Prime Selection (23 page)

“Bear with me, Mel. I need you to see how Dr. Martin arrived at the conclusions she did.”

Mel waved Lia on.

Lia took a deep breath and let it out. “Dr. Martin has also found the lack of fertility on Cejuru Prime seems to be one-sided and only affects the females. Kerr was able to get a good sampling of Prime male semen during crew physicals. Dr. Martin tested the samples and found the semen across the board was rich with viable sperm.”

Mel opened her mouth to demand what the fuck all this had to do with Nadia and Huw and the unusual complication.

Lia held up her hand. “Patience, I’m getting there.” She coughed and continued.

“Bottom line, a Prime male like most hominid males can smell when a woman is fertile.

The Prime being one of the longest surviving races in the universe, their neurochemical process had mutated to where the male could scent his
most
optimal match, defined as the match that would have less chances of genetic defects. This scenting affects both the male and female and a neurochemical process produces the mark. With me so far?”

Mel nodded. “The Prime male can smell his mate, and he and his mate develop marks indicating a prime selection.”

“Exactly. In light of my and Joen’s mating and marking, albeit backward—and in light of Huw and Nadia’s also backward bonding process we asked Dr. Martin to look at your and Wulf’s DNA samples…”

“Whoa, wait a parsec. Mine and Wulf’s? Why would you send her ours? I’m Prime and Wulf is Prime and we mated the normal Prime way.”

“Well, for one, because of the fertility issue of Prime women. You, my dear Prime friend, are very fertile. Dr. Martin has concluded, and Kerr and I concur, something on the planet has mutated the Prime female’s fertility. Also, whatever is hurting the Prime female’s ability to get pregnant and carry to term isn’t carried across the whole spectrum of Prime females since a few are getting marks and carrying healthy babies to term. We want to figure out what’s causing the infertility in the majority of Prime women and how it can be fixed.”

“Okay, I can see that.” Mel frowned. “But wouldn’t you need to test a variety of Prime women and see what’s going on with their DNA?

“We did that,” Lia said. “We sent Dr. Martin samples from some of the sex surrogates Kerr is acquainted with. Other samples came from women with no markings, and some from those who’d mated, but then lost their mates.”

“And what did she find?” Mel was interested in spite of the long way around Lia was taking.

“She found that many of the women who acted as sex surrogates and the others who had lost mates were fertile,” Kerr said.

“So, in theory, they should be able to conceive and carry a baby … if they had a compatible Prime male,” Mel said.

“Exactly!” Lia almost bounced she was so excited. “We asked Dr. Martin to determine if the women who were fertile could mate with non-Prime males—or even a different Prime male. Remember I said the marking happened on the most optimal match—I didn’t say the only possible match.”

Mel groaned and sent an urgent call to Wulf.
“Are you getting this?”

“Yes. I am coming, Melina. My father has listened to similar hypotheses from our
genetic researchers. This is another reason we allied with your Alliance. You have more
research capability in your Astrobiology research labs. We needed an objective observer
and test results before we upset the whole of Prime society.”

“Thanks for not telling me.”

“I would have … we’ve been busy,
lubha.”

“Not that busy.”

Lia continued, “No marked Prime female who has been widowed has tried to mate with another Prime. No one has ever demonstrated the women couldn’t mate again. It was just ingrained culturally that they couldn’t. Dr. Martin’s conclusion is the Prime population crisis was propagated by not only a low fertility rate in some women, but also by a societal bias ingrained over thousands of years.”

“Jesus Christ, Lia. Open a can of worms, would you? If it can be shown a Prime woman could mate with a non-Prime or another Prime male, you’d upset the whole cultural order of their mating ritual.” Mel shook her head. “The Pure Blood fanatics will go wild.”

“Captain…” Kerr drew her attention. “Dr. Martin wants to help the Prime have a future. I, for one, am thrilled she is dedicated to solving our problems. My sister is one of the women who lost her mate. Her
gemate
mark is fading.”

Mel gasped and rubbed her mark.

