Her eime sitting in dis in the empere’s lodgings O’tmyil had found herself bombarded with basiquiry programs. It wasn’t enough to t as malicious or an attack. Only enough to be annoying. Like being swarmed by young children that had been provided with caffeine and told to ask her all of life’s questions. After several hours of it she felt beyond exhausted, but she’d refused to enter sleep mode in case something mgressive had been waiting for her to drop her guard.

  As such she’d been barely funal whena had picked her up while getting dressed. Whatever emotions Svetna was feeling when she left, pausing to receive a goodbye kiss from Ouzzhen on the front step before heading off, were little more than a soft whisper to O’tmyil in that state.

  As they were leaving she wished she could drop to sleep mode, but still didn’t trust the Zuumult empere until they were safely on a different p.

  She remembered what the First Dynasty had been like. Zuumult royalty was not to be trusted blindly, even if she wao hope Svetna’s charms were w.

  “Why does seeing Ouzzhen-empere kissing Svetna-wife make me so... angry?” Plynx muttered as she watched Svetna leave through binocurs. “Seeing her-Svetna kiss other loves makes me feel joy.”

  “You don’t want to see her get hurt,” Bokarza said, sitting beside her with her own pair of binocurs. “You knoon’t hurt her, but you ’t trust Ouzzhen.”

  “It makes sense,” Auguste added, his own binocurs still watg Ouzzhen’s beachfront aodations.

  “So... are we going to go down there a her, or just stay up on this hill watg her with binocurs?” Vivian asked, her own pair dangling by their strap around her neck as she leaned ba the bench, most of her attention on noh and the other holographics currently focused on ging Houyu’s diaper out of her angle of sight.

  It was hard not to feel a little guilty with just how much work they put in, evehey insisted they’d helped raise dozens of children during the turies the Sed Dynasty had existed. There were a half dozen of them, though. Letting them handle one baby probably wasn’t too much of a demand.

  Ohe two Svetna was carrying joihe t it might be a bit different, though. Maybe they should hold off on more until those twetting ready to move on to potty training... that just seemed polite.

  “We should probably go back to the house to meet up with her,” Thisbe said, watg the soft glow of the sun on the horizon.

  It felt a little cruel t Thisbe away from this pce she was clearly so fortable and bato the gactic tour. Even if they were o leg and would be going back to the very vampire friendly phat was Throne World in a couple of weeks. Taihorca IV’s maritime culture was clearly ara draw for her.

  For her part, Vivian retty sure she’d go squirrely if she were stuck there more than a week. She liked the hustle and bustle of the city. Especially a properly chaotic sort of pce like Hammer City.

  “Very well,” Plynx said, l her binocurs. “We-all easily get home first if we leave now.”

  “Sure, there’s nothing to see right now,” Auguste added.

  Bokarza followed along quietly, seeming ready to just move with the herd. Which made sense, sidering her species inally lived in herds. It was a little funny whenever Vivian found herself remembering that. The aliens she knew weren’t just humans that looked iing, they actually had alien psychologies. It was just that the basic drivers of evolution (find food, find mates, stay alive) kept personalities fairly simir. At least for the day to day.

  Art showed some dramatic differences.

  That robably what drove a lot of the fear about Supernaturals, though. Not actually being driven by biologieeds they could have very different ideas about how to live. Just how differehe minds of Zuumults?

  She didn’t know.

  She also suspected it would be hard to find ao trust with an accurate assessment.

  About as soon as they arrived back at the house (having only had time to exge a brief ‘how did it go?’ ‘good, I think’ with Svetna) the various minders and advisers appeared, insisting it was time to pack. The imperial family had a schedule to try to get vaguely back to. At long st they were going to swing by the Kobaroieworld, then make some jumps towards the Issiod’rian capital world.

  Then they’d go back to Throne World.

  It was annoying, but Vivian had accepted it by now. She’d had too many months travelling about. It was just life now. So she packed whatever she’d unpacked. As did the others. It was still slightly depressing just how used to living in a suitcase she’d gotten.

