2199 Extinction

The first thing I’m aware of is movement inside of me. The baby is moving, my baby, Amlican’s baby. And then a steady, quiet beeping noise fills my ears. I open my eyes and see monitors around me. I appear to be in a medical building. I sit up and find wires attached to my chest and stomach, that lead back to various machines. The room I’m in appears to be small, with nothing but a bed and a small dresser inside of it. A door, partially ajar, is on my right. I lean forward slightly and can make out an even smaller bathroom. There is a door on my left that is closed, that one is most likely the exit.

I’m not one to just lay around, so I start plucking wires off, making the machine alarms go off. I work faster, unsure of where I am, and rather friend or foe is coming. I have just unhooked the last wire when the door flies open. I jump up out of the bed and find myself disoriented.

“Get back in the bed!” says a stern female Copaie. Behind her rushes in three large muscular Copaie males.

“Who are you and what do you want?” I ask, holding my head. I stubbornly stand beside the bed, trying to get the world to stop spinning.

“We aren’t going to hurt you. You were found, lying just inside the capital city, bloody and passed out. Someone brought you here. I’m assuming you were part of the group that met with the Talfarians?” one particular male asks.

“Um. I don’t. Know.” Talfarians. Group. Blood. Death. Furbos. “Yes. Amancia. The General. Are they okay?” I ask as the dizziness starts to subside.

“They are fine, Astra. Amancia was released two days ago. She’s the one who came by and identified you. She also let us know about the baby. They seem to be healthy and growing as they should. The General is also being released, today.”

The same male, answers. “Who. What. Why. I can’t think.” I start, unable to form a complete sentence.

“Please sit. My name is Cequill. I am the head medical doctor and head scientist on Saltu.” He says as all three males approach me. Cequill steps forward and gently takes hold of my arm and eases me onto the bed. He proceeds to sit beside me, on the bed. The others just hover near the door, arms crossed across their chest.

“I would feel better if you sat while we talked. When you were bitten, by a Furbos, you were injected with a venom. It’s an interesting venom, from a medical perspective, it’s not made to kill you or paralyze you. It’s made to incapacitate you, through hallucinations and by slowing your thought process and ability to reason. The more adrenaline that runs through your body, the quicker the venom takes a hold of your mind.

We don’t know much about the Furbos, even after several thousand years, but you have to appreciate what fine-tuned hunters they are. You see, they love to play with their food. A poison that would kill or paralyze would be boring to these creatures. They prefer to let you think you got away; they prefer the chase. Of course, this is all speculation as we have never seen one, with our full mental capacity.

We can guess what they look like, but unfortunately, we can’t trust the descriptions given by those who survive. The tales of the Furbos vary widely. Some say they are large and green; some say small and black, and still, others say they are purple and fly. The Copaie who get away, unharmed, never actually lay eyes on the Furbos. Meanwhile, the ones who see them, are so full of mind-altering poison they would swear the trees came to life and were trying to murder them.”

“Cequill, I think you gave the young lady a bit too much to digest at one time.” One of the other males says.

“Did I? Hm. Yes. I do tend to get carried away, don’t I? You’ll have to forgive an old Copaie of his rambling. The point is that you are fine, the babies seem to be fine. A healthy boy and girl. The effects of the poison should be almost out of your system by now. We will let you go back to the palace, soon. Can’t have you wandering around, attacking innocent people, again.”

A confused look must cross my face because he continues. “The first time you woke up, the venom was coursing full strength through your veins. You thought we were Furbos and you attacked us. Quite a punch you have there. Put two nurses and a doctor in overnight care. Some had broken noses, some had broken jaws, but all of them were rendered unconscious. I was a bit luckier; your fist only grazed my jaw. Still in a bit of pain. You are a born fighter.” He rubs the left side of his jaw.

“Cequill.”

“Yes. Yes. Too much information. Anyways, get some rest, we will send you home in a few hours. Selzisus, hook her back up, I want to monitor both mother and children. I want you to draw her blood, in three hours. Once you get the results, let me know.” He gets up off the bed. “Lay back down, please, so that Selzisus can rehook the monitors.”

Once I am laying down, again, and hooked back up, all four turn and leave. They sure left me a lot to think about. My bare fist showdown, against the Furbos, was just a hallucination. I already knew the scene with my mother wasn’t real, but now I know what brought it on. There is one thing that isn’t a hallucination, and that’s the growing life inside of me. I lay back, listening to the steady drumming of the little one’s heartbeat.

Soon, I will be holding his tiny body in my arms. The thought both thrills and terrifies me at the same time. Will it have the yellow skin of my people? Or will it have the same skin color as Amlican? I sit up straight in the bed. He. The doctor referred to the baby as he. I have a son. Amlican’s son. Wait. He said he wanted to monitor the children. The children. She and he. I am having twins. A son and a daughter.

“Now the question is what will I name them?” I ask the empty room. But the question is easily answered, as a name automatically pops into my head, for the boy.

“Iknoyn.” Yes. I like that. Sounds wonderful. Although I can’t come up with a suitable girl’s name. But it doesn’t matter, I have plenty of time. I close my eyes for a few minutes to rest. I can’t wait to tell Amancia the babys’ genders, she will be thrilled. Especially the surprise bit about there being two.

Although the whole situation is a bit unorthodox, she seems to be taking the whole thing in stride. If I’m going to live here, I’ll just have to make sure I don’t touch mini-me. Mini-me. Ha! I don’t want to cause any paradoxes or any other time issues. May be tricky but I’ll figure it out. I sit on a stone bench, in the middle of the palace gardens.

