He looked into her eyes, her ears, and down her throat. Yup, something's definitely are the same no matter what. He turned on the diagnostic panel behind her and pulled a small data pad out of the top drawer of the cabinet. He used it as if it were a scanner, surprising her.
“I didn’t know those could do that!”
Tellan looked amused. “Only the ones designed for medical can. Can you imagine of unlicensed persons could simply scan a being and get all of the information on them, right down to their DNA?”
“Okay, yeah, that’d be bad. But still, that’s really cool.”
Dr. Horskuy looked pleased what he read on the screen and returned to the cabinet where he replaced the data pad and exchanged it for a small cylinder from the second drawer. He walked over to Laurel and gestured for her to turn her head to the left.
“Turn my head like this?” she asked.
“Yes, he wants to implant it behind your ear,” Tellan answered.
Dr. Horskuy rolled over a small metal tray and placed the cylinder on it. He wiped something cold across the skin just behind her ear, over her bone, then picked up a small tool that he used to extract something tiny from.
“Wow, that’s really small.”
“Keep still, he’s got to get it in just the right place for it to integrate properly without casing secondary problems.”
She assumed that had to do with the fact that she had a large bone there. Whatever the reason, she felt it prudent to do as she was told., She sat quietly and turned her head back the way it was supposed to be. The doctor brought the tip of the tool to the area he’d wiped. She heard a click.
“Fuck me!” she shouted. “That hurt worse than when I got my ears pierced at the shopping centre! You could warn a girl. I sure as fuck better get a lolly for this!”
Dr. Horskuy was staring at Tellan uncertainly. “Is she not your bride?”
“She is, yes”
“It must not be calibrated correctly.”
“Hey, I can understand you! It’s like, instant! This is so cool!” Laurel said, the pain forgotten. “Is there something else? What are you doing?”
The doctor took out his data pad and consulted it. “It reads as being in perfect mechanical order. It must be an unexpected biological complication to the integration process,” he muttered.
“Eh?” Laurel asked. “What? I can understand you just fine. Am I speaking gibberish to you?”
“Please repeat what you said immediately after I installed the chip.”
“Ummm…oh…I said ‘ow’ or something like that and how it hurt worse than getting my ears pierced.”
Tellan laughed. “I believe he means the invective you used. No, doctor, she said what you thought she did. It simply did not mean what it seemed to. They use that both as an exclamation of displeasure and as a sexual invitation.”
“What a curious species,” the doctor muttered, blinking in surprise. He lowered the tablet. “In that case, simply avoid irritating the site and if you have any issues that are medical, contact me or another licensed physician. I don’t foresee any problems arising, but one never knows. It uses the standard updating protocols should you require a new language input or other software upgrade.”
“We can go now, then?” Laurel asked, hopping down from the table, her face feeling hot as she realised what he’d thought she’d meant. He thought I was asking for sex, god, that is so embarrassing. I can’t believe I dropped the f-bomb like that, either.Mum would give me a good ear bashing over that. Way to go, girl, first human they’ve seen here in Mylos space and you start off by screaming and swearing.
“Yes, we can. The pilot will have had our luggage will have been picked up from the ship and baggage checked by the line we are flying.”
As they re-entered the station corridor she asked, “What about clothes? And Pip and Pop?”
“There’s a public replicator in the room we’ve rented for the night. We can make what we need. The birds will be quarantine until placed onboard tomorrow’s flight. They are perfectly safe, I promise.”
“Oh. Won’t that cost extra, the replicator and quarantine fees and all that?”
Tellan smiled indulgently. “We don’t use money quite the same way you do. We use a credit system. The station will bill Mylos and Mylos will pay it as we are citizens.”
“But what if I order something expensive?”
“That all depends on what it is and why you ordered it. If it is unnecessarily extravagant and for personal use only, then the Council would order extra societal contributions to repay everyone.”
“So, you will have to work lots of overtime to pay for our wedding? That cost the bomb, I know it did!”
“That was not considered unnecessary. It also cost far, far less than you think. We were ‘comped’ many things, I believe that is the term, anyway.”
Laurel relaxed. “So, we were able to afford it.”
“Yes. And to be honest, we are able to amass wealth, it’s merely done differently.”
She sighed. “I have a lot of learning to do.”
“I’m sure you’ll more than manage.”
She hoped he was right.
“Here we are,” he said, stopping in front of a door. He went inside and walked over to kiosk where he entered some information. He then placed his kunnarskyn close to the screen and it beeped. He turned to face her. “We are the third room on the right,” he informed her, pulling her down a corridor. “This is it,” he said, reaching the door in question. He held up his wrist by a reader next to the door and let his kunnarskyn transmit their identification. The door slid open to reveal their motel room.
“Oh, goodie, a shower!” she exclaimed, spying a familiar cubicle in the small bathroom. “I’m going to clean up, if you don’t mind. Uh, will you replicate me some pyjamas and underwear?” she asked him. “Or show me how to?”
“You enjoy your shower. When you come out, they will be ready for you,” he promised.
“Thanks.”
Shower then maybe some food if that thing does any and then bed. I’m exhausted.
