Endgame-Act 9

ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE

STAR BLAZERS---ENDGAME

Being the ninth part of THE NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---Freddo

Advisory: Includes Mature Content

ACT NINE: BIRTHDAY! (NOVA’S TEARS, NOVA’S SMILES)

I. REFUSING TO WAIT…

The Vicinity of Pluto

Space Battleship Argo

Saturday, September 5, 2207

1609 Hours: Earthtime

On the damaged, almost-dark First Bridge of the Argo, all thoughts of the battle were momentarily cast aside as a shaking Nova was laid on her seat at her post. From near the bridge windows, Derek stood with his peacoat and ascot in his hands, ready to cover her. He looked on with sympathy as he felt his body growing cold and hot with the effort Nova was going through as she lay in her labor pains in her wet uniform with her eyes closed.

Dawn Hardy and IQ-9 were the first ones to respond about two minutes after Nova and Derek had let Doctor Sane know she was in labor.

They brought towels, two medkits, and some wipes.

“Let’s get her up to your cabin to clean her up and examine her,” said Sane.

Derek looked at Nova, who nodded weakly as Derek picked her up in his arms. Derek, Dawn, Sasha, and IQ-9 formed a ring around Nova, protecting the young woman from the gaze of world as they walked her towards the Captain’s chair.

The Commodore quickly turned his head to Homer and said, “Homer, a clipboard…now.”

“Yessir,” said Homer. As Nova lay back in Derek’s arms and tried to catch her breath, Wildstar wrote out a quick message, drew a line across the clipboard, and wrote a second message. Then, Derek handed the board to Homer. “Homer, inform Venture that, as of now, 05 September, 2207, 1615 Hours, the Argo will be coming off station due to heavy damage and casualties as I described on the paper. Command of Task Force Two is lodged in Captain Venture’s hands, and he is ordered to launch CAP to search for and destroy any remaining enemy forces that might refuse Radnar’s orders and attack us. They are to wait until they are attacked first. Since Radnar’s forces are friendlies, they are to be cautious. Then, per second message, inform Commander Saturn-Titan Base that we are on our way; request a repair berth and request them to stand ready for immediate medevac of all casualties to base hospital, including Kitano, Bando, Hardy, and…Nova…Understood?”

“Yessir,” said Homer.

“Good,” said Derek as Nova cried out again. “Sandor, you have the bridge,” said Wildstar. “Sasha, go patch all scanning functions through to the Cosmo Radar. Sandor, put Bando at this post as soon as we get poor Nova out of here. Get a Series Five Medical Robot down here to clean up the mess!”

“Yessir,” they said.

“Please get me out of here,” Nova begged as Sasha began to wipe down the deck and her vacated chair. “I’m burning hot all over, Derek…Dawn…and these clothes are stinging me…they hurt! And I’ve...messed myself! I want you to strip me!” she pleaded.

“We’ll get you comfortable in a minute, in our cabin,” whispered Derek as he carried Nova to his Captain’s chair. Using the chair-lift, he laid her on his coat and took her up to their cabin, where the lights came on a moment later. He hit a button and the privacy curtain whizzed down and locked.

Dawn, Doctor Sane, Sasha, and IQ-9 ran in a moment later.

Nova held Derek’s hand with the latest contraction and said, “These clothes…they’re burning me…I’m so hot!”

“It’s very common in labor to get hypersensitive, Nova, and also to make a mess…” said Dawn as she quickly worked to cut off her pants…and then all of the rest of her clothing.

Nova wept and smiled when she looked down at herself as her clothes were being cut away right in Derek’s lap as she lay there on a towel Sasha had laid down on Derek’s peacoat. Her shirt came off first…it was a met mess at the waist, followed by her bra. “It’s sure a mess…oh, it feels so good to get out of those! I’m so sorry about the mess! Look! Everything let go! Amniotic fluid, bladder, bowels! What a mess!” Nova sobbed in embarrasment.

“Can’t be helped,” said Sasha as she pulled Nova’s soiled pants and undergarments away, very tenderly leaving her completely (and blessedly, for her) naked as she cleaned her aunt’s messy bottom…and private area…not quite remembering that Nova had often cleaned hers in the same fashion when she had been a tiny baby in diapers.

Doctor Sane appeared a moment later. He ran over to the bunk, where they had lay Nova, and set down his bottle of Spring Water. He barked, “Nova, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Hi, Doc,” said Nova with a crazy grin. “I decided to strip and sunbathe nude here in our cabin under the stars! NO! DOC! I’m having my twins!” she screamed.

“I think I can see that,” he said. “Open those legs.”

Derek got cold and put on his peacoat and ascot again. Then, he came back to Nova’s side while Doctor Sane examined her most delicate parts with his gloves on. She cried a little; the sound made Derek shiver again, and then, another contraction hit Nova.

She grabbed at Derek, pulled his ascot, and began to accidentially strangle him while she had her contraction. It passed and she said, “That’s over.”

“I’m real glad,” said Derek through a hoarse windpipe. “How is she, Doc?”

“You’re going to be a father in maybe two or three hours, Derek,” said Sane.”Our girl’s going like an express train on the Pennsylvania Railroad Tubeway beneath the Great Eastern Sea! Right now, she’s going like the express between Penn Station in the Great Megalopolis and Thirtieth Street in Philadelphia! I’ll see if I can find some room in Sickbay for you two. It is very crowded! They’ll be up with a litter in maybe ten or twenty minutes. I have to go soon,” said Sane. “That Pellian pilot who crashed on the ship might need major surgery. She’s hurt really bad. I’ll be tending to Nova soon, though.”

“Nova, you must be suffering,” said IQ-9.

“I am,” she gasped as Dawn and Derek (at Dawn’s direction) worked on placing some small sensor transmitter cups on her nude, sweaty body on her chest, leg and stomach to pick up her heartbeat and the babies’ heart rate.

“Pulse of mother and babies elevated,” said IQ-9 as he beeped. “Nova’s body temperature is elevated by two degrees,” he said as Nova screamed again. Dawn was done with her scissors a moment later while Derek and Sasha washed Nova down and dried her with warm water.

“At least I’m clean,” said Nova.

“Doctor Sane, Dawn…don’t you have at least a paper gown to put on her?” said Sasha as she tried to comfort Nova psychically while tears of sympathy ran from her eyes and dripped right on the laboring mother-to-be’s bare stomach.

“No,” said Dawn. “Hospital gowns are now as precious as gold in Sickbay with all the injuries. And other people, who are even worse off, don’t have anything to wear, either,” added Dawn.

“I’m hot!” Nova cried again. “Derek, let them keep me naked, please! It burns! I want to be naked!” she sobbed.

“Her temperature is now 38.33 degrees Celsius,” said IQ-9 through the sensors.

Derek looked at her sweaty form, stroked her, and kissed her. Then, he looked at her and asked, “Were you in labor in combat before?”

Nova groggily nodded her head. “I think so. Yeah. I was spotting vectors and running that helm before my water broke…thought they were Braxton-Hicks con…”

“Then why the hell didn’t you ask to be relieved?” barked Derek.

“Don’t yell at me, Derek!” snapped Nova. “You got me like this to begin with! And I thought it was false labor! It’s happened before! And the mission is more important than me or any of us! You said that yourself years ago when you fought Sergeant Knox. Remember? Or it was.” Nova breathed hard. “Sasha, you said you have those powers! HELP ME, damnit!”

“My energy…it seems to have taken a big drop right now, “ said Sasha. “I will have to husband my resources for a few minutes until we can get you to Sickbay.”

“Sasha, when you have your kids with Deke, I hope you are forty kilometers away from an epidural!”

“Why, Auntie Nova?”

“So you can feel like I do! ARRRRRGGGH!”

“I wish I could do more, Nova,” said Derek as he held her hand.

“Try?” said Nova as tears ran down her face. “I’m trying to breath and do Kegels. I’m trying to stretch..I…it just hurts! Something squeezes my back and stomach every time it hits!”

“With all respect, honey, I am doing what I can for you,” said Derek.

Nova nodded. She smiled and said, “Good thing men can’t get pregnant. Dawn? How’s Kitano doing?”

