Torrent(98)

No, made it to Phoenix safely. Ran the blood.
I paused, afraid to ask. Aside from a gold coin, an item that could have been minted anywhere, and the sword, an item a soldier had dismissed as a toy at first glance, we didn’t have any proof that there were strange... people from a strange culture roaming Arizona. Without proof, any article I attempted to submit about our encounter would be laughed into the rejection pile. But the blood... the blood was something tangible.
And? I prompted when a follow-up didn’t come through on its own. A long message popped up as soon as I sent mine. Autumn must have been working on it already.
It doesn’t match anything in the database, and the database is extensive. We have the DNA of weeds from the Galapagos Islands in here. Just about every mammal and reptile, and lots of birds and fish as well. Interestingly your sample is closest to human, albeit with a few inexplicable anomalies.
Aside from the fact that it exists?
Yeah. It’s closer to us than chimpanzees, as close as Neanderthals maybe. We’re perplexed by the fact that it doesn’t have a recognizable blood type.
We? I almost hit the icon to call her—I wasn’t ready to have this turned into some highly publicized find for reporters to paw over. But if she wasn’t alone... text messaging might be more discreet.
Autumn wrote, I’ve had a couple of perplexed scientists and professors in here with some interesting ideas. Outer space came up. Normally I would have LOLed at the guy, but he’s a chemist and pointed out the mercury level in the blood would probably kill a human—he thought it might make sense that its owner had evolved on a different planet with a much higher concentration of mercury. The biologist is still arguing with him, saying it’s too close to human DNA to have evolved anywhere except here. Being the science fiction fan I am, I suggested it was a traveler from the future, from when we’ve finished goobering up our environment, and there are higher concentrations of mercury on the planet.
“Why don’t you two talk to each other?” Temi whispered when she leaned in and saw the amount of text on the screen.
I shook my head. “We’re almost done.” As I spoke, I texted, File it as weird, I guess. I’m not sure the owners of the blood are still alive. We had a terrifying adventure today. Stop by on your way back, and I’ll tell you about it.
“Weird?” Simon was kibitzing over my shoulder now too. “File it as weird? Tell her to file it as the first elf DNA in the database.”
I snorted. “I don’t know why but that sounds even less plausible than aliens and travelers from the future.”
“Yes, but we don’t have a ray gun. We have a magic sword.” He lifted up the long blade, which did absolutely nothing magical for him. He held it out to Temi. She touched the cross-guard, and the sword lit up.
I blinked slowly. Things I’d been too busy to think about down in that cavern started clicking into place. “Oh.”
The others looked at me.
I held up a finger and sent another message to Autumn. Hey, one more question. Does your biologist think the owner of that blood could mate with a human and produce viable offspring?
“Ohhh,” Simon said, watching over my shoulder again. “Interesting.”
Temi leaned forward, wanting a look too. I held up a finger while we waited for a response. I imagined the debate that must be going on in some genetics lab at U of A. If these scientists had been there all day on a Saturday, it probably involved pizza and beer. A lot of beer if aliens had been proposed.
Maybe, came the response. We already tested it for compatibility with human blood types.
And?
It’s academic at this point, but the blood group—we’re calling it Tomko after the hematologist who came in to take a look—isn’t... incompatible, not on paper anyway.
Not a resounding yes, but probably as close as you’d get from a bunch of scientists. I tossed the phone to Temi so she could read the dialogue, but I couldn’t resist sharing spoilers.
“Congratulations, Artemis. Somewhere in your bloodline, there was a...” I groped in the air for a word that probably didn’t exist in our language.
“Elf,” Simon supplied.
I rolled my eyes, but didn’t contradict him. Unless Eleriss and Jakatra showed up and told us what they called themselves, we’d never know.
Temi’s “Uh” response managed to convey skepticism and a lack of enthusiasm at the same time.
I supposed it was a testament to my oddness that I was jealous. I wanted to be able to make the sword glow so I could fight any heinous monsters that showed up to trouble humanity. I didn’t want to be the grunt, as Simon had called us. Though I was somewhat mollified to realize he was in the same boat. Not special. A muggle. So much for being a mastermind.