Clans book one Teaser

by Crudack Darkbane

Teaser of Clans Book one.

Birth of the Clans

History of Clan Phoenix

Book One

By Crudack Darkbane

© 2003-2014

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The galaxy is a large place, full of mystery and wonder. Unfortunately, Troy and Sara have been seeing way too much of both for their tastes. All they want to do is go home. Back to their nice, quiet little farm in the middle of nowhere. Back where their nearest neighbor is miles away, and nobody bothers them.

There are only a few minor obstacles to overcome before they can return to the home they love. First, they have to figure out a way to overcome the group that kidnapped them in the first place. After they manage to escape, they merely have to figure out how to get home. And not only is finding transportation a big problem, but navigating is going to be rough, since neither of them has a clue on how to navigate across galactic distances using alien technology.

Of course, the real problem is figuring out how to do this without leading the rest of the galaxy back home to Earth. Because, if they do, then the entire human race will be exterminated. Just to make sure that they aren't the bastard offspring of the dreaded Tryx, who were thought to have been wiped out in a galaxy-wide war seventy millennia ago.

Troy has a plan. If it works, it will get them their freedom. It might even keep them alive. And there is a chance that it will give Earth the time she needs to develop so that she can survive her next encounter with other galactic species. Only right now there is no way to warn Earth, so he'll just have to count on nature to take its course. The only problem is that for his plan to work, he must get the attention of the galactic races and keep it away from Earth. The solution to that is simple. Deadly simple.

NOTICE

This book is copyrighted, and all rights are reserved by the author. No reproductions of this book or its parts may be made by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the express written consent of the author. Any distribution or sales of this book in either electronic or printed form represents copyright infringement, and will be prosecuted.

The Clans, the Clans universe, the various alien races, the technology for their universe, and the characters are the intellectual property of the author, and are protected by international copyright law.

If you received this book, in any form, from anyone other than the author, you are in possession of stolen property, and any use of this book, the characters, or the contents without the express written permission of the author may subject you to prosecution for violation of the copyright infringement laws.

Part One

And You Thought That Boot Camp Was Six Weeks of Hell

Chapter 1

Honey, You're Not Going To Believe This

I guess that I should start at the beginning. I've been told that writing down my thoughts may help me examine things more closely and allow me to discover some things that I may have missed otherwise. I think that the doc is full of shit, but then, all the psychobabble in the universe comes out the same to me. I never did like shrinks, mainly because they are so involved in trying to tell everyone how to live their life and how to be "normal", when they clearly aren't normal themselves.

But the doc is right about one thing. Writing it down does seem to make things clearer, and as I get this down, more and more of the details just seem to fall into place as my memories become clearer. Even now, just a few years after my life changed, so much has happened that the details are becoming blurry with time and the importance of keeping up with the current situation. The doc said to start at the beginning. I know that he meant the beginning of my life, with my first memories. The asshole is just looking for more details to try to analyze me. None of that shit is important any more. He's just afraid to admit that, and to face the fact that he's in the same boat as the rest of us. Finding refuge in his work seems to help him cope, and the doc doesn't cope well with unexpected things. Probably why he works with psych instead of med.

Well, as far as the rest of us are concerned, the important thing right now is survival. Living conditions are acceptable, at least for those of us who are left to find our way home. Home. The others seem to need to hang onto the belief that we can actually go back home. I learned a long time ago that you can never go back. Everything always changes. That is the cycle of life, because those things that don't adapt and change die. And even death is a change, allowing recycling of the components in the systems.

But I'm rambling and not focusing on the objective of this exercise. The beginning. Well, the only beginning that matters now is the beginning of how we came to be where we are. The trouble is, none of us knows many of those details. All that we know, and that we all agree upon, is that one night, for no apparent reason and with no warning, all of our lives changed abruptly. We entered a whole new universe with a whole new set of rules. So, the beginning...

Life was going along by the set rules of the universe. At least, the rules that I knew and understood at the time. Things were neither great nor terrible. My wife and I spent time together, enjoying each others' company, planning for our future, and living our present. We were getting things together, and were reaching our life goals. Not an easy feat, even with our simple desires and goals, for life is always throwing you a curve. Most of the setbacks or detours we took in stride and then figured out how to get our life back on the track that we wanted it to take. But one summer night, all of that changed.

It was a normal night. We had gone to bed. It was quiet. A long, hot summer. The animals were resting from the heat of the day. Our dogs were quiet, and there were no sounds other than insects. Our nearest neighbor was five miles away, so there were no sounds of cars, traffic, or other modern disturbances. My wife and I had always wanted a place where we could be alone and undisturbed, and we finally had achieved that much of our dreams and goals. The dogs had plenty of places to run, and plenty of rabbits to chase. It was calm and peaceful.

I remember going to sleep, calm and relaxed with the feeling of my wife's warm, soft body lying next to mine. And that is the last normal memory I have. So much for the beginning making things clearer for me.

When I woke up, I was still beside my wife, but we were definitely not in our bedroom. We were in our bed, but nothing else was the same. When I sat up, there was light everywhere, but it didn't seem to be coming from any place in particular. Talk about indirect lighting. It only took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust.

I looked over, and Sara was still sleeping peacefully. I nudged her, but she didn't seem to be responsive. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was still under the influence of whatever drugs had been used on us. I got up, and went to check out the room that we were in. Average size. Bare walls. No way to access the doorway that I could see. Time to wait and see who showed up. Time to plan for possible responses so that the actions would already be decided and the body could perform without waiting for the brain to make up its mind on what to do.

Sara was still sleeping, showing no signs of waking, several hours later. Her pulse and respiration were normal for someone who was sleeping, but she wasn't waking up. As long as she showed no signs of problems, that wouldn't be bad. I could tell by the intense grumbling in my stomach that we had been here for a while, but not long enough for it to be dangerous to her. I was getting pretty thirsty, though, and could definitely have used access to a bathroom to relieve the pressure on my bladder.

I am normally calm and patient, but even I have my limits. I began pacing the room. Hell, I began pacing the cell, for that's what I considered it. I guess that didn't help my frame of mind, because when the door opened, I just reacted. I heard a small hissing sound, and the door slid into the wall. I almost laughed as a small, fat person wearing the most ridiculous Halloween costume I had ever seen walked into the room with a tray and promptly dropped it on the floor in shock at seeing me there. Evidently he had been expecting the drugs to have still been working.

Seeing that he was about to flee, I grabbed him by the neck and held him against the wall next to the door, checking to see if anyone else was there and what else I could see. All I could see was a corridor stretching off in both directions, and a junction with a similar corridor about thirty yards down to my right.

'OK, buddy, I don't know who you are, and I don't care. All I want to know right now is what the hell you did to us, how to get my wife to wake up, and how to get back home. Understand?'

All I got was some weird sounds that made no sense. 'Look, I don't care what kind of mask you put on to conceal your identity. But if you don't start talking and making sense, I'm going to rip it off of your head so I can see your face when I start beating the truth out of you.'

More gibberish. Then a voice said, 'Please, release him. He means you no harm.'

Computer synthesized shit. Good syntax, and no obvious problems with connecting the phonemes, but still flat, out of the can computer synthesized voice system.

'Look, if you can respond like that, then you can respond to my questions. Now, what did you do to us? How can I get my wife to wake up? How do we get back home?'

'Strange reaction. Most seem to want to know where they are and what we plan to do with them.'

'I'm not home or where I want to be, so where I am doesn't matter much, does it?'

'Clearly abnormal thinking. That must explain why he has been able to overcome the effect of the dampening field. His brain structure must be unique.'

The second voice sounded different, but still computer generated. Either they had no idea that everything they were saying was being sent into the room, or they didn't care. The other possibility was that they were trying to confuse me and keep me distracted while they did something else.

'You didn't answer my questions. If you don't start answering, maybe I'll take my new friend here and carry my wife out of here and see what I can do about solving all of my problems myself.' Not much of a threat. No weapons on me. Hell, no clothes. But I could rip the sheet up and use it to tie up the little dweeb that I had prisoner, and use him to help carry Sara. And I could always spend a minute or two seeing what I could improvise from the bed, or the pieces of it, if necessary.

'His rhythms are changing, sir. He is becoming agitated and seems to be trying to control a survival response.'

No shit, Sherlock. Fight or flight. Only the only thing to fight isn't much of one, and flight means I have to worry about carrying the unconscious wife while dealing with whatever unknown dangers or obstacles.

'Very well. It is not the time for you to be indoctrinated, but you are not supposed to be awake right now. You are not in your home.'

'No shit, Sherlock. The question was, what did you do to us?'

'We used a neurological dampening field on you. It keeps you at the subconscious level so that you can be examined and studied without fear of injury or trauma.'

'OK, assuming that I believe you, how do I wake my wife up?'

'She would have to be removed from the field.'

'Or you could turn it off, right?'

'I do not understand the question.'

Damn computers and syntax. Right has multiple meanings. Man, they were really playing this charade to the hilt, since any moron would know to go ahead and just answer the question instead of playing like you were that stupid about English grammar and common usage. 'You could turn off the field. Correct?'

'Ah, yes. We could turn off the field, and she would revive.'

'Then do it.'

'Sir, that might not be advisable. With two of them awake, we double our problems.'

'There is nothing to fear so long as the subjects remain rational and calm. Giving him his mate will calm him. Correct?'

'I don't know, sir. The brain pattern is highly unusual.'

'Will denying him his mate make matters worse?'

'Almost certainly, sir.'

'Then disconnect the field and allow his mate to join him. At least then we will have some analyses on their interactions under stressful conditions.'

I shook my head slightly as a subliminal buzz disappeared from the room. That helped explain some of my agitation. Damned subliminals always pissed me off and made me agitated. After a few seconds, I said, 'Sara? Honey, I need you to wake up.'

'Yeah, what is it?' I watched her stretch, then open her eyes. When she turned to look at me, she sat bolt upright in bed, pulling the sheet up over her breasts quickly as she realized that we weren't in our room and we weren't alone.

'What the hell is going on? Where are we? Who is that you're holding?'

'See. I told you. Typical responses. Not abnormal.'

'And who is that talking over the computer?'

I shrugged. 'I don't know. They are not very informative. So far, all I've heard is some shit about a neural dampening field, us being study subjects, and not hurting the person I have my hands on. Sounds like a cheesy version of alien abduction, and they're playing the "Me no speakee English" routine to the hilt.'

