Page 69 of The Pregnancy Pact

I shook my head, spreading my hands in apology.

“I need more time to weigh these matters,” I said, my voice coarse from the battle waged within my soul. “I returned from Earth yesterday, and with a new wife. A human wife. There is…a great deal to be considered.”

“A human wife,” Briishan, from the planet Moriat echoed. Her three pink nostrils flared. “There we are. A human wife. Will this color your judgment? How could it not?”

I turned on her angrily, but Drelor spoke for me. “He has a right to consider his human wife, as it concerns her species.”

“I thought we were all in agreement,” Briishan replied, leaning towards Drelor. “Ellax’s marriage to the human female is a perfect reason to send the strike team now. Those who need to be frightened into resistance will be frightened. Those who need to be exterminated, will be. And the rest? We will parade Ellax and his wife before them as a symbol of unity, a beacon of hope.

“On the one hand, we send a strong message that we can annihilate those who resist. On the other? If they comply, who knows to what heights they may soar?”

The same rhetoric my fellow Elders had spouted. I was weary of it. Angered by it. I slammed an open palm upon the tabletop.

“We are talking about thousands of human lives,” I snapped. “Is their species beneath all of ours in every way? Possibly. Arguably. Yet I believe they deserve more consideration than merely a beacon of hope held out by a marriage entered into during a drunken stupor!”

I hadn’t intended to admit the final part. Some eyes widened. Some dropped in embarrassment. I was beyond caring.

“Yes. You assumed I married the human female on a romantic whim? Or even to secure an heir? No. We both imbibed too much lyven, were drunk, foolish, and chose to be married. We’d have been separated already, had the Asterion Council and my fellow Lead Advisors not intervened.”

It was mild-mannered Drelor who responded gently, “Whatever your reasons for marrying her, Ellax, you did marry her. This union could be a fine thing. However, I agree with you that the humans will not be so easily fooled as to comply with any future demands because of your marriage if we wipe them out first.”

His piercing gaze looked around the chrome table, meeting each member, challenging them. Ithrigor was the final one. As the more senior Advisor, it fell on him to remain unemotional, no matter what. He did, rising from his seat, a sign that he was making a decision.

“This matter is too weighty to be settled in one day’s time,” he said. “Gorb? You will write a proposal for the matter. Drelor? You will write and present the opposing viewpoint. Ellax?”

Tension raced up my spine. “Yes, Ithrigor?”

“I will leave it up to you to propose an alternative viewpoint, if one is to be found.”

My mind seized the possibility. An alternative viewpoint? How would I come up with that?

Ithrigor tapped his rod on the table, ending the meeting.

“We will convene again in two days at this same time, Asterion hours,” he said.

It was over.

For now.

Nothing to do but get back on the space ship, return home to my planet, and spend the afternoon and evening crafting a reasonable alternative proposal to protect my son, his wife, my wife, and the innocent members of her species.

A strange pang filled me as I filed out of the meeting room. Some of the other members talked among themselves, discussing the day’s events, the meeting, the three proposals that would be submitted. I should have been listening, trying to gauge who might be favorable to my proposal and which way each member might vote.

Instead, I could only think of my human wife.

How might she respond to this? She was a clever woman.

I will ask her to assist me in the proposal, I decided as I stepped onto the starship, piloted by the same captain who had officiated my marriage to Lorelai.

She could offer insight into the wild humans on her planet. And she would understand that I had no desire to wipe out a vast number of her species. Also, perhaps working together to save her people would, in some way, help erase the recent wrongs I’d committed against my son and his wife. If restitution were to be found, I could use every bit of my position as an Elder and Lead Advisor to discover it.

Chapter 40

Lorelai

Ifretted, pacing the long balcony that ran the entire length of Ellax’s house. The house—mansion, really—was three stories high. On the second floor, which housed the sitting rooms, an extensive library, and a dining room, along with other rooms I wasn’t sure I could identity, a long balcony ran the length of the floor. Above us, on the third floor, were the bedrooms. Below, on the bottom floor, half built into the hillside, rather like a basement, were the kitchen, a gym or exercise room, Ellax’s own private movie theatre—and I’d only ever seen pictures of luxuries like movies theatres—and storage facilities. The grandeur of the house should have overwhelmed me.

Instead, I felt blind to it all. Almost suffocated by it. My little home back on Earth hadn’t been full of love or laughter, except between the twins and myself, but it was small, tidy, and adequate, even against the cold. Part of me yearned for it now, although I wasn’t unhappy about the balcony in the warm sunlight. I could never be mad about sunlight, I decided, pausing my endless walking and lifting my face upwards.

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