The First

Chapter 68

"You need anything else?" Ross knelt on Maleia's right and motioned Gavin to her left.

Gavin unbuttoned Maleia's shirt and used his scissors to snap her bra in two. He covered her breasts with the leftover flaps. After fishing in his pack, he pulled out a stethoscope and listened to her stomach.

"There's no fetal heartbeat."

Ross wasn't surprised given the number of fatal bullet holes in the woman's chest. "Doesn't matter. We need the baby and whatever else we can get for Doctor Mason."

"Make the incision here." Gavin used his finger to draw an imaginary line from just below her navel down to the pubic bone. "Don't cut too deep. You'll need to make a horizontal line when you get to the uterus. Then we'll pull on each side and push at the same time until the baby pops out. This will get kind of messy but it's our best bet to keep the fetus intact."

Ross pulled a pair of latex gloves on but struggled with the knife. "I think I've lost too much blood. Plus ..." He pulled the Desert Eagle out. "... I should probably cover you."

Gavin took the knife. "Yeah. Good idea. I'll do it."

"Thanks." Ross wanted to gut this bitch more than anything. But with no threat lurking about, he holstered the pistol and reloaded the Uzi.

Despite Maleia's mortal wounds, she bled profusely when Gavin made the first cut. For a moment, Ross felt as if he heard her screaming in his head, "No. Don' take my baby." Then he recognized the agonized cries. Even though they came from deep within him, they belonged to Savannah.

Gavin pushed his finger into the laceration. "There's the uterine muscle. I'll just make a quick horizontal incision."

Ross looked away. While he'd seen both his daughters born naturally, this wasn't natural at all.

"Ross ... Sir. Snap out of it." Gavin waved his hand in front of Ross's face.

"Just taking a breather. What's next."

"Now we both grab onto a side and pull and push until the baby's head pops out."

Ross did what he could with his right arm. It smelled of day-old fish and roasted carrots. "God that smells awful."

"Yeah." Gavin nodded. "I've never smelled anything like it. But we need to keep going. I think I can feel its head. That's a good sign we're doing it right."

"Sad story for this little one," Ross said. He thought if it had lived the two of them would be dead men.

Gavin pushed and the baby's body popped out. "Can you grab that icebox from over there?"

Ross pulled the cooler out of a pool of drying blood. It had several unbroken freeze packs inside. "Want me to break these packs?"

Gavin didn't answer.

Silence in these times meant someone's heart had been ripped out, their head torn off, or worse. No one can survive a direct Trill attack. Had the males returned for their female? Before he turned to look, Ross brought the Uzi up, ready to fire at creatures coming at him from every side.

Here we go again. When he turned he ran into mount Gavin. His industrial stature made the baby look like a toy in his arms.

"Um, Sir. This kid's bucking for air." Gavin turned the baby over and made a sweep into her mouth with his index finger.

"Don't get your finger bit off." Ross couldn't believe his eyes.

A glob of goo dropped from her mouth and the baby began to cough and coo.

"She doesn't have teeth or claws like the others," Gavin said.

Ross let the child hold onto his finger. She had a light ebony glow to her skin. Tight black locks of hair with dark auburn tips, tufted on the point of her scalp. "She has to be one of the most beautiful little girls I've ever seen. I'm not sure if I want to coddle her or put her in an iron box. Don't have a blanket in there, do ya?" Ross nodded toward the fanny pack. "You know those went out in the 80's right?"

"Don't you know, Sir, everything comes back in style, eventually. And, no. However, the ambulance in the bay does.

"I'll snag one." Ross stood. His knees buckled and he sat back down. "Lost a little more blood than I thought."

"Here. Take the baby." Gavin handed the infant to Ross.

Memories of holding his daughters for the first time brought tears to his eyes. For some unfathomable reason, those same feelings flowed when he looked at this child. He felt drawn to her. Protective.

Gavin jogged to the edge of the roof and climbed down the escape ladder.

The baby opened her eyes for the first time and shocked him. A color of green Ross had never seen before glowed in the soft light of the moon. She wrestled around in his arms for a moment and stuffed her thumb into her mouth. Why didn't she have the same anatomy or fierce feeding drive the other Trills had? An interesting development Alexa would love to hear about before she does what she does. Which he hoped didn't mean dissection. She'd have to find another way of getting the specimen she needed.

"Hey, Gavin!"

"Yeah!"

"Grab me a clean cooler, would ya? Preferably one with more ice packs."

"You got it!"

A few minutes later Gavin returned with a blanket and a cleaner cooler. He took the baby from him, swaddled her tight and handed her back.

"I'll put the afterbirth in the cooler."

"I think we only need the placenta and umbilical cord."

"Not a problem." Gavin took hold of the neatly cut cord and pulled the placenta through the hole in Maleia's stomach.

After he slapped the hunk of meat inside the cooler and closed it, the three headed down the street to a new landing zone. Gavin set the cooler down and tossed two canisters of green smoke into the new LZ. Ross knew what they had could save Teagan's life, her baby, and possibly the world.