  Perhaps twenty mier they were headed towards the small nding bay. There was a shuttle waiting for them that flew them up to their star runner. Svetna mostly napped, and Vivian decided she had the right idea. The eternal soft light of Taihorca IV hadn’t bee fetting proper deep sleep.

  A short while ter they docked, Vivian blinking back awake and carrying Houyu bato the sleek spaceship that had e to more or less be home the st few months. It didn’t take long to find her small and tuck Houyu into their crib so she could fke herself. It was going to be five days of jump space to get to the Kobaroieworld, which also wasn’t great for sleep.

  She o try to get what rest she could while she was still in the normal universe. Even if there was a bit of a hum to the ship. All ships had a hum, with two main optioher setting the pitething passengers could not hear or spreading it to a quiet noise across a wide range of pitches. With such a multi-species travelling party the tter was the only option.

  Sitting on their star runner back to Zuumult space Empere Ouzzhen had no reason to hold back their smile. Everything was going remarkably well.

  “Do you think this will really work?” one of their Grey advisors asked as the ship slipped towards deep space where it could make a jump.

  “Oh, definitely,” Ouzzhen replied. “They’ll never even stop to realise it ossibility...”

  Dispying fidence was essential as empere. In truth they k was a gamble, but the fate of their dynasty depended upon it. After so many millennia on the edge of the gaxy, and now with the Gactioh reunited... it was all or nothing now. To show any doubt would be to invite u and usurpation, however.

  Plynx had decided to ze about in the cafe se of the star runner, pig out pastries to nibble on whenever she needed a break from the book she was reading. She’d learo maintain her sanity on star runners at a young age; the secret was to find something to occupy your mind and then, when boredom truly hit, run up and down the halls as quickly as possible. If one was fast enough the adrenaline would overpower any boredom.

  Luckily Bokarza used a different strategy. Kobaroic patience was impressive... and Kobaroians running around at full speed in a small space was a safety hazard. Even a spaceship bulkhead mea if they ran into o full speed.

  Despite the book she was reading being rather good (and the fact that she was older than she’d been o family tour of the gaxy) Plynx was getting very close to going for another ruhisbe sat down on a nearby chair. With a gentle nudge of vampiric empathy proje she let Plynx know she wao talk.

  Closing the text dot on her reader Plynx sat up and turo the other woman with a soft smile. “What is it, Thisbe-love?”

  “I am worried about Svetna,” Thisbe said.

  “You are? Why?” Plynx asked, tilting her head.

  Thisbe was generally nervous, but she was not the type to e forward with worries uhere was good reason.

  “Her emotions feel slightly... clouded? I am worried that she is trying to cover up something that happened with Ouzzhen,” Thisbe said.

  “You think that Svetna-love is attempting to put her own feelings sed to the pressures of diplomacy?” Plynx asked.

  “I suppose. Perhaps it’s a silly worry. All jobs e with having to do things you don’t want to do... but Svetna’s efforts with Ouzzhen are so... personal,” Thisbe said.

  “I will see if I talk to her-Svetna. Perhaps with help from Bokarza-Queewo were raised in this line of work... in a more healthy way than Auguste-friend,” Plynx said.

  “That sounds like it’s for the best. I just wish I could work out what it was that Svetna was really feeling. Normally she’s so open with emotions, it’s easy,” Thisbe mumbled. “Well, at least since she became herself.”

  “Maybe it is simply a calming of the gender euphoria?” Plynx said. “Or to do with hormonal ges from the pregnancy.”

  “That does seem pusible,” Thisbe said with a small nod.

  They fell into an amicable and fortable quiet with that. It was not an emergency; there was still days until they would disembark and so there was o rush off to find Bokarza immediately. Plynx would finish a bit more reading and then head off.

  As she got back to it she vaguely noticed Thisbe heading over to ask the cafe attendant for a pastry of her own. The AI worker had probably listeo their versation, but there was nothing overly private about it. All that had been learned was that Svetna may have been uress.

  A spy wouldn’t o listen in to be aware of that.

