“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 itwillbe 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.”
