A Galaxy Unknown 10: Azula Carver (19 page)

"She looks okay," Jenetta said. "They all look okay."

"Yes, it appears to have been a good delivery. Mother and babies appear fine."

~

Cayla didn't leave the birthing box for two days. By then the kittens, which had seemed to spend most of their days suckling, were okay to be left alone while Momma went to get some food for herself.

As soon as Cayla, now looking slim again, had eaten her fill, she returned to her litter.

Jenetta had shared the images recorded by Mr. Wilkerson first with the family and then with the staff. Arturo and Berl kept looking at the images and trying to decide which kitten they wanted, but Auntie Jenetta explained that they didn't get to pick a kitten. She told them the kitten had to pick them, and there were no promises that they would even be chosen. But this didn't lessen the enthusiasm of the children for having their own Jumaka.

~

Eight days later, Tayna moved into her birthing box. The gardeners had tread as softly as possible as they replaced the grasses each day in preparation for her delivery, then vacated the area as quickly as possible. They couldn't resist a few glances towards the box where Cayla was caring for her litter, but it was too dark inside the shipping box for them to see anything.

Tayna's delivery was very much like that of Cayla. Once the contractions began, the whole process took less than ten minutes. As with Cayla, Tayna's litter consisted of four babies. The Jumaka population on Obotymot had jumped practically overnight from four to twelve. The cameras in the birthing boxes revealed that the mothers and babies were healthy.

~

Jenetta and Hugh had continued their sightseeing tours of the estate and their contact with farmers, merchants, and newcomers. Since the first excursion, they had gone out almost every other day, except for the time when Cayla and Tayna were delivering their litters. Jenetta was pleased to see that the newcomers were making an effort to fit in with their new neighbors, and their neighbors were helping the newcomers every way they could with information about the growing seasons and advice about planting and harvesting crops on Obotymot.

Roughly three thousand refugees had chosen to remain on Obotymot, representing almost six hundred new farm families. This went a long way towards replacing the farm families that had moved to Nordakia after the meteor strike and not returned when the planet was again viable for crop production.

"I can't get over how enormous your property is," Hugh commented after they had reached the lake at the northern part of the peninsula and he had set the car down where they'd have some shade for their picnic. They were very close to where the Clidepp refugee ships had first set down. "I thought my ranch on Pelomious was big, but this estate makes it seem like one of the small farms here."

"The king and queen were very generous," Jenetta said as she spread a blanket for their picnic. "I couldn't quite believe it when I learned how large the estate was. Of course, back then the land was practically worthless because everything on the planet was dying. But I knew that one day it would be healthy and vibrant again, and now it is."

"I've only got a few more weeks before I have to return to the
Bonn.
I'm going to miss this place, and I'm especially going to miss you. Our time together has been wonderful."

"I'm going to miss you, too. This has been the most wonderful time I've had in many years. I've even been able to mostly forget all those years of loneliness when we were apart."

"The question is, are we simply going to return to those years of loneliness?"

Jenetta took a deep breath and released it slowly. "There's something I've never told you. In fact, I've never told anyone. Except for Christa and Eliza. And I only told them because they share the same secret."

Hugh's expression turned to concern. "What is it, babe?"

"This isn't going to be easy to hear or understand. And you can never repeat this to anyone. And I mean
anyone
."

"This sounds serious. What is it? I promise I'll never say a word to anyone."

"You know about the experiments the Raiders performed on me when I was their prisoner."

"Yes, of course. That's not the secret is it?"

"It's related to that. Although many people know I won't age until I'm near the end of my life, I've never told anyone how long the Raider Commandant said I'd live."

"Are you telling me you're beginning to age? Because I can't see any change."

"No, that's not it. And I really don't know if there's even any truth to what I was told."

"What is it? Tell me."

"Mikel Arneu said I would live to be at least three thousand, and possibly five."

"Five thousand
years
?"

"Yes. But I have no proof of that. I only have his statement that I would."

Hugh stared at Jenetta for a few seconds before saying, "Do you think it's true?"

"I— don't know. I only know that I look almost the same age now as when I graduated from the Academy. There's a slight change from the eleven years I spent in stasis after the Hokyuu exploded because you continue to age, although very slowly, while in stasis."

"My God, when I'm old, gray and feeble, you'll still look like you do now."

"If Arneu was right, I'm doomed to watch all of the people I love age and pass away for millennia while I continue to look as I do now."

"What do the Space Command doctors say?"

"I've never told them. I was afraid I'd become a lab rat, subject to eternal experimentation."

Hugh nodded. "I think you've reached a career position now where they couldn't do that. No one is going to tell the Admiral of the Fleet she has to become a pincushion."

"No, but there's always Christa and Eliza."

"The Admiral of the Fleet could protect them as well."

"And there's one more thing you need to know."

"Lay it on me. Tell me everything."

"I don't know if I can have children. The Raiders might have made me sterile. They expected to make me a whore at one of their kinky sex palaces. My body didn't look exactly like this before they started on me. I was quite a bit shorter, for one thing."

"I know. I've seen your pictures from the Academy. I want to have children, but mostly I want you, babe. We can figure something out about children later. You don't even know, you said, if you can have kids or not. Maybe there's nothing wrong with your reproductive organs."

"And that brings up another issue."

"Another secret?"

"No, just a sort of— observation or speculation. If I
can
have children, will they inherit my 'never aging' trait? Can you imagine a baby that's a baby forever? That never grows up?"

"That— could be a problem. But we'll never know the answer to any of these questions unless we make a baby. If you don't want to tell the doctors and the scientists, we'll have to take action on our own. So— will you marry me?"

