Family from Beyond the Stars, Ch. 5 (Patreon)

CH. 5Different Parenting Styles

Kenny jerked awake at the sound of the ship's engines changing frequencies once again, shifting from the steady hum to a more active roar and finally dying back down to inactivity.  The entire vessel shifted and jumped slightly, not alarmingly, but it gave him a feeling, not unlike sea-sickness, causing his stomach to roil and his head to pound.   He sat up groggily, looking around; unsurprisingly, he still couldn't see anything.  His glasses were somewhere in this gloom.  He fumbled around for them blindly until he snagged their security band and he shoved them onto his nose.  Great.  Now it was a distinctly detailed darkness, rather than a blurry one.  He rubbed exhaustedly at his eyes.  He had not gotten any actual sleep.

The growls from last 'night' had lasted for what felt like hours.  Actual hours.  He didn't dare check his phone more than once in a long timespan, because he knew once it died, there would be his last ties to Earth.  He was alone, in the middle of nowhere, as an unwanted Human passenger on an alien spacecraft.  Those sounds had also not made for very restful dreams, and he was constantly shocked awake imagining the Mother coming back to eat him.  He was never going to shake the view down her synthetic, blue-tinged gullet from yesterday.

Heavy thuds came then as he was sitting up, letting his covers drape down around him.  It was probably her, moving around the cargo bay and checking in on the children.  He felt awful.  His chest was tight and phlegmy, his head felt overly warm and heavy, and his nose was dripping.  He was probably getting sick, then he sneezed.  The sound echoed around the interior of his cell pod.  Correction.  Already sick.  He wiped at his sensitive nose with the sleeve of his jacket.

A few moments later, just as he was pondering maybe just trying to get back to sleep, there came a scratching sound on the outside of the container.  He leaned in closer and heard distressed, unhappy yowls.  The Cubs were awake!  He urgently started looking around for a release hatch on the inside but he couldn't see anything more than a foot in any direction.

“Hey kids!" he called, cupping his hands around his mouth.  "Daddy's okay!  I'm just in here again."

The yowls ceased and relieved purrs and rumbles came.  The clawing did not let up however.  They seemed determined to let him out.  A heavy chuff came from a short distance away and they all stopped, momentarily.  Then they resumed once again.  The chuff sounded again, sounding sterner.  The cubs did not stop this time, ignoring the Mother.  

He couldn't exactly blame them, but he also couldn't help but feel bad for her.  Even being sick as he was, he understood very well how she was probably feeling.  Sure she had tried to space him yesterday, but that was the past.  If he dwelled on hating every single person who had ever been mean to him, he wouldn't have survived this long.

"Kids..." he said loudly enough to be heard.  "Listen to what your Mother says."  If she was indeed saying anything.  He coughed a moment later as his raw throat objected to him speaking so loudly.  The kids sounded concerned, snuffling and making disgruntled rumbles.  One even yowled unhappily.

There came a deep sigh, a growl, and then the Mother stomped closer.  The cubs hissed up at her but she just instead reached out and opened the container.  Light poured in immediately, briefly blinding Kenny.  When he was able to open them again, he saw the entire side had opened, instead of just the top panel.  The cubs purred to see him.  Joey muscled his way inside and bumped his thick head against the Human's chest.  The pressure made him cough again and Joey immediately backed up, looking concerned.

He lifted his hand immediately, scratching Joey behind his ears and dispelling the cub's worries.  Chandler yowled jealously.  Rolling his eyes, Kenny struggled up to his feet.  His whole body hurt after the ordeals of the previous day, not to mention the fresh aches of illness and fatigue.  Nonetheless, as he stepped out into the main cargo area, he immediately bent down and gave each and every cub a loving hug and scratches.  Their purring was music to his ears.  He was also delighted to see they had all regained their energy and pep.  In fact, they seemed livelier than ever!  Their fur had a shine to it, their lights and color patterns were brighter, and their eyes sparkled.

