by Brandon Hill
“I would never!” Sar’vana’s expression was earnest, and her hand once again fell to her belly. “No. I really am pregnant.” She cast me a gentle smile, and I stood beside her. “And Jules is now my lifemate, and the father of our child.”
“Well, I certainly have missed a lot,” Alexa said, and sighed. “It’s too bad you tipped your hand to the Council. I should have liked to coax the secret out of you, myself, and then blackmail you into keeping it.”
Agura, listening quietly to our conversation, chuckled.
“Oh, you think I wouldn’t?” Alexa said, her expression smug. “Remember, I am a pirate.”
“So, Your Majesty, now that you have all of Zynj in your pocket, what do you plan to do?” Agura asked.
“Fleece them bald, of course,” Alexa said matter-of-factly. “Well, perhaps not bald, but our costs will certainly leave them feeling that they’ve been rottenly shagged by the most thorough of lovers.”
“They won’t like that,” Agura said.
“Serves them right for casting you to the curb for your kindness,” Alexa said. “They believe that we’re offering our services cheaply. And we are. But we never told them what resources these repairs will require. Why I’ll have to open up new factories all over King’s Knight just to fabricate the necessary parts. We’re looking at compounded costs that are bloody insane! Your falling out couldn’t have happened at a better time. Unless of course you actually liked working with those ingrates?” Seeming to catch herself, she gave me an apologetic glance. “No offense, love.”
“None taken,” I said. “I don’t consider them my people anymore.”
“Now, now, I wouldn’t be so hasty to hate them,” Alexa said, waving a finger. “Give me a few years dealing with them. I guarantee they’ll be begging for the Felyans to come back.”
“I doubt the Empress will oblige,” Agura said sourly.
“And I’m counting on that,” Alexa replied with a grin that looked almost sinister. I’ve seen how they treated your people. That display in the Council chambers was utterly disgusting.” She removed the cloak and placed it into the hands of a waiting guard, revealing the short –cropped hair that framed unusual and striking clothes she wore underneath. A red polished leather bustier with silver buckles that lined the front, fitted over a long red velvet dress. Through the lengthy and prominent slit in the dress, I could see the buckles of knee-high platform boots, also of red, which increased her height significantly. The emerald-colored scales that grew from Alexa’s shoulders were like small, overlapping plates of armor, and were brighter in real life than on any of the holos of her I remembered from the tank. She seemed to catch my look of surprise. I knew that she wasn’t human, but to see her up close and personal, smiling a mouthful of sharp teeth, and with scales as well as skin, I could venture a guess as to why she felt moved to help us, in addition to why she wore such concealing garments in the presence of the Council. I wanted to laugh at the delicious bit of irony this presented.
“The prices of my people’s services will teach the Elders some respect,” Alexa said. “But the good news is, if they ever have to deal with Felyans again, they’ll be quite a bit nicer to you, I should think. After all, we ‘aliens’ must stick together.”
I laughed, and Sar’vana quickly joined me, followed by Agura. Even Gar and Sara chuckled amusedly at this interesting turn of events.
“I guess I truly did misjudge you,” Agura said.
“Most people do,” Alexa remarked, and then brought her full attention upon me. “So, this is the one who stole away the heart of the lady Sar’vana and now is the father of her child, hm?” She cast an appraising eye over me for a moment, pursing her very red lips. “A bit too scruffy for my tastes, I think.” It was the first time I saw a smile from her that was simply kind, and with no hint of danger.
“Good thing, or bad thing?” I asked.
“I should think it’s a very good thing,” Alexa replied and sauntered back towards her guards with one last wink. “You wouldn’t survive me.”
“Your Majesty!” Sar’vana said, appalled.
“Oh, do try to relax, love.” Alexa chuckled softly and brushed a red, manicured hand across Sar’vana’s cheek. “For you, I’ll say something in all sincerity. I’m glad that you found happiness, even on a planet like this. And I wish you and …” She cast a questioning glance my way.
“Jules,” I said.
“I wish you and Jules … and your child a lifetime of happiness.”
“Thank you,” Sar’vana said, and she and Alexa hugged.
13
And that was that.
The process of rounding up the disinherited humans proved to be trickier than it first seemed. There were more than we had realized, much to Agura’s chagrin, and the government made several attempts to jail suspected offenders under false charges. Felyan programs still built into the computer systems on Zynj put a stop to most of the corruption and saved my people –not that they were very grateful for being forcefully uprooted from their homeworld and families. Only their mates comforted them. I guess it was fortunate for us that Felyan pheromones had a calming effect on human psyches, so there was very little protest or violence in the transition.
