CHAPTER 25

ARTEMIS

I was right to warn them.

As soon as they followed me into the room, gasps resounded. One of them, though I didn’t bother to check whom, actually retched, their gasp transitioning into gagging and dry heaving almost choreographed exactly how I’d imagined this moment in my head.

There were two of those stars-damned metal tables on opposite sides of the room, each one occupied by Reece and Adara. They were strapped down and shackled, their flesh gaping open in seeping wounds that dripped and puddled beneath them, the white of their bones peeking through the shredded flesh like beacons of torment.

Reece was out, most likely unable to take the pain. He’d probably been their first subject. However, Addy – poor, sweet, bubbly Addy – was wide awake, weakly writhing in agony and silently crying as she watched Reece like he was her only lifeline.

I didn’t hesitate to head straight for her first.

‘Adara,’ I spoke in a gentle voice, not wanting to startle her. Unfortunately and expectedly, I was unsuccessful. She jerked against her restraints, groaning low in her throat at the searing pain the action must have caused. I knew from first-hand experience how much that would have smarted, but I’d had a long time to grow my immunity to such sensations. Pain was fleeting, even if it was a regular occurrence.

Her eyes were unfocused, the destruction of her body no doubt making her delirious.

‘No… P-Please…’ she begged, her voice hoarse and barely audible with an almost whistle-like quality. She’d been screaming.

‘Addy, it’s me. Artemis,’ I told her, keeping my tone soft and soothing.

‘A-Arty?’

‘Hey, Addy. I’m here to get you out. I’m going to release the cuffs, but I need to ask you a few questions before I move you, okay?’

‘Ar…ty?’

‘Mm?’

‘It… h-hurts…’

Checking to make sure there were no injuries on her head and finding it clear, I stroked my hand comfortingly over her wispy, seaweed-like hair. ‘I know it does, sweetheart, but you’re strong enough to get through it. It’s all going to be okay, I’ll make sure of it.’

I had just released her final cuff while Dorian and Urman removed Reece’s when a familiar malicious voice had me twirling on the spot and crouching into a defensive position in front of a whimpering Adara.

‘Well, if it isn’t Subject A-173. I knew you’d come. Can’t stay away from me long can you, precious girl?’

‘Demari,’ I hissed through clenched teeth. A thousand ways I wanted to kill that man flickered through my head, and a thousand more ways I wished to torture him before he died. The violence and bloodlust must have shone through my gaze well since he flinched. It was almost imperceptible, but I caught it. I made him nervous.

He knew, even if he wanted to deny it, that I was his angel of death.

He covered it quickly, and he covered it well, however. I doubted anyone else in the room would have noticed his slip.

‘Hello, A-173. I’m so please to see you. You’ve placed yourself exactly where I wanted you. I’d say you were such a good girl, but you’ve been very naughty,’ he tsked, then turned around to address the people behind him that I’d failed to notice in my single-minded fury.

‘You can see here, Mister Christianson, that despite her efforts to elude us, she always ends up back where she belongs. There is no need to concern yourself any longer with our security or our ability to contain our subjects.’

Without conscious thought, I launched myself at him. Only instead of wrapping my hands around his scrawny fucking throat like I’d planned, I bounced off an invisible wall and landed hard on my ass, though I twisted at the last moment to avoid cracking my skull against the leg of Addy’s table.

He merely chuckled at my attempt.

‘She is unruly, Demari,’ the other man spoke before addressing a younger female standing beside him, her head down as if in submission. No… that was exactly what it was. ‘Look at this, daughter. Is this what you want to become? Or are you better than this?’

‘Better, father,’ she answered without hesitation, though it was meek and sounded more like she was parroting what he wanted to hear rather than what she actually believed.

‘If you’ll bring your attention back to the subjects, you will be able to see what we are doing with our criminals. If you keep sending them to us, we will not only lighten the strain on the prison system, but turn them into something significantly more useful,’ he gestured at Reece and Adara still prone on the metal tables.

‘What plans do you have for my daughter’s rapist, Demari?’ the older man spat.

Demari’s grin was slow and filled with evil intent. ‘Why don’t we discuss such topics in a more comfortable environment?’

He led them out, but not before I made eye contact with the final man, his own wide in shock.

I lunged again, only this time I stopped just before I could touch the barrier that reminded me a little too much of my own . ‘Tarren,’ I spewed the name like a foul-tasting curse.

His jitteriness was out of character, but I didn’t care much about his suddenly nervous disposition. He deserved far worse. After all, he was the reason Reece (and subsequently Addy) were strapped and bleeding on The Program’s signature metal slabs as their newest subjects.

