Max opened up the door to his and Liz' apartment on the space station to see Danielle Spencer, YIRAAS Council member, and assistant to the Elder.
"Danielle!" he exclaimed. "This is a plesant surprise."
Danielle smiled.
"This isn't a social call, Max, I'm here on business."
"Oh?"
"The Elder has arranged for a meeting for you and Liz with him."
Max stared.
"He has? What for?"
Danielle shrugged.
"I don't know. But the meeting is scheduled for now," she said pointedly.
Max nodded.
"I'll get Liz."
He zipped into the bedroom where Liz was reading in bed.
"Liz?"
"Yes?"
"You need to get dressed. We have a meeting with the Elder. Now."
"Now?" Liz frowned.
"The Elder is only the most important person on and off the planet," Max said. "When he says jump you say -"
"How high?" Liz mused, getting out of bed.
"After you've already started jumping."
"Ahh."
Liz dressed quickly, and she and Max followed Danielle to the Elder's office.
And what an office it was! There were a couple of lounges, a coffee table, a small but effective kitchenette, a large computer monitor, coupled with a specialised keyboard and mouse that could be used from the lounges. The Elder was sitting at this moment, newspaper in hand and a hot drink sitting on a coaster on the coffee table.
"Have a seat," Danielle said, gestured.
Nervously, the two sat down on the opposite lounge. It was silent for a moment, and then the Elder put down the newspaper.
"Ahh, so good of you to come so soon," he said plesantly.
"It's our pleasure, sir," Max said.
The Elder waved him away.
"Don't call me sir," he said. "It makes me feel old."
"You're 348," Danielle pointed out.
"Bah, I barely feel a day older than 30," the Elder dismissed. "Now, I understand that you've been turning into a Semirellian, Liz?"
Liz stared.
"Well, yes, it looks that way... how did you know?"
"Very little escapes my notice. Of course, sometimes it takes awhile to get there," he said with a pointed look at Danielle.
Danielle just smiled knowingly.
"Do... do you know anything?" Max asked tentatively. "I mean, I guess you know that we've been trying to research into it."
"What you need to know is not in any of the old files," the Elder replied. "The SPM downloaded those files into their own devices, and deleted our copies. How much they have of the old files is unknown - as we all know, many of those old files were destoryed or corrupted in the crash. We only managed to save about twenty percent at the most."
"What's the SPM?" Liz asked.
"The Semiellian Purist Movement," the Elder frowned, then looked at Max, "You haven't told her?"
"Told me what?"
"I don't know all that much about them," Max admitted. "All I really know is that they were responsible for our parents leaving Michael, Isabel and I in those stasis pods - what we thought were incubation pods. They object to pur family being the royal family."
The Elder sighed.
"I see I'm going to have to clear up a few areas you're ignorant in," he said. "As with all the colony ships, the Semirellian Royal house chose out of the Semirellian colonists the family meant to be the Semirellian Royal family of the new planet. There is a ritual conducted to chemically alter the family so that the ruler and heir are always identifiable, and designated. What's more, there is a backup process. The alteration is linked to a special device which is officially known as the Semirellian Royal House Globe, although it's generally referred to as 'the device'. It's a fail safe - so that if the heir of the royal family is ever lost, and the current ruler is dead, we will know that the heir is still alive."
"So that's why no new royal family was declared when my parents died, and they couldn't find us!" Max exclaimed.
"Exactly. The device was linked to you, even through a stasis pod," the Elder nodded. "So a device was assigned to our ship and the designated royal family. The ritual cannot be done until the family is on the soil of the planet they are going to the the royals done, because certain samples of the environment are required. In this, every ritual is unique. It also keeps unscrupulous Sems from declaring themselves the royal family."
"How?"
The Elder shook his head.
"The ritual is followed to the letter, but the knowledge on how to create the devices and how the chemical change works is restricted. Some think that the knowledge is lost. Others think that it requires a certain combination of Ultra Rare powers to create the devices which are essential to both the ritual and the continued extistance of the royal family."
The Elder paused to have a sip of his drink.
"When the colony ship crashed, all members of the intended royal family were killed. Now, by tradition, in such a case the royal family is designated by who has the most children - Sem feritily being what it is, they like to make sure of future generations and succession. There were two families with two children. One couple had been friends with both their home planet's royal family and with the intended one. They were used to power, and they wanted to make sure of their continued power. Their children were also older. The younger couple were hardworking, and popular with the more common Sems. They were also less assuming, and the older couple took advantage of this to press their urgentcy to be declared the royal family of Earth, and the ritual conducted. The device was still under lock and key, for the Daths refused to release it until the problem was solved. At my suggestion, a vote was held. But then some interesting things happened. There was an attempt at fixing the vote, and when that was found out, there was an attempt to steal the device."
