John Brosnan - The Sky Lords

She was abruptly seized with a feeling of nausea. Taking care not to disturb Ceri she hurried out of bed and went into the bathroom. She was sick in the basin. When it was over she washed her mouth out, then splashed water on her face. She saw Ceri appear in the mirror beside her, an expression of concern on her beautiful face. Ceri was almost back to her old self, physically anyway—though her frequent nightmares, and her vehement expressions of hatred towards all men, told Jan that the emotional scars of what she went through at the hands of the Japanese men would take a long time to fade.

Ceri put her arm around Jan’s shoulders. “This is the third time in a row you’ve been sick in the morning,” she said worriedly.

Jan gave her a reassuring smile in the mirror. “I’m okay. I feel fine most of the time. I think it’s just reaction to all my worries and problems.”

“Even so, I think you should have yourself checked out by one of those medic machines.”

“I will, when I have the time.”

“Do it right away, for my sake,” Ceri pleaded.

Jan turned and kissed her on the lips. “For you, anything.”

She looked at the screen in disbelief. “I can’t be pregnant! It’s impossible! My breeding time is still almost a year away!” Carl said, “There is no mistake. The machine is in perfect working order.”

Jan turned desperately to Ceri. “How can I be pregnant? It’s crazy! Even if it were possible for me to be impregnated I haven’t made love to any man since Prince Caspar … and according to this machine fertilization occurred exactly seven weeks ago. …” She stopped. She remembered what Milo had done to her. On that horrible night in the blight lands.

It was his child. She knew it.

“Milo,” she said dazedly. “He did it. He wasn’t human. Who knows how his seed had been altered by his genegineers, or what it was capable of doing to my own reproduction system.” She clutched at Ceri and stared with panic into her eyes. “What am I going to do?”

Without a pause Ceri said coldly, “Kill it.”

Jan shook her head. “No. No, I can’t do that. I’ll have to have it. Mother God, please may it be a girl !”

An hour later Jan had calmed down considerably. She was in the control room, alone. With Carl and Ashley flying the Sky Angel there was no need for any crew. She stared across the desert towards the strange, flat-topped hills on the horizon. The Sky Angel was searching for the Lord Matamoros , the Sky Lord which ruled the area immediately to the south of the Lord Pangloth ’s territories. Carl predicted that interception would occur any day now, and Jan wanted to be in a capable state of mind when the encounter occurred.

She was coming to terms with the knowledge of what she carried within her. Even if the baby turned out to be male, all would not be lost. He would be carrying her genes as well as Milo’s. That meant there was a good chance he wouldn’t be anything at all like Milo.

She thought of Milo’s skull, which she kept stored in a locker in her quarters. She could see the grinning jaws, sense the arrogance that Milo displayed even in death, and it made her feel even more determined.

She was going to beat him.

She had to, for Minerva.