Page 73 of Trove’s Purpose

And younglings…

They’d have younglings, huh?

Garnet was pregnant. Haven was pregnant. Grace was pregnant. Human females fell pregnant very easily. And Chee had given him no indication that she wasn’t interested in her own younglings. It was likely for them.

But he…

Trove couldn’t imagine. He’d never been around younglings. He couldn’t even begin to figure out how to raise one. He wasn’t even sure he could keep one alive. And if he tried to draw on experiences from his own youth…

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Sway asked, cocking his head.

Trove shook his, coming back up the small ramp to their docking door. “Just… Are you excited about being a… a father?”

Even the word felt wrong on his tongue. To imagine for himself. To imagine for any of his brothers. They were crooks and killers not… fathers.

But Sway smiled gently. “I am. I’m thrilled, in fact. She’s not letting us find out what the gender is yet. She wants it secret. There’s apparently an Earth custom of celebrating the gender announcement of younglings and part of the process is keeping it secret until the celebration itself.”

Trove made a face. “That’s an odd thing to celebrate.”

“That’s what I said,” Sway shrugged. “But if it makes her happy…”

He understood that sentiment. If Chee wanted to celebrate something, he wouldn’t actually care about the occasion. He’d just be happy to see her happy.

If that was the gender of their own youngling…

The sound of footsteps made them both reach for their weapons. Sway was wearing his metal claws as his species was naturally clawless. Trove had chosen a knife. It was long, black, and sharp.

But the footsteps weren’t coming from inside the station. Instead, they were coming from inside the Vainglory. They both turned to see Rok coming towards them. The big, four-armed male was smiling, unconcerned.

“How’s it going?” He asked.

“Seems fine so far,” Sway shrugged. “And the females?”

“Garnet was feeling sick, so I went to get her something for her stomach. Then Grace got sick because she was worrying. So, now I’m coming to find out how it’s going.”

“Pretty well,” Trove gestured to the empty dock. The others had dealt with the other problems. There wasn’t even an alarm blaring. Like Alred would let that happen.

“Bring them parts of their nests,” Sway said. “Gravid females prefer their nests. It might help them remain calm.”

Rok wasn’t listening, however. He was leaning to the side, looking past Trove. He followed his gaze to the three males all piled up in the corner. One of them, the baemoth Trove just took down, was moving. But all he had managed to do was somewhat come up on all fours – all sixes? He was struggling to get anywhere though.

Trove turned, raising the butt of his knife, fully intending on slamming it against the back of his head and sending him down again. They were still trying not to kill anyone – trying – but he could break their skulls a little bit, that was fine.

Yeah, Tanin definitely made the right choice.

Before he could fully finish covering the distance, however, Rok was there, putting a hand to his shoulder, stopping him. Trove gave him a curious look.

“What is it?”

“I know him” he said as though stunned.

“Huh?”

Rok kneeled down and grabbed the male with two hands. He let out a groan as Rok used three of his four hands to sit him up so he could look him in the – slightly – bloody face. The other male had some trouble focusing but when he did, he frowned.

“Uvmont? Is that you? You’re alive?” He breathed, stunned, using Rok’s old name. Because Rok wasn’t supposed to leave the ship, so he wasn’t wearing a mask.

“Do we need to silence him?” Trove asked, deftly twisting the knife in the air so that the point was aimed at him instead.