2. Ell-rom

2

ELL-ROM

E ll-rom couldn't find fault with Jasmine's reasoning, and given Aru's contemplative expression, neither could he.

The god turned to one of his companions. "What do you think, Dagor?"

"It might work if the transfer is done quickly." Dagor rubbed a hand over his jaw. "Provided that our trackers only transmit locations, not biomarkers. We were not given details about what was implanted in our bodies. The old trackers the Kra-ell had in them were good only for pinpointing coordinates, but ours might be much more advanced."

It made sense that the technology had improved in the time between the deployment of the settler ship and the departure of the interstellar cruiser that had brought the three gods to Earth.

"We can test it," Negal said. "I volunteer to be the first one. We can remove it from me and put it in a human. If the commander contacts us and asks what's happening, we will know that the thing transmits biomarkers."

"How will we explain it?" Dagor asked.

Negal shrugged. "We can tell him that I got seriously injured, and the human doctor attending me removed the tracker, thinking it was a foreign object."

Aru arched a brow. "And the doctor immediately put the tracker in himself for some reason? That's not going to fly."

"What if you put the tracker into Dagor?" Jasmine suggested. "It'll still transmit godly biomarkers, just slightly different, and that can be blamed on the supposed injury."

Dagor shook his head. "That's not a good test for two reasons. If the tracker is not sensitive enough to pick up the differences between us and the commander doesn't inquire about it, we won't know if it just can't differentiate between two gods or between a god and a human. We have to put it in a human and develop a plausible story for the commander in case he asks us what happened."

"I volunteer," Jasmine said. "You can put the tracker in me."

To say that Ell-rom wasn't happy about her offer was putting it mildly.

Jasmine couldn't be their test subject because she was about to transition. It wasn't happening yet because of his accursed aversion to blood and his inability to bite her, but hopefully, he would find a way to get over that and start her induction.

Who knew what that foreign object could do to her transitioning body?

Besides, what if the thing was poisonous to her while she was still a human?

After all, the gods were impervious to diseases, so they didn't need to worry about foreign objects in their bodies.

And that triggered another question. How come their bodies hadn't rejected the trackers?

They should have expelled them.

Aru shook his head. "Thank you for your generous offer, Jasmine, but I'd rather not put the tracker in you. I like your idea about hiring volunteers, and I'd prefer to put it inside a human we can send to Tibet to continue the search. The biggest obstacle to your brilliant plan is coming up with a plausible explanation for our commander in case the trackers transmit biomarkers like Dagor suspects."

Jasmine chuckled. "Just feign ignorance. We can put it in me for a short while and then put it back in Negal. If your commander asks, you can say that you have no idea what happened because you were anesthetized throughout the procedure."

Aru rubbed the back of his head. "That could work, but I don't know if a short time is enough for the test. We can still feign ignorance and say that Negal underwent a procedure, but we don't know what happened to the tracker. We had no idea the medic had even touched it." He turned to Negal. "What do you think?"

The god snorted. "I'm not the mastermind here. If the commander confronts you about it, we will have to come up with one hell of a story about the supposed medic and her motives for implanting herself with the tracker she found."

"I have a question," Ell-rom said. "How is it possible that your self-healing bodies do not recognize the trackers as foreign objects and expel them?"

Aru shrugged. "They are most likely designed to fool our bodies into accepting them by mimicking our genetics. I'm pretty sure they used our genetic material to coat the trackers, or maybe the whole thing is a biological device. It's not like we've taken one of them out and examined it, and ours are obviously very different from what was inside the Kra-ell."

"Then how would a human's body accept this thing?" Ell-rom reached for Jasmine's hand under the table and squeezed it. "How can you be sure they won't harm Jasmine or the volunteers?"

She rolled her eyes. "What harm can a thing the size of a grain of rice do to me? There is only so much tech they can cram into it, and I'm sure there is no space left for explosives or poisons or whatever else you are imagining. Besides, it's morally wrong to expect a random human to volunteer for it without telling him or her about the danger and while suspecting that it could harm them. Since I'm the only human here, and I know what it is all about, I should be the one to test it. The medics are already in the keep and have surgical facilities in the clinic."

"Dear Fates!" Dagor suddenly exclaimed. "We could be in big trouble. I bet that when William checked Ell-rom and Morelle, he didn't consider the possibility that the trackers could be biological and match our genetics." He looked at Ell-rom. "You still might have it inside of you, which means the Eternal King could be aware of your survival."