Artificial Heart
43

‘W-what?’

‘To conceive a hybrid lifeform,’ he repeated. ‘I was to prepare your body for insemination. It was one of many designations while studying your planet and your species.’

’You—you inseminated me?’ She lowered her eyes to his lap. To their clasped hands. Goose pimples erupted all down her arms and legs. ’You forced this on me?’

‘You consented to the experimentation.’

Prisha snapped up her head. She pulled away her hand. Then she was sending it through the air. He could have dodged it. He could have blocked it. He did nothing. It probably hurt Prisha more than it did him. His face was hard. He didn’t even shift his eyes.

’How could you do that? That’s disgusting! I thought you were better! I thought you were better than them!’ Alf’s face turned fuzzy, the room blurred, as her angry tears took over. ‘Is it even yours?’

‘Yes. Yes, it is mine. It was not meant to be.’

Prisha wiped at her face. ‘What do you mean?’

‘It did not take. Your body aborted it.’

Prisha blinked. ‘What are you talking about, it’s definitely taken!’

’No. The insemination did not take.’

She thought back. The erratic bleeding. The pain. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. ‘H-how many times?’

‘Every experiment.’

Prisha froze. She tried to remember. She tried to count but her brain didn’t seem to want to work. There were so many times. Times when she was aware. Times when she’d been asleep, only to wake many hours later …

‘Except the last,’ he said. ‘I did not expect ours would take. It was not designated to take.’

‘So, you didn’t just have sex with me to … to …’ Prisha raked her fingers down her wet cheeks. ‘Stop with the tears!’

‘No, I did not. It was a mistake. I did not know.’

Prisha nodded. ’A mistake. Right. It’s all just a big mistake.’

Alf frowned. ‘That is not what I said.’

‘You said you had to leave me because it was no longer safe. And yet here you are.’ She looked into his eyes. ‘What’s happened? You said they’d kill me. Why is is it suddenly so safe now?’

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. It was all over his face.

’They know. You told them. And now they want me. You’ve come to take me back for them, haven’t you? Not to help me at all. Oh, Alf.’

‘I did not tell them. They discovered you.’ He paused. His organic eye stilled. It seemed to peer right through Prisha, into the distance, as though she wasn’t there. All that startling, wonderful intensity that made Alf Alf was gone. Prisha shivered. ‘I am at their command,’ he said.

‘You made love to me, Alf—you weren’t supposed to do that. You weren’t supposed to make contact with us. You were certainly never supposed to give us that sphere. What do you mean you’re “at their command”?’

Prisha wiped at her face. Did they have some kind of control over his brain? How deep did the metal go? He’d turned his head so she couldn’t read his face.

‘I don’t know what kind of hold they have on you, but you can fight it, Alf. You’re not trash. You’re not a machine. You’re your own person with your own feelings and emotions and thoughts.’

He didn’t move. No response. Stiff.

All she wanted to do was kiss that soft mouth of his. All she wanted to do was slap him hard in his metal face. To see that sinking look again. To make sure that there was a living, loving part of him and to make it hurt like he was hurting her.

‘What are they going to do to me? Once they have what they want? And what about you? You said they would eliminate you if they discovered what you’ve been doing.’

No answer.

Prisha dropped her head into her hands. ‘They’ll take the baby and dispose of me, won’t they? How can you stand by that? I thought you liked me, Alf.’

‘I like you. Very much.’

He reached to grab her hand and again Prisha pulled it away. ‘I can’t go with you. How could I? When I’m safer here. I’m safer here with these terrible strangers than I am with you.’

Alf winced. Prisha looked away with a pang.

‘If you won’t help me, then you’d better go,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ll take my chances with Tobias.’

‘It is dangerous.’

‘And whose fault is that?’

There was a deep, sorrowful pinch over his nose that made Prisha’s heart pang again. His eyes were downturned. A strange expression flickered over his face. His mouth hardened. His eyes met hers briefly—and they were filled with light.

Prisha’s watched, her heart in her throat, as he stood and marched over to the door.

‘What are you doing?’ she said.

With all his might, he pushed against the door. Pushed and pushed and pushed. Until it scraped across the floor with several deep thuds that echoed around the room. There was a sharp screech. The door moved—slowly. A gap opened up. It widened.

Prisha stood. She rocked on her heels, waiting, expecting, dreading, hoping. He was there. And then he was gone.

There was shouting down the hall, followed by several loud bangs. Prisha clapped her hands to ears. They were like mini explosions. She raced for the door. She’d barely had a chance to pop out her head and glimpse the figures of several men, two of whom were on the floor, before she was shunted back inside with a hard thrust to her chest.

‘Stay inside,’ boomed the man.

He stood in the doorway ahead of her. Keeping her safe? Keeping her trapped?

The shooting stopped. No more banging. Prisha’s ears were ringing.

Alf was gone.

Again.

Prisha stood there frozen. Her heart was thudding. Her stomach was all twisted up. Hands grabbed her and pushed her down the corridor. Muffled voices tried to give her instructions.

All she could think about was the hardness of Alf’s mouth, the way his natural eye had seen straight through her. Everything was so dreamlike she couldn’t seem to properly control her feet and she kept tripping.

Eventually, someone gave up and hauled her over their shoulder.

And then she was in another room. Much more simple than the last one. She was sat upon a metal chair. There was a single unmade bed. The walls were hard. It reminded her of the medical room. Two men stood at her door. The door was closed.

It looked like a prison door. With bars. There was a window. Prisha stared through it, hands squeezed between her legs, brain so foggy she wasn’t sure if she was actually awake at all.

Alf was gone. It couldn’t be real. He’d only just come back. This had to be a nightmare!

‘Why are you here?’ Prisha asked the men, monotone, robotic, very much like Alf. ‘Go away.’

They didn’t move, aiming their guns upon the door.

‘I said, go!’ Prisha screamed. ‘He’s not coming back!’

She dropped her head into her hands.

She didn’t know how long she sat there for, but at some point the two men left. Prisha got up and looked through the window but it wasn’t facing the park where Alf’s ship was supposedly located.

Not that it mattered anymore.

There was an attached bathroom. No shower or bath. Just a basic toilet and sink. It looked clean but it stank like piss. Prisha didn’t even bother trying the door to see if she could get out. What was the point?

Instead, she lay down on the bed. The mattress was thin and uncomfortable as she stared up at the ceiling, her hands folded upon her belly.

I’m safer here with these terrible strangers than I am with you.

Her voice wouldn’t stop echoing in her mind. Vaguely, she heard a beep. Vaguely, she heard the clang of the door opening. A man strode inside carrying a tray of food. He looked around, saw no table and rested it upon the chair. He glanced at her and left.

Prisha stared at her food, unmoving, not even close to hungry.

Soon followed Tobias. ‘As promised,’ he said, gesturing at the tray. ‘What happened? Where’s your alien? Why’d he leave? Why’d he leave you behind?’

‘Gone.’ Her voice was a croak.

’What do you mean? We need him. You were supposed to convince him.’

His accusation made Prisha laugh darkly. ‘I guess your little scheme backfired, huh? I can’t convince him of anything. He is his own agent.’ The lie rang around the room.

Tobias glared. ‘You should have tried harder.’

‘Kiss my ass, Tobias.’

’Excuse me?’

‘I said, Kiss. My. Ass. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have known him in the first place, so what difference does it make?’

‘Don’t you care? Don’t you care about the fate of our species?’

‘Not particularly.’

Tobias’s mouth twisted into a snarl.

‘Leave me alone,’ Prisha said. ‘Fuck off.’

He marched out. The door clanged shut behind him.

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