Dr. Kirk smiles. He pulls the rolling stool closer to the bed. We rearrange ourselves around Iri so that the doctor has clearer access and view of him and Meer. “Do you mind if we check Meer over some more?”
Iri sighs. “Can you do it right here in front of me? I want to watch.”
“Of course,” Dr. Kirk says. He moves the stool further to the left so one of the nurses can bring in another.
We watch closely as Iri hands Meer over. Our eyes are all riveted on the nurses examining our baby. Taking vitals and blood, and checking his limbs. Everything they’ve already done but will repeat until we leave the hospital. Just to be sure he’s growing as he should.
“I have some questions I’d like to ask,” Dr. Kirk says. “You mentioned you had some help conceiving. Can you tell me about that?”
I nod. “I ordered some urulian flower nectar from the local flower shop and mixed it with water. Iri drank a glass before every breeding for a week.”
“I also found some pills at the shop beside the flower shop that promised all-natural conception help, and I took those daily until I ran out. About a dozen, I think, though I didn’t really count them. I might still have the bottle at home,” Iri says.
“I’d love to see it,” the doctor says.
“Is everything okay?” Hakan asks. “Is Meer okay?”
“Meer’s perfect,” Dr. Kirk says. “However, Luken and Iri should not have been able to conceive at all. They’re genetically incompatible. Something we’ve confirmed several times in the lab over the years when it became apparent that Luken wasn’t willing to let that answer rest.”
“Correct, and we wouldn’t be in Alyra right now if we hadn’t been able to conceive,” Luken says. “I get it, and we support and agree with the mission of the family cities. But that doesn’t mean we were willing to be separated, even if that meant leaving everyone we know and love in order to be together.”
Dr. Kirk bows his head. “I understand. I would have been sad to see you go.”
“With all due respect, is there a point to this conversation? We’d like to celebrate our son and not listen to how the city refuses to accept that they can love each other without the ability to procreate,” Hakan says.
I grip his hand. He’s always been a little touchy when it comes to this subject. Iri’s safety should be the city’s top priority. Not whether he’s able to procreate. In his eyes, that’s the line, and the city failed as a governing body as far as he’s concerned.
Dr. Kirk nods. “Yes. I’m sorry. This isn’t the tone I meant for this conversation. What I’m really trying to emphasize is just how miraculous Meer’s existence is because it shouldn’t have been possible. Every piece of science we have says so. But herehe is. Which means he’s the most important child in this entire city. You two are the most important subjects as far as this research goes. Without trying to make this clinical, we’d love to see if you can reproduce this again. We’ll provide the pills and nectar if you can produce the bottles they came in to assure that we gather exactly the correct items.”
Iri meets my eyes and then looks up at the rest of our pack before meeting the doctor’s eyes. “I don’t mean this to sound as if we’re not interested, but… I have other breeders in my pack. Not just Luken.”
“I know. We’re asking you to think about it.”
Conversation stops as the nurse places Meer back in Iri’s hands. Everyone in the room stares at a slightly disgruntled Meer as Iri brings him to his chest. Skin on skin and Iri’s heartbeat settle our newborn into a quiet nap.
“Why can’t you find other completely incompatible couples for your experiment?” I ask.
“I can. We are. But in science, it’s not just about proving that something works once. It’s about the repeat results. What if this is specific to you two? What if you two are the answer to bridge this entire chasm of limited male breedables? This is a heavy burden to carry; I know that. I’m not negating that, either. I don’t want you to carry it alone. What I’m hoping is that you’ll think about it.”
“Does that mean you’ve looked at my compatibility with the rest of my pack?” Iri asks.
Dr. Kirk nods. “I have. Daunt is of a genetic makeup that you have the absolute highest probability of conception with. Not just within your pack but in a pool of candidates, he’d be top of the list.”
We look at Daunt, and he grins widely.
“Rhydian and Hakan are what we consider eighty percent-ers, meaning that on a scale of compatible to less compatible,they’re within the range that we’d have approved as matches with a high enough possibility of conception rate to satisfy the government.”
“How nice,” Hakan deadpans.
It’s clear that Dr. Kirk finds his response amusing, though he tries not to smile. He gently rests his hand on Meer’s head for a moment. “I understand our methods might not be palatable to everyone.” He looks at Hakan. “But the mission of the cities is to keep this genetic anomaly viable, and to do that, we need to keep this section of our species’ numbers increasing. Between difficulty in conception, long gestations, and the fact they’re being abducted at a higher rate than they’re being birthed, male breedables’ numbers are falling. They could easily go extinct within the next two generations if we haven’t found the breakthrough we need. I’m not putting that on your shoulders to carry. The fact Meer is here tells us there is an answer, and even if you don’t want to be a part of the ongoing study to reproduce the same results, you’ve already contributed to the effort in raising the male breedables numbers exponentially. You proved it can be done, despite what your genetics say is possible. Just think about it. There will be absolutely no repercussions if you decide not to try again. I’ll put that in writing, and have it notarized as an assurance with all the government support for that decision you need to reassure you. But I want you to be aware of how important your search for this outcome has been to the scientific propagation of male breedables.”
He takes Iri’s hand and squeezes it gently. “You did it,” he says, and I swear, I can see something akin to parental pride in his eyes as he looks at Iri. “You’re amazing, Iri. Truly, absolutely amazing.”
Iri chokes up and looks away, whispering, “Thank you.”
Dr. Kirk rests his hand on my shoulder before he ushers the nurses out of our room. Silence follows him. We curl around our breedable and our tiny baby. Tiny, tiny human.
“You know,” Hakan says. “As angry as I am at the way putting Iri’s life in danger would be the only option you had to be together, I’m kind of excited by what Doc said.”