Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I (10 page)

It still disgusted him that they’d
been so blinded by their pursuit of perfection and longevity that
it hadn’t occurred to any of them that they were cutting their own
throats. Generation by generation they’d winnowed out ‘the ugly and
undesirable’ until they’d reached the point where they’d so
bottlenecked their gene pool that everything they’d worked for had
collapsed like a house of cards!

Of course, as far as he
was concerned the entire fucking mess was the fault of the old
ones—the cloners! Five hundred years or so should be enough fucking
‘lifetime’ for any damned body! But, no, they’d decided they needed
more. They were too important, themselves, to pass down their
knowledge and power. They were
needed
.

Unfortunately, the council
had agreed with them. They’d gone a step beyond that,
though,
requiring
that anyone with such skills and scientific knowledge be
resurrected for the good of the Anunnaki.

And look where
that
had gotten them
all! An entire generation of young that was so hideously defective
they’d had to abort the whole crop! It had thrown everyone into a
blind panic—including him!

So while he’d agreed it was absolutely
necessary to collect enough fresh contributors for their gene pool
among the ‘children’, he hadn’t been terribly enthusiastic about it
when he knew from the data on them that they were considered
purebloods only because they were the baseline for the
Anunnaki—without improvement.

He had no trouble, under the
circumstances, understanding why it rankled so much that he might
not end up with one at all, let alone a prime choice. He had his
own lines to think of, after all. But Emerald … He realized he
hadn’t thought about his bloodlines at all once he’d become so
enthralled with her. Nothing had really crossed his mind but the
fact that she was his … until Tariq had brought him back to reality
with a jolt!

From the moment she’d left the pod
she’d ceased to be ‘his’ and become the property of the
Anunnaki—which meant, as it always had—that she would have to go
through the selection process until the higher ranks had made their
choices before he would even have a chance at making a selection
himself.

And he couldn’t honestly
see that happening.
Maybe
he was obsessed with Emerald and no one else
would want her, would think she was the most beautiful, desirable
creature ever conceived, but he didn’t believe that, hadn’t
believed it from the moment he realized Tariq was as fascinated
with her as he was.

What he didn’t understand
was why he felt like beating Tariq to a pulp every time he thought
about the fact that Tariq had claimed first rights. Tariq was well
within his rights considering his position. It had never
particularly bothered him before and, besides that, Tariq had
offered to share her. Even if Tariq wanted to breed several
children on her, eventually,
he
would get the chance, and he didn’t even have to
wait that long to slake his desire for her. Tariq had said that he
could fuck her as soon as he was certain she was
breeding.

It wasn’t as if the two of them hadn’t
shared lovers in the past!

There was no getting around the fact
that he didn’t want to share her at all, however, or that he
resented the fact that she would belong to Tariq and he must make
do with seconds.

Short of killing Tariq, though, which
he was unnerved to admit even to himself had crossed his mind,
there was no changing the situation.

Unless the female he was currently
developing appealed to Tariq more, he thought abruptly.

Or they found another that appealed to
him.

He sure as fuck couldn’t have more
than one when they were in such short supply!

It would be a week before he even had
any idea what this female would look like, though! All he did know
was that she was Caucasian like Emerald, and had the genetics that
would make her tall and slender, blue eyed and blond
haired.

Another with red hair might have come
closer to appealing to Tariq, he thought.

Dismissing his thoughts with an
effort, he checked the time and realized why his stomach felt as if
it was gnawing a hole in itself. He’d missed breakfast when he
headed to the lab and it was past the noon meal time.

Emerald should be able to tolerate
something a little more substantial without adverse reaction. With
that thought, he left the lab and went to the ship’s galley to
chose something he thought might tempt her appetite and grab
something for himself, as well. He could dine with her and use the
opportunity to see how her mind was developing. Maybe she had
remembered something of value by now?

He was still uneasy about
her lack of memory. He’d put it down to the length of time that had
passed since her death. Ordinarily, they resurrected, if they were
going to, with fresh samples and, naturally enough, the fresher the
better. And, of course, he hadn’t been able to retrieve even as
much genetic material from her remains as they liked to have. It
had been a full strand, though, as far as he’d been able to
determine. There shouldn’t have been such a gap in her memory. He
could understand a
delay
in retrieving the memories from the DNA, but
nothing like they’d seen so far—with Emerald
and
the others.

It was almost as if someone had
deliberately tampered with their memories—but that didn’t make
sense. Granted, the purebloods had come a long way, technologically
speaking, since the last reports on their progress, but even if
they’d begun playing with genetics themselves, why would they
deliberately damage the memory strands?

He discovered when he arrived at
Tariq’s quarters that Emerald was asleep. He wasn’t surprised.
She’d only been out of the pod a few days. She was bound to sleep a
very great deal at first.

After a brief debate with himself, he
decided to allow her to sleep a few more minutes before he woke her
and carried the trays to the table to deposit them. He didn’t think
he would’ve noticed she was in distress if he had simply settled to
wait, but he hadn’t been able to resist moving back to the bed to
watch her as he had while she was in the pod. Almost the moment he
settled on the edge of the mattress, he saw that her face was
twisted with some strong emotion she shouldn’t have been
experiencing in deep sleep.

He frowned. He’d noticed the other two
they’d resurrected had seemed to suffer a similar
phenomena—nightmares. Was it memories her mind was trying to
repress for some reason, he wondered?

The internal debate was shorter that
time. If it was memories, he needed to try to bring them out.
Speaking in a quiet monotone, he tried to reach her subconscious
without waking her. “Relax …” Slowly, she relaxed yielding to his
hypotonic suggestion. “What do you see, Emerald?”

