by Lisa Lace
I decided I must have missed something in the report. I went back to the beginning and started checking everything again, looking for any markers indicating abnormalities. When I got to the fertility information, I didn’t skip it this time but went through every line just as I had in the other sections.
And that was when I discovered the problem. In a sense, I had caught an alien disease.
I looked around and wondered if people could tell by looking at me. Of course not. No one would see anything for another three or four months.
Apparently, I was fifty-six hours pregnant.
The automated announcement system called my flight, but I didn’t move. I thought about those last moments with Khellen, replaying them in my mind, slowly coming to the realization that Khellen loved me. That’s why he sent me home. He thought he was doing what was best for me and giving me what I wanted. I had been so blind convinced that he cared nothing for me, but the signs had been everywhere all along.
I put my hand on my belly. We had made a child together. I couldn’t get on a flight and abandon him to his fate, no matter what we said before. I had to go to the doctor and get the compound removed. When I showed them my certificate, they would have to let him go. I would have to figure out what to do about Single for Life later. I grabbed my bag and ran for the door.
I jumped into a self-driving car outside and programmed it for the address of the doctor’s office. I had saved it on my computer. Next, I sent Fiona a message, telling her I was going to have the compound removed.
I was sitting impatiently in the waiting room when I got an emergency message from Fiona. I picked up, walking down the hall for some privacy. “I hope nothing’s the matter,” I said.
“Don’t worry about the certificate right now, Sophie. Can you come down to the jail? I’m afraid something’s wrong. They won’t let me see him.”
“I’ll be right there,” I promised, already walking out of the building. Had they made him disappear already?
Fiona and I waited at the compound for three hours, going through miles of red tape until someone finally gave us permission to see the Warden. I wondered if they had delayed us on purpose.
He addressed us as soon as we sat in his office. “You need to give up. I know he’s your son, but he can’t expect the law to adjust for a single person. The law bends for no one, especially the Edict of Marriage. You know that.”
“Seamus…” — she was crying openly now — “He’s my only son. He’s all I have left of Harry.”
Instead of relenting, Fiona stalked over to his desk and pressed against it. She leaned in and glared at him. “Give me the number.”
“What good will that do you? They never come back.”
“It gives me peace of mind,” she said. “If it doesn’t matter, why not tell me.”
After a moment of thought, the Warden relented. “It’s 241. That’s all I can do for you, and it’s more than I should.” We turned to leave immediately. “One more thing, Fiona?” he called out. She turned back, her eyes filled with hope. “Are we on for lunch next week?”
Fiona laughed a little manically. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to have lunch with you again, Seamus. I can’t even think about it right now.”
“You know I’m only doing my job.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said gently, but I believed she cared for this man, and the feelings were mutual. That explained why he had helped us so much. I doubted he was this lenient with most people. He didn’t seem like the type.
We left the office and walked down the hall, side by side, not saying a word. A moment later, we heard the Warden’s voice behind us again.
“Fiona.” She kept walking, but he caught up with us. He called her name again, but she continued to ignore him. He shook his head, exasperated. “I have something for you.”
He took her hand, and she moved to pull it away before she realized he had placed something in her palm and was wrapping her hand around it.
“It’s a present,” I heard him whisper in her ear. “Please forgive me.”
She studied his face and blushed. “I’ll think about it.” She gave him a peck on the cheek and walked away with her head held high.
When we returned to Fiona’s house, she took me into her bedroom.
“It’s safe to talk in here. I wouldn’t let them install any security equipment in my room. They’re detaining Khellen in Holding Center 241. This will get you access to the building.” She held up an access chip the Warden had hidden in her hand. “Once you’re in, you’ll have to blend in and find him. I don’t know how, but the two of you will have to get out somehow.”
“How am I involved this much?” I asked, flabbergasted. I just married him. I’m not a secret agent!
“The Warden is helping us, but I believe he had to conceal his actions in case someone was watching. With his information and security chip, you should have clearance to enter the building.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“He wants me to be his girlfriend, but I’m a bit old for that sort of nonsense.” The light in her eyes belied her words.
I examined her for a long moment, thinking about what I had lost. “If he loves you, you shouldn’t waste it. It could all go away in an instant, and then you’ll want it back.” My loss rushed over me in a black wave.
Her face was filled with compassion. “You’re probably right, Sophie.” She paused and added, “And I want to apologize to you. I thought you were toying with him. I didn’t know you cared about him. I thought you were going to break his heart.”
I couldn’t look at her. “You might be right about that last one.”
“He will forgive you. He loves you, Sophie. That’s why he sent you away. We all make mistakes. It’s what we do about them that makes us different.”
I paced back and forth across the room. Khellen was gone, and I was his only hope of coming back from being disappeared. That was almost worse than having no hope at all. I was an average girl without any special skills. What was I going to do?
“The journey will take all day. Then you can wait until nighttime to enter the building. Maybe you can locate him while everyone else is sleeping.”
