Editing Eternity (Warhammer High) (section)

=== N'bel ===


George Seager sat in a chair in the middle of his apartment and stared at the warm bundle of fabric in his arms.  A baby boy was curled up inside, fast asleep, with a look of absolute concentration etched on his tiny face.  The little guy looked like him.  Quite a lot, actually.

“N’bel…” George managed.  He was tearing up, too.

“Yep,” Venus said happily, sitting beside her father-in-law and letting him examine his first grandchild.  “Two point seven zero kilos at birth, normal delivery, healthy as a horse.”

Jake smiled from across the little room.  “Go ahead and get weepy, Dad, there’s good precedent for it.  You should have seen Vulkan,” he chuckled.

His mother managed a laugh as she looked down at the tiny infant beside her in her husband’s arms.  “He’s adorable…” she said.

“For now, sure.  Then we’ll try to go to sleep and then BAM, he’s a banshee,” Jake said.  “You just watch.”

“You were hardly innocent in that regard,” his mother noted.

“True.”  Jake reached over and ran his fingers over his son’s tiny hand.  The sleeping baby instinctively squeezed one finger, and Jake shook his head ruefully.  “Strong for his age.  Or so the doctor says, anyway, I hardly have anything to compare it to.”

“Oh, trust me, Jake, he’s strong,” Venus said with a groan.

“Got a bit of a kick, does he?” Jake asked drily.

“Ugh.”

George set the baby down in Venus’ arms and leaned back, overwhelmed.  “He’s beautiful,” he said, aglow with paternal pride.  “Does he have your…er, appearances?” he asked, gesturing at his face.

“Well, when he wakes up, you can see,” Venus said.  “Assuming he doesn’t deafen you,” she added.  “But yes, his eyes are like mine.  Aside from that, though, he’s basically in line with Jake.  Same internal temperature, same anti-aging, same hair and cuticle color, everything.”

Jake nodded solemnly.  “I know you’re disappointed, Mom, you always wanted a girl to spoil,” he said.

Sandra snorted.  “I’ll let you wait a while and decide that he needs a playmate.  I’ll take my chances with round two.”

“Oh my hell, don’t even joke about that, Sandra,” Venus said.  “Yeah, the feeling when they hand him to you is incredible, but the whole ‘nine months before it’ really doesn’t seem so trivial when you have an eidetic memory.”

“Hey, at least they didn’t give you a C-section, like they did me,” Sandra said.  “I was conscious too, and sedated.  Why do you think I stopped at one?” she asked teasingly.  Jake rolled his eyes.

“Ew.”  Venus rocked her baby and beamed down at him.  “The first biological offspring of the Emperor, too…” she said quietly.  “He’s thrilled.  We’re seeing him next.”

“You’re the first of your generation to have children, Venus?” George asked.

“Yeah.  Miranda and Angela are both married, but they wanted to wait a while,” Venus supplied.  She ran a fingertip over her son’s lips and smiled contentedly.  “Not me.  There’s nothing in the whole world more important to Nocturneans than having a family.  Nothing.  If I had lived my entire life on Nocturne, I may have had kids as young as eighteen.”

Sandra shuddered.  “Luckily, I live on Terra, where the nicer boys live,” Venus finished, shooting her husband a wink.  Jake preened at the compliment.

“Well, he’s amazing, Venus,” George said, looking down at the tiny boy.  N’bel’s eyelids glowed slightly.  It was a constant glow, too, like holding an LED flashlight up to the skin of your hand and letting the light shine through.  He glanced sidelong at Venus and didn’t see the same light when she blinked.  “His eyes are so bright I can see them with his lids closed,” he said.

“Oh, really?  Damn, he’s about to wake up then,” Venus said, snugging him closer to her chest and rocking him again.  “I can’t notice it with these contacts in.  Our eyes are keyed to our emotions and wakefulness,” she explained.  “I’m just completely exhausted, too.”

“I bet,” Sandra said knowingly.

