“Is this coming from you or the team?” I huffed.
“Both. I don’t want our society to end.”
“I don’t want it to end, either, but I shouldn’t be forced to participate.” I sighed. “They should have given me a choice.” Not that I would have agreed.
“That’s what I wanted them to do.”
“Then why didn’t you do it?”
“Because it wasn’t up to me. As much as I wanted to tell you about it, I couldn’t. I signed a contract with GenH1. If I reneged, I would have lost everything I’d worked so hard for, and then I wouldn’t be here to protect you. I wanted them to explain our situation first and then ask for your help, but the other members of the team predicted you’d say no.”
Would I have said no? Now that they’d done the opposite, it was too hard to go back in my mind and predict an answer.
“Would you have said yes or no?” asked Michael earnestly, inching closer and taking my hand in his.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted, and yanked my hand away.
“Then you might have been forced to anyway. So either way, we’d be where we are right now.”
He was right. Without a good comeback, I shifted the subject. “I still don’t understand why you need my eggs. The ovaries of cloned females don’t produce eggs, but you’ve obviously found a way to clone without using an ovum, right?”
“Yes, we found a way,” he said with conviction, “but it’s still not enough.”
“Was my cryo chamber discovered by accident, or was I knowingly brought here for this purpose?”
He didn’t answer.
“Please!”
He took a deep breath through his nose. “Your cryonic capsule was found by a crew of workers who were in charge of demolishing the warehouse which used to house S.T.A.S.I.S. Your chamber was delivered here, and we found your capsule harbored a human being with all reproductive organs intact and operational. We opened bottles of artificial champagne and celebrated.”
“And what if my reproductive organs had been missing, let’s say from a hysterectomy or something, or if I was infertile. Then what would you have done with me?”
“You’d still be here. Don’t think for one minute that we would have abandoned our mission and let you die.” Michael moved closer. “I wouldn’t have let you die. You were too important to me, even then.”
I was the girl he awakened, his Sleeping Beauty. Like Doctor Frankenstein, he felt an innate responsibility toward the life he helped restore. And, of course, there was a reciprocal effect. Could I be mad at him for going along with this charade?
“Then think about what they’re asking me to do—what you’re asking me to do.”
“I was just following the plan—”
“The plan to turn me into a baby-maker.”
“I signed the contract before you were ‘awakened.’ I didn’t know you. My feelings for you weren’t the same as they are now. It was easy for me to agree with the team, sign the contract, and focus on the future of the project. I never thought about how you’d feel, how’d you’d react to our plan, or what would happen if you refused to participate. But now…” He lowered his head. “Now I care about all of those things.”
Michael cared—yes—I didn’t doubt his feelings were genuine, but there was no way he could fully understand my reluctance and disgust toward what they were asking me to do. I couldn’t expect him to, but I needed him to be on my side now and convince the team to release me from the program.
“My mother became pregnant with me when she was twenty-three,” I said, nestling my shoulders into my pillow. “She wasn’t married to my dad. In fact, she hardly knew him. He was a paleontologist, too. They were working together on a site in Iran, and one night under the stars, I was conceived. My mom blamed their one-night stand on boredom and the fact that he was extremely handsome. There’s not much to do in a tent in the desert without electricity. But that’s a lame excuse. Whenever I got bored and tired of hanging out around the campfire, I resorted to reading by flashlight—not having sex.”
“No one’s asking you to have sex. You’ll be artificially inseminated.”
A sick feeling rose in my gut, and for a moment, I thought my breakfast would end up in my lap.
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t fall into my plan either. I always told myself that I wouldn’t do what she did. I planned to marry the man of my dreams and wait a few years before having children. And they wouldn’t grow up like I did. No homeschooling—they’d go to a public school, so they could be surrounded by kids their own age and have plenty of friends.”
“This is a different world. Your plan doesn’t fit here,” he said softly.
“Then make it fit,” I said earnestly. “Tell me that as soon as I’m completely recovered, I can freely walk out of this hospital and restart my life the way I want it to be.” My voice cracked and a set of hot tears teetered on my lower lashes.
“I can’t. You know I can’t. It goes beyond me, beyond this hospital.”
“Beyond this hospital to where?” I urged.
“The presidents. All three. I have no authority over any one of them.”
“Then I have no choice? This is so wrong on so many levels.” I fell back against my propped-up pillow as the cold reality of my new existence in this world settled once again into my bones. I didn’t want to have a baby. I didn’t want to be a single parent, and I didn’t want other women to give birth to my babies either.
“You’re right. It’s wrong. It’s unethical. I’m so sorry.” He shook his head and looked up at the ceiling. The twinkle of lights above reflected in his eyes like tiny stars. “There’s nothing I can do to change the team’s mind. But I can do everything in my power to give you as much freedom as I can. Then maybe you’ll be comfortable and happy.”
“Comfortable and happy? What a joke,” I snapped.
“The program still allows you to get married and have your own children.”
“How?”
