Free The Spawning by Kaitlyn O'Connor Page B

She was just as glad. She didn’t want to
    talk about it. She didn’t want to think about it. There was nothing she could do to avenge herself or the others or find justice for what had been done to them. The hate would eat her up if she allowed it to … or she could let it go and focus on survival, and that was what she knew she needed to do—survive, because it was important to her to live regardless of how difficult it might be.
    And because she saw it as the only way she could triumph over what they’d done to her. They’d never know, of course, and obviously didn’t give a fuck one way or the other—for all those bastards had known the damned lizard might’ve wanted them for food!
    In any case, she felt like hell now that the worst of her fear had worn off and the shock. She was thirsty and had begun to feel nauseated from the nearly unbearable heat.
    Of course, it might not be the heat. It might be nothing more than sheer emptiness. She supposed while they’d been packed into those things used to transport them they must have been given some sort of life preserving nutrients, but they’d certainly been well cleaned out beforehand and they hadn’t been given actual food since.
    How long since she’d eaten, she wondered?
    She had no concept. She doubted she would have even if not for the pod they’d frozen her in. Everything had happened so quickly from the time she’d been snatched that she’d been in a constant state of shock, unable to completely assimilate one shock THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 37
    before she was hit with another.
    Resisting the urge to simply lie down in the dirt, she glanced surreptitiously toward the Hirachi enclave.
    The Hirachi males, for all that they’d shown every indication that they viewed the Earth females the trader had brought with contempt, certainly seemed fascinated with them, she thought uneasily. Every time she dared a glance in the direction of the powwow that had been going on between the Hirachi since their arrival nearly an hour before she saw that the majority of the males were either staring at them openly or, at the very least, constantly casting curious looks at them.
    “What do you suppose happened to their women?” Carol asked uneasily.
    Miranda had wondered herself, but it wasn’t something she wanted to speculate
    about. “From what the trader said, it sounded like the Hirachi were kidnapped and brought here themselves. Maybe they only brought men? Or maybe, in spite of what Khan implied about their women being ‘warriors’, they didn’t survive the trip? Or died since. This doesn’t look like a terribly hospitable planet.”
    “The trader said something about the Hirachi being traders, didn’t he?” Deborah murmured.
    Carol stared at her. “I don’t see how that would explain that there aren’t any women around—because there aren’t. I haven’t seen a single one—unless they look just like the males. Maybe they only have one sex?”
    Miranda glanced at her. “The trader said he’d brought us as breeders,” she said pointedly.
    Carol turned white. “Oh my fucking god! With that? With those …?”
    Miranda studied her in disbelief for a moment. “What did you think he figured they’d want us for?”
    “I just meant, maybe they’re … like colonists, or something,” Deborah said a
    little stiffly. “And that was why there weren’t any women.”
    “Why wouldn’t he bring them some of their own women if that was the case?”
    “Good question. So far we’re doing a lot better on the questions than the
    answers,” Miranda said dryly. “I’m guessing we’re going to find out.”
    “What if they don’t want to trade for us?” Deborah said anxiously. “What do you think the trader will do if they don’t want us?”
    That also wasn’t something Miranda wanted to think about. She shook her head.
    “I don’t know, but I feel so bad right now I can’t think straight.”
    THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 38

Chapter