She opened her eyes. His face was mere inches from hers and his hands were still buried in her hair. For one breathless moment, she thought he would close the distance between them and kiss her. Awareness arced between them hot and electric. She stared into his eyes so ready for the brush of his lips. Instead, he stepped back and lowered his arms.
He cleared his throat and averted his gaze. Obviously, she wasn’t the only one affected by their nearness. “Our medical scanners will offer us specific information that I’m not able to sense. Are you okay with one last procedure?”
She nodded. She’d already chosen her path. It was too late to turn back now.
He said something in Sarronti as he took another step away from her. “Try not to move.”
A beam swept from her head to her feet six times in quick succession then she heard a series of beeps. “Was that it?”
Jaron offered her a quick smile then slipped in behind the main control panel. “It might take me a few minutes to figure out what all this means. Medical terminology is not my area of expertise.”
She sat down, but had a hard time sitting still. She felt like someone with a terminal illness, waiting for the specifics of when and how she would die. The Cretzians had kidnapped her without warning, experimented on her without her permission, much less an explanation. She seriously doubted they were trying to make her life better with what they had done.
A few minutes later, Jaron shook his head and sighed. “I’m not sure my mother would understand half of this. I’ll send the results to Aunt Arpovae when we return. She will be able to explain everything.”
“Is she a conventional physician or a healer?”
“Both, and she is exceptional at either. Do you want the worst of it, or shall I try to soften the blow?”
“Just yank the Band-Aid off.” He looked confused, so she clarified, “Tell me the bad news first and tell me all of it.”
“All right. There are a total of eleven segments of your genome that have been modified. I don’t know enough about genetics to guess at what they were trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, the report is filled with terms I don’t understand.”
The revelation didn’t surprise her. She knew the Cretzians were screwing with her DNA and she’d been taken more often than the other two. So why were they deteriorating, while she felt fine? Unless the other two allowed Jaron to run these scans on them, it was unlikely they could figure out the answer to that question.
“There is another significant discovery, but I hesitate to mention it because I’m not sure it has anything to do with the Cretzians,” Jaron said softly.
What in the world did that mean? Had he detected cancer or something? “Tell me,” she urged.
“I detected Sarronti DNA when I scanned you.” He sounded almost apologetic. “Is it possible that one of your relatives is from my planet?”
She shook her head, confused by the suggestion. “I don’t see how.”
“It could explain why you were targeted,” he pointed out. “If Zerna is interacting with your grandfather and your grandfather is aware that you are a hybrid.” He raised both hands and shook his head. “I only know what I sensed. You are a human/Sarronti hybrid and I don’t think it’s the result of anything the Cretzians did to you.”
“Are you thinking my parents or grandparents?”
“Definitely one of your grandparents. Maybe even one of their parents.” He made another helpless gesture. “I am not an expert on genetics. I can only give you a very basic idea.”
“I appreciate the information. It’s just surreal. Either my parents don’t know anything about this, or they have been lying to me my entire life.”
He nodded, pale green eyes filled with compassion.
She shook her head, nearly overwhelmed by the development. As if the Cretzian experiments weren’t horrific enough, now there was this. The only relative she could think of that was otherworldly in any way was her paternal grandmother, the admiral’s first wife. Lillian died before Nikki was born so Nikki only knew her from pictures and the stories her father told about his mother. Lillian had been movie star beautiful with a timeless elegance that always made Nikki think of old Hollywood.
Shaking away the speculation, Nikki refocused on the original issue. “Can you tell me what the Cretzian changes are likely to do?”
“I sensed new pathways in your mind. You now have access to regions