Angel 6.0 Episode I Concubine: Chapter 6

Captain Cronin led me through a winding maze of corridors, and I noticed right away the lack of grav-spin fluctuation. The entire ship had a constant rate of gravity throughout. I’d heard of this before – artificial gravity. A memory surfaced of something recent in Earthside media about negotiations with the Gran to acquire their gravity generation technology.

I liked the predictability of constant grav, but I didn’t care for the lightness of it. I estimated it at three quarter gravity. I felt light enough to bounce off the walls and ceilings. D’Anton had preached about this stuff endlessly. Humans were not made for zero G. It causes too many health problems over time. Loss of bone density, circulatory problems, muscle atrophy. On and on he’d complained.

Then he’d brag how it wasn’t a problem for me. D’Anton said I could adapt. My bone density and body tissues automatically compensated for loss of gravity. I was the first person designed to live in varying fluctuations of gravity, even zero G.

Watching closely to learn my way around, all I had seen so far was hallways. The doors were sealed, no windows. I got the sense of a utilitarian design, like a freight hauler, or maybe something military. Definitely not a luxury cruiser with a buffet and dance halls. We came to a corridor where I could hear murmurs and smell scents of something familiar – people. A series of barred cells lined each side of the hallway. Bars on three sides of each cell and a steel back wall that stretched all the way across the cell block.

Most of the cages were filled with five or more worker drones I recognized from Nugene Station. The Gran had a full cargo hold, a hundred plus men. The Captain eyed them appraisingly and growled commands to open three of the cells.

The Warrior opened a cell and pulled a short dark-haired male with olive skin. One of the Asians. From another cell they pulled a taller dark skinned male with hair buzzed off completely. From a third cell they pulled a medium build male with creamy, tanned skin and brown hair.

The lineup represented each of the three different clone stocks produced on Nugene. D’Anton had explained that the Gran had been given a series of choices from the races of humanity and these were the genotypes they picked for laborers. The men wore the light blue jumpsuits of Nugene, similar to the one I wore. Except their clothes looked relatively clean. My suit was shredded and covered in blood stains. And I stunk.

Smelling myself, I looked to the facilities inside the cells with envy. They had sinks with running water, toilets, and a shower stall. Similar to the clone dorms on Nugene, except these were steam showers dripping water – real water. I wondered if these cell designs came from the Gran, or from Nugene officials advising the Gran of our basic requirements…

Captain Cronin’s claws on my shoulder brought my attention back to the men standing in front of me. “Pick your mate.”

The romance of the moment escaped me.

This was not how I imagined my life. These men were nothing like Carver, D’Anton, and the other doctors on the station. They were programmed worker drones. Docile, simple, unintelligent. I had never seen anyone attempt to hold a conversation with worker drones. D’Anton claimed their mental development was purposely stunted, to avoid … issues.

They were not unattractive men, but when I looked in their eyes, I could not see the character, personality and intricate individualism of the people I had known. These men were shadows of humanity.

I suspected they lacked any real libido.

Fighting against the urge to toss Cronin across the room by the hand he’d clamped on my shoulder, I looked up to him and tried to impart the meaning I could barely communicate in his language. “Clones no make babies. Clones not perform.”

He watched me with what I assumed must be Cat suspicion. I wasn’t accustomed to the nuances of their facial expressions and communication. He hadn’t gotten the point yet. I moved away from his grasp and stepped up to the man on the left. Watching him to make sure he didn’t get spooked, I reached out and felt for confirmation.

The guy had a pair, and a bit of cock on him too, but his eyes only registered confusion. No arousal, no cognizance of what my hand was doing there.

I turned back to Cronin. “No good mate.”

The last thing I needed was the Gran forcing me to copulate with a drone that couldn’t get it up.

The Captain growled, seemingly in consideration of my words. He looked to the Warrior at his side. “Bring us the Criminal.”

I stood puzzled and watched as the Warrior strolled to the end of the cell block and opened a cell I had assumed was empty. He roused someone off the floor. The Warrior dragged him from the cell. The face of the man who emerged was obscured by a scraggly, reddish-brown beard and shaggy, unkempt, dark brown hair. The Warrior pushed the drones aside and brought the man forward to face me.

He reeked of sweat. Clearly hadn’t bathed in a while.

