Prime Imperative (The Prime Chronicles Book 3) (23 page)

Wulf nodded. “I found this lack, also, when I did my reading after we discovered Melina was a battle-mate. So I spoke with my father. I wanted to be able to prepare her for what we could do as a unit. There are some general legends, but most of the last few generations think of them as mythic.”

“And they aren’t mythic,” Bria stated.

“Correct. What Melina and I can do was more than the prevalent myths suggested.” Wulf pulled Mel into his side and cuddled her. “My father said we should speak with his brother, my Uncle Tenar. He is the Keeper of the Prime History. He has tomes in his library that the general public, including our medical researchers, have never had access to. Mostly because they are in the ancient Prime language.”

“Could I speak with him, do you think?” Bria asked. “Get access to the ancient records? I would need them translated, though.” She turned and wrinkled her cute little nose at Iolyn. “I need to learn Prime, don’t I?”

Iolyn kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll help you with the texts and documents in the current Prime language. And Uncle Tenar, I’m sure, will be happy to help you by translating the ones in ancient Prime.”

“That would be good.” Bria turned to look at Lia and the other women. “Would you all want to go with me when I meet with Iolyn’s uncle?”

Lia nodded. “Yes. I’ve always wanted to see the view of the capital and the world ocean from his mountainside ancient Prime fortress. I hear it is amazing.”

“Yes, let’s all go.” Mel smiled. “I liked him much better than some of Wulf’s other relatives.” She looked at Bria. “But you’ll get to meet the whole family at the formal dinner Wulf’s parents plan for you and Nadia. Lorinda has also planned for all of us to meet the Prime citizenry. The public festivities and ball which had to be cancelled when we had some back-to-back missions has been rescheduled. Now that all the lineal Caradoc heirs have
gemates
, the Prime public has gone wild and wants to see and bask in this miracle.”

“Not all,
lubha
.” Wulf kissed Mel’s shoulder. “The Pure Bloods have ramped up their terrorist acts, according to the latest reports from home.”

“We can’t let the fanatics dictate how we live our lives,” Huw snapped. “The Alliance and Prime Commands have stepped up security on-and off-planet. The anti-terrorist unit put in place after the attack on Nadia and Lia have routed several more terrorist cells. We’re hacking away at the resistance piece by piece.”

“I still don’t understand why? Why Pure Blood?” Bria said. “Every Prime has strains of other hominid DNA. I’ve studied several hominid races as I worked on hominid species fertility issues, and now that I know what Prime DNA looks like, I can tell you it’s found in varying amounts in all the humanlike species I’ve studied so far. Your ancient relatives left their DNA all over the galaxy. They also brought their foreign mates and offspring home with them since I find Terran, Volusian, and several other hominid species DNA in those who call themselves pure Prime. This pure blood rebellion makes no sense.”

Bria shuddered against Iolyn. He pulled her closer and stroked her arm to soothe her. “No, it doesn’t,
peata
. We’ve always felt the rebellion was more about power and greed than genetics. The fanatics who are true believers are being misled.”

“Most likely by your slimy cousin Darga.” Mel looked pale.

“Who’s Darga?” Bria asked. If the man scared a warrior like Mel, he must be horrific.

“He is our father’s cousin,” Iolyn explained. “His sons, Donte and Uly, tried to kill Mel.”

“That’s horrible.” Bria shook her head. “Family power struggle?”

“Yes,” Huw said. “And our Aunt Beria, our father’s sister, also tried to hurt Mel and dragged Nadia into it.” Huw growled. “I wanted to strangle the bitch myself.”

“What happened to the family traitors?” Bria asked.

“Beria and her husband died in custody, killed by their rebel cohorts, we think,” Iolyn said. “Their son-in-law, Regin, is in prison along with Darga’s son, Donte. Darga’s other son, Uly, died trying to kill Mel.”

A dark silence settled over the table for several seconds. Bria took a sip of her wine, then said, “Well, that makes the fights in the Martin family look like nothing.” She shook her head, a slight smile on her lips. “The boys used to beat on each other over the silliest things, mostly who got to date which girl and who was the strongest. I really lived an idyllic life, didn’t I?”

“You did.” Iolyn kissed her cheek. “And I’m on-my-knees grateful they kept you safe and happy. I’ll do my best to protect you,
peata
.”

