Happy Father's Day to everyone! What a better way to celebrate it than to post a new Shades of Purple chapter? especially one with this particular thematic. You'll see what I mean down there. No spoilers!
Shades of Purple
Chapter 31- Love at First Sight... Sort of.
The next few days were utterly miserable, at least in her opinion.
The smeeting behaviors started to kick in soon after their capture, most notably the strange need to hideaway into a dark place. The closest thing the Invader could find was Purple's cloak, but it wasn't very comfortable. Whenever she stayed outside her hideout for longer than two minutes, Tenn felt intense anxiety and nervousness that drove her back into hiding.
"Is this normal?" She found herself asking.
"Yeah. Lena spent most of her time inside a pillow fort when she was pregnant. It's a sort of nesting behavior: she even gave birth there!"
On the bright side (sort of), her relationship with Purple improved considerably. The more they talked, the more she warmed up to him. She hated to admit it, but she liked this casual side of him who treated her more like a friend and less like a trophy wife.
"Feeding time, your Tallest." The tray of food was, once again, carelessly slid through the plasma barrier.
"Let me guess: half-cooked meat again?"
"Yes. The lizards have an awful taste." Purple murmured
At least their meals were somewhat decent and served in bigger rations than the other prisoners', from what Tenn could see.
Thankfully, Purple turned out to have a whole secret compartment filled with his limited edition snacks. And they were tasty! On this occasion, he gave her some of the brownies with s'mores filling from Earth.
"How can you fit so many snacks in there?" Tenn found herself asking curiously.
"It's a secret," Purple said, winking playfully.
Their meal was interrupted by three sobrekt guards deactivating their cell's plasma wall. One glanced at Tenn.
"You, come with us."
Tenn responded by hiding further into the cloak.
"My wife is in no condition to 'go with you,' lizards."
"What? She broke a leg or something?" the second guard sneered.
"In case you peabrains don't know, which must be the case, pregnant Irkenettes must stay inside their dens during the whole process for her to remain physically and psychologically healthy," Purple said hardly.
"You better shut your trap unless you want to get a muzzle again, Irken."
"You'll have to get through me if you want to lay a hand on my wife, lizards."
The Sobrekt bared their teeth, but before they could step in and subdue Purple, a kryvtor officer blocked their path with his arm. He hurriedly whispered something to them, and they placated for the time being. Exchanging odd looks, the Sobrekt disappeared from sight. Curious, Tenn took a look at him. He had gray scales and a blue feather crest.
The kryvtor reactivated the plasma wall. "You're lucky that Captain Mizorant ordered me to make sure your mate is in perfect health, your Tallest."
"What did they want with me, anyway?" Tenn asked, taking a peek from under the cloak.
"As I just said, we have to make sure you're healthy, and that means you need to be checked by a medic."
"You're nuts if I think I'm letting the butchers you have the nerve to call doctors lay a hand on her." Purple hissed.
The kryvtor rolled his orange-gold eyes. "You'd rather let your mate and smeet get sick, then?"
"Don't you have an Irken medic onboard? In your cells, I mean." Tenn asked. Purple and the kryvtor glanced at her, to which the Invader frowned. "What? I don't have a rough, scaly hide like you. You don't really expect that a sobrekt doctor will be able to check on me without hurting me, do you? Besides, your medics know nothing about Irken pregnancy and might make things worse, not to mention that you must take the stress factor into account. If I get too stressed out, it might be harmful to my smeet, and in turn, me.
"I know the ways of your people, lizard. I'm not an expert in the matter, but what I'm sure of is that your greatest weakness is that you follow strict codes of honor. As such, you wouldn't bring any harm to someone who's utterly defenseless against you, even if it's an enemy, and this goes double with expectant mothers. So, how I see it, you don't have a choice but to do as my husband says and bring us an Irken medic."
Tenn locked eyes with the kryvtor to let him know she was serious and wouldn't back down from this; according to Ilk, looking at them directly in the eye was a sort of challenge. The lizard's pupils had gone to slits, and his whole body was stiff. A few seconds later, he sighed.
"Fine, I'll see what I can do."
Tenn waited until he was out of earshot to sigh in relief. For a moment, she thought he'd step into the cage to personally attack her.
Looking up at her husband, she nearly burst into laughter when she saw his expression. His jaw was hanging open, and his eyes were almost bulging out.
"What?"
"How on Irk did you do that?" Purple asked in awe. "You technically gave an order to the lizard, and he followed it!"
"Ilk's reports. Sobrekt respond to strength, both physical and of character. If you want to earn their respect, you must never show them any weakness. If you believe that you are their equal, they will eventually believe it too."
"You really are something, my dear!" Purple laughed, sitting down next to her. "Though I think I could have done it better."
Tenn raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Why didn't you then?"
"I didn't want to provoke the lizard with you in-between. As you said, stress won't do you any good."
"I think I'm pretty stressed out already, considering I'm stuck inside a cell on a Sobrekt warship whose Captain is a deranged female bent on getting revenge on you."