Sara stood, wrapping the sheet around her like a toga, and walked over to where I was standing. 'They can hear everything?'

'I assume so. And I assume that they have some kind of video surveillance, since they know that I'm holding Tweedle Dee here by the neck and they don't want me to hurt him.'

'Why haven't they responded to rescue him?'

'No idea. Maybe they are studying us. And maybe Tweedle Dee here and his buddy Tweedle Dum on the computer are the only ones who grabbed us, and Tweedle Dum is scared because he's as much of a nerd as Tweedle Dee. If Tweedle Dum can use the computer to synthesize his voice, then he can use it to alter the tone and make it sound like he has company.'

'Sir, what kind of gibberish are you speaking? You are not making any sense on the translator. We cannot get valid scientific data on your reactions if you don't speak clearly and make sense. Too many variables will corrupt the validity of the interpretation of the data.'

'Cut the crap, asshole. I'm not dumb enough to buy into the scientific validity BS. Any fool knows that social sciences are pseudosciences at best because all of the interpretation of data is subjective and conditions cannot be repeated to allow for reproduction of results. Even population studies are iffy.'

Sara smiled, knowing that I was trying to see if I could generate a response.

'The parts of your statement that translate make no sense. How can a science be a pseudoscience? Interpretation of data is not subjective if you follow a set of criteria that are standardized to eliminate or substantially decrease the effects of subjectivity.'

'I will respond to your question if you respond to mine. Since I asked first, you will answer my question first.'

'Very well. Repeat your question.'

'What did you do to us?'

'We used the neural inhibitor field to keep you unconscious while you were removed from your home. We have abducted you. I believe that is the term you used.'

There was a pause, and I assumed that he was trying to evaluate our initial reactions to that statement and judge its impact. 'Now, please explain the rationale behind your ridiculous response regarding subjectivity.'

'If you can't reproduce results, then you have no way of knowing that the results are valid. Objectivity requires statistical analysis. Without a large enough sample size, you don't know if your results are statistically significant, or if they are even representative of the individual, let alone the population.'

'Correct. But that does not answer the question.'

I sighed. 'Then allow me to answer your question with a hypothesis.'

'Proceed.'

'If all subjective analysis isn't negated, you can't have science, because your own bias will skew the results. If I think that something must be true, any bias toward that result will eventually produce the result.'

'Impossible.'

'If my bias is that the results will be one thing, and they are not, but I interpret them slightly toward what I wish to see, then eventually, my studies will allow me to accumulate enough bias and skew the results to the point that they will be exactly what I wish to see.'

'That is logical. Cumulative error.'

'Now, how do we get out of here?'

'Through the doorway.'

'Very helpful of you. I meant, how do we get out of whatever building we are in and get back to the real world so that we can figure out how to get back home?'

'You are not in a building.'

'OK, then tell me how to get out of whatever it is that I'm in and get back to the surface so that I can make my way home.'

'The only way to the surface from this point is in a smaller ship.'

Sara looked at me. I rolled my eyes.

'Look, buddy, this routine is getting old. I don't want to have to start doing my rendition of 'Alien Autopsy' on your buddy here just to prove to you that I know that this is all some cheesy hoax.'

'Hoax? Killing the worker you hold will not prove anything except that you are violent and dangerous.'

'Who said anything about killing him? He's shown no aggressiveness or threat at all. I just said that I'd take off the fake costume you have him wearing that makes him look like an alien.'

'Costume? His uniform is standard for techs in his work category. Your responses make no sense.'

'Look. If I don't get some real answers, then I am going to peel the fake skin off of him and expose the person underneath. Then, when the charade is over, I will find out from him what the hell he knows and get myself and my wife out of here.'

'Ah. Now I understand. You believe that his appearance has been altered to confuse you or make you believe that what we said was true.'

'Correct.'

'Incorrect. Zwyl is normal, and has not been modified. He is a standard Xylchan male. Though I must admit that he is relatively small for his species. Most Xylchans are much heavier.'

Sara laughed, and said, 'They must look like the Pillsbury Doughboy, then.'

I smirked, adding, 'Or the Michelin Man.'

'Yeah, yeah. Now, give me some real information about how to get out of here, or do I start seeing how long it takes to peel this suit off of him?'

Zwyl turned toward Sara, and something shot out of his mouth toward her. Without releasing his throat, my left hand shot out and grabbed it. Sara screamed and jumped behind me to get out of the way, then gasped as she realized that my hand was wrapped around a long, forked tongue.

'OK, Sara. Reality check. Do you see what I see?'

'Uh, huh.'

'And I'm holding the neck. There's a pulse, and he spoke to me earlier, though I couldn't make out a word of what he said. So the FX award goes to?'

Sara shuddered, clutching her covers to her breast. 'Honey, maybe we should see if we can get our clothes back and go somewhere to talk to someone?'

I smiled, unable to resist the impulse. 'OK, Zwyl. Take us to our clothes, and then take us to your leader.'

Sara and I were both laughing at the comment. Zwyl just seemed relieved when I released his throat, and then he led us down the hallway to the next junction. Pointing to a door, he indicated that we should enter.

I had Zwyl go first, and then followed him into the room. Inside, there was a huge pile of our belongings. I did a quick visual inventory, and it looked like the entire contents of our house.

Sara gasped. 'It looks like all of our stuff is here.'

Zwyl nodded.

'Except for the bed, which is down the hall.'

We picked out some clothes, and dressed quickly. Sara paid no attention to Zwyl. She always had been somewhat of a nudist and exhibitionist. I didn't care, since I hadn't had any clothing on the entire time. If modesty interferes with survival, then you can recover after losing your modesty. The reverse isn't true.

When we were dressed, Zwyl led us down a maze of corridors. I was mentally keeping count of junctions and turns, so at least we'd have a chance to get back to where our stuff was and see if we could find something to use in case of emergency. Right now, there was no immediate threat, and no reason to delay and let them know what sort of goodies they might have missed or overlooked when they collected all of our stuff.

In the corridors, we passed several other Xylchans, or at least other things that looked like Zwyl. All of them looked at us curiously, then went on with their business. I also saw several other beings that did not look anything like Zwyl. At least three or four other different species. It was hard to tell from a distance, especially with such brief glimpses for comparison.

Finally, after walking what must have been a mile or more, we arrived at a hatch that looked different. Zwyl passed his hand over a sensor beside the hatch, and the door slid open. Neat security system. I had passed my hand over several hatches, and none of the doors had responded. Either they had been locked, or there was some kind of recognition system in use. Since it hadn't worked on the hatch where our stuff was stored, I opted for the latter conclusion.

We followed Zwyl into the room, and stopped. There were four creatures standing or sitting around the room. Three looked similar, but the fourth was unique. At least that was one neutral word for it.

The one standing nearest turned, and I looked it over closely. It was about two meters tall, and bipedal. The skin was dry, and appeared scaly. The face was similar enough to recognize most features. The pattern of markings on the face seemed to differ between it and the two similar individuals behind it. Four long, multi-jointed fingers. Opposable thumb. Very long, sharp nails that looked like modified claws. He looked heavy and solid. Very imposing, and not what I'd want to wake up next to in bed. OK. Ugly, from my perspective. But since I only had to talk to him, I had no problems with that.

'I am Mirn. I am commander of this vessel.'

'I'm Troy. This is my wife, Sara. We appear to be unwilling passengers on your ship. As do most or all of our Earthly possessions.'

'True. I am sorry for any inconvenience, but we must have specimens for study before we know what to do with a planet that we have discovered.'

'Study?' Sara sounded somewhat worried.

'Yes. Do not be afraid. We have examined some of the references that you made and compared them with our database concerning your planet. You have nothing to fear about examinations. We do not perform such barbaric things as those that we have seen depicted by people on your planet. We study to understand the physiology of your race, and to determine how your culture and your species is developing.'

'And what do you do with this knowledge?'

'That depends on the results. With backward species such as yourselves, there are several options. If they are too backward, we leave them to develop for future use. If they are unique and have useful qualities, we take some and train them for use in specific tasks suited to their physiology. If they are extremely useful, we take over their world and maintain a breeding stock while shipping most of the inhabitants off world to be used most productively.'

'And what traits or characteristics are you most interested in?'

'Ah. Good question. With bipeds such as yourselves, we find that there is much variation in utility between species. Some are very adaptive, and make good workers in various fields with proper training. Some species are very gifted with certain talents that are very useful. And, of course, the one use that has appeared to be very commonly considered by your fellow humans is, of course, soldiers.'

'Well, I hope that we appear to be gifted in other areas, because I don't think that I would personally be of much use to you as a soldier.'

'Your physical body is of no importance there. Our science is advanced enough to fix any of the abnormalities that we have detected in the humans that we brought aboard. In fact, the two of you would already be undergoing the first set of treatments if you hadn't woken unexpectedly. Your body would have been fixed and whole when you first awoke. I believe that, in itself, would have saved much of the confusion and time that was spent convincing you that you were not still on your planet being subjected to a hoax.'

Sara said, 'So, let me get this straight. You kidnapped us, and you are going to study us, and we have no say in the matter.'

'Correct.'

'And what happens after you complete your studies?'

'If your species is found suitable, then we will send other ships to your planet to bring more of you back for use. If not, then we will simply find suitable menial positions that you are capable of filling and check back on your planet in a thousand years or so, when they will have had time to become more technologically and socially developed.'

'Aren't you worried about what effects a thousand years of technological advancement will make in your reception?'

'Certainly not. We are far more advanced technologically than your species. Development of technology requires generations just to advance slightly. Changes must be gradual in order for the society to adapt and learn how to deal with the implications and unforeseen problems caused by new technologies. No species ever adapts quickly enough to overcome this barrier.'

'You forget the Tryx.' This from the seated lizard.

'The Tryx are abominations and aberrations. Besides, they are extinct. All of the worlds that they inhabited were wiped out millennia ago.'

'Who, or what, are the Tryx?'

'A race that developed and adapted radically. They were insane by any measure of the word. They were warlike, aggressive, and often had deviants born who were so insane that they killed members of their own race just for amusement.'

'Sounds like it would have been difficult to fight them.'

