Epilogue
The silver train in the Otto Dome lurches forward, slow and shaky at first, but as it speeds up the ride turns smooth, and I can barely feel it racing ahead.
“Have they done upgrades to the track since I was last on this thing, Numbers?” I ask, surprised that I barely feel any vibration in my seat.
“They upgraded just about everything, Jaxus. And Captain Henrix insisted on completing those upgrades before your wedding.”
That’s why I’m back on Mars today. For the first off-Earth wedding that will take place on another planet, because fuck having it there when we have this option.
But humans have been making the Earth a much more welcoming place for Givers, ever since all nations—except for a handful of holdouts—signed the interstellar treaty I was beginning to think would never happen. But the past few months have shown me nothing is impossible.
After announcing to the Earthlings that I chose to become a hybrid, and that the Otto family are all hybrids, we’ve received a ton of support from a growing number of humans who are quite taken with the idea of becoming stronger, healthier, and inoculated against various threats that are out there in the universe.
And the vast majority of humans aren’t ostracizing those who are interested in becoming hybrids.
Not now that we have a common enemy to defeat, which basically gave Givers and humans a clean slate.
Thanks to the Exxlars, the new alliance is moving forward without anyone being condemned for what happened in the past, except for them.
Special teams of humans and Givers have been put together to hunt them down, and any other being that might be messing with humans, unbeknownst to Earthlings.
The captain believes Earth might’ve secretly been a popular destination for aliens who can possess others, since humans didn’t know anyone else was out there in the universe before aliens from Eppo arrived. What better place is there to hide than among people who don’t even know you exist?
Axel joined one of the special teams and it has kept him busy twenty-four seven. He’s barely been able to make time to visit his family since he joined it, even for special occasions. But he was, thankfully, able to carve out time for the wedding.
“Nice tux, Jay,” he says, greeting me when I get off the train alone.
Hex, Braxton, and Xan arrived here earlier today, on another ship, and the Derecko just dropped me off, before it headed to Earth to pick up wedding guests.
“It’s not bad. I wish I didn’t have to wear human clothes, though,” I say, as I give Axel a brief hug.
“But since I’m the first Earthling who’s marrying Givers from Eppo, we didn’t want to offend the Brits or other humans by leaving the fashion of my culture out of this. It’s a big day for both planets.”
“And you seem to be getting bigger by the day,” he says, glancing down at my belly.
It’s true. The last time I got a video call from him I was smaller, and that was only a week ago. My due date is right around the corner, so we’re having the wedding, and then we’re saving our honeymoon for another year.
“Yeah, I’ll have a hatchling kicking in my arms, instead of kicking my bladder, any minute now.”
“Can’t wait to meet him, but try to hold the sucker in until tomorrow, will you?” he teases. “If this wedding is called off I won’t get the chance to flirt with any of the guests tonight, and I heard some of Earth’s heads of state are bringing their hot sons as their dates.”
“You heard right,” I say, smiling at the idea of him finding his mate at my wedding and finally losing his virginity on Mars. That would be a legendary first shag, on a day that is already going down in the history books.
“Why are you so fat?” a small voice says, and my smile falls as I hear someone leaping out of the elevator.
It’s Axel’s green little brother, Ponk. He lands on his palms, doing a perfect handstand.
“He’s not fat, Ponk, he’s pregnant. Remember?” Nox asks, stepping off the elevator and giving him a light shove.
Ponk teeters for a moment, but recovers quickly and lifts one hand off the ground, making a shrugging gesture before he starts bouncing and rotating on the other palm. “Oh, right. Everyone’s so excited about you carrying a hatchling, but can you do this?”
“Uh…probably.” A lot of things that would have been difficult for me to do as a human are a piece of cake now. “But I’m not doing that while I’m pregnant, or in a tux.”
“Pity.” The nestling hops back to the elevator and gets on without stumbling once.
“I hope my little guy never hurts himself trying to keep up with your rowdy brother,” I tell Nox.
“Your little guy will have four parents teaching him good judgment, so I’m sure he’ll know his limits early on,” Nox reasons. “Have you guys decided what he’s going to call his Giver fathers?”
People ask us about that more than they ask what we’re going to name him!
“Xan will be da—or dad, when he’s older. Braxton’s pa. And Hex will be pem.”
