Chapter 11

“Ebenezer, we need you! Damn it! When are you coming back? What will it take to get you back on set?” Allen’s voice sounded smarmy, almost oily, but Ebbie knew he had it under tight control when all he probably wanted to do was scream at Ebbie.

“Never and nothing. I’m not coming back.”

“If you want that adoption to go through you will!” Allen’s voice now dripped with venom, as if he were the world’s most evil supervillain.

“Try it,” was all Ebbie had to say. He worked to keep the smile from his voice. “Try it and see what happens.” He hung up on Allen and let his smile burst free. “God, that felt good.”

“Is he still bothering you?” Gorg asked. He didn’t look happy at all. Allen had been calling every couple of days for weeks now, getting more and more intense and angry with every phone call. “I think perhaps it is time.”

“Time for what?”

“Time for me to call my parental units and have them send a ship for us. We can go home to Jizm, where we will be celebrated and our infant loved by all.”

“Whoa, take a step back, there, partner. I never said anything about going to Jizm. I don’t even know if I can survive there!” Ebbie’s eyes widened.

“Of course you can. Our atmosphere is practically identical to this one. Plus, in emergencies, our doctors are well-practiced in delivering tentacled babies. Can you say the same about human doctors?”

“Look, Gorg…”

Gorg smiled and rubbed his hand over Ebbie’s rounding belly. “You will be feeling life any day now. We have already heard the heartbeat. Do you still deny you are pregnant with my child?”

Ebbie shook his head. “No, I can’t deny it anymore. I don’t understand it, can’t wrap my head around the how of it, but…yeah. I’m preggers with your baby. Our baby.”

Gorg nodded. “Our baby. And human doctors will think our newborn is a freak, you said so yourself.”

“That’s true…but what if your family doesn’t accept me? I’m not a Jizmite. How do they feel about mixed marriages?”

Gorg waggled his finger. “Marriage does not exist on Jizm. We have life mates, remember? And life mates cannot be denied. It’s the law.”

“I don’t know, Gorg. Maybe it would be alright if we stayed here. Had a home birth. Homeschool the kid…”

“Is that the sort of life you’d want for our child? Never to go outside without an overcoat or some other sort of disguise? Never to celebrate his Jizmite heritage? Besides, it wouldn’t be alright. I took a peek at the future and it wasn’t pleasant.” He took the time shift processor out. “I think it’s time we took another trip, this time to the near future.”

“No, I don’t want to see it,” Ebbie said, fear making his heart pound. As long as he didn’t know, he could pretend everything would be fine. But to see it would ruin his thinly woven fantasy.

“Come, love. It’s time,” Gorg said. He touched the antenna to Ebbie’s hand and the world dipped away.

***

“Where are we?” Ebbie looked around, confused. He held his arms wrapped protectively around his stomach. “This looks like a courthouse.”

“It is.”

“But who’s on trial?”

Gorg sighed heavily. “We are. We were found out. You, me, and the baby. The state says the baby and I are alien life forms and have no protection under the law of this country or planet. They fear I am on a scouting mission for an invasion force. They do not believe me when I tell them I am merely a tourist. Nor do they recognize us as life mates. There are no protections for us here. They wish to charge you with treason for harboring an alien. Two aliens, actually.”

Ebbie’s arms tightened around his belly. “No! They can’t just take my baby away!”

“Your baby is my baby, too, Ebbie. It has already been born in this future and has tentacles and iridescent skin. It is as alien as I am in the eyes of the court. I don’t know what they’ll do with us — send us to a lab is my guess. Right now we are in a holding cell somewhere. It is not nice.”

“And I’ll go to jail. Oh, Gorg, I don’t want this! Not for you, not for the baby, and not for me!”

“On Jizm you will be celebrated as all pregnancies and newborns are. We will welcome you. Yes, it is a dull planet, but perhaps, so that the baby doesn’t forget his Earthling heritage, we can celebrate some of the holidays there.”