“The surrogates and their babies will eventually enter the general population under our watchful eye, with the children’s fertility remaining a secret. When the surrogate program is firmly established and you’ve given birth to enough children, you’ll also be allowed to enter the population. At that time, you can get married as long as you raise your biological children with an understanding of their future obligations.”
“How many children are they going to make me have?” My voice trembled.
“I don’t know,” Michael said, shaking his head and averting his eyes. “The plan’s not specific. There’re too many variables when it comes to your future health and fertility. Basically, you’ll be expected to give birth to as many children as physically possible before you reach menopause, but through the entire process, the team will do everything they can to give you and your daughters as much autonomy as possible.”
Maybe Michael believed that, but I still suspected otherwise.
“Then it’ll be thirty years before I’m allowed to meet someone, get married, and have my own family.” A tear dropped from my lashes, and the sick feeling at the pit of my stomach rose into my throat. “So, is that what you want from me, too? You want me to be pregnant at seventeen and continue to have babies until I’m in my forties and fifties?” I pushed away from my pillow, bringing my face inches from his.
“It’s not a matter of want. It’s what you have to do. Even if I quit the hospital, it wouldn’t matter. It would be more difficult for them, but they already have what they need to start and finish the project without me.” His words were gentle, his voice sincere.
Yes, he was part of the team, part of the plan to violate and use me, but so far Michael was different from the others. I truly believed he cared about me more deeply than anyone else here at GenH1, and like me, he was brought to life for the so-called “good” of the world. We had more in common than anyone else on the planet.
“The last thing I want you to do is quit the program, Michael.” His face blurr
ed, he was so close. “I need you. I need someone who understands how I feel about this. You understand me better than anyone else.”
The sick emptiness returned to my stomach with the reality of what they wanted me to do. “I have to get out of this hospital. I can’t stay here another day,” I announced.
“You have to participate, Cassie. The team hoped and anticipated that you’d see this as your calling, your duty. That you would willingly sacrifice a bit of yourself for the future of the human race, become an inspiration to your children as they continue the program at your side, and with the same conviction. But I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.”
He gazed at me so intently it was hard to look away. “I can only hope that in time you’ll think of yourself the way I think of you—as a savior instead of a brood mare. And you’ll be willing to make great sacrifices for the good of mankind, and find satisfaction in knowing that you’ve helped save our world. If you do that, we can work together side by side, and maybe then you’ll be happy.”
“So it’s not just Dr. Little and Dr. Pickford? You also want me to eventually find happiness and fulfillment just from knowing that I’m saving the world?” I asked as I broke eye contact and fell back against my pillow.
“It’s the only way you’ll find peace in the project.”
“I want my old life back. I don’t want to be here, especially now,” I said, ripping my hand away from his. “I’d rather be dead then give birth to a truckload of babies, all girls, who’d then suffer the same fate as me.”
“They won’t let anything happen to you. I won’t let anything happen to you.” In his eyes, I saw someone who was haunted by not only his own existence but also how it would damage his career if he went against the team. Yet, he also understood how miserable I would be if I didn’t accept my fate with an open heart.
“Then I’m stuck.” They had me right where they wanted me—without friends or family to fight for my rights. “So, tell me the plan?” My voice cracked as I swallowed hard to suppress my tears.
“Dr. Little wants you to become pregnant as soon as possible through artificial insemination and carry the baby to term.”
“And what happens to each baby after I give birth?” The words tugged at my gut, making my whole body shudder.
“You may choose to raise it yourself, or it can be adopted. Either way, the child will be raised in the least restrictive environment possible, and when the child enters the program at puberty, she’ll already have a complete understanding of her role in the process.”
A pain developed behind my eyes again, pulsing like a small balloon that inflated and deflated over and over again in my brain.
“I can’t do this.”
“You can. You’re stronger than that,” he urged. “You need to be strong not only for you, but also for me.”
Could I?
He stood and took a seat on the edge of my bed, his weight upon the mattress, rocking me toward him. When the side of my thigh met his knee, my heart rate doubled, and I drew in a deep breath.
“Before you were awakened,” he continued, “I spent hours at your bedside imaging what you were like, how your voice would sound, how you looked when you smiled. When your red lips pulsed, when your chest heaved, and you took your first breath, I kept my emotions in check. But now, now that you’ve ‘awakened,’ everything is different. I’m jealous and angry. I can’t sleep. I can’t stop thinking about you.”
I ignored the pain and tilted closer until the space between our faces was less than a foot. My heart, my mind, my soul—everything yearned for his affection at that moment.
“I feel the same way, too,” I said as Michael’s sincerity drew me to him and all my anger toward him fled.
I closed my eyes, wanting this handsome, earnest guy to take me into my arms and tell me he’d make them let me go. My lungs expanded with his warm breath and spicy scent. When his lips met mine, every atom in my body danced, urging me to pull him closer and tighten my grip upon his back.
His kissing became more fiery, and I reacted by kissing him harder. It wasn’t until his mouth moved to my neck that I came to my senses, bit my bottom lip, and drew away.
“Not yet,” I said, scooting away.
