of abuse. I even met one who’d been forced to give birth to four children. The man who owned her wanted her to breed his own crews of pirates. She didn’t survive the fifth pregnancy. He bought another woman to replace her less than a day after her death to birth him more babies.”
She shuddered.
He inclined his head. “Exactly. I swore I wouldn’t ever hand over a woman or a child to that kind of life. They use the children as slaves. I lived only slightly better while in captivity, but I still couldn’t stand by and watch kids suffer near starvation. I gave them food allotted for me, even bought medicine for the sick ones with money I stole from the crew that owned me.”
Some of her fear eased. Though, he could be telling her what she wanted to hear to get her to let down her guard. “Why can’t you take me home?”
“Remember how I told you about Clone World, and the reasons why some of the clones tried to run away?”
She nodded.
“I’m a clone, Hailey. I escaped with a small group of others. I’ll be executed on sight by any port official.” He turned and gripped the waist of the sleeping pants, tugging down one side enough to show a round tattoo on his hip.
Her gaze locked on that stamp. It was roughly the size of the circle if she touched her index finger to her thump. She’d heard clones were marked that way during the process of being created.
His news stunned her. He was a clone. A real one.
“I’m also not data imprinted in my palm, like humans are, because Clones aren’t considered people. Every customs center scans incoming guests. Even your colony planet. I’ve already checked. There are a lot of transports that travel there to pick up the minerals your planet mines.”
Her gaze jerked up to his face, finding him staring at her still. He pulled up his pants and faced her fully.
It sank in slowly that he was truly a clone. She hadn’t ever met one before. None of them had lived on or visited Prospect. He looked real, as if he were a regular person. Just a big muscled one.
“Do you know how difficult it was to capture my own kind on Clone World? I hated that job.” Emotion deepened his voice. “They often killed clones who disobeyed orders. I never knew if the ones I prevented from leaving would be killed or just punished. Imagine having to live that way. It was horrible. I’d have died for certain, though, if one escaped on my watch.”
She was beyond horrified to hear that.
“A small group of us plotted our escape successfully and made it off the planet. I would drop you off somewhere safe, but that would mean visiting an official port with authorities. They would kill me on sight. And I wouldn’t trust just anyone not to do you harm if I dropped you off at an unsanctioned station. Women are valuable on the open market. You told me how you were kidnapped. Those men could have made you a price bride or sold you to a sex-slaver ship when they were done abusing you. Those are basically traveling whorehouses.”
“I know that,” she said in a small voice. Everyone had heard of those horrible slaver ships that traveled around space looking for customers. One of them had visited her solar system twice in her lifetime so far…that she knew about. Her parents hadn’t allowed her to leave their home both times, because sometimes the crew on those ships would visit colonies just to steal women and girls.
“I killed the pirates to keep you safe, Hailey. I’m not saying that you have to stay on this shuttle with me forever, but you need to remain until we run across someone that I have no doubt will take you where I can’t go.”
She tried not to panic. Clones were supposed to be friendly beings. At least they looked that way in all the advertisement clips she’d seen on their entertainment screen at home. She’d assumed they’d been created without violent tendencies…but he’d just admitted to killing the men he’d come with. “I’m all my parents have. I need to go home.”
“I’ll let you send them a message that you’re alive, but it’s going to take some time. We have to travel to a distant satellite relay first.”
“Why?”
“Those two hundred pirates I mentioned? They’re now missing a pirate ship and crew, but they don’t realize