“We finally stopped the bleeding, Nova. I agree with Derek. Get some rest. This will pass!”

“Thanks,” said Nova. More pain came a few moments later, and she clung hard to Derek’s arm. The phone rang a moment later in the Captain’s cabin and Derek answered it. “Yes?” he said.

“Captain, we have to warp soon,” said Sandor. “Sir, I’d get Nova secured in bed somewhere ASAP if you haven’t already. We’ll be warping in about fifteen minutes.”

“Fine,” said Commodore Wildstar. “Let me know when we warp.”

“I will…” said Sandor.

Then, the others turned to leave. “We’ll be back for you, Nova, when we get things organized below,” said Dawn as she kissed her on the cheek.

“Thanks,” Nova said as she grabbed Dawn’s hand and squeezed it. Then, the others left her alone.

II. A NEW BATTLE

The Vicinity of Pluto

Space Battleship Argo

Saturday, September 5, 2207

1632 Hours: Earthtime

Blessed privacy, thought Nova as they left her alone at last with Derek.

Derek got up, holding Nova’s hand as she tiptoed barefoot in his wake towards one of the consoles. The privacy curtain had just rolled up of its own accord, leaving them both exposed to the stars. When there, Derek reached for the privacy curtain, but found that the switch did not work.

“Damn,” he muttered as he held Nova close. “They can still see you.”

“It’s okay,” whispered Nova as she looked at the view. “Just turn the lights down. Then we can watch the stars together…”

Derek did so, and as Nova cried out, he gently picked his naked wife up in his arms while the light from the new artificial sun orbiting Pluto that was the burning remains of the Eritz Gatlantis shined off her body. Nova’s eyes closed as tears ran down her cheeks and her toes grasped Derek’s peacoat as another contraction came.

“How are you?” said Derek in the blessed quiet.

“It hurts but I’m doing all right,” she said in a tired voice as Derek tenderly carried her towards the bunk. “When are you going to put me down?”

“Not yet,” whispered Derek. “I remember what happened on this day; seven years ago. Do you know what day this is, Nova?”

Nova shut her eyes and then she cuddled against him as she shivered and said, “The day we came back to Earth from Iscandar, Derek. The day Desslok attacked us. The day I turned on the Cosmo-DNA…”

“The day where I thought I was going to lose you forever,” he whispered as tears ran down his cheeks.

“Derek,” whispered Nova. He then walked with her in his arms towards the small refrigerator they had in their cabin. Nova would have pulled on a nightgown, if she wasn’t so hot, that is…”My mouth…so dry…”

“I’m helping you,” said Derek as he opened the fridge. “Dawn said you shouldn’t drink anything…but I can give you ice to suck on…for the thirst. And I’ll polish your toenails later, honey, after you have our twins.”

“Thank you,” Nova whispered. “If I live through this, do them pink. Pink so I can wear sandals as much as possible until it gets cold…okay?”

“Okay,” said Derek as he kissed her. Derek then set Nova on her feet for a moment while he got a small cup, filled it with ice, and then he took the cup and tenderly fed Nova a few pieces of ice from his hands, as if he was feeding a very small baby; the babies she was about to bear them.

Then, he laid Nova on their bunk, stroking her hair as he knelt beside her on the deck.

“Derek, I’ve been horrible,” said Nova as she gasped and screamed again as another contraction came. She lay trembling with her arms outstretched as she cried out in her pain. As Derek cooed to her and caressed her forehead, she buried her face in his jacket and said, “I want to die, Derek!”

“Don’t say that?” gasped Derek. “Nova…please…”

“My mother told me that a member of our family once died in childbirth, like in Medieval times,” said Nova in a weak and trembling voice. “If that happens to me…”

“Nova, it won’t!”

“If that happens to me, bring me back here to this bunk so I can die in the same place the Captain died,” said Nova. “Then take me to Heroes’ Hill…and bury me in my wedding dress…”

“Goddamnit, I am not going to lose you,” said Derek as he hugged his wife. He kissed her, and then he said, “Shall I get the oil? To comfort you with?”

“Comfort me?” said a confused Nova.

“The part of you…where our children will come from, so your perinum won’t rip…” said Derek. “Let me touch you…massage you for a few minutes. It’ll help make you feel better,” he said as she screamed in another contraction. “It’ll relax you…you said you wanted to try it, like from that book you read.”

Nova nodded weakly, and she smiled as Derek opened a tiny cruse of oil that had been blessed by the Pope as a holy oil. It had been given to them during their Papal audience in Rome on a warm summers’ day that seemed like it was a lifetime ago. Derek then removed his gloves, poured the oil on his fingers, and Nova smiled a little as, in utter trust, she parted her legs and waited for Derek to comfort her…

In the meantime, there was very little comfort for poor Katrina as she kicked and fought Doctor Sane and Dawn.

“You…you…ugly freak!” he yelled. “How dare you begin pulling my clothes off?”

“I have to, young lady!” Sane yelled in Sickbay as he felt like slapping this purple-haired pilot. “You have to be operated on if you want to live! Your spleen is ruptured and it has to come out! Your appendix is also almost severed. If I don’t get it out soon, it’ll burst and you’ll have a mess in there!”

“I do not vant to be naked!” screamed Katrina.

“Oh, be quiet, “ said Dawn angrily. “As soon as the clothes come off, we will put sterile sheets on you!”

“That man will see me!” roared Katrina.

“Knock her out first,” said Sane as he got a mask and helped to hold the struggling Katrina’s head down. “Then we can finish this,” he said as he unzipped her uniform down to her crotch and began cutting her underclothes off.

Katrina felt that she was both nude and cold right before the gas took effect and she passed out.

She would not wake again for many hours.

Luckly, no one searched her flight bag. Dawn tossed it on a shelf in Sickbay and threw her clothes and boots there a moment later.

“You go check on Kitano and Domon,” said Sane as he and IQ-9 began to work on Katrina. “Then check on that other girl and go check on Nova. She’s probably the happiest person on this ship who needs medical care, even though she may not feel that way with those labor pains.”

“Yeah, Nova’s a strong kid,” said Dawn, ignoring the fact for the moment that Nova was older than she was. “She’s not gonna have an ounce of trouble having those kids. Good thing she does not want a gown on…we’re running out of supplies, so she doesn’t mind giving birth naked. I’m not worried about her labor one bit…she will have no trouble…”

“Not with the Skipper helping her,” Sane added with a laugh as IQ-9 secured his mask. It was better that Katrina was asleep now; she didn’t have to see him hitting his ever-ready bottle before operating on her….

In the meantime, in the Captain’s Quarters, Derek was helping Nova through her time.

Derek, thought Nova as she smiled a little as a contraction came again, four minutes later. They were coming more quickly now. Was it more gentle now? You gave me ice to suck on. You massaged me with oil to soothe me. This may hurt, but you have been so good to me, she thought as she smiled and kissed her husband’s hand. She looked at her own nudity and blushed a little. How fitting. I was naked when we conceived these babies in our love, at the beginning, and I am naked again at the end, to have them. Please, dear God, let me live through this! It hurts so much!

A moment later, routine intruded again as Eager’s voice, as Assistant Pilot, came up on the PA. “Ten minutes to warp! Begin securin’ all stations!”

“Where are they?” whispered Nova. “We should be in Sickbay now…”

“I have no idea,” said Derek as she began to unlock the warp restraint straps for the bunk; due to her stomach, and the need for a fairly loose restraint, she would lie alone on the bunk while Derek secured for warp in his chair.

Below them, the sound of the wave engine coming up could be heard. Then, before Derek strapped himself in, the comm unit beeped. He ran over and took the call. “Captain’s Quarters.”

“Wildstar, Homer here,” said the voice over the speaker. “Venture accepted command Task Force at 1630 Hours. Received word from Saturn-Titan. Request to dock there denied.”

“What?” said Derek. “What’s with them?” He thought he was going to snap Don’t they bloody know my wife is in labor? But, he thought better of it.

