by Viola Grace
“Like what?”
“One solid under layer with concealing and uniform components on top. A bodysuit with a vest and a skirt in place.”
“Nice. I saw the vid from the gym. I can see most of the problems.”
“Oh, and make sure that any skirt components end just below the knee. Hypo resistance would also be good as well as any kind of built-in body armour.”
Isabella nodded. “First, we make it work, and then, we build in all the fancy bits.”
“Works for me. Now, can you thank Lekorh for his gift and ask him if we can get a few more. The ladies want me to teach a class.”
Isabella blinked. “What gift?”
“I muttered something in my mind, and he saw it. So, now, I am going to be teaching some of the ladies how to pole dance.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah, so for a class, I will need a few more poles.”
“Of course. Can I be one of your students?” Isabella smiled. “I always wanted to take the classes but never had the time.”
“I am not actually an instructor.”
“You are the closest thing we have. I will tell Lekorh to triple whatever he ordered.”
They exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then, Isabella went off to give orders to the only Saya-Rrassic on the planet. Well, everyone needed a hobby.
Chapter Twelve
She had a waiting list for classes that included every woman at the Breeder compound before she had even made it down the steps.
As Niiva spoke with them, she realized that not every woman had access to the gym or the combat simulators. The stripper pole was the closest to a workout that they could get unless they took an escort with them.
Bree spoke to her quietly. “I know. I thought they all had a mate as well, but they are just receptive, so if they choose a male, there is a chance of a pregnancy. If they don’t choose, they are in a cycle of lockdown and evenings at the mixers.”
Niiva winced. “Yikes. Even regular workers in the city can go to the gym.”
“Not once they are found to be receptive. Their lives become a round of meeting men and dancing, as well as socializing here. They are going stagnant.” Bree looked around at the women who were chattering excitedly about the new possibility in their midst.
Niiva looked at them and felt a sense of protectiveness rise in her chest. “Right. Well, it has only been a few months since women started to tick into the receptive category. I will find things for them to do.”
Bree chuckled. “You are going to take them on?”
“I am. I am used to keeping my people busy, and I am just going to have to find safe outings and events for the ladies to attend while exposing them to the maximum amount of eligible Rrassic.”
“You are going to take on the position of matchmaker?”
Niiva sighed. “More like an older sister. I am determined to fill the gestation library with children who aren’t just mine.”
Bree laughed. “Don’t worry. We are just the first steps on what is going to become a very wild ride.”
Niiva looked casually and saw Argo talking to some of the single Rrassic. “I have thought of myself as a wild ride a time or two, but this is a whole new level.”
She chuckled. “I only just met you, but I am going to miss you when you go.”
“I will be back before you know it. Possibly with a horde of children. My peculiarity is that I accelerate the gestation of any pregnancies I have. If I have a few more when I am out of here, I will be building my own blended army. I am hoping that they go Luthin when they are adults. I want Arix to see himself in them, or rather not, I guess.” Bree chuckled.
Niiva smiled. “When my children are decanted, I am going to send them to your care.”
Bree nodded. “And I will take excellent care of them. I have had to get used to the idea of being a mom. When Arix was sent off on a mission, I refused to let them take the child until he was there. It was a near thing. She almost killed me.”
“Was it really that serious?”
“It was. There was no time for my body to adjust to what was going on inside it. I was being torn apart from the inside out.”
Niiva blinked. “Damn.”
“Yeah. How far along were you?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Less than three hours?”
Bree was amazed. “They could register it?”
“Apparently. For lack of a better term, I was in heat. My scent indicates that I am nearly always in heat.”
Bree winced. “That must be awkward.”
“It is fine for me. I only have eyes for Argo. It is distracting for the unmated Rrassic though.”
Bree laughed. “I imagine it would be.”
Niiva shrugged. “It is fine.”
She looked around. “Where is Lianne?”
“She is probably studying for the peacekeeper exam.”
Niiva blinked. “Damn it. I am supposed to be doing that.”
“Yes, but you have already passed the physical requirements. She hasn’t. She has the technique but not enough stopping power.”
Niiva nodded. “Right. Okay. So, I just need to catch up on the laws of Imrahl.”
“It won’t be too difficult. They mostly restrict the Rrassic behaviour when dealing with humans, and they control human behaviour after they have been confirmed receptive.”
“You know a lot about this.”
“I like to read. The regulations are an interesting read.”
“Can you help me study? I have never been good at applied learning.”
Bree looked around and saw Arix. She pointed at Niiva and upstairs.
