Page 97 of Stolen Slave

“I was. But not for long. He was amazing.” As I spoke, I met Khorahn’s gaze from across the distance and held out my hand to him.

“I recognize that look,” the woman in the systems dress said. “We’ve lost another one.”

I didn’t bother trying to deny it. I simply waited for Khorahn and his father to join us.

“This is Khorahn and his genetic founder, Khorahn Senior. I added the senior bit myself, or it would be confusing.”

“Genetic founder? A clone?” the lady with the black hair asked. “That’s so cool.”

I smiled at Khorahn, silently agreeing with her assessment and grateful Khorahn Senior had cloned himself. If not for them, I wouldn’t have been alive.

The thought sobered me and brought me back to my purpose.

“So why can’t I go home?”

“Do you still want to?” Stacy asked, surprised.

“What I want is the choice. Leaving Earth wasn’t my choice. I think returning to it should be.”

“And it is,” Adriana said. “But the protection and care you experienced here isn’t something you’ll find planet-side.”

“What do you mean?”

“Initially, we were worried our governments would take the women and mistreat them in the line of learning more about the systems,” Adriana said.

“It’s not our governments that are the problem, though,” the one in the systems dress said. “It’s the people. Once the lottery was instated, protests started. People ended up in the hospital and an addendum was added to the treaty.”

Stacy took my hands. “The Oebri can no longer interfere if a female connected with the systems or otherwise is in danger on the surface.”

“So if you go to the surface, you would be on your own. And trust us when we say keeping your return quiet would be a hard thing to do,” the one with the black hair said.

“The fear of the lottery and anger for anything alien spread on the surface. Not everyone hates everything alien, but enough do to cause problems,” the one with pink hair said.

I didn’t like hearing that, but I understood it wasn’t something within their control.

“That means my parents won’t be able to come here to see me?” I asked.

“No, they’d be fine. Apparently, visiting the trade station is less offensive than hooking up with an alien,” the one in the systems dress said.

A hand settled on my shoulder, and I breathed a little easier when Khorahn’s thumb stroked over my skin. It reminded me of what he’d said. The problems of today wouldn’t likely be the problems of tomorrow. Everything changed. Always.

“Our ship is large enough to allow for your parents to live with us,” Khorahn said.

Two of the girls covered their mouths to laugh as my face flushed at the thought.

“I don’t think my parents would be as accepting of my nudity as your dad is. And asking them to leave their lives on Earth isn’t a solution. We need to work on changing Earth’s opinion of the people outside of their atmosphere.

“It’s great that the Oebri and Earth’s leaders are trying to protect everyone on the planet. But like you just acknowledged, it’s not a perfect system. What happens when it fails? It’s not just the things that take us who should be punished but any race that keeps us against our will. Maybe if everyone on Earth sees what lengths the systems are willing to go to keep all the females who leave the surface safe, some of the unrest will calm.”

Stacy nodded. “We’ve been discussing your experiences with the Prime Assembly. They have Khorahn’s accounting of the incident, yours, and your scans. It’s enough for the Prime Assembly to take action.”

“What does that mean?”

“Why don’t we continue this discussion in the park?” a petite woman said.

Willing to set aside the conversation for now, I toured the trade station with them. Khorahn and his father walked behind us while two other men I recognized from the news led the way. They didn’t interact with us, but I got the feeling they were listening to the women’s commentary just as avidly as I was.

When we walked through the trade center, males stopped their browsing to watch us pass. The way they stared at Adriana and Stacy’s bellies—a combination of yearning and wonder—had me wishing this had been my first experience with the systems rather than what I’d gotten.

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