ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS---IT NEVER RAINS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA…
A Postscript to THE NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
This Story is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---Freddo
Note: This Chapter Contains some content that may prove to be upsetting for some…just wished to give a warning…
PART TEN: NEW ARRIVALS…
I. A FEW GENTLE MOMENTS…
Earth
Rio Amarillo Apartment Complex
Lynn Westland’s Apartment
Saturday, April 15, 2208
1230 Hours Local Time
“This hot weather is so weird for this time of year,” said Lynn Westland as she sat in the living room of her apartment, with the curtains and shades closed. At the moment, she had on just a halter top and shorts. “Nova, it’s not been like this for years…”
“I know,” Nova sighed as she worked on adjusting one of two cameras that were on tripods and aimed at a white blanket in the middle of the room, along with some lighting equipment under reflector canopies that looked like open umbrellas (standard equipment for modeling shots). Nova wasn’t wearing much more than Lynn; she wore only an old checked top, a pair of denim shorts, and green sandals. Derek stood near her in a pair of cutoffs and flip-flops; he actually went bare-chested in the sticky heat. Derek then said, “We’re going out for ice cream, later, if you and Dawn and Jeff would like to come along…”
“We’ll have to see how she feels, Wildstah,” said Jefferson Hardy, who was in a tank top, shorts, and bare feet. “Let me go and see if Dawn’s ready yet,” he said as Ariel crawled over to him and grabbed at him. She had on only her diaper for coolness, and Hardy laughed as he scooped the laughing baby girl up into his lap. “Yuh know….those eyes o’ yours are a deadly weapon?”
“Yeah,” said Derek. “She’s got me wrapped around her little finger…don’t you, Ariel?” he said as he picked her up.
Ariel said back, “dadadadadadadadada!”
Jefferson then tapped on the guest room door for Dawn. “Dawn, are yuh ready?”
“Yes,” she sighed through the closed door. “I’m washed up and…ready as I ever will be, I guess. Could you have Derek step out of the apartment while we do this? And are Deke and Sasha here yet?”
“No…they called and said they’d be late,” said Jeff.
“Thank God,” said Dawn. “Nova can handle the cameras herself, right?”
“I’d think so, since one of them is hers. The other is Derek’s, but you know them…they’re always using each other’s stuff. Now and then, Nova’s even been grabbing up some of his clothes on occasion and wearing them when she needs something loose. She had on this minidress the othuh day when it got a little cooluh that ended up bein’ one o’ his sweaters!”
“Well, please ask him to go away for ten minutes…I don’t want him seeing me like this! I look ugly! I don’t know why I’m doing this!”
“Okay.” Jeff blew Dawn a kiss through the door and ran out. “Suh,” he said to Derek. “With all respect, could yuh leave for maybe fifteen minutes and call right before yuh come back? Dawn doesn’t want you seein’ her….in her skin…”
“That’s okay,” said Derek. “I’ll just go right back to our place with Ariel,” he said. “Nova, how’s Alexander?”
“He’s crawling all over the set,” giggled Nova as she tried to catch her son; the young mother looked rather amusing as she crawled on her hands and knees to catch her baby. “There you go….uppity!”
“Uppity!” squealed Alex as Nova picked him up and then began to tickle his bare chest and belly button. Derek brought over Ariel, who got some of the same tickle treatment on her bare chest, tummy, and little bare feet from her mother with lots of kisses for the baby girl and a big kiss for her father. Derek then kissed Ariel and their mother, and he began to leave as Nova asked, “Where’s Jonathan?”
“He went out with Felicia, Michelle, and Michelle’s boyfriend,” Derek said. “They’re downtown and should be back in maybe an hour or so…”
“Double-dating…sounds cute,” said Lynn. “See you in a bit, Commodore…”
Wildstar blushed, “Lynn…if I can call you that…I’m just ‘Derek’ when I’m out of uniform…see you girls later…”
“Take care,” Lynn said as she smiled at Derek while Nova blew him a kiss.
