Page 52 of Bred by the Alien Prince

“I have finished most of my analysis.” The machine stood to approach. “His cells are mutating at a rapid rate, perhaps because of a virus. There are two hundred and eighty-six known viruses your species can carry, both dormant and active.” He pulled up an image of a few wiggling lines, and I did not understand what the hell I was looking at. “The virus is slowing cell replication, and its presence is already manifesting at surface level.” He walked over to him with a small pen and directed my attention to the small points on his ears and the similar dents to my own.

"What does this mean?" I asked in awe. I've seen nothing like this in my long life.

"Is that gonna happen to all of us?" Cormac asked with concern etched in his voice.

"I would love to run a few tests on you as well and study the progress of this fascinating turn of events." The machine replied, and his tone almost… changed... was he happy? "I would also need to run tests on you, Lorvian. You and he have coupled multiple times, I presume?"

"For his sake, I will allow your tests. How long will it take?"

"One earth day or two."

"I don't know what that means, but hurry anyway."

"Yes, sir." He stood straight and gave a Valisian salute, and for a moment, I forgot he was a machine, clever bastard.

I walked over to Caspian. He seemed better than before, but his skin was paler with small spots visible underneath, and his eyes darkened; perhaps another mutation? Or was it because of how he was feeling?

"Can we leave now? I don't like it here."

"It isn't safe."

"I don't want to be cooped up in a room like before." He shifted and stood up.

"You first, Cormac."

"Fine, whatever. I don't know how I feel about becoming an alien." Cormac sighed and held his head low before taking a seat on the bed.

I helped him into the hallway.

"I hope this changed your mind about Connor."

"You are relentless. AI almost destroyed my people. They wanted to fight for their so-called independence, and they needed proper extermination."

"Okay, I'm sorry that happened, but let Connor prove himself to you. I mean, you just dismissed your entire med staff; I think you can afford to trust one machine who didn't even fight you back when you tried to kill him."

"It."

"Fine,it." He rolled his eyes.

"I have my own current fears of these machines as well. The alien we fought, the one called Feion, wanted me to capture one of your AIs and use it to create an army. Where did you find that AI?"

"On that ship." He replied. "The one we saved you from."

"You mean the one I savedyoufrom… It means he either had one or someone else found one for him. We have no knowledge of how long he was there, how they altered him, or if there are more."

"But this Feion is dead."

"I believe nothing is dead until I see their dead fucking body. Even so, it could still mean he has a partner who is also interested in his proposal and was stupid enough or devious enough to agree."

He looked away from me and folded his arms into himself. He looked uncomfortable, and I couldn't tell if it was the topic or his well-being that was the reason behind this. "Androids are the ones who built our colony. Outer Worlds sent them out here first, and they have been out here for perhaps a few years."

This was alarming news. His ship's arrival was the first time we've encountered these humans; a surprise visit had only happened once or twice by a new species, and even then, it was never a major shock as there were always signs of their arrival beforehand.

Yet the arrival of these humans completely caught me off guard. How did the humans know there was a habitable planet out here enough to send a large colony? They scouted the planet beforehand and sent an android crew to build it all without me knowing. How was that possible? I would have known.

"Lorvian, Connor told me a Valisian brought him to the ship."

"That's not surprising." I sighed. Could it have been Regis? Ugh, this not knowing was giving me a headache.

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