Chapter 18

James strutted through the port like a peacock. Of course, he was wearing his cape. Ann followed James into the space station. As a result of losing a minor bet with James, she was wearing her cape as well. She knew better than to make any bets involving Irving.

Spotting his uncle, James struck his heroic pose. He only held it for a second before opening one of the tiny umbrellas created by the Dromat. He curtsied and said, "I, Super-spaceman, and my wife, Super-spacewoman, have just returned from fighting the invading galactic horde with our wonder umbrellas."

Arthur had been prepared for the cape and the heroic pose thinking that it was a joke that had been overdone. He had not expected the umbrella and curtsy. Unable to prevent it, he burst out laughing. Arthur said, "I think you need to get a swelled head. At least that way some blood might make its way there."

"That's funny," James said with a grin. He said, "There's some hope that you'll get a sense of humor one of these days."

Ann shook her head knowing that this little episode was going to be broadcast everywhere. Looking down at Stardust, she said, "He's going down in history as a clown."

Arthur said, "Let's get over to the bar and you can tell me all about what happened out there."

"Okay," James said.

"Can I take off this stupid cape?" Ann asked.

"I guess," James said thinking that she wasn't really getting into the mood of the moment. She had been quiet ever since the Quatyl captain had suggested that he be put in charge of leading the defense force. He took off his cape with a quiet sigh.

After dropping their Quatyl off at the Quatyl playroom, the trio made their way to the bar. Arthur and Ann were quiet. Much to his surprise, James attracted a lot of attention. People stopped him and congratulated him on the victory over the alien invaders. James leaned over to Ann and said, "You'd think I did this single- handedly. Don't they realize that everyone was involved?"

"It was your idea," Ann said realizing that James had no idea how others had viewed his actions on board the Space Ship Explorer.

"So?" James asked looking at her blankly.

Arthur looked over at James and said, "Almost everyone has seen the data from the Chitiniodian computer."

"They are pretty nasty buggers," James said.

Arthur rolled his eyes at the unintended pun. Seeing his reaction, Ann said, "It comes naturally to him."

"My grandfather was the same way," Arthur said.

"He's my hero," James said.

Arthur pointed to a table and said, "Let's sit down over there."

The group settled around the table. James started the discussion when he said, "I saw that battle star that you're building out there."

"I stole the design from an old movie," Arthur said shrugging his shoulders. He couldn't wait to work with the Andicors to learn about their shielding technology. Given their style of encroaching on territory, they had developed very powerful shields that could take a beating.

"The one in the old movie was bigger," James commented.

Arthur laughed and said, "Bigger isn't necessarily better, particularly when it comes to shielding."

In a very serious tone of voice, James said, "You know that you have to get the weapons systems outside of the shield. You can't shoot through a shield."

"I know," Arthur said surprised at the sudden seriousness that James demonstrated.

James said, "Their tactics emphasize getting as many missiles headed towards the enemy as possible. Shields will have to be up all of the time. That means that you can't fire back."

"I know," Arthur said.

Ann looked over at James and said, "The missiles seem to be able to burrow through the shields."

There were ships still looking for unexploded missiles from the destroyed ship. They needed to understand how the missiles operated. James nodded and said, "That's right. Someone is going to have to invent something that is able to destroy the missiles while they are attempting to penetrate the shields."

Arthur said, "Despite your clowning around, it seems to me that you're serious about leading our forces. I'm glad to see that you are accepting the responsibility."

James stared at Arthur in shock. After ten seconds, he burst out laughing and said, "You almost got me. No one in their right mind would put me in charge."

Ann said, "The Quatyl were quite insistent, James."

"So what? I'm an idiot when it comes to leading people," James said dismissing the comment. He added, "Besides, I'm looking forward to reverse engineering the Chitiniodian missiles."

"James, I don't think you understand. They are putting you in charge," Ann said.

"There's only one thing I can do," James said with a frown.

Worried, Ann asked, "What?"

"I've got to do something really stupid to convince them that I'm the wrong guy for the job," James said wondering what he could do. He looked over at Ann wondering why she was laughing so hard.

A small handful of Omagrons wandered around the space station feeling a little lost amidst the huge number of Humans. The number of humans only reminded them of the fact that their species was nearly on the verge of extinction. There were less than ten thousand Omagrons left and that number was still going down.

The humans were physically intimidating. At three and a half feet in height, the Omagrons felt dwarfed by the humans. There seemed to be so many differences among the humans. The range of colors, heights, and weights among humans was almost overwhelming.

As had become normal for members of that space faring race, all four Omagrons were feeling depressed. Adding to their general air of melancholy was the fact that the humans were making the noises that they had learned constituted laughter. The Omagron hadn't laughed in years.