"Don't remind me…"
Half an hour passed before the kryvtor returned with the same guards from before. Once again, Purple was muzzled and restrained before they were taken out of their cell. Tenn couldn't help but wonder if they did that to break his spirit, or simply spite him.
They arrived at the ship's medical bay. Tenn saw some Sobrekt or Kryvtors inside gel-filled capsules of sorts: the most fascinating part was that their legs, arms, or any limb were missing or were in the process of regenerating. That must be the famous limb regeneration Ilk had talked about.
"Okay, here we are, Miss," the kryvtor said as they arrived at a particular area filled with screens and monitors. "And don't bother trying to find something sharp: all pointy objects and lasers have been taken away."
Purple groaned behind the muzzle.
Tenn saw an Irken medic near one of the medical capsules; he was a shorter male. Looking warily at Purple, she read the look on his face. He didn't want another man to touch her, much less a shorter; thankfully, his words were muffled.
"What's wrong now, Irken?"
"Please forgive my husband, he's got a very annoying jealously issue!" Tenn spoke through grit teeth, narrowing her eyes at Purple, shaking her head. Thankfully, he seemed to understand the message, though he still didn't look too happy.
The shorter straightened up once he took notice and saluted. "M-My Tallest Purple! Lady Tenn, I'm so happy you're both okay!"
Purple rolled his eyes; he would have probably waved his hands in a dismissing manner if they weren't chained.
"How dare you muzzle my Tallest as if he were a beast, you savages?!"
"Shut your trap and do what we brought you here for if you don't want a matching one." The kryvtor snarled, baring his teeth.
Tenn didn't need to be told what to do: she stepped forward and climbed into the open capsule to lay down. As she heard the medic type something, the capsule closed, and a few holographic screens materialized. They showed her vital signs, levels of nutrients, sugars, stress, amongst other things.
"Physically, you look okay, Ma'am. Your sugar levels are a bit low, though, haven't you been eating enough?"
"Maybe it's got to do with the fact that I'm eating for two," Tenn said dryly.
The medic blinked. "Excuse me? Ma'am, are you saying-?"
"She's pregnant, you pea brain," the kryvtor said. Why do you think she's having special treatment? Kindness?"
"Sweet irk! My Tallest Purple, I'd like to offer you my most sincere congratulations-!"
Tenn heard Purple snarl behind the muzzle. "He wants you to stop babbling and check on the smeet already."
"Right away, sir! Though I'm not very used to working with Sobrekt equipment… where is it..? Ah, here!" The medic pressed a button, making another holographic screen appear on the thin glass. "Here, he is."
Tenn looked up at the image. Her heart skipped a beat.
Purple has only ever experienced the thing called 'love at first sight' twice in his life. The first was when Tenn returned to the Massive after conquering Meekrob, and he saw how tall and beautiful she had become during her years on the planet.
And the second was when he saw his child for the first time ever.
Well, sort of. The ultrasound didn't accurately show a smeet, it was more like blurred dark, and light spots all over that moved whenever Tenn breathed or shifted. However, he barely saw a particular white spot inside a larger dark one that was vaguely shaped like a tiny Irken.
There he is. His… their smeet.
"Is it a male or a female?" Tenn asked.
"It's too soon to know, ma'am, but the smeet looks to be developing properly." The medic said.
"My, my, now I've seen everything."
Purple ignored the lizard. His whole attention was focused on the screen, watching the tiny smeet shift and kick inside the spooch-sac. He almost instinctively stepped forward but was held back. Angry, he gave his captors muffled growls as he tried to get close to his wife.
"Wait," the kryvtor said, raising a hand. "Step aside."
"But Sakr-"
"You should all know better than to come between a man and his unborn child. Let his Tallest enjoy the moment while it lasts."
Purple glanced at the kryvtor named Sakr, surprised. Why was he helping him? Sakr gestured towards the medical capsule with his head, urging him to get close.
Oh, well, he'd look into it later. Right now, he wanted to be close to his wife.
Purple moved to the capsule's side, gaze entirely focused on the screen. He tentatively raised his hands so he could gingerly touch the hologram: the smeet happened to squirm the moment the tip of his fingers touched the image. Was that was his way of saying hi? A few tears gathered in Purple's eyes as he took in the picture of his unborn child.
Hi, little one. Don't worry, mommy and daddy are here.
Sadly, the moment was cut short when Sakr announced that it was time to go back to their cells. On the way back, Purple never removed his gaze off Tenn as she walked right next to him, her arms protectively bracing her abdomen.
Once they were back in their cell and found himself free of his restraints, the first thing Purple did was grab Tenn by the waist and spin around happily, lifting her into the air, laughing.
"Seriously?!" Tenn protested.
"I'm happy, deal with it!" Purple retorted, though his voice was devoid of any annoyance. Instead, he put his wife down only to kneel down and embrace her by the waist; Purple pressed his cheek against her abdomen. "Did you see it? Our little one!"
"The pic was right on top of me, so yes, I did, genius."
"You don't sound that excited."
