“The best way I can explain it is that there’s a shadow me. I call it my psyche self. Once I touch someone, I can insert my other self into that person.”
“What does that do to me? Do you control me, like a puppet or something?”
“No.” He gave a vigorous shake of his head. “I have absolutely no control over what you do, or say, or think. I’m like an unknown presence. I can see, and hear, and taste, and smell, and feel everythingyoudo.”
She sat up straighter. “You can read my thoughts?”
“No. No, I can’t.” He chuckled softly. “I thought me being inside someone was completely covert and undetectable, until you saw your eye color.”
“N8?” T8 leaned over where he was sitting. “I honestly don’t remember my eyes changing color when you were experimenting with me.”
“Neither do I,” P8 added.
“But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” T8 continued. Lifting a finger, he suggested, “What you said about emotions and all triggering you, maybe that’s why her eyes changed, and not ours.”
“It’s possible,” N8 conceded, and grinned. “You weren’t under any sort of emotional trauma at the time.”
“So tell us what you saw,” F8 urged.
“Yeah. Come on. Tell us. We’re dying here!” G8 stated.
“It’s like I said. There’s no nuclear winter above us. There’s no dangerous radiation levels. Nothing but clear skies. Guys! I saw the stars! The real stars! And the moon! And a supermarket with so much food, you wouldn’t believe!” He saw the others turn to get Cydney’s take on what he’d witnessed and gave her a little shake. “Go on, Cydney. Spill it. All of it.”
“Yeah,” G8 said. “I also want to hear about this Chimera crap you spoke of. Explain that to us.”
“Well…” Disengaging herself from N8’s embrace, she steadied herself. “On the outside, it doesn’t sound complicated. The word comes from Greek mythology to represent a creature made up of several animals. In scientific terms, for humans, it means you have at least two different genotypes. That means either two separate sets of genes, two sets of DNA, or two blood types.”
“Do they occur naturally, or are they created?” F8 inquired.
“Oh, they occur in nature quite frequently. Most of the time, if it involves a human, its usually because someone is meant to be born one of a set of twins, but somehow absorbs the other fetus while still in the womb.” She glanced at each of them. “Chimeras can have two skin colors, or possess both male and female organs. There’s even evidence of some people becoming Chimeras after receiving transplants.”
K8 crossed her legs at the knees. “So what you’re telling us is that each of us is a Chimera, either by birth or because they—”
“No,” Cydney quickly correct her. “You’re all Chimera from birth. But for some of you…well, for all of you, your cell structure and all was manipulated while you were still in the womb.”
“How many of us are there? Do you know?” N8 inquired.
“From what I gather, there’s just you six. I was told many of you were born, but you six are the only ones who survived.”
“And they’re wanting to create more of us,” T8 darkly remarked, pointing at N8. “That’s why they want you to have N8’s baby, right?”
Cydney nodded. “Before you ask, they tried creating other Chimeras using in vitro fertilization. From you.”
“They used our eggs and sperm?” F8 asked, appalled.
“That’s what I was told,” Cydney clarified. “Although I’m not certain, they probably tried artificial insemination, too.”
K8 gave a soft cry of distress. F8 immediately threw an arm around her, as P8 and T8 clasped her shoulders.
“What?” Cydney turned to N8. “What?”
F8 answered her. “K8 and I got real sick a couple of years ago. We stopped menstruating for nearly three months, and then she had to be hospitalized with severe cramps. The doctors told us it was some form of uterine cancer, and chances were we’d gotten an accidental high dosage of radiation, which caused it.” She pressed her forehead to the woman’s hair. “They had to give us hysterectomies to remove all the cancer. We haven’t had a period since.”
Cydney held out a hand to comfort them. K8 accepted it, and squeezed it back.
“Guess that’s why they now believe the only way they’ll be successful is by fertilization the natural way.” She looked at N8. “They’ve removed any chance for K8 and F8 to breed, so now it’s up to you men. That’s why I was given my orders. They saw there was some kind of attraction between us, and they wanted me to…seduce you. When they realized you guys weren’t going to procreate between yourselves, they tried the alternatives. They never expected you guys to become as tight as any close-knit family. So now they’re going to bring in others to interact with you, and hope you guys take the bait. I’m sorry, N8. I agreed to go through with it, but I can’t. I’m sorry. I can’t use you like that.” Her face hardened. “And I damn sure won’t let them experiment on my baby if I do happen to get pregnant.”
“I have to apologize, too,” he confessed. “I used you, without your knowledge or permission, to find out if the stories we’d overheard were true.”
