Page 40 of The First Omega Made
“Not too much longer. He’s in good health and high spirits.” Noel’s words brought me some peace as I gave a testing push to see if things shifted any at all. Aside from my belly doing some kind of odd pulse, it didn’t seem to do much but burn between my legs.
“Right on.” Merriel added no further comment, much to my appreciation.
So, when sometime later, another contraction hit and I pushed hard, lifting my tail high while angling my body in the bed, I forgot about the witnesses, forgot about Noel being there, and prayed that we had a healthy egg.
Another contraction came, and I pushed. It burned and ached, making me shake with a pain I’d never experiencedbefore. But I knew immediately I’d do it again as my hips lost feeling and tingled. “C-compressing my spine.”
“By design, I assume. It happened to me.” Noel approached slowly and provided counterpressure to my leg as I bore down and guided Sarge into rubbing my hips. In my more experimental solar rotations, I’d had some rather embarrassingly large toys, but nothing prepared me for birth. I cried out loud and exhaled, the pain ending abruptly at my navel as that tingling sensation grew fiercer.
I arched my back, breathed through it, and pushed again, unaware of how long I’d been at it.
And when it all stopped, the breath punched free of my lungs and I fell forward, my body shaking. “I can’t do it. I—can we just cut it out?”
Noel glanced behind me and then back to my face, but Sarge did the laughing. “Doc…”
He pulled me away from my awkward sprawl as my aching body echoed with another contraction around…nothing. And in the middle of our nest, in a slick, wet depression, was our egg. Vibrant blue shone back at me, like the color of my scales.
And as if all logic fled my brain, I snarled and lurched forward, clawing for my egg to bring him to my chest, bundling around it.
“We have an egg. Make sure Doc is given his space,” Noel said as a ding rang out from Merriel’s holo scoreboard. “And that one doesn’t count.”
“Totally does,” Merriel muttered.
“Fuck off, both of you. Space jerks.” I grumbled as I wrapped my arms around my egg with a gentle touch. Noel gave me some kind of speech about cleaning me up and walked Sarge through it because I was far more territorial than he had been. All I wanted was my egg, Sarge, and quiet.
It didn’t take me that long before Noel gave us just that, proclaiming everything good. After all, I’d been made for it.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sarge
We made port less than two weeks after Doc had our egg. As much as I didn’t want to part with Doc, I had to. With Noel at my side, he trusted me enough to go buy needed supplies. Doc had placed the order through the embassy and TAOD, and the price on all our medical supplies had suddenly halved now that we weren’t paying the hybreed tariffs.
Vil, to his own amusement, had me dressed in the ceremonial Naleucian replica garbs that I wracked my brain for and couldn’t find anything but leisurewear that matched the description. The holy garments? Their equivalent of sweats.Wonderful…
Noel and I drew gasps and whispers wherever we went, Vil behind us with Nexus in hand. The world knew him as a hybreed, a textbook and common example of soldier-class hybreed. Still, the reverent nods and whispered prayers amused me. I used my body’s memories of the old language to speak to him, letting Merriel translate for Vil through his earpiece as he had only recently initiated studies. We all needed to be fluent. “A guy could get used to this.”
“It’s been a long time since you could step on a base. Is it much different from then?” Noel cast his impartial gaze about before nodding at the odd visible hybreed with a deferent smile. His approval of hybreeds as high servants for his kind had done much for their status in only a few months.
“Not too much. Food is different.” I stared down a food stall and inhaled rich spices and the telltale scent of smoke and meat. I sucked in a breath, hissing over teeth saturated by a flood of saliva.
“Then let us sample something?” Noel turned his head over his shoulder and made a gesture of hand to mouth at Nexus.
“Mea!” He threw his hands up and barked a cry of glee that made Vil laugh. The babe was boisterous and would hopefully find a playmate in Noah soon.
Noel made a point to attract the hybreed stall worker to take our order as we each took a paper-wrapped bread of some sort filled with… I checked the sign with a squint. It said it was something calledtakalpaand had a white flaky texture not unlike fish. I ate it wordlessly while Noel nibbled on his and Vil shared with a rather ravenous Nexus. Noel ended up giving the last half of his to Vil to share with their babe, lips pursed.
His gaze cut toward mine and Vil stared at the food with scrutiny. “What is takalpa?”
Vil shrugged.
I coughed.
“Sarge?” Noel’s tone sharpened.
“I do not have a skin-pig word for it.” The closest thing that Naleucians had for humans was rather insulting and kind of apt.
Why they had a word for pig and not human? Probably because meat was more important than fodder.
