Schroeder had stopped using the phrase "never thought he'd see the day when" with his Synths. There had been amazing and unusual things enough in the clutches since his return to make that phrase trite and overused. And despite the passing of fourteen previous clutches, not much time at all had passed according to the calendars kept on the ship, but that meant almost nothing in the fluid time-flows of the Nexus. Look at all the Synth offspring who were still juveniles while their adopted siblings were grown, or even had produced clutches of their own! Sometimes it seemed like the Destiny was docked not in Star City's eighth Deck, but in a little time-pocket that moved slow as molasses compared to the other Nexus worlds.
But that was an entirely different story and was probably Aki's fault. The current story was the doing of another god entirely.
It was a strange thing, keeping a secret regarding a clutch that wasn't something meant to be a pleasant surprise of some sort. Having artificial Caetrae eggs on the ship was awkward enough. Their presence drove all the Asandae and Asandus hybrids on his crew absolutely batty. Young Callidei hadn't even been able to venture into the labs where the Caetran fetuses had been first gestated. Schroeder didn't think the results would be pleasant if the two Caetrae donors learned that they had been sent to Synth not by their own goddess, as they had been led to believe, but by their "enemy" goddess Asuka. Only Schroeder's team knew the truth, as he'd trusted them with the knowledge of his dream. The two Caetrans, however, still believed Zenite had sent them.
"And don't you worry about old Zenite finding out," Aki, the Destiny's own "adopted" patron god, had grinningly told him the day after his dream. "Asuka only got in because I let her. She's entertaining. Even if word gets back to Zenite about what's going on here and ticks her off, I won't let her take it out on you guys. You used my own babies as the 'good' bits, after all, not to mention I like you all too much to let some old nasty squish you all."
So the secret had been kept, the clutch had proceeded, and now the day for the hatching had arrived. It wasn't as if the secret affected much, after all. Even if Asuka hadn't made her request specifically, it was well known that Schroeder always put a good spin on anything that came through his Synths. If the Caetran donors, Aratlan and Foretyos, still wondered why "Zenite" had sent them to the Destiny, well, Schroeder wasn't about to enlighten them!
The two firstborn, Tchidkyi Keptvag and Koyziqme Ghksten, had already decided to go with their donor-parents, who watched from the sidelines. There were fourteen eggs on the Bay floor, quite obviously seven of each breed: Biran and Gyujtoan. The Biran eggs, the Earths of the Caetran species, were normal enough as they rocked about, but the Gyujtoan eggs clearly showed off their own element: tongues of flame licked out of the cracks made in the shells by the lively pups inside!
It was sometimes a touchy thing, enclosing in eggs creatures that were naturally live-born, but none of the pups seemed to have any problem. Doglike in size and vaguely so in features, the Birans were stocky and potbellied like little bulldogs, while the genderless and flaming Gyujtoans had sleek bodies more like some kind of hound. Much like the puppies they loosely resembled, most of the pups turned their attentions on their siblings in cheerful greeting and play before considering the candidates, especially the Birans, who had a social and playful terisae to thank for the alterations to their personalities (and sometimes colors, considering a bright red and green pair among their otherwise brown siblings).
Without terisae influences to its genetics, however, one of the Gyujtoans showed no interest in play and was thus the first to move on the array of candidates awaiting it. Like all the Gyujtoans it had a hide of a single uniform color, in particular that of a darkish brick red, and its otherwise orange-red flames seemed to glow white-hot where they touched its body. None of the moss it stepped on showed any sign of singeing, however, though the candidates could feel significant (though not searing) heat coming off the pup's body as it passed.
The candidate it selected was the largest there, and shining example of the way time seemed to move so slowly on the Destiny. (Schroeder would really have to talk to Aki about that sometime, if it was in fact her doing.) Rasil Na'carrah probably wouldn't have fit well in any normal hatching turf, as gigantic as he was, even though his firstborn brother was only six months old and had only done a little growing so far.