“They said they were overwhelmed with damaged ships, sir. It appears that the Comet Empire attacked the First and Second Defense Fleets and Earth while we were in battle with Invidia over the past few days before Invidia was killed and before Desslok and Radnar took joint command of what remained of House Gatlantis after the New Comet was destroyed. The Pennsylvania was destroyed, and Admiral Yamanami is dead.”

“KUSO!” snapped Derek.

“The Combined Fleet is now under the command of Admiral Lee from the Sagittarius. Lee picked up our communication and relayed it to Earth since Saturn-Titan is overwhelmed with calls. It appears that Admiral Lee has conferred with General Singleton, and per the Commander’s orders, we are to return directly to Earth. A good part of the Great Megalopolis has been damaged thanks to the Cometines and their allies attacking it, so we are to make port at San Diego, where the damage is minimal and they have a clear dock for us. Proceed with warp?”

“Roger. After we leave the Saturn-Titan area, we can warp to the Earth-Moon area. How long will it take to clear Saturn-Titan?”

“Upon resuming speed, twenty-three minutes, sir.”

In the meantime, in Sickbay, the lights dimmed. Then, they went out, and battery power came up.

“What the?” squeaked Doctor Sane.

“Sir,” said Tasha Cleveland, suddenly cold in her dress, bare legs, sandals and paper overshoes as she helped Sane operate on Katrina. “Life support is failing down on this deck level. The circuits were damaged.”

“Damnit, not with a patient under me!” said Sane.

“Maybe we’d better medevac them off the ship, sir,” said Cleveland. “And we can’t bring Nova below here to have her babies under emergency power!”

“Let Sandor know!”

“Yessir.”

In the meantime, in another operating room, Michelle was waiting for Doctor Sane to work on her. She had remained unconscious, and she slept peacefully as she awaited the knife…

Sandor burst into Wildstar’s conversation a moment later to report the news about Sickbay. “Sir, life support on that deck is now on battery power, but Doctor Sane thinks he can evacuate Sickbay in an orderly fashion before those batteries give out in two hours…”

“Good. Order Doctor Sane to medevac his most seriously wounded patients to the hospital in San Diego aboard the first medical boat after the second warp. Order him to have the second medical boat ready for….”

“Sir?” said Homer.

I don’t want Nova exposed in labor again in front of a lot of people, thought Derek. I want another boat for us. If it can be spared…

“You know why we need the boat, Homer. I need to run a certain Mom-to-be to the hospital if Sickbay can’t accommodate us…”

“Yessir.”

Derek then began to strap himself in after Eager said “five minutes to warp” when Nova cried out again.

Derek turned to his wife with concern, holding her as Eager said “Thirty seconds to warp!” as the wave motion engine finished spooling up below them. “Twenty seconds…”

“Well, uh…” said Derek. “We’d better just…hang on…literally…”

“WARP!” yelled Eager over the PA.

Nova’s scream from her next contraction, her most intense yet, faded into a distorted noise as the Argo roared into warp, and the stars outside the huge window turned into red, gold, blue, green, and white streaks of whizzing light as the bizarre world of hyperspace folded around Derek, Nova, and their children for what seemed to be an eternity….

In subspace, Derek Wildstar turned his head away from his suffering wife for a moment as a little hand tugged at his.

It was a little girl next to him; she had golden hair, Nova’s eyes, and seemed to be clothed in a garment of light.

“Who are you?” asked Derek.

“You don’t know me, Daddy? Well, maybe you do. Okay….uh…you will…” she said as she looked at her mother, who was writhing in pain as she floated amongst the distorted stars, lights, and streaks of light that went past them. “Time is weird here. I’m Ariel Starsha Wildstar. I think my mom is having me…”

Another hand tugged at Derek’s. It was a little boy, about the same age (eight??) who wore pajama bottoms, and had the same eyes and wild dark hair as his father had had at that age. “Alex. Your son. Don’t worry about Mom! She’s gonna make it!”

“How do you know this?” asked Derek.

“Well, I think maybe we’re in warp now in some time in the future, and we’re meeting, or somethin’ like that,” said Ariel. “But if we’re here, we have to be born. And I have a locket my Mommy gave me. So for me to have that locket, I have to be born, and Mommy has to be alive…”

“So….”

Subspace washed over them again, and Derek still heard his wife screaming in her contractions as a galaxy floated through her. Then, a moment later, a hum came around them, and Derek saw that they were in the Saturn-Titan area. Passing Titan, thought Derek as he undid his straps and helped Nova up.

“Breathe!” cried Wildstar.

“I’m trying to, Damnit!” gasped Nova as Derek tried to comfort his wife on the bunk. Nova looked very helpless right now. He tried to rub her back and comfort her as best he could as a bang came at the hatch from outside.

“Damnit, go away!” yelled Derek as Nova screamed. “We’re…having….a…situation up…”

“It’s called a baby!” screamed Nova.

“It’s me, Sasha,” said a high, sweet voice. “Auntie, we’re here! I know what you’re going through…”

“You do NOT…” gasped Nova as she gasped her way through her contraction and fell spent into Derek’s arms. Sasha stormed in a moment later, followed by Dawn.

“Great, I’m doing this in front of the whole crew,” said Nova. “Get the video camera going, Derek!”

“You’re not doing it in front of the crew,” said Dawn hotly. Sasha took Nova’s hand and said, “I can help with the pain…you know that…”

“Thanks,” said Nova, who gritted her teeth and screamed as she fell onto her back with her legs up. Derek held her hand, and Sasha stroked her already-sweaty arm as Dawn gently parted Nova’s legs for a look.

“Nova, you’re a sneak!” snapped Dawn as she felt waves of sympathetic pain in her own mildly pregnant stomach.

“What do ya mean?” gasped Nova.

“You’re at seven centimeters already. You must have been in first-stage all through that battle! Why didn’t you come to Sickbay, ma’am?”

“You know! I was distracted by Invidia, and I thought it was false….”

Sasha held Nova’s hand again, and Nova felt the intense pain easing a little as she tried to breathe. Then, she gagged once.

Luckily, Derek remembered enough about Nova’s stories about Teri Forrester’s birth of David and Aurora in 2202 (the parts he had not seen when he had been there at the house) to get a wastecan as Nova was violently, and messily, sick.

“Bye, bye, lunch,” gasped Nova. Derek sat with her, holding her hand, as something that seemed like an eternity passed while Nova held onto the edges of the bunk and somehow concentrated on breathing during her contractions.

After each contraction, now coming every three minutes, Derek tried to stay calm and offer support along with Sasha, as they tried to ignore Nova’s impolite and pained responses. Among other things, she asked, “When is Doc Sane getting here? Or is he getting drunk below again!?”

“He can’t” snapped Dawn.

“What?” hissed Nova.

“Listen, he’s got dying men, down there Nova. You know that!” snapped Dawn. “You’re not dying! You’re just having twins! That’s all!”

“What’s the difference? I FEEL like I’m dying!” moaned Nova as another contraction came. She was so lost in her pain that she felt like clawing at her husband as the next contraction came. She writhed, covered in sweat while Sasha held her and sent calming waves through her aunt. She trembled and gasped, sweating herself as she not only psychically blunted Nova’s pain somewhat, but began to absorb it herself. She felt her aunt’s pain in her own back and crotch as she felt something passing from Nova to her, and she knew that if she went any deeper, she would blunt her aunt’s pain entirely but drive herself mad as the agony consumed her.

Then, Sasha lay back on the deck and abruptly screamed. She began to cry, with her legs curled up as a horrible and sudden realization hit her.

“Who’s having the baby here?” cried Nova as Sasha began screaming herself and tearing at her own Black Tiger uniform. “Sasha, that is NOT FUNNY!” Nova cried. “In fact, that is in very poor taste! Stop imitating me!”

“I’m having sympathy contractions!” screamed Sasha. “I’m pregnant, too! We have to tell Deke?”

“What?” said a confused Derek.

“Sasha, calm down!” said Dawn as she was tempted to slap her as Sasha ripped down her uniform, baring her bra.

“HUH?” said Derek as he ran to Sasha.

“Hey!” cried Nova. “I’m the one actually having the baby here! Did you people forget?”

