Copyright 2023 -- Daemon D. Hart
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The Human Bearer
"Someone is here to see you," Kyle announced, making him raise his eyes.
He was busy reading everything he could get his hands on about Xeno deliveries, using Kyle's screen, so the interruption wasn't welcome. It was strange to get any visits to begin with. The other bearers kept their distance, and Xenos didn't think much of him, either. He was the proverbial black sheep, but he was okay with it. Had to. Story of his life, yada-yada-yada.
"Come on, Kyle, the suspense is killing me," he said dryly. "Who is it?"
"I have just received the message. Cario Hamen, Drato Menor's bearer, asks if you could see him now."
Riordan pushed himself up and smoothed his robe in an effort to make himself look presentable. His hair was probably still a mess from all the action he had seen earlier in Xana's arms. Lately, it looked like his snakeman really loved ruffling his hair, pulling at it, and running his fingers through until he made it all stick up like a porcupine's back. Because he had coarse hair, a lot of brushing was necessary to make it look proper, and now Cario Hamen was at the door.
Before falling in love with Xana, he couldn't have cared less if he got judged by an empty-headed doll of a bearer, but now, he wanted to make his owner proud of him. Surely enough, he kept that to himself since he didn't want all that to get to that Xeno's pretty head, but he didn't want this guy visiting him to think that Counselor Xana Lei's bearer was a total slob.
"How do I look?" he asked his partner in crime.
"Master Xana would say that you look ravishing, Master Rio."
"Okay. What about the rest of the world? Give me the truth and nothing else."
"Your appearance would most likely suggest that you have just been engaged in coitus until earlier."
"Thanks for your confirmation. Now put your arm at work and give me a brushing."
Kyle executed the order, making him grunt and ground his teeth, but in less than two minutes, he had a feel that he looked somewhat decent.
"Do I look any better?"
"Yes, Master Rio, definitely better. Now, there would only be a slight suspicion regarding your earlier activities."
"Good enough. Now, let's not keep that guy waiting. Tell him that he can come in."
Kyle did whatever he had to do to communicate to the other bearer's bot, and the doors opened to allow Cario Hamen to step inside, followed dutifully by his companion. Riordan did a double take as he saw who else was visiting at the same time. The bearer had his arms full of a small Xenolite, his head already covered in blond hair that fell over his shoulders. He appeared to be deep in sleep and one of his tiny fists clasped on Cario's robe, while his slender tail was wrapped around his parent's forearm, in an endearing act of possession.
Riordan quickly found his words. "Hi and welcome to... our humble abode."
"Riordan Lei, thank you so much for having me," Cario said with a pleasant smile. "Your master informed my master that you would like to talk to someone who has been through the process of delivery."
"Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to read as much as I can on the topic, but I guess nothing beats talking to someone who's been through it." Riordan debated whether to tell Cario he had practically witnessed his giving birth to the Xenolite in his arms or not. The wall separating them at that time must have been a one-way mirror kind of thing. Still, he didn't want to start what could be a friendship of sorts on the wrong foot. When he recalled that event, he thought of Tasha, and that only served to remind him how great a friend the redhead had been to him. "I watched you, you know?" he added in a low voice.
Cario nodded. "Yes, I know." Then, he laughed. "I suppose that you might feel tempted to say that you saw the worst of me at the time. But it was the best of me, just so you know."
Riordan's eyes grew wide. "Dude, your ass got like--" He stopped and threw an unsure look at the Xenolite. "Dario, right?"
Cario caressed his baby's head and kissed it. "Yes. Don't worry. He needs his sleep and, when he's like this, nothing can wake him up. And I mean it. He practically slept through an entire war."
"Yeah, you were there," Riordan murmured. "Anyways, I need to keep my big mouth shut. I've heard from Xana that they send their kids to school once they're one year old."
"They do grow fast," Cario admitted. "Dario is only three month old. But he can already talk... well, it's a way of saying, but he knows how to send the right message to my brain to tell me that he either needs to feed or sleep."
"They're fascinating creatures when they're young, aren't they?" Riordan moved closer.
Cario moved his arm so that he could show his son better. "Drato... my master keeps saying that he has my eyes. I like to think so, too."
"Does your Xeno insist that you should call him master all the time?"
Cario shook his head. "No, nothing like that. But old habits die hard, and most people on this ship, just like on the planet we left, will frown upon lack of proper ettiquette. I went to a special school for educating those who wanted to secure a place as a bearer on Xeno. That happened when I was still on Earth."
"Wow, people did that? I landed on Xeno by..." He wanted to say `accident', but that wasn't true. It had been a last effort to ditch his old life and get away from people who wanted his skin. Getting as far as possible from Earth's orbit had sounded like a great idea, one with few chances of succeeding. But there he was. No point in dwelling on the past.