“I’m not sure I can do this, Fiona. Do you have any other information that might help me?”
She sighed. “No one has ever come back from being disappeared.”
“This is hopeless.” Tears filled my eyes. “Why did you even bother getting the number and this access chip?”
“Khellen will be the first to come back. And you’re going to be the one to get him out.” She looked intently at me, and I could tell she thought I could do it.
I had no idea how I would accomplish the task. Where would I find the courage for something this monumental? All I knew was that if Khellen disappeared, I might as well, too. Was there a better way to go out than trying to save your true love?
“I’ll do my best.”
The hovercraft trip felt like it took forever, even if it was only a few hours. I told the pilot to set me down after we had come as close as reasonably possible to Khellen’s location. He didn’t know about the holding center because it was a secret facility hidden underground.
I had programmed the coordinates of Holding Center 241 into my computer. I would have to trudge along the route on foot, taking the path to the building that provided the most cover.
I tried not to think of the baby inside me and the fact that my husband was a prisoner of the state, possibly in a breeding facility that was off the official record. Unfortunately, that just gave me more time to think about the fact that I was the only one who could free him. It was a lot of pressure. I needed to come through for Khellen, for me, and for our baby.
Up until this point, my life had been comfortable. I wasn’t a hero, but I was prepared to act like one.
The door into the facility was carefully concealed, but I was able to locate it using the precise coordinates. Darkness was only a few minutes away. I swiped the a
ccess unit over the door’s control pad, and it unlocked and slid open.
That was one obstacle down.
I covered my face, making sure my appearance was obscured on any cameras and slipped through the door before it closed again. Once in the building, I had an alternate method of determining Khellen’s precise location. The particular wedding bands Khellen purchased had tracking chips in case of an emergency. It seemed like an extravagant add-on, but now that I needed it, I was glad it was there.
Fiona had activated Khellen’s locator, letting me find him in the facility. I looked at my screen and studied the building schematic. The flashing green dot indicated Khellen was ten floors below me, all the way at the bottom. I wondered why he was down there, and I hoped to get that information once I found him.
I activated my virtual assistant and asked if Teri could tell me who was awake and on guard in the building. She quickly discovered it was confidential information. Teri didn’t have access. I had her download information from the Warden’s device and she smiled, telling me everything I wanted to know.
“Is there a way into the basement from here?”
Teri began to iterate all the possible ways to descend.
“Limit yourself to ways no one will discover me. I have to stay hidden, Teri,” I whispered.
“They don’t use the cargo elevators at this time of day, but the elevators only go down to the ninth floor. There are conduits large enough for cleaning robots. If you took the cargo elevator down to the ninth floor, you could crawl through the ducts down to the basement.”
“What’s the purpose of the tenth floor, Teri?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” she said. “Solitary confinement. With visitors, of course.”
“What do you mean?” I strode quickly towards the cargo elevator, which Teri said was only used once a week when supplies arrived. “Solitary confinement means there are no visitors.”
“Solitary has a different meaning here. Breeding is the only purpose of the prisoners.”
“But—”
“Inmates are subjected to solitary confinement when they refuse to breed. They’re kept there until they start to give in, which doesn’t take long. An inmate of the opposite sex is installed in their cell. It’s someone they’ve previously shown interest in, but it doesn’t matter who it is. The second inmate is in a state of high sexual arousal. You can imagine what usually happens.”
“They mate?” I guessed, getting into the elevator and pressing the button for the ninth floor.
“They mate wildly and for hours. It has the side effect of removing any remaining reservations to taking part in the breeding program.”
Less than a minute later, the elevator opened silently, and I walked out onto the ninth floor. Teri directed me to the conduits, and I used the Warden’s chip to access the maintenance panels. I climbed in and began crawling along. I wasn’t sure about the correct direction, but I decided as long as I kept heading down I would end up at the right place. Soon, I came to a ladder. I tried not to look down; the shaft seemed to have no bottom at all.
I gripped the ladder tightly and descended carefully, taking my time. Eventually, I crawled out of the conduit onto the tenth floor. The level was quiet and dark. It seemed abandoned. I turned Teri’s volume down to a whisper and crept out into the hallway. She gave me directions, and while there wasn’t anyone around, there were probably cameras everywhere. I asked Teri to mask my appearance so that even if the cameras captured my image, it would be blurry.
“This is the room you’re looking for,” Teri whispered.
I stood outside the door and listened. From within came the unmistakable sounds of people having sex. I felt my cheeks go warm. I hadn’t thought about what I would find when I got there. What if Khellen had been forced to have sex with other women while he was there? I hadn’t left him with a reason to save himself for me.
Why was I hesitating? Had I gone there to get him out or not? It didn’t matter what he had done. I had to get him out. I waved the device at the door, and there was a click as it unlocked and slid open. I was hesitant to go in, not sure of what I would find. But I gathered my courage and stepped into the cell.
It smelled of dirty aliens and sex.