'It was. They were formidable warriors. Fortunately, they were not invincible. They lacked science skills, especially when it came to preventing injuries in the first place. They were very good at healing themselves, but not at making it harder to injure them. They couldn't discover how to make it so that they could survive injuries that should be lethal, or how to make it so that their bodies could recover as well as those of our troops. It cost many lives, many systems, and even a few races were exterminated by them during the war, but we managed to wipe them from the universe.'

Sara said, 'Wow. How long ago did this occur?'

'Seventy millennia.' Prompted the seated lizard.

Mirn nodded. 'Now, we must see to your physical examinations. The first round of modifications will be the trickiest, since there are always a few problems to work out.'

'Problems?'

'Yes. Some species react differently to the nanobots that are inserted. In individuals that accept them, there is no problem and the nanobots make the modifications and maintain the body. In the individuals that don't tolerate the transformation process well, the nanobots either destroy the immune system or the body destroys them. In either event, until we know what the effects are, we lose a lot of the first wave of test subjects.'

Sara said, 'They die?'

'Regrettably so.'

I nodded, and grabbed Sara's hand, pulling her to me. I kissed her, holding her against me. I looked into her pale eyes, and said, 'Live free, my love.'

She nodded, smiling as she recognized what I was saying. The motto was "Live free or die", and summed up our beliefs rather well. Slavery had its place for those who were subservient or who lacked the will to take the risks and protect their freedom. For those of us who believed, the only slavery was that in which you were physically forced to obey. That slavery ended violently at the first real opportunity. Either the master died at the slave's hand, or the slave died fighting for the freedom that he believed in.

'Will there be any other effects of these treatments?'

Mirn stared for a minute, and the seated lizard said, 'It is possible. Your species is different from any other species that we have in our database. We have adjusted for your differences from the most closely related species that we have available, but there is some risk. But fear not, for if you die, you will have served to advance our scientific knowledge, and you will have made your own small contribution to allow your species to take its rightful place among the other species in the galaxy.'

I smiled. 'Thank you for that information. It makes our decision that much easier to live with.'

'Zwyl will take you to the place where you will be examined. Follow him. After the procedure is over, then you will be taken to your quarters and allowed to begin arranging your belongings however you like within the confines of your quarters.'

Sara smiled. 'There's no place like home.'

'Home is where the heart is, mia cara. Never forget that.'

Mirn said, 'Oh, before you go, we have one more question for our records, since you are awake. What skills did each of you perform on your world before we brought you here?'

Sara turned. 'He used to be a ...'

'Worker.' I cut her off. 'I worked assembling things to make money. She took care of the young and the elderly. When we made enough money, we went to the country and bought some land so that we could live alone and raise our own food.'

Sara looked at me, her eyebrow raised slightly. I said, 'We moved to raise children so they could work the land as well, but we haven't had children yet.'

'Ah. Educated peasants. I'm sure that we can find something for you to do after your procedure is complete. You seem intelligent enough. And you even impressed me with your ability to control your aggressive primal urges when you believed that your life and that of your mate was threatened. Your species shows potential for being good at either menial labor or soldiers.'

We followed Zwyl from the room. Sara said, 'Why did you tell him that?'

'He NEEDed TO KNOW.' My emphasis on the syllables answered her.

She thought for a minute before responding. 'No surprises up your sleeve, eh?'

I nodded. She had avoided the word "tricks" for obvious reasons. We had no idea how sophisticated their systems were, or what they could detect, so we didn't say anything out loud that we didn't want heard.

Now all we had to do was survive whatever examinations and experiments they were going to do on us and find out more information so we could have a better chance of regaining our freedom and getting home.

Zwyl stopped, and we entered the room he indicated. It was large, and had numerous individuals inside waiting for us. I saw that there were a number of large cylinders stacked along one wall like a honeycomb. There were two open cylinders before us, and they were clearly for use by us. I did a quick scan, and figured that there must be hundreds of the cylinders on that wall.

'Do not be afraid. This procedure is routine. You will be put to sleep and the nanobots will be inserted into your body to make modifications so that you will no longer suffer from debilitating diseases and afflictions that your primitive medical sciences can not cure or treat. While this process occurs, you will receive nutrients and liquids to allow your body to change and to sustain you, and the equipment will remove all necessary excretions. The process is perfectly safe.'

I picked Sara up and laid her in her tube, gently kissing her. 'In case, love. I'll always be with you.'

Sara nodded and smiled up at me, not bothered at all by having to disrobe before being put into the tube with all of the aliens around clearly checking her out. 'I love you. I'll see you when they finish this procedure on us.'

I smiled. 'Take care, love. I'll see you when we both wake up.'

I went over and climbed into the chamber that was designated for me. I watched as Sara was taken through the first part of the procedure.

'How long does this procedure take?'

'Normally, a week or two. We have special orders concerning your species because of the extensive repair work that is required, so it will be about six weeks. Don't worry. You won't feel a thing. This injection will put your body into a state of suspended animation that will last until we give you the antidote. You won't be able to move or do anything at all.'

'What about my brain? If that stuff just stops the body from moving and working as fast, what happens to my brain?'

I felt the injection, and my body began to go rigid as the drug took effect. I was unable to move or respond when the doctor said, 'Don't worry about that. We solved that problem millennia ago. At first we were limited to short bursts of therapy because the subjects needed time to heal and deal with the pain. Now we just use the neural inhibitor to keep them from being aware of anything.'

Another injection, followed by pain as I felt the nanobots move into my body and begin their programmed tasks. I knew that there was only one way to stay sane for that period of time in isolation. I couldn't smile, but I could use the one thing that they couldn't control. I began to plan exactly how I was going to overthrow whoever it took to gain control of this ship and make them pay. And as the pain increased and then continued, I began to amuse myself with thoughts of exactly how I was going to enjoy introducing those who opposed me to the reality of an alien autopsy. Technically, the term was vivisection, since most of my dark little fantasies did involve them being alive and aware of what was happening to them while I enjoyed showing them how intense and extreme pain could be, and how long it could last before your body finally gave out and you died.

Somewhere around the middle of the process, I noticed some changes. While I still couldn't move, I could feel sensations other than pain. And I noticed that I could feel rhythmic contractions similar to muscle spasms. I realized that the nanobots must be programmed to maintain muscle tone, so I began trying to work with the contractions, focusing on making them stronger and longer. Isometrics at its finest.

Besides giving me something else to focus on, this made me feel more like myself. I had already imaginarily vivisected the captain and his supporters in so many ways that I was getting bored with the repetitions. There are, after all, only so many ways to skin a lizard and tan the skin.

While my brain was active, there was no way to accurately keep track of the passage of time, especially while there was so much pain to distract me. Sleep came and went. Mostly went, with the problems of unexpected sharp pains in various parts of my body. It seemed that the nanobots were keeping tabs on my brain activity and would start serious construction every time that I went to sleep. I decided that the little bastards were doing it on purpose, but there was no way to get to them, so I concentrated my thoughts of revenge upon the captain and his crew. Mirn was not going to be a happy camper when I served him a stone cold dish of revenge. I figured that the depths of space could get cold enough for my purposes at the moment.

When there was finally movement of the cylinder that I was in, the light almost blinded me with its intensity. The pain of the sudden bright light when I was unable to even close my eyes brought home the fact that there wasn't really any more pain inside me. Then I realized that there hadn't really been much in the way of pain for a while.

Since I was still alive and thinking, then I must have survived the entire process. Now to wait for them to give me back control of my muscles so that I could check to see if Sara was doing well. If not, I had already planned for that contingency. If Sara hadn't made it, then Mirn was going to suffer a long, slow, agonizing death. Just as soon as I had learned enough about lizard physiology and their nervous system to guarantee that I could keep him alive and in constant, excruciating pain. Unless that bastard Murphy ended up spoiling my fun. Murphy's Law is a real bitch at times. Just my luck that the lizards would have the type of nervous system that shuts their body and mind down in response to extreme pain and injury to protect them.

When they finally opened my cylinder, some of the techs began to talk excitedly about some of the readings, and then called someone else over. When he came over, he said, 'Can you hear me?'

Bloody damned right I can hear you, you moron. But I bloody well can't answer you until you give me the injection to counteract the damned paralysis.

'There is something wrong with the mind. Go ahead and reverse the paralysis so that I can check out the reflexes. Perhaps we can find a way to use the body for further studies.'

Hot damn. Murphy worked in my favor for once. I'd hate to think of the consequences if the doc had decided to turn off the bloody annoying neural inhibitor and then just do a vivisection to see what went wrong. Which reminded me. I needed to check with the doc to make sure that damned drug had the same effect on lizards as it seemed to on humans. Wouldn't want Mirn hurting himself in between sessions. My plan would take much longer than I could afford to spend with him at one time, and there was no way in hell that he would die that quickly or painlessly if I could help it.

I felt the needle go in, and then my limbs became usable again. I flexed, and my arm moved. Before the tech could move, I grabbed him/her/it whatever the hell it was by the neck and sat up.

There was a major commotion in the room. The doctor came over, and said, 'What are you doing? Put that tech down.'

'Just so long as nobody gets any bright ideas about doing any more modifications to me, fine.'

The doctor nodded, and I lowered the tech and released it. It scampered away. I felt a sharp jab in the back of my shoulder, and turned around in time to see another tech holding a syringe. I smiled, and said, 'Want to play, do we?'

The tech screeched, dropped the syringe, and ran. I let it go.

I turned back to the doctor. 'Now, Doc, I want to find out what happened to my wife.'

'I don't understand this. You should not be able to move. This has never happened before. The drug always works instantly. On every species that we've ever tried it on. It even worked on you before we put you into the stasis tube for your transformation. This is clearly impossible. I don't understand...'

'Doc. My wife.'

'Which one is your wife?'

'Sara. She was put in just before I was. We were the last ones frozen down for the treatment. At least that's what they told us.'

'Ah, yes. You are the one who woke up. That is still a mystery.'

'Doc. My wife. Now, please.'

'OK. OK. Give me a minute.' He checked on a small comp in his hand. 'Ah, here we are. She is dead.'

My heart almost stopped, but my brain was in overdrive as my mind began going over how I was going to avenge her. 'There had better be a mistake, Doc.'

He scanned the list again. 'No. No mistake. Sara Peterson. Deceased.'

I breathed a sigh of relief. 'My last name is Gryffyn. G - R - Y - F - F - Y - N.'

