Mother
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Sumara looked up at the man again. His features reminded her of her husband. The cheeks and jaw, the eyes and brows gave the faintest shade of the man she had married, had loved, who had given her their beloved son. But his cranial crest, his scales, his flaring gular dewlap were gone, replaced by soft, peach-toned flesh, and thready, auburn hair that covered his crown.
"It is time, we have to go, the Daleks…it's the Daleks." the man said grasping Sumara with one hand. With the other he held a small metal locket. "They'll be here soon! All survey teams were recalled, if we don't leave now, we don't leave and then…" He looked worriedly up to the ceiling of their living room, seemingly beyond the ceiling. His hazel eyes flashed back to her. He pushed the locket into her hand. "Remember-"
Sumara hissed quietly her scaly hand grabbing the locket in the man's hand. Her mind fought it, the locket was sealed shut, rust and age; it was her grandmother's. It was never meant to be opened. She heard the click. There was a glow, it was beautiful and bright and calling towards her.
"Toval-" She whispered as her thin white fingers touched the soft skin of her forehead. They slid through her long dark hair. She opened her eyes. "What's-what's going-"
"Daleks!" the man said turning and grabbing a satchel. "The war's gone hot, the Daleks are starting to move into the vortex. I went in for my weekly communication with the research institute when the warning came out. All field crews across the seven galaxies are being recalled. All time capsules are being committed to the effort. We have to go, the last report said there was an armada only a couple of parsecs away from here."
The man, Toval, was hiking the satchels onto his shoulders they were filled with data logs, neuristors, and all the field notes they had clandestinely been making of themselves for the last five years they had been on Kralyvin. Immersed, arched into the Kralyvinian society, the memories of her former self, a young Kralyvinian woman named Sumara swirled in her mind as she slowly came to grips with her new self, Xeno-anthropologist, Rosatuntrevenastros, Rosat for short. Her partner, Tovaletnecronus, had decided to be her secondary. Toval was still rushing as he walked to an old ceremonial vault that all Kralyvinians had.
"It's rusted clo-" Rosat started and then remembered, that no, that was just the cover story. The door of the vault opened and a whole universe was inside.
"I'll start pre-flight calculations, you finish getting the artifacts vouchers out of the basement." Toval called form inside the time capsule.
Sovat nodded sharply and rushed down into the basement. There were huge totes, filled with old junk. Sumara's memories were that they were of familial sentimental value, wedding garments, holiday decorations, family albums, old baby… Rosat stopped. She ran up the stairs, through the living area, up another flight of stairs and back into a room. She swallowed hard as she looked at the earthen crib molded into the floor of the nursery. She walked forward and looked down.
A pair of bright, green reptilian eyes stared back up at her. The small creatures tiny hands, with its clawed digits reached up imploringly towards her. It cooed and garbled.
"Rosat where are you?" shouted Toval's voice. She could hear him downstairs, rushing about. "Rosat!"
"I'm up here!" Rosat called, weakly, looking down at the baby.
"I've got pre-flight finished we need to get those vouchers-" Toval said as he rushed into the room.
"Toval, there's a child in this crib." Rosat said.
"Yes, and?" Toval returned.
"Is it, ours?" Rosat asked.
"No, it's Sumara's and Ufram's. It's Kralyvinian." Toval replied.
"You know that's not what I meant." Rosat said, flicking a look to Toval. "Sumara's memories, my memories…." Rosat looked down at the child. She reached down and slowly lifted the baby out of the crib. "His name is Azkineet. Our first…"
"Not ours, it's not-" Toval started.
"He's only a year old, we had such trouble…conceiving." Rosat said.
Toval shook his head. "Now's not the time for this, Rosat! It's not ours, you're having memorial transfusion, you need to-"
"What? Forget that I gave birth to this child?" Rosat said calm as the petricorn breeze ahead of the coming storm. "We can't leave him!"
"We have to leave it!" Toval insisted. "If we bring that with us, the research institute will destroy our careers. They didn't want us on the same continent in the first place, and this was precisely why! But you said we could handle-"
"That was before I knew Daleks were coming." Rosat said, looking up at him. "You're really just going to abandon him in an empty house to be found by, by, some strangers."
"We can leave it with the authorities, but we need to go!" Toval said trying to move the conversation along.
"I can't leave him here, not left behind to be some Dalek's target practice." Rosat said quietly as she cuddled the little child, and smiled as it cooed back at her. "I'm his mother. He's my little boy…I can't just-"
"It-"
"HE! He is my son!" Rosat shouted. The child started and began to whimper. Rosat instantly turned her attention to the child and hummed quietly to it. "I am not leaving without him."
Toval pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "For Omega's sake….I really don't see how this is going to work, they'll just make us bring him back!"
"Once we have him on Gallifrey, there's not much they can do, especially if the Daleks are occupying this area." Rosat said.
"Oh yes, because that'll go over so well!" Toval retorted, turning and walking away. "The Dean of Research is going to have our heads, half a dozen times!"
"Either you put me back into that Chameleon Arch and make me Sumara again, or-" Rosat growled.
"Fine, I'll find the transportation seat for it." Toval snorted in annoyance, leaving the room.
Rosat smiled and looked down at the baby. "Don't worry, little Azkineet, you're going to be just fine. Mommy will take you home."
Rosat turned and walked down the hall, cradling the baby. She slowly climbed down the stairs and across the living room. Toval was lugging the totes up from the basement into the time capsule. Rosat followed him into the time capsule. The baby whimpered and winced in the bright light. In the corner was a small seat. Rosat walked over and secured the baby in the seat. Toval was rushing around the central console. Like most of the newer models it was a hard-light hologram, three sided. Rosat walked up to the console and started pressing touch-sensitive photonic sigils and sliding holographic sliders.
"The armada is moving into the star system." Toval reported as he looked through the glowing center column. "We don't have much time left. Are you absolutely sure about this? We can still leave it-"
"I'm not leaving him." Rosat said as she turned and looked down at the baby. "I could never leave my son behind."
"We are breaking so many laws…" Toval whined as he slid both hands down on the console. The light construct that was the center console slid seamlessly up and down and without any fanfare was underway.
The baby giggled, reaching upwards towards the moving column and the glittering console as Rosat knelt next to him. She looked up at Toval.
"Sometimes, laws can't stand up to a mother's love." Rosat said as she gently tickled the baby under its chin feeling its touch, bumpy scales.
888
AN: I know, this is short, and seemingly incomplete, and totally something different, but it's been an idea percolating for a while in my head. Give me enough rope to hang myself with it please.
