12
TSCHENKAR
They all gathered around me.
I was better at reading human faces now. As lovely as Eve’s face was, it was hard to focus sometimes on all the non-sexual cues in her subtle facial movements. I didn’t have to worry about that part with Ski Coach and Bartender, because Eve was the only human woman I could feel that for. And there was more variety between all three of their faces. Ski Coach had a wide mouth, so I noticed it easier when the very far corners of her mouth curled up. Usually when she was sad, but also when she was embarrassed. On Eve’s smaller mouth, I started to notice the same kind of thing.
All their mouths were frowning at the corners now. Maybe they did that for worrying too?
“It’s…good news,” I said, though my voice was dry.
It was good news. Good news I was only something like 90% sure of. Thuliak and I had argued at length about this, though the fucking radio thing was like talking in the middle of a lighting storm.
“Very good news,” I said, voice tight and nervous.
We’d agreed. Thuliak and I had agreed. 90% might as well be 100%, that’s what the Hivemind would do in our spot. And for this? Forthis. The Hivemind would always take the safest best.
Now I had to act like I was dead fucking certain, because both Thuliak and I knew Engineer well enough now to know that she was not going to go along with this plan without kicking and screaming, and if there were even a tiny little precious fucking sliver of doubt, she’d cling to it to it as a reason to oppose the plan.
I had to lie. A little fib. I mean, I’d feltfourtaps, I really had. For Fuck’s sake, I’d even have to explain the taps to her. She’d think I was mental.
I was speaking to everyone now. This plan concerned everyone. Even Ski Coach and Bartender. “Eve, Thuliak, and I are with children. Four kids, we think.”
Ski Coach Cleopatra’s eyes widened—shock and surprise, an easy emotion to spot—and her jaw dropped wide open. “Already?You just did it last night!”
Bartender rolled her eyes—another easy one, this meant the woman knew better—and said, “It’s probably from earlier!”
Cleopatra laughed. “Oh, right.”
“We…are?” Eve asked.
I was locked on her eyes now. I had to project certainty. Certainty I didn’t quite feel, but wished I did. “We are. I felt the taps.”
“The taps?”
I nodded. “Four taps. One for each baby.”
Eve spoke without blinking even once. “They’re big enough totapalready? And why are they tapping on your…”
Both other women were covering their mouths with their hands now, faces red as if they were struggling to breathe. Shite, I was being too specific for these virgins. I needed to try to zoom out on the detail, but then Eve might not understand what was going on with the babies we were 95% likely going to have. We needed to move too. We didn’t have much time. Ski Coach and Bartender could plug their precious little ears if they needed to.
“You tapped with your pussy, Love, it’s a really good sign, for multiple reasons—”
“With mypussy?”
“The inside of it,” he said, “when I was way deep in there at the end. It feels fucking good, I know, but it’s a little check we do. Normally the Hivemind tells us, but Thuliak got one of the nerds who’d researched it before we lost the Hivemind figure out how the Hivemind knows a woman is knocked up. It listens for taps.”
Eve took some time to collect herself. I just let her, because I was still reeling too. I’d felt the taps. I really had. Then I hadn’t slept. I’d laid awake all night, reminding myself that I’d really felt them. Wishing I could talk to fucking someone with a purple, teal, or any other color cock but a human-colored one, to figure out if I’d really felt something, but it hadfeltlike something. And I’d wanted to know what the fuck it had meant.
I hadn’t known. I hadn’t known the taps meant what they did, but…
“Apparently,” I said, “the moment a Khetar knocks you up, you get all the machinery for the Hivemind in you, because the baby grows with it already in there.”
“Goddess, what is a Hivemind?” Julia said, then she cupped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry! Sorry to ruin this great news! I just—”
“The Hivemind is gone,” I said, “these must just be remnants. I don’t know. But I felt the taps. Four of them. They weren’t like mechanical or in tune or whatever they’d be like if it was just some machine, it was like they were tapping to get my attention. Like they knew I was their Daddy already.”
“Goddess,” Cleopatra said, tears running down her cheeks. “It’s so beautiful. I can’t wait for my Kitty to tap a Khetar’s dingdong.”