Pandora
“He refused to help us?”
“Yes, Xantha. So I won’t be going back to him.”
“Oh Pandora…” She wrapped her arms around me and nestled her head into my arms.
“Don’t you worry about him.”
“You don’t get it Xantha, he’s doomed all your people. That man is going to be the father of my children. I can’t just live with it.”
“I know. But we are stronger than you think.”
“Your people don’t have long left.”
“I know. But you do. You shouldn’t concern yourself with our affairs.”
“Like hell I won’t. I’m sorry Xantha, I know you people have your ways, but I can’t stand idly by as a civilization falls apart.”
“How about this,” Xantha suggested, “What if neither of us stay? After the babies are born, we could get a ship and travel across the galaxy.”
“Xantha, I could have forty babies. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do with them. I mean do I feed them? Do I change them? Will they have tails?”
“So what if they have tails or three heads, you’ll love them anyway!”
“You don’t really think they’ll have three heads right?”
“No silly,” Xantha giggled, “And I think if they grew up traveling through space, they’d have a much better life than they could have on a dying planet.”
“What would we do out there? Won’t we need money? Food?”
Xantha shrugged, “We’d figure it out. Maybe we’d make some friends along the way.”
“You’re thinking about Corrin, aren’t you?”
“I always think about Corrin. But now, I’m also thinking about you.”
“You don’t have very long left to live, don’t you want to be with your family?”
Xantha sighed and looked away. She pushed back a tear from her eyes and released my hand.
“Everyone I know is dead, Pandora. The rest are strangers to me. I’m just their strange aunt or sister with the dark past. My home is gone. Right now, I want to enjoy the last years I have left.”
“Find Corrin, tell her you love her, I’ve got it.”
Xantha laughed.
“Can you imagine? She’d growl and scratch my eyes out if I dared!”
“Fine. Maybe you’re right. After I have these babies, I’ll go with you.”
“Oh Pandora!” She squealed, squeezing me again, “We’re going to have an amazing time together!”
“I know,” I wheezed, “I know.”
She pulled away and pressed her hand to my extra large stomach.
“Come on, let’s talk to Xiomara and find out when you’re due. She never told me.”
“My guess is soon. How much bigger than this belly get?”
Xiomara measured my stomach, ran an instrument over my neck and my arms. She sighed.
“You’re quite far along. I don’t have the birthing pool quite ready yet, but I’ll get help and I promise, you will have the best birth you can imagine.”
“I can’t really imagine any birth actually.”
“But Barney…”
“It was a bit different with him. He’s like you and me, not like the Taureans.”
I stared across Xiomara’s living room where Barney played with her children. The young Xanflorae were fascinated with his skin and he was letting them pinch it as they watched him turn as pink as Carnations. The scent of lavender wafted through the house, as it always did. Xiomara burned homemade incense constantly. I got the feeling that my babies loved it.
Xiomara nodded, “Yes, Taurean births are complicated given the number. Most of the time, they’re done under water and the children mature after a few days and then they start running around and they’re much easier to manage.”
“So I’m just supposed to what, lay forty eggs in a body of water?”
“Well, yes. The good thing is, the eggs are quite soft and small.”
“Right. But I still need to pass them out of me.”
“We’ll give you something for the pain,” Xiomara responded. I got the idea she was holding something back from me. She’d been more than hospitable to me and Barney, so I didn’t want to question her hesitation.
“I would ask you to consider something Pandora if you don’t mind my frankness,” Xiomara continued.
“Of course. You’re kind of the expert around here.”
“With all due respect, I have my concerns about you giving birth to twenty or more Taurean children and having them raised here given the conditions that Taureans have inflicted on our planet.”
Ah, that’s what her hesitation was about.
“My children will be as much human as they are Taurean.”
“I understand. However, as this planet faces the change in climate, I can’t predict how other citizens would react. I want you and your children to be safe.”
Xantha chimed in, “You have nothing to worry about. Once the children can walk, we’ll be taking them into space on a voyage together.”
“You’re leaving?” Xiomara asked calmly, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.
