Blood Legacy: The House Of Alexander Part 4

Ryan watched from the turret of the castle as the lone figure disembarked and entered a limousine. The car pulled away from the runway and onto the road leading to the gates. Ryan started downstairs.

She exited out onto the upper level of the entry stairs as the long, black car pulled to a stop at the base of the flight of steps. The lone figure stepped out of the car, waved the car off, and started the long climb.

The older man, dressed impeccably in an elegant suit, maneuvered the stairs without effort. He arrived at the landing composed and unruffled despite the fact he had just traveled three thousand miles. He stood before the young woman, then bowed deeply from the waist.

"My lord," he said.

Ryan waited for him to stand upright, then put her hand on his shoulder.

"Edward. Welcome home."

"It is good to be home, my lord. Although there is much that we must discuss."

The two moved into the grand foyer and Edward continued. "I trust Dr. Ryerson reached here safely?"

"Yes, she and her son arrived as scheduled. Thank you for your diligence on that matter."

Edward appeared somber. "It was wise for you to bring her here. I am not certain of her safety outside of your protection."

"And I am not certain she will be safe even within my care if I am distracted by too many matters."

It was a surprising admission and it caused Edward great concern. He glanced at his young liege, who in reality was several centuries older than him. Ryan had chosen an apt word. She did seem distracted, and her next words surprised him even more.

"I did not bring Dr. Ryerson here purely for altruistic reasons." She paused, as if uncertain how to exactly phrase her next comment. "I, or rather my father, has need of her services."

Edward frowned. This did not sound good, in fact, did not even sound possible.

"I trust your father is well?"

Ryan again searched for words, perplexed by the novelty of this situation. "I am not certain. He seems," she paused, at a loss, "Well, he seems a bit under the weather."

It was a masterful understatement. For Victor Alexander, the undisputed ruler and sovereign leader of their Kind, to even sneeze would be unthinkable. For him to display the kind of weakness that would cause Ryan concern was dreadfully significant. Edward sought to absorb the ramifications of this impossibility, his mind following every potential twist and turn of the situation. It did not take him long to arrive at his conclusions.

"What do you think is the extent of your father's illness?" he asked quietly.

Ryan shook her head. "I really do not know. There is no precedent for this, no measure by which to judge. Perhaps it is nothing. But I cannot take that chance."

Edwards thoughts continued to sift through every eventuality. "Who else knows of your father's condition?"

Ryan again shook her head. "No one. You. Dr. Ryerson. And myself. That is all. Marilyn was here, but she did not sense it. Of that I am certain."

Edward nodded. "Then Dr. Ryerson cannot leave here with this knowledge." Edward hesitated, always reluctant to question his master. "Are you certain it was wise to involve her?"

Edward was again surprised by her answer. "No. I am not certain of the wisdom of my decision. By placing her in confidence I have placed her in jeopardy. But I have need of her knowledge right now."

Edward was blunt. "I am more concerned that you have placed yourself or your father in jeopardy by involving so delicate a creature."

Ryan smiled wryly. "I do not think Dr. Ryerson is the hothouse rose you believe her to be."

Edward was firm. "And I do not think she could withstand the likes of the Others were they to learn of this development."

"Which is why you will make certain she does not have to."

Edward always had the good grace to know when a conversation was over. He bowed deferentially. "I live to serve you, my lord."

Ryan put her hand on Edward's shoulder. "Then for right now you will protect Dr. Ryerson, and G.o.d forbid, my father if he needs it." She turned away, her expression darkening. "I have a feeling I will be otherwise occupied."

Ryan and Edward walked into a fully functioning laboratory. If they had not just walked from a luxuriously furnished hallway, it would appear they were in a major medical research facility.

Victor sat on a table while Dr. Ryerson examined him. He nodded to Edward and Edward bowed low, remaining a respectful distance while Ryan approached.

Susan removed her stethoscope from her ears and draped it around her neck. She turned to Ryan, addressing both her and Victor.

"Well, I am as baffled by his anatomy as I am by yours. I might as well be examining an alien species."

Ryan nodded. "This is to be expected. But I know how creative you can be when you are faced with the unknown."

Susan addressed Victor. "As foreign as your anatomy is to me, I do have one thing to compare it to," she said, nodding at Ryan. "And I have something of a head start because of the research I've been doing."

Victor was gracious. "That is excellent news."

Ryan began thumbing through a stack of papers that Susan had brought with her. "Well, this is all very enlightening," she said in a tone that indicated it was anything but.

Susan took the paperwork from Ryan's hand in a parental gesture that few would have dared. "Let me give you a synopsis."

Ryan sprawled in an offce chair. "Please do."

