Alien Proliferation

only female births were Naomi, Abigail and Serene. Only Americans had girls, I might add.”
    “Go U.S.A. But Paul told me that they tried every race and every country.”
    “They did. But the other A-Cs who married Americans didn’t have children. There were several couples worldwide who never reproduced.” Reader had obviously memorized the file.
    “No one thought that was strange?”
    Jeff shrugged. “It was a scientific experiment. Had the long chat with my dad about this when we told them we were pregnant. Any couple that didn’t get pregnant, it was just assumed they couldn’t—that our genetics and theirs didn’t mix right. Enough couples did have children that it wasn’t definitive proof of anything, good, bad, or indifferent.”
    “So none of the A-C scientists spent any time on this? At all? I get that it’s likely that the original data was hidden or destroyed, but in all this time, it’s never come up? No one’s ever asked themselves or each other why it is that these experiments weren’t continued? No one checked to see how the hybrids were doing? No one but me is interested in this stuff? How did I become the Genetics Queen?”
    “You were interested in reproducing with one of them. What?” Chuckie said to the glare I shot him. “I’m not wrong and you know it. You were interested because it was all exciting and new, and you were hot for Martini and being told you couldn’t marry him. I know you, that made you even more interested in him and finding out about this genetics experiment. But for them, it’s just history.”
    “I didn’t just want to marry Jeff because they said we couldn’t.” Oh, sure, that news had made me a lot more open to the idea, but it wasn’t why . I didn’t want to look at Jeff, though, because I was afraid he might think that was the only reason why.
    “And here I thought it was only because I looked good in my suit.” Jeff laughed. “I’ll take whatever your motivation was and be happy with it, okay, baby?”
    “Wasn’t my only motivation.” The great sex had had a lot more to do with it. I looked over at Jeff and realized he’d caught the great sex thought because he had a really satisfied smirk on his face. Wondered if it might possibly be safe enough to have sex the moment I could shove the other guys out of our room. Saw his smirk get a little wider.
    “ Anyway ,” Reader said, presumably because he’d seen the look on Jeff’s face, too. “The A-Cs didn’t leap into human relationships when they arrived here—their position with the U.S. government was too tenuous. The interspecies tests weren’t approved until they’d been here a while.”
    “Remember, too, that we didn’t come en masse. We were sent in waves. Diplomatic Corps for our race went first, to ensure we’d be allowed to stay. Give the home world that much credit, anyway.” Jeff sounded only mildly disgusted.
    “I’d give the credit to Richard and Terry and probably your dad and Stanley Gower. The ones with actual influence with the Royal Court, such as it was.”
    Jeff shrugged. “Probably. The first wave arrived in the nineteen-fifties. Established us as political and religious refugees, and then brought the next waves. We were all here by the mid-sixties.”
    “Which is when the interbreeding experiment was allowed.”
    Jamie started to fuss a little. Reader, still talking, came over and took her away from me. Put her onto his shoulder, and she was out like a light. Wondered how often he’d be willing to babysit his namesake. Hoped a lot.
    “Stanley was pretty much the youngest person in the test group. That’s why all the other hybrids are older than Paul—their parents started their families earlier. Oh, another fact you’ll find interesting—the Gowers are the only couple who had more than one child.”
    “Did all the mothers die in childbirth?” I figured it was better if I asked that question.
    Reader shook his head and kissed the baby. “Not a one. The pregnancies were harder on those couples with human females, but not life-threatening.”
    “So I was just special.”
    “I think of you that way, baby.”
    “Awww, so sweet. So, how many of them had special A-C talents?”
    “Average number. The only thing normal out of the whole analysis.” Reader shifted Jamie back into my arms. I cuddled her, and she snuggled into my chest. “About a third had normal A-C talents, and normal for males. So there were imageers, empaths, and troubadours. A