Episode Three
The Forgotten:
Discovery
By
Kaitlyn O'Connor
© copyright by Kaitlyn O'Connor, January 2010
ISBN 1-978-60394-396-3
New Concepts Publishing
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.
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Chapter Five
Danielle not only began to feel the effects of the bruising and battering from the crash but the drugging weariness from very little sleep as soon as conscious began to pierce the blissful state of unawareness. Her mind was too sluggish to do more than register the discomfort, not to supply her with an explanation for it, but the misery that full consciousness promised was enough by itself to send her scurrying toward oblivion again.
She couldn't attain it. Once started, the process seemed determined to progress toward full awareness and, as it blossomed, she became aware of alien surroundings and sensed a presence that brought her swiftly awake.
Blinking her blurry vision into focus, she stared in disbelief at the huge man sitting on the bunk beside her and staring at her as if trying to will her awake. It took several moments to convince herself he really was there and several more for recognition to sink in. Shoving her oddly stiff hair out of her eyes, she sat up and stared back at him, trying to figure out if his presence meant that she should be deeply worried.
She discovered she was too sluggish to react even though her heart had taken a stumbling leap that shot a spurt of adrenaline through her system. "What are you doing here, Baen?"
He frowned. "I have been thinking," he said slowly.
Uneasiness slithered through her. She considered ignoring the conversational opener, but she could see that he was determined to tell her what was on his mind even if he seemed to be hesitant about where to start. "About what?"
He seemed to wrestle with himself, as if he was grappling with what he wanted to say or maybe just searching for how to say it. "Are you mated?"
The question sent Danielle mentally reeling. She couldn't say she was in any state currently to have the mental acuity to think what might be running through his mind, but she certainly hadn't expected what he did say. She blinked at him several times, trying to assimilate that question, certain she must have misunderstood. "What?"
Something flickered in his eyes. "It has just occurred to me that you appear to be a mature female and yet we did not find anything in the data to indicate if you had taken a mate."
Ok, so she hadn't misunderstood. She felt her belly clench but even she couldn't have said whether it was from increasing uneasiness and discomfort or if her reception fit more neatly at the opposite end of the scale. She supposed, insane as it might be, it would still be more accurate to say that her feelings were mixed. There was no instantaneous and violent rejection of the suggestion. That was for certain. The question was, why did he want to know? Maybe more importantly, would it be better to say she was? Or that she wasn't? Setting aside the fact that she just plain didn't know whether the idea had any appeal to her or not, she certainly didn't want to make an enemy and beyond that, she didn't want to give up the option of trying to seduce him to gain favor if she saw it was necessary. Aside from that one flimsy possibility, she was completely defenseless. "Why do you want to know?" she asked suspiciously.
"I am interested," he said after a moment.
"In what?" she asked blankly, trying to throw off the bizarre sense of unreality that descended over her.
"Mating."
She went back to staring at him, trying to decide what the hell he meant by that. "You know, I'm really not very wide awake and I'm having a hell of a time following you. I don't want to be rude, but I'm just not up to playing twenty questions right now."
He blinked at her and then frowned. "I do not have twenty questions."
"Figure of speech," Danielle muttered, having discovered that her hair was stiff and stringy and trying to figure out why. "How often does the shower work?" she asked when she finally remembered why her hair and skin felt disgusting.
It was his turn to stare at her with blank-faced incomprehension. "When it is turned on."
She glared at him. "Well, it doesn't!" she said forthrightly. "I managed to get all soaped up last night and then the damned thing went off and I couldn't get it to come back on!"
"It cycles on five par-sects."
"Duh!" Danielle snapped irritably. "I figured that out, damn it! How do you make it cycle again?"
"You do not. You are only allowed one per day cycle."
"Ok, so I had yesterday's! I want today's!"
Indignation flickered across his features. "I came to discuss mating."
"Discuss it later-or better yet, with somebody else. I want a shower. My skin feels hideous and my hair worse!"
His frown deepened, but he stood up and headed toward the shower. Danielle stumbled off of her bunk and followed him. "Wait!" she exclaimed when they reached it. "Don't turn it on yet! It'll take a full cycle, at least, to get the soap off."
She discovered when she'd stripped her clothing off that he was staring at her as if he'd been cold-cocked. "The shower?" she prompted, struggling with the urge to cover herself.
Thankfully, the suggestion was enough to bring him out of his trance. He turned and activated the shower. Danielle leapt past him into the water and began to scrub her hands over herself vigorously. She wasn't completely satisfied that she'd managed to get all of the dried cleanser off when the water cut off but she felt worlds better and a good deal more alert-alert enough to be more uneasy about his chosen subject in approaching her. Deciding to ignore him in the hope that he wouldn't bring it up again, she moved past him to the dryer. "I don't suppose Jalen brought my things from the ship?"
"Things?" he echoed.
"Clothes?"
He frowned. "I do not know."
