The Clone’s Mate by Susan Trombley
Forty-One
My stomach knotted with nerves as I sat waiting at the air center. The blast of desert heat that filtered through the climate control shield whenever a shuttle landed or departed wasn’t what left me sweating. The babies growing inside me weren’t the cause of my nausea today, though they had given me plenty of it in the last month since I’d learned I was pregnant.
Subject 34 paced beside me, an uncomfortable distance between us that wasn’t physical. We had yet to resolve the primary issue that was driving a wedge between us when I’d always believed we were inseparable.
He still feared that me having his baby put us all at risk. Most of all me, since I was his primary concern. I still insisted that we would find a way to make things work, even if our baby was a little on the dangerous side. I refused to believe that the child would be malicious. Even as an adult, Subject 34 didn’t kill out of malice. There would be no reason for his child to do so.
My doctor had also expressed similar concerns to Subject 34, even going so far as to worry that the fetus might end up harming its twin during gestation, purely out of reflex. He’d offered an injection that would abort that pregnancy while leaving the other intact.
I’d screamed at him and threw a few things after that suggestion. I’m not sure what, but they had been heavy enough to leave dents in the walls of the exam room as my doctor fled. My Iriduans hustled me out of the medical center and stuffed me full of food so that I was a little less emotional and infuriated, because I was fricking starving all the time now, and no matter how much I ate, this pregnancy and the resulting nausea were causing me to lose weight rather than gain it.
My weight loss made 34 upset enough to insist on feeding me, despite my anger at him for the hurt his rejection of our child made me feel. Even though he didn’t want our child, he wouldn’t allow me to waste away as it grew inside me. Still, the intimacy of the process had completely disappeared, and I mourned its loss as he gave me his fluid as soon as my lips closed around his shaft and made no move to take things any further than that.
It was almost like he was angry at me for insisting on having this child, and I feared that our mutual hurt and anger was destroying our relationship.
That was how we came to be here in the air center on this sweltering day.
I was deep in my thoughts, sitting so close to my precious mate, smelling his heady scent, though fortunately not the aroused version that left me shaking with need. If he was affected by my nearness, he didn’t show it, but that wasn’t necessarily unusual. His body language was often subtle. The fact that he kept his face covered more often than not told me plenty about his feelings lately.
Then he suddenly stiffened, a growl emanating from him as he froze, facing the air center arrival terminal.
He’d sensed them before I saw them, but they weren’t easy to miss as they made their way towards us.
Subject 34’s stingers ejected, coiling on either side of him as his wings flared. His pincers extended and spread open as his body sank into a fighting stance.
I jumped to my feet and put a staying hand on his shoulder as I saw the little girl at her mother’s side, the fingers of one of her four arms in her mouth as she eyed us nervously.
Subject 34 barely relaxed beneath my touch as the small family approached us, the hulking male—looking similar to my monster, but not the same—stepped between his mate and her two children and my mate, his own wings flaring as his stingers extended. His pincers were larger than 34’s as they extended and spread but 34 was just as tall and big as he was.
“Daddy!” the little girl said, trying to peer around her father’s chitin-covered leg even though his lower arm pushed her back behind him. “I wanna see! He has stingers too! I wanna see, Daddy!”
“Thrax,” Claire said from behind her mate, catching the girl’s upper hand as she juggled her sleeping toddler in her other arm, “I’m gonna take Ava to get a fruit juice at the bar.” She smiled at me, her facial piercings catching the light with the change in her expression. “Would you like to join us, Rhonda? We can let the boys,” she glanced wryly at her mate, then mine, “get better acquainted.”
Then she scanned the surrounding area, which had emptied out of all travelers save us. “There’s plenty of room here for it.”
I instantly felt a kinship with this woman, even though she’d been a rival in my head since I’d learned about her connection to Ilyan. As long as she didn’t ask to see him—or demand retribution for what he’d done to her and Thrax—we would get along really well. I sensed in her the same kind of creative fire that I felt within myself, though she chose to wear her creativity openly in her style. I loved the confidence of her self-expression, and wished I possessed it myself.
Perhaps then I would wear my hair in neon colors, pierce my face and body, wear large gauges in my ears and dress like a goth princess. I certainly could appreciate the aesthetic as she brought the look together expertly.
