“And? Now?” he said, interest aroused.
“Probably sooner.”
“Let me know?”
“Of course.”
Two hours later, in the early depths of the middle of the night, she nudged him awake from a sound sleep, and said, “It’s sooner. Let’s go.”
The birth, too, annoyed and dismayed her, taking much longer, more difficult, and intensely more painful, than she expected. More than once she felt like screaming, “Cut it out, I can’t take it anymore,” but she groaned, and yelled, screamed, really, and let it pass.
And at 0632 hours, on August 16, 2237, she delivered a healthy baby boy, three kg, screaming and urinating on her as they laid him on her belly, all covered in red blood and white secretions. Her pain past, she marveled at his perfect fingers and toes, fat little face, chubby legs, and full head of dark hair.
Baby and mother, both cleaned and resting, welcomed their first visitors, Tarue and the kits a half hour later.
“A penis, it has a penis?” Nif said.
“It is a male? A male heir?” Dayue asked.
“Yes, to both. It is my son, my heir. And he has a fine penis,” Hunter said.
“Yes, like his father,” laughed Lori. “But quite a bit smaller.”
“It’ll grow, in time,” Hunter said.
“What is the name?” Tarue asked, looking at the tiny bundle in Lori’s arms.
“He is Eric Saxon Lindbloom.”
As soon as she could get the doctor to arrange an AG chair, she quickly and quietly went to see Eagle One in its parking bay. Inside, she held the tiny hand of her newborn up and pressed it to the screen, and introduced Eric to Eagle One. The air car surprised her with a second image, her own hand immediately after birth, also pressed to the screen by her grandmother, she whisked away from the birthing bed for that very purpose.
“Your hands appear very similar in size and shape, though the tiny lines are different,” the air car observed.
“Yes, I see that. I didn’t know you saved those old images...”
“Lorelei, I have saved them all,” the air car said, and she watched, amazed and delighted, as she saw the image of her own hand grow as she grew over the years. “So it will be for Eric, I’m sure.”
“I am too,” she said.
“And I shall watch over him all the days of his life,” Eagle One said, as the screen returned the image of her son’s hand to its center.
After lunch, and a short nap for Lori, Hunter allowed a few visitors–the captain, Major Morales, several of the women on the expedition. All arrived with small gifts–flowers from the hydroponics lab, packets of candy, a few balloons, and just-printed congratulatory cards, and each made a fuss over Lori and the baby. The captain was thrilled, said he was honored to have a human baby born on his ship, it was already in the log, and would create a sensation among the other captains back home, two births in a row, now. He was considering a Native People’s name, too, would offer one at an appropriate occasion.
Determined to get on with life, Lori went up to dinner with the babe in arms with Tari. She created a sensation, everyone wanting a close look, especially the aliens, who had never seen, up close, a real-live human baby only hours old. She let several of the women hold Eric, as they cooed and smiled at him, he oblivious to all. When he awoke with a start, and began to scream, Lori casually opened her blouse and nursed him, to more amazement on the part of the aliens, and much discussion on how the various races fed newborns. She noticed Tarue said not a word about that. Back in her cabin, she undressed, to shower, and return to bed, weary still after hours of labor and not enough sleep. Looking at herself in the mirror, she rubbed the several thin stretch marks on the sides of her abdomen. Hunter saw her, came up behind her, and put his arms around her.
“They don’t bother me a bit,” he said, rubbing the places. “In fact, they make you look more mature, and desirable.”
“They do, huh?” Lori said, putting her hands on his. “Desirable, too, eh?”
“Yes.” One hand reached her pubic patch, and scratched it a little. But he went no further.
“Yeah, well, give me a few days, I’m pretty stretched there, too, you know.”
“I do. Take all the time you want, just let me know whenever you’re ready again. I can’t wait, but I will, as long as it takes.”
“May be a while...”
“That’s OK. I love you, darling, the mother of my son. Man, I’m so proud of you. And him.”