  So Plynx read and Thisbe nibbled, apparently enjoying the peace of it.

  At least until Bokarza wandered into the cafe area, a tablet in her hands and a smile growing from ear to ear when she saw Thisbe present.

  “Just the woman I was looking for!” she said, hurrying over and dropping into a chair heavily enough to cause it to creak slightly.

  “How I help you?” Thisbe asked, seeming a touervous about Bokarza’s enthusiasm.

  “I was reading up oh animals, and I came upoures called ‘bats’,” Bokarza said.

  “Ah... yes?” Thisbe replied, seeming to shrink into herself slightly upon hearing Bokarza’s i.

  “Then I saw there was something called a ‘vampire bat’,” Bokarza said. “Are they ected to actual vampires?”

  “Um... well... yes,” Thisbe replied in a soft voice, eyes dropping down to study the remains of her pastry oable.

  It seemed she was not happy to have to reveal this e.

  “Are they as cute as they look in the pictures?” Bokarza then asked.

  “P--pardon?” Thisbe replied.

  “They look so cute. Such little fluff balls, with those big eyes,” Bokarza said.

  Sitting up, Plynx had to admit she was ied. Thankfully her leaning in was all the cue Bokarza o turablet to show the image there to Plynx.

  “Oh! Yes! They-bats are adorable!” Plynx said, looking at the long limbed fluffy creature in the picture. “They remind me a little of glimps. I had one as a pet when I was a child.”

  “These are much smaller and fly, though,” Bokarza informed her, switg to another image.

  “I know, yes” Plynx said, even if the short video of it flying about was setting her jaw a fluttering with the desire to chase it.

  “You... you really think that bats are cute?” Thisbe asked.

  “If they look like the pictures then definitely,” Bokarza said.

  “So cute very cute,” Plynx added.

  “Oh... that’s... that’s good to hear,” Thisbe said. “They... well, there is a strong tie to vampires. Most vampires turn into at least one animal. Bats are a favourite, due to their noal nature and the way some drink blood.”

  “ you shapeshift?” Bokarza asked.

  With a small nod Thisbe then was lost in a poof of smoke, before returning to the adorably tiny form Plynx had only seen briefly before. Bokarza let out hat were quite high pitched by her standards in the joy of seeing how adorable Thisbe’s bat from was. Thankfully the noises Plynx made were out of Bokarza’s range of hearing... but not Thisbe’s. Especially not in her adorable bat form.

  “We heard some very strange noises,” Vivian said as she, Auguste, and Svetna rushed over.

  “I just found out Thisbe turn so cute and tiny!” Bokarza said, waviedly towards Thisbe’s bat form.

  Thisbe, however, poofed bato human form, looking furiously embarrassed. “I--that... I wouldn’t want to make the rest of you unfortable.”

  “Unfortable?” Svetna said.

  “You... you know people aren’t really afraid of bats much these days, right?” Vivian said. “Well, at least ones guaranteed not to carry rabies or anything.”

  “R-really?” Thisbe said.

  “They are small fluffy mammals,” Auguste said with a shrug. “What’s not to like?”

  That drew a smile from Thisbe... and Plynx, despite knowing she was only taially tied to the parison.

  Later that day Plynx found Bokarza again to discuss the options of how to help Svetna with stress relief. Especially with the hormonal effects naning up.

  Svetna was walking Houyu about while Vivian nursed a coffee instead. The baby had refused to eat a full meal and so kept waking up hungry for snacks the night before. Which had meant Vivian had had to be up to feed them. So she appreciated Svetna handling walking Houyu and trying to get them back to sleep.

  “The baby is growing very quickly,” Bokarza said, softly sitting beside her on the small public area couch. “How long until they are walking now?”

  “I think that’s at least 8 or 9 months away? Crawling might start soon, though,” Vivian said, taking a sip of her coffee. “Crawling apparently varies a lot.”

  Alien coffee was fasating, because she khey could get it perfect, but every food processing system apparently rejected the actual fvour of coffee. Ihey added a bit of caramel and vanil to it that a proper coffee snob would probably hate, but... well, it had all the caffei needed, and that was Vivian’s .

