17. Ivy

Iawoke and didn't feel groggy at all. Whatever the stuff was that the Supervisor gave me, it didn't have many negative effects upon waking. I felt more awake and alert than ever!

Still, it would have been nice to know what I'd been given.

The scientists continued their work in the lab and I wondered if they ever actually took time off, slept, or bothered to eat. They were machines.

Machines.

I shivered as I recalled Kren's face encased inside that guard's armor. He had some sort of implant in his right eye that glowed red like a laser. His skin was pallid and he had no hair.

Because he didn't need it.

Hair didn't help the guards do their job. They needed to be strong, fast… and who better to base their guard clone designs on than their long-time undisputed champion?

How many other guards were there spread throughout the galaxy? How many more clones?

Did he even know about them? I doubted it.

My skin crawled at the idea of there being an uncountable number of clones of me out there in the universe. It robbed me of my identity. If there were more of me out there, did it diminish me as a person? Was I somehow watered down?

No, I thought. Because none of those clones had the same memories I did. None thought the same way. None had the same upbringing. They could clone me as much as they liked but they weren't going to be me.

Just as the guards weren't Kren.

They were imperfect copies of him, nothing more.

My cell was a rough square shape with a longer back wall than the front. The walls were covered with cushions designed to ensure I didn't hurt myself. If I wanted to do that, I could use the chair, I thought.

I ran my hands over the cushions but couldn't identify a loose thread anywhere. The fabric was plasticky to the touch and when I pressed on them, they pressed back on my hands like a trampoline.

I peered out through the front wall at the science lab. Were they going to keep me locked in here during the entirety of my pregnancy? That looked like the plan.

And how long would I be pregnant with this baby inside me? It wasn't human. It was half-human. How long was the gestation period of the average neb?

I wasn't ready for this. I doubted I would ever be ready.

Was any mother really ready to have a kid? I knew my mom wasn't.

Thinking about her now brought tears to my eyes. We'd never been close but I would take that awkward relationship over my current situation any day of the week.

The door to the science lab hissed and opened, revealing Kren.

My Kren.

He was here to carry out the deal he made with the Supervisor. He was going to reveal his ability to him. It was clearly something the Supervisor was interested to learn more about, otherwise he would have declined the offer.

Kren passed his eyes over the room, taking in the details of the equipment… but not the people working in it. His eyes passed over me and my section of wall.

I jumped and waved my arms and shouted but his eyes continued to move.

The Supervisor guided Kren to a chair like the one in my cell.

Kren hesitated before approaching it. A pair of guards stood to one side, shock rifles in hand.

The threat was obvious. Do as the Supervisor says or they would open fire.

My gut churned like a cement mixer. What had the Supervisor said to me before he injected me earlier?

That he would learn what Kren was going to tell him and then dispose of him.

Why?

My breath caught in my throat…

Oh God, no.

But yes. It had to be right. Didn't it?

He no longer needed Kren because he was no longer the last of his species.

The baby growing in my belly was.

I had sown Kren's demise because of my own stupid carelessness.

The tears sprung in my eyes as I watched Kren climb into the chair and get comfortable. He lay there as the Supervisor leaned over him with the diagnosis tool he used to check if I was pregnant.

Each moment that passed, each second that I let slip through my fingers, was another moment that could be Kren's last.

There had to be something I could do to help him, warn him somehow. There had to be something I could do to make him get out of that chair and keep himself alive.

But how?

The controls to my cell were on the other side of the wall. There were none on my side. I had already checked every inch of the room for a computer, a wire, something I could use, but there were none.

I ran my hands over the wall. If I could somehow disable it… If I could turn it off so he could see me… Even just for a second…

Thump.

I blinked as my hand had automatically moved to my stomach.

Did I feel a kick?

Impossible. I'd only been pregnant a day!

Then what had I felt? A twinge? A pulled muscle? My stomach kicking up a tantrum? Or was it something in my imagination?

Thump.

Nope. Definitely real.

There it was again. Not a kick. More of a throb, like the gentle pulse of a bass drum.

But that bright golden glow was not new. I associated it with Kren. I saw it when we made love. It was always there in the pit of my stomach.

It was weaker, or perhaps it was only distant. I didn't know what it was, but it was telling me to do something. I had no ideas of my own, so I ran with it.

It told me to place my hands on the invisible wall before me. I did. Then it said to close my eyes.

Focus.

Okay, that was weird.

Did I say that to myself or had something else?

You're in an alien land, I told myself. Better get used to weird.

I swallowed, my throat suddenly very dry, and focused on what the little voice told me.

Focus on what? I thought.

I decided to focus on nothing. I let my mind go blank and…

Snap.

I hissed through my teeth and pulled my hands back. It felt like I'd been given an electric shock.

I caught movement out the corner of my eye from where my hands had been on the wall. A ripple swam across the surface like tossing a stone in a pond.

I turned to the room on the other side of the wall. The other scientists were bent over their monitors, busy with their work. None paid me any attention. Kren still lay on the chair.

He hadn't seen me. But if I tried again, maybe he would.

"Okay," I said. "You can do this. You did it once…"

I pressed my hands to the wall and focused. I emptied my mind and the sparks issued once more.

I squealed as the electrical charge ran into my arms and into the rest of my body. It was more uncomfortable than painful.

The wall crackled again and flashed, appearing one moment, and then disappearing the next. I stared through the flashing gap in the wall at Kren.

He double took, noticing something—me!—out the corner of his eye. He looked my way and smiled.

I couldn't help but smile back, and for a moment, there was nothing between us.

The Supervisor straightened up. I got the sense he might peer over and see me standing there.

I removed my hands from the wall just as he turned to look over at me.

Had he seen me? Did he know Kren saw me?

The Supervisor leaped up from his stool and yelled, "Seize him!"

I guess so.

Kren bolted to his feet and struck at the first guard, but his blow was blocked and retaliated with a powerful punch to the face.

Kren went down. He was up again in an instant but it was already too late.

The other guard fired his shock rifle at Kren.

He writhed and shuddered like a fish out of water. He knocked a table over. It fell, smashing a monitor to the floor.

The other scientists screeched and backed away from the terrifying wild bolts of blue and white that made the air crackle and spark with energy.

The second guard fired up his shock rifle and joined the fun.

I slammed my fists on the wall and tried to open it the way I had before but it was impossible with Kren being tortured in front of my eyes.

I couldn't focus. It was impossible.

"Now I have the secret of your ability!" the Supervisor shrieked with joy. "I no longer have need of you! You're old news. Soon, you'll be ancient history!"

He nodded to the guards, who stopped firing.

Smoke issued from Kren's back where the electric pulse had burned him. He struggled to get to his feet but he couldn't do it.

"Kren!" I screamed.

He managed to turn his face toward me. He couldn't see me. His eyes rolled in their sockets and he could hardly move.

"Take him to the pit," the Supervisor said. "Organize a Survivor tournament. It's about time we had ourselves a new champion."