Chapter Eleven #2
Diena grinned. “It is an excellent home base. I am thinking I may have to start opening Khaskik up to let folks return if they want to. Avik has cleaned all traces of the incursion, and the city is ready for inhabitants if anyone wishes to return.”
Jenaki smiled. “There are eight hundred folk in Renovik who would enjoy the chance to try.”
“Good. We have set up—interesting—defense methods. The world changed, and the hidden city didn’t, so it has been updated for the modern era. Its people will be up and running with practice and defenses. We will be defenseless no more.”
Jenaki wrapped his arms around her. “You are restarting the library?”
“Yup.”
“And the research centre?”
“And the training grounds and the ping pong team. All of it.”
Jenaki laughed and hugged her.
They returned to the food court, and Ithal and Vaken said, “Maiette came in. Can we go see her?”
Alody smiled. “I will go with them. You take a load off. That jump and roll must have taken it out of you.”
Diena sighed in relief. “Please. Kids are exhausting.”
“You came to it cold. It’s a workout that starts when they are portable.” Alody grinned. “I will give you some pointers.” She got up and headed over with the kids. There was squealing and excited chatter, including the introduction of Kessie to their group.
Diena sat, and Jenaki went to get her some more sugar.
Sorooth went with Alody, and Keska was grinning. “So one day and you are wiped out?”
“I did have a baby less than thirty-six hours ago. My body is the right shape, but my balance is everywhere.”
“I would not have guessed by your movements in the course.”
“That is muscle memory. My muscles have just remembered I have been eating kiosk food for most of the day. I am nearly willing to stab someone for a vegetable.”
Keska grinned. “I think he read your mind.”
A selection of juices, water, and a hot chocolate were slid in front of Diena.
He lifted her hand. “My Empress. You are looking a little pale.”
She snorted and started chugging her way through the veggie and fruit smoothies. When three were down and she was feeling better, she looked at him. “Thank you, Jenaki.”
He smiled, and Keska chuckled. “The kids have decided to take Maiette on a tour and are dragging her father with them. Sorooth is going along for solidarity and possibly trying the boxing simulator.”
Diena looked, and Keska tapped her temple.
Diena chuckled. “Oh, right. How is Hemma doing?”
“She’s still being courted. Ekbert is packing to leave, so she wants to stay close to home as long as he’s there. He’s meeting some of the dates, and things are going well. No one is going to do more than kiss her hand. So far, the best contender is an island alpha.”
“Aw, that would suck for you.”
“But it would give us a reason for a family visit a few times a year. Hemma deserves to have her own life, free of glances and whispers.”
Diena nodded. “I agree. So I have been getting queries from Salat and some team members today. They are interested in an interactive paintball course for adults. We could set up a subroutine that only comes online an hour after the kids are out, and it scans for any child suits.”
Keska nodded. “Because teens are going to try and sneak into the adult zone. Right. So we turn down the protection on the suits, keep an option available for BDC masks.”
“Right. Put trackers in the suits because this is the kind of thing folks like to steal. If a team member has to leave while playing, they will pay for the suit in its entirety.” Diena smiled. “And it will self-destruct thirty-six hours after that.”
“What would the trigger be?”
“Leaving the facility.”
Keska grinned. “I like working with you. You are devious.”
She sipped at her water. “They don’t make just anyone empress.”
They laughed and enjoyed the kids being elsewhere for a while. Eskin was speaking with Zera and Kritz.
They weren’t officially open, but the place was already comfortable enough to have chats about something with the heads of the scientific community in the city.
* * * *
Kritz sighed. “So, as soon as we go to change the diaper, there’s a fountain.”
Eskin smiled. “Get your fresh diaper ready, and as you remove the first, slide the second over it. It’s the shock of cold air that is the likely trigger.”
Kritz nodded. “The nanny said something about that, but I had no idea how much noise they made, and he was crying at the time.”
“Is he very upset?”
Kritz blinked. “No. He’s usually very content, until he isn’t; then it is a scramble to figure him out. I have been thinking about asking Khytten for some help getting him to a point where I can speak with him.”
A pleasant voice said, “Do it, and I will snap your fucking horns off at the base. The base being your dick.”
He looked at Diena and cleared his throat. “He’s my son.”
“He’s your baby. Babies cry. He is new to this world.
