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"DNA doesn't lie," he says.
"And there were no more?"
"None. I swear. I wanted to tell you in person because I didn't know why you wanted them. If it were a lost cause because of infertility issues, I wanted to spare you public disappointment. But seeing you now, I realize I was wrong in my assumption."
I instinctively touch my extended abdomen. "Thank you for your consideration. I just had a feeling I needed to make sure what happened to those eggs. I was even more concerned when I found out I’d become pregnant while on birth control that my eggs might be more fertile than others when combined with Alliance sperm."
"Well," Captain Ace says, standing up, "Now you know, and you can rest easy.”
"I understand. Thank you," I say and stand too. I feel as if a weight of guilt had been lifted from my shoulders. I don't have any children or potential children in the galaxy that I don't know about. Only the one here on the base.
Sem doesn’t stand. “Wait, Captain. I need the name of the Alliance man.”
Captain Ace turns. “I can’t tell you that. It was part of the agreement I made with the Capital City Hospital doctor.”
“I’ll give you five hundred UCs.”
Captain Ace sits down and hands Sem his IC. There’s obviously a contract there. One the captain must have prepared before, which is why he wanted the privacy setting to be turned on. I’m still the last one to figure things out in Alliance culture.
“One thousand UCs!” Sem says after reading the contract.
“Do you want the information, or should I leave?” Captain Ace asks.
Sem puts his fingerprint on the captain’s IC and hands it back.
Captain Ace puts up the documents again, but this time, the names of the Alliance people who bought my eggs illegally are not obscured. It clearly reads,
Tek of Imperial House Vo with eggs donated from Ivy Jefferies of Earth married to Sem of Alliance Force.
I’m surprised to see my name there too, since I definitely did not ‘donate’ those eggs. But what’s even more shocking is Sem’s reaction. He stands and has his hand on his dagger and then looks at me.
“What’s going on?”
Neither the captain nor Sem answer my question. They begin speaking in the men’s language, which I don’t understand at all.
I start screaming, “Stop! What is going on?”
After a second, the captain answers me. “This is why I didn’t want Sem to be here. This man…”
Sem interrupts him. His voice strained with anger. I’ve never seen him like this. “This is the man… this is the Imperial man who killed my mother. And he purposely chose your eggs to drive the knife in further.”
“You don’t know that it could be a coincidence,” I say.
“Look at the dates, Ivy,” Sem says, pointing to them on the document. I don’t know Alliance dates well, so they mean nothing to me. “He bought these after I registered our formal courtship with the High Council, which would have been public knowledge.”
I’m stunned that someone could be so cruel.
Sem looks at Captain Ace but is still talking to me, “And I want to leave now aboard the Hio and kill this man for my mother’s justice and your honor, but the captain won’t give me passage.”
Before I can reply, Captain Ace says, “If you go after Tek now, you’ll be dead too. You know that Sem. This isn’t the way. Tek is trying to taunt you back to the Empire so he can legally kill you. Don’t do it. He’s not an honorable man. Look at your wife and your good life here. Don’t risk this now for what happened in the past or Imperial politics you no longer are a part of.”
I’m in shock. I look at the name again connected with my own on the document. It’s repulsive just seeing my name next to his, and now, knowing this new information, I want to kill him myself. But if what Captain Ace says is true, then I agree it’s not worth it. But it wasn’t my mother.
“I made an oath to kill this man. Now I have the opportunity,” Sem tells me passionately.
“I won’t take you there,” Captain Ace says firmly.
“Then I’ll find my own way,” Sem barks back.