'Oh.' Another scan down the list on his screen. 'She is fine. She woke up yesterday, and has been returned to your quarters to await further testing to see how your species can best be utilized to maintain the standard of living for the galaxy as a whole.'

I smiled. 'Thank you, Doc. Can someone show me the way to my quarters?'

'Certainly. I believe that you know Zwyl. Follow him.'

Zwyl didn't look too happy to see me, especially since he'd just watched me grab another tech who was much larger than him. He probably figured that I was violent, and the farther that he was from me, the better off he would be.

'Hello, Zwyl, old buddy. How's it going?' I smiled at him, actually glad to see him.

Some chirps and other unidentifiable sounds came in response. But he didn't look so nervous.

I followed Zwyl down the hallways. The place seemed smaller. Man, my mind must really be needing to adjust to sensory input again. Everything seemed smaller. Even Zwyl, who wasn't any small package to begin with.

'Hey, Zwyl, you lost weight? You're looking smaller than I remember. Man, six weeks really made a difference for you. If you could patent that diet, millions of ladies on Earth would make you rich and famous and love you forever.'

Zwyl made more incomprehensible sounds, and continued walking.

I decided to relax and just enjoy the walk. Man, it felt good to stretch my legs and get some real exercise. I really needed it, because I almost lost my balance and fell, and I actually stumbled a few times. Talk about needing to get used to my body again.

We came to a hatch, and Zwyl stopped. I put my hand out, and the door slid open instantly. I walked inside, and saw Zwyl running away just as the door shut. I turned around just in time to react purely by reflex to block a sword that was coming right at my head. The blade sliced into my hand, but the bone stopped it. I grabbed the sword, wrenching it out of Sara's hands before I even realized that it was her.

'Bloody hell, Sara. Did that damned chamber affect your mind?'

'Who the hell are you?' I was surprised to hear the fear and stress in her voice.

'I'm your husband. Who the hell do you think I am?'

'I don't know. You're not my husband.' There was no hesitation or uncertainty, just more fear and some confusion.

I looked down at her. Damn, that tube really did a number on her. She looked HOT. She also looked so damned tiny.

'Honey, what the hell did they do to you in that tube? You look really hot, but you're so tiny.'

She gasped. 'Troy? Oh, my God! It is you!'

'Of course it's me. What happened to you?'

'Uh, they fixed me. No more health problems at all. The bots even fixed my weight to make me more slender and muscular.'

I smiled. 'I got no problems at all with what the bots did for you, Baby.'

'Uh, Troy, the bots didn't shrink me. I'm still five foot six. My clothes and dresses fit perfectly, except for the girth. I had to take some things in.' She giggled. 'All of them, actually, unless I want to wear a short dress and just let it be loose and cover me down to my ankles instead of just above the knees.'

'Cool. You always did like crafts, and now you can make yourself a whole new wardrobe to show off that hot new bod and drive the guys nuts.'

'Uh, huh. Troy, have you seen a mirror?'

'No. Why?'

'Because you look different. A LOT different.'

I turned to look at the mirror on the wall, and dropped the sword. I don't know who I was looking at, but it wasn't me. At the clatter of the sword, Sara screamed.

I spun around. 'What's wrong?' The sword was in my hand already. I had kicked it into the air with my foot as I turned, and caught it.

'I cut you. You're bleeding.'

'It can't be that bad. Hell, I can hardly feel it.'

'Troy, LOOK at your hand.'

I looked down, and could see a large slice clear across my hand. I could see the bones, but there was almost no blood. 'I don't understand. There should be blood everywhere. What's going on?'

'I don't know. Let me take care of your hand.'

I put the sword down and sat on the bed. I held out my hand, and Sara wrapped it with a clean bandage and tied it in place. 'We need to get you back to see the doctor.'

'No. Not right now.'

'Troy, that is a serious wound.'

'Look, Sara. It doesn't hurt, and I'm not bleeding. Let's just try to figure a few things out for ourselves before we go running to the doctor, OK?'

She bit her lip, but nodded. 'OK, Troy. What do you think of the place? I've been cleaning and organizing things. My next project was to paint some ears on the walls so they would look nice. What do you think?'

I smiled. Lovely Sara. Making sure that I hadn't forgotten that the walls had ears. 'I don't know, honey. Let's think about it before we do any painting on the walls.'

'OK. I can't believe that you walked here from the infirmary, or whatever that place is.'

'Well, it was a good stretch. I was a little wobbly and had trouble with my balance a few times, but it felt good to actually move again. All that time in that bloody coffin waiting for the bots to finish so that the pain would stop. Talk about really boring and monotonous.'

Sara froze. 'All that time? Didn't they put you to sleep?'

'Well, the freezing the muscles part worked. That neural inhibitor thing just pisses me off. Talk about annoying.'

'Troy, nobody remembers anything about what happened to us after the injection. I've talked to some of them. Hell, all of our neighbors are from Earth. Some of them came out really changed, but nothing like you.'

'What do you mean?'

'Troy, you are at least six inches taller. You are huge! And I can't believe how your reflexes are. The way you picked up that sword with your foot while turning? That's unreal.'

'I don't know why it happened, Honey. Must have been all the exercise that I got. It helped me focus on something other than the pain.'

'Must be. Jesus, Troy, you must be over six-six, and at least three hundred pounds now. Talk about a makeover.'

I smiled, and pulled her against me. 'You don't look bad at all yourself, little woman.'

She pushed against me, giggling, and said, 'Troy, your hand.'

'What about it? If you hurt it, I'll let you know.'

'That's not what I meant, you dirty old man. You've got your hand under my skirt, and they're watching us all the time.'

'So what? Maybe they'll enjoy a little free show. Come on, Sara. It's not like we've never made out in public before.'

'Troy. That was a long time ago. I was young and impressionable.'

I smiled. 'And wild and free.'

'OK. That too. Troy, what are you doing to me?'

I smiled, and lowered her to the bed beneath me. 'Well, honey, no matter whether you remember the last six weeks or not, I do. And it's been six weeks since this dirty old man has been laid. So unless you have any strenuous objections, I intend to enforce my conjugal rights and conjugate you a few times.'

Sara laughed. 'Perv. Talk dirty to me some more. It's kind of kinky. I feel like I'm cheating on you with some other guy right now.'

'I know. But I figure as long as I get used to you again first, we can worry about finding some cute females to keep around and help with the housework later.'

Sara giggled, but I cut off her comments with a kiss.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =ˇ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

When we finished, I sat up in the bed, and said, 'We got anything to eat? I'm starved.'

'WHAT?!'

'I can't help it, Honey. You're really sweet, but you're not very filling. I haven't had anything to eat in six weeks.'

'OK. How about some jerky and some dried apples?' Sara got up and went across the room to a small area that was set up like a kitchen and got into a cupboard similar to the ones that we used to use to store things for her kitchen.

'Sounds great. Any spicy jerky?'

'Of course. Here you go.' Sara smiled as she pulled a bag of jerky out of the cupboard and came back over to where I was sitting.

I took the bag from her, and began to eat. The jerky really tasted good, especially the spices. And the apples seemed sweeter than I remembered.

'So, you were talking about the neighbors. How many do we have?'

'One group on either side, and three more groups across the hall. That's all of the humans that there are around here.'

'So how many in each family?'

'You don't understand. We're the only family in our area. One room has nothing but kids whose folks didn't make it through the initial conditioning. There must be thirty or forty kids in there living in a dormitory.'

I looked at her. 'Thirty or forty kids? All orphans?' I remembered the lizards telling us that there could be problems and some of us could die, but that meant that there had been a lot of people dying during the treatment process, because most people only averaged about two kids per family right now, and even with larger families, that was still a lot of people dying for both parents to be dead.

'Yes. Two of the rooms have guys who lost their wives, and the other two have women whose husbands or boyfriends died. All of them have their kids in with them right now, but that's got to change soon.'

I nodded. 'The kids are taking over, and some of the boys and girls who aren't related are starting to fraternize.' I realized as I was talking that she still hadn't said anything about any other couples having kids. Just that two rooms had men who had lost their women, and that the other two rooms had women who had lost their men. That made it sound like a whole lot of people had died in the process.

'Uh, huh. But that's not all of it. Some of the ones who are dead actually made it through the process. They just lost it and killed themselves when they realized this was real.'

'We should go check on them.' I needed to talk to people and see what I could do to find others who might be interested in helping me live out some of the fantasies that I had kept my mind occupied with for the last six weeks.

'Uh, Romeo? If you don't want some of them women trying to see if you're interested in helping them scratch some itches that they can't reach on their own, you'd better let me find something for you to wear first.'

'Clothing to fit the male has been provided. Please open the glowing panel in the wall to remove it.'

Damn! Just when you were starting to relax and forget something, that damned little canned computer voice went and reminded you just how deep the shit you were in really was.

Sara got the clothing from the drawer, and held it up. 'Honey, look at this. They duplicated your jeans exactly, except for the size. Right down to the stitching and the name tags.'

'Bloody hell. They really want us to feel right at home, don't they?'

I pulled on my jeans, socks, and boots. Then I found a pocket T-shirt that fit and pulled it on.

Sara let out a long, low whistle. 'Ooh, baby. You look better than one of those Chippendale boys.'

I laughed. 'Don't go giving the aliens any ideas, baby. I'd rather not spend the rest of my life as a bouncer at a strip bar, working double shifts just to keep the rowdies from pawing your merchandise.'

'Just let me adjust that bandage before we go.'

'OK.' I held out my hand. Sara took the bandage off and promptly fainted. I managed to catch her and lift her small body into my arms before she hit the floor.

I looked at my hand, and the cut was almost completely healed. Not only that, but where it was already closed, there was no scar at all. Then it hit me. There were no scars anywhere on my body. Every scar that I had ever gotten was gone. That was what had looked so different in the mirror. Sure, I was bigger, but I had the same face. Only now I had no scars on me. Damn, I couldn't remember ever seeing myself without a scar. Hell, I'd fallen as a kid and got a scar on me before I could really walk well, and I couldn't remember ever being without it. Until now.

Sara came to. 'Troy, your hand is almost completely healed.'

'I saw. And it's not going to scar up at all.'

'You're kidding. No scar at all?'

I showed her my hand. 'And I can't find any of my other scars, either. I didn't notice that earlier, but I knew that something just didn't look right in the mirror.'

