Part 1: https://mike3839.com/2023/09/

Before the security ‘bots arrived to investigate the backstage vandalism, Lianna and Gita agreed through sign that they’d both keep Gita’s true nature a secret. At first the ‘bots asked no questions about her, instead grilling Lianna about how her morning had gone, what led up to this, did she know who etched ‘WHORE’ into the blackboard, station property, blah blah. How would she know, she responded; it was like this when she got to the auditorium.

After an hour of collecting residue and heat tracings, they promised a full investigation and shooed her from the ‘incident scene.’ They were almost at the backstage portal when the ‘bot in charge, so she guessed from his steel blue plating and cap, finally asked Lianna, “To whom does this child belong?”

Only then did Lianna realize she had no alibi for Gita. Finally she said, “Her mother sent her to me to be cared for. It’s part of a special coming of age ritual.” Okay, at least the truth wouldn’t need to be revised later on. “Please excuse us, we’re going to the Slush Pit, I’d like to feed her.” She stepped out, Gita clutching her right hand, without a word passed between them.

The first question of course was what should she feed her? Seeing as she was a child, the choice seemed obvious. “Hey kid, how’d you like some ice cream?”

The Slush Pit on Deck 5 offered a bazaar hosting a variety of kiosks. Many offered slushies and other semi-liquid delights, in honor of the ice giant looming outside the ring of viewports, not unlike those on cruise ships of old, implanted into the bulkheads. A stepladder led down to a subdeck three meters lower than the rest of the deck, offering access to this alien cafeteria.

After she’d descended to the lower level, Lianna turned to make her choice. That’s when a skinny pair of legs clambered onto her shoulders, and Gita’s small hands balanced on the top of her head. Lianna chuckled and sauntered to the first ice cream parlor Gita jabbed a finger towards.

At Fries-Or-Frieza, the vendor’s eyes smiled in place of a mouth that wasn’t there and passed a menu to each of his guests. His body was stout under a standard apron, while his eyes were set in a flattened eraser head. His flesh seemed the color and texture of freshly opened play doh. Lianna and Gita had a seat while he slipped on sanitary gloves and mixed two mugs of banana splits topped with sprinkles and chocolate frosting.

While Lianna scooped a spoonful at a time to her lips, Gita dove face-first into her serving, nomming with a back-and-forth swirl of the head. “I think she likes it,” Lianna smiled. The vendor returned a moment later both with a towel, and two large fizzy drinks Lianna hadn’t ordered. He waved an appendage towards a diner across the bazaar with a bright pink neon sign proclaiming Miranda Loves You. Seated at an umbrella table just outside that diner, a dark-skinned woman raised a glass to them. Lianna glanced once at the drinks, then back to Miranda’s. Now the woman was gone.

The child was a bottomless pit. Next she pointed to a seafood café, simply titled Iva’s, with crustaceans floating lazily in backlit aquariums encircling the seating area. “Would the madams prefer a selection?” the waiter asked.

Suddenly Lianna drew a blank. What did one feed a growing naga baby? “Could you give us a minute?’ she asked. The waiter nodded and glided away. Once they were alone she whispered, “hey, is here anything I shouldn’t be feeding you?” Gita’s big round eyes brightened. Rummaging in her pack, she retrieved her smart-slate, tapping it randomly before passing it to Lianna. She skimmed through what seemed like pages of menu options. Apparently there was very little she couldn’t eat; certainly there were a lot of protein items available. She called the waiter back with a snap of her fingers. “Lobster, please.”

She wasn’t sure what to do with the massive crustaceans plopped on their table a quarter hour later. Gita attacked hers with the same gusto she’d assailed her ice cream. While she didn’t have a naga’s jaw power, Lianna dove in teeth first. The shell didn’t seem as palatable to her as Gita seemed to find it. Nevertheless they shared their meal over giggles.

The Professor would probably shit when he got the voucher for these meals. In any event she cleaned Gita’s face, then knelt down by her chair so she could clamber back onto Lianna’s shoulders. Clutching her legs for support, she’d ride her until they arrived at the docking bay.

What was new today was the podium posted not five meters to the right of the ramp running up to her ship. There had to be fifty patrons around it, silent, some with their hands clasped beneath their chins, as a man in a black one-piece jumpsuit bid them welcome. Lianna lingered in the arched hanger entry portal, both arms around Gita.

