“Well, you should also know that you are having twins. The babies are both girls but not identical like Holly’s. Like Holly’s, the babies are both very healthy and haven’t suffered any damage during abductions,” Vax told her gently. Samantha put hand over mouth and tried not to cry. She suddenly bolted from the room. Vax stopped Sienna from following her.
“Give her a little while. She needs to be alone. I’m not sure but something was bothering her about the pregnancy before this all happened and I sense she just needs some time alone to adjust. I know she’s your best friend but will you trust me on this?” Vax asked.
Sienna nodded and sat down again.
“Blanca, you are also pregnant with a girl but only one.” Vax stated and watched her.
“You’re lying,” she said but it didn’t have as much conviction as the first time she said.
“The baby is healthy and you’re about ten weeks along in the time frame you’re used to using,” Vax told her and didn’t acknowledge the insult. Blanca glared at him and stalked out of the room. Vax turned to Ashaa.
“I know you can heal because Rose told me you took care of a black eye for Sienna. Can you also diagnose?” Vax asked.
“I don’t know. I didn’t know Samantha and Blanca were pregnant but then I don’t think I’ve had physical contact with either of them. One night on the Mirkndak ship, everyone was sleeping and Holly became ill. I helped settle her stomach and while my hands were on her I just knew. I even knew the babies were identical girls and told her. But I had no idea how far along she was,” Ashaa explained.
“You had contact with Samantha but both times you were unconscious and came to in situations that needed your immediate attention,” Holly told her. “First, Jennings kicked you in the back and struck Sienna and second when he attacked Rose and the others. Both times Samantha is the one who was trying to wake you.”
Vax had a furious expression on his face. “What happened to this Jennings,” he growled.
“I killed him when he attacked Rose and the others. Or at least I believe I fatally injured him before the Mirkndaks pulled us a part,” Ashaa said calmly. Ashaa couldn’t be sure but she thought she heard Dezek mutter, “Saves him from me.”
“All right,” Rose clapped her hand together, “enough of this doom. Let’s go down and see the gardens. We need to breathe a little and relax. Let’s deal with the clothing issue later since it’s not urgent. Axon told me he’ll worry about the crate later.”
“Agreed,” said Sienna. Rose gave Vax a quick kiss on the lips and led the rest of the women into the passage. On their way to the gardens, they stopped to see if Samantha and Blanca were ready to join them. Samantha came out and said she wanted to go. Blanca refused to answer them or speak so they left her in her quarters and went down in the lift.
Chapter 9
Vax and Dezek stopped in the passage in front of the lift. “That went better than I thought it would,” Dezek said with a wry smile. “Only one tantrum.”
“It will hit a few of the others in a little while but I think it will be tears and pain of loss, not necessarily anger that we see. They’re losing all family and friend connections while those connections aren’t like ours, some are still very strong. Right now most of them are just glad to no longer be food stock so they’re still counting themselves lucky,” Vax explained.
“Thanks for that cheerful news, Kid,” Dezek said shaking his head. “Let’s just keep an eye on Blanca. She’s the one I worry about. Also we have to keep her away from Fazon and Axon. I don’t think I have ever seen Fazon lose his cool so thoroughly before this,” he said with a laugh.
“True,” Vax laughed with him as they got into the lift and headed for the bridge.
***
When the second group of women arrived at the hydroponics level they were as impressed as the first group. Zabyss was happy to see the rest of the group and gushed about her night and the beautiful plants when she and Taylor met the second group at the lift doors.
“How is everyone this morning?” Taylor said with her trademark serenity smile back in place.
“Great,” Holly answered as they hugged. Holly it seemed was a hugger, Sienna thought as she too hugged Taylor.
“Everyone else is over on the far side sitting on the minawl weed,” she told them as she started to lead the way.
“They’re growing weeds?” puzzled Samantha.
“No,” Taylor laughed. “It’s like sort of like grass back home only it’s a soft pastel yellow but they call it a weed by translation. It’s one of the few things growing in dirt here on the Hydro Deck.”
