Root CGD: Earth Day 542 in captivity, 6:02 AM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
I’d been in the shower for twenty minutes dealing with the cramping I felt radiating from my pelvis, and Zenia had been right—the heat from the water was helping.

What I was feeling now was certainly less intense than what had knocked me off my feet to start this journey and got me that first dose of female hormones back on my ship. And it was absolutely child’s play compared to being impaled by that alien in the stores port. If I bled, which I knew was part of the process for women being on their periods, I worried about reliving those moments in the stores port where my innards and blood were spilling out of me. I was stressing over that worry of seeing blood escaping my body, and it had me feeling woozy as I held myself steady in the shower.

“You alright?” Garrett asked, stepping into the shower behind me, wrapping his arms around me.

He’d startled me, and I’d stiffened instantly at his touch. His naked body against mine gave me something other than the cramping to focus on, though I really wasn’t in the mood to be touched.

“Not feeling so good,” I replied after a moment, patting his forearm around my waist.

“I could make you feel better,” he said, kissing my neck. “Wouldn’t take but a few minutes.”

There was a gentle rubbing of his hips and aroused manhood against my ass that followed his attempt at being cute. Augh… Not going to happen, buddy, as good as that might sound or possibly feel some other time—right now wasn’t that time.

“I think this is going... It, ah, might go on for a couple days, so... I’m going to need a little space.”

“Oh,” he replied, sounding like he’d figure out the issue pretty quickly based on my reply. “That’s oh… Yeah…" His hold on me became a little lighter, as if he thought he’d break me holding me as he had been when he initially entered the shower.

We stood there silently, his hands moving to my hips, not saying anything for a few minutes.

“Is there anything I can do?” he finally asked.

"No…," I was feeling awkward, and to drown that feeling, I stuck my head under the stream of water for a brief moment.

“I guess this means, you know, like there’s a real possibility you could... Aaa, get pregnant,” he whispered.

I hadn’t focused much on that idea until after I’d talked to Zenia earlier and got clued into these cramps being the start of my period. I had been ignoring the fact my transplanted vagina might actually be fully functional—like get pregnant functional—this whole past week. Why I hadn’t thought it would be functional kind of defeats the purpose of our host’s intentions for making that swap in the first place? It was kind of stupid of me for not giving it greater consideration.

Had the sex, amazing damn sex, been my only damn focus?!

I whispered, "Yes.”

Saying that out loud had me grabbing another round of awkward feelings, maybe some embarrassment for my predicament at the moment to lie on top of those feelings, confusions, and unknowns my body might be in store for.

“Are you okay with that?”

I wasn’t sure I could deal with being pregnant ever or the idea of a child growing inside of me or even being a mother to a child I could potentially birth—if I made it that far. If I did get pregnant and could successfully deliver, what then? Would I ever get my life back?

Would these hosts take our baby? Can I even make it to term if I do become pregnant? None of the other women had or they’d died during delivery—would that be my fate? What would happen to me if I made it that far? Would our hosts know I needed surgery to remove our baby?

Even if I could carry a child to term, there could be issues if my hips wouldn’t allow me the opportunity to deliver. Was that a death sentence for the baby? Shouldn’t I concentrate on not getting pregnant?

What did Garrett think about this?

I had too many questions and no real answers.

"I… I’m not sure,” I replied softly, trying to veil my fears.

Root CGD: Earth Day 546 in captivity, 10:52 PM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
I’d made it through three rough days of cramping, feeling void of energy and lethargic, and according to Zenia, my ‘flow’ had been pretty light—aka, the shedding of my uterus’ lining wasn’t that big of an event in her opinion. I had absolutely freaked out seeing a good fingertip worth of blood-like discharge in my panties later that first day my period began, but I had been assured it was all normal and I wasn’t dying or going to bleed to death. In total, there were four instances of having to deal with that—all small amounts of discharge having been shed. Each instance was less unsettling than that first discovery, but no less concerning.

I wasn’t sure this was something I wanted to have to deal with on a monthly basis until I was old and shriveled up down there!

