Page 22 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“You don’t?”

“No, I don’t,” he repeated. As if to distract me, he rushed to a storage locker and pulled items out. “Let me get you a meal while you feed Nadia. I’m sure she’s hungry.”

I sat down and thought about the fact that this Talin had spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out how to make Nadia happy. It was so sweet, tears gathered in my eyes.

“This might not be where I wanted us to end up,” I whispered to her as Mazorium loudly explained everything he was doing as he fixed me some food. “But I have to admit, this isn’t so bad.”

I worked the shoulder of my top off to bare a breast for Nadia to suckle.

She latched on and sucked greedily. It felt good to be able to nurse again. My eyes glanced over at the stained wall as Nadia nursed, making my curiosity flair again. Mazorium had never hesitated to explain everything in great detail before this.

I dropped my eyes back down to the feeding baby. “I wish you could tell me what happened,” I murmured. “I bet it’s a good story, and I bet you had something to do with it.”

Chapter 8

Mazorium

I turned around with a bowl full of jorjuk stew to find that Mika had changed the configuration of her outfit to allow Nadia access to one of her mammary glands. My body froze as my eyes focused on the image in front of me. I felt so many things so rapidly I wasn’t able to move for several micromarks.

The first thing that hit me was how beautiful Mika looked while she nourished Nadia. She was gazing at the baby with a degree of love and happiness that I didn’t know existed. The pup was newly born but Mika would die to protect her.

What had it been like when Mika carried Nadia in her body? She’d probably talked to the baby in her belly, telling her how much she was loved even before she was born. I longed to have known Mika then. I could’ve spoken to the unborn pup too and maybe even put my head to Mika’s belly and listened to Nadia’s heartbeat.

That would’ve been magical. No experience in my life would’ve compared.

In the wake of that longing, a powerful jealousy rose up in me. It was thick and ugly, like black sickness that can invade and destroy a ship’s biosystem.

For a brief moment, I wanted to be Nadia. I wanted Mika’s undivided attention. I wanted her love focused entirely on me.

Little Nadia would never understand what the absence of such adoration felt like. I had an entire childhood devoid of even a fraction of the affection that Mika was displaying at the moment. This pup would be showered with affection her entire life and never realize it was a gift.

One of Nadia’s hands waved in the air as she suckled, as if she was trying to get my attention. The negative feelings vanished, replaced by an overwhelming sense of responsibility.

Why was I jealous of a pup? Nadia was helpless and needed me to be her protector not her competitor. Eventually Mika might trust me enough to be affectionate toward me, but my first concern needed to be keeping them both safe and healthy.

Shaking off the emotions I wasn’t used to feeling, I started up a soothing rumble and brought the stew over to Mika.

“You need to eat also,” I said, setting it down in front of her. She picked up the tall bowl with one hand and took a cautious sip. She must’ve decided she liked it because she started slurping it down.

“This is really good!” she exclaimed.

“I fed that to you a few times over the last rotation,” I pointed out.. “But you never seemed to come fully awake during those times.”

She nodded. “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that much good sleep. Thank you.”

“From now on, you’ll get all the sleep you need,” I assured her. “We’ll be stopping at a Talin owned and operated station soon.I hope they’ll have all the supplies we need for you, including more bedding.”

“More bedding?” she asked. “If you need some of it, you can take it. I don’t need such a big, um, nest.”

For some reason she looked amused when saying the word nest. Probably because it wasn’t up to the standards for a human.

“It’s not that we lack bedding but that yours isn’t the correct kind,” I explained. “You should have bigger and softer pillows and blankets that are colorful and fluffy. I’ve read all the literature and humans can only be happy if they have those things.”

“What else does the literature say about humans?” she asked, then winced a little and pulled Nadia away from her breast. Her dark nipple was taut and wet from the baby’s suckling.

For a brief moment I had the urge to put my lips to her breast and suckle also.

I shook my head to get that inappropriate image out of my mind.