He scampered off after his father and Demari, sticking close to his sister like she could protect him from my wrath. Unlikely. I’d probably kill her too if she got in my way, but that man was going to die right alongside Lucias Demari.

A weak whimper escaped from Adara, drawing my attention back to the most pressing matter. I could figure out a way out of this cage, but I’d need her and Reece healed enough to travel first.

I thought back to how I’d left Dave Junior back on the ship and my stomach twisted with worry. I didn’t know if he’d stay put or if he could even manage to escape, but I needed to get back to him as soon as possible, too. It hurt to leave him like that. It left a physical ache in my chest.

Addy’s eyes fluttered closed, but I placed a hand on her shoulder to gently shake her awake. ‘Hang in there a little longer for me, Addy. I still need those answers before I can let you sleep.’

‘ H-hurts.’

‘I know. I’m sorry. I know.’

A body went flying and I lifted my head to see Cadmus on his back, legs sticking straight up in the air before gravity brought them down too.

‘We’re trapped,’ he wheezed.

‘Fuck! What now?’ asked Dorian, the tension in his muscles making the veins pop from under his skin.

‘Now we help Reece and Adara and then figure out how to get out,’ I told them, slightly annoyed at the stupid question.

‘Right, but how? ’ Cadmus asked, and I noted the distress in his tone even though I didn’t look away from Addy again.

‘I don’t know yet. Now shush.’ I focused back on Addy and ignored the way I could feel Bromm’s stare boring a whole into the back of my head. ‘Addy, sweetheart, can you focus on me?’

Her eyelids briefly peeled open to reveal her vibrantly pink, cross-eyed orbs before they closed again.

‘That’s it,’ I cooed. ‘You can do it. Focus on me just for a little longer, sweetheart.’

With a herculean effort she was finally able to keep them open and vaguely pointed in my direction. ‘Well done. You’re doing so well. Now, I know this isn’t what you want to do, but I need you to tell me what they did to you. Anything you can remember. Can you do that?’

She whimpered again, her entire body shaking as the fresh memories bombarded her. I hated to do it, but I needed to know what I was working with so I could get her out of here safely. So, I told her as much.

Her mouth opened slightly, then closed again without a single sound released.

I tried a different tactic. ‘Okay, that’s fine. I’m going to ask you some questions, and I just want you to tell me if I’m right or not. Does that sound a bit better?’

‘Y-yes,’ she croaked.

‘Okay. I can see that they cut you. This is a horrible question, but were you awake when they did that?’

A single tear trickled out of her eye, dropping down her head to tangle in her hair. ‘Y-‘ she started, but a sob cut her off.

‘Yes? Okay, you’re doing so good, sweetheart. Just a little longer. Did you see what they put inside you?’

‘Sil-ver…’

‘A silver substance? Okay. Was it solid or liquid?’

‘Li-quid. S-syri-nge.’

‘Well done, Addy. Do you know where they injected you?’

‘B-bo-nes.’ The effort it took for her to talk caused her to cough and red blood with a silvery shimmer splattered over her chin. Shit.

‘Okay. It’s okay. Just a little more. Did they do anything else?’

‘M-made us… w-watch.’

I already knew that that would leave some serious mental and emotional scars, but there wasn’t anything to be done for it now. ‘You’ve done amazing, Addy. That’s all I need. You can rest now. We’ll be watching over you, okay? You’re safe now.’

She was unconscious before I’d even finished speaking, but I kept going anyway for my own sake. Seeing her this way shook me more than I wanted to admit. She was too kind and wonderful to be tortured like this. I never wanted this for any of them, and a part of me felt responsible even though I knew, logically, that my presence in their lives had nothing to do with The Program’s actions. They’d been planning on obtaining Nova Station for a while, that much was obvious, but the guilt persisted, nonetheless.

A deep breath later and my emotions were securely locked away, my mask firmly back in place. Double-checking that Addy was still breathing before I left her, I made my way over to where the others were hovering over Reece, unsure what to do. Even Henrik with his ever-present medical knowledge and caretaking personality didn’t dare touch him.

I scooted between them to examine him for myself. The first thing I checked was that he was still alive – he was, thank the stars. Then I examined his wounds. They were almost an exact replica of the ones Adara bore, but that didn’t necessarily mean they’d performed the same procedure. For all I knew, they’d injected her with the nanites but attempted to graft them the old-fashioned way into him.

I did the only thing I could think of to check. Gently prying open one of the cuts, I stuck my finger inside for a moment before removing it, ignoring the men’s sounds of protest and revulsion around me. Then I held it up under the light to examine it.

