Genesis (7 page)

As far as that went, she doubted much short of a bazooka would take down one of the six foot amazons that wanted her blood. A club might have made her feel better, but she wouldn’t have had enough strength to wield it as a dangerous weapon even if she had one. More likely, if she did have a close encounter with one of them, they’d simply wrest the club from her and use it on her.

She didn’t trust the slaver aliens, at all, but she saw no alternative to going out and wondered even as she gathered the baby and cautiously left the room if there was any way she could climb the tree in her yard if push came to shove.

Not in a rush, and not with Cory in her arms.

She didn’t think there would’ve been any possibility of climbing with him even from the first when he’d been so thin. He was growing so rapidly now that she was having a hard time adjusting to his increasing size and weight. One would think, lifting him so many times a day, her strength would keep pace, but that wasn’t the case. It was harder and harder to lift him, harder to hold and carry him for any length of time. H
e
was getting stronger much faster than she was. He no longer lay still and passive. He lifted and held up his own head, wiggled and rolled over when she put him down, and tried to move as if he knew he could escape if only he could figure out how to use the arms and legs he could only flail ineffectually now.

He looked like a bobble head when he held up his head because he wasn’t quite strong enough to hold it steady. And when he tried to move, he looked like he was imitating a swimmer, but he was getting so strong so fast she thought it wouldn’t be long at all before he was sitting up by himself, and then racing around all over the place under his own steam.

Unfortunately, that could create even more problems for her, make it that much harder to protect him.

And none of that made any difference at all at this point.

On impulse, she snatched one of the curtains off the fake window as she started out the door with Cory. She’d seen women carrying babies around in a sort of sling. She doubted she could figure out how to form one with the curtain, but it was worth a try, because if she could she would have her arms free and at least stand a chance of climbing out of harm’s way.

Instead of crossing the yard to ‘visit’ with Consuelo as she usually did, after looking around cautiously, she examined the trees growing in her yard and headed for the one with the lowest growing branches.

Spreading the curtain on the ground, she settled Cory on it and planted her hands on her hips, studying the tree. She’d never climbed a tree before in her life. Her mother had hardly even let her out of the house--when she was really young because her mother was afraid she’d get hurt, or pick up germs. Later, her mother had kept her close because she just wasn’t physically able to chase her around the yard and as she grew older, because she was afraid a psycho would snatch her.

How hard could it be? Children climbed trees.

The first time she fell on her ass, Cory’s eyes widened for a split second and then he laughed.

Momentarily distracted by the sound, Bri turned to stare at him blankly for a split second before pleasure suffused her. Grinning like an idiot, she rolled over and crawled to him, pushing her face close to his and rubbing nose to nose. “Are you laughing at me, you bad old boy?” she demanded teasingly.

He stared back at her wide eyed for a moment and finally grinned up at her, boxing her face with his fists and then grabbing two fistfuls of hair and trying to bite her nose.

She disentangled his fingers from her hair, got up, dusted herself off, and surveyed the tree again. Grasping the branch firmly with one hand, she found a hold along the bark of the trunk with the other and tried to lift herself with her arms as she placed a foot against the trunk to push up. That time she almost managed to lift herself high enough to get a more secure hold before she slipped and fell.

Cory laughed as she pin-wheeled her arms trying to catch her balance, lost the battle, and sat backwards on the ground hard enough to jar every tooth in her head. She looked at him ruefully, but his giggle was infectious, and she couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m glad you think this is so funny, Mr. Man.”

Getting to her feet once more, she studied the tree again and finally walked all the way around it looking for a better place to try. The third time, she tried grabbing the limb with both hands and walking up the trunk while she supported herself with her arms. It worked after a fashion, but she discovered she was too close to the trunk to throw her legs over.

Deciding she needed just a little more distance from the trunk, she lowered herself carefully to the ground, backed up a step, and grabbed the limb again. This time, she managed to get one leg over the branch. She hung like that for several moments, trying to gather the strength to pull herself up.