“Have you told your human family about any of this?” Axel asks. “I noticed none of them were on the wedding guest list.”
“Nope. Not since they tried to re-connect a few months ago by offering to do a reality show with me. Isn’t that crazy?” My extended family didn’t want anything to do with me for years, after my parents died, and I went to live on a spaceship with feared and loathed Givers.
But after public opinion of Givers started changing, and TV producers started contacting them, they decided they actually wanted to be included in my life.
I told them I’d eat glass before I would let reuniting with my family be filmed for entertainment purposes. When they heard that, they didn’t seem as eager to reunite anymore.
“That’s beyond crazy,” Axel said. “And super gross.”
“What about you?” I ask. “Have you heard from any of your human family since the treaty was signed?”
“Nope,” Axel says. “Haven’t heard from any biological relatives, on Earth or Eppo.”
“Well, screw ‘em, brother,” Nox says. “You’re part of the coolest family in the universe. You don’t need those—”
“Uh, second coolest family in the universe,” Braxton cuts in, as the elevator opens, and he holds the door. “Don’t forget mine is the reason Axel doesn’t have to worry about being shunned by the species he wants to hump anymore.”
Axel’s face would probably be red right now if he had a human complexion, but his hybrid one is red already. “Yeah, thanks for that, commander.”
He and Nox take the elevator down first, because three hybrids and a Giver might be too much weight for it to handle.
“Wow, you look so handsome,” I tell Braxton when we’re alone, loving how Eppo’s version of a groom’s suit makes him look like a space warrior who is covered from head to toe in black, super advanced armor.
“As do you, my mate,” the commander says, kissing my hand after we get in the elevator and start riding down to the bar, which has been redecorated for the wedding.
We want to do everything under white canopy tents by the lake, but if something happens outside the dome that could freak out our guests (like a massive dust storm) we’re prepared to take the party inside.
“No, I look fat,” I grumble. “A kid said so, so you know it’s true. They don’t think about lying to be polite.”
“They also don’t understand just how sexy your big belly is to a grown Giver,” he argues, “which makes their opinion irrelevant.”
“You’ve got a point there,” I say, instantly feeling better as I touch my heavy stomach. My Giver grooms have never made me feel unsexy.
“My stars—you look stunning, Jaxus,” Hex says when we enter the bar, which is very white, and looks like a traditional banquet hall.
“See?” Braxton tells me with a grin. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
I completely believe him now, as Hex and Xan walk over in their awesome dark alien suits, staring at me like I’m the one who looks out-of-this-world incredible. I flush and run my fingers through the long shiny hair I draped over one shoulder, and adjust my bowtie.
“Stop staring like that, my mates, you’re embarrassing me,” I say in their language.
“It’s our wedding day,” Hex says. “We should be staring this way, or you shouldn’t be marrying us.”
“And you know hearing you speak our language just makes us want to shove our givers in your beautiful ass and fuck you more,” Xan says in my ear, so Leon, Griff, and Axel don’t overhear him being filthy.
So far, we’re the only hybrids who have nanos in our brains that make it possible for us to pick up other languages instantly, but Eppo is sending more of that tech to the Solar System.
We were only able to repurpose and reprogram a small amount of nanoparticles on the Derecko for this use. The rest of the tech we have just wasn’t advanced enough, so even reprogramming it might not have stopped it from being manipulated by Exxlars.
But more tech we’re sure Exxlars can’t manipulate will arrive soon, inside huge ships, full of new supplies that should be here in a year or so, since the ships are stopping by other planets and dropping off aid before they reach us.
Then Nox and the others will be able to speak the native language of my mates too.
It’s honestly a tough language to master, even with this tech in my head, so I know my nestling will definitely need some to understand their relatives from Eppo, when they’re not speaking an Earth language.
There are some words from Eppo I never say because my mouth gets tired when I speak them.
Their nouns are especially long. Usually over twenty letters.
So I still call the non-Exxlar, Non-human Visitors to the Solar System NVs, and don’t use the thirty-two-letter word the citizens of Eppo call themselves.
But it should be easier for me to speak their language when this pregnancy is no longer dulling my strength. Then I can move my tongue almost as fast as Givers move theirs without exhausting it.
That should come in handy in all sorts of ways…