42. CHAPTER 42

Who the hell wants to hear that news? Told in just a few seconds that you have twins, but one could be...? I didn"t want to think about it! I sat up in bed naked and used the sheets to cover my cock. They said they wanted a full examination... for the baby"s sake. They cleared out a private room, and then the scent of something like disinfectant wafted inside. Seems like that crap smells the same everywhere.

The comms system sprung to life. "Your Highness, we need you to clear the room so we can properly bubble the subject and disinfect the area."

"God, not another bubble," I groaned.

"Bubble your damn selves." He waved off the voice as if swatting away a pest. "I"m not leaving my mate alone."

The woman sputtered on the line for a moment before it went dead, and I sat back, proud to have him by my side. I felt less afraid for my own life, and I focused all my energy on finding out what was wrong with my babies. I felt my stomach, which was forming a bulge, and I wondered if it was too soon for them to be babies, but then again, I wasn"t entirely human anymore, and these children certainly weren"t human. Fuck, what have I gotten myself into? And how many times am I going to say that?

In other words, I was freaking out, which almost seemed to be my default state.

"What"s wrong? Just tell us what"s happening," I asked the doc when he or she entered the room. I couldn"t tell with the full suit and headgear covering their body. It wasn"t until she spoke that I realized it was a woman. I don"t think I"ll get over how tall Valisians are.

"Let her work." Lorvian stroked my cheek, wiping away my tears.

"Put your legs up through the hoops here." She coaxed me to place my legs inside of some cushioned tube... okay. I don"t think I need to explain all of this. She needed samples from my ass she examined my swelling chest which were already producing milk, and then she pulled out a giant needle and took blood from my neck. Jesus Christ, I don"t think I even want to see another Valisian doctor again!

She pulled out a tablet-looking thing and scanned my belly. Lorvian smiled and pointed upward, and I followed to see something on the screen. Watery and fleshy pink, there they were, the two tiny figures wrapped in each other"s small arms.

"Oh, God." It was one thing to know you were pregnant but to see it was another altogether. "There they are."

"I can even see their pointy little ears." Lorvian chuckled, just as much in awe as I was. It occurred to me that this was a first for both of us. We were really having a family, but I couldn"t tell which one was injured as they hugged each other tight, almost blending into one being.

"One did sustain an injury. It used much of its energy in repairing its flesh, which greatly weakened it," the doctor explained.

"Will he be okay?" Lorvian folded his arms and leaned back in his chair; he tapped his foot on the floor.

"It will need a regen booster, and right now, the blood and sac fluid are being analyzed to see if the meds will have to be tailored. It seems Doctor Pheasus did a good job fine-tuning this human"s DNA. Though his experiments have always been unorthodox."

"It was why he applied to work on my capital ship." Lorvian chuckled. "He knew he couldn"t do what he wanted here."

"It"s true he felt held back in these labs. But his madness would have caused a diplomatic incident the King didn"t want to deal with. How many bodies should we pile up to save our own?"

"Hm. I once thought as many as needed." Lorvian huffed. "But I don"t know anymore. Killing everyone in a vain attempt to save yourself may only leave a galaxy full of ashes."

The doctor looked at him, her eyes wide. "Turning into a philosopher out there in the vast darkness of space, my prince?"

"I think I"ll vomit if you call me that." Lorvian chuckled. "So the experiment was a complete success, I take it."

"More than that! If we can get a hold of more of these humans to test the success rate of his experiments, then we may have a winning species among us. Not even Travol"s had this reaction to our DNA. This is fascinating stuff indeed!"

"Can we focus on my children right now?" I scoffed.

"I"m sorry. This could only be the greatest medical breakthrough of our dying species." She heaved a sigh as she tucked her tablet away. "Your children are going through the same hardships you are going through, and with one child almost losing its life... you are tense and stressed. We recommend you do not leave the planet for the duration of your pregnancy. No heavy traveling, even planetside. We"ll prepare the booster."

"Lorvian," I looked to him like a life-saver, the thought of being stuck here. "I won"t be at the mercy of these people!"

He looked at me, his dark eyes staring at me for a long moment. I couldn"t tell if he was angry or not.

"I"ll do what"s best for my children," he said, leaning forward, keeping his eyes on me. "If having them here is what you need to do, then that"s what will happen." He took my hand, kissing it. "I swear I will kill anyone who harms you or my children." He looked at the doctor. "Can we leave the hospital?"