I’m sure Zenia and the other women thought I was being a hypochondriac, but I’d never experienced this before, and it was all new to me! They had years of experience dealing with this kind of natural occurrence and were old pro’s at it. I probably should have taken more comfort in it being just another aspect of being a woman and dealt with it more logically—rather than succumbing to fearing nearly every aspect of it, every pang of pain, and the emotional turmoil I’m sure I wore openly on my sleeves.

I’m certain I was moody with everyone and may have cried a few times alone for no damn reason. That wasn’t me! Who the hell am I even?!

I started feeling more myself after lunch today and had even walked the perimeter with Syn and Zenia after dinner tonight. Thankfully there wasn’t a bunch of talk about what I’d gone through, but Zenia did mention I was on the clock for producing an ‘egg’ and it would be released soon. She ended that reminder by adding the one about things living inside of me for up to five days after being deposited by Garrett. Augh… I didn’t need that reminder again!

“If you’re trying to time not getting pregnant, well, abstinence is the way to go,” Syn had said. “I’ve counted my days and have told Turpin he’d better pull out or I’d be pissed. I’m not ready to be pregnant again.”

“That works?” I asked, sounding sheepish.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it? Plus, we’re engaged in the act our hosts expect, which keeps us safely in this place. They don’t know we’re not trying to get pregnant,” Syn replied.

“We’ve all done it, but it will catch up to you eventually, so don’t think it’s a foolproof method for getting around getting pregnant. There are too many variables to manage, like when the egg is released, the amount of semen ejaculated, the time frame for when any of that is done, and the sperm viability and survival rate,” Zenia added.

It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate their insights, but everything they said just added to my stress about the possibility I could get pregnant. Oh, and it turns out stress was something that could gum up either Garrett or my own ability to conceive, according to Zenia. AUGH!

Garrett and I hadn’t talked much about the pregnancy aspect of our being coupled since I put him on notice, but we needed to at some point. He’d showered while I was out walking, and after I’d finished showering, there was a sweet kiss exchanged as I snuggled up next to him in bed.

“You look like you’re feeling better,” he said, hugging me a little tighter.

“I am… Thank you for, you know, understanding what I was going through and my being unsure of everything going on,” I replied and gave him a quick peck to confirm my appreciation.

Why does this feel right—him, me, together?

“We haven’t really talked about the idea that you could get pregnant... Have you given it any thought? How are you feeling about that possibility?”

How is it he knows what I’m thinking?!

“Some thought, but not like I’ve come to any conclusions. Truthfully, the idea scares me,” I said, looking into his eyes, not shying away from what could be an adverse reaction to that on his part.

He took a moment to organize his thoughts before asking, “Not because of me, right?”

“No, of course not... I’m, I wouldn’t want any of this if I wasn’t with, I mean, us being coupled... You know that, right?”

It felt comfortable, almost natural, to share that with him. That’s not typical for someone in my position, is it? I had this overwhelming want to share affection with him not grounded in sex. Was I losing it? Is that me?

“It’s not like we’ve got much choice, Cam...” he chuckled.

“We do, though... We can maintain appearances for our hosts, just either not finishing or pulling out or faking it,” I squeaked, all mousy-like and sounding very unsure of what I’d suggested.

I could feel his eyes studying me before he replied, “If that’s how you want to maintain appearances for our hosts, I’ll do it. I don’t think long-term that’s going to play well with them and not get their attention eventually.”

He sounded disappointed to me and had to turn his reply to reason by mentioning our hosts possibly seeing through us faking it.

“Are you okay with this change in your life for the foreseeable future? I mean, I know it’s a lot to deal with and all, like suddenly being a woman more completely, navigating everything, and this coupling stuff. I’m not sure how I wouldn’t have gone crazy if the roles were reversed, but... I don’t know; it seems like you are fighting it less,” he said, rubbing my arm tenderly afterwards.

I probably was fighting this change less, and the reasons for that varied. I knew I could get all of this reversed at some point and had doubled down on seeing what it was like to live as a woman for now—not that I had a lot of choices really. The sex was, well, it was incredible, and I oddly liked giving over control to him to have him lead. Not just in the bedroom, but on other things too, like navigating our way through being confined in this place together.

I thought we made a pretty good team and sensed he felt the same. It was a different dynamic to be wanted, as he seemed to want me, and comfortably confusing that I wanted him.