He pulled his hair out of his eyes and looked me up and down. “How the fuck did you end up in this shithole?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. My laughter became giggles. The Warrior holding the Criminal looked angrier by the second, as if we somehow mocked his authority.

I growled quickly to avoid violence against this funny man. “He smells bad.”

All three Cats broke into hissing laughter, and now the man was staring at me with a squint of distrust.

“You actually speak their language? What are you? Defense Council? An interpreter?”

I shook my head. I had no explanation for what I was. None that would make sense. “I am a prisoner here, like you.”

His dark brown eyes held my attention. “Well, we may be prisoners here … but you ain’t nothing like me, darlin’.”

He had an accent and speech patterns like those ancient archived holovids, the ones with gunslingers and horses. He sounded like John Wayne.

I sensed the Captain moving up behind me before his meaty claws landed on my shoulder. I could feel his satisfaction without looking at him. “No more excuses. You will mate with the Criminal.”

When he said it that way, almost sounded like fun.

The man’s eyes narrowed at the Captain’s grip on me. “What the fuck do they want now?”

I sighed. There was no way to sugarcoat it, so I didn’t try. “He wants me to have your child.”

It was the Criminal’s turn to break into full-throated laughter.

* * * *

The Captain locked me in the Criminal’s cell, just the two of us. I sat on the edge of the steel bench that looked like it was intended to serve as a bed. The Criminal leaned against the bars and watched me watching him.

“Well … isn’t this awkward?” He grinned.

I grinned. “Yes.”

The Gran loitered at the barred door of the cell watching me and the Criminal as we grinned at each other. In all my days spent in the lab with D’Anton, I had never felt like an experiment. I felt like one now.

The Criminal glanced at Captain Cronin waiting on the other side of the steel bars. “Why don’t you get a camera and some popcorn, make a night of it?” He glanced my way. “Ain’t no hurry.”

I couldn’t help but snicker. This Criminal was funny. Obstinate, obnoxious, and funny. I liked him already. His eyes watched me the way the men on the station watched me. I knew he wanted me, but his stance spoke of indignation. He didn’t want me like this, here, in front of the watching Cats and worker drones.

“They can’t make us … this is ridiculous.” He shook his head and sent a dirty look to Captain Cronin. “They already got a bunch of cookie cutter clones to do all their slave labor, why the hell do they need you to give them babies? There’s no way this is sanctioned by the Defense Council. The DC lets the Gran buy illegal, idiot clones, but nothing more.”

“It’s not their fault. The clones. They were made the way they are. No one gave them a choice.”

He scoffed. “You don’t have to defend them to me. They are unnatural abominations. What Nugene is doing is totally illegal. When Luna and Earthside learn the truth…”

I suddenly felt dirty and sick inside. Like my whole existence was flawed. Wrong. I was the unnatural abomination he spoke of. I had never quite fit with anyone, because I was not made to fit, I was not made by natural means. Then it occurred to me I hadn’t mentioned Nugene to him.

“What do you know of Nugene? I’ve never seen you there before.”

“There are people who know. The Station isn’t that big of a secret. Let me guess, you were one of the doctors or nurses? Gonna preach your moral justifications for creating these freaks of nature?” He flung his thumb towards the worker drones standing on the other side of the bars separating our cells. “How does it feel to be a victim of the slavers? Not so good eh?

“I’m not a doctor or a nurse and I don’t work for Nugene! I was kidnapped by the Gran! They killed everyone I loved.” I wanted to hit him he made me so angry. “Mankind living in the vacuum of space is unnatural. Artificial gravity that keeps us standing on this floor is unnatural. Jumpships visiting planets thousands of light years from here are unnatural. Do not speak to me of nature in this place. My life has never touched the nature of Earthside.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I was captured too, but that’s a long story. The point remains the same. Whether you’re Colonial, born in the backseat of a jumpship, or Earthside living in the five hundredth floor penthouse suite, no matter where you come from, you can agree that it’s a nasty business to supply illegal worker drones to the Cats!” He jabbed his finger in the direction of the worker drones on the other side of the bars separating our cells.

“You see those cages full of idiots who will work until they die? Nobody knows they exist. This is the sealed portion of the Treaty that was never divulged to the media. We didn’t win the war, though it’s possible we could have. Instead, the DC brokered a deal. The Cats get to buy human slaves in exchange for minerals, and they agree to stop blasting the shit out of us. Perfect solution! No one Earthside or Colonial has to get their hands dirty or send their children off to war. Worked out great for everybody – except them.”