She leaned back against him, still looking at her misshapen body. Would it ever look the same again? His hands swept up, to cup her breasts. Now, they were impressive, huge, at least to her, the nipples big, the aureolas dark and full. Hunter whispered in her ear, “Now, these are magnificent. You are so beautiful, I can hardly believe it. And I love to see you.”
She turned in his arms to hug and kiss him, feeling the warm moisture start do run down their fronts. “I’m leaking,” she said, pulling back, reaching for a tissue. “I’m overflowing.” She daubed at the milk on her breast, saying, “Look at this,” but Hunter leaned down, and licked it, flicking her nipples when he arrived there. “Hey, that’s for junior...”
“He’ll have plenty, this is extra.”
“How’s it taste?”
Hunter shrugged. Standing up, his arms around her back, he said, “Kinda like thin milk. Warm. Not much taste, actually. But nice. So nice, something from you...,” and he kissed her again.
Lori worried at first about her baby, but eased as she saw how he thrived, always the center of attention, with no lack of baby sitters. Everyone on board the Koyaanisqatsi doted on this newest member of the crew, talking to him, watching over him, spoiling him endlessly, to Lori’s annoyance. He needed only to start to fuss, or cry, and someone was there to pick him up, change him, or just rock him in their arms. By the time they slowed in the approach to 47 Tucana, he was crawling around, exploring wherever he was, closely followed by one or more people, as often aliens as not. He seemed intensely interested in the mixture of language spoken around him, people cooing and talking to him in their native tongue. Idly, Lori wondered what his first words would be–American English, or Selat, Kecil, Andoli, Pipilo, or Meosi. They’d all have to wait and see. Or hear.
Chapter 14 - First Descent
Not long after they dropped out of Williams Space, and approached the planet Uta, a com officer called Lori to the ComC. Captain George and a few of his senior staff sat there when she and Hunter arrived.
“How long have we been away from this system?” the com man asked her as soon as she sat down.
“Oh, about three years, maybe a little more. Why?”
“Would it surprise you to learn that in that time, the natives have developed a space drive? Or at least something with orbital capability?”
“Hell yes. Impossible, I’d say.”
“They’re in orbit? Maybe one of the air cars you left?” Hunter said.
“Wait,” Lori said, impatiently. “What makes you think that they’d done that–gone to orbit?”
“Yeah, well, someone has. Look at this,” he said, pointing to a screen. It showed a jagged line, with uniform, periodic peaks. “When we left, we set a radio beacon on the straddle tanks we parked in high orbit–a locator beacon, really, solar powered, so it’d be easy to find if and when we got back. Here’s the frequency,” and he pointed to the screen. “That was three years ago.” He tapped a small box on the screen. “This was as of three hours ago, when we came in range.”
The screen showed a second line with a subtle change–the frequency was shorter, and higher.
“So, it means, what?” Hunter said. “That someone changed it? Not gradual degradation?”
“No sir,” the com man said, glancing at Hunter. “The device was programmed to change to this interval, if or when someone–us, or anyone else–made physical contact with the tanks.”
“You can do that?” Hunter said. “Why?”
“So we’d know if we had visitors�
�you know, thieves, whatever. And it looks like we have.”
Everyone studied the two lines on the screen. One moved, recording the signals transmitted by the device on the straddle tanks.
“You think it’s the Damai, from down planet?” Hunter said. “Man.”
“No, not likely,” Lori answered. “The air cars we left were not programmed or built for orbital flight, only sub-orbital...”
“What’s the difference?”
“Hundreds of kilometers, and less and less atmosphere. Not to mention guidance and direction...”
“So, anything they couldn’t have overcome?”
“Well, maybe not. Maybe so...”
“I kinda doubt it,” the captain said. “They were starting from scratch, literally, got a giant leap forward, but they hardly have the tools, knowledge, or skills, to up-grade air cars so they can go orbital. I’d say. Or the mathematics.”
“Any way to tell if it’s been more than one trip?”
