“How many women did they clone?” Alek smoothed his thumb down the elegant line of her spine in a soft caress.
“You said that you would answer, not play word games.” Laci frowned in irritation. She wasn’t in the mood to have every question answered with a question. She was holding onto her temper by a thread. The urge to hit them was still strong.
“Darion said that. Humor me. Tell me. How many Third Generation women are there?”
“Over seventeen thousand, made in separate labs,” Laci rolled her eyes. With the confiscation of so many records, they knew exactly how many females had been created. “We have contact with some of them, can’t find others.”
“There are just over eighteen thousand Norik. When you add in the five thousand men of the Second Gen, you will discover just how many lives the scientists toyed with.” Alek’s eyes darkened. “So many lives were destroyed by the scientists’ experiments. Nothing can mitigate the suffering and misery that has been caused over the years.”
“The fact that there are more men than there are women—is that why some men share one woman? Is that why you’re both Jatohn”
Alek angled his body toward hers and brushed his lips across her neck in a fleeting caress. “Amongst our people, there have always been more males born than females. So the numbers are part of it. Strength is another reason we join together. Two are stronger than one. In our culture, the men who are strongest lead.”
“What did they do to you? You said they caused suffering and misery.”
“You’ll have noticed there aren’t any children or older people among us.” Darion paused and waited for her nod. “There were plenty of them on Darsat.”
“Wait. What’s Darsat?” Laci swallowed. “And what happened to the children?”
“Darsat was our home planet. It’s where they found us. We weren’t space travelers then,” Alek explained.
“The scientists from Vari-Co and Mari-Tec weren’t interested in our elders or the young children. They were of no value to them.” Darion closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “They could have just left them there. The elders would have seen to the children’s safety.” He shook his head. Laci noticed that his hand was clenched.
Laci felt uneasy. She could see the pain in every taut muscle of his body. “What happened to them?”
“We didn’t learn what they’d done until we’d escaped. The Tribunal doesn’t even know the full extent of their crimes,” Alek ground out between clenched teeth. “To them, we’re lab-created hybrids and we’ve decided that, for now, we’ll let them keep thinking that.”
“Will you stop circling around it?” Laci demanded. “Tell me what happened.”
“They killed them, Laci, and everyone else on that planet,” Alek whispered so softly that she almost had to strain to hear him.
Laci’s stomach clenched. “Why…how did they kill them?”
“Violently. They used their own weapons. And as to why, there are two reasons. One, they didn’t need the elders or children. Two, they didn’t want to leave anyone who could tell others what they’d done.” Darion swallowed hard.
“But your people didn’t have space travel. At least, I never dreamed about anything that advanced—well, not in association with either of you.” Laci looked from one man to another.
“No, we didn’t have any kind of space travel capabilities,” Alek confirmed and his arm curved around her. “We were a simple people.”
“Their weapons didn’t even work efficiently. Many of our people survived the initial blasts, but the bomb destroyed everything. There was no food or shelter.” Darion stared straight ahead.
“They used a bomb that’s usually used to totally remove any harmful vegetation from a planet they want to colonize. It wiped out all plant life and then starvation took everything that survived.” Alek’s tone was somber.
“I’d want them dead.” Laci closed her eyes. Even imagining it sent a shaft of pain lancing through her.
“Our people weren’t the only ones who died. There were other people on the planet—over a million people dead and their deaths weren’t easy.” Darion drew in a huge breath and she could see he was trying to regain control.
“We didn’t only lose our freedom to them. We lost fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers and, in some cases, daughters and sons.” Alek looked down at her.
“After we escaped, our first priority was to get back to the ones who were left behind,” Darion’s continued. His eyes held such bleakness that Laci felt tears prickling the backs of her own eyes. “But the only things we found were skeletons and a vast barren ball of dust.”
“I thought the experiments began in that lab on X-R321,” Laci said, trying to distract him from all of the death and destruction. She wanted to take away that hopeless look. “There’s no way they fit everyone in there.”
“That’s where our group was housed. There were many other locations. We found them over the years. Most had been abandoned by the time we reached them.” Darion ran his hand over the edge of the fabric along her lower back.
“Why did you take the name ‘Norik’?”
“Norik was a powerful god in our religion. We needed something to identify us to others without alerting the scientists and those who paid for the experiments that their lab animals were working among them.” Darion’s hand slipped under the fabric of her dress and cupped the full globe of her right buttock. He smiled as the scent of her desire rose and her cheeks reddened. “There might be a few scientists and labs left that we haven’t found, but we’ve ensured that the agencies and the people behind them no longer have the power they once wielded.”
“Can you tell me the original why?” Laci had always wondered about that—it was one thing that all of the financial records and scientist’s reports couldn’t tell her. “I know there were different reasons later, but I can’t understand or find anything about why they started this.”
