Shalia's Diary Book 6 (21 page)

With Betra at my side and Tep guiding the chair, we moved from my room through Medical to the quarantine section. There was a room, a sterile chamber called Isolation, where the environment is kept free of all harmful microbes.

To get in there, we had to pass through what Tep referred to as the ‘Scrub’. “That’s not its formal name, but it fits,” he told me with a smile. The archway that we went through detects bacteria, viruses, anything that shouldn’t be in the sterile chamber. Though I didn’t feel or see anything, anything of harm on our bodies and the chair was zapped by this device, leaving us utterly clean and pure. I wonder if the It would have approved.

The first thing I saw when we entered Isolation was the little incubator pod near the front of the room. Oses sat next to it. He was seated on a large cushion, his big frame bent over. His hands cupped together, resting on his lap. His eyes riveted on what he held.

A shudder passed through me. Oses is huge, close to seven feet tall. One of his hands could hold a large ham with no problem. Yet I still couldn’t imagine my baby being so tiny that I couldn’t even catch a glimpse of her cradled in those hands.

Oses looked up at me and smiled as I was floated over. “Here she is, little warrior girl. Your mother has come at last.”

I started to lean, to have that first look, but Tep’s hand on my shoulder restrained me. “Stay still. Oses will bring her to you.”

Oses rose up on one knee. His hands moved towards me, arms stretching, bringing those massive hands with their tiny passenger closer. He laid her in the dip in the blanket between my thighs, placing her safely in the shallow little valley there.

She was so infinitesimal. I stared at this tiny creature who had warded off the unstoppable It just by virtue of her presence, perhaps saving my life in the process. Her torso was wrapped in sensor-studded cloth that resembled a onesie. Her arms and legs were no bigger around than my thumbs. But they kicked and swung, as if she would fight off a giant if it challenged her. Her face scrunched in her onion-sized bald head and she loosened a thin chirp of bravado
. I’m not afraid of you
, she seemed to say. Her eyes parted open just enough for me to see the flash of purple there. Kalquorian purple with cat-slitted pupils. The shape of her lips reminded me of Weln’s, but the nose could have been Dusa’s. The strong chin made me think of Nang. There was no telling by looking at her who the father was, but one thing was for certain: I was her mother. At that moment, it was all that mattered.

I barked a harsh laugh. My daughter turned into two, three, four and more babies as tears swam in my eyes, making my sight into a prism. Here she was, tiny and helpless. Alive and unafraid. My daughter. My child.

My hands surrounded her, the need to shelter this tiny, tiny person instinctive. “Hello, baby,” I said, my voice still weak and wavering. “Hello, little girl.”

I was almost afraid to touch her. Her skin seemed as thin as tissue paper, falling loose around her not-quite developed body. My fingertips skated fearfully over her perfect round skull, drawing trembling lines over her cheeks and jaw. She was soft, like the down of a feather. I dotted the tiny nose with my pinkie. She peeked at me again and yawned. I counted her fingers: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. The same with her toes. All there. All accounted for. I peeked beneath the sensor vest thing she wore to assure myself everything was as it should be. She was so tiny, but so perfect. So miraculously perfect.

She chirped again. Her little fist waved in the air. I held it between my thumb and finger, and her fist opened. The starfish of her hand wrapped around my fingertip, holding on with a strength she shouldn’t have been capable of.

“My little warrior,” I whispered to her. “That’s what you are, aren’t you? Tough girl.”

“She’ll leave Nobeks trembling,” came Oses’ distant-thunder voice. “You’d better give her a good name, one that reflects her strength. Everyone needs to know what they’re in for when she shows up.”

I’d been so enraptured with the baby that I’d forgotten that she and I weren’t alone. I looked up to see Oses, Betra, and Tep stood around us, watching with smiles eating up their faces. The two Imdikos blinked back tears.

“Did you ever think of a name for her?” Betra asked.

I was at a loss. “Not yet. I kept thinking I wanted her to have a Kalquorian name, but I don’t know any female names from your planet.” I gave Oses as wry smile. “I wish your women were separated into breeds. She should have a Nobek name.”

My favorite warrior shook his head. “Women can never be assigned one particular trait. They embody all the best characteristics of the great men of the Empire: protectors, nurturers, and leaders. Women are all.”

Tep mused, “There have been female warriors in our distant past though, back before the virus killed so many off and made them nearly extinct.”

“Women who held their own and were every bit as feared as their male counterparts,” Betra agreed. “Reog the Unstoppable, who mowed down enemies with her double-sided blades. Bany, Queen of Kolostere, who won the entire Esofu Continent. Anrel the Triumphant. With only one hundred fifty-three fighters, Anrel held off  two Tragoom chieftains and their forces long enough for reinforcements to arrive at her colony and save it.”

“Anrel,” Oses breathed with obvious worship. “One of the greatest warriors Kalquor has ever known. If Kalquorians had saints to pray to as you Earthers do, Anrel would have been my choice.” He looked at the tiny being kicking on my lap. “This one, surviving all she has, holding off the It, and living on with such spirit ... she deserves that name.”

“Do you think so?” I smiled down at my daughter. “With a name like that, she’ll have a lot to live up to.”

“She will,” Betra grinned. “She has you for a mother, another great survivor.”

“Anrel,” I said to the baby, tasting the name. “What do you think?”

She let go of my finger to wave that bold fist in the air once more, as if proclaiming her rightful title. We laughed.

