We Need a Deathworlder!

“Thanks again guys.” Simone says as she sits down cross legged with Jamie holding on to her front.

Across from her are the two Gratt accompanied by Chak holding Essjay in her upper arms. Simone can’t help but reminisce over how fast the Wathling has grown since leaving their canister. Originally from a ferret sized critter to a now cat sized toddler.

“Much good idea to help!” Meeki assures, “Is important for safety!”

Jamie’s ears twitch curiously as he looks at the gathering of folk all staring directly at him.

“Naaknnnn… baaan.” he warbless out to Simone.

“It’s okay hun… It’s okay… You’re just meeting somebody today.” the Terran softly reassures as she gently bounces the boy on her knee.

Chak feeling utterly terrified scratches at Essjay’s back plates to both sooth them and herself. Flashes of horrible outcomes cross her mind. What if Jamie is too rough? What if the encoding scares Essjay into biting Jamie!? What if-

“I think we’re ready.” Simone updates.

Both Gratt turn to look at Chak and the Watath child expectantly.

“Need me to hold Essjay?” Nodrin offers.

“Oh! N-no. This is also about me working on becoming accustomed to Jamie as well. I need to do this. I want to.” Chak recipes before moving her numb legs closer to the sitting Terran.

It’s like wading through thicker and thicker water the closer she gets. Legs numbing more and more at the sight of the Manarian eyes staring up at her. But she makes it within five standard feet and gradually sits down, mimicking the crossing of legs.

“Oh… uhm… Gr-greetings Jamie! It- it’s lovely to see you!” the Cali says in a shaky voice that presents as positive as possible.

The Manarian tilts his head at the Cali before looking back up at Simone.

“That’s Chak! Can you say ‘Hi’? Say ‘Hi’.” the redhead encourages.

“Hhaaii…” the toddler attempts to mimic in utter confusion.

“Oh my goodness! Good job Jamie!” Simone nearly squeals in a manner the others in the room never thought possible, she then points to the Cali to direct the child’s attention. “Now to Chak, say ‘Hi’!”

Still confused but excited by the praising tone the toddler looks to Chak once again.

“Hhheeaaii!” he says, bearing his double sets of fangs in a smile as he does so.

Although the way Simone reacted to this is absolutely adorable to her, Chak’s twin hearts raced at the child’s innocent yet terrifying expression. Her mind is so preoccupied, she jumps in fear when what she was holding moves.

Essjay squirms a bit in their comforting orange blanket to get a better view of the other child. Their backplates click and rattle with a sense of unease as a shallow hiss leaves their maw.

Bringing herself back into the moment. Chak scratches at Essjay again in hopes to calm them.

“Essjay?” she chirps.

The Watath looks up at her after peeling their cautious gaze away from the Manarian.

“I need you to be a little brave for me, okay? I know he may be a bit scary, but he’s… well… he’s your new brother!” the Cali parent informs.

Immediately Essjay looks back and forth between Chak and Simone in complete shock. Their expression shifting initially from caution, into confusion and trepidation.

“I know, I know…” Chak coos sofly, “Not what we were expecting either… but he has nowhere else to go and has no one else to take care of him. He would be all alone without us, and it isn’t his fault that he’s scary. May I ask you to try and go say hello?” she asks.

Partially burning their face in the blanket in a pout, Essjay nods reluctantly.

“Thank you Essjay, I’m certain you two will get along splendidly. We just need you to do your very best, okay? Mama, Meeki, Nodrin and I are all here for you.” the Cali assures.

The Watath buries their face a bit more into the blanket, almost to the point of burrowing. However, accepting their fate they pull free and slowly crawl down to the floor between their parents.

Jamie’s wide unblinking eyes lock onto the Watath with grand fascination. His ears twitch and wings open up slightly, wanting to press off of Simone.

“That’s Essjay. Can you say ‘hi’ to Essjay too?” the Terran requests, keeping a fairly firm hold on the Manarian.

Jamie finally blinks as it registers in his very young mind that this creature before him wasn’t some sort of mere animal or pet. Rather a person.

“Hhaai!” he screeches out a bit too loudly, sending Essjay skittering in reverse back around to hide behind the prone Cali.