“Oh, yes, it’s only one arrival–that’s the sequence for one contact. More, and a different frequency would be sent out–in a progressive scale. It’s only been one hit,” the com man said.
“Think they sent up one air car, or a rocket, or a probe, or something?” Hunter asked.
“Now, that would be impressive as hell. Very hard to find, harder to hit, even homing in on the signal. And why, for what?”
“So, what’s the explanation, then?” Lori said, growing impatient, though she thought she knew the answer.
“One of two–a micro-meteorite,” the com man said, raising his eyebrows. “Or...” and he looked to the captain.
Captain George stood up. “Or someone else is out here in the system, flitting about, and came over for a look-see at this radio beacon orbiting a backward planet.”
“Holy shit.”
“Not likely a micro-m?” Hunter said.
Shaking his head, the captain said softy, “Not real likely. Possibly, very remotely possible, but I wouldn’t bet a buck on it. Not in this system, it’s pretty well clear of loose stuff drifting about.”
“One of ours, then? Way out here? Who?”
“Well, that’s the question, then. Two of them, actually...”
“I’d say that’s pretty remote,” Captain George said. “I gave the navigation charts to no one. Not until the fleet left final orbit. Can’t see how anyone got here ahead of us, or in the months after we left. Be tough to find, this planet, without our routes and coordinates.”
“Any way to tell how long it’s been since the unknowns came snooping around?” Hunter said, pointing to the screen.
“Unfortunately, we did not include that capability in the equation. Maybe next time we should.”
“So that means we are not alone here in the 47-T cluster. Doesn’t surprise me, actually, it’s sure got a lot of suns, and we only looked at a few of them. A smattering, actually. No telling what else lurks just behind the next blue dwarf. And we kinda wondered if that was the case, last time we were here,” Lori said. “I really wondered about that, too.”
“Well, it’d sure answer a lot of questions about the missing fossil records, now, wouldn’t it?”
“That could mean they’re all immigrants, down there, then. Maybe? Recent arrivals? Relatively. From somewhere else?”
“Yeah.”
No one said anything for a while. They looked at the screen, at the jagged lines, endlessly repeating themselves in the same pattern.
“Friendly, or not?” Hunter said.
“Well, they didn’t destroy the tank array. Left it in place, same orbit, and all. And the com satellites.”
“When we get there, first thing we’ll do is take a close look at the array, see if it’s still intact, still the same as we left it,” Captain George said.
“Look for another alarm–like ours, set to broadcast our return,” Lori said. “Before we touch it. And it’ll change in any case, right? So keep off, for a while, anyway.”
“We will. Might be tough to spot, however, if it’s small, compact.”
“Not likely to be that if they come from any distance.”
“You assume they noticed the change in frequency? It’s pretty subtle.”
“We would. I’d assume anyone capable of getting here would, too.”
“What did we see in our sweep on the way out, last time? Anything likely nearby?” Lori said.
“Absolutely nothing. Nothing in the radio spectrum, or even in likely star profiles. But who knows?”
“Yeah, well, Captain, how likely do you think it is, first, that whoever bumped the array is nearby, with the capability to return, and second, is likely to return quickly?” Hunter asked.
“Totally unlikely to the first, and highly unlikely to the second.”
“Might have been an explorer, like us, stopped by when it heard the beacon, and then left again?”
“Now, that would be interesting. I’d sure like to meet that one. Might be, can’t say,” Lori said.
“I’d bet it’s someone from within the system. Not close, but nearby, we see nothing on the scans, so it means that they’re not here now, left again, at any rate, after the look-see.”
“Yeah, a scout, high-tailing it home for reinforcements.”
“Oh, gads, I hope not.”
The group discussed that, if a visitor might be hiding nearby, even down-planet–highly unlikely, given the gravity equation for rapid departure–and other scenarios for nearly an hour, but kept returning to the in-cluster visitor scenario, and all that implied–advanced civilization, high intelligence, space technology at some level, one probably capable of travel in Williams Space, and living somewhere nearby. Relatively.
