The Spawning (31 page)

“So you’re saying the next time they go into the spawning cycle we’re just

supposed to stand there and ignore the one we don’t want to catch us?”

“I guess we could ask,” Miranda said a little doubtfully, “but then that would be to risk hurting their feelings.”

“Oh! We wouldn’t want to do that,” Mary Jane said dryly. “It’s such
fun
just to guess what the hell’s going on!”

Miranda shrugged. “I wouldn’t want to hurt Khan’s feelings,” she mumbled. “I suppose if you don’t like the guy you’re with, it wouldn’t matter.”

Mary Jane looked uncomfortable. “I don’t like hurting people’s feelings. I’ve had mine hurt too many times to willingly hurt anybody else.” She uttered a deep sigh.

“I think I might have a problem.”

“Besides the ones we already discussed?” Miranda asked.

Mary Jane chewed her lip. “I’m not at all sure I’m at the peak of my cycle. What do you think is going to happen when … if it turns out we’re not pregnant?”

Miranda dropped her chin on her hand glumly. “They’ll either think it just won’t work with us and be disappointed—which I don’t think is good—or they’ll be glad it didn’t work—which I think is worse—or we’ll find out that it’ll only work if some of us manage to hit the peak at the same fucking time they do, which is such a long shot I don’t want to think about it at all.”

Beth studied her unhappily. “You really think they’re only fertile at the spawning time?”

“
They
think so. There must be a reason why they think so,” Miranda said irritably.

“Yes, but … what if it’s like us? What if that’s just the Hirachi women’s cycle and
that
’s why they think they’re only fertile then?” Beth said.

“I suppose we’ll find out … eventually. I’m betting they aren’t going to be really THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 138

thrilled, though, if they find out they’re fertile all the time and we’re fertile once a month.

I’m guessing it’s sort of a natural birth control for them and maybe one of the reasons they don’t have a problem with the women having as many lovers as she wants.”

“But if it’s once a year anyway—
we
couldn’t have one much sooner than that. So it’d pretty much work out the same, right?”

“I overheard one of them say that their spawning is seven years,” Mary Jane said after a prolonged pause. “I think, maybe,
that
’s why they don’t mind if the women have lovers.”

“
Seven
years!” Miranda and Beth both exclaimed at the same time.

“That can’t be right!” Miranda added.

“Actually, they said cycles, but it translated to years.”

“Maybe they meant months?”

Mary Jane shrugged. “I guess that’ll be on the list of ‘we’ll find out eventually’.”

Beth frowned. “Maybe you could ask Teron? He’s the doctor. It could be like a fertility thing. He probably wouldn’t think anything about it.”

“I’m not asking Teron!” Miranda said flatly. “He’s supposed to be one of my

lovers. It
won’t
sound like a doctor/patient thing. Anyway, I think he’s a friend of Khan’s and even if he isn’t, Khan’s their leader. You think he won’t go right straight to Khan and tell him I’m probably not knocked up?”

Beth looked horrified. “I hadn’t thought about that. But … they’re liable to figure it out eventually anyway, you know? Probably will unless they’ve got super semen that lasts a really long time—or everybody just
happened
to be at the right place at the right time.”

“I’d rather it was later, thank you very much!” Miranda snapped. “I know I’m

being a coward about it, but I’d like to enjoy it a little bit … before.”

Mary Jane and Beth both nodded.

After a moment’s thought, Mary Jane shook her head. “I suppose you know nine

tenths of the women now hate your guts?”

Miranda gaped at her in stunned surprise. “Why?”

Mary Jane shrugged. “Because most of them had their eye on Khan, or Teron, or Gerek and you got all three.”

Miranda studied her, wondering if she was joking—not that she had any trouble

believing the women had been lusting after any or all of the three—she had, and she thought she had good taste. She’d said it sort of jokingly, though. “You aren’t serious?”

“Half serious,” Mary Jane admitted finally. “I’m pretty sure they all had their eye on at least one, or possibly all three, but not everybody hates you for it—mostly Carol, Lynn, and Joy—and the other ‘bimbos’. They aren’t really stupid, not all of them total morons, anyway. They just act dumb because they think it’s cute and also because that’s how they get out of having to do anything. Everybody figures they’re too stupid to do it.

