Star Side

Epilogue

"Any word from the base?" I asked.

"Well—" started Levi, only to be cut off harshly by Naomi.

"Don't ruin my happy hour! No base."

"Then plug your damn ears, hag, she asked."

Naomi glared at her brother, the petulantly plugged her ears and went back to cooing the little boy the last few feet to her.

Levi huffed in amusement then turned back to me, even as he tugged Amber's lip out from her mouth again.

"It's the usual. Still demanding we bring out one of the babies for them to run tests on or letting them send in a representative, because apparently Naomi and I don't count."

"Well, you don't."

"Damn right. I ain't no spy. I didn't accept a job with that much paperwork. High school was, like, fifty years ago, damnit."

I chuckled, knowing very well he was all bluff. Levi could be incredibly intelligent, especially on paper, when he wanted to be.

"Naomi gets a lot more pressure than me, though, since she's medical and all that. She's given them the basics to get them to shut up but they're always asking for more. Oh, and that one intern died, so now they're all freaking out about eating anything from this planet."

"Was it really a space tapeworm?" I asked.

"They don't even know because Naomi's too busy playing with babies to go and see."

"Damn right," came Naomi's chirp.

"I thought you weren't going to listen," said Levi.

"Baby love needed my hands," said Naomi, gesturing a chin to where she was holding a triumphantly squealing Shorack, his stiff little tail wagging like a puppy. His long, draconic legs clawed along the ground with soft, jelly-bean toes.

"Someone's dead and you don't care," said Levi. "Have you no shame?"

"Nope. I didn't make him eat that crap."

Levi shrugged and shook his head with a wry, half-smile.

"And they call me the sociopath."

"I think it's probably being alone in space with just each other for too long," I said, unable to resist playing with Cauline's little feet. They were bigger than a normal human infants, and her legs longer (they'd be decent T-rex legs when she grew up), and she giggled around her gel pack. "You've disconnected from the rest of humanity. You know, like you, Naomi, Josh and me are a species unto yourself."

"Hmm. Sounds about right." He tugged Amber's lip out of her mouth again. "Jeeze, girl, for real, what's your sore-ass lip got over this jelly goodness?" He put the gel pack to her lips again, to which she happily chomped down on.

"She's a creature of habit," I said fondly, reaching a hand over to tweedle her little toes to. "At least they're being cautious of not stepping on any toes where the aliens are concerned. That's at least one good thing that came out of Josh's death. Though I'm sure Gilrack is more than ready to demonstrate should they forget. Did you tell them their bodies absorb metal bullets?"

"Hell no. Let them figure out that shit themselves."

"Wow, Levi."

"Hey, if they get into a situation where they have to shoot an alien which half-worships them as 'divine beings' they deserve it."

"You forget, they also half-fear them too. Divine beings are supposed to be why they were forced to live underground. Lost a whole war or something like that."