The Curran Sea

Currans and Hancocks

:This is... much, to process,: Halcyon groaned. :Are you a Curran at all, boy?:
   Alfred stood taller. "Any way you measure it. Yeah, I've got two dads, and so do the girls, but Papa carried all three of us. Judah carried Jonah, and Ed carried Andrew and Aiden. You can't really take away their name either, though, 'cause their mom was a Curran."
   :Incorrect. This Genevieve was a Halliburton.:
   "They're being raised by Currans, though. Besides, they're still descended from Grandma, and she was a Curran."
   The baby stirred, and Ibrahim looked down. "Kitty's youngest. I forgot about them." He looked back at his grandfather. "They are also Currans, sired by another clone, Emmett... Well..." Ibrahim faltered. "She gave him her last name, because he was her imperfect clone, but you want blood? Those two, and little Emmett, have mine.
   "So you can't call my grand twins Currans. Fine. They'll take my bloodline elsewhere. So will Kitty's last twins. But him? He was carried within a clone of me. It... has not gone well. If it were not for Saoirse, we would still teeter on a razor's edge. His father... did not survive."
   Halcyon wriggled, then, his enormous body shaking the lab. :And are you well, now, grandson?: The blue eye, nearly as big as he, was wide open.
   "He is close to stable. As for myself..." He looked down. "They tell me that I have eight months to live."
   :The machine, is it ready?:
   "Doesn't matter. We don't know if the gauntlet is."
   The huge creature stilled. :When will you know?:
   "We weren't exactly keen on testing how fast you could slap it on a new body," he said tightly. "The only definite timeline that I have is... longer than I have left. I must wait, and see when it tells me that all of myself is within it."
   :A guess, an inkling? Any frame of time would suffice.:
   Ibrahim could only shrug, arms held wide. The great beast moved away.
   Saoirse stiffened, one hand reaching for his forehead. Her eyes did not glow, as Nora's had, but she was compelled, nonetheless. Perhaps it took more effort to control one who was not connected by blood.
   Her eyes slid closed, when her fingers touched his skin. Here, her hair began to float, as his niece's had done. An inner light seemed to suffuse her. Then, she sagged back into herself with a sigh. Those uncanny golden eyes opened, sad and soulful.
   "Not yet."
   :How long?: the old man asked.
   "It has been a single day, sir," she protested. "A soul is far more complex than that." She winked at him, before turning to the old beast once more. "My marriage is contingent on this new body. I am as anxious as you. These things take time that I cannot yet measure."
   The sea creature that was their Elder swam away with more speed than they would have guessed possible, with far less disturbance to the lab than they thought he should.
   Saoirse's small hand touched her fiancé's larger one, to impart the knowledge that she had bought them time, nothing more. Halcyon would return.
   Aloud, she said "I do not know what the desperate old man will do. Guard your houses; especially at night. I must go. Take care." She skimmed her lips across his cheek, and then she was gone.
   "I would really like to say the 's' word," Alfie said, on a huge sigh.
   "Noted," Ibrahim grunted.

   "What will he do?" Judah asked Orla.
   Her hands clasped, but not so tightly as they had been. "I cannot say. He has many daughters, and acolytes, who ache to be mothers."
   "Acolytes?" he asked. "That smacks of--"
   "Heresy, we know!" The Currans and Smiths were well-acquainted with his rigid ideals. Though Ibrahim was spiritual in the same way, would have said the same, he was not known to be alive by all who clustered in Isla Ibra's large living room.
   "How bad is this ache of theirs?" Edison asked warily.
   She was quiet for a moment. "The only males allowed in the pod are patriarchs. All of their daughters and granddaughters--those who did not take to the land--swim freely, but... lonely. We live a long time, in the sea, so there are even great-granddaughters who long to have young."
   "Doesn't sound like the pod has a shortage of people, only husbands," Judah said, almost reaching Ibrahim depth.
   "It also doesn't sound like a good population model," Alfie said, unconsciously echoing his father. "Lots of erm... love... starved ladies, swarming around their dads and granddads? I dunno, I kinda feel like that's a good way to make crazy ladies. If that's all they want, I mean, is kids.
   "Wait," he said, struck with a thought. "Does that mean you've got brothers out there somewhere?" He looked around at his siblings. None were full-blooded siblings, but he loved them, all the same. "Does he kick them out, or... worse?"
   Tears welled anew. "They are sent away, before their majority, to live with other male relatives. There is the... tribute option, but blessed few take it."
   Judah held one white-knuckled hand, made her look at him. "And is that what would happen with our children, hmm? He keeps our daughters, sends our sons to me? Do I get to see them at all, either way?"
   A small smile fought its way into the light. "Of course. We aren't monsters, husband. If a mer weds, we take it seriously. Or, as seriously as we are able. Only those landed who are... one time affairs may not know their offspring."
   Ed looked awfully pale. Cara put a hand on his arm, quietly questioning.
   "So any one night stand we've had could maybe make a mermaid?"
   The adults took note that Shawn also looked pale.