Page 70 of Volunteer 4711

“I can,” he says confidently. “That’s not the issue.”

“What’s the problem then?” I ask, thinking it must be money.

“Your wife is human. How can I explain helping a Silver have a baby with a human? Humans are our Lost People.”

“Name your price,” I say. I know very well that the Imperial laws and GC are very grey when it comes to mating with Water people.

“I will take the money you offer but also when we help your wife to conceive that she also gifts us with some of her viable eggs.”

“I would rather pay you in UCs,” I reply.

“Unfortunately, I won’t do it for only UCs.”

“What would you use those eggs for?”

“To create children with Imperials or with other humans. I promise you they will all go to safe homes.”

“Would they be pets?” I ask disgustedly.

“They would all be well taken care of.”

“Can you pause?” I ask, and when he nods, I push the button and then ask my wife what she thinks.

“I can’t understand him at all. I don’t have a translator,” she reminds me. We had decided the night before we would do almost anything to have our own children. Together we scanned the GC database researching genetically mixed alien children; most doctors were either Imperial or Dulu. And as much as I hate working with Imperials, I despise Dulus. They are the most untrustworthy species in the galaxy.

“The Imperial doctor says that he can do it without a problem, but he wants more than money; he wants some of your eggs as payment to create other children with humans and or Imperials. He promises they will have a good life.”

I see her face pale, “He wants to create human slaves from my eggs?”

“Pets, maybe,” I say as if it makes it better.

“I can’t do that,” she says. “I can’t know that I have children out there that I allowed that to happen to them. Ask him for anything else.”

“He knows we are desperate. I would never contact him otherwise,” I tell her. I look at the screen where the doctor is waiting for my answer. I feel like my wife is making the wrong decision. Many males have children in the world they never know or think about. Why should it be so different for her? We are so close to getting what we want. I look up at her, “I want to do it. It is worth it.”

“No.”

“I am your husband, and I will have the last word. You said you wanted a child, and I will give you one.”

“Not at this cost,” she replies.

Then I say what I am thinking. I raise my voice because I want to have children with her. “The traders that brought you over could have stolen your eggs. You do not even know.”

“But they would have been stolen. This is different. I am knowingly giving them up. Let’s find another way.”

I take her hands in mine and put my head on the top of her head, “I promise you that we will find those children and buy them out of being pets if they are indeed pets.”

“How?” she asks.

“We have some skills that go beyond even Imperial technology. If I swear to you, I will get every child back before they reach their first galactic birthday if you agree to this now. Will you?”

My wife is still kneeling before me. She looks up. “They will be retrieved before their first birthday if they are made to be pets?”

“I swear it to you.”

I punch the Imperial doctor back on.

“I thought you had forgotten about me, Commander,” he says.

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