Purity War

by Laurel Night

  Shaline beamed. “You’ve got it. At least, you’re in the same place as we are with your assumptions.”

  “So, what now?” Emily’s expression switched to one of complete incredulity. “Am I going to have a green baby? I know you have longer lifetimes and reproductive cycles, how long am I going to be pregnant for? This hybrid Todd and I have become, am I going to live longer or is he going to have a shorter life? How are we going to figure this out?”

  She was getting close to a breakdown. I could see it in her shaking hands and wild eyes. Emily was never one to overreact, and she maintained her calm far better than the average girl. But, when she hit her limit, she hit it all out. And it looked like that time had come.

  Todd stretched an arm behind her and pulled her into the nook formed by his body and arm, tucking her in tightly and kissing her forehead. A few swift rubs on her arm and she calmed down. Her hands stopped shaking, she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, and when she reopened them, there was no longer a trace of crazy.

  Holy shit. This, more than anything else, hit home to me that this was not the same Emily I knew and loved. My Emily never calmed that quickly. She was a tough cookie, but when she lost her cool it was gone for hours.

  Shaline lifted her hands in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry, we don’t have all the answers. At this point the best we can do is make assumptions and continue to study you both, comparing your life changes to that of humans and vimpiri to determine where you land between. For now, we are assuming you are squarely in the middle, meaning you will most likely live half as long as a vimpiri. Since you are roughly a quarter of the way through your life cycle, and the same with Todd, that would place you halfway through a halved vimpiri life cycle.”

  “My life has been cut in half? I’m middle-aged?” Crazy eyes came back with a vengeance.

  “Peace, Emily, half of a life cycle for a vimpiri is roughly 1,000 human years. If you are halfway through that, it would mean you have at least another 500 years to live.”

  “Five… hundred? Five hundred years? I’ve barely survived twenty-five. What am I going to do for five hundred years?”

  Todd’s expression gave away his thoughts. Where 500 years was an eternity to Emily, it was not nearly as long for a vimpiri. He clearly hadn’t considered that his life would be cut so short, and he appeared about to faint as the realization set in. “Are you serious? But I’m only… I mean, I… are you sure?”

  “No, we’re not sure,” Shaline said gently. “We aren’t sure about anything other than the facts I listed earlier. All we can do at this point is conjecture that you are both roughly halfway between human and vimpiri on every level until we come to another conclusion. The more we study you and how you change over time, the more accurate we will be. Surely this is good news? You were willing to pair with Emily, at the risk of being tied to her human life if you succeeded. Isn’t half of a vimpiri lifetime better than a single human lifetime?”

  Todd nodded. “I guess I didn’t think about it that way, just when you started throwing out numbers it surprised me.”

  Shaline smiled, her expression sage. “That’s understandable.” Turning to Emily, she added, “And no, we don’t believe you will have a ‘green baby’. Todd appears to have taken on a human appearance and cannot change it. That leads us to conclude your offspring will also have a human form. We suspect that the pregnancy will last longer than a human one, but we are curious about where and how you will carry it.”

  Emily’s tone turned suspicious. “What do you mean, where and how I carry it? In my belly, obviously. Where else would it be?”

  Shaline shared a glance with Mick, her eyes large, which betrayed her surprise. She assumed Emily knew how vimpiri carry offspring, that much was clear. It left me wondering how it was so different from humans to cause such a reaction.

  Todd swallowed noisily beside me, fumbling for Emily’s hand. “Um, baby?” he started, “It’s kind of complicated…” his voice trailed off and he looked to Shaline for help.

  She schooled her features into a patient expression and cleared her throat. “Female vimpiri have a reproductive organ, similar to the human uterus, that the offspring grow in. It’s just in a different position.”

  “Where is that, exactly?” Emily was even more suspicious at this careful explanation. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to work it out, color rising in her cheeks.