Bria turned toward him and placed her hand over his
gemat
mark. “I know you will. I have no fears on that issue. None.”

Iolyn covered her hand with his and touched her mind and barely caught her words—
and I’ll protect you too.

Not if he had any say. She was never to be in danger—ever. And anyone who tried to harm her would end up dead.

Chapter 15

One standard week later, Cejuru Prime

Bria looked into the eyepiece of her microscope and studied the microbes inhabiting a sample of one woman’s uterine tissue. “This is wrong. This is wrong,” she said under her breath.

Cheri looked up from the data she was analyzing and frowned. “What are you muttering about?”

“The last woman we artificially inseminated? The one whose body rejected the inseminated egg almost immediately?”

“Yeah, what about her?” Cheri came over and peered into the double-headed scope.

“She’s got the same overabundance of the microbe
staphylococcus varia
in her uterus, just like the other ninety-plus women we’ve examined in the last week. For some reason, Prime women’s immune systems aren’t producing enough of the good bacteria to keep it in check.” Bria leaned back in her chair. “The reason the fertilized eggs don’t attach is because the women’s uterine environment is hostile to the implantation. This bacteria could also be causing the miscarriages.”

“So,” Cheri looked up, “you’re saying that the Prime women who can’t get pregnant or get pregnant but then miscarry all have this microbe in larger than normal amounts?”

“It’s a working theory. We’ll prove it one way or another.” Bria shoved away from her desk. “What I want to know is why the Prime physicians and researchers didn’t catch this. It wasn’t hard to find once I looked at enough tissue on implantation failures. We haven’t seen any miscarriages, yet.”

“It’s a good question. And from what I can tell from the medical records on the women who’ve come into our lab, no one has ever tested their uterine tissue or the by-product of miscarriages. In fact, from what I gathered from the women who’ve come through and have had miscarriages, all the placental tissue and fetuses were cremated immediately after, and no tissue was kept.” Cheri frowned. “You’d think the women’s physicians would want to find out why their patients couldn’t carry to term.”

“Yeah, you’d think.” Bria hung her lab coat on the hook behind the door. “We can’t draw any final conclusions about my theory until we sample a wider spectrum of women to see if they carry the microbe and how much of it they have. Then we can run tests on stored eggs, fertilize them, and implant them in lab-grown tissues containing different amounts of the microbe. This way we’ll see how much of the bad bacteria it takes to impede attachment—and if the fertilized eggs do manage to attach, what amount of the harmful microbe it takes to cause the spontaneous abortion.”

“After that, we can find a way to suppress the bad flora to below harmful levels,” Cheri added.

“Exactly.” Bria headed for the back exit to the lab. “I also want to figure out what compromised the Prime women’s immune system to allow the imbalance to occur.”

“It could be environmental.” Cheri followed Bria out the door.

“Or it could be indirectly environmentally induced from something they ate or drank.” Followed by her ever-present guards, Bria looked at Cheri as they took a circuitous route through the laboratory wing of the Alliance compound on Cejuru Prime. “Finding the underlying cause will take time. We need to find the patterns. Some of the tissue I’ve seen has less of the harmful bacteria, which tells me the woman’s immune system was not as compromised—either from less exposure to the toxin or from a stronger natural resistance. But if we nail down this bad microbe as the reason the women aren’t conceiving or carrying to term, then we can put a Band-Aid on the effect while we search for the underlying causes.”

“Bria, I’ve been thinking…as I sometimes do.” Cheri semi-jogged to keep up with Bria’s longer legs.

Bria laughed and slowed her pace so her friend wouldn’t be out of breath by the time they reached their destination. “Okay, I’ll bite. What have you been thinking?”

“God, I wish I had longer legs.” Cheri shot an envious look at Bria’s. “Okay, back on topic…the medical records I’ve been reviewing are crap. Plus, even when there’s no miscarriage, there’s a lack of testing and follow-up when women have gone to their physicians with basic gynecologic complaints. It looks like shoddy medicine for the female portion of the Prime population as a whole when it comes to ob/gyn health issues.”

“Then we’re thinking along the same lines.” Bria made sure her mental walls were up and tight. “But I didn’t want to mention it yet. To anyone.” Even her
gemat
. “It’s too early, and the sampling’s too small.”

