I couldn't leave you all with a cliffhanger for long, that would be mean. ;) a short chapter, but a good one hopefully.
Sometimes writers are mean to their characters :x (sorry), but sometimes they give chapters full of good things too :) what kind of chapter is this? Read on!
...Beep...Beep... Beep...Beep...
Irk, that was annoying. What the Irk was Red doing that was making such an antennae grating sound? Irritated, Purple wanted to flick his antennae to subtly tell his mate to turn. It. Off. However, he found his body unresponsive. Panic stabbed at his spooch, and Purple fought against the drowsiness of his rest mode to become more awake. Using a great amount of will, he pulled himself up from sleep and was able to slowly open his eyes. Bright lights assaulted his vision and he winced with a hiss, closing his eyes again.
He heard a rustling beside him and familiar fingers touched the side of his face.
"Pur?" he knew the voice as Red's but the shaky fear, the scratchiness didn't sound like him at all. Concerned, Purple squinted and blinked letting his eyes adjust to the light, it was taking longer than normal, but Red's face came into focus. "Pur," Red said relieved, his usual bright eyes more faded and the skin around his face was paler than normal. Before Purple could respond, Red leaned forward to press their Union marks together, his antennae fell forward and in spastic, desperate movements rubbed against Purple's limp ones. The touch sent a zing though his body, which he suddenly gained feeling in and found he was extremely sore and overtly sensitive.
"Red," Purple hissed slightly annoyed. He tried moving his hands up to push Red back but all he managed to do was twitch his fingers. "Stop it, I can't move," he said wanting his mate to stop sending his body mating feelings when he had no Irken idea what was going on and everything hurt.
"It's okay," Red said finally pulling back and holding Purple's face in his hands.
Purple thought that this was decidedly not okay and glared at him.
Red ignored the glare and continued to touch his face, almost as if confirming that Purple was still there. "Mik just disabled your PAK's connection to your nervous system."
"What?!" Everything about what Red just said was still very much NOT okay.
"At the last moment, a shell piece broken off and slipped right between your vertebrae to slice through your spinal cord. Mik disabled your nervous system so your PAK could focus it's main healing on your spine. He manually catheterized the internal bleeding and stitched everything back together so your body could easily heal itself. The small wounds took longer to heal since your PAK wasn't aware of them and couldn't boost the healing, but your spine is nearly whole. Mik says in another day he can reconnect your PAK and you'll be able to move freely. But um," Red looked away briefly, a little nervous. "The large incision will leave a scar."
As Red spoke Purple could feel his mind coming awake as it absorbed all this new information. The medically induced paralysis made sense. If his PAK was focused on healing too many areas at once, his spine might not heal properly in time and cause lasting damage. Somehow he had been hurt and he could gather that he was in the med bay. But incision? That implied a medically necessary wound. And shell? What kind of—
Purple froze. Slowly he looked down his body, he was covered with thin white sheet but he could see his form easily enough. His eyes traveled past Red to stare at his abdomen. His flat abdomen.
"Red," Purple said unable to keep the shaky fear out of his voice. His antennae vibrating with the dread and panic he felt creeping up from his spooch. "Red, Red, Red!" Purple chanted as blind panic took hold of him while he stared down. Since his PAK was disconnected from his body, his organic brain, instilled with primal fear, overrode the hold his PAK had on his body. Purple's arms shook and his legs twitched as feeling came back to them. He tried to move back, almost as if trying to escape from his own body.
Red grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back down, it was fairly easy in his weakened state. In a soft and even voice he tried to calm Purple, telling him to shush and that it was okay.
Purple rounded on his mate, and gripped Red's arms. Unable to escape the truth about
what was missing, in full blown panic Purple directed all his fear and anger onto Red. "How is any of this okay!? WHERE IS MY SMEET?" Purple screeched.
Following Purple's shrieking, a thin wail pierced through the air.
Red sighed and after gently pushing back his shocked mate into the bed, he stood. Wearily he walked across the room. "I told you to be quiet," Red shot him an accusing glance. He bent down and cooed softly, though the wailing continued. Straightening back up he turned, one arm cradled close to his chest. Belatedly, Purple realized Red wasn't wearing his Tallest armor. Behind Red's long fingers was a tiny green something, Purple couldn't see the moving thing clearly. Red stopped next to Purple's bed and frowned at Purple as he studied him.
"Can you move your arms properly?" Red asked.
