Page 37 of What Makes an Alien a Dad?

“Professor Thormus!” suddenly came from right beside us.

A Voranian man nearly tripped, rushing to our bench. He carried a toddler on each arm and one on his shoulders. I jerked my arms up instinctively, ready to catch the children if he fell, but to my relief, he managed to keep his balance.

“Professor Thormus! It’s so nice to see you.” The man beamed. “Do you remember these little guys?” He bounced the kids in his arms and on his shoulders.

The professor’s expression warmed as he took in the little boys.

“Of course I do.” He smiled. “Good afternoon, Instructor Zier Ommai Hilgus. How are you?”

“Oh, good, good. Thank you. The boys are doing great in the academy.”

All three boys were staring at me, sucking on their thumbs. They had identical lime-green eyes, just like their dad’s, and looked like the cutest carbon copies of each other. Their tiny horns were barely an inch long, and their fur seemed so soft, I barely resisted the urge to ask to hold them.

The professor chatted with their father for a little while. Every now and then, Instructor Hilgus would adjust his grip on the kids in his arms or jerk his head away from his son on his shoulders who tried to tickle his face with the arrow tip of his tail. But he seemed to manage the three with exceptional skill and patience.

The professor didn’t formally introduce us, there simply was no time. The toddlers stopped staring at me to start bouncing in their dad’s arms. They pulled him toward the play structures a short distance from our bench.

After a little chatter, the man said goodbye to the professor and nodded to me, “It was nice seeing you, Madam Maya Gupta. Wishing you a great pregnancy and delivery.”

The introduction wasn’t necessary, after all. There had been enough news coverage of my pregnancy for people to know who I was.

“Thank you.” I smiled and waved goodbye to the children as their dad hauled his brood over to the play area for them to burn off some energy.

“Did you deliver his babies?” I asked the professor after the man had left.

“I did.” He nodded. “I met Instructor Hilgus years ago. He taught me how to operate my personal aircraft.”

“I thought those things flew by themselves,” I quipped.

“They do, once you program and maintain them properly, which Instructor Hilgus taught me how to do. He also taught me how to hand-fly it, just in case. When he decided to start a family, he came to my clinic. The triplets were delivered by a surrogate who chose to remain anonymous. But Instructor Hilgus came for updates regularly. He was in the clinic during the delivery, too.”

“How did that work? Since the woman wanted to remain anonymous.”

“With anonymous surrogates, the father stays in a different room. The children are then brought to him as soon as they’re born. He’s the first to hold them, other than the medical staff.”

I nodded. That was similar to what my sister-in-law did. She got all the necessary postpartum care while the biological parents held the baby.

Something in my belly twitched, and I splayed my hand over it.

“Just to let you know, I don’t mind if the parents come into the delivery room if they so wish.”

“You don’t?” He stretched his shoulders, looking uneasy.

“No. I would actually love to see them together—the parents and the baby I carried for them. It’d be the perfect conclusion of the study for me to meet the happy family, don’t you think?”

He cleared his throat, glancing aside. “Well. It’s still a while until the birth.”

“I know. Sometimes it feels like forever.” I rubbed my belly. “Do you know if the parents have already chosen a name for the baby?”

“They did not,” he replied flatly. “How far in advance do humans choose names for their children?”

“Oh, it depends on so many things. For example, I’m not even married yet, but I already know what I want to call my baby if I ever have a girl. Just for a girl, though. I haven’t settled on a boy’s name yet. But if I have a daughter, I’ll name her Anika, like my grandmother. She was a tough, brave woman who moved countries as a widow with three small children in tow. It wasn’t easy for her to make a new start like that, but she made it. She raised her kids on her own and lived long enough to see some of her grandchildren get married before she passed away. I often wish to have her strength and determination.”

He smiled gently. “Well, in a way you’ve gone even farther. You’ve moved planets, not just countries. I’m sure your grandmother would be proud of you.”

My all-expense-paid trip wasn’t quite the same as my grandmother’s ordeal. But I liked knowing that I’d done something none of my family had—I’d visited an alien planet.

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