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this planet was male! They didn't know what an erection caused by
desire was because they had never been face to face with a female! Kniam
thought he had caught a disease she had brought with her through that vortex.
    "How is it that we can understand each other now? You speak
English?” Amber was curious.
    “I think the medical unit changed your brain waves. We are not speaking
this, “English”, you are speaking our language. Your brain is doing the
translation fast enough that it seems like English to you.”
    “Ok. So my brain has been changed along with my body? Is there anything
else I should know?” She asked.
    Kneus and Kniam did that silent thing, then Kneus shrugged, “"I need
to download the original histories and do some research to be able to answer
you. I will be in the technology dome across the hall." He did a silent
talk with Kniam again, "I would like it if you could tell Kniam anything
important that you think might help us figure out this...situation."

Chapter Nine
     
    With a low bow Kneus left the room and she was left alone with Kniam,
which she really didn’t mind. There was something about him that drew her in.
Something in those purple velvet eyes that she couldn’t quite place.
    "What did he mean by situation?" She asked
into the silence after Kneus left.
    Kniam sighed, "It is a long story, but at the center of the problem
is our ability to survive. We require additional cloning eggs to continue to
have successful reproduction cycles. Even with an influx of new cloning eggs
some in the council question if what we are doing is really living, that
perhaps we have gone off course . There are seven on the council, four
you have met. Kneus, Knollig, Ailech and myself. Three others are Knaleg,
Asteen and Thian”
    “We are at a crossroads, my people. Any way I turn there will be
revolution or discord, which is something I don't want. This is why your
presence adds many problems, to an already volatile situation. As the leader of
my people, I have to look at what is best for us as a whole." He shrugged.
    Amber sighed, “I know how it feels to be out of control of something, and
feel helpless.” At his snort, she rolled her yes, “Ok, with your size maybe
helpless was the wrong word, but frustrated...?” She tucked her legs under her
on the bed since it seemed they were going to be here awhile. “Look at the
situation I am in. Your people consider me some kind of “it” or “pet” but I’m
not any of those things. I’m a person. I have feelings and thoughts and
dreams.”
    “You are no longer considered a specimen. I know Kneus is studying the
matter, but when you were put in the medical unit it changed things.” Kniam’s
smoky eyes locked to hers across the medical bay. ”We are able to understand
you, and that makes you sentient. There will be much more to discuss, but no
harm will come to you Amber. This I can promise.”
    His words caused a thrill to run down her spine, “That is a relief, I
would like to be helpful, like Kneus asked but I’m not sure what I could tell
you, and there are questions I would like answered.” She looked at him
expectantly.
    “You may ask anything you would like, I will answer if possible.”
    First things first, she was a prime example of what they could do
medically, and they talked about cloning like it was child’s play. She had to
know, “Just how old do your people get?”
    He lay back on his medical bed and got comfortable, “To answer I would
need to know how your people tracked time.”
    Amber thought for a second then broke it down for him as best she could.
Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, years…etc. He calculated for a second
then “We track time in a similar way, with a few differences due to this
planets two suns. However, by your time we live to be around eight hundred to a
thousand years old. I am what you would consider, twenty-six. Our leadership
just went through a cloning cycle, so all council members are my age.