Chapter 24

The daily routine returned for the group. Progress was slowly being made on their escape route. A hole big enough for Aaron to stick her head through now existed in the side of the cave. They could reach out through the hole and touch the soil on the other side. It gave them hope.

It had been 10 days since Rose and Theta had their quite moment in front of the fire. As they walked to the laundry for their midday showers Rose said to Theta, "Tell your boss today that you think your amator is pregnant and that we both want to see Claudio."

Theta nodded "I hope this works." he said.

Later that afternoon a guard came to get Rose from the laundry and escorted her to the great hall where Claudio was waiting. Again Theta was there ahead of her. She hoped that he had mentioned the protein marker to Claudio.

Rose and Theta stood together in front of the Supreme Ruler of the mining complex. Claudio looked down at them and said to Rose "You believe you are pregnant?"

"Yes." she began "The physiology of women on the planet I come from is slightly different from the women on your world. When a woman from my planet has been pregnant for just a few days a protein marker appears in her blood. I believe that your medical device should be able to find the protein marker if I am pregnant."

Claudio stared at her. "I have never heard of such a thing!"

Rose and Theta could clearly tell that he did not believe her.

"How many women from Earth have you known?" Theta asked.

"None!" Claudio responded.

"Well, then all you have to do is scan her looking for the protein marker to know if we are telling the truth," Theta said.

Claudio stepped down off the platform and walked over to stand in front of Rose. The medical device whirred as he moved it up and down and side to side in front of her.

He stopped the machine and looked up wide-eyed at Rose. "You have a protein marker in your blood! The Protectorate will be most pleased when I inform him that you are pregnant!"

"Yes!" Theta said. He was rejoicing that Claudio had bought their ruse, but Claudio believed he was truly happy that his amator was pregnant.

Rose smiled at Theta, as relief flooded through her at the realization that Claudio believed she was pregnant.

"I will be handsomely rewarded by the Protectorate!" Claudio said. Then he turned to one of his guards and said "Give them the rest of the day off and take them to their quarters!" He spun on his heel and disappeared.

The guard took Rose and Theta back to their quarters and said, "You may put your privacy curtain down until the work shift is over." Then he walked away.

Theta did not hesitate, but went right to work rolling down the privacy curtain.

"Uh, Doctor, what did you have in mind?" Rose asked.

"Sleeping, Rose. Working on our escape route from 130 to 430 every morning is getting to be very tiring."

Four hours later Theta and Rose were still sound asleep when Luce and the rest of the group returned from their day's labor.

Luce quickly rolled up the privacy curtain while Aaron shook Theta's shoulder. "Theta! What's going on here? Theta, wake up!"

"Huh? Oh, Aaron."

"Um Theta?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll explain in a minute." He turned toward Rose and gently shook her shoulder "Rose! Wake up!"

"What is it, Doctor?"

"Everyone's home and we got some 'splaining to do!"

"Oh."

During their evening meal Theta explained to the team how they were able to fool Claudio into believing that the Rose was pregnant.

"You all have to treat Rose like she's pregnant." Theta began. Rose snorted and rolled her eyes. "And you have to act like you're pregnant!" he said to her.

"Everyone has to believe she is expecting or...well, we all know what the "or" is."

"Well, Rosie, you should probably go over and visit Rican and tell her that you just found out you're pregnant." Jack said. "You know how women are, they get all excited and have to tell their best friend..."

Jack would have said more but the look Rose was giving him, well, he was just thankful she didn't have a weapon or he would have been dead by now.

"Flyboy is right. You should inform Rican that your pregnant." Aaron stated.

"Have I mentioned how much I hate this place!" Rose said.

"Well, you know," Jack began "if any of us get caught outside the compartment in the early morning hours we can now blame it on Rosie! She needed water, she couldn't sleep, she was uncomfortable, and she was throwing up..."

"Thanks flyboy." Rose's voice dripped sarcasm.

Suddenly Rican appeared at the door to the compartment. "I just heard the wonderful news," she said.

"What?"

"About Rose being pregnant!"

"How did you find out so fast?"

"Good news travels quickly here!"

Theta recovered quickly and realized he needed to take his own advice. He walked over to Rose, put his arm around her, kissed her on the cheek and said, "We are very happy, aren't we honey?"

Rose grimaced but smiled at Rican and said, "Yes."

"Well, I am working on Kareen's dress for the party so I must go. Congratulations again!" Rican left the compartment as quickly as she had arrived.

Rose silently prayed to any gods that were listening to get her out of there soon.