It was at that moment that she realized two things.

Kole was standing at the very edge of his yard staring straight at her with a look of intense concentration on his face.

And her gown, which was all in the world she had between her and decency, was rucked up almost to her waist and billowed beneath her.

If she’d set out to fan her coochie in his face, she couldn’t have done a better job of it. She was in such a rush to get down, she damned near fell. She
did
succeed in raking the hide off her thigh with the rough bark. Putting her back to Kole, she lifted her gown once she was on her feet again and examined the scrape on her thigh.

Cory, she saw when she glanced at him again, was looking doubtful, as if trying to decide whether he should laugh or cry at her latest antic. She forced a smile, albeit a wry one. “Ok, that’s enough for today,” she told him, bending to gather him up.

Her hands were almost as scraped up and sore as her leg. Her palms burned as she caught him to her and looked for Consuelo, studiously ignoring Kole. Seeing that Consuelo was sitting next to the line, she realized the other women must not have been allowed outside, and she trudged across the yard to settle across from the woman.

“Why?” Consuelo asked, pointing toward the tree as soon as she’d settled Cory on the ground beside her and lifted her palms to examine them.

Bri rolled her eyes, thought it over for a moment, and finally merely pointed toward the habitat that housed the other women.

Consuelo nodded then frowned. “No climb.”

“I noticed that,” Bri said dryly. “I thought I could. I wonder if I could climb the habitat any better?” she asked idly, twisting around to study it. One look assured her she had even less chance of that, though. The thing was virtually smooth and seamless on the outside, as if it had been shaped in a one piece form. “Maybe I could drag a chair out of the habitat?” she added speculatively as she picked up the curtain she’d filched and examined it thoughtfully.

“Climb?” Consuelo asked.

Bri lowered the curtain panel and stared at Consuelo blankly. Seeing she was pointing at the panel she decided Consuelo was asking if she intended to use the material to form a rope. She hadn’t thought of it. After studying the panel and then turning to study the tree, though, she finally shook her head. “No. If I can’t climb without it I don’t think it would help to have a rope. The problem isn’t that I can’t reach. The problem is, I’m not strong enough to pull myself up. I don’t think even pure terror would lend me enough strength to drag my ass up that damned tree. I brought this for the baby.”,

Consuelo stared at her uncomprehendingly. “
Ropa para niño?”

Bri’s jaw dropped to half mast. “Why would I want a rope for the baby?” she demanded indignantly.

It was Consuelo’s turn to look dumbfounded. After studying it over for several moments she started laughing. “No rope.
Ropa.
”
She cast around for a moment and finally plucked at her gown.

Bri frowned. “Oh! Ropa means … like a gown?” She shook her head, then took the panel and looped it around her shoulders. “To hold him,” she explained, trying to get her point across with hand and arm motions.

Consuelo looked at her doubtfully, but she wasn’t certain whether that meant she hadn’t exactly understood or she doubted Bri could do it. Shrugging, she focused on trying to figure out a way to knot the thing to form a sling that would hold the baby securely while leaving her arms free--not that that was going to help her if she couldn’t figure out how to climb the damned tree.

She’d envisioned it as a defensive position where a club might actually do her some good. If she could climb, they probably could, too, but she thought if she could get high enough the thin branches might not support their weight and then, if she had a club, and they could only come at her one at the time, she could use the club to beat them loose.

It wasn’t a wonderful thought, but she sure as hell didn’t have a chance of defending herself against them any other way that she could see.

“
Ropa
,” she repeated, trying to roll her ‘r’ the way Consuelo had. “Gown-
ropa
, gown-
ropa
. It sounded like robe so she decided she must have the translation right. “Woman,” she said to Consuelo while she worked, then lifted her head and pointed to Consuelo. “Woman.”

“
Madre
,” Consuelo came back.

Bri looked at her doubtfully. “Woman is
madre
in Spanish?”

