"Adoption" by Heidi Hecht

Stacen flipped through the list of ongoing projects that needed skilled assistants. It was quite common for Guardians to do odd work for any scientific project they were interested in during their spare time, although they tended to avoid the ones headed by humans. No self-respecting Grebsa would work for a human.

The door to his apartment swished open. Stacen didn't even look back. He knew it was his mate, just coming off-shift. Gana padded in, carrying a small bundle.

*Stacen, come here,* she told him over the telepathic Grebsa Network.

He sighed and put his terminal on standby.

*I found her in a back-way. Abandoned. The Healers tell me she's healthy,* she said.

Stacen looked down at the sleeping infant. She couldn't be more than a few days old.

*Veroshi. A runt, do you think?*

It was rare, but not unheard of, for Veroshi to abandon their babies. Grebsas tried to carefully screen the potential parents, but, sometimes, mistakes happened.

*She is a little small. I'm going to take her to the nursery in the morning and see if somebody adopts her.*

*Well, my shift starts in a few hours. I can take her down on the way. Poor dear.*

The infant woke up and began whining. She wasn't even old enough to open her eyes yet, but she wrinkled her snout and sniffed. Gana picked her up.

*Probably hungry,* she said.

As Gana cradled the Veroshi in one arm and took feeding supplies out of her knapsack with the other, Stacen gently scanned her most recent memories. She had dropped the child off at the hospital while on her rounds, and then went back later to check on her. The Healers had named the baby "Rora." It meant "Blessed by the Gods" in native Veroshi. They had looked at Gana with embarrassing worship in their eyes because she cared enough about a poor little abandoned puppy to bring her in for medical care. They had given her some formula and supplies so she and her mate could care for Rora overnight. It was almost enough to give Stacen serious thoughts about having children, too.

*You're naughty,* Gana told him lightly as she sensed his thoughts.

*We have to start somewhere.*

The baby's whining became a soft coo as her sense of smell made a shrewd guess about who was holding her. Gana looked down adoringly at the child.

*What a little darling.*

Stacen brought the girl to the nursery, which was being tended by a few young apprentice Healers. One of them approached shyly and took the baby from him.

"What's her name?" she asked.

"The Healers named her Rora. We don't even know who the parents are."

"That's a sweet name. Poor little girl. Where did you find her?"

"My mate found her in an alley. She needs a family but the Veroshi get first choice, as always."

Rora began to whine again. The nurse jiggled her. Seeing that she was totally absorbed with the baby, Stacen left quietly.

He went about his business, but his mind kept returning to Rora. Gana had completely fallen in love and he hadn't minded when Rora had settled against his fur for a nap. If no Veroshi adopted her, Gana was probably going to bug him to death until he agreed to try his hand at raising a few-day-old Veroshi infant.

When his shift finally ended, he returned to the nursery, doing his best to curb his impatience. Never mind that it had been, subjectively, the longest shift he had ever endured. Three things define the Guardian: love, diligence, and patience. Love for the Veroshi we exist for; diligence to protect them from all threats; and patience to endure their unending adoration for us. I must be patient. He sat outside the nursery until he felt he could enter with some semblance of dignity, and then walked in to speak with the nurse on duty.

"She hasn't stopped whining," the nurse told him. "This happens sometimes with puppies who have been brought in by Grebsas. They aren't satisfied until they are held by one again."

"Could I hold her?"

The nurse brought Rora to him. She hushed immediately when she was comfortably nestled in his arms.

"Hello, sweetheart. Did you miss me?"

Rora cooed and held out her arms to him. He held her close to his cheek. The Veroshi in his patrol area knew he was a big pussycat. He could never stop his heart from melting when he saw a puppy. If he stopped for too long in his patrol, they always crowded around him, telling him their little, childish problems. He tried to settle them as fairly as he settled the adult ones brought to him by the adult Veroshi and assured the adults that it wasn't a waste of his time. Children liked to have their little disagreements settled fairly, the same as adults did. Sometimes, though, the children just wanted to touch him and toss candies into his mouth. It always seemed to amuse them when he caught them neatly, and he always carried a sack of sweets so they wouldn't feel like they lost anything by playing with him.

Rora was too small to play with him, but he didn't mind much. Her throat wasn't designed for purring the way a Grebsa's was, but Stacen suspected she would have been if she could have. She sighed and snuggled against his fur like she had when she took her nap with him.

"Maybe you should adopt her," the nurse suggested.

"Maybe I should," Stacen acknowledged.

Gana and Stacen brought their new little daughter home later that day. It only took a brief ritual, in which both parents and especially the mother swore to provide and care for the child, to adopt a new ch'nai among the Veroshi.