Purple was transfixed on the crying thing hidden in Red's hold. Now that he wasn't ridden with fear it was more difficult for him to move. He tried to mimic Red's posture, but he couldn't hold his arms up for more than a few seconds. He looked up at Red with a silent desperate plea. He needed to see, to hold, what was in Red's arms.
"Here, try this," Red said using his free hand to move a pillow under Purple's elbow to prop up his arm. Once satisfied with it's position, Red transferred his softly crying charge onto the pillow, resting the head against the crook of Purple's arm.
Purple stared down at the tiny smeet. He wasn't even as long as Purple's fingers. He had tiny little legs which kicked tiny little feet. Small puny arms flailed around tiny little hands balled up in unhappy fists. His head was the biggest thing about him, larger than the length of his body and though his eyes were shut tight as he wailed, Purple could tell that they encompassed most of his head. Two thin antennae lay against the pillow, flicking to show how unhappy he was.
It was difficult to move, like Purple's arms were made of lead, but he managed to get his free hand over the the smeet. With one finger he poked at the tiny fist, easily opening it. The smeet's tiny hand gripped onto Purple's fingertip, just barely covering it.
Emotions and foreign thoughts flew through Purple. Confused and overwhelmed, Purple looked up at Red. "He's so tiny. So, So tiny," he looked back to the smeet and moved the finger that the smeet had grabbed. He moved down to the smeet's mouth and poked at the trembling chin. "Why is my spooch being so weird? I like that he's so tiny. Why? Why do I like that he's so tiny, Red!?" Purple said in hushed tones but still very much on the edge of panic. He turned back to Red for support. "He's tiny. He shouldn't be tiny. He needs to be a Taller, why am I so excited to see such a small thing!?"
"It's okay," Red said reassuringly, he knew exactly what Purple was going through. As a race that valued height above everything, it was a very weird and fear provoking feeling to look at something so small and feel such strong emotions. "Mik explained it to me," Red said wanting to assure Purple that nothing was wrong with his PAK and that there were no brain-worms taking him over.
"He says that this is a defense mechanism ingrained into some organically producing species. Because the smeetlings of many species can't live on their own, they cause this reaction in the adults to ensure that they will be cared for and protected until they get bigger. The adults of the species react this way to make up for the fact that otherwise taking care of smeetlings wouldn't be something anyone would want to do. It ensures the survival of a species. What you're feeling is basic instinct that not even the PAKs can filter out, this reaction is encoded into the very basis of our DNA."
Purple did feel better after hearing Red's explanation. If this was supposed to happen, if it was normal then he wouldn't have to fight it. He could accept these new sensations. They didn't exactly feel bad, just very overpowering, similar in intensity to his mating feelings for Red.
A wet and warm sensation on his finger drew Purple out of his thoughts to look back down at the smeet. Since Purple had been lightly rubbing his chin the smeet decided to counter attack the probing thing and latching on with both little hands. He sucked it into his mouth and began gnawing on it with his gums. For the smeet this felt good because his gums were achy and biting things made them feel better. Also the sounds around him weren't loud or startling and the scents lingering around his antennae were the ones he liked the best.
Looking up, two large ones looked down at him. He knew one. One was good. He brought good things, like warm and touch and soft sounds. He also brought sweet good things to drink. The other large one was new, but the scents here was good, familiar. He didn't know why but he was beginning to like this one a lot too. But to be certain, more chewing and gnawing on him was required.
"His eyes," Purple said looking down at his smeet. "They look like a mix of red and purple, of us." Purple caressed the little smeet's cheek with his other finger. " They are maroon."
The smeet let go of Purple's finger and began squealing happily. Pumping his little limbs and letting out happy squeaking sounds. He knew this large one's voice. This was the voice from the warm safe place. This was his favorite voice! This large one was his favorite!
A lopsided grin formed on Purple's face as he watched the little smeet's happy display. "He likes it. He doesn't have a PAK to give him a name. I'm choosing Maroon," Purple said lightly rubbing the top of his smeet's head. The little smeet closed his eyes at the touch and began making a soft vibrating sound. "Welcome to life, Irken Maroon, report for duty."
The little smeet continued to purr, and feeling happy and warm he curled back up. He had been woken up after all and he wanted more sleep while feeling these large ones' presence around him.
Purple made as tch sound, disappointed that the smeet was asleep again, but also not wanting to disturb him. "I'll make him greet me later. It's the least he can do."