The four Omagrons were searching for a little bit of space where they could rest without intruding on the spaces of others. It was a problem on the crowded space station. It was always a problem when traveling in space. Thus it was that they found themselves in one of the three landing docks. Looking around, they could see no sign of humans.

Depressed by the harsh metallic environment, Sweetie said, "This will have to do."

"It isn't very nice," Comer said looking around at the metal floor. She preferred a rocky dry environment having experienced it once in her life.

Chirrup sat down on the cold floor and shivered. The room was too cold to be comfortable. He said, "At least we are alone."

"Yes. It feels like years since we've been alone," Salmon said.

Their discussion was interrupted by the sounds of giggling from behind one of the storage cases. Sweetie said, "There are humans here."

"Ignore them," Chirrup said.

When the giggles changed to moans, Comer said, "I don't feel right all of a sudden."

Feeling herself getting warm, Sweetie shifted around and said, "Same here."

"You're looking nice to me," Chirrup said looking over at Comer. He wondered why he hadn't noticed that before.

In the background, the moans had changed to grunts. Comer realized that she was feeling sexual desire. She uttered the little trill that announced interest. Chirrup didn't need a second invitation. While climbing atop Comer, he looked over at Sweetie and Salmon finding they were already in the mating position. As the sounds from behind the storage containers transitioned to a woman announcing her orgasms, the four Omagrons were lost in their own mating activities.

Fifteen minutes later, the couples broke apart. For Omagrons, mating required a huge ritual to get the female of the species into the mood. First the male had to stake out some territory. Then he was supposed to put on a show of wealth to entice the female into his territory. That was followed by days of foreplay in the form of ritualistic dances. They never just started mating. Embarrassed by their actions, they didn't know what to make of what they had done.

It was the next day when Comer and Sweetie realized that they had actually ovulated during the brief mating session. Over the generations that had followed coming under the control of the Quatyl, Omagron females had only managed to lay one egg with each mating session. Sometimes, they didn't even manage that one. Biologically, they were capable of laying several dozen.

It only took ten minutes for the news to reverberate around the Quatyl ship that Comer had laid nineteen eggs and that Sweetie had laid an amazing twenty two eggs. The Earth Quatyl understood immediately what had happened. The other servant races aboard the ship were walking around in a daze. It seemed to them that it was a sign of great change.

Chirrup stood by the Comer's bed staring at the clutch of eggs. Comer was wrapped around the eggs keeping them warm with her body heat. It was Chirrup who broke the silence when he asked, "How did that happen?"

Somewhat stunned by the event, Comer said, "I don't know. I just kept laying one egg after another."

"Nineteen eggs," Chirrup said staring at the impossible number of eggs.

"I know," Comer said. She had tried many times to have a viable egg without any success.

"Are they all good?" Chirrup asked. Too often the sperm were not strong enough to fertilize the egg.

"All of them are good," Comer said. Her mouth was in the tight expression that was their equivalent of a smile.

"I don't know what to say," Chirrup said unable to take his eyes off the eggs. He wanted to run to the radio and announce the event to the universe.

"Sweetie laid twenty-two eggs," Comer said.

"Wow," Chirrup said. Although it was a common saying that one shouldn't count their children before they hatched, he wondered what it would be like to have that many little Omagron children running around the Quatyl space ship. They'd know in thirty chronons.

Arthur and James were in the back of shuttle traveling out to the death star to check out the progress of the ship's construction. James made a humming noise while waving his hands around in front of his body. When his uncle gave him one of those disapproving looks, James announced, "May the farce be with you."

"You remind me of your mother," Arthur said shaking his head.

"Thank you," James said with a grin.

"It wasn't a compliment," Arthur said rolling his eyes. His sister's humor had driven him crazy when he was younger. Now his nephew was driving him crazy.

"Sure, you say that now," James said.

Arthur looked over at James. There was now a bright shiny star on the lapel of his uniform. He said, "It is official."

"Yeah. You'd have thought that finding a plastic spider in her lingerie drawer would have convinced Fleet Admiral Murphy to reconsider assigning me as leader of the defense forces," James said with a sad shake of his head. He had even arranged for it to jump out at her.

"She rather appreciated the effort," Arthur said with a chuckle. He still wondered how James managed to get the plastic spider inside the private quarters of Fleet Admiral Murphy.

Shaking his head, James said, "I'm halfway convinced that Anke Klein warned her that I'd do something like that."

"She's the woman who entered the airlock with the balloons?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah," James said shaking his head.

"I don't think she warned Fleet Admiral Murphy," Arthur said with a grin.

"Why not?"

Arthur said, "I remember when I first met Chuckles. She put exploding ice cubes in my drink."

"Who is Chuckles?" James asked thinking that he didn't want to hear the answer.