'What the hell did those bots do to you, Troy?'

'I have no idea, Honey. But I think that I'm going to find out as discreetly as possible. We don't want the whole story plastered all over the front of the National Enquirer, now do we?'

'Of course not, dear. Now, do you think you could put me down so that I don't sprain an ankle trying to jump down from this height?'

I lowered her and set her on her feet. Then I went over to a small bag and picked up a few items. Somehow, I wasn't surprised to find them still there. Sara's eyes widened and she lifted her eyebrows when she saw what I had chosen to take with me, but she said nothing.

We walked out the door, and it slid shut when we left. 'Honey, do those doors open for just anyone?'

'I don't think so. When Zwyl brought me here, he put my palm up to the plate to open the door. And nobody has come in before you except me. And I know that a lot of the kids go up and down the corridors, playing with the panels to see if any of the doors open.'

I smiled. 'Remind me to talk to the kids tonight. It's always nice to know which of the neighbors has an open door policy.'

Sara smiled back at me and knocked on the door to the room across from ours. A man answered. Seeing Sara, he smiled. His smile disappeared when he saw me. 'Bloody hell, Sara. You said your mate was big, but this bloke's a bleeding mountain.'

'I wasn't this big when I went into the chamber. Closer to your size, actually.' I held out my hand and smiled. 'I'm Troy.'

'Jason. Jason Kilpatrick. Come all the way over from the green shores of Ireland to disappear in the mountains of America, never to be seen again. I'm sure they'll be talking about it in the pub for years. Probably talking about how I got eaten by a bear or something.'

I laughed. 'If it's pub tales, they'll be more likely to be saying that you got drunk and fell off a cliff.'

'True. If they don't spread the tale that I was shot by a jealous husband. But the worst bloody worst part of it is that I'm still alive, and by now, I've already slept through my own wake.'

We both laughed at that. 'Where are me manners? Come in. Come in. I'll introduce you around.'

We came into the room, and he shut the door behind us. There were a lot of people in the room. 'This is kind of crowded, isn't it?'

'Yeah, but we like it. Being crowded beats the hell out of being in here with just a few others and knowing that there aren't very many people in more miles than any of us care to try to count.'

I nodded. Pack behavior. Or herd mentality. Herds were easy to control. Packs, on the other hand, had to be led.

'So, has anyone been put in charge, or is this a democracy?'

'More like anarchy, if you can call it anything. We haven't needed a leader yet, but some of us have been talking that it might be best if we got some kind of organization.'

'We have some of our belongings in our room. I see personal items here, but do all of you have more of your stuff?'

Jason answered. 'Some do. Some don't. Me, I was traveling light, so there wasn't much for them to take with me.' He laughed. 'But I'm pretty sure that the motel I was in is wondering where their bloody bed went to. And how a guy who hitched a ride in managed to walk off with a queen size bed.'

There was laughter around the room, including from some of the older kids.

'Look, I don't know anyone except my wife. They just brought me out of that damned tube today. Couple of hours ago, in fact.'

Jason whistled. 'You are strong if you're already standing and moving around.'

'Yes, well, we're still finding out all kinds of surprises about what happened inside that chamber. Which is one thing I was wanting to talk about. Does anyone have any idea how many of us there are?'

'Not really. We know that we're what's left of the first group to go through the process in this section. One of the techs was talking about how one section had all of their examinees die this time. But we have no idea how many sections they had, or how many people were in each section.'

'Well, this room is kind of large. Dormitory or barracks size. How many of you are in here?'

Jason thought for a minute. 'Twenty adults. And sixteen kids. No, fifteen. Bob's oldest girl went next door to room with the women. Eight of the adults have kids.'

'OK, so there's 35 of you in here. What about the other rooms?'

'About the same in the other men's dorm. The women's dorms are crowded. There appear to be more females that made it through.'

Bob spoke up, but quietly so that the kids wouldn't hear. 'And fewer of them that lost it and offed themselves when they found out what was going on.'

'OK. We should get a census so that we can all get together and figure out what we have to work with. But for now, figure there are about forty or fifty adult males, depending on where you classify some of the older boys. How many females in their rooms?'

Sara said, 'There are a lot more women, Troy. Their rooms are larger, and they're still more crowded. Figure that there are about a hundred and fifty women or older girls. And another fifty kids with them. And about forty kids of all ages in the orphans' room.'

'Who's taking care of the babies?'

'Some of the women took in the babies.'

'So there are two hundred adults, give or take, and another hundred and twenty to hundred and fifty kids as a rough estimate?'

Jason nodded. 'Sounds about right. Why is that so important to you?'

'I was just trying to figure out what our own survival rate was.'

'What do you mean? How can you do that?'

'Well, before they putt me in the tube, I counted the cylinders in the room that I was in. Each cylinder was built for one person.'

'Before? You were awake? Hell, none of us even saw that room until they woke us up and it was already over. By then we were all groggy and confused, and none of us were able to think straight enough to think of counting tubes or anything like that. So we have no idea how many of us there were to start.'

I nodded. 'No need worrying us about people we don't know who wouldn't make it anyway. We'd have enough problems dealing with the loved ones that we lost that we knew about.'

Bob said, 'So, how many of those cylinders were there in that room? None of us was awake enough and coherent enough to count. We just saw a lot of them.'

'Well, they had them set up on three walls. It was kind of quick, so I could be off some on the count, since I didn't have time to compare the count on all three walls. I got fifty units to a wall across, and ten high. That means that there could have been 1500 people in our group if they filled all of the cylinders.'

'Jesus. And we got less than three hundred of us now. And almost half of them are kids.'

'Maybe we should ask for any other humans to be put into the same area as we are so that we can figure out how many of us there actually are?'

I nodded. 'But we might want to get ourselves organized first, so that as others are brought in, they can either incorporate with us or organize themselves and bunk up near us.'

Jason smiled. 'Like the Scottish clans?'

'Kind of. I don't figure that we'll be setting up bloodlines and all like that, but we'll probably end up setting up households soon enough. I know that most of you are grieving over the loss of your loved ones right now, but sooner or later, you'll want to get on with your life and reestablish your family and household.'

Jason nodded. 'And it's not like some of us single men haven't noticed the ladies, either, lad. Or the fact that so many of them are very attractive.'

I smiled, nodding. 'Well, one thing you might want to keep in mind as we're getting organized is that there may be a few problems at first. In case you didn't notice when we did the math, there are about three women for every man in this area. Some of them might not want to share a man, but others won't be so choosy when the only other option is to do without one.'

Jason smiled. 'Bloody hell, and damn me for a fool for not seeing that myself.'

'Don't go getting too excited, Jason. While having multiple wives has been common throughout most of history and most cultures on Earth, most of these women were raised to believe that it is wrong if they came from the same cultures as we did. And there will be some problems to be worked out. And it's usually the guy who takes the blame for the problems.'

Sara smiled. 'And remember, boys. If you think it's bad having one woman mad at you and complaining, think about how you'll feel when you have to come home to three irate women.'

Jason moaned. 'Bloody hell. Kill me now and put me out of my misery.'

'Don't joke like that, Jason. Remember, the walls have ears, and they don't always understand euphemisms and phrases of speech. In fact, they can take many things that they hear quite literally.'

Jason crossed himself. 'Thanks for the reminder.'

'So, I'm Troy. I'm Sara's overgrown boy, as she calls it.' That drew a few laughs from the men who had been married, remembering how their own wives had always teased them about being boys with their toys.

The rest of the men introduced themselves. I got about half the names down from the men in this room, but knew that I would learn the others soon enough. Interaction with the others would soon lead to the process of forming groups. But there were so few of us that it would be like a small town. You would know everyone by sight, and almost everyone by name, even if you didn't hang out with them because they weren't in your group.

After the introductions, I spent some time talking with Jason and a few of his friends, since they all seemed to be people that Sara liked being around. Sara had always been a very good judge of character. I had noted that there was only one man in the room that she felt uncomfortable around when she went around talking to people and introducing me to them.

When things settled down, there was a small group still there to talk with Sara and myself. Jason, and his friends Roger, Sean, Max, and Will.

Jason said, 'Look, I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but there doesn't appear to be a lot of racial representation here.'

I nodded. I had noticed. 'Maybe they tried to sort us by appearance to give them different groups to study. Or maybe it's just that we're all grouped by region. All the people that I've heard sound American or speak English like natives, except for your accent, Jason. And you told me that you were in the US when you were picked up.'

'True, I hadn't thought of it like that. Do you suppose that there are other groups that were picked up in other places?'

'Probably. But even if we meet them, we might not be able to communicate well if we don't have anyone who already speaks their language.'

Roger nodded. 'OK. Maybe we should see what languages the others speak in addition to English, just in case?'

'So, what did you guys do before?'

Roger smiled. 'I was a hunter and guide for backwoods tours. It didn't pay a whole lot, but it kept the bills paid, and kept me out in the woods away from too many people. I never did like crowds.' He looked around. 'Even with the current situation, I'll be glad to find another place to crash out if there is room. I like the contact, but I can only take so much crowding before I want to get out and find someplace to be alone for a while now and then.'

The others agreed that they felt the same way.

'Maybe we could get some materials from somewhere and build some partitions to provide some private areas?'

'Good idea, Max. Hell, maybe they'll give us some material and let us do the work.'

I nodded, thoughtfully. 'They might.'

Jason looked at me incredulously. 'You really think so?'

'Sure. It would let them study us under normal conditions, where we choose how and when we interact socially. They seem to be interested in how we think and react, and they want our normal reactions. It would also allow them to see how we build things and work. So they'd probably consider it a pretty good trade-off for losing some data in small blind spots if they can't see somewhere.'

Max nodded. 'Gotta give a little to get a little, eh?'

'Tit for tat.'

Sara said, 'Troy, some of the guys I've met have some really interesting hobbies and occupations. And Roger was taken from his house, where he kept all his stuff for his hunting and hiking.'

I smiled, and said, 'Really? And were you a good backwoodsman who love to collect toys for the big game?'

Roger nodded, smiling. 'Of course. Bigger boys need bigger toys.'

'We'll have to get together sometime and examine your toys. As you noticed, I'm kind of partial to toys myself.'

Max grinned. 'I had noticed. Nice toys. You work out with them a lot?'

