He met her gaze and smiled. “No apologies necessary, my lady. For you, it is an occupational hazard.”
She laughed at the Earth phrase in that context.
Etska cleared his throat, and Melr went to him with the same bowl of water. He cleaned up and smiled. “Our food seems to have gone gold, Melr.”
“Replacements will be out in two minutes. I will just clear up and be right back, my lord.”
“Thank you, Melr.” He dried his hands and inclined his head.
The green chef collected the cold dishes on a tray and carried them back to the kitchen before returning and wiping the table down. Athena groaned and pressed her head to the cleaned surface. Melr had paid intense focus to the spot where she and Etska had interacted.
Etska chuckled and took her hand. “Come over here, Athena. We don’t want you to eat too quickly. You do tend to speed things along if not careful.”
She got up and settled carefully in his lap. “Fine, but just because I don’t think I could handle a repeat performance.”
He chuckled. “Next time, I will continue until you call for an encore.”
Athena blinked. “Why is everyone using Earth sayings today?”
He hugged her. “The data files of your world have become available, and I have purchased a set and made them accessible to all who work here.”
She slowly turned. “What kind of data?”
“Cultural, music, books, social information, humour, language. It was all downloaded and saved for sale to those who wanted it. The Hmrain with humans are the primary purchasers. Other worlds just simply want exotic information. A few archives have added it to their collections. Here, you can now look through the sum of your species saved history.”
Athena wrapped her arms around him and kissed him with all the joy and enthusiasm that she felt. The day stretched ahead of her, but so far, the morning had been pretty damned exciting. The feeling of her past and future colliding was intense and heady, but she had to cork her enthusiasm. She wanted her freaking breakfast.
Chapter Ten
“So, what would you like to do today?” Etska asked her as she sat across his legs so that he could keep an eye on her.
She snorted. “Honestly?”
“Please.” He smiled and clocked his head.
“I would like to be out with the team, searching for the ball iron on the surface.” She nibbled at the biscuit and sausage patty that Melr had made just for her.
He nodded. “Fine. We will go to their zone.”
She perked up. “Really? Can I wear coveralls?”
He snorted. “No.”
“If I have to keep wearing skirts, I am going to wreck a lot of them.”
Etska slid a hand along her thigh. “Finding interesting ways to destroy your clothing is going to be a hobby of mine.”
Her skirt was mostly opaque again. “Well, today they weren’t destroyed.”
“Not for lack of trying.”
She continued eating. “I don’t think you were really trying.”
He shrugged. “You are right. I wanted to begin our bond. It has been started.”
She paused. “Started. Not completed.”
He laughed. “Oh, no. It won’t be completed for quite some time.”
Athena swallowed. “How much time?”
“Well, with the link begun, it will take weeks before your body has fully settled, but the initial changes in healing and stamina will start taking hold immediately.”
She touched her facial scars. “Healing? What about these?”
He ran his fingertips over the scars, and he smiled. “They will fade, but if you wish to keep them, they will remain. We can also create substitutes if you wish.”
Athena blinked and stared. “Substitutes?”
“A type of design that mimics a tattoo. If you consider the marks part of you, they can remain part of you.”
She cocked her head. “They were a tool to keep me from this exact position, so that didn’t work.”
He grinned. “I am persistent once I know that what I have been looking for is within my grasp.”
“How many of my kind are in situations like this?”
“Like this? Only you. With a Hmrain? You are the fourth. On a Hmrain-controlled colony without the overseer knowing she is there? Who knows?”
“There are other colonies that aren’t under Hmrain control, right?” She finished her biscuit and reached for fruit.
“There are, but the education station sells to the Hmrain first. It is Hmrain owned after all.”
“Is it? We had no idea. Mind you, it is like rats deserting a sinking ship. You run for safety and figure out where you landed later.”
He snorted. “Did they at least tell you that you were going to be bound by the value of your usefulness?”
“That they did.” She shivered. “They cleaned us up, scanned us, and made us sign the bond contracts so that there was no confusion about what was going to happen when we completed our placement exams.”
“How did they handle the children?”
She frowned. “The children were allowed to remain with their parents once the genetic link was proved. It would have been strange to have fought so hard to survive only to lose what mattered most.”
He was suddenly reaching past her to take some fruit off the table. “You are interested in children?”
His voice was extremely casual, so she narrowed her eyes at him. “Like, as a subspecies or adopting or something? Why do you ask?”
“It is possible. It is part of what makes you companion class. You can be altered to be a carrier for a Hmrain child.”
She swallowed in a suddenly dry mouth. “Carrier?”
“Parent? Over time, with enough exposure to me, you will be capable of carrying offspring.”
She looked at the discomfort in his expression. “This is the part they didn’t teach you. Right?”
“Correct. had not thought to bring it up this early, but it seemed a natural conversational gambit.”
“So, you want kids.” She looked at him, staring into his eyes for signs of falsehood. He frowned in confusion, and she changed her reference. “You want children.”
“Other Hmrain have managed to have them. I like the idea of one.” He grinned. “A little girl with my hair and your eyes.”
“My skin and your everything else would be adorable.” Her mind’s eye could imagine a tiny cherub with an impish expression and a tiny toga. “A male should favour you.”
He smiled. “So, give it a decade, and we can try for one?”
She bit her lip. “Done.”
“By the way, a child creates a bonus in a standard contract that would free you from bond.”
“Am I able to see the upgraded contract?”
He chuckled. “Of course. You are colony controller. You will also be able to assign staff to manage housing, job works, assign plots of land to work and crops.”