Genesis (19 page)

She wondered what had become of the Hirachi women but since she was far more interested in the Earth women, she didn’t give it much thought at the time. Consuelo, poor little thing, had been handed over to an ugly looking brute that looked even bigger than Kole, but then maybe that was deceptive. Consuelo wasn’t as big as a minute and the size difference was bound to be vast. The top of her dark head didn’t reach much higher than the brute’s waist.

Spying Bri, her face lit up with what looked like vast relief. She’d been standing in the giant’s shadow, but the moment she saw Bri, she charged toward the line closest to the habitat where Bri stood. The Hirachi male stared at her as if dumbfounded for a moment and then strode after her, grabbing her hand and jerking her to a halt.

Consuelo didn’t take it well. Bri couldn’t hear what the male said, but Consuelo couldn’t have understood him anyway, and she didn’t seem to care. She cut loose with a stream of outraged Spanish, and, when that didn’t work, she clobbered him.

He stared down at her in blank faced amazement for several moments and reached for her, and Bri’s heart seemed to stop in her chest. Afraid that she was about to see total annihilation, she still couldn’t close her eyes. Instead, to her relief, he merely thumped her on the forehead with one large forefinger.

Consuelo clapped a hand to her forehead, checked her palm for blood--obviously it stung--and then lit into him like she thought she could take him apart. He grabbed her shoulders, holding her at arm’s length until she stopped swinging at him and began trying to kick him in the shins--succeeded in kicking him in the shins.

He let her go. She kicked him one more time for good measure and then turned and stalked to the edge of the exercise yard. The
Hirachi
male glared at her back and then stalked with what dignity he could muster to the opposite side, folded his arms over his massive chest, and sulked.

“
Hola
, Bri!” Consuelo called across the yard that separated them.

Relieved, fighting the urge to smile, Bri hurried toward the woman. “
Hola
, Consuelo! You ok?”

An expression of irritation clouded her features for a moment. “Machissmo, pah!” she said with a snort. “No have Manuel,” she added, her expression changing to one of sadness. “Have big, hulking brute instead.”

Bri bit her lip, keenly aware of Kole behind her, and wished she hadn’t taught Consuelo that particular word group. “They took Cory, too.”

Consuelo nodded. “Tink slaver give back baby?”

Bri swallowed against a knot of misery that had risen in her throat. “Yes. Soon.”

Consuelo didn’t look as if she believed that, but she summoned a smile.

“Hey! You American?”

The new voice drew Bri’s gaze, and she saw that one of the women being held in the group habitat was moving toward them. “Don’t cross the line!” she shouted quickly.

The woman kept walking until she’d reached the edge of the yard. “I already know about the dog leash,” she said tightly. “Do you know what’s going on? We’ve been taken, right?”

Bri stared at the woman for a long moment. “It isn’t like the UFO stories,” she said finally. “I’ve been here for months, and I don’t think they’re going to take us back. But, FYI, Big Brother.”

The woman stared at her blankly for several moments as that slowly sank in. Despite the twenty feet or so that separated them, she could tell from the woman’s expression that she was trying to figure out what she might have said that she shouldn’t have. “Timely info,” she finally said dryly. “Shit! Stupid of me not to think of that, damn it to hell! You sure BB grasps?”

“Unfortunately,” Bri returned, feeling downright ridiculous trying to talk in code even though she knew it could be seriously dangerous to let the
Sheloni
get the idea they might pose a threat of any kind. From what she could tell, the
Sheloni
seemed to view them as much less of a threat than their other slaves and that could only be a good thing.

“I’m Becky, btw, from Texas.”

“Bri--Georgia. What about the others?”

“Diana and Lisa are from Florida,” she responded, pointing to the young women and then named the others and where they were from. “The four over there in a tight little click are from Russia or Germany or something. Nobody’s sure because nobody understands what they’re saying. Why are you there … with that … alien?”

Bri stared at the woman, feeling her face heat. “Breeding pens.”