“
They’re coming,” she
whispered.

Koryn felt his heart leap, but it was
hard decide whether it was the suggestion that he’d been right
about the dream or a reaction to the fear in her voice.
“Who?”

“
They’ll overrun
us.”

That seemed, indisputably, a reference
to a military operation. He was just about to suggest she go back
further when he heard a sound behind him. He glanced around sharply
and discovered Tariq had come in and had obviously leapt to the
wrong conclusion. The absolute fury on his face, however, rather
than unnerve him, shot adrenaline through his system and a
responsive anger. He surged to his feet just as Tariq reached him.
Tariq grabbed him around the throat before he could speak,
squeezing tightly and cutting off any attempt he might’ve made to
explain the situation at that point.

Not that he felt like attempting it.
Rage enveloped him in a red haze. He gripped Tariq’s wrists, trying
to wrench hands loose and when that didn’t work, balled his hands
into fists and pummeled them into his stomach. He managed to catch
Tariq on the solar plexus, which knocked the breath from him and
loosened his grip fractionally, but he was at a disadvantage. He
was a scientist, not a trained fighter. He tried to free himself
from Tariq’s grip again and when that failed, caught Tariq’s throat
in a similar hold.

Dizziness had already begun to envelop
his mind, however, and although he squeezed with all the fury and
grim determination he could muster, he doubted he could’ve broken
the deadlock if Tariq hadn’t abruptly released his hold and drove a
fist toward his face. It broke his own hold on Tariq and he
stumbled back.

“
I told you not to touch
her,” Tariq said through gritted teeth.

The effort to suck in a reviving
breath of air past his crushed throat set Koryn to coughing. “She’s
asleep,” he managed to say finally.

“
If you think that makes
me less inclined to kill you where you stand …,” Tariq
growled.

“
Hypnotized. She
remembered something,” Koryn snarled.

That gave Tariq pause. He glanced
toward Emerald, studied her for a long moment and then looked at
Koryn again. “Explain.”

Koryn glared at him angrily. “I
brought her something to eat and saw she was asleep. I thought I’d
let her rest a few more minutes before I woke her, but then I
noticed she seemed to be dreaming something that distressed her. I
decided to see if I could coax it out … if it was a
memory.”

Tariq’s rage subsided but he made no
attempt to hide the fact that he was still both angry and
suspicious. “Maybe you could explain to me why you brought her food
instead of sending a droid with it?”

Koryn studied him uncomfortably,
feeling a good bit of his own anger subside as the question
prompted the realization that Tariq wasn’t paranoid. He’d come
specifically because he’d wanted to spend the time with Emerald and
knew Tariq was on the dig site. He hadn’t consciously considered
trying to seduce her, but it occurred to him that he’d hoped for an
opportunity. “She’s still my charge,” he gritted out instead of
admitting he’d only come because he wanted to see her.

And because he’d intended more if the
chance presented itself.

“
There’s some reason it’s
better to check on her when I’m not here?”

Koryn’s lips tightened. “I wasn’t
aware that you’d forbidden it,” he growled.

Tariq narrowed his eyes. “Was I wrong
to trust you, Koryn?”

Discomfort wafted through him. “In
Emerald’s case … possibly,” he admitted reluctantly.

Tariq looked for several moments as if
he might explode again. He wrestled with it and finally paced away.
“We have been friends a very long time, Koryn.”

Koryn shook his head. “Regardless of
what you obviously think, I had no intention of trespassing,” he
said finally.

“
Unless the opportunity
arose?” Tariq prompted with keen insight that made Koryn
uncomfortable all over again.

He shrugged, but reluctant amusement
flickered through him. “I couldn’t honestly say.” He raked a hand
through his disheveled hair, making it more of a mess. “Not
consciously,” he added after a moment. He scrubbed his hands over
his face as if he could wipe away the last several minutes that had
put a severe strain on a longstanding friendship. “I wasn’t
thinking straight, I guess, but, whatever it looked like, the only
reason you found me as you did was because of the
dream.”

Tariq moved back to the bed to stand
over it, staring down at Emerald. He glanced at Koryn after a
moment. “So … finish what you started.”

Koryn moved back to the bed and
settled on it as he had before. “Emerald … tell me where you are
now.”

She didn’t answer for several moments.
“In position.” She hesitated. “I don’t have much
ammunition.”

“
There’s a
war?”

“
Yes.” Some emotion
flickered across her face. “The stupid bastards!”

Koryn lifted his brows and flicked a
look at Tariq. Tariq, he saw, had moved closer to hear. “What
started the war?”

Emerald frowned and moved restlessly.
“They attacked them. We’ll pay. We’ll all pay.”

Koryn looked at Tariq. “Who are you
talking about, Emerald?”

“
The government ordered
it. It was ours. They didn’t know …. Stupid, arrogant
bastards!”

“
This was a territorial
dispute?”

“
The new world. The
colony. Then the cowards ran and left us to die. We’re all going to
die. They’re coming! Oh god! There are so many of them!”

“
It’s alright, Emerald.
They aren’t here. They can’t hurt you.” He calmed her down and then
lifted the hypnotic trance he’d placed on her.

He met Tariq’s gaze for a
long moment and the two of them crossed the room.
“I’m guessing Emerald took part in their last
stand here,”
Tariq said when Koryn joined
him.
“We found a tunnel system in the
city. There are bodies everywhere—all civilians as far we’ve
seen.”

“
They left,”
Koryn said, feeling curiously blank.
“They must have developed far more superior
technology than anyone on Nibiru guessed if they colonized another
world.”