Chapter Five

Lisa flinched as she dabbed a milk-colored cream onto Zon's back. It fizzled over the deep scratches there, bubbling like hydrogen peroxide before smoothing out into a sheet of flexible material that was almost the same shade as his skin. It was a fascinating compound called fleshseal, made from synthesized stem cells that adapted themselves to whatever wound it was put against to help heal. Lisa had already put a little capsule of it in the satchel she had bought, with the rest of the samples she was taking back to Earth with her.

"And you were worried about hurting me," she muttered, shaking her head. "Why didn't you tell me I was hurting you?"

"You weren't," Zon chuckled. "Not any more than those bruises on your hips hurt you."

Lisa glanced down to where two perfect impressions of Zon's hands were visible. A quick pass with a laser had turned the dark purple to a mottled green, and the bruises would be gone in a few hours. She had to admit that she hadn't realized that he was holding her that tightly the previous night, any more than she had realized she was scratching deep welts onto his back. Not that she minded.

It had been some night.

"So is your musth over, then?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

"More or less," Zon said. "But I hope that doesn't mean that we won't have more nights like that in the future."

Blood rushed to places Lisa would rather not think about at the moment. She throbbed, both with the aftereffects of the previous night and this new rush of desire. She continued to dab the fleshseal onto his back.

"Yeah. That would be fun." It was only sex, after all. Lisa cleared her throat. "So…"

"So?" Zon pressed.

Lisa hesitated. She wanted to ask him whether he would take her home, but now seemed like the wrong time for it. She didn't want him to think the only reason she had slept with him was to make him more open to taking her back to Earth. But she had to go home. Her brother would be worried sick!

Before she could make up her mind one way or another, an explosion rocked the hotel. She was thrown back onto the bed as the door burst open. There was the zing of a weapon. A flash of light. Zon crumpled.

"Zon!" Lisa reached for him as his eyes rolled wildly, but hands grabbed her and yanked her back.

Lisa kicked back at whatever was holding her, screaming. Something was clamped around her neck. Electric jolts went through her with every movement she made; she kept fighting until her eyes streamed with pain and her head was pounding so hard she couldn't see. She felt a pointed shoulder dig into her stomach and she hung limply. She had the sensation of being carried, and then a smooth lifting, like she was in an elevator.

"Did you make sure the T'Shav was dead?" a voice asked.

"I shot him in the chest. No way he can survive that."

Lisa whimpered, earning herself another blinding shock.

"Idiot. T'Shav's can survive almost anything besides getting their heads blown off." A pause. "Level the outpost. The last thing I want is a warlord like Zon to come after us."

Warlord?

There were the sounds of distant explosions as Lisa was dropped to the floor. She blinked, trying to clear the bleariness from her eyes. Figures loomed in front of her.

The outpost was being leveled. The bartender, the strange aliens who would patiently answer all her questions… Zon. Lisa whimpered again. They were all being killed. Why? What did these aliens want? Why had they taken her?

She pushed herself up, trying to draw the strength to demand answers. A blinding pulse shot through her spine. She slumped as blackness closed in around her.

***

Lisa's head pounded when she woke. At first, she couldn't remember why she felt like she had been hit by a truck. Then it all came rushing back to her and she jerked upright, gasping. A soft white dress covered her, but other than the thin cot she lay on, the stainless steel room she was in was utterly empty.

She got to her feet shakily, feeling her neck. The collar was no longer there. Panic threatened to overwhelm her–what was she going to do without Zon? He had said there were plenty of people out there who would be worse owners than him, and she believed him. Were those the kind of people who had taken her? It couldn't be coincidence, they had specifically targeted her to take. Word of her had spread. Zon had been afraid someone would try to steal her. Was it because she was from an undiscovered species? Did they want her to take them back to Earth to strip it of its resources?

A door slid open and a man stepped into the room. He held a bowl, and the smell of freshly cooked meat made Lisa's stomach rumble. Still, she drew away from him, eyeing the man warily. They had leveled an entire outpost to kill Zon.

Zon.

Lisa's hands clenched. "You are going to take me back to where you got me right now."

The man's brow arched. Other than the thick, protruding brow and extra arm sticking out of his back, he looked human. "You are in no position to make demands. You should eat. You'll need your strength."

"For what? What do you plan to do with me? Why did you take me?"

"Why did I take you?" A smile twisted his lips. "You really don't understand how valuable you are, do you? The only reason Zon got you for as cheaply as he did was because everybody was too afraid of him to challenge him. Didn't you wonder why you were attacked in the forest?"

"You sent them?" Lisa's eyes widened. "After me?"

The man shrugged. "Not me, but people in my line of work."

"We thought that they attacked because of Zon," Lisa mumbled, drawing back as the man came forward. "But me? Why? What… Are you going to put me in some rare zoological collection? Do you want to return to my home planet to strip our resources?"

"Mining asteroids is easier than dealing with an inhabited planet." The man shook his head. "No. We're not after your planet or your people, or to put you in a zoo. It's you. Do you have any idea how rare universal DNA is?"

Lisa remembered the auctioneer saying something about her universal DNA. "What is that? It doesn't make any sense, every species has its own DNA—"

"With shared traits. Universal DNA is when an individual, such as yourself, shares all of its base pairs with other species." The man paused. "For instance, you share 100% of your DNA with my species, with most species, in fact. All of your base pairs are present in my DNA, but not all of my base pairs of present in your DNA. Universal. You… you are more than a rarity. You are an impossibility. It's almost as if… almost as if you were human."

The bottom of Lisa's stomach dropped out. Almost as if she was human? What was that supposed to mean? What he was saying… it was impossible. Genetics simply didn't work that way. His species couldn't have extra DNA that she didn't have, it had to be different. How could they share any DNA in the first place? He was from another planet!

Lisa swallowed dryly. "And what do you want with my universal DNA?"

"It can be used for many things. Cures for genetic diseases, reversing infertility. Proving religious dogma. But all I'm going to do is sell you. You are going to make me a very rich man." He set the bowl down on the ground and smiled. "Try to eat."

He left without another word. Lisa pressed herself against the far wall, shivering. Her brain skittered around, finally settling on one thought. Zon was dead. She had nothing left out here to stay for. And so she was going to return to Earth or die trying.