"He can't talk yet," Red said sitting down next to the bed so he could watch the smeet sleep while he talked in hushed tones with his mate.
"What? Why not? There isn't anything wrong, right?" Purple looked back down at the smeet for any obvious signs.
"Nothing's wrong," Red said reaching out to stroke the little smeet's cheek as he slept. "But without a PAK to download knowledge into him, he knows nothing yet. We're going to have to teach him everything."
"Oh, right," Purple said remembering Mik talking about that. "He's going to become the greatest Irken ever. He'll have the greatest Irkens teaching him, us," Purple said grinning up at Red.
"He's made of the greatest Irkens ever," Red said sharing Purple's grin.
Mik received an alert that Tallest Purple had woken up. He walked briskly towards the med bay on his way back from a meeting with the Control Brains, updating them on everything and explaining the medical choices he had made. Thankfully, the Control Brains agreed that he made the most logical decision under the circumstances.
Rounding the corner he sighed at the large crowd of Irkens that had gathered again. It had been startling to say the least to find the oddly silent and apprehensive group outside of the med bay. Upon seeing him they demanded answers about the smeet and Tallest Purple. After assuring them that both were fine, he still couldn't convince them to leave. It wasn't that they didn't believe him, but they wanted to see. Mik knew that there was no way Red would allow anyone inside the med bay but himself and Shlen. He barely even let Mik near the smeet. There was no way he would let other Irkens in, not even if it was through a video. Red wouldn't even leave the med bay until Purple regained consciousness.
Luckily, the cut to Tallest Purple's spinal cord was a clean one and redirecting his PAK's energy to focus on healing it was making the process much faster. It had only been twenty five hours since the egg had broken and Tallest Purple's spine was almost completely healed, if he didn't overexert himself and disturb the healing process that was. Tallest Purple should be waking soon, the last he checked his PAK was close to switching out of intense healing mode; which would pull him out of the medically induced coma his PAK had put him in.
Mik secretly hoped that Tallest Purple would wake before he was fully mobile, Mik had many things to explain to him and he wasn't sure how his Tallest would take the news. The less able his Tallest was, the more likely Mik was to get away unscathed.
As Mik stepped into the med bay and the doors closed behind him, he was met with chaos.
"I didn't do anything!"
"You must have done something! He's leaking! You—STOP SQUEEZING HIM YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE!"
"I'M NOT SQUEEZING HIM!"
Mik blinked as he walked in on his Tallest yelling at each other. From the bed, Tallest Purple was weakly waving his arms around in a panic as Tallest Red held up the small smeet out as far from him as possible. The smeet was leaking fluid from between his legs, but was not the least bit distressed. He pumped his little legs and arms in the air, seemingly finding being waved about in the air as he leaked great fun.
It took Mik a moment to figure out how to breathe again. His initial reaction was to be as panicked as his Tallest about the possibility of something being horribly wrong with the smeet, but thankfully he had been doing a great deal of research about the smeets of other species that were the most similar to Irkens. Since the smeet didn't seem to be in distress, he had a good idea of why the smeet was leaking.
The stream leaking from the smeet soon stopped and both Tallest looked relieved but still greatly concerned. It was then that they noticed Mik.
"Mik!" Tallest Red said relief clear in his voice. He thrust the smeet down in front of Mik's face. "Something is wrong, he was just leaking all over the place. Fix him!"
The little smeet squealed in delight and immediately reached out to grab at one of Mik's antennae. Mik moved his antennae out of reach at the last second, he knew to keep them out of the smeet's reach after the last time. For a smeet, he still had a strong grip and had no qualm about giving Mik's antennae a good tug. Mik would rather not repeat the experience.
He took the smeet from Tallest Red, and while the smeet could easily fit into Tallest Red's hand, Mik had to carry the smeet in both of his arms to him hold him properly. Since his antennae were out of reach, Mik had to sacrifice his face as the smeet latched his tiny hand onto his lip and gave it a good pull. Mik quickly set the smeet down into the small clear scanning pod. The glass dome closed over the smeet so he couldn't escape as Mik ran his scans. He also had the lab clean up the mess on the floor after obtaining a sample of the fluid.
The results of the scan confirmed Mik's suspicions. He went over to the lab's fabricator and typed in the code for what he needed. It popped out a pink rectangle of specialized material with closing mechanisms. Mik took the material and opened the smeet's pod. Slipping the fabric under the smeet, it activated to wrap itself around the smeet's hips and between his legs. Mik picked up the smeet and handed him back to Tallest Red.