All of this adorable ordeal was looked down upon by the Mother, who loomed nearby.  Her impassive, cold, and mistrustful gaze bored into him, but, every time he tried to meet her eyes and smile, or convince one of the cubs to go see her, she would instead look away.  It was almost as if she were too proud to allow an outsider to dictate the relationship she would have with her own children.  As an unfortunate additive, however, the cubs wanted nothing to do with her.  Her pain at this was clear, even to a bleary-headed Kenny.

Sighing, he just rubbed at his sinuses and sniffled.  The cubs sniffed at him worriedly but he always just would smile and pet them more.  Phoebe snuggled in beside him, while Joey plopped his head directly into Kenny's lap.  Chandler idled nearby, trying to look independent but mostly just annoyed that there was no room for him other than by climbing directly onto Kenny.  They all seemed to understand that he wasn't feeling great.

He covered his mouth and coughed, then shivered, wiping at his brow.  He felt so hot.  Phoebe tried licking at his forehead but it didn't help.  "Thanks, sweetie," he told her regardless.  He sneezed and coughed more.  His chest felt wheezy and his coughs wet.  He'd always had problems with pneumonia after he had caught it as a kid.  There probably weren't any human cold meds this far out in space.

The cubs growled to one another worriedly despite his protests that he was fine.  Eventually, Phoebe got up and trotted slowly over toward the Mother.  At first, she played aloof, which normally would have made Kenny coo to see where their 'daughter' got her attitude from.  Phoebe sat on her haunches, waiting for the larger female to acknowledge her as she instead continued  to inspect her own claws.  Eventually, however, the younger one got bored, or frustrated, and yowled loudly.

The Mother's glowing eyes fastened onto her child's and she rumbled in retort.  Phoebe immediately looked back at Kenny, then back up to her imploringly.  Looking past her daughter, the Mother met his eyes and he tried not to look as pathetic as he was absolutely sure he did.  It didn't seem to make much difference; she just glowered and looked away again dispassionately.  She had allowed him to stay, but that didn't mean she felt inclined to help him if he was sick.

Phoebe growled angrily, but the Mother did not relent, now actively ignoring the protests and pleads the small female attempted.  She eventually trotted back to her siblings, looking dejected.  The two boys growled and mewled at her, to which she directed a glare back over her shoulder at their uncaring maternal parent.  Chandler looked nervous, but Joey, the goof, seemed to get an idea.  He made Phoebe return to cuddling their Daddy and then trotted over on his big paws to try his own turn at appealing to the Mother.

This time, she glanced down immediately to see who had come.  There was a long pause as they looked into one another's eyes.  Finally, Joey lifted up onto his haunches fully.  His arms folded against his belly, and, with a dramatic flip of his head back, he flopped backward and landed with a thump.  The Mother's face went from blank but attentive to confused.  If he had been feeling better, to see such an expression, lip curled, eyebrows furrowed, and one eye twitching would have set him into hysterics.  Instead, she just growled to herself and turned herself deliberately away, not interested in his antics.

Joey waited a solid minute, belly up, and head cocked adorably to the side, but she ignored him.  He chuffed up at her and got up, slouching back over to the others.  He gave the others what amounted to a shrug, looking annoyed.  Kenny gave him a loving pat.  "It was worth a try, big guy," he tried to console him.  "It always works on me."  Joey didn't look pleased by that.

Chandler rose then.  Ignoring the looks from his siblings, the skittish troublemaker carefully padded over.  He didn't wait for her to look down at him.  He didn't try demanding her attention.  The spiky-ruffed male just sat down right next to her and pushed his head against her hip.  The Mother jerked in surprise, looking down.  Chandler didn't move.  His tail drooped alongside him and his lights flashed a slow series of blues and oranges, alternating them every few seconds in a single burst apiece.  

Then, at last, he lifted his chin and met her puzzled eyes with his own.  Kenny knew that look; it was Chandler's hail-mary to get what he wanted: a pitiful, big-eyed look that could melt even the iciest of hearts, reminiscent of Puss in Boots.  He was staring up at his Mother's face as sadly and desperately as possible.