“My friends,” the man began, “the Earth is lost, and I have to be honest. We are in large part to blame. We ignored the signs, as plain as the nose on our faces. Instead we heeded the words of the well-endowed, speaking through their vessels, our chosen leaders. They denied the Earth was changing. Denied the evidence as our forests burned and our air turned stagnant.

“We allowed ourselves to be led by men of no moral character, because certain of our evangelical brethren claimed they were called of God. And because of this claim, we never questioned, no never.” A assenting murmur rumbled through the gathered assembly, tinted with anger. Lianna clutched Gita closer.

“We know where this took us. Our home world is a steamy hothouse barely able to support life, while our exalted benefactors orbit us in their beneficent space stations, drink their champagne and smirk down on the lower class. But I say unto you, we are not animals—we are not dirt! We are men, and we have found our own way unto the stars, despite the deprivations visited on us for the last twenty-five generations!”

A hundred fists pumped the air on a tide of rousing cheers. Somehow a smile had come to Lianna’s face. He wasn’t wrong, whoever he was, and even if Earth had never been her home, she was half-tempted to shout out herself. He wasn’t done, either.

“We have lost our way, and I say unto you, we will not lose ourselves in space! Our morals are firm, our race is pure. But we must be vigilant. Our species can remain pure only so long as we don’t intermingle with aliens.” The preacher’s neck craned around, his gaze shooting across the top of the assembly, straight towards Lianna.

“Uh-oh,” she muttered.

His gaze turned away, as though he hadn’t seen her; as if all other eyes in the docking bay were not focused on her. “We will be saved when we have driven the last aliens from our system,” his voice rising, spitting the word ‘aliens’ with distaste. “Just as we drove the animals from Zion.”

Lianna nodded in the sudden pause, her voice very quiet. “Zion. Yeah. I heard about that. I was told the history of that bloodbath, by someone who was there.”

The crowd remained quiet, betraying its interest. Lianna let the hammer drop. “Well, I should say someone whose ancestors survived that massacre. It was another Holocaust, one of those words we like to toss around when another people are slaughtered, and those who had the power to do something did NOT. There’s still a lot of collective guilt on Earth about that.

“Your religious tenets had something to do with that, too. You thought the ‘restoration of Zion’ would bring on the Last Days, whatever the hell that was. You succeeded in that. If its any comfort, the people you drove out of Zion—” it was her turn to spit out that name— “grieved with the rest of the planet when certain world leaders had enough of Zion’s nonsense and carpet bombed it out of existence.”

There were a lot of bowed heads now, few of them in prayer. Fewer still seemed able to look her way, except for Gita who smiled and nodded proudly up at her. Oh, as well as the preacher. “You seem well acquainted with Earth history, Doctor Jensen. At least of our shameful episodes. We don’t intend to repeat those mistakes.”

“No, you’re just going to quietly shame those visitors to our system to pack their bags,” Lianna said. “I had excellent teachers. They helped me realize, even being the surviving child on a doomed ship, that I wasn’t alone. Even though I was a stranger among them, I was welcomed with open arms. For that I’ll always be grateful.”

“I’m pleased for you. If it pleases you, my name is Pastor Ludden. These are the children of Faith. Just one other thing.” He nodded down. “What child is this?”

Gita’s little fingers clutched Lianna’s as she nestled closer to her side. Lianna smiled. “Her name is Gita. Her mother has entrusted her to me as a temporary guardian. If you’ll excuse me, I have to tuck her into bed.”

Another voice shouted across the hold, “I bet you do!”

Lianna had turned to the hatch, only a few meters away. But she swung back to face the crowd, a torrent of accusations flooding her mind. Fortunately Pastor Ludden shouted back, “Nick! Be silent!” Glancing across the congregation, he added, “we don’t want to have any more of our brethren deported, do we?”

Lianna bowed, guiding Gita to the ship with a hand on her shoulder. As she keyed the security code to the airlock, the pastor had one final question: “Doctor Jensen, who is the father?”

Lianna didn’t answer at first. She didn’t trust her gut reaction. When the question came again, she inhaled, exhaled and cleared her mind just as the Professor and Gita’s mother had taught her. Calm suffused her, even over the murmur of voices. She turned back.