Susan shuffled the papers. "When I originally began studying you I was looking at your immune system, searching for explanations for your accelerated healing. When I realized how old you were, I also began looking for explanations as to why you do not age."

Susan turned on the overhead display, illuminating several charts and graphs. Ryan took one look at the graphs and exchanged glances with her father behind Susan's back. Victor looked down, hiding a smile while Susan continued unaware.

"There are several current theories of aging, and I considered all of them in the context of your physiology. The two foremost theories are that aging is genetically programmed, or that damage to DNA is c.u.mulative and eventually the body is no longer able to repair it."

Ryan was paying attention despite herself.

"If the former is correct," Susan continued, "That aging is genetically programmed, then your Kind may be pa.s.sing a favorable genetic mutation to one another through the process of the 'Change.' From what I understand, when you first share blood with a human, a physiological transition occurs in which the anatomy is radically altered in a very short time, almost an instant mutation."

"Like the accelerated evolution you've mentioned before," Ryan said.

Susan nodded, then paused. "Are you sure you're not a vampire?"

Ryan had a look of exasperation on her face. "I don't know how to disabuse you of that notion. Vampires are an idiotic myth that I am sure One of my Kind inspired in an insipid moment."

Susan smiled to herself. She knew enough of Ryan to know that although her Kind shared superficial similarities with the fantasy creatures, their reality was far more fantastic. They did not Share blood with humans, other than to reproduce as needed. Their desire was to Share with one another. And they possessed none of the weaknesses of the vampire creature while possessing strengths that Dracula could only dream about.

Susan knew all of these things-she just liked to tease Ryan, which Ryan realized. "Please continue," she said dryly.

"If the second theory is correct, that aging is due to c.u.mulative damage to DNA, then your immune system, which is like nothing I've ever seen, may be healing that damage constantly. Therefore you do not age."

Susan was thoughtful. "There are a few other findings that may be appropriate as well. Certain studies have shown that extreme reduced caloric intake increases longevity. Your Kind exist on little more than the exchange of blood and an occasional gla.s.s of wine. I've never known you to consume anything else. I'm not even certain how you generate energy, which I will get to another time."

Susan paused to take a drink of water, then continued. "The other, peripheral finding has to do with cell division. Cells are thought to have a limited reproduction cycle, perhaps as a safety mechanism against uncontrolled cell growth such as cancer. Each time normal cells divide, the DNA at the end of them, telomeres, gets shorter. When it runs out, the cells die."

Victor considered her words. "And ours?"

Susan shook her head. "I haven't really had the opportunity to test your cell replication," she said apologetically. Susan glanced through her paperwork. "Again, this is all speculative, because your anatomy is so different from a human's." She glanced up at Ryan, then over at Victor. "And things are further complicated by the fact that both of your anatomies are significantly different from the others of your Kind that I have examined."

This piqued Victor's curiosity. "Really? In what ways?"

"Well," Susan stopped, almost at a lost for words. "I'm not even sure where to start."

Ryan and Victor were both curious now.

"I have had the opportunity to compare samples that the two of you have graciously provided with samples obtained from Others of your Kind."

Susan paused, thoughtful. "Not all of which were given voluntarily." She resumed, ignoring the ethical implications. "I randomized my collection process so that I could get samples from all age groups, ensuring that I was not identifying something that was age-related as opposed to specific to you."

Susan shuffled some papers. "One of the most fascinating things about the two of you is your genetic makeup. Obviously I have not had time to map your entire sequence. That would take years, even with the advanced computing power I have access to. But I have had time to map the areas of most frequent variation, at least in human beings." She then stopped, at a loss. "To really make you understand how different you two really are, I need to explain what I'm comparing you to."

Susan illuminated another chart. "In a normal human body there are about 50 trillion cells. Every one of those cells has 46 chromosomes, 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. These chromosomes are made up of DNA molecules, which are made up of genes, which are made up of nucleotides."

Ryan turned her head sideways, looking at the ill.u.s.trations of the chromosomal maps. "I don't think these visual aids are very helpful."

Susan ignored her. "DNA is made of just four nucleotides, adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine."

"Hmmm, hence the 'A', 'C', 'G', and 'T' on your chart," Ryan said.

"Um, yes," Susan said. Lecturing Ryan was worse than teaching a roomful of graduate students.

"These nucleotides arrange themselves in very particular orders. 'A' pairs with 'T', and 'C' pairs with 'G'. There are about six billion of these pairs that make up about 30,000 genes, which vary in length from a few thousand pairs to two million pairs." Susan paused, "Although with the recent mapping of the human genome, it appears there may be far fewer genes than thought, closer to 20,000."

