by Alyssa Hope
‘Maybe I am something else different? A different kind of people? Like the dark baby?’ He didn’t think he’d ever grow up to be anything like these big blue creatures. He wasn’t sure how old he was, but he had been living for a long time, he thought.
Karo tapped the screen and smiled. ‘No, this is your family. We know this.’
Tad laughed at Karo. ‘Are you going to explain androgyny and morphing stages and hermaphrodites?’
Karo sighed. ‘Not right now.’
Jevan looked at him, puzzled, and he sighed again. ‘It has to do with the bond, little one, and how our people grow up, in stages. Our people cannot become sexually mature until they feel the bond with their triad. Tad’s people mature earlier, which is why he is tall and has genitals already. You and I, we do not develop sexually until we are with our triad.’
Jevan’s head hurt. ‘You are developed.’
‘I am large because I was with my family group, but not sexually developed, although now that is happening.’ He and Tad smiled at each other. ‘You are just further behind in development because you were alone for so long. You’ll grow, you’ll see. Tad and I complete your triad, just as Suki and Caleb completed Oki’s triad.’
The very large Captain Oki was mated with the little Suki?
‘Yes, the two of them and a human. It is a strange universe.’ Now Tad smiled atKaro. There seemed to be a lot more smiling, which was good. Far better than hitting.
Karo had more pictures of Jevan’s parents, and of two others who he said were Jevan’s siblings. One was older than Jevan and one was younger, and they were both much bigger and the right shade of blue.
Then he showed him another picture, of two large blue people and a pale human, and they were holding a very young baby.
‘These are Norin, Lora and Charlie, the human who is part of their triad. Lora is from your house, your family group, and Lora has an affinity with growing things, just as you do. You’ll meet him one day, all of them.’
Jevan stared at the picture of the three adults with the baby for a long time, and then he reached out and touched the baby in the picture.
‘If we are a triad, we could …?’
‘Yes, little one, we certainly could. We hope we will, when the time comes, if it’s meant to be. But you have a lot of healing and growing to do first. It’s alright, we have time.’
‘That baby in the picture, it will not be stolen? Or given to a temple?’
‘No, we put an end to the stealing, and now the Crusader looks for our lost children to bring them home. And that evil place where we found you and the babies has been levelled, right to the ground. Our babies will be safe with us now, always.’
‘Kaji went back down to that place’, Tad said, ‘and talked to some other beings near there who are kinder and didn’t like the way the other things acted. He gave them money to help them, and they are setting up a house for babies that don’t have anywhere else to go, where they can be safe and happy. And not have masters, ever.’
Karo looked surprised, but pleased. ‘Good, I was worrying that there might be more babies.’
Jevan thought about it. ‘I can stay with you, and maybe help look for more lost children, even if I don’t grow anymore?’ He didn’t like to think that there were others out there like he had been, lost and alone, just trying to survive.
‘Yes.’ That was from both Karo and Tad, and they smiled at him, and reached out to hold onto him and each other, and Karo purred. ‘We are all together now, always, whether you grow or not.’
Chapter 6.
Their people had extended family groups on their home planet, and no young ones could ever be left homeless, so the blue people didn’t have words for ‘orphan’ or ‘adoption’, but Tad and Caleb’s people did. The expanded vocabulary helped them all decide what to do with the babies, although there was already no doubt that everyone was going to love them and help take care of them.
Jevan had thought that everyone on the ship just wanted to look at the strange little aliens, but then he realized that in fact they genuinely wanted to help, and to have babies to nurse because they didn’t have their own yet. It also turned out that there could be a bond, a different kind of bond than the triad bond, but a bond nonetheless.
It was the two head cooks who first discovered it. Suna and Dasu were large and good-natured beings, bonded to each other and waiting for their third who they knew was out there in the stars somewhere.
“Not one of the lost children, maybe, but still out there, so here we are on the Crusader looking.”
