by Viola Grace
That was surprisingly touching. “You could have warned me.”
He grinned. “It was a surprise. The chemistry is basic, and the Terran healers in the Imperium were happy to provide it.”
She nodded. “I am still going to hold a grudge for a while.”
“Of course.” He smiled. “Are you going to sing the child another song tonight?”
Maya wrinkled her nose. “Of course. Just because her father is a twit doesn’t mean that she has to miss her song.”
The group laughed, and in half an hour, they were home, and everything was perfectly normal until late in the evening when Huya started to cry. Nothing that anyone could do would quiet her. She had been fed, changed, sang to, rocked, and when the guys had gone through all the options, they brought her to Maya’s hobby room, and Maya put the gears of the small trebuchette that she was making aside and took her daughter from a frazzled Huron.
The headbutt to the breast was a surprise. Understanding dawned. She opened her suit and presented Huya with the breast, and the little monster latched on and sucked.
“Holy hell!” Maya squawked, but Huya eased, and her chubby fist lay across Maya’s breast.
Huron was stunned. “She just ate.”
“I think this is different. Holy crap, she’s strong. I blame you.” She glowered at Huron.
He grinned and kissed her. “Is this what Lylwin was on about?”
“Yeah.”
Huya eased up, and the little rosebud mouth relaxed as quickly as she had attached.
Maya exhaled. “Okay, I think she is gonna sleep now. I might be having flashbacks for a while. That was a surprise. Things should be quiet now as long as the other two don’t go off.”
Huron kissed her and asked her, “My room tonight?”
“Yes. As long as you behave. We haven’t even gotten into a schedule with these babies. We don’t need to start more in the next few months.”
She smiled and closed her suit, turning back to the small mechanism before she heard a wail from a distant portion of the house.
Maya looked at her sleepy daughter. “Did you tell on me?”
Huya blew a soft bubble, and her eyes drooped in sleep.
Huron kissed Maya slowly and left her alone.
She got back to her work, and the wailing continued. Argo brought Arya in and asked for help.
Maya reached up and released her hair, rubbing it across the baby’s cheek, but the headbutt reflex caused moisture in the suit. She handed the snuffling baby back to Argo, and he frowned. “What are you... oh.”
Arya didn’t attach as hard, but it was still firmly attached.
He stroked his daughter’s cheek and murmured, “I wonder why we stopped doing this?”
“Population imbalance is my guess. It takes up to eight hours a day to fully feed one child per day this way. If you have multiples like we do, it would be impossible to get enough nutrition out of just me for all three. I think the girls are just asking for it because it’s available.”
He smiled. “I would.”
“Do you think we need more childcare? It doesn’t have to be a Relitan, but maybe an alien or two.”
Argo. “I think you need to talk to Huron or Dr. Lylwin.”
She felt her blood pressure lower while Arya stayed with her. When she was relaxed and Arya was done, she detached her daughter, burped her, and handed her back to Argo.
His black eyes were wide. “That was amazing to watch.”
Maya inclined her head. “Thank Lylwin. I did not do this on my own, but on Terra, women do the same thing if they adopt infants and wish to nurse for bonding purposes. Medication brings it on.”
Argo smiled. “Well, I know where to go now if she keeps crying.”
Maya nodded. “I am an emergency-use item only. I bet Lylwin is running an experiment to see if there is any change in growth pattern with mother’s milk.”
He smiled and took his sated, sleepy daughter. “Good night, Maya.”
She was waiting for Boya, and she was brought in wailing. Maya already had her suit open, and she had started expressing at the sound.
Boran watched intently, “How does it feel to you?”
She blushed as she caught his stare. “It sort of causes the same reaction that your touch does, pleasure, pain, and I get slightly aroused.”
“Lylwin asked Ytal to help design a pump for you. Why would you need it?”
Maya sighed. “Three girls, soon to be four, and two breasts. A feeding can take five minutes or half an hour. If I pump when I need to, I can keep some for when we travel or I already have my arms full.”
He stroked Boya’s cheek and then ran his finger along the top of her breast.
Maya squeaked, “Don’t!” but Boya had already spilled a huge mouthful down Maya’s suit.
Boran looked embarrassed. “Sorry. Your skin there just looks so soft.”
“It is. It stretched. There are all kinds of hydraulics now going on under the surface.”
Boya finished and turned her face away. Maya burped her, stroked her cheeks, and sighed as she handed the baby back. “Dr. Lylwin is annoying but clever.”
“Why?”
“The feeding is reducing some of my tension. And I feel... better... about the babies?” She groaned. “That sounds horrible.”
“No, it sounds normal considering the difference in our species and that in a purely natural world, we would never have met. But, there is space travel, and you have been altered and reset, and we are here together.” He grinned. “All of us.”
There was a gleam in his eyes that was familiar.
“Nope. Nope, we are not doing that again until I am ready for my next clutch. I don’t trust you guys to start one off schedule.”