The Mother's face stiffened at first, looking angry at the obvious attempted manipulation.  But then, as Chandler hung his head and turned around, looking defeated and broken, she gave a growl, getting his attention.  She leaned down toward him, moving onto all six limbs just like him, and placing their faces mostly on the same level.  It had not been so startlingly evident before now, but Kenny was amazed to realize just how much bigger she was than her own children.  Chandler looked like he was the size of a housecat to her.

He gave an insistent, pleading yowl, ears folded down, and kneading his paws.  She snorted.  He yowled again, looking more firm this time.  She just growled again.  Her eyes looked up and over at Kenny.  He sneezed again and then devolved into another fit of coughing.  She made a face that clearly indicated her disinterest in his state of being.  Again, Kenny could not blame her.  Many could, but given how things had gone, he felt nothing but pity for her.  She was angry, sad, and bitter.

"Chandler," he called weakly, making the cub's ears twitch.  "It's okay.  I'll be fine."  He coughed again.  Phoebe purred against him and Joey pushed his thick forehead against him.  They wanted their Daddy to be better.

Chandler, meanwhile, switched tactics.  He gestured with his head towards the pods, beseeching his mother that way.  She glanced in their direction, then snorted again.  Another refusal.  Chandler had never been good at being patient.  He growled at her, ordinarily a rather impressive sound but her return snarl sent him nearly flopping backward.  She then leaned back up and turned herself away from all four of them completely.

Shoulders slumping in actual defeat, Chandler returned to the rest of them.  He looked close to crying, ears folded down and long tail dragging on the ground.  Kenny just hugged the golden-furred male as his kids piled in around him.  Their compassion toward him wanted to make him cry, but seeing them so distressed over him was worse than even the cold.  They all glared at the Mother, who refused to even look in their direction anymore.

Sighing, Kenny stood, and, ignoring the warning yowls and worried noises of the Cubs, he shuffled slowly over toward the Mother.  He had to try as well.  She knew he was there by the way she stiffened as he drew closer, ready to lash out at a moment's notice or at even the barest excuse to vent her anger.

Instead of any of the tactics the cubs had tried, he just sat down with his back to her too, giving her space but also making sure she knew he was still there.  "Listen..." he said, voice hoarse.  "I get it.  You hate me."  He glanced up and saw one of her ears twitch.  As obvious an agreement as he had ever seen.  "You hate that...I'm closer to them than you are.  It's only because I was there when they landed.  I took them to my crappy home because I didn't want to imagine what my people would do to such different and innocent creatures.  I knew, from the moment I saw them, that they were special."

She did not respond, other than another twitch of her ears, both of them this time, and one rotated slowly around to make it clear she was at least listening.  Maybe she could understand him after all.

He covered his mouth to quiet his latest cough.  His throat was parched.  "I'm not going to ask you to help me," he told her.  "I completely get why you don't want to.  I'm weak, you don't like me, and if it weren't for you thinking only of the cubs' happiness, I'd be floating as space debris already.  But they're trying to reach out to you.  Doesn't that at least make you happy?"  She didn't answer and he sighed.  "Is it because they aren't doing it out of actual interest and only because you feel like they want something from you, to help the one person you hate most right now?"  Her tail twitched this time.  "Because trust me, I know exactly what that feels like."

She chuffed as if snorting in disbelief.

"No, I really do!" he insisted.  "All my life, people have only ever wanted me around or come to me when I could do something for them.  Never once just wanting to be around me.  Well...except for one.  Austin.  He's my...was my best friend.  Then he had a kid.  And..."  He shook his head, getting sidetracked.  He'd never even met Emily and he missed her.  

"I'm not asking you to help me," he stated, trying to bite down another cough.  "I'm asking you to think of what your kids are asking you for.  They know that you can do things they can't.  Sure...right now they want their D- me to be better.  I'm sick.  They're wonderful kids, and they're always so loving, kind, and thoughtful!  If you try and meet them halfway, I'm sure you'll all love one another as much as I love them."

