by Ava Castle
“Well! It would seem that the rumors are true. You really are here. And are you alone?”
“No, sir,” the guard chimed in, “there’s one other. She’s feistier than this one, but she’s coming.”
“I’m sorry, you must have been confused. Did you believe that I was talking to you?”
“N-n-no.”
“Well then you shouldn’t have spoken. In fact, you may go.”
“But Master-!”
“But nothing. You heard me. I want you to go. Find something useful to do with yourself. I’ll wait to continue until you’ve gone.”
His eyes followed the guard out of the room. I traced the guard’s movements myself through Morigon’s eyes. But once he was gone, those eyes turned back to me. Severe and dark, they held me in place. A cruel smile spread across his gray face.
“Now, then, where were we?”
Chapter Nine
Radon
“What is this I hear about a third girl? Where is she?”
“I know about as you do about her. In fact, I’m willing to bet that since you’re asking me about her, you know a little more than I do.”
“Don’t play with me, boy. I’m not afraid of you the way these guards are.”
Morigon had come to meet with me in a little holding cell after he’d talked to the Earth girls in the garden. He knew from the lack of restraints that I was only there because I had allowed his guards to bring me in. They wouldn’t have been able to do it any other way. Two of said frightened guards stood inside the doorway to the little featureless white room. Their presence was merely a formality. They weren’t going to do anything. I leaned against the wall, towering above the head of the Masters.
“Did you manage to get anything out of the girls about their missing comrade?”
He narrowed his eyes, answering my question.
“I’ll take that as a no. Looks like your little operation has been botched.”
I pushed myself off the wall, and Morigon took a step back, like I was dumb enough to attack him. I chuckled. I may have been able to physically overpower our fearless leader, but he was far more powerful, politically. I wouldn’t have stood a chance if I did something stupid like that.
“We’re not done here,” he barked indignantly. “Sit. Make yourself comfortable.”
He pulled a white straight-backed chair out from the white table in the middle of the room for me to sit. He obviously had more questions for me and planned on keeping me in there a little longer. I smirked and took a seat to humor him. It was time for some answers.
“I’ve got two missing here, and you’re acting about as damn carefree as I could have imagined.”
“Two missing? Oh, you mean the third girl and Shaley. Yeah, your goons told me about Shaley and the note. I really can’t help you there, Morigon.”
He stood across the table from me with his arms crossed. He narrowed his eyes, looking down at me. Sometimes it felt like he could see right through me. I sighed at the accusation written all over his face. I knew what his next question was going to be, probably before he did.
“You mean to tell me you haven’t seen her or talked to her? We’ve got witnesses who saw you out at the crash site with two Valmorian women. I assume one of them was Shaley.”
“Did your witnesses happen to say they saw three Earth women as well?”
It didn’t surprise me that there were witnesses, the way their craft lit up the sky when it crashed, but if they had been able to identify me, why hadn’t they been able to identify Shaley? That seemed suspicious. It wasn’t like I was any more popular than she was, seeing as she was the daughter of the head of the Masters. We were both well-known, celebrities. Who were these “witnesses” who couldn’t (or wouldn’t, more likely) identify her?
“No. Unfortunately, in case you failed to notice, their skin doesn’t glow as ours does. It’s a flaw in their evolution, but I guess we’ll have to overlook that. Still, you were seen with my daughter, and now she’s missing. She left a very curious note behind telling us to seek you out, that you would know why she left.”
I laughed impulsively as I thought about possible reasons for her to leave the note behind to send Morigon’s men after me. I clapped my hands. She was a clever one.
“I’m sorry, do you find it funny that Shaley ran off and put the blame on you?”
“No. And yes. I don’t know where she’s gone. I mean, I have an idea, but that’s only because I know now why she left the note.”
“Why is that, Radon? Enlighten me.”
Morigon didn’t have much patience with me to begin with, but I could hear what little he had left slipping away. I started to think that maybe the situation was serious enough to warrant not trying to piss him off. I didn’t buy into his plan to use Earth women to help us reproduce and save our kind, but that didn’t mean I had to compete with him to see who could be the biggest ass.
“Think about it. She left that note so you would send your men to my hut to investigate her disappearance, knowing full well what they were going to find when they got there.”
“So that was her at the crash site with you. Wait, why didn’t she bring the girls in herself? From what we’ve been told, she wasn’t alone, even before you showed up.”
I knew I had to choose my next words carefully so as not to get her in any trouble. I certainly couldn’t tell her father that she’d been threatening to kill the girls, and that was why I had gone out there. She was going to be in enough trouble for running off, and for all I knew, she probably had a legitimate reason. I doubted it, but it was possible.
“Hey, I don’t know all that. I can’t tell you what was going on in her head. She was in a bit of a panic when I found her. I don’t think she was prepared to find the ship in such condition or the Earth girls so . . . different.”
