Page 14 of Agrippa's Acceptance

A week later she accessed the controls and set up the system she’d designed. It took forever to load and she expected Hamurabi to return at any time and stop her. He’d given his approval for her to do it, but still she feared he may change his mind. Ever since the general had assigned her to working on the hybrid ship in the big hangar, the cyborgs’ attitude had improved. The human marines did not trust her, just like the clones never trusted her. She smiled grimly. The clones, at least, had reason not to.

The program finished uploading and she sagged against the tube. “I promise you this will make a difference. You will be up and about much faster than anyone can imagine.” She bit her lip. She looked up and smiled. He slept and that was the best thing for him.

Hamurabi returned and ignoring her, he went to the panel and pressed some buttons. She held her breath, but he merely grunted and stepped back and his shoulder pushed her aside. She winced and staggered back a few steps, glared at his back. Surely, he knew how heavy he was. Shrugging off the attitude of the cyborgs towards her, she turned to Amelagar and found him glaring at the doctor’s back with that one eyed glare.

His body was regenerating at an amazing rate. It wasn’t visible now, but in about two weeks they would see a huge improvement. The clones would be highly disturbed if they ever realized how fast a cyborg could regenerate. Though a lot of the speed of his recovery was due to her knowledge of cyborg cells and Bunraku regeneration that she got off the ship’s database. Hamurabi had put complicated passwords on the infirmary computers. But it had been child’s play to access the Captain’s files. And he had access to everything. Even Bunrika technology.

Hamurabi came back to the regeneration tube and she quickly got out of his way.

Would the cyborgs ever accept her? If she managed to get the cloaking device to work, would they trust her then? Would Amelagar look at her with acceptance.

She sighed and watched Hamurabi leave. Then she turned back to Amelagar. “I know when you see me you are reminded of the clones. But I am not a clone. I am a Tunrian and because I believe that we should procreate naturally the clones shoved us into camps or enclosed our homes to prevent us from moving around freely.” Maybe if she said it over and over again, when he was free, maybe he would trust her.

Hamurabi returned two hours later to check on Amelagar.

“I can watch over him.”

He stared at her for a long time and when she was convinced that he would snub her, he said, “I will monitor you and if you harm him you will die.”

“I won’t harm him. Thank you for letting me do this.” She knew he was busy with the cloning and generation of the cyborgs from the bones of their dead cyborg. She wasn’t sure why Amelagar could regenerate, but not the unfortunate cyborg that had been used as a wind charm by the humans. Just the thought of it turned her stomach. She wanted to ask Hamurabi some questions, maybe offer her help. But as far as she could figure out, it was only Hamurabi and the general who knew about it. Pretending not to know about it was the best policy for now.

The next day she was making some small adjustments to the regeneration controls when Aurora walked in. The human smiled at her. “I have come to read to the patient.”

Agrippa nodded, but when Amelagar’s gaze shifted to the human she felt her claws emerge.

She had to admit that the human had honour. She came to read to Amelagar every day without fail for almost five weeks. At least Amelagar only briefly looked at the human and then his gaze stayed on Agrippa. She would have felt uncomfortable under that unblinking gaze if she wasn’t so relieved that he didn’t show any interest in the human female. It gave her a thrill and sometimes it scared her. What did he think when he stared at her like that?

“I won’t be able to come and read tomorrow,” Aurora told Amelagar. It was another thing Agrippa liked about her. She spoke to Amelagar.

“I will read for him.”

Aurora didn’t comment on the fact that she could read English and only handed over the tablet. “It has voice commands. It’s listed here.”

“Thank you, the instructions are clear.” She accepted the tablet and held it against her chest. Now she would be the one reading to Amelagar. Giving him comfort.

Aurora hurried to the door. “I have to go, thank you Agrippa.”

Agrippa nodded and retreated when Hamurabi appeared and a few minutes later the door opened and Balthazar walked in. They both stood next to the regeneration tube. “What did you want to show me Hamurabi?” The general bent over the tube. “He is regenerating much faster than we normally do?”

Normally? How many times have they been wounded like this? What did the clones do to them?

“That is why I called you. At the rate he is regenerating it will take months if that, instead of decades for him to recover fully.”

“His brain?”

“All indications are it will fully regenerate and his memories should be intact.”

“How is this possible?”

Hamurabi and Balthazar turned and stared at her.

Chapter Thirteen

She wanted to run, to get away from those vicious stares, but where could she go. Cyborgs surrounded her, the ship kept her captive as surely as if the clones had put her in the worst of the ghettos on Tundra.

“What did you do clone?”

“Tunrian, I am a Tunrian.” Obviously, the doctor’s DNA test was not enough to make them see her as a normal person and not a clone. She searched for something to say to make them realize and remembered the rumour she’d heard. “If you look at my ryhov you will notice it is brighter and faster than that of the clones.” Back on Tundra they had been in the company of clones every day. Surely, they had seen some details that differed from Tunrians who were not cloned.

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