~ March 5
^th
, 2289 ~

"Commander," the message from her aide said as it appeared on Christa's com monitor, "the intelligence section just picked up a broadcast from the capital. An explosion has rocked the headquarters of the planetary government. There are definitely casualties, but so far they've released no names or numbers."

Christa immediately called the SCI office. When someone picked up, she said, "This is Commander Carver. I want everything you know about the explosion at the planetary headquarters building."

"This is Lieutenant Dodgeworth, ma'am. So far, we only have what information is coming from the media broadcasts. The explosion seemed to be centered on the eighteenth floor, but damage extends from the fourteenth to the twenty-fifth. The president and her cabinet were meeting in their twenty-first floor conference center today. It's too early to say what the cause of the explosion was. We've heard that fire suppression systems on most of the floors are operating and have kept the fires from spreading. Firefighting crews began arriving on the scene a couple of minutes ago and have begun efforts to fully extinguish all fires. Oh-gee rescue trucks are standing by at rooftop level. After dropping off rescue personnel, they've begun taking victims aboard and transporting them to the nearest hospitals. That's all we have, ma'am. We've called the emergency operations center, but all lines are busy and we can't get through."

"Thank you, Dodgeworth. Keep me informed as you get any new information."

Christa rose from her chair and began pacing around the office. As commander of the GA forces on Dakistee, she had significant resources she could send in to assist, but the planetary government
had
to formally request their help first. Without such a request, they could only stand by and watch. And most of the people who had the authority to request the assistance worked in the building where the explosion occurred.

"An explosion while the cabinet meeting was in session," Christa said aloud to herself. "It
could
be a coincidence, but it could also be an attempt by someone to change the power structure in the planetary government."

Christa was too keyed up to return to the reports she'd been reading, so she turned on the large wall monitor and began watching the live media broadcasts about the explosion. It was pandemonium at the site. Oh-gee fire trucks were hovering around the building, shooting fire suppressant into the building through holes in the building's exterior. The damage was incredible. On the side of the building currently being filmed by oh-gee cameras, there was nothing left of the building's exterior surface on six of the floors. Broken office furniture could be seen on the exposed floors and what appeared to be bodies. As she watched, rescue personnel entered the area from the building's core and began trying to help people who had been caught in the blast. Most were already beyond help because this area had taken the brunt of the explosion. Those who hadn't died from the explosive force had died horribly from the intense flames because they'd been too injured to get away on their own.

Christa continued to watch until the rescue effort was called off. Everyone who could be rescued had been. From that point it was a recovery effort as bodies were carried out and stacked like so much cordwood in oh-gee trucks on the rooftop. The early numbers being reported by the media ranged from one hundred dead and a thousand injured to five hundred dead and three thousand injured. Most of the injured hadn't been anywhere near the explosion but had suffered from smoke inhalation on the upper floors of the sixty-eight story building or been injured when debris rained down upon them as they walked at street level.

The planetary government emergency operations center never requested assistance from Space Command, so Christa wasn't able to send anyone. She finally turned off the broadcasts and returned to the reports she had been reviewing.

~     ~     ~

As the family was having breakfast, Cayla suddenly entered the family dining room. She was carrying one of her kittens by the scruff of its neck. She walked to Jenetta and placed the kitten in her lap, then said, "Jeneeta, need box."

"Is everything okay?" Jenetta said to Cayla as she picked up the tiny Jumaka cub and looked at it. "Is there something wrong with your baby?" As she held up the kitten, it began mewling.

"No. Just need pen babies can't climb out of."

"For use in the garden?"

"No. In house. Done with garden."

"Okay, I'll get you something."

"Will get next baby."

Jenetta handed the cub to Hugh and hurried to the kitchen while Cayla went back to the garden. One of the kitchen staff understood exactly what was needed and rushed to a storeroom, returning with an enormous, plastic-like food storage bin with sides that rose half a meter. The bin dimensions were about two meters square. Cayla would have no trouble jumping in and out, but the cubs would be unable to get out on their own until they grew larger. Jenetta asked one of the kitchen staff to get a couple of blankets to use as padding in the bottom of the bin.

By the time Jenetta returned to the family dining room, Cayla had returned with another cub and then left again. Annette was holding the second cub, while Arturo and Berl stood on either side of her, gently petting the baby Jumaka. In the three weeks since their birth, the cubs had already grown five times their original chicken-egg size. Jenetta would have expected the cubs to be squirming around, but they were content to lie quietly in the laps of Hugh and Annette as they were petted.

By the time Cayla returned with the third cub, the blankets had arrived and been spread out in the former food bin. Instead of putting the cub in the bin, Cayla gently set it in Jenetta's lap. Without a word, she turned and hurried back to the garden.

Jenetta was delighted to finally see the cubs up close. The one Cayla had left with her on the most recent trip was a male, with steel-blue fur and deep blue eyes like his daddy. His underbelly was dotted with centimeter-wide white spots.

When Cayla returned, she brought the last of the cubs to Jenetta and placed the cub on Jenetta's lap, then laid down next to her chair. She appeared exhausted, so the cubs must have been taxing her ability to feed them and keep up with them if they were getting out of the garden box.

The latest one brought to Jenetta was a female, as black as Cayla, with bright yellow eyes. It also had white spots on its belly. Jenetta wondered aloud if all the cubs had the white spots. When Hugh and Annette checked, they confirmed the cub they were holding had the spots. Both were females, with one having black fur and yellow eyes like her mama and the other having dark green fur with ruby red eyes.

"All babies have white spots for two moons, then start to fade," Cayla said, tiredly.

"Cayla, are you okay?" Jenetta asked. She was the only one able to talk with the Jumaka. The range extender she always wore now had not been synced with Hugh's CT, and no one else had a CT or ID since they were not members of Space Command.

"Very tired," Cayla said.

"If you want to take a nap, go ahead. We'll watch your babies for you."