Chapter 30
Haven
It was tempting, oh so tempting, to mess with the medscanner. There were so many parts, so much to learn, so much to investigate.
How did those rings float? The three, gently glowing ones that rotated around her body and the bed she was laid out on.
How was it scanning her? Was it like an MRI or a CT?
Goldie told her it wasn’t radiation, but that left so many things it could be.
Even possibly something she didn’t know about.
It probably was something she didn’t know about, and she wanted to know that even more.
Haven’s fingers were itching to break it down. Figure out how it worked. She wanted to challenge herself by seeing if she could put it back together again. Then, when she mastered that, she wanted to see if she could make it better.
But she restrained herself. She wasn’t a child anymore, breaking open printers just because she could without thinking of the consequences. They all relied on this medscanner and Goldie’ ability to use it. If she broke it and couldn’t repair it, they’d be without a vital piece of medical equipment.
Oh, but it was tempting, so tempting, to try.
But besides the fact that she did have some control over herself, Haven also couldn’t do anything because she was actively being scanned. And while she wasn’t really into the wet and squishy sciences, she couldn’t deny that it was really cool to see her 3D holo being built in the air.
It was just her and Goldie in the room so she could have privacy for her medical exam. She supposed that Alred was here too, since he was everywhere, but he was staying quiet and out of the way, letting them maintain the illusion of seclusion.
“So, how long have you been doing this?” Haven asked in English, since it was just the two of them and she didn’t have to fight through Standard to be understood by everyone.
“Not long,” Goldie admitted, her brow furrowed as she studied her console.
“I’ve been practicing on everyone. I’m not super good at it yet, but I can do some basic healing and I can do smaller imprints and I can focus to the cellular level.
Which, this machine can get to the DNA, so that’s not really impressive. ”
“It’s impressive to me,” Haven assured her, drumming her fingers on her belly, one of her feet bouncing to music that wasn’t playing.
“The advanced ones can go molecular. The really advanced ones can go atomic, or even deeper,” Goldie smiled like she was imagining something fantastic.
“I bet I can upgrade this one until it does.” Haven said, the thrill of excitement and eagerness rising up in her throat.
“No,” Goldie sighed, her smile dropping. “We don’t have any need for something like that. And it would take a lot of power to run one like that. More than we should be forcing our old engines to be outputting.”
Haven pouted. Not just because she wanted to take on that challenge and Goldie didn’t seem as interested, but also because she actually felt defensive over their engines being called ‘old’ and their power output being doubted.
And sure, yes, the engine was old. And yes, it was patched together like an old quilt. And okay, it was being held together by tape and wires in some places.
But it was a damn good engine!
She and Vytln put a lot of work into that thing. In making sure it was constantly running smooth and strong. Being old didn’t mean being useless. She loved that engine. She loved this ship. She defied anyone to say anything bad about either one!
Goldie, focused on her task, didn’t notice Haven sitting there, fuming at the shade being thrown at their engine.
It didn’t last long before Haven was distracted by something else – the 3D holo again as Goldie pulled back the skin and musculature so she could investigate her internal organs.
And yes, it was totally gross. But she was watching her heart beat and her guts writhe in real time.
It was as viscerally unnerving as it was fascinating.
“Do you have any medical conditions you know of?” Goldie asked, fully focused on her task.
“Er,” Haven made a face. “I don’t really go to the doctor. So, I don’t know. You tell me.”
“Oh, nice. A game of hunt and find. Love it.”
“Can it see anything? Like genetic diseases or something?”
“It can. But that’s deeper than I can get right now; it’s subcellular.
If you start experiencing symptoms though, I can try to hunt them down,” Goldie beamed.
“People who are actually fully trained on this machine know how to spot genetic diseases before they even manifest, and can correct them by altering the DNA so that the defect is repaired. I, er, I’m not that good yet.
But I’m working on it. I’ll get there. I want to be able to watch everyone’s babies as they grow up. ”
“Their babies?” Haven repeated.
“Yeah. Garnet and Grace are both pregnant. They’re taking bets on how long until you’re pregnant.
I think it has to be some kind of nesting instinct for both of them.
It’s actually really common. A lot of alien species have females that prefer to brood and rear together.
Humans have it a bit too, just not as strong.
I don’t think the lvtl do though. So, you’ll have to tell me how you’re feeling whenever you get there. ”
“Right. Babies,” Haven pursed her lips. “I didn’t really think of that.”
Goldie gave her a look under the holo.
“What?” Haven threw up her hands, making the rings flash at her in warning as one of her limbs went outside of their range. “I didn’t really think that far.”
“Uh-huh.” Goldie blinked at her. “Haven, you’re out here illegally, right?”
