Page 43 of Star Mates

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Her Kexian escort pushed her into a room, decorated in white and steel, devoid of any warmth or humanity. Several Merloni waited for her in the sterile environment, like bizarre little people all wearing the same Halloween costume.

She shrank back from them, but her confines didn’t allow her to run. They grabbed her, disrobed her, causing tears of humiliation to run down her face. They examined her like she was a horse up for auction, looking over every inch, even in the most secret of places. Scans were done, blood was taken, and after what seemed like hours of torture, they finally had her slip on a white gown that looked as if it had come from the Puritan age.

Then she was led by her Kexian guards to a large holding facility that was nothing short of jail, even though there weren’t bars on the doors. The room they pushed her into had bunk beds jetting from the wall, with a small bathroom that had an opaque partition. A tiny sink in the corner completed the prison cell.

A second later, Logan was pushed into the room and the door closed. She stared at him, tears falling unchecked down her face. He was alive, but how many were not? Leona? Pikon? Willoughbee? Harpo and the others? What about the children she saw kicking around a ball just the other day?

He looked at her with red rimmed, tortured eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“What?” she said, slightly confused.

But he didn’t say anything else. He simply turned toward the beds, laid on the bottom one, and curled into a fetal position facing the wall. She eyed him, slightly worried, and wondered if the aliens had hurt him.

Except for some dinner brought in several hours later, they were left alone. She wore a path pacing back and forth, counting her steps. From the back wall to the cell door, fourteen forward and fourteen back. Eventually, as time progressed, weariness set even though she couldn’t tell what time it was. She pulled herself up to the top bunk, closed her eyes, and slept.

****

Sometime later the door to their confinement opened, shedding light into the room and waking her up. Emmarie blinked and then screamed as a Kexian sentinel grabbed her arm and pulled her from the top bunk.

“Let her go!” Logan yelled, grabbing hold of the guard and pulling fruitlessly on his arm.

The Kexian pushed him away. Logan landed with a heap on the ground.

“Where are you taking me?” she demanded.

“Medical center,” the Kexian answered in the typical no-nonsense way she’d come to expect from their race. They were brutish warriors, loving nothing more than a good fight.

She gave a helpless glance at Logan just before she was pulled through the door. The trip back to the medical center seemed shorter than yesterday’s march, but probably because she was familiar with the path. As the door to the room opened, the first person she saw was a dark skinned Unarian with a long mane of black hair. He stood with shoulders back and hands clasped behind his back, his body a rigid pole of indifference. He gazed down at her with cold, black eyes, so dark she couldn’t see the pupil. Beside him stood the quiet Merloni doctor from yesterday.

The Kexian pushed her forward and she took a couple of steps forward, coming to stand in front of the Unarian.

“What am I doing here?” she asked. “I’ve already been run though medical tests.”

The Unarian quirked an eyebrow. “My name is Lord Palazio of the First House of Galjani and I am the one who purchased you.”

“And I’m American, born free. I demand that you return me to Sparta.”

Lord Palazio gave a snort. “Sparta is no more.”

Emmarie’s stomach dropped but she refused to let it show. “I will fight you every step of the way,” she whispered. “I will not yield.”

“Not even for the life of your child?” he asked casually.

Confusion rippled through her. “What?”

The Kexian holding her arm forced her to a large device that looked something out of a Sci-Fi movie. It was white, cagelike, and he pushed her until she was locked in tight. She couldn’t move her head, her arms, or her legs. All she could do was breathe and glance erratically around. The Merloni doctor pulled a scanner around the cage and clicked it into place. It covered not only her abdomen but the upper part of her chest.

The Merloni doctor turned on the scanner and Emmarie saw a…well, she wasn’t sure what she saw. A crystal-clear image of a bean, perhaps, lying on a dark bed.

“That is the child you are carrying,” Lord Palazio stated. “You’re pregnant. Now you are labeled as a Breeder but after the child is born, you’ll be sorted as a pleasure slave, and sterilized.”

The words washed over her, barely registering. She hadn’t heard anything past the words you’re pregnant. She wished desperately she could cover her belly with her hands, protect the life that grew within her from the harsh reality that stared at her in the face. Wonderment filled her. Her child, her baby. Pell’s baby. She didn’t know what had happened to him, whether or not he had done what he’d set out to do, but she hopped with everything in her power that he’d come back to her. That he would know they had created life together. That they were now bound by more than words or emotions.

Tears welled up in her eyes as several emotions battled for dominance. Happiness. Fear. Excitement. Apprehension. It was hard to settle on just one.

Palazio gave a grunt of disgust. “You’ll be treated at this medical facility for the remainder of your pregnancy. When the child is delivered, it will be immediately sent to an orphanage on one of the Unarian moons while you will be sent to my house.”

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