Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I (6 page)

“
The reason I thought the
name might be familiar to you is that the ancients of this world
considered our people gods—because we told them we were. It made it
… easier to gain their trust and their cooperation. And because
they believed we were gods and worshipped us, we became part of the
history they recorded for future generations.

“
It wouldn’t have been
necessary except that we needed to test their learning capabilities
and behavioral modifications as part of the process. The
alternative, however—to cage them or enslave them with our superior
strength and technology—wasn’t considered … conducive to our
experiments. We needed to keep them in a more or less natural
setting to get accurate data.”

When he ceased to speak, Emerald
mulled over what he’d told her, trying to consider it objectively.
It wasn’t easy to ignore the churning sense of betrayal and yet it
was that very thing that made it feel like the truth. “That’s what
Koryn meant about us being of use to the Anunnaki?”

Anger transformed Tariq’s face into a
frightening mask. She was relieved when she discovered that anger
wasn’t, apparently, directed at her.

“
Yes,” he growled. “We
came to take our children home … only to discover that something
had befallen our nursery and apparently destroyed what we’d come to
consider our insurance of the continuance of our
species.”

Chapter Three

A wave of nausea rolled through
Emerald. Despite the fact that she’d been skeptical about just how
important she was to them and the seemingly affectionate nature of
their attitude toward her, she realized nothing even close to the
truth had occurred to her.

The Anunnaki had returned to collect
their guinea pigs and discovered some predator had apparently
gotten into the ‘cage’ and wiped them out. So they were very busily
digging for remains to try to resurrect the species because they’d
finally reached a point where they had need of them.

And she still didn’t know what purpose
they were supposed to serve.

The Anunnaki were neither allies nor
enemies of the human race. They didn’t consider them significant
enough to see them in either light.

“
I think I’d like to go
back to the ship now, if it’s alright?”

Tariq sent her a keen look, but he
merely nodded and rose to escort her.

The truth was, she didn’t
want to go back to the ship at all. She wanted to escape, but as
Tariq had pointed out—to where? This place might truly be Earth,
and yet it was as alien to her as if it was another world. It might
as well
be
one.
Beyond that, both of them had told her there weren’t any humans
left to run to.

She wasn’t sure she believed that—or
much that they’d told her, for that matter, but she had eyes in her
head. This city had been abandoned long ago and if it had, it
seemed to her that, regardless of how far or how fast she ran, she
would only find more of the same. It wasn’t reasonable to think
otherwise.

Her head was throbbing with the
endless round of conflicting thoughts and emotions by the time they
reached the ship again. She was also limping, although she did her
best to hide it—from pride, she supposed. Her feet had begun to
feel sticky, though, and she was fairly certain the boots had
rubbed blisters and then rubbed the skin off.

Koryn, she discovered, had beaten them
back to the ship. As they approached, he and several other men were
directing some sort of robotic cart up the gangplank. Her stomach
lurched. It didn’t take much imagination to figure out what it was
beneath the tarp that was so valuable to them.

She stopped abruptly, unwilling to
move any closer. Tariq sent her a curious look, but returned his
speculative gaze to the cart almost at once. When they’d entered
the ship, he took her arm and walked her up the
gangplank.

He was frowning when they reached the
corridor, scanning her speculatively. “You’re limping.”

“
The boots are too big,”
Emerald said evenly. “It’s hard to walk in them.”

“
Take them off. You don’t
need them now.”

Reluctance flickered through her. Too
big or not, the boots were some protection for her feet and if she
gave them up she wouldn’t have anything if she decided to take her
chances and flee the tender mercies of the Anunnaki. “I’m used to
them now,” she lied.

His lips tightened. “Remove
them.”

Rebellion flickered through her, but
she bent down and pulled them off, returning her borrowed boots
ungraciously by throwing them down. “I suppose you want the suit,
too?” she asked tightly.

“
Don’t pretend to
misunderstand me,” he growled. “Why the fuck didn’t you say
anything? Your feet are raw and this is
not
the sort of place you want to
pick up an infection! The micro organisms have had generations to
outstrip any immunities you might have!”

Snatching her off her feet, he swept
her up into his arms as if she was no more than the child he
referred to her as. Emerald would’ve tried to thwart him if he
hadn’t pounced on her too fast for her to grasp his intentions.
“Put me down! I can walk!”

“
You aren’t going to,
though,” he growled, striding so swiftly down the corridor that the
stir of air whipped her hair around her face.

As little as she liked to
admit it, even to herself, the man was intimidating beyond his
size, as if
that
wasn’t intimidation enough! She felt as if she was being
hauled away by a giant and the really unnerving part was that that
wasn’t all that far from the truth. She had only to look at his
face at such close range, the ‘wall’ of his chest, and the size of
the arms and hands coiled around her to feel like a pigmy. She was
far enough from the floor in his arms for her belly to quiver with
a fear of heights she hadn’t even realized she had.

It went way beyond being made to feel
‘dainty and feminine’, maybe mostly because there was nothing at
all lover-like about his hold or his manner. His attitude was more
like an angry parent furious with childish stupidity that had
resulted in an injury.

It cowed her, wilted the brief flare
of rebellion. Even that analogy wasn’t accurate, she realized with
dismay, because parent and child implied affection and concern and
his only concern was that she’d damaged one of the guinea pigs
they’d worked so hard to resurrect. She wasn’t at all surprised
when they arrived at his destination and she discovered it was a
med-center. He spoke to the man who seemed to be in charge and then
plunked her down on a gurney unceremoniously.