They came to the nursery because they wanted to know if the babies should have any kind of special food, and they also wanted to make sure that those who were nursing them had the best of all the fresh food available. They were barely through the door of the nursery when Dasu went straight to the pale thin baby who never cried or smiled, and had it in his arms and cradled against his chest. The big cook was sitting in one of the chairs nursing it before his partner could speak, and Suna sat on the arm of the chair and waited for his turn, stroking both their heads, purring down at them.
Both cooks smiled at Karo. “Our third will be happy to know that we have started a family already. To formally bond with a baby not of our blood, how do we do that?” They quite obviously weren’t going to put the baby down again.
Captain Oki was called in, and after consultation with Karo and the humans on the ship they devised a quiet adoption ceremony, and both cooks pricked their fingers and Karo pricked the finger of the little one, and they shared blood on a smaller scale than the triad bonding ceremony. The little one smiled up at its new parents in wonder, and made gurgling noises and waved its arms around. Then it went back to the serious business of nursing.
Kaji, the Second Officer, adopted the baby that he had carried out of that place, even though he was still looking for both of his other triad partners, and others on his team stood with him as parents for the little one. A bonded pair from his team, waiting for their third, also adopted the one who they had known was theirs from the minute they’d seen it.
Suki started watching the comings and goings in the nursery, and laughing. Suki was always laughing. He and Jevan made notes, making a game of it, and soon realized that one of the ship’s engineers, a large cheerful being who seemed to spend all of the rest of his time working deep down inside the ship, was a regular visitor to a little one who was also the favorite of a very shy Medical Technician. A contrived mix-up in the schedule resulted in the two of them leaving together, staring into each other’s eyes, and with their new baby cradled in their arms.
“How could we not have known? When we both have been on the Crusader all this time?”
An equally successful matchmaking attempt brought a withdrawn Science Officer together with a reclusive Computer Technician, and a baby that seemed to already know that both of them were its parents.
“To find each other, and a baby – this really gives us hope. Our third is out there and we’ll find them, or they’ll find us.”
Their baby laughed up at them, as though it knew something they didn’t.
‘How could they not have known, when they are on the same ship?’ Jevan asked in bewilderment.
Suki just laughed. ‘Being big doesn’t mean being smart, my friend, not in all things. And some part of them knew, that they could nurse.’
Tad, who loved inventing and building things, became the expert at constructing slings for the babies to be carried around in. The cooks got the first two so the babies would be safe in the kitchen but always close to their hearts.
Caleb, the map maker and the third in Oki and Suki’s triad, got the next sling. The tall human had started taking the light blue baby up to the star room and showing it the points of light on the big map there. He spent a lot of time cradling the baby and staring at the lights which marked their lost children, and then he started programming the computer again. When he was done, half a dozen more lights showed up where other groups of ba
bies, orphans of war, could be at risk.
Jevan watched these light up with awe, and saw Captain Oki lean over and kiss the top of Caleb’s head.
“You cannot save every child in the universe, beloved.” But then Oki reached over and stole the baby from him, and cradled it in his own arms, resting it on top of a belly that was becoming rounded. Oki smiled at Jevan, who smiled back over the head of the small dark baby who went everywhere with him.
Jevan hoped they could save a lot of babies, because clearly babies made everyone happy. The little dark one nuzzled into his throat as it slept, and murmured quietly, and he purred and thought safe happy thoughts to it. He thanked the gods that his new family was all together now, even if he never grew any bigger or developed any more than he had.
Chapter 7.
Jevan got the next sling, even though everyone teased him that the dark baby would be bigger than him soon. He laughed when they said that, but inside he was afraid they were right. What if Karo and Tad only kept him around until they found a real adult to bond with? The baby was theirs, though, even though their triad wasn’t bonded yet. Jevan knew that he couldn’t part with it any more than he could cut his own heart out.
The thought of losing Tad or Karo made him feel the same way, and he tried not to think what would happen if he never developed, morphed like Karo assured him he would. Would he just be another child for them to raise, and would that be enough for him?
