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“And you did this to mewhen?”
Another uncomfortable shift from him.“As you slept.”
He opened his mouth to speak again, and I held up a hand to silence him, closing my eyes for a moment and taking a few deep breaths.Despite my anger, I didn’t know how far his patience would extend if I continued screaming at him.He was, after all, twice my size.“Let me get this straight,” I said, balling my hand into a fist and bringing it to my side, slowly opening my eyes before holding his eye contact.“You followed me after we parted ways yesterday, then when I was asleep, you read my mind to learn my language and then spent all morningnottelling me you could understand me?”
His eyes darted about as if looking for help, and again, I almost laughed.“Yes.”
“Vitri.”I placed a palm flat on his chest, and if possible, he looked even more alarmed than he had a moment before.What did he think I was going to do to him?I knew what hehopedI would do to him, but he seemed switched on enough to realize that wasn’t about to happen.“You do understand how incredibly fucked up that is, right?Or are our cultures that different that reading someone’s mind while they sleep is just a totally okay thing to do here?”
“I understand it was wrong, and I’m sorry.I only wanted to help you, and you weren’t letting me get close enough to get your language.But then you let me touch you this morning… and I realized if I had waited a few hours, I could have done it with your permission.But by then, it was too late, and I didn’t know how to tell you.”
Okay, so I guess that made sense.
“Are you afraid of me?”I asked.His bright eyes were still wide, and he hadn’t moved away nor made any move to get me out of his personal space.
A slight frown creased his forehead.“I’m afraid of disappointing you.I only want to help.”
“Why?”He said nothing and looked around again.I flicked his chest with my fingernail to get his attention.I would have flicked his nipple if he had any.“Why do you want to help me?”
“Can we please sit down?I have a lot to tell you.”
“Fucking right, you do.”
Vitri frowned again.“You use that word a lot and often out of context.”
“What?Fuck?”
My eyebrows shot up as he trembled slightly before answering.“Yes.”
I sighed.“It’s just how I talk, Vitri.It releases tension for me.It’s called swearing.”
“You must be very tense.”
I eyed him, unsure if he was messing with me or being serious.The slightest twitch of his lip gave him away, and I almost smiled.Almost.
“I think I have reason to be, don’t you agree?”Vitri only nodded and sunk to the ground on the spot, patting his knee.I chuckled, but it was hollow.“I’m not going to sit on your lap.”I sat opposite him, tucking my legs underneath me so as not to expose myself by being cross-legged in front of him, given the fact my pants had no fabric to cover my crotch, thanks to my asshole abductors.“Spill.Tell me everything.”
“My creators still live on this planet—”
“Whoa, don’t just glaze over something like that… yourcreators?Like, you’re a cyborg?”I glanced around, searching between the trees before looking up.“Or are there literalgodson this planet?”I mean, I had no way of knowing the kind of power that existed in the far reaches of the galaxies—it was technically possible.Weren’t almost all things technically possible?The idea thrilled and terrified me.On one hand, super-powerful beings were a scary thought, but on the other, they could get me home.
But Vitri shot down my epic fantasies with his answer, which was, granted, fascinating in itself.“I’m a synthetic organism.I breathe, eat, live, and die.I’m alive in every sense, but I was created in a lab, engineered for a purpose.”
“What purpose?”
“If you’ll let me explain for more than seven words at a time, I’ll tell you.”
My jaw dropped, but he had that damn smirk plastered on his face again, and I couldn’t stop my lips from lifting into a small smile.“All right, fine… tell me your story.I’ll be quiet.”
“My creators, the Ghaal, were a dying species brought to the brink of extinction by their own violent nature.The result of chemical warfare left the remaining numbers with fertility issues.Most of the Ghaal left the planet to search for somewhere else to inhabit, and they took the knowledge of most of their technology with them.Since their departure, nature has flourished, taking back the areas the Ghaal no longer occupy.”
Then Vitri looked grim and pressed his lips together in a thin line before he continued, “Those remaining created my kind, the Synths.Six of us in total.The Ghaal, despite their advancement, are superstitious about the number six.We were designed to learn and adapt to our environment, physically…” he held his arms wide, and my vision swept over his green skin and the vines, “… as well as enhanced learning abilities.”Vitri pressed a thumb and forefinger to his head before holding his hand in the space between us.“And, of course, to breed with enhanced libidos, attraction pheromones, and the ability to change genders.”Vitri sighed, and I frowned, wondering how long it had been since he’d told this story.“What the Ghaal didn’t count on was that my brothers and I would see them for what they were, and in the end, we would refuse to help and turn our backs on the colony.They are a violent race and not worth saving if they cannot learn to treat themselves and others better.”
He paused and closed his eyes tightly.I touched his knee, and Vitri’s eyes shot open.He stared at me with such intensity that an entire world of emotions played across his features I couldn’t begin to imagine.“Why am I here?”I asked, and he closed his eyes again, and panic and dread settled in my stomach.“You know, don’t you?You know why I’m here.That’s why you’re trying so hard to look after me.”
“The Ghaal became desperate after being cut off from intergalactic trade—no one is to leave or arrive on this planet anymore.They employed the assistance of another species, the Moeks, to help.The Moeks are also dwindling in numbers, but unlike the Ghaal, they are mostly peaceful.The deal is this—the Moeks search the galaxies for potentially suitable life forms to breed with.If they do not suit the Moeks, they dump them here for the Ghaal to try in exchange for food and fuel, both abundantly available here.”
My stomach dropped, and I made an involuntary choking sound I couldn’t cover—for the Ghaal totrylike we were disposable.“On the ship…” I piped up, and Vitri looked at me with sad eyes, “… they probed the other girls and me, but when they cut my clothes off…” I shuddered, and Vitri made a low moaning sound, “… they didn’t seem to like what they saw, and they dropped us here.”
