Chapter 1 General Pearson's POV

I watched the recorded press conference and subsequent kidnapping footage from the beginning. This was looking like a clusterfuck and I wanted nothing to do with it. Rule number one, if you are going to make someone disappear, no one must know about it.

Dr Sinclair was an arrogant prick who was so pissed that someone else had figured it out before him. According to information from Dr Marsden at the press conference, they could only produce women anyway. What use is a woman on a battlefield? I was getting a lot of heat to make this embarrassment go away, but I needed some kind of positive result to save my arse.

My intelligence officer was in deep shit for not knowing about those cameras, if I can just prove that Dr Sinclair is wrong about their abilities, I can shove the rest of the shit coming from above onto him. Maybe, just maybe that will save my career. Maybe I can rig the tests somehow. If I can do that, then we can release them. They have to be undamaged though.

They could be the key to helping the transgendered, who cared, there was no political will about that. They could be the key to helping people with physical disabilities, no one really cares about that either, or at least no one with any power. It was a potential cure for cancer, now we are in trouble. Everybody knows somebody close to them who has either died, suffered or been damaged by the deadly disease. Hell, even I knew somebody, and I was not going to be responsible for killing off a possible cure.

I paused the recording and phoned Dr Sinclair.

“General.”

“Tell me again, exactly what you have planned.”

“From the MRI...”

“Details, doctor, details.”

“Umm..I am going to perform a surgical procedure to remove an egg from each ovary, then we leave the opening in place and each time she produces a new egg, we can harvest it. We fertilize it with our best male specimens and implant it in a surrogate.”

“You haven't even proved that there is anything special about them.”

“What are you talking about? I sent you their eyesight and hearing test results. I tested them for strength and they were significantly above average.”

“Why don't I have those results?”

“I told you, my computer caught a virus and destroyed my data. We can test them again.”

“I will devise the testing and no surgery. There must be no evidence of damage. Can you do it without surgery?”

“Yes, but it would be trickier and take more time. I can go through the vagina...”

“I don't need that information, thank you. Was this for both girls?”

“No. The MRI only showed the abnormal ovaries on the green eyed specimen.”

“Specimen? Really? How many eggs can you remove, how often?”

“Two eggs at a time. One from each side. I imagine they will take a month to regenerate.”

“I will keep them sedated. Do the removal tomorrow, no surgery or any evidence of tampering. Then we will have to release them. You better manage to succeed with those two eggs or both our careers will be toast.” If he doesn't succeed, I can blame him for the failure. If he gets a surrogate pregnant, it will be nine months before any results and a lot longer before any real results will be available. Enough time for me to be retired. Forget testing them, this is much better.

Tia's POV

I woke up confused. I was in a hospital bed with my wrists handcuffed to the side railings. There was an IV stand with an empty IV bag leading to a tube inserted in my wrist. The last thing I could remember was heading to my suite in Lagbit's world. No, that wasn't quite true. I think I woke up from that and remember being unable to take the headset off because my hands were handcuffed together. Then I was fighting some unknown person. They were straightening my arm and I was trying to prevent that, but I didn't succeed and then I felt a pin prick, like a needle going in.

I had been kidnapped. What about everybody else? “Vee!, Katie!, Roni!” I shouted.

I heard a faint voice. “Tia!” It was Vee. I would recognise that voice anywhere.

I waited to see if our shouting would get any response, but I literally couldn't hear anything else. I had pretty good hearing now and usually if I listened carefully I could hear the sounds of footsteps, talking or some kinds of rattle or bangs as things were moved. There were some faint outside sounds like cars and such, but nothing close.

I decided to stick with Elven, since I didn't know if anyone else could hear us. “Vee are you alright?”

“I think so. I feel a bit sore, but everything is working. I can't hear anybody else. I think they have abandoned us.” She replied in Elven.

“Are you tied down?” I asked.

“Yes, my feet as well. Very undignified.”

“I am going to try and get my hands free.” I told her. My hands had become a lot more slender and there was a flexibility with them that I didn't have before the transformation. It had been very handy in the bedroom on Lagbit's world, I wondered if I could do something similar now. I don't know how long I had been kept unconscious, but my breasts had developed further and right now I was really hungry.