He got up and warily started walking around her.  She was looking at nothing, just curled up, cross-legged, and her four arms resting in her lap.  Her eyes glanced at him then firmly away.  He wavered on his feet and his head felt like it was pounding from his overloaded sinuses.  Eventually, as his stance started to wobble and he was close to toppling, one of her tentacles brushed him back onto his feet.  She still wouldn't look at him.

"Thanks..." he sniffed.  He looked back across the hanger, towards where the kids were watching them.  "Just...look at them, okay?" he asked.

She seemed at first to ignore him, then she begrudgingly turned her head and her upper body around slightly to do as he asked.  Her eyes looked angry, distant, but focused easily on her errant brood who returned her stare with sullen but pleading eyes.  Her ears folded down slightly.

"The boys are named Chandler and Joey," he explained, smiling up at her.  She wrinkled her nose at the names and looked down at him icily.  He shrugged.  "They're characters from my favorite sitcom.  It's a...a show where the scene rarely changes and it's all about romance and jokes and dealing with life as it comes your way.  Anyway.  Chandler is the gold one."  She glanced at him.  "He's a troublemaker, a prankster, a wall-climber, and likes to pretend he's tough when really all he wants is loving attention.  Sure, he likes to use the pity party trick.  And anarchy is his middle name.  Still, he's a sweet guy, not that he likes hearing it."

The Mother grunted, but she eyed Chandler a bit more openly now.  They exchanged a look and then she glanced back at Kenny.  On this topic alone, he had her undivided attention.

"Joey is the big guy," he went on, happy to have found one way to talk to her, especially concerning his favorite topic: the Cubs.  "He's a goofball, a brute, and he likes to try eating whatever seems edible at the time.  If it isn't he just plays with it.  He's got a big heart and that grin he uses, it gets me every time."  He chuckled but coughed again, covering his mouth until he could continue.  "But he's also loyal, strong, confident, and he loves to snuggle."

As if sensing they were talking about him, Joey actually cracked a smile, sitting up on his haunches and folding his arms and hand-paws against his belly once again.  The Mother blinked, her muzzle creasing slightly as she watched his antics with less annoyance this time.

"And then there's Phoebe," sighed Kenny happily.  "She's..." he cut himself off, thinking what he was about to say might have come across badly.  The Mother growled softly at him so he relented.  "She's a lot like you.  I knew that as soon as I saw you two together for the first time.  She's stubborn, proud, strong, takes charge, and cocky.  But she's also vulnerable and gets very emotional.  She doesn't like me to know she's upset, but she also always comes to me when she is for a big hug.  Right now...I think she actually would want a hug and maybe a nuzzle from her mom."  She looked to her daughter, the two of them sharing a look as well.  Phoebe's ears folded down and she yowled loudly enough for it to be audible.  The Mother rumbled back, making the floor beneath Kenny's feet shudder slightly.

She then looked slowly but directly at him.  She blinked, just once, but it spoke volumes.  She hadn't changed her opinion of him, but she was grateful, in her own way, for his words.  She watched him cough and sniffle again, looking back and forth from her children to him, face inscrutable.  

Then her shoulders rose and fell, and she let out another sigh.  Her muzzle opened softly and he heard another soft rush of static and garbled sound.  Her eyes were focused on their faces, and yet far past them at the same time.  The implant beneath her ear flashed blue and her eyes became melancholy and sad.

Kenny sighed, turning to go.  There was still a lot of work to be done to earn her trust.  He wobbled and almost fell, his head swimming more.  Something caught him.  He glanced back.  One of her tentacles had reached out and snagged the back of his dirty, stained coveralls and jacket.  The claws slowly tightened their grip and she rose, lifting him with her.  The cubs watched warily as she stood to her full, bipedal height and carried Kenny with her, swinging weightlessly in her grasp.  He had no choice but to just go with it.

She went over to the pods.  He tried to smile up at her, but her expression was not gentle.  He understood: she wouldn't be doing this under normal circumstances.  Par for the course.  He decided to be grateful for the little things and tried to dispel his mounting hesitancy for whatever she was planning.  The fourth pod opened at her touch and she placed him inside of it.  