The room was pitch black, and I could only see using the light that came from the hall. There was a man with his back to me in the corner with a naked woman wrapped around him. She was straddling him and rhythmically bouncing up and down, making keening sounds. She was facing me, and I saw the pleasure on her face as they fucked.
“Khellen?” I hoped it wasn’t him. That’s when she came, screaming, and the man dumped her unceremoniously off him and onto the floor. “Khellen?” I said again, afraid.
When he turned around, all my worst fears were realized. He looked terrible, with red, bloodshot eyes. I wondered if he had slept since he arrived. He seemed skinnier, though it seemed impossible. The haunted look in his eyes disturbed me the most.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to get you.” My voice sounded small in the nasty little cell.
“You can go right back out. I don’t want you to get me. As you can see, I’m busy here.”
He gestured to the woman, who was lying curled up on the floor in a post-orgasmic daze, coughing as if she were going to lose a lung. Was something the matter with her?
“Khellen, I won’t leave you here.”
“You misunderstand me, Mrs. Lynch. Allow me to be clearer.” He walked over to me, and I could smell the other woman’s juices on him. “Get out.” He put his hands on my shoulders and pushed as hard as he could, sending me flying into the hallway, where I landed on my butt. He shut the door, leaving me on the floor with a sore ass, a confused heart, and no way of getting back in. I had dropped the access chip inside his cell.
Chapter Fourteen
KHELLEN
I sat in the darkness of solitary confinement with my back against the wall, waiting for anything to happen. Once again, I wished for my computer unit, which guards confiscated as soon as I arrived. The disappeared didn’t get electronic devices.
My feeling of noble self-sacrifice had lasted all the way until I arrived at the holding center and understood what my life had become. Then I became furious thinking about everything I had lost. I was angry at the government and myself, my mother and Morda, but most of all I was furious with Sophie. It was because of her I was here. The rational part of my brain knew I was incorrect, but I couldn’t reason myself out of my rage — not in this cesspool they called a government facility.
There was something about this place that corrupted my mind. Every ounce of love had turned into a white-hot burning hatred. How could anyone be as selfish as she had been? How could she have sent me to this place? I should never have told her to walk away and leave me in the cell to rot while she went home to a happy life.
Holding Center 241 was a facility where those who refused to procreate naturally, by getting married and having children, were forced into breeding for the good of Biyaha. On the first day, my guard took pity on me and had given me information and tips for surviving. The Warden had made it sound like I would be dating in here.
It was not remotely like dating.
We were allowed to select our partners as long as we had sex at least three times a day with three different people. No protection was used, of course, and some of the inmates had sexually transmitted diseases. The infections that were rampant in the population didn’t hurt the fetus or the fertility of the parents, so they weren’t a concern to the government. Inmates saw a doctor once a month for treatment, but that wasn’t frequent enough, and the medications rarely helped. The government wasn’t even pretending to try and stop the spread of the diseases.
When the guard told me about the STDs, I made a plan. I would refuse to cooperate, and then I would escape, somehow. I guess it wasn’t a plan. It was more like a fantasy or a dream. But it was all I had, and I was sticking to it.
I learned how they us
ed solitary confinement as punishment. After a stay in solitary, the inmate was usually released back into the main population with their will broken. There was a rumor that they put something in the food to encourage mating. It was the most disgusting place I had ever heard of, and I had to get out.
Even worse were the other communicable diseases that could be contracted from the air or from touching a person. A pulmonary disease had killed three people while I had been there. They were trying to contain it, but they were struggling with all the bodily contact between inmates. Before I went to solitary, there had been discussions of quarantine, but they hadn’t taken any concrete steps. If they lost more breeders, they would have to do something about it. A reduction in the population would be counterproductive.
What struck me as interesting was that the people who died from the lung disease had all been off-worlders. The Biyahans got sick and coughed a lot, but off-worlders were dead within a few days of contracting it. I couldn’t help but think about Sophie. As angry as I was with her, I was relieved at the same time that she wasn’t anywhere near this hellhole. Right now she was on a nice clean shuttle, heading back to Earth. Maybe she was already back home in her cute apartment. I pictured her bedroom, where she’d recorded most of her hologram messages. Thoughts of Sophie didn’t belong in this horrible place.
From the start, I had refused to have sex, so they put me into solitary almost immediately. I didn’t know how long I was there because it was dark and I had no visitors. My only companion was a bucket in the corner for me to shit and piss in. I couldn’t mark the passage of time. Still, I knew they would put some desperate woman in here with me sooner or later, and I had to be ready. I wasn’t going to have sex with a random person. I felt like I was losing my mind, though, and I hoped I wouldn’t do anything stupid.
When they transported people to the solitary confinement level, there was usually only one guard. More guards escorted punished inmates because they were more likely to struggle. While I was in the general population, I saw two prisoners taken away. My plan was to attack the guard when he brought in my potential mate. After I overcame the guard, I would take the cargo elevator to the main level. There wasn’t tight security. Most people, no matter how much they hated this place, were so disheartened they had no will to escape.