"Leaking is completely normal among completely organic species," Mik began. "It is getting rid of the nutrients and substances that the body cannot use or absorb. It also helps flush the organic body of any toxins or harmful substances. Irkens do not have to worry about this as our PAKs filter out and destroy these for us, and the taller the Irken the more their body will need to absorb so there would be very little for the PAK to take care of.
"As a growing smeet he will need a great amount of nutrients to aid in the growth of his body, so his body will constantly be expelling old nutrients. As a smeet he has no control of when his body does this, but as he grows he will eventually learn how to control this releasing process. Many species have specialized chambers that they use for the exclusive purpose of disposing of their bodies unneeded substances," Mik explained noticing that both his Tallest looked relieved.
"So what's this for?" Tallest Red asked pointing to the pink thing around his smeet.
"Ah, yes, this is called a diaper by most species. It's purpose is to collect the smeet's unneeded substances. I've designed it so that when the smeet has dispelled his body's waste this symbol will appear on the fabric," Mik said and pointed to a screen displaying the image. It looked like face that was displayed on smeet cloning containers when the smeet inside was ready to come out. "Press the sides here," Mik pointed to the spots on the smeet's diaper, "And the diaper will come off. The material can be cleaned completely with a concentrated form of cleansing gel, but it will need to be washed more vigorously to completely disintegrate the waste.
"It is similar to how the Irkens in the engineering department rid their uniform of oil and grease stains. A simple gel bath or cleansing chalk isn't enough, so they use cleansing machines to fully clean their uniforms, which is why they are issued two uniforms. One, to wear and one to have as an extra for when theirs is too stained to wear. To make things more convenient we can install these machines in your cleansing chambers and when the smeet is older a separate facility for disposing of his body's waste can be added in," Mik concluded feeling rather proud of himself that he had come up with all of this on his own.
"How often will he be leaking?" Tallest Purple asked.
"Hmm," Mik went over to his computer and did some quick analysis. "From these calculations, at least once or twice a cycle."
"What?! So often?" Tallest Purple eyed the smeet. "He's so small, how can he leak that much every day and still be able to grow?"
"He drinks a lot," Tallest Red answered, his voice sounded annoyed but his expression didn't match. He quirked a smile at the smeet, resting in the hand he had cradled against his chest. The smeet was rolled on his side and nawing on one of Tallest Red's long fingers. "We've been giving him liquefied sugar once every hour."
"He needs an IV on top of snacks?" Tallest Purple asked alarmed.
Tallest Red winced at the mention of an IV. "Ah, no. At first we tried giving him snacks, but look," Tallest Red came closer so he could move his finger in the smeet's mouth and show Tallest Purple inside. "He has no teeth yet. He can't chew any snacks, we tried giving him some, but he almost choked on them. So we gave him an IV, but he, ah, didn't like it," Tallest Red said and Mik nodded vigorously. After having the needle, even using the smallest one Mik had, pierce his skin the little smeet screamed so loudly and at such a high pitched volume that their antennae hurt just thinking about it. It was a wonder Tallest Purple hadn't been pulled from his healing sleep at the sound.
"So Mik came up with this liquid form that he can drink. It isn't as strong as an IV, but it's better than any Irken soda, which he also doesn't like and refuses to drink. I've been giving him the liquid sugar every hour or so."
"Hm," Tallest Purple said thoughtfully as he studied the smeet. Reaching out, which seemed to take a lot of effort, he poked the smeet's cheek. The smeet blinked in surprise at the poke and removing his mouth from Tallest Red's finger, he chomped down on the thing assaulting his cheek. He wrapped his tiny hands around Tallest Purple's finger as he chewed with his toothless mouth.
Tallest Purple made a playful hissing sound, mocking an aggressive noise, as he wiggled his finger in retaliation. The smeet kicked his legs and made chirping noises, his little antennae wiggling happily at the play fight.
"He has good fighting instincts," Tallest Purple said smiling proudly. "It makes sense that he needs sugar that often," he commented. "That's about the frequency of the IV's I needed. Since some of the sugar was being used by my body, it's about the same amount he received while in the spooch sack."
At the mention of 'spooch sack' Tallest Red tensed and Mik swallowed nervously.
"Ah, um, yes, well," Mik began fluttering his hands anxiously. Somehow explaining had been much easier to the Control Brains, not the subject himself. "About your reproductive spooch sack," he began and Tallest Purple looked away from his smeet to quirk an inquisitive antennae at the fumbling medic.
