by Viola Grace
She waved her hand, and they were sitting in the teashop where her mother had worked.
“Shall we continue this with some refreshments?”
The elder nodded, and she served tea while they discussed the future of the hybrids and their possibilities in regards to the survival of the Rrassic. In the real world, a few seconds went by, and when they came to an agreement, they finished their snacks, stood, and returned to their companions.
* * * *
Remi smiled when Alia’s third eye faded to normal. She was home again.
Alia nodded toward the Saya and the Dorbin who were standing close while the Dorbin listened to what the Saya was silently saying.
The Dorbin nodded. “I understand. We will have to speak to the rest of the council. Examiner Kromir, please, take them to the boardroom for refreshments while we discuss this information.”
Remi looked at Kromir, and he smiled reassuringly. That look went a long way to keeping her calm.
“Remi, Alia, this way.”
Kromir walked past the council, and they parted for their party. Remi followed her mate’s wings, and Alia was at her back.
They entered the boardroom, and the dispenser was waiting. Kromir went to the unit, and he kept his back to her. “If you were curious about how the council works, I would suggest that you go and find out, but make sure that no one knows you are there.”
Remi blinked and went invisible. She left Alia with Kromir and sprinted silently down the hall to enter the council chamber as the door swung closed.
She listened to the Zjin saying, “They are dangerous. It was a mistake to choose the humans.”
The Regiz lounged in his seat at the round table, and he shrugged. “I liked them. They are strong. Very strong.”
The Zjin growled. “That is not the point. They could destroy us.”
The Dorbin cocked his head. “Why would they?”
The Saya was sitting still and watching the proceedings.
The crimson male looked her way, but his gaze didn’t stop. She pulled in her senses and simply crouched against the wall.
They debated back and forth, bringing up reports and data sheets on the humans and other species that were producing hybrids. The humans were able to withstand drastic temporal interference, so they had a leg up in development. The other species would be ready within the year, but the humans would have a fighting population in the next forty-five days if the breeding continued on its upward trend.
The Zjin finally said, “What will ensure that the hybrids take orders?”
The Saya smiled. “Open your minds, and I will tell you what I learned from the little Saya.”
She didn’t have time to put up a heavier shield; she was swept into the psychic realm with them.
The Saya saw her, and he laughed. “So, you were in the room.”
The crimson Rrassic laughed. “She was barely there, but it was noticeable if you were looking for the heat signature in the floor.”
Remi stood, naked as she always was when she was a projection. “Fine. Yes. I was in the room. I know how the Imrahl Rrassic function, but you guys like to talk.”
The Saya snorted. “Allow me to show you my conversation with her companion.”
The words and emotions of Alia spilled over all of them. Remi smiled as the images of her and the little three-eyed child were broadcast to the gathered men.
They understood the bonds of brotherhood, but sisterhood was a different situation.
“This is why we are safe with the hybrids. They are not all male. They are from a cooperative society. They are not violent by nature; they are protective of each other, as they were raised to be.” The Saya was grinning.
Remi looked at Alia’s memories floating in the air. She smiled at the ones she was in and sighed at the ones she had missed.
She stood naked in an ancient temple styled in graceful lines with seven nude men. They were looking at her and feeling Alia’s memories run through them.
“This is why we are going to fight, and why we will win. We are not fighting for glory or money or fame. We are fighting so that there is a chance that our youngest cousins won’t have to. If they can be born into Imrahl, directly from the canisters and raised by their own parents without the pressure for multiple children, we will be pleased with how our lives have turned out. We just want our start. What happens next can be dealt with after the survival of the Rrassic, and its chosen races are assured. We will defend you if you let us.”
The seven faces looked at her and then at each other.
Finally, the Dorbin nodded. “We accept your offer and that of the human hybrids. We will exit the psychic realm and enter into a contract where both parties will be represented. Saya, end this excursion.”
Remi stood straight and resumed her visibility. The Dorbin-Rrassic got up and walked over to her, extending his hand. “Welcome to the Rrassic council, Remi Bree-Arix, siren of Imrahl, General of the hybrids.”
She clasped his arm and exhaled slowly. This is what she had trained for. Time to negotiate.
Chapter Twelve
Remi sat with Elder Theth, the Dorbin, Elder Ramor of the Saya, and Elder Vresk of the Pilar, the man who was built for fire. Kromir and Alia were sitting on her side of the table.
“So, we are negotiating what the hybrids will be responsible for. Well, the human hybrids. The rest of them will be taken care of as their abilities and needs are assessed.”
The recorder was broadcasting all of the events to the Overseers on different worlds.
Remi took a deep breath. “First things first. The human hybrids of Imrahl pledge themselves to the support and defense of the Rrassic species. In return, we get the rights and responsibilities of full citizens.”
