Page 75 of Taken to Kor
She smiles and pride fills up my entire bawdy pirate heart.
I find an arm in the liquid and yelp, totally freaked. Then I remember what I’m here for and I latch on. I’m stronger than Svera is so, when I pull, the female’s body rises up to my side of the tank first. I use my other hand to tentatively lift the back of her skull out of the water. As soon as her face hits air, she starts sputtering and coughing, twitching and jerking.
It’s freaky stuff.
Blech. Gross. Learn how to breathe, why don’t chya?I’m muttering in my head. Wait, was that out loud again? Svera is giving me a disparaging look, so I assume that it was.
“Up and out,” she coaches me, and I lift when she lifts and together, we pull the dripping wet body out of the goop.
The first human to be awakened in two hundred rotations is a female with medium brown skin and big, round lashless eyes. She’s pretty. Even bald. And she’s freaking her shit out!
With the coughs wracking her body, she can’t move except for where we put her and where we put her is right at the edge of the water so that the gentle waves lap at her toes without dragging her under. The powdery sand displaces under her bottom and the hard horizon stares us down.
It’s sunny today. The light is bright yellow, almost golden, and touches everything with a lovely orange tint. It contrasts wildly with the green-blue sea, which is so clear I can see small fish swimming near the ocean floor. Newly introduced by the Voraxians, the species seems to be thriving.
We both back away from her, giving her space. I’m on my feet in a crouch with my hand directly on my lightning stick now while Svera kneels beside the female totally empty-handed. Idiot.Okay, she’s not an idiot, she just hasn’t met any flesh-eating carpets yet.
As the female continues to choke, Svera eventually grows bold enough to grab the female by the shoulder. Surprising me, Svera shakes her. So, maybe I was wrong. Svera’s got a little pluck.
“Hey!” Svera shouts. “Breathe. You can do it. Follow my breath.”
The female turns her attention towards Svera and, while she’s staring Svera down, I creep up to her…edging closer and closer and closer…and then wham! I smack my hand over her ear and shove a Niahhorru token into it. She screams. She screams a lot. Scrambling to her feet, she backs away from us, then immediately falls into the ocean, forcing Svera to go after her.
I’m not that kind.
Instead, I draw my blaster. From the beach, Miari shouts, “Comets, Deena, how many times do I have to tell you? Don’t xoking shoot!”
“I’m just being cautious!”
“You’re worse than the boys!” And I know she doesn’t mean my sons or Svera’s, but that she means the boys that I brought onto her planet. All eighty of them.
Meanwhile, Svera’s managed to rise up into a crouch. The warm ocean water soaks her dress through up to the knees. She’s wearing sandals, which I find funny since the sand is so soft and I took off my blue goop shoes the moment we landed. Then I’m distracted from the shoes and the boys and the babies they’re carrying when the female in the water rises up onto her feet and manages to stay there.
“What’s going on?” She says, or at least, that’s what the token translates. “Where am I? Who are you? And what is that!” She points at Miari and releases a shriek, which makes me immediately despise her.
I actually manage to wrap my hand around the blaster and pull the trigger this time. “Deena!” Svera shrieks.
“What? I blasted above her head! She’s fine! But she doesnotget to talk about Miari like that! What does she know, anyway? She’s barely more than a carpet!”
Svera gives me a look that might have made me whither before, but doesn’t now. Not even a little bit. “What are you talking about?”
The female is screaming full-out now, shaking and panicking. It’s honestly quite boring. The only thing that riles me at all is the fact that Miari’s backing away from her towards the trees, looking uncomfortable.
“FTS,” I tell her, racing forward and grabbing her wrist, then towing her towards the shore. “You don’t get to be made small by a would-be carpet.” I shove her forward and push her so that she’s standing directly in front of the human.
The human female falls back at the sight of her, but I don’t let that stop me from striding forward, grabbing the woman by the upper arm and dragging her towards us. “Listen up here, toots. This lady is the queen of an entire quadrant. She’s half-human, half-Voraxian. That’s a species you’re going to need to learn about. I’m a human and I just gave birth to some babies that are half-Niahhorru — them’s be the pirates. And you, my dear, were asleep for almost two or maybe even three hundred rotations — that’s almost a thousand years in your early human time — so you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Not to mention, we saved your ass from being eaten by cannibals, so I’d say some appreciation and thanks are in order. Whadda ya say?”
She stares at me like a frog —heh, just kidding— she stares at me totallyagog. She doesn’t react. “Okay then,” I say and place two fingers in between my lips and whistle through them. I whistle loud. That’s just for the effect, though, because all the Niahhorru on this planet right now can hear me through my token and, one-by-one, my boys come forward. All of them.
Rhegaran, Ewanrennaron, Tevbarannos, Quintenanrret, Corvenarennu and of course, Rhork. They step out of the trees and, in each of their arms, is a squirming little cutie. My heart sings — and not a song about plants this time, but a song about my kids. My perfect little kids.
I grab the female by the hand and drag her, despite her resistance, towards Rhork. He comes forward holding our daughter, Melianora. Of all the babies born, she’s the smallest and I can tell already that, even though she’s only twenty-eight solars old, she’s already got daddy wrapped around her little fingers. All twenty of them.
When we step up close enough, I take Melianora from Rhork, even though he looks like he’s going to stroke when I do. I hold the baby against my chest and then I pass her, without warning, to the human.Take that.
“Oh…oh my god,” she says and I roll my eyes. Yet another worshipper of the Tri-God. Svera will be thrilled. “This is a…a baby.”
“That’s right. And she’s only half-human. She’s half-alien — well, alien toyou.And these others,” I say, pointing back behind me at Rhork and the other pirates as well as Krisxox — Svera’s mate — and Raku — Miari’s king — and the hybrid-Voraxian babies draped over their arms. “They’re also half-human.”
