by Rena Marks
“Why are they leaching testosterone? They have high levels. We had to manipulate the levels to merge the human DNA with whichever Xeno DNA each subject took. It’s why the bodies have more human exposure.”
“Yes, you manipulated the levels. But now, the brains that are not working correctly are misfiring, telling the bodies that there is not enough testosterone and they will die. So the body, in turn, converts it from the air. If there is another male nearby…”
“Females produce testosterone also.”
“Our levels are small enough not to irritate them. We’re in testing phase. As of now, we have all test subjects in separate rooms, away from even each other. As you can see in the test levels I just sent to your communication pads, they should fall within normal range. We think we may be able to bring them out of the coma and work on a small exposure amount which will increase over time. For instance, one lab tech that is male. Not at first, of course. It will take several weeks to reintroduce anyone. Besides which, we’ve surmised that they will be incommunicable. The levels have reared their aggression to cave-man like qualities. All they know right now is fight and kill.”
“Of course, of course.” Meade rubbed his hands together. “But that means you and Dr. Becker will be spending a lot of time in Level One. The lab.”
“Yes.” She pretended to wince. “We are definitely earning our keep. However, it also means that Crested Ute will be in line for the bonus from the Global Government, if they can stay within the original expense and work with the bodies they created instead of having to scrap the project and begin again.”
“Yes, we must avoid that at all costs. You did good, Dr. Robyn.”
“If you don’t have any other questions,” she said, standing up. “I’ll get back to Level One since Amanda is there by herself…”
“Just one more thing.”
Robyn sat down. Of course, they would have more questions.
Chapter Five
Three weeks later:
Robyn tapped on the door that housed the EKO-2. She waited a few moments to give him some privacy, and then pushed the door open.
“Good morning, Steele.”
“Good morning, Dr. Robyn.”
She smiled at him. “I told you, my doctorate is a formality. You can call me Robyn.”
It was a game they played each morning, and she loved this very moment of it, the upcoming culmination of the teasing between them that reduced her into the flirty stage of early youth. And here it came.
His smile.
Steele’s smile could curl a gal’s toes. It was hard to define what exactly it was about him. The perfect gleam of his brilliant white teeth? No, that couldn’t be. All four of the test subjects had dazzling teeth. They hadn’t been subject to any staining from coffee or wine. But Beast, the other one on her watch, didn’t give her the need to nervously giggle just to cover her blush when he smiled. It wasn’t just the gorgeous glow of Steele’s silver skin. Hell, Beast could be considered as having his own glow with the striking striations of gold in his deep ebony skin. But no, her heart didn’t skitter in her chest around Beast, not like it did with Steele.
“Robyn.” He reduced her name to a deep, throaty yearning of a man starving.
Steele was walking sex. He could turn it on or off with a word, and around him, her panties were in a constant state of damp arousal. Every time he said her name, she wondered what it would sound like if he gritted it out during orgasm. Would the cords of muscle stand out in his neck? Would he close his beautiful, glossy eyes in wonderment? Would his shoulders and biceps quiver with ecstasy?
“Robyn, are you all right?”
She had to physically jerk herself back into the moment. “Sorry, daydreaming.” But the teasing lilt in her half-smile let him know she wasn’t sorry at all. It let him guess at the flirty content of her daydreams, and it was bold as hell.
Steele gave a short bark of laughter.
She loved these moments. For a short time, she could pretend everything was okay. That Steele wasn’t a test subject being held prisoner in an underground facility in the depths of the ocean. She could pretend the scientists of Crested Utilitarian Labs weren’t breathing down her neck to begin experimenting on the Xeno Sapiens. She could pretend she didn’t have a hand in his existence—and consequently, his torture.
Right now, she shrugged it off. “What will I do if Amanda decides to switch subjects? I won’t have nearly as much fun with Pax as I do with you.”
Pax was under Amanda’s care, along with Renegade. He was a sweetheart, but he was serious and steadfast. A quiet being, he blended into the woodwork as he studied all the happenings around him. He was almost eerie.
“Next time I see Renegade, I’ll ask him to sweep Amanda off her feet. It’ll never occur to her to switch subjects.” He winked. “Don’t worry. I got your back.”
Now her short burst of laughter wasn’t at all ladylike. But it was worth it to see his reaction. Intense, hot need—they were connected in that moment like never before.
This man—in this one man she saw her life. It didn’t matter that he looked different from her. It didn’t matter that he was created in a lab. All that mattered was in this moment, he and she connected inside their souls like she’d never found with anyone else.
“Stop making me snort when I laugh! Let me get your vitals read.”
He rolled his arm out, the taut muscles jumping as they strung along the length of his arm. Her breath hitched in her throat, catching in her diaphragm and jumpstarting her heart to hammer against her ribs.
God, she hoped the thumping didn’t show through the thin material of her scrubs. She ran her fingers up his arm—lingering a brief second too long—and tapped his inner vein. Strong veins without needing to be strapped. She took the barest minimum and tenderly held the cotton ball against his wound. It gave her a few more minutes to touch him.
