Wed to the Alien Prince by C.V. Walter

Chapter 30

Kaelin's explanation was as uncomfortable as she'd intimated and it gave him another view on the human women they'd brought on board the ship. He didn't think it was likely she'd go that far to make her point but he wasn't going to put it past her, either.

It was a tense few days waiting for the mission to the planet to report back. Their initial message was a terse one about having successfully installed the probe. The next, a few minutes later, was that there were complications and they'd report back soon.

They were still waiting on a more complete report when Mintonar called and asked that Kaelin join him in the Medical Bay. Of course, Serogero accompanied her, reluctant to let her be apart from him for too long. Not that he didn't trust her, or his people, but he couldn't imagine wanting to be in a room that didn't have her presence.

She was a quiet companion when he had to work, a voice of reason when he needed one, a helpful listener and insightful when she was talking out her own problems to him. One of the things he'd learned as the less favored prince was how to listen to what people said and hear what they actually wanted. Every time he turned his attention to her, asked questions about how she wanted him to listen, and what she wanted as an outcome, she stared at him with tears in the corners of her eyes.

It took him a while to really understand that those tears weren't always bad. They were the release of a lifetime of emotions, ones she hadn't allowed herself to feel, until she was safe with him. And he was determined to keep her safe at all costs; either from her people or his, it didn't matter, she'd always be taken care of, seen and listened to.

When they got to the Medical Bay, he didn't like the look on Mintonar's face.

"What's the news," he demanded before Mintonar could speak.

"Hello to you, too, cousin," Mintonar said. "Welcome to my office. Please, make yourself comfortable."

Serogero grumbled at the pleasantries but said the polite words back even if he resented them.

"I take it there's some news?" Kaelin asked. "Is there something we need to be worried about?"

"Yes, there's news," Mintonar said. "As for worry, well, I have a lot more questions than I have answers for. It would appear that the bio-nanos did what we asked them to do. They were taking diagnostics of your body and making a map, repairing damaged tissue and recycling dead tissue where it was necessary to get information."

"And?" Kaelin asked.

"And I think we have an incomplete understanding of how your body works," Mintonar said. "And just how detailed our bio-nanos can get. You've noticed by now that the largest of your scars have disappeared?"

"And some of the smaller ones," she said with a nod. "But my birthmark is still there."

"The scars," he told her, "are damaged tissue. The birthmark, however it may have been formed, is not."

Kaelin frowned. "But I thought-"

Mintonar held up a hand. "As did I. The bio-nanos did not, however. Nor did they see the problems that cause the seizures as damage but they have started to make the seizure implant more efficient. They haven't quite managed to replicate what it does but I started a subroutine to figure out how to replace it. I don't know if or when we'll have an answer for that, honestly."

"Well, Mindy said they weren't exactly magic," Kaelin said.

"She was right," Mintonar said. "I think the most dramatic change you're going to see is the correction in your eyesight. Over the years that might change but for now we can put them back up to full power and they'll just keep you looking young."

"What about the rest?" Serogero demanded. "The babies?"

"Ah," Mintonar said. "That's where the questions come in. They are, indeed, not interfering with fetal development."

"Then what-"

"They're disposing of any eggs and sperm that are created without ideal characteristics in their DNA. Anything that's considered a change or mutation from the approved standards are discarded."

The impact of that change struck Serogero and Kaelin at the same time. "Holy shishkabob," Kaelin breathed.

"The exception," Mintonar said grimly. "Is the Imperial Nanos. Those are allowed to have variations, encouraged in certain directions, and then the children are pushed to develop into the best version of their pairing that they can."

Serogero was stunned. That meant- Honestly, he wasn't sure what that meant. Removing the ability for variation in the genetic code meant that his people were very quickly going to be marrying cousins, even if there wasn't a common ancestor in memory. What children they were allowed to have would be, what, clones of their parents? Essentially?

"What does that mean?" Kaelin asked. "And why was the Imperial line not interfered with the same way everybody else was?"

Mintonar shook his head. "I still don't have answers beyond the information that the bio-nanos are safe for the humans to use. There isn't a standardized ideal type for them yet and it would honestly be safer if we fed it so much data that they came to conclusion that increasing variation is good."

"Are you able to program them to do that?" Serogero asked.

"I don't know yet," Mintonar said. "I think Maw-lee is going to be instrumental in changing the bio-nanos programming but I don't know how. I need more data."

"How much more?" Kaelin asked.