He tried to quell his innate sense of claustrophobia as the door slid closed and his world went dark for a moment.  A second later, internal lights flashed into existence.  He looked down, expecting to see the vent in the floor open and that weird yellow liquid to start leaking out.  It didn't.  A thump at the door made him look back down just as the material brightened and he was able to look out of it.  He saw the cubs had hurried over, pressing their furry faces and paws against it.  Joey licked it.

"I'm fine guys!" he called, then winced as his voice seemed so many times louder in the tube.  A sound from above him made him look up, right as a pair of vents opened in the top.  A second later, as he peered at them in confusion, he was nearly blinded as a twin spray of water blasted into his face.  He immediately screamed.  It was hot!  He tried to shield himself and duck down, but more vents were opening and yet more cascades of nearly boiling water blasted over him.  He sputtered and spat.  

The water almost tasted salty and made his mouth tingle.  His skin was tingling too, his clothes completely soaked and clinging to him.  He watched, astonished, as the steam began to collect in the tube, water evaporating off and around him almost as soon as it touched him.  In an instant, he was lost in that cloud, so thick that he could see nothing.

The vents whirred again and the smoke dispersed again.  As soon as the last puffs had been sucked out, blasts of gale-force air then assaulted him from the same vents the water had come out of.  His curly hair fluffed up ridiculously and he tried to hold onto his glasses, lest they be blown off his face and shatter.  It was like one of those "Tornado Tubes" you would see at the mall.  A second later, the blow-dryer vents shut off as well.  His skin felt raw and abraded.

Assuming it was done, Kenny leaned a hand on the glass.  The cubs, to his surprise, looked amused, as did the Mother at his animated reactions to each step of the cleansing shower and air-dry.  He knocked, and the Mother actually winked, a mischievous light in her eyes reminding him abruptly of Chandler!  She gestured at the pod.  He looked down.  

The vents had closed, and glowing nodules flipped on up and down the walls.  They began to glow brighter and brighter, becoming a brilliant, cherry red.  He was suddenly very afraid and tried to hold as still as possible.  The nodules began to rotate, first slowly, and then faster and faster.  Above his head, a series of more lights, these ones blue and green, formed a net of interlocking beams which started to slowly descend toward him.  It took every nerve in his body being tightly locked under his control not to flinch.  He felt like he was about to be sliced and diced by laser beams, like that one guy in Resident Evil.

The web of lights passed down over his head and he closed his eyes tight.  He felt nothing, hearing only a slight buzzing sound and the occasional sizzle.  He kept his eyes shut until the buzzing finally stopped.  He warily opened his eyes, looking around.  He wasn't dead!  He smiled.  

That was when he smelled it.  Burnt fabric.  He wrinkled his nose and looked down.  Immediately, his eyes went wide and he clapped his hands over his abruptly naked body!  Not even a scrap of clothing was left to cover his nerdy, boney frame, his pale skin nearly glowing from embarrassment.  He started to shiver all over again, and this time not because of fear or sickness.

He glared up at the Mother who grinned cheekily through the glass at his discomfort.  It reminded him of Joey's usual smile but far more sadistic and satisfied.  He sank down slightly as the cubs yowled and growled at him, sounding for all the world as if they were laughing in joy.  He tried to give them a smile but his face was too red.

"Okay!" he called through the glass.  "Yes, Daddy is naked!  Can we...?"  he waved his hand in a circular motion, meaning to have the Mother speed this mortifying experience along to whatever was left.

Her eyes twinkled and she reached up with a paw to touch another button.  Her smile was...bigger now, wider.  She looked pleased with herself, and it was such a smile that he realized she had most likely not had one like this in a long time.  He only wondered how he knew that.  The pod whirred again and the wall nodules clicked off and vanished behind their plating.  Then, in the same exact spots, long, narrow slits formed, running up and down the length of his body from neck to feet.  He forced himself to stand up straight again as the Mother mockingly mimed him holding his arms down to his side, to which he complied.