The man, who was clearly a doctor,
lifted her feet one by one and examined the raw spots with an
expression tight with disgust. Feeling chastised when he flicked a
glance at her face and moved away, Emerald didn’t attempt to object
when he returned with a small basin to catch the fluids he pored
over her feet. Whatever it was stung like fire on the raw, bleeding
patches, though, and it took all she could do to maintain a façade
of stoicism. The pain brought tears to her eyes and a knot to her
throat. When he’d finished torturing her with the fluid fire, he
dabbed some sort of pasty goop on the spots and then wrapped her
feet with something similar to gauze. She braced herself when he
left and returned with something that looked a lot like a syringe,
but discovered that, at least, wasn’t painful. It felt more like a
puff of air when he pressed it to her arm than a shot.

Tariq listened in grim silence as the
doctor spoke to him in their language and then scooped her up
again. She had to suppose his anger had worn itself out since he
didn’t seem to be in nearly as much of a hurry to return her to her
cabin as he’d been before, and she simply didn’t believe he’d been
in a such a rush to get her to a medic over nothing more ‘life
threatening’ than blisters, raw or not. Anger had set the
pace.

She would’ve almost preferred it as
they left again. She wanted to be alone and the sooner the better.
She was tired and she felt battered and emotional from the things
she’d learned, Tariq’s anger, and the doctor’s complete disregard
for whatever pain he might be inflicting. It seemed to emphasize
her status as an experimental animal rather than a person and that
thought plunged her spirits to lowest ebb.

To her dismay, he didn’t return her to
the cabin where they’d first put her. Instead, he carried her to
his own. She held out some hope for a few moments that he’d only
done so to appropriate the clothing he’d loaned her, but he
disabused her of that notion as soon as she’d stripped and handed
it back.

“
Consider yourself a
prisoner of the Anunnaki,” he said tightly. “You’ll stay here. If
I’m not here, there’ll be a guard outside.”

“
Where would I go even if
I wanted to escape?” she demanded plaintively.

His gaze flickered over her face. “You
are too hardheaded for your own good. I admire your spirit, but
I’ve no intention of allowing it to overcome your good sense … or
my admiration mine.”

Emerald swallowed convulsively. “You
could imprison me in the other cabin just as easily and I wouldn’t
be around to bother you!”

He moved closer, capturing her face in
one hand and tilting her head back so that she had to look at him.
“It won’t bother me, Emerald. I can assure you of that.”

The implication in the way he looked
at her if not what he’d said should have frightened her. Instead,
it only suffocated her spirits further. She didn’t feel up to the
challenge of trying to protect herself. She felt as weak, and lost,
and afraid as the child they called her. Tears welled in her eyes
in spite of all she could do. “Why didn’t you just leave me in
peace?”

Some of the ruthless aggression left
his face. For a moment, she almost thought he would kiss her again
and her belly fluttered with anticipation. Instead, his face
hardened again. “If I had, you wouldn’t be of any use to me,” he
said coldly.

She wanted to fling herself down on
his bunk and cry her heart out when he’d left her. Instead, she
pulled the coverlet from the bed, wrapped it around herself, and
curled up in one of the chairs on the opposite side of the room.
Her chest ached with the tightness of unshed tears she refused to
give in to. Her thoughts were no comfort and did nothing to ease
the ache.

Everyone couldn’t be gone! She
couldn’t accept that. She thought she had to accept that she was,
in truth, on Earth and that the Anunnaki had resurrected her from a
speck of DNA left behind. And if she accepted that, then she had to
accept that a great deal of time had passed since whatever it was
that had happened, but she couldn’t believe the human race was
extinct! Somewhere out there, there were survivors. There had to
be! They’d existed for thousands of years, fought everything Mother
Nature could throw at them, and survived—despite the odds against
them. Whatever had happened, there would’ve been some with the
cunning, determination, and luck to make it and, in the time that
had passed, they would’ve multiplied.

Even supposing she could escape,
though, how would she ever find them?

Or were they only hiding from the
aliens? The Anunnaki?

She should’ve trusted her instincts,
she thought with a sudden flicker of reviving anger! They weren’t
benevolent! They had their own agenda and she was simply a pawn
they meant to keep!

* * * *

It was Koryn that woke Emerald several
hours later when he entered the room carrying a tray like the one
she’d been brought the night before. She roused enough to study him
before he spied her, long enough to see the consternation on his
face when he discovered she wasn’t in the bed where he’d apparently
expected to find her. Relief flickered in his eyes when he saw her,
but his face tightened with irritation.

No doubt it had given him a nasty turn
to think she might have escaped!

“
I brought you something
to eat,” he said after settling the tray he’d brought on the table
near the chair.

“
Thank you,” Emerald said
neutrally, wondering why he’d brought it instead of sending an
android with it.

Grabbing another chair, he dragged it
up in front of hers. “I wanted to have a look at those
abrasions.”

Emerald eyed him with irritation.
“It’s just a couple of blisters.”

“
I’d still like to
look.”

Sighing, Emerald uncurled and extended
a leg. He cupped a hand beneath her leg just above the ankle to
support her foot and slowly removed the bandaging. Emerald studied
his face while he studied her foot with frowning intensity,
wondering what their world was like and why humans had suddenly
become of so much importance to them when they’d apparently grown
weary of ‘playing’ with them and pretty much ignored their
existence for years.

“
What happened to the
Anunnaki?”

He flicked a quick look at her and
returned his attention to her foot, but his expression had
hardened. “This seems to be responding well. I think we can dismiss
any anxiety about infection.”

He wrapped the bandage again and held
out his hand imperiously. Anger flickered through Emerald that time
and the urge to kick him rather than merely meekly extending her
foot for him to examine. She quashed the impulse and held out her
other foot. When he’d examined that foot to his satisfaction and
wrapped it again, she tucked her foot beneath her once
more.