Fresh Flesh, page 11
He frowns at me for a long moment, then shrugs and goes about checking out the new influx of fertile human females. I get to sleep and lay around for the next few days. It’s nothing short of glorious.
Once the doctor decides I’m healthy enough, they take me in for my examination. It’s a lot less invasive than I expected it to be. I stand on a platform while they run a scanning device over my body. The scanner is huge, and attached to the wall by an armature. I can’t see the readout on the screen because it’s facing away from me, but the shocked expression on the doctor’s face is probably not a good sign.
I’m wondering if he found cancer or something when he takes off his monocle and stares at me with hard yellow eyes.
“Who have you been having sex with?” he demands.
“What? No one,” I say, shaking my head.
“Do not lie to me, girl. Which human male have you slept with? Hmmm? Answer me!”
I laugh a little bit. “I can honestly say I havne’t had sex with a human male in years.”
His eyes narrow to slits.
“Then why are you pregnant?”
The news hits me like a blow. I sway on my feet, and would probably fall over if not for the safety rail on the platform. Pregnant? I guess it’s either Joras’, Mlarx’s, or Lurg’s. I haven’t had sex with anyone else.
“She’s not lying, doctor,” says the nurse. “Her bio readings are normal, not elevated as they would be if she were telling a falsehood.”
His eyes snap back to me.
“Which of our people has forced himself on you? Well? Was it Dlark?”
“No,” I say vehemently. “No way. I would never let that creep touch me.”
“Then who?”
“I never learned his name. I met him on the way to the west coast. He had food and shelter, and there was a price for him to share it. I paid that price gladly.”
The doctor heaves an exasperated sigh. “You must be offloaded at our next stop in what you humans called Vancouver. This is highly irregular.”
“What’s going to happen to me, and, um, the baby?”
“You will likely be sent to a farm until you give birth on the mainland. After that, I don't know.”
Cold comfort indeed. Pregnant.
What will Lurg and the others think when they find out?
Assuming I live long enough to see them, or that they even want to find me.
41
Joras
The human vessel looks dubious to my eyes. For one thing, the hull is made out of something called fiberglass. Just the word glass makes me suspicious.
For another thing, it’s damn small for a ship that’s meant to brave the ocean waves. The triangular shaped, narrow body is designed for speed, but I wonder if it will fare well on the larger swells.
“Will you stop fussing around and get on board?” Mlarx demands.
“I’m not sure this ship is seaworthy.”
“It has to be seaworthy,” Lurg says as he unties the mooring rope from the dock.
“Why do you say that?” I ask.
“Because,” he says “it is the only ship we could find that anyone was willing to part with. It simply has to work because we have to make it work. There is no choice.”
“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind when we sink to the bottom of the ocean.”
“You sound like a whining child,” Mlarx scoffs.
“Or someone with good sense.”
“You can always stay behind while we go and find Maisie,” Lurg offers.
“No,” I snap, the very idea abhorrent to me.
“Then stop stalling and come on.”
I sigh and leap over the narrow span of water separating the ship from the dock. I take up a position on one of its molded seats. Lurg gets behind the steering wheel and starts the engine up. The engine is so primitive it hangs off the back of the boat. The ship shudders, and then lurches forward, the front end raising up into the air.
We shoot out over the harbor, to the bigger waves in the open sea. The swell isn't bad today. Maybe five- or six-feet max. Still, the tiny ship skips off every wave like a ramp, catching air at times to crash back down with shuddering force.
I give Lurg a look. “Will you ease up on the throttle before we get bounced out of here?”
“Don’t you want to find Maisie in time?”
“Yes, and I’d like to be alive when we get there. If it’s not too much trouble.”
“I never knew you were afraid of water, Joras,” Mlarx says.
“Not afraid. Appropriately cautious.”
“That’s just fancy words for saying you’re afraid.”
Lurg jerks a sharp glance over his shoulder at us.
“Stop bickering, or I will turn this boat right around.”
I doubt he would do any such thing, but Mlarx and I cease our spirited debate. For a time we skip over the waves, homing in on the transponder signal of the Genola Tay.
I keep scanning the horizons, and then I see it, a gray ship chugging through the waters.
“Look,” I say, totally unnecessarily. “There’s the Tay.”
“Indeed,” Lurg says with a grunt. “I don’t like this.”
“Why not?”
“From their heading, I’d say they’re heading back out to open sea after putting in at a dock somewhere.”
I digest the implications of this, but Mlarx thinks a little bit faster than I do.
“Oh no!” Mlarx exclaims. “Does this mean Maisie has been offloaded already?”
My heart sinks with disappointment. Lurg opens up the throttle and we careen from the crest of one wave to the next. This time I do not complain, however.
We signal the ship and come up abreast with it. The ship slows to a halt and a rope is tossed out. We clamber up onto the deck of the larger ship using a rope ladder.
Lurg heads right for the captain, who has come to greet us. The captain doesn’t look too happy about having to stop, but as an Overseer, Lurg outranks him.