He screwed his eyes shut tight again so he didn't have to see her mockingly eyeing his naked, pathetic, and anorexically skinny body.  It was hairless for the most part at the very least, but his ribs stuck out through his pasty, pale skin.  That also wasn't to mention his less than impressive endowment down below, which had once gotten him laughed at by a woman when people at a pool party in high school had stolen his clothes and he'd left the bathroom only to be towel-whipped by the seniors.  This was somehow worse.

The machine's slits began to glow bright red as the nodules had done.  Again, the web of interlocking green and blue beams formed, but this time right in front of his face and descended down his body at an excruciatingly slow pace.  He waited, patiently.  By the time they had reached his feet, he was sure that he had died and went to Hell to suffer such embarrassment like this.  He immediately went to cover himself once more, only to feel...fabric there.

He looked down again, and once more received a massive shock.  He turned, twisted, and bent.  A full-length bodysuit of some strange, synthetic yet fleshy material of dark greens, blacks, and purples, had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.  The suit covered him from his neck, both arms to his knuckles but leaving his fingers bare, and then down to his toes, which were also covered.  It conformed to his body completely, almost like a diving suit.  Or super-hero tights.  He looked up at the children and the Mother, mouth hanging open in confusion.  A blip at his wrist attracted his attention.  He lifted it and shook the source of the sound next to his ear.

"Livesuit adaptation complete," said a robotic voice in his ear.  He yelped, nearly falling down.  "Life signs being taken."  There was a long pause, then another blip.  "Life signs recorded.  Downloading to ship computer.  Please designate Callsign."

"Y-you mean my name?" he stammered.

The blip sounded again.  "Error.  Callsign not detected. Please designate Callsign."

"Kenneth Sissom.  Kenny for short," he said, speaking a bit more confidently this time.  When he glanced up, he almost swore he saw the Mother mouthing the name, but it must have been a trick of the light or his scattered nerves.

Blip.  "Callsign registered: Kenneth Sissom.  Your body temperature has exceeded normal parameters.  Livesuit adjusting."  A second later, the suit started to cool against his skin.  It took only moments.  "Temperature now within acceptable range.   Long-term care required."  The wrist indicator blipped off again.

The pod hissed, making him jump.  The door was opening and he hurriedly climbed out before more sadistic technology could scare or surprise him.  The cubs sniffed at his newly clad body, their eyes shining.  He pet them out of reflex, which they arched up into.  He even felt a bit better.  He didn't feel like he was drowning anymore at least, although his nose was still stuffed up.  It seemed a hot shower, and steam, for illness was universal.

Once they had ascertained that he was indeed safe and well, the children turned slowly around and eyed their Mother.  She dropped the amused smile she had been wearing and met their eyes.  She bent down onto all six limbs again, as she had with Chandler, putting her face mostly on the same level as theirs.  There was a long pause.  Kenny held his breath.

Joey moved first.  The chunky male stepped forward and sniffed at his mother's fur.  His ears stood straight up and his tail waved.  Carefully, he pushed his cheek against hers, then his whole body with rapturous attention and seeming pleasure.  His purr began to rumble, as loud as any he had ever used before.

The Mother's eyes fluttered and her smile returned, more gentle and radiant than any smile Kenny had ever seen.  She leaned her cheek against her son, nuzzling right back against him, returning each and every motion lovingly.  Then her maw opened and her tongue, a shockingly electric shade of blue, rasped out over Joey's face, neck, and down his back.  The cub wriggled and yowled in delight, arching up into every motion and touch.

Chandler, intrigued, cautiously padded forward as the Mother curled her forepaws around his brother and continued cleaning him, just like a mother cat to its child.  Their eyes met and she leaned past the curled-up ball that was Joey to nuzzle her nose against her other male child.  Chandler had much the same reaction.  His crimson-tipped ruff went straight and stiff, as did his tail, and he immediately surrendered to the nuzzles, licks, and then snuggling hug that Joey had so happily and easily crawled into.  Both of them had their tiny faces pushed against her prodigious cleavage, purring into her chest.  Her own purr made the floor rattle.