"Yes. After the shot."

Once she released me from the hoops, I sat back and covered myself again. I felt almost like I was being scolded, not like I didn"t deserve it. He was angry. I felt it, though he didn"t show it. I pestered him, demanded that I come along, and then snuck onboard. The thought of being a father was new, but that was no excuse for my actions.

Wasn"t some sort of super paternal protector instinct supposed to kick in? Or was I that much of a selfish asshole? "Are you thinking of leaving me here?" I asked—no argument from me. The thought of being left alone scared me, but if it was for the best...

"It was a mistake for you to leave the human colony, and because I couldn"t say no to you, someone injured my child... our child. It"s not just about you anymore but their well-being too." He settled down. "Of course, I would prefer not to leave you in the hospital alone. We will return to our ship if it"s okay for you to leave."

The shots hurt and left my belly sore, but I was prepared to endure whatever pain I had to to make sure they recovered. No matter what happened, I was going to focus on resting as much as I could.

"Caspian…" Lorvian broke the silence as we prepared to leave. "I"m going to give up my place in line to the throne."

"Why?"

"I don"t care about it as much as my siblings, most certainly not enough to fight a war over it. I thought about it after my little meeting with Feion, that if I had to resort to a false war then it meant I was truly obsolete. And if so, then I would need to find a new way to live. Seeing my babies…mine…it feels so real. I wasn"t just scolding you when I said you can"t just think of yourself. I was talking about myself as well. I don"t want them growing up fearing an assassination or having to shun a part of themselves to survive. I"ll inform my father about Regis and Erevan, relinquish my claim, and wash my hands of the matter. If they wish to do so, Swarti and my crew can be better served protecting the human colony. "

"You mean it?"

"I do."

I reached out and took his hand in mine and lifted myself on my toes to kiss him.

We returned to the ship once I was pumped full of meds for the baby, the hospital ordeal tired me out but I wasn"t sleepy, and I was still mentally kicking myself for how everything turned out. Though Lorvian giving up the throne and the idea of fighting another war made me feel so relieved.

Zai slung a bag over his shoulder and met us as we entered. He was now cleaned up and looking more like a scientist and less like some mystic. "Are you well, Caspian?"

"Yes, I just need to take it easy."

"That"s good news. I"m glad I get to see you again. I wanted to thank you for all you"ve done." He addressed me. "If it weren"t for you I would be trapped on Rishi for another 300 years. And you, my prince, if it weren"t for you I never would have gotten ahold of the plants I need to help our kind."

"My Damma is also slumbering." Lorvian sighed. "I would give anything to speak to him again…where are you going?"

"To report to the government that I"m not dead, and hopefully to whatever lab will take me."

"Hm, I"ll give you one of my channels. Contact me and keep me updated on your progress."

"Will do. Now I must hurry before Deuro discovers I"m gone, I kept him busy with some puzzle. A word of advice." he said before leaving. "The child should be handed over to the hegemony. He"s mentioned some disturbing things concerning Caspian and the child, he believes in the primitive folktales of the Lucani."

"That whole cutting my baby out and it giving them powers?" I shuddered.

Zai nodded. "I tried to steer his head from that but I don"t know how successful I"ve been."

"Noted," Lorvian said, his eyes darkened for a moment.

Connor approached from the back, his footsteps just about audible. "Welcome aboard. Cormac is awake and has been asking to see you."

"Good. He owes me for saving his ass." Lorvian said leading the way down the hall.

We entered the medbay, and Cormac was sitting up; one leg"s impression under the sheets emphasized the lack of a limb on the other. His lips were thin and crusted, and licking them didn"t help much. He looked like he had seen hell.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"All you gotta do is look at my leg to get that answer," he replied without malice, sadder than anything. He prided himself on being able to get himself out of trouble. Now... depending on how this little mini-interrogation went, he might have jumped out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.

"It"s time to hold up your end of our bargain," Lorvian showed no mercy in his approach. Maybe that was for the best, but I knew I couldn"t bring myself to kick Cormac off the ship or kill him. We came here together, snuck onboard the Ignis damn near together, and survived the attack. He helped me escape that cell though Lorvian caught me, he helped me escape that brothel... yeah, we"ve done a lot together. And he was the only person from Earth who didn"t hate me. Or stared at me and treated me differently because I looked like this.

"Right, I guess I"m getting kicked off after, huh?" He sighed.

"Spit it out, Cormac," Lorvian said with a groan.

