Page 64 of Meat

Now the ukkur controlled the planet, and with it, all ksh production. They had brought both the nith and the Earthlings to their knees, though the proud Earthlings seemed not to have accepted that fact quite yet.

They had come here today to negotiate.

Or so they thought.

The old woman and her ukkur had allowed themselves to be subjected to the indignity of a metal detector scan on the way in. That was an Earthling stupidity. It obviously did nothing to detect the stone blades that the ukkur carried concealed in the lining of their primitive garments.

And it meant that the humans and nith in this room were all unarmed.

Easy prey.

The ukkur were far stronger than their enemies. Even with their advanced technology, the nith and the Earthlings had not stood a chance once the ukkur’s numbers had exploded.

Had it been easy?

Had it been painless?

Had it been a happily ever after for everyone involved?

No.

Many lives had been lost along the way. Human lives and ukkur too. Many of the women rescued from the nith meat factories had been reluctant at first to be mated to the ukkur. Eventually, most of them had seen the light. Most of them.

Did the old woman have any regrets about what she had wrought on this planet?

Again, the answer was a resounding “no.”

She had done exactly what any mother would do, what any grandmother would do, to protect her offspring.

She had killed.

With her own two hands, she had killed. And thousands upon thousands of others had killed in her name too.

She had come to this planet long ago, stripped of her identity, stripped of her dignity.

Nothing more than a piece of meat.

Now, however, she was something else.

Now she was a predator.

She was sitting at the very top of the food chain. It had taken sixty-five cycles of hard climbing to get there, but now, here she was.

One of the humans cleared his throat noisily. It was the same one who had spoken a moment before. An old man, balding, white-haired, with flabby jowls of soft, pink, swine-like flesh that wobbled as he talked. He was Earth’s chancellor.

“What’s the fucking holdup? Are we going to get on with this or what, woman?”

Arrogant.

Alyx immediately recognized that for what it was. A fear reflex.

The chancellor’s insulting tone did not faze her in the slightest.

But it did have an effect on the ukkur males around her. She sensed her three brutish mates tense up and heard that low aggressive rumbling deep in their chests, at the very lowest limit of audibility.

One of the younger ukkur among her entourage took a step forward. He was a handsome warrior with the old woman’s own features translated into masculine ukkur form.

“Your insolence will not be tolerated, Earthling,” the youth snarled. “You will speak to my grandmother respectfully or you will suffer the consequences.”