The Alien Commander's Surrogate

Episode 61

Hillary

The fingers curling through my own weren't Salex's today. They were too slender. I smiled, noticing that Salex slowed his pace even more than he had for me so that Kait, Adra's surrogate caught up with us.
"How are you feeling?"
"Ridiculously glad that they let me out of the room. Even if it's just for a short break," Kait glanced up at my mate, "Thank you for letting me come along with you. I know that Oren probably isn't expecting me, but–."
Salex's deep voice filled the hall, "It's no issue at all. Oren made it seem like the information was significant enough that it wouldn't be a secret for long."
We continued walking, Salex moving to the rear of us. Several crew members including the angry one, who had gotten in the fight with Adra passed us. I bit my lip, wondering if Kait noticed, but she had not. The chief of engineering, Bayes, noticed her though, and slowed his pace as he passed us.
I forced myself to keep walking. I had some suspicions that Bayes was one of the fathers whose surrogates had been woken up from hypersleep months ahead of time. And while I didn't blame his curiosity, I wasn't in a mood to field questions from him. Especially when I wasn't sure who he had been matched with, or what it even meant.
"The next door on the right," Salex said softly, his hand warm on my back. We were in a separate space, a few halls down from the med bay. Lylta, the chief medic was there, looking rather nervous at one end of the table. Opposite of him was Oren, looking every inch the prince he was, perched on the edge of the table. He wasn't the eldest or even close to the throne, but from what Salex had told me in confidence was that Oren was rather well-known for contesting his family's strict beliefs about the Trenzian people.
The prince stood, a wide smile on his face. But I still hadn't forgotten his dirty little trick from the other day. As if he sensed my continued irritation Oren stood, bowing to both me and Kait with his hand pressed over his chest. "Lady Hillary, Lady Kait, I'm glad you can join us today."
I huffed, but couldn't ignore the small thrill of pleasure at the sign of respect from him. Oren grinned at me, pulling a chair out by his side. "Would you like to sit? Lylta and I have the video feed to my contact, he will be online shortly."
Salex responded by pulling out another chair and a moment later, I was pressed forward and into the chair closest to him. When I looked up at the underside of his face, I nearly laughed. Clearly I wasn't the only one who hadn't forgotten the Prime's games. Kait, who was obviously not involved in any of this drama, moved forward and took the seat with a shy smile. Oren didn't seem to mind Salex and my's change of seating and sat down in his chair again.
Just as we all got situated, Salex looming over my chair, each of his massive hands on my shoulders, a soft beep filled the room.
"Furo," Oren said, his attention on a large screen built into one wall, "Are you there?"
The screen flickered and then lit, displaying one of the council members who had initially been with Oren during his boarding of the ship. I blinked, surprised, when the image panned out to show that he was obviously on another vessel in very different type of space.
"When did he leave?" I whispered to Salex.
His hands tightened on my shoulders, but he didn't answer. Oren though, must've heard me and nodded my direction before gesturing to the screen. "Furo left after we confirmed some of the rumors regarding the mate match system and our surrogate software. He is the very best at what he does, and what he does is procure information. All types of it."
"He's a spy," Kait said suddenly, leaning forward as much as her big belly allowed. "Aren't you?"
Furo's lips curled and he tilted his head for a moment, and I realized he was waiting on Oren's permission. The Prime shrugged, "I like to call him my investigator."
"But he's on the council."
"Many are. Many who believe the same thing we do." Oren cleared his throat then leaned back in his chair, eyes moving to Lylta now, "We have been investigating for some time now the fact that the Trenzian population continues to dissolve around us. Less and less children are born, and without the human and volun surrogates we would be staring down at the end of our species in only a few generations."
He licked his lips, "What we found was records from long ago, when Trenzian's began their campaigns off of Trenzia. It was difficult to lure citizens into the military, especially after they were mated to another. When the military involvement was forced, pushed, the Trenzian's who were taken away, did not do well. They were wild. Feral. And their partners back on land also suffered."
Furo spoke up, "The lack of control scared the royal family, the local military was desperate to find a way to separate Trenzian's from this drive. It was clear from the records we've uncovered that the idea was not supported. Not until Trenzia herself was attacked. Then slowly, it became more normal to not bond with another. Surrogates were introduced. Female population, which was always more rare in our species, became even more unusual."
Oren was nodding, Furo continued, "What we think we've found is that they broke a cultural dynamic more powerful than anything they'd done before over the course of our species evolution. And while it created a massive, military machine, it cannot stay hidden forever."
"Especially when my brothers grow tired of the war life. We could do real good, we could go home, but that would mean the Alpha Prime would have to resend these declarations. That Trenzian's could bond, they could find their match. The next generation of children could be raised in family units, like we were meant to be," Oren's hands curled into fists. "I cannot stand by and watch our civilization crumble, not when there's still time to fix this. To make our species the best it has ever been."
I looked at Oren and then Furo, "And how do we do that?"
"By reintroducing the to the dynamic they have long since forgotten," Furo smiled wide, his eyes dark and sparkling, "Something that lurked right under our nose, but didn't occur to us until this ship, your ship, changed everything."
"Which is?" Salex seemed genuinely interested now.
"Something that the Volun, Human and perhaps more species share. A particular genetic predisposition in the female population."
"They make ideal surrogates, we know that."
"Yes, but that's not what we used to all them," Oren answered, rolling a shoulder, "A long time ago, before it was banned, the strongest bonds, the ones that were fated, the perfect blend of DNA between two partners, it was because one was an Alpha. And the other," the Prime looked right at me, then at Kait, "Was considered an Omega."
My brows lowered, "So we, Kait and me and–."
"Every other female surrogate aboard this ship who is also a surrogate, also has a very interesting trait in their bloodwork," Furo chimed in, his purple complexion darkening when Salex growled at his interruption, "We believe that is it a Omega gene. The same one that our surrogacy system has been programmed to seek out. And when those protocols are met, it is creating a match that has a better than average chance of not only a chemical match, but one destined to evoke the Alpha traits that the entire Trenzian species exhibits."
"I'm an omega?" The words were odd on my tongue. I'd only heard about dynamics like this in the animal world.
Furo smiled, "You are."

***
A little plot point heavy but what do you think of this revelation? Have you read omegaverse before?