Being less in a ‘Captain’ role and not having to decide or control the outcome for those around me was interesting because for the past nine CGD years before coming to this place, I’d controlled every movement of my crew, ship, and my own life. Here, other than pushing for the women to be included in the ‘boys club’ planning sessions my second time back in the exhibit, I was content to let others lead. Why it was less of a focus for me now, I’m not sure, but I could live with it and kind of liked not having that responsibility.

Something new: I felt less guilt or shame about how I was interacting with Garrett. I liked him; I liked having sex with him, and if I’d been born a woman, he’d maybe be an ideal mate if our paths had ever crossed. He was handsome, funny, spoke well, sexy, interested in...

“Too broad a question?” He asked when I hadn’t said anything.

Shit!

“No, I just don’t have a good answer. I’ve put a lot of thinking about who I was on hold, but there are parts of that I can’t ignore. And as I am right now, possibly able to get pregnant, I’m afraid I can’t do it... Then there’s you...”

“Me?”

Augh! Not what I meant to say!

“What are we doing here, Garrett?”

“Being here for each other, supporting, caring about all that’s happening,” he replied, staring at me.

“Okay, yeah… I believe that too, sure. But, what do we do about after this place, like if we can escape or, by some miracle, we had a baby and I didn’t die during that process? What if they take our...” I couldn’t finish my sentence because I’d choked up and began crying softly.

He wrapped his arms around me tighter before saying, “We’ll deal with whatever comes, alright? I’m not going anywhere, nor would I want to, and neither are you.”

Root CGD: Earth Day 561 in captivity, 5:21 AM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
The light knock on our door woke us, and Garrett was quick to get up and answer it. I’d hung back at the entrance to our room with the sheets around me when he opened the door. There weren’t knocks on people’s doors generally early or late, so something must be wrong.

“They took Cekoo last night,” Beck said softly.

“Shit, first trimester already?” Garrett asked.

“Yeah, pretty sure that’s about now. I’m worried; they don’t usually keep them longer than a few hours, and I noticed her gone after midnight,” he replied, worried.

“She’ll be alright... Zen said she wasn’t having any difficulties and was feeling good. Maybe they’re just slow getting her checked out or doing whatever it is they do,” Garrett tried to assure him.

Whenever a woman was pulled from the exhibit, the assumption was it was for medical care concerning their pregnancy. Since no woman had ever successfully carried a child to term, according to those who preceded us, there was always a lot of stress associated with the women being pulled off here. The not knowing what was happening to them or their baby only added to the stress and dread.

Zenia could only do cursory exams when they were returned and had never noticed anything unusual having been done to the women, but certainly plenty could have been done she couldn’t spot. I had to believe that if they could transplant a woman’s reproductive system into my body, they had to have some understanding of how to treat a woman during these checkups or have some clue as to what they were doing. We women had had plenty of talks about that subject trying to figure that out and had come up with nothing worthy to hang any suspicions on.

Getting pulled for a checkup or observation was yet another stress added to being pregnant. Garrett and I had been in a full-on ‘fake it’ operation the past fifteen days, so our chances of getting pregnant were considered slim by my estimation. We’d keep this mode in play for a few more days, and it would only be a few more after that, and I’d be about to start my period.

Punishment for not being pregnant—I could deal with that, and I’d be less scared this time around.

Root CGD: Earth Day 562 in captivity, 8:30 AM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
When Liam went to check on Beck this morning, he wasn’t in his house, and after a rousing of the rest of us and a general search of the area, we still hadn’t found him. Cekoo had been gone for over thirty-four hours, and that added to everyone’s sense of dread. Beck gone now could only mean a few things: he’d been pulled and would be replaced, or Cekoo hadn’t made it, and Beck was in a holding pen being introduced to her replacement. The sober mood that had hung over the exhibit had a few of us women crying and our men trying to console us.

Over lunch, Liam made a case for trying to escape again, but the mood of those in the exhibit had kept that discussion from going anywhere. It was agreed we’d talk after Beck returned, with Cekoo hopefully. If he returned with another woman, we’d need to get her acclimated first before diving into any planning. I didn’t get the sense Liam liked our unwillingness to jump on the escape plan agenda.

