“This is too weird,” Deke said. He stared at me and then smirked. He glanced at Captain. “Guess you two are daddies now.”
“What?” Captain opened his mouth and then shut it. He shook his head.
“You see that fire-breathing sparkly death machine anywhere around here?” Deke looked around in example. “She looked pretty cozy with those ones that looked just like her but left that one with your boy there. And he’s talking to you. I’m thinking she’s basically saying the boy is your problem.” He snorted and started laughing. “Better hope he doesn’t want to nurse or anything,” he gasped out.
“Can you be any more ridiculous?” Aparoe said.
Deke was still chuckling. “What part of what I said wasn’t true?”
“Beings born from eggs are almost always capable of eating the same diet as the parents from the very beginning. Beings who are incubated internally are normally the ones are often born with a less developed system and need another method of feeding, such as a liquid based diet, until their systems mature further.”
“What part of this is normal? Tell me that!” Deke flung an arm out. He wiped his forehead. “What I can tell you is that we gotta get out of here before it gets much hotter.”
“He’s right,” Captain interrupted when Aparoe pulled themselves up in a huff. The arguments Deke couldn’t seem to stop having with the medical officer wouldn’t help them now. “Let’s go back to the pool, see what’s happening there with Kohen’s friend, and then pack up. I want to get Kohen home as soon as possible.”
Deke apparently couldn’t hold back another jibe. “Dying to set up a nursery?”
“To call Freska. Just shut up and lead the way.” Captain helped me up and stayed behind me, taking the rear. Aparoe kept glancing back as we walked in single file through the narrow path to the pool.
Sparkles wasn’t at the pool. The egg sacs were gone too. Other than the equipment the others had left behind, there wasn’t anything to suggest anyone or anything had been there, other than us. “Where did she go?”
“She dumped and ditched on you, man.” Deke laughed again.
His sense of humor was getting on my nerves. I glared at him. The baby was still curled up in my arm, tucked inside my shirt. Maybe having his egg caught on fire and burned around him was exhausting, because he’d fallen asleep on the short walk.
“Let’s go,” Captain said. He wiped sweat off his forehead. “Before we all cook in here.”
I stood around while the others packed up. Then we started the long walk back to the house; funny, it hadn’t seemed like we’d flown that far when I’d been clutching at Sparkles in terror.
Deke left as soon as we got near his place, but Aparoe didn’t go anywhere. I sighed. There went our privacy. Captain ushered me inside with a hand on my back. Our small house looked like the others on the world from the outside, but inside was a blessed oasis of technology. The cool air was recirculated, and we had a vid and plenty of other technology to make it seem as if we still lived in comfort on the ship—just with a lot more space and freedom outside.
I had a brief moment to worry about Chomper and the cool air, but his skin seemed to warm even as I pulled him out of my shirt. Okay, so he didn’t need outside heat to regulate his temperature. We woul’n't have to replicate the sauna warmth of the rocks and pool.
“Did Sparkles like it warm?” I asked Aparoe, since they were right beside me.
They shrugged. “The temperature never seemed to bother them either way.”
Okay, good. I looked around for something to lay Chomper on. “Here,” Aparoe said. They grabbed the blanket from the pack Captain set down, balling it up. I set Chomper in the middle. He lay there, his eyes blinking lazily, and waved his arms and legs around.
“He might go back to sleep.” Captain’s voice was a rumble at my side. “Babies sleep a lot.”
“I know that.” I’d had younger siblings.
“Can I scan him again?” Aparoe asked.
“If it doesn’t bother him.” I turned on my heel. “I’m going to go check on our supplies, see what else we have he can eat.” He couldn’t live on protein chips alone.
Except he could. I’d been right; Aparoe hadn’t left. They camped out in the tiny spare chamber. Chomper ate every protein chip we could get our hands on and refused any other types of food. He never left my side, no matter what form he was in.
He switched between the two at will. He wanted to curl around my shoulders or use those tiny wings to flap around the floor? He turned into a dark, swirled Sparkles-like alien. He wanted to be snuggled or there were strangers around? He looked like a child, a dark, swirled child. His diamond eyes never changed though.
His speech was simple word mimics or prompts. Food. Want. Water. Want. Hold. Want. It was exhausting.
Freska and Danie were to find out more about Sparkles. They’d taken a shuttle off-planet, but Captain wouldn’t tell me where. The only good thing? She’d taken Deke with her. I was slowly going crazy inside the house, trying to keep Chomper a secret, and he hadn’t been helping.
“I’m going for a walk around the house!” I announced. “By myself!”
Chomper whined, but he would be fine. “Sit here.” I put him in the window seat. “You can see me from there.”
It was a blessedly cool evening, as I paced exhaustedly. I waved my first time past the window. Chomper watched me intently. The second time he waved back. The third, he was waving before I got there, his eyes laser focused on me.
Who knew having someone depend on you for everything was so exhausting? I froze, my head coming up as that thought struck me. Like… Captain was for me and mine. I’d never realized—
Then something else struck me.
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