Out of This World

Krel

Krel sat on Andy's sofa, photo album open across both of their laps. He had found that the custom of keeping track of your ancestry was something that Akiridions and humans shared. Of course being a royal Akiridion changed that a little bit as his lineage was a little bit more culturally significant on his planet.

"These are my grandparents on my mom's side," she said, gesturing to one of the books. "Here's their grandparents too. That's Adeline, my great-great-grandmother, and her husband Sean." She pointed out a young man and woman in a grainy black and white photograph. They looked happy, holding a baby and a small child. Adeline had a sunny smile on her young and pretty face, and Krel could tell how much Andy's mother looked like her.

After looking at that book for a while, she pulled out the other one. "Here are my dad's parents," she said, pointing to an old photo. "Ron and Paula." He looked down at the photo. It showed a young woman hugging a young man in fatigues, grinning and flashing presumably new wedding rings.

"And here are Ron's parents," Andy said, turning the page, "Lola and Gaylen."

If Krel hadn't been paying as close attention to Andy's words before, he was certainly listening now. "I'm sorry," he said, tilting his head curiously at her. "Did you say Gaylen?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That is an unusual name..." he said, trailing off a little.

"Yeah, a bit. It's a family name," she explained. "There's a number of Gaylens in our family, on both sides. One of my great-great-great and so on grandmothers, Avaria, was the first to name her son Gaylen on my father's side, and my great-great-great and so on grandmother Savari was the first to name her son Gaylen on my mother's side." She flipped to the portion of the books that held the family trees. They were in the same position on each family tree, the same number of generations back. That could not be a coincidence.

None of this could be.

Krel sat in the control room, going through Mother's cerebral matrix, running a few updates and reading through logs and files. He couldn't help it, but his mind kept wandering back to his time spent with Andy earlier today, poring over her family tree. He couldn't help but perseverate on the fact she had many ancestors named Gaylen; it was too strange.

"What is eating you, My Royal?" Mother asked.

Krel looked at her hologram, puzzled. "Nothing is eating me, Mother. I am not being eaten."

"You misunderstand," she explained. "That is an Earth idiom that Andy taught me. It means: what is bothering you?"

"Andy showed me her family tree today," he said, "and something in it bothered me."

"What is that, My Royal?"

"She had a multitude of ancestors named Gaylen," he told the AI. "And as we all know, that is a distinctly Akiridion name. Because of who Gaylen was."

"Ah yes, the creator."

"And two of her ancestors bear Akiridion names," he said, scratching his head. "Avaria and Savari."

Mother remained silent.

He ran his hands through his hair, sighing. "This is all so strange."

"There is something you need to see," Mother said, beginning to flip through files of her own accord. She brought up a file labeled ANDROMEDA SAVARI HAWTHORNE, and opened it. "This is the map of Andy's genome," she explained. "I had to create it in order to create her core."

He began to read it. It was all normal human DNA, holding the- wait what? Krel's eyes scanned back to what had caught his eye. It stuck out like a sore thumb against the rest of her genome.

It was A-56, an Akiridion eye color gene. He began to flip through it faster and faster, finding more and more random Akiridion genes. A hair color gene. A plating color gene. A plating type gene. A core shape gene. A glow gene. A finger number gene. A core matrix gene. Actually, a number of core matrix and shape genes. A number of hair color genes. All of these genes did not exist in single numbers; all of them had a few cousins. Not enough to make a difference in her appearance, but enough to change her genetic makeup significantly.

"Even her blood is abnormal," said Mother. "It contains the Akiridion energy conduit compound that allows the flow of energy through the body, and her energy signature is slightly more elevated than the usual human."

"What exactly does that mean?"

"Under certain lenses, like an energy signature detection lens, she glows like a signal fire compared to the other humans." The AI pulled up an energy scan of Andy standing next to Mary Wang, and Krel's eyes widened. Mary Wang glowed the low candlelight flicker of most humans, but Andy was blazing like a bonfire. Only energy based life forms glowed like that.

"What does all this mean?" Krel said, troubled, clutching his head in confusion. What did any of this mean? What could it mean? How on earth, and he meant that literally, could Andy have Akiridion DNA?

He didn't know how any of this could be possible. He didn't know how any of it should be possible. This was one huge headache for him, he didn't know what this meant.

He hoped that everything would be made clear in due time.