"Well, I don't see anything so I guess that's a no," she responded tartly. "As long as you're here, maybe you could tell me if it's safe for me to eat the food in the kitchen. I'm starving. I wasn't sure if it was safe, though, so I didn't eat."
He looked vastly disappointed when she glanced at him after donning her clothing and adjusting it. He frowned again, but thoughtfully. "You are much the same as we are. The food should not hurt you."
Danielle grunted doubtfully. "I don't like to argue, but I think we're more different than alike." Especially the part about him being half robot when, to her mind, that made him all robot! If he'd been born human, or humanoid, it would've been a different matter, but despite the fact that was easy to accept him as humanoid on some levels, the truth as far as she could see it was that he was a machine-maybe a really fucking confused machine that looked like a gorgeous hunk of man-meat but still a machine.
"The Danu seem to be very similar to humans," he countered. "You are female and I am male, but we appear much the same."
"If you say so."
A look of cunning crossed his handsome features. "Your genitalia appears to be compatible with ours."
"I noticed you examining mine," she said dryly, trying to ignore the twin frissons of alarm and-Dare she think it? God she'd been playing war way too long!-interest wafting through her. "I haven't seen yours, but I'll take your word for it."
"I could show you."
She stared at him blankly, feeling her face heat. There was really no denying the interest that time even if it was heavily laced with uneasiness and wariness. In all honesty, she couldn't say that his attitude was particularly suggestive, howev
er. She shrugged. She might as well learn what she could about them if they were willing to share-especially since she was getting definite vibes that he was going to be damned persistent in trying to convince her to let him play hide the salami. "Ok. Show me."
He shoved his loincloth down. Her heart leapt jerkily at the monolith he displayed. Trying to ignore her heart palpitations, she leaned closer for a better look, but she had to admit that it definitely looked like a human penis-a bit bigger, but then so was he. "Just as I thought."
He seemed disconcerted. "It is different?"
"Nope. Pretty impressive, though. Does it do anything besides stand up like that?"
He frowned. "It also goes down. Not often, but sometimes."
"Oh. You can put your thingy on again. I don't suppose you have breakfast-type food?"
He blushed. Looking distinctly uncomfortable, he adjusted his loincloth once more. "You have no interest in mating?"
"Honestly? I think I'm just too stressed out about being captured and held prisoner to fuck at the moment, but if I decide I'm in the mood, I'll let you know. Can we focus on feeding me?"
Clearly disconcerted, he followed her as she loped down the stairs, heading for the food preparation area, and then settled on a stool, watching her, an expression of confusion and irritation marring his features that she was at pains to ignore.
"I do not understand."
"What?" Danielle asked absently.
"I have an interest in mating. Why do you not?"
Danielle turned to look at him in surprise. "Just like that? One look and you're captivated?"
He considered that. "Yes," he said finally. "I think it is time."
"Oh! That's flattering! Sorry. I guess it isn't my time," she said dryly.
He perked up at that. "When will you be in cycle?"
"What?"
"You said that it was not your time. Do you know when that will be?"
"Oh! It doesn't work like that for us. I guess we are different."
"How does it work?"
Danielle stared at him for a long moment. She really, really didn't want to get into a discussion about sex, or mating-and she strongly suspected he was a lot more interested in sex than mating-but she was hungry and he seemed pretty focused on sex. "I tell you what, find me something to eat and we can discuss this will I eat, ok?"
Perfect breakfast conversational topic!
Rising from the stool immediately, he moved to the cabinets to study the food on the shelves and took one down. Removing the foil-like material used to seal it, he moved to what she assumed was a cooking or heating unit and placed the bowl-like container inside. After pressing the panel, he stood staring at the unit for several moments and then took the container out. It was steaming, making it clear she'd guessed correctly. When he'd placed the container on the counter, he moved to a drawer and took out an odd looking eating utensil that seemed to be both a fork and a spoon and laid it beside the container.
Danielle settled on the stool to study the contents. Deciding it looked like some sort of eggs, she picked up the utensil and carefully tested it. Relieved to discover it tasted like eggs, whether it was or not, she dug in. He settled a vessel containing water beside her and then sat down on the stool opposite her once more, studying her expectantly.
Danielle threw him a speculative glance, but she could see he wasn't going to let the subject drop until she'd convinced him that it wasn't something she wanted to consider-at least not at the moment. "Before I get too involved in this, I need clarification on one point."
"What point?"
"Are we talking about mating here? Or just fucking?"
He frowned, obviously searching his memory for the meaning of the word. Not surprisingly, he came up empty. She was fairly sure Gertrude hadn't had that word in her memory banks!
"Ok, I can see you're confused. We have fucking-this is recreational sex-just for fun, you know? And then there's the process of finding a life-partner, or mate, someone to live with. Of course, people rarely mate for life anyway. It isn't any more natural to people, humans, to mate for life than it is for other animals. Even when they actually mean to mate, they're really only talking about staying together until they find somebody else. I'm guessing you're talking about recreational fucking, though, if that erection was anything go by?"
