"Mom." I said, her hovering vehicle lifting up and swooping above the cars of our sleepy suburb.
"Yes honey?"
"Who was my father."
My mother sighed and shook her head, "I know I've told you this before." There was tension in her voice. "When the expeditionary force was sent her for genetic capture I was part of the lower cohort, forced to breed with non-dominant species. While your cousin S'rah's father was a Marine, I was assigned a panther in the local zoo. He died during our meeting but his genes live in you."
"That sounds-"
"Yes, inhumane. Immoral. Wrong. But it is our way. The way our dominion has spread and our metaspecies become the binder for a galactic civilization."
I nodded, taking that in.
"Oh. I see."
"And while you are a non-critical divergent metaspecies, that doesn't mean you can't succeed in life. Sure it's harder but-"
The vehicle swerved and I looked at her. She was upset. Upset she'd been forced to fuck a beast? Or to bear a lesser child. It hurt and I felt an anger raising in me. She might be a vicious alien but she was still my mother god damn it. I thought for a moment then decided just what to do...