Kerr nodded. “Yes, it is heart-breaking. She not only lost her mate, but is losing what made her his. When her
gemat
died, she had two choices: live a celibate life or become a sex surrogate. She chose celibacy. She is only twenty-nine standard years old. According to the tests, my sister is one of the lucky ones who are fertile. She should be able to conceive and carry a baby to term. I want this chance for her and other Prime women like her—and for the sex surrogates.”

“I have no problem with any of that, Kerr. None. I merely stated a fact. The rebels will throw the planet into civil war over this if it’s not presented properly.”

“We agree, Mel.” Lia smiled. “Which is why you—and I suspect now Wulf,” Mel nodded, “are the only persons who know what is going on outside of the people in this room and Dr. Martin.”

“Dr. Martin is all that is good,” Kerr said. “She’s running all the early tests herself, keeping the results under tightest security, until we give her the go-ahead to bring in more assistance. She is eager to travel to Cejuru Prime and set up a research lab here to garner more samples for her genetic and environmental testing and to set up a fertility clinic. She wishes to help the Prime women who are currently miscarrying and to assist the non-Prime women who mate with Prime males if their pregnancies run into problems.”

“And I’m totally in agreement with all of that. So is Wulf and from what he told me, his father has had these same types of discussions with Prime geneticists.” Kerr looked shocked, but pleased. Lia smiled. “But I still don’t understand what this all has to do with Huw and Nadia, you two, and the
gemat-gemate
marking. What is the damn complication?”

“It’s what Dr. Martin found in my and Nadia’s DNA.” Lia smiled at Joen who squeezed her waist. “I’m Joen’s battle-mate. Nadia will be Huw’s—once their marks appear.”

“How can this be?” Stunned, Mel looked from Lia to Joen to Kerr.

“This is where
your
DNA sample comes into play. Dr. Martin isolated a gene in my and Nadia’s DNA which is similar to one in yours—a Prime gene. On that gene, Nadia and I have alleles identical to ones you have. Dr. Martin then looked at Joen’s, Huw’s, and Wulf’s DNA and found comparable alleles in their DNA. These alleles are what make us battle-mates.”

“Are you saying all non-Prime women who carry this Prime gene with these certain alleles will form a battle-mate connection with a Prime male?” Mel asked.

“Yes, if the male carries the same set of alleles.” Lia’s eyes glittered with her excitement. “Joen has told me the history of his people. At the time they explored Earth and Volusia and several other similar planets—all Prime females were warriors and most were battle-mates to their
gemats
. Thus, the males having sexual relations with non-Prime women on the visited planets and impregnating them would pass both their maternal and paternal sets of DNA to the non-Prime woman. The battle-mate allele would be passed through the mitochondrial DNA, or MtDNA, the Prime male received from his mother.” Lia laughed. “Isn’t that amazing?”

“Amazing. Nadia has
definitely
shown battle-mate behavior.” Mel frowned and eyed Joen and Lia. “Have you had such incidences?”

“Yes.” Joen nuzzled Lia’s ear. “We mind-talk all the time and shared energy on Tarn. Lia’s touch alleviates my pain. We need the contact even if it is just mental— though physical is better. Don’t you do that with Wulf?”

“Yes.” Mel thought for a second and swore. “Huw could barely accept the telepathy.

He keeps rationalizing it—saying Nadia has to be a strong telepath. But his feeding her energy—hell, he’ll just deny it.”

“Then he’ll be fooling himself,” Joen said. “Nadia definitely found extra strength in the fight on the docks. I saw her go limp. I couldn’t get to her; my man was giving me fits. She struggled to get the bastard off her and then nothing. The next time I looked she had shot him and tossed him off her. She had to be drawing on Huw’s strength.”

Joen raised Lia’s hand to his lips and nibbled her knuckles. “Huw will come around.

Give him time, Mel. I’m not sure how I even existed prior to mating with Lia. I feel so …

so…”

“Whole,” Mel said. “Complete. Fully sensate for the first time in your life.”

“Yes.” Joen smiled. “All of those things—and loved. So very loved.”

