Manipulate (Book 1, Alien Cadets)

Chapter 1

Sam's problem with sacrificing an alien animal wasn't the blood or the smell or the guilt, although a ghost of that feeling remained with him. His problem began when he got to the brain and lifted it free... and it sat in his gloved hands looking frighteningly similar to a human brain.

That moment always got to him. It was a moment of unwilling sympathy, and it sent a chill down his spine and put a tremor in his thumb while he carefully placed the brain into the black sphere. The sphere, no bigger than a basketball, was laced with the sensors and wires that would connect the brain tissue to the bio-computer. And if he did something stupid, like drop the slippery brain on the floor while having his moment of empathy, that would be unfortunate.

Sam waited in the curving hallway of the spaceship to perform this sacrifice yet again. He held the gun and scalpel in one hand, and with his other hand tried to scratch an itch just between his shoulder blades. This new uniform was required dress code today, when the spaceship would make the final jump back to Earth, but it was still itchy, and he did not need the distraction.

The door in front of him slid sideways, and Sam’s mentor gestured with one clawed hand for Sam to enter. His mentor, a typical Spo alien, was a cross between a praying mantis and a basketball player, all knees and height.

“You may perform the procedure now,” he told Sam. “But stop scratching. The uniforms are fine.”

That was typical Spo too, the uniforms are not itchy: therefore you do not scratch.

Sam nodded and entered the containment room. A narrow window on the far wall showed the blackness of space, broken only by three scattered stars. One of them was the sun, a star Sam hadn't seen in six years, but he wasn’t sure which one it was from this angle.

In the containment room, cages lined the walls, each one holding a Spo trouncer. The trouncers were large, toad-like predators from the Spo planet, bred for their high intelligence and, ultimately, their brains.

Sam went to the first cage and waited with the gun until a small camera glowed to life in the wall, meaning a live feed of him was now projected in the cadets’ quarters and the captain’s control room. Performing the last "sacrifice" of a space journey was an honor; everybody watched.

Steadying the dart gun with both hands, Sam raised and held it level with his chest. With a sharp thwap thwap, he sunk two darts in the rubbery hide of the caged animal. Its eyestalks quivered and retracted like snails before it thudded to the ground, two hundred pounds of lifeless predator.

Sam silently handed the gun to his mentor, and switched to the scalpel. He surreptitiously wiped his hands on his jumpsuit as he unlocked the cage. Killing the trouncer was the easier part of this ritual, removing its brain took a bit of finesse.

Sam opened the cage door and stepped in smoothly. He knelt by the animal and with one gloved hand twisted the trouncer’s head up. He thumbed the knife to life, and it vibrated comfortably in his hand. Starting behind the right eyestalk, he inserted the knife and slowly cut through the trouncer’s skull to the opposite eye. The animal’s stench, something like an onion soaked in bleach, made his eyes water fiercely.  He blinked tears away while making the next cut, but they trickled down his cheeks while he made the third. Thankfully the Spo didn’t cry, so they wouldn’t connect the moisture with weakness.

Two minutes later, Sam used a suction to pull off the skull sections he’d cut free. Carefully he withdrew the animal’s brain, severing the spinal column when it came into view. A perfect extraction.

For one moment, Sam held the slick, grey brain in his hands, while watery green blood pooled at his feet. Bile rose in his throat, and he choked it back, along with a slightly hysterical laugh. He swallowed and forced a quick grin at the wall camera, knowing the other cadets were watching.