Minnie kept her head still, as requested, but rolled her eyes left, spotting Mama’s snout—close and moving closer, mouth opening. A drip of hot saliva.
A pair of lengthy incisors scooped slowly behind Minnie’s ear, and then the mouth began shutting, the opposite row of teeth pressing into the ridges and caves inside the ear, clamping down, pressing tighter, pinching.
Minnie shut her eyes and held her breath. This was it. The beginning of the end. Just when she thought the first tooth would pierce flesh and spill blood—the bite stopped. Minnie exhaled. Mama rested a hand on Minnie’s shoulder and began slowly sitting up, half a dozen teeth still firmly rooted in the ear. She wasn’t letting go.
A ring of burning flesh.
Panic struck, and Minnie moved her head up with it as far as she could, but at the end of her reach the skin began pulling once again—unrelenting.
Searing, unbearable pain at the sudden pop of the first tear, behind the ear, and the rest of the ring quickly followed, ripping away effortlessly as Minnie screamed.
3.4
259 hours since evac. 10 Earth days. 13 Epsy days.
Aether stood beside Zisa and Pablo, all three’s focus locked on Eeahso as tentacles curled and frolicked, smearing her skin with the fresh batches of petroleum jelly and glycerol.
Zisa averted her eyes. “I feel like I’m watching something I shouldn’t.”
Pablo laughed. “With you there. It’s like porn for mermen.”
“Quiet guys,” Aether said, and sent Livetrans to Eeahso. “How does it feel? Are you able to compare the two sides?”
“Good,” Eeahso said—her eyes hidden, arms sliding over her head, one after the other, as if greasing back hair. “All good!”
Zisa sighed and pointed a hand at Eeahso. “He’s mixing them together with all the squirming! There’s no way we can do an A-B test this way.”
“She,” Pablo corrected. “And she had them separate for a while there. We’d at least see any allergic reactions, right?”
“There’s no way I can say for sure. Not at this point. We need at least a week with the final recipe. Plus, only the PJ has UV protectant right now. I need to synthesize another base to bond it with the glycerol, cook a batch, test.” She turned to Aether. “You also said you wanted a native fragrance in there.”
Aether’s gaze held on Eeahso, sun beating down on the shiny, coated Threck skin as elated murmurs hummed from her siphons. Aether wouldn’t wait another week, and the formula didn’t need to be perfect right now.
Aether turned to Zisa and Pablo. “How long to make a five-liter bucket of each, as is?”
The pair looked at each other, briefly debated their estimates, and then agreed on a couple hours.
“Perfect,” Aether said. “And Pablo, you’re coming with me.”
“Well yeah, we already agreed I would demonstr—”
“No, I mean the rescue mission.” Aether said.
Dread landed on his face, weighing down his features. He and Zisa shared a tense look, and Zisa rested her fingers on Pablo’s abdomen. An intimate gesture for Aether’s benefit?
Aether cocked her head toward the EVs. “I’ll have Qin pack you up so you can stay on task.”
Expression aside, Pablo didn’t argue.
Zisa was another matter. Now that they were all linked in to the EVs’ wireless, M’s had been free-flowing at the camp.
ZISA: I know you’re zetabusy…
Aether ignored her as she strode to the EVs to find Qin.
ZISA: I have to talk to you about something.
What was she supposed to do, adjust assignments based on Zisa’s relationship status?
ZISA: It’s just that there’s something you should really know.
Pablo was a physician—far better than Aether ever was—and, for what it was worth, he was the backup Hynka specialist. Who would Zisa have her bring across the ocean instead? Who was better suited? Grieving Tom? Terrified Qin? Why not Zisa herself?
ZISA: I’m pregnant.
Aether halted and covered her eyes.
Of course you are.
Wait…
AETHER: Stay where you are.
Marching back, she could see the fear oozing from Zisa. Pablo glanced down at Zisa’s arm curling and tightening around his waist, caught her look, then followed her eyes to see Aether approaching.
He knew at once what she’d done. “Babe! You told her? We talked about this!”
Aether planted her boots before them, her expression surely murderous. “How do we know this?”
A nervous laugh from Zisa. “Kinda unceremonious, actually. Biostat alert: you’re pregnant.”
Aether’s glare shifted to Pablo. “Confirmed, I presume?”
A guilty nod.
“How the hell is this possible? You’d have to have—” She counted in her head. Evac, orbiting for ninety-four hours, two days stuck with Skinny, rally camp, the Thinkers, and now four days making this damned balm. Thirteen days since evac. She was reasonably certain these two hadn’t done anything prior to evac— “Wow. In orbit?” She waved them off before either could answer. “Hang on. It still doesn’t make sense. With the meds, you wouldn’t be fertile for a couple cycles.”
Both tried to answer at once.
“She’s actually—”
“I’ve never been on BC,” Zisa said.
Pablo resumed. “She was supposed to be infertile. Multiple checks before and at the training center.”
Aether was still aghast. She looked at their faces, back and forth, no words.
Pablo interpreted her shock as continuing disbelief. “Honestly, trust me, if I ever suspected—I mean, she’s never even menstruated!”
Zisa faced him. “Well, that’s not true.”
Now it was Pablo’s turn to be shocked. “Not… What do you mean?”
Aether sighed, pivoted, and walked away.
“Like, I’ve never been regular, but it’ll come here and there.”
“Here and there? What? How could I not know this?”
“‘Cause it was none of your business. I feel like you’re yelling at me.”
“None of my…”
The theater of rapt Thinkers looked on as Pablo moved down the second line with the glycerol bucket, applying the balm to the second set of five volunteers. On the other side of the center pool, the five already coated from the PJ bucket caressed their slimy skin.
Calls from the audience:
“How does it feel?”
“Is it cold?”
“Is it the same?”
“Like mud?”
Pablo paid special attention to the last volunteer—not a Thinker, but there by Aether’s request: Massoss Pakte, leader of the Fishing group. Pablo slathered on the glycerol from his dwindling bucket, plopping a fist-sized heap into Pakte’s awaiting palms. Like the others, she carefully smeared the balm over her head and into the creases between tentacles. And like the others, she signed “unmatched pleasure.”
Having earlier agreed to only a single arm of PJ, Dowfwoss Unhkte rubbed her other arm against the first as she addressed Aether. “Where did you find this golden mud?”
“It is not mud and cannot be found,” Aether replied. “It is thing that Syons People know how to make.”
“You will show Threck how to make?” Unhkte asked.
Aether could tell Unhkte was trying to feed her appropriate answers, but Aether had her own plans. Now, witnessing the balm’s wider reception—equal to Eeahso’s reaction—she was confident in her position.
“No. We will not show Threck how to make. We will make it for you. This is very dirty, tiring task to create it. Like inland farming. We would not come and demonstrate the wonderful benefits of our cream, and then place this unpleasant burden on your people.”