Alien Diplomacy

earlier.
    “The babies are coming a little faster than normal,” Tito shared, sounding very calm. “So I need everyone doing what we ask immediately.”
    “I’ve called for extra help,” Emily shared, not managing to sound as calm as Tito.
    “Both babies are breach right now,” Melanie added. This remark caused every man in the room other than Tito to go pale.
    A number of younger Dazzlers prepped for nursing duty arrived. To a one, they looked grim. Not good. We didn’t need every hybrid birth to be a stress test for all involved.
    I motioned to Serene and she came over. “Why do you want me in here, Kitty? To see how it’s done?” she asked with total innocence. So far as I could tell, Serene didn’t do or even recognize sarcasm or irony.
    “No. I think we’re going to need to, ah, assist.” I looked at Jamie. “You know, the best thing for babies when they’re being born is to be head down.”
    “Yow!” Lorraine shouted.
    “Good,” Tito said. “Head’s down.”
    “Ow!” Claudia yelped.
    Tito trotted over to her. “Right, that’s what we want.” He looked at me. “Keep on doing whatever it is you’re doing, Kitty. Seriously.”
    Serene looked at me and Jamie. “Oh.” She nodded and took Jamie’s hand in hers. “What are you going to name them?” she asked.
    “We don’t know if they’re boys or girls,” Randy shared. “So, per A-C traditions, we’ll name them when they come out.”
    “And you’re telling me that in nine months you haven’t discussed this, say, once?”
    Joe shot a look at Melanie. “No, ma’am.” Randy nodded hisagreement. The girls were too busy shouting in pain and doing whatever their mothers, Tito, and the rest of the medical personnel were telling them to do to join in.
    “Dudes, seriously, I can tell when you’re lying.”
    Serene looked at me. “I think we need to name them now ,” she said with some urgency. “Or know what their mothers call them.”
    “We’ve talked about boy and girl names,” Randy allowed.
    “Dudes, cough them up.”
    Before they could, two more people entered the room at hyperspeed. “Are we too late?” Naomi gasped out.
    “No,” Abigail said in reply. “ Just in time.”
    Naomi grabbed Claudia’s hand, Abigail grabbed Lorraine’s, and they both grabbed Serene. “Keep in contact,” Serene said to me, quite calmly.
    “Oh, good. Wonder Quintuplets to the rescue again.” I wasn’t too fazed by this, since the Gower girls and I had done something similar during Operation Confusion, but the expressions on Lorraine and Claudia’s fathers’ faces were rather priceless.
    I could feel the adults sending messages, but they weren’t going to me—they were going to Jamie. Who, as near as I could tell, was filtering them to the babies still in the womb in a way they’d comprehend. However, I could also tell Serene was right. The “Hey, you!” approach wasn’t working.
    “Dudes, names. Like now. Um, they’re both boys.” At least, so far as I could tell. I was seeing them inside their mothers’ stomachs, thanks to the Weird-O-Vision we were sharing in this mental hookup.
    “Ross Edward,” Joe said quickly. “For both of our dads.”
    “Sean Zachary,” Randy supplied. “Same reasons.”
    I wouldn’t have had to ask which names were from the human side, even if I hadn’t known. The A-Cs rarely went for single-syllable names.
    Both fathers in the room looked pleased, and they didn’t seem upset that they’d landed the middle name slots. Then they looked at their daughters and went right back to looking extremely worried.
    Serene nodded and looked at Jamie. “Let’s help Ross and Sean get here safely, okay? And make sure their mommies are safe, too.”
    “Faster is not better,” Naomi added gently. “Too slow isn’t good either.”
    “We want just right,” Abigail shared.
    I curbed a Goldilocks and the Three Bears comment, figuring it wouldn’t be met with any form of appreciation from anyone in the room.
    “What is ‘just right’?” I asked, since I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure that Jamie knew, either.
    “They know now,” Serene said. “Don’t worry.”
    “Push, Claudia,” Tito said strongly. “Yours is coming first.”
    “I am ,” Claudia said, sounding kind of hurt and a lot annoyed.
    “Well, push harder,” Tito said.
    I could hear more information filtering through. Absolutely none of it seemed like real words, other than the baby’s names. They weren’t images,