The Other Torres | A Star Trek Fanfiction *Book 1*

Parturition-Chapter 55

[Cave]

"This creature's going to have the ability to stand upright. It has the skeletal system of a humanoid. It's cold-blooded, has reptilian epidermis. Its brain is significantly larger than most reptilian species. I'd say we're dealing with a sentient life form here, Neelix." Tom said.

"If this species is sentient, wouldn't that suggest that its parents might return to care for it?" Neelix asked.

"It's hard to say. Most common reptiles lay their eggs and never return to protect them." Tom explained.

"I think we've established we're not dealing with a common reptile." Neelix states.

"True. And if this thing does have a mother, I'd say we don't want to be around when she gets back. Come on." said Tom.

"We can't just leave it here." Neelix states.

"We're not leaving it here, its mother left it here. We just happened to wander in." Tom states.

"But we blocked off the cave. The mother might have been trapped outside." said Neelix.

"We'll leave the door open for her when we go, okay?" Tom asked.

"Look. It's not that simple. What if she can sense we were here? She, she might be able to smell that faux lime aftershave of yours. I'm sure you realise many species won't return to a nest after it's been tampered with." Neelix says.

"There's not much we can do about that now, is there? We should just leave all this the way we found it." Tom said.

"No." Neelix said.

"Neelix!" Tom exclaimed getting annoyed.

"This creature is our responsibility." Neelix states.

"Ours?" Tom asked.

"The moment we came in here, it became our responsibility." Neelix said.

"And you expect to take care of this thing until what? It graduates from high school, college? And what if Mom doesn't come back? Are you planning to bring this with us back on the ship?" Tom asked, thinking it was a somewhat stupid idea.

"Look, if she does return and accepts the hatchling, it'll solve everything. We just have to wait and see what she does. I don't know how it is in your quadrant, but in mine we don't abandon a new-born thing." said Neelix hesitating what to call the baby.

"Fine. Fine. You made your point. I officially designate you its godfather." Tom said.

"It's stopped crying." Neelix said.

"It's shivering. That's normal, isn't it? I mean, new born life forms do shiver, don't they?" Tom asked.

He wasn't quite sure about that, he should've because he had a younger sister but they were five years apart so at five years old he couldn't take care of a baby.

"To be honest, I haven't been around many new borns." Neelix said.

"Me neither." Tom admits, seeing as the only newborn was his little sister and two cousins, all of whom were adults and all of whom were born when Tom was too young to take care of babies.

Neelix swaddles the baby in his jacket.

"Oh, look at this, Paris. It's stopped shivering." said Neelix.

"It's asleep. Forget what I said, Neelix. You're not its godfather. You're its godmother." Tom said.

[Bridge]

"The atmospheric window is forming, Captain, thirty degrees off the predicted co-ordinates." Harry said.

"How soon will we have maximum aperture, Mister Kim?" Janeway asked.