“I don’t know. I didn’t think it was any of my business to interfere. Know what I mean?” There was silence at last as she tapped the last digit in the entry code. The doors hissed and whisked open. Lianna shooed Gita inside before anything else happened. She hoped the kid would like it here. Ernie met them in the pilothouse just inside the ship. “Very well said, Doctor. Fayd would be proud.”

“Thanks, Ernie,” Lianna grinned. “You’ll never guess what happened to me today. This is Gita.”

As an android, Ernie was incapable of emotion, but his lenses brightened considerably at the sight of the child. Antenna extended from a port in his left shoulder joint, followed by another on the right. Each antenna sprouted smaller probe filaments with shining bulbs on their tips. Both probes and antenna slapped back into his joints after a cursory exam. “I presume this is the reason you’ve cut your seminar short this fine morning?”

“Vandalism cut it short,” Lianna sighed.

“Dare I ask how this sweet child came into your custody?”

“Her mother sent her to me. Go ahead, show him, Gita.” When she

hesitated, Lianna knelt beside her. “Hey, it’s okay. You can trust Ernie. He took care of me when I was little.”

With a grin and a burst of hugs, Gita retrieved her padd once again, scrolling  to the beginning entry. This she handed to Ernie, who emitted a synthesized “ooo.” He’d learned to do that, when such expressions seemed necessary.

“We will need to clear out a space for her to sleep in,” Ernie declared. “Are all her belongings in that rucksack?” Gita nodded. She had already reverted to her naga form, her trunk wound twice around Ernie’s base. She frowned, tapping a rounded dent in Ernie’s flank. “Oh, that? I received that mark from a claw hammer when we were on the Lost Ship. Lianna was hiding inside me from…dear me, you haven’t told her about that yet, have you?”

“I-I haven’t had a chance,” Lianna shook her head, “I just wanted to treat her to lunch, like Mom used to.”

“There will be time for that later. Why don’t we find you a room. Gita?”

Gita nodded, riding Ernie’s base as he circled the pilot’s deck. “Why don’t we clear out my cabin?” Lianna suggested. “I never sleep there anyway.”

“A most providential idea. Perhaps we might introduce her to the ladies, before it gets much later?”

“Not a bad idea. Hey, ladies!” With Gita beside her, Lianna waved as her two ameboid lovers wandered to the upper-level rail. Amba, an iridescent aquamarine even in the ship’s dim nighttime lighting, gazed down on the child. For once Lianna sensed no empathic reaction from her, no “Beloved”. Amba observed Gita through her button eyes, never stirring from her perch.

Neither of them was truly female. Their ‘gender’ was a choice based largely on their association with Lianna, as the first human to freely develop a relationship with them. Each of them had branched off from a larger colony inhabiting the mineral-rich interiors of their respective planets. Each had developed their own individuality, while still retaining a connection to their mother colony.  

Stavros, a shimmering crimson beauty, had never been as reserved as Amba. She glided on light steps to the ladder joining upper and lower decks and slid on down. Not in the human fashion, however. Her legs clinched around the ladder. Then her lower body from the waist down dropped to the pilot house deck, while her middle section stretched like a crimson band of elastic. Gita’s eyes widened as Stavros’s feet touched the deck. And then her upper body eased down the ladder, both hands sliding down the sides.

She padded over to the child, who nestled closer to Lianna’s legs. Then she put on her best smile. Lianna knew Stavros had been sneaking off the ship at various space ports, secreted in the upper levels people watching. She’d especially taken an interest in the children skipping along beside their mothers. She knew about Lianna’s condition, and Lianna wondered how she’d receive their unexpected guest. “Baby, this is Stavros. Honey, Gita’s gonna be staying with us for a while. Is that cool with you guys?”

Was Amba tapping her feet on the upper deck? Stavros remained bent over her, her elastic hands braced on both knees. She stepped back, raising a hand palm up. Her gaze seemed to turn inward, just as her belly began to swell. A skinny pair of legs began to sprout from an aperture below her bump.

Apparently Stavros had studied the human birthing process, to a limited degree. A flat belly followed and then a small body slapped her feet to the deck, shaking a short mane of ameboid hair. This new being stood around a meter and a half in height, all skinny limbs. For all practical purposes a spitting image of Stavros. But smaller.

Gita grinned and skipped towards little Stavros. She took Gita’s hand and the pair of them scampered off to climb the rails of the ladder. Lianna threw her arms around Stavros. “That was so sweet!” Stavros cuddled her close. Hopefully Amba would come around. She had to, didn’t she?