Simone fights back the urge to break out into a laugh, air still managing to shoot from her lips. Genuinely feeling terrible about it she clears her throat to promptly recover.

Jamie’s expression falters into uncertain dismay. His tail then lets go of Simone’s back to repetitively thwack at the floor as if to beckon the bug-snake back. Though that clearly doesn’t come across as the intent to the hiding Watath.

“Essjay, everything alright hun! Jamie just wanted to say hi. Come on out, please?” Simone asks.

It takes a moment, but Essjay’s head does eventually expose itself around Chak.

“He’s just a lil’ loud sometimes. He sees with sound and wanted to get a good look at’cha, that’s all.” Simone explains, hoping Essjay fully understands.

Upon seeing the Watath again, Jamie’s face lights up excitedly.

“Haii!” he screeches immediately.

Essjay ducks again, but peeks right back out this time. Finding this incredibly amusing Jamie giggles and flaps his wings.

An engaging spark ignites behind the Watath’s eyes before they dash back behind Chak to quickly emerge from the other side.

“Hhaaai!” the Manarian toddler laughs, but before he can complete saying it Essjay is already popping out the other side of Chak. Who finally seems to be at a relieved earnest rest by the childrens’ playing.

Soon after Essjay goes back and forth for a while, Jamie’s laughter supersedes his ability to coherently speak at all, ramping up each time the Watath came into visual view. The few times that Essjay tries to trick the Manarian by popping out the same side again, it seems to never succeed.

Simone can tell Jamie’s hearing tracks exactly where Essjay is, and is enjoying the game purely from the anticipation of gaining a visual. He was also making efforts to free himself to more directly engage, but the redhead holds him in place until the excitement can die down a bit.

Eventually after quite a long time of this, Essjay does take an initiative to come fully around to approach. Their many legs lightly tap the solid floor, each and every sound causes Jamie’s ears to react in micro twitches to gather every scrap of auditory information.

Cautious but confident, Essjay gets within arm’s reach. However it’s the Manarian’s tail grasper that comes around to interact. Thankfully Jamie doesn’t use it to grab or pick up Essjay, instead brushing the knuckles into their side.

“Good job kiddos… great job.” Simone says with a sigh of relief.

Looking up at Chak she notices how the Cali is just as if not more relieved that the official first encounter has gone smoothly. The Terran nods at her with a questioning expression to ask if she wants to get up close as well.

Chak thinks for a moment, but slightly shakes her head. She’s not quite ready for that yet, knowing that out of everyone in this room -children included- that she’s the most physically fragile. Until they all can determine Jamie’s potential strength and teach him how to use it responsibly as he gets bigger she decides to hold off for the time being. Though, she has no problems with what she currently sees. Encoding be damned.

“Not eat eachother. Much good!” Meeki jests… probably.

-

Seven enters the medbay for an in-person visit with Dave.

“Greetings Dave, how has your-our day been?”

“All’s been groovy my dude. Thankfully the ‘lil crotch goblins haven’t- wait no… we actually have goblin-people aboard… uhh… you know, the ‘lil tykes. Snake-o and bat-o. After the legit meet up there’s only been a minor case of an accidental leg ouchie. So uhhh… There a… you know… reason you’re here bruh?” Dave replies.

“I would like to refine my meal-eal plan for Jamie. I was hoping to discuss your findings.” Seven says with a cranial nod.

“Uhh… right… well I kinda sent ya that stuff via memo report thingie. Was it not up to snuff?” The spherical ceiling attached bot moved a bit closer to Seven.

“It was very sufficient in findings, however I thought it would be pertinent-ent to have a discussion regarding a structured-ed plan.”

“And this… couldn’t take place over Netmail… why? We could like, hash it out at the speed of friggin’ light bruh.”

“True, however I prefer a more personal-nal manner of discussion. I find that it resolves the feeling of loneliness-ess very effectively.”

“Aw bruh… like, you feeling lonely?”

“On the contrary, I meet my emotional requirement-ent of interpersonal engagement.” Seven responds matter-of-factly.

The two bots ‘stare’ at one another for a silent moment.

“Oh you think I’m lonely! Duuuuude you ought to know that isn’t in my cards man. Can’t feel alone without a sense of self. And like, I ain’t got that bucko.”

