5
Black String
Kyle Atkins-Weltman
CHAPTER 1: RevelationsThe past year had been the happiest of Alinelle's life. The recent events had kept Logan particularly busy, though she had her own duties to attend to. Alinelle had visions of an Ork who would become the warboss of a dangerous Waaagh! if not stopped, and a small team of rangers had successfully assassinated the unassuming greenskin, stopping the problem before it began. She foresaw potentially deadly traps in conflicts Asherital involved itself in, saving countless aeldari lives. Meanwhile, Logan saved aeldari lives of his own, when he wasn't busy with research.
As she exited the Dome of Seers, Alinelle found Logan waiting for her. He had an expression of pure excitement on his face, and she could tell he was restraining his enthusiasm.
"My love," Logan began, voice almost quivering, "I've found the hidden truths Isha spoke of. You have to see for yourself. This is going to change everything."
Before she could get a word in, Logan gently took her hand and began to lead her towards his laboratory. She knew where it was, but obliged him anyway. His passionate excitement was just one of the many things she adored about him. After 10 minutes, they arrived at their destination. Logan waved the door open, and walked inside.
Logan brought her to a large, slab-like table, and flipped open one of the many tomes he had apparently written through. On the left page was a hand-drawn sketch of an aeldari without their skin. She knew it was from a specialized aeldari-tech assisted scan, but seeing it still sent a shiver down her spine. The opposite page had a sketch of a human, also without their skin. She saw several notes written beside each sketch, along with a series of labels pointing to different body parts. Several arrows connected the two, acting as connecting arrows bridging the pages.
He reached over to the open tome, and pulled it closer so it was directly in front of them.
"Tell me, love," Alinelle said, "what exciting new discovery do you have to share?"
"'Exciting' doesn't even begin to describe it," Logan began. "Almost all of the data I've recovered suggests that there is some fundamental constant in the universe that unites life in the galaxy."
Alinelle felt her jaw drop. Logan flipped to the previous page in the tome, revealing another series of anatomical sketches. On one side were an aeldari man and woman, naked. On the other page were similar sketches of a human man and woman.
"Haven't you ever wondered why we have so many features in common?" Logan began, pointing to the sketches on the pages before them. "We have the exact same body plan - plantigrade, bipedal, ten fingers and toes… even our faces have all the same basic features, with only minor differences."
"That is quite incredible," Alinelle said, "but how can you be sure it is not simply chance? Could it not be the result of convergence?"
"I'm glad you brought that up," Logan said, flipping the page to the sketches of the skinless aeldari and human. He hovered his finger over the two figures. "The similarities run deeper. Our musculature is effectively identical. Look at the arms, for example. We have the same configuration - three-headed deltoid, triceps, and biceps. The muscles in the forearm are the same too. This extends to every other part of the body. See for yourself."
She looked closely at the sketches, and quickly realized he was correct. Before she could say anything, he flipped the page again, revealing two nearly identical skeletons.
"This is an aeldari skeleton compared to a human skeleton," Logan began. "While the aeldari has longer limbs, and is clearly taller, all of the major features are the same. The shape and orientation of the femoral head, the number and type of teeth, the shape of the cranium, the list goes on. All of these musculoskeletal traits are shared across humans and our closest relatives, but look here."
He flipped the page, which showed an identical drawing of the human, Alinelle could only tell by its height, alongside a shorter, stockier skeleton. The two also looked similar, but not to the same degree. In particular, the skulls were different. The skeleton on the right had a pronounced brow and nasals, a less prominent chin, and a longer cranium.
"Here, for comparison, are a human skeleton and a skeleton of our closest known relative, the neanderthal. Aeldari skull morphology resembles our own more than even the neanderthal."
"Wow," Alinelle managed. "Anything else?"
"Yes!" He exclaimed, this time reaching for a dataslate. Logan showed her several trees. She knew enough about biology to know systematics and basic metrics, and what she saw had her speechless. The polytomy in the genomics, the resolution on the transcriptome analysis, it was all utterly shocking.
"I've sequenced the genomes of both human and aeldari," Logan explained, "and I've included genbank data from humans' two closest extinct relatives, with whom humans interbred. I've run the statistics myself. The probability of this data being mere chance is less than one in a trillion. Humans and aeldari have less genetic distance between them than humans and Neanderthals or Denisovans, two species that humans interbred with in their evolutionary history!"
Logan tapped the screen, and the X-shaped structures broke up into bands of many different colors, with identical colors linked by bold lines. Alinelle listened intently.
"These colors represent genes that code for the same protein - humans and aeldari have the same major gene families, with only minor differences between them. We even have the same number of chromosomes, and the same X/Y sex chromosomes!"