The gleam in Mintonar's eye made her shiver and the words out of his mouth sent a chill down Serogero's spine. "More pregnant humans," he said. "With hybrid babies. If we could get our women pregnant from human men, that would help, too."

"You can't experiment on pregnant women!" Kaelin told him, shocked.

Mintonar looked taken aback. "Experiment? What kind of monster do you think I am? Data, I need data, information about how they conceive, how they develop, what a woman's reproductive system looks like before the bio-nanos are introduced, and the men, what's supposed to be there, how much variation is possible."

"I can," Kaelin started, then swallowed and started over. "I can ask for as much data as we have on that to get you started. I don't know that we can get you more babies."

"Well," Serogero said. "I'm at least willing to try."

Kaelin hit him on the arm and it numbed his muscle briefly. He grinned at her and she sent him a stormy look.

"Would you let me record the process?" Mintonar asked.

Serogero hit Mintonar. "No, make more babies with your own ajoia if you want to record it."

Mintonar rubbed his chin. "Not the physical act, you barbarian, the processes your bio-nanos go through. Most of them don't record that part in an attempt to give the couples some privacy."

"For a reason!" Kaelin told him.

"We'll talk about it," Serogero told Mintonar.

"What?" Kaelin exclaimed.

"You and I will talk it over," he told her. "If you decide you don't want to, we won't."

She took a breath then nodded. "We'll talk. I'll probably say no but we can talk."

Mintonar grumbled but didn't argue with them. "As you can imagine, I'm monitoring Maw-lee closely but I can't see any danger in our people procreating with the humans. In fact, it can only benefit us as a people. And it makes it even more important for us to find a place to build a unique outpost of our own if our people are to survive as a species."

Serogero nodded. "Somewhere near Earth, if we can manage it."

"I don't know if there's anywhere close to Earth that can support life," Kaelin told him. "Even our next closest planet is so inhospitable we can't actually live directly on the surface, the first few people have had to build structures to make it possible to even do research."

He smiled at her. "Not quite so close as that," he said. "We have engine technology that will take us to planets that should be somewhat close but not enough fuel to get to all of them to see if they exist. Right now, their existence is theoretical, if supported by our readings of the ancient stories."

"That'll be something you'll have to talk about with the space guys, then," Kaelin said. "I think I remember stories about planets that might, possibly support life."

"We'll do that," Serogero told her. In fact, they had already started to do that. It had been one of the most productive parts of their trip to the surface apart from meeting the women they brought back.

His comm buzzed against his wrist and Serogero looked down. Aidan was summoning them to the comm room that had been set up to monitor transmissions from the planet. Theoretically, now that the probe had been installed successfully, they could do that from anywhere on the ship but it had been more convenient to keep it all in one place for the time being.

"If that's all?" he asked Mintonar.

His cousin waved him away. "That's all I need from you. I'll send Kaelin on in a few minutes once we've got the bio-nanos turned back on."

"I don't-" Serogero started.

"That looked important," Kaelin told him. "Go. I'll be fine with Mintonar and I'll be right behind you."

Serogero nodded and hurried out of the room. The Captain arrived at the room just as he did and gave a slight bow before letting him go first. There was a tightness around Captain Cretus' lips that wouldn't have meant much to most people but told Serogero the Captain was irritated.

Aidan was focused on the screen in front of him. A woman who looked very like Aidan, with slightly rounder cheeks, and short hair with soft, blonde curls was frowning at him.

"I told you I don't like those fake backgrounds you use, Aidan. I demand you show me where you actually are or I'm cutting you off."

The young man sighed heavily, his irritation obvious. "Grandma, I'm not using a fake background here. I have nowhere to put a green screen and really don't trust the software for that on this connection. And you can go ahead and cut me off. I haven't used that account in months and I don't need it. Keep it, give it away, I don't care but get off my back and off this line. I'm working and don't have time to deal with this right now."

"You are an ungrateful brat," the woman on the screen spat. "Just like that horrible mother of yours. The way you act, I'm not even sure you're even your father's actual child."

"Then get the damned blood test you keep threatening," Aidan said. "I'm hanging up now and I'm not calling you again. If you think I'm lying, watch the news in a couple hours."

The screen blinked and Aidan gripped the controls in his hands until his knuckles turned white. He turned to them and nodded.

"Everyone's off the planet and I have official contacts for the people who we need to talk to. Are you ready?"

Serogero looked to the Captain and nodded.

"Alright," Aidan said. "Let's make history."