39 Tragic Veins #2
A new image populated. A younger, more carefree-looking Gracelin Expani, brown hair tied back in a bun, dark eyes almost smiling. She stood next to a grinning young man with dark black skin and a full afro. Kalvin Kar-Beidell before he became Kalvin Kar-Beidell.
“My guess is she kept up with our father during those eight years. Slept with the enemy, in a fully literal sense. The Ncklogui Station is practically in Uiyoni space, after all. She had to have gotten pregnant right around the end of the Conflict. And Rigeni Robertson’s tragic death?
The starcruiser malfunction that resulted in hundreds of lives lost?
My guess is our grandfather had the orrist basalt removed from the ship before it entered the jumpgate.
Hundreds dead so that Rigeni could never question paternity after we were born. ”
“But it’s—it’s impossible,” Spie whispered. Everything was coming too fast—happening too fast. She sank to the floor without conscious thought, the knobs of Nicky’s dresser drilling into the back of her neck and spine. “We’re not— We can’t be—”
“Uiyoni?”
Spie forced herself to meet her brother’s fevered gaze.
The Uiyoni were the greatest threat to humanity since the empire’s inception.
The only reason Expan had managed to win the Uiyoni Conflict twenty-seven years earlier was because the aliens had been sequestered in their own part of the galaxy without access to jumpgate technology.
But they’d been engaging in minor border conflicts for years, conflicts that were getting more severe—they wanted out.
It was the entire reason Gracelin had slotted Spie and Nicky for this season of Love Galaxy .
Spie swallowed, recalling the photograph of the Uiyoni Delegation.
The firm line of the gold-skinned man’s mouth, the luminosity of his straight black hair.
His features were a little too uncanny, a little too alien, to be a dead ringer for Nix and Spie.
But it was easy to see where they might’ve gotten their looks, softened by their mother’s human blood.
A sudden chill made Spie shiver. She wrapped her arms around her legs, tugged them into her chest. “I always wondered why she didn’t opt for an external womb.
Going it natural always sounded so—yikes.
Especially for someone as straitlaced as dear old Mother.
What a little hypocrite, out there fucking actual aliens.
How though? The Uiyoni are —they’re supposed to be poisonous.
She shouldn’t have been able to touch one, let alone greet its dick. ”
“I’ve spent my entire life searching down any information I can on how the Uiyoni poison works.
” Nicky shut off his CB. The image of young Kalvin and young Gracelin disappeared.
“There’s next to nothing to find outside of what Mother told me.
Which is that the Uiyoni aren’t poisonous; they’re venomous.
They’re able to secrete a paralytic on demand, both as a biological defense mechanism and a way of paralyzing their prey on their home world.
But what only paralyzes their home world prey is fully toxic to humans.
We don’t get paralyzed—we die. Or most of us.
There are cases of immunity or partial immunity, though none we’ve been able to study directly.
“Our father didn’t infect our mother because he simply chose not to. Although I do believe she has a natural immunity, considering she was able to carry us to term and has always been resistant to my touch. That or she developed an immunity from carrying me. It’s unclear.”
“And you all kept this from me because . . . ” Spie had always known she was her mother’s least favorite. But to keep a secret this big from her? What would happen if word got out that she and Nix were half-blooded Uiyoni?
Very bad things. The Expan Empire had been founded as a way to unite humanity in the wake of a war with ancient, artificial technologies introduced by aliens that nearly wiped the human race out.
The empire thrived on elevating the importance of humanity and creating fear around the nonhuman.
Eliminating the nonhuman. For the imperial heirs to have alien blood?
To belong to a race that was a natural predator to humans?
It would be the deepest sort of hypocrisy.
The Terran System would initiate a coup. There would be civil war. The Expani name would be wiped from the galaxy.
Nicky sank back into his armchair. Studied his hands.
“Because you weren’t born broken like I was.
Mother knew something was wrong with us when the doctor who delivered us died an hour after we were born.
Grandfather had tests run on us. Had every staff member involved in those tests killed.
Our biology is different from regular humans’.