"The older couple, right?" Max asked.
"And their co-horts," the Elder confirmed. "After these incidences, a fresh vote was taken, but it was unneccesary. There were many Sems how has previously sided with the older couple that changed their minds after these attempts. They were not the royal family they wanted to live under. The ritual was conducted, and the younger family was declared the Semirellian Royal family of Earth. By this point, the colonists needed to split up, those who hadn't already, because of the human interest. Interest we did not want! After the years, however, we started to reconnect with each other. YIRAAS was the first. Then came SPM. Founded by the older family, and their loyal friends, who believed that they were the true Royal Family. They weren't called that formally, at the time, although their pursuit of the ruling family was well noted. Their named started when Sems stared interbreeding with humans. They believe that Sem blood should not be diluted with their weak, powerless DNA."
Liz frowned.
"They took the word 'purist' to the extreme, they only give their children Sem names, and any new recruits are given Sem names. They pursued your parents relentlessly," the Elder went on. "Eventaully, they and their righthand man, and his wife, put their three children into stasis pod to protect them, and hid them."
Max nodded.
"When word reached us off their death, we natually assumed their children were dead too. It was a race to get to the device - for whoever had control of it could conduct the ritual for the new family. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that there was a living heir! We arrived at the location the same time the SPM, and frankly, despite their ideals, I wouldn't be surprised if they had destroyed it. But then," the Elder mused, "any designated royal family would not be considered legit without the mark of the chemical change. So, perhaps, they may not have. Only one was given to the planet, and not even they had a way of making a new one. We were searching for you for years."
"If the stasis pods didn't loose power, would we have ever been found?" Max asked.
The Elder shrugged.
"I hope so. But we can't know. We can only be glad that they did, and that you grew up."
"Why... why do you suppose they put us in the stasis pods? Wouldn't it have been better if we had been able to grow up when we were supposed to?" Max asked.
"I couldn't tell you what their motives were. They were fighting a terrible, unneccesary battle. Probably their first thought was to keep you safe, and didn't think they could do that while you were all still so young. Now. Coming back to Liz's... problem."
"Yes?" asked Liz anxiously.
"The SPM do have one thing right - the Sems are passionate about keeping their royal line pure. The fact that Max married a human rankles the SPM for more reason than one. However, the history of the time when the device was first created, was that the Sems didn't want their royal lines being diluted with Dath blood. However, it was also a romantic era. The sides warred frequently."
The Elder sat back, an amused look on his face.
"There is a tale, some say an old wives tale, a myth, if you will, that a young Sem Prince married a Dath. But then one day, his wife became a Sem, and so when the Prince inherited the throne, all their children were pure-blood Sems - bar the chemical alteration."
Max and Liz looked at each other.
"You... you mean the chemical change in me causes Liz to..."
The Elder nodded.
"It's not widely publisized. I doubt if the SPM know, or if they do, they've dismissed it out of hand."
"Then if... if Isabel gets married to Alex... he'll change too?"
"The story did mention a Sem Prince. That Prince was the next in line though... although, if you two should go before provideing an heir, then Isabel would be the next in line," the Elder considered. "I couldn't say for certain, only that it's likely. Also... I couldn't say if it was the act of marriage that causes the change to start, or if it is sex that causes it. The latter would make more sense, as I don't see how any chemical change could know one from the other. You may want to advise Isabel of this, just to make sure, hmm?"
"Yes, a good idea."
"So, it's true. I'm turning into a Sem," Liz breathed. "Just so that Max and I will have pure Sem children?"
"I believe so."
"That's insane."
The Elder smiled.
"Now, we all know that the Elder doesn't like to be bothered by trivia," he said ironically, "but someone's DNA changing is hardly 'trivia'. You two should have asked for an audience with me sooner."
He wagged a finger at him.
"Next time, talk to me."
"We will," Max smiled. "Just one more thing... where's the device now?"
"Well out of the hands of the SPM. We guarded it on Earth until the space station was built, and a special chamber was set aside just for it. Woul you like to see it?"
"Yes, please, if we can."
The Elder stood.
"My dear boy," he said. "You are the Semirellian King of Earth. If you cannot see it, no one can."