“Not anymore. We got permission from that captain guy.”
“Yeah. But this is your first medical scan.”
“Oh. That. Yup. That’s true.”
“I know. Aside from some important inoculations you should definitely have, that means you never had your ovulation halted. Did you?”
“Er, no,” she admitted. “And I hated getting my period. Every time, I’d have to hide and then burn whatever I was using as pads. Blood scent is really strong, and a lot of the alien species can pick it up really easily.”
“Yeah, it’s also not regular blood, so some of them would be turned on by it.”
“Ew.”
Goldie shrugged. “Biology is gross. You know, some species sip the female’s urine to test if she’s fertile yet or not.”
“Gross! Which species does that?”
“Giraffes,” she replied bluntly, making Haven wince.
“A lot of mating practices can be considered gross or weird or odd. And our blood, according to domini reports on the subject, smells like the resetting of our cycle. Which it is. It alerts males that we are not bred but are about to be ready to be. Actually, there’s a whole data file on it by the top hybrid scientists on Turv that-”
“Er, Goldie,” Have made a face, “with all respect, I don’t want to know. That’s nasty.”
“It’s biology.”
“Same thing.” Haven shuddered.
Goldie laughed. “You can’t just ignore it because it’s gross. And it’s relevant to you because I have to know. When did you last get your period?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to keep track of time when there’s no clocks or sunlight. It’s been a while though. Probably.”
“Well, do you want to be pregnant?”
Haven opened her mouth, then hesitated and frowned. “I don’t know. It would probably be an inconvenience. I can’t really climb around the ship with a big belly. And Vytln and I just got mated! Who thinks about babies this early?”
“Aliens do,” Goldie responded bluntly.
“Seriously?” Haven made a face. “Okay. We’ll be careful. But we just started hooking up. So, the odds that it caught are low, right?”
“Not with aliens.”
“Huh?”
“See, this is why biology is important.” Goldie began messing with the controls on her console.
“Humans are considered incredibly prolific by alien standards. The fact that we’re so early, relatively, in our development and are limited to only one planet but our population is already in the billions is basically unheard of.
Some species still aren’t in the billions.
And that is only because most alien species can’t reproduce with the ease we do.
There are a lot that have natural limitations, and most female species try to actively reject male sperm to force only the best ones to be successful.
Which means, male species have evolved to have sperm that basically force the point to get the job done.
While our eggs have no such defenses. So, when a male alien and human female mate, the odds of conception are much higher. ”
“Am I pregnant?!” Haven asked loudly, her heart pounding, as she realized what Goldie was explaining to her.
She knew aliens liked human females, she even knew that humans were the only ones capable of interbreeding with other species, but she didn’t think it would be easy.
In fact, she rather thought it would be more difficult. Like a rarity kind of thing.
“We’re about to find out,” Goldie said, still focused on her task.
Haven didn’t know what she was looking for or even looking at as her holo recreation continued to be stripped down until it was only a uterus – an organ that looked a lot smaller than she would have anticipated considering how badly that thing hurt once a month.
“I mean, I knew it could happen,” she was mumbling, mostly to herself, as her heart raced and she considered the possibility of both possibilities before her. “But it wasn’t really something I was thinking about.”
“There’s a sex ed lesson in there somewhere,” Goldie muttered back. “If you are pregnant though, don’t worry about it too much.”
“How- Why would I not worry about it too much?”
“Like I said, alien males are way more into the actively having babies thing. If Vytln claimed you as his mate, then he 100% knew this was a possibility and he is 1000% okay with you giving him as many babies as you’ll allow.”
“Not sure if that makes me feel better,” Haven said. “How long until you know?”
“I’m almost there, give me a minute.”
“Are there, like, options? If I don’t want to be pregnant, I mean.”
“There are. I can just manually start your period, which would shed the uterine lining and any implanted embryos.”
“Ew.”
“What?”
“Shed the uterine lining,” Haven made a face.
Goldie snickered. “That’s what it’s called.”
“Biology is gross.”
“Indeed. The nastiest machine in existence.”
“Don’t call it a machine. That ruins the beauty of a machine,” Haven sighed. “I never have to worry about my tools shedding their lining.”
“I’m going to go ahead and say that I’m sure there is some machine out there that has to shed some kind of lining.”
“Well, even if there is, it’s not bloody and mucousy when it does it.”
“Probably oily and nasty though.”
“Oil is not the same as mucous.”
“Yeah, it’s worse.” Goldie looked at her again past the holo. “I have your answer though. You ready to hear it? If you’re pregnant or not.”
Haven tensed, her hands clutching the side of the thin, floating table. But she nodded once, steeling herself for whatever was about to be said.