“I know, I know, I’m going to expire in space if I leave. But Xiomara, I have to go. I might have belonged on this planet once, but not anymore. I want to spend my last years seeing everything I missed.”
“If you insist.”
“Don’t be mad.”
“I’m not. It’s probably a good idea,” Xiomara replied, her face softening into a smile.
“Oh, Pandora,” Xiomara said to me, touching my shoulder.
“Mm?”
“I have to warn you, Taurean broods are usually over 70% male. I’d expect a bunch of rowdy boys.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to be ready.”
“Yes. It’s a pity their father has abandoned them.”
I bit down on my lower lip. Damir hadn’t exactly abandoned them. He thought he was doing the right thing. He believed that he was giving his children status in life they’d never have a chance of having without him. His world was just too different from mine ultimately. But it still hurt to be apart from him. And it still hurt to blame him for everything, even if he’d accepted.
Xiomara hastened along with two assistants to finish the birthing pool. Xantha and I asked Xenophon to take us over to the Carnation village, where a street party exploded in full swing. After an hour or two of partying, sipping on hibiscus nectar and fried beans, a deep exhaustion settled over me. I nearly fell in the crowd. Xenophon and Xantha propped me up, despite their small size in comparison to me.
“Pandora, are you okay?”
“I’m fine…” I mumbled, even as my knees collapsed beneath me again.
I didn’t feel faint, I was lucid as ever, but I couldn’t stay standing no matter how much I tried.
“I’m calling Xiomara,” Xantha said, stepping aside to use her communicator.
“I think we’d better get to the egg,” Xenophon grunted as he strained to hold up my weight.
I leaned on him as he dragged me over. Xantha returned, worry turning her eyes an icy white.
“We have to go, Xenophon,” she sputtered, “Now!”
I blacked out after that. It didn’t feel as dramatic as blacking out, but I don’t think there’s another way to describe falling asleep standing up. I woke up, soaked in water. My hair stuck to my neck and my clothes stuck to my body. Two pairs of hands supported my back, keeping me floating in the water.
“She’s ready, pass me to the painkillers, Xantha.”
Cold metal pressed to my neck. My neck lolled about, dipping underwater until Xantha’s hands supported my head and she leaned forward, kissing my forehead.
“Don’t worry. It will be over soon. Xiomara thinks you only have nine hours.”
“Okay…”
I could feel something moving inside me, curling and uncurling and then swirling between my legs. Then came the pain, head-splitting pain that turned me red as I screamed and screamed and gave birth to my first children covered in placenta and amniotic fluid the tiny creatures, the size of newborn kittens, unfurled and disentangled themselves from each other, clawing their way out of their shared amniotic sac. The twin reptile babies pushed apart and swam off into the water.
“Call…Damir…” I gasped.
I screamed again, louder as an even more intense pain surged through me.
“I NEED PAINKILLERS!” I shrieked.
“We’ve given you the maximum dosage. Breathe. We’ll hold you. Barney is making a poultice of herbs which will help,” Xiomara replied. She was here too. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. Was she joking? Herbs? I didn’t need herbs, I needed someone to knock me unconscious…
“AHHHHHHHHH!” I screamed, and the sound vibrated my lungs, but the sound didn’t feel like it was coming from me. I could feel the first pair of twins swimming beneath me, pushing water as they circled Xantha and Xiomara’s legs.
A loud siren blared throughout the birthing pool as I birthed the second pair of reptilian twins, who I still hadn’t laid eyes on.
“W-what’s happening,” I stammered.
A voice boomed, “This is the Sekhmet-delta emergency broadcast system. An H-Class missile is three hours away from hitting the planet’s surface. Citizens are urged to evacuate the planet within thirty minutes.”
“AHHHHHHHH!”
Xantha squeezed my back and I could feel the shudder of fear that traveled through her.
“Keep pushing, Pandora. You’re almost finished.”
“What was that sound? What are they saying? Is there a problem?”
“Don’t worry about a thing. Just focus on breathing,” Xiomara said, but even her voice was shaking with fear. Oh God, Damir. What on earth have you done…