“I know,” he said between breaths, rising from the bed. His wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his uniform and returned to the chair. “I can’t…we can’t. We can never…” he said abruptly. “It’s against protocol. I-I should go.”
He rose stiffly from the bed, brushed the wrinkles from his uniform, and hurried to the door. His lips were tight and his eyes glossy from passion, disappointment, and a loss of self-control. With the sweep of his foot, he enabled the obscuras, and the door closed behind him before I could think of something to say.
Michael, the guy who, like a god, brought me into a new reality, expected me, a seventeen-year-old virgin, to produce children not from love but from necessity in order to quench the selfish desire of man to procreate and rule the planet as the ultimate life form.
Through me, a man could quench his most primordial want, a biological heir. The weight of the world was on my shoulders, but due to GenH1 protocol, Michael couldn’t help me through the process as a boyfriend.
The first thing I had to do was get out of this hospital. Where I was going to end up and how I’d do it didn’t matter at this point.
Dr. Little’s thick-walled coffee mug was still on the hovering table next to my bed. I grabbed it, hurled it across the room, and gave a silent cheer as it shattered into a million pieces. Minutes later, a JAN entered with a vacuum for a hand.
Chapter Eight
Two hours later, Ella was at my bedside, holding an exercise pole. “Good afternoon, Cassie,” she said tentatively, like she was trying to gauge my mood.
I rolled onto my side.
“How are you feeling, sweetie?” she asked, sitting next to me on my bed and setting her hand on my shoulder.
“Like my whole world fell apart all over again,” I said as calmly as I could. None of this was her fault. She was just following the plan.
“A good workout will make you feel better. It’ll help take your mind off things,” she said with puckered lips and her kitty-cat voice.
“Great! Then maybe after today’s session, I’ll be strong enough to break out of this place and become a fugitive,” I said against my pillow.
“Oh honey, don’t even think that way. This isn’t a terrible place. Besides, you’re L-Banded now, so you wouldn’t get that far.” She gave the pole a twirl. “Clones who are overly aggressive are considered naturally violent and genetically defective even when the only thing left wounded is someone’s pride. If you behaved that way, Dr. Little might think you’re a danger to society.” She giggled.
Good! I’ll let them think that, and let them think I wouldn’t get that far.
“The team knows you’re opposed to the plan, so they’re taking extra steps to ensure everyone’s safety, including yours.”
I rolled onto my back. “How do they know I’m still ‘opposed?’ Have they been listening to me? Are they watching me right now?”
“I don’t know if anyone from the team is watching or listening to you or not right now, but if someone is, it’s because the team is worried about you. You were awakened less than two weeks ago. You’re still very fragile.”
Yes—let them still think I’m fragile.
“They don’t care about me; they only care about my eggs.”
“Now that is not true. Life is precious, Cassie, every life, especially yours. How about you do three sets of ten? You’ll feel better. I always feel better after I exercise. Then I’ll send in a SUDS,” she said as she stood.
“Great,” I said sarcastically. A sponge bath by a SUDS bot was uncomfortable to say the least. Having my dull hospital gown exchanged with a white, fitted tunic and pants was the only good thing that came out of it.
“Wow. I didn’t expect to see so much improvement,” said Ella after I completed one set.
Whoops. Time to hide my real strength.
As she jumped and gave me a round of applause, her large breasts jumped, too, shaking a necklace from the folds of her collar.
From a gold chain hung a small, golden egg the size of a jellybean. The egg was shiny and smooth, instead of matte and frosted like the egg on Dr. Love’s ring. When Ella moved, it twinkled, swinging like a pendulum.
“What’s the egg for?” I asked, pretending to be out of breath and letting my arms drop like my muscles were completely spent.
Ella grasped the charm between two fingers, rubbing it lovingly as if it was the belly of a jade Buddha. “Eggs represent fertility, the source of life. Most women wear egg jewelry. Unlike you, it’s the only egg we have,” she whimpered.
“That’s not my fault, Ella.” I wasn’t the one who caused the plague. I was supposed to give everyone hope. I was their genie in a bottle, but with hope came disappointment, and maybe even jealousy.
“I’m sorry, Cassie.” She lowered her head and sobbed, still holding the egg charm delicately. “Dr. Love and I are so sorry we couldn’t tell you about the plan. We wanted to, but we had to do what was best for you and the project. In the end, you’ll understand why your participation is so important to us.”
“I’m not sure I can.” I placed my hand over my stomach and was struck by another wave of nausea with the thought of being artificially inseminated.
“I’m curious about something though, and I want you to be completely honest with me.”
“Okay, I will.”
“If you had a choice of not participating in the program, and could start a new life without any interference from the government, would you? Or would you choose to help us?” There was pain in her eyes, a yearning for a long, fruitful life for her and a future family.
What if our situations were reversed? Would I want the only living fertile female to prostitute herself for the good of mankind? Yeah, I guessed I would, and if the fertile female did not abide, I probably would label her selfish, egotistical, the destroyer of the human race, the catalyst of Armageddon, and sign a petition for her immediate arrest and forceful participation.
Mirror X Page 8