The group reached the others and Sienna saw relief on their faces. “Is everything okay?” Natalie wanted to know.
“Yes,” Holly smiled and hugged the others. “Vax just wanted to make sure that several of us knew we were pregnant.”
Squeals, laughter and questions erupted from the women.
“How far along are you?”
“Is the baby okay?”
“Did you know?”
“Wait, wait,” Holly held up her hands in surrender, laughing. The new group joined the others sitting on the patch of minawl weed. “I did know I was pregnant. I’m about 14 weeks along, so I’ll probably start showing soon. The babies are fine and identical twin girls,” she answered smiling.
“Twins?” Tabitha gasped.
“Yep, Ashaa told me that part. I suspected I was pregnant but not that I was having identical twins or that the babies were girls till Ashaa helped me with a little ‘morning sickness’ in the middle of the night on the Mirkndak ship.”
“You must have been even more scared than the rest of us,” Tabitha said with concern on her face.
“I was scared to death but now I can’t stop smiling.”
“So Blanca is also pregnant?” Wendy asked with a frown. “Oh, heaven help us all.”
All the women laughed over this statement. Wendy looked at Samantha who was still quiet.
“Are you okay, Sam?”
“Yes, I’m also having twins Vax said but not identical. They are both girls though. I’m about 16 weeks along and both babies are healthy,” Samantha shared with the others. “I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Part of me wants to jump for joy and part of me is worried how I’m going to do this alone.”
“You aren’t going to be alone,” Sienna told her with conviction in her voice. “I am here and not going anywhere.”
“I second that,” Natalie told her with a smile. “You’ve been there for me when I was fighting with my parents. I’ll be there for you and the babies.”
“Thank you,” Samantha said with a watery smile.
“By the way, Ashaa, awesome ‘tan’,” Wendy joked with her. “You look great.”
“So the green doesn’t bother you?”
“No, why would it? It’s a beautiful color and you look more relaxed somehow,” Wendy told her.
“Keeping in camouflage expends huge amounts of energy for the Zargazians,” Rose answered for Ashaa who still looked uncertain. “The tension you felt from her was energy she was using to keep it stable. Vax said he had no idea how she managed it for such extended periods of time especially unconscious.”
“So you and Vax seem attached at the hip,” Natalie commented to Rose.
“That is an understatement,” Rose laughed. “But it’s more like attached at the mind.”
“Taylor, you must be in heaven with a greenhouse this size,” Jasmine said.
“Yes, some of the plants are outrageous too. You should see the tree the spiky blue green orbs, we ate while with the suPonicks, grow on,” she said laughing. “Its fronds are nearly the same orange as Zabyss and just as fuzzy and the trunk is royal purple. It looks like it came out of a Dr. Seuss book.”
Just then Zabyss appeared again and came scurrying along the path with Moz behind her. She chittered in delight. Moz was carrying a basket with them.
“Ladies, Zabyss brought you a treat. She can pick fruit l
ike a champ,” he said with a smile. He reached into the basket and pulled out what appeared to a shiny green Granny Smith apple. They stared in awe.
“You have apples?” asked Jasmine reaching for the fruit.
“Yes. This variety is called a Granny Smith but I’m guessing you might already know that.”
“How did you get Granny Smith apples,” Tabitha asked as she reached for one also.
“Just because your planet is in the no-fly zone doesn’t mean some of the more unscrupulous characters in the galaxies haven’t visited,” he said laughing. “Only those of us who actually obey the laws and are concerned about sanctions pay attention.”
“Sounds like home,” Wendy said ruefully as she passed the basket of apples.
“Well, every place has its issues and people who just can’t seem to help themselves. I’ve never seen any place that didn’t at least have one or two,” he said with a sigh. “Someone came across the apples in a supply station and brought them home. We have other humans on our planet so we culled the seeds from the fruit and started our own trees. We have four different varieties at home: a pink, a red and a yellow besides the Grannies. But I only have room for one tree here on the ship, since the Grannies travel well and are multi-purpose, I grow that one. I also have a black plum tree and a lemon tree on board. Most of the protein we eat during space travel is put together on molecular level by the dispensers or frozen but nothing beats fresh fruit and vegetables to go with it.”
