DELIVERY

By E.B. Gula

They continue to interact amongst themselves, while you remain more-or-less invisible. Annoyed, you stomp into the water, but its unexpected depth throws you off-balance. You steady yourself before you face plant, causing the local population to giggle at your expense.

Finally, one of them glides over to you, eir multiple appendages and a deep blue hue similar to the baby in the basket. E lowers eir gaze. Rising and falling cascades emerge from deep within eir larynx.

You tap on the pocket reader’s microphone feature. Captured frequencies dance across the display.

“Please take em home with you. Our monarch thinks e will overthrow the throne and wants em dead. E needs someone to care for em in a safe place until e is an adult form.”

Ah, succession trouble. But there’s something else beneath that. “You didn’t want to give em up, did you?” you guess.

A long tonal utterance, the universal sound of grief. Your heart squeezes for the poor parent. Despite your reservations, the sincerity of eir demeanor calls to you, and you bow your head. “We’ll do our best.” Besides, Carlissa already jumped at the opportunity, and you’ve never been able to deny her anything. “Is there anything else I should know?”

Even with the interpreting software, you struggle to keep up with eir instructions, delivered faster than any human entity can process. Herbivore but voracious. By necessity, immersed in water for adequate sleep. Will grow larger than most of eir relatives. You swallow hard. Hopefully, it isn’t a mistake to take on such a massive responsibility.

Before you can make your way back, low-pitched vibrations ripple through the ground, sending rings undulating out from the spring where the community resides. Some of the alien inhabitants slip out of sight, peeking through the brush. Others fall to their knees.

“What is happening?” you demand.

The parent of your rescue brushes a gooey tendril across your cheek, a slight gesture of warning. Then you notice the massive shape that hobbles through the swamp, a crown of golden vines set atop eir smooth head. A curse hisses through your teeth.

The guttural speech that bursts from eir gaping mouth doesn’t need a translation. You’re not wanted here.

Your legs burn as you sprint back to the safety of your ship, and the trembling of the earth rattles in your chest. If this monarch is truly as dangerous as the mutant reported, your existence–and that of the rest of your oblivious crew–will be snuffed out if you don’t keep moving.

“Captain?” The sight of Carlissa waiting for you outside the ship offers you a glimmer of hope that everything will be okay.

“We need to leave,” you say, out of breath.

“So we’re keeping the baby?!” Her expression is full of unadulterated joy, and for that alone, you think all this mess might be worth it. “I had

Cam bring em to the holding area.”

“Yes! But now is not the time. We’re about to be eaten by the monarch of this planet.” You clamber into your command seat, engage the locking mechanism. Carlissa follows suit and buckles herself into her assigned spot. Next to you.

“Did you find out eir name?” she asks.

“E called em Riopse’ton. Our hope.”

The engines blast, a deafening roar in your ears, and the aqua-colored globe becomes a hazy vision in the rear-view cameras.

Along with your crew, you embrace your new role as a parent to the aquatic infant, lovingly referred to as the blue blob. Riopse’ton grows with breakneck speed, devouring every- thing in eir wake. E joins you on your astronomical journey, and someday, when Riopse’ton is ready, you will return eir to usurp the monarch of the watery planet. And you’ll have been there for the ride, a proud surrogate watching Riopse’ton take eir rightful place in the world. Our hope and theirs.