*I hope this isn't a little sudden,* said Gana.

*It's worth it,* Stacen assured her.

He was a ch'nai himself, an adopted child of the Grebsa Network. He had only vague memories of his human biological family. Since he had been engineered into his winged-lion form, he had forgotten what it was like to be a bipedal, nearly bald near-human. Like most Grebsa ch'nai, he knew it was better that way.

Gana licked his cheek.

*Of course it is.*

Rora made her new parents popular over the next few weeks. Several Guardians came by to sniff the newcomer and wish Stacen and Gana good luck. Rora slept through most of it, but would hug a visitor's face every once in a while. Some experienced parents baby-sat when Stacen's and Gana's shifts overlapped. Gana walked in on Rora sleeping on one sitter's belly.

Rora woke up and began whimpering. Tera th'nai Gina promptly snapped awake, but controlled her reflexes enough to keep from rolling over. Crushing a Veroshi infant would not help her reputation among the Guardians.

*She's been a good girl,* Tera said as Gana took Rora.

Tera was actually of the Enforcer faction, bred and trained to keep order in the human districts. Gana did not envy her. Humans were obstinate at best and deadly at worst. The Veroshi, at least, never started trouble.

*That's good to hear, Tera. Would you like to stay for dinner? Stacen's shift should be ending in an hour.*

*I will go on patrol soon. Perhaps some other time.*

Gana lifted her whiskers and nodded as she prepared Rora's formula. Tera would probably patrol from the air, where she was more maneuverable. Veroshi Sector wasn't a high-risk environment, but Tera didn't want to risk losing any of her Enforcer habits. She might return to her unit when Guardian numbers were back to acceptable levels.

Tera adjusted her golden armor before leaving. The gold weaving on the collar marked her as a low-ranking novice Guardian, even though she ranked a captain among the Enforcers. She would have refused a higher rank if offered, as any Guardian would have refused an officer's rank among the Enforcers. They knew where their training lay.

Tera stretched a few kinks out of her muscles and flew away as fast as her wings would take her. Gana and Stacen were good friends, but she wasn't like them. She could only tolerate children for so long at a time.

Not that Rora had been an ear-tugging, sticky-fingered, snot-nosed human child by any means. When Gana had left the girl with her, Rora had promptly curled up and fallen asleep, waking only twice to be fed. Tera hadn't reckoned on dozing off with a Veroshi infant on her belly, but she had after feeding Rora the second time.

She relaxed almost as soon as she reached her patrol area. Patrolling Veroshi Sector meant an adjustment in her thinking. One expected problems with humans, but the Veroshi were smart enough to bring their disagreements to an on-duty Grebsa before they could explode into a crisis. The first few times, she had bit her tongue to keep from spitting out an irritated answer, but she was getting better at listening to the Veroshi's problems and coming up with a well-reasoned solution.

She circled for a while, making certain nothing was amiss. It was as peaceful as any other day in the Sector. For a Guardian, it was a good thing when there was no trouble in Paradise. For an Enforcer, it was boring. She landed in a corner of a spacious park in the hopes that the Veroshi would approach her with a problem to solve.

She sniffed the air. In the human sectors on Mars, it was rare for entire acres to be devoted to the care of plants. Here, there were even healthy flowering trees! Some of them would probably bear fruit later. Tera thought she spotted the Veroshi analogues of cherry and apple trees. She didn't stop to admire them for long, though. If she didn't keep moving, the scent would lull her into drowsiness.

She walked through the garden, not slowly, but not in such a manner that the Veroshi would think she was just going through the motions. They knew the Enforcers were only filling in until the Guardians could get their strength up after that disastrous Tinnik uprising, but she didn't want them thinking that only the Guardians out of the entire Grebsa Network cared about their needs.

She heard a mother calling to some happily shouting children, and then five children exploded out of a line of shrubs and surrounded Tera. She paused, wondering what they would do. At worst, Tera could shake them and take flight. One of them took something out of a plastic sack.

"Catch!" it shouted.

Tera couldn't tell whether it was a boy or a girl. Until they reached adolescence, Veroshi children looked pretty much the same. It tossed a small object toward her and she instinctively caught it in her mouth. She rolled it around on her tongue. A jelly bean. Tera's tail looped in amusement. Stacen had told her about how the children liked to play with him and he often carried treats and toys for them. He believed it helped if the Veroshi felt from a young age that the Grebsas were accessible.

The children yipped with Veroshi laughter and crowded closer. Three of them tried to climb on her back. She gave one a leg up. As long as they leave my wings alone, it'll be fine, she thought.