He nodded and spoke to Argo. They both turned and nodded, so Bree and Niiva headed upstairs to her quarters.
Once inside the safe zone, Niiva brought up the files and then went to the kitchen and made tea, dispensing snacks from the unit in the corner.
Bree grinned. “You don’t cook?”
“I do, but I haven’t had a chance. This whole thing has spun me out of my comfort zone.”
Bree chuckled. “Tell me about it. I was kidnapped, nearly killed, and then, I made a run for it on an alien world, only to be adopted by some very big and slobbery animals.”
“But you were rescued.”
“I was. Arix was sent to get me, and he was the first Rrassic that I ever felt anything for. The longer I was with him, the more I felt. Of course, he had to get used to my skark escort, but they accepted him, and I considered it a good sign. When we are together, it is just right somehow.”
Niiva smiled. “I know that feeling. It is like they teach them patience or something. No matter how nuts I get, Argo just rolls with it.”
“They are selected for temperament as well as appearance.” Bree nodded as she poured tea.
“They would have to be.” Niiva chuckled and carried the snacks while Bree brought the tea. They settled in the living space and looked at the monitor.
Bree asked her questions, and Niiva answered them, passing several hours in question and answer. Niiva knew more than she thought she did, but there were some finer points of behaviour that she needed to work on when it came to the law.
Rrassic men were actually authorized to push their seduction fairly far as long as the women weren’t panicking. That was a bit appalling, but then, the women were clones of humans mixed with some Rrassic DNA. If a Rrassic woman were there, her responses would be obvious, and they would react accordingly. Social behaviours to keep men calm were acting against them when it came to making sure that the ladies were safe.
Niiva pinched her nose. “That is going to be a bit of a hard sell.”
“Despite what you think, your pole dancing class should help. The ladies will get used to display in front of the guys, and they will have more of a connection between physical activity and pheromones.”
Niiva sat back and drummed her fingers together. “I just have to figure out how to educate them without seeming preachy.”
“The danc
e of every teacher for time immemorial.” Bree grinned.
“Yeah, I am also going to work with humans from different social situations around the world, and I will be speaking to them in a language not designed by humans. This won’t be weird at all.”
Bree cackled. “I wish I could be here when this was going on, but I think I will enjoy life with my little one, and possibly more of them.”
“Is it weird that you will be a pocket of time?”
“No, the weirder thing is our increased life span. Once we have children, we are still going to have a few hundred years to kick around with our mates and hopefully grandchildren.”
Niiva nearly keeled over. “Grandchildren.”
“Of course. Our daughters will come back to Imrahl and find mates, possibly some of the men we turned down, or some of the Nool that have offered us medical assistance. This is what is happening, so all we can do is consume all the information we can and get ready for the next generation to come out of canisters, just like we did.”
Niiva blinked. “What?”
“Don’t worry if you knew and didn’t mention it. Not many women would notice that their navel was slightly different, but I had a scar in mine that ended up gone, and my belly button is an inch lower than it used to be. It took me a while, but I figured it out. When I saw the canisters and how at ease the Rrassic were with them, it told me that there was a bit more to our existence than I thought.”
Niiva sighed. “You don’t mind?”
“I was never one for a theology that said your soul was linked to someone’s vagina. I am me, no matter where I came from.”
They continued discussing their situation for a few minutes, and then, Bree got the law books out again and started quizzing. Bree was leaving in two or three days, so it was best to get as much assistance from her as possible.
The secure vehicle rushed through the darkness, and the different checkpoints caught their excitement.
Argo was nearly crushing Niiva’s hand in his nervous enthusiasm, and she couldn’t blame him. They were about to watch the first human-Rrassic decanting. Bree’s baby was the start of a whole new generation of hope.
When they checked in at the front desk, the tension in the entire building was palpable.
“This is going to be us in a few months.” Argo murmured it to her as they walked under escort to the decanting area.
“It is going to be bizarre. We have already contributed six out of our twenty. I almost wish that it wasn’t happening so fast.”
“It will just make time for our time together as peacekeepers. You will want to have a firm presence by the time our daughters return to us.”
She smiled. “There is one son in the mix.”
“He will grow up to know that he is part of an important family, and hopefully, he will inherit my sex drive and not yours. No offense, pet.”
She laughed. “You only call me pet when you mean offense. It is fine. I don’t want my son to screw his way through the population either.”
Argo chuckled. “He will be taught self-control, as we all were.”
