I awoke to the smell of sweat and rotting vegetables. My nose wrinkled when I discovered it was me. In my hazy vision, I saw several blue orbs race away in random directions. Only a blip of hesitation before the purple force field around me slowed them down.

Matros was the first to arrive although he stayed outside of the force field. I couldn’t smell his cinnamon and clove scent anymore. His stance was enough. Through the purple field he and a redhead doctor spoke. After several seconds Matros stepped in and I smiled.

“My love. How do you feel?”

I blinked, and my hand went over the bump in my stomach. My voice shook. “Not well... is it always like this?” There was the tendency to say ‘fine’ but that was more habit or to make him happy. I’m royalty now, but still country Southern. We were blunt. Then there was this inability to lie. He’d smell my lies… even if I wanted to mislead him.

His gaze darted to the side then resumed. “This is not normal.” He turned to a dark-skinned doctor with red hair and nodded.

He held a small clear cube. After a tap, the sides magnified until I saw a long-serrated needle. “A proboscis. Instead of taking in nutrients. It injects a powerful neurotoxin.”

My eyes narrowed. “So I stepped on something.”

Matros’ voice lowered. “There is more.”

The redhead continued. “Yes, but… you shouldn’t have. This species is extinct or so we thought. Nobody has seen one in a few hundred rotations.”

“Ryba treachery,” said Matros. I waited for anyone to give a counter argument and then realized there wouldn’t be any. On Earth… or at least in Tennessee, we argued. We cared about each other but argued… especially Becky and I. Here, Matros said and it was the truth. “They did it.”

I wasn’t a subservient Omega, but I wasn’t about to argue in front of the doctor. Perhaps Matros sensed from my scent. “Unless it puts him at risk. Leave us.”

The doctor bowed slightly. “It should be fine for you to remain in the bubble.

Matros glanced behind toward the doctor who then hurried his steps. He stood tall before me and looked down to my bed. I breathed in his cinnamon scent among the antiseptic. Yet there was the sour rotting vegetable scent of worry.

His fingers went over the top of my belly and gently slowed. Inches away was our child. Emotions I never thought I could have before crashed through. As a man, I’m not used to having this level of feelings. I was Omega, and they seemed… full of emotion. As if I was made from it.

His words were slow, and I heard the love within. “I asked you how you felt. What about the other things?”

Pregnancy I wonder?

That was a hard question.