Page 74 of Alien's Eternal Mate

“Push, Arael,” cried one of the midwives. “You have nearly birthed the son of a chief.”

Arael cried out, her face contorted in agony. She let out a long groan, and then collapsed back onto the bed. The midwives cut the snakelike umbilical cord. The child’s tail covered its privates, meaning I couldn't tell whether I had a son or a daughter as of yet.

The midwives, knew, though, as did Arael.

“He’s perfect,” she said as they handed the child to her. Arael’s eyes snapped over to meet my gaze. “Come and meet your son, Gro.”

I came over to her side, my heart threatening to burst. The scrunched up, wrinkled face pressed against Arael’s breast should have been ugly, but I saw with more than my eyes.

“He’s beautiful.”

“Yes, he is. What should we name him?”

“I’ll have to think about it.”

The Masari midwives and Floran all gasped at me.

“You must name the child before it’s been in this world for an hour, or bad fortune will follow him for the rest of his life.”

From time to time, I ran into a cultural nuance that surprised me. I had given some thought to names, and even discussed it with Arael but we’d never made a solid decision.

Everyone stared at me. On impulse, I blurted out the first of the discussed names that came to mind.

“Ajax. The boy’s name is Ajax.”

“Your father’s name,” Arael muttered, half conscious.

“Your father’s name?” Floran blinked in confusion. “Your father’s name was Tarou, was it not, Gro?”

I actually had no idea. This was the first I’d heard of it. I chose not to answer, and instead put an arm around my wife’s shoulders. I stroked my finger across the child’s cheek. It may have been a boy, but I thought Ajax looked a lot more like Arael than myself.

I’d been warned about the sleepless nights, and the endless weight of responsibility that came with having a child. However, nothing can truly prepare one for their first child.

I soon became accustomed to having vomit or other bodily fluids staining my clothes at any given time. My son never seemed to sleep, so I grew used to getting by on three to four hours of rest per night, if I were lucky.

According to the tribe, Ajax was a particularly noisy child. He also had zero fear, and constantly pushed the boundaries we tried to set for him. He learned how to climb down from his bed when he was only a month old. He stood, crawled, and walked far ahead of the usual development of Masari children.

I wondered if my dual nature might have something to do with his unusual development. Whatever the cause, he presented a lot of challenges to first time parents like ourselves.

And if I had thought him to be a handful before, he became triply when he started talking. Ajax wanted to know everything about everything. He plied every adult he could find with questions until they grew fed up and begged for mercy. As the chief’s son, he was probably indulged a lot more than he would have been otherwise.

When Ajax reached five years of age, we officially abolished the Castes. There was some opposition, and two tribes dropped out of the Republic because they could not give up their traditional ways.

I returned home after a contentious Tribal Congress, lost in thought. The tribes we had lost controlled vast treasure troves of Precursor technology. Losing access to that tech would hurt. Though I no longer wanted to get back to my old life, I still wanted to improve the lives of the Masari in general, and my family in particular.

When I came through the door, Arael looked up at me from the divan with a knowing smile.

“You’d best be careful. There’s a dangerous predator around.”

“Oh, is there? Then I had best be extra careful, hadn’t I?”

I crept through the living area. Ajax leaped out from behind the divan and wrapped his arms around my leg.

“I got you, Da!”

“Yes, you certainly did. You’re going to make a great warrior someday.”

“And a Sage, and an Engineer, and a midwife.”

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