“I’ll make us something easy to eat as well,” Tellan said. “It’s been awhile since we ate.”
“You read my mind!” she called through the door. “You know what I like if it’s got Mylos food I’ve tried before.”
“I’ll replicate you an a set of clothes for tomorrow as well,” he said.
She poked her head out. “A shower won’t hurt the chip site, will it?”
“No, the skin over it was sealed as he did it.That’s what the heat sensation was.”
“Okay, good.” She closed the door again and turned on the sonic shower.. What a day.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Is it normal to feel a bit odd while your body gets used to the implant?” Laurel asked Tellan.
“You mean while your mind wraps around the new language interface?”
“No, I meant from the physical side of it. My anti-bodies healing the site and encountering the chip.”
Tellan reached a hand out for her chin and tilted her head. He touched the implantation site. “It’s not red and doesn’t appear to be inflamed. Can you describe your symptoms?”
“I feel a little queasy when eating and I was a bit lightheaded earlier today, that was new.”
He frowned. “It’s been three days. Any symptoms should have lessened. I think we should take you to sick bay.”
Laurel hated making a fuss but in the end, she gave in. If her body was suddenly rejecting the chip implant, she’d rather know now rather than alter in case the health implications were serious. The cruise ship doctor was a smiling woman from Dellos IV. She had lavender scales running from her temples , on down her neck, and from the short sleeved tunic she wore, they continued down her shoulders and traveled down the outside of her arms, ending at her wrist. She didn’t have any hair, instead she had heavier scale plating that formed a pattern using multiple hues of blues and purples. Her eyes were free of whites, the deep b
lue of her eyes occupying the entire space, broken up only by the almost luminescent lavender specks within. She was beautiful and wonderfully strange to behold and Laurel warmed up to her immediately.
Dr. Miklop listened to her complaint and consulted a data pad after running a hand scanner over her. She gave Laurel and Tellan an even larger smile. “I believe congratulations are in order,” she said. “There are two strong heartbeats.”
“Two what now?” Laurel was positive she’d misheard.
“She is with young?”
“Yes, and if I’m understanding this biology text correctly, she is close to being seven weeks along from what the scanner sees of their development.”
“You can see them?” laurel asked. “Can we see them?”
Dr. Miklop turned her data pad to face them and showed them the data. “It’s not a picture, it’s a life sign detector and it is looking at the cellular development.”
“Oh.”
“We can do an internal imaging scan if you wish.”
“Yes, please. I can’t believe I didn’t notice that my period is late,” she said to Tellan.
“A lot of things have been going on. It is understandable to lose track of a few details,” he told her.
When the three D image was projected, she couldn’t believe the detail. There were indeed two babies, sharing a single sac. Laurel was surprised to see they were blue and appeared scaled. Then she reminded herself that Tellan himself manifested scales and the children were half alien. Half alien that was a hybrid of several different alien species, to boot. They were also the most beautiful things she had ever seen, despite having thought that about her niece and nephews as well. She sniffled. “I’m going to be a mum,” she cried. “We’re going to be a proper family.”
Tellan smiled tenderly at her. “We shall be. As soon as we arrive home, we should begin to prepare. I imagine your mother will be wanting on the next available transport.”
Laurel laughed. “She certainly will. I’ll wait to tell her for a bit, though. Right now, I want this to be just ours.”
“Ours and the doctors,” he amended.
“Well, yes. They have to make sure it’s going well. I mean, they are the first human/Mylos children.”
“They will wish to monitor your pregnancy closely,” he agreed.
“Somehow I knew that was coming,” she sighed. “But that’s okay. We won’t have to worry, right? Because their eyes will be on every detail.”
Tellan squeezed her hand. “That is true. Now, since she’s given you something for the nausea, would you like to go to the cantina and get something to eat?”
“I’m starving,” she admitted. “I was afraid something horrible was going wrong with my implant and the stress lowered my appetite, then with nausea, I didn’t feel like eating when I did feel a bit hungry.”
“Let’s go fix that,” he said. “Perhaps some soup to start with.”
“Soup sounds good. Do you think they have anything similar to leek and potato?” She guessed not, given she had to spend half the walk to the cantina describing it.
“Try this. It reminds me of the soup you call peas and ham,” he suggested.Laurel looked down at it. Pea and ham, huh? It looked more like carrot. She liked carrot and coriander soup and decided that perhaps Tellan had merely confused the human dishes. It had happened a few times. She smiled. “That looks good. A bowl of that and is there some bread? Perhaps some thing like a roll I can dip into the soup?”
Tellan spoke to the woman behind the counter, who ladled out two bowls of the soup and reached under the counter, bringing out two brown lumps that definitely looked like a type of roll. He then pointed to some kind of roast meat and she sliced off several pieces, added them to a plate and ladled some orange gravy over it. She handed that to a male standing next to her who added it to a tray that he had already placed the soup and rolls on as well as the needed cutlery to eat it..
“That’s all for now, thank you,” Tellan said politely . The man nodded and picked the tray up and walked around to their side of the counter, leading them to an empty table and placing the food upon it. Tellan pulled out a chair for Laurel, seating himself afterwards. The man picked up the tray and went back to behind the food counter. A third cantina employee approached them. “Would you like to order your drinks?” he asked.