Consuelo nodded vigorously, but Bri still felt doubtful. She pointed at Kole without looking at him. “Man--woman--woman. Man--
madre--madre
?”

Consuelo looked surprised and then chuckled. “No, no.” She formed a cradle with her arms. “
Madre
.”

“Oh god!” Bri exclaimed covering her face. “At this rate I’m going to fucking
die
of old age before I ever manage a decent conversation! And a hell of a conversation its going to be at that if half the words I learn mean something completely different from what I’d trying to say, damn it!”

A commiserating expression flickered across Consuelo’s face, but she didn’t look particularly distressed about the fact that they were the only damned humans on the fucking ship and couldn’t even talk to each other.
Why
hadn’t she learned Spanish in school?

Because it hadn’t occurred to her that she might ever
need
it!

If Consuelo had known even a little English, or she a little Spanish, they would’ve at least known when they were on the right track! As it was, they were only guessing they understood each other.

“Shit!”

“
Mierda
!”

Bri’s head snapped up from what she was doing, and she burst out laughing.

Consuelo looked a little disconcerted and embarrassed, but she chuckled, too.

The expression on Consuelo’s face was enough to set her off again just when she thought she’d mastered the urge to laugh. “I suppose it says something about the human race that there are probably more people that can curse in a half dozen different languages than there are who can carry on a conversation in those same languages,” she said wryly. “I’m not sure what--That we like being able to express our displeasure?”

Shaking her head, she went back to the lessons, pointing to first one thing and then another and saying the word for it, and then listening and carefully repeating the translation. She wasn’t sure how helpful it was, besides passing the time and allowing her and Consuelo to stab at communication, but at least it made her feel as if she was making progress and there was less room for error in learning the words for nouns they could both look at and verify.

When she’d finished knotting the length of material into something that looked useable, she settled it over one shoulder and under her other arm, tugged at it to make certain the knots would hold, and then picked Cory up and carefully arranged him in the sling she’d made.

The minute she settled him, he flung both arms and legs out and went rigid, as if he felt like he was falling.

Whether it would work or not was immaterial if Cory didn’t feel secure in it. She gathered him in her arms to soothe him when he let out a panicked wail.

“Bri!”

Frowning, Bri responded to Kole’s call before she could stop herself, her head swiveling toward the sound of his voice.

Chapter Five

Kole held out his hands. “Give de ting.”

Bri glared at him distrustfully and held Cory tighter. “Hell no!”

His lips tightened. “No
niño. Ting--ropa.”

Bri gaped at him in outrage. “My gown?” she demanded indignantly. “I don’t think so!”

She could almost hear him grinding his teeth. Using his hands, he motioned from shoulder to waist and then looped his arms as Consuelo had. It dawned on Bri fairly quickly that he wanted the sling she’d made. She glanced down at it and then at him, debating, but finally shrugged inwardly. Cory hated it. Sighing, she settled Cory on the ground again and pulled the sling off. “The sling?” she asked, holding it up.

He nodded. “Sling, yes, si.”

Mildly annoyed that he was obviously learning her language a lot faster than she was learning Spanish, she tossed it to him.

When he’d caught it, he untied the knots she’d made, smoothed it, studied it, and then began to rip strips off.

The play of muscles in his arms, chest, and shoulders as he shredded the thing mesmerized her, sending her into a sort of trance of fascination that she didn’t emerge from until she discovered that he was staring back at her, grinning.

Blood flooded her cheeks. Wrenching her gaze from him, she glared at Consuelo, who was giving her a knowing look.

“Bri?”

She sent him a narrow eyed glare. “What?”

He made a motion with his hand over his face and neck. “What this?”

“You are so funny!” she snapped, feeling the blush that had begun to recede wash back into her cheeks.

He chuckled. “That. Change color. Can do this all over?”

His chuckle brought her head around again with a jolt. He was actually sort of handsome when he smiled, she realized vaguely. Maybe a little more than sort of. As it dawned on her what he’d asked, though, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. Was he teasing? Or making fun of her?