by Zara Zenia
This was the origin of all life on Earth, the planetary signature. The pattern represented the compounds, rocks, ice and liquid that formed the primordial sludge that life evolved from. It was Earth's essence. I needed to see it so that I could recognize what tissue belonged to her, and what tissue came from my son, who would have Valice's signature in his energy field.
I zoomed out, just past the field and moved past her neck, to her heart which had faced considerable damage. It was thin and weak, but it was already repairing itself, so much so that there was no reason to worry about its integrity.
It was the same with her breathing, her blood pressure, even her liver and kidneys were functioning normally. There was damage all throughout, but it had either repaired itself completely, or healed enough that she wouldn't face health issues that would come about before she'd reached the end of the normal human lifespan.
A drop of warm liquid fell down my cheek. There he was, the most precious thing in the world with an umbilical cord, rather than a Fiori mouth, feeding him the nutrients he needed to develop his human body. He had ten fingers, each of them human with human feet and a human head.
There were signs of his paternity in his energy field. His Fiori ancestors were present alongside his human ones, and faint traces of our world's history could be found deep within him, but his body was human.
I felt a warm ball of compassion settle deep inside my gut. It burned through my fear and anxiety replacing them with the most potent love I had ever experienced.
“Oh, God.” I crouched down, shaking and crying, cradling the invisible image of our son floating in a human womb. He was strong, beautiful, and he was mine to love and hold just like Lainey would be.
I knew why this had happened. The child was created on his mother's home planet, just like every human had since the dawn of their species, and I was human when he was conceived. No Fiori had ever attempted to mate with a female on Earth while taking human form. Humans had to be conceived on their home planet with their species in order to survive.
“I wanna know.”
I stood up, touched the center of my crown and threw a screen at the wall just above her.
“Why are you crying?”
I didn't answer. Instead I projected the fleshy beating image of our son, swimming in his mother's placenta.
“But, the others… they didn't look like that, Markathus.”
“You're going to live.”
“How is that possible?”
“Humans can only conceive on Earth when the father takes human form.” I swept the screen away.
She scooted over so I could lay next to her. “You're gonna be a dad. What does that feel like?”
“It's the most beautiful thing I've ever felt, but it's also a burden. Our child will be in danger from the moment he's born.”
“It's going to be fine, Markathus.”
“God, I hope.”
“Let's show Madge.” She got up, but I didn't move.
“What?”
“It's just so personal. I don't want my son exposed to anyone. I want him to be ours, our secret. Even that image feels like an intrusion.”
“You don't want to show it to her?'
“I wanna steal the next ship and take him to the deepest, darkest corner of the galaxy. That boy is the secret to saving my species. If we show Madge a picture of him, and she's tortured, or she decides to betray us…”
“She wouldn't do that.”
“And you're willing to take that chance?”
She stared down at the floor. “No, I'm not.”
“Then we'll tell her your body killed the fetus and that it'll be removed after we leave.”
“OK.”
“And you will never, ever tell anyone about this.” I met her eyes to make sure I was serious.
“I promise.”
Chapter 16
Lainey
I laid on the bed, and stared down at my bulging stomach. I'd had a chance to study some gynecology when I was younger, not much, and what I knew I mostly got from old text books, but I knew what it looked like when a woman was in her second trimester. I had been pregnant for only a short period of time, and my son was almost fully developed.
I wouldn't have long until he was born. Child birth was a painful, dangerous process, one that could easily kill the mother if there were complications. I wasn't sure how much Markathus knew about human biology or how to catch a baby, but I knew that my pregnancy was special and any number of things could happen.
The labor would probably be intensive. The child felt strong. He was heavy. What if he came out and tore me apart, because he didn't know his own strength? He could crush my bones and tear skin. He might even damage my internal organs.
Would Markathus be able to perform a c-section?
He said I would live, but there were too many factors involved to know for certain. Even if the pregnancy was successful, our child was a hybrid. He would have both human and Fiori traits. Nobody had ever raised a child like that. I didn't know what it would take. Their children were probably violent and cruel. They might even have a killer instinct. When coupled with intense human emotions, it would be impossible for him to be a stable, healthy human, one that could live a balanced life without having to cope with mental illness.
In order to raise him, I would have to understand him, and carefully control his environment. I would need to ensure that outside factors didn't interfere with the values I needed to instill in him. If I didn't even know what planet I was going to raise him on, there was no way I could possibly do that.
Markathus walked in while I was laying with my belly exposed staring down at it. He was holding two hand cannons.
“Did Madge give you those?” She called him back a little after we finished with the sensor.
“Yeah.” He seemed nervous.
“What's wrong?”
He laid down and held me close. “What are Fiori children like?” I asked when he relaxed.