  This oually had some hazelnut to it.

  “8 or 9 months... Earthling months, but... still,” Bokarza said, shaking her head. “I suppose that’s the disadvao getting to pop them out so quickly. Ours are born able to walk, but I thiing to hand the baby off to nannies or the other parent a year early more than makes up for all the carrying and burping and such.”

  “Yeah,” Vivian said, shivering at the thought of going another year pregnant. Especially if it got worse than the ninth month had been.

  “Issiod’rians still rush them too quickly, I think,” Bokarza said. “Their newborns are ingly tiny... they do not eveheir eyes for months.”

  “Mhm, it does seem a bit early,” Vivian replied. “Still... they look pretty adorable in the photos I saw when looking for baby clothes. Like kittens for Earth cats.”

  Vivian took another sip of her coffee, finishing it off while Bokarza yawhena hurried past them, a frantic look in her eyes as she scurried into the washroom. Both Bokarza and Vivian were curious if she needed help, so got up and headed after her, only to discover that she was using the self ing towel to wipe up a little dribble from what had apparently proven to not just be a burp from Houyu.

  “I’ll take them to free your hands,” Vivian said, scooping the baby.

  “Thank you,” Svetna said with a smile. “I should have been carrying wipes of some sort on me... also, I still find it weird the way these towels just absorb anything.”

  “Nanotech,” Bokarza said with a shrug.

  “Yeah... but... they don’t ever goo, do they? Beien by a towel seems like su embarrassing way to go,” Svetna mumbled, holding it gingerly while her shoulder and the towel were both now perfectly .

  “Never heard of oing anyone. If there were any to you, I’d worry about the nano-ers ioilet seat myself,” Bokarza said. “Much more awkward to run away from.”

  That caused fear to fsh ina's eyes. “The toilet seat might eat me if it malfuns? That is worse thaowel...”

  “Again, it doesn’t actually happen. Not without a lot of other things going very wrong first,” Bokarza replied, before her tail began to happily wag (Vivian shuffled away for safety). “It’s cute how you worry about these things, though.”

  “I just accept that it meets gactic safety standards,” Vivian said, rog Houyu. “Those seem pretty stri.”

  “Mhm. Maybe be like Vivian. Thisbe does say you seem to be w too much tely,” Bokarza added.

  “Oh... heh... I guess maybe I do,” Svetna replied, eyes growing distant for a moment or two.

  Then she fshed a smile and dragged them both off to find some breakfast.

  At long st they dropped out of jump space. The Kobaroie system was one of the busiest in the gaxy, so they had to drop out nearly as far out as when they’d first goo Throne World for the ation.

  Approag through normal space they zipped past a number of ds ier etary belt, then past a gas giant about an hour ter. It was surprising to learn a phat rge could be sitting twice as far from its star as une orbited Earth’s sun.

  Clearly Auguste o learn a bit more about how different star systems could be. So far she’d bee surprised more than she’d liked, a few famous sce fiovies not enough to prepare her for reality.

  Reag within about twenty AU there started to actually be other traffic visible. Small distant blinking lights that could be mistaken for stars if not for the colours and pulses, but signs of civilization all the same.

  The star ruhen made a slow flyby of a city world, like the one p from Star Saga. Vaguely she remembered hearing Cartridge and another friend discussing how such a p would overheat, but it seemed whoever talked about that expected it to be far closer to its star than this was. Also, likely rger, as the city world was merely a moon of a gas giant.

  “Gzarnk. The capital of the Kobaroic state,” Bokarza expio them all. “But not our homeworld. We turhat mostly into a nature reserve, after having nearly destroyed it... Only members of the cover live there now.”

  “I wonder if Humans will have to do the same,” Svetna said as they moved past the city world.

  Auguste wao hope against it, but it certainly seemed pusible.

  A few mier, however, she found her pessimism repced with a feeling of hope, for the onearly dead world was a lush green below them. If the Kobaroieworld could recover from whatever they’d doo it then surely Earth could recover from its own current suffering.