"Daughter?" Dylan looked stunned.

"Apparently Gaheris did some great deed for his sister, what deed it was is not recorded but it’s big enough that she did as he asked without qualms. Even though she had to tell her husband about it, he didn’t argue.

"Gaheris and you once made a sperm donation on Darwin. That was good. See we store up the sperm bank but every fifty years we change the location, the planet that has hosted it gets to keep a portion of all the donations. They use those donations when someone may want a child by a particular person but they are unavailable or dead.

"Rhade was from the Howe, which later became Darwin’s Planet. He took some of your sperm and some of his. An egg sleeve from his sister. You know how we prize children so an egg sleeve was part of paying off the debt. He procured the services of a genetic engineer; she manipulated the DNA in your sperms until a child was produced. He specified a female child.

"I would guess since after a few simple tests the females are certified whereas males are required to prove themselves over and over. Also your features would be more noticeable on a male than female. Anyway Rhade had arranged for this embryo to be placed in his sister once the war started. If the Nietzscheans won the war and you were alive, you were to be brought to your daughter to help raise her. If the Commonwealth won, then they would ask you to spare her. Either way she would win. If you were alive in any case, you would be with your daughter... if he was alive after the war, he wanted to help raise his daughter. We know what happened with you though don’t we Dylan.

"Denalie, her name, was raised on stories of how wonderful you and Rhade were. She didn’t know if Rhade or you survived. She would make a pilgr../images/Image at least once every five years to the Hephaestus black hole. There she did a memorial rite for the two of you. A prayer, an offering. The first time she was there is well documented and recorded. She stood, on her ship, head of her pride, the ship was named, Perseus. Fitting no?

"She had a clear dome placed on top of the ship so she could see Hephaestus. The very first time she went there, she took two night blooming flowers, nightstars, and twisted them together. And without tears she sent them into the black hole. She was raised to love you and for that reason every generation has at the very least one Dylan and one Gaheris.

"It was the only way to make your memorials permanent. She knew that day at Hephaestus that her dreams, the dreams her adoptive parents encouraged could never come true. She would never bear strong children to show her fathers. They would never know how far she advanced genetics. They would never know how revered she was for her work in genetics. That hurts, Dylan. It hurts a lot.

"The leadership passed down through her. The present Matriarch Onnika is not happy with you. You haven’t hidden what happened. So they know now. All of them. Gaheris Rhade is dead. You killed him. Think Dylan, think hard about a girl raised to believe in two mythic personas. Two heroes. Only to find out one killed the other and is not sorry for it. I know you regret it, but if you had to do it again, you would. It hurts her. She wants to destroy you for destroying Rhade.

"Now to me, why did she create me? I don’t know. Obviously it was to hurt you. I wonder now, how much of my escape from her was allowed. I wonder if she was merely herding me? Did she lead me to the Rakshava? Did she sabotage it? Did she set us up? I know some of it was. She wanted me to get close to you and Onnika knew my looks would make you favor me. There are a few questions left though." Raa took a deep breath and ticked each question off with a finger.

"1) She has yet to give me any instructions to sabotage the Andromeda. After trying so hard to get me on here, she hasn’t used me yet. So what was the rush?

"2) We have been heading towards Darwin’s Planet. Soon we will enter the sector of space that is controlled by the Gryphon Pride, Gaheris’ Pride, Your Pride, holds. It can’t really be trespassing since you are an Ancestor but Onnika won’t care so how will handle her?

"3) Now that you know, what are you going to do with me? I mean, I don’t expect you to just let me go."

Raa leaned over and smiled, "The problem is, I’ve fallen in love with you somewhere along the way and I don’t want to betray my Pride but I think we would fail the Ancestor of Gryphon Pride, if I didn’t warn you." Raa leaned closer and brushed Dylan’s lips with his, "Of course, your lips fit mine so well... we can wait to figure this out, right?"

Raa kissed Dylan again, raising his hands to cup Dylan’s face. Feeling Dylan break away and kissing and nibbling down his neck. Dylan pulled him off the edge of the ramp and into his arms... a whisper in his ear, "love you, raa."

 Forward
Back

 Back to Andromeda
Back to Slash