I felt rather dowdy and mundane in my simple sundress with the splash of colorful desert flowers and succulents. Still, she complimented me on the design and seemed impressed when I told her I’d painted the pattern and uploaded the image to our clothing app to be printed on my dress.
We made our way to the refreshment bar in the air center with me casting worried glances back at the two males who still faced each other off, their stances defensive and threatening.
“They’ll work it out,” Claire reassured me with a broad grin. “Thrax is way too thrilled to meet someone like himself to put your mate in the hospital. I promise!”
“I’m worried that Subject 34 won’t be as welcoming,” I confessed as we stopped at the bar.
Claire bent to ask Ava what she wanted to drink.
“I want to order for myself!” the adorable little girl insisted, her chubby lower hands planted on her hips while her upper hands extended, her fingers grasping for the menu tablet.
Claire laughed and shook her head. “She’s so independent! Won’t let me do anything for her!”
“Well,” I gestured to the sleeping toddler held against her in her other arm, all four of his arms clutching his mother’s billowy black shirt in his sleep. “You do have your hands full.”
Claire smiled beatifically as she stroked her free hand over her son’s silky hair. “He wore himself out on the shuttle ride here, trying to look out all the windows simultaneously.” She chuckled, then kissed her son’s head.
Then she turned her attention back to me. “Thrax is tough,” Claire said reassuringly after handing Ava the tablet. “It takes a lot to hurt him, though I don’t doubt your mate is capable of making him sting.”
She studied the two males as I did, my attention shifting between them and little Ava, whose tongue stuck out with concentration as she swiped on the tablet.
To my relief, both the males seemed to relax, their pincers snapping closed and retracting almost simultaneously as 34 straightened out of his fighting stance.
Whatever Thrax was saying to him seemed to be working to calm Subject 34 down.
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, then glanced at Claire and saw her watching me, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“I don’t hold any ill will towards your mate. Neither of us do.”
Her words caught me off guard as I quickly glanced at Subject 34 and Thrax who were now slowly circling each other, but more in an examining kind of way than an “about to kill each other” way.
Then I realized she wasn’t talking about 34, my gaze snapping back to her face. “I… thank you for saying that. I’ll admit I was worried you’d want vengeance.”
She shook her head slowly. “I’ve come to realize that some people aren’t necessarily evil but are an unfortunate product of their upbringing. The Iriduans have a terrible upbringing! It gives me a lot of sympathy for them, despite the bad things they often do. It also gives me even more respect for those who can break free from the programming.”
She regarded me with a wisdom in her eyes that seemed unusual for someone so young. “Ilyan never thought he was a monster. He believed that his actions were justified, perhaps even heroic, as long as he was working towards the ‘greater good’. Understanding that puts things into perspective, I think. Sometimes I ask myself how far I would go, how much I’d be willing to do, if my own family and way of life was at stake. I still haven’t been able to answer that, and I hope I never have to find out.”
I swallowed the lump of emotion in my throat, struggling to form the words to express my gratitude for her understanding. “I know exactly what you mean, and I appreciate your understanding. I really do!” I watched Ava finish her order, then hand the tablet back to her mom, seeming so mature for a child who couldn’t be more than seven or so. “I also really appreciate you making the trip here to talk some sense into my mate and introduce him to your precious children so he can see that they’re not….”
I trailed off as I met Ava’s curious dark eyes as she listened avidly to my words. I didn’t want to say the word “killers” in front of this clearly innocent child.
Claire shrugged off my words with a bright smile. “I have to admit that coming here was definitely Thrax’s idea first. When he found out there was another hybrid like himself, nothing would stop him from making this trip to meet your 34.”
My stomach chose that moment to growl in demand, even though I’d stuffed myself for breakfast and 34 had also sated my hunger hours before breakfast, when I woke in the middle of the night in search of a snack to fill the gaping emptiness in my belly.
I covered my stomach with both hands, my cheeks burning with embarrassment.
Claire smiled ruefully as she glanced down at my stomach. “I hear you’re carrying twins. I imagine you’ll spend most of your pregnancy eating non-stop. I recommend high calorie, high fat foods. You can’t treat this like a regular, human pregnancy. I also had to get vitamin injections because even fortifying my meals wasn’t enough to provide all the nutrition I needed during my pregnancies. I can give your doctor all the information from my own physician that will be useful for you.”
