Since talking with Taylor about publishing his powers research on the web, Isaac was now faced with the mind-boggling task of transferring the information from his database into something readable.
Oh joy, oh prosper.
"Ike?"
"Ahh!" Isaac yelped.
Nikki stifled a giggle.
"Sorry," she said. "I knocked but..."
"Nikki!" Isaac exclaimed. "Oh, hey I'm been a bit absorbed. Wow, it's good to see you!"
He started to approach her, to give her a hug, then stopped, wondering if he should.
"I've umm, I'm been thinking."
Understatement of the century. No matter what My Lady said to her, she wasn't the one in a relationship with an alien. And if refusal to go back to Isaac meant that a telepath went through her mind and exposed her position with the Fudge Gang, so be it.
But the fact of the matter was that Nikki loved Isaac. And since My Lady was able to relieve her mind, Nikki found that she was able to assess the situation herself much more calmly.
"Yeah?" Isaac asked nervously.
"I'm sorry I freaked out."
"It's okay. It's a normal reaction."
"I've got questions."
"I thought you might," Isaac said gesturing to the lounge. "And look, before you rushed out of here the other night I was going to say that uhh... we are completely, erm... compatitable in that way."
Isaac looked a little red admitting that, and Nikki couldn't stop the giggle.
"Well, that's good. Because that's question number one."
"Ha, okay. Well, I... this is a fully functional human body. In fact it's the only body I've ever known, y'know. So yeah. And we are able to have kids," Isaac went on seriously. "Y'know. If our relationship ever went that far... uhh yeah. They would loose some of the adaptivity that I have, y'know, because they would have human DNA in them, and that would anchor them to a human body."
"But as you're always human I guess that's not really going to be an issue, huh?"
Isaac paused, considering telling her about the Adige and the space station, and decided to wait until she was used to the idea before bringing those up.
"Probably not," he agreed.
"Okay. So I'm guessing all your brothers and sisters are aliens too?"
"Given that Mom and Dad both are, yes."
Nikki smiled.
"Okay... so... how many of there are you?"
Isaac shrugged.
"It's hard to say. A lot of people died when the colony ship went down, and then we all scattered. A few years later a good of vigilante aliens went around looking for everyone - helping people, saving them from alien hunters, reconnecting everyone. They called it the Yes, I'm Really An Alien Society - YIRAAS."
Nikki giggled.
"Anyway, they're the major alien organisation. There are lots of other ones around, of course some of those are criminal, so yeah."
"Criminal?"
"Of course. Aliens have their criminal element too," Isaac nodded. "No different from humans or mutants. We do out best to police them, but YIRAAS Security usually sticks to the major stuff."
"Major stuff?"
"Murder, major theft, kidnappings, that kind of thing. Petty crime like shop lifting and jaywalking and whatever is usually dismissed. We let those guilty ones go through the human law courts. Of course, aliens are a tad harder to keep in jail seeing as how we can do this..." Isaac demonstrated but passing hishand through the lounge. "But you win some you loose some, I guess. They'll also go after people who might try to expose us publically."
Nikki licked her lips, trying to compose herself after seeing Isaac's hand go through the lounge.
"Why keep yourselves secret?"
"Have you seen the way mutants are treated?" Isaac asked.
"Good point."
"A lot of world governments know about us though. We're signing peace treaties and stuff and trying to help the mutants get equal rights and stuff. Seems like a fair trade given that we're sometimes had to tell people we're mutants."
"I can see this is more complicated than I thought," Nikki said, then her eyes narrowed. "There aren't any initiation or mating or whatever rituals or something that I should know about, is there?"
"What? No," Isaac replied. "I mean... well, I've grown up with every thing so I don't think it's all that much different from the human world. We're like mutants, only with much funkier DNA."
Nikki giggled.
"Okay for a while it may be a little mind-boggling, especially when you discover all the stuff we've been doing right under your nose," Isaac said mischeviously. "But give it say, a year, and you'll be completely integrated. It's all good."
"You guys don't do any Stephford Wives stuff or anything, do you?"
"What?" Isaac blinked.
"Y'know... the movie where they replace all the wives with robots."
"Uh, yeah I know what it's about... What brought on the question?"
"I dunno. Something about the use of the word integrated... sounded omnious."
Isaac laughed.
"No we're not going to replace you with a robot, a clone, a shapeshifter or anything else of that ilk. You get to be you still, just with access to this other world that been under your nose the whole time, and you didn't even know it."
Nikki smiled and took a deep breath.
"Well," she said. "I think you'd better start introducing me. Because I want you as mart of my life, Isaac Hanson. And if that means I have to learn to play nice with aliens, then I guess I ahve to play nice with aliens."
There are no words to describe the joy that appeared on Isaac's face at that declaration, and it could only be followed up with a passionate kiss.