“I am never going to get away from the freaking holidays, am I?”

“Shh. It’s starting.” Gorg motioned toward the head of the courtroom, where a judge sat at his bench, and a jury filled the jury box.

“Madam chairperson, have you come to a verdict?” The judge asked.

“Yes, sir.” A buxom, older woman replied, standing up and nodding her head.

“I see me,” Ebenezer said, gesturing toward the defense table where he recognized himself sitting. “But where are you and the baby?”

“I told you. I do not have any rights on this planet. I am being held elsewhere. Where, I do not know. A laboratory, perhaps? A jail? The baby is probably in the same facility as me.”

“No!”

“Come. You don’t need to see this anymore. I am sorry I had to show you at all.” Gorg took Ebbie’s hand and used the time shift processor to whisk them back to their own time.

Ebenezer stood in the familiar kitchen but felt his heart race with fear. “Call your parents, Gorg. We need to get out before…before…” His voice trailed off and his fear was replaced by a sense of wonder. “What’s happening? I felt… something.”

“The baby?” Gorg’s face split with a delight filled grin.

“Like butterfly wings tickling me on the inside.”

“That’s the baby!” Gorg’s excitement fueled Ebbie’s and they grinned widely at one another. “Your people don’t conceive in eggs as mine does. You can feel the baby moving!”

Gorg put his hand over Ebbie’s belly even though they both knew it was too early for the baby to be felt moving from the outside. Even so, Gorg beamed as if he could feel the child.

“I’m going to the ship, Ebbie, and call the parental units. Either they’ll come for us or send someone to pick us up.” Gorg didn’t look as if he would ever stop smiling, and despite his fears, Ebbie felt the same way.

“I’ll go pack my stuff.”

“You won’t need much. Whatever you need, we’ll get on Jizm.”

Ebbie cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? Do they have much call for two-armed shirts on Jizm?”

Gorg’s tentacles wiggled and he scratched his head, looking sheepish. “No, I expect you might be the only customer who might buy one. But we can have them made. We have wonderful tailors on Jizm.”

“That’s fine, but I think I need to bring a few with me — although they won’t fit me much longer. They’re already tight and my stomach looks like a beer belly.”

“You look beautiful, and I promise to get you whatever you need when we get home. And it will be your home, Ebbie. I swear it.”

Ebbie smiled and drew Gorg in for a hug and long, deep kiss. “I know it will be. I can’t wait to see the Great Purple Inland Sea.”

“And taste the sugar sand. Oh, there are many other things to see as well! The Great White City of Charvel, and the Ancient Crawls… The Rainbow Meadow is particularly beautiful during the time of Renewal, too.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing it all, as long as I’m with you.”

Gorg hugged Ebbie and kissed his forehead. “I’ll be right back. It won’t take long to phone home.”

***

He was half right. It didn’t take long for Gorg to phone home, but it took a bit longer to explain to his parental units why he was bringing home a pet.

“He’s not a pet, Papa! He’s my life mate!”

“Nonsense. Whoever heard of a two-armed, tentacle-less life mate? You are either mistaken or have gone mentally askew. Perhaps the atmosphere on Earth is too thin and has affected your gray matter.”

Gorg bellowed, angrier than he could ever recall being. “I am not addled, nor am I mistaken. What’s more, we knotted, Papa! And you know that only happens between life mates. And, best of all, I am going to be a father.”

The silence boomed from the other end of the line, and it was so deafening Gorg thought he’d either shocked his father into death or dropped the call. And he wasn’t entirely sure which was preferable at the moment.

“Papa? Are you there? Hello?”

“I’m here. Pregnant , you say? And you’re sure it’s yours?”

“Papa!” Gorg yelled. “Why are you being so obtuse? You weren’t like this when Hivery mated with Listeria, the one-eyed Bartusian.”

“That was different — at least she has tentacles. Besides, you’re the youngest, Gorg. You’re just out of University, barely beginning to explore the universe, and now you’re going to be tied down with a mate and a baby!”

