Isolde touched her belly.“I knew that.I just haven’t heard it out loud before.”
“But you are going to need as much help as Chloe can manage.Hmrain babies normally have a link to the father and his nanites for energy and repair.”
Isolde frowned.“I haven’t met him.”
“I know.They were trying to wake him with an heir, so you were one of many, but the only one to catch.It would have been highly illegal at home, but home has been blown to hell, so the world you were on accepts that dumping cum from one person in a coma to another is acceptable.”Margo sat down and sipped her coffee.“Now, can you imagine the brave SOB who snuck up on a sleeping Hmrain to jerk him off?”
Isolde’s eyes went wide, and then she laughed.“That is an image.I don’t know anything about the father.I don’t even know if he’s still asleep.”
Margo ate her nearly-croissant.“Do you want us to find out?Hmrain are funny about this kind of thing.When the baby shows up, someone is going to find him.You might want to get ahead of it.”
Isolde sighed.“You don’t understand, I am going to protect this baby with everything in me.”
Margo nodded.“And when you can’t?What happens then?”
Margo saw how quiet Cori, Chloe, and Skylar were holding themselves.
“I will.My baby will always be safe with me.”
Margo looked at Isolde.“I really hope so, but one day, that child is going to be out of your hands, and since they will have wings, someone has to teach them to fly, to bank, to turn.The wings will have to be the same shape as your Hmrain’s to be able to teach properly.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about.”Isolde frowned.
Margo shrugged and kept eating.An arm came around her, and a head was on her shoulder.“This is my daughter, Delia.She died on the day after the asteroid strike.”
Delia sighed.“In a car.There were no lights, and I was t-boned.I died on impact.My mother was already on her way to my side, but she was states away, and I was dead.Having another parent might have helped, but my dad died when I was three.She was all I had in the world, and I was all she had.”
Isolde was covering her mouth.“Oh, I didn’t mean...”
“You did.It’s okay.Mothers are arrogant.At one point, we held our entire world inside of us.We deserve to be arrogant.”She sipped at her drink and held Delia’s hand.“So, you didn’t leave yet?”
Delia chuckled.“There is so much more to see.Not you and that orc.The thought of that boggles the mind.”
“Yeah, well, you read those books, you pervert.You left your collection behind, and I got bored.”
Delia laughed.“What I want to know is iffloodingis a thing?”
Margo froze, and she looked at her.“Why do you want to know that?”
“I am dead, bored, and hanging around inside Skylar is great for socializing, but you have a body, and you have appetites, and you can get up to all kinds of things, and from what I heard last night and today, you have.So...how much is too much?”
“Fine.Skylar, should we take this outside?”
The rest of the ladies were watching with various snacks in hand, and their eyes were keen.Skylar said, “I am good, and I am curious.What can we ask you?”
“Anything you want.Just let me get more not-coffee.”
Cori chuckled, got a tablet, and started writing questions.The other ladies pitched in, and Delia asked a few things as well.Isolde looked over.“Delia, how are you here?”
Skylar explained what she was, Chloe explained what she was, and Cori explained how she had become purple-and-black striped with tremendous strength.
Geri said, “I would show myself off, but I still have a few hours to go.I am human, in my soul, but my body is something else, and I am blocking the guys from tattling on me.”
Margo asked, “Who are they trying to tell?”
“Aken-Var and someone named Meletios.I am thinking he is the Mathor that had me tweaked.”
Margo brought her supplies back and said, “You are linked to the computer.Look him up.”
