Ojbect Read Free Page A

was being a hostess, and she was very good at it.
    The conversations that they had interrupted were all casual trade conversations. Bella nodded. “Thank you for the introduction. I can leave now.”
    Yimra looked surprised. “You have only just arrived here.”
    “I am here in my work capacity. I have gained the information I needed to complete the audit. Any lingering on my part would not serve the court, it would only serve myself.”
    A male voice spoke from behind her. “But you have not yet seen all the facilities. It would be a shame to miss out.”
    She turned slowly to face a man whose bearing indicated that he was in command of all he surveyed. Unfortunately, he was surveying her at the moment.
    “My job is satisfied, and to remain would taunt me with things I cannot have. I will have to leave and file my report before I can release Lord Korkham from investigation.”
    The man smiled, his nearly perfect features glowed. “I will complete your tour myself.”
    Yimra inclined her upper body and disappeared around the corner.
    “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Lord Akking. I own this club and the grounds.”
    To her shock, he took her hand and raised it to his lips; she felt the warmth of his skin on her knuckles, but his mouth didn’t touch her.
    “You know of me already, but I am Auditor Banks.”
    “Bella Banks of Terra. I was not expecting your features to be so much like ours.”
    She quirked her lips and cocked her head. “Neither was I. The Kloa have sharper features, but the symmetry is apparent.”
    He straightened and offered her his arm. She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm, and she smiled. “If you feel there is more I need to see, please, lead on.”
    His posture settled as she curled her fingers around the elegant black of his tunic sleeve. His dress was nearly military. A black tunic, with matte black buttons off set from the left shoulder down, was belted snugly, and his trousers and slick black boots were in keeping with the precise attitude his upper body depicted.
    His hair was a deep purple and his eyes a shadowy plum. Lord Akking would be striking on any world, but here, he was lost on the sea of masks. It was a shame.
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    He smiled as she looked at a few of the Kloa and understanding came to her eyes. She watched the smile spread.
    “The reason that everyone wears a mask is now understandable.” Bella continued to walk with him, but her mind was spinning.
    She was on a world of genetically engineered beings. All the lords were identical but with variations in hair and eye colour. The features were all the same.
    She cleared her throat. “The lower classes are still beautiful, but no longer so clearly stamped.”
    “As with most societies, they have more children, the children blend, the genes blur. I am impressed. It usually takes more than thirty minutes uncovered before folk realize what we are.”
    “It is a pet interest of mine. Research into symmetry was something I started at home, but here, it has become a passion. So many species designed what they considered to be the perfect being, it is surprising to see that you could thrive and spread across the world.”
    “It was not our choice. Our society was initially not very attractive; in fact, repulsive was a word frequently used. Our forefathers decided that to be successful, we needed to be more physically appealing, so they designed a template for an attractive species based on the most successful races in our sector. Four classes of being were designed, and all four exist today. In the base classes, they interbreed frequently, but are still easy to determine when you know what to look for.”
    “Do they ever make it to the court?”
    “Frequently, and if they make alliances or marriages, the spouse they end up with is always of the Social imprint and the features breed true.”
    “Social?”
    “One of the four imprints that our ancestors created. These faces and bodies were