“They wanted to know why we didn’t age as fast as they do. They wanted to know what we did to heal so fast.” Alek shook his head. “The scientists only thought of the money they could make if they could unlock that secret. Over forty thousand people suffered and an entire planet was destroyed because of their greed.”
“They didn’t like the fact that the answers they found couldn’t be applied to them.” Darion’s smile wasn’t reassuring. In fact, Laci had the distinct urge to step away from him. He looked dangerous, untamed. “And later, as you know, they decided we’d make perfect soldiers.”
* * * * *
Laci willingly accompanied them to med-bay. She didn’t feel like being dragged there. It was a waste of energy. Acceptance had come slowly, but she knew the facts better than most people did. Even if she could somehow manage to skip being injected with the last nano-cytes, it was already too late. There were too many of them coursing through her bloodstream for her to ever go back to being as she had been before. Even if there had just been a few of them inside her, they would gradually overcome her own nano-cytes. It would just take more time. The First Gen nano-cytes had been made to take over everything they encountered. With the exception of the various programs made to harm or incapacitate, there wasn’t much that could stop them.
The next hour was torture. The last two injections of the nano-cytes were bearable as was the blood test. It was the comprehensive physical that followed that had her trying to escape the room.
When the physician first touched her, she felt prickles wherever he touched and general unease. The more intimate the contact became, the more the symptoms increased. When he first began her vaginal exam, she almost hurled her lunch on the floor and the pain that rocketed through her rivaled that which she’d experienced during their interrogation over three months ago.
When the physician showed a moment’s inattention, she threw herself off the table and dashed for the door. Alek grabbed her before she could escape into the hallway and took her back to the table without a word. The pain increased as the exam
went on and despite the physician’s requests, she couldn’t hold still. She writhed on the table, trying desperately to escape his touch. She barely noticed when Darion and Alek came to stand beside the table to prevent further escape attempts.
“Please, Darion!” She looked into his eyes as tears streamed from her own. His jaw was set, his dark skin taut over his cheekbones. “It hurts too much. Make him stop.”
“This has to be done, Laci. I’m sorry.” Darion kept his tone steady, but he stepped forward and placed his hands on her hips, holding her still. She could see that the decision to continue wasn’t easy for him. “Jarvis, get it done. Don’t torture her by drawing this out any longer than necessary.”
Alek’s hands stroked over her arm. Pain pulsed through her when the physician’s hands once again touched her. She felt her stomach tighten and heave threateningly.
“It’s okay, Laci. It will be over soon.” He shot a hard look toward the physician.
Laci focused on Alek’s face and the feel of Darion’s thumbs rubbing in circles at her waist. Pain still seared into her with each brush of the physician’s hands, but with their touch, she could almost rise above it. Their touch, their voices seemed to calm the panic within her and soothe some of the agony.
“Just a little longer, Laci,” Darion whispered. His deep voice sounded hoarse and tight.
A scraping sensation along the inner walls of her vagina sent another bolt of pain shooting through her. Laci arched her back and tried to scramble away from the pain, but Darion’s hands held her firmly in place. Alek’s right hand moved up to her face and stroked the hair back. His fingers smoothed over her temples and cheeks.
Laci clenched her jaw, trying to stop the sobs escaping her throat. Every muscle in her body tensed and screamed with tearing sensation. She locked her eyes with Alek’s and prayed for this to finally end.
At last, the physician stepped back and began cleaning his instruments. Laci lay on the table, exhausted, recovering from the pain and discomfort. The nausea faded almost as soon as his hands left her. She wished she could say the same about the pain. It seemed to echo through her body. She closed her eyes, wanting just a few moments of peace. Darion and Alek proceeded to talk with the physician about the exam.
Damned men, they don’t know the meaning of the word tact or consideration, she thought. They had to have known it would be like that. Why didn’t they have a female medic? Her skin was still crawling from the physician’s touch.
She’d also have liked to have a chance to talk with the medic alone. She was under no illusions that the man would keep any questions she asked to himself, but she had a feeling these questions were going to infuriate the two men opposite him. Since Laci knew they weren’t going anywhere and the conversation between them and the medic showed signs of coming to a close, she knew that she had to speak now. They would want to leave when they had all their questions answered.
Laci cleared her throat. “Do your nano-cytes interfere with any type of birth control?”
The medic frowned, his confusion apparent on his face. “Why would you think that?”
Darion grasped her chin in his fingers and tilted her face up. His deep brown gaze was cold and hard as he stared down at her. “Your implant was removed at the same time that we put in the tracker. Do you want to explain why you thought you needed such a device if you didn’t indulge in casual sex?”
“You had no need for that device in the first place.” Alek’s golden glower could have set something on fire.
“I don’t understand what you’re so angry about. My life used to be my own, if you remember.” The implant had been a precaution, just in case she should come across one of her own kind. She wasn’t afraid of getting pregnant by a human male. The odds of that happening were beyond astronomical. The DNA just wasn’t compatible for easy crossbreeding.
