Second Chance (5 page)

23 Rebecca Airies

One of the large doors leading to the front court slammed just as she parted the sheer curtains. She glided over the smooth stone tile floor, ignoring the crooked tapestry hanging on the sparkling wall. She had better things to do than berate the staff.

She pushed open the dark, heavy door and started down the steps, intent on following him. She spotted the flame-red crown of Aleksin’s hair a moment before he disappeared into the trees. Determined not to miss this opportunity, she set off after him.

A calloused hand slipped around her wrist, drawing her to a stop. She looked over her shoulder and found Rionis shaking his head at her. He was always interfering.

“You’re not causing trouble for him today, Satira.” Rionis tugged her back toward the house, a severe frown etching his lips. “Let him go.”

“Is he troubled?” Satira smiled with anticipation.

“You know that Aleksin’s life has not been easy.” He urged her up the stairs to the two-story rock house. “Show some sympathy for someone other than yourself.”

“I know he was born in the South, but came here while he was still young.” Satira dismissed this with a shrug. It didn’t matter much to her what his troubles were.

“His mother and father were murdered by his father’s second-in-command. Alek was able to get his younger brother and sister to safety, but he feels guilty that he couldn’t help his parents.” Rionis scowled at her. “If you use that to try to hurt him, I’ll make sure you can’t sit for a week.”

“What does that have to do with him going into the forest?” Satira raised a brow.

“This is the day it happened. He either goes off alone or goes to a tavern, drinks and then clears the establishment with a fight.” Rionis gave her a hard look.

Laci came awake slowly. That dream had been a real memory. She could tell the difference now. In the previous dream, she had felt disconnected. She wasn’t involved in that one at all—it was the other woman, the one who had been with Alek and Darion before. Her thoughts had belonged to that woman, as did all her awareness. Laci could only watch.

The sexual dreams, she thought, could be attributed to her time on the couch with those two. Those feelings were her own. The dreams of fear, hunger and a very small room frightened her, shook her. There was also a dream of disjointed flashes, as if she was running through a dark tunnel lit by a strobe light. Then there was a jerking, disorienting shift and then she was falling, followed by intense, horrible pain. She couldn’t explain any of those dreams. The feelings they brought about were just as real, but they definitely weren’t hers and that scared her. Laci could find no answers or easy explanations about those. And then there were the ones that specifically linked her to the other woman.

She was beginning to hate that woman. Malicious and hateful, that Satira seemed to have no redeeming qualities. She seemed to live only to cause trouble. Every memory-dream brought fresh glimpses of her lies, trickery and spite.

With as much as she’d learned about this woman who looked exactly like her, she had learned more about the two men. She didn’t want to feel sympathy for them, to

24 Second Chance

admire their loyalty to each other, but she did. Each dream seemed to draw her closer to them.

* * * * *

Because of the distance to the planet X-R321, Laci was accompanied by Teira Saron, who was sharing the piloting duties. The stellar cruiser made the journey easy and comfortable. Upon arriving, they located the lab on the southern continent. Dense forest surrounded the old lab so they set the shuttle down in a clearing about five
terons
from it and hiked for half a day to get to the deserted structure.

Laci had dressed for the rough conditions. She wore sturdy boots, thick gray cloth pants and a long-sleeved gray shirt. A stunner as well as a knife hung at her waist. The pack she carried contained equipment, food, clothing and bedding for her stay here. She was grateful for her choices in clothing. The forest abounded with brambles and thorny trees as well as hidden roots to trip the unwary. The thick fabric saved her from scratches and scrapes on her arms and legs as they had to forge through the sometimes unavoidable barb-loaded bushes.

After years of neglect, the lab still had power, although the keypad for entry had been destroyed. Teira bypassed the keypad while Laci looked around the building and surrounding area. That inspection revealed that at least part of the power was supplied by a functioning hydroelectric system at the river. She was relieved to find such a reliable power supply. They wouldn’t have to cart the backup generator from the shuttle through that dense forest in order to have basic power in the lab.

