The Ambassador's Reprieve

by Alyssa Hope

  ‘We couldn’t start with just one?’

  ‘That wouldn’t be fair, would it, if just one of us was to have a baby and the other didn’t? Unless you want to have the first one, which would be wonderful, too.’

  Una wondered if this was how Maru had got backed into a corner, so to speak, and become the first to bear in his triad.

  ‘We can go and visit your friends tomorrow, definitely. Babies!’ Babies, indeed. One minute he was feeling like a tired old man, and the next his sweet beloveds were talking him into having babies! Maybe they could get some ricas to practice on first, to be parents to?

  Cori laughed. ‘What, take our little ricas out of the hills and put them into slavery? No, we want our own babies, please, your babies.’

  They were getting ready for a visit to Cara, Samil and Maru the next morning when there was a timid knock on the door. Una opened it, and tried to think where he knew these three from. They looked familiar, yet he couldn’t remember meeting them before. They looked past him to Cori, and there was a gasp that sounded all too familiar.

  ‘Cori? Our Cori? It’s really you?’

  Cori gasped as well, and then he was in the arms of his family, who hadn’t seen him since he was stolen from them as a child. They were all crying, and Una felt like a fool for not looking for them sooner.

  ‘I’m so sorry …’

  And then he remembered the old ritual, seldom practiced in these modern days, and fell to his knees. ‘Your child is the stars and the moon to me, lighting up the darkness of my life.’

  They looked appalled, wiping tears off their faces. ‘Oh, no, sir, we are only tailors, sewing clothing for a living. We are honored to meet you, we just needed to see him, see if it was indeed him, after all these years …’

  Tarran, bless his clever soul, had caught on by this time, and fell to his knees as well. ‘Your child brought light and laughter into a life that had none, he has made me complete. You have given us the greatest gift …’

  Cori, hugging the triad who had given him life, was crying now as well.

  While Cori’s parents were still struggling for words, Una found some. ‘My birth triad, all my ancestors, are simple farmers. They will be delighted to meet you, who also do honest work with your hands.’

  He made tea, and left them to talk and become reacquainted with their child, and then went looking for Tarran, who had disappeared. He finally found him in a corner of the bathing room, trailing the stem of a vine in the water and watching the small ripples it made.

  He sat down next to him, and waited.

  ‘My parents sold me.’

  ‘And I would have paid any price to have you in my arms. And now they have nothing. Who won?’ He pulled Tarran onto his lap and held him close, kissing him gently on his neck, and running his hand through the strange soft hair on his head.

  After a while Tarran raised his head and kissed him back. ‘I think I won, to end up with you and Cori, and all of your families. And maybe babies? Babies who will never be stolen or sold.’ And he suddenly looked fierce.

  Una leaned back against the wall, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. ‘Yes, babies, who will be kept safe.’ How could he say no after that? And maybe he would have to remember to tell Tarran that he was safe now too, until that one finally believed it. Healing didn’t happen overnight.

  After a while Cori joined them, and happily plopped down on Tarran’s lap as he sat on Una’s. ‘Babies? My birth triad will be delighted to be grandsires …’

  Una knew when he was defeated. ‘Come on. Let’s go visit the new Maru-Cara-Samil baby, and see what it looks like. We can measure for a crib or whatever we need to do. Two cribs. Maybe three. A bigger house. Whatever would make you both happy. I have no better purpose in life.’

  And that, he realized, was the truth. Making the people he loved happy was the most satisfying thing he had ever done.

  Chapter 7.

  Una stared at Maru’s baby, and tried to think of something polite to say. It was small and dark and wrinkled, and he wasn’t sure why everyone was making such happy sounds over it. Maru looked up at him and laughed.

  ‘Adorable is a good word,’ he suggested, and both of Una’s beloveds looked at him in consternation.

  ‘What, you don’t think he’s beautiful?’ Cori asked.

