Free Pact by Viola Grace Page B

and looked down at the frowning expression on the face of the doctor.
    “I donated a kidney to my mother and my ovaries ended up donated to science. They had abnormal development, and the docs felt it was prudent to remove them.”
    The doctor made a hissing sound. “Butchers. You had the physical characteristics of a Lrrko. There was nothing wrong with them.”
    “They had no way of knowing. To them, they looked weird, and weird means cancer around here.”
    “What was wrong with your mother’s kidney?”
    “It was ruptured in a car accident. Both of them were. I was her only chance at a match, so I agreed to donate one of mine. She lived for five years after that.”
    “What did she die of?”
    “Liver failure. When my father died in the accident, my mother waited until she was out of the hospital and then began substance abuse. She didn’t last very long after that.”
    “Well, that would explain her early demise. Your folks are usually indestructible and live to an astonishingly long age.”
    Mila shrugged and went back to playing in her own brain.
    The team arrived to prep her for the tank, and she was taken from the room with the view to an interior space with a large cylinder in the centre.
    “We are going to have to sedate you to get you in the tank.” It was all the warning she got before she heard a hiss, felt a cool spray and then arms caught her as everything went dark.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    They had waited until she was in the tank to show her her new Familiar. He was the supposed robot that would keep her alive and healthy. She knew the moment that she laid eyes on him that he was a thinking and reacting being.
    The cameras on his faceplate stared at her, and she was creeped out.
    D’sekin was impatient and didn’t want to hold the tablet for her for hours on end. To say that she wasn’t impressed was an understatement.
    The doctor checked on her every six hours, and she counted the minutes until she could grow whatever the hell she needed and get out of the damned tank.
    When decanting day finally came around, she lunged upward and ignored the hand that her Familiar held out to her.
    She puked up the oxygenated liquid she had been breathing for the last ten days. Her abdomen felt heavier, but being out of the liquid, she felt lighter than air.
    The moment that they dried her and wrapped her up, sans cables and hoses, her Familiar picked her up.
    She ignored him.
     
    Mila accomplished her physio in record time, and when D’sekin led her into a shuttle, she spent the entire flight reading up on the Lrrko.
    Cracking the firewalls on the shuttle and getting into the really interesting stuff about the politics of assassinations was fun. It was a bit of knowledge that she had obtained through her malfunctioning language download. She was sure that Norz had something to do with the amount of information in that tablet. She had demanded information, and it had been given to her as a first instalment of the agreement.
    It was nice to know that the aliens kept their word.
    She paused and chuckled. She had just realized that she was one of them.
    D’sekin was in fairly constant conversation with the Lrrko home world. What was coming out of his speakers was low and irritated. He was not happy with how things were going. It was a very good thing that they were almost there.
     
    Mila ran her hands over her bodysuit. It was weird feeling as if she was in her twenties again. Her mind had taken on all the wisdom of her age, but she had no patience for manipulation and bullshit anymore. She thought that was the problem with D’sekin. He wanted her to ask and beg for what she wanted. That wasn’t really her thing.
    The shuttle landed, and she left the jump seat in her quarters, getting to her feet and bending her knees to bounce and test the gravity. Slightly heavier than Earth but not too bad.
    She got to her feet and walked to the hatch, waiting for D’sekin to thud his way down. To her surprise, the