Matched

Aisha & Quinton

Aisha felt strange as she walked down the corridor alongside Quinton: hopeful and scared and confused at the same time. Or was that Quinton? She rounded her shoulders; it was hard to tell.

'Are you okay?' he asked her.

'W-what do you think?'

He gave her a wry smile. 'Kind of, I suppose.'

'What about you?'

Aisha yelped at a sudden tremor of excitement rushing through their bond.

'Sorry.' He raised his eyebrows at her. 'Does that answer your question?'

Aisha's heart did a little gallop as she looked back into his yellow gaze; it was almost as though she could see their future in his eyes, not just their love but his hopes and dreams. Children. So, they could have children. He'd explained briefly before they'd left the room. She wasn't supposed to be accompanying him but there was no way she was not going to listen in on this. It was her right, after all. Her future. Her body—as broken as it was.

Aisha swallowed. Children had always been a distant, impossible dream. Much more impossible than the prospect of ever having a partner. It was astounding to think that in only such a short time she'd already obtained one dream, and now was looking at the very real prospect of reaching another.

'I wouldn't get too excited,' he said, squeezing her hand. 'There could be a mistake. There has to be a mistake.'

'Because we're a different s-species. Y-you've never heard of inter-interspecific reproduction?'

'I have, of course. And we are similar, I suppose, in so many ways. The question is whether our children can reproduce. If they can ...'

'... it means that it's possible.'

'Perhaps. Or, that we're actually from the same species.'

They exchanged a meaningful look. 'That sounds even more un-unlikely.'

'Yes. I mean, even if we did have the same origins, those origins would be from such a distant past ... I guess we all come from the same origin, after all: the universe, everything. A rock, for instance, is in some way related to us, but that doesn't mean we can have a baby with it.'

She could feel his laughter bubbling in her chest.

Aisha shook her head in disbelief. Alexis. Alexis was pregnant. The once defiant and aggressive Alexis. Aisha felt a shot of unease as she reached down to touch her own belly.

'You're not,' he told her.

'How-how do you know?'

'You don't have the mark.' He touched her face, just beneath her eye. 'It appears the moment of conception and becomes more apparent the further into the pregnancy. It's rare. So rare that not all of us have even seen it.'

Aisha knew about the limited number of female Zibons. There were even fewer fertile females. Why it was, he didn't know. They were all back on Zibon 8, protected.

'So, w-what's going to happen now?'

'I really don't know.'

They arrived at the infirmary. Aisha looked around at the new women. So many. She hadn't seen them yet. All bonded, apparently. The Zibon men were looking tired but they seemed well. She felt a swell of emotion from Quinton as he studied his brothers. He was pleased. Aisha couldn't see Alexis.

'Do the-the others know?' she asked.

'Who?'

'Brenda and Myeong and the others.'