HASH: Human Alien Species Hybrid (6 page)

“Well, Dr. Stevens. You can tell Professor Ahern and Startech that I won’t have his baby.”

“They’ll impregnate you, Jade. Startech doesn’t care about you. They care about their project’s success.”

“Not if I get out of here before they get their hands on me.”

Dr. Stevens stared at me for a long time. Then she reached out and grabbed my hands before I could pull them away. “Then we’ll have to work something out. For now though, I think it’s best if you go back to your room.”

“My cell, you mean?” For a moment, I saw a glimmer of tears in Dr. Stevens’ eyes before she stood in front of me and leaned down, pressing her lips against the top of my head. That was the first time she had ever kissed me.

I sat in my room and waited. There wasn’t much else I could do. Even Em was being quiet, sitting over by the wall and barely acknowledging my existence. She was obviously still upset with me for telling Dr. Stevens that Aric and I were planning to escape.

In all honesty, it wasn’t a bright idea. I knew that now, but I was angry when I’d lashed out and told Dr. Stevens of our plans.

Things had changed drastically since Startech had taken over two weeks ago. My tutor had stopped coming and my college education was no longer at the forefront of their plans.

Professor Ahern wanted to push Aric and I together, create some atmosphere that would spark a love interest without actually knowing if we’d be interested in each other. I guess she figured we’d experienced no one else, so putting us together was the first step.

While Em sifted through the data stored on the institution’s hard drive, she claimed to have found highly confidential stuff. She was angry with me now, so she’d decided not to tell me, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to keep it to herself for too long. Em was like me—neither of us could keep a secret.

I sat down against the wall next to Em in hopes that we could discuss the situation. The image of her flickered to the far wall as she stood with her back toward me.

“Em, stop that. I want to talk to you.”

She sighed and flickered back into place next to me. “What?”

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be. It isn’t just your life at stake here.”

I nodded. Em was right, I really shouldn’t have told Dr. Stevens what we had planned. “I was angry and I was out of line, but ignoring me only makes me feel worse.”

“I’m sure it does.”

I sighed. “There’s so many changes going on right now, I don’t know what to believe.”

“You need to believe what I tell you and show you, Jade. I’m not your enemy. I need you to survive.”

“Okay.”

“Good, because I have something important to tell you. Something I found out.”

“What now?”

“Startech is giving you and Aric two weeks to form some kind of a sexual union and conceive a child.”

“Two weeks?”

“If they don’t see progress, their next move is to artificially inseminate you.”

“What?! They wouldn’t! They couldn’t.”

“They will, Jade. You think you can handle knowing their entire agenda?”

I swallowed hard and wondered if I could. How could I not know? Why would I leave the fate of my life in their hands when Startech only wanted to destroy me? “Go ahead.”

“When a Ceren being is about to die, they can transfer their organism to another. It’s the way that their memories stay alive and in some odd way, a way that they can live on. Aric’s mother gave you her royal memories, her organism and because she died without it, they dissected her and learned about how it attached to the nervous system of its host.”

“When you say
it
, we’re talking about you, right, Em?”

“I suppose. My knowledge is limited, but the scientist at this facility and the ones that were part of the HAP project documented everything. What they know, I now know.”

“Okay, go on.”

“There was an explosion on board the ship, something malfunctioned and when Aric’s father went back to the control room, he was caught in a fire that…well…killed him. When the metal is without a host, it attaches to and seeps into anything else metal.”

“Okay.”

“So, his organism attached to the ship and seeped into the control panels.”

“How would this Institute know all of this?”

“In another part of this facility is the actual ship and they’ve spent sixteen years dissecting it piece by piece, swarf by swarf.”

“They found his father’s organism?”

She shook her head. “What they found out is that the ship won’t run unless an organism attached to its host is present and at the control panel.”

“So, why haven’t they made Aric or I do it?”

“You’re too old, too dangerous, too curious, too strong.”

“I’m not! Maybe Aric is.”

“They would never reconnect Aric to his aircraft because they know he’d be stronger than anything they could handle.”

“So, why do they want a baby?”

“In their research, they discovered that Aric is royalty and they believed that if they could combine those three organisms together—”

“Three?”

“Aric’s, his mother’s and his father’s… then they’ll be able to create a super weapon.”

I stood up and pressed my two fingers against my temples. “I don’t get it.”

Em stood beside me. “Jade, you’re going to be artificially inseminated, deliver a baby and they’re going to kill you and Aric. They will remove the organisms from you both and insert them into the baby.”

“If we’re dead, then the metal dies.”

She tilted her head and lowered her eyes, realizing that I would finally understand what she was saying.

“Oh my gawd, they’re going to remove the metal while we’re still alive. This can’t be.”

“I read it earlier. The procedures, the plans, the doctors and scientists who will be there.”

“What about Aric’s father’s metal? It’s with the ship.”

“They already know how to regulate it.”

I began to pace. This was too much information to take in all at once. Suddenly, I felt a sense of urgency in getting out of the institution. My room felt like a 5 x 5 box and I was suffocating without any oxygen.

“Slow your breathing, Jade.”

“We have to get out of here.”

“It’s easier said than done. I realized earlier when you were talking to Dr. Stevens that Startech isn’t going to give us up. They want me too badly and they’ll stop at nothing to make sure that they connect all three organisms in one living host.”

I held my chest, finding it hard to breathe. I leaned over, and opened and closed my eyes. The room was spinning and I felt like I was going to faint. “We have to warn Aric.”

“I already did. He has all this information.”

“You’re smart, why didn’t you know all of this, prior to being able to float through the systems?” I asked, now sitting on the cot and rocking back and forth.