“They're boisterous, energetic and mischievous, much like you'd expect monkeys to be. Human children are vulgar, but not like Fiori children. Fiori children become obsessed with everything dirty and disgusting. They get into more trouble than human children. Mothers rarely let them out of their sight, and they're constantly beating them.”
“It's going to be difficult raising him.”
“If we survive. We're going to be running for a long time. We might not be able to get away, and you're going to be in a fragile state soon. I've seen how hard it is for pregnant humans to get around. I want to find someplace we can hide as soon as we get to the planet.”
“They'll see us. They'll know, Markathus. We're not just going to be able to hide in some cave.”
“There are ways, Lainey.”
There was a chime at the door.
“Come in.” I called out.
Madge skipped in with her hair dyed black and puffed up in true eighties fashion, wearing a black skirt suit with shoulder pads that must've been at least a foot long.
“You like it?” She turned around slowly.
“I haven't seen anyone dress like that since I was a kid. It's kind of cool.”
“Really what is it? Styles change so quickly there.”
“It's the shoulder pads and the hair.”
“Those are the best parts.” She frowned playfully.
“Why are you dressed up?” Markathus asked.
“Well,” she smiled, “there is one very very fine tradition that both humans and the Fiori share.”
“What?” Markathus asked.
“A feast.”
“Really?” I sat up.
“Yup and I finally figured out how to synthesize beef, so we've got steak, hamburgers and hot dogs, which I figured would be good for you since you're going to have to eat as much as you can since you're eating for two.”
Markathus formed his lips into a straight line. “Madge said she knew as soon as she saw me that the baby was alive.”
“
I told you to tell her.” I got up and hugged Madge who turned bright red. Then I knelt down to get on the old woman's level. “I don't know how I could possibly thank you for all the help you've given me. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have survived.”
I turned around to see Markathus fuming with his arms crossed and realized that he was jealous, so I stood up, pecked him on the cheek and moved in toward his ear. “I love you.”
He held my hand while we followed Madge through a door near the front entrance. It led further on into the structure through a long black corridor with a door at the end.
I admired the paisley design that had been carved into its surface. “Did you do this?” I asked Madge.
“Everything is printed here, but I did design it.
“Hmm,” I smiled, “feels like home.”
“That's the point.” Madge pressed her hand on the doorway and it opened outwards revealing a long dining hall with human crown molding and wall columns carved into the carbon.
The food was a mix of human and intergalactic Fiori cuisine. There was an orange duck and a pork roll sitting along side a platter of steaks. There was filet mignon, rib-eye, strip and chuck steak, tortillas, pico de gallo and mashed potatoes.
In the center of the table was a plate of red meat, covered in a purple crust, along with mashed pastes and sauces in every color.
“Oh,” I sighed. “This looks amazing.”
Madge giggled when Markathus and I sat down. She turned around and pulled out a wine bottle with a yellowed label. “For the father.” She poured Markathus a drink and one for herself.
We lifted our glasses. “To the birth of a new Fiori,” Madge declared.
My drink was thin, green nectar that tasted like cinnamon and sugar. It went down soft and made my whole body glow. For the most part I focused on the alien foods. There was a soup made from a green cream that left my mouth tasting slightly of mint. I tried a piece of the red meat, which reminded me of fried chicken with a fishy taste.
Everything was amazing, not unappetizing in the least.
“Here.” Madge opened a black container sitting next to her chair and pulled out a white oval that resembled a mushroom.
“No.” Markathus said.
“What is it?”
“It won't hurt her.”
“Just a bit,” he said. “Half.”
Madge gave him a playful glare and handed me what I was certain was a fungus. “What is this?”
“Thurian calming mushroom. It's quite enjoyable.”
It tasted bitter, but not overwhelmingly so. I chewed it up and swallowed it, taken over by the rosy sensation that made me feel like I was swimming “Oh,” I sighed, “that is amazing.”
“See,” she looked at Markathus. “It's harmless.” When they both tried a piece their faces softened. They seemed to melt in their chairs, and stopped eating altogether. Conversation flowed freely. We talked about the various planets that Markathus and Madge had visited, and the cultures they had come into contact with.
I was given crown screen images of giant purple slugs and free-flying gaseous monsters that lived in the clouds of gas giants. There were purple canyons, flowers that could think and titans the size of mountains.
When our bellies were full, and we were thoroughly inebriated, Markathus excused himself, while Madge and I stayed up talking.
“Give me a cigarette.” I said as soon as he left.
She laughed. “I knew it. I saw the way you were looking at them. I will do so, so long as you promise to use the sanitizer afterwards, because the second he smells it, he's going to cause a scene.
“He can kiss my ass.”
“Promise?” She rose one eyebrow.
“Of course.”
When the smoke hit my throat, I felt a welcome sense of satisfaction pass through me. “Oh, thank God.”
“I know this might seem like strange time to say it, but I think you're going to make a great mother.”
“But there is still danger.”