“When you found her? You mean you didn’t go out there with her?” His eyes narrowed again with suspicion. “You two are almost inseparable.”
“I know. I was at home when I saw the light in the sky. She was already out there by the time I realized something had crashed. I saw her and her friend head out there, and I followed to check on everything.”
“And neither one of you thought to tell me about what was happening. I can’t believe it. She ran off, and you decided you were going to hide these girls in your hut. What were you thinking? Were you going to try to save them? And from what? From this? From the whole reason they came out here?”
I remained silent while he shook his head and started pacing in front of me, huffing and puffing as he did. His scales were standing up all over, but I didn’t feel threatened by him. He wasn’t going to try anything. His guards weren’t going to try anything. He was just going to rant.
“I know you’re not keen on the solution we’ve discovered.”
“How do you know? You pulled my name out of a hat without even consulting with me to see if I wanted to be a part of it. For all you know, I could be your biggest supporter on this.”
“Cut the shit, Radon. I know you better than that. You’ve skipped almost every forum we’ve held on the topic. So why these girls? Why did you take them in? I guess if Shaley hadn’t left that note, we never would have known about them.”
I couldn’t answer his question. My only thought had been to save them from the attempt his daughter had made on their lives, but that wasn’t an answer. Even if I had decided to call her out like that, it wouldn’t have solved anything. Their vulnerability had touched me. Not the mouthy one; she was going to get what was coming to her eventually, if she hadn’t already pissed off the guards enough to inspire them to rough her up. The other one, Becca. She needed to be protected and wasn’t asking for trouble.
“Nothing to say, I see. I guess we can hold you a little longer in this room until you decide to talk.”
I laughed hoarsely. “Not a chance. I’ve seen what these rooms can do to someone. The sensory deprivation, the plain white walls, floor, and ceiling. Eventually even the ta
ble disappears, and you’re left questioning your own sanity, until that leaves, too. No thanks.”
“Well, I’m glad you understand your predicament. If you don’t want to spend some personal time in here, I suggest you start giving me more information.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll make a deal with you, because we both know you can’t make me stay in here against my will. Those guards at the door know it, too.”
“You smug bastard. What do you want?” he barked at me, slamming his hands on the table in frustration.
“I’ll tell you what I know if you tell me what you know.”
The joke was on Morigon, though, because he already knew everything I did, except for the details about Shaley’s reaction to the girls. What he didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt him, but what I didn’t know was probably detrimental to the safety of the two girls we’d found, the third one who was still missing, and probably every single one of us he’d named at the meeting.
“You exhaust me, but I guess I owe you a little information since you’re going to be involved in this experiment of ours.”
“Exactly, so have a seat, Morigon. Make yourself comfortable. It looks like we might be here for a while.”
I smiled and pushed the chair on his side of the table out for him with my feet. He sat down and stared at me, letting out an exasperated breath. He sat upright in his chair, puffing his chest out in a proud, regal gesture, as if he was trying to maintain some semblance of his position above me. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like I was challenging his position. No one was dumb enough to do that. I just wanted to be through with all this crap so I could get back to my life. I never asked to be thrown into this predicament, having to be part of the group of men chosen to try to save our kind with Earth women.
Once he sat down, his scales flattened slowly until they were almost invisible. Either he was calming down, or he was admitting defeat in his attempt to get me to admit to things I had no knowledge of. I assumed he was trying to accuse me of some plot against his great plan for these women, but I really hadn’t planned that far ahead when I took them in.
“Great, I’ll go first. Tell me more about this plan. Why are these women here?”
“Guards, you can wait outside.”
“Are you sure, Master?”
“Please, like he’s going to try anything. Wait outside.” Then, he turned to me and added, “I’ll answer your question in private, once they leave.”
We watched as the reluctant guards walked backwards through the doorway, keeping their eyes on us until they were on the other side of the door. Once they were out of the room, they let the white door close behind them. These rooms were soundproof, adding to the sensory deprivation they provided as torture cells for reluctant prisoners who didn’t want to come off of information. It was bad enough being locked in there with Morigon. I couldn’t have imagined being locked in one alone.
“Now, you heard what I said during our meeting, right? When I made the announcement of our plan to use Earth women?”
“Of course I did. Everyone did. You and the other Masters are playing gods here. I hope you’ve done your research.”
“What if I told you we haven’t? What if I told you it was just a shot in the dark? I mean, we know enough about Earthlings to know that our biology is similar enough that it might work, but we don’t know for sure.”
“You’re fucking kidding me, right? These women were sent to us for this experiment of yours, and you don’t even know that it will work? Unbelievable, but you know what? I shouldn’t have expected any better.”
“Desperation, my boy. Right now, anything is worth a shot if it means saving our species.”