“When did you find out you were pregnant?” asked Dawn as Derek tried to soothe Nova, who was close to belting Derek in her pain and craziness.

“Just now,” sobbed Sasha. “My senses were blunted after I was with Deke when he came back from being with you in that cave on that rotten planet and then I had to get captured and tortured by Invidia in that weird Sphere thing.”

“Oh,” grunted Nova. “Forgive me if I don’t arrange a baby shower right now, Sasha. This is kind of a bad time. Can you get back to me in about ten days? AFTER I HAVE MY KIDS?”

“How far along is Nova?” asked Derek. “The way her legs are thrashing around, I can’t measure anything?”

“Eight centimeters,” said Dawn as she parted Nova’s legs again to look.

“Now I know how a guinea pig in the lab feels,” snorted Nova.

“Good job,” said Derek. “How are you, Nova?”

“HOW DO YOU THINK? ROTTEN!!!” she screamed as she writhed and her hand hit a button near the bunk. She screamed again.

Down below, on the first bridge, a scream came over the speakers.

“What was that?” yelled Domon, who was back at his post with his shirt open and some heavy bandages on. “We’re gonna warp again in five more minutes!”

“Sounded like a she-moose,” said Diane Henson with a grin.

“No, it’s Nova!” said Eager. “Listen!”

Then, Nova cried, “God, that paaaaaain! If you come near me now, Derek, I’ll rip you in half and then I’ll emasculate what is LEFT!”

Please, God, help me be patient, thought Derek as he tried to hold his wife’s hand.

Then, a voice came up through a speaker that made him jump. It was Eager, down below on the bridge. He said, “Nova, when you get done with this, ah’m tellin’ Lisa ah want a vasectomy!”

“GOOD!” grunted Nova. “It’d be a service to the human race! Derek, did you do that?”

“No, I didn’t,” he said.

“Your hand hit the button,” said Sasha. “Let me get it turned off…”

Nova yelled again as she sat up a bit and began to push, slamming her feet down against the deck. She gasped, breathing deeply, as Derek and Sasha rubbed her back.

“Thanks,” she gasped as she quickly kissed her husband and niece.

“Getting closer,” said Dawn. “But, damnit, Nova, don’t start pushing yet!”

“Why not?” grunted Nova.

“You are not dilated enough yet. Push now and you will damage yourself!”

“Nice to know,” gasped Nova, remembering her experiences in helping other women give birth. She nodded as another bang came against the hatch. Distracted, Nova turned the intercom off in a rare moment of lucidity right before another contraction came.

Sasha helped her through that one as she took so much of her pain that she fell to the deck, her legs trembling beneath her as her relatively fresh Star Force uniform was soon stained with her sweat.

“I can sense Nova is in distress!” said a high-pitched mechanical voice. “I can pick up an elevated pulse and heartbeat through the sensors we put on her!”

“Hello, Tinwit!” yelled Nova. “Here to watch?”

“No, here to help.”

“I don’t need your help,” snapped Nova bitterly.

“Nova…you need clothes on…”

“HELL NO! I’m burning all over and I’m hot!” she screamed. “But you don’t know that. Robots don’t go through labor! You get born in factories!”

“Let me compute,” said IQ as his lights flashed. “Logical. Per my records, thirty-nine point two-niner-two percent of all women I know of give birth in the nude.”

“Thanks for the numbers,” snapped Nova. “You’re also naked all the time, so with you, who cares?” she said bitterly. “Robots don’t have to wear clothes! With humans, it’s a different matter!”

“Two minutes to warp,” called Eager over the PA. “Warping to the vicinity of the Moon.”

As the counter began to sound, IQ-9 strapped Nova down to her bunk…as carefully as possible.

“Mrs. Hardy, I am monitoring the vital signs of Nova and the babies,” said IQ. “They are within normal parameters.”

“Good, IQ,” snapped Dawn. “Where are those two stupid pilots?”

“Pilots?” said Nova.

“Pilots, litter-bearers,” said Dawn. “We’re about to get you to that second medevac boat after we warp again, Nova. We’re getting you off this ship because Sandor told me we can make only half speed after our next warp to the vicinity of the Moon. It’ll be seven hours to Earth then by ship, but only three by medevac boat once we get there. We’re getting you to a hospital in San Diego.”

“Good. Maybe they can hit me over the head with a big hammer when we get there and knock me out,” moaned Nova.

“Good idea,” said Derek with a wink.

Nova screamed again at the next labor pain, and then, she got a fist free and punched Derek in the face as she roared.

“What the…?” said Wildstar as he looked at his nose.

It was bleeding. No. It was broken.

Derek thought, This was never in the prenatal books we read! Wife in labor may slug you! Crap!

“Good. Now we’re both in agony! You’d better stop being wise, Derek!” snapped Nova.

“No…I mean…uh…I didn’t mean that…I…,” gasped Derek. “I care about you! I really do!”

“You meant that!”

“I care for you! I hurt along with you, Nova,” gasped Derek.

“Is that true?”

“It is,” he said as he kissed her.

“Heartbeat, elevated,” said IQ-9. “But stable. I’m getting a call from Doctor Sane on his sickbay radio frequency,” he said as his antennae came up. “I am needed in surgery. Soon. A patient has to have his intestines resectioned due to a shrapnel and splinter injury. I calculate you and Sasha can handle this, Mrs. Hardy,” said IQ-9 to Dawn. ”I have to go soon. But Doctor Sane can check Nova right before she is medevaced off the ship. Goodbye.”

“Thanks, anyway, Tinwit,” said Nova. “I’ve always wanted to have a Dalek as my midwife.”

“Nova, I am not a Dalek cyborg, I am a robot,” said IQ-9. “You are not being logical right now!”

Derek tried not to be wise right now, but, even in her pain, as he looked at his wife, like every father-to-be who saw the sight, he studied his wife’s laboring, swollen, and mighty body and thought she was the strongest and most beautiful woman in the universe right now. Reality intruded as Eager’s voice came over the PA. “Thirty seconds to warp!”

“What?” said Dawn. “Darn, we didn’t notice….Sir…just sit on the bunk…by Nova…no…lie down…have to strap you both in….Sasha, IQ, get secured! Chairs!”

“What’s…what….?” Nova muttered.

“We’re warping…again…” said Derek as he held his wife against him, wishing he could suck the pain out of her suffering form himself as he held his shivering wife, watching her teeth grit and her fingers and toes clenching in pain. She was literally breathing in his ear as the next contraction came harder, and harder, and harder. They never heard the rest of the countdown; they only felt the universe shivering around them as the Argo flew into warp again like water going down a drainpipe. Nova’s next scream passed with them into hyperspace. It was a very weird, eerie sound in warp.

They kept their eyes closed, seeing only blackness and visions from the past as they saw Desslok’s flagship approaching, and opened their eyes to see it firing upon them.

What? Nova thought. Firing? No, Derek told me about this….when I was in my coma, he held me, and…

Light shone around them as Derek held Nova in her thin nightgown while the energy wave bounced hard against the reflex shield seven years ago. Then, the wave roared away, but Derek continued to hold Nova…

And found that she was cold. Stiff. Pale.

Dead.

She had died in his arms. The Commodore panicked, screaming, “she’s dead”! In the meantime, the uncaring stars flew past.

Then, there was only a hum, and, in the distance, the dsitant shapes of Moon and the Earth crashed into existence before them.

“Warp…completed…” gasped Nova as she gripped the bed. “Derek…is the ship normal…?”

Derek then looked at a very nauseated crew in his cabin. They hadn’t had time to strap in very well. IQ-9 came over to Nova a moment later. “I will scan her. Unlike humans, I am not affacted by space warps.”

“Nice to know, garbage can!” barked Dawn as she threw up into a wastecan. “Your turn, milady,” she said as she handed it to Nova so she could vomit again.

After she threw up, Nova closed her eyes against a contraction, barely feeling it as her upper body was covered with Derek’s coat now. Strong hands held her as she was lifted off the bunk onto something else. She heard a confused babel of voices reaching her through post-warp disorientation and her pain and Sasha’s blunting of it.

“Hang on, Nova!” – Derek, it’s my Derek…

“We’ve got you, stop struggling!” – Deke? What the heck?

