Page 73 of Volunteer 4711

The Imperial doctor is surprised, “Why would he need to agree? These are not his eggs. It is not his body. You may have married the former king, but he has no control over you.”

I notice the Silver doctor gasped when the Imperial doctor said this, and I’m not surprised as they are a patriarchal society. “I don’t understand your Imperial reference, but I respect my husband’s culture.”

The Imperial doctor looks up at my husband and then smiles at me. “I see,” he says. “My gods,” shaking his head, “And she’s been here years, and you’ve not told her.” When no one replies, the Imperial doctor gets back to work, “Now, should we move on to what you would like your children to look like? I assume you would like them to resemble their father, as humans have a tough time in the galaxy.”

“But I want them to have glimmers of my humanity,” I say.

“Fine,” the Imperial doctor says, changing sequences on his computer. The first thing he did when we arrived was take DNA samples. “Blonde-white hair, silver skin,” he says, naming characteristics off. “Now we can make the eyes brown like yours?”

I nod.

“How about the tongue?” the doctor asks. “No one likes Silver’s tongues, do they?”

I nod.

“Silver ears are convenient, though; let’s keep those.” He swishes some more DNA coding around as we watch. “Now, how many girls and how many boys? With human DNA, male babies are less likely to survive. They aren’t as viable.”

“We don’t need your Imperial matriarchy here,” our doctor says.

“You know as well as I do this has nothing to do with culture; this is science.”

“I thought only to have one baby,” I say.

“Silvers usually have a litter of children. This would make the most sense to people, and then you’d never have to see me or anyone else like me ever again.”

“Six,” my husband says.

“No,” I blurt out. “That’s too many. Two.”

“I think three or four is a good number. Even with all of this, there’s a chance some might not make it or be healthy. There’s only so much I can do to force nature. Sometimes the body rejects the changes.”

“I understand,” I say. “How long will this take?”

“I will extract your eggs, combine them with your husband’s sperm and then reinsert them into your uterus. To do this, I will trick your body three times today, once to believe you are menstruating many eggs at once. The second time to believe you are in your fertile cycle, and lastly, to believe you have been pregnant a million times before and your body knows exactly what it’s doing. All and all, it should take a few hours. Before I leave, I will show you a picture of the eggs I took and have your doctor verify that I only took what I said I would. If you have issues, we can be in touch. Are you ready to begin?”

“Yes,” I say. I’m not thinking about the eggs I’m losing anymore. I am only thinking about the children I will be gaining. And I want to feel terrible about my greediness and selfishness, but I can’t. I feel, in some ways, that I have earned this by being here on this side of the galaxy with these aliens.Am I a terrible person for wanting this?

I feel like a human abductee lying on a medical bed surrounded by aliens and medical equipment. The Imperial doctor walks me through what he’s doing while his assistant helps him with little prompting, and it makes me wonder how many times they’ve done this.

“We are telepathic,” the Imperial doctor reminds me casually. “And no, very few Imperials are. But those that are usually become doctors as it’s quite handy to get inside your patients’ heads, especially if they can’t speak.”

I think then about how that can be used for good or bad. “Do you read people’s minds all the time?”

“Only my patients and you are my patient now, so I have one ear out for you in case I hurt you or you become very uncomfortable.” The doctor then begins to focus more on his task and leaves me to my own thoughts.

I close my eyes and wonder what our children will look like with their Silver bodies but brown eyes like mine. I think about their names and where and how they will be brought up. I think about the Commander’s house on the Home Planet and wonder what it must be like. Through my communications with the housekeeper, I know it is a very large estate, but not much else. I wonder if the servants will welcome a human, a Water woman, a former volunteer that still bears the mark.

Hours later, the Imperial doctor and his assistant leave after verifying everything with our doctor. Presumably, I am pregnant now, and neither my commander nor the doctor want me moving ever. The Imperial doctor said that I shouldn’t move for the next two days and then to take it very easy. He said to remember that it’s easy to trick the body temporarily with medicine but that the body had a pesky way of letting nature back in given the chance. It’s difficult to believe I am pregnant now. But I want a baby so much that I stay where I am.

My Commander has brought me my tablet to read the rest of the Home Planet’s classic novels, which I am enjoying for the storylines and a greater understanding of their culture. Not surprisingly, only a few are written by Silver females, but I have read those first, and so far, they are my favorite. When I told the Commander this, he was surprised, but I think I surprised him even more when I said, ‘Why is it strange that as a female, I would identify the most with a story written by a female and about a female? You know males and females live separate lives, and I don’t always want to hear about males. I know everything about males as I have to cater to you.’

I think it must be the hormones the Imperial doctor used on me. Although I may think these things from time to time, I never before dared to say them. I think my yesterday self would have said, ‘I was curious to read stories written by females.’ I don’t know if my strong opinions for equality will fade as I get into the rhythm of my pregnancy, but I was pleased to see that my Commander made no move to chastise me.

CHAPTER34

COMMANDER

The negotiationswith the Empire are going well. I cannot deny that my marriage to Volunteer 4711 has something to do with this. I always ask her to accompany me for a few minutes to say ‘hello’ when the Imperials are here. None of my crew overlooks the way they look at my wife. They see her as one of theirs. And as a woman, they cannot help but treat her with respect as their culture is matriarchal. I have told her that having a good relationship with these specific people will help determine the future of our mission.

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