And there it was. That silvery shimmer I’d seen in Addy’s blood. The very same shimmer that could be found in my own, and Libby’s.

Both of them had been injected with nanites, straight into their bone marrow. More than likely directly into their bloodstream as well, if it was already presenting there.

‘So we’ve got good news and we’ve got bad news. Which would you like first?’ I asked the room.

‘Bad. Just get it out of the way,’ said Cadmus. No one disputed him.

‘Okay, so they’ve been injected with nanotechnology. I don’t know what their nanites have been programmed to do, exactly. It’s different each time, and they can be reprogrammed if done so regularly. The bad news is that they’re in a lot of pain right now and it will last for quite some time.’

‘You…?’ Dorian asked tentatively. He didn’t need to finish his question for me to understand, and I nodded grimly.

‘The good news?’ asked Urman, staring at Adara across the room with an expression of pure horror. I guessed he was the one who had dry-heaved at the sight of them, his sickly, pale green pallor giving him away.

‘The good news is that the nanites have most likely been programmed to heal their hosts. It will be a long process for the nanites to settle into their roles, but both Reece and Adara will begin to heal soon. And fast.’

‘What does that mean, exactly?’ asked Henrik, the prospect of advanced healing capabilities bringing forth his curiosity.

I could understand his confusion, or perhaps it was more scepticism, but explaining it would be a lot more difficult than simply showing them what would happen. I took one of the metal cuffs and snapped it in half, ignoring the shocked gasps from a few of the men in the room and the unimpressed scoff from T. I got the impression it was directed more towards the others’ ignorance over The Program’s subjects’ abilities rather than my display, however. He already knew what I was doing, but the others were in for a surprise. And a rough adjustment of their new reality.

I used the sharp end of the newly snapped cuff and pressed it into the skin of my left arm, dragging it down to form a deep gash along my forearm

‘What are you doing, love?’ Bromm exclaimed in alarm, then rushed to me in a panic to wrestle the makeshift weapon from my grip. I let him have it, the damage already done.

In response I raised my arm for them all to see, the wound healing within a few ticks with only my blood leftover to prove it had ever been there.

Urman looked like he was going to be sick, his already green hued skin turning an even more prominent and sickly shade. Dorian looked a little put out, but mostly thoughtful. Cadmus’ jaw was flapping open like he was desperately gasping for air, which may have been the case because I was pretty sure he’d stopped breathing for a moment. Henrik, however, stepped forward to grab my arm and take a closer look.

‘Astounding, ’ he breathed the word, eyes alight with wonder. ‘There isn’t even a scar…’

‘So you have these nanites, too?’ asked Dorian. ‘They’ll be able to heal like that?’

‘For the most part,’ I conceded. ‘I don’t know specifically how fast they’ll heal, but it likely won’t be as fast as me. My nanites were originally programmed to fight off terminal cancer, and lots of it. They’ve formed a unique bond with my body, which they should do with Reece and Adara individually, too.’

‘Wait… cancer?’ Bromm questioned.

‘Yes. I was first entered into the program while I had multiple forms of terminal cancer,’ I admitted. ‘My nanites are a little… overprotective when it comes to fighting off anything that shouldn’t be inside me, hence the voraciously advanced healing.’

‘Is no one going to address the fact that we’re stuck here?’ T cut in impatiently, gesturing toward the doorway that was currently blocked off by the invisible shield.

All of us turned at once to stare at the doorway. It was open and looked like we could just walk right out without any issue, but we all knew that wasn’t the case. I would have been annoyed with Cadmus for attempting to leave after I’d already been thrown on my ass by whatever technology they were using to keep us in, but I was glad for the demonstration of its capabilities. Now I knew it wasn’t attuned only to me somehow, which meant it was a broad-range piece of technology and not a personal attack. Once I figured out how to get out, they wouldn’t be able to use it on me again to any real effect.

When everyone gathered around the doorway to look for a way past the shield, Bromm pulled me aside. He looked me square in the eyes with an intensity that made me both tense up while simultaneously wanting to melt into him. ‘Our conversation isn’t over, my love.’

I softened at his clear concern and raised my hand to cup his cheek. ‘I’m fine, but I’ll tell you anything you want to know once we’re out of here, I promise.’

‘How touching,’ Demari’s voice interrupted, and I whirled around to see the others had backed away from the door where the man in question stood. ‘And very… insightful.’

‘What do you want now, Demari?’ I ground out through my suddenly clamped jaw.

‘Why, to finish what we started, precious girl.’

‘Fuck off. You know already know it won’t work.’