  ‘No, no, of course he is, there are just so many words that I could use, I was speechless, searching for the best one.’ Hoping to divert attention from his obvious gaffe, he looked around the room. ‘What kind of a crib or cradle do you use? We may be needing one or two, sometime …’

  There was a great deal of squealing and hugging amongst the younger ones, and Maru laughed again.

  ‘There are nine adults in this house, and one baby. I would be surprised if our sweet baby is allowed to be out of anyone’s arms, let alone touch the ground, before he goes off to the Academy – which he has already been signed up for, of course.’

  ‘Of course.’

  One of the grandsires swept into the room and pried the baby gently out of Maru’s arms, claiming that the little one’s diaper cloth needed changing, although someone else had done that very recently. Maru just rolled his eyes. Privately, he said to Una, ‘Both my beloveds are bearing, we think, but we don’t want to announce it just yet. Being waited on hand and foot is too much fun. And a baby can’t have too much love, can it?’

  ‘No, and a triad can’t have too many babies, apparently. My beloveds want babies, and the sooner the better.’

  Maru’s head came up and his eyes brightened. ‘When was the last time you talked to Oki?’

  ‘Yesterday. Why?’ Una was getting used to these sudden changes of topic.

  ‘He needs someone to meet him at the main transporter hub and give him a hand with something. And he and his triad have at least four babies now, so he may know something about cribs and such.’

  Una had a feeling that this was an ambush of some kind, but even if he hadn’t owed the retired Captain so much he would have been happy to help him. Maru was looking tired so Una rounded up Cori and Tarran, with promises that they could come back and visit their friends and the beautiful baby any time they wanted to, and headed for the hub.

  When he finally found Oki, that usually calm person’s blue brow was wrinkled, and he was actually pleading into a comm device in his hand. This didn’t look good.

  ‘Oki, my friend, Maru said I would be able to help you out, and of course I will …’

  ‘He did? You can? You will? Thank the gods! I haven’t known what to do! With four little ones and now it turns out that both Caleb and Suki are bearing again, which is a wealth of babies, and much joy, but you understand …’

  ‘Yes, yes, it’s alright, of course I understand.’ Una wasn’t sure what he was understanding, and he didn’t figure it out until it was too late to back down.

  ‘The Crusader has temporarily become a hospital ship, in orbit over a planet where civil war is destroying everything. Reni – Captain Reni, formerly of the Envoy? – has been doing what he can, but the ship is no place for these poor little ones right now, and yet he has quite rightly made commitments to the dying mothers …’

  Una was still nodding, agreeing and waiting for this all to make sense when Oki turned and moved forward to greet a crew member from the Crusader, who seemed to be surrounded by a small herd of human urchins, some of them with bundles strapped to their chests.

  ‘Sari, everyone made it alright? Horrible to have to transport ones so young, but I understand why Reni felt it necessary. Fortunately we have found an excellent home for them …’

  Sari unstrapped the bundle he was carrying, and tickled something in it before handing it to Oki, saluting him and turning back the way he had come.

  ‘Excellent, sir, thank you so much, Reni will be in touch, I’m sure. I have to get back while this transport window is still open …’

  Una was still trying to process this, but his beloveds were perhaps a little bit quicker than he was to
pick up on some things. Especially things concerning babies. Including babies. They were already sitting cross-legged on the floor talking gently to the children, who looked blank-eyed and exhausted. It took very little time for Cori and Tarran to persuade the children to be in their arms, while they murmured gently to them and the bundles they carried.

  It was only when one of the bundles started to cry that Una fully realized what was happening. The Ambassador had been quicker than this before, perhaps. He was the last person to realize just what he had agreed to. His beloveds had wanted babies, and that was just what they had received.

  When he finally sorted them out and did a head count, with the one that Oki was holding there seemed to be five babies and six children. Maybe not really all that many? His beloveds seemed to think there would be enough love and nursing to go around.