“Okay, this concludes it. Let me go check Beast, and I’ll be back with your lunch later, all right?”
“Yes, it’s my turn to have my meal with you.” The warm look in his eyes melted her heart.
“Yes, it is. I’ll be back,” she promised, gathering her supplies. She pretended not to notice the way Steele watched her every move as she left.
Once outside in the lab, she deposited his sample into the generator and shuddered. Yesterday, Director Meade insisted she begin collecting semen. Today, she had to come up with a reason for non-compliance.
Amanda was nowhere around the lab, which meant she was either in Renegade or Pax’s room. She’d rather not interrupt her. They tried to give the Xeno Sapiens as much privacy as possible and were careful to knock at their doors, trying not to interrupt unnecessarily.
She turned and headed for Beast’s room, knocking the same way she had at Steele’s. At his shout to enter, she pushed open the door.
“Beast! Long time no see.”
Beast’s face lit up, his lips curling into a smile. He was different looking with the stripes of gold color running across his ebony face. His nose was smaller than most, but his eyes. His human DNA gave him the most magnificent cobalt eyes that pierced right through a gal.
“You saw me when we shared breakfast.”
“And you told me all about your crazy dreams.” His dreams had been about life on another planet, proving the cell memory theory she always believed in. She couldn’t wait to share the story with Amanda.
“We have strength testing on the agenda today.”
He shrugged, the testing a breeze—and a bore—for him.
“I know,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Be glad you don’t have Steele’s day. He had to give up blood.”
“You’re a demon with those huge needles.”
They both laughed because Beast never even felt the pinpricks she gave him, though he teased her by howling mercilessly, his eyes dancing with laughter.
“Besides, I prefer when you get strength training,” she said. “All sweaty, biceps bulging…and sometimes you
strip off your shirt.”
“I’m afraid to rip it with my enormous muscles.” He flexed casually.
Robyn laughed harder, dabbing at her eyes as she opened the back door of his room to get to the main exercise unit.
She didn’t even need to explain to him where to start anymore, he knew the routine by heart. Watching him perform effortless pull-ups and lift endless reps of weight sobered her.
“You’re even stronger,” she said. “Do you feel any different?”
“Not at all.” Beast grew serious with her, cocking his head to the side as if he looked forward to her teachings.
She sat down across from him. “Then that could be a problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“Imagine this scenario. You and…say Pax, are eating lunch together one day. The ground rumbles and shakes, and the walls begin to collapse. Adrenaline bursts through your limbs. You want Pax to move out of the way, but he’s frozen with terror. So you reach out to shove him, but because the adrenaline gives you even more strength…”
“Pax is crushed, and I am devastated.”
“Yes,” she said carefully. “You harmed one of your brothers without meaning to.”
“I would never harm you either, Robyn. Or Amanda.”
“You would never mean to harm anyone, Beast. Just as none of us would harm you. You just have to take extra care to keep vigilant about knowing your strength is also your weakness. What if you were holding hands with someone and squeezed too hard, breaking her fingers? This isn’t to scare you. This is to keep you aware.”
He nodded. “I understand. Perhaps I should limit myself as to what I should do?”
This was her chance. “Perhaps you should limit yourself as to what you share with others.”
He tilted his head to the side, his fuzzy frame of golden hair settling around his shoulders. “What do you mean?”
“I tested your weight limits. But no one else has any idea, correct? What if I didn’t know you were strong? And you never showed anyone what you were capable of. It would be a secret only you knew. Sometimes, we need our own secrets.”
“But I trust you with my secrets, Robyn.”
This was not going well. He was too good inside to get the gist of what she was implying. And why shouldn’t he be? He hadn’t yet met the horrifying men she knew. “I know, Beast. And I trust you with mine. But I don’t want you to trust anyone else.”
His eyes sparked with awareness. “I…see.”
“Sometimes, we are used for our strengths. Sometimes, it’s best if we are the only ones who know of our exact strength.”
“Did someone find out one of yours and use it against you, Robyn?”
“Yes. Exactly. Because like you, my strength is also my weakness. And I wish to keep the same thing from happening to you. So when we test—never let anyone know of how much strength you have.”
“I understand. I promise. But so far, you already know.”
She smiled, reverting back to the teasing she could always share with Beast. “Then I’ll give you a good one of my secrets that no one knows about. It’ll balance us out. I’ll keep your secret, and you can keep mine.”
“What is it?” he asked, leaning forward.
“I have a huge crush on Steele.” Her voice was lilting with the tease.
Beast rocked back, nodding. “He is extremely attractive.”
Her burst of laughter was infectious.
“I mean, don’t tell him I said that.” He narrowed his eyes at her, in mock denial. “I was just trying to make you feel better. I don’t think he’s attractive, but I didn’t want to make you feel bad for being so blind.”
“Oh, no way, Beast. You do so find him attractive. Now I have two secrets to keep on you.”
He sighed and leaned in. “I’m just saying, if there was a female Steele, I might be tempted.”
“If there was a female Steele, she’d be all over you,” Robyn said softly.
