15. Ivy

"No!" I screamed, beating against the wall.

Kren turned and left the science lab. I hammered against it with the fleshy part of my fists but it was no good.

He hadn't heard me screaming and cursing.

When he'd first appeared, my heart soared at the sight of him. To think he might know I was there, being held captive against my will, that he had come to rescue me, was intoxicating.

He stood there talking with the Supervisor and I began to pound on the wall. He didn't hear me. Still, it didn't stop me from trying to get his attention.

I paced up and down my padded cell, knowing that at any moment, any second, Kren was going to turn to me and take action.

He would destroy the traitorous scientist and his guards and bust me out of there. We would hug and kiss passionately. Then I would lead him up to the Supervisor's residence. Kren would figure out a way of getting onto the shuttlecraft and away from there.

But the seconds stretched into minutes and then…

He turned to leave.

No…

Finally, he was gone. He'd agreed to a deal with the Supervisor… but he was going to get shafted the same way I had been.

The Supervisor wasn't going to keep his word.

The chief scientist stood with his hands behind his back, peering out the window and looking down, watching, as Kren left.

Once he was gone, he turned to the guards and issued them an order. They left their positions beside the door and marched over to the wall where I'd been hidden.

I hadn't seen it from their vantage point outside but I imagined it looked identical to the rest of the room.

A plain white wall.

How else could Kren miss seeing me right there in front of him?

The guards stood before the wall, their large frames taking up the entire space.

I backed away and bumped into the chair where I'd awoken that morning. The rest of the room was covered with square pads to prevent me from harming myself.

As if I would do that when I was pregnant.

Pregnant.

Me.

It both amazed and horrified me. I mean, getting pregnant had been the goal. That was, until I fell in love with Kren.

And now with the deal he made with the Supervisor to reveal his trump card in the pit, his advantage that everyone in the prison would learn of, making it infinitely harder for him to remain champ, he'd proven his love for me.

It didn't come as a surprise. If I needed more proof, there it was. Not only in the way he looked at me, the way he touched and caressed me, the way his kiss always lingered a moment after he pressed his lips to mine as if taking a moment to savor the sensation.

I knew now more than ever I wanted to be with him. I wanted to jump on that shuttlecraft and get the hell out of dodge.

The Supervisor stood behind the two guards facing me.

"Don't struggle. You will only get hurt and that is not my intention."

He paused a moment to watch my reaction. There was none. Taking that as confirmation I wasn't about to do anything stupid, he looked up at the ceiling.

"Computer," he said. "Disable the door."

The wall glowed bright and then faded as if a filter had been removed from it.

The guards didn't attempt to enter the room and restrain me the way I expected. I peered at them. They were broad across the chest and it was unlikely I could slip between them but still, decided I had to make a break for it.

I dashed toward one, immediately changed course, and dropped to my knees to slide under the second guard.

A firm hand grabbed me by the shoulder and pinned me in place.

My legs slipped out from under me. I banged against the guard's arm but he was too strong and wouldn't let go.

I peered into his visor that was buckled in the middle.

The Supervisor sighed as if he were dealing with a child.

"Put her in the chair."

The guards did as he ordered.

"No!" I screamed, struggling against them and fighting to work myself free.

Just one would have been enough to hold me down and overpower me. Two was overkill.

"Don't do this!" I said, peering into the bent visor at the spot where his eyes should be. "Let me go! Please!"

"I wouldn't expect much sympathy," the Supervisor said, taking the injector device and a small bottle of yellow liquid from his pocket. "They don't feel a thing."

"They're robots?"

The Supervisor chuckled.

"Of course not. Robots are too powerful and have the ability to overthrow the shrale given enough time. Research and development of mechanical beings is prohibited. Instead, we're allowed to test on living beings like those in this prison."

He filled the device with liquid.

"What is that?" I said. "What is it?"

"A little pick-me-up to keep you and your child strong. We don't usually create babies using a surrogate like this but Kren's species is… unusual. It resists every attempt we made to artificially inseminate hosts or grow one in lab conditions. The neb are a very stubborn species. So, you have no fear. We will never allow any harm to come to you. Or for you to harm yourself for that matter. The cargo you carry is far too important for that."

