It was all academic if I couldn’t get out of this damn room first.
“The baby is fine,” Junic said. “And it appears he’s already beginning to show.”
That caught my attention. So, I was right.
But, wait…
“How is that possible?” I said. “I’ve only been pregnant a few days. It usually takes months before I show.”
“That’s a human pregnancy,” Junic said absentmindedly and focused her attention on her handheld device with its blinking numbers and flickering lights. “This is an alien pregnancy. Not all creatures have such long reproduction cycles. The baby looks very healthy. Would you like to see it?”
I gulped. Would I?
Under normal circumstances, I would, but this… this was madness.
I was surprised to find myself nodding.
“Yes. Please.”
Please? Ugh.
I should never utter that word to these people.
Junic turned the device to show me. It was nothing like the ultrasound scans we had back on Earth. This device showed me a three-dimensional image of the baby inside the womb—my womb!
For a moment, all concerns of attempting to escape slipped from me and I could barely believe what I was looking at.
A baby.
My baby.
It stared straight back at me, its arm waving. At least, I thought that was what it was doing.
“Hello, little guy,” I said, reaching out and touching his extended hand.
With tears in my eyes, I looked up at Junic.
“How did you…? I’m not supposed to be able to have kids.”
“I did a little poking around and fixed your problem,” she said. “It really wasn’t that difficult.”
I turned back to that floating image of my curled-up fetus of a baby. It really was a miracle of life, that something that size could develop and become like the other complex life in the room.
But what sort of life was it going to have in this place if I couldn’t get free?
Everything fake-Lily had said before had most likely been bullshit—about me going home and taking the baby with me. They wouldn’t go to all this effort if that was the case, and why refuse to allow us to have birth control?
It didn’t add up.
The shifter girl cleared her throat behind Junic.
“Are we done now?” she said, turning away and bored to tears.
“Almost,” Junic said, taking the device from me and checking the readouts one last time. “According to the results… You’ll be giving birth within the next two days.”
My jaw fell open.
“Two days? How long was I unconscious before?”
“A few hours,” Junic said. “Some species don’t take long to gestate. Congratulations. Very soon, you will be a mother to a very healthy and happy baby boy.”
A boy…
I wondered if he would look like his father. I wondered if Trayem would even learn he had a son.
I needed to make sure he knew.
“Doctor?” I said. “Can I tell you something?”
“Sure,” Junic said. “What is it?”
“It’s… of a personal nature.”
She stepped forward and leaned in close so her ear was in front of my mouth.
I used the opportunity to slip my hand in her pocket and wrap my hand around the needle device.
“Sleep tight,” I said.
Junic’s eyes alighted with surprise as I jammed the device in her neck. She bolted backward from the shock. She slapped a hand to where the needle had bitten her.
“Catch her!” I yelled. “She’s going to fall!”
I couldn’t care less if she collapsed to the floor but the guards reacted out of instinct and bent down to catch her.
I dodged between them with the injector device in my outstretched hand and slammed it in shifter girl’s hand as she reached for me.
She hissed through her teeth.
I slipped past her.
Meatball head was on her other side. I didn’t need to worry about him. He was too distant to reach me.
I checked over my shoulder as I barreled for the door. There was no one in front of me. The others were still reacting to the breakout.
I was going to escape! I was going to get out of there!
Another pair of strong arms scooped me up and wrapped around me, holding me tight in their strong embrace.
I made to bring the injector gun around to jam in his face but never got that far.
I just stared.
“Trayem?”
His expression was blank and hard to read as he bundled me up and carried me back toward the padded room.
“No!” I screamed. “Trayem! No! Don’t do this! Trayem! No!”
Trayem
The fist struck me in the face with such force I thought my eye was going to explode.
I welcomed it.
I deserved it.
Unlike in the previous fight I was meant to lose, I had no intention of even trying to win this one.
My opponent was an enormous hierog, one of the true brawler species in the prison. They stuck together like glue and weren’t built to fight one on one. They were pack hunters and preferred to pummel their prey into submission in groups. Their prey wasn’t small either. On their native planet, they were huge monsters that dwarfed much of what could be found in the rest of the galaxy.
This hierog systematically demolished me with his fists. He did not play to the crowd or turn his back on me as my previous opponent had.
Even if I hadn’t been told to lose this fight, I would have struggled to beat such a formidable opponent. But no fighter was perfect. There were weaknesses to exploit if you knew where to look.
A fist in the face followed immediately by an elbow in the ribs, and I hit the ground. I lost my balance and skidded along the craggy rocks that tore my cheek open, leaving a streak of blood across the fine sand.
The crowd loved it. They cheered, baying for more.
I doubted I could take much more, not that the hierog would stop the moment I lost consciousness. I was certain he would continue to pulverize me with his fists every moment he could and wouldn’t have noticed my body hanging limp and lifeless.
My life rested in his giant hands. It wasn’t a life I much cared to live any longer anyway.
No matter