He stared at her, blinking as if she'd thrown sand in his eyes. Slowly, his dark brows descended in a frown. "I do not understand these concepts. This is … the human customs? The beasts we have mate by season."
"Yes, well, the beasts we have usually do, too, but we aren't beasts. We're sentient beings, which means we think about it a lot and not just seasonally. I'm not sure we enjoy it any more than they do-some of them really seem to enjoy it-but they don't have the capacity for thought that we do and they're almost as interested, or more interested, in eating. In fact, the mating you're talking about, which leads to reproducing, is something we don't often do even when we have a partner. You have to control the number of children you have, after all. There are a lot of things to consider-feeding and taking care of them foremost, but also you have to consider the impact of your reproduction on society as a whole and the impact to the environment. When the population gets out of control, everything else does."
Danielle managed to finish her meal while he was struggling to assimilate what she'd told him.
"I am interested in mating," he said finally. "We have no off-spring. I would like off-spring."
Danielle's belly tightened. For the first time since she had met him, she actually studied him and realized that the overall impression that he was an attractive male was an understatement. Despite his alien appearance, maybe because of it, he was a good bit better than 'just attractive'. All things considered, she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. He'd been created, she reminded himself, in a lab, she supposed. Clearly, any defective genes were rejected and only the best accepted and used. He was physical perfection and beyond that, his personality had a definite appeal, as well, even though the current subject was one of the most disconcerting conversations she'd ever had with a man. He had the look of a huge, dangerous warrior, and yet there was an innocence about him that appealed strongly to the nurturing instincts in her.
It was more than a little flattering that he seemed focused on taking her as a mate, that he had instantly decided he wanted her to bear his child. How often did a woman get that kind of proposition? Damned rarely!
Of course, there was the little matter that there wasn't another female of any description within light years as far as she'd been able to determine, but she couldn't help but find it vastly appealing that he wanted children from her, not merely a fuck buddy.
With an effort, she pushed the thoughts aside. "Aw! That is so sweet! As flattering as that is, though, my people are at war and I'm a soldier of the Federation. It's my duty to return to battle as soon as I can. I could be looking at serious repercussions if I don't get back soon aside from the fact that I'm needed for the war effort."
She considered leaving it at that but it occurred to her forcefully that it really wasn't wise to completely dismiss his interest when she might discover she needed an ally. There was no surer way to man's heart, clearly, than through his dick. "I suppose I could consider a recreational encounter if I was going to be here a while but, in all honesty, I'm really wound too tight at the moment to consider it now. Maybe when I get to know you a little better and get used to this place?"
Better, she decided. She hadn't made any promises, but she hadn't refused either. Maybe dangling the carrot would do the trick?
Before he could think up a response to that, Jalen entered the habitat, halted abruptly at the sight of the two of them in the eating area and then stalked toward them, anger in every line of his body.
Uh oh. Maybe she was reading more in to it than she should have but she had the uneasy feeling that he'd had pretty much the same thing in mind as Baen had and he wasn't happy that Baen had beaten him to the punc
h.
Then again, maybe he was just pissed off that Baen was fraternizing with the prisoner at all?
"What the hell are you doing here, Baen?"
Whatever he'd said didn't sit well with Baen. He bristled, instantly transformed from 'awkward suitor' to dangerous warrior.
"I am feeding the prisoner," he said coldly. "No one bothered to explain anything to her and she is not familiar with this place. What are you doing here?"
Jalen divided a suspicious look between them, but he looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I came to see that she understood how everything worked!"
"As you see, I have undertaken that task. So now you can leave again."
"You are not my captain!" Jalen growled.
"I am a superior officer, however."
"And I am your captain," Kiel snarled from the doorway, "and I would like to know what the fuck you are both doing here with the prisoner!"
All three sent a startled look toward the entrance, having been so caught up in their argument they hadn't noticed Kiel's arrival. Unnerved both by his sudden appearance and his obvious anger, Danielle rose abruptly, wondering whether to retreat or not.
"I came to check on the prisoner," Baen said stiffly. "And it is a very good thing I did. She had not eaten because she was afraid the food might be poisonous to her. I gave her a protein meal since I thought that would be the least likely to harm her even if she cannot eat the same foods that we do."
Briefly, Kiel was disconcerted since it had not occurred to him to check, but it was only briefly. "She has access to water and to food and we have no reason to think that it would harm her in any way. She is also, until Manuta says otherwise, a prisoner of the Danu and it is forbidden to fraternize with enemies of the Danu!"
Did Manuta designate her as an enemy?" Baen demanded, knowing full well that Manuta would have made a general announcement if that were the case and advised everyone.
Kiel's lips tightened. "She is an alien who arrived in a ship of war."
"She is a stranger who crashed among us and is in need of help. The Danu do not make war on women and, furthermore, it is their custom to offer hospitality and succor to those in need. We are Dunu. We may also be robot, but that does change who we are."
The Forgotten Three Page 1