Khan, Teron, and Gerek are sort of the cream, though—the most eligible bachelors—and they figure they should’ve gotten them.”

“Poor Adar,” Miranda said after a moment. “He’s so cute. I can’t believe he’s been slighted!”

Mary Jane laughed. “
I
hate you for Adar! I think he’s cute, too, but he isn’t ‘the doctor’, or ‘the leader’, or ‘the second in command’. I’m just saying … watch your back.

Carol’s a real backstabber. She’s got six on a string and she’s preening over that, but she THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 139

still feels like no one deserves the best but her.”

“Well if six Hirachi males can’t keep that girl busy, honest to god it just can’t be done!” Miranda said testily. “It’s not like Khan’s the governor or anything!”

Mary Jane gave her a look. “No, Khan’s like the president. In case you haven’t noticed, the Hirachi ‘nation’ seems to be the only folks here and he’s their leader.”

She supposed she could see Mary Jane’s point—and Carol’s—position of power

and all that. She’d been pretty damned impressed, herself, if it came to that, but she’d been more impressed with
him
. The only thing his position as their leader said to her was that he must be a damned fine specimen of manhood to be a leader of a group like the Hirachi.

A splash in the pool redirected her attention and she looked down to discover a Hirachi male she didn’t know staring at her and the other two women. Before she could say anything, he disappeared again.

Miranda glanced a little uneasily at Beth and Mary Jane. “Uh oh,” she murmured.

She was just about to climb back into the pool and head ‘home’ when Khan

surfaced.

He looked really angry.

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 140

Chapter Sixteen

“I have been searching for you!” Khan growled.

The accusing note in his voice instantly set her back up even though she felt a little guilty about him looking for her.

Well, and lounging around in some strange Hirachi guy’s pod.

“I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed out,” she said tightly. “I was looking for my friends and stopped to rest.”

His lips tightened. He glanced at Beth and Mary Jane. “We were searching for bodies.”

That knocked the wind right out of her sails. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make trouble. I just wanted to visit with my friends. I didn’t know you’d be back so soon.”

Khan caught her waist and dragged her into the pool with him. “I will take you back now.”

She didn’t particularly care for his highhandedness, but she could relate. He’d been worried, and he was angry because he was worried. She sent Beth and Mary Jane an apologetic look and moved to the exit, sucking in several breaths before she ducked beneath the water and swam out.

There was search party just outside. That didn’t make her feel a hell of a lot better. In fact, she felt like a truant caught skipping school. Without pausing to examine the men outside too closely, she swam toward the nearest pod. Khan caught her before she could duck inside and a moment of panic hit her. Fortunately, before she managed to get too worked up about it, he snatched her close and gave her air.

He had to stop twice more to give her air before they made it through the entrance to his pod. She was so weak and shaky she had to have help getting out.

“How did you go so far when you can not hold your breath for more than a

moment?” Khan demanded when he’d climbed out.

Miranda looked at him a little resentfully, but the discovery that Teron, Gerek, and Adar had followed them inside leavened her temper … a little. “I’ll have you know that I can hold my breath at
least
a couple of damned minutes!”

The three men climbed from the pool and settled around the edges, glaring at her.

Talk about being ganged up on!

She released a huff of breath. “I stopped at every pod and went in for a breath of air. I was looking for the others anyway.”

The four men exchanged looks. “You can only hold your breath that long and

you still went out?” Khan demanded.

Miranda’s resentment peaked. “Yes,” she said tightly, since there wasn’t actually anything else she could say. She’d begun to feel a good bit more like a kid being berated for taking stupid chances, mostly, she realized, because that was what it had been even though it hadn’t seemed that risky at the time.

