Shockball by S. L. Viehl Page B

of my life. Besides, I couldn’t eat and listen to him at the same time—I’d throw up. And Joe never kept quiet when he had an audience.
    He didn’t disappoint me. “The reports I’ve received since the Hsktskt captured you at Joren have been few, and very sporadic. A number of colonial aliens have sent signals to Terra regarding your heroic actions on the slave world. I will need more details about your activities since you left me.”
    Left him. Like we were married or something.
    “Let’s see.” I made a show of thinking it over. “Not much happened. I treated alien patients. I avoided the League. I got married. I was away from you. I was happy.” I tapped my finger against my cheek. “I heard you started a war between the League and the Hsktskt. You get that bored while I was gone?”
    “I did not initiate the hostilities between the Faction and the League. They have been ongoing for decades.” He put down his fork and instructed the drone to clear both our places and bring dessert. “I merely offered my opinion before the Fendegal XI delegation as to a possible solution to the perpetual border disputes and colonial attacks.”
    “Such as wiping out the entire Hsktskt civilization. Good solution.” When the attending drone would have set a plate of fruit in front of me, I pushed its arm away. “When millions die as a result of your opinion, Doctor, tell me—how are you going to feel about that?”
    “The Terran involvement in the conflict will be marginal. The balance of the League’s forces are not human.”
    “Don’t feel bad. A lot of people have no hearts. Of course, everyone else besides you is a cadaver.”
    His brows rose. “It is obvious you wish to provoke an altercation with me.”
    “Gee, you’re quick. Want to show me how fast you can run out in front of a glide-bus?”
    “We will continue this discussion later.” He folded his napkin, placed it on the table, and rose. “You will accompany me now.”
    I got up, too. “Where?”
    “To my laboratory. Where you were born, Cherijo.”
     
    I’ll confess, I wanted to see it. The facility I’d been created in wasn’t located on the estate, but rather under it. Joseph took me to a lift I’d never seen before, hidden in the back of his study, and guided me in.
    “How far down?” I asked as he closed the panel and rapidly input a code into the panel. I watched so I could memorize the numbers.
    “I had the lab constructed five hundred feet below the fault line,” he said. The lift began to silently descend. “Also, for your information, I change the access codes daily.”
    I was glad I hadn’t eaten anything at dinner. My stomach was starting to roll again. “A bit paranoid, don’t you think?”
    “Where you are concerned, my child, I find unnecessary precautions are absolutely imperative.”
    “Don’t call me your child. I’m not your child. If anything, I’m your sister.”
    He didn’t comment on that as the lift continued to drop. It came to a smooth stop and the panel slid open to reveal a huge, empty white room.
    White walls . I’d had nightmares about them, I remembered. So they were real. How many times did he drug me and drag me down here ? He went to take my arm, and I jerked away.
    “Don’t touch me.”
    “I intend to do a great deal more than simply touch you. But for now, I will allow you your distance. Come. I will give you a complete tour of where you were created.”
    I stepped out of the lift. “Does it come with an Igor?”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “The lab, Dr. Frankenstein.”
    He shook his head. “I never understood your fascination with those ancient fictional texts. They were poorly conceived, absolutely without the slightest scientific foundation, and luridly composed. Although they were not quite as bad as those disgusting romance novels.”
    Those disgusting romance novels had kept me from turning into him . “You never liked my taste in anything.”
    The interior temperature equaled