They grinned, and Margo touched her forehead to Delia’s.“Fine, but if you are a boy, I am teaching him the family spaghetti sauce recipe.”
“Right.Try finding the jars out here.”
They laughed, hugged again and then Delia looked at Aken-Var.“We made him cry.”
Margo turned to look, and there were a few tears in the Zowoth’s eyes.She sighed, turned, and hugged him.She heard him whisper, and she pressed her face to his shoulder.She swallowed, and they stared there for a solid minute.
If you have one-fifth the love for our children that you do for her, they will be very loved, and they will know it.
She smiled weakly and then scowled.“How many were you planning?”
He grinned.“When we know how well you react to carrying a Zowoth, we will make a plan.More than one, less than ten.”
“Huh.That is...reasonable.”
He grinned.“I thought so.Delia only had to threaten to shove her hand through my chest to stop me dreaming of an extensive dynasty.”
“I knew there was a reason I kept sending her school money.”
Delia cackled.“Go to the command deck.The Zowoth are inches from a pissing contest.”
Nodding, Margo let Aken-Var go, and then they walked to the command deck and saw the cowled tech in Orex livery standing between two shouting packs of Zowoth.The figure calmly walked toward Margo.“Captain.Please sit, and I will do the gun calibration for you.”
Margo sat in the command seat, and the tech put scanning pods on her.The tech said, “Right.I see the problem.Give me a minute.”
Margo stared.The tech spoke English, and she was a woman.
“You are human.”
The woman continued the work.“That is correct.You still mostly are with some Zowoth modifications.”
“What happened when I used the guns?”
She kept typing but said, “We have open minds.When you attached to the guns, your mind pushed out through a four-lane highway, and it went onto a one-way street very suddenly.The build of will and focus hit a system that couldn’t manage it, so there was feedback.The Zowoth addition will help you narrow your output, and that will help with controlling the guns.”
“How long will it take?”
“An hour or so.I have to rewrite the processing code for the pods, and then I have to test it.I believe that Orex and his new consort, Zelda, are expecting you and Aken-Var down below.I will report when I am finished.Your creeps can continue to stare at me while I work.I don’t care.”
“Do the others know you are human?”
“The ship owner does.Chloe clocked me right away.”She continued at her terminal, and the data feed flashed onto the main screen.She typed fast, and the information scrolled upward.“When you get back, your system will work, but I will confirm it by meeting you at Orex’s palace with a demo video.I am just building in a choke point in case any other authorized humans try to use the system.It will take care of the lag you were experiencing.”
Baket stared.“She was lagging?”
“Yup.Her species thinks very fast.Not focused but fast.”The tech continued to work, smiled, and put the transfer tabs on her temples.“Let’s just get this finished so you can all go to a nice party.”
The tech closed her eyes, and the data stream on the monitor began to move fast and then faster and then became a blur of light.When she opened her eyes, she said, “Computer.Testing turrets.Activate test mode.”
Lights flashed, and she ran through all of the fight modes and then said, “Test mode off.Active engaged.”
Lights flared and flashed.The tech nodded and put her pods in a case.She looked at Margo.“Did you want to test your system connect?”
“No.I will do it as we are leaving and get you back here if we need it.”
“Nope.I have a full dance card.I work on the new ships for accessible programming, tailoring things for other species.Try it now, and I can fix it.”
Margo nodded.“Okay.Gertrude, can you keep me from firing accidentally?”