“I have a question,” Natalie said with a serious face.
“I’ll try to answer if I can,” Moz told her.
“I know you can’t take us home. But what about Zabyss?” she asked with a concerned frown while hugging the little creature.
“Zabyss is headed to Lar-kevel with the rest of us. Unfortunately, the world she is originally from, Xydrakon, was nearly completely destroyed in a war between a bi-ped species native to the planet and another invading bi-ped species. What resources weren’t destroyed, were then plundered by the invaders. They left it just barely habitable. Many of the Xydrav were also taken from their world as pets before and after the war. Even after it became common knowledge that they were sentient,” he told them with a shake of his head. “We have a few colonies of Xydrav on Lar-kevel that were started as we’ve rescued them from bad situations. They’re great neighbors and farmers especially where orchards are concerned. Their tentacles allow them to move easily through the trees.”
“Zabyss live near Taylor,” the little orange creature told them.
“Yes,” Taylor laughed in agreement.
“Aren’t we missing one?” Moz asked.
“Yes, Blanca is in her room pouting,” Rose told him. “She doesn’t believe she’s pregnant.”
“That one is pregnant?” Moz was gaping at Rose. “May the Heavens help us.”
“Actually, Holly and Samantha are also pregnant,” Rose laughed at the expression this news brought to Moz’s face.
“Is everyone okay? Are the babies okay?”
“Yes, we’re fine,” Holly laughed at his expression too. “Vax assures us the babies are healthy.”
“Well, no heavy lifting for either of you,” Moz said with a fierce look. “Should you even be working?”
“Doesn’t matter what planet a man is from. Tell him a woman is pregnant and he thinks she’s an invalid,” Taylor said smiling at him.
“Well, well…” he stammered to a stop. He looked at the women and threw his hands up in surrender and walked away muttering, “I’m going back to my fruit trees.”
All the women went into fits of laughter.
***
A while later Moz looked up from his pruning project with Zabyss to see the group of women moving toward him with Taylor in the lead.
“We’re looking for jobs to do,” Taylor told him with a smile.
“You’ve only been here one day. You can take a few days to recover,” he told her softly.
“We’re all used to working. We all enjoy working. We’ve spent the most of the last month or so sitting idle and bored out of minds in various cages. Dezek said we would all be assigned jobs this morning when we had our meeting upstairs,” Wendy told him and the others agreed.
“Well, I don’t think he meant you needed to start today. But if you’re willing, I do have a job that I’d love to share.”
“Share away,” Sienna said with a smile.
“It won’t hurt my feelings if you back out just remember that,” he said with a smile. He went on to explain that seeds he had purchased had to be gone through by hand and pull any that didn’t match what should be in each packet. They groaned but still agreed to help rather than sit with nothing to do for hours on end. So Moz showed them to an area that looked much like a picnic spot where there were assorted tables on another patch of the minawl weed and then went with Taylor and Wendy to get the boxes of seed packets and sorting trays. They returned and he emptied a packet of seeds into a tray and used a thin wand to move seeds from one side to the other until he found two that didn’t match. These two were removed with tweezers and placed into another tray (for strays he said). Once he found no more seeds that didn’t match he returned them to the packet and wrote a series of characters on the envelope.
“This is the date in my written language,” he explained. “If you can’t copy the characters don’t worry about it, dating them is the easy part for me.”
“Okay, ladies, let’s sort seeds,” Wendy said.
***
Dezek completed his report and sent it on to the Fathers at home. He glanced at Rev. He and Fazon, the two biggest men on the ship, were still stewing over recent events. The last twenty four hours hadn’t been easy for anyone. The tension on the bridge was becoming intense. He knew everyone was waiting for one or both of the big men to explode. He decided to try and defuse one of them.