“Oh,” she took a drag and let the smoke drift out of her mouth when she spoke. “There's danger. You have no idea the risk we're taking. The Fiori have capital punishment, but not like you're used to. We've developed methods that will keep a person alive for years, in some cases decades while they face the most unimaginable pain possible.”
The rosy sensation that the mushroom had given me had disappeared in a fog of darkness. In my mind I saw myself hanging on a cross with my stomach exposed from the open c-section they'd used to steal my son.
“They kill everyone that isn't what they would deem of sound mind and body. That includes the elderly, the sick and the disabled. All of them get recycled.”
“Recycled?”
“Look around you?” She motioned toward the walls. “We use everything just like your natives, not out of reverence, but because it's efficient. When we kill somebody, we take their bodies and turn them into a black carbon compound that we use as a multi-purpose material, like plastic and wood.”
“I'm sitting in a building made out of corpses. This entire planet is covered in this stuff.”
She nodded her head. “Our houses are built out of the beings we've personally killed. It's only so large as the amount of corpses we can amass.”
I felt like a bucket of raw hot water had been poured on my head, giving me the sudden instinct to run out of there.
“When you leave the planet,” she went on, “you will pass through the first wave of border drones. They will scan the ship in order to ascertain what life forms are aboard and the destination entered into the ship's computers. This is your passport to fly through Fiori space. It took us more than a decade to figure out how to forge it and they are constantly changing the sensors, so we have to struggle to keep up with the technology.”
“Will we pass?”
“Yes. A couple was taken off planet just before you arrived and their ship was allowed through. There's no reason to believe that they've changed the sensors since then, but there are random searches, and there is likely to be a mark on your head. So I can't say for certain.”
“Why are your people like this?”
“We're natural predators. Imagine what would happen if a lion or a snake evolved into a sentient species. Humans were just lucky enough to have developed a sense of compassion. You have no idea how dark the Fiori can be. We enslave species, use them as sentient cattle and keep them alive so we can harvest portions of their body. Without compassion you can justify anything. Add in a killer instinct and you get a planet full of sadists.”
“I don't want to have to worry. I need certainty.”
“Life is always a risk.”
I was starting to feel sick, so I decided to excuse myself and find Markathus who was sleeping on the edge of the bed.
Chapter 17
Markathus
I sat up, frozen with fear, when I saw the red crown glowing like molten metal ringing softly on the hook. I wanted to bash both of our heads in. It would've been the most logical thing to do. It would save us from whoever was summoning me. Only the higher echelons of Fiori society are capable of performing a summon. Once I put the crown on, I'd be forced to stay and listen to what they had to say.
I'd been found out. Of course I had. There was no way they were just going to let Ferryn walk out with a pregnant human, and once they saw that I left my post, they would've figured out that I was with her.
We had to kill ourselves as quickly and painlessly as we possibly could. Otherwise, we'd be punished and I'd be forced to watch them rip our son out of her belly. What would they use? Would it be subdermal crawlers, climbing through my body, stimulating my nerves, or would they use C-17, an acid that kept burning my flesh off and healing it again. There were so many ways they could cause me pain. I was vulnerable. Love does that to you.
I stared at the crown, which was buzzing now. If I didn't answer soon, a militia would descend on the sanctuary, and I didn't want to bring Madge into this. She was too good, wh
ich was why we couldn't commit suicide.
The second we did, she'd be labeled a heretic, questioned and punished. I would have to take responsibility for this and do whatever I could to ensure Lainey and our son's safety. I carefully crept off the bed, and picked up the crown so I could bring it into the other room.
When the door closed, I shifted and started to calm my mind. The crown can sense Fiori emotions. If I put it on and I was anxious or fearful, they would know and I'd be labeled a heretic. I had to invoke my species' characteristic neutrality if I was going to survive.
When I put the crown on my head, it tightened and melded to my skull cap, sending black stars over my eyes, while it began transferring me to the virtual world.
It was black, empty, like the veil between galaxies. There was no sound or light. I couldn't even see my body, but there was a force driving me forward, an almost magnetic pull and as it did a green light, like a ship's beacon, spread an ominous glow over the carbon hull that was coming into view.
When I got closer, I could see the thousands of impressions built into the side. They caught the light, offering a view of the window frame, and when I was even closer, I could see the poor cattle locked inside just past the thick transparent window covering.
They would be stuck in an artificial state of panic so the ship could harness their heightened brain waves to provide electricity for the passenger's needs. There were other ways to power light bulbs, crowns and consoles, but us Fiori prefer to display our kills and we loved to play with them.
Once the side of the ovular structure came into view, I saw a square hologram of a gold crescent sitting on a purple backdrop hovering along the side of the hull. There was no hope for either of us. Madge would be impaled and Lainey would once again become a Fiori experiment. The hologram was my family seal, the flag emblazoned on the Fiori intergalactic fleet as a sign of the power my father commanded.