  ‘I can’t thank you enough, Una,’ Oki said. ‘We needed to find a young triad who could nurse the babies, and although the children aren’t related to each other, mostly, or the babies, Reni felt it was best to keep them all together. They’ve already been traumatized enough and don’t need any more separations, not on a strange planet. And he still has two years left in his deployment and didn’t feel it right to keep them on the ship while it is on war status, with all the surgeries and suffering right now.’

  Una made a gurgling noise, and Oki smiled at him before carefully handing him his precious cargo. Una stared down into a pair of blue eyes, and found himself smiling and tickling the little one.

  ‘I’ll tell you the story later,’ Oki offered privately, ‘when the little ones aren’t around. It isn’t pretty. Maru said you had questions?’

  ‘Um, yes. Where do I get cribs, and what is the best kind, and what else do we need? The house next to ours is empty, so we can knock a wall out and put the two together to have enough bedrooms, once everyone is ready for their own bedrooms … I’m not ready for this!’

  ‘No-one is, my friend! Remember, Atu, Zeda and Holi brought home sixty-two children. This is nothing. Are you alright? You keep making that gurgling noise.’

  ‘He’s just not used to being around babies,’ Cori explained cheerfully, from the floor. ‘He’ll be fine.’

  Oki did a double-take and laughed. ‘Cori? What happened to my shy little Cori?

  Cori smiled. ‘I became Una’s beloved, and Tarran’s beloved, and now we have babies and children to love. Does love make you stronger?’

  ‘It does. I will have some things sent over to your house, my friends. And sooner or later Una will remember that he has staff who can be sent out to get things. Have you told your superior that you’ll be off on parental leave for a while?’

  Una found himself making that gurgling noise again. ‘He still thinks I’m camping, although some in the office know I am taking a bonding week. This may come as a shock to them …’

  ‘Excellent. It will keep them on their toes. We’ll talk soon ...’

  Oki left before Una could change his mind, just as Una realized that his two beloveds couldn’t encircle all of the children and babies by themselves. He joined them on the floor, forming a circle, a triad indeed. The children sagged into their arms and onto their laps, and they stayed like that for a while, just hanging onto each other, until some of the babies began to make hungry noises. Una was pleased with himself that he was able to recognize a hungry noise when he heard it. Maybe this wouldn’t be a complete disaster?

  One of the staff from the hub, who Una thought should have a promotion, or maybe a job in Una’s house, offered to give them a hand getting to a hover that he had brought up ready for them. They nursed the babies on the way home, and then shepherded the children into a house which was already full of essentials for babies and children. Oki worked fast.

  There were also some nonessentials, perhaps. Cori’s birth triad were there as well, and ready to take some measurements and make sure that the children all had new clothes, and the babies had the softest of diaper clothes and the warmest of blankets. And lots of toys.

  They had barely got all of this sorted out, and Una’s office cleared out to be a bedroom for the children, who didn’t want to be separated from each other ever, and especially not at night, when Una’s birth triad burst through the door, with arm-loads of fresh food, and hugs for everyone once their arms were free.

  ‘You were planning on telling us, of course …?’

  Una sputtered and tried to think of an excuse, but his beloved parents were more interested in the little ones than him anyway. Very quickly one of his parents was sitting in a big chair happily explaining to a three year old how the fruit was grown, while another exhausted child slept in his ample lap. A second parent was talking baby-talk to two of the babies who had round full tummies and sleepy smiles.

  The third of his parents was cheerfully conspiring with one of Cori’s parents to knock a hole in the wall between his little house and the one next door, while the other two were playing in the shallow end of the bathing pool with the other children. The warm soothing water seemed to be working wonders to relax them, not to mention get them clean. Thank the gods for the new circulation and filtration system he’d indulged in last year!

  Una was about to offer the adults some tea when Tarran appeared out of the kitchen with a tray of cold drinks and sweet treats. Una just gave up and curled up in a corner with two of the babies, letting them nurse again until they fell asleep.

