*Well that was new.* The Iffrit said thoughtfully, *Elgin, you are up I am afraid, remember I am always with you.*
Then the world folded in/around Elgin and he found himself in his own body and, apparently, alone in his mind. The room stank of burnt meat and hot metal, the pieces of the Basik mostly looked inhuman, but the gracefully proportioned leg lying a few feet away made his stomach want to rebel.
Turning away Elgin walked resolutely towards the only other doorway, an image in his head, an overlay of them from past visits showed it as the entrance to a tunnel that stretched a few hundred feet further into the mountainside. It was dim and dank in the tunnel, and Elgin could hear and faintly see, things moving, skittering away from under his feet.
At the other end of the tunnel was the chamber he was expecting, a chamber that was neither dark nor dank. Against the far wall a semicircular platform held a lounger, behind which rose a mural that reached the ceiling at least sixty feet up. On the day bed sprawled another Basik, this one’s face that of an Amerind beauty, with silky dark hair rippling to the floor. But while her face was human colored, and her form feminine, the almost reptilian skin of the Basik started at the base of her throat and only her hands and feet were human like. Instead of a human’s two mammaries she had four.
Around the room were several of the Basik he’d seen before, though all looked younger, and running around between the legs, playing games with balls and sticks, were a flurry of children, naked children. The only sign that they were other than human, a strip of Basik skin up the middle of their backs.
“Eyes of the old one, see the work you set us to goes apace.” The Queen had a very sexy voice and a killer smile, a curving of the lips that hid the predator teeth behind them.
Elgin looked around, finally seeing the humans he had come to rescue, mother, father, son and daughter, sitting on the floor, knees drawn up to their chins, eyes closed. “I came for those you took, Queen of the Basik.” He said pointing.
The Basik Queen’s mouth pouted. “Always so abrupt, and after I let you destroy the hasty one and its followers. I was never aware of its ventures beyond the crèche or the attempt to catch some meals on the wing.”
“All knowing Queen of the Basik, it saddens me to hear that your powers decay so with age; to the extent that one senior offspring gets beyond the rift and another rediscovers the technology of your foremothers without your knowledge. I fear I will eat at your passing banquet all too soon.” Elgin wasn’t quite sure what all that meant, it sounded sarcastic.
The Queen seemed to hiss, but did not answer, just staring back unblinkingly, as she waved at the human family. Elgin walked to the four, who had sat still with their eyes closed the whole time. He pulled the father, mother and son to their feet and turned them towards the tunnel entrance. They moved when he pulled and pushed but did nothing on their own, their eyes were closed, and their breathing was regular, it was as if they were asleep on their feet. Then he went to stand over the girl, “You, go get the girl.”
The child sat unmoving arms wrapped around her legs, chin on knees.
“It’s not going to work, I know what you are, and I am not taking a changeling into the outer world, however good a mimic you are. Angry green eyes glared up at him, “I am as human as she is.” The Basik crèchling snarled at him, her teeth were certainly close enough to human to pass given natural human variation.
“But you are not her, and while you might get by outside, she will not survive another day in here. Begone with you and put her clothes back on her. The fake girl leapt to her feet and ran for a low door halfway down the wall.
Elgin stood and waited, the younglings were various sizes but they were as far as he could see, clones of each other. After a few minutes several of the older, or at least bigger, ones formed a little line a few yards away, their tongues tasting the air, their unblinking green eyes focused on him, he could almost hear them wonder how he would taste.
Another few minutes and another naked crèchling lead a brown haired girl to Elgin. The Basik stared up at him, “I will hunt beyond the rift.”
“You can live beyond the rift if you prove you can do so in peace with the humans, whose world this is. You can hunt as well as long as it is the dumb beasts allowed to roam for that purpose. But first you have to prove that your elders’ instincts have been suppressed for good. And that is going to take some time.”
“The flow has returned to reality, your rift trap will no longer hold us like it has for so long. You cannot stop us.” The little girl sounded more like the queen than the possibly ten year old meat eating monster she was.
“Perhaps not, but I can still destroy you all. And that has been enough for a very long time, if it is no longer enough then I and you will have failed, and you will become extinct.”
The little girl snarled and backed away, but there was something in her face other than pure rage. Perhaps it was something like respect, something like excitement, she had been told that there was a chance she would one day get to hunt beyond the rift. Hopefully that was enough to keep her and her brood sisters from breaking out.
Elgin led the family party back out and across the entry chamber, carefully walking wide of the indescribable mess in the middle of the floor. He led the family back to the airplane.
*Get them inside and seated as best you can, the Iffrit will get them out of here and to a place they can be found,* Cutter’s voice directed quietly.