A look of stunned horror clouded the woman’s face. “For real?” she asked, revolted. “Better you than me ….” She broke off. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

Anger surged through Bri, but she discovered it wasn’t entirely because she didn’t like the insult to the
Hirachi
. Part of it was because she realized it was just breeding to the
Sheloni
and they not only didn’t care how any of them felt about it, very likely the plan was to rotate the ‘stock’. “You should get used to the idea,” she said tightly.

The comment elicited a wave of hysterical babble that made it impossible for anybody to be heard. She supposed she should have tried for a little more tact, but she didn’t think they were going to have a lot of time to come to terms with the change in their circumstances, and the sooner they did the better off they would be and the more likely they were to survive.

Unfortunately, they were making so much noise it made it impossible to try to communicate with Consuelo at a distance. Waving, she turned away and focused on trying to get in a little exercise while she had the chance.

Whatever was bothering Kole, she discovered, it wasn’t something easily swept aside and dismissed in favor of exploiting the moment. After displaying all that flattering interest, he went back to ignoring her. She tried not to take it to heart. She tried to convince herself that it didn’t matter. She had gotten what she’d really wanted, what she’d needed to get Cory back, and that was all that mattered. And she thought he would ‘perform’ again if necessary.

It helped that she wasn’t stuck inside with him all day of every day.

Three days later, the
Sheloni
came for her--to check her progress, she was certain--except this time they didn’t gas her. This time, she supposed, she got the regular slave treatment. A small bot appeared through a concealed door in one wall, informed her she was to come, attached a ‘lead’ to one of the wrist restraints they’d put on her the time before, and led her from the habitat through yet another door that she hadn’t known existed.

Chapter Twelve

There was a lot to be said for being drugged after all, Bri thought wryly as the bot led her down a long, dimly lit corridor that was more like a tunnel than a hallway. Fear was something she was barely even aware of in that state. Now, she had nothing to shield her from it, and she was afraid even though she was pretty sure she knew what to expect.

Struggling to ignore the knot of anxiety growing tighter and tighter in her belly, Bri tried to focus on the positive side of the situation. She would be lucid enough to maybe learn something valuable.

The bot leading her was small, not even quite as high as she was tall. She hadn’t seen one like it before, which made her wonder at the number and variety of robots the
Sheloni
had.

It occurred to her to test the thing’s strength, but she dismissed it. This was no child’s toy. The thing looked solid, and she didn’t doubt but what it could take her apart limb from limb if ordered to do so--and it was probably programmed to damage if attacked. She sincerely doubted the ‘robot laws’ applied to anything made by the
Sheloni
, except where the
Sheloni
were concerned.

The corridor seemed to go on forever. Even as much as she’d worked to increase her fitness level, she was tired long before they reached their destination. The corridor was also freezing cold and curved, which gave her the impression, correct or not, that it spanned the circumference of a very, very big, and probably disk shaped, or round, ship.

The corridor seemed too consistently curved to follow the line of a more stream lined vessel.

Despite the exercise, she was so cold she was shivering by the time she was led through a seamless opening that appeared in one side of the corridor. She glanced at the opening as she went through, wondering if it was even an actual door. Maybe it was something like a dimensional thing?

She managed to touch one of the walls as she was led inside. It felt solid, demolishing the brief theory that the whole thing was just an illusion and there wasn’t a wall, or corridor, at all and therefore no need for an actual door.

There were three
Sheloni
, she saw at a glance as she entered the room. They stood back near the opposite wall, guarded by two more robots that stood like sentinels in front of them.

Either they no longer looked upon her as completely harmless, or they just weren’t going to take any chances. Once she’d lain on the examination table and the bot had clamped her wrist and ankle restraints, the
Sheloni
approached, surrounding the table to stare down at her.

Bri’s stomach cramped with fear. She’d had nothing but a dim recollection of the creatures before. Now that she could see them clearly, they looked even more horrible than she remembered.