Kenny was overjoyed to see them bonding, able to also appreciate it fully now that he wasn't dying of pneumonia.  He still felt the effects there, but the livesuit had helped deter most of his symptoms for now.  It was incredible technology, to say the least, but it paled as to the spectacle of motherly love that the huge Alien was pouring down onto her boys.  He glanced then to his side as a heavy head bumped against his knees.

Phoebe was looking past him, half hiding behind his legs.  Her ears were folded back, her tentacles retracted, and her whole body hunched down nervously.  She met his eyes and she gave a soft, shy yowl.  She was scared.

"Hey..." he breathed, leaning down and stroking her head the exact way he knew she liked.  "I still love you all, Phoebe.  But she's your mom!  Come on...I bet if you give her a try, she'll love you just as much as I do."  He patted her rump and she growled at him.  She relented, at last, slinking forward while remaining low to the ground on her belly.

The Mother, distracted with her joyful connection with Joey and Chandler, looked up slowly to notice Phoebe's wary approach.  Their eyes locked and the young female froze.  The Mother did so too, blue eyes shining like lighthouse beacons.  Then, she smiled again.  She gave a rumbling purr and blinked, long, slow, and trusting.  It was a look of complete love, one that made Kenny's heart twinge to see.

Phoebe took one last look back at Kenny, then, steeling herself, leaped forward and into her mother's waiting embrace.  The reaction was immediate.  Her eyes flew open wide and she accepted the nuzzles and tongue-bath without complaint.  She even made soft mewling sounds, arching into every touch she was given and soon curling up, just like her brothers, against the softness of their mother's furry chest.

The Mother sat up slowly, one pair of arms curling in and underneath the cubs, holding them to her gently.  She still had yet to stop purring.  One after another, the cub's relaxed bio-lights winked out as they seemed to pass out right there in her arms.  She licked each of them once more and then deposited each in their sleeping tubes, careful not to disturb their tiny, slumbering bodies.  The doors hissed closed and the pods filled with the yellow liquid again, submerging the cubs as they had before.  The transparent panel doors then became opaque again.

Turning, the Mother looked back at last to Kenny.  Her smile was still in place, soft and gentle as if she were still riding the high of finally connecting with her children.  He thought he saw soft tears in her eyes.  Wordlessly, she bent down to his level, as she had with the children.  He warily backed up for a second, unsure what to expect, and flinched as her mouth slowly opened before him.  He saw again that brief glimpse down her throat, past all her rows of fangs.  Then her tongue rolled out and gave him a single, long lick across his face.

The sensation was electric, like nothing else he had ever felt in his life.  It wasn't even that wet, just warm and tingly.  Just like a cat's tongue, it was rough and sandpapery in texture, but the hooks and barbs all along that massive, bright blue muscle seemed to fold down on a will to deliver that single, grateful touch.

Kenny's face abruptly burned with something just as intense as his mortified embarrassment as earlier when his clothes had been incinerated.  He stammered out a weak series of barely cohesive words that honestly died as soon as they left his mouth.  He looked and sounded utterly ridiculous, he was sure.  His body began to arch, a stupid grin on his face, and then another coughing fit, exacerbated by his excitement, took over.  His livesuit blipped and he felt momentary relief but it wasn't enough to fully dispel the light-headedness he was experiencing.

"Pulse elevating," the suit said.  "Temperature rising.  Medical aid is required."

"N-no really I'm..." he tried to say, half choking over his rattling coughs, as the Mother looked down at him, eyes looking from his face to the livesuit reading.  One of her bright blue eyes then formed a white circle right around the dark inner pupil.  He felt that he was being scanned once again.  Once she had finished, the Mother looked...conflicted?  No.  Guilty.  

