She shook her head. “It’s not about money and I don’t want to lose my job or quit, though you might not want me to work for you after this meeting.” She took a deep breath, studying Justice. “I’m sorry. I’m scared to death right now.”

“Of me?” He looked surprised.

“Of the situation. I don’t even know where to begin. Something has happened and it’s pretty serious. If anyone realizes how severe this is, it’s me.”

“All right.” Justice took a deep breath. “Tell me what is wrong.”

“I’ve been given access to a lot of the medical files that contain some of the recovered research data from Mercile Industries. They tried to breed New Species men and women. I know you are very aware of this.”

His face tightened. “Yes. I was personally subjected to a lot of their breeding studies.” His voice had lowered to a growl.

“From what I’ve read, from the files I’ve been given, all their testing was between two New Species pairs and it always failed. They never attempted to breed New Species with pure humans.”

“No. We were considered too dangerous and they were afraid we’d kill any of the staff who attempted to lure us into ha**ng s*x with them. You can’t blame us.”

“I don’t.” She hesitated.

“They severely abused us.”

“I know that. I— It’s happened,” she stated very softly.

“I don’t understand. You found a file where they held those studies on some of my people? Some of them agreed to have sex with humans while we were prisoners?”

She fought the urge to burst into tears. “No. I’m sorry. I’m not being very clear. A full human has conceived a child with a New Species.”

There. I said it. She watched the shock transform Justice’s face. His mouth opened and then closed. He finally found his voice.

“That…” He looked dazed. “You’re sure?”

“Positive. I ran the tests myself this morning and preformed an ultrasound. The fetus has a strong, well developed heartbeat and it looks perfect. I won’t lie. This pregnancy isn’t normal. The heartbeat is that of a much more advanced fetus and the measurements are off on the size. It appears the growth rate and fetal development are farther along than a typical pregnancy. It’s alarming, Justice. The baby is growing faster than it should be and the pregnancy symptoms are premature for the gestation period.” Her fingers dug into the chair she sat in. “For the first time, according to what I know, a New Species has been able to help conceive a baby. I know you believed all your males were sterile but at least one of them isn’t.”

Justice suddenly stood. He turned to the window and presented Trisha with his back. He remained silent. Trisha watched him with fear. She had no idea how he’d react. She had a television, watched interviews with hate groups, and knew that it would only bring New Species huge trouble when word spread that they could not only have children, at least one of them wasn’t sterile, but that the mother wasn’t New Species.

A lot of idiots believed cross breeding of that sort would be a grave offense. They’d compare it with an animal and a human breeding. Their prejudices disgusted Trisha but she couldn’t change their narrow minds. Justice finally turned with a huge grin.

“That’s wonderful!” He dropped into his chair. “And we’re sure it was definitely a human and New Species breeding?”

“One-hundred percent sure.”

He laughed. “I never thought I’d be able to have children. None of us did.” He stood again and almost leaped across his desk to grab a gasping Trisha. He yanked her out of the chair, into his arms and hugged her. “This is the best news ever, Trisha. You’re a genius! You did it!”

Trisha pushed gently away from Justice until he released her. She looked up into his grinning face with a horrible feeling. He obviously thought she’d done something as a doctor that resulted in the pregnancy. She knew she needed to set him straight immediately.

“This wasn’t something I did on purpose. There was no medical intervention. This just happened. It’s a completely unplanned and natural-occurring pregnancy.”

“That’s even better! You’ve made my day. Hell, my year.” Then his smile faded as he tensed. “We have to keep this under wraps. We’re going to have to shield the couple. There could be a firestorm of threats directed at us if the press finds out and reports it. Who knows?”

“Just you and me so far.”

“The couple doesn’t know?”

She realized he didn’t understand what she attempted to tell him. She opened her mouth. Justice backed up.

“About that―”

Justice cut her off. “The press will be all over it if they find out. We need to keep this classified. You are going to have to care for the pregnant female. No one, and I mean no one, can find out about this until after the baby is born. We’ll get the pair secluded to protect them and any paperwork you did on this needs to be destroyed. Can you imagine what those terrorist groups will do and how dangerous it will be when they learn we can breed with humans? It’s one of the things they’ve tried to use against us to drag more idiots into the fight for their cause. They believe it’s vile for Species to touch someone fully human and it’s going to really piss off the ones who are looking forward to our demise once our generation dies out.”