UnMasked Nomad

23

^^ Lobo Gen 4&5 Clone ^^

— Erin —

The lagoon was much deeper, on Terran's side, and he took great pleasure in showing his mother and father the beautiful coral reef he'd built, twenty feet beneath the waves, and the colony of Thanagarian Salt-Snakes, which he'd cultivated as best he could from the sixty or so samples Sofia had recovered.

His young siblings giggled and swam with the Koi, instead of listening to him, and I chuckled, leaving them all to play and explore as I cooked up a swift dinner.

'Sofia? Are Moray Vegetarian?' I asked, having a thought.

'Aileen says no, she enjoys fish, though it's been almost fifty years since she had human, or surface, food. The children have never had it, nor have they ever eaten above the water, though their Reef does have an air pocket they sleep and eat in.'

'Gramma's Biscuits with baked chicken and peas 'n carrots, coming right up!' I grinned, and started cooking happily.

The meal was close to completion when Aileen stepped into the kitchen, sniffing carefully. "That smells quite pleasant... I am not good at small talk. May I be blunt?"

"I prefer it." I nodded, and began chopping the carrots and throwing them in with the boiling peas, the things that would cook the shortest, and therefore the things that were cooked last.

"Good. Are you capable of having children?" She asked abruptly.

"In the right circumstances, yes." I nodded.

"I see... Why haven't you?"

"Because I was too busy. I was a Physicist, where I come from. A Doctor. I spent nearly twenty years in school, earning respect and laurels galore for my work in advancing mankind's understanding in physics and mathematics. I did not have time to raise a child; not properly. Also, I had siblings, they had children. My parents left me alone about the subject." I shrugged.

"That is not the entire truth, and if you do not wish to speak it, simply say so." She hummed.

"Alright... I suppose if I'll rarely ever see you again, I don't mind spilling my deepest and darkest to you. When I was twelve years old, barely having reached puberty and entering the phase of my life where I could become pregnant, I was forced to have an abortion, after I was raped in my college dorm by one of my professors, and impregnated with his child." I spoke bluntly, stating it like a fact that didn't trouble me, and set the knife down, sweeping the carrots into the pot, then started cutting an onion carefully.

She blinked slowly, and sat down next to me, nodding at me to continue. She was a good listener, it seemed.

"I spent three months in the hospital, my pelvis recovering from where it and several other bones had been broken by his... enthusiasm. Whilst in the hospital, they informed me that I would not be able to give natural birth, ever, as the obvious strain on my weakened pelvis would result in it breaking like cheap glass. They also recommended I abort the child, a revolutionary choice in 1996 Texas, one that tainted me in people's gazes and minds for decades afterward." I quartered the onion slices with clinical proficiency, and dropped them into the pan to sauté.

She made herself a drink, and sat down again, leaning back and watching the ceiling.

"When I got out of the hospital, I hunted my attacker down, and murdered him, torturing him to death. I turned myself in, reported the act, and was swiftly convicted of 'Excessive Violence, in Self Defense', instead of 'Premeditated First Degree Murder,' after the judge and jury heard why I'd done it. Then, as the man's wife and children watched, I was sentenced to just eight years in a federal prison, (I'd illegally used government resources to find him, making it a federal crime,) and the bell was tolled. I took my punishment without protest; I'd known full well what awaited me, but I was no one's victim." I grinned savagely.