"What about it?" he asked.
"You see, when the egg broke and the shell pieces shifted, it pierced the spooch sack in several places putting you and the smeet at great danger. The pieces were razor sharp," Mik said.
"Yes, Red told me about that," Tallest Purple said a little irritated at the repeat information. "He told me about you shutting down my PAK's systems to focus on healing my spine. You'll connect everything properly tomorrow, correct?" Tallest Purple said not really asking a question but stating a demand. "It's Irken hard to move my limbs. I feel numb and sluggish."
"Oh, yes, I'm surprised you can move at all. Your organic brain must be taking over movements in the PAK's absence, which is quite remarkable," Mik said but hurried along when he saw his Tallest glare at him. "But yes, tomorrow your spinal cord should be healed completely and I will reestablish your PAK connections. Your body should feel completely normal then, there will be no lasting effects from the spinal injury at least."
Tallest Purple's antennae perked up and he eyed Mik suspiciously. "You worded that oddly, medic."
"Oh, uh..." Mik looked away growing nervous again. "As I said before the shell was a very dangerous threat to both you and the smeet. Should any of the pieces shift they could pierce you or the smeet. Actually," Mik said thoughtfully as he looked back. "If your spooch sack hadn't collapsed in on itself both you and the smeet would have sustained a great amount of damage. You PAK could have healed a lot of the damage, but the smeet might not have survived."
Tallest Purple gave his smeet an anxious glance, as if to confirm that they were no injuries on him. It was then Tallest Purple saw Tallest Red's expression and he frowned before his eyes narrowed and he glared back at Mik.
"What happened?" Tallest Purple demanded to know. "Something happened. Red wouldn't look like that if everything was fine. What happened, Mik?" Tallest Purple bit out Mik's name causing the little medic to wince.
"I've already spoken to the Control Brains," Mik began defensively trying his best to ease into the topic. "They agreed that under the circumstances I choose the most logical pathway to success."
"What did you do, Mik?" Tallest Purple said in an eerily calm voice. "What did you do to me? WHAT DID YOU DO!?"
Mik yelped and jumped at Tallest Purple's shout and it startled the smeet whom began to cry. Tallest Red held the smeet close to him and tried to sooth him by rubbing his head with one finger. Tallest Purple gave a quick remorseful glance towards his upset smeet, but then turned that guilt into fury as he gave Mik a glare promising death. It was Mik's fault he he upset his Tallest so much that he shouted and thus upset his smeet. The upset sounds from the smeet, mirrored Mik's own completely and he broken down and began crying as well.
"It's gone!" Mik wailed in despair, feeling guilt and remorse and grief over his inability as a medic to do anything more. "I had to remove your reproductive spooch sack. It was the best option to quickly assure your and the smeet's survival. Yet even then you were still harmed and you have permanent scars on your body. I'm a failure as a medic!" Mik lamented and fell to his knees in a hysterical sobbing mess.
"...You mean I'm no longer a recessive gendered Irken?" Tallest Purple asked after a moment of shocked silence. "Red and I won't be able to fully mate anymore?"
"What?" Mik said through his blubbering. "No, those parts are still there and function. There is enough of the spooch sack that your will have all the sensation of mating, but it will be useless!" Mik said beginning to wail again. "You will never be able to have more smeets!"
"WHAT!?" Tallest Purple's rage was so sharp and intense that his voice even silenced the smeet into a stunned silence, though his lower lip still quivered.
"The Control Brains wanted me to keep making smeets!?" Tallest Purple voice was laced with indignant fury.
"...pardon?" Mik asked in a small voice, his confusion making his hysterics stop.
"The Control Brains," Tallest Purple hissed. "They wanted to make me into a some sort of Tallest smeet-making drone! Didn't they?" He said his voice taking on a hint of insanity that terrified Mik. Tallest Red mirrored his expression and he took a step back from his scary mate, instinct had him holding his smeet protectively and even the smeet, as young as he was, had instincts that made him stay very quiet.
It took Mik a brief terrified moment to process what his Tallest was saying. Once he did he knew right away that he had to fix this misunderstanding or else doom would fall upon all of them.
"NO!" Mik shouted a little too loudly in his haste to gain his Tallest attention. As sacrilegious it was to shout at his Tallest, it worked and he (terrifyingly) had his Tallest's full attention. "No, my Tallest," Mik said more in control of his voice and he bent, wiggling his antennae respectfully. "No, the Control Brains never spoke of such things. Nothing like that was ever their intention. No, my Tallest, you see, many organically reproducing species will mate and produce offspring more than once. Many species desire to have several offspring."