We have venom glands all throughout our bodies, bound to every major organ.
Yours don’t function. They’re empty, as far as we can tell. But mine . . .
“Mine are like a turned-on spigot whose shutoff valve is broken. Whatever allows the Uiyoni to trigger their venom on demand doesn’t work for me.
Venom seeps from my every pore constantly.
It affects my eyesight. Gives me headaches.
Makes me...itchy. Hungry in a way I can’t describe and have never been able to sate.
” He flexed his fingers, blinked his eyes.
Tears squeezed out. “Mother had to tell me what I was when I was very young. Why do you think she always wanted you to succeed her? Why do you think I never dated? By the time I was two, I was already responsible for at least fifteen deaths. While you, you...Spie, you act like your life is so hard. But you don’t know how good you have it. You’re free in a way I’ll never be.”
His hands formed into fists and squeezed so hard, his knuckles turned white.
“I’m a monster. As I grew up, I built a cage for myself.
I never touched anyone—not until Cailin six years ago.
When she survived, we knew Love Galaxy could work.
I could make a farce of dating multiple women and then marry her, knowing she was immune to my venom.
I wasn’t supposed to touch anyone else. That’s why we needed you to star alongside me.
I was going to be pretty boring to watch on my own.
Having you would divert attention from me.
But I didn’t account for how forward the women would be.
I didn’t account for— I never meant to touch any of them.
I only intentionally touched Cailin and Artemis.
But now three women are dead because of me.
Because tradition matters. Because an emperor needs a consort. ”
“You’re telling me that you and our mother thought, hey, let’s go risk killing some girls on a holovision show instead of just telling Spie what’s going on?
If you’d told me, I would’ve stepped up, Nicky!
I would’ve taken the burden from you. You never had to be emperor!
You never had to do Love Galaxy . If I’d known—”
Hot, shameful pressure built in Spie’s chest, in her head. But she hadn’t known. Could never have guessed.
“I couldn’t do that to you, Spie,” Nicky whispered. “You’d hate being emperor. I convinced Mom to let you go. If I’m emperor, I can redeem all the lives I’ve ruined. I can make it all matter.”
“You idiot,” Spie said. “You total idiot.”
Forcing herself to rise, she moved to stand before her brother. He was bent double in the armchair, shoulders trembling. Gentle, shy, brilliant Nicky. Tortured Nicky. She may not have known this , but she still knew him.
“There’s nothing to redeem. You’re not a monster.
It’s not your fault.” Spie fought her own tears as she sat on the wide cushioned arm of the chair.
Took his head into her lap. “We’ll solve this.
There’s got to be a way to neutralize the venom.
Or a way to control it. You’re smart. We’ll do studies, we’ll—”
“You think I haven’t tried?” He lifted his head.
“You think I haven’t spent every day of my life trying?
What do you think drew me to academia, to all those books and all that research?
You’re wrong. I am a monster. Not because of the venom but because I came here willingly, knowing the risk.
It was my idea. I—I shouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
And yet, I still do. I could’ve stopped this; I could’ve given it all back to you. But here I am.”
Spie had no pithy words capable of alleviating the guilt bleeding out of her brother’s beautiful face.
She couldn’t take away his crushing pain.
She couldn’t tell him he was wrong. But she also couldn’t judge him for it.
What would she have done if she’d been born with venom oozing from her fingertips?
The only reason he’d felt pressured into becoming emperor was because of her.
“That isn’t even the worst of what I’ve done.” He sucked in an aching breath, hyperventilating for a few seconds as fresh tears spilled out. “Temmi, I—” He stuck a hand to his mouth and began to shake, hard.
“Shh,” Spie whispered, rubbing his back, smoothing out his hair.
“Temmi’s fine. She’s immune, right? She must be, because I’ve definitely seen you kiss her.
You can choose her, if you want. No one else has to get hurt ever again.
” A sharp pain twinged in Spie’s chest as she said the words.
But she’d always known Artemis wasn’t hers.
Their moment on the beach had only been that.
A moment. Nicky needed her more. Spie could endure that pain, that loss, if it meant her brother was okay.