Star Side

Chapter 75

"I'm not dead."

"Well, obviously."

In the background I heard the new voice protesting loudly to a murmuring of several others.

"So you have friends?" I asked.

"No," Levi almost growled. "Forget them, the kids?"

"Yeah! I have babies!"

The murmuring in the background went dead silent.

"Oh really?" there was a touch of amusement in his voice.

"Yeah! Two girls and one boy, and they're so darn freaking cute, they don't look like freaky mutants at all! Well, except their legs are kinda, you know, T-rexy shaped, but they still got them little toes and fingers and littles nose and the softest dark hair, oh my gosh, I want you to hold them. Why aren't you here? You should come down right now and hold my babies."

Gilrack, who was standing guard by the closed shuttle doors, sent a wobbly mindwave of uncertainty towards me. Only his parents had been allowed to hold the babies so far and it would be another month before his instincts would let the babies leave the nest for more than a few minutes, and even then only to the royal hall below since it was high enough for 'clean' air.

"Well, in a month you can hold my babies," I said. "They got all these instincts that hoard up their babies in their nests for a while to keep them safe and in argon free air—oh! Which reminds me, I can breathe argon now!"

"No shit?"

"Yes shit! Apparently, there's something in the blood of the animals down here that if you eat over a period of time gives you that ability! Got eat some pretty lightly cooked meat, though. I probably have, like, so many alien tapeworms that I don't know of yet, but hey! I feel pretty great and I can be Tarzan in the jungle, so I ain't complaining. Don't you want to be Tarzan? Of course you want to be Tarzan."

"Slow down, Jo, you keep breaking into those weird clicks."

"Shit, what didn't you get?"

"Something about eating something?"

"Meat. Bloody meat. Cooked enough to crisp on the outside, but bloody on the inside."

"I could do with some rare steak—oy!"

Levi was shoved aside and yet another voice, this one a lower female voice that could have been male got on.

"Ms. McKanan, I'm obligated to remind you that you are still under the employ of Star Craft Cooperated and are overdue for several reports—"

"Yeah, fuck you, I was talking to Levi. Shoo."

The woman gave a closed mouth squawk of indignation even as Levi cackled.

"Gawd, I missed you," I heard him say. "If what you said is true I might as well jiggy down. The station's gotten too crowded for my taste, and I hate 'em all."

"Did they toss out your moonshine?"

"You know it. Bastards."

"Mr. Blau---!"

"Nope. It's my phone call. Not feeling guilty."

"This is Star Craft's equipment—"

"Yeah, sure," I heard another indignant squawk that verified that this new person was indeed female before Levi's voice filled the majority of the speaker again. "I'll give you the honor of listening in, but you got to shut up, Granny. So, Jo, tell me 'bout these babies of yours. Was it hella weird watching them hatch from eggs?"