Free Noble by Viola Grace

Chapter One
     
     
    Myra faced her grandparents in their kitchen, the well-worn butcher block warm under her palms. “Can you repeat that?”
    Her grandfather smiled brightly. “We want you to apply for the Volunteer Program. We have a suspicion about our family, and we want it confirmed.”
    “What do you suspect?”
    Her grandmother held her husband’s hand. “We believe that we have an alien in our bloodline.”
    Since her grandparents were third cousins, it explained why both of them were keen.
    “You have to be kidding.” She rolled her eyes and sipped her hot chocolate with the teeny marshmallows rapidly dissolving as she waited.
    “No. Here. This is the family tree, and it goes back five hundred years.”
    With reverence, her grandfather opened a book that was surprisingly hollow. A creased and brittle page came out of the box, and he unfolded it with the air of someone holding something sacred.
    Myra looked at the unfolding document with curiosity. “What is that?”
    Her grandmother smiled. “He told you; it is our family tree.”
    She knew she was currently looking at the nuts of that tree, but she examined the page as it unfolded.
    The name Elspeth was next to a peculiar icon, and the line joined into a weird nubbly branch that never spread out more than two children of varying sexes until it culminated with her. The oddest part was that the line joined consistently every four generations back into one strand.
    “So, we are really inbred.”
    Her grandmother sighed. “We are pulled to our own kind. We can’t help it.”
    “Our own kind? You are really hopping that we have aliens in our blood.”
    Her grandfather pointed to the icon next to Elspeth. “It isn’t any family crest on Earth. That only leaves one option that we can now consider.”
    Ah, there it was. Because there were now actual aliens on Earth, they might be able to tell her where her family came from. Myra was betting it was some banal corner of a European country, because what else could it be?
     
    The form was easy enough, but when one of the attendants beckoned her over, she was a little surprised. Myra followed him into a back office where a medical setup was waiting.
    “With your permission, miss, I would like to take a DNA sample.”
    “You can’t be serious.”
    “You have the right to refuse, of course, but our scans indicated that the supposition of off-worlder in your DNA is possible.”
    “Why do you need a DNA sample if you have already scanned me?”
    “Confirmation. Many races are similar to yours or blended with others. A sample will gain us precise information.”
    She nodded. “What do you need as a sample?”
    “Blood and saliva as well as a tissue scraping from your wrist.”
    She swallowed. “Right. The sooner we start, the sooner this will be over.”
    He grinned and pressed a small icon to her wrist before swabbing her cheek. When he finished the cheek swab, he removed the icon and a small triangle of skin had been abraded.
    The blood was a finger prick and three bright drops.
    “That is it. We will be in touch.”
    “So, you will let me know if anything odd pops up?” She bit her lip.
    “We will be in touch.” He smiled and inclined his head.
    Sighing, she left the medical room and walked back the way she had come. To sooth herself, she put her headphones in while in the hallway, and as the tunes rang in her ears, she calmed.
    She breathed more easily, and her muscles relaxed. It was done. She couldn’t say no to her grandparents, so now, her obligation was over.
     
    * * * *
     
    Recruiter Norz looked at the results. “You are certain?”
    “Yes, sir. All three samples confirm it. She is a Kameraet, of the Day clan.”
    Norz stared at his assistant. “I thought they were all dead.”
    “Apparently not, sir. This is a very strong and very pure genetic line, considering what she listed on her form.”
    Norz shook his head and ran a hand over his scalp. “I suppose I have to inform them. Damn.