Rebellion (Alien Authority 1)

“Atlas!” Jerri screamed his name desperately. “Where are you?”

“And that’s how you know they want you,” his father winked.

Atlas stepped into the room just as his son was born. It was a bloody affair, but there was beauty in the midst of it, a strong and powerful infant who emerged fists first from his mother, diving into the world.

Jerri reached down and pulled the baby up onto her chest with the natural instinct of a mother. He had been afraid she would not be maternal, given she had spent every waking moment of late talking about anything other than being pregnant, but the look on her face told him that she had fallen instantly and deeply in love. She would always be a wild child and an incredible pilot, but she was something else now too. She was the center of the universe for a little wrinkled and ridged entity now screaming his lungs out with appropriate rage.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” Jerri looked at Atlas with a broad smile. “Look at him. Look what we made!”

Atlas sat beside her and wrapped his arm about her shoulders, embracing her and their new child. She was a true warrior, this woman of his, and this infant was the culmination of all their trials and hardships, reluctance and fear, rebellion and shame. For this baby they had both lost everything. As he looked down into his new son’s face, Atlas knew he would do it all over again. For him. For them. For the life they would now lead, and for the family they would now be.

“I’m gonna teach you how to fly so well nobody will ever be able to catch you,” Jerri whispered to the baby. “You’re never going to answer to any authority. You’re going to be your own man.”

Atlas listened with a smile on his face as Jerri told her new son what she wanted for him. For the moment the baby remained attached to her, cord to belly, soul to soul. Soon they would become separate, two entities and not one creature with two hearts. In these last sacred moments, her words felt like a powerful incantation.

The future would not be easy, not for any of them. But it would be bright, and bold, and full of love, and there was nothing more Atlas could ever have asked for.