The mother came up. She looked embarrassed by her young charges' behavior. She carried a large, cloth-lined basket. Tera peeked down at it and noted three half-awake infants.

"I apologize, Enforcer. They only act like this around Stacen. He likes to play with them."

"It's quite all right. I know Stacen likes children."

"Come on down, now!" the lady Veroshi called to her children. "I hear Stacen's mate just recently adopted a Veroshi child," she said to Tera.

Word traveled fast, even in this fairly sedate Sector. Most Grebsas didn't blab endlessly about their personal affairs, even to their closest associates, but the Veroshi liked to know the Guardians would look out for even the smallest of them.

"Yes. Gana found a baby girl in a back-way and just couldn't leave her."

"Poor little dear. I wonder what happened."

Tera sniffed. The lady was hiding something. She could smell it.

"What's your name, friend?"

"Eran th'nai Troin."

"I'm Tera th'nai Gana."

It was no coincidence that their names were similar. In one of her previous lifetimes, Tera had been among the first to adopt the Veroshi naming convention, delighting the Veroshi. The th'nai part of their names meant that they were the biological children of their mothers. It didn't matter much, except that the Veroshi loved to trace genealogies. Some of them even traced Grebsa lines back to the initial Human-Grebsa Wars.

"Have you heard that any mother is missing a newborn? If it was my child, I would be frantic by now."

"No." Eran nervously shifted the basket's position on her arm. "But, if I do, I'll tell you at once."

"Thank you."

With Eran's help, Tera managed to dislodge the children. They were disappointed, but Tera cheered them up with a promise that Stacen would be back on duty the next day. She gave Eran one last glance before moving on. Whatever the young mother was hiding, her own nature would push her into confessing soon enough.

Stacen returned from his patrol almost an hour late. Gana barely even glanced in his direction. All her attention was on the whining puppy in her arms.

*Stacen, I'm keeping your dinner warm in the oven. I was just going to take her to the Healers.*

*Problem?*

*Colic, I think. Karine says the Healers have a herbal concoction that might help.*

*Okay. Just don't forget about the Newborns' Blessing ceremony in the morning.*

She nipped his chin. *Like I would forget something like that!*

She flew away from the apartment with Rora in her arms, wondering what could have made Stacen so late. It could be anything from extracting a Veroshi toddler from a tight spot to chasing intruders. No, not intruders; the Guardians and supporting Enforcers would have raised a cacophony that could be heard two Sectors over. Well, whatever it was, Gana felt she could safely shrug it off. He wasn't the only Guardian whose duty often ran him a little late.

She landed in front of the Healing Center and went in. Several Veroshi paused in their duties long enough to bow to her as she walked past. She lifted her whiskers to them, trying her best to squelch her dislike of their worship. She kept reminding herself that it wasn't their fault. Their alien prophet had hardwired them to worship "gods" very similar to the Grebsas before sending them out on an interstellar quest to find them.

As a joke, she contacted one of the Scientist commanders and asked him the odds that the Prophecy could describe the Grebsas so exactly.

*About ten-point-three-four times ten to the seventieth power to one. Against. Why?*

*I had a bet with Stacen,* Gana fibbed. *You're saying it's not a coincidence that the Veroshi chose us as their gods.*

*Not likely. We still have tail-kinker debates over it. A lot of it has to do with advanced metaphysics and the theory that the Veroshi's progenitors had a society not too different from ours.*

Gana got the impression Commander Arax was going lightly on a sister with no scientific background. He could probably talk for days on the subject, but she wouldn't understand more than a tenth of it.

*Thanks, Arax.*

*Anytime.*

She found the pediatricians' wing and let them see the still-whining Rora.

"She just won't quit whining. I've tried everything I could think of," she explained.

"Raraaa! Raraaa! Raraaa!" whimpered Rora.

Gana's eyebrows went up. That was the Veroshi equivalent of a human infant crying for "Mama." The Healer whispered reassurances to Rora. A Veroshi mother carrying a basket similar to the one Gana had found in the alley came out of one of the rooms and Rora's plaintive whining became more insistent.

Gana happened to look in the mother's direction. As their eyes met, the Veroshi noticeably flinched. There was absolutely no reason Gana could think of that she would be afraid of Grebsas. Well, it was entirely possible that she had a guilty conscience about something. Veroshi could punish themselves worse than their Guardians ever would. It always ended one of two ways. Either she would try to run away, or (more likely) she would confess her sins to the nearest available Guardian. Gana did her best to keep her expression open, accessible, and friendly. However, the mother just adjusted her basket on her arm and quickly left.

