Page 108 of Tamed By Her Touch

“I am considering our research,” Kaelus said stiffly.

“Of course you are.” Sendar’s lips curved into a smile. “Though I suspect your thoughts may still be with your lovely goddess.”

Kaelus frowned.

“My wife is not your concern.”

Sendar raised both hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture.

“No offense intended. I merely observed that the two of you appeared reluctant to part.”

Kaelus said nothing. There was something about the copper-haired male he disliked more every time he spoke with him, though he still couldn’t have said exactly what it was. Perhaps it was simply that Sendar watched Clair too closely. Or perhaps it was the faintly mocking quality he sometimes heard when the other male spoke of the customs everyone else on Titus Four seemed to regard with complete sincerity.

Whatever the reason, Kaelus didn’t trust him.

A driverless, automatic transport carried them away from Varell’s home and into the center of the Titus Four settlement. This early in the day, the pale stone streets were filled with people beginning their daily routines.

Kaelus saw males walking beside their wives, carrying bags and packages, holding hands, kissing, laughing, and generally behaving as though the females beside them were the center of their universes.

Yesterday he had found such behavior excessive and almost performative. Today it bothered him considerably less. In fact, when he saw one male carrying three bags while his wife walked beside him with nothing heavier than a flower in her hand, Kaelus thought about the number of times Clair had struggled into the lab carrying armfuls of samples, equipment, and data tablets while he remained stubbornly on his side of the black line.

Perhaps he had been an ass.

The thought was uncomfortable enough that he immediately pushed it away, but it lingered on the edges of his mind, and he promised himself she wouldn’t have to carry anything heavy again as long as he was near her.

The Blood Archive stood near the center of the city, though it looked nothing like the scientific facility Kaelus had expected. The enormous structure seemed to have been carved directly into the side of a low silver mountain. Its entrance was framed by two massive crystal columns which twisted upward like frozen vines, and the rock surrounding them shimmered with veins of violet light.

There were no visible doors. Instead, when Sendar approached, he placed his palm against a smooth black oval embedded in the stone and spoke several words in his own language.

To Kaelus’s surprise, the mountainside opened—an entrance appearing seamlessly in the black stone.

Kaelus raised an eyebrow.

“Impressive.”

Sendar smiled.

“We take the preservation of our biological history quite seriously.”

They stepped through the opening and Kaelus found himself looking down into an enormous cylindrical chamber which disappeared so far beneath the ground that he couldn’t see the bottom. Rings of transparent walkways spiraled around its interior walls, while thousands upon thousands of crystalline spheres floated in the open air between them.

Some were no bigger than Kaelus’s thumb and others were as large as his fist. Each contained a tiny, suspended drop of blood or tissue which glowed in shades of violet, blue, green, or crimson, while delicate threads of light connected certain spheres to others, creating glowing family trees which stretched through the air in every direction.

Kaelus stopped.

“Gods,” he murmured. It really was an impressive and amazing sight.

“Every citizen of Titus Four is entered into the Archive at birth,” Sendar explained. “Blood, tissue, genetic markers, immune profiles, viral status, major medical events, mating history, and reproductive records are preserved here. Most individuals submit updated samples every ten years. Some family lines can be traced back more than two thousand years.”

As they stepped onto a platform, a translucent disk of light formed beneath their feet and carried them silently out into the vast chamber. The floating spheres shifted aside to make room for them, then drifted back into place. Kaelus watched one pass within inches of his face and saw tiny symbols moving around the suspended drop inside like microscopic stars.

“This is not merely a database,” he said. “It is a bank. All these samples are perfectly preserved.”

“Exactly. All samples, no matter how old, remain viable.” Sendar sounded proud. “Our preservation fields hold biological material in a state of temporal suspension. It neither ages nor degrades. In theory, I could give you blood from a male who died a thousand years ago, and it would be chemically identical to the day it was collected.”

Kaelus’s interest sharpened.

“That could be extremely useful.”