Page 26 of The First Omega Made (Scales and Tails of Fate #2)

Doc

The entire crew gathered in the cockpit as the planet came into view, dread sinking into our stomachs as a collective.

“Maybe it’s just the cloaking,” Vil said. His throat cracked, dry and helpless. “Or we’ve got the wrong place.”

I stared out at the growing orb, and Sarge shook his head slowly. “No, it’s the right place.”

When an inhabited planet sprawled as proficiently as Paradise was supposed to be, lights were supposed to span the surface from infrastructure.

Nothing shone back at us. Fading signals beeped back in response to signals, a welcome to land in the Naleucian native language, welcoming home their prodigal sons.

A soft voice, like Noel’s and mine, spoke. An omega, I assumed. “Welcome to Paradise, Naleucian sons. You have been missed dearly.”

The recorded message played back as a beacon signaled for them to land at a specific place—a capital.

To save on fuel and time, we agreed to wait a few hours to land, for the face of that side of the planet to turn toward us. The waiting did us no favors as we broke into whispers of confusion.

“Guys, I don’t think there’s much life left here.” Merriel’s timid tones gave it gravity as Vil ordered the air quality, viral load, and other things to be tested as we approached. He launched a probe toward the surface that had us all biting our nails over the course of an hour.

When it came back safe, we prepared for a landing. Noel and I clutched our young and went to a safe place to wait for landing while everyone else mentally prepared themselves to meet the gods they’d been made from.

The time slipped by too fast as Noah napped with Nexus between Noel and me with gentle pats to their rumps. A cranky hatchling was the least desirable thing we wanted.

“Do you think it’ll be safe?” Noel looked to me like I had answers. He’d been taken from his kind so young that he was as clueless as I about most things.

“Any male on this ship would die to protect us.” I rested a hand on his thigh and nodded once. “We have to be safe.”

And neither of us could understand why we had to come to Paradise, but our bodies craved it.

“I hope so.”

“Sarge said things were fuzzy, but he thinks we’ll be okay.” Noel stroked over Nexus’s head and took shaking breaths, the only indicator of his anxiety, and even then, I wasn’t certain the origin of it was his own. Vil may have been channeling it to him.

“Hold on to your tails, guys. Batten down the kiddos because we’re going in!

” Merriel’s jovial tones piped up in an attempt to soothe us as we did all we could to count down the hours and minutes until we landed.

Every thousand miles we drew closer, another indicator that no vessel was coming to meet us.

Merriel counted down the time, gently reminding us of every moment while the ship shook and rattled.

“Can our vessel withstand this?” Noel glanced around, but he didn’t tense up.

“Don’t worry, my captain’s mate! I was made to withstand far more than this. I’m fleeeexxxxible.” Merriel laughed, and Noel gave a grunt of acknowledgement.

As the time ticked off and the rattling grew more severe, a sudden jolt kicked in, making Noel finally flail and reach for purchase, tail snagging Nexus and Noah in a sweep before I could do so.

I, however, went to the floor in a sprawl to seek stability on the ground. On purpose. Intentionally. Totally.

Noel didn’t mention it, thankfully.

Noah whimpered, and I scrounged about to grab him as our afterburners kicked in, the thrusters easing our last few miles of descent.

“Feel like you’re coming home?” I glanced over to Noel, who had gone paler than he normally did.

“It feels… It feels like I am going to a bad place. I feel like… Like this planet is a research facility I may never leave.” The tremble in his voice made my heart ache.

“You don’t feel a desire to be here?” I scooted over to lean against Noel’s legs and slap my tail against his in an affectionate gesture that he reciprocated.

“I do, and that is what terrifies me.” He closed his eyes and held onto Nexus until tears wet his eyes.

“Vil and Sarge will protect us. Everyone on this ship will.” I beamed up at him and rested a cheek against his leg.

Something strange buzzed in my mind as the ship came to a full settle and I stood, Noel following suit. In the same way the bond had a song, so too did a force beyond the ship and we followed, Noel and I making our way to the equalization chamber.