“How is it supposed to work? I imagine if our men impregnate these Earth women, it will change our species. You’ve seen how they look.”
The Earth women looked a lot like us, but there were some distinct differences in their appearances alone that hinted at other fundamental biological differences, which meant that breeding with them was bound to cause evolutionary changes in our kind. We were going to survive, but what were we going to sacrifice to do it? And was it worth it?
Morigon had the same questions I did. I saw them in the way he looked down at his fingers, laced together on the table. In his heavy breathing, I heard that he had been considering those questions.
“As of right now, we’ve got to keep our options open. One option we have on the table is using the Earth women as surrogates, since Valmorian women can conceive but can’t carry full-term.”
“Good luck getting any Valmorian women to agree to donate their fertilized eggs to that cause. What are your other options?”
“Well, given enough time, we think we can use their biology to figure out what went wrong with our own. Then, hopefully, we can essentially repair our women so that they can have children again.”
“That sounds time-consuming. You still haven’t said the one option I’m actually dreading.”
“Well, you already know what it is, then,” he said with a sense of finality in his tone. “Impregnating an Earth woman directly is sort of a last option for us.”
“Really? Because the way you explained it to us made it sound like it was one of the first options on the table. You chose us for these women based on criteria that would only really apply if we were mating with them ‘directly,’ as you put it. I just sort of assumed that was what we were doing.”
“Yes, it was one of the considerations when we designed the program. We are pairing the women up with men who are fit to breed with them. Once we find a successful model for the program to use–surrogates, coupling, or genetics–we’ll be ready to start moving forward with future stages, but the first stage is set up with all three models in mind. Now, is that all you wanted to know?”
“You answered a lot of questions, Morigon. Thank you.”
If it had been anyone else, I would have shaken his hand then, but we were beyond simple formalities. Simply being cordial was a huge step for us. I assumed he had sent the guards out as much to protect what he was telling me as to keep them from seeing us in a non-confrontational setting.
“Now, what were you planning on doing, really?”
“I wasn’t planning on anything. I’ll shoot straight with you, man, when I found those girls, they weren’t any better off than Shaley. I told you she was freaking out when I got there. Well, they were, too. My first instinct was to take them in and make sure they were okay. I hadn’t thought about what to do next. I guess I always knew they were eventually going to have to be turned in.”
“You can be impulsive, so I guess I can believe you, but understand that if you try to get in the way of this program, it won’t end well for you.”
“Yes, sir.”
I knew from his stern tone that he wasn’t just making an idle threat. The Masters were all powerful. While Morigon wouldn’t have stood a chance in a fight against me, he had other ways of handling his opponents that weren’t as civilized. I knew better than to challenge him on those grounds.
“That being said, you and the quiet one will be paired. We still need to break her friend down and make her more compliant, so we’ll start with the one named Becca. She will be assigned to you. You two are to be coupled. She will live with you. She will share your bed. You are to help her along in the program and to help her assimilate into our society as much as necessary to ensure your success together.”
“We’re to be coupled?” I swallowed hard.
“Is there a problem? Yes, coupled. Except where necessary in the program, you are to be loyal to your assignment. You are to treat her the same as you would a Valmorian woman. Can you do that or do I need to find a replacement assignment for her?”
“No,” I answered quickly, “I can manage. I will gladly accept Becca as my assignment.” For some reason, I couldn’t imagine letting her couple with someone else, even as part of the program. Maybe it was like I had admitted to Morigon about my reaction to her vulnerability. Maybe it was that kiss
we’d shared, that spontaneous connection between us. Of course, I wasn’t keen on the idea of coupling with her myself, but I was even less keen on the idea of letting her couple with someone else.
“Tell me,” he said, narrowing his eyes again, “have you had contact with either of the humans?”
“That’s a funny question, sir, don’t you think? I mean, considering they were in my hut.”
“You know what I mean. Have you had any physical contact with them?”
“You mean, sexual contact,” I laughed. “No, not at all.”
“Because if you had so much as kissed one of them, I would be forced to recommend keeping you under observation.”
He could see right through me. He had always been able to see right through me. I didn’t know if he did it to everyone or just me, but he fucking did it every time we were forced to deal with each other. As far as I could tell, my body was not having any strange reactions to the kiss, so I maintained my lie.
“Why would I do something like that?”
“Indeed.”
Chapter Ten
Becca Cross
“Did he explain why the fuck we’re here?”
“Not entirely. He asked me about the other girl several times. Are you sure you didn’t see another empty pod?”
Their Master, who called himself Morigon, had taken me for a walk through his garden while we talked. There were exotic plants everywhere, but I soon discovered there were also exotic animals that must have been native to their planet, Valmore. There were birds with bright and beautiful plumage who sang sweet, melodic songs. They swooped through the garden just over our heads while we walked by.
