"It wasn't what I expected," Solae admitted aloud as she sank into the passenger seat of the vehicle. The marquise fished the two data sticks out of her bag as well as the device she had brought but not yet had a chance to use. She plugged in the first of the pair of information loaded objects and started the de-compression process on her compact computer. The car's system was much more sophisticated and could run the program faster but she did not trust it. Until they saw precisely what was in her haul from the vault she was reluctant to upload it anywhere that could be compromised. Solae was uncertain if torching or exploding the vehicle could sufficiently destroy all the evidence beyond retrieval. Modern technology made it increasingly difficult to keep secrets from falling into the wrong hands. The precautions taken by the Falias might have been considered unnecessary bordering on paranoid centuries ago but now they were merely practical solutions.

"It's not just documents," she finally said to begin her explanation. "Going in that's what I thought it would be from what little I knew. It was more like a museum to corruption, greed, and excess. I barely had a chance to look around and I saw proof that would destroy reputations and rip apart esteemed families joined by marriage. We both have seen and experienced how the nobility is not as virtuous, as faithful, as moral as they feign they are, but to glimpse tangible validation... it's frightening." She stared out the window as they whirled by drab buildings intermixed with garish attempts to lure in the freshly rich. A tall hologram pranced above a club advertising the latest in Zatis entertainment. From the way the woman was dressed she doubted it was an award-winning theatre production.

Silence fell between the lovers for several minutes. Rene was content to let her take her time mulling over her thoughts as he guided them along their course to a distant edge of the dome. Absently Solae removed the first data stick, threw it into her back, and inserted the second into her device. She didn't mean to keep anything from the noble-born soldier but there were topics that were difficult to broach even to oneself. While she could dismiss and try to forget the truth that haunted her from the underground room, such a feat would be impossible once she gave voice to its existence, as speaking aloud gave a potency to what dwelt purely in the mind. 

"Genetic material," she said quietly. "Once of my ancestors was allegedly storing it in case there was some sort of catastrophe. But it's not that simple, is it?" Solae queried without pausing for his speculation. "I can't tell you with absolute confidence that every Falia that walked into that vault or any of the others did not bring out with them the means to make a human being from people dead for countless years. The implications... I'm not the first woman heir. What if my great, great grandmother took it upon herself to bear a child of a war hero and cousin to the imperial line? What if my own mother did not use my father when she decided to try to conceive? We both know that it's not as organically done as with the common folk. I don't have any reason to believe I'm not my father's but I never performed a paternity test."

For now she would not dwell on the prospect of cloning. This was less likely to have gone undiscovered given the imperfect science behind it. The intro-fertilization was harrowing enough. She could not say for the right price her diplomatic predecessors had not sold one-half of an embryo for a bloodline to which they had no claim. Everything she knew had been called into question. Weeks ago she had been content with her job on New Concordia at the embassy, with the quality of life she enjoyed, with her parents' endorsement of taking her time in choosing a future husband so long as he was of the correct stock. Quietly she mused if they had all along been so permissive because they knew they didn't need to adhere to the specimens their daughter's mate had set aside from his procedure. Wealth unmeasured was at their fingertips and no one was the wiser.