I squeezed my hand into its smallest profile and worked at pulling it through the handcuff on my non IV side. It was a bit tight but I felt with a bit of patience it would work.

“How is it going?” Vee asked.

“I think I am getting somewhere.” Slowly so very slowly, almost a millimetre at a time I worked my hand loose. “Yes! One down, one to go.” I told her. I pulled the IV needle out and then started trying to work my other hand free. Again, slowly it was working until finally it was free. It was a bit easier since I could use one hand to hold the handcuff and wriggle the other out.

“I did it! I'm coming to find you. Start counting and I will follow your voice.” I was in a hospital gown and nothing else, but I trusted my hearing that said we were alone. My door wasn't locked, so I followed Vee's voice and entered an operating theatre. I thought she would be in a bed like me, but she was on an operating table. They hadn't even bothered to put a hospital gown on her. Her hands had been zip tied to the sides of it and her feet tied the same, leaving her spread open in a very undignified way. A hot surge of anger rushed through me, but I tamped it down. That was not what she needed right now, so I rushed up to her and gave her a hug.

“Honey, just hold on. I'm going to get something to cut these things and set you free.”

“Hold on. Very funny. I'll just wait here shall I?”

Beneath her humour I could tell she was freaking out. I struggled to find anything sharp in the room and realized that I was going to have to leave her to look elsewhere. I took off my hospital gown and covered her with it. “I need to look elsewhere, but I don't want to leave you so we are going on a ride.” I unlocked the wheels and went through the door.

“Tia.”

“Yes honey.”

“Apart from maybe a bit of height, I think the rest of you is complete. Your face looks like it does on Lagbit's world.”

“Do you have any idea how long we have been here?”

“No. The last thing I remember we were heading back to our suite on Lagbit's world.”

“I remember waking up and being stabbed with a needle, then nothing.” I walked naked down the corridor and headed for the exit. “I can hear some cars outside. I think I should head outside and get some help.”

“I would say that you are not looking your best, but you look amazing. Enough to stop traffic. Are you going to be alright going outside with no clothes on?”

“I might get a little embarrassed.”

“Just a little.”

I leaned down and kissed her on the lips. It wasn't a long kiss or a passionate one, but it was a caring one and made us both feel better.

The exit, funnily enough was locked, but the bolts and locking mechanism was on the inside so I was able to undo it and wheel us out onto the street. This wasn't our city, hell, it wasn't even our country. We had no idea where we were. Wherever we were it wasn't well travelled and we had to wait a few minutes for a car to come along, but when it did, I waved to grab the drivers attention. Note to self, waving your arms above your head while naked really makes your breasts say hello.

The first car honked loudly and carried on. Fortunately, the second car that drove up stopped. A big African American gentleman got out, he left the car in the middle of the street.

“What the hell?” He asked.

I say gentleman, because that is what he was. He gave me his jacket to cover myself and allowed me to use his phone. I wanted to call Brett, but when you plug numbers into your phone, you don't tend to remember them. Instead, I had to look up VDR entertainment and ring reception. I was then rapidly put through to Roni. She got me to pass the phone back so he could tell them where we were and he promised to stay with us until help arrived. He had a toolbag in his boot, so we were able to free Vee, but I got her to stay on the operating table, unless she wanted to flash the world like I had. He didn't have any more clothes to offer us.

Within five minutes the police and ambulance arrived and we had to tell our story. They wanted to separate us, but we both resisted that and refused to leave each other's side. We found out that it was Friday, three days later. Vee needed to have the rape kit used. We don't know what happened but she was sore where she shouldn't be. There was a lot of hand holding and tears, but we would get through it, together. We were taken by ambulance to another hospital. The media was already waiting and we had to go through a barrage of flashes to get inside. At least I was given a set of scrubs to cover myself up with and Vee was taken through on a stretcher with blankets covering everything.

We were met there by a walking Katie, albeit using a walker, Roni and Brett. I think we all cried, even Brett.