“Okay. Anything else?” she asked. I shook my head. “All right, I’m on it.”
“Anything we can do?” Reaper asked.
“Water,” I said. “We need to figure out a way to partially submerge them in water. If Stran is correct, and they have achieved this level of cryptobiosis, then they will have shed all the water from their bodies to prevent damage to themselves. We will need to rehydrate them and hope they are still with us.”
11
Reaper
I stared at my woman with a mix of awe and pride. In light of the ordeal she had endured, I had expected her to be timid, skittish, and socially challenged. Such a take-charge and assertive behavior from her was not only a nice surprise, but quite the turn on. I loved a strong woman, who knew what she wanted and didn’t hesitate to express herself.
But more than that, I was reveling in discovering who my mate was. That gentle but firm way she got Stran to calm down already gave me a hint as to the type of wonderful mother she would be to our children. From our conversations, I had known she had acquired some medical and scientific knowledge from her parents. However, as she’d still been young at the time of their passing, I’d assumed it had been basic, like the superficial things children knew about their parents’ professions. But I was starting to suspect that my mate was quite scientifically savvy, dated though her knowledge might be.
Reklig, my mate, and I hopped onto the hovering platform when it returned from dropping Stran and Thanh in the basement. My Scelk brother hopped off on the main floor to go check what could be used in the lab and hatchery as tubs to partially immerse the Creckels in.
However, the moment we reached the basement, what enthusiasm and hope I had felt at the prospect of saving such a large group of Stran’s people instantly died. There was no way these creatures could be revived. On the holographic display, I’d dismissed the dull color of their scales as being caused by the almost monochromatic palette of the projection. But now, standing right in front of them, their color seemed even duller. Another close-range scan from the scanner integrated in my bracer still showed no life signs from any of them. In truth, had I not known these were Creckels, I would have thought they were stone sculptures.
I exchanged a look with Doom, who imperceptibly shook his head, the dejected expression on his face reflecting how I felt. The Creckels had lined up in five columns of about twenty, the adults in the front and, judging by the decreasing sizes of the balls, the younger ones in the back. Stran was roaming around the rows, sniffing at each of the spheres and sometimes pawing at their sides. My mate crouched next to one of the bigger Creckels and poked at its sides with her fingers. I was about to ask what she was looking for when a surge of psychic energy between her and Stran stopped me.
Stran turned to look at her while they discussed. He then gave her a sharp nod before resuming whatever the heck he was doing.
“Can you ask Brees, Grol, and Jeop to come down, please?” Janelle suddenly asked me. “I cannot reach them.”
I nodded, more curious than ever and mentally reached for the modified Creckels. With her low psychic rank, my mate had a fairly limited range, further impeded by the disrupting material used to build the base.
Seconds later, an odd but rather pleasant and soothing scent started tickling my nose. It took me a moment to realize it emanated from Stran.
“It’s one of the Creckel’s three pheromones,” Janelle explained at the sight of our confusion. “They have a mating one to help entice a potential mate. There’s a defensive one to both warn the others of an impending danger and make their enemies feel uneasy. And this one, is their healing pheromone. It doesn’t actually heal,” she amended with a shy smile. “But it soothes and calms. It is used to signal that the danger is passed, to calm someone who is agitated, angry, or injured.”
“He’s essentially signaling to them that they can wake up,” I said pensively. “But can they even smell it in their current state?”
She shook her head with a sad expression. “Right now, no. But this is a large room. Between Stran, Brees, and Grol, they will be able to permeate the room with the pheromone. As the Creckels rehydrate, their higher functions will resume. This should help draw them out faster.”
“Then we better get them hydrated quickly,” Doom said.
“Agreed,” I replied.
Doom and I spent the next ten minutes discussing how we would get large quantities of water to the basement. With Reklig’s help, we then proceeded to dismantle the hatchery’s tanks and stasis chambers from both the lab and the basement to use them as basins to put the Creckels in. But with their large numbers, we had to get creative and welded some of the metal plates normally used to repair hull breeches to create more containers.
We placed the balled-up creatures in the tanks half-filled with water. Under Janelle’s and Stran’s guidance, we made sure their heads weren’t submerged. How the fuck they knew where the head was in what otherwise looked to me like a seamless sphere boggled my mind.
By the time we finished, the sun had already begun to set. With the additional work required, we hadn’t managed to finish butchering the Zebier. I was beyond sick of that chore. Thankfully, we would only need a few more hours in the morning to get through the last of them. However, if our efforts with the hibernating Creckels proved successful, all that extra meat would come in handy.
Nevertheless, Doom sent out a call for a frigate to join us. There were too many Creckels for us to carry aboard our chaser, despite it being a larger model. They would also bring more food, water, and medical supplies.
That night, I took my shower while Jessica was giving my mate a quick check up. When Janelle returned, she showered in my room while I went to fetch her things and bring them to mine. I walked back in just as she was coming out. While my mating glands had gone back to being mostly dormant since our initial encounter before the Creckels killed me, they now started swelling again at the dreamy sight of my female.
Unlike the modified Creckels that had required little treatment to quickly bounce back from their hardships, it would still be many days before Janelle regained a healthy weight. Nevertheless, the nanites in her system were doing wonders restoring her. I was dying with the need to bury my face in her beautiful blond hair that was cascading down her back and over her light grey nightgown.
She walked up to me with a strange expression on her face. Picking up the small pile of clothes from my hands, she placed it on the table next to the seating area before facing me again. We stared at each other for a few minutes, a silent communication that I couldn’t define passing between us.
After a beat, her gaze lowered to my chest. “You are far too dressed for bed,” she said matter-of-factly, before boldly lifting up the hem of my shirt.
Speechless, I raised my arms and bent forward to help her rid me of it. I loved the way she just stood there, examining me with something akin to possessiveness. She gave me a mysterious smile and then just walked to her side of the bed then hopped in. I joined her, and she immediately lay her head on my chest.
“If we manage to revive the Creckels, it will take at least a week before they are in any condition to travel back to their homeworld,” my mate said softly.