The door sounded with a knock.  George rose and opened it, and grinned at the sight of his guest.  “Eric, come in,” he said, stepping back.  His wife’s father nearly rushed in, searching the room with his eyes after a cursory ‘hello, George.’  As soon as the old veteran found where his new great-grandson was sleeping, though, he came to a complete halt.  He stared at the tableau of Venus gently rocking the little bundle in her arms, agape.

“Grandpa Eric, meet N’bel,” Jake said from his seat.  “N’bel, meet Great-grandpa Eric.”

Eric sank down on the couch next to Venus, reaching out to gently stroke the infant’s cheek.  “He’s gorgeous,” Eric said softly.  “Venus, congratulations.”

Venus smiled happily at the odd tableau.  “He is.  Thanks.”

Several hours of pure indulgence later, Venus was sitting in a chair in the Emperor’s private chambers, rocking her son on her shoulder as her husband hovered protectively behind her.  The Emperor sat across from her, a grin playing about his lips.  “So…it seems I’m a great-grandfather now, after all,” he said, watching N’bel fidget.  He glanced up at where Venus was gently shifting her baby to her lap.  “May I confide something in you, Venus?”

“What is it?” Venus asked.

“In my…copious free time,” the Emperor joked, “I had taken to wondering which of my granddaughters would give birth first.”  He glanced down at N’bel, who had calmed a bit, and was busily staring into space.  “I admit I had staked a wager on it being Angela, given how early her relationship with Michael Grecco matured.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have faulted you,” Venus chuckled.  She smiled down at her infant son.  “Want to hold him?”

The Emperor silently extended his arms, and Venus lowered N’bel into his grasp.  The Emperor shook his head as he listened to the sound of N’bel’s sleepy breathing.  “You know…it’s odd.  I have had twenty one sons, and I’ve never held a relative of mine in my arms like this.”

“It’s pretty wild,” Jake said.  “He doesn’t look a thing like Vulkan, though, does he?”

“It’s uncanny,” the Emperor admitted.  “He looks more like your father than you do, Jacob.”

Jake snorted.  “Oh, sure, pick on me, Sire,” he said.

“Did you know about the little tradition the Startseite hospital has, Grandfather?” Venus asked.

“What tradition is this?” the Emperor asked.

“The hospital takes the ultrasound picture of the baby, and then uses facial recognition software to figure out which celebrity it most resembles,” Venus said.  The Emperor shook his head with a wry grin as Jake laughed.  “According to them, he most resembles the old Senator, Cornelius Algunn.  Remember, the former Arbites representative on the Senate?”

“Of course, I appointed him,” the Emperor said.  He scanned the baby’s face.  “I don’t see it, though.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch,” Venus giggled, accepting N’bel back.  “Well.  I don’t wish to impose.  We should bet getting the little guy home for dinner now anyway.”

“Oh, you may stay as long as you like,” the Emperor said.  “The VIP Suite in the Guest Wing is available for the next week or so.”

“I mean home to the house,” Venus said.  “We have so much to do!  Assembling the baby shower furniture and such.”

“Ah, yes,” the Emperor said, rising to his feet and watching as Jake helped his wife stand as well.  “Tell me…do you intend to return to Nocturne?”

“Of course!  Probably within a month or so,” Venus said.

“I would prefer if you waited,” the Emperor said gently.  “The Warp routes between here and Nocturne are quite tumultuous of late.  It wouldn’t be safe for your little one,” he added, smiling fondly at N’bel, who was deep in contemplation of his fingernails.

“Entire generations of starfarers on Rogue Trader crews have been born in the Warp,” Venus pointed out.

“And there’s a risk there, which their parents accept, Venus.  I won’t stop you…but please reconsider,” the Emperor said.

Venus looked at him quizzically, before shrugging.  “I guess we can wait a while.”

“Thank you,” the Emperor said.

Jake grinned.  “Not just eager to see more of your great-grandson, though, right, Sire?”

“That is important to me, of course,” the Emperor said, “but I can already feel his ancestral traits manifesting.  He’s eternal, as you and your wife are, now,” he said to Jake.  “I’ll have all the time in the world.”