“Do you think so, Robyn? Would I be considered attractive?” He looked so earnest as he waited for her answer, his claws tapped mildly on the edge of the table where he sat.
“You are simply stunning, Beast. You’re going to make hearts go pitter-patter.”
He sprang up, enclosing her in his giant bear hug.
“Gently!” She screeched with a giggle.
He plopped her easily on the table next to him. “Robyn, it’s story time.”
She glanced at her wristwatch. That was another eerie thing with Beast. How anyone could guess at the time without sunlight was something she chalked up to a mystery. “You are right as usual. Shall we?”
He extended his arm for her.
Instead of going out of the front of his room, they went to the back door of Beast’s room. Each of the rooms had a back door, which led into the larger room used for exercise, which they all shared. A social gathering room that she and Amanda used to encourage the socialization between the four subjects. From there, they unlocked Renegade’s back door and let him out.
Renegade gathered the chairs while Beast led her to Pax’s door, and they unlocked it. Finally, they opened Steele’s door. Steele’s gaze landed briefly on her arm, twined with Beast’s.
Beast bowed slightly and left her, joining the others in the chairs set up at the center of the room. Steele followed him.
“Today’s story is old Earth,” she began, the only one standing. “It was a very different time than what it is now. Humans had great variations in their features, thought to occur from evolution. People from hotter cultures developed darker skin. People from the East all had a strong dominant feature…the hooded eyes. Some beings were blond and blue eyed. Some were short. In addition to looking different from one another, each continent spoke a different language. And everyone believed in their own religion and their own government ruling them.”
“Like us,” Renegade said.
“Almost. Beast, for example. He has the ebony skin that people from hotter climates developed. However, they had other distinct features that went along with the darker skin. Always dark eyes. Wider noses, thicker lips. Whereas Beast has the skin pigment, but his features are from other human DNA strands. His nose, for instance, is remarkably like Pax’s. The striking blue of his eyes are probably from the alien portion of his DNA, because humans don’t have eyes quite that blue. Also, the gold striations across his skin. While gorgeous, humans have a pretty uniform, solid skin color. But besides the physical, there was one difference between them, those early humans, and you.” Robyn said. “Those people had no one to teach them that variations were beautiful. Instead of loving each other, they became jealous. Each one believed theirs was the true god, instead of believing it was one god who came through differently for other people. They became envious of each other. Some cultures were promoting cosmetic surgery for their children to look more like those across another continent, a reward for when they reached a certain age. You see, back then we had no idea that we were different for a reason. We didn’t simply become darker with evolution because some lived in the sun, and some stayed lighter because they lived in the snow. We found out we, the human population, had our own DNA manipulated. Long ago, when we were one with the apes, alien life forms came to Earth and used their DNA to re-construct a group of peoples. When it was successful, other alien life forms came and chose another group to manipulate. That was why we had so many differences. Like you, we all had differing DNA. We just didn’t know it.
“We continued to fight each other and destroy the planet with our hatred and jealousies until one day we just exploded with violence. The great Terran war is what other beings called it. They stayed out of our way, because our planet was supposed to be one of free will. We used that free will to promote years of battling, destroying two thirds of our population. It finally stopped after one particularly large explosion shifted some of Earth’s tectonic plates. At that point, the lost city of Atlantis was discovered, and we discovered proof of alien existence. Not that they
ever landed and invaded, mind you. No, the others had a treaty in place to stay out of the humans’ way after our DNA was manipulated so many centuries earlier. They were determined to let us grow and evolve on our own. What a disappointment we must have been! But we cleaned it up. The remaining people merged and developed one global government. The lost city of Atlantis was turned into a museum for all to visit. Now, humans are not so different any longer, as we’ve all merged and combined our gene pool. Throwback DNA means that two rather normal looking humans can have a child who looks completely different from his parents. Perhaps he has black skin while the parents do not. Perhaps he has the hooded eyes that the parents do not. But now, a child’s differences are celebrated, not covered up while he is forced to blend in with painful cosmetic surgeries.”
“Where do we fit in this world, Robyn?” Renegade voiced the question they were all thinking, because everyone else nodded.
She took a deep breath, but caught herself before she actually sighed. “You four are all different from plain humans. You were not born but constructed. You see, when Atlantis was discovered centuries ago, no one remembered there were a few remnants of the people found. We don’t know what, of course, it was a long time ago. But a piece of tissue here and there. The samples were saved and in more recent, modern times, the DNA extracted. You are a combination of those samples and human DNA.”
“Why?” Pax’s voice was quiet.
The question stumped her. “I don’t exactly know,” she admitted. “In all my research, I was more fascinated in the how than the why. I see now I was focused on the wrong thing.”
Pax nodded. “It appears the reason why would lean toward: humans have not lost the evolution they thought they gained since the Terran wars. The why signifies they still have the desire to control—to play God.”
There was silence for a while.
“Well, this wasn’t exactly the warm, fuzzy stories I had been telling.”
“No,” Renegade agreed.
“But it was necessary,” Beast said, staring challengingly around the room at the others. “To appreciate beauty, we must also see ugliness.”
