Chapter Nine
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness
because it shows me the stars.”
~ Og Mandino
Blake
Just as I was taken to the delivery area, one of Davos’s senior officers came to tell him something, and Davos gave him a quick, abrupt answer.
“What was that about?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“Nothing for you to worry about. The Nilaniums have terrible timing. Apparently, Atlanthium Rabb’s ship has come alongside and has requested to dock with us.
His timing is atrocious, and I informed the captain that he can dock, but he’ll have to wait, because I have more important things to do right now. ”
“Are you sure? We can wait if you need to.”
“You can’t wait, baby,” he told me. “And nothing is more important than you and our baby.”
I smiled and nodded, because that was a good answer and everything I wanted.
He’d even called me something nice. In a few more minutes, the doctors would put me to sleep, with Davos holding tightly to my hand, leaning over to whisper things in my ear that I didn’t understand.
I caught the gist and the tone, though, and that was enough.
And then they did it—they put a mask over my face and I went to sleep.
When I awoke, Davos was standing beside me, beaming from ear to ear.
“We have a son, nobyo. A beautiful boy!” He leaned over to pepper kisses all over my face, while I relaxed and just enjoyed it. Groggy from whatever they gave me, I managed a big smile and almost managed to give him a hug back. I think I made a good effort anyway.
“Can I see him?”
“Yes, of course, sweetheart,” he said, using an Earthan word he’d picked up from me.
He usually only used that pet name I’d taught him when he was very pleased with me, and I was in his extreme good favor, but I didn’t mind.
I knew Davos felt more for me than he did for any other living person, even though he still tried to act tough and jaded because of who he was.
The thing was, he really was tough, and the things he’d had to do in his short life so far, along with the things he’d experienced and seen way too much of had led to a cynicism and loss of enthusiasm for so many things in his life.
I hated that for him, and I always was thrilled when he experienced true happiness like he was doing now.
He leaned over a bassinet type bed next to him and picked up a baby that was the size of a two-month-old human child. “He’s really small, nobyo, but the doctors say he’s healthy and perfect in every way. He’s beautiful like you, and I’ve already counted all his fingers and toes.”
I laughed, so pleased with him just then.
And the baby was gorgeous, in my completely unbiased opinion.
And he was bigger than any newborn I’d ever seen, despite what these men were saying.
He looked just like his father and had a full head of thick red hair.
He grabbed my finger and held on tightly to it, as I pulled him close and kissed his little face.
“What will we name him?” Davos asked. He looked wrecked and tired and absolutely thrilled, as he tipped down the little bundle in his arms and smiled at me. “What’s your favorite name?”
“Davos,” I said. No question in my mind.
“I’m afraid that’s already taken.” He said as he laughed down at me.
“Davos Jr., then.”
“What? Joon-i-er? What kind of name is that? I don’t want to do that to this poor, defenseless baby.”
He smiled and ran a finger across the baby’s forehead.
“I like the name Mikos. It was my grandfather’s name.
Then my family name is Nouvos-Mycantheum.
But he should have your name too, I think.
I think he should be called Mikos Nouvos-Mycantheum Cam-ron, pronouncing my name carefully with an emphasis on the last syllable. “Your name is Cam-ron.”
I was touched that he wanted to include my name anywhere in there at all, and I had to admit it shocked me. “You-you want to give him my name too.”
“Yes, I think it’s only right. You’re his omak and his bearer after all.
” He beamed down at me. “I’m the king, so my name is more important to the people of Tygeria, of course.
So naturally, it has to come first. And because you’re only a human, it’s only to be expected that your name would go last.”
At last, I saw his thinking. If he only knew. But I wasn’t about to tell him.
“Oh. Oh yes, of course. No, I love that. Actually, I never thought… Well, thank you, darling. It’s so very generous of you.”
He smiled down at me, “I’m glad you’re happy, nobyo.
You’ve made me so happy too.” Then he bent to kiss me.
Hard. He was staking his claim, right there in front of the doctors and everybody, because he was so possessive, and I had pleased him so much.
