Unnatural Instinct: Abduction

Epilogue

'Are you ready?' I say through my intercom.

'Coming,' you say back.

Minutes later you enter the cockpit, carrying little Esther in your arms. Gurgling, she reaches out for me with her fat little fingers. I take her, and she laughs as I throw her in the air. Only six months old and she's already so big! I kiss her on the cheek and she bites down with her mostly empty gums onto my chin.

She missed out on my white hair, inheriting your colour instead—and your mother's. We met briefly before I took you away. She doesn't know the complete truth as to why you won't be able to see her again, but she knows you're safe—and happy. I still feel some guilt over it, but life isn't perfect and we've done all we can.

Smiling, you take a seat at the controls.

'You confident?' I say.

You scoff. 'Piece of cake.'

I laugh.

Just over a year has passed since I returned you to me and so much has happened. I survived the disease I caught from you—obviously. But it had been a close call. Those from the mother ship had arrived just in time. Not even the skill of my drones was enough to sustain me. I needed every advanced piece of technology my people had to keep me alive: microcellular rejactors, protostatic electors, even a specialised quasar equalizer. There're only two of those in the entirety of my world, you know that?

It was a long process. I was in a medical coma for three weeks before it was decided I was strong enough to breathe on my own. And it was weeks after that before I was strong enough to see you again; or before they let me see you again, to be more precise.

It's interesting. Despite all that we've done to your species and to so many others, at our hearts my people are good. Even though I broke the rules and though my disease put so many others at risk, they did everything they could to help me. For no other reason than to save my life.

I guess we're more alike than we originally thought.

I reach over and take your hand, smoothing my thumb over your knuckles. Smiling, you lean over and kiss me.

Even after all of that, it still wasn't over. I couldn't touch you for several months. Not until they could make a viable vaccine. It drove me crazy not being able to hold you or kiss you or embrace you or stroke your skin, particularly while my progeny was swelling inside you. Even now, I have to vaccinate myself every month to protect myself. It's a small price to pay. One that I'm happy to pay thousands of times over.

Esther grips at my hair with a squawk, breaking us apart, demanding our attention.

You laugh. 'Drama queen!'

I lift her to me, blowing my mouth against her belly until she squeals.

It could have been worse. Much worse. It could have affected Esther. With her carrying my genes, the disease could have killed her in the womb or while she fed from your breast or while you held her in your arms. We all watched closely, our most experienced medical staff and our most advanced equipment on standby.

She didn't get sick. I still can't believe it. She might have my genes but she has your immunity. It's astounding to think I'm holding my very own daughter in my arms. I never would have thought it possible. Even for my species, my fertility was low. I am thankful every day that I'm so blessed.

Kissing her on the cheek, I sit her securely in my lap.

It was only when I woke up that my seniors discovered the full truth about you and my research. It seems you were right about the drones; they do realise more than we give them credit for. They had already communicated in their simple way what I was doing with you. You should have seen the looks on my people's faces when they discovered the entire truth of it!

I was terrified at first at what they might do. Then I told them what I discovered. In some bizarre, hugely rapid evolutionary process, we could breed. You didn't know it that last day before I became sick, but I was starting to suspect something was very amiss. That something might be happening beyond the physical level. That's why I rushed out on you with my second sample.

I had to make sure. And I discovered I was right.

Astonishing. Impossible.

And yet here we are. Against all the odds.

We have more to learn from this unexpected revelation but there is growing consensus that it has something to do with 'going back to basics' as you like to put it. We still can't pinpoint with any degree of certainty what triggered it. Is it our pheromones? Is it sexual stimulation? Or is it simply being close? Does love change the chemicals in our brain and thus in the rest of our body?

We are yet to find out.

And now look at us! Far from being pariahs, we are at the forefront of my species' research. It's an interesting predicament we're in. I never thought I'd be my own research subject. But there you go.

You smile at me and I smile back. You're so beautiful, and I can't help but reach out to touch your cheek. I do it a lot—touching you. Can you blame me? After all we've been through? After almost losing everything? You press your lips into my palm.

Even after all that, you still don't know how close I came to losing you. I still haven't told you the true extent of it and I never will. When I woke and my people extracted the truth from me, they were still intent on dispensing of you. You were too much of a risk. You knew far too much.

It was with desperate hope that I scanned you from afar, hoping against hope that something more had happened between us. Something astonishing. Something miraculous. Something that could alter our teetering futures.

Then I discovered her—Esther.

You don't know it. She won't know it. But she saved our lives.

It didn't take much convincing. A hybrid child. Rapid evolution. Interspecific breeding. The impossible made possible. We're too interesting to destroy. And now here we are, on our own ship, safely away from my planet and safely away from yours; allowed to make a life for ourselves with little interference. All I have to do is fill out my log detailing our lives and send my findings back home.

We're both living lives we thought we never could—together.

What more can we ask for?

You touch my hand, raising your eyebrows. 'Something wrong?'

'Sorry. Just thinking.' I shake myself and straighten in my seat. Esther squirms in my lap. 'So, where do you want to go?'

You turn back to the window. An irregular galaxy splashes across the darkness of space. Pink nebulae billow around us. We are many thousands of lightyears away from our homes and at the mercy of a future we cannot foresee.

'I have no idea,' you say.

I grin at you and you grin back. 'Sounds perfect.'