The doors to the small gray building swished open as Laci rounded the corner. She stepped forward to enter the lab a step behind Teira. She was unsurprised to find a small room and a staircase leading down. It was a typical setup. The shell looked innocent enough to fool most people, but beneath the surface evil, corruption and pain flourished.

The search of the underground complex began with the first level, a filing section. Papers were scattered about, some stuffed with haphazard haste into transport boxes, others in precarious stacks on the desks. There was a stack of disks on one desk, and more in a box on the other side of the desk. With a sigh, Laci began sorting through the chaos.

* * * * *

After two days of searching, Laci knew one thing for certain—Generation One hadn’t been created. Contrary to public belief, the scientists hadn’t mixed alien DNA with human DNA. Generation One, or the Norik as they called themselves now, had been captured as they were.

25 Rebecca Airies

Idly swinging her leg as she rested on the edge of the gray metal table, she continued reading the report. The subsequent experiments had been an attempt to gain control. The scientists hadn’t captured only men. There had been women and children among those first captives. Over the next few days, Laci and Teira pieced together some of what had happened here. The new information raised more questions than it answered in most cases.

As the search progressed, the two women separated to get more done. Laci sat on a desk, looking at the reports of what the men and women had been capable of doing before the scientists began their alterations. She idly tapped her fingers on her right thigh as she read through the papers. The strength and speed listed in those documents were astounding. The end of her thick dark braid fell forward as she reached for another paper.
What were the scientists trying to do? Why had they even begun the experiments?

“Have you found anything interesting in your search?” The deep rumbling voice coming from the doorway sent her heart slamming against her chest walls.

Laci’s gaze swung up in horrified surprise. Darion had spoken, but Alek stood on the other side of the doorway. The two men were dressed in their standard uniform of blue and black. They were propped against the walls at either side of the door as if they had been watching her for a while.

Laci slid off the table.
How did they get into the building without my noticing their arrival? Hell, how did they even get here?
She should have sensed them before they’d entered the building, but she hadn’t even felt a tingle. The distinctiveness of their signal in the air should have been like a shout in a quiet room.

She pulled her stunner from its holster and raised it in front of her. Neither man showed any concern about the weapon in her hand. The two of them looked every bit as formidable as they had the first time she had seen them—and just as delicious. She couldn’t deny that she wanted them. Her hands itched to touch them, to know the heat, the texture of their skin, but she wasn’t the woman they knew. She wouldn’t let them confuse her with that woman—Satira.

“I’ve learned more than I ever expected to,
Rionis
,” Laci snarled.

Alek’s mouth fell open. She had clearly surprised him. “You remember. We hadn’t expected you to make the connection, especially this soon.”

“Do you expect me to be flattered to be the stand-in for a woman who died over fifty years ago?” Laci glared at them and gripped the stunner firmly. Her finger itched to pull the trigger. They would have to realize that the past was gone.

“You are that woman.” Darion’s brown eyes narrowed as he straightened. “You are as much our mate as she was. We won’t let you deny it. You may be different in many ways from the woman who was our mate before, but nothing can change the truth of the match.”

“Genetically, we may be identical, but more than genetics plays a role in life. I’m
not
Satira. Your wife or whatever she was died. I am Laci. My life is far different from hers.

26 Second Chance

She loved you. I don’t even like you.” Laci glowered at them, waiting for a move, ready to pull the trigger.

A dark-haired man rolled into the doorway between Alek and Darion. His laser rifle snapped up, aimed with menacing intent at Laci. She did not move or flinch.

“Chanal, stand down,” Alek barked.

“It’s on stun, Jatohn. She is not loyal, yet.” The man didn’t lower his weapon or even look up at Alek. “She might shoot.”

“Better listen to him,
Aleksin
.” A sneer curled Laci’s lips. At least one of them was taking her seriously. She squared her shoulders and felt the loose fabric of her comfortable green shirt move over her skin. “He has seemed to grasp more than you have. I will not take up that woman’s life.”

