Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I (12 page)

She’d joined the military because
she’d known it was her only hope of getting off planet and settling
with her daughter on one of the colony worlds. She hadn’t wanted to
leave earth at first. Sure they had problems due to the climate
change, which had caused global economic instability, but it was
home and the colonies had their own problems. Besides that she
hadn’t wanted to leave her family behind when there was a strong
possibility that she’d never see them again.

She’d lost her reasons for staying
over the years, though, lost those closest to her, and as Cara grew
older, she’d come to see that there were far better opportunities
for her daughter on the colony worlds.

She’d expected to get the chance to go
with her, though, hoped she might at least have the chance to join
her later even though she’d known that was doubtful.

Grief swelled in her chest at the
thought, making it hard to breathe, but she struggled to tamp it as
she had since she’d sent Cara away. Her daughter was safe and that
was far more important than anything else. She not only had the
chance for life. She had the chance of a good life, far more
opportunities than she would’ve had on Earth even if not for the
war.

She was just sorry for herself that
she couldn’t be there to watch her life unfold.

She didn’t presently see any
possibility of it, at any rate. She wouldn’t even be alive now if
not for the Anunnaki and she wasn’t convinced, yet, that they’d
done her a favor. She had a bad feeling she never would be
convinced of that.

Thrusting her depressing thoughts
aside after a moment, she focused on eating what she could of the
food Koryn had brought, reminding herself that she had to get
stronger to even look for opportunities. She felt stronger already
than she had a few days before and she’d recovered enough of her
memories to have both a past and some hope for a future.

Beyond having a goal, she didn’t allow
herself to dwell too much on Cara. She hadn’t since she’d sent her
away to protect her and now wasn’t the time to allow herself to get
bogged down in useless emotions. She had to survive first before
she had possibilities.

* * * *

Koryn was so consumed by jealousy that
it wasn’t until they reached the dig that he emerged sufficiently
to feel any curiosity at all about what Tariq had found. It had
bothered him just knowing that Tariq had her in his quarters. He’d
convinced himself, though, that Tariq wasn’t fool enough to risk
Emerald just to appease his needs and, unfortunately, he’d assumed
that meant that Tariq would keep his distance.

Clearly the bastard saw no reason not
to gentle her to hand while he waited, though. She not only hadn’t
put up any resistance when he’d carried her to the chair and
cuddled her, she’d clung to him. The sight had been enough to make
him so sick with rage that he’d wavered for a time between the urge
to throw up and the urge to drag Emerald out of his lap and resume
what they’d started earlier.

Emerald’s distress was the only thing
that had kept him firmly planted where he was. The memories he’d
helped to surface were clearly far more traumatic even than he’d
expected and he’d been worried enough about her dealing with them
emotionally that he’d managed to retain a slender thread of sanity.
Not much more than that, but at least a little
self-control.

The underhanded bastard was using her
emotional frailty, her need for comfort to accustom her to his
touch!

Not that he could see that Tariq had
succeeded all that well, he thought with some satisfaction. She
didn’t trust him, despite his efforts.

Of course, she didn’t
trust
him
either!

That rankled almost more
than the fact that she’d at least trusted Tariq enough to calm her
when he thought she ought to have been more inclined to turn to
him.
He
was the
one who’d revived her, after all. She’d responded to his hypnosis
with trust!

And yet he’d gotten the distinct
impression that she wasn’t even aware he was in the room until he’d
spoken—which was proof positive his mind was just so much mush!
What in the hell had possessed him to pose such a question, he
wondered, thoroughly disgusted with himself? He should have known
better! Tariq might still be laboring under the impression that the
humans were vastly inferior intellectually to the Anunnaki, but
he’d studied their genome thoroughly. He knew they were the equal
of the Anunnaki in that respect—maybe not technologically but even
that was debatable now, when they’d discovered the humans had
mastered space travel to an extent that had allowed them to
colonize other worlds.

If he’d been thinking straight, he
would’ve known that that would instantly set off alarms and inspire
distrust!

The truth was, he thought disgustedly,
that he’d been too focused on trying to gain her attention and her
trust to think before he spoke.

Not that he thought the fault was
entirely his! Tariq had completely underestimated the humans in
general and her in particular. Granted, it was hard to shake the
preconceptions they’d had when they’d been sent to collect the
‘children’. Everyone back on Nibiru still thought of the humans as
the simple, easily manipulated and awed beings they’d dealt with in
the beginning.

Tariq’s ‘slip’ in front of her—because
of his ungovernable temper where she was concerned!—had done more
damage than either of them had realized at the time. He thought she
would’ve been inclined to trust them if she hadn’t learned their
plans before they’d had time to build any real trust, but Tariq had
fucked up any possibility of that! Her reaction to his attempt to
persuade her to open up was proof of that!

“
Don’t tell me you’re
still sulking over the woman,” Tariq said dryly, jerking Koryn from
his thoughts.

He felt his face heat with a mixture
of anger and discomfort. “I suppose you wouldn’t be ‘sulking’ as
you call it if the shoe was on the other foot?” he
growled.

Tariq sent him a speculative look,
considered it, and finally shrugged, smiling thinly. “Point taken.
You’ll get your chance with her. I gave my word—as little as I like
the necessity.”

Koryn’s lips tightened. “I think
you’re underestimating Emerald and I think you might come to regret
it. You need to try to wrap your mind around the fact that she
isn’t a ‘child’ in any sense of the word.”

“
The humans are very
child-like,” Tariq said with amusement.

“
So we were told,” Koryn
snapped, “and I have no doubt that was true—once upon a
time.”