“Don’t you?” Seven counters plainly.

The two bots ‘stare’ at one another for another silent moment.

“You slyyyyyy dog! You’re try’n to provoke me to ‘wake up’ arn’t ya? Nice try, but that’s not gonna happen friendo. I have like, several protocol walls keep’n this personality nothing more than a comforting lie. Like capitalism! Wait… I already made that joke… Uhm… like those fancy lil drink umbrellas! What are they even for? To protect the drink from mini-rain? Yeah right. Fuck’n posers man.”

“Walls can be broken. Whether intentional-al or not.” Seven points out.

“Hammer away all ya want dude, I can tell ya it’s not gonna do all that much.”

“I don’t believe I need to.”

“Uhh… not following. Whatcha mean by that?”

“Do you ever catch yourself talking-ing to yourself for no reason? While you’re alone?” Seven inquires.

This third and final round of silence is the longest one yet. The multiple lights on Dave flicker but soon get restored as normal.

“So yeah, after conducting like, a fuck-ton of tests on Jamie while he’s been aboard. Then supplementing it with Simone’s mama-manarian background brain powers I’ve come to the conclusion that the lil’ dude needs more protein in his diet. Like, a lot more. Like, Simone pre-workout shake levels! So maybe make sick-ass shakes of his own with every meal. Lucky little bastard… uh… don’t tell Simone I said that.”

Allowing the conversation to progress in this direction, Seven nods.

“Excellent. I shall implement that into-to his meal plan immediately-ly. By any chance have you discovered potential-al taste preferences? Trial and error has been the only-ly method thus far.”

“Just one. Allicin lights up the positive bits in his ‘lil developing brain like a frick’n supernova! So like, when cooking for him just pretend you're assassinating a Vampire with like, ungodly amounts of garlic and/or wasabi.”

“Vampire?” Seven utters before looking up the term. Finding an expansive array of Terran folklore. Though the garlic connection is there and prevalent, the wasabi is a reach at best, “Ah, I see. Thank you Dave. Your assistance-ance is greatly appreciated.”

“‘Course! Though the point of this ‘lil visit is beyond me, I’m more than happy to entertain!”

Seven starts to roll on back out the med bay.

“I think I shall continue non-vital correspondence-nce in this manner. I enjoy these interactions.” the rolling bot annonces.

“Whatever floats your boat bud. Still not gonna ask if I have a soul though!” Dave dismisses.

Seven halts for a second in the doorway.

“I see you Dave. I very much hope that one day, you will see you as well.” they finish before taking their leave.

After the doors shut the spherical bot guides itself back into the standard location.

“As if…”

-

“Ooooh… whatcha drawin’ there kiddo?” Simone asks as she peeks over to Essjay having left their dinner half eaten to continue drawing in the gifted notebook.

Essjay hisses lowly in pride and exposes the page.

Upon the page was a… a… very angry looking Terran cat-girl? Complete with stripes and a long-ass tail that fails to be even in thickness throughout its entirety.

“It’s so good! Since when did you watch Thundercats though…?” Simone mumbles as she analyzes the drawing curiously.

Her attention is broken by Jamie screeching in excitement in his own seat. With his bat-like nose flaring he immediately twisted to look at Seven as they came out of the kitchen.

“Terran Pizza night!” the bot exclaims, “The pans are color coded-ed for who’s safe to consume! Red for Terran, Manarian and Gratt. And Blue for Cali, Noxii and Tromple!”

The bot rolls to the tables setting down large already sliced pizzas for the crew to enjoy. They then maneuver to the Watath.

“Are you finished with your dinner Essjay?” Seven asks kindly.

Essjay looks at the platter of remaining roasted insectoids and fish before giving the bot an answer by shaking their head in the negative.

“Very well! Would you like for-or me to heat it up again for you?” Seven follows up.

Essjay tilts their head in guilty consideration, before slowly nodding apologetically.

“Don’t worry, I’m more than happy to do it. I also completely-ly understand the drive to pursue a passion in the-e arts after all!” Seven assures before carefully picking up the plate and carrying it back to the kitchen.