“Don’t you think we mourned her loss? Do you really think that we could confuse you?” Darion cast a frustrated scowl at her. “You deliberately miss the point. The differences between the two of you are apparent to even the most obtuse. Satira didn’t love us. She knew our ways, but that didn’t allow us to form a solid bond. Satira had her own goals and desires. She wasn’t as naïve as you are.”

“Satira would know when to give up,” Alek added, a frown crossing his face as he saw her eyes dart to the side. “She was a woman of our time. You’re unlike Satira, but then, we wouldn’t want you to be like her. We’re not the same men as we were before, either.”

Laci edged along the table. “You don’t understand, do you? I won’t be a part of your life because of some biological imperative. I live as I choose. I don’t have to be with you just because you say we’re mates.”

Her free hand fished under the counter for the concealed button that she had found. A door popped open just a little less than a body length down the wall. She had a way to go that wasn’t blocked by large male bodies. Now, she just had to reach it.

“Sa—” Alek began.

“Finish that and I
will
shoot you. And you aren’t confusing her with me—
ha
!” Laci scoffed and waved the gun threateningly.

“You have her face, her body. Up until three months ago, all we knew of you was the number given to you by the scientists. We thought of you by her name until we learned yours.” Alek shrugged and then gave her a cajoling smile. “It might take a little time to get used to your name.”

“You don’t even think of me as Laci. You used my name two, maybe three times on your ship and you haven’t used it since.” Laci shifted, easing a step closer to that open passage. If she could just get there, she’d have a good chance of escaping.

“You are not going anywhere,
Laci
,” Alek grated.

Laci dove for the open door, rolled through it and pushed it shut. She heard muffled, unintelligible words, but the tone conveyed their meaning. She scrambled to her feet. “Oh, yes, I am.”

27 Rebecca Airies

Laci took the small flashlight off her belt and ran down the narrow corridor, shoving the door at the end open. She ran down the catwalk to the ladder and sped down the rungs. The space was enormous, but there were only two doors.

It wouldn’t be long until Darion and Alek came after her. They would find that button with ease. She had to be out of sight before they reached the catwalk. They would not let her slip away from them with such ease twice in the same day.

Laci raced for a door on the side of the giant room. She burst into an access corridor which led to the central stairway. She thrust the door open and dashed into the stairwell, barreling down the stairs at a dangerous speed. She knew the upper levels had men on them. She hoped that they had not reached the lower levels yet.

The door on the landing Laci was approaching opened. A man wearing a blue shirt and black pants pointed his stunner at her with calm, expressionless menace. Laci lost her footing and slid down four stairs on her rump as she tried to reverse her momentum. She came to a halt near the bottom of the stairs. She stared at the man, hating that she had been caught.

“Stay as you are. If you move, I’ll stun you. The Jatohn are coming for you.” The soldier’s tone was irritatingly calm.

Laci lay against the stairs, panting, and valiantly resisted the urge to rub her buttocks. She didn’t have much choice about complying with his order. If she tried a lunge in any direction, she would get stunned. And even if she managed to get past him, she would be caught in short order. If there was a man here, there would be men on the other levels.

“Thank you for stopping her.” It was Darion’s voice.

Laci tilted her head back and could see the tips of his boots on the stair above her and, far above that, his face. He was staring down at her and he was furious. His scowl was ferocious.

“Raise your hands, Laci,” Alek ordered from beside her.

Laci jumped.
How did he get there without me catching sight of him? It’s not like he’s a small man.
One glance at him was enough to confirm that his anger equaled Darion’s. Gone was the broad smile. His eyes were narrowed and his lips were thinned by a scowl. Laci frowned. She had a right to make her own choices, damn it.

Laci held up her hands. Narrow metal cuffs tethered by a short chain encircled her wrists. The silver metal was cold and solid against her skin. Alek’s large hands lifted her to her feet beside him. Her weapons were quickly and efficiently stripped from her and dropped on the stairwell.

“I think you’ve spent enough time here. We have all of the information from this lab in a database on the ship. You can look at it some time if you want.” Darion continued to glower down at her. “It is time to leave. This place does not have a good effect on my mood.”