Elder Theth blinked. “Interesting.”
“When a sufficient number of Imrahl or other hybrids have been generated, a warship will be provided by the Rrassic to be controlled by the general leading the hybrids at the time.”
“Easily done. We have many ships lying empty with insufficient warriors to man them.”
That was a surprise. “Well, on to a wage.”
They haggled back and forth but eventually settled on what Arix had drummed into Remi as a standard pay scale for the Rrassic.
Remi cleared her throat. “We have settled dwellings, food, and occupation as well as advancement opportunities. Now, let’s talk about sex.”
The elders looked shocked. Kromir was amused, but he knew this question was coming.
“Breeding is a concern. Our parents were required to be a match between human and Rrassic. What about the hybrids? Are they required to seek a breeding partner or lover only among their own? Should they seek out the Rrassic? Or is any relationship fine as long as it is registered? How many children are acceptable? We don’t want to breed out the Rrassic. Our parents were asked to produce twenty individual genetic pairings. How many will the hybrids be allowed to create?”
The three council members deliberated, and finally, they came to a consensus.
Theth spelled it out. “The hybrids of Imrahl will be required to log their genetic pattern in case of injury or death. That is non-negotiable. If they choose a breeding partner, they must also be recorded.”
Remi wondered where he was going with that.
“An imprint of your memories will also be taken by a recording Saya in case of accidental injury or death. This goes for any of your crew who have paired up in any way.”
This was getting odd.
“In the event of your body ceasing to function, a new clone will be generated using accelerated techniques, and your mind will be loaded into the body so that you may resume your duties.”
“That isn’t necessary...” she started to explain, but Kromir gripped her hand.
“It is necessary. This council is not elected, it is eternal. As you join our ranks, even as you insist on taking action, you are joining us as long as the Rrassic are alive. From this moment forward, there will always be a
Remi Bree-Arix, her mate Kromir, and her advisor Alia on the council.”
Remi looked to Kromir, and he nodded. Alia simply shrugged.
She blinked. “Right. Okay, what about the mating for the rest of the hybrids?”
“They may mate with Rrassic or other hybrids provided that they run through a genetic assessment for suitability. It is fine for now, but the lines of relations may blur over time.”
She nodded. “Acceptable. Now, the number of offspring?”
“A limit of five unless otherwise authorized. Each authorization will occur on a case-by-case basis.”
Remi looked at Kromir, and he winked.
She took a deep breath. “While the creche is acceptable in an emergency situation, some families would like to raise their own offspring at a leisurely pace.”
“That will also be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. The more demanding occupations cannot spare the time to raise offspring.”
Remi blinked. “Right. It will be a case-by-case situation but determined by the parents, not the council. A week in the creche is enough to raise a child, even in a demanding occupation.”
She drummed her fingers on the table. “Now, birth control. The women are slowed or the men are?”
She waited while the council chattered again.
“Both. We will slow the fertility of both the male and female members of the union. If they still conceive after that, their authorization will be reconsidered. If science can’t stop them, who are we to restrict them?”
She smiled. “Excellent.”
The council members looked at her, and Elder Vresk spoke quietly. “Now, tell us why you are willing to fight for the Rrassic.”
Remi cocked her head and smiled. “My mother. Well, not my mother, but all the original humans who were sampled. Those women are living their lives on their homeworld, some are falling in love, some are barely surviving. Right now, they have the potential to do anything, be anyone, and to live a life that is only a possibility right now. If the Voboth get them, that possibility is over.”
She straightened her shoulders. “My mother knows what she is. She knows she is a clone that has been altered to be compatible with the Rrassic. The other women gain this knowledge when they have mates and learn about the canisters and how the next generation will be raised. They may not like it, but they learn it.”
She swallowed. “The idea that the Earth is sitting there with no idea that trouble is coming and that they are not going to be able to defend themselves makes me ill. It made my mother ill, as well as other females who learned of their origins. Once they accepted that they were cloned, they had to accept the approaching conflict. They might not have wanted us to be born for this, but we were. This is the hand that we were dealt, and every day that I spent with my mother, I knew that she was mourning the day I would leave for this purpose. She still raised my siblings and me with an eye toward the future and the hope that we would see it.”
Kromir squeezed her hand.
“So, just because a human doesn’t like a situation doesn’t mean that they let it overtake them. The women that were selected were all highly adaptable. They are living with the knowledge that somewhere out there, the original person with their memories is living the same life that they remember being abducted from. They want a chance for them, too, and we are their best chance at survival, or so our fathers have told us.”
The councillors paused as if that was not what they had expected. Well, two of them paused, Vresk was grinning.