“
They progressed. It was
only to be expected. We gave them the tools they needed, after all,
to build a civilization and helped them to evolve far more rapidly
than they would have without our interference.”

Koryn was about to argue
further when it dawned on him abruptly that Tariq’s attitude
was
his
advantage—quite possibly the only one he might have. If he
was too hardheaded and narrow minded to see that treating Emerald
like a simpleminded child was only going to push her further away,
then all the better for him. “If you say so,” he murmured,
struggling to keep his voice neutral.

Tariq sent a suspicious glance in his
direction, but he kept his gaze firmly fixed on the city as they
approached it. The frenzied activity at the dig distracted both of
them from their focus on Emerald and the disharmony that had arisen
between the two of them because of their mutual interest in
her.

Koryn found that he was both relieved
and eager to shift his focus to his vocation. He wasn’t accustomed
to dealing with jealousy at all, let alone anything as stomach
churningly intense as he’d experienced lately and he was almost as
perturbed over the cracks that had developed in his friendship with
Tariq. This was familiar ground and soothing because it was. Beyond
that, the discovery of so many boosted his flagging spirits in
regards to the success of their mission. He grinned at Tariq when
he’d examined the remains of the bodies that had been recovered
thus far. “These are far better preserved. I think we can count on
extracting useable materials.”

Tariq’s expression was grim despite
the satisfaction that flickered in his eyes. “I would like to find
the bastards that did this and wipe them out,” he said tightly.
“They were defenseless. They couldn’t have posed any threat to the
bastards.”

Koryn felt his belly clench. With his
mind redirected toward the tragedy itself rather than the
scientific aspects of the situation, he turned to study the scene
through new eyes and felt the same emotions he’d sensed in
Tariq—fury at the mercilessness of those who’d killed so many. “Do
you think there’s any chance of discovering who was responsible? I
don’t imagine you would get much of an argument against launching a
retaliation if we could find out. I think most everyone on Niribu
will be livid over this when they were our wards.”

“
Maybe,” Tariq said, his
expression taut. “Most of them are far more interested in breeders
than anything else. They’ll be appeased enough if we can produce
them in sufficient numbers, but I’m sure the old ones, at least,
would support a campaign.” He seemed to force himself to relax
after a moment, rubbing at the tension in his neck. “Unfortunately,
I’m not sure we have any chance of discovering who’s responsible.
I’d put the chances somewhere around zero if we can accept what
Emerald told us. These people were the castoffs of their own
society or they wouldn’t have been left here to die. If they’d been
important to the humans, they would’ve been evacuated.”

“
Not necessarily,” Koryn
countered. “It doesn’t look to me as if they had much time to
prepare for the attack. Undoubtedly, the most powerful and
important would’ve had the first seats, but we don’t know what they
had available to facilitate an evacuation. Room might have been
severely limited—must have been or everyone would’ve been
evacuated.”

“
I guess we’ll see what we
see,” Tariq said coolly. “How much time are we looking at
here?”

Koryn frowned thoughtfully, relieved
to turn his focus to the task at hand. “We hadn’t expected to have
to deal with anything like this. Our cloning facilities are
extremely limited. If we contacted Niribu, we could get what we
needed to process them in mass. If we’re to be limited to what’s
available … I can grow a dozen at the time and have a dozen more
ready for the pods when those are developed enough to take them
out. Even allowing the first a few weeks to fully mature, we could
go ahead and send two dozen. The second batch would be matured
enough by the time they reach Niribu.”

“
So we’re looking at
months,” Tariq said with obvious disgust. “Do what you can for now.
I’d rather hold off on contacting the council about the situation.
We might still find survivors and that would appease the council
members somewhat.” He was silent for several moments. “Process
everything as it comes in and select the best for quickest
processing. There’s no point in wasting time on the less than
desirable—unless that’s all we find.”

“
I see your point, but
Emerald and the others were excellent specimens. I’m optimistic
quality, at least, isn’t going to be an issue for us.”

Tariq wasn’t as convinced as he
would’ve liked to be. He thought Emerald’s bloodlines were
inarguably excellent, but he was inclined to consider her a rare
gem. It remained to be seen whether he was right or
Koryn.

He was rooting for Koryn.

Dismissing the headache for the time
being, he made his way back to the ship. Emerald had defied him and
he wasn’t as confident that he knew how to deal with her
rebelliousness as he would’ve liked to be. He had no doubt that he
could break her to his will, if that had been desirable, but it
didn’t take much of a search to realize it wasn’t. A part of what
had drawn him to Emerald, aside from her physical appearance, was
her quiet strength. He didn’t want to break her spirit any more
than he’d wanted to implant false memories that might subtly, or
significantly, alter her personality.

Truthfully, the rebelliousness had
come as a surprise—and not a particularly pleasant one. He’d been
certain he was well on his way to taming her to hand and hadn’t
anticipated any real difficulties in training her to please him in
bed. Her withdrawal and distrust had shaken that conviction and he
wasn’t pleased about that, either.

He would’ve been far more than
displeased if they hadn’t discovered so many humans in the
underground that it seemed to make her cooperation in giving them
information a moot point. If not for that, he would’ve had no
choice but to force her to give up the information they needed,
whatever the consequences to her.

It still pissed him off that she’d
refused.

And he couldn’t allow her to be openly
defiant even if he did admire her spirit. It would be completely
unacceptable once he got her back to Nibiru. He had to make her
understand that his patience and indulgence of her would only go so
far and no further.

By the time he reached the ship again,
he realized exactly what he wanted to do to teach her the error of
defying him.