Page 30 of His to Worship
Renata makes eye contact with me and I know we need to talk so I stand from my spot, leaving the other women softly discussing or staring into space in Krissy’s case. We step off to the side, a bit away from the fire pit, near our gathering wall of supplies.
“When did they all wake up?” Renata whispers to me, setting down the things in her hands and around her hips.
“Not long ago. Their pods went out one at a time,” I answer, biting at my nails. “I already explained everything and after the initial shock they seem to be all calming down.”
“Of course they all wake up before we’re ready,” she huffs with a roll of her eyes. It’s a sentiment I second. Even now, things are proving to be difficult considering I wasn’t able to finish enough clothing for everyone. All of them are covered in furs in various stages of sewing. Samra even has on my incomplete pair of pants, the waistband tied with sinew rope to keep them up.
“We’ll have to tell them about the fact that there’s probably no way home.” I cringe away from the idea. “I hadn’t wanted to be alone when I broke it to them.”
Her face scrunches in worry, but she nods. “Let’s talk about it over dinner.”
EIGHTEEN
- sedona -
“I…I have something to confess,” Xiomara announces suddenly, breaking through the short silence that had fallen over us as we all watch Kuvier prepare our dinner for the night.
Enikk stands apart from us, his eyes fixed on the group, clearly back to his stalkery staring, but this time focused on Amari. Thankfully, I don’t think she’s noticed yet. That girl is too fragile for him to push anything. She hasn’t started crying since that first time in the ship, but there’s something about her that just screams vulnerable. I know Enikk is a good guy, but I don’t think he realizes what an upward hill he has to climb if he thinks he’s going to catch her attention.
“What’s up?” Sabrina asks, patting Xiomara’s arm encouragingly.
We’d all been talking now for a few hours and I was warming to all of them, except maybe Krissy who was still sulking and only talked to barb insults.
When Xiomara speaks again, her voice is laced with the weariness of someone who has been through it all. “I’ve been...well, I’ve been in situations like this before.”
Renata looks up, disbelief etched on her face. “What do you mean, situations like this? You’ve been stranded on frozen planets more than once?”
Xiomara meets our gazes, her eyes flickering with a mixture of resignation and resolve. “No, I mean that I was kidnapped by aliens when I was young and I’ve been living through it since.”
“How young?” I can’t help but ask the question. She looks like she’s in her mid to late twenties at most.
“I don’t know exactly, but the last thing I remember before being abducted was being on a field trip in a national forest with my teacher.” She winces. “I never learned how to read if that gives any indication of my age at the time.”
A gasp flows through all of us as we process what she says. She’s been away from Earth far longer than she lived on Earth. What if I’d had to go through these past couple of weeks as a child? I shudder at the thought.
“Wow, so you’ve grown up with the mantis aliens?” Amari reasons, her voice full of horrified awe.
“Not permanently. I’ve been through multiple cycles of being sold, returned, and sold again.” She gives a mirthless laugh. “The Xclixan—the mantises, have a great return policy.”
We all hesitate as the weight of that confession hits us.
“God, Xiomara,” Sabrina looks like she wants to hug her, but refrains. “I can only imagine what you’ve been through.”
Her mouth quirks in a half-hearted attempt at a smile. “Well, this is the first time I’ve ever been marked for breeding, so it hasn’t been as bad as it could’ve been.”
“Wait, what do you mean ‘marked for breeding?’” I realize at that moment that Xiomara may be the resource we were looking for when we were trying to do recon on the ship.
“Galactically, human women are really special because of how many pregnancies we can carry in our lifetime,” Xiomara explains, her tone matter-of-fact. “We call a great price on the breeding market for alien species that struggle with reproduction. Humanity also has some of the most unique and complex DNA. So if we were all put on the same order then they chose us all based on some genetic profile we share that they find valuable.”
It’s like the air got sucked out of the space.
“God, this is a lot,” Meghan exclaims, raking her hands roughly through her auburn locks.
“Well, there’s more.” Xiomara flashes us an apologetic look. “They also scrambled our DNA,” she continues, her voice gaining strength as she recounts what she knows. “Made us quicker, stronger, and able to learn and heal faster. It’s probably why we are able to breathe the atmosphere here.” She glances at me. “It’s also why you’ve learned Kuvier’s language more rapidly.”
“That actually makes sense. I was shocked because I sucked at Spanish in high school.” My joke falls flat in the face of everything.
“So, do you know how?” Krissy demands. “How did they get to us? I wasn’t hiking through the middle of a forest. I was literally in a house, and I still wound up here.” She blanches suddenly. “Do you think they took the other people that were with me, too?”