The Hathydra's many heads looked down eagerly at the tiny pup, even the ones occupied with chewing on the chains dangling from their nose-rings so that they didn't try to eat the mossy turf instead, but there was no bonding, and the pup looked back up at him with a bland but not unkind expression.
"My name is Zkikiyui Ghksten," the pup introduced itself with cool politeness. "Would you do me the favor of sponsoring me?"
"Certainly!" Rasil agreed from his crowned head, while most of the others also chimed assent around the jewelry between their teeth.
There was then a significant lag in things as the candidates had to wait for the pups to tire of playing each other. One of the first to do so was the Biran who was as brightly red as the terisae whose genes Aki had donated to the clutch. She, like all the other female Birans in the clutch, had a sextet of tentacles curled up on her back like fiddleheads, making her gender easy to tell at a glance.
She bounded over to a candidate whose species Schroeder found quite fascinating: Bastion-Icthius was a two-headed creature in a far from traditional sense, for while it was not unusual for multiheaded beasts to have different personalities in each head, Bastion-Icthius carried one head on his shoulders and the other in a bag hanging from his dorsal fin!
Icthius was still in command of the body, for there was still time yet before he had to switch places with Bastion, and he looked down with delight at the brightly-colored pup. He didn't know what a bond was supposed to feel like, but he couldn't imagine the new sensation he felt towards the child was anything else!
"I'm Xyppia Keptvag," she chirped, "and you should be nicer!"
"Nicer?" Icthius looked at the pup with amusement, already walking towards the feeding tables. His task was accomplished, after all. He'd made history! The first Watarus to ever bond! "I can be very nice," he assured the pup with a smooth grin.
Following along, the pup only gave Icthius an "I know better than that" look.
"Wait up, now!" called another voice.
Surprised, the Watarus turned to see a Gyujtoan hurrying after them. "That's my bond you're carrying off there!"
The bag against the Watarus's fin squirmed, and Bastion stuck his nose out of it. "Vzexee?"
"I'm here!" answered the fiery pup.
To help move things along, Dr. Schroeder walked into the mass of rambunctious pups. Some immediately tried to get him to join the game, but instead he bent to tap one of the little Gyujtoans on its side and indicated it follow him. Wide-eyed and willing, the Gyujtoan was perfectly happy to be led up to Glace Sunscale, a familiar and welcome face to the doctor.
"This is Ssavatyuvil Ghksten," Schroeder told the human-formed Dalake with a smile. "I think you're just the sort of person this little one needs looking after it."
With a giggle and a twinkle in its purple eyes, Ssavatyuvil wagged its tails at Glace as Schroeder returned to his post. "Should I call you 'Mommy'?"
One of the Birans bounced heavily towards Dr. Schroeder on his oversized paws as the man stepped away from Glace. "Graaa! Graaa!"
With a smile, the man knelt on the moss on one knee and spread his hands. The chocolately-brown pup's tail wagged furiously as it pressed up against Schroeder's chest, almost threatening to push the doctor over--the pup had the size and bulk of a young St. Bernard!
"You want to stay with Grandpa?" he asked of the eager pup.
"Graaa! Paaaa!" Hemlokt agreed, gazing at the doctor adoringly. It was a simple mind that glimmered behind the pup's blue eyes, but clearly he was as happy as could be.
"I'm glad," Schroeder answered, scratching the Biran along the edges of his armored spine. "I can keep an eye on you better."
"Me too." Another Gyujtoan, this one as black as the Supernal who had donated his genetics to its making, approached the pair with a mild expression.
"You want to help, Dijzema?" asked the man.
Dijzema shrugged. "You're a busy man. You can't watch him all the time, clairvoyant or no."
Schroeder chuckled. "That's true."
Hemlokt looked down at the smaller Caetran, tail still wagging. "Maaaa!" He seemed to agree, butting its warm shoulder with his blunt snout.