  “Female vimpiri have developed, over millennia, the perfect location to carry the added weight. The offspring remains tiny, unnoticeable, for the first third of its gestation cycle. It grows eventually but rarely reaches the same size as a human infant. The vimpiri reproductive cycle is much longer, but similar comparatively to the human cycle. We live approximately 2,000 human years, and humans live 100. Humans spend roughly three-quarters of a year growing a fetus, and for vimpiri it takes approximately 18 human years.”

  This new tidbit distracted Emily. “Eighteen years? I’m going to be pregnant for eighteen years?! At that age, the kid is supposed to be moved out of the house on his way to college, not still in my body. Oh my God, I will literally be as big as a house after being pregnant for eighteen years!”

  “It is unlikely you will be pregnant that long. If we halve the term, you’re looking at nine years at the most, more likely eight. And the offspring will be somewhere between a human infant and a smaller vimpiri infant, so you will not get that large. Humans gain excess weight and vimpiri usually don’t, aside from the fluid in the growing sac.”

  Emily seemed somewhat appeased that the baby wouldn’t be enormous, but she got back to the true subject of her curiosity. “And where is this ‘perfect location’ to carry this small, long-incubating offspring?”

  Shaline smiled. “On your back, between your shoulder blades. It’s actually a very comfortable place for the gestational sac to grow, you don’t notice it for many years. The only inconvenience is that as it gets larger, you might find your balance suffers and you need to be more careful. Oh, and it becomes difficult to lie on your back.”

  The color drained from Emily’s face. “So let me get this straight: what you’re telling me is that I will be pregnant, for nine years, and I will end up looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame???” Her tone was getting very close to squeaky, and Todd was beside himself. He was not used to dealing with an upset Emily, because her anxiety at this information was causing him to glance helplessly back and forth between Mick and me.

  Trying to be supportive, I spoke up. “Emily, remember we don’t know if you will carry like the vimpiri do. Since you have a human form and Todd does, too, it will probably carry like a normal human baby, and you won’t show or even feel it for years.” I tried to instill more confidence in my tone than I really felt. “And Shaline said vimpiri don’t really gain excess weight, so you’ll probably be a cute little basketball pregnant lady with a tiny, cute baby. It’ll be okay, Em.”

  Emily was panting ragged breaths, but she nodded at me, desperately grasping to the hope I was trying to give her. “Right. Tiny, cute baby belly. Won’t show for a long time. Little pink baby,” she gasped, breathing in and out slowly like she was practicing for labor already.

  “Well, I believe that is all we need to cover at this moment,” Shaline said abruptly as if she was finished with this conversation. Emily made a horrified face; clearly, she still had lots of questions. Before she had time to ask them, Shaline continued. “We will have the hearing soon, we should make our way to the ship.” Gesturing toward the door, Shaline stood and ushered us out of the room.

  We rose and filed out, Em gripping Todd’s arm like she needed his support to remain upright. Once we were in the hallway, we waited for Shaline to pass us, then filed silently after her deeper into the caverns.

  Mick walked by my side, lightly gripping my hand. A question occurred to me and now seemed like as good a time as any to ask it. “Mick?”

  “Yes, Lucy?”

  “I was thinking about what Shaline said, about genet
ic material and reproduction. So, since you’ve never paired, you have the same DNA as both Shaline and Benjamin right now?”

  Mick nodded. “Essentially, yes. Ours doesn’t work exactly the same way as your DNA double-helix, but it’s easier to call it that to avoid a technical comparison. If you really want to know more, we can go to the labs and speak to one of our scientists, but I don’t think we’d be out of that conversation in a week. They really enjoy discussing the nuances of our genetic makeup.” He grinned.

  “So, if you and I pair, then you wouldn’t really be a vimpiri any more?”

  He considered that for a moment. “I suppose you’re right. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but once our DNA mixes and creates something new, we’d be somewhere in the middle like Todd and Emily, neither human nor vimpiri.”

  “Does that mean you wouldn’t be part of the same family anymore?” I asked softly. I didn’t want to point out that he would give up his people to be with me, let alone his family. However, I didn’t enjoy thinking I knew and kept that from him, either.

