The Cycles of Revelation Series

Artifact of the Dawn: Telomeres (A Queer Sci-Fi Adventure)

Episode 75: After analyzing everything related to the pair-bonding ritual, the two chief Med Techs uncover why Medellans need to pair-bond.

Tamaryn looked at their confused expressions and chuckled. “I am sorry. Let me try to explain. When you told us that a Medellan’s lifespan is only about thirty years, I immediately thought there must be a problem with your telomeres.”

“What is a tele… mere?” Jevan asked.

Amyra began inputting something into the display console. “To put it as simply as possible, your telomeres help to protect your chromosomes from becoming damaged or breaking down.”

When Amyra saw Jevan about to pose another question, she raised a hand. “Before you ask, your chromosomes make up your entire genetic structure. They make you who you are. Everything from your height and your gray eyes to those silly round ears of yours. Let me show you.”

Amyra changed the large display and brought up an image of something that reminded Jevan of four sausages tied together in the middle. “This is a chromosome. It’s made of that DNA I mentioned before. This contains all the information your body needs to make you what you are,” Amyra explained.

Jevan looked at Ardyn, beginning to understand. “So, these chromosomes are why Ardyn has such pale skin and mine is so dark?”

“Yes, exactly,” Amyra confirmed before pointing to the four ends of the chromosome, making them change color. “The very end of each chromosome is where your telomeres are. The longer the telomeres, the longer your lifespan is likely to be. In many species, telomeres eventually shorten. That causes us to age and eventually die. When we die of old age, it is because our telomeres have shortened to where our chromosomes break down.”

“So, the Medellan lifespan is short because we are born with short telomeres?” Jevan asked for clarification.

“Yes, exactly,” Amyra replied. “The ritual that you perform when you pair-bond fixes the problem. From our analysis, it looks like there is a naturally occurring bacterium on this planet that is in your blood. They remain dormant until they are introduced to the alloy in the chalice. That’s when they go into a frenzy of reproduction and hyperactivity. A side-effect of that hyperactivity causes them to repair the telomeres.”

Furrowing his brow, Jevan wasn’t sure he understood that correctly. “If putting the infected blood of one person in contact with that special alloy fixes the problem, why must we bond with another?”

“That’s the complicated part,” Tamaryn admitted. “While the bacteria repair the telomeres, it requires the genetic code of two people to make the repairs work. The bacteria need to take parts from the telomeres of each person to build new, longer telomeres.”

“So, once the pair washes each other’s hand in the mixed blood, it introduces these new hyperactive bacteria into both of their bodies, and that’s what increases our lifespan?” Marta asked, clearly grasping the concept faster than Jevan was able to.

“Exactly!” Amyra confirmed.

“You’ve also said that there is some sort of bonding that occurs at an emotional and possibly sexual level?” Tamaryn asked. “I think I can explain that as well. Once the hyperactive bacteria have been introduced into the pair’s bloodstream, they affect other systems besides fixing the telomeres. I suspect they affect parts of the brain as well, specifically the ones related to sexual and emotional attraction.”

“After bonding, why does having sex with someone other than a bondmate cause death?” Mathias asked. “It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve seen it within my lifetime.”

“Based on our initial analysis, the bacteria remain active, but eventually stop being hyperactive,” Tamaryn replied. “I have some ideas about what might cause that, but I’d need to run further tests to confirm it.”

“What we haven’t figured out yet is how the bacteria go from the state of hyperactivity to the lower-level activity we detected in Jenira,” Amyra said.

Mathias cleared his throat and looked at Ardyn nervously. “There… there is one other part of the ritual I forgot to mention. Perhaps that might explain why?”

“What else is there?” Jevan asked. “I don’t recall anything else beyond what you already told us.”

With a deep breath, Mathias turned to Jevan. “The last part is more private. The pair must consummate the union within two days. I never understood why, but the ancient texts emphasize it. In fact, as ard, I’m required to witness the coupling to ensure it occurs.”

Jevan noticed Ardyn seemed nervous at the prospect of that. Great, not another forced mating. Ardyn’s been through enough. I was hoping we might eventually become intimate, but I don’t want to force it on him.

Amyra put that additional information into the computer and ran another simulation with the blood samples she’d taken earlier. “Yes, that’s it! The release of hormones during copulation puts the bacteria into a more normal state of activity. That is truly remarkable!”

“But how is any of this compatible with Athla’naa physiology?” Marta asked. “Your species isn’t born with these broken telomeres, are you?”

“That is an excellent question. You are correct. We do not have this flaw in our telomeres. In fact, ours are longer than the ones we saw in Jenira, which explains why our lifespans are longer than Medellans,” Amyra said. “The good news is that based on the simulations we ran, we see nothing that would show this would be harmful. Since our telomeres are intact, the bacteria would have nothing to repair. In fact, we predict that by merging parts of our telomeres with a Medellan’s, it may add even more years to their life.”

Ardyn and Jevan both smiled with relief at the news.

“This is all fascinating,” Marta said. “It’s well-known that the pair-bond is necessary, although none of the historical records explain why. I wonder how our ancestors discovered this longevity process?”

“Do you know what’s more puzzling to me?” Tamaryn pondered aloud. “How did the Medellan genetic structure develop this flaw? I cannot imagine you developed that way naturally. Something must have damaged your DNA. Given your level of technology, it’s quite remarkable that your people stumbled across the exact way to compensate for the damage.”

“There is a lot of our ancient past we don’t know,” Marta admitted. “It’s one of the research projects I plan to work on when I return to Ateria.”

Amyra brought up some images of local wildlife, including a triwolf and some jumpers. “While we’re on the subject, do you know why Medellans are the only species on this planet with only two eyes? All fauna I’ve seen has three eyes. I’ve been meaning to do a deeper DNA analysis of the flora and fauna of this world, but I haven’t had the time yet.”

“Our scientists speculated that an ancient ancestor species of ours must have lost its need for a third eye before they evolved into us,” Marta replied. “We have found no fossil evidence of that yet, but we keep looking.”

This was the first time Jevan really thought about this. “I guess I thought sentient species like us or the Athla’naa only needed two eyes. What about you, Ardyn?”

Ardyn’s demeanor had changed, his ears drooping as he ducked his head. “I am ashamed to admit it never occurred to me that because Medellans had two eyes, that it put them on equal standing with Athla’naa.”

Tamaryn looked surprised at this, so Jevan clarified. “Ardyn’s people used to refer to us as athla’maahk.”

“Oh, my, that is quite the insult,” Tamaryn said, before laughing. “Or… it could be a compliment, depending on how you look at it. Are you a complete beast in the bedroom, perhaps?”

Jevan laughed with Tamaryn. “Well, you know… I can become quite feral,” he teased, laughing even harder at Ardyn’s horrified expression, which slowly dissolved into laughter. Soon, everyone was laughing.

It took a moment for everyone to regain their composure before Marta could ask her next question. “What is the fauna like on your homeworld, Tamaryn? Do any have more than two eyes?”

Taking a breath, he shook his head. “All the species on Aria’naa only evolved to have two eyes. So having a world where all the animals evolved with three, except for the single sentient species, is highly unusual.”

“Well, I’ll leave that mystery for you to solve,” Jevan said. “Because I think we might have a pair-bonding to plan, right, Ardyn?”

Moving away from him slightly, Ardyn nodded slowly. “When the time is right. There is much to discuss first, I think.”

The room grew silent and Jevan stared at Ardyn. Wait, did I do something wrong?