I could see through my periphery how each and every one of them turned curious and worried eyes on me, and I could feel their fear like a physical caress: cold and sharp, like a knife’s edge scratching along my skin.

‘Yet. There are other methods we will be implementing.’

I barked out a laugh. ‘What other methods? You’ve tried every possible way already and nothing worked.’

His slow, knowing smile filled me with dread, and I realised he wasn’t going to let this go. He was going to keep attempting to inseminate me until I produced a child. But how?

‘Your nanites are… I wouldn’t say defective , but certainly an obstacle to overcome in our efforts. However, though they don’t like to take instruction from us anymore, they do seem to react to you.’

My entire body vibrated with trepidation, especially when his gaze slid from mine to the man standing beside me still holding my hand. I did not like where this was going.

‘The nanites haven’t accepted any sperm from a donor, nor did it accept mine.’ The room filled with the sounds of sharp inhales as he dropped that bomb, and Bromm’s hand squeezed mine even tighter almost to the point of pain. ‘But there is one thing we haven’t tried,’ he hinted, eyes now firmly locked on my hand interlocked with Bromm’s.

No…

‘You will copulate with your little… friend . Since you seem to like him and you are perfectly fertile despite the nanite’s intervention, we theorise that they will accept his sperm.’

‘What the fuck?’ blurted Cadmus and Dorian simultaneously.

Their outburst drew Demari’s attention away from me and Bromm, but it settled ominously on T instead of them.

‘Ah. The traitorous guard. You were stationed at the same facility as Subjects A-173 and L-387, correct?’

T didn’t respond, but there was a rigidity to his stance that, combined with his presence here with us, gave Demari the confirmation he was searching for.’

‘Well, we can’t have that now, can we?’ he taunted, pulling his holo-tab from where it hung on his belt. Holding it out in front of him, a hologram emerged to hover above the screen for us all to see. The image finally got a reaction out of T and he stepped towards the barrier, eyes intent on the hologram.

He wasn’t the only one, though. Foryk also stepped up beside him, his reaction an exact mirroring of T’s.

It hit me, then, looking at the two of them side-by-side. Even through T’s mask, I could now see the resemblance and I wondered how I’d failed to connect the dots when they were so obvious. They had the same burgundy colouring, the same broad shoulders… Stars, even the same mannerisms.

Movement on the hologram let us know that it wasn’t a still picture but a video, and the sick feeling in my gut told me it was live.

I recognised the man tied up, his face already beaten, bruised and bloody. He was another one of The Program’s guards, and even more connections suddenly lit up in my mind.

‘Your mother is, unfortunately, currently occupied and inaccessible, so we shall have to settle for using your father to set an example,’ Demari stated.

He pressed a button on the holo-tab and a voice came through. ‘Boss?’

‘You can kill him now,’ he ordered indifferently, like he was talking about the weather.

‘NO!’ both Foryk and T yelled as they charged at the barrier. The blue-hued holographic depiction of their father became a gruesome sight. A gun was pointed at his head and the owner immediately pulled the trigger. His head snapped to the side from the force of the blow, then he slumped to the floor. We could clearly see the gaping hole in the side of his head, smoke rising from the fatal wound, and even through the hologram I could see the emptiness in his eyes.

Both Tornus were thrown back when they collided with the shield, but when they got up for a second attempt and saw their father, dead and gone, they collapsed to their knees with twin cries of pure anguish.

In that moment, my past with T didn’t matter. I rushed over to his side and threw myself around him, holding him tight as if my arms alone could keep the pieces of him from floating away. He leaned into me, his entire form shaking from the force of his heart-wrenching sobs, and I clung to him as hard as I could.

‘Fuck the Griknot, Subject A-173. I want you pregnant by the time I return,’ were Demari’s parting words before he spun on his heels and sauntered off.

T let out a tormented scream and pushed me off. I could have held on, but I released him, understanding that he probably didn’t want me touching him right now when our relationship was so strained.

Bromm was holding Foryk much the same way I had held T, but Foryk didn’t even seem to notice. Despite the tears tracking down his cheeks, the shock had set in and he was staring at the spot Demari had just left, a vacant look in his eyes eerily reminiscent of his father’s.

‘Fuck.’ The breathy curse came from Dorian and was quickly echoed through the rest of the group.

My eyes met Bromm’s over Foryk’s head, a deep-seated fear now encompassing them, right alongside a comprehension of the situation we’d found ourselves in. Here, in this room, and for the very first time, we were going to have to have sex. In front of everyone.

Stars, in front of T.

But who knew how many lives were at risk if we didn’t comply?