Somehow, they reminded her of spiders. She wasn’t certain why, because they had two arms and two legs, not eight legs, but there was a definite correlation between the two. Something in her subconscious grasped that even if she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.

The examination was far worse with full use of her facilities, at times downright painful. They were as dispassionate and remote and ‘professional’ as any doctor, though, and that similarity, although no comfort, was at least familiar enough to keep sheer terror at bay even though she had to keep telling herself, over and over, that they wanted her alive. They weren’t going to kill her … at least, she didn’t think they would intentionally do anything that would lead to her death.

Unintentionally ….

“Female.”

Bri blinked, thinking at first that the thing was demanding her attention since it had spoken in a language she understood.

“This is no use to us. You must try again.”

Confusion filled Bri. Obviously they
were
talking to her, but she still didn’t completely grasp what was going on. “I’m not pregnant?” she asked doubtfully, wondering if they would even bother to answer.

“Female,” said the one that she had recognized--the one she’d decided must be important.

“You will breed again.”

Bri stared at the thing, feeling perfectly blank. “I don’t ….”

The pain caught her completely off guard and took her breath. It was so intense, she nearly passed out. She would’ve screamed if she’d been able to draw breath to scream. As it was, she struggled against the restraints, trying to pull in upon herself, until she lost the strength even to do that. When she finally managed to open her eyes again, she saw her thighs were bloodied. It sent a wave of mindless terror through her. “What did you do? What have you done?”

The thing ignored it. It was just as well. Bri was in no state to understand even if it had deigned to explain. The pain wracked her for a seemingly endless time before it seemed to reach its zenith and began to slowly dissipate.

“Cory,” she gasped finally, a note of pleading in her voice even though she doubted very much that anything would move them except their own concerns. “The baby needs me. He won’t … he won’t thrive without me to take care of him.”

A long silence greeted her plea, and she’d begun to think they wouldn’t answer her at all, but finally the lead
Sheloni
did respond. “This will be considered.”

Bri was barely aware of what was going on around her anymore, but she felt it when the restraints were disengaged, felt the tug on the ‘leash’. “Come.”

Opening her eyes, she struggled off the table, but blackness swam up to greet her before her feet had even touched the floor.

When she came to, Bri discovered that she was in her own habitat again. After staring at the familiar scene blankly for several moments, a jolt of excitement went through her. “Cory?”

She sat up too fast. Blackness dropped over her like a curtain coming down. Her head was throbbing like a son-of-a-bitch when she came to again. When she was able to lift her head, she discovered she was on the floor. She’d fallen off the sleeping platform when she fainted.

Disoriented, she finally managed to push herself up right. Darkness threatened again, but she drew her knees up and dropped her forehead to her knees and the heaviness finally went away. When her vision cleared, she saw she was still bleeding.

Her period, she thought blankly? She hardly ever had periods because of the birth control.

But she didn’t have the birth control anymore, she remembered.

She didn’t have any fucking pads either, she realized in sudden anger!

Dismissing her predicament for the moment, she struggled to get up to look for Cory, knowing it was useless. She would’ve heard him if he’d been in the habitat with her … unless he was asleep? When she’d assured herself he wasn’t in the habitat, she flopped onto the edge of the sleeping platform and stared glumly at her feet, her mind perfectly blank.

After a while, she got up and went into the bathroom to bathe and find something to catch the blood. She was so weak and shaky it was all she could do to perform the simple task. Exhausted by the time she’d finished, she wobbled back to the sleeping platform, lay down, and finally drifted to sleep. The sting of the collar woke her.

The door, she saw, was open. That meant go out or get another jolt. It took an effort to drag herself up even so. She was feeling faint again by the time she got to the door, and it took every ounce of will power she possessed to make it through the door. She stood just outside for a few moments, trying to keep her knees locked and finally simply wilted to the ground and curled into a ball.

The Sheloni had done something to her, she knew, but she couldn’t figure out what it was they’d done that would make her so weak and shaky that she hardly had the strength to drag herself around. Trying to figure it out seemed like too much effort.