Page 68 of The Pregnancy Pact

“See that it remains that way.”

She smiled sweetly. “Good day, Lorelai. I am certain we’ll be in company together soon.”

With that, she swept from the room, her long robes trailing regally along the carpet behind her, the scarlet band at the bottom eerily resembling a splash of blood.

Chapter 39

Ellax

On the short flight home from the orbiting space ship outside Asterion’s atmosphere to the skypad inside Korith, I mulled over my meeting with my fellow Lead Advisors.

***

Once I’d arrived on the Coalition’s ship and perfunctory greetings had been made, we’d seated ourselves and gotten directly to business.

“Ellax,” the host and most senior member of the Coalition, Ithrigor, from the planet Gorgathel, had opened the meeting. To lend weight to his authority, he clasped a slender golden rod engraved with the names of the twelve planets comprising the Interstellar Coalition. The rod was a symbol of power. Was he anticipating a difficult conference today? “Knowing you were on an important personal mission, to retrieve your wayward son, we chose not to alarm you with the whispers of an Asterion request. However, you have returned and the request has been officially filed; albeit not by you, to our surprise.”

“Yes,” I nodded, folding my hands on the chrome table before me. It was a circle, around which were seated the twelve Lead Advisors of the Interstellar Coalition, each member representing the twelve planets that comprised the ruling board. “The matter was conducted without me. However, though I haven’t returned with my son, who has chosen to remain on Earth, I do have a new wife.”

I kept my face carefully composed. Of course, the Coalition knew. Were they aware of the peculiar circumstances surrounding my marriage? How it had come to be?

“We heard,” Ithrigor acknowledged. “And we were in agreement with your own planet’s advice for you to remain married to the human female. It might prove beneficial in improving interspecies relations with the humans on Earth, and with other colonized planets.”

Lucky Lorelai. Our drunken mistake would prove to be the shining balance from which interspecies’ relations would now swing.

“Now that the matter of a female for you, and soon an heir, has been settled,” Ithrigor went on, “we must discuss the request sent to us by the Asterion Council.”

I’d a feeling I knew the request. I subtly clenched my fingers and remained silent.

“They wish us to deal with the wild humans on Earth once and for all,” Gorb, from the planet Horeb, declared. His blue antennae, a striking color against the orange of his scales, waggled slightly as he spoke. “To send a strike force, headed by the Coalition’s Unified Forces, and wipe them out wherever they may be found.”

“Genocide,” I said quietly.

Gorb chuckled, a wheezing, whistling sound. “Hardly. They are not asking to decimate all humans. Only the wild humans. And those in the region of Asterion’s colony. Although,” he admitted, “if the matter goes well, it is certainly a precedent that could be set for the Coalition’s other colonies on Earth.”

I clasped and un-clasped my fingers. Before I could speak, Drelor, from Satbey, the planet closest to Asterion, said bluntly, “I dislike it. It sets a terrible precedent. We decimate any rebel humans, and what? Will the species on other planets we wish to colonize fear the same? It will strengthen their resistance. Taking control in this manner will cost more bloodshed.”

“Strengthen resistance, or melt it away, like ice in Asterion’s twin suns,” Gorb argued.

“Well, we’ve no way of knowing that, Gorb, do we?”

“No, Drelor, we do not. It is a new thing. But I find myself, having weighed the risks, willing to attempt it.”

“I am not willing,” Drelor insisted. “Ellax, what is your opinion? The request to utilize the Unified Forces came from the Asterion Council, yet your name was not on the official request. Do you disagree? Your son lives on Earth. You, of all the Lead Advisors, have visited there most recently. What did you observe?”

Here it came: my opinion on the situation. Did I stand with my fellow Elders? Or did I stand with Caide and his human wife? Did I stand with my own human wife? She had made her outrage at the plan exceedingly known.

I could not speak. I could not give an answer. I did not know. Normally, I was far more decisive. In fact, my reputation was that of a politician who would offer an honest opinion, no matter who it offended or who took umbrage.

For the first time in a long, long while, I found myself trapped. Every other matter we’d ever handled hadn’t affected my son. Or my wife. And, by weight of consequence, me.

My wife.

Lorelai was thoroughly against it. And that mattered. Why did it matter?

You know why. She is your mate. You know that she is. Listen to her.

“Ellax?” Ithrigor prompted.

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