"Why are you doing this? Why me?"

"Why you? I have no idea. Hundreds of girls have come and gone through the Prize Pool and not one of them ever got Kren's interest. I'd given up hope he might actually take any girl. But he took to you. And you successfully mated with him. Many times, I might add! And then you became pregnant. According to the stories, when the neb choose their fated mate, it's for life. They tend to have children very quickly. It's like a switch turns on and suddenly every part of their anatomy knows which way due north is. It's extraordinary, the diversity in the universe."

He placed the injector device to my arm. I struggled but it was no use. The liquid slammed into my system.

"It's much less painful if you don't struggle," the Supervisor said. "This whole process is. There's no reason why this has to be difficult."

I felt the effects of the drug immediately. It spread through my body and I relaxed.

"When Kren wouldn't inseminate you, I knew I needed to take action and hurry things along a little," he said. "That's why I whispered in Dreth's ear. He's a stupid creature and very greedy. It's common in his species.

"Kren was quite a disappointment when I began running tests on him as a boy. After everything I learned about his species, I expected an incredible gift. But no matter what I tried, it wouldn't present itself. Then one day I noticed something strange. When he went to rescue you from Dreth, he came to his cell door. He couldn't beat it down with his fists and instead absorbed the electrical power and turned it on the door. He used the door's strength against itself.

"What were we to make of this? That a door had spontaneously destroyed itself? No. Something else was happening here, something we hadn't noticed before. We went over Kren's countless other battles and discovered the same anomaly. We discovered it was Kren using the abilities of others. Do you see? Kren's ability, and the ability of his people, is turning other species' strengths on themselves.

"Kren would never share this information willingly and so I devised a plan to harness it. We scientists so rarely get a second chance, especially with an extinct species, so I decided to run the experiment again. This time with a newborn neb."

"But Kren offered to tell you everything…" I said, my eyelids growing unconscionably heavy. "He'll show you his ability…"

"And we'll learn as much as we can from him," the Supervisor said. "And then we'll dispose of him. He can only cause problems. Your child will teach us the rest of what we need to know."

Dispose of him…

He was going to kill him. And probably me, once the baby was born.

Our baby…

The liquid flooded my body. My muscles were really growing lethargic now.

I was tired but not yet asleep. The drug had knocked me out before and I knew what to expect. I played along, letting them think I was more tired than I really was.

The guards released their hold on me and my eyes struggled to stay open.

"Rest," the Supervisor said. "The future is happening whether you want it to or not."

He turned to leave along with the guards.

If I could reach Kren, I could tell him about what the Supervisor was planning to do.

He's going to learn about your ability and then kill you.

Then I would give birth to our baby.

And then he was going to kill me.

I leaped from my chair and ran for the open door.

My legs were heavy and lethargic and barely followed my commands.

On a monitor, I saw the fighting taking place right now.

Kren!

He was fighting!

If I could reach the window, if I could bang on it. Kren would see me and realize something was wrong.

He could stop this. He could stop it all.

I slipped past the Supervisor just as he turned to order the wall to slam back into place.

"Stop her!" the Supervisor bellowed.

The guards leaped into action, scrabbling to grab me.

The observation window was just ahead.

Only a few more yards…

Something caught my foot and I fell, my face slapping the floor.

I rolled onto my back.

By now, the medicine had already claimed my wits. But I didn't need to be smart to smash the guard in the face with my heel.

I struck his dented visor. Again, again, and again.

He didn't lose his grip. He was too strong.

I struck his visor once more and it slipped open.

The man inside stared back at me with his cold eyes.

My eyes widened at what I saw.

My nightmares were about to have a new supreme leader.

The guard bore the face of the one I loved most in the entire galaxy.

Kren.

The guards were clones of Kren.

"No…" I said as the guards scooped me up in their arms. "No!"

They strapped me into the chair and let me sink into my cold dark nightmares.