Emerald was in no mental state to either agree or object. He took her silence as acquiescence and eased his hold on her. Settling an arm around her shoulders, he led her back in the direction she’d come. When they reached the connecting corridor, he turned left and hurried her along it, stopping after only a few moments before a door. It opened, revealing an apartment far more elegant than the one she’d been taken to before and at least three times as big.
It was still much the same layout, she saw, an apartment in the sense that it was divided between a lounging area, a work area, and a rest area, but not spartanly appointed.
He led her to a chair and gently pushed her down on the seat. She stared at his back blankly as he moved away. In a few moments, he returned, crouched in front of her and held out a tiny vessel that looked more like a test tube than anything else. Emerald stared blankly at it and then looked at him.
“Drink it.”
She took it like a sleepwalker, put the edge against her lips, and tipped it up. The liquid that spilled into her mouth burned like fire all the way down. She coughed, struggling to catch her breath, but she felt the effects almost instantly. The liquid hit her belly and started a blaze that swept through her and wiped out her equilibrium even as it spread warmth through her to chase the chill of fear.
She discovered he was smiling faintly when she managed to open her eyes and blink the tears from them enough to bring his face into focus.
“Better?”
She blinked at him a little owlishly, dismayed to realize she was tipsy with no more than a sip of the stuff. “I don’t know.”
He studied her face for a long moment, seemed to wrestle with himself and abruptly caught her chin. She had no clue he meant to kiss her until her eyes lost focus as he zoomed in. She tensed as his mouth settled over hers, but it was as far from unpleasant as it was possible to be. More heat poured through her as they connected and she felt his heat and his taste invade her. He lifted his lips from hers after little more than a brief connection, seemed to hesitate in debate as to whether to pull away or sample more and then slipped his hand to the base of her skull and pulled her close again, sealing his mouth more firmly over hers and breaching the barrier of her lips with his tongue in almost the same motion. The effects of the liquor she’d gulped didn’t hold a candle to the affect he had on her.
She felt for several moments as if she would either float away or melt into a puddle. It took a tremendous effort to lift her eyelids when he broke the kiss and withdrew. She saw when she had that he hadn’t withdrawn far. He was studying her face with an intensity that made everything inside her go liquid with want.
“Not wise,” he said distractedly, his voice husky in a way that sent a shiver through her. “Not when I want you naked in my bed badly enough I can taste it … and you’re already naked.”
It flickered through her mind to wonder why he would even struggle with the desire. It wasn’t as if she had a hope in hell of stopping him. She wasn’t even certain at that moment that she would want to put up a fight with the lure of promised pleasure was still pounding through her.
He straightened abruptly, placing her eye to eye with as impressive an erection as she’d ever seen. Before she could study it as thoroughly as she wanted to, he turned away, surreptitiously adjusted himself, and disappeared into another room off the main room. When he returned, he held out a folded garment.
“It won’t fit,” he muttered when she took it, “but at least it won’t fall off if I breathe on it.”
Emerald discovered the moment she’d unfolded it that it wasn’t his. It was far too small, she was sure, for him to get in to.
Smaller than Koryn.
Small enough the certainty settled inside her that it belonged to a woman.
She didn’t want to examine the unpleasant feeling that tightened her belly at the realization. Instead, she focused on trying to figure out how to get it on. He took it from her after a moment and showed her that the front simply parted when he ran his hand down it. Curiosity flickered through her, but she dismissed it, unwilling to emphasize her ignorance. Discarding the sheet she’d been clinging to, she stood up and stepped into it, pulling it up over her shoulders. He was right. It was far too big.
Tariq turned her to face him when she’d struggled with the front for a moment, sealing the edges, and then rolled the sleeves up until her hands were free. He left again when she sat down to roll a cuff along the bottom of the suit legs, returning a moment later with a pair of boots.
The sick feeling tightened in Emerald’s belly again, but she took the boots wordlessly and slipped one on each foot, wondering even as she did if she’d be able to walk in them without falling on her face. Especially since she was still feeling the effects of the drink he’d given her … and still weak from his kiss.
“Where are we going?” she asked when he’d led her out of his quarters and into the corridor again.
“Out,” he said curtly.
Emerald’s belly immediately clenched with reluctance. She didn’t know why he’d suddenly become determined to take her outside, but if he meant to set her ‘free’ in that … jungle …. She didn’t know what she’d do. Scream? Beg? Cling?
She didn’t want to go out at all! Not after what she’d seen. She felt her throat close with emotion, struggled with the urge to beg him to take her back to her quarters as some unnamed terror clawed at the back of her mind. She was so distressed, she didn’t realize they’d gone in an entirely different direction than before until Tariq halted in front of what she could see was a wide cargo door. He paused as he reached for the control, studying her. “I’ll be with you, Emerald. I’ll keep you safe.”
She searched his face and felt a modicum of calm settle over her. Nodding a little jerkily, she turned her head as the door began to open, staring at the view that was slowly revealed. The door halted when it was barely high enough for her to walk beneath it and she saw a gang plank extend toward the ground.
