Page 11 of Anna's Bounty
“So,” Rovos mimics her. “She doesn’t know where her planet is.”
“Hmm.” Igid thoughtfully taps a long finger against her chin. “I’ll search the Xar’ads database to see if they recorded the coordinates when they picked her up. But they were already wiping the drives when we caught them.” Cocking her head to the side, she asks me, “What are your people called?”
It’s the same question Rovos asked earlier, only I’m not sure I want to answer it as readily this time. My eyes flick to Rovos, silently asking him what I should say. When he only nods, I clear my throat. “I’m human.”
Igid doesn’t react at first. But then she starts to laughs as if I’ve just told the wittiest joke. “That’s impossible.” She turns to Rovos, whose expression remains blank, and her laughter dies. Her head swivels as she looks between the two of us before her focus lands on me once more, her expression incredulous.
“Can someone please explain to mewhymy being human is so impossible?” I grouse, pushing myself back from the table.
Rovos and Igid share a long look before she moves away from the wall to sit beside me.
“Humanswere one of the founding civilizations among the stars,” she explains. “Prolific breeders with short gestation cycles and versatile genes. It’s believed they were able to reproduce with most species.”
“Not only were humans compatible with most other species, but their genes are dominant,” Rovos adds, folding his arms on top of the table. “Which is why so many species today share similar humanoid features.”
“There are many theories on what happened to them,” Igid continues. “Some think human genes became fashionable, and that led to over-breeding. Others say they traveled to the deepest parts of space to hide from slavers. Whatever happened, full-blooded humans have been extinct for generations.”
My jaw drops, looking back and forth from Rovos to Igid as they tell me about… my people.
“Human DNA has been diluted to the point of being nearly non-existent,” Rovos says. “Even the families who can boast having traceable lines back to a human descendent have no more than five percent human DNA.”
“Come on, Rovos. You don’t really think she’s human. The probability of her even beinghalfis unlikely,” Igid scoffs, then asks me, “How many species inhabit your planet?”
Her question catches me off guard. “Um, I don’t know. Hundreds? Maybe thousands. They are animals, though. They can’t—” I search for a term that doesn’t make us sound like we would ever try to breed with the animals on Earth, “—they can’t cross with us. Humans are the only species on Earth that are capable of higher learning. Our closest relative is considered too animal to be more than something wild to study or keep as a pet.”
Igid jumps up from the table, and Rovos reaches out with lightning reflexes, wrapping his hand around her wrist. “Where are you going?” His voice is icy, and the way Igid is looking from his face to her wrist, I suspect he isn’t holding back on his grip.
“To get the gene scanner,” she says, glancing at me over her shoulder. “To put an end to our questions.”
They stare at one another for many long seconds before he lets her go with a curt nod and focuses his attention once again on me. “Are you finished eating?”
I look at the empty bowl of noodles and nod. I’m comfortably full, which is good since whatever appetite I had is long gone.
Rovos stands and gathers the dishes, taking them to the back counter where he makes everything disappear. When he finishes, he turns around and leans against the counter, crossing both his arms and ankles as he stares across the—kitchen? galley?—at me. The silence between us grows thicker with each passing moment until Igid reappears, holding up a small black device that looks suspiciously like a glucometer.
“I just need a finger,” she says as she sits beside me.
My eyes dart to Rovos, but he doesn’t react to her request, so I hold up my trembling pointer finger. Igidtsksand presses the end of the device to the fleshiest part of my finger.
“Wait, aren’t you going to clean—Ouch!” I yelp at the sting of the lancet.
Ignoring me, Igid kneads my finger until a fat drop of red blood bubbles from the cut. A small bar pops out from the device, and she sets it right under my finger. Much like a blood sugar test strip, the bar quickly sucks up the blood. Then she releases me to type something into the smooth face of the device.
Sticking my finger into my mouth, I quickly forget the sting while I watch the device in her hands. I can’t read any of the characters, but I know that the slowly spinning disk means it’s analyzing my blood.
The smooth face goes blank before it lights up with the results of my blood test.
Igid doesn’t move or react at first, and I prod her with my elbow. “Well? What does it say?”
Across the kitchen, Rovos is standing straighter, likewise waiting to hear what the device has discovered.
“99.3%,” Igid says, slowly shaking her head. “Pure human.”
“Whats the other 0.7%?” I frown as I look over Igid’s shoulder at the device, even though I can’t read any of it.
“But that’s impossible,” Igid says to Rovos, her face losing some of its blue color.
Rovos shrugs, unsurprised at the findings.
