“We are legion, as we are many.”

***Deep Space***

***Veronica***

“Why don't you let go of her? Look, it's like the poor thing gave up on life. She doesn't even try to resist you,” Silith complains. She shakes her head and returns her attention to her own children, handing each of them something like a nutrient bar.

It's not like the adults don't cook for us. They indeed feed us a whole variety of edibles, none of it I had to classify as inedible. It's just kind of inconvenient to cook all the time. Our growing bodies demand a lot of calories and cooking would be a twenty-four-seven job.

Besides, the nutrients bars are regarded as a treat by all of the little demonlings.

Lisandra doesn't pay her sister any heed and keeps on petting me, shifting my limp body around in her arms. At first, I tried to fight her attentions, but I had to give up on that very quickly. Lester taught me about the myth of David and Goliath. At first, I intended to stop Lisandra from getting too infatuated with me by being a really bad child, but the legend is just a story, and the reality of things is that putting up a fight against something that's twenty times your body-mass is futile.

I quickly learned that going limp and allowing everything that Lisandra wants to do to me is the easiest way not to get hurt. To my eternal shame, I have to admit that by now it's almost a reflex. As soon as she grabs me, I deflate and just hang in her arms.

“But look! She is the first-born and the cutest of the bunch!” Lisandra holds me out for Silith, my second mother, to inspect.

Silith looks me up and down. “I am sorry, but they all look alike. At least while they are newly hatched. If it weren't for the unique identifier in their communication headers, I would be unable distinguish them from each other. All in all, I think that giving them so much independence early on might have been a mistake. They surely are a lot to handle.” She sighs rather dejectedly. “If just all of them were as listless as Veronica, we would have a much easier time. Though, I am afraid that her behaviour isn't normal. She also isn't a very talkative one. Are you sure that she is healthy?”

I am not listless. I am depressed and suffering a serious identity crisis! How am I supposed to deal with this development? Not only is Lisandra my new mother, I also somehow switched sides and am now an enemy of the G.S. Originally, I never intended to return to the real universe, thinking that I would never again have to bother with my former compatriots. Now it turns out that they are still a very real threat to me. It's doubtful that they would accept my violation of their laws, even if I returned to their side.

Mom pouts and puffs out her cheeks. “Veronica is very different from the others. And she is healthy, I checked. Not only is she my first-born, she also looks the cutest of them all. Look, let's begin with the tail. Do you see that? The tip is a perfect heart, unlike the arrowhead-shapes of the others. Then there are the little, nubby horns which look like buttons. She is so cute that I almost never want her to grow up.”

Lisandra rolls me this way and that, making her speech and showing off the unique features of my infantile body. While she is doing so, my eyes fall on my four siblings, the other members of our nest. Gustav, Isabel, Winnie, and Doris are watching me with pitying expressions. When it became clear that Lisandra is an over-doting parent, they were clearly glad that I was the one who caught her attention.

It's not like they don't give a shit. They always express their sympathy when they get the chance. But it's not like they are helping me either. For example, they could try to swarm her right now and draw the attention away from me.

“And the most important point is that she has my hair and my eyes.” She presses me against her chest, hugging me tightly. “She is just perfect!”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Just give her a rest. There is a real person, a fully developed personality, in that body. It must be tiring to be your plaything whenever you have time,” Fiona enters the conversation, reprimanding her significant other.

Oh, yeah, about that. Apparently, my mother is seriously involved with this Fiona, while Silith and Antioch, my Dad, are a pair of their own. I have serious trouble understanding how an overlapping relationship-square like that even works or how it came to be! Though, looking at the male to female ratio on the ship, I have an idea why.

Despite my current crisis, I can't help but pay attention to my new environment. That's probably the result of my time as a researcher.

'Please, Mother. Let me down. I am hungry,' I plead, relying on mental communication. The problem is that we have to touch each other, but as Lisandra is currently trying her best to crush me, that's not the problem here.

“Oh...” My mother sounds a little hurt, but she finally sets me down on the ground and gives me one of the nutrient bars, which I take eagerly and chomp down on the food.

