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Chapter One
Pulling air into her lungs was the hardest thing she had ever done, but Lyra managed it. The heavy wheeze of her breath was the only sound in her room, but as she rolled to her side, she heard a shrill beeping.
This was wrong. Everything was wrong.
She was wearing a white gown of soft fabric and knew she didn’t own anything like it. She favoured T-shirts or nothing.
A woman in a version of a medical tunic and skirt came into the room via a silvery door. She stared for a moment, and Lyra stared back. The woman concisely said, “Oh!” and backed out of the room, closing the door.
Lyra pushed to a sitting position and rubbed her hand, blinking at the texture. Her skin felt weird, like super soft, and the scars that she was used to weren’t there. The nails were neatly trimmed and not like her bitten fingertips.
She pulled her hair around and stared at the navy blue.Oh shit. This isn’t me. Who the hell am I?
The door opened again, and a man in medical clothing was with the woman. “By the stars, it worked.”
Lyra looked at them and swung her legs off the bed. She slowly stood and stared at the two beings who where decidedly larger than she.
She swayed, and her feet felt the cold radiating from the floor. She licked her lips. “Who are you, and why am I in this body? I don’t belong here.”
The woman folded her hands together. “Where do you think you belong?”
“I was drowning. Dying. I couldn’t breathe. The floodwater had me, and I was tangled in debris. The world got dark, and then I woke up here. The problem is, this isn’t my body.” The words tumbled as she had in the floodwaters.
The medical team looked at each other. The woman said, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, this isn’t my body. How tall are you?”
The woman frowned. “Average height.”
“What species are you?” She looked at the other two, and they were vaguely human but had silvery skin, dark lines around their eyes, and ears that were pointed and nearly elfin.
They looked at each other, and the female went to a cupboard and brought a mirror out. “We are the same species that you are, miss. Now, what is your name?”
She stared into a mirror where her blue hair, violet eyes, and pearlescent skin were not what she remembered having. Her ears were pointed, and her lips were blushing pink. She was pretty.Damn.“This isn’t my face.”
Lyra didn’t know what they were supposed to do or say, but it wasn’t her face. It wasn’t her body. She had been a grey person. Unremarkable in every way—brown hair, brown eyes and skin that spoke to her muddled genetics. Her body had been straight, and this new one had curves everywhere she looked, but she needed to know what to do when the original owner came back.
“Who do you think I am?” she challenged.
The male smiled slightly. “Omega Yten.”
She frowned. Omega had an identifying sense to it, and Yten was a number. Three.
“That isn’t a name.”
The woman inclined her head. “We are depending on you to provide your name.”
“Lyra. What do the other identifiers mean?”
“You are an omega and the third attempt to renew your designation in our population.”
“Designation?”
The male smiled. “Let us do health checks and scan your brain output.”
“Will it hurt?”
He shook his head. “No. You are a precious output of the project. Injury is the last thing we want.”
