Free Relic of Sorrows: Fallen Empire, Book 4 by Lindsay Buroker

truly know what she was doing, she hoped she could take a sample without contaminating it with all manner of outside bacteria. With her luck, she would end up sequencing the DNA of some microbe that hung out under fingernails.
    Once she pricked herself and dropped a sample into a fresh tray, she paused. This probably wouldn’t work without Alejandro’s help, which she did not want to ask for, but what if it did? Did she truly want to find out that she had the same mutant genes as Abelardus and all those asteroid kissers in that temple who had looked down their noses at regular humans and cyborgs?
    No, these were the same mutant genes that Jelena had, she told herself. Her daughter. And Jonah had possessed them. Yumi had them too. Perfectly normal people. Besides, as she had told Abelardus, it wasn’t as if it would change anything about her. It was too late for her to manifest any weird talents. All it would mean was that if she had more children, she could pass the genes along, and they could manifest weird talents.
    “Lucky them,” she said and shoved the tray into the machine.
    It beeped indignantly, and she thought she had done something wrong, but it locked down on the tray, and she could not pull it back out again. The display on the screen changed. Red, green, yellow, and blue squiggles scrolled past on an axis with the letters they represented underneath.
    Alisa shifted from foot to foot, waiting impatiently, and reminded herself that this had taken years when they had first started doing it back on Old Earth. Since she hadn’t tinkered with the settings, she had no idea if the machine was doing all of her DNA or only looking for Starseer mutations. She was on the verge of going to find something to eat when it beeped, and the word complete flashed on the screen. A readout similar to the one that had been on it before filled the screen. Mutations were highlighted. She brought up the holodisplay on her netdisc, the picture she had taken floating in the air. The mutations were the same.
    For a long minute, Alisa merely stared at the displays, the reality slowly sinking in.
    “Congratulations, Alisa,” she finally said. “You’re a freak.”
    She snorted at herself.
    “What’s new? Nothing.”
    She removed the tray, washed away her blood, put everything back where she had found it, and walked out of sickbay.

Chapter 5
    Mica was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat in NavCom when Alisa woke from her nap and walked in to check on their flight. It hadn’t been a particularly restful nap, thanks to several trips to the lav. She might have Starseer blood, but apparently, that could not save her from the side effects of Alejandro’s potions.
    Fortunately, Mica did not look as pale as she had before. The mess on the deck had been cleaned up.
    “Anything interesting happening up here?” Alisa waved at the view screen as she slid into her seat.
    “Just looking at the stars and wondering if my hair is going to fall out.”
    “Would you miss it much?” Alisa looked at Mica’s short, tousled locks. “It’s not like you brush it or spend any time primping it.”
    Mica gave her a sour look. “I still like to have some. Gives my partners something to grab onto in bed.”
    Alisa grimaced. “Mine just gets in the way in bed. Someone’s usually lying on it or accidentally trapping it under a hand or arm.” Maybe short hair would be easier.
    “Someone? Nobody specific?”
    “Jonah.”
    “I thought you might have experimented with others.”
    “Well, before him I did.”
    “And since?”
    “Of course not. It wouldn’t be—it hasn’t been long enough.” Alisa looked toward the stars and pointedly did not think about Leonidas. “I still miss him a lot.”
    “Ah.”
    Alisa tried to decide if there was skepticism in that short noise. Her words were not untrue, but she had been so busy since she got out of the hospital that she hadn’t thought of him as much as she should have. She wished there had been more