Chapter 4: The Race That Found the Miracle Cure

Nadia shook her head. "No, he's a Zothean. And Nin is not biologically compatible with Zotheans," she informed, her voice filled with sarcasm. 

'Sorry, Miss Attitude. You look old enough to know none of this makes sense. Don't give me shit for not knowing the reproductive compatibility of aliens.'

"I'll show you what he looks like." She tapped on the pad and a man's image projected into the room.

"He has anthropomorphic features," Ellis evaluated. Not too shabby. The man had wild hair on top of his head, looking like he had rolled on the ground prior to taking this picture. Moreover, it was an odd shade of yellow. If she were an art major, she could have pointed out the exact shade. It didn't look bleached, though. It seemed to be naturally silky. 

"The quality of these pictures is great," she commented with great awe. Then she noticed the golden spots on his pale skin. And his skin was rather pale.

"Yeah, they look very human. A few minor differences as you can see." She pointed towards the man.

"I mean, he almost looks ethereal. Quite pretty if you ask me." Looking at him from a purely aesthetic value, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the man. He looked healthy, albeit a little too alien for her taste.

"The Emperor's name is Logan Alcott."

Right. Ellis was seconds away from bursting into laughter. She'd turned certifiably insane. Maybe she did have a mental illness she wasn't aware of and this was all a figment of her imagination? Wait, was she in an asylum? 

Ellis looked around. 

Seeing her reaction, Nadia sighed. "No, his actual name isn't Logan Alcott, it's the closest English translation possible. The chip is advanced enough to make it sound that way."

"Hold your horses. What do you mean by chip? What chip?" she asked, infuriated. 

"Well, we did cut you open before you woke up. We planted a chip new your brain stem, so now you can understand all languages in the Zothean repository without needing to learn them. It's automatic."

"Where the fuck did you say it is?" she screamed. 

"Don't get your panties in a twist. You should know how hard it is to live with people who don't speak the same language as you. The Emperor doesn't speak English and you certainly don't speak Zothean." She paused and waved her hand nonchalantly. "You'll be the Empress of a solar system. Covering such a large base with so many cultures and languages gets hard so Zotheans created this technology. It's like having an instant interpreter in your ear at all times."

"Take it out. I didn't consent to this intrusive surgery. I would still go with brain surgery because it saved my life but this... this is blasphemy." Nadia clapped her hand. 

"You know how some hospitals don't allow the parents to choose if a newborn male gets their foreskin removed or not? It's something like that. People in this galaxy get the chips implanted right after they are born. So, when you call him Logan, his chip will translate it to his real Zothean name."

Fascinating but horrifying. 

"And how do I take this out?" she persisted. 

"Uh, it's impossible, actually. It's not embedded in your skin or anything and the surgery doesn't leave behind any scars, so you won't find it."

Ellis scoffed. "If there are government-approved technology, someone has to have found a way to remove it, too. People aren't sheep that follow blindly."

Nadia laughed. "Don't apply your human knowledge here. It doesn't really persist." She nodded and patted Ellis's shoulder. "I wonder why the doctors didn't fix your loose wiring." She frowned. 

"My what?"

"You know, their medical technology is so advanced that they can fix... stuff up there." She pointed towards the brain. 

"Like brain surgery to cure mental illness?" Ellis gasped. This was straight out of a dystopian novel. 

"Oh god, it's not like lobotomy or shock therapy. It actually works. You'll see." 

How very enlightening. 

Ellis thought back to the countless drugs people took and the high fees for therapists all over the world. These things had side effects, but this race had found a 'miraculous cure.' Ellis wasn't going to believe that. How do you go from living with your illness and its intricacies to being this new person? Who are you really, then? 

"So you can fix people just like that." The venom was dripping from her tongue. 

"They can fix a lot of things," Nadia commented. "They can change parts of your genetic coding so that you no longer age at the same rate as humans. You'll have the same lifespan as a Zothean, which is around three-hundred and twenty years. They've also found a way to eliminate most genetic diseases and hereditary flaws."

Ellis paused. Everything in her being screamed. "So, you changed everything about me. If you've changed my genetic composition, the fundamental thing that scientifically defines me as a human. What am I?"

Nadia looked beyond bored. "Okay, I get it. You are an intellectual. I don't know why someone with your ideals is a perfect match for the Emperor but I am not going to start doubting the system." She huffed. "Also, I never went to university, so I don't know all this philosophical bullshit. I look human, I was born human, so I am human. You take your time mulling over your existence, I don't have the time for it."

"And I can't go back," Ellis grumbled. "So what happens if I refuse to marry the Emperor? Do I get thrown into a dungeon or something?"

"Of course, you can refuse." Nadia shrugged. That was a relief. "It's your own free will. But if you refuse him, you'll go back into the database to see if you match with anyone else. So, in short, if you plan on rejecting the Emperor because you want to go back or something... it's a doomed mission from the start."

"So, I can continue to refuse every match that is assigned to me." 

"You can try. But you will never go back to Earth. Believe me, you don't want to go back to Earth, it's not the same place you remember." And then she put her hand on her face. "Also, most women end up being unable to refuse in the end. Zotheans are charming creatures. The moment they meet you, they think themselves in love with you. Therefore, they do everything in their power to win you over. It's quite exhilarating being pursued by them. You feel like a goddess."

'Why does it sound like a nightmare to me? Am I being dragged to another planet to be stalked and possessed? Like in a horror movie? And other women actually fall into Stockholm Syndrome.'

Ellis didn't think herself above others. She was no different from other women. But she had some level of self-knowledge. She had led a privileged life. A humble but privileged life where she could read what she wanted and form her own opinions. A lot of people didn't get that.