Skip spotted her the second she came out of the cafeteria into the outer lobby.

      And this was a lobby that had suddenly gotten very busy all of a sudden.

      Fuck the free this and the free that. Four dozen different species clambered to get out of the whorehouse at the same time.

     It was the buzzing. 

     It grew louder by the second.

     "Run," Claudia said. "Please, Skip. Run as far and as fast from this place as you can if you want to live. Skip?"

     He couldn't take his eyes off her. 

     She stood naked in the center of the lobby, and she wasn't running anywhere.

     Instead, she looked out at the world like she saw it for the first time, and it all fascinated her. Not a hair anywhere on her body, yet still she exuded beauty. Something like a lotion made her skin glisten.

     Skip went right for her. 

     "Where are you going, Skip?" Claudia asked. "The nearest exit is in the..."

     "I've got to see something, first."

     "Skip!"

     Skip walked up to talk to her.

     "How did I know it had to be about a woman?" Claudia asked.

     "I won't be thirty seconds."

     "That is not a human being, Skip. That is a syn. She was hatched somewhere on Hrrm's Hive to do nothing but fuck."

     "I won't have you talking about her like that."

     The young woman smiled. She reached out to touch Skips face as if to explore it.

     "I like you," she said. "I like your face."

     "Thank you, I..."

     "I will protect you," Whisper said. "Stay with me, and you will not be harmed."

CONTINUE