To my surprise, it was because of Chester that we found the Felyan slaves that the Zadians had tried to stow away. Chester was caught trying to expose the slave ring, but his attempt at putting forth a façade as a “community-minded citizen” backfired when Felyan DNA was found on him, and his DNA was found all over one An’Kya Felyan slave named Niria, making Chester altogether an exile and a reluctant lifemate all in the same day. I expected him to be in pieces when I found him, once I received word of his having been numbered among the exiles, but instead, I discovered that he was eerily calm, not the smarmy, opinionated Chester that I knew, whom the very mention of Felyans filled with disgust. He was unnervingly serene, almost introspective. I had to ask him if he was all right, but he showed not the barest hint of offense when I questioned him.
“How is it that you even found yourself in bed with a Felyan?” I asked him, very much confused at the whole turn of events, and, at the same time, very curious.
“It’s weird, Jules,” Chester said as we watched the Gestalt tournaments on the tank that was set up in the human sector of the ship. Niria was reclining happily in his lap, her brown tail twitching contentedly as she smiled with genuine happiness, and not with wanton lust produced by the seductive influence of riss. “I couldn’t help it. I was about to leave the brothel. I went to look for you; I found the Felyan wing, but the scent … God, I forgot how strongly it grips you. I saw Niria, and I lost control. It was like something pulled me into her bedchamber. And then, before I knew it, I was in her arms … I left to get more money from my undeposited stash, and then they told me that she was gone. I did a little checking on the security systems, and then I found her in one of the ship docks. Then I was dragged away, kicking and screaming into this ship.”
“Seems like you had a rough couple of days,” I said, “but you don’t look too bad for it.”
“They let Niria come to me. Even without that nasty-smelling stuff to keep her mind messed up, she found something she liked about me –God only knows what it is. She decided to stick around with me, and now my old life feels like a distant memory. I hope you don’t think me a hypocrite.”
I admit, I was sorely tempted to treat him like one, but he had changed too much for me to dangle this folly in front of him. He was content, and I learned that Niria was a sweet girl who doted on him constantly, so I just couldn’t bring myself to tease him. In fact, I was grateful to have my closest human friend with me, despite the circumstances of our reunion. And this change seemed to have done him good.
Ambassador Shezmi gave the final clue to the Speaker’s rabid outburst, confiding in me of the man’s hypocrisy, which was later confirmed by his sudden appearance among the last humans to be brought aboard the ship. He was one of the unfortunate few who had indulge
d in the illegal brothels, but did not have a Felyan mate of his own. In his state of paranoid suspicion and borderline panic, he had to be kept separate from the rest of the mated humans aboard the ship. I actually pitied him in his pathetic state. It didn’t seem likely that any unmated Felyan would find him attractive, or worth having as a mate. Still, I found myself unable to hate him. Knowing how beautiful An’re’hara was, I had at least hoped that the Felyan homeworld would ease his mind somewhat.
The Empress had advised Agura to stay until the legal proceedings regarding Zade and the Raneys’ exploitation of Felyans could be resolved and finalized. This gave me time to adjust to my separation and erase the view of my parents that haunted my memory for weeks after. Sar’vana did all she could to ease my sadness. She taught me about Felyan culture as often as she had time to spare. We also worked together to acclimate the new batch of human passengers to their new condition as Felyan citizens, bound for An’re’hara. But it was simply her presence that helped the most.
All in all, the legal proceedings took three months. Sar’vana taught me Felyan biology by experience, and by the time the ship had launched and was preparing to link with the main cruiser in orbit, she was more prominently pregnant than any human female would have been at that stage.
“Felyans have a shorter term of pregnancy than humans, don’t they?” I asked, looking out the view port of Sar’vana’s quarters –now our quarters. The view port’s size was adjustable, and I had enlarged it to the breadth of a picture window. The brown orb of Zynj filled my field of view, obscuring all else, a dead ball of poison that housed a civilization built on xenophobia. Good riddance.
“You just now noticed that?” Sar’vana said with a giggle. I felt her snuggle by my side, and heard her softly purr. Her arm wrapped about mine.
“Kind of,” I said. “So how long do we have left?”
“Three months, I think,” Sar’vana said.
“Six months in all? That’s brief.”
“Not for Felyans. Pregnancies for non-hybrids usually last around four months.”
“Wow. That is short.”
“Short for humans.”
I laughed. “I guess it makes sense now.”
“What does?”
“The fact that you knew that you were pregnant only five days after we first made love.”
“Our scents don’t usually lie,” Sar’vana said. “I noticed the change the morning that I left your home and left you the message. I wanted to be sure, so I went to the ship to visit the doctor. Like humans, sometimes our hormones can play tricks on us.”
“You must have wanted to burst, didn’t you?” I said, remembering how many times circumstances waylaid her confession to me. Inhaling my lifemate’s exquisite powdery scent, I wrapped my arms around her, and encircled them around the swell of her abdomen. Happiness and expectation swelled within me as I felt our baby move inside her. Sar’vana giggled as the tiny jostles and kicks of our unborn child tickled her somewhat. “I guess blurting it out in the middle of the Council chambers wasn’t quite the way you wanted to land the surprise on me, was it?”