Settling a hand along her waist, Tariq urged her through the opening, bending to duck beneath it, and then pausing to close it behind them before he walked her down. The sights and sounds of a primitive world had pelted Emerald even as the doors had opened. Smells joined the riot to her senses, the musky smell of earth, and crushed and rotting vegetation. A wide swath had been cut from the jungle at the foot of the gangplank.
Emerald knew immediately that it led to the crumbling ruins she’d seen from the port and the fear she’d refused to acknowledge pumped her heart a little faster as Tariq guided her along the rough path. It disturbed Emerald no end to discover that much of the vegetation seemed familiar to her, eliminating any comfort she might have felt that there was almost as much that wasn’t.
None of it should have familiar—and yet it was and she realized that could only mean that she’d seen it before.
She struggled to search for another explanation. Was it some sort of trick to make her feel as if she was as mad as a hatter?
It seemed far too elaborate for that—unless they’d found a world very similar to Earth?
It looked like Earth and at the same time it didn’t seem familiar at all. What had he meant by saying they’d regenerated her? What had he meant when he’d told her it wasn’t the Earth she’d known?
She was very afraid she was beginning to understand and yet she refused to allow the thoughts to take hold of her, pushing them to the back of her mind.
She was developing blisters from the slipping boots before the first crumbling wall came into view. She halted abruptly, staring at the fading colors she could see where climbing vines had been ripped away to reveal parts of what had once been a building of some sort. Tariq stopped and turned to look at her questioningly.
Swallowing a little convulsively when she recognized the symbols on the wall, she looked at Tariq a little beseechingly. “I don’t want to see this.”
His gaze moved over her face. “You wanted to know.”
She swallowed with an eff
ort around the knot in her throat. “I don’t think I want to anymore.”
He returned to her, settling his hands lightly on her shoulders. “You’re strong, Emerald. You can do this.”
She looked up at him mournfully. “Do what?”
“Face what you must to learn the truth.”
“I’m … afraid,” she admitted.
He pulled her closer, settling his arms lightly around her. “I know, child, but I also know that you are brave and strong. If I didn’t believe you had the strength to face it, I wouldn’t have brought you.”
Emerald settled her cheek against his chest, feeling like the child he’d called her, and yet comforted by his embrace. The sense of security vanished almost as soon as he pulled away and doubts rose again, but she allowed him to lead her deeper into what had once been a great city.
Emerald felt her flesh creep as they walked, felt as if the gaping holes in the crumbling walls were eyes staring down at her, almost as if they were accusing her. After a few moments, they reached an intersection and she discovered the source of some of the noises she’d been hearing growing steadily louder.
Approximately a block from the intersection, she saw people laboring. She glanced at Tariq questioningly, but he was focused on the activity ahead of them.
“What are they doing?” she asked curiously.
“Excavating,” Tariq responded shortly.
She could see that. She just didn’t understand what they were looking for. “For what?”
His gaze flickered over her briefly before he looked away again. “Answers.” He halted when they reached the dig, looked around, and finally walked her to a low stone wall and told her to sit. Abandoning her there, he strode purposefully toward the hole in the ground and halted at the edge, his legs slightly apart, his hands on his hips. In a few moments, Emerald saw a figure she thought she recognized. As he neared Tariq, she became certain it was Koryn.
“We found two more!” he said, excitement threading his voice. The look of pleasure vanished and an expression of shock washed across his features as he glanced in her direction and spied her. “What is she doing here?”
Tariq turned to look at her. “She decided to explore on her own and find her answers.”
“So you brought her here?” Koryn asked, his voice tight with angry disbelief.
Tariq’s expression tightened. He didn’t say anything. His expression was sufficient to silence any further objection Koryn might have made.
Koryn nodded stiffly, wrestled with himself, and plunged onward. “You said she was too … important to our mission to risk. Her mind is too fragile right now.”
“I underestimated her determination and her ingenuity,” Tariq responded coolly. “She found her way to the observation deck—undeterred by the fact that she had no clothing. So much for your certainty that she wasn’t likely to attempt anything when she felt vulnerable and exposed! She’d already seen the dig site by the time I located her.”
“She wasn’t under guard?”
Tariq studied Koryn in stony silence for a long moment. “You presume too much on our friendship, Koryn,” he said coldly instead of reminding Koryn that the majority of the ship’s personnel was at the dig.
Koryn reddened. “My apologies, my lord! But the mission ….”
“If we fail, it’s my ass, not yours.”
Koryn wrestled with himself. “It isn’t just the mission, Tariq! You know we’ve found damned little to go on at all and half of that is useless! I thought we’d agreed that she was far too … special to take unnecessary risks with her!”
“I do agree,” Tariq responded grimly. “Completely. I would’ve prevented the situation if I could have, but she was asleep the last I checked on her—She should’ve slept a full cycle. She didn’t and she decided to test her boundaries. Beyond that, as … keen as my interest in her is, I have responsibilities that take precedence over my personal desires. If she hadn’t forced my hand, I would’ve put this off as long as possible, but she did. Now we have to deal with it.”
