Infertility

Genaw swam to my side and had me wrap my arms around him while he swam with me on his back to the healing facility. I was set on an examination table while he called for several other Aequos Patrius. Several spines were stuck in my lower back around the new vertebrae.

I gasped and twisted.

Their hands kept me from falling off while my body writhed on the table. The off feeling encompassed my entire lower back where the vertebrae had been replaced. I felt a few spines get pulled out and new ones take their place. Whatever the spines were covered in, seemed to pull the feeling from my back, despite the twisting and curling getting worse. I felt ill the more I squirmed on the table. Finally it was bad enough, I threw up. I threw up semi-digested sea vegetables and watched as several fish gobbled it up, keeping the water around me clean.

I groaned and cried.

I felt crappy; worse than I had before I emptied my stomach of food. My twisting and curling started to slow and the spines were pulled out. Genaw's hands pressed along my strengthened spine. He was checking to make sure the vertebrae remained in proper alignment instead of being continually bent as happened before the fish with Vortex disease died, no longer able to swim. I closed my eyes as my body finally stilled. The odd feeling was gone from my back. My teeth chattered and I shivered.

"Lexian?" Genaw asked.

"Cold."

He lifted me from the table.

I gripped his arm and curled into his hold as he took me from the room. I shivered against his chest and rested my head against his shoulder.

"You'll be fine now, Lexian. You can relax."

I shook my head and held tighter to him.

Genaw took me to another section of the underwater healing facility. He bent down and set me on a mussel, but I didn't let go. Gently, he tried to pull my hands from his arms and I cried harder. Genaw lay beside me pulling several seaweed blankets over us. His arm rested over my waist and his other hand ran through my hair until I cried myself to sleep.

I woke to my tail moving in tandem with Genaw's. I felt sprays enter my reproductive organs. My constant arousal softened and I felt bile rise in my throat as my guts churned with mild nausea. Our connection hadn't left me pregnant and I was puzzled. If the gift Unmar forced on me really did allow me to have all possible genetic combinations then why was I not pregnant? Had there been other changes with the reception of this gift that prevented conception? Was Unmar the only one who could get me to conceive? Something about that did not feel true, but whatever memories I might have that would give me the answers I wanted would not surface.

Genaw's hand brushed a few hairs from my face, distracting my thoughts. He lightly kissed the infinity sign on my temple.

"Genaw?" I asked.

"I didn't mean to wake you," he said.

"You didn't."

"…Was there something you wanted?"

"What tests do you run to check for fertility?"

"We do a hologram scan and fluid tests."

"Will you teach me more about what is looked at during these tests?"

"Sure."

He took my hand and we swam to the hologram room. In the air above the table, he pulled up several different images of Aequos Patrius sex organs—both sexes. He left the healthy ones up as he rotated through the others that gave some indication of infertility. He stopped longer on Queen Teryn's organs at my request while I pondered King Bosnan's request. He did the same with King Bosnan's.

I could see nothing in either of their organs to explain Queen Teryn's inability to carry a child to term. Still, something was going on with one or both of them. I nodded once I was done observing King Bosnan's organs and Genaw continued to flip though the other images. There was one male whose image looked as if he had a penis held inside the body cavity. I stopped him from flipping the image.

"Do you have a question, Lexian?"

"This image is the most different than the others."

"It is. Something about how these tubes grew has made this individual unable to pass the sperm properly so they are dead before they are fully expelled from the body."

"I also notice that this is the only Aequos Patrius who doesn't have a penis externally when the tail is not in place."

"Correct."

"What were the fluid results for this individual?"

"Healthy. But there was no way to operate on the tubing without damaging the other organs in the area."

"That image is yours, isn't it?"

"It is," admitted softly. "None of our techniques help to correct this."

"I do not understand. The tubes are merely folded. If it is possible to get the body's muscles to push the tubing out so it's not kinked anymore…."

Genaw shook his head. "No amount of shifting the pelvic muscles changes anything in the fold."

"Will you show me?"

Again Genaw shook his head. "I manage my condition well enough."

"…Is that why you did not look so well this morning?"

"…Yes."

"Will you let me try something?"

"What?"

I patted the table to have Genaw sit. He did so and the hologram changed to reveal his condition now. There were markers all around his folded penis to indicate minor toxic build up. A build up I knew would get worse over time if there was no intervention. I sat on the table behind him and slid my hands between his legs. I set my fingers lightly around the area where his penis should have been. Genaw tensed. The muscles around the penis contracted and pulled the penis into his body a little more.

"Relax the muscles," I said softly.

It took him a moment, but slowly he was able to relax. I rested my chin on his shoulder as my fingers lightly stimulated the nerve receptors in the skin. The folded tube started to elongate until Genaw tightened everything.

"Relax."

"I don't want to eliminate on you."

"If the fluids come, they come. You cannot tell me now that nothing can be done about your condition."

Genaw's head turned to the hologram and he noticed a darker toned glans sticking out where there once had been nothing. "What?" he pulled his skirt back slightly and looked. "There's… There's…"

"Yes, there is. Now relax."

Genaw tried hard to remain relaxed. I felt his cheeks flush as urine and dead sperm came out a few times while the muscles relaxed or tightened to continue pushing his penis out of his body. The process took time and often Genaw groaned and tensed. But I kept my arms around him. I continued to lightly, yet purposefully, stimulate the nerves and get him to relax again. His full length was almost out when everything in his pelvic floor tightened, pushing out the last little kink.

I stopped rubbing and slowly pulled my hands away.

Genaw pitched forward and threw up.

"Genaw?" I asked, confused by the reaction.

He scrambled off the table and stumbled to one of the cupboards. He pulled out some seaweed as he fell to his knees. He pressed the seaweed against the area I had been working on. I glanced back at the table. A black and rotting penis lay not far from where Genaw had been sitting. The degradation of his penis was more progressed than the hologram revealed. I climbed off the table and knelt beside Genaw. He was breathing hard, his eyes filling with tears.

"What do you need, Genaw?" I asked.

"Water," he gasped.

I gently lifted him to his feet and out of room so he was back in the water. The minute he had his tail, he took off.

"Genaw, wait!" I called after him.

But he was gone from sight so I wasn't able to follow him. Another worker at the healing facility started to pass me and I asked for help in cleaning up the hologram room. Once the table had been cleansed and the hologram turned off, I sunk into the water. I remained still for a while and just breathed. My tail felt bruised, as had my legs, but that mattered little to me. My help had hurt Genaw. A hurt I wished to correct, but did not know how. Nor did I know where to go to even offer such help, if he would accept it. I took and let out a deep breath before I started for the mussel I had been sleeping on.

I had not gone far when King Bosnan approached me. "Come with me, Blessed Lexian," he said.

"Okay," I replied.