Chapter Four: The Devil is in the Details
Queen Alanna went to the hospital by herself. Dr. McClusky wanted her to come in person. She could sense the urgency and the excitement in his voice. The message did not state the reason for the call but she presumed that it had to do with their "dirty little secret". Lotor's genetic tests were back in. She was surprised to find two other people waiting with the doctor. They were in the uniforms of the Galactic Alliance. She was anything but pleased.
"Dr McClusky, you promised not to share the information." Queen Alanna protested.
"Your Majesty, I didn't. Blame the lab technician who ran the tests. I figured it was going to come back a mish mash of Drule but the results were more eye grabbing than that. Dr. McClusky offered a seat to the queen and then slumped down in the chair across from her. He officers then seated themselves. The doctor could see that the Queen Alanna was disappointed in him.
"Queen Alanna, I'm Dr. Sewell from the Galaxy Alliance. This is Lt. Brown from our intelligence service. The lab technician was right to contact us as the sample was extremely fascinating on a number of accounts. The child is half human. To be more specific, he is half Arussian. He is the first known Drule-human hybrid on record. Dr. McClusky assures us that he knows of no other case between your people and them."
"Zarkon claims him as his son. Are you saying that his mother was an Arussian?" Alanna answered back. The scientist from the Galactic Alliance nodded. "It makes little sense. We have only had contact with the Korrinnites during the past five years." Queen Alanna answered thoughtfully.
"The markers indicate the mother is from the Castor region." Queen Alicia looked thoughtful.
'The Castorites are primarily merchants. They have been known to travel deep into space. They have had run ins with the Drules that have not been covered by treaty." He looked at the other Galactic Officer who was pouring through his notes.
"It still does not totally explain his existence. Drules have 24 chromosomes. Meiotic overdrive aside, should he even exist?" McClusky interrupted.
"McClusky, he is part Wyvern…anything is possible. That fact alone, that any of them are out there and still breeding with Drules, is highly disturbing. We are looking at the possible merging of our species. And I'm afraid, with their traits being more dominant ours would be wiped out. Hopefully, the normal biological rules apply and he is just an infertile hybrid." Sewell seemed lost in his speculation.
"We are talking about one child here. He may just be some aberration. Maybe your sample was compromised." Queen Alanna did not like the look into the officer's face. Until now, Arus had carefully kept out of the long cold war between the Galactic Alliance and the Drules. King Alfor was the first to point out that the humans had left the Milky Way to colonize the Denubian Galaxy and not the other way around. The Drules, an aggressive hodge podge to begin with, were not pleased with the arrival of the interlopers in their particular neighborhood. The humans had first found it easy to colonize as the Drules fought constantly among themselves. But the arrival of humans changed all of that, the First Kingdom under the religious fanatic Empress Jain consolidated the various warlike species into a unified front called the Drule Supremacy. For over a thousand years, the two dominant species had fought tooth and nail for the Denubian Galaxy's most precious resource, lazon. Without lazon, the humans would have to revert back to their crude nuclear power sources. The Drules would have preferred it that way.
King Alfor, as most of the Arussian monarchs, was more aware of the pressures that faced the Drule Empire than the Galactic Alliance was. The Galactic Alliance was too far away from the center to understand the Drules as well as the Arussians did. They existed in a human centric world, while Arus existed in a more Drule leaning one. King Alfor understood their desire to stay close to home. Even though they knew the Milky Way existed, and could have made their way across the expanse centuries before the humans had made the long journey, they had shown no desire to leave the relative safety of their galaxy. The thought to venture out had never even crossed their minds. King Alfor had thought most of it was due to their low reproduction rate. Drules rarely produced more than two children. No one knew why because they were certainly capable of more as was evidenced by the occasional large family and the broods maintained by their warmasters, but all in all, they seemed reluctant to change their reproduction habits to keep up with the humans. The population of Earth and all her colonies surpassed that of the Drules by 20:1. The Drules viewed humans as over bloated consumers who had come in to exhaust their resources.
The fight over the lazon resources was the first major source of contention between the two races; slavery was the next. The slavery issue had always been a big one between the humans and Drules as the species drew closer to each other. Drules were not against enslaving their own kind and did so frequently. As the human starting inhabiting worlds closer to the border territories the Drules thought nothing against taking human ones either when the opportunity presented itself. Yet, no one heard of a Drule-human child being born. But then again, one rarely ever heard what happened in the Drule Empire anyway. Save for the rare prisoner who returned after one of the border wars – or the ambitious trader who was confined to the imperial port warehouses– few had any inkling what happened on a Drule world. For all the Galactic Alliance knew there could be whole cities of Drule-human hybrids running around. It helped keep the population calm by claiming that there were no hybrids as visions of Drules raping women to produce children was a common theme in horror movies and the less than respectable media outlets.
"Your Majesty, the threat is there. I require the child for some more tests." Sewell stood up in a manner more pleading than threatening.
"Doctor you must be insane. May I remind you that the child we are talking about is the Crown Prince of Korrinoth, son of Zarkon, the Demon King? Shall you or I make the call to ask his father permission? Or perhaps you would like to book passage on the next transport and ask the King himself? Putting that aside, he is also my invited guest. You, sir, are not. Get the hell off my world and take your friend with you." Queen Alanna shot a look at Dr. McClusky for bringing these men as she left.
Queen Alanna called Coran to her offices. He was not pleased that Galactic Alliance officer were on Arus. He informed her Majesty that they had gotten in under a scientific research treaty that was rarely put into force. He was as anxious to get them to leave as she was. Even the signature of an Alliance ship would trigger reconnaissance forces from Korrinoth skirting the Arussian air space. Queen Alanna confided everything regarding the DNA tests to Coran. He shook his head and cursed her stupidity to himself. The woman was always too eager to please her friends at court. He reminded her that the child was more trouble than he was worth.