“You,” Lurg says. “We are searching for an escapee from one of our farms. We were told you had her on this vessel.”
Lurg gives a description to the captain, whose eyes glimmer with recognition.
“Yes, I do remember a human woman with spotted cheeks.”
I do not like to think of her lovely freckles as ‘spotted cheeks’ but the captain keeps talking before I can object.
“I’m afraid she’s no longer on board. I offloaded her on the mainland.”
“Why?” Lurg demands. Mlarx cracks his knuckles and looms dangerously.
“Because this is a breeding ship,” the captain replies. “And she did not need to be bred, as she was already pregnant.”
My mouth drops open in shock, and Lurg looks devastated. The captain lowers his voice conspiratorially.
“The doctor says that she was carrying a Gren’s child, at that.”
We all exchange glances with each other. It has to be one of ours. Still, that doesn’t mean we don’t want to get her back.
It might even mean we have even more reason to.
We get back onto our own ship and fly toward the mainland. The time we make is outstanding, but it takes a toll. About a quarter mile from land the ship comes down a little too hard and the hull cracks. It starts taking on water, and we barely make it to the shallows before our vessel sinks.
Fortunately, a dock is not far away. We come up and requisition zoomers from the engineer on duty at that hour, and ask about where the nearest farm is.
Then we’re skipping through the air instead of the water, each of us determined to find Maisie at all costs.
42
Maisie
The big truck rattles my bones as it thumps along the dirt road. I bite my tongue and curse, unworried the Grengoran guards will hear. How could they hear anything over the loud engine?
I’ve been on the road for days now. I think we passed into what used to be Utah this morning. We’re going by some lovely buttes with red and yellow striations on their columns. The heat is relentless, the sun beating down on us inside of the open air truck bed.
I’m not the only one being transported. Several other pregnant females are also on board. Some of them are really showing, and must be close to coming to term.
I look down at my own baby bump. It’s just big enough to show. Probably I could hide it and most people would just assume I have a bit of a tummy. That won’t be the case for long.
The captain sold me off to a human breeder. Of course, he didn’t tell them that I was pregnant with a Grengoran’s child. I guess that would have put my price lower or something.
All I know is, sooner or later the secret is going to come out…literally. When they lay eyes on a green scaled baby, there’s going to be no more secrets for me.
I wonder what will happen then?
The truck comes to a bend in the road, and I get my first look at the breeding farm. The fences aren’t quite as high. I guess they don’t have to be. Humans consider themselves relatively lucky to be sent to a breeding farm. It’s better than ending up on the menu and then inside of a Gren belly.
I start looking for possible means to escape. I’ve escaped every farm they ever put me on so far, so why should I stop now?
The only problem is, this farm seriously lacks a lot of the features that aided my previous escapes. For one thing, there’s next to no vegetation in the area. There are fields of crops surrounding the breeding farm, but mostly low growing foodstuffs like potatoes. Nothing that I can use to hide my escape.
In fact, there’s nothing for miles around. The nearest landmark is a butte miles away from here. If I tried to make for it, I would stand out against the desert like a sore thumb.
They offload us inside of the borders of the not so high fence. I soon realize it doesn’t have to be all that high. The desert itself is our prison.
I have to figure out a way to escape, and soon. Before my belly swells out further and makes moving awkward. I’ve heard stories of native American women who rode horses into battle the day before they gave birth. Fine for them, but I’m not sure I want to exert myself while carrying a hybrid baby.
The corral has numerous shaded areas, created by muslin cloth stretched between high wooden poles. The poles are too far away from the fences to shimmy up and use to escape. I feel a burning need to get back to my men. I’m carrying a child that belongs to one of them for certain.
After a day or two in the Utah breeder farm, I give in to despair. There doesn't seem to be any way out of here. My only hope would be to somehow get out of the fence and steal a vehicle. From what I’m told, they can easily track their vehicles. Which is why I never stole one on my previous escapes.
Now though, I might have to consider it. It seems impossible, though. And I wouldn’t even know how to pilot one of the vehicles from the Gregoran home world.
I could try and steal the old beat up truck, but how far would I make it in that jalopy when there are so many faster vehicles parked around the farm?
The breeder farm Overseer assigns the pregnant women light duties. Today I’m out in the fields, watering the crops with the irrigation hose. I put my thumb over the end of the hose so it will spray further. The fan shaped water refracts the bright sunlight and turns it into a micro rainbow. I wish I could feel some cheer at seeing it, but I cannot.
As I work, I notice a dust plume coming from the west. I figure that it’s another load of breeders for the farm and go back to work. Then I realize it’s not a truck, or a shuttle. It’s a Gren on the back of a zoomer hover platform.
My eyes widen when I realize he’s not alone. There are two…no, wait, three of them. Three Grengorans on zoomers…could it be? No way. I don’t dare allow myself to hope.
But then I see Lurg on the lead zoomer, and my heart leaps for joy. I drop the hose, still spurting water, and run through the crops. I trample the food I worked so hard to irrigate, and I don’t care.
My men have come for me, and god willing, I’m getting the fuck out of this camp.
