Page 4 of The First Omega Made
“That healthy?” Wallace leaned out of the window, staring at the gaping hole where a grate used to be.
“Haven’t seen a lyret in weeks. Noel and Vil gave up trying to stop him.” I shrugged, going back to my stew. “Besides, Merriel is watching him.”
Wallace stared at the hole for a long time. I went back to eating as he did so, but eventually he spoke. “Is that a good idea?”
“I didn’t knock Noel up, soooooo… Not my problem.” I scraped my spoon against the bowl a few times. Thank the gods for salt—one of the few things I could still taste.
As if on cue, Vil came marching in, tail swaying as he made his way to my table and sat. “Have you seen my k—”
I pointed toward the vent at the same time Wallace did.
“Well…haven’t seen a Lyret in a while…” He stared at the vent where a series of skittering noises preceded a wounded screech. “That’s my boy… Anyway! Merriel says we’re heading off to a cursed war base to scrap?”
“Yep.” I kept it short. Risks made money.
“Any reason why?”
I felt like taking risks. I wanted a chance to throw myself at something dangerous and die already. High risk, high reward. Money. Suicide, mostly. That seemed like a good end to my run.
“What’s the likelihood an old war base has any Naleucian tech?” I raised a brow. It wasn’t uncommon for some of the war-faring races to collect anything deadly they could. Especially Revulons.
Vil frowned. “You wanting to…upgrade?” The hesitancy in his voice made my shoulders pinch involuntarily. At least some of my host’s brain still had reflexes.
“Maybe? Not sure. Being human is great and all, but I’m feeling my age.” I thought about putting a note in about not wanting to leave Nexus short an uncle—that was too much.
The thought of mortality seemed to make Vil blink. He didn’t like that thought, either. “Okay. I’d talk to Doc about it, maybe? He seems to be getting real damn good at gene splicing.”
His voice trailed off, and I pursed my lips. “I don’t think he knows you know.”
“We have eyes. His hair has changed; he’s getting scaly in places. I can scent omega on him at times. It’s getting weird, but Noel says he’s okay with it. It feels right, at least.” Vil scratched at a spot on the table. “Like we’d care about species. None of us do.”
That last part made my true body squirm in my chest out of guilt. My legs spasmed in an odd jerk from the motion—the wrong nerves jerking.
“You okay?” Vil leaned over and eyed my legs.
“Yeah, just excitement.” I offered a big grin, and Vil squinted at me.
“Your left eye is drooping.” He leaned in and I pulled away, slapping my hand over it.
“Feeling my age, like I said. I’m going to head off to see Doc. It’ll be fine.” I stood and put my dishes away before heading back to my quarters.
Chapter Three
Doc
Noel lay on my examination table, voluntarily. That, in and of itself, was a feat. His tail swished idly, arms folded behind his bed while Nexus curled up asleep on his stomach, burrowing under his shirt to get as much skin contact as possible. He purred loudly. I didn’t even know Naleucians could purr!
Cute little fucker.
I activated the 4D photostereoscope on the ceiling and nudged Nexus a little farther up Noel’s chest, focusing more on my captain’s mate’s reproductive tract. It lay surprisingly dormant.
No eggs had ripened or even appeared to be ready to do so. His womb had shrunken fully, and it was our best guess that it would be a long time before he was ready to mate again. Not that we wanted another child aboard. The goal was preventative—temporarily, at least.
“Your womb still looks dormant.” I gave him a grin.
“What’s yours look like?” Noel gave me a pointed look, and I scoffed. “Mostly human male. No womb. No space babies for me.”
“Mm-hmm.” Noel rubbed the purring lump under his shirt and earned a little growl.