'Of course. You gotta stay in shape if you want to impress the ladies, right?'

Jason nodded. 'Oh, absolutely. And all of us want to impress the ladies. Especially since it looks like there's a chance that we may need to be in shape enough to impress more than one lady each.'

Sean eyed me, and said, 'You said that you work out a lot. Sara described you to us, and you don't exactly match her description.'

'The bots don't seem to think that I had reached my genetic potential, so they really went into overdrive while I was in the tube. In fact, they seem to have done a very good job of fixing some things.'

Will said, 'Like, for instance?'

'Well, in addition to the normal changes that Sara said they were going to make in all of us, they seem to be really good at fixing injuries. Mirn said that would happen, but I didn't think that he meant they were as good as they are.'

Max said, 'Mirn?'

'The skipper of this tub. He talked to us before he sent us off to the chamber. He was wanting to know why I had woken up. I told him I had no idea. He seemed to accept that because we don't even know how what they have works or what it is, so we literally don't have any idea why it might not work on one of us.'

'What exactly did he tell you guys about what the process was supposed to do?'

'Only that the process would generally either work, or not work at all and kill you if your immune system caused the nanobots to work wrong. They were worried about losing too many of us because they had no experience with our species, and had been forced to modify bots from other species to use on us. So they had no idea how our species would respond to the treatment.'

Sara nodded. 'Zwyl told us that the treatment was meant to cure any illnesses or any debilitating diseases we had that our medical science was unable to correct. But there wasn't time to ask him for more specifics than that.'

I raised my voice and said, 'I have a question that I need to ask Mirn. The answer will affect our social dynamics, and could affect the results of your studies.'

'Mirn is not available at this time. I am Tev. I am in charge of the studies. What is your question?' I recognized the voice as the one that had usually talked before, and had given specifics about their studies of our species.

Jason and the others looked amazed. Not at the voice, but that I had been able to get a response.

'We need to know how many humans were taken for your studies.'

'We collected 13,158 humans in our trip to your planet.'

Max said, 'No way. They couldn't hide that many people just disappearing overnight.'

'The collection was done over a period of six months while we collected data on your behavior. We are very skilled at hiding our studies from primitive species such as yourselves.'

'Mirn told me that you expected to lose a lot of humans in your initial studies because you didn't know how our bodies would respond to the nanobots.'

'Correct.'

'How many humans were used in your first study on the effects of the nanobots?'

'Half of them. We needed about six thousand to get a good sample size and determine how to reprogram the nanobots if things went really wrong.'

'How many of the six thousand humans survived the first wave treatments?'

'One thousand two hundred and twenty seven.'

'So over 75% of us died?'

'The rest died or had to be killed as being psychotic. They were deemed psychologically unstable because of their extremely violent responses when they were revived. Even after things were explained, they seemed to be unable to regain control over their violent tendencies, so they were eliminated from the study.'

'Is this considered abnormal?'

'Yes. We modified the nanobots, and began the work on the rest of the humans. Their results are more toward norms, and we feel confident that we will actually be able to reverse the statistics.'

'So there will be another four or five thousand humans that you expect to survive the treatments.'

'Correct.'

'Why are the other groups kept separated from us, Tev?'

'We need to study them in their normal cultures. The other groups don't speak the language that you do, and we don't feel that the interaction would give us valid results on your normal responses.'

I looked at Jason and winked. 'Your studies of us won't provide normal responses now, Tev. We are not in a normal situation. In order to be more normal, we must be allowed to interact with other groups of our own species. Almost all of us have lost loved ones, and none of us were mentally prepared to be abducted and forced to spend the rest of our lives away from everything that we know and understand.'

'That appears to be a valid concern. One that I made when we began the experiment, because I saw how your species seemed to waver between the need for solitude and the need for human companionship and social interactions.'

'Is there any way to get the other groups moved near us, so that we can interact? Or at least let us move back and forth to visit with them.'

'That is acceptable. Travel and interaction are normal for your species.'

'We don't know where they are.'

'I will assign Zwyl and a few others to be your guides and show you how to find your way around the ship. Learning how to use some of the simple controls will tell us much about the adaptability and skills of your species, and it will help us to determine how you would best serve the needs of the Consortium.'

'Thank you, Tev.'

'Your response makes no sense.'

'Tev, how many other groups are there that have completed the first wave conditioning?'

'There were three. Now there are two. Both are larger than the group that you are currently in. There seem to have been some regional differences in the ability to respond to the treatment. It also seems that females survived the process better than males.'

'What are the sizes of the groups that are left, and what is their composition?'

'Your group has been designated Group Alpha. You responded well to the treatment, but many of you died. Your group consists of forty nine adult males, one hundred and fifty seven adult females, and one hundred and thirty nine juveniles. A total of two hundred and six adults, or three hundred and forty five individuals.'

'Group Beta consists of seventeen adult males, four hundred and fifty nine adult females, and two hundred and ten juveniles. A total of four hundred and seventy six adults, or six hundred and eighty six individuals.'

'Group Delta consists of one hundred and forty five adult females and fifty one juveniles. A total of one hundred and forty five adults, or one hundred and ninety six individuals.'

I saw that Sara had been taking notes, writing things down as Tev said them, and smiled at her.

'The total for all three remaining groups is sixty six adult males, seven hundred and sixty one adult females, and four hundred juveniles.'

'Tev, what percentage of the juveniles are male?'

'Twenty seven percent. Males of all ages seemed less able to tolerate and survive the treatment than the females of your species.'

'Is there anything else that you require?'

'No, Tev. We will spend today interacting with our own group, and then would like to interact with the other groups tomorrow if that is possible.'

'Of course.'

Sara looked at the numbers, and then looked at me. 'You realize that the women outnumber the men between eleven and twelve to one.'

'Yes. And even if you average them out among the juvenile males, the total is still at least six to one.'

Jason's mouth dropped open. 'Bloody hell, mate. That kind of skew is unreal. I'm sure that some of the men will think it's heaven until they get worn out, but Jesus.'

Max snorted. 'Social dynamics are going to have to change radically, no matter what.'

Sara said, 'Well, at least we don't have to worry about STDs. Though I think that we really should ask Tev some more specific questions before moving forward on that assumption.'

I laughed. 'I don't intend to join the hippies and do the free love generation thing, though I'm sure that we'll see some adherents before long.'

Max looked at me strangely. 'Just how the hell old are you, Troy?'

'Forty. Why?'

Jason dropped the cup he was holding. 'You're shitting me. Sara looks young, but you don't look any older than her. No way you're that old.'

Sara nodded. 'I'm thirty, and he's ten years older than me. He corrupted me when I was a sweet young thing and didn't know enough to look out for dirty old men like him.'

There was laughter at the comment. Jason said, 'Troy, I hate to tell you this, but I think that you may be the oldest person here.'

'No way. There are guys here and women in the other room with teenagers.'

'The guy whose daughter joined the women is only thirty five. His daughter was sixteen.'

Sean stood up, and said, 'Hey, guys, is anyone here over forty?'

A loud chorus shouted, "NO!".

Sara said, 'I don't remember anyone looking very old. The oldest woman that I can remember talking to was in her early thirties. Maybe there will be some older people in the other groups?'

Max said, 'Just out of curiosity, how long have you been playing with your toys, Troy?'

'Over twenty five years.'

'And how much did you work out?'

'Well, when I was young, about five hours a day. Now I haven't had as much time lately, so it was a few hours every few days. Had to spend most of my time working around the farm to keep things running.'

'Anyone here who was a couch potato?'

Everyone shook their heads. 'No way. But I sure as hell would never have lasted doing five hour workouts every day.'

'Oh, come on, guys. The workouts weren't that hard. Lots of people could do them.'

Max laughed. 'Troy, what kind of exercises did you used to do when you worked out for five hours?'

'Well, I'd start out on the weight machines, and work out for maybe half an hour or so doing weights. Then I'd work out on a heavy bag. Then I'd pound on the wall mats for a while. Then I'd work out empty hand to loosen up and stretch. Then I'd work out with the weapons that I was using that day. Then I'd go back down and start the whole cycle over again.'

'How many breaks did you take?'

'None, really. Just catch my breath for a few seconds between exercises.'

'And how much did you eat or drink?'

'I'd drink a soda or two during the workout. Never much at one time. If I got hungry, I'd eat a few pieces of dried fruit or chew some homemade beef or deer jerky while I was working out.'

Sean whistled. 'I'd have died. I was never no slacker when it came to exercise, but that would have killed me.'

'How long did you maintain that pace, Troy?'

'About ten years. Then I got busy and had to cut back on the workouts.'

Jason said, 'How long have you been playing with those toys of yours, Troy?'

'Twenty five years.'

'And have you ever taught anyone how to play with them?'

'Sure. Most guys gave up after a while and lost interest, but I taught them as long as they would show up and work out.'

'How would you feel about having some new students, Troy? I think that you are going to be busy teaching for a while. Especially if we can find a way to get more toys made.'

I smiled, realizing what he was referring to. 'Maybe Tev could allow us to see if there are some materials that would be suitable. Perhaps some alloys that we don't know about would be light and strong enough?'

Max smiled. 'You read my mind, Troy. Give us a few months, and we'll have lots of guys who are ready to impress the ladies.'

Sara said, 'Don't forget, we also have a lot more ladies who are going to need to be able to impress the guys with their own physical fitness. They are going to naturally compete for the attentions of the available guys, since there are so few guys to go around.'

I nodded. 'She's right. The women have just as much stake in this as we do, and just as much reason to want to do their part. Besides, they outnumber us ten to one.'

Jason grinned. A predatory grin. 'Yeah. First thing I ever learned in the states was that you don't mess with no mama when she's protecting her cubs.'

I wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to Jason. He looked at it, looked back at me, then nodded. He didn't read the paper out loud, but I saw Sara reading it while he was holding it in front of him.

Sara said, 'Well, at least we all agree. Maybe you guys should find out what the others think about the idea while we go visit the other rooms and introduce Troy to the ladies.'

Max smiled. 'We'll do that, Sara. But just make sure you don't leave him alone with any of those women, especially the single ones, or you might be the first one to end up with a new roommate.'

Sara smiled, and shrugged. 'He's a big boy. If he doesn't feel like saying "No", then he'll have to deal with the consequences. Someone has to start the ball rolling and get us back to living for the present and the future instead of dwelling on what we've already lost and can never get back.'