Koryn swallowed his anger with an effort and nodded. “How is she doing?”
“Surprisingly well, frightened, but that’s to be expected.”
Koryn relaxed fractionally. “How much have you told her?”
Tariq shrugged. “Enough for her to begin to understand.”
“I’d like to assess her mental state myself.”
Tariq nodded. “I thought you would. Where did you locate the remains? I’m assuming from the way you announced it that you feel like there’s a good chance of extracting sufficient DNA for our needs?”
Koryn shifted uncomfortably. “I won’t know until I get them back to the lab. I think so, though. They’re remarkably well preserved.”
“Male or female?”
“One of each,” Koryn said, grinning abruptly.
“Two females and three males,” Tariq said dryly. “We make progress.”
Koryn sobered. “This couldn’t have happened more than a hundred years ago … if that much.”
“If you managed to narrow the time line, we have made progress. Any idea of the race?”
Koryn shook his head. “I won’t be able to determine that without tests. There wasn’t enough. Any word from the others?”
“Nothing and more nothing.” Tariq frowned, narrowing his eyes against the sunlight as he surveyed the dig. “Humans—and their forbearers—survived several extinctions that we know of. Considering the condition of the planet, it seems damned unlikely this was the results of any kind of natural disaster.”
“We don’t know, for certain, that there aren’t any survivors,” Koryn pointed out. “The search parties have barely scratched the surface.”
Tariq grunted noncommittally. “This area seems fertile enough to support them. There’s plenty of everything else.”
“We don’t know what it was like then, however.”
“True.” He turned to study Emerald. “Maybe she’ll remember something.”
Koryn turned his head to study her, as well. “Maybe.”
* * * *
Strain though she might, Emerald was only able to catch a few snatches of the conversation between Koryn and Tariq. It was enough to fire her curiosity, but not enough to appease it, particularly when they switched to their own language shortly after they’d begun talking.
The only thing that she had managed to grasp—she thought—was that they were arguing about her. Koryn was angry that Tariq had brought her and Tariq was both defensive about his actions and angry because he felt defensive and resented Koryn questioning his decision.
It seemed to indicate that she was of some importance to them, but that was as unnerving as it was comforting. If she could’ve counted on her importance as protection, she wouldn’t have felt uneasy at all, but she wasn’t convinced that she could when she didn’t understand how she was important to them.
After a few minutes, Tariq left Koryn, following the path Koryn had traced to reach him, and Koryn approached her. She looked up at him questioningly when he settled on the wall beside her and looked her over piercingly. “We’ll have to get some clothes made for you that fit better,” he commented after a long moment.
It was the last thing Emerald had expected and she looked down at herself self-consciously. “I thought I was naked because I was being treated. I didn’t have clothes when you found me?”
Koryn cleared his throat uncomfortably. “No.”
Emerald frowned. “Why would I be naked?” she wondered out loud.
“Nothing comes to mind?” Koryn prompted. “You haven’t remembered anything?”
He knew something he wasn’t telling her. Emerald was certain of it. “Not really, no,” she responded after a moment, turning to study the work in progress. “This can’t be Earth.”
“Why do you say that?”
Emerald glanced at him in disbelief. “This … place shouldn’t be here!”
“So you do remember something?”
Emerald looked down at her hands, trying to figure out how to explain something she didn’t understand herself. “It isn’t really memories. It’s … the feeling that this is wrong, out of place. It’s like writing something and then looking at the word you’ve written and knowing it isn’t right, that you’ve spelled it wrong, even though you don’t know how it should be spelled or even how you know that the pattern doesn’t look right.”
Koryn nodded. “And yet things like this don’t remain the same. Time changes them. The man-made structures deteriorate with age and vegetation begins to grow over everything when there’s no one to cut it back.”
Emerald nodded and turned to look at the city again. “What happened here?”
“We don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to discover.”
Emerald wrestled with her thoughts. In a way, she was afraid to ask the questions burning to be asked, afraid of the answers, and yet the need to know warred with that fear and doubt nibbled at her certainties. “Tariq also suggested that a lot of time had passed since I saw Earth and that was why this doesn’t look familiar. Have I …? Was I in stasis for some reason?”
A frown of reluctance drew Koryn’s brows together. “Not that we’ve determined.”
“But you’re saying this is Earth and a lot of time passed and that’s why it doesn’t look familiar? Was I in a coma?” She lifted her head to study the ruins again, trying to decide how much time it would take to change a thriving city into a crumbling ruin that looked like some ancient relic of the distant past. They hadn’t built like the ancients, though. Ancient cities had survived because the people who built them had meant for them to last. In her time, no one had wanted or expected anything to last long. They’d wanted to recycle and rebuild because it provided work and promoted a healthy economy.
Koryn startled her out of her thoughts by taking her hand. She glanced searchingly at his face and then down at her hand in his. Her belly fluttered. The contrast was far more startling than she’d realized. It wasn’t that his hand looked alien next to her own. It looked just as human as hers did—except that it engulfed her hand.
Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I Page 3