“Hey, the balloon’s about ready t’ burst!” – Hartcliffe????? What’s he doing here?

“You can’t die on me, Nova!” – Oh, IQ……you poor sweetheart….

“Is it wise to move her now?” – Sasha…thanks…

“We have to get her off this ship! It’s getting colder here, don’t you feel it? --- Dawn…no…the heat can’t be failing…

Nova felt disorientation, felt herself being lifted onto the litter, felt oddly comforted as Derek and Sasha helped her into Derek’s Captain’s peacoat (she at least noticed that Hartcliffe was actually looking towards the bulkhead as she lay there totally bare for a moment) and then felt puzzled as someone put her sandals back onto her feet. Then, the plastic cover of the litter closed, and Nova felt cool, canned air as the pain hit her like never before. She screamed and roared and felt an incredible need to push, push, push, as her world shot by her outside as the litter was carried down the steps, rushed down corridors, into one of the upper hangar decks, and then, Nova looked as she saw Sane pushing bloodied, bandaged, burned men into one medical boat while Derek, Deke, Hartcliffe, and IQ-9 manhandled her into the other one, which was empty. She saw Derek snap an order to Hartcliffe and Wakefield, and both pilots saluted as they went into the cockpit, shutting the hatch behind them as Sasha followed them onto Medical Boat #21107.

In the cramped cockpit, Sasha leaned against Deke as he prepared to take off. “I have something to tell you, Deke,” she said breathlessly. “I can’t fly with you anymore. Not in a fighter…”

“Why not?” said Deke, shocked..

“Why not, luvvie?” said Hartcliffe. “Found out ya don’t like heights? Or are you like Angie, all moody and preggies? Last I saw her, she was cryin’ and eatin’ ice cream. Like your friend Dawn, and like Mrs. Daft Wildstar in the looners’ asylum in the…”

Sasha hissed like a cat, and then she slapped Hartcliffe across the face. Then, she turned to Deke and slapped him.

“And that’s for getting me that way on that Santification night!” screamed Sasha as she grabbed Deke’s collar as she crawled into his lap.

“What…what the hell did I do?” snapped Deke.

“YOU, Tiger, forgot to make sure you had a raincoat on! I’m pregnant, Deke! PREGNANT!”

“Huh?” said Deke.

“Oh, another looner,” said Hartcliffe as one of Nova’s labor screams came through the hatch.

Sasha belted Hartcliffe again and then said, “Deke! I just found out! While I was helping Nova! I’m a month pregnant! My senses were all…confoozlated…”

“Oh,” said Deke. “Congratulations. Is it a boy?”

“No.”

“Girl?”

Sasha nodded, with a smile coming through her tears.

“Congratulations,” said Deke in a husky voice as he hugged Sasha.

“Thank you,” said Sasha as she kissed him, over and over again. Finally, she said, “You two had better take off.” Another scream came through the hatch. “Nova needs me.”

“Good luck,” said Deke as Hartcliffe gave them a dirty look.

“We’ll need it,” said Sasha as she went aft.

“Yeah,” said Hartcliffe. “Yer will…”

“Sage observation,” snapped Deke.

“Thanks,” said Hartcliffe. “Sane’s still aboard. Begin checkout…”

“Good idea,” snapped Deke.

III. HOME AT LAST

The Vicinity of The Moon

Space Battleship Argo

Saturday, September 5, 2207

1710 Hours: Earthtime

As the hatch to the medical boat loomed and as Nova heard the hum and whizz of the fusion jets starting up, the cocoon of pain was opened, and Derek, IQ-9, and Dawn worked with Nova’s weight as they placed her on the single diagnostic bed in the small cabin. Nova was very hot. Painfully hot.

“Please strip me again!” she cried. “Derek, I am so hot, I am burning and sweating all over…I want to be naked again…please…”

“It’s okay,” said Derek as he kissed Nova on the forehead and stripped her of her covering again. Nova then felt only cool cloth against her as she gasped in another contraction while she was laid on the small bed, lifted there in her husband’s arms without any shame at all in her nakedness as she cried.

A moment later, Doctor Sane came into the shuttle. He was pulling on fresh gloves as he ran in.

“Doc?” said Nova.

“Doctor,” said Derek. “I thought you had patients to evacuate….”

“I can spare a minute for my best nurse before we go,” he said as Nova held the edges of the bunk and screamed, Doctor Sane felt her stomach and then gently looked at her between her legs (her legs were naturally parted anyway and there was nothing there that the doctor hadn’t seen). “Hmmm,” he said. “Nine centimeters. Not bad at all. It won’t be long until you can start bearing down, and…”

“Doc, what do you see down there?” snapped Nova. “A neon sign that says “Eat at Joe’s?””

“Come here, Dawn,” said Sane.

“Yes?” said Dawn.

Doctor Sane pointed at various spots on Nova’s body. “She’s opening up well, but when the babies crown, make sure her perineum is well-lubricated and stretched. It looks like someone’s been doing that already, though…”

Derek blushed and nodded. “Just the way you showed us, Doctor…”

“That is a good husband,” said Sane with a smile. “Dawn, you have some oil aboard for that. If you do that, she shouldn’t need a major epiostomy cut. In fact, she may not need one at all. She’s small but a bit flexible.”

“Yessir,” said Dawn.

“And give her something to push against,” said Sane. He spotted some spare IV stands and Nova’s sandals. “Make stirrups out of those and put her feet in them if she wants to deliver on her back. Nova, are you comfortable?”

“Yes, but I want an epidural!” cried Nova. “PLEASE!”

“I think we can handle that,” said Sane as he popped the cork on his ever-ready bottle of “Spring Water”. “Dawn, there may be some Tarnax aboard. Gve her a light dose of it,” said Sane. “With twins, she will need to feel the contractions so she can push them out before there is too much fetal distress. We want her only lightly sedated.”

“Yessir,” said Dawn.

“I want some of that Spring Water, Doc!” yelled Nova. “I never said this before, but I want to be stinking drunk now!”

“Oh, you’re talking nonsense, Nova! Sasha, help me calm her,” said Sane as he pulled a sheet up to cover Nova up to her breasts for a moment. “IQ, keep on monitoring her through those remote sensors on her body and send reports to me on the other shuttle.”

“Yessir,” said IQ-9.

“I have to go now,” said Doctor Sane.

“You’re leaving me alone?” cried Nova. “NOW?” she said as tears of betrayal ran down her cheeks.

“You’re a strong and healthy young lady, Nova and you’re just naturally giving birth at last. Part of the reason we froze you months ago was to get you to this point. While it hurts, you will find the pain is not as bad as what you went through when you were poisoned. But this will have a much better outcome and is just Nature taking its course today. I have other patients in far worse shape than you to evacuate. You’ll make it through this all right,” he said as he patted her hands. “Dawn, start that IV.”

Then, finally, Nova felt a sharp pain as an IV was started. Then, Sane said, “I have to leave now; I have that criticially injured patient to tend to on the other ship…along with those patients who need replacement legs. You’re young, healthy, strong and just twenty-nine…just the right age to have a first baby. And you’re smart and you know what you’re doing. You won’t be like some airheaded teenage mothers I’ve worked with. Bye…Nova…see you in San Diego tonight.”

“Bye…” gasped Nova as another contraction came and she looked at her husband for relief. She stuck her bare feet out from the bottom of the sheet; Sane could see her toes clenching with the effort.

At that, he left.

“Why…that?” hissed Nova as she looked at the IV bottle at the foot of her bed. She laughed a little as she kicked her left foot well out from under the covers and pointed to the bottle with her toes. Her contractions were now something like two minutes apart.

Nova grabbed Derek’s hand, holding it as she shivered her way through another contraction and then let go again.

“Glucose, fluids, and a bit of induction medicine,” said Dawn. “Oh, yes, you finally get that Tarnax for the pain, too. And you are at over nine centimeters now. Almost there. When you get to ten, you can begin pushing those two out.”

“Thanks a lot,” said Nova in a bitter voice.

Then, she looked at Derek and smiled weakly.