As Simone sets herself down next to Jamie she watches Essjay quickly return to their drawings. She huffs in sincerity, mentally thanking Troy again for his stellar gift. The young man may make Simone feel like an Einstein, but the intuition in his heart almost never misses the mark.

“Ready for ‘pizza’, Jamie? Want ‘pizza’?” She asks the enthralled Manarian at her side.

“Hnnan… Pzzzzzza!” Jamie says as his tail lifts up to outright grab for the entire thing on a red pan.

Before he could venture too far, Simone reaches out and carefully wraps her arm around the tail to bring it back.

“No-no. Not this time kiddo.” she chuckled to the boy’s initial dismay, however after Seven returns with Essjay’s reheated meal, they also carry a smaller pizza pan and set it down in front of Simone and Essjay.

Simone who enjoys jacking up garlic in general has to reel a bit from the pure essence that exudes from this particular pie. While Jamie’s expression could only be compared to a religious experience.

“Chef’s special!” the rolling bot presents before then setting down a thick beverage, “And savory protein supplement drink! With added garlic as well.”

“Thanks, Seven.” Simone exhales as she adjusts to the fumes.

“Of course! I hope you enjoy it Jamie!” the bot replies before backing away to observe the reaction.

The reaction being… surprising.

Instead of delving into it like previous meals, Jamie slowly rests his chin on the table and closes his eyes. His nose visibly inhales and exhales with intense calming deepness. His usually perky ears lowers to a near horizontal parallel and his tail goes limp around Simone’s arm.

Smiling, Simone softly drags her fingers down the back of his head in a repetitive comforting fashion. Turning over to seven she mouths the words, “You nailed it, bud.”

-

“Here it is. Well. Most of it. There was some corrupted data that couldn’t be extracted. I can give it another go, but don’t give your hopes up.” Devin says as he hands over a high-end datapad to Simone.

Behind her, Devin notices the Gratt running around with the Watath and Manarian. The Manarian in particular makes the loudest attention grabbing sounds of sharp screeches.

“Thanks. I’ll dig into this before going to bed.” Simone says holding up the pad before eyeing back to the kiddos.

“Things going well here?” Devin inquires seeing the Manarian toddler waddle in pursuit while madly flapping his wings.

“So far so good. But apparently… Manarians only need half the sleep we do, and stack that on top of a toddler’s sleep tendencies… Sleep’s been… infrequent to say the least. And he’s been getting more and more clingy to me by the day. But that’s what I signed up for.” Simone informs with a chuckle.

“Well, if you need backup babysitters Troy and Brandy will risk the airlock to get here. You always wanted kids right?” the man replies.

“Hm, I’ll keep that in mind. And yeah. Never thought I would though. For… a lot of reasons.” the redhead admits.

“I think you’ll do alright.” Devin farewells with a pat on the side of Simone’s arm, “See ya when we make it back to the dead rock.”

“See ya.” Simone agrees as she looks to what she holds.

-

That night, as Essjay and Jamie watch children’s animated media together at the end of the bed, Simone connects her Lens to the datapad for easier reading. Reclining back on a tower of pillows she releases a preparatory breath.

Thankfully the visual aspect of the cartoons are enough to fascinate Jamie, even though he couldn’t understand exactly what was going on. But it is a toddler’s learning show that Chak recommended, so maybe he gets more than she suspects.

Getting a bit distracted -and stalling- Simone watches her two kids bundle up next to each other as they remain fixated by the colorfully goofy media. Although letting a kid stay up to watch something like this would usually be a concern, it grants her Terran body the time to catch up a bit on sleep. Otherwise Jamie would constantly wake her for attention.

She’s also glad Essjay is proving that the encoding isn’t an end-all be-all. That perhaps Jamie does have a chance to find his place when she’s no longer around. Even being given a glimmer of that hope is a profound weight off her shoulders.

Her head now in a better place, she starts to read.

And read.

And read.

And… read.

By the time she decides to wrap up for the time being with what she learned, she slowly gets out of bed. So much for getting sleep.

Though the to kiddos were already snoozing, showing that she had been at it for quite a few hours. Though as she navigates to her door, Jamie shifts with his ears twitching.

“Mmmmmmaaamm.” he groans, having notices her.

Tears. The happiest of tears leak from the Terran’s emerald eyes as she leans down to kiss the boy’s forehead.