“Anrel it is,” I said.

May she live long, happily, and with a lot more peace than her mother has found thus far.

July 5

I am finally getting to the point where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can look forward to getting out of Medical pretty soon, we think. Not that I won’t be spending a lot of time in here once I’m sprung. Anrel still has quite a while before anyone will be comfortable with her being discharged. She continues to grow in quarantine. Thanks to Tep’s efforts, her organs were developed enough to allow her a better chance of survival outside of the womb, but she’s still not quite there. Her lungs in particular need more time to strengthen.

Yet she is thriving in her sterile surroundings. In a few weeks, Tep will begin to allow a more natural environment, letting her acclimate to the real world’s host of microorganisms, bacteria, and the like. He says the antibodies my body shared with her remain strong, and she should be able to adjust well. My little fighter will get to show off just how tough she is in the weeks ahead.

That child may end up hopelessly spoiled by everyone on this ship. At first I was worried for her lying there in Isolation all by herself. I might as well have saved my concern. I don’t think there is a second when someone isn’t in the room with her, holding her and cooing. I wonder if she’s spent more than five minutes at a time in her bed. Every time I’m brought in to hold her, I find someone else there loving my little baby. Betra, Oses, Katrina, Feru, many of the women, and even Captain Wotref and his clanmates keep Anrel company. She does not want for attention for a single second. The tiniest Matara has everyone wrapped around her so-small pinkie.

All traces of the poison they used on me to scare the It out are gone. I am healing and growing stronger, just like my little Anrel. I can sit up on my own now and even stand for a few minutes at a time. Candy is already taking little walks around Medical, building her strength up too. I cheer her from my bed or chair as she passes my door. She grins and gives me a thumbs-up. She’s not able to bounce like she normally does yet, but she’s back to smiling and doing her hair to look pretty for her two favorite visitors Mihi and Ama. She may get out of here as soon as tomorrow.

I’ve got my own two fellas coming in regularly to keep my spirits up. Betra and Oses continue to spend what time they can with me ... when they’re not fawning over their ‘niece’ as they refer to Anrel. Today, there was a little extra attention, which I am still recovering from.

I had sat with Anrel for half an hour, all the time I’m allowed at a stretch in my present condition. My guys came to fetch me back to my bed when time was up. Katrina came in with them, ready to dote on her honorary grandchild.

My arms tend to feel empty when I have to hand Anrel off. Not that she’s an armful at all ... she’s growing, but still barely a handful for Oses. Yet that miniscule weight is tremendous when she’s not there.

Betra kissed my morose face as I watched Katrina snuggle my baby. Anrel made chirpy little noises that I imagine are her way of expressing happiness. Oses guided my chair out into the main part of Medical. Too soon, he lifted me into my bed. Despite my fatigue, bed was the last place I wanted to be.

“Soon you will be together all the time,” Betra reassured me, arranging my pillow and the angle of the bed for my comfort. “This is only a little pause in a long lifetime of joy with your child.”

“I don’t want a pause,” I pouted. “I should be the one giving her all her feedings and bathing her.”

I felt guilty about not nursing Anrel, but the poison had only just left my body. Even if I hadn’t been a toxin warehouse for all those days,  the early birth and the ravages I had gone through meant I had no milk to give to Anrel. Tep had been wise to secure formula back on Earth in the event something would happen to prevent me from breastfeeding. I’d been both chagrined and amused to discover that he had made an extensive checklist of emergency supplies the moment he’d learned he had a pregnant woman on the ship. Grateful, too. Who would have ever thought any of this would happen to me and my child?

Oses leaned on the edge of my bed and reached to brush my hair from my face. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for you. Yet I hope you are thankful to have all the support you do.”

I was embarrassed by his reminder that in the end, I had nothing to be grouchy over. “You’re right. Candy, Anrel, and I are all going to be okay. People are coming out of the woodwork to make sure of that. I have you two watching over us. I have no reason to be selfish.”

Betra winked at me from the opposite side of the bed. “Except that you want your baby when you want her, which is all the time. Nothing is going to change that, but I think it’s a good thing.”

I snuggled in the soft mattress, trying not to hate the bed or my debilitated body that wasn’t getting better fast enough to suit impatient me. “I’m a mom, but I’m missing out on so much of it right now. Every time I see Anrel, I swear she’s a little longer, a little heavier. A little more aware. I want to be there for every second she grows.”

“She will know that you are her mother. She will know what she means to you,” Oses promised.

He stretched over the bed to kiss me. It started off as a light pressing on my lips, as chaste as a brother kissing his sister. There had been many kisses like that since I woke up from the nightmare of the It.

However, the tone of his embrace changed. The tip of his tongue lightly traced between my lips, tickling in a delicious way. I remembered the last time we were together, how I’d been held helpless by stasis. My poor wrecked body was almost weak enough to re-enact that helplessness without the field.

I had the strength to wrap my arms around his neck and cling in the hopes he wouldn’t stop. The Nobek’s big arms circled around me, holding me close. My lips parted, and his tongue swept in. Our breath mingled as we tasted each other. It was like receiving the air of life itself. I filled with the promise of returning vitality.

Fingers sketched up my thighs, pushing my Medical-issued gown up. More warm breath wafted over my skin just before Betra sprinkled kisses of his own up my legs. I had plenty of doubts that Tep would approve of getting amorous given my state, but Tep could pout if he found out. I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him. Not with my pussy warming in anticipation of the Imdiko closing in on it.