Root CGD: Earth Day 564 in captivity, 3:34 PM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
Beck was returned to the exhibit with a new coupling, Vesal, just before noon. Vesal was scared, couldn’t stop crying no matter how much we tried to console her, and she had repeated too many times to count that she would not be participating in our hosts program. Beck had told us he’d tried to make her understand, but she wasn’t having it.

Beck wasn’t coping well with the loss of Cekoo and their baby, which got him some concentrated time with both Garrett and Turpin. I had no doubt some of Turpin’s home brew would be involved in talking him off any ledge. Zenia and I agreed to speak with Vesal, and that too might involve Turpin’s home-brewed alcohol at some point.

“We all started our stay here thinking the same thing—that we weren’t going to be part of their experiment or breeding program or whatever the fuck this is. I had a husband before coming here,” Zenia said quietly. “And I didn’t want this or ask for it, but I’ve seen them pull people out of here who don’t cooperate, and I’m positive those people were killed. I’m on my third coupling, I’ve lost three children, and I’m pregnant currently. I could be dead, so you need to consider your options are fairly limited.”

“I have kids already... Two of them,” she said through sobs. “I just want to go home.”

Vesal was barely holding herself together, and I touched her arm before speaking, “You’ll do what you need to do to survive so you can get back to your family, because they’re all that matters, you know that.”

She barely nodded her head to acknowledge that bit of truth. When she calmed down a little she asked direct questions that told us she was interested in our confirming the things Beck had told her, to confirm he wasn’t lying to her. After we confirmed the things he’d told her, she did end up swallowing a few sips from a mug containing Turpin’s brew, grimaced, and looked at me.

“This started out a little differently for me; I was actually born a male and had gotten hormones and female genitalia transplanted from the beings running this place. None of this was my choice, so I'm, well, I’m with you; we all are; we all want out of here. For now and the next however many days you need to just play along until we can figure out a plan for getting out of here.

“I’ve personally seen their brutality when they set out to eliminate one of us, it's... It’s not something you want to experience, believe me. We’re all here for one another, so know that you’ve got people who’ll listen or help you with all of this as best we can.”

It wasn’t lost on me; we were trying to calm her and give her hope, but we had no set plan for changing our current situation. When I looked over to Zenia, her face had me thinking we’d probably had the same thoughts, and Vesal’s hopelessness was really something we’d all experienced but set aside to make it through another day.

Root CGD: Earth Day 564 in captivity, 11:16 PM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
I was still trying to catch my breath after what I would consider to have been a spirited session of sex. I’d decided I couldn’t take the frustration of ‘faking’ the completion of us having sex any longer. Based on my playfulness and aggressive enthusiasm to have Garrett inside of me, and not just for some momentary feel-good acting, he was only too happy to match my efforts, vigor, and desires. He’d absolutely given me a questioning look when we began, but my trying to suck his tongue from his mouth and coaxing with both hands his entry pretty much told him what I wanted and how far we were taking it tonight.

“How’d Beck seem tonight?” I asked after I felt I could speak and not sound like I was out of breath.

He chuckled, "Drunk, and that might have worried Vesal a bit seeing as this was their first night together. Not ideal for her, but we told her he was struggling, and she seemed okay with that explanation. We left him sleeping in the living room area, and I think she appreciated having that separation. I told her to just yell and we’d come running, though I doubt Beck’s going to give her much trouble tonight. He’ll be feeling it tomorrow. What do you think of her?”

“She didn’t say much, so I’m hopeful we get some details at the luncheon tomorrow. I’m not sure if she’s going to be up for this. She told us she had a husband and a couple kids, and her getting that out seemed really painful. I know she’s scared; I just hate... Well, that we’ve got no real hope to give her other than we’re all in the same boat,” I replied softly.

“We’ve got to keep hope alive, believe we can outlast being held, and survive all this...”

“Say we do that, then what?” I asked.

“Carry on after we get out of here.”

“What is it you see after this place, I mean, like in a perfect world?"

He shifted to look at me, propping himself up on an elbow, and placed a hand on my stomach before asking, “What would you want after getting out of here?”

"Phst… Freedom to go and come as I please, to be me without worry,” I began, but stopped when his brow rose.