They entered the decanting area where a small medical station had been set up in the centre of the space. Floating vid cameras were around the area, and the mated humans and their chosen Rrassic were standing a respectful distance back from the expectant family.
Bree saw her and gave a teary grin and a thumbs-up. Arix had his arm around her as they watched the canister being removed from its place in the library and carried carefully to the central station.
The baby nearly filled the canister, and the unit was glowing with a soft blue light.
Iktabi smiled and spoke. “Thank you, Bree and Arix, for this contribution to the future of the Rrassic. Your names will be inscribed in our history.”
Bree sighed. “Great. I want to hold my baby.”
Iktabi backed away, and in the shadows, Niiva watched Lekorh standing with his hood drawn and a smaller figure next to him. Sarah seemed to be going through some kind of Saya training.
Sarah pulled her hood back slightly and winked at Niiva, indicating that she was listening to all thoughts in the room.
Lekorh’s head turned toward Sarah, and she reset her hood and kept it blankly forward.
The canister was opened, and the little girl was eased into the world, wet and slippery, but Bree was holding her as soon as she was wrapped.
Arix held both his mate and child in his arms; his colouration was rippling with colours Niiva had never seen on a Luthin.
Argo pulled her against him, and she smiled. No one was speaking. This moment was important to them all.
The little silvery girl coughed softly, and then, she let out a wail that had all the women in the room laughing. Arix beamed, Iktabi looked alarmed, and Sorrok was smiling ruefully. A glance up at Argo showed his fascination with the little fingers and toes exposed by the loose wrapping.
Niiva sighed. “When we have our collection, we can head to the creche and raise our brood if you like. As long as I have help with all the little ones, we can do it.”
He smiled. “Are you sure?”
“I am sure. We can take them and raise them until they are old enough to enter into Rrassic training. Is it a deal?”
He squeezed her. “Deal.”
Twenty children at the same time in a dimensional bubble where time moved faster was the stuff of science fiction but so was being a human-alien hybrid. Niiva had some time to learn about what raising that many children would entail, and she knew that it was going to be more involved than rearing goats.
She would take on that challenge when they had their twenty, and with the way her body was producing eggs, it would be sooner than she would like.
Her career would have to be put on hold when the time came, like many women before her, she would have to put her plans on hold for family. When she watched Argo looking over at the baby, she decided that she didn’t really mind.
She would make him pay for her generosity later and at random intervals. He always rose to her challenge, and it was what she loved most about him. Well, that and his abs, but it was far less poetic to focus on the physical, even if it was true.
“Come on, you big kitty. Let’s see if we can hold the baby.”
She pulled him forward, and when Bree handed over the little warm bundle, Niiva knew she saw her own future, and it wasn’t as overwhelming as she thought it would be. Argo would be an attentive caregiver, and she could handle the heavy lifting. Yeah, a future with children was possible, even if it hadn’t precisely been in her plans, but then, her plans had gone out the window when she had been snatched, cloned, and offered as a mate to the alien hordes. Things couldn’t have turned out better.
The human-Rrassic hybrid in her arms was named while she held it. Bree stroked the soft cheek and murmured, “Remi. Remi Bree-Arix. First human-Rrassic on Imrahl.”
Niiva handed the baby back to her mother. “Remi is a very good name.”
Back with Argo, she glanced over at the library wall where their canisters were lining up. “Oh, shit. We have to name them all.”
His shoulders shook, and he wrapped her in his arms. “We have time, Niiva. We have time.”
Author’s Note
Finally! After a rough 2018, I was able to start 2019 with Brace for Humanity. It has been designed as a six-part series, and now, we are in the final arc. Whew.
My intent is to finish this series back to back, so hopefully, it will come out in a fairly tight grouping.
The next book is Sarah’s. She is the companion in Companion’s Dilemma. Going from highly intuitive to telepathy isn’t a journey without pain, and she earns every milestone she gets before someone notices that her skills have become exceptional.
Thanks for reading,
Viola Grace
About the Author
Viola Grace (aka Zenina Masters) is a Canadian sci-fi/paranormal romance writer with ambitions to keep writing for the rest of her life. She specializes in short stories
because the thrill of discovery, of all those firsts, is what keeps her writing.
An artist who enjoys a story that catches you up, whirls you around, and sets you down with a smile on your face is all she endeavours to be. She prefers to leave the drama to those who are better suited to it, she always goes for the cheap laugh.
In real life, she now is engaged in beekeeping, and her adventures can be found on the YouTube channel, Mystery Bees Apiary. Just look for the cartoon kittens.