"Well, considering that I'm still trapped in an enemy ship surrounded by overgrown crocodiles, you can't blame me for being more concerned about making it alive out of here," Tenn said dryly. "Otherwise, there might not be a smeet at all."
Purple sighed. She had a point. He couldn't really trust Mizorant to keep her word of not hurting Tenn and his unborn smeet. What if the need for vengeance was stronger than Sobrekt honor? He wasn't going to take any chances.
But then there's the issue of how they were going to get out of there. Without their PAK-tools and weapons, they couldn't go far. And it's not like he has a secret communication device hidden in his pocket…
Wait.
"Tenn, do you still have the Earth portable communicator?"
"You mean the iPhone?"
"Yeah, that thing."
Tenn looked inside her PAK's compartments, sliding out the small, rectangle-shaped device. "Here it is, but- Hey, what are you doing?"
Ignoring her, Purple snatched the cell phone and flipped open his gauntlet to type in a command: a few tools were ejected. Setting himself to work, he disarmed the earthen phone and started reassembling it with some Irken upgrades.
"What on Irk are you doing?!"
"I'm making a long-distance communicator with this thing."
"Can you do that?"
"If you'd let me concentrate, yes," Purple said sharply. He connected a small cable to the phone to transfer the irken software into it until the Empire's symbol appeared on the screen. "Done."
"How did you…?"
"I was at the top of the engineering class in the Academy." Purple bragged, smirking.
"Impressive," Tenn admitted. "Now, we can call the Massive from this phone, right?"
"Hopefully, they aren't too far. The iPhone's outdated hardware might make it harder for the signal to travel too far…" Purple tried tapping a button, but the glass didn't read the tip of his winger. Frowning, he tried a few more times, pressing harder every time. "Argh, this stupid thing-!"
"Give me that." The iPhone was snatched from his hand as Tenn typed the code.
A few minutes of tension passed. Purple raised his lekku, on high alert for any footsteps. If the lizards found out what they were doing…
A long wave of static echoed loudly: panicking, Purple snatched the phone back and lowered the volume.
"-ello! Pur, is that you?!"
Purple shushed into the phone. "Yes, it's me! Lower your voice, or you'll alert the whole goddamn ship!" Yet he couldn't deny that he was relieved to hear his partner's voice.
"Thank Irk, Purple! Is Tenn with you?"
"Right here," Tenn said. Red sighed on the other side.
"When we received that transmission showing you in that mad lizard's power, we feared the worst! I was starting to think that you'd been fed to the indokuros or something!"
"Nah, we're fine, the three of us," Purple said, smiling a bit.
"That's excellent news! Do you happen to know your exact location?"
"Oh, we're inside a cell with green walls right at the end of the detention brig. And don't forget that we're in front of the cell of a captive Irken Elite soldier." Tenn said, sharp sarcasm dripping from her tone. "Of course we don't know where this ship is or where it's headed!"
"Geez, I see the mood swings are starting to kick in."
Purple snickered when he saw the look on Tenn's face. He even swore that her right eye twitched. Red ordered to track the signal to pinpoint their location.
"Shoot, it looks like you're located deep in Sobrekt territory, near the colony planet Kravak. The reports I've been getting informed me that it produces at least seventy percent of Sobr's spacecraft and weaponry. I was actually trying to come up with a plan to conquer it before you called."
"There's something that doesn't make sense, though."
"What do you mean?" Purple asked his wife.
"Mizorant has one of the leaders of the Irken Empire in her hands. Why bring us to Kravak instead of going straight to Sobr to hand us over to the Shuryo? She'd get her own statue and a whole planet named after her if she did, not to mention that she'd give her people a trump card to use in the war."
"In case you haven't noticed, my dear, nothing that madwoman does makes sense, other than the fact that she's after my guts." Purple pointed out.
"What do you mean?"
"Remember the issue of Zetronok?"
"The planet you had enslaved because they told you to pay tribute so your snack shippings could go through their space? It's hard not to. Lena is still mad at us for that." Purple imagined Red rolling his eyes and rubbing his temple.
"Apparently, our pal Mizorant lived there when it happened, and she lost her whole family, so now she's out to get me."
"Great. Should I add her to your… list of people who are... mad at you and want to kill you… thing?"
"List of enemies," Tenn corrected.
"Yeah, that."
"Haha, very funny, Red. If you don't mind, I'd like to get the heck out of here before Mizorant changes her mind about being 'honorable.'"
"Don't worry, I'll prepare a rescue mission with our best Elite soldiers. Just hang on for a little longer."
Purple groaned. "You better hurry. I swear, if I have to eat one more piece of raw meat, I'll kill myself."
The transmission was cut off. Purple sighed in relief.
Alright, now we just have to keep ourselves alive until help arrives. How hard can it be?
Don't push your luck, Purple. Don't forget that things never to according to plan.
And surprise, surprise, Sakr Cobalk made a guest appearance. And he's still as honorable as ever, just like Sobrekt in general. Will he get a relevant role? Only time will tell.
See you next time!