“Tell me about ‘you without worry', what’s that look like exactly?”

“I don’t know. Back to freighting goods around the various galaxies and maybe relaxing or spending time on some of the nicer planets.”

“You have no concerns about running into other alien species?”

“No, only if I run into this species again.”

“So, you want to go back to your old life then?” he asked quietly.

“I want a life where I’m not a captive or specimen to be ogled... Isn’t that what you want?”

“Yes, but not alone.”

“Are you saying you’d miss me if we got out of here?” I asked softly, playfully, but felt something as soon as I’d said it.

He leaned in closer, kissed me, and when he pulled away, said, “Not if we were together.”

Root CGD: Earth Day 565 in captivity, 1:38 PM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
The luncheon for Vesal had been cut short due to Beck not feeling good after it started. He’d definitely drank himself blind on Turpin’s home brew. We all got it and understood he was hurting still, now physically along with emotionally, after losing Cekoo and their baby. While he might have left the event early, we did get to speak with Vesal and get a glimpse of her story.

She told us she was married to a troop/equipment transport pilot serving in the Planetary Guild. They’d been together for twelve years, and they had two children, both boys, ages six and eight years old. She’d been identified at an early age as having advanced mathematical skills and graduated from a prestigious school with a bio-chemical engineering degree, which she used in her assigned job with the Planetary Guild’s defense research division.

“That means explosive chemical compound creations?” Liam was quick to ask her after hearing about her schooling and job within the guild.

“I’ve done a little work in that area,” she’d replied.

That led to a conversation between the two of them, with the rest of us listening in quietly, about his ‘theoretical’ explosive device made from food scraps. He asked questions about how to make what he’d come up with more potent, and she confirmed what he’d constructed would have enough energy to effectively rip apart any biomass up to a radius of one and a half meters based on the size and dimensions he’d described.

“What’s your detonator?” She’d asked Liam.

“Primitive, a strike-patch...”

She shook her head. “So, the person deploying it isn’t expected to survive then?”

“I was thinking there’d be enough time to...” he didn’t get to finish before she was interrupting him.

“There would be no time. The SI on that is a billionth of a second to maybe up to ten times that amount of time,” she complained.

“I remember we got more time than that when we were improvising these kinds of devices in the corps,” he challenged.

“Then you were doing that with something other than a strike-patch. Why the improvised device in the first place?”

That became a longer conversation about trying to escape and fortunately ran out of energy after a few minutes. It was the third time I’d heard Liam’s plan, and it sounded more convoluted than the previous times I’d heard it. Syn had even given me a look during some of the plans description that told me she was thinking the same thing. His plan made no sense and I wished he’d smarten up about it. There was the problem that Vesal knew something about explosive compounds and all but called the device Liam had built a suicide bomb—yeah, his plan would get someone killed if we weren’t careful about letting him run off at that meteor.

When we’d finished cleaning up, the four women decided to walk the perimeter. The vibe I got was Vesal didn’t want to be alone with Beck just yet and I worried about her getting pulled from the exhibit.

“Is Liam the leader of this group?” Vesal asked after the first lap and a lull in our conversation.

“No, he’s just got the military experience and was co-leading with another military guy we lost a CGD year and a half ago,” Zenia replied.

“I’m not sure how to ask this, so... Well, are we assigned to a particular man and that’s it, or is there a choice we have in any of this ‘coupling’ stuff?”

Interesting question…

“They used to swap partners, but that ended a while ago,” I answered.

“I don’t want to do this, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to. Beck is… Well, I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but I’m really not like, I don’t want to be with him in any capacity, honestly. Pregnancy for me with my boys was rough—I mean really rough—and I’m not sure I can do that again,” she complained, though not as much as she had yesterday.

Syn and Zenia prodded her gently with the idea there was a grace period our hosts allowed for and that she should consider ‘looking’ the part of the couple but figure out with Beck how to come to a mutual agreement on ‘faking’ it for appearance sake.

Root CGD: Earth Day 576 in captivity, 9:59 AM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
“Good morning,” I said as I fell in beside Zenia, walking the perimeter with Syn and Vesal ahead of us by a few steps.

