53. Jasmine

Curious, Jasmine approached the remaining stasis chamber and peered in, straining to make out the figure"s details. The curved dome that covered the pod was semi-transparent, the glass-like material transitioning from a deep, opaque brown at the base to a lighter, more translucent shade at the top.

She leaned forward, intent on pressing her face against the cool surface to get a better look, but Aru"s hand on her shoulder stopped her short.

"Don"t look," he said. "It"s not a pretty sight."

Jasmine hesitated momentarily, a flicker of disappointment passing through her, but she knew Aru was right.

"I know." She took a step back from the chamber. "I heard Julian saying that he"s almost a skeleton."

The words felt strange on her tongue, the pronoun slipping out before she could stop it. Somehow, though, she knew that it was true. The chamber"s occupant was male, the brother of the female twin who had been taken away first.

Jasmine frowned. "How did the twins survive while everyone else in their pod died?"

Aru regarded her with a thoughtful expression. "Didn"t Edgar tell you about the twins being different from the other occupants of the pod?"

"They were royal, a prince and a princess, and the others were either their guards or servants, meaning not royal."

He smiled. "Well, yes, I assume that"s true, but that"s not the only way these two are different. The Kra-ell are a long-lived species compared to humans, but they are not immortal and cannot enter stasis without a stasis chamber. The twins, on the other hand, are only half Kra-ell. The other half of their genetic makeup was contributed by their father, who was a god, and unlike the Kra-ell, gods are immortal. They can enter stasis unaided and remain in that state almost indefinitely. When the pod malfunctioned, and the stasis chambers stopped providing life-support, the pureblooded Kra-ell died, while the hybrids survived."

"What does it mean to enter stasis? Is it like hibernation?"

Aru nodded. "In a way, stasis is an extreme form of hibernation. Hibernation is a complex, adaptive strategy crucial for survival in extreme conditions. The metabolic rate slows to conserve energy. Body temperature, heart rate, and breathing rate all decrease to minimal levels." He gestured to the chamber behind them, his eyes tracing the sleek lines of the alien device. "Stasis chambers are designed to keep their occupants alive and in suspended animation for extended periods. Gods use them on long interstellar flights to preserve their bodies and arrive at their destinations in good shape, not looking like these two."

Jasmine shuddered as her mind conjured up images of countless horror movies she had seen. Zombies, reanimated corpses, and the living dead seemed to blur together in her imagination. Why had she even watched those nightmarish landscapes of decay and despair?

It had been a phase, a time in her life when she"d believed it was crucial to get exposed to as many genres as possible and learn what she could from them.

She"d once auditioned for a role in a low-budget horror film and had been relieved when she hadn"t gotten the part. She"d found the prospect of spending hours in the makeup chair unappealing, and the thought of having her face caked with prosthetics and fake blood wasn"t pleasant either. Even worse was the idea of being surrounded by other actors in similar makeup. It had just made her skin crawl.

Shaking her head, she took another step away from the stasis chamber. "I thought that the royals were Kra-ell. Oddly, none of you mentioned that they were half-gods."

"I thought you knew," Aru said. "Besides, I didn"t believe that we would find them, so it was irrelevant. Also, we weren"t sure that they were indeed half-gods. There were rumors, but it"s not done on our home planet. The two species do not intermingle, and it"s considered a taboo by both." He waved a hand at the stasis chamber. "Their survival confirmed that their father was a god."

Earth had witnessed its own share of strange taboos on interfaith and interracial marriages, so Jasmine wasn"t shocked that two species that differed so much in appearance and longevity placed taboos on having hybrid offspring.

It suddenly occurred to her that the twins" paternal genes could have made them look more like gods than Kra-ell and therefore, more human.

After all, Aru and his teammates were gods and looked like the best version of humans.

"So, if the twins are not fully Kra-ell, do they look more like their father or mother?" she asked.

Aru shrugged. "Given their current state, it"s hard to tell, but I guess they will have some traits from both parents."

Jasmine"s brow furrowed in confusion, her head tilting to the side as she regarded Aru with a questioning gaze. "I don"t understand. If there was such a strong taboo on intermixing, wouldn"t that have been a problem for the queen if her kids looked like gods even a little bit?"

Aru sighed, his expression turning somber. "That"s why their mother consecrated them to the priesthood from a very young age. They were always veiled from head to toe, their faces and bodies hidden from the public. Some speculated that they were deformed in some way and that their mother sought to hide their imperfections from the world. Others whispered that they were the product of an illicit affair, a forbidden union between the queen and a god during their years in the resistance when the queen was still just the heir apparent."

Jasmine felt sympathy for the twins, her heart aching at the thought of the prejudice and scorn they must have faced. "Were they in danger? What would have happened to them if anyone discovered that they were hybrids?" She had a good idea but was afraid to hear the answer.

Aru"s jaw tightened. "If the Kra-ell had discovered that the twins were not purebloods, they would have been slaughtered without mercy along with their mother, the queen." He shook his head. "Not that they would have fared much better if they were discovered to be truly deformed. The Kra-ell are a cruel people in many ways, primitive and warlike. They have a long history of culling the weak and the imperfect from their ranks."

Jasmine felt a chill run down her spine at Aru"s words, a sense of horror and revulsion washing over her. What kind of people would have done that to innocent children just because they were different?

"The current Kra-ell queen is trying to change things," Aru continued. "She"s working to end the practice of killing off children deemed less than perfect. But the taboo against intermingling is still going strong. Both societies see the offspring of such unions as abominations, feared and reviled."

Jasmine swallowed hard, her throat tight with anger and sorrow. It was unfathomable to her that someone could be hated and persecuted simply for the circumstances of their birth.

It was no wonder that they had been sent away in a desperate bid for survival. Their mother had done everything she could to save them.

She must have been such an incredibly brave and foolish female. Why had she risked her life to have an affair with a god?

Had they been in love? Or had it been an act of rebellion?

"You said that the queen got pregnant with the twins when she was still a princess and that she met their father when they both took part in a rebellion. Who were they rebelling against and why?"

Aru smiled. "That"s a long story. Let"s save it for the flight back home."