Actually, it had been scary as hell and seemed really risky. She’d just decided to do it anyway because she’d felt a burning need for ‘girl talk’ and there wasn’t anybody THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 141

handy. She folded her arms over her chest, struggled with her temper for several moments and then admitted she was wrong. “I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t intend to upset anyone or cause any trouble. You’re always gone all day when you work. I didn’t think you’d be back to miss me.”

“The light is gone and it is worse that you took the risk
knowing
that no one would miss you,” Teron said angrily. “If you had had trouble, there would’ve been no one to help you.”

“I can only say I’m sorry so many times! I won’t do it again!”

“You will give your word of honor?” Gerek demanded.

“Cross my heart and hope to die!” Miranda said promptly.

That didn’t go over well. All four men looked at her as if she’d announced that she was about to commit suicide.

“You hoped to die?” Khan demanded, his voice hard now with anger.

“No, I didn’t. I wasn’t trying to kill myself. It’s just a saying, for god sake! It means I swear I won’t.”

They didn’t seem convinced and it make her angrier. She got to her feet and

planted her hands on her hips. “I’m human! I’m
not
Hirachi! I can’t stay in here all day of every day completely alone, with nothing to do and no one to talk to. I’ll go out of my mind!

“Regardless of what you seem to think, I’m used to being useful, not useless.

Maybe it’ll be alright for some of the women. I don’t know and I certainly can’t say when I don’t know them that well. I just know what works for me.

“So either give me something to do or at least take me to stay with one of my

friends while you’re gone.”

She stalked from the room and into the bedroom since there was no other place to go but the kitchen, and she certainly couldn’t do anything in there!
Not
that she was a great cook, or even particularly liked cooking! But she would’ve welcomed it as something to make her feel like she was at least carrying her weight.

Since she couldn’t scream at the food and make it cook, though, that seemed like a definite bust.

She couldn’t do laundry. They didn’t have hardly any clothes to start with and they spent more than half their time in the water anyway. How could they get dirty?

Especially now that they weren’t working in the compound.

There wasn’t any cleaning to do, at all. Khan, obviously, was a very tidy person, not that he had a lot of belongings to strew around.

Something somewhere between working herself to death and getting nowhere,

and sitting on her hands, staring at the walls, would be nice.

Something for entertainment if she had nothing useful to do would be nice—TV,

radio, newspapers, books—hell, puzzles!

She sat down on the edge of the bed when she reached it, trying to decide whether to lay down and fume, or sit up and sulk. It was dark. She didn’t know how it was that she’d failed to notice the light was getting dimmer and that that must mean it was getting close to nightfall when she’d already figured out they ‘piped’ sunlight into their pods.

They’d been pretty wrapped up in their discussion, though.

She could hear the men talking in the other room, but despite the fact that there wasn’t a door in the place, she couldn’t make out what they were saying. After a few THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 142

minutes, she heard them get up and move into the kitchen.

Her stomach growled.

Sulk until they came to fetch her to eat and then pretend she wasn’t actually

interested—just to drive home her unhappiness about them being angry with her?

It wasn’t actually that tempting. On the other hand, the kitchen was pretty small.

She couldn’t imagine anyone would be able to move if everyone piled in. She was still trying to decide whether to join the group or not when Teron appeared in the door holding a light—probably something Khan had traded for since it looked like advanced technology they didn’t have.

“I thought you might not like to sit in the dark. Are you hungry?”

She was always hungry—now. Before, she didn’t think she ever got hungry. She usually ate when she had time and whatever was handy, or quick and easy.

God
what she wouldn’t give for quick and easy! She’d never particularly felt like she was spoiled, or that she had a cushy life and yet, in retrospect, nothing she’d thought of as a hardship even
began
to compare to this place.

Well, not Khan’s place. It was pretty comfortable, but the planet was another matter.

Getting up, she followed Teron into Khan’s living room. Adar was seated on the couch—Gerek in the kitchen with Khan. Adar offered her the spot she’d made for herself with both of Khan’s pillows.

She debated the matter, but she’d been sitting on a hard floor for hours. She didn’t think her butt could take any more hard surfaces at the moment, not when soft was available. She settled on the pillows and divided a look between Adar and Teron. “So, what did you two do today?”