Review - Hybrid Incubator by Meraki P. Dark

Alex has been an avid ecologist since he was a young boy picking up trash in the woods that people carelessly discarded. Unfortunately, even with a doctorate in environmental science, his passion doesn't pay the bills. After another fruitless day of interviewing for jobs he is over-qualified for, Alex feels the need for a drink. Slightly drunk, he agrees to a road trip with another patron who is also a bit down on his luck. As soon as they're on their way, Alex realizes he's been drugged. When he wakes up, he's in a warehouse, naked and restrained, along with several other men. When an octopus-like creature takes Alex to a room to be subjected to a humiliating medical examination, things go from bad to worse. However, once he learns the reasons behind the experiments, things begin to change. Fear and anger over being kidnapped and imprisoned turns into hope. The need to escape becomes a desire to help.

I've tagged this as a kidnapped-by-aliens story because it fits so well in that genre, even though the “aliens,” in this case, aren't from another planet. I've also classified this as science fiction even though it's based in the present day and doesn't stretch too far beyond currently known science. Some might say this story is really fantasy, as its central plot is a wild conspiracy theory made real.

The story is told entirely from Alex's point of view, which means we get a front-row seat to the conflict raging in his head between sympathy for what his kidnappers are trying to achieve and disgust at the sometimes brutal way they go about it. Adding to the conflict are the feelings the mostly straight Alex is developing for one of the hybrids, Cooper. Given the insight we gain into Alex's thinking, his evolution from captive to willing participant and even lover is believable.

The road is not a smooth one, though. There are some dark turns in the course of events. The author also wrote the Cubi and Vargr series under a different name. Compared to some of the gruesome fights depicted in the Vargr books, this story can seem quite tame. However, there are scenes of non-consensual penetration and sexual abuse that some may find very disturbing.

“Hybrid Incubator” is available from Smashwords.