Page 15 of Alien Abduction for Unicorn

“That’s us,” Bruin explained. “And this is our route.”

A dashed line materialised on the map.

“Why isn’t it a straight line?” I asked. “This doesn’t look like the fastest route.”

“There are planets in the way. Because of their gravitational fields, we have to circle around them. And there will be asteroid fields, space debris and other obstacles. The AI has selected the best route for us and it’s rarely wrong.”

“Rarely?”

“Never.”

“Then why did you say rarely?”

He shot me a sheepish look. “My sire’s bad influence. He believes there’s an exception to everything. And he sees me as living proof for that.”

His smile disappeared as a shadow crossed his face.

“Why?” I asked.

“I suppose you need to know. I was not born in the conventional way. My sire doesn’t have a mate, but he desired to have an heir, so he had me created. I’m his clone.”

It took a few seconds for his words to sink in. A clone. He didn’t have a mother. Instead of shock, all I felt for him was pity.

“I’m sorry,” I said and meant it. “It can’t have been easy to grow up without a mum.”

He looked at me in surprise. “You’re not repulsed? Do you understand what I am? I was created in a lab. It has become more commonplace now, but it’s still not fully accepted on Allopo. There are some Ferven cultists who believe clones don’t have a soul.”

“Do you think you have one?”

Bruin didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Sometimes I think I have more of a soul than my sire. He’s a brilliant male when it comes to his work, but he wasn’t a good sire. Nor is he particularly nice to his colleagues. Come to think of it, I doubt there’s anyone he likes.”

“He doesn’t sound very pleasant,” I said.

“He isn’t. I hope you won’t think badly of me when you meet him. I might be his clone, but I’m nothing like my sire. It’s why he thinks I’m a failed clone. I should be his identical copy, but somewhere along the line, I got my own personality. I look like him, though.”

I supposed seeing his father would be like looking into Bruin’s future. How did Xervens age? He didn’t have any hair that could go grey and I couldn’t imagine wrinkles or liver spots on his smooth purple skin.

“Speaking of my father,” Bruin continued, “I need to ask you the questions he sent me. He’s been reminding me every day, but I wanted to give you some time.”

I was grateful, even though that didn’t mean I’d forgiven him for abducting me. Nor had I given up on finding a way home. For now, it was no use fighting Bruin. He’d made it clear that he wouldn’t change the ship’s course. But maybe once he realised that we weren’t actually mates, he’d let me go. And if he didn’t realise that on his own, I’d have to force him.

Lesson 9: First Assessment

Bruin

It had taken her longer than expected to come to her senses. I’d kept a constant eye on her, fascinated by how she explored the ship and interacted with An’tia. The situation would have been a lot worse without the stabhorn. She was the intermediary between the two of us. An’tia connected us even though we’d not been in the same room for the entire week.

Whenever Tara had left the stabhorn to do other things, I’d taken her place. Because of that, An’tia had turned into the most spoilt stabhorn in the universe. Two people to groom and dote on her. She took full advantage of it, demanding me to brush her even when I knew Tara had just done the same.

When I wasn’t with An’tia, I worked on the reports for my sire. He’d sent me his notes on the preliminary observations and I’d made the requested changes. He’d demanded surprisingly few corrections. Maybe he’d finally realised that I wasn’t as useless as he thought.

I’d written some notes on how Tara interacted with An’tia, but I wasn’t ready to share those yet. I’d have to make sure there was no subtext that would suggest I was mated to the Peritan. He’d find out eventually, but I wanted to choose the right moment to tell him.

My plan had been to ask Tara tomorrow if she was ready to go through the questionnaire with me. I was glad she’d come to me instead. Maybe she’d finally accepted that I was her mate. I didn’t want to talk about the topic yet, too worried that it might result in another medical emergency.

Realising I’d been quiet for a while, I pulled up the questions on my Commband’s holo screen.

“I will record you, is that alright?” I asked.

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