We’d begun doing this daily on the insistence of Vesal as part of a morning and after dinner routine just for the women. We had to contend with Turpin running in the mornings most days, but he paid us no mind as we talked and occasionally laughed our way around and around for about an hour. In the evening, when the men would become preoccupied with playing cards, it just made it nice for the girls to get away to clear our heads or complain or just talk without worrying about being judged.

"How are you feeling?” Zenia asked me quietly.

"Good… How about you?”

“Besides feeling pregnant? Guess I’m good enough,” was her reply.

“What kinds of things are developing now for the baby?”

Her answer seemed medically focused and could have probably been summed up by saying the baby’s major organs had been signaled to start developing. She talked about tissue layers being separated and determining specific types of organs, and those layers would determine location in the body and their functional area. Then there was the early spinal cord, spine itself, and nerves that started out as a neural tube and developed in one of those layers. The layer called 'mesoderm' would be where the heart formed its four chambers to pump blood, and the 'endoderm' was where the lungs, intestines, urinary, genital, liver, thyroid, and pancreas develop.

“How do you remember any of that stuff?” I asked.

“Repetition, I’ve been asked that question a few thousand times,” she giggled politely at my shock at her medical journal dumping of all that.

“How along do you think you are?” Syn asked from ahead of us.

“I’m guessing I’m four, probably five weeks. The next few weeks, my body will be doing some heavy lifting for the baby’s development. I tend to spend that time wanting to do nothing but sleep, so if I miss being out here, start without me,” Zenia told us.

We walked on in silence for a minute, and I noticed Zenia had slowed down; the gap between Syn and Vesal had grown to about three meters now.

“You sure you’re alright?” I asked concerned.

“I’m fine, but I’m more interested in how you’re feeling,” she replied.

“Great,” I answered, but it probably sounded like a question.

“You’re late,” she said quietly.

“That’s Garrett’s fault,” I smiled. “He has a thing for being in the shower and... Never mind,” I said, cringing a little as I was going to begin full-on girl talk about sex in the shower with Garrett for some unknown reason! AUGH!

“No, you weren’t late for the walk,” she chided with a raised brow. “You should have started your period last week.”

Huh? Nah… This week is when that was supposed to start, I thought.

“Pretty sure it should be any day, right?” I asked, with a little more worry than I intended to share in that ask.

There was a tiny head nod, ‘No’, as her answer. My heart sank, and I felt chilled. If anyone in the Exhibit House knew about dates, it was Zen...

“It could still happen, even as late as a week, so don’t freak out about it, alright? Your system may still be trying to figure out how to get on its schedule as part of recovering from the transplant. I’ve seen this plenty of times, late, not transplants,” she conceded.

All I could think was this couldn’t be happening and felt my stomach roil.

Root CGD: Earth Day 576 in captivity, 7:16 PM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
I found myself again walking with Zenia a few meters behind Syn and Vesal after starting our evening walk.

“What did Garrett say?” Zen asked.

“I haven’t said anything. I feel normal; no weird urine smell or sore breasts or sick or tired feelings,” I rattled off what I remembered her telling me about possible signs of being pregnant quickly.

“Symptoms this early would be rare for only being six days late. If you’re going to hold off on telling Garrett, I don’t think that unreasonable,” she said, patting my shoulder.

“I think he knows something is up; I just said I wasn’t feeling good, and I think he assumes I’m beginning my period. We were careful; I’m serious, Zen. Not once did he, you know... Like ‘deposited’ anything,” I complained, keeping my voice low.

“Wouldn’t have to be full on deposit,” she said softly.

Root CGD: Earth Day 587 in captivity, 2:52 AM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
I’d rolled over thinking Garrett had gotten up clumsily and shook the bed, but the bed thumped again a few seconds later, and that theory didn’t make sense to me in my current state of being barely awake. My lower back hurt and I tried to stretch, but I curled up quickly from the cold under the sheets. When had he gotten up?

I heard a quick chorus of sporadic clicking coming from above me, and when it faded to nothing, I sat up to look around. Something isn’t right... Garrett was gone, and I felt like I was hearing people whispering from somewhere out front. I grabbed the sheets, wrapped myself up, and headed that way.

When I got to our porch, everyone except Zenia was gathered, and I panicked.

“Did they take Zenia?” I asked, not hiding my fear while barking that question worried for her.