43
Joras
My heart leaps with joy when I see Maisie’s form standing out against the green crops. I open my throttle up all the way and speed ahead of Mlarx and Lurg. Not to be outdone, they open up their throttles too but I have a huge head start.
Maisie runs hard toward us, her cheeks red with the exertion, sweat glistening on her body. I see that her belly has just started to show. Thank goodness she is all right.
I turn off the hover platform and leap off before it has even settled onto its landing pylons. My feet tear up the terrain as I stretch my legs out and race to her.
She flies into my arms and I hold her close. Her scent fills my nostrils and lights up my senses. I never thought I could hold her like this again.
“Oh Maisie,” I cry. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” she says, tears running down her cheeks and getting my uniform wet. A moment later we’re joined by Lurg and Mlarx, who likewise try to embrace her. All three of us wind up holding her at once, which is as awkward as it sounds. Maisie doesn’t seem to mind.
“Lurg, Mlarx,” she cries. “Oh, thank god you found me. I was so scared I would never see any of you ever again.”
Mlarx touches her belly and arches his brow ridges.
“Do you know who the father is?”
“No,” she says. “But it’s definitely one of you. I haven’t been with any man, human or Gren, since I got caught in California.”
He breathes a sigh of relief. Lurg looks over at the breeder farm.
“It looks like someone has taken notice of us,” he says.
I see a couple of Gren guards standing at the edge of the fence, looking our way curiously. They don’t raise an alarm or anything, because we’re Grengorans like them. Still, I don’t like the scrutiny. It makes me uncomfortable.
“Should we go talk to the Overseer of this farm?” Mlarx asks. “Tell him that we’re taking Maisie.”
I notice that he didn’t say ‘ask’ if we could take Maisie. We will go to war against our own kin, against the entire Empire if they try to keep us from Maisie for one more second.
“No,” Lurg says.
“No?” Mlarx responds, his jaw falling open. “But protocol demands it.”
“I don’t give a fuck about protocol,” Lurg snaps. “If protocol had been followed at our Vegas farm, then Maisie would have never been thrown onto a train car. The Northern Tribe basically stole her from us, so I say we steal her back from them.”
“I have no love lost for the Northern Tribe,” I say.
Mlarx gives a curt nod. He doesn’t like it, but as long as Maisie leaves with us I’m pretty sure he’s going to be happy.
Lurg takes Maisie on his zoomer, since it’s the biggest of the three. We give Maise a big cloak to cover herself with, so no one will see her belly. A pregnant human woman traveling alone with three Grens is going to cause concern. But a nonpregnant human woman doesn’t cause the same stir.
From time to time we are accosted by border patrol. Every time they let us go without much fuss. All we have to do is tell them that Maisie is an escapee from our farm, and show them our Overseer credentials.
Then they let us go pretty as you please.
I look over at Maisie, the wind in her hair, her eyes shining and filled with jubilation and relief in equal measure. I’m happy to have her back with us again. I wonder if the baby in her belly is mine?
I really hope that it is. The thing is, we may never know. The Gregorian genetic code is complex, and tends to change itself as we age. Paternity tests are not known to be accurate.
The fact that she’s been with all three of us, though, means that at least one of us is the father. That forever binds her to us, and I have to say I’m okay with that.
We finally arrive safely back at the Vegas farm. Maisie collapses into my arms halfway through the door.
I carry her into her room and lay her down gently on the bed. Then I cover her up and shut out the light.
I will be able to rest easy…we all will be able to…now that Maisie is safely back with us again.
Back where she belongs.
44
Maisie
When I awaken the next morning, sunlight bleeds in through the curtains and splashes over my face. I wake up, confused as to why I’ve been so comfortable. I’m terrified that I have overslept, and the guards will give me extra chores as punishment for oversleeping.
My eyes snap open and I sit bolt upright. I look around my surroundings and reel with confusion. For a long moment—it must be a whole three seconds—I feel completely lost. I have no idea where I am.
Then my memory comes back, and the familiar settings seem familiar once again. I’m back in my room on the Vegas farm. And it’s good to be back.
I flop back into the bed and sigh. I feel safe enough to fall back asleep, so that’s what I do. I rest for most of the day, only awakening when the shadows are long from a sinking afternoon sun.
My belly rumbles, and my throat is parched. I rise from the bed and go to the door and open it.
Joras glances up from the computer tablet he’s working on. His eyes widen.
“She’s awake,” he calls. Joras sets down the tablet and comes to me. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I say. “I’m fine now, that is. Now that I’m home with the three of you.”
He nods, a smile playing at his lips. Then he kisses me. I kiss him back, until I realize that I’m still hungry and thirsty.
“Food and drink first,” I say insistently. “Then we can…celebrate.”
They feed and water me, and it’s the best meal I’ve had in, well, probably ever. Certainly the best thing I’ve had since we lost our smokehouse when we had to move on in California.
Then Mlarx asks if I want dessert, and my response is to sit down in his lap and kiss him. He kisses me back, hard, and the other two come to loom over us.