Tallest Purple gave him a incredulous look. "Why on Irk would any creature want to go through all that more than once?"
"I, ah, um, don't know, my Tallest," Mik fumbled, the aftermath of the extreme emotions he had been feeling almost too much for his PAK to process.
Tallest Purple made an irritated sound. "I have Maroon, I don't need—or want—another smeet."
"Maroon?" Mik asked.
"That's his name," Tallest Purple said limply gesturing towards Tallest Red who was holding the wide eyed smeet. "He doesn't have a PAK to give him a name, so I did. You got a problem with that?" he glared at Mik.
"No! No, of course not," Mik said quickly. "It is a very superior name."
"It is, isn't it?" Tallest Purple said proudly as he looked over at the two and gave a short laugh. "Red, you and Maroon are making the same face. I'm not mad, let me hold him," he said.
Mik looked over in time to see Tallest Red shift from wide-eyed and weary to slightly embarrassed. He schooled his features and laid the tiny smeet on the pillow next to Tallest Purple. The smeet had his little limbs curled up into a protective ball and his wide eyes looked pitiful as Tallest Red withdrew. His antennae were flat against his head as he stared up at the previously furious Tallest.
"Don't look at me like that," Tallest Purple lightly chided as he poked at the smeet's pouting lip with his finger.
Tentatively the smeet opened his mouth and lightly gummed the finger. After a moment he grew braver and his tiny hands unfurled to grab onto Tallest Purple's finger. Within a few short seconds after that, he was actively gnawing on Tallest Purple. His little legs kicked and his antennae fell forward in what was possibly the most adorable aggressive display Mik had ever seen.
His spooch did this weird spasm and Mik felt this compulsive desire to smash his head against something. His PAK couldn't handle this OVERWHELMING feeling. The smeet was just too tiny, too adorable. No other smeet made him feel this way. He'd seen thousand of smeets on Irk, but they all had PAKs and were fully alert Irkens from the moment of activation. This smeet didn't know anything. It couldn't even speak! So everything he did, every action was just so... so... GAH! Mik tugged at his antennae, needing the pain as a distraction.
"It's odd that he likes to chew, but won't eat," Tallest Purple observed. "What did you try giving him?"
"The usual," Tallest Red shrugged, paying more attention to his mate and smeet than the internally distressed medic. "Chips, those gummy things you like, donuts, we even tired an Irken burrito."
Tallest Purple made a thoughtful noise. "Remember those poofy snacks? The ones we hated because they turned into a gross mush the second you started to chew them? Are there any still on board?"
"You think he'll like them?" Tallest Red asked.
"All the things you tried, you have to really chew to eat. Those mush ones tasted fine, the texture was just gross, and he won't have to chew to eat them. Oh! And the dip-n-lick snacks. Those should be fine too," Tallest Purple said. "I don't really like those, too much work for so little snack, but I know they are popular among the smallers. They're in every vending machine on Irk."
"I know where we can get some," Mik said happy to have something to distract him from his weird feelings in the smeet's presence. He rushed out of the med bay and the large group of Irkens waiting outside perked up their antennae. "Tallest Purple has awoken," Mik addressed the group. "He requires dip-n-licks and mushy poofs for the smeet!"
There was a breath of stillness as this information sunk in, then there was a mixed up cluster of Irkens all trying to move and go every direction at once. It created a jam of bodies, but it quickly cleared as each Irken ran to their snack stashes hoping that they had one of the desired snacks to offer to their Tallest and the new smeet. Any chance to get on Tallest Purple's good side was a rare and valuable chance indeed.
BABY MAROON! I like to think that natural born smeets act a little like puppies, they like to bite and chew on everything. Also our three boys are the first Irkens in long long time to experience extreme cuteness, and they are no match for the innocent adorableness that is a smeet. It's not just that the smeet is small, but that it behaves in a certain way. If all small things were cute to Irkens then the smallers would be treated better and smeets with PAKs would be treated differently. PAK wearing Irkens are endowed with knowledge and intelligence so they skip that cute phase in their development, but little Maroon is just oozing it and no adult Irken will be safe. *evil laugh* Expect more smeet shenanigans next chapter. Also the Tallest's parental instincts are starting to kick in now that the smeet is there.