Susan changed the chart again. "Anyway, genes make proteins, albeit indirectly through a transcription process with messenger RNA. And proteins do all of the heavy lifting in the body. They make organs, handle digestion, circulation, respiration, immune function, etc. Roughly 50% of the dry weight of a cell is made up of these proteins, which number about 100,000 in the human body."

"Okay," Ryan said slowly. "Thank you for the primer. This isn't going to be on the exam, is it?"

Susan rolled her eyes in exasperation. "There isn't going to be an exam." She quickly changed the overhead ill.u.s.tration. "This is a quick mapping of your chromosomal structure."

Both Ryan and Victor perused the diagram silently. "There appear to be a few too many," Victor said finally.

"Exactly," Susan said. "The Others that I tested all have 46 chromosomes, just like humans. You and Ryan have 92."

"And I'm guessing this is a bad thing?" Ryan asked slowly.

"Well," Susan said, her exasperation boiling over, "It's perfectly fine if you're a whitefish or a potato hybrid. But nothing remotely human has that many chromosomes. This type of chromosomal variation, polyploidy, usually occurs only in plants. It is extremely rare in animals, occurring only in certain reptiles and amphibians. It is lethal in mammals, and there is only one known case, which occurred in a rat in Argentina."

Susan glanced at her own diagram, baffled. "In most cases, the addition of a single extra chromosome in humans results in significant birth defects if not stillbirth or neonatal death. I don't know even know what to think of an entire extra set."

"Well," Ryan began, "As I don't believe that I am a whitefish or a potato, nor a Red Vizcacha rat, I'm guessing there's some other explanation."

Susan glanced over at her sharply. "I didn't say what type of rat it was."

Ryan smiled an enigmatic smile. "Lucky guess."

Susan stared at her suspiciously. That information had been in her notes, but there was no way that Ryan could have absorbed it by casually thumbing through the papers.

But then again, Susan thought, nothing about Ryan surprised her anymore.

Susan's manner became brisk once more. "That's not even the strangest part about it."

"There's more?" Victor asked mildly.

"I'm not certain about you," Susan said, nodding at Victor, "But Ryan shows significant paternal uniparental disomy."

Ryan looked at Victor. "Okay, I impressed her with the rat. It's your turn."

Victor smiled and waited for Susan to continue.

"Uniparental disomy occurs when an individual inherits two copies of a chromosome pair from one parent and none from the other parent. Either Ryan's mother was genetically identical to you," she turned to look at the diagram, "Or most of Ryan's genes come from you. Again, when this condition occurs in normal humans, it causes significant physical problems, skeletal, lung, thyroid defects, dwarfism, and of course, death."

Susan shuffled through some paperwork, talking to herself. "But of course, once again, when it comes to you two, it does nothing of the kind." She held up another chart. "Ah, here it is." She put the transparency on the projector so Ryan and Victor could see it. It was another picture of nucleotides, similar to the "A-T, C-G" pairs previously shown. But this one had an occasional "I" sprinkled in amongst the pairs.

"What does the 'I' stand for?" Ryan asked.

Susan gazed up at the drawing, shaking her head. "It stands for 'I have no idea'," she said slowly. She was silent for a long moment, then shook her head again. "It's like nothing I've ever seen."

She turned back to the Ryan and Victor. "If it is a nucleotide, it has a biochemical structure that is completely unknown to me. I can't even break it down into its const.i.tuent parts. It appears to bind with any of the four existing nucleotides, as well as with uracil on RNA. Because I don't know what it is, I don't know what the resulting proteins are that it is creating, or even if they can be considered proteins. I do know this," she said with emphasis, "That the introduction of a single additional nucleotide increases your genetic options on an unimaginable scale."

Susan shrugged, her excitement and frustration both evident. "We don't even know what most of our own DNA does. I can't imagine what yours is doing."

Susan put away her charts and graphs, much to Ryan's relief. Susan's next words did not put her at ease, however.

"I destroyed most of Ryan's medical records, so I will have to do new tests."

"Oh, how awful for you," Ryan said dryly. "I know what an inconvenience that must be."

Susan did not even appear embarra.s.sed. Yes, she was being offered the holy grail of research, but Ryan had asked her this time. "If you would like me to do a less than thorough job...".

"Of course not," Ryan said, sighing, "By all means, feel free to poke and prod my father all you wish."

Victor turned a baleful eye to his offspring. "Yes, of course, right after she does you."

Susan interjected before she lost control of the conversation. "I have a feeling neither one of you is very good in the role of patient."

"Neither one of us has ever been a patient," Victor replied.

"Well, then let us consider this more of a research role."

"Ah yes," Ryan said, "From patient to lab rat."