“I’m designed to link in with a Ceren royal. To do whatever they say. I wasn’t designed to grow up with a human girl. Maybe this is all I can be with you. It would explain why I’ve been stronger since we first touched Aric. Since that door to him was opened.”

“So, every time I touch Aric…”

Em nodded. “I get a little more knowledge each time. I become a little more me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, in theory, I should be able to connect with any machine in reach, make it do what I want. But it’s a bit hit or miss right now. When you touch Aric, I keep evolving into my full potential.”

The door to my room opened. I jumped, startled. The entire Institute was now my enemy and anyone who entered my room would be considered as such.

I looked over, half expecting a collection of security guards there to drag me off to whatever fate I’d earned by talking about escape. Instead, it was Dr. Stevens and a couple of junior scientists looking at her in obvious puzzlement. They clearly hadn’t been expecting her to show up like this. Neither had I.

“Dr. Stevens?” I said. “What are you doing here?”

By that I meant: was she about to have me killed?

Dr. Stevens held out a hand to me. “I need you to come with me, Jade. It’s about what we discussed earlier. I think it’s time to try putting that into effect, if you’d still like to.”

What I was talking about earlier…it took me a moment to realize that Dr. Stevens was talking about escaping. She was going to help me to escape.

When I hesitated, she said, “Aric is going to be joining us in a minute.” If Dr. Stevens was nervous at the thought of breaking me out of her own facility, she didn’t show it.

However, I was nervous.

“Now?” I whispered.

“This is quite time sensitive. Professor Ahern will be back from a meeting with our employers soon, and I’m sure after that she’ll want you available for
her own work
.”

That was one way of putting it. For a moment, I stood there stunned that Dr. Stevens was doing this. Then I realized that I had to make this look as normal as possible. I reached out and took Dr. Stevens’ hand.

“Doctor?” one of the watching junior scientists insisted, “This isn’t logged in on the schedule.”

“I know that, Andrew. You may have noticed that since the Startech takeover, the schedules have been a little confused. I’m just trying to make the most of a gap in them. If you want to come along and observe…”

“No, that’s all right. This is your project.”

She smiled. “It’s nice to know someone here still thinks that.”

She led us away from the lab and my room. I followed, and Em went with us, flickering in and out, as she reached for the machines around us and sucked in information as we went.

Aric was waiting for us at the end of the next corridor, flanked by a lab assistant and a couple of security guards. Dr. Stevens dismissed them, and it was amazing that they just walked away, leaving the three of us to walk around as we pleased. Then again, I guess the way they saw it, Dr. Stevens had everything under control. And for a long time, she had been in charge of me. Solely.

I hoped she had everything under control.

As soon as we were alone, Aric wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close, his lips brushing mine.

“Aric…Em told you?”

“Yes, I know everything and Startech won’t get away with this. Once we get out and you’re safe, I’m going to return and claim what’s mine…what belongs to my family,” he whispered in my ear.

“They’ll kill you. If you come back, I want to come back with you and help you reclaim your ship.”

“Jade, we’ll talk about breaking back in later, right now, let’s try to break
out
. Okay?” He grinned.

I smiled weakly at his attempt to make me laugh. Em flickered beside us, in and out.

Dr. Stevens shook her head. “Perhaps we should save the excitement until we’re out of here? I can’t risk taking you out of the front door, and even I can’t talk you past the guards, but there are emergency exits around the Institute, for fires, or cave-ins, or anything like that. There are strict regulations when you’re this far underground.”

“We’re underground?” It occurred to me that I didn’t even know the most basic things about the place I’d lived for so long.

“I showed you the plans,” Em pointed out. “Where did you think we were?”

“I thought it was just a building.”

Dr. Stevens shook her head. “We found that an underground location was the most effective for containing the implant. It seemed…stronger, with more outside signal to work with.” She sighed. “Jade, I’m so sorry. We robbed you of so much. Come on. There isn’t much time.”

She led the way down corridor after corridor, into parts of the Institute I hadn’t seen before. I’d seen so little of everything, when I really thought about it. Aric kept close beside me, obviously as excited as I was, though wary, too. There was something almost dangerous about him as he looked around for any sign of trouble, the living metal of his implants catching the light.

Only Em seemed unworried, and that was just…well, Em. She didn’t have a tangible body and maybe she was less careful than me.

She danced a few steps on ahead. “I think I know where we’re going. I was going to get us out this way, although I wouldn’t have gone by a direct route like this. Miriam has guts, I’ll give her that.”

Em had a point. When I’d thought about escaping, I’d imagined us having to run and hide, ducking into doorways every time we heard footsteps, maybe fighting our way past security. Not this. Not just walking casually, like nothing was wrong.

“The exit is through one of the main storerooms,” Dr. Stevens said, jerking me from my thoughts. “I’ve parked a vehicle near the exit, so once we get to ground level, it should be possible to get you clear. After that…honestly, I don’t really know what we’re going to do after that.”

We made it to a big set of double doors with an electronic lock. They were obviously for the storeroom Dr. Stevens had in mind. There was also a security guard standing in front of them. He didn’t look any different to the others, just an ordinary guy in a dark uniform, with a utility vest and a weapon holstered by his side. Exactly what I expected a person to look like when they weren’t wearing a white coat, in other words. Yet, something about his stance said that this one might be trouble.

Dr. Stevens walked over as confidently as she had for the rest of our trip, though. “Hi, Justin. I need access to the storeroom. Open up for me, would you?”

He looked at me, then at Aric. “Are you sure, ma’am? I thought this was meant to be off-limits for the subjects. The outside access and all…”

“It’s fine, Justin. I don’t think Jade is exactly about to run off. But I do need a large open space, and the storeroom is the best we have.”