"It doesn't matter." Cario placed a warm hand on his arm and looked at him with his large beautiful eyes. Now that was a bearer who fit the bill on all accounts -- insanely good looking, the face of an angel, and, above all, an education on how to be the perfect egg pouch for a Xeno. This guy was worlds apart from him, but Riordan felt touched by his nice manners nonetheless.
"Yeah, I guess," he said, pretending that it was easy to shrug off the immense difference between them. "I mean, we're on a ship that heads who knows where, and Xeno is... the planet, I mean--"
"No more. The planet, as we know it, is no more," Cario said. "That puts us in the race, of course."
"A race, what race?" Riordan was all ears.
Cario didn't say a thing for a moment and just pursed his lips. "You haven't heard it from me. But, as I was there, with them, while they were fighting the others, they couldn't keep it from me, not everything."
"Can you also hear their thoughts?"
"Not very well. It is either a gift or an acquired skill, and I'm not very good at acquiring it. But their guards couldn't communicate with them the way they do, so I picked up a few things here and there. This planet where we're heading, Tanez, that is their Gaia. And those terrorists," Cario took a deep breath as if to control himself, "chose to destroy Xeno so that they could have Tanez for themselves. Their plan was to doom all of us with it. It didn't work."
"Those motherfuckers," Riordan mumbled under his breath. "Sorry." He put his hands over the Xenolite's ears for a moment. His hair was so soft. "This mommy-to-be is just scared shitless."
"You have every right to be, Riordan. But we are strong. And we're on the winning team."
"Thanks for the pep talk. I suppose we do need to believe in something."
"It's more than just that. You see, these Xenos," Cario began explaining, "they have searched for the perfect compatible species to carry their eggs for millennia."
"And we're that perfect species? I mean, I want the bragging rights, but how can we be sure?"
"His Royal Chancellor is. He's the only one that can give you a clear answer if you have such questions. The point is, the conservative forces on Xeno opposed the notion right away, splitting their society in half. His Royal Chancellor wanted to convince everyone. He wanted to help increase the population first and then embark it all on ships heading for Tanez. That was the plan, apparently a very old plan."
"So, are these other guys in a race for Tanez, too? But they don't have bearers, do they?"
"They are a rather peculiar group," Cario explained. "Again, all I know is made up of tiny pieces of information. Rumor has it that they found a way to live forever... only if they reach Tanez. And, if they live forever--"
"They don't need bearers or any kind of offspring at all," Riordan completed Cario's thought. "Damn."
That particular thought was rubbing him the wrong way. "So, they just wanted to kill everyone and hop on their ships to find the fountain of eternal youth on Tanez?"
"That would be the gist of it, the way I see it. But I came here to help you with something a lot more important."
"Right," Riordan said, but his thoughts were already a mess. So Tanez could grant eternal life? Xana had been adamant that his species didn't believe in myths. That had to mean that the part about what the terrorists, as Cario called them, believed was also true.
Cario took his hand. "Would you like to hold Dario for a bit? To see what is going to feel like?"
"Yes, please," he replied and opened his arms.
The Xenolite only moved his lips a bit as his parent disentangled his arm from him and passed him over to Riordan. By instinct, most probably, Dario quickly wrapped his tail around his arm and then drove his tiny head into his chest.
Cario laughed. "He's going to search your chest for milk."
"They're not that different from humans, are they?"
"They're half-snakes, which means that their other half is more like us than they care to admit."
Riordan snorted. "Yes, but they're also stubborn. Try to convince one what love is. You'll never see the end of it. They just don't get it." He was so taken with the little one in his arms that he was running his mouth like an idiot.
"Yes." Cario laughed. "But I'm not bothered. Do you know that Drato was among the first Xenos to publicly advance the idea of keeping the bearers beyond delivering the egg?"
"I must admit that I'm not that in touch with a lot outside... well, let's say, the house."
"He was, and, when I asked him, he said that he would be very inconvenienced if I left his household."
"Inconvenienced. Damn."
"Yes. I prodded him further, and he told me that he doesn't see himself living a life without me in it."
"That's pretty romantic." Riordan couldn't keep in a smile. He caressed Dario's little cheek and the Xenolite suddenly grabbed his finger. Even in his sleep, he seemed to know exactly what he wanted.
"Don't even mention the word in his presence. He truly believes that it is a human term meant to express delusions and nothing else."
"Yeah, such a rational lot, the bunch of them," Riordan said and grinned as he looked up from the little one in his arms. "So, how afraid should I be about the whole thing?"