He is learning the rules, and all he can do is tell you when he is hungry, scared, or uncomfortable.
He also will sound off if he is cold or lonely.
If he were a base animal, he would be yelling to get his parents because being alone is a death sentence.
So make a checklist and move through it.
When the physical needs are taken care of, you have the emotional ones left.
I have heard Arcady talk. You had differences getting your emotions in touch with your physical needs.
So extend the same courtesy to the baby, and if I have to rip off your horns and tail to remind you of emotional discomfort and vulnerability, I will. Congratulations on your new arrival.”
Kritz held out his hand. “Wait. I wanted to thank you. I am short on sleep and spoke out of turn. I can’t figure out how to manage the diapers.”
She grinned. “You are a scientist, glove up.”
He blinked. “I can?”
“Yes. Absolutely. You are a germophobe at the best of times. Glove up, baby-skin safe wipes. Goggles if you are worried about getting hosed. Make notes on skin, rashes, analyze the output content and frequency. You love your experiments, so make him an experiment. Just don’t tell Arcady.
She will figure it out as you go along.”
“How do you know so much about us?”
“I used to work at the Z-Corp commissary so I could have a bland occupation while carrying your little one. It took a lot of concentration just to keep him alive.”
Kritz blinked. “How did you do it?”
“I needed to. Now I know how to keep a child of my own alive and thriving. You will understand this; your child was my experiment.”
His eyes went wide.
“Oh, and I slaughtered a dictator while pregnant. Your little guy has been part of shaping the world he will live in when he learns to walk and talk. If you tell him about the surrogacy, I will give him a scrapbook of all the things he did in utero.”
“You...”
“And in less than a year, he will start talking, and Arcady will be Mama, and you will be Dah, and he will grow teeth and drool, and you can chart every moment of his life, and when he is talking and running, you will know him inside and out, and he won’t be scary anymore.
” She grinned. “He will be exhausting, but he is part you and part her, and I was just the canister he grew in.”
Kritz had tears in his eyes. “Thank you for that.”
“With kids, you have to deal with the now and prepare for the future. Once his milestones are gone, they are gone. They won’t come back.
Enjoy them. Remember them. Soon you will be talking with friends and comparing how many times their babies peed in their faces.
The numbers will astonish you.” She smiled.
“But if I hear that you are accelerating that little guy. Horns and tail. I know you can regenerate them, but it is going to suck.”
She grinned brightly. “And I will come back and snap the horns off again until his actual age matches his development.”
He nodded. “Got it. I understand.”
“Do you? I was grown in a lab. You were working with the program when I came into the world. My growth was accelerated between the ages of birth and five so I could be more reasonable with the researchers who were trying to reproduce my mother’s skills.
It. Was. Agony. My height and weight increased four hundred percent in a matter of weeks.
I remember the feeling of my bones stretching. ”
He looked ill. “I didn’t know.”
“I am aware. You were in tech. That is the only reason I offered myself to help. Feel free to look up my records. Diena, clone of Katta, the eternal healer.”
He blinked, and his hand went toward his com.
Zera said softly, “I have the file. You don’t have a measurable activation.”
“Yes. It is very convenient. No government wants me, but I have enough skills to be accepted in hiring binges. That is how I got here.”
He looked at the file Zera sent him and blinked. The decanting day would have made her over forty years old. “This can’t be right.”
“I moisturize.” She blew them a kiss before she returned to her table, and Eskin grinned.
Kritz asked, “Why are you grinning?”
“That’s going to be my eldest daughter. I am very proud.”
Kritz stared. “What?”
“I am dating the eternal healer. She is willing to take me on, and I am eager to let her.” Eskin smiled.
Zera said, “Your daughter will be older than you are.”
“My son isn’t. I am moving toward a family and holding on tight.
The moment I saw Alody hauling that bus like it was a bag of groceries, I resigned from the program and got in the air.
Aksalla’s academy welcomed me, and when I mentioned who she was, they welcomed her.
” He smiled. “My mother is checking in with me daily. She wants to meet her.”
Kritz smiled slightly. “She knows about the age difference?”
“She has known about my fascination for a healer since I was a teenager. This was not our first meeting.”
Alody walked back into the space without her son and headed for the table where Keska waited. Her bearing said she was in control of everything around her.