They had named the dark baby Eko, because Tad said it was an echo of Jevan. One day when Jevan and Eko were sitting on the grass in the greenhouse, and Jevan was showing Eko the different kinds of flowers, Suki came and sat with them, and Jevan noticed that Suki’s belly was getting larger and more rounded, too.
‘Suki, you are bearing?!’
Suki beamed. ‘Yes, Oki and I both. And we have formally adopted our little one, so we will have three babies soon. Maybe four, but it’s harder to tell if the humans are bearing. So many babies, so much happiness!’
He looked at Jevan. ‘You don’t look so happy.’
‘I’m not growing, not developing. How can I be in a triad if I never grow up? It isn’t fair to Karo and Tad to never have their own babies.’
Suki shrugged. ’Not all triads have babies, that isn’t the point of being a triad. And you have Eko.’ He thought about it. ‘My friend, Karo has been measuring you and weighing you, hasn’t he? I think you are growing, but maybe just slowly so you haven’t noticed. And it hasn’t been that long since you joined us.’
‘I am not a baby, to be weighed. And Karo’s been busy with the little babies.’
‘Ah. And maybe not so much nursing within your triad with all the hungry babies? Have your lovers been nursing on you very much?’
Jevan stared at Suki in astonishment. ‘I’m not big enough to offer nursing!’ Although he had, he realized, developed nipples since he had been on the ship, and maybe something else. Maybe the morphing was beginning after all?
‘How do you know you can’t nurse?’
Jevan just stared. Then he looked down at Eko, and slowly opened his tunic and offered Eko a nipple. Eko lived in a simpler world, and he knew what to do when offered a breast. He latched on and suckled. Jevan cried out softly and pulled the little one closer to him.
‘Gods! Sweet little one, that feels good!’
Almost immediately there were two voices in his head, Karo and Tad.
‘Little one? What’s happening?’
‘Sweet one?’
‘I’m nursing Eko!’
‘You’re too little to … Oh!’
‘Where are you?!’
Suki laughed. ‘I think I’m going away now, it’s going to get crowded here.’
Within minutes Karo and Tad were kneeling on either side of Jevan, cradling him and Eko, kissing each other and him.
‘I think we may have made a mistake in treating you like a child, beloved.’
‘Or maybe I just needed time to heal. Maybe we need to be in that big safe bed again? If Eko’s belly is ever full.’
Tad kissed the top of Jevan’s head. ‘There’s a lot of nice soft grass in here. Maybe we could just be here for a while?’
Karo stroked Eko’s body and then kept going, running his hand down Jevan’s stomach. He laughed softly when his fingers found something to wrap around, and Jevan started in surprise.
‘Ohh!’
‘Yes, sweet one, beloved. You are indeed developing, and nursing the baby makes that happen. Does that feel good?’ And he held Jevan’s small erect penis gently in his hand, and Jevan arched up into him and cried out softly, happily.
‘Oh, yes ...’
Karo’s gentle hand pulled away and Jevan whimpered, but then Tad sank his mouth down over the small dark penis that was already getting larger, and Jevan cried out in pleasure.
‘Gods, so good!’
Karo cried out too.
‘Gods, sweet one, I can feel your pleasure. So good, indeed!’
Tad sucked gently, lovingly, on Jevan’s erect penis, pulling at it with his lips and running his tongue around the tip, probing into his slit, while Jevan writhed under his touch and cried out in delight at the unfamiliar feelings. He wasn’t sure what this was, but it felt better than anything he could have imagined. This was the touch that he had dreamed of, the love?
‘Yes, beloved. Love. This is the bonding, the beginning of it.’
Karo took Eko, and made him a nest in the soft grass. Eko gurgled happily, clearly pleased that his parents were giving each other some of the pleasure he had been having. Karo smiled down at the baby.
‘He is a clever one, isn’t he?’