“Does it really matter if she chooses to keep the name?” he asked and felt everyone on the bridge flinch. They had been tiptoeing around Rev all morning.
“Yes, damn it, it does. It’s abhorrent that they gave her an acronym, not a name!” Rev growled for not the first time this morning.
“But if she chooses to make it her own, then let her.” Dezek told him patiently. “She may change her mind in the future and that’s fine. If she doesn’t then that’s also fine and it actually makes a pretty name. If you hadn’t explained it, I never would have guessed it was anything but a name. But by trying to force her into changing it, you become exactly what she has escaped from.”
Rev’s jaw dropped and he stared with a stunned look at Dezek. Dezek waited patiently. Rev would either get it or throw a punch. He watched understanding dawn across his friend’s face and he bit the inside of his cheek not to smile. Rev’s eyes closed and his head and his shoulders dropped and he swore in several languages under his breath.
“I’m a damn insensitive cretin,” he said heavily. “I owe her an apology.”
“Yes, you do. She’s on the Hydro deck with the rest of them. You and everyone else should know that three of them are pregnant: Blanca, Holly and Samantha.”
“Blanca?” Rev groaned. “That is not good. She’s already a pain in the ass.”
“Fazon and Axon will both agree with you on that fact,” he smiled as he said it and Fazon shot him a dirty look and grimaced. “By the way how did you know Blanca was pregnant? Moz tells me you knew yesterday before Vax and I had our meeting with them.” Dezek asked turning to Fazon who shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny.
“I’m not as good at diagnosis as Vax is but I always know a pregnant female when I see one,” he admitted grudgingly. “And the first bastard that cracks a joke or smiles is going to get pummeled,” he threatened with a fierce growl. Everyone on the bridge ducked their heads into the station where they were working while trying not to smile. One of the fiercest of their ranks was a baby detector, how ironic was that Dezek thought as he fought his own smile.
“I’m going down to apologize to A
shaa,” Rev said as he headed for the lift. “Weapons diagnostic and check are complete as you requested,” he said as he went into the lift. “All sensors have undergone diagnostics and are verified also. We’re ready if there’s trouble.”
“Expecting trouble, Boss,” Nyman asked after the lift had closed.
“Possibly, the Katowie government wasn’t thrilled that we left the way we did. Gval received the message from the Council overnight that the Katowie had filed a formal complaint while he was at the con. He managed to assure the Council that the Trusky was weaving tales. The humans weren’t sick and we’d be happy to have a representative check them if they’d like. The Council told him that was fine but the Katowie government wanted us to know that this absolves them of liability. Gval told them that we would accept those terms. He also paid the fine we incurred by jumping to hyper speed inside the star system,” he smiled as Nyman laughed and gave him a thumbs up. “But a bigger issue is if that Trusky figures out that Vax pushed him,” Dezek said with his usual smile. “He might just decide it’s worth it to hire a raider.”
“Bring it,” Nyman snorted.
***
The lift opened and Rev took a deep breath. He stepped out and his physical senses followed his mental which were already locked on to Ashaa. He still needed to explain to Dezek that like his little brother with Rose; his own link had not dissolved after he healed Ashaa. He wondered if it was because their mother was human also and therefore he and Vax had some human DNA. That was something he would have to discuss with Vax. He also knew his mother would be over the moons that two of her sons had finally found mates. He just wondered how she’d feel about Ashaa. He didn’t envy the two middle brothers when his mother found out that both her oldest and youngest were mated. She would turn up the pressure on those two to unbearable. He smiled at that thought considering how much of a pain his little brothers sometimes had been. He also worried some about what the Fathers would say but he had several months before he would need to deal with his mother or the Fathers since they were completing the supply run as originally planned. So for now he would concentrate on Ashaa, what she needed and their relationship. He found them sitting at the tables on one of the patches of minawl weed that Moz insisted on growing. It appeared Moz had found recruits willing to sort seeds for him.
TAKEN: Journey to a New Home Page 10