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waited near the elevator, and she gave Leko a sideways glance. “Why can’t you show me around?”
    “I have never been in here before. This level is highly secured. If not for your clearance, we would not have been able to get in here.”
    She nodded. “Right. I didn’t think of that.”
    “There is no reason you should have. You have been on the surface for less than four hours.” He quirked his lips again. “Give yourself at least thirty hours before you can expect to know everything.”
    She laughed and was still smiling when a physician in a pale-green bodysuit came toward them.
    “Hello, Bride Lynni. I am Dr. Jimkol, head geneticist on Lrrko. May I express my gratitude at the willingness of you and the other Terrans who are coming here to help us?”
    She inclined her head. “Your thanks are not necessary. After the treatment, I am no longer acceptable to my own kind, so it is just as well that I am here.”
    He blinked at her candour. “You are now with your own kind. It just took the genetic enhancement to bring your true self out.”
    “Oh. Nice rebuttal. Pleased to meet you, Dr. Jimkol.” She smiled.
    He looked to Leko and raised his brows. “Is that switch normal?”
    “It isn’t so much a switch as a permanent state of being. If you pay attention, she always has two streams of thought going on. You just have to figure out which one is talking to you.” Leko pressed his hand to her back to sooth her in case she took exception to his truth.
    Lynni shrugged. It was true. Usually, her thoughts ran in parallel, but every now and then, they diverged. Apparently, today was one of those days.
    The doctor clapped his hands together. “Well, in that case, would you care to see where your offspring will be grown?”
    The phrasing had her intrigued, so she smiled brightly. “Yes, please. Lead the way.”
    Leko kept his hand on her back, and he maintained his watchful stance as they walked through additional security doors. She was about to see where the Lrrko started.
     

Chapter Six
     
     
    She was asked to wear a narrow belt that created a sterile field around her, and they brought her to the design department.
    “The Lrrko have a catalogue of all our genetic traits and how they interact with each other. Our system has been designed to house three broad castes, but there are always random events, which allow a crossing from one designed path to one’s own destiny. Your Familiar is one of those.”
    She looked up at her companion. “Is that true, Leko? Did you buck the system?”
    He sighed. “I was destined to be in the Agent class, but I was taken to become a Selector, and from there, I became a Familiar.”
    Doctor Jimkol chuckled. “It is a good thing he wasn’t designed for labour or he would have gone through that class, too.”
    Leko cleared his throat. “Everyone receives the same basic education. It is only when the Selectors come that we are found to have our final calling. They assign us to the occupations where we will contribute the most to our society.”
    Lynni smirked. Her Familiar was a guidance counsellor.
    They went from the design stage to the insertion of the genetic material into the host cell with the neutral genetic code. It was a building block that they were able to create on their own or occasionally purchase from other species with the necessary structure in their own DNA.
    The insertion was smooth, and soon, the cell began to duplicate.
    The doctor continued. “From here, we go on to cold storage where scans will assess the developing cells and determine the general application of the new Lrrko. It has happened that we design an Agent and end up with a Labourer.”
    She smiled slightly. “It is nice to know that there is a bit of random action in there.”
    The doctor looked a little disgusted, but they continued on.
    In another room, they saw the current batch of five canisters. Each had a central core, which held the tiny sprout of life in oxygenated fluid.
    Jimkol