Page 30 of The First Omega Made
I wondered how they’d react to me, a new lifebringer, and to Sh—Sarge.
There were things best kept secret.
Once we’d eaten, we made our way to the cockpit, finding Vil in a rather pleasant mood—which wasn’t unusual since Noel had come into his life. Vil smiled more, and all regrets I’d had about him mating Noel went away because I had my own progenitor to rail.
“You two finally came out of hiding,” Vil said, spinning in his chair. “Piss off, Kardok.”
The low-percentage hybreed with patches of black scales down his neck scampered off, under no circumstances wanting anything to do with the drama.
Good guy. Talks too much.
“So, take a seat. Both of you.” Vil gestured toward empty terminal seats, and they were too far apart for my taste, but Vil didn’t seem to mind when Sarge sat, and I settled into his lap.
“Merriel. I’d tell you not to listen in, but I know you’re going to. Prerogative 9. This is private.” Vil glanced up at one of his visual sensors and glared, only receiving a beep of confirmation. “Alright. Now. Sar— Is that your name?”
Sarge wrapped his arms around my waist and held me there. “I’ve avoided you long enough, I suppose. But yes, Sarge is as good of anything. My kind don’t have names, per se.”
Vil nodded. “So, you know what I’m going to ask.”
I winced on Sarge’s behalf.
“When I became Sarge?”
Vil nodded.
“It was pretty early on when he—I joined the ship. I—” Sarge closed his eyes, brow furrowing as if he were in pain. “Sorry, memories of other bodies get fuzzy.”
“Tell me what you can.” Vil leaned back and tented his fingers. No hint of his posture belied any aggression or anger. It was like he was prepared to learn he’d lost a dear friend and never noticed.
“There was a pit stop in K-D94 you made. I wasn’t sure what led up to it, but he’d not been in your company long.” Sarge stared at the floor and I stroked his head as I experienced one of the first real emotions through our bond—the song they spoke of. It wasso sad. My heart ached when something in me heard it.
“Yeah, his first pit stop. Yours… Anyway, continue.” Vil relaxed a little.
“He hit up a brothel, and it wasn’t one of the legal ones. I was in a Revulon’s body at the time.” Sarge didn’t need to say much. Revulons did a lot of manual labor and security until they were wiped out—mostly. A few dozen lived, but they weren’t a viable population. They were a hive species and with no queen left—they’d eventually die out. Some were clones, but the process wasn’t sustainable. “He, um. A—”
I stroked his head, soothing him as the misery grew. “He procured a session with a human that, even with my limited knowledge at the time, I recognized wasn’t right. When we ran his image, he was wanted on bounty, and he managed to incapacitate me and I procured his body—against the Colthraxian Leminiscate Resolution. I reasoned that I was going to dispose of the body, to let myself die, but I kept sending money to Lasanna and—”
“Wait, Lasanna? Leminiscate Resolution?” Vil held a hand up. “That girl isn’t your daughter?”
“No. I’ve been sending my savings to her. I got her out of there and put her up in a group home. Been supporting her, put her through college. Still sending money, but she just puts it up—is a doctor now. But the Leminiscate Resolution was an agreement between the remaining Colthraxians that we wouldn’t reproduce. I’d never had the urge to do so, but I was young when it happened. I understood morally that it was wrong, so I had my true body desexed as a preventative measure.In case the urge got too much. Or what happened with Shafa…” Sarge cleared his throat and waved his hand dismissively.
“Okay. So I only knew Serjio Vaskez for a few months. After that?” Vil raised a brow.
“I needed money for her. I kept working, and I didn’t go to any of the bases after because I realized that Serjio was wanted. He was nasty, Vil. I promise. I don’t think I need to fill in the blanks.” Sarge clutched tighter to me and nuzzled his face into my side. “I’m so sorry.”
“So, you burrowed into the corpse of a pervert—”
“We’re all perverts,” I said, glaring at Vil.
“Yeah, but like arealpervert. Like shoot first, ask questions later, pervert.” Vil blanched.
“In this case, we listen, and wedojudge.” Noel nodded. “Not a space pervert.”
I instinctively waited for Merriel to add to the counter, but he appeared to be obeying Vil for once.
“Yes.” Sarge nodded once. “I stole your crewmate and pretended to be him for forty solar rotations.”
“Huh… Okay. Funny story, I always had this theory you weren’t human.” Vil snorted and leaned back in his chair. “Okay.”