  “That would again depend on the decision of the queen. If she feels it is most beneficial to the population to consider those that make this transition still Vimpiri, she can do that. That would mean she had to agree to allow the Lost Bachelors to pair with humans in the first place, which we still are not sure of.”

  “But that’s what the hearing is about, isn’t it? So people can tell her what they want?”

  “Yes, but that’s not the only step. It’s only the first step. Once she hears the will of the people, she will consult with The Records, and then ultimately she and Shanii will have a discussion. They will talk through the issue until they are both in complete agreement. At that point, she will announce her decision.”

  This felt very complicated, and it also felt like a lot of places that her opinion could get turned against us. The part that worried me the most was Shanii—it was hard to tell, from our evenings together, what she truly thought. She was very reserved, and never uttered a word without carefully considering it. I appreciated that aspect of her because it meant she didn’t decide lightly. However, the more I thought about Drake and his flagrant dislike of Emily, Todd, and me, the more I worried that all the time we were spending away from Shanii he was turning her against us somehow. They shared genetic code, for crying out loud. It would be very difficult for her to disagree with him. What were we going to do if, after all of our efforts, Shanii said no?

  JAKOB STRIKES BACK

  LUCY

  When we reached the massive cave that concealed the crystalline ship, we joined a river of people filing toward the entrance. Most were in human form, and I noticed a large proportion were men of comparable age and appearance to Mick and Todd. This didn’t mean anything since they could change their appearance at will, but I was beginning to understand that most vimpiri preferred to assume an appearance similar to their vimpiri age. Mick and Todd were about a quarter of the way through a vimpiri life, so they were in their twenties as a human. They were all excessively attractive men in their twenties, and I couldn’t say I blamed them. If I could look however I chose, I would be a supermodel, too.

  When they noticed Shaline, most stepped back and bowed their heads slightly, allowing her to pass. Her crystal crown glittered and sparkled in the refracted light of the glowing ship, and I gathered that they recognized her because of the crown. Whether it was also the psychic connection vimpiri had that Mick mentioned, I wasn’t sure. What I could tell was that as we entered the room, there was a ripple of reaction, and when their eyes set on Shaline’s crown they demonstrated the small gesture of deference.

  We followed closely behind her, Mick still gripping my hand with his head high, and Todd and Emily behind us. I followed his lead and strode forward with intent. We passed into the ship, and the line continued, four abreast except for a bubble around Shaline and the four of us behind her. People ahead parted and allowed us through, pressing themselves against the hallway walls to make room. There were more vimpiri in their natural form on the ship, emerging from doors and side hallways as they traveled further into the ship. It made sense, as Mick had explained, that those who chose not to adopt a human form remained here. They lived underground on their home planet, in tunnels that protected them from the cold surface. Here the surface was temperate, but perhaps they just didn’t like it or preferred to be surrounded by the comforts of the familiar.

  I had never traveled this far into the ship, so I wasn’t sure how far back it went into the cave. I could see doors sliding open, revealing tiny, unfurnished rooms full of standing vimpiri that I could only conclude were some kind of elevator. The massive crystal structure must have many floors, but we continued deeper into the wide hallway on the same level we entered.

  After many more minutes of walking, I could see the people ahead were clearing a path that turned right instead of continuing down the hallway. They lined a curve, cutting across our path and angling us towards a doorway. Shaline followed the curve and passed through the door, and we stepped in behind her.

  It was another room formed entirely from massive crystals, apparently grown into the desired shape. There were pinkish crystalline seats in long benches that curved ahead of us. The benches had a smooth surface with slight depressions that I guessed indicated seats. Stairs climbed to the right and descended to the left, leading to row upon row of shimmering pink crystal benches. They reminded me of rose quartz, just much clearer than I’d ever seen it. There was barely enough opaque pink at the core and base of the crystals to render them solid-looking instead of glass, but the effect was dazzling.

  Vimpiri, in both human and natural form, filed into the room and either climbed or descended to their preferred benches. Shaline turned left and descended the stairs slowly, making her way to the bottom as we followed.