“I have to find a new doctor, I think.” I took the menu tablet that she handed me, as Ava’s fruit juice rolled out of the kitchen on the conveyor belt of the bar, the cylindrical glass sealed to prevent spills. “I’m pretty sure I threatened the life of my current one. I can’t remember exactly what I said, but I was angry. Ever since then, he’s been very formal and uncomfortable with me.”
Claire shook her head with a commiserating expression. “Your emotions are going to be a complete mess during your pregnancy, though they should stabilize in the last trimester, although you’ll feel,” she glanced down at Ava, who still watched us curiously as she collected her juice from the conveyor, then she turned slightly away from her daughter as if to impart some secret she didn’t want little ears to overhear, “in need all the time, if you know what I mean.” Her voice was lowered so that I had to lean forward to hear her words.
I nodded in understanding. That part of my pregnancy already seemed to be happening. I’d worried that my mates would end up wearing me out, but during this hormonal chaos of my pregnancy, I had more than enough desire for them to keep them busy.
Claire helpfully pointed out some of the best foods to satisfy the gnawing hunger in my belly and recommended I order all of them, even though it was a ton of food.
“Has Ilyan explained the athraxius biology?” she asked curiously once I’d entered my order and set the menu back on its stand on the bar. “About how they only reproduce once, through parthogenesis, and the parent is left weakened so the offspring often will kill and consume them.”
I sighed heavily as I leaned on the bar. “He did. In extensive detail. Minute, extensive detail.”
I swear, Ilyan was getting almost as bad as Subject 34 when it came to worrying about this baby’s impact on my body. He trotted out horror story after horror story about the parent species that Subject 34’s DNA came from. I think he’d almost convinced himself that my doctor was right about things.
Only Nirgal remained optimistic, but I think that was only because he knew how important this was to me. If my determination wavered at all, I feared he’d stand with my other two mates.
“He’s scared,” I added, defending him as I always would, even when I disagreed with him. “I think they all are. He worries that the toll on my body will end up being too much for me to recover from, even with the rejuv treatments.”
“Mama,” Ava piped up, her lips pink from the juice she was drinking through a spout that popped up from the lid of the cylinder, “can I go see the pretty picture?”
Her lower hand pointed to a mural that I’d been painting behind the welcome desk. It was still unfinished, but I’d made significant progress, despite the challenges of my pregnancy.
Claire noticed the mural and made an admiring sound. “That’s gorgeous! I don’t remember seeing that painting the last time I visited Area 51.”
“I haven’t finished it yet,” I said with a flattered smile, “but I appreciate the compliment. It’s funny you still call it Area 51. Most of the residents call it Groom Lake Settlement now.”
Claire looked at me with surprise. “You painted that? You really do have talent! I love the way you play with colors and patterns while maintaining the realism of the subject.” She eyed my dress again. “If you are ever looking for a job, I would love to have you design some fabric patterns for my clothing line!”
“You paint good,” Ava agreed, staring up at me with wide black eyes. “Can you teach me to paint?”
“Ava,” Claire said in a patient tone, “why don’t you go over to the desk and ask the attendant bot if you can look at the painting closer?” As Ava’s expression brightened, Claire added a warning. “No touching though, okay. Miss Rhonda has worked very hard to create that lovely picture, so you don’t want your dirty fingers to mess it up.”
Ava agreed solemnly, then broke from us to rush to the welcome desk with flattering excitement to get a better look at my mural. I grinned as I watched the little girl address the welcome bot with all four arms behind her back in a very formal pose. She was so much like any other innocent little child that even with four arms, she didn’t appear to be the monster my mate feared his child would be.
My gaze returned to the boy still conked out on Claire’s shoulder. He looked as sweet and innocent as her daughter.
“How do I convince Subject 34 that his baby won’t hurt me, or anyone else?”
Claire pressed a kiss to her son’s head, then glanced over at Thrax and 34, who now appeared to be talking, their movements eerily staccato—more insect-like than humanoid—but they seemed companionable at this point. Neither looked as defensive.
“Maybe you won’t be the one to convince him,” Claire said thoughtfully, stroking a hand over her son’s hair.