The Healer was busy with Rora and didn't seem to notice their silent exchange. After about half an hour, she brought her back to Gana.

"I've given her a treatment for colic and something to help her sleep. It may help."

"Thanks."

Gana accepted Rora back into her arms. She debated whether to contact Commander Karine about the mother. She might want to watch for runaways, but might not want to be bothered if it turned out to be nothing. Then, Rora distracted Gana with a tired chirp and she forgot the matter.

Eran felt sick all night. At first, she tried to dismiss it as the Veroshi version of influenza and took the usual remedy. When that didn't work, she had to consider the other, less pleasant alternative, known as guilt sickness. The Healers and Priestesses said it was the result of sin and the Grebsas didn't dispute that as such. She had heard one of them refer to it as a "psychosomatic guilt reaction," whatever that meant. The only remedy was to confess one's sins to a Grebsa and accept their help to fix the mess that sin always caused. It would only get progressively worse if she didn't.

Eran staggered out of her apartment early that morning, fighting the phantom flashes of light in her vision. She tried to console herself that if she couldn't see enough to find the Guardians, surely the Guardians would notice her condition and help her. After about fifty paces, her legs gave way and she felt a pair of strong arms catch her. Relieved, she began to babble. When she was sure she had gotten it out, she looked into the concerned face of Tera ch'nai Gana.

"We ought to take this to my parents. Personally, I forgive you, but they'll be better able to handle this."

"Are they far?"

"I believe they are just going to the Temple for the Newborns' Blessing. You should bring your children."

Eran's eyes went wide. She had completely forgotten about the Newborns' Blessing.

"My children are going to pay for my sins!"

"Not if you hurry."

Eran flew back to her apartment, threw on the first silk dress she grabbed, and gathered the three infants she had kept. As she ran out, she realized her wings weren't going to be fast enough. She ran over to Tera.

"Could I ride you?"

"Certainly."

She leaped on Tera's back. Tera's hawk wings got her to the Temple just as the ceremony was about to start. As Eran raced inside, she scanned the crowd for Stacen and Gana and found them near the front. She took a place near them.

Stacen lifted Rora out of her crib. She let out a little whimper over having her sleep interrupted. He cradled her in his arms and rocked her a bit.

"It's okay, sweetheart. We just need to take you to the Temple."

She let out a huge yawn and grabbed a fistful of his chest fur. Instinctively, she knew she was in the arms of her protector. Stacen curled his tail and carried her in one arm out to the living room. Gana waited with the same basket she had found Rora in. He had to remove his fur from her fist before he could place her inside.

*She really got hold of you, didn't she?* Gana teased.

*It kind of tickled,* Stacen answered blandly.

They flew to the Temple. As they got closer, several new parents joined them. A few rubberneckers risked peeks at Gana's basket. By now, every Veroshi in the Sector knew about Stacen and Gana's little abandoned infant. For all the speculation about it, though, Rora might have materialized out of thin air. Not even the Healers who worked in the maternity ward wondered who might be missing a baby. To them, such a matter was between the Grebsa gods and whoever had abandoned their puppy. There were advantages to living in close quarters with one's gods and one of them was that it put dampeners on the rumor mill.

Stacen made a mental note to check the Healing Center's birth records and wondered why he hadn't thought of that before. The Grebsas didn't stay in power by missing the obvious. He could even circulate word that he was investigating because he was worried about the mother. She might have a good reason for abandoning Rora and he wanted to help. He was sure her conscience would drive her to confess eventually. Veroshi were hardwired that way. However, he wanted her to know that she could come forward without repercussions.

That could wait until after the ceremony, though. It technically wasn't a sin for new parents to miss the annual Newborns' Blessing, but it was frowned upon. The Veroshi simply felt better about it if they believed their babies had been bound to their gods from birth. He landed on the Temple grounds with Gana beside him and entered the Temple. A sizeable number of Veroshi parents waited, talking among themselves. Commander Karine sat on the golden bench on the altar, looking almost asleep. From the way her ears were pricked, though, she was fully alert. She was simply waiting for the service to start.

Tera contacted him. *Stacen, I'm bringing a young mother who says she's the one who abandoned Rora. I told her it would be easier to let you handle it.*

*Thanks, Tera, you just saved me a lot of trouble.*

A harried-looking young mother came running in with her basket of three babies. She took a place near Stacen.

"Tera tells me you can help me after the ceremony," she gasped.

*That's the mother I saw at the Healers yesterday,* Gana told him.

*Noted.*

"We'll help you, friend," he told her.

Senior Priestess Reio flew from the back of the sanctuary and landed at the altar. She bowed to Commander Tranna, who lifted her whiskers but otherwise didn't move. She beamed as she raised her arms.

