“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.Ourbaby.”
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.