  ‘You’re safe now, little ones,’ he thought to them, and was pleased to get a murmur back. These were all clever children, and would be going to the Academy with Maru’s baby. He would start the paperwork tomorrow.

  He was beginning to see why his beloveds had wanted babies. They changed everything for the better. He looked up to see Cori cradling a sleepy baby and smiling happily at it, and they smiled happily at each other. Life was good.

  At least until his parents handed him a list of food he needed to get for the children. ‘Nothing but the best, the freshest, locally grown, don’t skimp …’

  Coming back from the market, he ran into Oki who reminded him to fill out the parental leave application. ‘Six months of paid leave for each child, Una, and you’ll need it. You’re going to be busy.’

  He did some basic arithmetic and almost fell over. Eleven children and babies, so five and a half years? And he would be very surprised if he and his sweet ones didn’t add to that number, possibly several times over that period. That was an impossibly long period of time to be away from work! But some time off would be excellent, and the refugee children would obviously need more than a little time and love to fully heal.

  He was smiling and contemplating the joy of suddenly having such a large family to lavish his attention and affection on when he almost ran into the Councilperson who claimed to be his boss. Avoiding that one resulted in several of his parcels falling to the ground.

  ‘Oh, sorry, sir …’

  ‘Una! You look marvelous! I should send all of my staff up into the hills for rest and a camping trip! It’s done wonders for you! You’ll have to tell me all about it some time, I must go now!’ And he was gone, leaving Una juggling the bags and boxes of groceries, which he really could have used a hand with.

  A young person who he didn’t recognize appeared at his side, and smiled at him.

  ‘May I help you with those?’

  The young person picked up the ones on the ground and took some of the other heavier packages, and followed Una back to his house. He looked offended at the notion of payment, and waved as he jogged back down the street.

  Una watched him go, and wondered if perhaps there weren’t ways of helping people that didn’t involve going into an office every day, especially now that he had young ones to set an example for. And babies who needed smiles brought to their faces, and beloveds who wanted babies of their own, even with a house full of babies already, because they were positive that there was no such thing as too much love.

  He opened his door and walked into happy chaos, laughter a
nd running feet and grandsires pretending to be monsters while they carefully chased giggling little ones, and the welcoming arms of the beloveds he had never thought to find. There would be problems, he knew that. After what these children and his beloveds had been through, that would be inevitable. But he was patient, and Cori and Tarran would understand the children all too well, and they would all make it out the other side. Maybe he would even be a grandsire one day!

  His boss was right – this was doing wonders for him, and who was he to argue with that person? All of this was a reprieve from the mind-deadening work he had been doing far too much of lately. It was someone else’s turn for that, and his turn to wallow happily in all this love, and help his loved ones, and all these children, spread it around.

  The end.

  Thank you for reading!

  The adventures of everyone’s favorite blue aliens continue! Yes, I know, I originally said it was going to be a trilogy, but I lost control. Aliens can be like that.

  Each triad has their HEA wrapped up in their own book, although some characters will continue to pop in and out of other being’s adventures from now on. So far, in order of publication, but mostly readable in any order:

  1. Zack’s Little Darling

  2. Jacob’s Pair of Hearts

  3. Norin’s Wild Thing

  4. Caleb’s Web

  5. Javen’s Dream

  6. Kaji’s Challenge

  7. Atu’s Education

  8. Quin’s Fresh Start

  9. Maru’s Surrender

  10. Deven’s Leap of Faith

  11. The Ambassador’s Reprieve

  - Reni’s Trial by Fire - tba, 2017

  Note – these stories contain explicit scenes of sex, in varying degrees of steaminess, between consenting multiple adult males of different species (i.e. triads, aka menages). Note - Quin’s Fresh Start is the only story which involves a pair and not a triad.

  No cliffhangers, all happy endings.

  All characters engaged in sexual acts are over the age of consent in their particular universes. For readers over the age of 18 only; if this content is going to offend you, please don’t buy these books.