She met his eyes and she smiled, soft and sad.  Then she bumped him with her nose.  He stumbled back a step in alarm, nearly tripping over the rim of the pod he had stepped out of.  He caught himself on the rim and tried to right himself, but she just bumped him again and he all but fell back in.  She was so solid that even those tiny pushes had completely taken his balance away.  He tried to stand up nervously but her eyes became a tad more firm and he stayed where he was.

She closed the pod door again and pressed a button.  This time, as he suspected, the vents opened up on the floor.  He looked up at her, pressing his hands to the glass frantically as the yellow goo began to pour out, easily enveloping his feet.  

"I'm not going to drown in this right?" he asked hopefully.

The Mother actually smirked.  One eyebrow lifted and she sat down on her haunches as her children had.  She folded her four arms around her knees and watched.

"Right?!" he asked, voice a bit threadier.  The goo had already risen above his waist.  It was...warm.  Very warm.  Pleasant, but viscous and thick.  He could barely move his lower body as if immersed in mud.  It rose higher, now up to his elbows.  His head swam with the heat and the sudden, strange smell the gel produced.  His eyes began to drift closed, helped by his sheer exhaustion.

The Mother blinked, long, slow, comforting, and as her eyes closed, so did his.  The gel flowed up and over his face and he floated.  He heard...something inside his head, muted as if it had come from within a deep cave, echoing so many times it nearly became inaudible.  It was a word, a soft, gentle word in the most beautiful voice he had ever heard in his life.

'Sleep', the Mother said.  And he did.  Deeper than he ever had in his life.

***

The Mother stayed by the pods for several hours after setting the warship back into slipspace and thus remaining undetectable.  She occasionally touched the panels to check on the slumbering faces within as they drifted there, suspended in the stimulant gel.  A thrill coursed through her yet again.

They had accepted her.  Even more, they had allowed her to accept them.  She checked on the Earthling last, the cause of all of this.  The one who she was most scared of, curious of, resentful of…thankful of.  He floated in the tube as they did, feet a few inches from the bottom and his head lolling back.  His face was, for once, at peace, smiling gently in his sleep as he dreamed.

She checked his vitals, saw them beginning to even out before returning to a healthy normal.  Then the gel went to work even further, repairing his damaged immune systems, organs, and muscle tissue from a lifetime of chronic illnesses, malnutrition, and abuse.  Once those had healed, it then set to distributing the necessary nutrients he had been so sorely lacking for seemingly years.

It would give him the body he should have had at his age, removing impurities and correcting genetic deficiencies, setting him at the peak of health and fitness.  It was the least she could do for all that he had done for her, and especially all she had done to him.

Completely alone, but finally not for the first time in so long, the Mother let herself smile at the Earthling that had rescued her children.  Sending them away had been the hardest thing she had ever had to do, even as, at the same time she was losing her homeworld.  They had only been embryos then, and it had taken her months to cross the myriad pathways of slipspace, ever on the run, to find the planet they had landed on before He did.

Truly, the universe worked in mysterious ways, to have had them land in the arms of the strangest, most gentle, and underappreciated being in creation.  She saw who he was in every smile, every touch he gave the cubs, and the way they adored him, had begged with her to help him.

She regretted her pride.  She would not let it come before her children's needs ever again.  And if her children, her cubs, needed this Earthling, this Kenneth Sissom, then she would keep him safe too.

Her muzzle opened, and a burst of the auditory distortion of her voice gently drifted about the cargo hold.  She mouthed her children's names, given by the Earthling.  "Ch-and-lere..." she whispered.  "Jo-ey...Fe-e-bee."  Her smile grew wider.  Her people did not have names, but these were good ones.  She looked once more at the Human.  "Ken-nee..."  She touched his pod door.  She owed him more than she could ever say.

"Sleep...Ken-nee...Dream...Safe."  She rose at last and exited the cargo bay.  She crawled along the winding pathway of the ship's construction, finally arriving in her private quarters.  She turned on the feed to each of the tubes in her bunk before climbing in, looking at them without blinking until sleep finally took her as well.  There was no need for the stimulants tonight.  She was happy enough already.