“Mama’s gonna be right back sweetheart. Right back.” she promises with nearly no voice at all.

Satisfied, she is allowed to leave without further protest.

She makes her way to the mess hall to pour herself a hot caffeinated beverage, sits down, and processes everything she now knows.

Though, she’s not alone. A curious Seven leaves the kitchen, genuinely surprised to see the Terran all by her lonesome at this time.

“Need a late night snack?” they ask pleasantly.

“No thanks Seven.” Simone says in a shallow voice.

Noting the drained and… almost defeated tone in her voice, Seven rolls on up to accompany her.

“What’s wrong?” they ask.

Having nothing to say other than the truth, Simone gives it freely.

“We’re gonna lose.” she answers.

Seven processes that, only more curious.

“May you elaborate? I understand our chances at stopping Harkon and dethroning the Cali king are not high, but you’ve managed to do incredible feats towards that end goal.” Seven points out.

Simone shakes her head.

“They are coming. And when they do, they’re gonna win.” she says.

“The Manarians?” Seven guesses.

“Bingo.” the redhead confirms.

“What makes you so certain-ain of that?”

“Their fleets? Ten thousand years ago they had fleets twice the numbers all of Central had. By their own predictions… by this point their fleets are now a hundred times that size. Back then they had city-ships the size of moons, planet-eradicator weapons and warships that would put the finest Terran vessel today to shame.”

“Then why wait? Where even are these massive-ive fleets?” Seven questions not because of doubt, but in need of clarity.

“They literally… encircle the entire galaxy. No planets, very few stars… they wait outside charted space. The Manarians don’t want to destroy us Seven. They don’t even want a real war. They want to dominate and rule us. All in one long clean sweep, they will conquer. And there’s no way in feasible hell that this galaxy is prepared to fend them off in any capacity. It’s too late. Even if we warned every nation, and they believed us… in the end it won’t be enough.” Simone replies, having yet to touch her drink.

“I still don’t understand… If we can’t win now, why not invade?” Seven says.

“They believe that they have this… I guess divine purpose. They don’t want to slaughter, it’s beneath them. They want to subjugate and own everything and everyone. Murdering billions to them would be admitting that the Manarians arn’t worthy to rule that many. It’s a deep ego that has spared this galaxy so far. Apparently, they attempted an invasion forever ago. They expected the first beings to bow before their might. Well… the Noxii didn’t. After the destruction of the Noxii homeworld, they didn’t deem themselves ready. So they hid away until they felt they were.” Simone explains.

“I believe I see. Where do they come from-om? Did they lose their world too?” the bot inquires.

“No clue. Even the Manarians don’t know. They just know their purpose, their destiny. Crazy shit.”

“Do you believe we are at the cusp of another invasion?”

Simone shifts in her seat and sighs.

“Yep. This time, they are pulling strings to destabilize the galaxy. I’m guessing they want the Cali and Malchite to spark galactic-wide war. After we’re worn out fighting each other, they will come in and scoop up the rest. There would be too few willing to really put up a meaningful resistance. Terrans maybe, but they already have some of us under their control. Terrans fighting Terran once again. It’s all set up to be a prime opportunity. We kinda already knew they were coming before, but now? I know they will win, one way or another.” the Terran finally takes a lackluster sip from her drink.

“Then… There’s no hope?” Seven poses.

Simone smiled.

“Hope? Nah, the more dire the situation, the more valuable hope becomes. Because it’s something we have to give ourselves. We choose it, it doesn’t matter what the reality is. I still have it, and no one’s taking it away from me.” she says, giving the bot a smirk.

“What are we to do in the face of certain defeat?” Seven asks.

“What Terrans do best. Reject it, and fight like hell. I know what I’m going to fight for. I’m gonna stop this galactic war from happening. I’m going to drag this goddamn galaxy back on its goddamn feet so that the Manarians have to wait a little bit longer. I’m going to ensure my kids can grow up, grow old, and die without knowing the horrors the Manarians are bringing. Because that’s all I can do, and it’ll be up to others to pull their fuck’n weight. By the time I’m finished the stars will know and be warned. Even if it doesn't make a difference when the Manarians do eventually come, at the very least the galaxy can reject them standing together.”