He smiled. “What if we can get authorization to suspend your fertility for a few months until the next schedule?”
“You would have to do that because Lylwin wants to harvest my eggs as they emerge to see if they can be transplanted into other queens.”
“Ah. That would mean that you would have to abstain.”
“Yeah, for a couple of days. But, I am here as an experiment, and they are getting their monies’ worth.”
He cuddled Boya against him. “But your girls are so cute.”
“Yeah, but my work as Command Control is nearly nonexistent. I would like to be back working with Virtel or Caloff, but even they don’t want me.”
“They want your help, they have talked to the governor, and she is not allowing your participation to return to active work again.”
Maya remembered to seal her suit, and Boran looked at her wistfully.
She sighed. “Babies change everything, and now working out the timing is an issue. If it wasn’t an act of will to hold in the pods, it would be different, but as Lylwin proved, even good intentions can be blown out of the water if someone gets really excited.”
Boran chuckled. “He is working on it.”
Maya nodded. “And in that case, I will wait until I am in between cycles and ready for implantation on the next one.”
He frowned. “You will still be with Huron.”
“He isn’t going to be carrying next time. You are. Hai-ran and Ytal are ready to take on another, but you are spending precious time with Boya. Enjoy it.” She chuckled. “It doesn’t feel good to be making rules for others, but there it is.”
He sighed and kissed her softly. “I miss you.”
“A few more weeks, just until we find out what a fully normal cycle looks like for me, without any supplements or tampering, of course, this could throw a spanner in the works as well. The old wives’ tale is that the hormones from breastfeeding restrict ovulation.”
Boran blinked. “Did Lylwin know that?”
“I think he is checking to see if I go off without a pod or a chemical trigger. I am sure we will get through this after a few months.”
Boran growled. “I don’t want to wait a
few months.”
She laughed. “If you want to take the risk of more kids, line up more childcare. There are now four of you on the reproductive roster—three existing children. We need one caregiver for every two children. We also need additions to the base. We are going to run out of space very quickly.”
He frowned. “I don’t understand. They are small.”
“They get bigger fast. The governor wants sixty, and she wants them dispersed across the globe. When she is going to do the dispersal is unknown.” She sighed. “On my world, they would be nearly adults before they were allowed to leave home, but Hiirin said that they could be leaving as soon as age ten.”
“It is to get them into school with peers.”
“Oh. Right. I spend so much time here that I forget there is a world out there.”
He smiled. “When was the last time you went to the beach?”
“The day I met Huron.”
He frowned. “A hotel?”
“Same.”
“Restaurant?” Boran was looking uneasy.
“Same. I always figured that I could have fun after I had finished with this project.”
He leaned in again and smiled. “I am guessing that we will just have to bring the fun to you.”
She smiled and kissed him. “Get her to bed before she wakes up again.”
He winked and left her to her fiddling.
Time sped past, and she continued to act as Command Control for Relita; and after her fifteenth daughter was born, she was informed that Caloff wanted her back, and she was allowed to work with their team once again.
When she regained her work, her passion for life resumed, and the men around her suffered for it. Well, she called it suffering. They lined up and bribed her with pastries to have her work out her energy on them.
It wasn’t always easy, and it wasn’t always fun, but a stable life had taken over when she wasn’t watching. She was a mom, a guardian, and a weapons designer.
If Relita ever started Mother’s Day, she was going to be surrounded by weird handmade cards. It wasn’t a bad thought, but she preferred the confirmation nights. They got a little wild when the court expanded, but everyone got what they needed.
It was wonderful to aim for a goal.
Epilogue
“Command Control, status. Fifteen men coming out the front, one heading out back. I will get him.” Maya revved up her cycle, and then, she shot out of the back of the shuttle. Her prey had gone into the underground tunnels, so she drove her cycle in, and then, she dismounted when she saw the man who had just broke into her daughters’ school.
She walked toward him, and he fired at her with a stunner. Her suit absorbed the shot, and she kept coming. She got her batons and flicked them out, extending the spikes.
He looked at her and fired again. He grabbed for another weapon, and this time, the projectile bounced off her armoured bodice. She sighed. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”
He fired again and again. “We need those girls. You can’t keep them all!”
She walked toward him, lifted her baton, and fired the spike. He screamed as he was pinned to the wall.
“You have just confessed to the attempted kidnapping of a Terran-born queen. The penalty is death.”
“What? No. You don’t understand. We need them!”
She looked at him, and she nodded. “I understand. You wanted to take my daughters from me before they are ready. They are not pure Relitan; they have a slower development ratio. Kidnapping them for breeding now would be akin to taking a six-year-old and forcing yourself on them. So, now that you have that information, what do you say?”
“We need them. We need queens.” He snarled.
She lifted her second baton. “Command Control, death sentence for attempted kidnapping of a Terran-born Relitan queen, carried out at nine-twelve.”
It was nine-eleven, and he watched the seconds tick. She stood with her arm extended. “You should not have tried to take my daughters. My daughters will choose.”
