a very different complexion to her. Her daughter has the same dark eyes, but she has lighter hair, and a longer nose, and a straighter jaw. I am glad the daughter does not look like the mother. I loathe the mother.
I say nothing. I want Silver to think the worst. She deserves to suffer as much as possible. I almost wish I had harmed the girl, but some of Warden’s softness seems to have rubbed off on me.
“Take him away,” Warden says. “It’s time we set this ship back in order. I assume all the prisoners are still contained?”
“Yes,” Tusk says. “He will have to share with Ham.”
“The company will be good for him.”
They put me in a cell with the meaty thing I’ve never understood. It is sitting patiently, as if it has been waiting for me this entire time.
“Bad day?” It asks the question as the door closes behind me, locking me inside like a pathetic prisoner.
“Very.”
“Wrong,” it says.
“Wrong?”
“This is the best day of your life,” Ham says. “This is where your story truly begins!”
“Stop talking,” I growl. “I am not in the mood.”
The pink thing blinks at me with all its eyes, all at once in a way which is fucking disgusting to behold. “She loves you.”
“Who? The human?”
“Yes. Of course. The baby human with the baby inside. The nesting doll of flesh who contains such depth and possibility. She loves you. You are her mate.”
“She was a pawn in my plan. There’s no love between us.”
“You’re wrong. That love is what will set you free.”
“Get out of here, before I slice you into a dozen pieces.”
“Even if you did that, I’d just gloop back together,” Ham giggles. “You know I’m special. Just like you. And just like your little human mate.”
“I don’t have a human mate,” I growl.
I lean back against the same wall. I have always been the odd man out in this clutch. I have never quite belonged, and I never will. Because I am not the sixth hatched of this clutch. I am the first hatched of my own.
She loves you…
Ham’s words come floating back to me through my memory. Eleven doesn’t love me. She isn’t capable of loving anybody. She’s a very broken human who was abandoned by those who should have cared for her. If she has become attached to me, she has made a huge mistake.
Life and Hope
Silver
My daughter is finally safe. I can barely allow myself to believe that we are going to be reunited.
Hermes, ship medic, takes me to the bay where she is lying in bed, looking desperately uncomfortable. I can see that she has been beaten. She is bruised and broken, and I have to confess to myself that she is unrecognizable as my child. But what did I expect? I lost her ten years ago. I have not been there to see her grow. I have not been witness to what should have been all the wonderful changes in her. The longer I look, the more she looks like my Ella, and the more obvious it is that she is a stranger to me now. This is heartbreaking in ways I could not have predicted.
“Did Scizzor do that to her?” I wipe the tears of rage which spring to my eyes away.
“No. That’s how she came. She must have been in trouble down on the farm. Most of her injuries are days old,” Hermes says. “Be careful with her, and don’t expect too much. The processes people go through in Galactor facilities are a great deal more serious than mere physical control. They haven’t just had her body for a decade. They’ve had her mind.”
“Ella?” I say my daughter’s name.
She turns her head and looks at me, but there’s no recognition in her eyes. She looks right through me, as if I’m nothing more than a sentient bit of wall or something. My poor girl.
“My name's Eleven.”
She doesn’t know what she’s saying. She doesn’t know who she is. When I look at her, I see my daughter, but it is a hollow version, one with all the good memories and loving moments removed.
“It’s going to be okay, baby,” I tell her. “I’m here.”
“Where’s Scizzor?” She whimpers the question and breaks my heart. She really doesn’t remember me at all. Her eyes have the emotional blankness of a stranger.
“He’s not going to hurt you. You’re safe.”
“I want him. He makes me feel safe. I don’t know you.”
I don’t know which of those three sentences is more