Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 57751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
“It’s nice to meet you,” she said, the polite words failing to capture how excited she was. It was more than nice. It was a relief, a joy, a pleasure, and the beginning of something very, very special.
Epilogue
“She’s almost ready to bear her young. She’s unsettled and grumpy.” The verdict came from a Kitari female very well versed in birth: Frozi, his younger sister.
“That’s just her temperament,” Atlas told her.
“More than usual,” she replied with a laugh. “I know her temper, Atlas. This is different. Some females become soft and calm the closer they are to birth. Others get outright dangerous. Your human is the latter.”
The Dinavri had been greatly generous. Atlas’s entire family had been relocated to their world to live in the same compound as he and Jerri, and together they made for a very raucous and excited bunch. The sting of failing his obligation to the Authority had been significantly ameliorated by the realization his only true loyalty had ever been to his family. The Authority had inserted themselves into that, made themselves proxies for it, but ultimately they were not where his allegiance lay.
His sisters were looking forward to helping raise his child, as Jerri insisted she was going to be back behind a ship’s controls as soon as humanly possible. Keeping her quiet had been almost impossible. The closer she got to her due date, the more impatient she became to do anything besides have a baby.
Atlas went into the birthing chamber to see how she was progressing. It had been designed to be a soothing, calm place to give birth. There was a bed and a pool of sparkling water. There was soft music and calming scents filled the air. Jerri sat in the middle of it all, her stomach full of baby, her expression one of absolute annoyance.
“I want to get out of here,” she said the moment she saw him.
“Do I need to spank you?” He made the threat even though he would never have done such a thing now she was in the early stages of labor.
“I want to go flying,” she said, throwing back the silken blankets and proceeding to stalk about the room like a very round little human monster. If he’d had the nerve he would have laughed at her temper. “I don’t want to have a baby anymore, I’ve decided. I’m going to just be a pilot.”
“You are mere hours from having this baby,” he reminded her. “Sit down.”
“No. I don’t think so. I don’t want to.”
She was scared and hormonal and covered in a light sheen of sweat that spoke to pain.
He took her by the shoulders and guided her gently back to bed. “As soon as you’re ready, you can fly any ship in the fleet. The Dinavri are curious to see how an Authority pilot would handle their ships. And they enjoyed your little show last time you were here. Relax and sit down.”
“Let her pace,” Frozi interrupted. “It helps move the baby down and it soothes nerves.”
“Yeah, let me pace,” Jerri said, sitting back down. “Let me… oww, you dick!” She grabbed at her side and bent over in a very concerning way.
“That’s a contraction,” Frozi explained, patting Jerri’s brow with a cooling towel. “She likes to swear at them.”
“You fucking cock-sucking…”
Atlas frowned. “I do not want the first thing my son hears in this world to be his mother cursing…”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you want right now, Atlas!” Jerri scowled at him with the fury of a thousand suns. “You did this to me. Get the fuck out of here.”
She had always been hot-tempered, but this. This was…
“Go on,” Frozi said, nudging him gently back. “Get out of here before she adds a scar to your collection.”
Bewildered, Atlas found himself outside the birth chamber, where his father drew him aside. “Let the women tend to her. Your sisters know how to help a birth. Trust me, at this stage you can be of no use whatsoever.”
Atlas could not have felt more useless. She was in pain. She was scared. She needed him and yet she seemed to absolutely loathe him.
“It will not be much longer,” his father said. “Have a drink. She’ll be calling for you soon enough. Trust me.”
“How can you be so calm?” Atlas sat down and took a swig of liquid. He didn’t even taste it. Could have been water, could have been v’kar.
“Experience,” his father said. “And this time it’s not one of mine coming into the world.” He let out a chuckle and Atlas felt himself relax. It was good to see his family again, to look into faces that looked like him, to be among the red-eyed and the ridged, the powerful and the loving.
He sat with his father for a few minutes, talking and reminiscing. Activity seemed to have quietened down inside the birthing chamber. Perhaps it would not be today. Perhaps…