Two trees tower over me, smaller then the ones in the jungle, forming an orange leafy canopy. The branches are heavy with green oblong fruit. Virbunt. A small grassy field stretches away from the trees, all the way to the tall stone walls in the distance. These walls separate the palace grounds from the rest of the city. The grassy field is filled with many different kinds of flowering plants, a rainbow of colors fills my vision.

A sweet but earthy scent fills my nose, this time of year the flowers are in full bloom. I pull the fruit off the closest hanging branch and bite into it. A mix of sweet and sour floods my taste buds, and fruit juice runs down my chin. I feel the strong kicks and jabs of the babies. Due any day now, they don’t move as much as they used to, but when they do, I defiantly know they are there. I bite again, and again, until the entire thing is gone, seeds included.

I’ve been eating a lot of this fruit, lately. One of the doctors informed me of the importance of eating Virbunt fruit. It contains some kind of vitamins or something that helps in the development of babies. The seeds contain something that helps in baby brain development. The terms were technical and hard to pronounce. But what I did take away from that chat was that, somehow, the babies whose mothers ate the fruit seeds were smarter than the average Copaie. Smart enough that this entire underground city was planned and made.

“Vos,” Amancia says, coming and sitting beside me. “You wanted to talk to me?”

I still find it a little strange to call myself Vos. I guess Amancia does as well because she told the doctors my name was Astra. “Yes. The first thing I need to know, how do you guys grow all these plants, underground, I get the artificial sun, I saw that when I first arrived. And I know it’s on a timer so that it sets when the real one does. But all of these plants,” I say raising my hands out to indicate the plants surrounding me. “How do they stay watered?”

“The same way as on every other planet. Terraqua. We have implemented an artificial atmosphere down here, one that also works with the groundwater. The AI makes sure that the water levels rise every morning and then fall again by midafternoon. Many palace windows overlook both the city and the gardens, you haven’t paid it any attention?” Amancia asks.

“No, I guess I never have. Okay, so that answers one question. Another thing we need to discuss is your baby. I’m not a big reader so I’m not sure if there is a book about this or not.

But I just have this feeling that I better not touch baby Astra, you know, being from two different timelines and all. I don’t know what the consequences might be, but I’m sure they wouldn’t be good.” I explain.

“No problem. I’m sure we can find a workaround for that.” She says.

I feel a painful tightening in my stomach, that continues to intensify, causing me to hold my stomach, and bringing tears to my eyes. Within a few moments, the pain comes to a peak and then starts to reside.

“Are you okay?” Amancia asks, reaching out and placing a hand on my arm.

“Yes, I’m fine, now. Anyways, I do have another question. You said that every Copaie is required to join the military? Does that include royalty?”

“Yes.” She says, taking her hand off my arm. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, considering I wasn’t raised here, I would like to catch up. Join the military. Do my ten years like everyone else. The thing is, I need someone to help me raise the babies.” Another painful tightening racks across my stomach. I take a few deep breaths, waiting for it to pass, and it too eventually passes.

“I would be happy to help. I make plenty of milk for Astra, so I could feed Iknoyn as well. My body will adjust to the change. I can also ask daddy to talk with the men in charge of the local ten-year-old class. I’m sure we can make an exception for you, allow you to come home at night. So, you can feed and care for your baby as well.”

“That’s…aah!” the tightening in my stomach becomes so painful that I can’t help but cry out. Tears run freely down my face, as I can’t help but thinking that this pain is worse than the bite from the Furbos. The tightening in my stomach comes back-to-back now, I am starting to have a hard time telling when one ends and the next begins.

“Vos! Vos! Are you okay? How long have you been having pain?” “All. Day.” I managed to mutter between gritted teeth.

“Girl! Why haven’t you said anything? It’s time. The baby is on the way. Come on, I’ll help you to your feet.” Amancia says standing up and holding out a hand.

I take her hand and try to stand up, but the pain is so strong that I can’t manage. “I. I. Can’t. Move.” I say through clenched teeth.

“Hold on dear. Guards! Guards! Come here, quickly!” she calls out.

Two guards come running, they take a look at us, and one scoops me up in his powerful arms and takes off running. “Hang in there. I’ll get you to the doctor.” He says.

He runs, with me in his arms, through the twisting and turning garden paths, through the many halls of the palace, and to the hospital wing. He lays me on an empty bed and shouts for a doctor. The guard gently pushes my hair out of my face and stays with me until the doctor comes.

“Good luck and congratulations.” He says, before leaving the room.

A few hours later, I pushed out the most beautiful baby boy I have ever laid eyes on. He has the traditional heterochromia of Copaie royalty, but his are one blue eye and one green eye. His skin is a lighter yellow than my own, but still yellow enough to identify him as Copaie.

But the strange part is, that despite being a male Copaie, he has hair. A small tuft of light brown hair sits atop his perfect head. Hair that is the same shade as Amlican’s. He yawns and I plant a kiss on his little nose. I rub my finger on his hand, and his tiny little fist curls around it. My perfect little bundle of joy.

“Iknoyn,” I whisper. “I love you so much. You were not planned but I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it. I just wish that your daddy could have met you. He would love you just as much as I do.”

I asked the doctors about the other baby, the twin, but they said I must have been mistaken about what Cequill said. They said there was only one baby in there. I guess that makes sense, I was still recovering from Furbos poisoning. Thankfully, the poison doesn’t appear to have taken any sort of toll on my precious boy. I plant another kiss on his tiny forehead.

He starts to cry, so I feed him. I stare down into his face as he feeds, memorizing every small detail. Thankfully, I don’t appear to be having any trouble producing milk for him. He suckles until he falls asleep, in my arms. I yawn and give in to my exhaustion, falling asleep as well. Soon, I will begin my military training, but for now, I will rest, heal, and enjoy my tiny baby.