Lana nodded, watching him turn and leave the small room. Then a sudden realization struck her like a bolt of lightning, and she rushed to catch up with him, grabbing his arm.
“You asked what I knew about the Captain and Belix,” she said insistently. “Why?”
Dax looked at her sadly with his striking green eyes. “I think you know why,” he said quietly.
And with shock, Lana realized why those eyes seemed so notable: because they looked so much like Aiden's. And suddenly so many other things about the two men, from their blond hair, to their strong, handsome features, to their height, seemed to mark them as related. How had she never noticed that before?
The young man pulled away, leaving her to stare after him with horror and revulsion. Not for him, but for his . . . his parents.
Aiden and Belix.
Of course. Belix had tricked the captain into giving her some sperm, probably in the obvious way, and then tried to have his child for her breeding program. Then she must've tested the fetus and discovered that their offspring was “genetically inferior”, and turned him into a construct instead.
No wonder Aiden would barely look at Dax. Had he known what the Ishivi was doing? Had he approved? And if not, why hadn't he tried to stop it, or at least tried to be a father to his son? Lana had seen how families were supposed to be on Callous, but she saw nothing of that in how the three acted towards each other.
Poor Dax. He'd told her outright that the Ishivi made constructs of their unwanted offspring, but she'd thought he meant they gave them to some heartless societal engine that chewed them up and spat them out as ideal servants. She couldn't have even conceived of the notion that Ishivi would turn their own children into genetically altered, speed-grown slaves for personal use.
What sort of monsters were the Ishivi? What sort of monsters were Belix and Barix? Lana felt sick at the thought that the weaselly little man had tried to get some of her eggs. That some child of hers might've ended up like Dax. And she'd thought he was the bad twin! With what she knew now, she had to wonder if his sister was even worse.
But the Ishivi were one thing . . . what sort of monster was Aiden, for letting them do that sort of thing aboard his ship? To his own son?
Lana retreated to her room and curled up on her bed, trying to sort through everything she'd just learned, and how she felt about it. And how it changed how she felt about the rest of the crew, now that she knew.
Eventually, weariness finally won out over her roiling thoughts, and she felt herself slipping down into sleep. She was almost there when, with a start, she remembered that at one point not long after she'd first come aboard, she'd asked Dax if he had a crush on Belix.
No wonder he'd reacted the way he had!
Chapter Sixteen
Fallout
Aiden opened his eyes languidly as Ali stirred in his arms, then closed them again for a moment and made a contented noise as she began kissing her way down his chest. “Best way to wake up,” he murmured, smiling down at her.
“Mmm,” she replied, dark blue eyes peeking impishly up at him from beneath the sheet. “It's a surprise you ever settle down enough to get to sleep in the first place.”
He snorted. “Are you programmed to congratulate yourself on how good you are?”
“It's a mere statement of fact, my love.” His companion began working her way down his stomach again.
She'd almost reached her anticipated destination when Aiden's door buzzer began ringing insistently, making him jump; nobody ever used that thing, they just contacted him over the comms.
He groaned as Ali abandoned her efforts and smoothly slipped out of bed to begin dressing, tossing him his uniform. “Go away!” he yelled, although he doubted the sound would carry through the sturdy door.
The ringing continued, and he groaned again when it ended, only to immediately be replaced by a heavy pounding on the door. Whoever was out there must be seriously bruising their fist.
Cursing under his breath, he tossed the sheet aside and began pulling on his uniform. The pounding continued the entire time . . . was the idiot out there kicking the door now?
Ali finished dressing with her usual flawless efficiency and got to work arranging Aiden's hair and scrubbing his face with a soft wet cloth. He impatiently waved her aside as he finished straightening his uniform and stalked towards the door, ready to show whichever imbecile on his crew had interrupted his pleasant morning the verbal equivalent of pounding on the door as he yanked it open.
The words strangled in his throat when he saw Lana standing there, leg cocked back as if to kick the door again. She was dressed in the nightgown Ali had given her, one of the few the companion had that wasn't racy, and her lustrous reddish-blond hair was tousled from sleep.
Which was odd, since she looked as if she hadn't gotten much; her face was pale and taut with weariness, and she had bags under her eyes. But in spite of that her expression was fierce as she barged into his cabin the moment he opened the door enough.
“Um, come in,” Aiden said sarcastically, closing the door behind her.
Lana whirled towards him. “Is it true?” she demanded. “Did you let Belix turn your own son into a construct?”
He froze, caught completely flatfooted by the accusation. Then his shock turned to irritation, mostly at himself. It was only a matter of time before she found out; he should've been prepared to react with more composure to her questions. That, or better yet told her himself.
Was it Belix who'd told the girl? Hard to believe even that