He smiled back at her, trying to raise her spirits.

Then, the hatch of the Mark Two Medevac Boat, Tail Number 21107 hummed shut. At 1723 Hours, they took off from the Argo.

They were headed home.

Time passed. Nova and Derek weren’t sure quite how much time passed as the boat flew on towards Earth. Nova had to breathe and gasp through a series of contractions that seemed harder than the previous one. Then, Nova was aware of a strange phenomenon; she was apparently sleeping for maybe a minute or so between almost continuous contractions that felt as if they were tearing her apart. Her contractions were now less than one minute apart, and her sweaty, tiring body, clad only in a sheet, was gathering for the final effort that would soon be needed to finish her ordeal. Then, awareness came back with a great deal of pain. Nova was aware that she was sitting up, breathing, pushing, breathing. “Derek, what time is it?”

“Eighteen-Thirty,” he said as he glanced at a chronometer. “We should be home in about an hour and a half, maybe more, maybe less.”

“Sorry I’ve been so mean, I’m so sorry,” she said as she lay back down. Then, more contractions hit. She just began to cry; she was running out of energy.

“Let me help you,” Sasha said as she tried to comfort her psychically, all over again, as she tried to absorb her waves of pain. Then, it hit Sasha…she had seen this before! It had been almost two and a half months ago, back on the morning when Deke had been wounded fighting Von Delvitz. Now, they were together again…

Only, this time, no one was injured. Tears filled Sasha’s eyes as she suddenly realized that everything was going to be all right. Sasha suddenly knew her aunt would soon be out of her agony, and that she was soon going to be a very happy young woman and successful new mother of two beautiful children.

At long last…

Dawn came over to check on Nova in the meantime…. “Nova, you’re at ten centimeters…looks like you’ve been there for a while…I see…something coming…”

“What? Don’t tease me….”

“Dark hair. Push!”

The pain brought Nova fully and abuptly awake. She clenched the sheet hard as another contraction came. Sasha again held her wrist and tried to help while Derek encouraged her to breathe. Nova nodded grimly. The time for comments, anger, and the like was over. She pushed, pushed, pushed….and threw off the sheet, a moment later, for the last time. Then, Derek got rid of his boots, washed his hands, and got into bed with her on the bunk, and literally held his sweaty wife in his lap by the arms as he comforted her while she pushed, cried out, and said, “WHEN DOES THIS END?” as tears of pain ran down her cheeks.

“Soon, honey,” Derek said as he put his bare feet up near hers. He made her laugh for a second by playing footsie with her before she screamed again. “Nova, it will be over soon!”

“Good…I feel like I’m tearing in half! Sasha, please get that sheet entirely off me!” Sasha complied. It was near the end at last. Nova would finish her ordeal totally exposed, not even covered by a sheet. And she didn’t feel an ounce of shame now because she was as hot and sweaty as a woman running a marathon, and her skin was burning all over. Just going naked gave her some blessed relief as the air hit her sweaty skin. She could feel her heart thundering as Nature began to take its course in her straining and exhausted body as she shook all over. She tried to remember when she had felt the first waves of what she thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions, and she realized it was before twenty-three hundred hours the previous night, around the time they had been headed into the Argo’s briefing room for that last, urgent briefing before the forces of the enemy had been upon them. Taking a moment to reckon up hours in her head as a way of disconnction for a moment from her labor pains, Nova calculated she had been in labor for about nineteen hours.

Good thing I didn’t have these kids right on the First Bridge, she thought as she rolled her head in pain. It was really burning down there now.

Nova began to cry again. “It hurts, my God it hurts!” she said as tears ran down her face.

Derek got up and got a towel as he looked at his wife’s widened opening with awe while Dawn encouraged him to tenderly massage her birth area with some oil to help her push the babies out without tearing. I don’t believe this, he thought as he gently caressed his wife’s femaleness in her ordeal. My slender little Nova is actually pushing a baby out of there….Then, Derek realized how hot it was, and with no ado, he pulled off his own top.

“What are you doing, sir?” yelled Dawn.

“I know how hot she is,” said Derek as sympathy pains ran upon and down his body. Soon his pants followed his shirt as he knelt barefoot and nearly naked in his fundoshi on the deck to caress Nova with the oil. Nova took a deep breath, and smiled for a moment as she felt Derek’s gentle hands stroking her in his act of tenderness. “Ohhh…That feels good,” she whispered as she smiled just a little while she flexed her naked toes. “It helps…with that burning….ohhh…ohh…God…it burns…my back….were you hot too?”

“Thanks…yeah, I was. And if it gets much hotter in here, I don’t care what anyone thinks…I’m getting in the altogether with you!,” he said as Nova’s legs twitched again and she screamed as a long, rolling contraction came. She blew her hair out of her face and puffed hard as she tried to bear down. The oddest thing was that she found herself giggling for a moment as she wriggled her toes again as she thought of Derek stripping for her. “How sweet,” she said as she caressed her husband’s sweaty hair and tenderly rubbed his chest for a moment and then rubbed and kissed one of his sweaty thighs.

IQ-9 came up with the IV stands as Nova said, “What are you up to, IQ? Here to transmit it to the Fleet?”

“No, I just have something for you to push against,” he said as he put up the stands at the bottom of the bunk. Nova saw her sandals duct-taped to the top of the stands. “Feet up, put them in there…”

Nova trembled and she was glad for the opportunity to stretch and push as her bare feet went into her sandals.

“I’m in agony! NOOOOOO!!” yelled Nova as she shoved against the IV stands very hard with her feet as she pushed her bottom up. Soon, the experiment for improvised stirrups did not work well. One of Nova’s sandals just tore off from the IV stand, and she lay there in her exhaustion and pain with one unstrapped sandal with some duct tape stuck on it just about coming off her foot while she just got out of her other sandal right as it fell off the IV stand. Uninhibited, and needing something to push against, Nova just put her bare foot against the IV stand and pushed hard…when her other sandal finally flew off, she did the same with her other foot…gasping a little as she took a breath, deep, hard, trembling as another contraction came on, flexing her bare toes as it came over her, getting a new sense of determination as she just wanted to end this ordeal, as she thought, I was naked when I conceived these children, and now, here I am, just as completely naked, pushing them into the world….the…the circle ends…here….

Derek, who was kneeling near her, held her legs up and said, “We’re almost there, Nova…almost there!”

Nova cried out, and said, “Yes! PLEASE! Please do something kind for me, Derek…it hurts…me…so much!”

At that, Derek took pity on her and tenderly kissed her inner thigh, near her straining womanhood. Then, he said, “This is for good luck…last few pushes..” and then, he gently kissed the center of her, tasting the oil, and tasting her.

Nova smiled a little at that gentle bit of pleasure, whimpered, and then, she felt a horrible, sharp burning sensation, worse than before, and Derek adjusted his hands. Both of them were shocked to see a scrunched-up little face crowned with black hair emerging from her.

“Nova, keep pushing. One of our babies is coming out of you!”

“Fine, as if I didn’t already know that!” yelled Nova as she pushed, and then laughed again, grabbing against the edge of the bed with all of her might with her fingers as she spread and grasped with her toes with the effort as she pushed hard while she shut her eyes with a hand up to her sweaty chest, so hot that she was actually glad for her nakedness at this moment. Nova could feel her heart pounding hard, harder than it ever had before as she pushed with all of the strength she had, sweating, strong, and tough as the last few pushes came with a lack of inhibition that matched her nudity.

Luckily, Doctor Sane was right. Nova was no shrinking violet. She was twenty-nine, young, and very strong for her slender build once everything was in place. She felt more burning pain and stretching as she pushed while Derek guided out the little shoulders, arms, chest, and then, with another two pushes, the new baby was out in his hands as the miracle finally occurred and she became a mother at last.

The baby began to wriggle at once. Derek admired the red, messy baby, as he looked at his face, chest, stomach, bottom, and little boyhood as he helped wash his son’s little body clean, right against his own bare chest. “We have a son!” cried Derek as the little bundle was placed into a small blanket that Dawn was holding. Dawn and IQ-9 worked to tie off the umbilical cord, and Derek was handed a portable laser knife. He nodded and cut the cord himself as he rubbed his son and laughed through his happy tears. “It’s our son Alex, Nova…” he said as he held him up. Look!”

