“So soon?”
“Yes.We have been in here for eighteen hours, and my cleaning bots are having anxiety attacks.Come on.Time to get back to the living universe around us.”
He smiled.“That’s a Zowoth phrase.”
She snorted.“Of course it is.”
He got up, and they got into the shower, using water and light to clean up from their two-person orgy.
Her new clothing had been brought in at some point, and she hadn’t noticed.
Once they were dressed, they left her quarters, and the desperate cleaning bots got to work.“They are going to need chisels.”
Aken-Var grinned and kept a hand on her back while they walked to where she could feel other heartbeats.
Delia rushed at her and grinned.“You look good.So, if I become your next baby, would you be pissed?Chloe and Skylar said it was possible.”
The avatars of life and death tried to look innocent as they sipped their coffee.
“I don’t want to obligate you to try, baby.”
Delia hugged her.“No obligation.I just want to make sure you know that if I stop talking to you, I am with you.Even if I am a little dude the next time around.”
“Wow.Well, if I do end up with a pregnancy, I was hoping you would be at my side, but I guess this would be one way.”She patted Delia’s cool cheek.
Chloe said, “The techs are on the command deck with the other Zowoth.All five of them.”
Margo looked at Aken-Var.“You brought them?They are already here?”
“Of course.I am the hub of my people.I can’t be alone with a wild alien.Of course, now you are a wild Zowoth, but no one needs to know that until you return to Amtha.”His hand remained on her back.
She sighed and glared at him.“The only thing that is keeping me from punching you in the junk is that Delia is here.”
Delia laughed.“Don’t mind me.If it worked, I am already on my way or not.”
Margo grinned and turned her body toward Aken-Var.
He blinked.“You will return at your own will, or I will visit you here, or wherever you are.”
“What?”
“You are my consort.You will eventually be at my side, and I am hoping that our children will be with us.”
She blinked.“Children?”
“Of course.Delia would enjoy siblings.”He smiled.“She and I have had this conversation already.”
Delia smiled.“We actually did, Mom.”
Margo sighed.“You are puncturing my outrage.”
“He told me that you glow to his eyes.I know from your micro expressions that something happens when you look at him that isn’t pure rage.Regret is something that I believe I can see on your face.I see it every time you look at me.You lived, Mom.You don’t need to keep charging into danger to hope that death claims you.That is Skylar’s job.”Delia smiled.“You made it.You survived the end of our world, you survived losing me, you survived yourself, the arena, the Zowoth, and then your charge into danger again.Let yourself stop surviving, and let yourself live.You have such an amazing capacity for life.So, since Chloe has given you some to make up for what was lost, use it.You were never one to waste anything.Don’t waste yourself.You are worth making an impact on the universe.”
Margo stared at her, and then Delia hugged her.She held the soul she had guarded for twenty-one years, and she felt something release in her.“You are such an asshole.”
Delia laughed.“I came that way from the factory.”
Margo leaned back, cupped her face in her hands, and kissed her forehead.“The manufacturing manager was drunk that day.”