Gorg heard his mother’s voice rise in the background. “Give me that telecommunicator this instant!” There was a moment of mumbling and fumbling, and then his mother spoke clearly to him. “Gorg? You’ve life mated?”

“Yes, Mama. His name is Ebenezer, but we call him Ebbie. And he’s perfect and wonderful and pregnant with my baby.”

“Oh, that’s lovely news, Gorg. Don’t you mind a word your Papa says. He’s always been overprotective of you, ever since you were in egg.” Then, in a more timid, almost frightened voice, asked, “You are coming home, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Mama. We want to make our home on Jizm.”

She shrieked with delight. “That’s wonderful! I’m so happy, Gorg! When can we expect you?”

“That’s really why I’m calling. We need a ride. My ship went through a meteor storm on the way into the atmosphere and was badly damaged. I had to make a crash landing. The ship is irreparable.”

In the background, he could hear his father say, “Told him to trade that rotten bucket of bolts in seasons ago!”

Gorg’s Mama hushed his Papa. “Oh, hon. That’s awful for you. I know how much you loved that ship. Of course we’ll come for you! We’ll send your brother, Hivery, to get you immediately!”

“Thank you, Mama! And please talk to Papa. I don’t want anything to upset Ebbie when we get home.”

“Of course, my darling. You take care of your life mate and egg, and I’ll take care of mine.” There was a smile in his mother’s voice that was unmistakable.

“Um, about that…The baby isn’t in an egg, mother. They do live births on Earth. Ebbie can already feel the baby moving!”

“Oh! Like Listeria’s people! How wonderful. We’ll be able to see the baby right after birth. I’m so excited!” His mother paused. He could hear his father talking in the background and imagined his mother’s tentacles batting his father away from the communicator. “Alright, dear! We’ll see you soon!”

“Love you, Mama! Thank you!”

He ended the transmission and was still smiling when he went back into the house. “They’re sending my egg brother, Hivery, to get us.”

“Is he going to be okay with me?” Ebbie put his hands over his belly. “With us?”

“Of course, he will be. He’s not the least agreeable egg brother I have, but he’s newly life mated himself, and his life mate, Listeria, just gave birth to a little female. She has the most beautiful blue eye.”

“Eye…as in one?”

“Listeria’s people all have one eye. They more than make up for it with the number of their tentacles. Eleven, I believe, if you count the one growing from the top of their head.”

“How…interesting. Okay, then. I’ll go pack. Is there anything from here in the house that you’d like to take with you?”

Gorg cocked his head thinking about it. “Oh, maybe just a glass of seawater. I think it would be hilarious to offer a taste to my egg brothers.”

Ebbie laughed. “You’re so mean!”

“No, just a prankster. Once, I reversed the polarity of one of my egg brother’s face shearers. He grew a three-meter beard before he realized what had happened!” Gorg roared with laughter, slapping his knee.

“Ice cream.”

Gorg blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“Does Jizm have ice cream?”

“No. We have no cows, so no cream, iced or otherwise.”

“We need to bring a couple of cows, Gorg. The baby will need milk, and I don’t know if my body will change enough for me to make it.”

“Your body will change in whatever ways nature intends a body to be in order to sustain the life of your newborn. Do not fear.”

“But children, human children, need milk to grow, even when they’re older.”

Gorg smiled, and cupped Ebbie’s cheek with the palm of his hand. “We shall obtain cows later on. We shall get whatever our child needs, even if we need fly to the far ends of the Universe to get it.”

Ebbie looked relieved and nodded. “Of course we will. I’m being panicky for no reason. Must be the hormones.”

“Indeed. Now, you pack, and I’ll go wave down my egg brother.”

“Will he be here so soon?”

“Oh, I’m sure Mama is making him use the teleporter rather than mere space travel. He’s probably already here, looking over my crashed ship. I’ll be back in a few moments.”