“I bet it is.”

“I will tell you one thing. You will change this world…

He jerked his head toward the two women. Both placed their moist, cold hands on my shoulder. “Come with us, now.”

I stayed still for a heartbeat before I complied. I was ‘somewhere’ in the ocean. Earth was over seventy percent water and try finding someone in that. On a water planet? Even less likely.

Then there was another consideration. I was never one to risk my life. Hell, it’s not like I really had a life back home beyond existing. Now I had a little one in me I had to take care of. I didn’t see him – beyond the holographic renderings – but he was in me. Every fiber within cried to protect him. Nobody else could. There’s a time to fight but right now wasn’t it.

One walked in front and the other in the back. Their stance and even aura reminded me of Alphas. I suppose in some ways they were. In some species, the female was the deadliest. I looked at their lean and sinewy muscles, height and crisp walk.

Yeah, pretty sure that’s the case here.

Hell, Becky used to beat me, and she was just farm strong. These gals? They had a build that looked like they could throw a bale of hay one-handed.

We stepped into a room with two large tanks to the left. A thick snake creature with stripes and fangs swam within the blue liquid. Next was a ‘pufferfish’ of sorts with long thick spikes like those you’d see on a railroad. Deeper in the room were water tanks the size of my body with creatures that vaguely reminded me of crustaceans.

Evil lobsters have a nice ring to it.

Maybe it was extraterrestrial bigotry, but both women looked alike to me. The one ahead spoke. “Our science lab. It’s our way to be self-sufficient.”

“Because you don’t want to depend on anyone.”

They both stared at each other. “Perhaps.”

“What’s going to happen to me?” I asked.

“Your baby will be safe.”

“Good news,” I said. “However, that doesn’t answer the question.”

One of them looked at me and then down. “It’s still very strange to us. Our males do not get pregnant. You’re… different.”

It was a small smile, but not a forced one, “Yeah, I suppose you could say that.”

The females didn’t have as many teeth as the males, so the smile was only half-way unsettling. “We don’t harm children.”

“And me?” I asked. My child’s well-being came first, but he needed a parent.

“That is up to Fuath,” said one. “He’s–”

“–convinced there’s only one way,” finished the other.

“And you?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter. We are not in charge.”

“But you have his ear.”

Both women tilted their heads while they got the idiom.