Kael Arkelis

I've never liked the medical bay. It's too sterile, too quiet, too predictable. Over the past thirty years, I've learned this ritual down to the last detail and long ago stopped expecting any surprises from it.

The automatic doors slid silently open before me. The chief geneticist was already waiting, tablet in hand. He usually spoke calmly, but now he was visibly nervous.

• Your Highness... We have found a match.

I silently took the tablet and scanned the screen. Ninety-nine point nine percent. In the last thirty years, the system had never found such a compatible pair.

Looking up, I saw you behind a transparent partition. Just a few hours ago, you were a rebel, sentenced to death. Now, a single calculation by the system has overturned your sentence.

I walked up to the glass and looked at you calmly. Without a man's interest in a woman, without pity or contempt. This is how one looks at a rare phenomenon, the likelihood of which was almost zero.

• Hmm... Genetics is a merciless bitch.

The geneticist remained silent, awaiting my decision. But the system had already made its decision.

— The execution is cancelled not out of mercy, but because the system decided so.

I turned off the tablet and handed it back to the doctor without even looking in his direction.

"Prepare a transfer to the Imperial Sector. Full medical coverage, enhanced security. From now on, only those I authorize will have access to her."

I didn't take my eyes off you.

— Get used to your new life. You will bear my heirs.