“She is so cute, somehow I don't want to feed her at all. Do you think she will stay like this if I don't overfeed her?”

“That's cruel! Don't you remember your own starvation?”

“You would do that to your own child?”

“Wah! I am so sorry! I didn't mean it like that!”

Feeling pearls of sweat developing on my forehead, I turn away from the bickering adults and make my way over to my sister... half-sister... Jill. Mentioning human genetics, are terms like sister or half-sister even applicable? Human bodies are engineered from the DNA up, a feat of genetic manipulation on a molecular level which the G.S. can only dream of.

While we set out for the stars and developed things like FTL-Travel, the humans stayed on their world and their technology developed in a totally different manner. While we kept relying on large machinery and physical effects, they made their technology smaller and smaller, eventually ending up manipulating the atoms themselves.

Maybe it's best if I don't give it too much thought and simply go with the terms the other hatchlings are using. Going by that, all of them are my sisters and brothers, while Fiona, Lisandra and Silith are my mothers and Antioch is my father. Some are calling those who hatched in the same nest with them their brood-siblings, but that term isn't official at this point.

All in all, the social behaviour of the developing demon-race is still developing. Things like culture and social roles are still in the process of being defined.

I sigh when I reach Jill. The other hatchling is lying in the grass of a nearby lawn and is chewing happily. In her left hand, she has the remnants of her nutrient bar, and in the right one is a leaf. If it weren't for the bite-marks, I would have said that she is using it to shield herself from the UV-lamps at the ceiling which are supposed to emulate sunlight for all the plants in this biosphere.

Shuffling forward, I touch her shoulder with my tail to establish a connection. 'Why are you chewing on a leaf?'

I probably shouldn't ask, since Jill is a Blue and all that, but her behaviour is simply too strange – even for her.

'Primarily because of the experience, and secondarily because of the nutrients.' She raises the rather large leaf, offering it to me. 'Want some? It contains some of the nutrients which this body needs to grow, though I admit that the nutrient bars are far more effective.'

'No, thanks. I have my nutrient bar,' I reply and take a demonstrative bite from my own ration. 'You still haven't explained why you brought me here.'

'For company. Didn't you notice that all the other hatchlings are keeping their distance? They know what I am, and that's why I brought you along. It would be pretty hard to rediscover my humanity if I end up in isolation.'

'Maybe I should also keep my distance,' I muse. It would surely be much safer than to associate with my tormentor.

'That wouldn't do you any good,' Jill comments snidely.

'Why?'

'Because, Sister, if you turn out to be useless I might let your real name slip. Though, I don't understand why you don't want Lisandra to know.'

Jill looks at me, raising her curious eyebrows in a questioning manner. The deal is clear. She will stay silent and keep her mouth shut as long as I play along.

'I think that's a deal I can live with,' I hurriedly affirm my cooperation. 'Don't tell her anything. I think that there is a real possibility that you might have a sibling less if she ever finds out.'

'No way. I wouldn't let anything happen to you, dear Sister,' Jill quips. 'If it comes to that, I am sure that we can come to an agreement with the family.'

I sigh and fall back into melancholy. Okay, maybe Lisandra wouldn't kill me. She simply isn't the type for that sort of thing. Even though she drew a bad lot in life, I always found her to be an emotional and caring person who dislikes hurting anyone. Because of that, I found it very surprising for her to get along with people who freed her by using deadly violence.

Then again, I really don't know them well enough to judge. Can I really blame them for wanting to live? I wince and look around, counting the number of siblings. Just by living, we already threaten the power balance in this galaxy. Having a highly fertile, highly intelligent species on the loose, that's exactly what the G.S. is afraid of.

This is already a grey-goo scenario in the making. Strangely enough, I learned that the humans are very much aware of what their mere existence might do to the rest of the galaxy. It's just that they simply don't care about anybody else. They are much too egoistical for that.

And now I am one of them. So should I throw my lot in with my new species, or should I try to stop them?