Page 30 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“I don’t have any intentions of marrying soon,” I assured her. She relaxed a little, telling me my guess had been correct.

Her gaze dropped down to where one of the healers was wiggling their fingers over Nadia’s face to get her to shift her gaze while another one stared into her eyes with an ocular scanner.

“I couldn't imagine letting someone else raise my baby girl,” she whispered, gently grasping one of Nadia’s chubby little feet.

While I wouldn’t ever consider breaking the law to raise my child, I could easily picture the joy of being part of Nadia’s upbringing.

“Don’t ever fear,” I murmured, gently taking Nadia’s other foot in my hand. “You’ll never be separated from Nadia, and I’ll always be at your side to help raise her.”

I was rewarded for my words when Mika looked up at me and took my free hand with hers. “I think I’m starting to appreciate that.”

“That pleases me deeply,” I murmured, falling into Mika’s eyes. She was an absolutely stunning human and I was beyond blessed by the ancestors.

Chapter 10

Mika

Except for being at the low end of the weight range for her age, the healers declared Nadia healthy. Slorium wanted Mazorium to send regular updates, as they would be the closest Talin outpost to the planet he was surveying.

According to Mazorium, this station was over ten days of travel from where we were going. A twenty-day round trip was a lot of precious time to spend on caring for a “pet.” That’s why I was a little shocked at how forceful Slorium was when she told Mazorium he had to bring us back for checkups at least “once every solar.”

“It will be difficult, but I’m sure I can work that into my schedule,” he agreed, and without a single argument!

They talked a little longer about future checkups and human health. When Slorium asked that Mazorium include vid captures of Nadia when she started crawling and walking, I got the feeling it wasn’t all about monitoring her developmental milestones.Especially when she said it would be perfectly acceptable for Mazorium to set up a vid capture to record Naida’s entire day and send the captures in monthly data packets.

These guys were obsessed with us!

Ithorum was waiting for us outside the medical bay when Slorium and the other healers were finally done.

The first words out of her mouth were a question. “Did you receive an invitation from the station director?”

Mazorium sounded a rumble of agreement. “We’re scheduled to join her for a meal in three marks. Until then, I’d like to do some shopping for my humans.”

Ithorum didn’t move right away. “I’ll be joining you for the meal.”

“I’m aware,” Mazorium said.

Ithorum continued to hesitate, then pointed. “Let’s walk this way. It might not be the most direct way to merchants' row, but it goes by the hanging garden. I believe your human will enjoy it.”

I recognized her ploy for privacy, and so did Mazorium. He didn’t even look at me before agreeing with Ithorum.

While we’d been in the medical bay, one of the healers had rushed to a tailor machine and had a baby sling manufactured for me. All I’d done was make a joke about how carrying Nadia everywhere was building up my arm muscles, but they took it as a veiled cry for help. Now she was snuggled against my chest, and her weight was distributed between a belt around my waist and two straps running over my shoulders. I remember my mom using something similar, but I forgot about it until they presented the contraption.

I was thrilled the moment I figured out what it was. With it, walking with Mazorium and Ithorum was easy, and I still got to keep Nadia close. Despite how much easier it was for me to walk now, Ithorum kept the same slow pace as before.

Except for Ithorum constantly making sure I wasn’t struggling with our sluggish pace, we walked in silence. I didn’t mind; I cast my eyes around and took in the details of the well-made and efficiently run Talin station. I’d spend my entire adult life living and working on stations and ships, but I’d never been on one as nice as this.

Then we turned a corner and I gasped. We’d entered an open space filled with bright colors and the scent of damp soil. Calling it a hanging garden was apt because not only were most of the plants in suspended pots, but others were crawling up trellises all over the place. Most of the plants were flowering and filled the air with a variety of sweet smells.

As we got to the center, I was astonished to find that there were small insects flitting from flower to flower.

I’d never been on a station that deliberately kept insects on board. It was astonishing and a testament to the Talins’ skills that they weren’t concerned that the bugs would migrate to less desirable areas, like biosystem ducts.

I know Ithorum suggested it for privacy, but I was grateful to her because Mazorium might not have thought to show me this. I moved to one of the plants growing all the way up the three floors of the garden and put my nose to a neon pink bloom, only to have a bug fly out at me.

Laughing, I waved a hand and moved back. Right, I’d forgotten about how insects liked to treat human noses like flowers. It’d been a long time since I’d encountered one in person.

“Your human finds the plants amusing,” Ithorum said. As before, a crowd was gathering on the open walkways above us. I couldn’t hear any of them, probably an effect of the architecture in this area.