“Thank you. I promise we will only do what you are comfortable with and will explain everything as we proceed.”
Xylo folded back the white blanket on the exam table and assisted me as I climbed up. After I laid down, Xylo pulled the blanket up and adjusted the table until I was in a sitting position. The others took this as a sign to join us.
“I can activate her communicator first,” the Ulax Xylo had called Chyox spoke up.
“Perhaps you could first introduce yourselves?” I interjected wryly.
The Ulax looked at Xylo, then turned back to me. “I am Senior Healer Chyox. The Wudox beside me is my assistant, Usthu and the Ulax behind me is Hatchery Manager Ayces.” His eyes roamed over me before he locked his violet eyes on mine. “If I am to assist Master Scholar Xylo, I request you restrain yourself. I do not wish to be attacked again.”
Senior Healer Chyox was light-green striped with a darker green and gray. He had gray anemone-like hair and violet irises surrounding black pupils. His assistant, Usthu, was darker green with purple and maroon swirls. Hatchery Manager Ayces was light blue with yellow speckles and bright green eyes.
“I wouldn’t call it attacking but defending. I can hardly be blamed for reacting when you crept up on me in the wash facility,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.
Senior Healer Chyox glanced grudgingly at Xylo and let out a huff.
“She is right, and I have observed human females are easier to scare. You should respect her wishes,” Xylo advised.
“It must be due to their singular lack of defensive—”
“Please disregard Senior Healer Chyox,” Hatchery Manager Ayces interrupted. “We will respect your feelings. It will be an honor to assist you, Master Scholar Xylo with regards to this female human and her offspring.” Sincerity filled his gentle tenor voice.
“First off, I’m not ‘this female human.’ My name is Selena. See-leen-ah. Second, can we use first names? I’m sure you all know what positions you each hold, and those full names are a mouthful. Not to mention, I don’t see the point other than to emphasize one person’s authority over another.” I rolled my eyes. “Xylo. Chyox. Usthu. Ayces. Selena. It would be much simpler.”
“Seleenah is right. We should call her by her name, and we can dispense with the titles,” Usthu agreed.
Ayces nodded.
Chyox sourly inspected his colleagues before answering with a sniff, “I will agree to these terms. Our ship has not had any pregnancies yet or offspring born... assisting Xylo with Selena’s pregnancy would give us experience outside our species.”
Xylo and Chyox were careful to explain each piece of equipment as it was needed, and I didn’t sense any animosity between Xylo and the others. The four of them worked well together. Chyox activated my communicator, and Xylo injected a booster spray that he said would supply updated vaccines and vitamins helpful for my pregnancy.
Chyox pulled a large, thin, transparent screen attached to the side of the exam table across my stomach and turned iton. A digital image of my abdomen highlighted my internal organs in multiple colors. My eyes were drawn like magnets to the two tiny figures curled up together in the middle of the screen. They looked mostly human, but I could make out legs that bent at a strange angle, tails, and perked ears... they looked almost like a cross between a human and a feline.
I gasped. “That’s an Aldawi? They’re some kind of feline?”
The room was silent as the four males looked at me in shock. Chyox and Ayces’s color shifted uneasily to an orangish-yellow.
“Selena, last night you said you did not know who had sired your offspring...” Xylo’s teal eyes searched mine. “I do not understand.”
I grabbed Xylo’s cool hand, terrified he’d think I lied to him, and blurted, “I didn’t know until he told me last night—”
I winced. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. Shit.
“Oh, Stars. Oh, Stars. Oh, Stars. Please tell me this is not what I think it is. It cannot mean...” Xylo trailed off, panic-stricken.
“What does this mean, Xylo? What is she talking about? Explain,” Chyox demanded, his tentacles dancing in agitation.
“Powerful Aldawi are known to be capable of controlling the dreamscape—the plane where dreams occur. I have even read they can even share this dreamscape with others though the details are a mystery. If he dreamwalked to Selena, he has to be powerful to reach her so far away.” He turned back to me and squeezed my hand. “Does this mean you know what he looked like?”
I glanced at the others, whose coloring had returned to normal, then focused on Xylo. “No. He always appears to me as a black transparent figure of flame. I’ve begged him to show me his true form and tell me who he is, but he refuses.He says that it would put me and my children in danger. And he was adamant I not tell you we can meet in my dreamscape.”
“This complicates everything.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Selena
I wandered the ship’s corridors, using the wristband to guide me. Xylo needed to report to the princes about the unexpected developments, but told me I was free to explore, so long as I stayed out of restricted areas and the hangar bay. The healers were deep in their research on Aldawi and human genetics and gestation, and I hadn’t seen Kaede since our lunch, so I was on my own.
