” Pearl said. “Not her. Anyone but her. Please. Not her.”

Surprised, her Caretaker shook her head. “Pearl, sweetie, it’s happening.”

“No,” she said again. She cried—a mewling, defeated sound. It embarrassed her, but she couldn’t stop.

Ruby would never act like this.

“It will be good. Just wait and see. You’ll be fine. Better than fine,” Mama had said. She’d put her arms around Pearl and kissed her on the forehead. But even her Caretaker hadn’t looked convinced.

Now, sitting rigidly on her bed, dressed and ready, Pearl rubbed absentmindedly at the small, mostly healed incision on the soft underside of her forearm. A red line marked where Geneti-Search had implanted the identification and tracking chip soon after they chose her Patron. A Morfph’s identity was incomplete until that point.

She changed into the clothes she’d found folded neatly on her bed the evening before. They were all a loose, flowing, white silk, as was her veil. She’d worn the veil and gloves, unless she was alone, for a month now–ever since she had come into her full empathic and shape-shifting Morfph capabilities and was ready for Pairing. The veil prevented eye contact with anyone besides her Patron. Eye contact and touch were important parts of the chemistry of the Pairing, and she must make no mistakes.

There was a light knock on the frame of the door; the signal. It was time. She stood up, slipped on her white silk gloves, adjusted her veil, and walked to the door to slide it open. The section of the veil that was over her eyes was a mesh she could peer through, but it obscured her vision enough that all she could see of her two Caretakers were their outlines, standing outside her door.

She couldn’t see their faces, but she imagined them wreathed in the strained smiles she’d seen before whenever the topic of the Pairing came up. They stepped forward. Each took one of her arms to guide her to the Pairing room where her Patron waited.

Before they left, they fitted Bluetooth buds into her ears. These would deliver a low-powered electrical pulse into her ear canals at a crucial time during the bonding process. The pulse would stimulate her vagal nerve and boost the powerful bonding effect already encoded into the Morfph’s brain upon meeting her Patron. The surge of dopamine, oxytocin, and vasopressin flooding into her body and brain would increase and intensify.

Most of what happened next was a blur, a confusion. Her nerves and the drugs they had given her to aid in the Pairing were taking effect. Body vibrating, her legs loose and wobbly, she walked and walked—for what seemed a very long time. Dead woman walking, she thought fuzzily. Then an elevator ride and more walking. Finally, a new room.

Low, flickering light and the faint smell of vanilla. Soft music. Plush, thick carpet underfoot. And someone else in the room—waiting as she had waited.

“Step forward, Alpha One,” Papa said.

Mama and Papa stood behind her, close, but no longer touching her. Through her veil, Pearl could just make out a dark figure a few feet away. But she knew who it was.

The Mother of Morfphs. My Patron.

Pearl’s entire body quaked again.

Papa started giving instructions in a formal tone Pearl hadn’t heard before.

“Okay, Alpha One, please take off your veil and gloves now. We’re ready to start.”

She peeled off her gloves and unhooked her veil.

“Drop them on the floor, Alpha One. And now, Patron, please stand right there.”...