Chapter 2: A Hybrid

Two Intelligence Corp psychology officers strode down the corridor and knocked on the commanding officer's door, one Grojan and one human. "Come in." The base commander, Major James Evans, sounded weary. The doctor sighed, opened the door and stepped into the commander's office.

The commander looked up. Yes?"

"We have a problem with Captain Fuller, sir."

The commander ran his hands through his hair. "Dear God, that's all I need on top of everything else." The human doctor made a mental note to discuss the state of the base commander with the chief medical officer. "Well what's the problem?" he snapped.

"We believe he encountered a Grojan female while he was helping with the evacuation of a colony under attack sir."

"So?"

The doctors looked at one another for a moment. "Only unmated females are in their armed forces sir," the human psychologist replied.

"I know that doctor!"

She raised an eyebrow and from his tone; the stress was beginning to undermine the C.O. He sighed. "I'm sorry doctor, please continue."

"We believe she unintentionally instigated the bonding process, sir."

"But the DNA manipulation has not yet started, so how can that have happened?"

"We don't know, sir."

"What the fuck do you mean, you don't know?"

The Grojan doctor shrugged. "I'm sorry, sir, it should not be possible."

"So how do you know it has happened then?"

The Grojan doctor shuffled her feet and looked down at her hands clasped in front of her. "I can sense it, sir."

The commander sighed; he knew only the basics of the Grojan mating process and the formalized rituals that surround it. "What does that mean for Captain Fuller, doctor?"

"Um ... it means he has become locked to that particular female, sir, so there is little point deploying him where we had originally planned." She glanced up and shifted uncomfortably. "Sorry sir."

The C.O. sighed. "Is there nothing we can do?"

"No sir, not at the moment."

"Suggestions?" he pinned both of them with a stare.

"We have discussed it, sir, and the conclusion we have come to is ... to wait until this stupid war is ended then deploy him. If the female in question survives the war then they will eventually find one another via their connection." It was the doctor's turn to sigh. "We Grojan are a strange lot sometimes, sir."

The C.O. stood and walked to his office window. "Yes, tell me about it," he mumbled.

"Sir?"

He turned back to face the Grojan doctor. "Has he been through the final DNA manipulation and surgery?"

"No sir, not yet. The first time I got close to him was after he had been anesthetized and prepared. I immediately sensed him, sir, because normally a human male has no effect on me, but Captain Fuller, sir, umm ... She glanced across to her human colleague for support, who smiled and nodded almost imperceptibly. The Grojan doctor took a deep breath. "We have not done the DNA sequencing yet, but I believe his mother was a Grojan."

The C.O's eyes went wide, his eyebrows disappeared beneath his hair. "What? That's not possible without the manipulation, humans and Grojans cannot mate!"

"Strictly speaking that isn't correct - we can," the human doctor interjected.

The C.O. glared at her. "You know what I mean, doctor."

"Yes, sir, but as well as that, his parents would have had to have met at least five years before our two species officially found one another, before first contact."

"Where are his parents now, doctor?"

"They are dead, sir, he is an orphan, he was raised by his paternal grandparents. He was on his way back from visiting them for the last time when his ship was diverted to where he encountered the unmated Grojan female. He has always excelled at everything and his speed and strength is in the upper percentile for a normal human. Dr Mona is the first Grojan female doctor to get close to him. Until she did, the rest of the Corps during his selection and training had no idea. He was assessed as an exceptional human, which is why he was assigned to this role in the first place.

"We cannot however go through with the DNA manipulation as we have no idea what would happen if he is half Grojan already."

The Grojan doctor took a step forward. "He is absolutely unique, sir, so we need to examine him fully. What if he has occurred naturally? What we are working towards with all this?" she waved her hand indicating the whole of the top-secret base. "It's a wonderful opportunity."

The C.O. frowned and looked between the eager faces of the two doctors facing him. "Will spending time and resources on this young officer aid us in our current work?"

The two doctors looked at one another. The human shrugged her shoulders. "Well no, sir, strictly speaking it won't, but..."

"Right, put him into a cryogenic sleep chamber and leave him to one side. We will study him, then deploy him once things have settled after this damn war." He sighed and almost to himself added, "I know the end is inevitable, but I still wish there was another way."

The doctors saluted. "Yes, sir." They both turned to leave, but then the human doctor hesitated. "Do you know, sir, what happened to the Grojan fleet that Captain Fuller escaped from?"

"Yes, they suffered heavy losses as they were overwhelmed by a vastly superior human fleet."