“Let’s keep an eye out,” Lori said as the meeting wound down. “And I’d like to send a scout ship or two out, check the entire system, the other planets, and whatever’s handy to look at nearby.”
“The illi-illi already volunteered. They brought along a few fast scout ships, we thought that crazy, but now, maybe not so.”
“They know?”
“They all know. We gave them the radio beacon frequency, and they all called asking why it was different. All the other captains. They all know now.”
The meeting ended, and Lori hurried to Eagle One with the news. It said, “Yes, I see the change in the sine wave. Do you know what caused it?”
“We suspect a visitor, though the possibility of a micro-meteor exists, also.”
“The latter is highly unlikely, so that means the former is most credible.”
“Yes. Have you seen, on any of the screens, any evidence of travel in near space?”
“No,” the air car said. “I will be alert to any from now on.”
“Perhaps it is a false alarm, a failure of a component, or something.”
“Perhaps. But unlikely,” Eagle One said.
“How long a delay?” Lori asked, a trifle annoyed.
“They say, two brights. Three days, our time. More or less. Look at this.” Hunter clicked on a wall screen, and they both looked at it. “As soon as Morales landed, and agreed to an arrival time for you, the frenzy began.” Overhead cambots had recorded native activity.
“Frenzy?”
“Yes, incredible. Air cars began racing away, to the farthest villages. Fast runners took off for every outlying settlement, village, or farm group. And almost as soon, people began heading toward what we’re calling the big new landing field.”
The screen showed it all, the air cars zipping away, shots of small natives running out and away from the city’s inner circle, then individuals and groups of people quickly gathering up things, and singly or in bunches, heading to the roads, and everyone, everywhere, it seemed, streaming in toward the city, and beyond, out to the green and grand landing field, to set up a camp, and to wait. To wait for the Sky Lady.
“And I must wait for them, three days? Shit, I wanted to get down there, Hunter, not sit cooped up in this ship. Dammit.”
“We don’t
have to wait till then. We just can’t arrive at the city until then. Meanwhile, how about a little R&R on the beach? We can do that, and none will be the wiser.”
Lori smiled. “When can we leave?”
As the sun slowly rose on the third day, a half a dozen air cars arrived nearly simultaneously over the broad valley, rocking the hills and rousting the natives with rolling sonic booms. They circled several times, everyone below looking up at them, several of the local air cars rising to greet them, and then the Earth air cars slowed into a holding pattern, like the numbers on a gigantic, invisible clock, spread out in the sky over the empty raised area on the sloping hillside, and sent out a swarm of cambots. These drifted lower, and announced, “The Sky Lady returns. Prepare to greet her.”
A huge cheer started, and went on and on, as the crowd moved and surged ahead, congealing in a dark arc around the edge of the lowest stage area, the observers fearing it would be overrun, and the visit canceled or postponed, but the natives slowed and stopped at the thin rope barrier, and silence slowly seeped into the valley.
Morales sent his lighter to the far rear of the upper slope, to the stage there, the crowd watching alertly, and they groaned in disappointment when the speakers announced the Sky Lady’s honor guard was taking up a position to greet her. Lori made sure it included several illi-illi. Meanwhile, a tall and wide video screen rose in the middle of the upper area, facing the crowd, next to the lighter. Teams dispersed to the far edges of the assembly, and erected more screens. Then they waited.
Lori watched it all from above, not far, not high, just out of visual range. “Ready?” she queried Morales.
“They are ready and waiting, and very anxious, to see you, and quite respectful, I think. You should not have any trouble.”
“The crowd is immense.” Wait till they see this back home. Man.
“Yes, but orderly. Everyone within two days march on the planet is here, it looks like. I mean, everyone. I’ve never seen a more deserted settled city.” He gestured on the screen, to Karufa, she figured.
Lori shook her head. “OK, let’s not keep them waiting any longer.” To her air car, she said, “Eagle One, descend as agreed.”
T-47 Book II (Saxon Saga 6) Page 24