He waved his arm at the cell full of men who stared at us with their emotionless, simple looks. I was at a complete loss for words. Suddenly, everything that had never made sense began to align. The entire Nugene Station operation was run in secret. I was a secret. My existence was illegal. The Criminal had assumed I was a Colonial, born somewhere off in space on Luna or Mars.

The Criminal’s intense gaze seated into my soul. “I’ll be damned if I give these Cats a perfectly good human child to throw into slave labor.”

Before I could say a word, or ask any of my burning questions, Captain Cronin cut in. “If the Criminal will not breed, he will be punished.” I caught the Captain’s eyes, and knew he would not hesitate to hurt this man. I couldn’t let them kill the Criminal. He was too important to me, to my escape, to learning the truth that Carver and D’Anton had hidden from me all my life. I suspected the Criminal had seen a life that no one on the station had experienced.

I stood and approached him. “The Captain says he will punish you if you don’t cooperate.”

The Criminal’s eyes hardened and he squinted at the Captain, then me. “I don’t give a shit. I’m not here to put on a fuck show, and I definitely won’t give them anymore human slaves. If you’re in such a hurry to please them, go fuck the damn drones.” He was suddenly angry, hurtful.

“I don’t work for the Gran. I don’t work for the Defense Council. They took me from Nugene Station.”

He watched me, and his eyes hardened even more. He didn’t believe me. They were going to kill him if he fought them…

I moved in close despite his rank smell. “Please. This ship is jumping to the other side of the galaxy. We may never have contact with another person, besides each other. I don’t want you to die. Everyone I cared about is dead.”

He looked me up and down. “Why are you so eager to get it on? What’s in it for you?”

He had a point. The last thing on my mind was sex. All I wanted was a decent meal and a way off this ship. But this new situation with the Criminal presented an opportunity. He could help me, he knew things I didn’t know. Together we could find a way home.

“All I want to do is survive. That means we have to keep the three meter tall predators happy. I have seen what they can do with their gauntlet blades. Neither of us want to die that way.” I unzipped my blood-stained, shredded jumpsuit and shrugged it off my shoulders. The suit fell to my feet and left me naked. He stared at my blood-caked, malnourished body bared for him. “If we bathe first, it might be fun…”

I could hardly get near him without wanting to gag from the stench. I had forced Carver to shower daily, for me, so I didn’t have to smell the acrid stink of his sweat. I knew my senses were acute, more so than anyone else, but I had never grown accustomed to the smell of people who didn’t bathe frequently.

The Criminal lunged for me and grabbed my arms. His face inches from mine, he hissed his hatred. “I don’t give a shit about getting kudos from the damn Cats. I don’t give a shit how you got here, all covered in death and blood, yet still grinning like a maniac.” He gripped my face in his hands, digging into my skull with his unwavering stare. “Girl, if you think we’re having sex like this, with a bunch of mangy Cats watching us, then you have lost it. Your elevator don’t reach the top floor darlin’.”

Captain Cronin unlocked the cell and sent his tallest warrior inside with an order. “Bring me the Criminal.”

I slapped the Criminal’s hands down and shoved him back against the far wall, into the shower. The Warrior came towards us and I held out my hand in the ‘stop’ gesture. “He will breed. Need time. Please. I promise.” I backed up into the Criminal and wrapped my arms around him, blocking him from the Warrior with my naked body. “Please. Promise. Need more time.”

Captain Cronin growled at his Warrior and the Cat backed off to the entry of the cell. The Captain’s eyes trailed over my naked body. For a moment, I saw something flicker on his face, but I had no way of knowing his emotional expressions.

As the Captain closed the cell door I took a chance. “Need soap to bathe clean.”

He looked at me again and broke into growling, hissing laughter. He flicked his claws to the right and one of his Warriors retrieved something from down the hall. The Warrior tossed a bottle into the cell and it hit the floor and rolled towards me. I picked it up, a familiar-looking plastic bottle.

Kiwi-strawberry shampoo, same bottles we had on Nugene.

I could have kissed the Captain I was so happy. This one courtesy meant so much to me as I stood cold and naked, trying to convince a man to have sex with me in order to save his life. I knew then that my world would never be the same again.