Page 161 of Sky Song
Cricket’s eyes narrowed. “I smell bullshit. Why was that necessary?”
Lyle signed, resigned. “Simon thinks the new serum is developed enough to give Gemma a small dose.”
Cricket stared at Lyle. “I thought… She told me that she wasn’t sold on the idea of injecting herself with a solution that originated in that vile lab.”
“Well, she’s coming. And it’s not from that lab. This serum was created here. Different Rix genes, too.”
“Wait.” She put up a hand. “Does Gemma know what she’s coming for?”
“My job was to secure a transport for her. Telling her anything is Simon’s problem.”
“My God, Lyle, he hasn’t told her.”
“He plans to. Soon. Today.”
Cricket pressed a hand to her mouth to stifle evil giggles out of fear of waking up the baby.
“Lyle, she’ll kill him. He should have discussed it with her. Oh, he’s so done and I can’t wait to see it. The gall! After what happened to me, after his own time at Dr. Delano’s lab, did he think he could trick Gemma? Force her to submit to the jabs?”
“I don’t know what he thinks, Cricket, but I know that where Gemma’s concerned, he’s obsessively selfish.” Lyle moved back to the bed. “And I get it. If it were us, I would do the same.”
Lyle’s words gave Cricket a pause. “Good thing we don’t need to worry about that. Simon’s genes are supposed to keep me alive for much longer than my human lifespan.”
“I hope so.”
Cricked gazed up at his serious face. “That serum is still an uncharted territory.”
He put a finger to her lips. “It has worked for you, and I’m certain it will work for Gemma. What’s next? Can it be advanced to work on our girls? On Mireya’s eyes?”
Cricket’s breath caught.
Lyle removed his fingers and kissed her lips, gently at first, then using his tongue. Breaking the kiss, he stared at her, his eyes large and black, with banked cold fire. Snake’s eyes, and she was ensnared for life.
He left her, going to the base to receive Gemma’s transport, his slimmed-down frame moving with efficient ease.
All in all, Lyle had come back from his ordeal okay, but he would never be healthy. His body chemistry had been permanently altered by the long-term detrozanine intake. He completely lost the ability to self-regulate and keep his hearts working like they should, and to survive, Lyle now had to maintain a strict regimen of medication that allowed him to function.
The lifetime dependency drove him mad. Besides, the life-saving drug cocktail couldn’t compensate for every aspect of his ruined system. Lyle had mood swings that bordered on depression. He continued to be plagued by stasis disturbances and loss of appetite. He stopped tolerating cold temperatures well. Even his sex drive wasn’t consistent, and sometimes hewanted sex in abundance and other times he couldn’t bear to be touched.
The emotional rollercoaster was Cricket’s burden, and she was learning to adapt, to be patient. Lyle knew how much grief he caused her, and it made him feel like all kinds of shit. It also motivated him to develop a vast array of coping tools that helped him recalibrate, but there were days when there was simply nothing he could do. There would always be those days.
Their older daughter was now four years old, a sturdy girl, more Rix than human, with beautiful hair and long limbs, fast and strong and super even-tempered. Reluctantly, Lyle had to accept that the even-tempered part most likely came from Simon’s genes, as he was notoriously hard to ruffle.
Generally, Lyle was chill with his children sharing DNA with Simon, where Simon remained perpetually freaked out about that, much to Gemma’s amusement. Yes, he had a right to be pissed about his genes growing legs and propagating without his consent, but that wasn’t his main problem. Simon simply didn’t know what to do with all these random people like Cricket, like Lyle, like Ruby and little Mireya who literally dropped into his and Gemma’s life out of nowhere and wouldn't leave. All these uninvited strangers had magically turned into Simon’s extended family, and it was messy, and he absolutely had nightmares about it.
Of all of them, Simon was partial to Mireya. Cricket had once seen Simon gently take Mireya’s face in his large hands, when Lyle wasn’t around, and examine her eyes.
Mireya’s only sign that she was a hybrid were her eyes, a cross between Rix and human. Large and fully filled with a beautiful hazel color, each containing a single slitted pupil, they were unlike anything else in this Universe. Despite their beauty, Mireya was quite badly visually impaired. The doctors didn’t know what to do about it but warned that her eyesight wouldonly get worse as she aged, and possibly abandon her altogether after puberty.
Simon felt sad that his genes weren’t enough to give Mireya good eyes. Despite everything, he wished he could share more of himself with the girl.
A Rix doctor by the name of Chalen who came to Exter to treat Lyle was especially interested in Mireya. He permanently settled there and opened a practice. Before too long, the practice became a clinic specializing in hybrid cases.
“What they did to Commander Aeshac at the Earth lab was wrong,” Chalen told Cricket repeatedly. “But it doesn't mean all genetic research is wrong. Cross-breeding exists in nature, and those people are real and often imperfect. No one knows how to help them. We will make it our business to know.”
The word of this place spread fast across the Universe, and a once-in-a-while patient turned into a steady stream of alien cross-breeds.
“It’s like someone purposefully sets those freaks adrift in space,” Ruby had once complained when a mostly-Sakka with a head as pointed as a traffic cone arrived on Chalen’s doorstep. “And gives them our coordinates.”
