Approach your father

There's nothing for it but to bite the bullet and try. You approach your dad nervously. "Daddy?" you say, affecting the voice you used to use when you wanted something.

He turns around. His eyes are shaded by sunglasses, but there is a twitch in his mouth as he tries to understand why a native girl is calling him "daddy." When he finally recognizes you, his mouth hangs open. "Ally? What?"

You throw your arms around him and press your considerably enhanced chest tightly against his body. "Oh, daddy, we're so tired and scared, and we just want to go home. We're sorry. We'll do anything. Please just take us home. Don't make us go back to that lab."

You feel him return your embrace. "I'm so glad to see you, Ally. You don't know how worried I've been when I found out that you had left the lab. We've been looking for you—do you know how dangerous it was, wandering off like that." His eyes pass over your tattoos and nipple piercings, and he adds, "Maybe you do."

"You wanted to keep us prisoner!" you sniffle out your accusation.

"It's true that we wanted to exploit your fertility when it came to the pollen. But I would never have kept you prisoner, Ally. You misunderstood the situation—you're always doing that back home. We would have let you go after observing you for a while longer."

You're not sure whether to believe him. "So … you won't make us go back there?"

"If you want, we can go back home right now. I promise. But …" he looks from you to Christina and then traces the swirl of tattoos down one of your arms, "what would your friends back home think to look at you right now?"

You hadn't given that much thought, focused as you were on escaping this island.

"Let's grab a coffee, dear, and you two can tell me what's happened to you."

So you allow your father to lead you into the terminal. No guards await to capture you, no one looks askance as the three of you walk into a coffee shop and sit at one of the booths near the back. You and Christina explain about Tautoru and how you escaped the island and what happened afterwards. Your father's face betrays little, but the tension of his hands gripping his coffee cup indicate how unhappy he is to learn about Tautoru's involvement.

"The company has obviously tolerated his little operation long enough. He was useful, to an extent. But this … this is beyond the pale."

"So, can this skin colour change be reversed, or what?" Christina asks.

"I'm not the expert, Christina, but I think it's meant to be temporary unless reapplied too often. But if you can trust me enough to go back to the lab with me, just for a bit, we can try our best. We can certainly do something about the tattoos."