Page 18 of Star Bright
They burst through the doors to an escalating wail. “Ahh-mmi!”
“Atsu!” He bolted to the nearest pod, almost bowling over the droid that spun helplessly without arms as the little fledging scrabbled at the half-open lid. “Susu, I’m here. Be still, let me get you out.” He lifted his son from the pod and cuddled him close. “Hush, my little summer breeze. I have you now.”
The scrawny limbs flailed at him—with more strength and coordination than he himself had upon emerging, Vash noted wryly.
“Addah? Wh…” Clinging tight, the fledgling peered up at him, blinking his bright green eyes, then just as quickly glanced around, those keen drakling senses already coming into focus. “Where are we? Where’s our ship?”
“We’re here on Earth,” Vash said, skipping over some not yet necessary parts. He wrapped the edges of his cloak around the little body. “We landed while you were asleep.”
“It smells strange.” Atsu huffed out a breath, nostrils flaring. “Did you have a snack without me?”
Vash exhaled a breath of his own, half relieved laugh, half choked groan. He had told Kong that the existing food stores would be entirely enough, but maybe not. “I checked to see what you might like here, but I left plenty for you.” He forced himself not to crush Atsu to his chest. A vigorous appetite was typical in drakling young, so this had to be a good sign that all was well with his son.
Atsu rested in his arms for another moment, then squirmed. “Where’s Yaya? She didn’t eat without me too, did she? Why didn’t you come get me to see planetfall?” He frowned sadly at his sire.
“Your sister is in her bed,” Vash said. “There was an issue with our entry so I didn’t have time to wake you before we landed.”
As he’d suspected, his son pounced on the first part of his explanation. “Yaya is still asleep? Ha! I’m first!” He pushed at the confining edge of the cloak. “What is this place? I want to see aliens. I want a snack. I need to use the bathroom.”
Vash held onto his eager fledgling. “Susu, just sit with me a moment.”
“But I want—” Each word started to increase in volume.
A discreet throat-clearing paused the threatening outburst. “Maybe I could show Atsu around while you check on Yadira?”
Atsu kneed Vash in the groin, lifting himself to see over his sire’s shoulder. “Oh! An alien! Already! I’m first again. Yaya is going to be so mad.” He chortled, then added with another sniff, “This alien smells strange too.”
“Susu, my summer breeze, perhaps we smell strange to her.” Vash glanced up at Darcy. “Darcy, this is Atsu, my son. Atsu, this is Darcy. She is our friend here on Earth.”
“Oh, I forgot.” At the fledgling’s dismayed look, Vash’s heart skipped a beat. “It can hear everything I say because of the universal translators.”
As soon as his son said it, Vash had the memory himself of going to the clinic to be fitted with the devices. The fledglings’ translators were meant to be upgraded with their maturing brains, but he’d wanted them to be able to communicate on their own. For some reason, he also remembered a strange grief as he approved the procedure, maybe because thinking of younglings growing up was hard for any caretaker?
Unaware of his ruminations, Darcy tipped her head to both of them. “From what I’ve read, the Earther sense of smell is not as discerning as draklings. To me, you smell…fine.”
Despite his own distraction, Vash noticed her hesitation. Maybe she was just being polite to the IDA’s extraterrestrial patrons?
Not that it mattered. He’d also noticed her surreptitious glance at his daughter’s pod. He needed to check it, and he didn’t necessarily want his son watching. If anything went wrong…
No. He would not allow that.
Still, it was only with great reluctance that he let Atsu of his lap. “Darcy, maybe you would be so kind as to show Atsu the snack cabinet?”
She nodded at him, with one more flick of a glance at the other pod. “Come on, Atsu. You can tell me what it’s like to get a translator. I don’t have one, you know.”
“Is it because this is a closed world? Maybe you are too primitive to have a universal translator.” Atsu looked back at his sire, the first inkling of uncertainty tightening his features. “Addah?”
Why did his bold little fledgling hesitate when there was food available? Vash was careful to keep his body loose and unbothered, knowing his offspring would be analyzing his stance as well as his words. “Darcy didn’t believe me that draklings like our food very spicy,” he told his son with much solemnity. “Perhaps you can convince her.”
Atsu glanced up at Darcy. “Don’t you like it hot?”
She smiled at him, then adjusted the expression, and Vash knew she was trying to simplify her responses to the alien child. “Maybe just not as hot as you?” She held out one hand. “But I can show you the different flavors, and you can tell me which ones you like best.”
Atsu looked at her hand for a moment, gave Vash one more quick glance, and tangled his little fingers around hers. “Yaya actually likes it hottest of all,” he confessed in a not very soft whisper. “But don’t tell her I said that.”
“Maybe because she’s older, do you think that might be it?”
“No. I think it’s because she’s always mad.”