“Oh, God!” laughed Nova as she also laughed through her tears. “Derek, look at him! He’s beautiful!”

“Time?” asked Dawn.

“Why do we need that?” asked Sasha.

“The birth certificate,” said Dawn. “And write it down on that pad when she calls it.”

“Eighteen forty-two hours, Standard Earth Time, around 2 or 3 AM in San Diego, I think…” said Nova with a rare lucidity. “Derek, bring him up here…he should be skin-to-skin with me for warmth….security…”

The Commodore nodded as he and Dawn finished up with washing off his son, and, finally, a weak cry came, followed by a lusty one as Nova put an arm around her baby boy as he was laid on her naked left breast for the first of many feedings. Nova smiled through her tears and pain as her son found her bare nipple and began to feed.

Derek opened the little viewport and looked out. They were passing the Moon in a parabolic course towards Earth, which hung like a beautiful blue marble in the night. My children are being born in the moonlight, he thought. Only we’re just two hundred kilometers over the Moon. What a dead place below; what a little bit of life in here.

Derek looked at the Moon for a minute, smiling as he realized that, even with the melting of the Moon’s surface by the Comet Empire years ago, they were passing over the Sea of Tranquility as the shuttle adjusted course for a moment, using Luna’s gravity to help slingshot the little shuttle back home at last

Back to Earth at last…

“Oh, he’s beautiful,” said Nova as she shivered slightly while savoring the tender feeling of giving her own milk, her own nourishment, to her child. “I…I…wish this was over….”

“A second head is coming,” said Dawn as Nova gasped again “Nova, a few more pushes, and you can get this over with….”

“Wonderful,” said Nova. “Derek, you’ve named him already, but…”

“You get input, too,” said Derek.

“I want him to have his father’s name for a middle name,” Nova gasped.

Derek smiled and said, “Nova, our son is named Alexander Derek Wildstar.”

Nova nodded after one of the final contractions passed. It was almost over now. “I’m working on our daughter, now. And I’m naming her, we know we’ll…” gasped Nova. “Call…her…Ariel…I get…dibs…on…the REST..AAAAAAARRGGHH!” Then, she laughed again.

“Push,” said Derek. “PUSH!”

“PUSH!” cried Dawn as Sasha rubbed her wrist and sent calm through her still struggling body.

“PUSH, Nova. I calculate you are not trying hard enough,” said IQ-9.

“What do you think I’m doing?” grunted Nova as her feet slipped off her improvised IV stand stirrups and they hit the deck again. She was so sweaty that she left very distinct sweaty bare footprints on the deck. “Do you think I’m picking daisies or something?”

A few more pushes, and Derek caught his daughter. He saw that his baby girl was blond, a little more slender than his son, and seemed to have the beginnings of beautiful long eyelashes already. She had a cute little nose, and a scrunched-up little face that looked precious. Her tummy, her bottom, her girlhood, her little legs, her toes were all exquisite and perfect.

Dawn barked, “Nova, time!”

“Nineteen oh-two hours.”

“Sasha, got that?”

Sasha nodded and wrote down the time on her pad near one of the empty litters.

Dawn looked at the Commodore, nodded, and then Dawn and Derek tied off the cord together. Then, with a puffing Nova looking on with approval, Dawn winked, and handed Derek the laser knife. He cut the cord, and immediately, he and Dawn began to wash off and massage his daughter as they presented the baby to her mother. Nova herself got a sponge, and shakily began to wash her baby girl as she let out her first cry. Nova shivered a bit as Derek rested a hand on her stomach, and Dawn got a plastic bag and helped Nova finish the rather messy and gruesome conclusion of the birthing process at last. Then she and Derek washed both her and the babies clean from head to toe while Ariel began to have her first dinner at her mother’s other breast, cooing slightly as she cuddled into her mother’s warmth, confused at her expulsion into the world, but comforted by the familiar sound of Mommy’s heartbeat.

Derek gently picked his whole family, mother and babies up in his strong arms at once to allow Dawn to wash Nova’s backside, and he held her and the babies like that as IQ-9 scurried up to change the sheets on the bed and gently remove the sensor pads from Nova’s body, since they were no longer needed. They were replaced with clean, warm sheets that felt heavenly as Nova was laid back down on the bed to feed and cuddle her children, bonding skin-to-skin with them in a memory that would be forever precious to her and Derek. Derek smiled at her, and she smiled back at her husband, and her children.

It was over. Derek and Nova Wildstar were now parents.

In the cockpit, Deke Wakefield heard the crying and then he heard Sasha cheering and applauding.

“I think they’re done, Hartcliffe!” he said.

“So what?” Bryan said.

“What?” said an annoyed Deke.

Sasha ran forward with a big smile on her face. “Guys!” she said through both tears and giggles. “Auntie Nova’s just had her twins!”

“Great,” said Deke with a smile. “We’re almost home now…”

“She wants both of you to come aft to see them!” said Sasha.

“Don’t wanna,” said Hartcliffe.

“What?” said Sasha.

“Her balloon popped, so what? Probably a big mess…”

“She’s just been washed, you jerk!” said Sasha. “And she wants both of you to see them!”

“Let’s go,” said Wakefield. “Hartcliffe, put her on auto-pilot. Come aft with me. That is an order!”

“Yessir,” he said.

As Deke and Bryan came aft, Derek looked on with tears in his eyes as he looked at the sight of his wife and children, all still somewhat wet, all three of them lying there very naked and very unashamed as mother and children bonded while Nova gave nourishment, warmth, and love to her children skin-to-skin. Derek stood there, smiling and crying slightly as he ran his fingers over every part of his son’s and daughter’s little bodies and let them touch his bare arm and chest with their little hands. Then, he ran his fingers up Nova’s side and over her shoulders in a tender caress that made Nova smile as she remembered the caresses of their lovemaking on the day, which seemed an age ago, when they had conceived these babies together in hope and fear. Now it’s over, Nova thought as she kissed her husband. Operation Stork has succeeded. At last, we’re a full family, Derek, me, Alex, Ariel. Right on the day the war ends, too, and right on the seventh anniversary of the Day of Return from Iscandar. And Earth is finally at peace. We won! And I’m so happy! And I don’t care if the whole world sees me like this right now!

“Ohhh,” said Deke with a smile as he watched the proud father caressing the heads of his babies, who looked like naked little Boticelli cherubs as they nursed. Sasha’s eyes glistened while Deke laid a hand gently on Nova’s wrist. “You okay, mom?” he said with a smile. Only then did he look down and see that Nova was still very naked. “Want a sheet?” he whispered.

Nova shook her head. “I don’t care right now,” she whispered. “I’m still hot. But I never felt better….I’m so happy!” Nova whispered as she smiled as Derek kissed her sweaty forehead. Bryan couldn’t believe the radiant look on Nova’s face, or her total lack of shame as she stroked the hair and the little sides and bottoms of her nursing children and accepted another kiss from Derek.

“What do you think of our children, Bryan?” said Nova.

Hartcliffe smiled a little as he let Alex squeeze his finger. “He’s…aaa….’e’s a cute little twerp! And your daughter looks like you, luv!” he laughed as he abruptly took off his glasses to wipe his eyes as he bent down to examine Ariel. “Lord, I wish this was Angie right now!”

“It will be soon,” whispered Nova as she smiled and kissed Bryan unexpectedly on the cheek. “Thank you, Bryan! Thank you, Deke!” she said as she then kissed, Deke, too. “Sasha, Deke, it’ll be your turn next…”

“It might be mine and Jeff’s next,” said Dawn as she felt a bit nauseous. “You’ll be there?”

“With bells on, Dawn,” said Nova as Deke made Sasha give him a dirty look as he hugged both Dawn and her for a moment.

“She’s just my friend,” said Deke as he blushed as then exclusively held Sasha. “You’re my Princess, Sasha..”

“I should clout you again,” snapped Sasha, who then smiled as Deke kissed her.

“Dawn…any excess bleeding?” asked Nova as Dawn gently looked between her legs.