As we were walking over to the next room to visit with the ladies, I smiled at Sara. 'That was cute, what you said to them to get them thinking about extra women and how to handle it. But you really shouldn't joke around like that this soon, dear.'

'Who's joking? If you find some really hot young thing that you really can't live without, bring her home with you. Just make sure that she understands that this isn't some little quick roll in the hay, and that she knows her place and position in our household.'

'You're serious? Sara, you can't be serious.'

'Honey, you haven't met the women yet. Like me, most of them have been modified to make them leaner and really healthy. And I've met the women, dear. You haven't. Not only did they survive the treatment better than the men did, but they also have adapted to a few of the concepts of survival of the species more rapidly than the men have. Especially the younger women, and those who are single. They have already figured out that there are a lot more women than men, and that they will either have to share or do without. And if they have to share, they all know that the first wife will have a better position than a later wife, so the sooner they snare a guy, the higher their own position in the household.'

'So, what would make me so special that they'd go throwing themselves at me today?'

'You, honey, are one of the few males who isn't grieving about losing a loved one or losing his life on Earth. You have me, and that's all you care about for now. Also, in case you didn't notice when you looked in the mirror, whatever those bots did to you in there, they sure did a fine job of it.'

'And you think that I'm suddenly going to find a bunch of other women so attractive that I can't refuse their sexual advances?'

Sara smiled. 'It's not that you can't, honey. We've both talked about having a larger household before, and I know for a fact that you aren't averse to the idea of having some other women around the house to help me out with the work. I just think that when you see what the women have to offer, you might not want to say no to all of them.'

Sara knocked at the door, smiling at me. I turned from her to enter when the door opened, and stopped in my tracks. There was a small girl holding the door open, looking up at me. She was a real heart-breaker if I ever saw one. She couldn't have been more than five feet tall, and had hair down to her ass. The longest, thickest, silkiest looking blonde hair that I had ever seen. Her face was so innocent looking, and her skin was smooth and unblemished other than the freckles that dotted her nose and cheeks below her eyes. I looked down, and saw that she had on a very revealing top that clearly showed her cleavage. While not large, her mounds were firm and flat, and she was about a medium B cup. And I saw more of those enticing freckles danced in the light, moving with the swell of her breasts as she breathed. This girl was definitely going to make some guy very happy when she grew up. I finally managed to drag my eyes from her heaving bosom and check out the rest of the package. Definitely very easy on the eyes, and her entire body was slender and slim, with the flared hips that clearly showed she was definitely all woman and built for bearing babies.

She swallowed, clearing her throat, and said, 'Uh, Sara.' I noticed that her eyes were wide and she was staring at me as well, and that she was somewhere between a bit intimidated and somewhat aroused by what she saw. 'Uh, we didn't know that you were coming over right now.'

'That's OK, Brianna. We finished talking to the guys sooner than we expected, and I just figured that I'd stop by and see if enough of the women were up and available so that we could finish our discussion from yesterday.'

'Uh, sure.'

I looked at Sara, and said, 'Does she always start every sentence with "Uh", or do I just make her that nervous?'

Sara punched my arm, then winced and gave me a dirty look because she'd hurt her hand. I guess my muscle was denser than when I went into the tube.

'Uh, I'm not nervous.'

I looked at Brianna, who shrank back slightly. Before, when I was just over six feet and a little over 200 solid pounds, I would have dwarfed her. Now, she looked like a small child next to me. 'Uh, really, I'm not nervous. What would give you that idea?'

I looked at Sara, and said, 'You know, it's kind of cute right now. Maybe some young guy will like it and they'll be happy together after she grows up.'

I saw a spark of anger flash in Brianna's eyes, and saw that they were a deep, emerald green. 'I am not some ditz. And quit talking about me like I'm some kind of kid. I am an adult.'

I laughed and patted her on the head. 'Yes, dear, I'm sure you are. May we come in?'

'Why you, you, you...' she sputtered. She drew in a deep breath, which had the very unsettling effect of drawing my eyes to those firm breasts. 'You conceited, ignorant bastard. If your wife wasn't my friend, I'd kick your butt. I may not look my age any more than your wife looks hers, but I'm older than you are, you stupid moron.'

I laughed, and looked at Sara. She smiled, and said, 'Well, Brie, you are older than I am, but you're not older than him.'

Brianna stopped in her tracks, not saying whatever it was she was going to say. She looked at Sara, and said, 'What did you say?'

'Brie, you are a couple of years older than I am, but you're not near his age.'

I looked at Sara. 'She's over thirty? Jeez, Sara, she looks like jailbait. She doesn't look like she could be more than sixteen. Tops.'

'How old is he?'

'Huh? I'm forty. Why?'

'But, Sara, he's a guy. Do you realize what this means?'

Brianna grabbed my arm and began pulling me inside, trying to get me through the doorway. I watched for a few seconds as she struggled ineffectually, and then stepped forward after making sure that Sara was inside first.

'Damn, he's heavy. How much do you weigh?'

'I don't know.'

'What do you mean you don't know?'

'I weighed between 200 and 210 when I went into the damned chamber. And I was just a shade over six feet tall.'

'No way. That kind of growth is impossible.'

'Oh, no. Quite possible, I assure you. I should know, since I felt it.'

'How could you have possibly felt the growth? From what I've heard, they used some sort of neural dampener on us to keep us asleep the entire time.'

'The neural dampener doesn't work on me. I woke up before they even put us into the chambers, and they'd already given me the damned paralyzer before the doc told me that they were using the neural dampener on us to keep us out while the bots did their work.'

'That's impossible. If your mind was working and active while you were put into a sensory deprivation tank for six weeks, you'd come out a stark raving lunatic.'

Sara giggled, and said, 'I told you yesterday that he was certifiable, Brie.'

Brianna looked at Sara, her mouth partly open, with an astonished look on her face. Then she looked at me, and said, 'OK, smart guy, explain it to me so I believe you actually know what you're talking about.'

'You only go nuts if you don't have something to think about. If you keep your mind occupied, then you don't have any problems. Part of the time, I slept. Not a lot of the time because every time I fell asleep the damned nanobots seemed to go into triple overtime, and the pain really went up several notches. Part of the time, I worked on trying to flex my muscles and tighten them up, even marginally, just to exert some type of control over them despite the drugs.'

'You couldn't have done that for six weeks straight, even with sleeping.'

'Well, I also fantasized, remembering Sara and some of the good times that we had together. And I used my mind and imagination in other ways. Let's just say that I used some transference techniques to help me visualize how I would enjoy doing certain things to demonstrate my enjoyment of my current condition to the people who had made it possible for me to experience it.'

Brianna looked at the ceiling, nodding. OK, so he had fantasized about doing some terrible things to the people who had abducted them. Cool. She could see how that would give you lots of things to think about, especially if you had constant pain to serve as a stimulus to help keep your mind focused on the goal of giving pain to someone else.

'OK, I believe you. Now, why did you think it was so important for us to talk alone before we introduced him to everyone, Sara?'

'Brie, he actually got them to respond to questions.'

'Mirn answered?'

'No. Mirn was unavailable. Tev answered. He's in charge of studying us.'

'What did he say?'

Sara pulled out the small notebook with her notes on it. 'They abducted 13,158 people from Earth. They put 6,000 of us into those tubes for the treatment they gave us. Only 1,227 of us are still alive. And they analyzed their results and made the modifications already, and have the rest of the humans undergoing the procedure right now.'

'God, Sara. Only twelve hundred of us survived?'

'Well, they say the results show that the other group should have about three fourths of them survive, instead of the less than one fourth that we had. So, in just a few weeks, there will be at least six thousand humans on this ship.'

I said, 'That isn't the bad news, Brianna. The breakdown shows that our group has the highest survival rate among males of any of the groups that went through first.'

'Oh, shit. How bad is it?'

'They had us in four groups of fifteen hundred people each. Every single individual from one group died. Out of the other three groups, one had no adult males survive, one had seventeen, and ours had forty nine. That gives us a total population of sixty six men. There are seven hundred and sixty one adult women and four hundred children. Only one hundred and eight of the children are male.'

'Damn, Sara. We outnumber the men by eleven to one.'

'It may not be so bad after the other group is finished. They expect more of them to survive.' I tried to sound hopeful.

'And if most of the ones who don't survive it are the men?'

I shrugged. 'Well, it doesn't exactly take a whole lot of men to get all of the women pregnant. So unless the births are also skewed way out of proportion, then this generation is the only one that will have a major problem.'

Sara said, 'Very funny, Romeo.'

'Hey, don't kill the messenger. At least we know how many people there are on board, and that tells us something about the size of this ship. Large enough to hold over thirteen thousand people without really crowding them, and we don't have much of the space in the area that we're in.'

Sara nodded. 'We were walking for a while down the corridors when Zwyl took us to see Mirn. Maybe a mile or more of corridors. And we were always heading in the same general direction. This place is huge.'

'Sara, you were awake with him. Tell me, did you see anything really interesting?'

'Not really. Like I told you yesterday. Lots of hallways. Lots of doorways and hatches. And a couple of rooms. The small one I woke up in. The one with our gear in it. The one that Mirn talked to us in. And the one where they put us into those tubes.'

'So, tell me, has anyone else experienced a whole lot of changes inside the tubes?'

Brianna nodded. 'Most of the women have bodies that they would have died trying to get before. They are definitely enjoying some of the benefits from whatever it is that they did to us. But it's hard to tell how much was done to some of us. No diseases that we can tell. Some of the women had problems, and now they don't. Nobody seems to need glasses, and most of us can see fairly well in the dark now.'

I nodded. 'Did anyone undergo any major changes in physical appearance?'

'Well, some of the women lost a lot of weight, and others gained. All of us appear to be more muscular, and the muscle seems to be the dense type of muscle that we usually associate with guys who do hard physical labor routinely.'

Sara said, 'Brianna, go ahead and tell him.'

Brianna sighed, and said, 'And I was the most changed of the women in our group. I wasn't all that fat or out of shape, but I was overweight. I was also much larger than I am now.'

'You couldn't have been that big. Hell, you're so tiny now that you look like a kid.'