Laurel looked at Tellan. She never knew what to ask for here. Back home, she’d order a Fanta or an Elderflower cordial if they were back in the UK. Which they weren’t, she reminded herself. They were as far from being in the UK as one could get, and getting further every moment that passed as they cruised closer to Tellan’s home planet.
“Lorpa juice, please, bring a pitcher.” Tellan looked at Laurel. “It is somewhat reminiscent of an apple and pear blend.”
She hoped he was right. She lifted her spoon and took a cautious taste of her soup. It tasted more like green beans and bacon than peas and ham to her, but that was alright. It was nicely seasoned and her stomach didn’t rebel, though she supposed that could be due to the medication she’d taken before leaving the sickbay. “It’s good,” she told Tellan. He beamed and tore off a piece of his roll and dipped it into the soup.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Laurel looked down at the planet below. The time on the cruise had her given her space to come to terms with the fact that she pregnant, something that she had long stopped envisaging for herself. She’d been too busy to seriously date anyone, with the family restaurant, spending most of her spare time with her sister and niece and nephews or relaxing at home with her two budgies for company. She had managed to push the fact that she had what was perhaps one of the most important meetings in her life looming large, that with her new in-laws.
Today she couldn’t push that out of her mind as the view from her stateroom showed Tellan’s home planet below them. Tellan’s mother and father were waiting to welcome them home, having arrived two days before to oversee the house being aired out, the surfaces, dusted, the food replicators stocked with matter, and the larders with fresh foods.
She closed her eyes, one hand unconsciously resting on the barely noticeable swell of her belly. Would they like her? How would they feel about her having children so soon after their mating? The Mylos had come for genetic trade and she knew their cultured revolved around children, family, and the quest for knowledge, but how soon was too soon to them? Or did that not matter because of their matching system? Her mind immediately latched onto the fact that she and Tellan had, in fact, not been matched in the usual manner. In fact, she had gone through a rather in-depth quiz that she’d thought was a social media game and had completely skipped the DNA portion of the matching process. Not that it appeared to be an issue, given she was already carrying twins.
She opened her eyes and smiled. Tellan had been overly solicitous until she’d put her foot down. He still toed that line, but now it was due to cultural upbringing. Before it had been increasingly unbearable, culminating in her becoming angry and asking him why he was treating her like she was made of glass. Discovering that multiples were extremely rare among the Mylos, to the point where Tellan had never seen so much as a twin or a triple, astonished her. Multiples didn’t run in her family but to find that being Mylos had lengthened the odds incredibly had made her wish that she’d been able to place a bet on it with one of the bookie shops back home.
She heard Tellan’s footfalls behind her as he approached her. He wound his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. “We’ll be docking with the main orbital ring in the next few minutes. We’ll be able to pick up my shuttle and take it down to the surface shortly after. Nervous?”
“I really am,” she confessed. “I hope they like me.”
“They haven’t even met you yet but they already love you,” he assured her. “You are my perfect match and so, that means you are also a perfect fit with our family.”
“You sound like a greeting card,” she giggled. “But alright. I know your people take this wh
ole perfect match and destined mate thing very seriously. “
“We built our entire civilisation around it and launched ourselves to the stars to find the mates waiting beyond.”
She turned her head to meet his eyes. “That is probably the most romantic thing I have ever heard in my life.”
“Truly? It is a simple fact of history.”
“Yes, truly. In fact, make a note of it and have the registry offices use it as one of the outreach slogans. A girl likes to know it’s all about the romance, not just breeding, babies, and educational opportunities.I mean, those things are an integral part of things, but that little nugget? That right there says it’s all for love.”
He brushed his lips with hers in a gentle kiss. “It certainly is,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it, I thought the matches would not begin until the Bride Fleet arrived, as that is usually standard operating procedure in these cases. It has turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me. You and our young, the beginning of a new series of matches for other waiting Mylos, and the merging of human culture with that of the Mylos. It is truly a wondrous thing.”
The ship gave a minute shudder. “Was that us docking?” she asked.
“It was. We simply need to wait for the luggage cart I ordered delivered to arrive and then we can begin exit and entrance procedures.”
“Do I have to have a passport or something? I don’t have a passport other than my Uk one and I don’t think I brought that one,” she babbled. He turned her in his arms.
“No, you don’t require any kind of physical document.Your fingerprints, retinal scan, and DNA profile are on file. As we go through the gate to exit, the planetary AI will scan you and verify your identity. Unlike your world, it is not to say if you allowed to go from one place to another, though if you are a wanted fugitive, it would stop you.”
“So it is just checking I am not a dangerous criminal?”
“That is a secondary, albeit important reason for it. The main one is so it can update relevant planetary records about you. It will create a credit account for you, similar to what you call a bank account, so that you may purchase items. It will also take the medical records from here and match them to those sent from Earth, and deposit them with the nearest hospital to the residence we have placed on record when boarding this vessel.”
Tellan: Brides of the Mylos Page 9