Cario put a warm hand on his shoulder. "You shouldn't be afraid at all. I know that it looks extreme, I mean, I have been to my own fair share of viewings and I know for a fact that what they appear like to anyone who's on the other side. But, I had my education from Earth to fall back on. I mean, I totally understand if that's not your case."
Riordan mumbled an agreement under his breath.
"Look," Cario continued, "pain is temporary, and it's not as intense as you might think. They will give you something called sangar. It's a version of seth modified particularly for deliveries."
"I had a bit, I think. Marn gave it to me."
Cario stared at him in disbelief. And then he laughed. "I suppose that it's true what they say about you, Riordan. You don't give a damn about protocol. By Marn, you mean His Royal Chancellor, I assume?"
"Yeah, that's the guy. Pretty shady character, if you're asking me." Riordan felt quite at ease in Cario's company to say things like that. "Not that he's not charming. I just can't tell what he's thinking. And I don't think that's exactly what comes out of his mouth. He seems to me like a guy with an agenda."
"That may be true," Cario said kindly, "but it doesn't mean that he has less of everyone's interest at heart. He sees a future for Xenos as a species, and we're included. I'm happy to leave things at that."
"I envy you. My brain," Riordan pointed at his head, "is never satisfied."
"As long as your inquisitiveness doesn't get you in trouble, I suppose that it's nothing wrong with it."
"I'm afraid that ship sailed a long time ago." Cario hadn't been on Tu'lek while he received that mortifying punishment from Kanto. And Riordan had no intention to revisit that particular part.
He cradled Dario in his arms and looked at him. One week, and he'd get to hold his own in his arms. That seemed such a strange thing to believe. But Marn was sure he was close, and Xana knew it, too. With everything that had been going on, he'd had little time to mentally prepare for what the delivery would entail. But now, he was getting reassurance from this pretty face, and the solid proof in his arms was convincing enough.
"Everything is going to be fine," Cario said.
Riordan slowly moved Dario back to his parent. "Thank you for dropping by. And your kid is gorgeous. Congrats for having him."
Cario moved one hand to brush it over Riordan's hair for a moment. "I can barely wait to meet yours, as well. There are chances that he might have your hair. Drato said so, and he seemed strangely delighted by the idea of having a dark-haired Xeno among us."
Riordan sighed. "I hope he won't get bullied in school over it."
"I don't believe they have the concept of bullying."
"Maybe not how we see it, but they can be assholes." Riordan remembered Lewis's husbands, and how different they were from the other perfect Xenos. But that was a conversation he might have with Cario another time. "Hey, do you think that we could, you know, hang out?" Dang, he was like the new kid trying to get the attention of the more popular guys in the schoolyard.
"Of course. You will need help with a lot of things after you give birth, and I will gladly be that person. That if you also like the idea."
"Yeah. Because I need help," Riordan said although it hurt his tongue only to admit it. Relying on others was never a good idea. Sooner or later, they pulled the rug from under you. But that had been in the past. They were living strange times, so he could be a little strange, too, and enjoy the help of a guy he didn't really know without worrying about him having ulterior reasons.
"Kyle, did you hear all that stuff about immortal Xenos?" he asked, as soon as Cario left.
"Yes, Master Rio."
"So, when were you going to tell me that you knew about this shit?"
"I didn't know it. It is new and important information. A poor bot like me couldn't have had access to this sort of knowledge."
"A poor bot like you? When have you started to feel sorry for yourself?"
To his surprise and delight, Kyle delivered a human-like sigh. "Since Master Xana put me on cleaning duty, something that has been both terribly boring and soul-crushing."
"Damn, he was saying the truth." Riordan shook his head in mirth. "Then how about a little adventure?"
Kyle seemed to perk up right away. "I am more than ready for a new adventure."
"Then I think it's time we pay Florent another visit. What do you say?"
"But Master Xana now knows about everything."
"Yes, but has he done anything to stop me from doing it again? Like removing the clearance code you came up with?"
"No, he hasn't removed it yet."
Riordan puffed out his chest. "Then, it's clear. Although he didn't say it, Xana is more than okay with me getting chummy with our new friend down below. However, I need to ask. Is there any risk of an orgy on the horizon? Because I'm not looking forward to dodging gangbangs only to be saved by a Xeno with a hard dick and end up in a threesome that leaves me sore for days."
"You can't still be sore, Master Rio. The seth--"
"I don't really mean it. But I wanted to complain for a bit. That okay with you?"
"Of course, Master Rio. When are we going to visit Florent?"
"Right now. Unless you want to go clean some toilets or something."
"Not a chance of that." Riordan could swear Kyle's modulated voice expressed wry humor.
tbc
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