Another black Gyujtoan padded across the Bay towards pair of red dragons who had been a trio at the last hatching. With its tails held high and proudly, Zepjzuo Ghksten talked in singsong as it approached.
"First is the worst, and second is the best," it chanted, settling at Seren Azonir's paw. Slyly eying Seren's older brother, Ariel, it added, "And third is the one with the polka-dot dress!"
"Now that I'd love to see!" Seren cackled, while Ariel rolled his eyes.
A ruddy brown Biran female seemed to grow tired of her siblings, suddenly shunning her playmates and approaching the candidates instead. The one she approached was a strikingly beautiful creature, Leletsaan'tau Ithaatal by name.
"Are we gonna go home now?" she asked, looking up expectantly at her new bond. "You gotta show me how to raise plants and stuff!"
"Patience, Wfepiu," Leletsaan chided gently. "You need to eat, first."
The Biran pouted.
Another Biran, this one a pale male, only looked towards the candidates when the fun among his siblings seemed to be splitting up and dying down. His expression was not a happy one as his remaining clutchmates started looking for bonds or sponsors of their own, but suddenly he perked up his tiny ears and set out as well.
At first he just walked, but then he started trotting, and finally he ran towards his choice, as if fearing someone would take it from him. Only Nesalla Tah's many legs kept the him braced when the ungainly Biran reared up on his back paws and wrapped his forelegs around the dragontaur's waist.
"I won't go anywhere, ever," Zytchti Keptvag promised, looking up at Nesalla with soulful eyes.
There was a giggle beside Nesalla's half-sister, Erian'gria, as a dark red Gyujtoan sidled up beside the spirit.
"You did good, bringing him," Xtitchin Ghksten murmured approvingly.
"Shh," Erian'gria put a claw to her lips, but the two shared a smile.
One of the candidates was just as nervous about being aboard the Destiny as he was with bonding-day jitters. Even though Tayne had spoken for the meek Infernal's presence, Tekasynos Valar was very much aware that the ship's Supernal guardian, Israfil, was among the hatching's many ushers and watching the human-formed Infernal carefully, just in case. Still quite terrified of the Supernal, Tekas watched Israfil far more closely than he did the proceedings of the bonding.
So of course he jumped when a large paw tapped him on the thigh. Only distracted fright could explain away not noticing the approach of a large Biran female.
"Hey," she said simply, by way of greeting her new bond. "I'm Viseomok Keptvag."
Another female Biran was not nearly so stealthy in approaching her bond, if only because Gibelettes couldn't possibly have been watching things any more intently.
Dokjyzlui Keptvag gently wagged her tail as she looked waaaay up at the demon-dragon. "Third time's the charm?" she offered.
Gibelettes looked ready to collapse from relief and gratitude. "I guess it is."
A family of four dragons stood on the stands, a pair of mates and their two children, but with only two Caetran pups left, it wasn't much of a surprise that only one of the two headed towards the family. It was the last of the Gyujtoans, with a dark hide that almost seemed to have a kind of purple tint to it.
It had a broad grin on its face as it surveyed the four dragons, but in the end it would be Ravis's name inputted in the records as the pup's sponsor. "Hi everybody!" it grinned. "I'm Muyhpu Ghksten!"
The final Biran pup was the bright green male, and he at last pranced happily over to a candidate who almost seemed to be falling asleep on his feet. He wasn't particularly the active type, to say the least.
"Hey, Joseph, wake up!" the pup exclaimed, butting the horse-anthro's leg with his head. "Time to pay attention to Pyhkoa Keptvag!"
Surveying the array of candidates and pups at the feeding tables, as the hatching ushers prepared to guide the audience back off the ship (excluding those who had friends among the newly-bonded), Schroeder had a thoughtful smile on his face.
"Good Caetrae out, and good xenodragons coming in next." He chuckled, flexing the fingers of his left hand and listening to the hidden cyborware whirr. "I'll get over my old man's prejudices yet."