AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You please me any better, and I might not survive.”
That had him turning sober.
“I’m joking. That was the best sex of my life. You’re a fast learner.”
“You inspire me, Anna.”
“I can live with being your sexy muse. You’re a great one yourself.” She released his hand and took a sip of the coffee from the tray they were using as a table. It was hot but not burning. “This tastes like the real stuff. Where did you get it? The crap they served on the pleasure cruiser and at the space stations I visited were a sad imitation.”
“My shuttle came well stocked with food supplies, coffee included. I never used any of that until now. I thought you might like something authentic from Earth. I pulled it from my stores.”
That had Anna curious. “How did you get this shuttle?”
He dropped his gaze, hesitating.
“I won’t judge you. Did you steal it?”
He nodded, looking at her again. “Clones aren’t allowed to buy anything or exist freely. The six of us originally only had the shuttle we escaped Clone World on. That was fine until five of us decided we didn’t want to stay at our home base. We used our one shuttle to steal others before returning the original to Big. He remained behind on our home base.”
“That sounds dangerous. Were any of you hurt while stealing those shuttles?”
“No. We purposely targeted wealthy Clone World tourists who owned their own shuttles.” He cleared his throat. “Each of these models comes with an escape pod, which we put them inside and jettisoned. We didn’t kill the humans we stole from. It was a risk to allow them to live, but we safeguarded our identities so they couldn’t tell the authorities that we were clones. Big and Blade knew which vessels to target and how to take them without causing damage. They knew the manufacturer override commands to shut down their engines and board them.”
“Big and Blade are other clones, right?”
“Yes. Their jobs on Clone World were in security, mostly dealing with shuttles and ships that came there on vacations. Both males said that humans sometimes attempted to steal and smuggle out clones.”
“To rescue them?”
He shook his head. “Mostly, it was male humans attacking a female clone and attempting to smuggle her off-world in their ships. Each one needed to be searched before leaving Clone World. Some humans refused to allow those searches to happen, so security had ways of taking command of their ships. They’d board by force to find the missing clone.”
“That’s horrible. I take it the clones weren’t willing participants since you said attacking?”
“No. We’re dependent on clone plasma to survive, and it’s a death sentence to go without transfusions. They would have died within months after being taken, even if their human captors treated them well. The six of us had a large supply we took with us when we escaped.”
Anna started to eat. The pancakes were delicious. “Does that mean I need this clone plasma? Do we have that?”
“We do. The transport I stole you from was also being delivered to Clone World. I not only took your cryo unit but enough plasma to last us a year. I have more stored from previous transports I’ve intercepted. We are fine.”
“I have so many questions. You’re serving me food, so I take it that we eat like humans do.”
“Yes. Clone World only gave us three nutrient bars every day. The staff thought cooking for clones and giving us real food was wasteful. I don’t miss only surviving on them. Bars were tasteless.”
“What shitheads.”
Fig chuckled. “I agree. I like variety when I eat and for it to have some flavor.”
“How do we resupply our food and stuff? Do we attack more shuttles to steal from them when we’re about to run out?”
He shook his head. “No. We will travel to the mining station we call our home base. They have mass supplies stockpiled there since it was abandoned. The company that owned it left a lot behind since it was easier to write those supplies off as a profit loss than pay to transport everything to the new station they had built. I was going to talk to you about possibly moving to that location full-time instead of living on this shuttle.”
Anna stopped eating, totally focusing on him. “Is that what you want to do? Move onto that station?”
“Yes. It’s safer than living on a shuttle. Big and Blade found females of their own and are there. We won’t be alone.” He paused. “Blade’s female had her human parents transported there too. Rod went to get them for her very recently and safely delivered them. I contacted Big right before I went after the transport you were on in case something bad happened to me. I wanted him to reach out to the others to see if they could rescue you.”
More questions filled her head, and she was once again floored by all Fig had risked for her. He’d just admitted he could have died retrieving her. She held up a hand. “I have a few questions.” She put up one finger. “Human parents?”
“Hailey is human. Gemma, Big’s female, is like you. She’s an illegally made, unblanked clone. Rod picked up Hailey’s parents from a station near the planet they lived on and flew them to their daughter. We worried they wouldn’t accept the relationship once they learned we’re clones, but once they saw how much Blade loves Hailey, they approved. Big assured me that everything is fine. He said they seem to be settling well and are being kind.”
