He could feel the armor on his back growing again.
If he didn't maintain his calm, he would be bursting out of the back of his coat. That would not look good for this meeting.
"Surely Xaul has explained the state of the information," Khalzin said. He didn't want to give a science lesson, just his goals for fixing the problem.
"He has. In his very clinical way," the member said. "You explain it to me. Because right now, it sounds like a bunch of made-up nonsense that means nothing to our people.”
Khalzin glanced at his father.
The man looked ready to leap over the table and throttle the speaking member.
In that non-committal way, his father had.
"Simply put, our people are going to become one family line soon. In a few generations, the Kantenans will no longer be a species of such strong and varying beauty and gifts. We will all be related, and the rainbow of reds and browns we see among our people will be gone. It also means we will be more susceptible to disease and bio-chemical attack because we all will have the same cells in our bodies."
He took a step forward, remembering the Coalition member's name. Or maybe it was his family's reputation. "Hawn, your family is known for their strength and power. That will fade away." He turned to another member. "The intellect born to the Aukrae genome will also lose its individuality. When we all become intermixed, there will no longer be the strong elements that make our different lines who they are. We will lose what makes us special. And we will be in danger of being wiped out by another, more ambitious species.”
Hawn glanced at the Speaker and nodded.
"You believe you have a solution to this?" his mother asked.
"My data points me in a singular direction."
"Which is?" His mother asked.
"To bring in new genomes to inter-breed with ours."
There was a gasp in the room.
It was such a far-fetched idea. He knew it would be met with a great deal of rejection.
Especially from his mother. Her position as the Priestess of Light was to preserve the Kantenan way of life, and part of that was that they were a pure species with very little interbreeding. They remained isolated enough that they could maintain that kind of existence.
Unfortunately, it was going to wind up destroying them, as well, if they continued.
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Speaker asked. "Just bringing in a bunch of other species and see if anything works?"
Khalzin shrugged. "In a matter of speaking, yes.”
"And how is that going to help us? If we really need help in the first place. I am still not convinced," another member quipped, Oleave.
"It matters not what you think, Oleave," his mother said. "We need a majority. Not unified vote."
Oleave rolled his eyes and puffed out his chest.
Speaker interrupted. "Do you have a plan to bring in new genomes to our people?"
Khalzin slowly nodded. "The Galactic Alliance."
"Not their foolish exchange program," Oleave said.
"It seemed the fastest and easiest way to bring in new genomes and to determine which humanoid species will be the most compatible with us. If a Kantenan meets a compatible female, then they should have the typical Kantenan responses, and we will know immediately if we have the potential for mating."
His father took a few steps forward. "Here is where my testing has come into play. There are several humanoid species out there in the galaxy that have the potential to mate with us and have been proven to have growth."
"But can they carry one of our children to term?" Oleave asked. "Finding a mate outside of our people has never been a problem. It was finding one that could carry our child."
"I believe it can work," Khalzin said. "If the connection is there. If our armor grows upon meeting the potential, then we know the humanoid has the ability to carry--"