Jevan thought that maybe it was because he had clever parents, but then he was having trouble thinking. Karo came back and sucked gently on Jevan’s lonely and aching breast, and one of his big hands stroked down Tad’s lean back then around to find the human’s throbbing erection.
‘Beloved!’
Tad sucked a bit harder on Jevan’s length, pulling on and off, and then teasing at the tip, and Jevan felt like his whole body was going to explode. Tad stroked between his legs to caress the softness of the small dark sac at the base of his penis, and then further to sink a finger into his leaking hole, and Jevan cried out in wonder. A spasm went through his body, shocking him, and then his penis shot out a small blue froth into Tad’s mouth, his very first orgasm.
‘Oh gods …’
He wasn’t sure if he should apologize for this or not, but Tad swallowed it with delight, and licked it off his lips. Karo quickly shifted down to kiss Tad, sucking at his mouth urgently, and Jevan realized that Karo wanted to taste that too, taste Jevan’s first release. He was beginning to feel very beloved, indeed.
‘Sweet one, so sweet, so beloved.’
Jevan suddenly wanted to taste Tad as well, and Karo. He heard Karo laughing in his mind, but lovingly.
‘Oh yes, now you know, this is how the bond is. All, wanting all.’
Jevan lost track of the happiness after that. Tad and Karo sucked on each other, and both nursed on him again, and it just kept getting better. Clever fingers teased at his hole again, and he teased at Karo’s hole, and then he discovered that Tad’s tight hole did not self lubricate but Tad thrashed in ecstasy when Jevan used his long tongue to lubricate it, and he delighted in being able to give joy as well as receive it.
‘This is so good, beloved. You were practicing this with Karo last night?’
Tad gasped. ‘Practicing that and other things, little one. Like loving, and making love. I’ll help you practice, as much as you want. We both will. For always.’
Karo purred. ‘Always. Now you understand always?’
And then they were lost again in the joy of the loving and finding pleasure, and Karo and Tad finally found their release at the same time in each other’s hands, Karo shooting blue froth over Tad’s pale hand, and Tad jerking out streams of white over Karo’s blue one.
‘Beloved!’
‘Beloved!’
Tad licked at the froth on his hand and then shared it with Jevan, and they both hummed at the sweet taste. Karo shared the saltier seed that Tad had given him with Jevan, and Jevan thrilled to know that his lovers were each unique, and all meant to bring each other pleasure. They all curled up together under a tree, and Tad brought little Eko in with them so he would feel safe, too. This, Jevan thought sleepily, was just about as good as it could get. This was like his dream, but so much better.
Karo and Tad reached out to him together in his mind, and he heard gentle laughter from both of them.
‘Oh no, little one, this is just the beginning. It gets better, always better.’
He didn’t see how it could, but was too tired to argue, and he fell asleep there cradled between them. Tad and Karo ended up carrying Jevan and Eko back to their quarters, and when Jevan was woken in the middle of the night by soft cries and large bodies rolling around, nothing about any of it scared him. Hands reached out to pull him into warm sweaty bodies in the sweet aftermath of their loving, and he curled up with them, purring to himself and them.
Chapter 8.
Although they still were not formally bonded as a triad, Jevan’s fears of not being enough had been laid to rest, and he wanted the three of them to make the bond with the baby official, so Eko would know he belonged, too. Tad and Karo happily agreed, and they stood on the bridge in front of Captain Oki, with Suki and Caleb as witnesses, and shared a drop of blood with their baby.
“You are a family now,” Oki assured them. “I am registering all these adoptions as births with our home registry. In front of the gods and the world, these baby’s lives began with you, and now you are family in blood as well.”
“There is only one problem”, he added, looking at Suki.
Jevan worried for a second, until Suki laughed.
“Yes, we are running out of baby things on the ship. No-one ever imagined that our ship’s population would grow so quickly in this age group. Fortunately, one of the places we stop at next will probably be able to re-supply us. I can see a lot of babies in our future.”