"None of this makes any sense under the base assumptions of evolution. We are far more similar than we should be given our lack of a shared common ancestor. I believe there are fundamental 'rules' governing the evolution of specific morphologies such as ours," he concluded. "I currently hypothesize that while life evolved independently on different planets, the core similarities between lifeforms with no shared evolutionary history is the result of some shared fundamental process by all life in the Milky Way. Hell, all of the life I've examined has the same chirality in their biochemistry. That doesn't make sense if we assume randomness with abiogenesis."
Alinelle stood silently as she processed this new information. While she certainly had acknowledged the superficial similarities between humans and aeldari, she had always assumed it to be nothing more than an odd coincidence. Yet all of this suggested a far deeper connection between them, one that she knew both species would vehemently deny if they learned of it.
"So, where are the differences?"
Logan paused briefly. "That is the question I've focused on for a few weeks now. Most of the differences are with regard to very specific signaling pathways and regulatory regions - I believe this is the result of the aeldari's nature as an artificially engineered species. During the War in Heaven, my ancestors were small, furry creatures that lived in trees. Yet the aeldari are described as having the same anatomy and features as you have today. This, along with the data I've gotten from sequencing multiple aeldari, suggests an incredibly low rate of mutation compared to humans."
"You humans do breed a lot of mutants," Alinelle joked. Logan smiled, and continued.
"When we look at the few differences in coding regions between our species, we see that aeldari have a great number of additional regulatory regions and proteins that relate to DNA repair and replication. This is likely why aeldari have next to no mutations in the coding regions of the genome, and thus would explain why there has been no noticeable morphological change. Even the noncoding region of the genome is relatively conserved, which we don't see in humans, or other organisms resulting from natural evolution."
"Are you jealous?" She responded. Logan chuckled.
"Of your low mutation rates? I'll explain in a second. The more interesting thing to me is the critical differences between aeldari and human production and regulation of telomerase. The aeldari telomerase is far more effective, and its production does not decrease with age as it does in humans. This explains why aeldari do not experience the effects of senescence the way that humans do. In fact, my preliminary work suggests that one could develop a gene therapy to target the telomerase gene and allow a human to achieve a similar lifespan to an aeldari."
Alinelle considered this for a moment. Logan's short lifespan as a human had always concerned her, though when it came to mind she tried to ignore it. She knew that the joy and love they shared would not last the rest of her days as it would for Logan, and it filled her with sorrow if she didn't focus on something else. This new discovery could fix that problem, and allow them both to live full lives together.
"That's incredible, Logan," she exclaimed.
"Indeed," Logan replied, "but that's not all. I already mentioned the low mutation rates of the aeldari genome - while it sounds good superficially, it means that aeldari are less able to adapt biologically to new environments, though your biology is generally superior enough to not require it. Meanwhile, humans are highly adaptable precisely because of their higher mutation rate - while many are deleterious, a small minority will be advantageous. This, combined with our higher reproduction rates, allow us to quickly adapt to new conditions."
"Interesting," Alinelle mused.
"Now, this might sound crazy," Logan began, "but the similarities at the genetic level suggest that aeldari-human hybrids are biologically possible, given the low genetic distance compared to species that humans are known to have hybridized with in the past. Furthermore, such hybrids would inherit the longevity and natural psychic talent of the aeldari, and the adaptability and higher reproduction rate of humans. While they would not be able to match a pureblood aeldari, they would certainly be superior to pureblood humans in many aspects, and could, over time, introgress beneficial genes from both species into each other for mutual benefit."
"I imagine if your Inquisition heard this, they wouldn't be pleased," Alinelle joked. The idea that a human and an aeldari could conceive a child would certainly send proverbial shockwaves through both empires.
"I don't even want to imagine what they'd do to me," Logan said. He puffed out his chest. "'Heresy! You have worked with the vile xenos! Purge, purge, purge!"
Both of them laughed at his impression. There was a brief silence, before a sound that Alinelle had not heard in at least two centuries began to permeate the air, filling their ears. It lasted only a few seconds, but it seemed Logan's head was still ringing.
"What was that?" Logan asked, puzzled.
Alinelle smiled.
"That," she began, "was an announcement. A troupe of Harlequins have decided to grace us with their performance."
She went on to explain the nature of the Harlequins. She explained their relationship with the Laughing God Cegorach, their performances, and more. When she told Logan how the Harlequins were respected and never harmed by even the drukhari, his eyes widened. Alinelle loved when she got to tell him things he didn't know.
"Are they here to perform?" Logan asked?
"I'd imagine," Alinelle answered. "I doubt they are here to perform their most famous dance, considering how rare it is. I've only ever seen it twice myself, and never here on Asherital. Such an event brings both Asuryani and Drukhari flocking to see it. They may have some other reason for being here, though with the servants of the Laughing God, one can only guess."
"So, it's a date, then?" Logan asked, smiling.
"It's a date," Alinelle said, with enthusiasm.
With that, the happy couple exited the lab, and made for the massive performing arts auditorium.
