“I’m glad he’s okay,” Lilli whispered. “But, well, I’m not.”
“What happened?” Karn urged. He put a hand on her back, feeling her soft skin through the silky, see-through top she still wore. “Please tell me, little Mistress.”
“I…she…” Lilli’s face twisted in a way that showed she was trying not to cry. “She told my mother that I wanted…wanted to get impregnated—like the rest of the girls,” she whispered. “You know I don’t but she convinced my mother to give me the first quick-grow shot. And now Mother’s on the viewscreen this minute making an appointment for me at the conception center for the end of the week!”
“What?” Karn frowned. “That’s fucking awful, Lilli! Can’t you tell her no? That you don’t want to do it?”
Lilli shook her head.
“It’s all the rage right now and Mother is so afraid of falling out of fashion. She’ll do anything to keep up with the Mistresses who live in Opulex.”
“Well, that doesn’t give her the right to force you to have a baby!” Karn said indignantly.
“I tried to tell her I didn’t want one—that I wasn’t ready. But she wouldn’t…wouldn’t listen.”
Lilli’s words ended in a sob and she buried her face in her arms, her shoulders shaking with muted grief.
Karn sat there feeling helpless. His heart ached for Lilli. He wanted desperately to solve this problem for her, but it seemed to be beyond him. How could he, in his role as a lowly bodyslave, stop the evil Mistress Mirabella from forcing her daughter to have a baby before she felt ready? There was nothing he could do. Nothing that wouldn’t end up with him being executed or sent to the Diluthian mines for insubordination, that was.
Nothing but try to comfort Lilli.
“Come here, little Mistress,” he murmured, turning her over. Her face was red from crying as he pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her.
“Karn…” She buried her face in his chest and sobbed miserably. “Karn, I’m not ready! I might not mind having a baby if I had someone to help me raise it. But I don’t want to just have one and then shove it off on a nannybot or send it to a convent. I can’t…I just can’t.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” Karn said fiercely. He frowned thoughtfully. “But you know…who says you have to?”
“Who says?” Lilli looked up at him, her brown eyes still filled with tears. “Why, Mother says. And she’ll be so angry she’ll probably disinherit me if I don’t show up at the conception center!”
Karn was thinking hard.
“Okay, she wants you to go to the center. But tell me this—does the conception process always work?”
“Well…no.” Lilli sniffed. “I’ve heard of some Mistresses having to try two or three or even seven or eight times. And with some it never takes and they have to have their baby in an artificial womb—which is very unfashionable,” she added.
“I’m sure it is,” Karn said dryly. “But listen, why not go to the center and just not have the process done.”
“What?” Lilli looked scandalized. “Are you serious?”
“Of course I am!” Karn told her. “Listen, why not let your Mother think you’ve had the impregnation procedure done and that it didn’t take? Then you don’t have to have a baby you’re not ready for, and it won’t be your fault.”
Lilli’s tear-streaked face brightened.
“You know, the process is fully automated. So it’s not like there’s an attendant who can tell on me for not having it done.”
“Sounds like the way to go, then,” Karn remarked.
“Oh, do you really think that would work? You think I could pull it off?”
Karn shrugged.
“Why not? Unless your mother comes in the center with you, I don’t see how she could know you didn’t really have the procedure done.”
“She won’t,” Lilli said quickly. “She’s already talking about sending me by myself—well, with you along, of course—because she’s going to be busy that day.”
“Well, there you go.” Karn grinned at her. “Problem solved.”
“You know…you could be right.” A tentative smile came over her face as she looked up at him. “Karn, what would I do without you?”
“Get impregnated by some cold machine, I guess.” He shook his head and grinned at her. “Luckily for you, I am here.”
“I am lucky to have you.” Lilli sighed and snuggled in his arms and looked up at him. “Tell me something—why do I feel so comfortable around you?” she asked and yawned. “Why do I feel like you’re the piece of my life that I’ve been missing for years without even knowing it?”
“I don’t know, little Mistress.” Karn cuddled her close. “But I kind of feel the same way about you,” he admitted—both to himself and to her.
What was happening to him? Was he going soft? He was on a mission here, he reminded himself. He had to find the Kindred warriors who had been taken by the Yonites as bodyslaves and get that information back to the Mother Ship.