“I got some rudimentary data feed of what to check our air for. We’re clean. Wastewater check in place for viral and bacterial load. Three minutes.” Merriel’s professional tone threw me off as the rest of our crew filed in behind us.

From the position of the sun in the sky, it was evening, best I could tell from the orange rays blasting through the edges of our port.

Air that scented of cinnamon and ozone flowed in, making every hair on my body stand on end as my tail curled.

A wistful whimper came from a crewmate I couldn’t see.

Even little Noah in my arms perked up, a usually cautious little one that caused far less mischief than Nexus.

As my eyes adjusted, relief flooded through me as several males stood in wait for our ship to open, each one of them dressed in comfortable clothes not dissimilar to the ceremonial garb that TOAD had us wear.

My brain hummed as my language chip activated at the first words—paired with what Noel and Sarge had taught me to cement it.

“Welcome home, children of Paradise.” An omega stepped forward, his scales a magenta color and hair a striking white that went past his waist.

Noel braced Nexus in his arms and froze as eyes turned to him. A robust male with green scales, also an omega, openly stared before speaking in hushed tones. “A living life seed. A living life seed!”

The shout made Noel jump as the handful of omegas rushed forward and halted, eyes locking onto our young as if they’d only just noticed. Soft gasps. The first one cried out in shock. “And young… An omega child! A beta?”

Whispers between them petered out, but I was too stunned to say a word. I could only manage to walk forward, nudging Noel to do so, too.

“We needed to be here,” Noel said, his tone shaky until Vil approached from behind, resting protective hands on his shoulders. “Are we welcome?”

“You’ve mated your omegas?” The green one glanced from us to the crew.

“We have. He is my world and my heart.” Vil’s presence seemed to calm Noel as much as Sarge who came up behind me, arms wrapping my chest.

“They are our whole world.” Sarge’s soft words calmed me as much as I felt Vil did Noel.

“Come. The ota are welcome, but your Affa and…” The magenta one stared at Sarge and froze on Vil, expression halting. “Chimera?”

Noel nodded.

“Your child’s pater and the rest of them must remain here until we’ve cleared them.” The magenta omega’s expression hardened toward the crew and Noel turned, handing Nexus to Vil.

“It’s safe, I think,” Sarge said, taking Noah from me with a smile.

“But we passed the viral and bacterial inspection.” I stroked Noah’s head and pushed up on my toes to give Sarge an affectionate kiss, letting our tails entwine before I pulled away.

“It is not the disease of bacterium, prion, or virus we fear,” the green one spoke. “Rather it is the disease of the mind.”

Like we had no other choice, Noel and I stepped off the ship and into the waiting arms of the first Naleucians seen—ourselves excluded—in hundreds of solar rotations.

I couldn’t relate to the sense of homecoming Noel might have felt.

He’d grown up so long before me that he recalled polar bears and elephants still existing.

He’d likely been alive when the last panda was.

And while I didn’t recognize any of the flora that stretched into the distance and crept between earthen-hewn buildings, it was a greener time period.

For such a technologically advanced species, they’d stayed relatively true to their roots when it came to coexisting with their own ecosystem.

“You trust them with your young, life seed?” the magenta one asked.

Noel glanced back. “My name is Noel, and I trust him not to let harm come to him. I do not trust him to keep him from escaping into the air vents to hunt vermin. But, I do trust him to keep him happy.”

A strange look overcame the omega, uncertainty as they parsed over Noel’s words.

He was relatively juvenile in his Naleucian, haltingly so.

Even studying it hadn’t stuck like facts had.

Perhaps it was something to do with his upbringing.

My brain chip had accommodated it easily.

Which, its continuing survival amid my changes, was one of the many mysteries of what we were.

“We trust our mates and our crew. They are our family.” I stared the magenta one down as they pursed their lips.

“Forgive us. I am Wilani, and my companion is Zurok. But your alphas and betas do not make you wear collars or restrict you?” The green one put a hand on the magenta’s and gave us a sweet smile.

“They can try to. Doesn’t mean I’m going to listen, or we’re not going to kick someone’s tail so hard it falls off.” I huffed, and Noel glanced at me before nodding in agreement.