  At the base of the stairs was a wide path. On one side it allowed access to the benches on the bottom level, and on the other to a short staircase that led to a stage.

  The stage was pure white crystal, glittering with flecks of gold and polished to a shine. There was a small, curved bench of white crystal on the stage in the shape of a half-circle. Light appeared to emanate from the stage, but more shone down from the giant crystalline formation that hung over our heads.

  It functioned like a chandelier, but really it was just a raw formation of crystals in their hexagonal shapes, bursting forth in a seemingly random array. These were also polished, gleaming with streaks of gold and glowing brightly from a hidden inner source. The light was pure, cool white. At the base it was too bright to look at directly, but only tiny cracks of that showed through the tightly packed crystals. The rest was refracted around the room by the spears of crystal that emerged from the array.

  We reached the bottom of the stairs, and Shaline climbed directly to the stage. Mick steered me to the end of the bench at the bottom, and we crossed all the way to the other side of the room before sitting. I came to realize that the crystal formation that formed the room started pure white at the stage, and the bench seats grew gradually more pink as they rose to the highest ones in the back. It was an enormous, ombre, white and pink crystal room, like a giant glittering geode with its own light. A quick glance at Emily told me she was just as impressed as I was, staring open-mouthed and trying to take in the beauty of it all.

  When we reached our seats Mick tugged gently at my hand to pull me into my seat. It didn’t look comfortable, but the slight depression actually curved comfortably beneath my backside and encouraged a comfortable posture. Mick sat with his feet placed on the floor, gripping my hand and looking deliberately forward.

  “Mick,” I hissed, afraid to speak too loudly for some unknown reason. “Are they here? All the people you asked to come?”

  Mick’s eyes stayed focused on the stage, but I kept peeking over my shoulders to steal glances behind us. The room was enormous, like a section of a sports stadium. I had no concept of how many people could fit in it, so I had no go
od way to gauge how many had turned up. However, there appeared to be many more young, good-looking men than couples or natural vimpiri.

  “Lucy, turn around,” Mick whispered, squeezing my hand.

  “Why?” I asked. “It’s so beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like it!”

  “That’s exactly why you need to stop staring around like that.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He sighed. “I don’t want everyone to know you’re a human at this exact moment, in case they don’t like the idea. It would be easier to pretend you were vimpiri if you weren’t acting as if you’d never been here before.”

  “Oh, I see. Sorry,” I ducked my head and refocused my sights on the stage. I let my eyes wander as much as I could without moving my head, taking in the gleaming crystal surfaces and the shimmering flecks in the stage.

  Shaline was seated regally on the dais, just right of center on the curved bench. Her crystal crown seemed to glow in the light emanating from above and below, and I wondered if it could glow on its own. Maybe that was intentional? I couldn’t tell if it was a trick of the light or not, but in her all-white, draped ensemble she looked like a part of the stage. I realized now that the flowing, open sleeves on her dress resembled a cape behind her, and the roman styling of her gown echoed the toga-style clothing the traditional vimpiri were wearing. Clearly, this ensemble was chosen with care. She elected to remain in her human form, but she didn’t hesitate to remind them who she really was.

  Shanii entered the room, followed by Drake and Benjamin. They also remained in human form, and I now noticed they wore similar, Roman-inspired outfits that led me to believe this was carefully coordinated among the four. Shanii was also given space by the people before her, who parted to allow her through. She descended the seats then ascended the stairs to the stage. Once there, I could see her gown was the palest shade of pink, close to, but not as white as Shaline’s. She greeted her mother with an embrace and a kiss on each cheek, then occupied the middle of the bench beside her. Benjamin similarly greeted his wife and sat on the outside to Shaline’s left, and after Drake greeted her, he sat on to Shanii’s right. The men wore long tunics in a light shade of grey, with a swath of fabric draped across them, fluttering in the back to resemble a short cape. It also reminded me of those worn by Roman soldiers, barely grazing their knees. Besides the tunics, they wore simple, nondescript pants in a matching shade, and no other ornamentation.