Free Conri by Kerryn Bryant Page B

Conri cleared his throat. “So you see now,
you see why my people treat you the way they do. You remind them, as you remind
me, of our fallen queen.”
    Sarai let herself feel for the King for just a moment
but as he hung the drape back over the picture Sarai felt heavy. She sat and
waited for the King to join her. When he sat she looked up at him and tried to
hide the hurt. This entire time he had not been attracted to her in the least
bit. He had only seen his dead wife and through Sarai, he had hoped to
recapture her. But Sarai was nobody’s backup plan. She lifted her chin and put
a cold lilt to her voice.
    “I think I have isolated the problem with the illness
taking cubs.”
    Conri sat up taller in his seat. “What is the
problem?”
    “Too much concentration in the
blood. After being here for four months I hear a recurring theme, blood
status. Everyone wants the highest blood status. It is possible that people
have subconsciously, or intentionally, sought mates that would give their
offspring the greatest chance for a higher blood status.”
    “And how is this wrong?”
    “It is creating a smaller and smaller gene pool to
create from. Normal human females are more likely to survive than a male.
Specialists haven’t been able to pin-point why, maybe because one male can
impregnate multiple females. However when you add a genetic anomaly to human
DNA, like feline DNA, all bets are off. It’s possible that the over
concentration of DNA is causing the Y-chromosome to fail.” Sarai watched Conri as
he thought about this.
    “What do you suggest we do?”
    “There are many ways to go about fixing this, but the
quickest and less stressful on the group is new blood.”
    Conri’s eyes narrowed and the tick in his jaw was
working. “You want me to bring in humans and have them take the Rite? Flood my colony with Omega’s?” His voice was raising and his
body was tensing.
    “Yes. You do this and you may have a chance of saving
your species. You do not do this… and your probability of survival tanks.”
Sarai leaned forward, meeting Conri’s hard stare with her own. “I know this is
not favorable Conri, but I predict that if you do not do something- while some
females are still surviving- the fetal mortality rate will double, then triple
and then completely extinct females in your colony. Your people will die out.”
    “I don’t know if it will work.”
    Sarai’s shoulders slummed. “I don’t know if it will
work either. But it may be the only way.”
    “You do not understand,” Conri said shaking his head.
“I am dooming my people.” He looked up at Sarai.   “If I do nothing we may die out. If I do as
you ask I will have facilitated a born generation of Omega’s and doom my pack
to centuries of tainted blood.”
    “Taint the blood line or die out. I can see how that
would be a difficult decision.”
    “YOU MOCK ME!” Conri roared, springing to his feat.
His face was growing red and his eyes were reflective diamonds. Sarai met his
anger, standing just as quickly- or so she hoped- and met his glare.
    “I do not mock you!   But if these were my people, if this was my family I was watching die
out I would do ANYTHING to save them! I do not pretend to understand your
struggle and I will not judge you for decisions made about your family. But
damn it Conri, our family is dying- we have to do something!”
    Conri flinched as if Sarai had slapped him. She took a
step back, not understanding the unexpected departure of his fury and the even
more abrupt evaporation of tension. Sarai’s breath caught, her senses went
wild. She felt desire pulse off of him as if it were a tangible heat wave. But
within a beat of her heart she felt like a lamb grazing unaware that a wolf was
creeping closer, hidden by tall grass.  
    She knew what hyperventilation was, but was she
hyperventilating or was she having such rapid atrial fibrillation that she had
saturated her erythrocytes with oxygen; it all meant the same.