“You each only have the one mate?” Wilani tilted his head and stared pointedly at my mark.

“Yes. The orange-striped alpha is my mate. Sarge. His mate is Vil.”

“We understand the life seed’s mate is a hybrid, but you have no beta for your young?” Zurok pursed his lips.

“There is a beta that participated in my conception, yes, but he’s not a mate.” I offered a grin that made them blink in surprise.

“And both of you bore hatchlings?” Wilani covered his mouth.

“Yes. Do you think we’re being held prisoner or something?” Noel’s tail twitched.

“In a way. We’ve not seen alphas or betas in many solar rotations. We continued to send out envoys of our most genetically stable, but nobody returned. What species made these possible?” Zurok glanced at the ship nervously.

“Humans, the most intelligent life-form in D-11A0B, and Tal of E-490F. Though, the Tal already had parts of Naleucian DNA in them.” Noel’s soft voice cut through the fretting.

“And they’re not aggressive, or—”

“Every single male on that ship behind us is made of a team sent to D-11A0B. Nirem and Raziel for the alphas and betas or hybrids. Those that are made of Noel, the life seed, aside from me, are not complete. There is another with omega-potential on our ship. We have betas and alphas unmanifested. I know where more like Vil are. They are kind, stable, and…” I waved my hand around before Noel answered for me.

“Horny.”

“That! They are good people.” I really hoped they weren’t going to kill us. We’d traveled so far in hopes of finding them.

“I see no others, nor do I smell any others aside from omega here. Where are your alphas and betas?” Noel, asking the real questions, stared them down.

“One by one, we sent them out in search of our research vessels that never returned. We lost so many to the Colthraxians that our attempts to make us poisonous to them were our own undoing. We lost so many eggs. We lost so many alphas and betas. But most importantly of all, we lost omegas. We’re here to be protected, waiting for them to return, to bring new life and blood.

” Zurok gave us a pleading look as the straggling few omegas behind them approached.

“It will please you greatly to know that we’ve encountered Colthraxians.

After I mated, the venom concentrated in me, and we were able to kill one who infected Sarge.

” Noel wove a lie for them, one where Sarge was damaged in stasis and overtaken by a Colthraxian and purged—revived to live again. Doubtful looks passed around.

“Sarge is my mate.” I lifted my head with pride. “I am a doctor, and Noel is highly educated in the field.”

“The fact we have compatible species, and a living life seed is all we could have ever prayed for.” Wilani wiped at his eyes. “Once the Colthraxians are no more, we can restore ourselves.”

“The Colthraxians are all but gone. The last remaining ones are desexed and have agreed to never breed or swap bodies. There’s very few left.” Noel held his head up straight.

“The Leminiscate Resolution?” An omega male with black scales inundated with blue stripes stepped forward and took Noel’s hands. “You purged him? Or did you just fuse him?”

“What happened?” I found my throat dry.

The omegas looked at one another, shame mottling their faces. Then it hit me, a sweet smell I had become so accustomed to. Noel sensed it, too.

“We’re all…” The black scaled one took a deep breath and swallowed. “We’re all like your mate, manufactured omega.”

“Doc. And what do you mean, like my mate ?” I stepped back and Noel’s face fell.

“Doc. Of course.” The black one nodded. “And I am Sylf.”

Zurok scoffed and said what I knew was coming.

“We’re all Leminiscate Colthraxians. We are desexed and have agreed to not move bodies or reproduce.

Please, life seed Noel, show us how to fuse with our hosts.

We wish for the age of Colthraxians to end, and to restore the Naleucians.

Hopefully, your crew and resources will aid that. We wish to bear Naleucian young.”

I winced and pinched the bridge of my nose, exhaling a long breath. We’d landed on an isolated planet with a failing population with an entire harem of horny, breedable omegas. Every unmated male on our ship was about to discover the limits of their prowess.

“There needs to be some talking and negotiations, but I think you’ll find every unmated male on that ship a very willing and eager participant.” I shuddered.

“Horny space lizard whores,” Noel said, and I wholeheartedly agreed.