Monday Musings 1.13

Commander Myzme personally delivered the data file to Fortunas.

“My kinswoman, Ambassador Teriwyn ko’Khanaa expresses once more her apologies for the delay.  Your Captain Hill wished for a high level of security. The special encrypted transmissions take longer to transmit.”

“Quite alright. Speed of delivery was unnecessary and, therefore, unwarranted.”

The tall alien leaned to her right to peer at the empty office behind Ben.

“Dr. Ruger is not present?”

“She is not. She’s feeding Ginny.”

“The other humans are healthy? None of you are now suffering from this anemia? That is the correct word?”

Ben nodded once. “It is the correct word, and yes we are all responding well to the lorga leaching treatments. No more anemia. The new filter systems are performing admirably.” He stepped to the side and indicated the workspace. “I can run this data. Would you like to observe?”

Myzme ko’Khanaa bent her muscular neck briefly downward. “That would be an intrusion. Please let me know if you require further assistance. Knowledge and peace to you, Doctor.” The Kigvan commander abruptly turned and loped away.

Ben Fortunas frowned. He’d only known the Kigvan species for a few months, but it was odd for one of them to turn down the chance to learn new information. Myzme had been a part of their investigation from the beginning. Did she, perhaps, already know what the file said? Had Kigvan couriers peeked?

The flat elliptical data disk barely covered his palm. They’d waited a month for this last piece of the puzzle. The intervening days had not been idle. Scans of DNA records for both of Ginny’s parents had yielded surprising results. Ryan Hill and his late wife, Marissa Hill, both carried the same genetic mutation as their child.

Which, Ben had been quick to point out to Dr. Ruger, did not mean that Ryan and Marissa had not engaged in deliberate genetic manipulation.  Now, if the genome map of the Hill brothers’ parents showed that they too carried the mutation, that would bolster the case that pure random chance rather than an intentional act was the cause of Ginny’s immunity to lorga-induced anemia.

Ben tapped the files, expanded them, and leaned back.

He grunted in surprise.

***

Upon entering his home, Ben immediately tensed. His head swiveled as his eyes took note of every possible exit and potential weapon in the small space.

Cassie Riger looked up at him. Her face was wet and blotchy. She tried to stifle a sob.

“What is it? Cassie? What’s happened?” Ben knelt beside her. Even with her seated on the small sofa and his knees on the floor, he seemed to tower over her. She was clearly distraught, but his first and second scans of the room yielded no obvious signs of danger.

His stomach clenched suddenly.

“Cassie, where’s Ginny? Has something happened to the baby?”

“She’s fine. She’s—” hiccup “—sleeping.” Cassie pointed to the holographic display on the wall showing the baby’s heart and respiration rate. “It’s just… I started thinking about…” With another hiccupping sob, Cassie threw her arms around Ben’s neck and buried her face in his shoulder.

“I see.” He didn’t, not really, but he relaxed all the same. Whatever was going on, it was clearly not a physical threat to be dealt with.

With grace and strength that a purportedly seventy-year-old man should not have possessed, Fortunas stood—lifting Cassie in the process. He settled down where she’d been sitting. Pulling her close, he stroked her hair with one large, calloused hand.

“Come now, Liebchen, talk to me.”

“I was holding her, and she smiled at me. She’s genuinely happy to see me.”

Bemused, Ben murmured, “So?”

She twitched in his arms, obviously agitated. “I don’t deserve that! I don’t deserve her! She’s supposed to be bonding with her mother, not me! What right do I have to her love?”

He wanted to laugh. A younger version of himself would have. The tragedy-scarred older version, though, knew precisely what Cassie felt.

“I know. What right have I to this happiness she brings? For that matter, what right do I have to the joy you gift me with every day?”

She managed to pull herself upright. “You always listen to me. You’ve always been supportive. You actually care. You don’t have to earn my love, Ben. I give it, freely.”

He quirked a bushy gray-white brow at her.

She lightly shoved his shoulder. “Not the same thing and you know it. She’s an infant. She’s not consenting to this bond. For her it’s just instinctual. I feel like I’ve stolen her.”

“Liebchen. Listen to yourself. You have not stolen that child. You delivered her. You’ve fed and nurtured her. You go toe to toe with aliens twice your size to defend her. How many hours of sleep have you lost? How many hours of work? You volunteered to give a piece of your heart—no, your soul—to that child. We’ve a word for that: parenting.”

Her face betrayed conflicting reactions to his words. “But wouldn’t she be better off back on Earth? With her—”

“With her own people?” Ben snorted. “There likely exists a family that, based on pure logic, would be theoretically better for Ginny’s well-being. But that’s not how life works, and you well know it. She’s right where she’s meant to be. She’s also exactly where we need her to be.”

Cassie nibbled her lip but relaxed enough to lay her head back on his shoulder.

“All of this over a little smile? Remind me to stick to frowns for a while.”

“Shut it, old man.” She toyed with the old-fashioned buttons on his shirt. “Any news today?”

“Actually, yes. The files came in just an hour ago.”

“What!” Her shout woke the baby.

Ben helped her to stand even as he shook his head. “Let’s go get our daughter and I’ll tell you the results.”

“You looked at them without telling me?”

“Are you going to fuss at me or do you want the information?”

“Both!”

He followed her into their bedroom.  Cassie leaned over the bassinet and lifted Ginny.

“See the grumpy old man? Yes. I’m sorry he woke you up.”

“If she keeps lying to you, kid, you should definitely vomit on her.” Even as he groused, Ben reached over and tapped Ginny’s nose. “Well, young lady, it seems you are just incredibly lucky. Both of the Hill brothers’ parents carried that same mutation. As David Hill, their father, has been deceased for almost twenty years, it is highly unlikely that any genome tampering occurred in his case. So, it seems our adorable little Inheritor’s remarkable kidney function is a mere coincidence.”

Cassie looked down at her adopted daughter and up at Ben. “But you don’t believe in coincidences. You’ve always said that.”

He brushed his lips across her forehead. “I never thought I’d fall in love, much less have a family, again. What bizarre series of coincidences brought you into my life? Think of all that had to happen for Ginny to be ours. All of it is fantastical. It defies logic. Yet, here we are.”

They stood there, listening to the air filters humming and the nightly storm beginning to howl.

“We can do this, right?” Cassie Ruger asked. “We can raise a child who will one day decide the disposition of an entire planet?”

Ginny grasped one of Cassie’s fingers. Ben laid one hand over top theirs. “That’s the greatest gift fate has given Ginny: parents who ask such a question. Who better than two people unsure they are worthy of the honor?”

A particularly violet gust of wind triggered one of the environmental alarms Fortunas had set-up. He silenced the alarm and pried the baby from Cassie’s arms. “Looks like we’re in for another howler of an evening. What say you, Mädchen? Can you shriek louder than the wind? Shall we dub you the Storm of Dremiks?”

“For heaven’s sake, Ben, she has enough other-wordly titles.”

Ginny cooed before startling them both with a shriek of laughter.

“I don’t know, Storm seems much more fitting.”

“Don’t encourage her. And you, miss,” Cassie kissed the springy curls on Ginny’s head. “Do not encourage him.”

As Cassie preceded them out of the bedroom, she heard Ben whisper to the baby held against his shoulder, “Howl away, Liebchen. Show this planet who’s in charge.”