The rest of the minutia was taken care of, and she signed the contract with her blood. Kromir and Alia signed as witnesses, and the councillors did the same.
She looked to Theth. “What happens now?”
“Now, we wait until there is a sufficient amount of warriors to man that warship.”
She grinned. She wasn’t sure that the Rrassic were aware of it, but she never specified the gender of the warriors. They were going to have a unisex fighting force. Being a hybrid was an equal opportunity event.
Kromir flew her over the staging area and showed her around the outpost.
“So, we are on a space station?”
“We are. Locking a portal onto the station is a tricky situation, but with enough Saya monitoring the connection, it is manageable.”
She chuckled and let the air rush past her face. “I was surprised that they gave in on the warship.”
“The first attack on our breeding world knocked our population down to a small percentage of what it used to be. We have all the equipment to wage war and no warriors to man them.”
“And so the idea to use likely worlds to supply new genetic material was born.”
He nodded and wheeled slowly. “We used the list that the Voboth had created. They fear a specific type of being, and humans were on the list. The worlds with potential were marked out, and we attempted contact with two of them. They rejected our efforts, and we moved on to less sophisticated worlds with hardy populations.”
“And enter the Earth and its myriad humans.”
“There was so much to learn about, so much to examine. We went as thorough as we could with the investigation, and while that was going on, we opened a temporal bubble around Imrahl. It let us build the facilities we needed and prepare the tanks to grow the population we required. We gathered Nool from a training centre, and their time on Imrahl aged them into proper Rrassic.”
She smiled. “I wondered how that happened. My father used to say that time on Imrahl aged him until he met my mother.”
“Arix was one of the few trackers who had been full Rrassic off world. He was considered an excellent genetic line for future hybrids. No one guessed he would be one of the first to find a mate.”
“He was surprised as well. What is your thought on the matter of finding a mate?”
He chuckled and headed back to their quarters under the huge dome of the city in space.
“My thought is that if I knew what I was in for, I would have gone to Imrahl a day earlier.”
She giggled and felt the warmth of affection running through her soul. “I would have left the creche earlier, too. One whole day, or five years. Either way, a minute is too long to wait for you.”
They landed on the roof, and he carried her into their quarters. She smiled when he set her on her feet, and she looked into his hot copper gaze.
“Do you think they are recording this?”
He shrugged and removed his tunic. “Yes, General, I believe that they are.”
She grinned and removed her own clothing with rapid movements. “Fine. Let them watch. But I get to be on top.”
He laughed, and when they were naked, she pushed him back, crawling carefully until she was straddling him.
She rubbed herself against him and used everything she had learned about him to tease both of them until joining their bodies was the only way to stop the fire in their blood.
Lying in his arms, she stroked a hand over his chest. “How much time do we have?”
“A week at the most. Alia has told me that they have over two thousand canisters heading to the creche. There has been a surge of receptive humans, and the multiple births are speeding things along.”
“And I have been slowed to a crawl. I don’t feel any different.”
“Neither do I and everything else works just fine. I was worried about that.”
She laughed. “I wasn’t. It takes more than messing with fertility to stop us.”
“It won’t stop me from trying to override their controls.” He chuckled and ran his fingers through her hair.
“I look forward to your efforts. Will you be on my first mission when the warship launches?”
“No. I work for the Rrassic council. You are the hybrid, General. I am not allowed to be in a battle situation.” He didn’t seem pleased about that.
“Don’t worry. I will keep myself safe. I promise not to do anything stupid and to keep our daughters in mind when I do go into battle. Them and all of the others in
the next generation.”
He gave her a squeeze. “That is all I can ask. Well, General, is it my turn?”
She grinned. “By all means, this time you have to do all the work.”
He eased her over and moved to cover her, his wings blocking the light in the room.
She was warm and cozy in the bit of privacy made for two, and she was going to savour the moment. She had the inkling that privacy would be hard to come by in the months and years ahead.
For now, she was with her mate, and the future was bright.
Epilogue
Remi stood on the command deck of the Hunted Heart. It was the Imrahl hybrid flagship, and she was proud to be commanding it.
Kromir came through on the com. “You are approaching the Voboth raiding party. Prepare to engage.”
She nodded. “Weapon systems online. Defense systems online. Come around this moon and prepare to kick some ass.”
The crew was intent on their stations, but they all had a feral grin as they moved the ship into position and got the readouts.
“Five hostiles firing.”
“Return fire.” She sat and watched as her ship drew the bulk of the Voboth’s fire.
Alia’s voice in her mind made her smile. Birthday surprise coming up.
The moon next to them began a stream of fire that caught the Voboth broadside. The Rrassic skill at slowing and speeding time at a fixed point worked very well when they had ambush points.