Page 43 of Life-Debt

“If he thinks that’s going to stop you, he’s crazier than I thought,” his father muttered. “We need to get in our positions. Remember, no inciting the clans to battle each other until later.”

“Should I be concerned?” my mother asked.

“Only if you don’t like watching feathered murder machines posture,” I replied. “It’s fun. They’ll feed us while they posture, and if you’re unlucky, you’ll be adopted. If you’re really unlucky, several clans will fight for the right to adopt you. They are not clear on how adoption actually works. Honestly, you’re going to be adopted. You haven’t run away screaming yet. You should have seen the technicians who came trying to rig up a new ship for the Cremora Deltans.”

“It helped they sent the hatchlings out to greet us at the landport,” my mother admitted. “We hadn’t learned even the hatchlings are predators.”

“They’re adorable, and that gets them close enough to take no prisoners. It’s too late for us all.” I looked around the reception room that had been transformed into the pre-ceremony bridal suite. “Someone ran off with our foxes again.”

“They’re with Delta, and they’re decked out in a ridiculous number of jewels. I’d been meaning to ask. Where did you get the male? He’s an excellent specimen.”

“I don’t know where Carthello got him.”

“The tentacle man with scales and claws?” my mother asked.

Right. Carthello had come for the wedding, citing the life-debt and a refusal to miss out on a day I was forced to accept gifts. “Yes, him. He’s a good sort. He helped me acquire my stasis machine.”

“We are rolling in kits, so I’ll speak to him. They need good homes.”

Oh, boy. My mother would end up becoming a black market supplier if given a chance—and she would specialize in having vulpes vulpes take over the universe. “Just don’t forget the survivability mods. They need them in space.”

“Yes, yes. We’ve been working on it. Ah, that reminds me. We’d like to tweak Pandora and her beau a little. We brought the machine, and we can test if they’re compatible. I believe they are.”

“What tweaks?” I demanded, narrowing my eyes.

“We’ve figured out how to reset their aging markers in their DNA, so we can extend their lives to be roughly sixty Earth years. That’s the longest we can manage without damaging quality of life. The older test subjects, who are from the generational ship, stay in the prime of life until dying of natural causes, typically heart attacks. We can’t stop elements of aging in them, but we’ve unlocked the key we’ve wanted. To keep them for our lives, and that they won’t suffer from old age like we will.”

“It stops arthritis?”

“None of them we’ve modded have suffered arthritis.”

“After the ceremony,” I said, kissing my mother’s cheek. “But thank you. Pandora means the world to me.”

“We know. We’ve known since the moment you laid eyes on her and realized she was yours. From that moment, we knew you would do anything for her, and she’s a smart fox. She knows it, too. Now, prepare yourself. I’ve been warned there will be a great deal of keening from the Veloc, who simply live for but cannot handle weddings. It will be chaos.”

* * *

My mother’s prediction proved to be true, and I understood why there hadn’t been any music for the wedding. Why bother with music with the keening, trilling, and cooing of the Veloc in the audience? Miracle of a Lost Crimson Star and Still Water Under a Bridge led the procession, and the pair bobbed their flower-decorated heads, adding to the cacophony with their hooted laughs.

At least they found the situation funny. I wanted to roll my eyes at the drama, but I focused on a rather nervous Delta who seemed ready to take flight without the help of a spaceship.

Thanks to the oddity of Veloc ways, I had a collection of six fathers accompanying me, including Delta’s, adding to the insanity. As I wasn’t telling a Veloc he couldn’t play father to a clan adoptee, I went along with it, and I’d even managed to arrange it so everyone got an equal share of attention.

The mothers had congregated near Delta, and I had no idea what their purpose in the ceremony was beyond to keep the men in line. Everyone paired up as planned, and I joined Delta in front of the crowd, which mostly consisted of the Veloc clans, black market operators, and a handful of other sentients who’d traveled across the universe to witness me wed one of my rescues.

It took about three minutes to realize the vows and sermon were formalities, not that anyone could hear them over the Veloc determined to notify the entire planet of a wedding. I only understood when I was to give my vow to Delta and accept his vow in return when the leader of the wedding, a rather old Veloc with gray feathers, claimed the rings from Miracle of a Lost Crimson Star and handed them over and clipped our marriage crystals, rainbow black shiftgem crystals, into our hair in the Veloc tradition.

The Veloc roared their approval, and I expected to suffer from ringing ears for a few days.

As the Veloc didn’t kiss, not in the way humans did, we’d agreed we’d save more intimate displays of affection for a later time, opting to press our foreheads together, much like the Veloc did when showing another respect. We lacked crests, but it got the point across.

My husband chuckled at the insanity of it all, and once we’d held the position for the appropriate time, he leaned forward to say, “Now you can run away if you’d like.”

“Not without a spaceship I can’t,” I complained. “You broke my life support system.”

He laughed, turned to the crowd, and offered his arm to me, which I took. “So I did. Now we have to survive a gauntlet of keening Veloc. We now get to venture to my favorite part of the day.”

“The presents?” I guessed.