“No, she’s just not feeling good,” Liam answered as the ground beneath us seemed to shake ever so slightly.

“Planetary instability?” I asked, looking at Garrett.

“Don’t think so; Liam and Vesal think those are explosions...,” he began saying, and Liam picked up that line of thinking.

“Those are big, and their discharged energy is likely comparable to some of the Guild's heavier weapon systems, maybe thermo-magnetohydrodynamic in nature,” Liam said.

“We can’t discount weapons, but it could be mining-related," Vesal began, “Though the larger weapons used by the Guild are in the hydrodynamic realm. Whatever is thumping out there has nothing to do with any planetary instability in my opinion.”

“So, there’s some kind of attack going on?”

“No idea, but whatever that is, it’s gotten the full attention of those watching us. I haven’t heard a click out of them in about a minute, so that’s kind of odd with all of us standing around,” Garrett offered.

An hour more of softly shaking the ground the exhibit stood on continued at random until it became a guessing game as to whether something we felt was in fact real or us being hyperaware and guessing as to the ground having just moved beneath us. There was one instance of the lights and projected imagery on the walls / dome above us having been taking off line for a few minutes. We got a good look at the walkway above us that our hosts used to observe us from. The imagery was restored though, and thankfully there weren’t any of those beings around watching us.

Root CGD: Earth Day 589 in captivity, 10:09 AM
CinT Ark Loc: Exhibit Housing
The past two days were a first for anyone who’d been held captive here. We hadn’t been supplied any food, and our garbage had been piling up at the stores port. That we didn’t have an audience ‘clicking’ above us nearly around the clock me as uneasy as when they were full on watching us and clicking their interest in whatever it was we were doing.

No one else had heard any noises from our hosts since the possible attack. It was anyone’s guess as to what was up, but the running theory was these beings had been attacked or were at war, and their little breeding experiment had been shelved—temporarily. The fear was that could end up being a bigger problem if their absence went on longer.

We’d just finished inventorying what food we had left and were beginning to go over a plan on how to ration the food we still had when Liam looked to be ready to do his ‘in-charge’ posturing.

“How many days?” Liam asked.

“If we ration what we have to quarter amount per day, use the grains as fillers, a week to two at the most,” Zenia replied.

“Vesal and I want to try and construct a device to blow our way into the stores port. I’d like the other guys trying to figure out a way to go up, get to that platform area we saw when the imagery went down,” Liam stated as if giving orders.

When no one said anything, Vesal added, “It’s worth a shot, both ideas I think. We can talk about how to set off any device when we get to that point.”

I think everyone knew what she meant about setting of the device—someone might get hurt because we had limited supplies geared towards making a viable detonator than whatever a strike-patch was.

Something else that had come to light over the past two days to the group – my being sick to my stomach and throwing up a number of times. Everyone saw me feeling crappy, and I had told them what I’d told Garrett—my period had started.

The only one who knew differently was Zenia. She had probably been right about me being possibly pregnant, and what I was feeling now was nothing like when I’d gone through that first period experience. The stress I felt wasn’t helping my frequent bouts of puking or wanting to sleep or not be touched or the constant worry.

As the planning meeting was winding down, Zenia pulled me aside, “Stay hydrated, you hear me. We’ve stockpiled water, so if the plumbing in this place goes out, at least we can drink the crap they’ve synthesized. You need to eat or your baby is going to suffer. I know this isn’t what you wanted, and it’s not likely to be a pleasant journey in your mind, but you have a responsibility to limit any suffering to that child in you, alright?”

I nodded. I understood.

“Does Garrett know?”

“I was going to tell him tonight,” I whispered.

“Good, he’s a big boy and can share his rations with you. Look, this sickness stuff; it’ll wear off. As counterintuitive as it may sound, having those plain starches and water in your belly will get you over this hump quicker,” Zenia coached.

“Thank you,” I began, but stopped speaking as Garrett approached.

“Hey, I’m going to help them with the device. Give you a chance to rest,” he said.

I looked at Zenia, then back to Garrett, “Actually, I... I don’t like that idea. Can we talk for a second?”

So much for waiting for tonight...

::: --- :::

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Rachel M. Moore