'Look, you have to understand. I was in grad school, working on my PhD, so I didn't have a lot of time to spend in the gym and doing other things, but I wasn't exactly a couch potato, either. Troy, I was five foot six, weighed about a hundred and forty pounds, and was about a size ten or twelve. Absolutely average size for a woman.'

I looked at her, stunned. She began to weep, and then blubbered, 'They shrunk me six inches and made me look like a little girl. I weigh more than it looks like because of all the muscle, but I'm still tiny.'

Sara comforted Brianna while I thought about it for a minute. Finally, I said, 'You're not the only one they really messed with, Brianna.'

'What do you mean?'

'Sara wasn't lying to you about what I used to look like. I grew at least six inches in that chamber. And if I don't weight three hundred pounds instead of two hundred or two hundred and ten, I'd be surprised.'

Brianna stopped crying and looked at Sara, shocked.

'It's true, Brie. I can take you over to our place and show you his old clothes. They gave him new ones that matched them exactly except for size. I have no idea what else they did to him in there. Some of the stuff that I've seen today is just...'

Brie leaned forward, and said softly, 'What?'

'Well, when he came into the room, he was naked.'

Brie looked at me, raised her eyebrow suggestively, and giggled. 'Sorry I missed that. Might have been quite the show.'

Sara nodded, giggling. 'He's built like some bodybuilder under that shirt. Only sculpted like some Chippendale.'

Brie giggled, and said, 'So, tell me. Is he proportional, or did they really mess up on his you know what when they grew him up?'

I said, 'Ladies, if you don't mind.'

Brie laughed, saying, 'Oh, I don't mind at all. Tell me more.'

Sara began to get that mischievous look in her eyes, so I said, 'Sara, stick to what she NEEDS to know for now. You can do the girl talk when I don't have to sit here and listen to it. Or should I just go into the rest of the room and talk to the other women while you two keep talking?'

Both women shouted 'NO!' at the same time and grabbed me by the arms.

Sara said, 'OK, I'll be good. Just don't go in there with those women right now. Not without us.'

'What is your problem?'

'You are the only attached male on the ship that we know of. When the girls found out that there were no attached males on board, and figured out that there were a lot more women than men, they started competing for the attention of the males. That's why we set up the dorm style arrangements yesterday. To give us all time to think and get things straight in our heads.'

'OK, what aren't the two of you telling me?'

'Some of the girls were really changed by the process. They only seem to have two things that really seem to drive them. They will eat, drink, and take care of their other survival needs fine, but they don't seem to really enjoy anything that they've eaten or drank. The only things they seem to enjoy are fighting and having sex. They are really driven to mate with any male who is willing.'

'Jeez, how many of them were affected like that?'

'We can't tell, exactly. Things haven't stabilized enough for us to figure it out exactly. Thirty. Forty. Some are borderline.'

'Brie, forty is one fourth of the adult women. Are you telling me that one fourth of the women in our group are nymphomaniacs who are good for nothing but breeding and fighting?'

'Well, not exactly. I've talked to some of them. They seem to be driven by primal urges more than usual. They are very protective of the children, even the ones who never had children. All of them are currently taking care of at least two kids. Mostly smaller kids. Most of their aggression only seems to be triggered by two things. A perceived threat to a child they have chosen to guard, or the competition for the attention of a male who seems interested in them sexually.'

'Could those forty women and some of the older kids be trained to protect the smaller children?'

Brie looked at me, thinking. 'Yeah, I suppose so.'

'So that would leave us with about a hundred and sixty adults who could work, train, and get in shape for something else.'

Brie nodded. Sara was smiling as she saw where I was going with this.

'So tell me, what were you studying in grad school, Brianna?'

'Nothing useful now. I was studying path.'

I nodded. Pathology. Good thing she didn't say that out loud, because I didn't want Tev and Mirn to know more about us than they needed to. And pathology might come in useful, if we could find some way to get information about some of the other species on board who had abducted us.

'So, you might know a few things about dealing with wounds and stuff.'

'Well, I didn't really train for clinical studies or anything, but I did take first aid and trained as an EMT. Why?'

I held out my hand, and said, 'What do you make of this injury?'

Brianna unwrapped the bandage, and looked at the cut on my hand. 'Well, if it was deeper, I'd recommend some stitches. It really doesn't look too bad overall. Of course, since there's no redness or swelling, it doesn't look like there is any infection. The scabbing is coming along well, so the healing is progressing very nicely. Doesn't look like it will leave a scar, or at least not much of one.'

I looked at Sara and smiled. Brianna definitely knew her stuff, and she was clearly very intelligent as well as being very cute.

Brianna looked at me strangely, and said, 'Wait a minute. The chambers were supposed to fix everything. So why didn't they fix this?'

'Because it happened after I got out of the chamber.'

'What? No way. You only got out today. That wound is showing days worth of healing, and you could have only gotten it hours ago if you got it today.'

I nodded and smiled while looking down at her as I watched her face. 'That's right.'

'Then the nanobots are doing a very good job on the healing process.'

I pulled her over to me, and whispered into her ear, 'Better than you know. Sara cut my hand to the bone with a sword, and there was hardly any bleeding at all.'

Brie laughed, and said, 'You had me going there until you said that, Troy. But what you just said is just plainly impossible.'

'Would you believe me if you saw it with your own eyes?' I pulled a knife out of the sheath on my belt.

Sara said, 'Troy, do you really want to do this?' Brianna's eyes had widened and she shrank back when I pulled the knife out.

'Don't worry, honey. It won't hurt much. And it will let us make sure that the bots are really doing their job properly.'

She nodded, and remained sitting where she was. Brianna said, 'Troy, look, I don't know what's wrong, but you don't need the knife. Just put it away, and we'll talk about this and figure out what is really happening.'

'Well, scientific proof requires reproducibility. Besides, you can verify the wound at the time it was made and then keep track of the progress, right? That way we can have a more accurate calculation of the time required for healing.'

I placed the knife against my palm, and then sliced deeply along the same path that the sword had made across my hand. Brianna gasped and cringed, shrinking back and flinching, expecting a spray of blood. Sara just closed her eyes and huddled into herself, not liking that I was being hurt and remembering how she had cut me herself just hours ago.

Some blood dropped onto the floor, and there was some initial spray, but not much blood came out. Brianna was now intrigued, the scientist in her coming out. Now she completely ignored the bloody knife in my hand, pushing it out of the way and leaning in closely to examine my wound.

After about a minute, she pulled a small notebook out of the fanny pack that she was wearing around her waist and began jotting down some notes. I noticed that she had writing that was small, neat, and very precise. She examined my hand several more times, pulling the wound apart slightly to see exactly how deep it was, and estimating the size and depth for her notes.

'Doesn't that hurt at all?'

'Some. There is a bit of dull, throbbing pain, but it's going away. I always had a high tolerance for pain. And after the chamber, this isn't much of an annoyance.'

'Troy, I can see the bone, and I think that there may be some tendon damage as well.'

I smiled and flexed my fingers, closing my hand into a fist, and then extending my fingers out and splaying them to show her that the hand still worked fine.

'There is some stiffness, just as there was before. But the stiffness had almost gone completely until I cut it again.'

'That is still a lot of risk just to prove a point, Troy.'

'Not if the point is what I think it is. What if I'm not the only person who has been modified like this?'

Brianna's jaw dropped as she thought of what that could mean. If we were all like this, and the healing was able to deal with major trauma as well as extensive wounds to the extremities, then that would mean that we had been modified so that we would be able to withstand injury and trauma and still function. Which meant that we were intended to be used for something that would put us into dangerous situations. Workers in some occupations that were hazardous. Or combat, where just being there was usually dangerous enough in itself.

Brie swallowed, and said, 'So the initial work has made us suited for work in more dangerous conditions?'

'Possibly. It could just be an unexpected occurrence. The bots hadn't really been programmed for us, and they needed some guinea pigs to †make the adjustments for them to work properly on our species. So they probably picked several of the most likely candidates, spread them along the spectrum of their programming, and tested us in batches.'

'That would make sense. Then you could draw more data from the same sample size because you knew which worked more toward what you expected to get. How many samples do you think they used?'

'I figure at least twelve in the first wave of the experiment.'

'What makes you come up with twelve?'

'Well, there were four groups of us. I figure that means that they picked out nanobots that were designed for the four species most likely to work on us, and then programmed them along a range of their capabilities. One set of each group got the low setting, one got the middle setting, and one got the high setting. Of course, that's all just supposition based on the fact that there were four groups of us and the room that I saw had tubes on three walls.'

Brie nodded. 'A logical assumption, and one that we can test readily enough. When they woke the rest of us, they woke us up in the lab in small groups. I remember that my group all came out of the same wall.'

Sara nodded. 'I was there to help revive some of the people from our group who survived. Brie was on the same wall that we were.'

I nodded. 'We should find out about the others, and make a comprehensive list. Then we should test some of them to see how they were affected by the process.'

Sara said, 'You aren't going to just do to some of the others what you did to yourself, are you?'

'No, honey, of course not. But we can do minor tests, and work up to more in depth testing later if it looks promising. And it's something that we should also take into account when we meet with the other groups. They may have been changed, but not in the same way that we were.'

Brie sounded worried. 'You seem to have a goal in mind with all of this, Troy. How is it that you are so confident and sure of yourself? You don't sound confused at all, and you seem to have already thought everything out.'

'I was awake before I went into the chamber, Brianna. That gave me time to figure a few things out and deal with them, especially since I'd already been informed of some things that everyone here is still finding out. And I've had plenty of time to think things through since then.'

Her voice sounded distant, as if she was thinking when Brie said, 'Yeah, I guess you have, at that, haven't you?'

Sara said, 'Well, Brie, are you going to tell him, or are you going to make me?'

'I'll tell him.'

'Tell me what?'

'Well, when Sara helped revive me, we got to talking, and we exchanged quite a lot of information about our lives and interests. And it seems that she was kind of upset that they kept you in the chamber an extra day, and she needed someone to talk to. We didn't get much sleep last night, but we did work out a few things between us. We decided to stick together, whether you made it out of the chamber or not. And we also decided that we would do our best to do what you suggested to her before they put her under.'

I laughed. 'Is this your way of telling me that I have at least two supporters?'

Sara said, 'Well, yes, and no. Actually it's her way of telling you that we've already decided that we're going to make it so that nobody doubts our complete support of your plans to make a better life for all of us.'

End Teaser

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