“And that, too.” Mel shook her head. “Damn, this is an explosive situation. We can keep your marking to ourselves until Huw and Nadia become marked, but at that point, Premier Caradoc will have to know. He’ll want to announce the discovery to the Prime population.” She looked first at Lia and then Kerr. “For the time being, you two will need to keep an eye out for symptoms among our female crew dating Prime males.”

“I know you are concerned about the fanatics, Mel, but the majority of my people will be elated,” Kerr said. “It is only a few malcontents who’ll be unhappy. The rebels behind those fanatics only want power. They could care less about pure blood.” He snorted. “I can find non-Prime DNA, much of it Terran, in all Prime family lines. Lots of those early Prime travelers didn’t just impregnate the native women, they brought them and the resulting children home to Cejuru Prime. Not one person on my planet is pure blood, not even the Pure Bloods. We wouldn’t have survived all these millennia without fresh DNA in our gene pool.”

“Yeah, but you’re a scientist and logical.” Mel sighed and shook her head. “The fanatics will believe what they want—and the rebels funding them will encourage those misconceptions in order to get what they want.”

“We live in interesting times.” Joen pulled a protesting Lia onto his lap and kissed her cheek. “But I would walk through a barrage of laser cannon to find what I have now.

And once the men who have no mates realize they could potentially have the marking and the chance at a life with a woman and a family, they’ll rally to our side.”

“But at what cost?” Mel asked.

“Whatever the cost,” Joen answered, “it will be worth it.”

He pulled the screens around her bed, giving him a sense of privacy. He needed to figure out what was going on between him and the beautiful, strong, and fascinating woman lying so quietly in the regen bed.

All through the damn meeting with his brothers and the other officers of Gold, he’d mentally checked on Nadia’s condition through whatever in the universe this connection they had was. Her night terrors had become his until he finally had to excuse himself and come to her side. His tension along with her fears and pain subsided as he neared Sick Bay.

Nadia now rested comfortably—but his mind was in chaos and a sharp, stabbing pain jabbed him over his heart, piercing his very soul.

He was a bastard.

There, he could admit it.

A stubborn ass.

He had hurt this woman who cared for him. Here … now … alone with her, he could admit he cared for her. Loved her. But he could not admit it out loud.

Until he had eliminated all chances of finding his
gemate
alive, he could not voice or even hint at his true feelings for Nadia. If he was to have a relationship with this special woman, he had to come with his heart, mind, and body free to love her.

Huw leaned over the regen bed and lowered the shield until her face was uncovered.

He kissed her forehead. “Heal, Nadia.”

Closing the cover, he sat by her bedside, watching over her, willing her his strength.

He’d stay here until somebody came and threw him out.

Five Standard Weeks later, on the Galanti, orbiting Ursa 345

Nadia scanned the visuals sent back by the unmanned drone. The two ships on the surface of the planet called Ursa 345 were older-model Prime starships. She’d confirmed their identity with Prime Command—they were definitely two of the ships that had carried women and children off Cejuru Prime twenty-seven standard years ago.

Their condition indicated they’d crashed. The ships’ main decks survived basically intact. The crews and passengers could easily have lived in the ships for quite a long time as long as the environmental systems hadn’t been breached and the ship’s fusion reactors had remained online. Food stores would’ve lasted them up to two standard years.

Lia and Kerr hung over her shoulder, checking out the images and the readings streaming across the bottom of the monitor.

“No carbon life-forms in either ship—dead or alive,” Lia said. “The survivors must’ve found the old Prime fortifications.”

“The atmosphere on this planet according to early Prime records was thin at the time of the first colonization and has even less of the needed oxygen-nitrogen mix now,” Kerr said. “The fortifications could only have been underground with full environmental support systems.”

“Like the ones on Obam IV where Mel lived?” Nadia asked.

“Exactly. But even with a liveable atmosphere, our ancestors liked underground facilities so they could remain hidden while mapping a planet and observing the planet’s life-forms. The early reports on this planet indicated no higher-level life-forms, but that could have changed over the millennia.” Kerr reached over her shoulder. “If I may, let’s look at the subterranean scans.”