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friends.” Turning to Brianna, she continued with a weak smile, “I deduced that this is not considered normal behavior on your planet from your obvious discomfort with Char’s nudity.”
    After Brianna nodded, she resumed her explanation. “I know that you were a partner to the examination of Miklan, so you know that he is hermaphroditic, capable of self-impregnation.
    There is a reason for this, and, again, it is something you can research later. Approximately one half of our population is hermaphroditic, including me. But, as I know you saw with Char, the other half is single-sexed, roughly half male and half female.”
    With a weak smile, Lorilana continued. “Drakians enjoy sexual intercourse at a level we haven’t found duplicated on any other planet. Thus was mithrin, a very powerful aphrodisiac that works only on humans, invented. One of the Academy’s new criteria for humanity was the tolerance and acceptance of mithrin. Human beings, when under the influence of the drug, have sexual cravings and pleasures heightened. We didn’t think it would have any adverse effects on nonhumans since nothing happened to the test animals except for an increase in appetite for a short time. But it had never been tried on another clearly intelligent life form until the Wafhkte.”
    Brianna gripped her blanket so tightly, her hands hurt. “What happened?”
    “The Wafhkteian became temporarily insane. Worse, he escaped and murdered about a dozen of his people, mostly females and their offspring. Others managed to overpower and restrain him until the mithrin wore off. Then he told them what had happened to his comrades. Our exploratory team barely escaped with their lives.”
    “But…”
    Lorilana held up her hand. “Please, let me finish. Then I’ll answer your questions. The most horrific outcome of the entire incident was the fact that the First President of the Academy of Science released a report stating that the inhabitants of Wafhkte were not human, and what had happened on their planet was of no consequence. Needless to say, many members of the Academy and the Ruling Council of our planet were shocked.
    The human races on the other planets were appalled.
    Unfortunately, the faction who initiated these experiments is too firmly entrenched in the power structure of the Academy. Until we can oust them, their mandate for the identification of humans is still the rule. That’s where we come to you.”
    Brianna swallowed. “What do you mean?”
    “Officially, Brianna, you’re not human,” Lorilana said in a sad voice. “Until you pass the requisite tests, you will not be classified as such.”
    “Can’t I just take their tests and be done with it? Or am I not ‘human’ enough to even be tested?”
    A poignant smile drifted across the doctor’s face. “You are certainly human, Brianna. Because of the wound in your shoulder, it was necessary to give you a blood transfusion.
    Hoping for some compatibility—after all, you look human—we analyzed a sample of your blood. You cannot imagine our surprise when we discovered that your blood is exactly the same as the Medirians. That by itself proves your humanity beyond a shadow of a doubt. Fifty years ago, this blood compatibility would have been enough.”
    Brianna’s stomach lurched. “Now what does it take?”
    “There are a number of tests, but you only need pass 75%
    of them. However, you must accept an injection of mithrin into your body. The dosage is such that you would become sexually insatiable for anywhere from four to eight hours, and most if not all of the members of the examining team would have sexual intercourse with you. Once the dosage wore off, you would be subjected to a brain scan to determine intelligence quotients.
    Then you would be given a physical, which would include sexual intercourse without mithrin. If your responses are not satisfactory, you could be declared nonhuman.”
    Shuddering, Brianna blanched. “How could decent people let