"Well, most of this might be irrelevant to you, but it"s the best place I know to begin. Caspian and I got here because a company called Outer Worlds discovered the planet the human colony is on and wanted us to colonize it. Well, my mother was the head of that company."

"What? Seriously? Was she at the colony? Or..." I was not expecting that piece of news.

"My mother was a good woman who loved space and dreamed of colonizing distant planets. The AI and Gen Ten made it easier for her to see that dream through. I know she"s coming across as shady with everything that"s happened, but it isn"t like that at all."

"It sure as hell is looking kind of shady to send us here after possibly knowing what would happen to us."

"My mother is dead, Caspian," his voice cracked, causing him to breathe deep to maintain his composure. "Someone had killed her long before launch day." He looked at Lorvian. "I knew she was in some trouble. I found this out by snooping in her business when she came home acting funny. I"m talking some seriously classified shit."

"And this has to do with my brother?" Lorvian looked from me to him.

"Erevan, that name… I saw it in the reports, the ones I hacked before they caught me. That person was the one running the company, or my mother took orders from him or something. I don"t know." He shook his head, defeated. "Seems like the higher-ups in our government knew about this. That bastard was going by the name Mr. Evans, and he had his hands in damn near everything before I had to get the fuck off the planet."

"So, he crashes to Earth four years ago and starts running a whole company? Holy shit," I exclaimed.

"We Valisians can be very resourceful," Lorvian smiled as if he was almost proud to hear this story. "Seems like he was trapped on your planet and placed himself in a position of power among you. That"s what I would have done. Let me guess, he promised your higher-ups immortality." Lorvian chuckled. "It"s been done before."

"I don"t know what the hell he promised," Cormac shrugged. "I can"t see my mother giving up her company for something like that."

"You wouldn"t believe what low-life-span creatures will give up not to die." Lorvian shrugged. "Why did you have to run?"

"In my search for the person who killed my mother, I got a lead which made me too aggressive in my search. I did something stupid. Outer Worlds was an umbrella corporation supporting several hidden ones. One was a lab that the bastard frequented often. I snuck inside, and saw all types of freaky experiments going on, some of the subjects looked like Caspian, some sort of cross-species. There were two doctors I came across. They were in a fierce argument. They seemed terrified to be there; one even wanted to take his family and run off. Before I could hear more, I got caught and had to escape. They burned all my hideouts and killed everyone who helped me. I made a fake ID and ran off to Iowa to get to that colony. I knew I still needed money, so I made fake IDs for pay."

"All that stuff you said about being a smuggler!" I said in disbelief.

"It"s true to an extent. I knew I needed my own ship to get out of any situation I encountered. But yeah, I was mostly hiding. But here"s the thing. When the Ignis was attacked, and they captured and took me to that planet we were on..."

"Yeah, I remember."

"It was a moon named Qzai. My brother Regis had a camp there."

"Yeah, they were conducting the same experiments I saw in that lab on Earth. They took Caspian"s blood while he was knocked out, and even though I couldn"t understand jack shit, they looked happy with whatever they found."

"All this secrecy for creating hybrids?" Lorvian chuckled and shrugged. "If they were turning humans into hybrids, then what"s the big deal? It makes sense we would try as humans are the first alien species we"ve come across to resemble us more." He ran his fingers through his blonde locks. "At least we have confirmation that my brother was the one on Earth. And for Regis to know as much as he does, then he and Erevan have been in communication. This means the Ignis belonged to Erevan, so why have Regis attack his own ship? Unless he didn"t." Lorvian sighed.

"Did he betray Erevan?"

"Knowing him, he most likely did, just as he took the deal with Feion and delivered him Connor. He must have attacked to steal some humans for himself for experimentation, perhaps to take the credit for himself and then with Feion, use the human"s AI to start a false war. I"ll head to the palace to speak to my father. You should rest as well."

"No. I"m not even tired, and your sister put a lot of work into this outfit. It"s just a party, and I"m with you. Plus, I"m hungry." His brow furrowed, and I knew what he was thinking. "I know what you"re thinking," I sighed. "And it"s not me trying to rush headfirst into something. It"s a party...unless you don"t think it"s a good idea."

"Okay." He wrapped his arms around me, his warmth and scent drowning me. "I think I have a problem," he whispered. "The parlor near the ballroom is a good place to take you. They spray this calming mist in the rooms, which minimizes violence."

"O...kay."