The clock ticked over, and his skull shattered as the spike took up the centre of it.
“Command Control, ordering corpse retrieval at nine-thirteen.” She turned and walked away with her batons still out. She put them away when she looked at the pod-cycle.
She got her cycle, did a circle, and rode it up the stairs and out into the bright autumn morning.
She flew off the steps and looked at the crowd of girls and boys. She brought her cycle to a halt and stopped, dismounting her metal steed.
She looked to Thud. “Is everyone okay?”
His daughters were surrounding him. “There was a teacher stunned, but the others are fine. The peacekeepers are moving the men out.”
She sighed and opened her arms. Her daughters rushed in and hugged her, and she kissed their heads and cheeks, going through them all until all those who had guardian fathers were standing with them, and all of the others were standing with her.
Moonlight looked at her and frowned. “Were you injured?”
“Ah, a little bit. He had fatal weaponry on him.”
“We need to get you into a med centre.”
Huya said, “The school has a nurse.”
Her daughters urged her toward the grouping of teachers, and the nurse came out of the group.
Maya stared. “Are you new?”
The Terran chuckled. “Yes. I am not altered, though, so I am not a queen. Hold still.”
Maya winced as a chunk of metal was pulled from her with a set of forceps.
“I am Maya. Uh, Command Control.”
The woman smiled. “I am Ula Marteth. Hold still, this is going to sting.”
She pressed her hand over the wound and did the repair. “You are tolerating this very well.”
Maya smiled. “I am used to strange things being inserted into me and withdrawn.” She looked at the blonde. “How did you get here?”
“I am the official healer and medic for your children. Don’t worry. They didn’t want any more Terran genetics around here. You are it.”
“I am not worried. My girls are firmly established, and all have settings to start their courts. I mean, they do lose and gain them during Monopoly tournaments, but that is a family matter. I am just glad that they figured out a way to make my child production controlled... eventually. Before we got me under control, those games were nearly deadly.”
“Right. I admire your ability to play that game with family.”
Huya wrapped her arms around Maya’s neck from behind. “My mom cheats.”
“Ah, the best way to play it.” Ula pulled her hands back. “Anywhere else?”
“No, I think I am good.”
The peacekeepers came toward her from the underground.
“Command Control, may we have a minute?”
Maya patted Huya’s hands, and her fourteen-year-old let her stand up. She walked to the peacekeepers and spoke with them. Sending them the download of the conversation she had had with the kidnapper and his attempt to kill her.
The peacekeeper blinked. “He tried to kill the Terran queen?”
“Yes. And he tried to take my daughters. They are not ready yet. I would like a portion of his execution to be played on the news.”
The peacekeeper nodded. “Of course.”
She cocked her head. “Are there any other legal ramifications?”
“No. He confessed without torture and tried to kill you. With your status, you were within your rights to kill him.”
She looked back at her daughters, but Boya had come up and looked at her with serious eyes. “Mom, you killed him.”
“Yes, bunny.”
Boya nodded. “Good. His thoughts were not good.”
The peacekeepers looked at Boya with shock.
Maya put her arm around Boya and kissed her temple. “All my daughters have some telepathic or empathic ability. It will make them excellent queens but not yet.”
> Boya hugged her; she was used to hugging around the armour.
The rest of the fathers showed up, having arrived from the base.
All of the girls hugged their dads, and school was called for the day.
Maya clapped her hands above her head and shouted. “Okay! We are all together at the same time... How about we head home and have a barbeque and picnic? Can we get a team to get things ready?” Little hands shot into the air, and the oldest set nodded with grins. “We need someone to go for supplies, pastries, meat, fruit, drinks, someone to flick out blankets.”
She asked, and little hands went up; fathers agreed to drive, and when the setup team was left, she looked to Thud, Wave, Shock, and Moonlight and said, “Okay, we are good to go. If anyone gets lost, who do you call?”
The girls screamed, “Command Control!”
Maya grinned as she took her section of the herd and walked back to the shuttle with her cycle. Being the queen to close to twenty Relitans was awkward; being the mother to sixty girls was complicated, but being the mentor to five dozen girls hitting puberty? This was the deadly challenge she was meant for.
She let her insistent girls take the cycle back to the shuttle as she wrapped her arms around Thud and Shock. She pressed her lips together. “I am guessing that someone has to do the dishes.”
Boran whimpered. “Send me on a deadly assignment. Anything but that.”
She laughed.
Thud murmured, “Is there anything else that I could do instead?”
She looked at him. “I don’t know about asking. Just for fun?”
He grinned. “Oh, definitely for fun.”
He lifted her in his arms and kissed her as he continued to walk into the ship. The teens were giggling, the other guardians were grinning, and the clinch was what the news ran with before playing her death sentence on the evening report.
It was definitely better than an oil rig.
Author’s Note
Well, this one got out of control. Sorry. No, the new queens will not be getting their own books. I really don’t have that kind of time on my hands.