“When your mind and body are ready, you’ll conceive. Artificial methods such as that implant wouldn’t have prevented conception by our sperm were you ready and fertile. It will be over a month of standard days before you come into fertility.” Darion’s hands flexed at his side.
Laci leaned away from him. He looked like he wanted to grab her.
“You aren’t human. Stop thinking that your body will respond as theirs do,” Alek admonished, stroking her arm. Laci sighed and leaned into the soothing warmth of his touch. After the pain and panic, she desperately needed the acceptance and comfort he offered. He sighed, too, as if he needed the contact as much as she did.
“I am not Satira. I don’t know anything about the Norik, the First Gen or whatever you want to call yourselves. All I know is what was in those damned reports confiscated from the labs. It said that their birth control worked. So we acquired some.” Laci’s hands clenched into fists.
“Why?” Darion barked, clearly trying hard to hold on to his temper. “You said that you were tired of casual sex.”
“We didn’t want to bring a child into this fight until we are more settled, safe. There are still groups out there who think that we hold secrets to eternal life or that we make perfect soldiers. We have to stay alert. They’ve tried to recapture some of us before.” Laci glared at them for a moment, then turned away and stared straight ahead, determined to ignore them.
Darion was more relieved than angered by her impassioned speech. She was still throwing the past—and Satira—at them in order to distance herself from them, but he could live with that for a little longer. It was the way she spoke of children, wanting to see that their home was safe before a child was born that relieved him. She didn’t know it, but she was almost there. Soon she would acknowledge that she belonged with them.
A Norik woman had to want to have a child. She had to picture herself holding her mate’s baby before it was even possible. Her attitude showed that she’d thought about children before and wasn’t repelled by the idea.
Darion smiled as he caught Alek’s eyes. He knew that Alek had heard the desire in her voice when she’d spoken of children. He helped Laci off the table, tucking her hand in his. Laci kept insisting that she wasn’t Satira, that they were identical on a genetic level but different people. She could have stopped saying that last night.
There was no way that they could mistake her for Satira. The differences were apparent in so many ways. They were almost overwhelmed by them.
The biological tie came with no guarantee of happiness. It merely allowed for those bound by it to reproduce. It was up to those involved to work at the relationship and find happiness.
This was one thing on which he and Alek were in perfect accord. They would work hard to make her happy, to satisfy her. Sexually, she was so open, so giving and she was so exciting that it made them almost insane with lust just watching her move. They would keep her safe and they would keep her with them. For a reason known only by the Gods, they’d been given another chance with their mate. They wouldn’t waste it.
Chapter Seven
Laci stretched with languid thoroughness, pushed the silky sheet off her and eased into a meditative position. She was bored. The only time Darion and Alek had allowed her out of their quarters in the past few days was when they took her somewhere. They had removed anything with any kind of interface capability from the room, as a precaution against her trying any tricks while they weren’t here with her.
Laci was determined to escape. She waited and watched. An opportunity. All she needed was an opportunity and she would escape. She hadn’t tried anything yet because she didn’t have a plan, short term or long term, for after she’d escaped. She needed a plan of some kind or she would be recaptured within hours.
Now that her nano-cytes were the same as theirs, just getting away from them would be no simple trick. Within a certain distance of other people who carried the nano-cytes, a location could be fixed with pinpoint accuracy. She would need to block the signals before she could have a chance of escaping. Somehow, she’d have to get her hands on the tools she needed to do that.
T
hey were so watchful that she’d had no chance to find anything. She was never allowed more than a few steps away from them outside of their rooms. Laci would need more freedom and she knew it would be a while before she could find a way to get what she needed.
She wondered if she would even want to escape when she did get a chance to flee. Already, she felt a pull toward them. It wasn’t only the sex, although that was beyond even her wildest dreams. She liked talking to them and she wanted to be near them. What scared her was that the thought of leaving sent a dagger of pain and panic slicing through her. She didn’t want to believe that she was bound to them by more than sex.
They were taking her to their home. She couldn’t get an exact location from them. Thus far, they had been good-humored about her repeated questions, but their answers were far from informative. She could only hope that wherever they took her was well-populated and advanced enough to allow her to escape. She prayed the Norik didn’t control the area. Her escape plans would amount to nothing if they controlled all means of leaving the planet. The best scenario would be a populated planet with regular shuttle services.
* * * * *
Laci walked beside the crewman assigned to shadow her on this small excursion. Alek and Darion had both been needed elsewhere—Alek on the bridge and Darion in the docking bay. She hadn’t been willing to spend even another hour in that room. She’d felt trapped and caged and itched to go somewhere, anywhere. It had taken her very serious threat to rewire the door before they’d agreed to let her leave the room.
The light material of her black dress fluttered around her thighs as she walked down the hallway to the lift. Other than the shortness of the skirt, she actually liked this dress. The bodice had a built-in bra and actually covered most of her breasts, giving just a hint of their full weight. Of course, she still had to wear those impractical heels.
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