And I didn’t mind a bit. I was feeling pretty possessive over him as well.
I had some more cuddle time with the baby—and with Davos—and I had a chance to look little Mikos over and see for myself that he was perfect in every way.
Then there was a disruption, as some new doctors came in, wearing the red robes always worn by Tygerian doctors.
They seemed to want something. Again, I had no idea what they wanted, because it was all negotiated in rapid Tygerian.
Davos was listening though, and he nodded and turned to me. “They want to take you and do another quick exam to make sure everything is good, because of the earlier bleeding. I’ll come and see you once they bring you back to your room.”
“The baby too?”
“Yes, I’ll bring him with me. I’ll take the baby with me now to the bridge. I want to show him off a bit.”
“Oh, all right,” I said, smiling fondly. “Be sure to hold up his little head and don’t let him flop around like that.”
He repositioned his hand and then leaned over and gave me another sweet, claiming kiss and then they were pulling me away on the rolling gurney thing I was on.
I lay on my back as we went down the corridor, dozing a bit and watching the overhead lights as we passed each one.
We went onto a lift, and I felt us moving down.
It surprised me a little because I thought the clinic was on an upper deck.
Then, just as I was about to ask them where we were going, I felt a sharp pinch on my arm, and I realized they were sedating me again. But why?
I looked up at one of the doctors and asked what he was doing, but he shook his head at me as if he didn’t understand.
I raised my head up a little to see where we were going and to my shock, we seemed to be on the loading dock, the lowest deck on the ship, and we were heading for an open port.
There was a bump, and my gurney was shoved inside the port, and it was closed firmly behind us.
“W-wait,” I cried. “Where are you taking me?”
I realized suddenly that we were on a different ship—an alien ship I’d never seen before.
The lights overhead were totally different than the ones on our ship.
And the walls of the corridor were a different color.
I heard a murmuring voice from somewhere behind me, urging me to relax.
Everything was fine. Just relax. It took me a second to realize that the words were spoken in American English!
I tried to sit up on the gurney, but strong hands pushed me back down and held me there.
I tried to shout at them, but the medicine they’d injected in me was taking hold and I was so dizzy.
My words came out garbled and my voice weak.
I called out for Davos, but there was no answer, and I was getting more and more sleepy as whatever they injected me with took hold, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open a second longer. I allowed sleep to pull me under.
?? ?? ?? ??
I sat by the porthole in the quarters they put me in, gazing out at the bleak, black nothingness beyond, punctuated by those pinpoints of light.
I was cold, like I had been since I had first woke up in this room two weeks earlier, not knowing for that first moment where I was and then suddenly remembering I’d been kidnapped.
I could never seem to get warm, no matter how many blankets they gave me.
But that was to be expected, I thought, seeing as how they had ripped me away from my family and my home, and I had to be in shock.
Because that’s what Davos was to me, despite our differences.
He was my home, and I missed him and the baby so much I thought it would probably kill me in the end.
I think I was suffering from blood loss too, and I had been given a transfusion while I was unconscious, and without my knowledge. And against my will, I might add, but then all of this had been against my will, and no one seemed to care.
I was so fucking furious. I refused to go through life being a damn victim.
First, over a year or so ago, I’d been taken away from my ship and my shipmates by the Tygerians.
Away from my friends and my planet and my whole identity and stranded with the enemy.
But against all odds, I’d not only survived, but I had adapted, amazingly even falling in love with my fierce captor and building a new life on Tygeria with him.
Now even that life was being disrupted again. Well, not this fucking time!
I was suffering from shock, they said, and a distant part of my mind agreed that it was probably true, though it seemed a weak excuse to me. Davos would never have succumbed to such a thing as that, so neither would I.
I’d been trying not to allow myself to feel much of anything—not the rage nor the sorrow nor the dawning feeling of dread and fear that I’d never get back home to Davos and my child again.
Each day that passed made me more and more miserable.
I was missing out on the baby’s firsts—the first diaper, the first bottle, the first everything.
I hadn’t wanted to miss a moment of any of it, but it had been taken from me!