"Dear First Grebsa, we know you see and hear through the eyes and ears of your children and approve of our ancient Agreement. We ask your blessing for these new lives, that they may serve you faithfully and receive their just reward for their service."

"We pray that it may be so," responded the new parents.

Stacen passed the basket to Gana. They approached the altar. Eran, apparently unwilling to split up the set, followed close behind.

"So, this is your famous adoptee. You are truly glorious for caring for her," Reio whispered to them.

"We think we found the mother. We'll have this sorted out by tonight," Stacen whispered back.

Reio lifted Rora from the basket and took her to Karine. Karine's eyes drifted to Eran, curious. Reio looked rapidly from one to the other and quickly extrapolated the truth. That Eran was in the Temple at all probably meant the Grebsas had already forgiven her. As if this sort of thing was normal, Reio went over to accept the three babies Eran carried. Karine dipped her head in approval and Reio wagged her tail. Like a true Grebsa, her goddess did not want to see a set of quadruplets ripped apart by sin. Reio presented the children to her.

"With your blessing, we pledge these children to your service."

The Commander blessed them in a singsong voice.

"The First sees and approves of you, her newborn servants." *And thinks you're cute,* she transmitted to Stacen and Gana.

Their tails looped into tight spirals.

"The Seven Factions shall defend you as long as Holy Sol gives us life," Karine finished.

That done, Reio returned the infants. Stacen, Gana, and Eran retreated to the narthex with the puppies. The two Guardians gave Eran their full attention. She gave them a full account, more coherently than what she had babbled to Tera.

"I had quadruplets instead of the triplets you had approved. I had to get rid of one and I know the usual way is to give the runt to a Guardian to raise, but I was too embarrassed."

Gana suppressed a growl. Veroshi couldn't even have children without Grebsa approval. If they had still been on the Faith-ship, she would have understood. Multiple births were the norm and they would have had to control the population somehow. They generally applied to have three, four, five, or however many they wanted. The one problem the Veroshi ignored was that it was bloody difficult to control the number of children a mother had without some form of birth control and that was also forbidden.

"So you left her where we could find her. It was better than trying to hide Rora. I just wish you had come to us in the first place. We could have made an exception," she said.

"I realize that now. I was sick all last night."

Gana nodded, her eyes reflecting sympathy as she got the mother's name from Tera. Guardian policy forbade punishing the Veroshi beyond a light scolding because they could punish themselves worse than their gods ever could.

"We forgive you, Eran. Rora's been crying for you."

"She has?" Eran said in a small voice.

*What do you think, Stacen? She could come stay with us.*

*You're right. I'd rather have her where we can keep an eye on her.*

Gana said out loud, "I think she misses you. She likes us, but we can't really replace you. How about you come live with us? I can help you move in."

Eran hesitated. "I'd love to, but I'm not really her mother anymore since you adopted her."

"I know a mother usually gives up her privileges when she abandons her child. But remember what I said about exceptions?"

"You mean it? Is this okay with you, Stacen?"

"I would be glad to have you live with us," said Stacen.

Eran wagged her tail and hugged them both. She should have trusted her gods to begin with. Now, she could only resolve to not let embarrassment stop her again. She found herself clinging to Gana a little longer than Stacen. Gana gently wrapped one arm around her, still holding Rora with the other. Rora sniffed in her sleep, and then wrinkled her nose and sneezed herself awake. She reached for Eran.

"Rara!"

That settled it. With a yip, Eran took Rora in her arms and held her close. She looked at Gana with tears in her eyes.

"I've wronged Rora terribly, Gana. I'd like to make it up to her if I can."

Gana extended her wings to the young mother. "You've gained a little wisdom today, Eran. I'm proud of you."

Stacen fluttered his wings impatiently. *I have to go get ready for my shift, Gana. I'll see you this evening.*

Gana allowed him the excuse, knowing full well that he just wanted to escape the Temple before the Veroshi bombarded him with all the requests, problems, and blessings they felt only an Honor Line could handle. Where his worshippers were concerned, he could be amazingly patient, but he did need a break every once in a while. He left the Temple.

"I only need a few things," Eran told her. "Will you come with me?"

"Certainly."

They flew together, side by side. Gana simply set her wings to glide while Eran flapped away with her hummingbird's wings. Poor thing. It was no wonder that the Veroshi preferred to ride their Grebsa gods whenever they wanted to travel any significant distance. Gana decided it was just as well that the Veroshi relied on their "gods" for defense. They would never be able to fight a protracted battle when just flying more than a few miles wore them out.