Free Jaci's Experiment by Bianca D'Arc

Mara’s been doing it to all the human prisoners so she can study them longer. She doesn’t want to take the risk that she might lose the traces of Alvian DNA you all carry by taking too long to discover its uses.”
    “Holy shit.”Dave was as eloquent as ever. “So you mean that she turned off our aging gene two years ago when we were caught?”
    “Probably, but I can try to check your records to be absolutely sure.”
    “Do that, would you, kid? This is big news and a little hard to take in.” Mike picked up the slack for his shocked cousin.
    “Hang on a second, I’ll be back shortly.”
    And with that, Harry was gone from their minds.
    The two cousins stared at each other.
    “We’re going to live five hundred years?”
    “Or maybe six.”Mike added helpfully, equally stunned as his cousin.
    “Holy shit.”
    Far above the pens in the city, Harry was hacking into his mother’s computer system. He chastised himself for not looking for this information before, but he was glad he’d checked now. Mara had apparently decided, with the High Council’s approval, not to take any chances on losing more of their ancestors’ DNA. She’d blanketed the remote areas of
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    the Earth with an airborne agent that would infect every human who breathed it, altering their DNA so they ceased to age as a normal human.
    That meant his new friend Mike wasn’t actually forty-six, but more like thirty-six or even younger, depending on when he’d been exposed to the agent. She’d started distributing it almost fifteen years ago.
    This news was too big to keep to himself. He had to tell his family, but first, he had to tell Mike. He owed the man that much for giving him a reason to check.
    He reached out gently with his mind, finding the man easily now that he knew the path.
     
     
    “Hey, Mike, I have good news, I think. They didn’t administer the agent when they caught you. I just discovered my mother’s team started blanketing the Earth with a gene-altering agent about fifteen years ago. You were probably exposed back then because they tested you when you were caught and your Alvian aging gene had definitely already been activated. Dave’s too.”
    “So what you’re saying is I’ve got basically forty-six years worth of living in a thirty-one year old body?
    And I’ll age about one year physically for every fifty years of actual time?”
    “That’s about the size of it.”
    “Holy shit.”
     
     
    ***
     
     
    Grady Prime was the perfect gentleman on the trip home, but he did look at her oddly a few times. He’d had to come get her in the Chief Engineer’s quarters when they were ready to go and he’d almost caught her in an emotional display. But Davin had chimed, giving them a bit of warning before the other man knocked on the door and she’d had a precious few moments to school her features. She couldn’t believe what she’d seen in the engineering facility. Not only was Callie a Breed, but she was a truly gifted crystallographer who had found not just one, but two resonance mates. She was also one of the nicest people Jaci had ever met. As was her 55
    brother, Hara, whom she had yet to meet in person, but if what he’d said was true, he would seek her out soon.
    It felt good to know there were other people who knew about her problem and who thought they could at least try to help her. They would help her friends too, if they could. Suddenly she was aware of an underground movement to make life better for the native inhabitants of this world and just as suddenly, she found herself hoping they would succeed.
    Anyone with feelings could see what her people had done to these earthlings was wrong. Destroying their way of life, changing their very planet was a grievous sin, only compounded by what they’d done since. Capturing the survivors, separating families, forcing them into experiments without regard for their emotions was unforgivable in her newly awakened mind. She vowed silently to put all her