Cheri let out a kittenish growl. “It makes me so mad. The women we’ve seen are capable of conceiving, every damn one of them. Their ova are healthy. The sperm of their mates is healthy. These are some of the healthiest people I’ve ever seen. So, if it hadn’t been for this microbe you found…”

“Then the
gemat-gemate
couples should be having babies left and right,” Bria concluded. “Yeah, that’s what I thought also. And to pile on top of the low birth rate, the years of isolation, wars with Antareans, and the edict that only marked couples can mate and procreate, you have the current clusterfuck of negative population growth.”

“This isn’t just bad medicine, is it?” said Cheri, a frown on her pretty face.

Bria sighed, a sick feeling in her stomach that had begun with her first glance of the poor recordkeeping for women’s medical issues and no follow-up on the miscarriages. “No, it’s not. Isolationism and war are one thing. I can also somewhat understand how the cultural aspects of the bond-marking became entrenched. Having such a bond, I feel the power of it. But I’d really like to understand why the cultural protocols were put into place. There may have been excellent reasons for those…but I bet the old reasons no longer apply. Ilar has already taken the first steps to eradicate them. What I can’t excuse, though, is the lack of medical follow-through.”

Cheri looked at Bria, a look of perplexity on her face. “Why didn’t the Prime medical profession do their job? Are they all incompetent?” She shook her head and grimaced. “They can’t all be stupid. Maybe they were told not to follow-through?”

“I’m leaning toward they were ordered not to. And that would have to come from the highest levels,” said Bria. “From the Elder Council. And the only person I’m sure who would
not
have issued such an order is Iolyn’s father. The rest of the Council is suspect.”

Bria stopped at an elevator furthest from her lab and placed her palm on the pad. The door opened and she entered.

Cheri and the guards shimmied onto the elevator just as the door began to close. “Damn those doors are fast. By the way, where are we going?”

“I needed a break. You tagged along.” Bria grinned. “We’re going to practice more yoga.”

Cheri laughed. “Does Iolyn still believe the story that you’re doing Ashtanga yoga on a daily basis?”

“Yes. And my mental shields are holding that secret against his probes.” Bria smiled. “I’m that good.”

Cheri snorted. “He’s not stupid, Bria.” She looked at the two guards. “You don’t think these guys tell him what you’re doing?”

Bria glanced at the guards. Two new ones today. V’niko and A’nan had needed some time to get settled into their new quarters on Cejuru Prime. “Do you tell my
gemat
what I do in the gym?”

One guard looked at her. “Your
gemat
has never asked.”

Bria smiled and shot a grin at Cheri. “See?”

“Bria, Bria, Bria…” Cheri sighed and looked at the guard who’d responded. “If her
gemat
did ask, would you tell him?”

“Of course. He is my superior officer, and I do not lie.”

Cheri turned a triumphant, smug grin on Bria. “See? So, since Iolyn hasn’t asked, I expect he already knows you’re training with the gals.”

“He doesn’t know. I would know.” Bria checked her shields. Still up and still strong.

Bria took the underground tunnel to the Alliance gymnasium. The tunnel didn’t affect her claustrophobia since it was huge and well lit.

“You know, if Iolyn discovers you’re training in FHC, well, I think a hard implement might be used on your so-fine, tiny round butt.”

Bria palmed the security pad to open the back entrance to the gym and then looked over her shoulder at her shorter, curvier friend. “Why Cheri, I never knew you loved my ass so much.” She cast a glance at the guards. “Lock us in, take a break for an hour, and come back for us then.”

The two men saluted and left.

“I don’t love your ass,” Cheri retorted as she followed Bria into the gym. “But it’s attached to the rest of you, and you, I love like a sister.”

“I’ll be fine.” Bria smiled and waved at Mel, Nadia, and Lia. “Let’s go kick some ass.”

Cheri muttered, “I won’t need to. Iolyn will beat yours for sure later.”

* * * *

Lia wiped sweat off her forehead with a gym towel. “Well, you’re finally getting the hang of it, Bria. You put me on my rump handily that last round.”

“I told you she had a killer instinct and the physicality for hand-to-hand.” Mel approached them. “We just needed to train her natural abilities a bit.”

“I’m still more comfortable with my knives—and now the laser pistol.” Bria redid her ponytail to get the damp curls off her equally damp neck. The cool air on her nape made her feel instantly cooler. “My eye-to-hand coordination is still my strength. But, at least, now I’ll have some countermoves other than kneeing balls or breaking noses if someone attacks me.”