“Not that much,” said Dawn. “Boy, Nova, you yelled a lot, but you were a trooper. Didn’t even need to cut you and you didn’t tear, either. One of the easier births I’ve attended, and you had twins and all that.”

“The exercises…helped,” said a tired Nova. She then smiled at Derek and said, “So did those massages, and that oil…”

Derek blushed and smiled. Nova motioned him over and she whispered, “And you knew how to make me feel good for a bit…thanks…”

At that, she kissed him on the ear as he blushed.

While looking at her children, she smiled at Derek, and then said. “Derek! Why is your nose bleeding?”

“Nova, you must not remember…when you were in labor…you hit me…”

“God, no. I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Hey, you have a mean right hook.”

Nova smiled at that as she sat up a little, still apparently oblivious to her total nakedness. Derek noticed, and said, “Nova, you…want my coat?”

“Not yet. Juggling hungry twins takes some work! And they’ve seen everything, anyway…why be like my mom, remember her struggling with that silly sweater when she had David and Aurora?”

“Yeah.”

“Who’s David and Aurora?” asked Hartcliffe.

“My younger brother and sister,” said Nova. “I was there when they were born almost five years ago. Bryan, c’mon up…you and Derek can hold them…and I think you’ll need some practice in burping babies, Mister Hartcliffe.”

“Oh…yeah,” said Bryan as he took Ariel in his arms from her new mother. He smiled at her; she was beautiful.

“She’s so cute,” said a tired Sasha as Deke took her hand.

“Looks like that picture of you when you were little,” said Deke.

Sasha nodded, batting her eyes at Deke in a way that he simply couldn’t resist. “She is my cousin, after all,” said Sasha.

Then, Bryan smiled at Alex as he fed some more at Nova’s breast and kicked his still undiapered legs. “Hey, sir, he’s like a horse…”

“Where?” said Derek.

“You know…down…uh…”

“Oh, that,” said Derek with a blush as Alex’s little legs kicked, and his little penis stuck out exposed for all of them to see.

“You’ve got one, too,” said Nova as Derek blushed, realizing its shape was quite visible in his fundoshi. Nova seemed to like that.

“By the way,” said Dawn. “Uh…Nova, do you want him circumcised?”

Nova and Derek whispered to each other and shook their heads.

“I’ll take that for a no,” said Dawn. “Yeah, he is pretty…uh…I think I’d better improvise diapers, soon…”

Nova looked at the way Alex was squiggling, and then watched Ariel in Hartcliffe’s arms, and she suddenly looked a bit amused. “Dawn, hurry up on those diapers…”

“Why?” said Bryan through his nose.

He found out why a moment later when Ariel cooed loudly…and pooed a greenish mess onto his uniform sleeve.

“Accccckkk!” he yelled.

Nova giggled at that. “Now you and Derek can learn diapering together. First lesson starts now…”

Then, Nova squealed as Alex decided to play fireman, with the wee spraying from his little peepee and going all over her left breast and down her stomach.

Good thing I’m stark naked right now, Nova thought. This can be messy… Then, she laughed again.

“We don’t have diapers,” said Dawn, “But we do have extra-large economy size gauze bandages, and we have some water, and scissors and pins. You two big men will have to learn the old-fashioned way after I clean Mom and Hartcliffe off…”

“And Dad,” said Derek as he took his daughter from Bryan. Then, he said, “Hartcliffe, you get your first practical lesson in fatherhood now….”

“Great,” said Bryan with a glum look on his face. He thought, First time I get pooped on by a baby, and it ain’t even me own kid.

Relative tranquility reigned in the medical boat a while later as Alex and Ariel were diapered and then placed back on their mother’s stomach for warmth. Nova had gotten cold, and her shivering body was now clad in a blanket, and Derek had also gotten dressed again. She and the babies had been transferred to an open medical cocoon for landing. It was open because all three of them didn’t fit in the stretcher under the canopy. Fortunately, they would be landing in a warm late summer night at the hospital, so cold was not a factor at all, even though Nova still wore nothing but her blanket and some gauze Dawn had wrapped around the birth area with a pad to help with the post-partum bleeding. Nova was now drinking some water and eating a survival ration bar that IQ-9 had gotten from a locker in the boat even though she was very tired. “Here, want one?” she said as Derek hovered over her. “Boy…I am hungry,” she said. “The kids ate, so now it’s my turn. I’m going to be a very busy mom, Derek…”

“It’ll be no problem,” replied Derek. “I’ll sign off for you to take leave and then go straight Reserve for the next couple of months anyway until you’re released for the beginning of your new MOS training.”

“What MOS are ya takin’?” asked Hartcliffe.

“I’m entering medical school in the fall of next year; finally,” said Nova. “I’ll be in school for the next few years while I deal with our family. And, of course, any additions,” she said as she patted Alex.

“Additions?” said Derek.

Nova nodded softly with a smile. “That first time wasn’t so bad, especially considering the result. For another one, I might want to do that again!”

Derek almost felt like retorting until he looked again at his children. Then, he smiled and said, “Nova, let’s say, in this department…”

“Yessir?”

“In this department, you’re in command.”

Nova just smiled at him. “Thanks.” Then, she said as she looked through an open viewport, “Look, Alex…look Ariel. See that big blue thing below us? That’s Earth. That’s where we’re going to live…”

Derek began to cry as Nova’s words hit him. He had said the same to Nova in September of 2200 when she was dying in his arms on the Argo on the last leg of the trip home from Iscandar. He had later told her what he had said when she had revived. Now, seven years later, they were coming home from another war as husband and wife and as brand-new parents.

At last, war was over, or so he prayed. At last, the fighting was at an end.

Finally, they were coming in to land in San Diego. The time was 2000 Hours, Earth Space-Time (Megalopolis Time): about 4:30 AM, San Diego Time.

San Diego Central Hospital had a landing pad on the roof. Deke followed a landing light pattern on the roof as he and Hartcliffe manuevered the boat onto a landing pad. It descended on its thrusters, and then it set down with a light but careful thump.

“Home,” said Dawn as she helped a tired Commodore Wildstar into his peacoat over the dying whine of the engines of the landed boat. A moment later, Deke and Bryan came aft as Sasha and Dawn helped by opening the hatch. Warm summer air filtered in at last.

The air of Earth. The air of home.

“We’re home,” said Dawn in a breathless voice. “The mission is over.”

IQ-9 then turned to the others. “Communication from Sandor!” he said as he turned his dome. “The Argo has just landed in the Pacific to the west of California! They caught up with us! They pushed it, and they are now ten minutes out to sea from San Diego. And the second medical boat will be landing beside us in fifteen minutes. We had better clear out of here for the medics from that boat.”

“I’m so glad,” said Nova in a quiet voice as she nursed Ariel again as a few more minutes passed while the boat was shut down.

“Are you okay?” asked Derek.

Nova nodded. “Tired, but I’ve never been better.”

The litter was pushed out onto the roof as Derek held Nova’s hand. A very light drizzle was falling, but it was warm.

Nova shut her eyes, smiling a little as the drizzle caressed her bare shoulders and the tips of her toes, which showed beneath the sheet and blanket. Ariel whimpered a little as rain hit her body, and Alex began to cry softly. “Alex, Ariel, that’s rain,” said Nova in a gentle voice to her babies. “It’s coming from the sky. Where we came from. I gave birth to you two up above the sky in the sea of stars. By the Moon. See it? You were born by the Moon…”

Then, fireworks came. Cheers came in the distance as Derek heard a band by the docks striking up the Star Force march, a tune written in 2199 known forever as Yamato Sleeps in the Setting Sun.

Then, Derek held Nova’s hand and he realized. I dreamed this. Months ago, I dreamed this. We won. Fireworks at night mean a victory. We earned the victory through our blood, our suffering, our sacrifice. We’ve returned. And we won! God, thank you! Tonight I’m a father, and we won!

The Second Cometine War was over at last after over two years. And the Star Force and Earth had won.

To Return to the Introduction to The New Comet, click here

TO BE CONCLUDED WITH BOOK TEN: REORGANIZATION