Hard and Fast

Chapter 8

Ramses found Setg's quarters open and no one inside. Getting onto the computer, he started to disable all ships in the hanger but found that the hanger's doors were open and a ship had just left. Opening a comms line to the bridge, he barked a command, "Track that ship that just left!"

Glaring at empty room of Setg's, he looked around; there was no sign of struggle... So Bekken had been here before.

Turning to face the Captain, "Any updates?"

"Sir, your son is in custody. The oomans have been moved to the medbay and the dead one is currently under autopsy" The Captain saluted.

Ramses took one last look around the room, "Secure this place and return to your duties. Captain, continue tracking the ship, I need immediate updates."

The Captain saluted again and everyone set about their duties. Ramses headed first to the medbay. His son would not have awoken yet and he needed the autopsy reports.

As he headed to the medbay, he thought about Bekken. They had met a long time ago and even then there was something not right about the hunter. His interests in oomans were perverse and secretive and sometime there were drugs in his room that were questionable. The clan allowed him on board as they needed his skills in the study of oomans but now it appears to be something else underfoot.

He entered the medbay and saw six oomans asleep in the beds. There were medics checking over their current state. The head medic approached Ramses and bowed and he nodded in return. "Elder, the six that have been brought in are malnourished but are all pregnant, at various stages. However, it appears that they are being experimented on. We are still awaiting results on their blood results, but the autopsy should be finished any minute now. "

Ramses nodded, "Show me the report on the dead one."

The Medic lead Ramses to the dead one in a separate room and pulled back the cover. The medic had obviously cleaned the lacerations up and performed the deceased burial blessings. The medic, using a tweezer, opened her exposed belly" As you see sir, death occurred before the baby was born. There is trauma to the cervix as the young was way too big. But It has been removed as you can see, but removed poorly. I believe Bekken, seeing that the ooman was dead already, hastily opened her up to remove the baby before it too died. Did you find the baby?"

Ramses shook his head. Raising his communicator, "Captain, I need you and your team to sweep Bekken's room again and search for babies. Becareful for any traps, the room is soundproof so you will need to use special scanners if there is more hidden compartments." The Captain acknowledged the response on the communicator and went silent.

Ramses motioned to the medic, "Please continue."

"Besides the missing baby, it appears to be a normal birth, however we noticed that the ooman has been repeatedly injected with something. Also, the conception was done artificially as shown by the injection here" pointing to a scar near the hip.... "It appears Bekken could not conceive via normal means so he did it artificially, but that did not stop him from trying." An assistant handed him a data cell and he plugged it into his wrist computer, a DNA sequence holographed itself above the computer. The medic clicked his mandibles in thought before zooming in on a particular DNA strand. "Ah, this is what he was doing. He was injecting the mother's including this one a series of toxins and steroids and Yuatja DNA, namely his own......" Thinking momentarily.... The medic whispered "He.... Was....breeding....super hunters....berserkers....."

Ramses struggled to stand. "Berserkers..... what the pauk!".. he wobbled over to the other room and looked at the six oomans lying here, all pregnant with super hunters. The Clan had to constantly deal with this crazed hunters bent on destruction and now there were six here waiting to be born. Turning to the medic, "Can we reverse it, weaken it?" Ramses was in shock. Berserkers were being bred on his ship... Unchecked, they could have torn right through the clan and with Bekken as their father, who knows how far they would have been pushed...experimented on...