“Not exactly.” Sar’vana gazed upwards at me. I leaned forward, and touched my nose to hers. “But I’d do it again, just for the look on your face.”
“Cheeky li-ah.”
“Your only li-ah.” Sar’vana’s voice soft and with a purr different from the one that emanated from her. “And that’s not the only surprise I have for you.”
“Oh?”
She beckoned for me to lean closer, and I could feel her tremble with suppressed giggles. Expectantly, I tipped my ear towards her muzzle.
“You’re not sterile.” She whispered.
“I’m not?” I think my volume was a bit higher than I wanted it to be, because Sar’vana winced. I apologized, and repeated my interjection at a much lower tone. “But what about what the Speaker …”
“Well, I ought to amend what I said,” Sar’vana remarked some abashment.
“Yes, I think you should.” I tried not to sound indignant, but it just came out, much to my chagrin. “I think the doctor was pretty thorough when she checked me the day after that fiasco with the Council. And the process is irreversible. She assured me of that.”
“That is true, but she later stumbled across something in her studies,” Sar’vana said, “something even she didn’t realize.”
“You’re going to leave me in suspense, Vani?” I said when she unexpectedly paused. I half-expected the door chime to ring and stop her before she could tell me.
“Well, the sterilization process was developed by us,” she explained, “But I’m guessing that you already know this.”
I nodded.
“It only works between humans.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The process we gave to the Zynj medical establishment,” Sar’vana explained. “The doctor explained it to me. How did she put it? It blocks the chemical reactions that allow human sperm and egg to unite.”
I was beginning to follow her. “But Felyans aren’t human.”
“Right. Our sperm and egg cells are chemically different from yours: not so different that they are unable to unite, but different enough so that the chemicals that the blocker neutralizes aren’t there, and so even if a fixed human can’t reproduce with another human…”
“…He or she can still reproduce with a Felyan!” I laughed with the rampant joy this discovery set loose in my heart, spinning around with Sar’vana in my arms, her beautiful face beaming at my elation. “My God, Vani, that’s the best news I’ve heard in three months!”
“A load off of your mind, wasn’t it?” Sar’vana asked.
“Well, I wasn’t vexed by it. But it is happy news. I’d consigned myself to being happy with just our one child … but to know that we can have more … that they failed when they fixed me … well, I guess it couldn’t have been better if it were planned by God himself.”
I didn’t say it aloud, but a part of me was tickled with expectation at the look that would be on Chester’s face on the inevitable day that Niria would tell him of her own pregnancy. In fact, I predicted that a great deal of the mated, but “fixed” humans on board the ship were in for an unbelievable, but not at all unpleasant shock during the voyage, if they hadn’t already received it yet.
“We might not have many children,” Sar’vana warned. “My kya isn’t known for its fecundity. And children between us and humans, when they happen at all, are few and far between.”
“I guess we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it, then,” I said, bringing Sar’vana back into my arms. “The point is that it’s at least possible for us to have children, if we want more. And you can’t ask for more than that, am I right?”
“True,” Sar’vana said pensively. “Very true.”
“The trip to An’re’hara is about two and a half months, right?” I said after some length of time. “I’m glad our baby will be born there. I was kind of worried that the proceedings would take too long, and we’d have to raise a baby on a spaceship.”
“You have Alexa to thank for that,” Sar’vana said. “I believe she strong-armed a few of the Elders into not dragging their feet.”
“She’s an unusual woman,” I said. “I don’t know whether to like her or to be glad that there’s going to be so many light-years between us and her in a few hours.”
Sar’vana giggled. “Oh, she’s not that bad, Jules.”
“I know,” I said. “I think more that I’m excited about the fact that I’ll be leaving this world behind, and I’ll never have to look back. The stories you used to tell me when we were kids made me dream, Vani. I dreamed of a day that I could leave that poisoned mudball and touch the stars. And now, it’s coming to pass. And I’m seeing them with you, as my lifemate. And you’re carrying our child. How did I ever deserve this happiness?”
“Oh, Jules …” Sar’vana turned to face me, and I felt her arms wrap around my own.
“
I’m embarrassing you?”
“No. I just can’t believe I made you that happy.”
“Vani … my li-ah … my love.” I cupped her perfect, violet-eyed face in my hands, feeling my heart wanting to tear open to burst forth all the love that I had. “You just don’t know how dull it was there. Even the few years you spent with me when we were kids couldn’t convey it. Your presence broke through much more than the dullness of that world. It made me want for more than just my boring life again. When you came back into my life, I realized that I had been living without the one thing I truly needed. My art kept me sane; my memories of you kept me hopeful. But your presence … your being with me, made me truly happy.”
“Li-ah …” Sar’vana smiled angelically, “You make me happy as well.” Her hand caressed the roundness of her belly. “How can I not be?”
I took hold of that hand, and with her hand in mine, we made our way to the bed, and began the voyage into a bright and hopeful future, together, complete, and happy.
THE END
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