Chapter 117: The Missing Link
"How were you able to pick up Ethawainian so easily that you use it now as your primary language?" asked Jun Li, seemingly out of the blue.
"What are you talking about?" I replied, more than a little confused.
"The language that we are speaking is Ethawainian. Did you realize that?" asked Jun Li, confused.
"Ah, damn it. I never really thought about it until I set my mind to speaking English. And I don’t know. It seems to be a mix between Medieval English and Latin, both languages I learned as a kid. Why are you asking me this?" I was becoming more than a little upset. I was now speaking a language that I didn’t actually know beyond what I learned as a kid, and English was now my secondary language?
"Okay, so... don’t freak out, okay?" said Jun Li hesitantly. Funny enough, when he told me not to freak out, it only made me want to freak out more.
"Just spit it out," I said, a forced smile on my face. Night chirped at me in question, and I realized that I had stopped petting him. "Sorry, munchkin."
"I was going through some of the old files that the Sisalik had on my system, including some from your... sessions with them."
"You mean, when they tortured me, right?" I asked. I was really not liking where this was going.
"Yes, then," admitted Jun Li right before he paused. "Well, they discovered something unique... which is why they went back for Pippa and the other women to see if they could duplicate the results."
"Jun Li," I said, taking in a deep breath and closing my eyes. "You are stalling."
"When they first took you, they discovered that you were, in fact, a universal breeder," started Jun Li before he paused once again.
I really didn’t need him to be building up any more tension than I already had. "Know that part, thanks. And it was technically the Thuzirusians that found that fact out first."
"Well, going off what the Thuzirusians had found, and the Sisalik confirmed, they then went looking for why human females are universal breeders," pushed Jun Li. I was really starting to hate the term universal breeder.
"And why is that?"
"It was determined that human females share the most genetic markers with the Ethawainian species that once dominated the universe," continued Jun Li.
"Figured that one out on my own," I sneered, staring at the fur on Night’s belly. I slowly ran my fingers through it as I thought about what Jun Li was trying to say.
"You are an identical match to the ruling class of Ethawainians, more so than any other female that has been taken from Earth," said Jun Li in a rush, and I stopped petting to look up at the camera lens in the corner of my small fighter craft.
"Speak clearly," I commanded him, no longer interested in having him beat around the bush.
"I think you are actually nesting. According to what I can find, your current menstrual cycle would coincide when most other female species would start to nest in order to prepare for young."
I think I needed a shot of tequila if we were going to continue this conversation. "I don’t understand how you have come to that conclusion. I have been obsessed with furs my entire life."
"Ethawainian genes," answered Jun Li.
"The fact that it feels like I am speaking English right now, and I have to concentrate on changing languages?"
"Ethawainian genes," confirmed Jun Li.
"Then, if this a matter of my genetics, why didn’t I experience this on Earth?" I had never had the desire to nest whenever I ovulated before. So why was this all happening to me now?
"To put it simply, the majority of your genetic code was recessive. Meaning that while they were inside of you, they were buried."
"And I am going to assume that the Sisalik are whom I need to thank for bringing them from recessive to dominant?" I asked with a sigh. I needed more furs for this shit.
"Yes," confirmed Jun Li. "Bai Mei Xing, I am so sorry."
Dear God, that didn’t sound good.
"What do you have to be sorry about?" I asked, not understanding. Then again, that seemed to be the theme for this trip.
"Your Ethawainian genes are going to continue to get stronger."
"Is that going to change how I look? You know, I always wanted to be taller," I said with a forced smile. Whatever was going on with me, I would have to deal with it. It was not like I could change it.
"No, according to what I have read, the Ethawainians were all short."
"Even the males?" I wondered. Maybe the species was not as sexually dimorphic as the rest of the universe. I knew that there were some species on Earth that were not sexually dimorphic, but for the most part, they were.
"There are no Ethawainian males." Came the shocking reply.
"Excuse me? There are no males of the species? Then how do they procreate?" I asked, all of a sudden glad that I wasn’t drinking anything.
Night chirped again and waved his legs, trying to bring my attention back to the fact that I was not petting him.
"It is one of the reasons why they are universal breeders. The Ethawainian female would produce a pheromone that would attract a compatible male or males, causing a reaction in the male. Once she was ready, she would produce offspring from that relationship and usher in a different species. It was how they were able to seed the universe."
"I thought they seeded the universe by killing off the dinosaurs," I said with more than a healthy dose of sarcasm.
"That is how they prepared the planet, yes, but not the dominant species on it."
I held up my hand, not willing to go any further down that yellow brick road. As an anthropologist, I knew that they were still looking for the missing link between primates and humans. I didn’t need to think that somewhere way down the line, my Ethawainian ancestor provided that link.
"What does this mean for me?" I asked. I would need more than a few days to sort out everything in my head and get over it, but until then, I needed the bare essentials.
"That means that you will probably be more hunted than the other females if the rest of the universe comes to know that you are the last, pure Ethawainian Royalty."
Fuck my life.
