And it was a him, she discovered as soon as she removed the swaddling on his bottom.
“Oh my god!”
She was startled and she startled him.
He looked like he was thinking about bawling.
“No! It’s ok, sweety. I just didn’t expect to see anything like that on a baby!”
She hadn’t seen anything like that on a grown man!
Maybe it was like the human head? Almost adult size at birth?
She’d guessed at his weight after lugging him around and was pleased to discover she was close enough the diaper fit.
He seemed fussy after she’d changed him and very carefully looked him over for any sign of injury from his ordeal.
The knots on his forehead worried her until she realized they matched—like the pointy ears.
And the crinkled things on his shoulder blades that looked an awful lot like wings.
And the strange, thin membranes along his forearms and calves that reminded her of the fins on fish.
The urge to burst into tears assailed her.
Aside from his coloring—and no human of any race on Earth had that kind of pigmentation—which was more nearly mahogany that any other color she could think of—all of the projections were going to make it impossible to help him pass.
She sniffed and pushed those thoughts aside.
She didn’t even know that it was going to be her problem at this point.
She didn’t believe for a moment that he’d simply been discarded callously.
Someone had gone to a great deal of effort to protect him and she thought they might be coming back to reclaim him—or someone might.
It occurred to her abruptly, though, that she had a problem looming alotcloser.
There wasn’t a damned base in miles and miles! That was one of the things that had totally blown her mind. She wasn’t used to seeing military men at all and certainly not a group blocking the road.
But they were there for one reason, she realized.
The baby’s escape pod!
Fate had been smiling upon her when it occurred to her that she needed to get supplies before she settled for the night.
Otherwise, she would have been caught in the dragnet with the baby.
And god only knew what they would do with him.
Her throat closed at that thought.
Shaking it with an effort since the baby seemed to react to her emotions, she went to mix up a bottle for him and then settled in the chair to feed him.
He didn’t seem terribly impressed with the taste of the formula, but after a little fussing he settled to drinking it and dozed off when he’d drained it.
Emmaline dozed off about the same time.
She woke a little later, got out of the chair with an effort, and staggered to the bed with the baby. Cuddling him close, she went back to sleep and slept better than she could ever remember.
Which was crazy all things considered.
Her last thought as she dove into nothingness was that she’d gotten her wish. It bore no resemblance to the vague notions that had been circulating in her brain at the time, but she thought she could love the baby with no problem at all, alien or not, and, maybe, he would love her back.
The question was, would they get the chance for the tiny bud to bloom?
* * * *
Kadin, Gaelan, and Hauk stood immobile and grim faced, staring at the blue marble growing larger and larger in their forward viewing portal.
They’d lost the tracking signal before they were much more than halfway into their rescue mission.
The chances were probably roughly the same percentage for the successful resolution of their undertaking—fifty/fifty if they were lucky.
Actually, Kadin thought, the odds probably weren’t even that good.
It had taken too long.
The monarchy was dead.
There would be no uniting the tribes of the Hirachi, no raising the army they’d envisioned and without that he thought their chances of defeating the Sheloni, the bastards that had been preying upon them for generations, enslaving them for profit, were not terribly good.
They would fight regardless.
They had captured and mastered the weapons of their enemies and meant to turn their technology against them and do their best to wipe them from existence.
He would be satisfied, though, to teach them that it was too expensive to come after the Hirachi to be worth the effort.
“From here it looks much like the home world, Ach,” Gaelan murmured, almost reverently, almost as if speaking to himself.
Hauk glanced at him and then returned his attention to the planet they were approaching. “I see the similarity. But then the same can be said of the many worlds such as this one that are more water than land.”
Gaelan frowned at him, but then shrugged. “I have not seen that many.” He thought about it. “I did not even see Ach in this way when I was taken.”
“There is one thing very different here,” Hauk murmured.
Neither Gaelan nor Kadin argued. They merely glanced at him questioningly.
“There is a debris field surrounding this world.”
The minds of both instantly snapped to the target of their mission. Anger swiftly followed.
“Do not instantly leap to the conclusion that it is the remnants of the life pod,” Hauk said harshly. “We do not know that it is.”
“Or that it is not,” Kadin pointed out.
Hauk considered it. “We should review the data we retrieved.”
The trio left their observation position and headed to the bridge. Hauk, by far more familiar with the workings of Sheloni technology than either of the other two, settled to manipulating the main computer system.
It seemed to Kadin to take far longer than it should have. Before he lost his temper, however, Hauk pulled up images. “These are computer generated, not actual, but you can see that the calculation is that the pod was well past this point and nearing the surface when we lost the signal. The debris is from something else.”
“Then they attacked?” Gaelan said sharply.
“We cannot determine that. Hold on. I will have the
