TAKEN: Journey to a New Home by Taylor Dillion Page A

promise it’s getting better already.”
      “Sienna?”
      “She’s asleep in the room next door. She finally stopped worrying about everyone and gave in to her exhaustion. Rose is back in one piece and down the hall with Vax and Taylor who is also well now went with Moz to show Zabyss the hydroponic lab which is on Deck Seven. The higher humidity from the plants will make Zabyss more comfortable. The others are in various rooms on this deck which is Eighteen. You are in quarters seven.”
      He slipped his hand from under her shirt. “Would you like to eat something?”
      “Yes. I think that would help.”
      He helped her sit up and then stand. She was surprised to discover Rev had easily eight inches of height on her so she came to about his shoulder. She was used to being on eye-level with most human males. As the average for human males was six feet and since she was slightly under 6’2” herself she rarely looked so far up. Once she seemed steady Rev guided her to the table and chair set in the room pulling out her chair for her, something no one had ever done for her. She watched as he pushed buttons on a console and then open the small door next it. He produced a soup with chunks of what looked like meat and vegetables and a pitcher of cool water and one of a juice he knew would do her energy levels some good. He pulled bowls and glasses and such from the next cabinet. He turned to look at her and he froze.
      “Why did you re-camouflage?” he growled softly.
      “What?”
      “You look human again.”
      “It’s what I’m used to doing. My natural coloring makes the humans nervous. So when I was small, Dr. Westing suggested I learn to alter my appearance because it would get the humans to treat me with less fear and more like a person instead of a lab experiment. He apparently was aware that I could camouflage before I was.”
      He sat the dishes on the table in front of her. “Take it off. It uses up energy you need to finish healing and recovering,” he commanded in a low deep fierce growl.
      Ashaa stared at him for a moment and then complied. He smiled as spots began appearing. “That’s better. When you’re with me, you have no need to hide. Who is Dr. Westing?”
      “He was in charge of the lab.”
      He frowned for a moment as the rest of what she said penetrated. “What did you mean ‘lab experiment’?”
      “I was created as a lab experiment. I am the combined DNA of a human and an alien who crashed on Earth, so Vax is correct. I did not know the alien was called a Zargazian. After he was killed, his DNA was combined with human ova and several generations of the resulting hybrids were grown. I am approximately one third human and two thirds alien according to Dr. Westing and Nogith agreed with that figure. I am Alien Hybrid Species specimen aa or Ashaa for short,” she explained with no emotion.
      “You mean Ashaa is an acronym?” he thundered.
      “Yes,” she answered with puzzlement on her face.
      “Then pick a name.”
      “Ashaa is my name.”
      “No, it is not. You are not a lab experiment here. You are an individual and a person. You will be treated as such here. Pick a name.”
      “But Ashaa is the name I am accustomed to answering to.”
      “I don’t give a damn. I am not going to call you some acronym someone assigned to you. What does the specimen aa part mean?”
      “I am one of many that were created. The others had become deceased when they incubated my embryo and ‘birthed’ me. When specimen Zz became deceased after an experiment went wrong, I was brought forward,” she relayed calmly.
      “What happened to that ‘specimen’,” he gritted through his locked jaw.
      “She succumbed to an injury incurred while they were testing an extreme pressure change.”
    “How many of the embryos do they have left in storage,” he seethed and already mentally planning a raid on the forbidden planet.
      “If Nogith, the lead