Then, Hardy ran back to the bedroom door and said, “Okay, Dawn…no one here now but me and the ladies…yuh can come out now…are you…?”
The door opened, and Dawn came out, blushing from head to toe as she came out holding her stomach. She was getting her final pregnancy pictures taken, because the due date was now less than two weeks away.
Dawn’s attire for this shoot…in order to show off her pregnancy one last time…was to be nothing at all. Lynn went, “Awwwww..” as Hardy came out, walking romantically hand-in-hand with her pregnant, naked daughter. Nova also smiled, thinking, I don’t know what she’s so self-conscious about? She doesn’t look much different than I did when I was pregnant….she looks cute!
Dawn walked over to the white blanket that was set up in the middle of the living room floor, and she let Hardy help her sit down.
Nova looked her over with a critical eye, brushed her hair a few times, and then got a large powder puff and patted down bits of her naked body with makeup….making her giggle. “That tickles!” Dawn said.
“I know,” Nova said. “Mom always did
that to me when I’d pose like that as her subject…since Mom and I haven’t
talked much since the other day at Heroes’ Hill, Derek’s been doing some of the
photography work for the book and has learned this stuff. I feel more
comfortable with him, anyway…”
“What sort of book are you working on?” Lynn said.
“A long book, maybe five or six hundred pages, that I’m writing on pregnancy and child care issues,” Nova said. “Rather than hire outside models, I’m doing about eighty percent of the modeling for the book’s illustrations myself; Sasha’s doing some of the other work. Naturally,” Nova said as she blushed a little, “for a lot of the shots regarding nursing babies, bathing them, and some of the shots where I cuddle with Derek where I wrote about intimacy between new parents, for the sake of clarity and good taste, I posed in the nude or close to it. Sasha did some shots, too…”
“Why didn’t you ask me to pose for your stupid book?” whined Dawn. “I
can’t be that ugly, can I?”
“I’m sorry…I didn’t think you were interested,” Nova said as she got behind the cameras and began to mess around with light meters and exposure settings on the cameras. “There…three hundred on the photosensor should do it,” Nova said. “Sit up, Dawn! And smile!”
Dawn did so, sitting there on her knees and holding her pregnant stomach. Her unusual blonde bangs stood out against her brown hair as Nova snapped off shot after shot of her with different facial expressions.
Hardy then got on the floor and held her as Nova got some shots of both of them together cuddling…with a shot of them kissing…and then, Hardy moved out while Lynn got into the picture on the floor and hugged Dawn.
Then, Alex crawled over to her, chattering and gooing away as he crawled right for Dawn’s lap. Dawn was taken aback by the baby boy’s curiosity about her as he looked quizzically at her tummy and then tapped at her belly button. She giggled as the baby boy tickled her, and Nova got those shots, and then Nova set the self-timer and crawled into the frame herself, getting into position just in time as she gave Alex and Dawn hugs.
Then, after Nova and Dawn exchanged a cute, sisterly kiss, the phone rang.
Nova scooped up Alex and answered it, “Hello?” she said.
“Just your husband,” said Derek. “Hey…Deke and Sasha have just shown up. Ask Dawn if she wants to do some shots with Sasha…”
“Dawn?” Nova said. “Would you like to pose with Sasha? They’re here for their shots before we wrap up.”
Dawn’s answer surprised them. “I’ll pose with Deke like this…but not Sasha….Deke’s still family…right, Mom?”
“He is,” said Lynn. “But you’re not dating him nor have you asked your husband what he thinks of the idea,” Lynn said frostily as Nova gave Lynn an equally shocked and determined look and nodded. “Why don’t you ask Jefferson?”
“Jeff?” said Dawn.
“”I don’t think much of the idea,” he said in clipped tones. “Let’s ask Nova what she thinks. Nova?”
Nova looked very annoyed. “Dawn…I know you and Deke are close. But if you want a picture of yourself pregnant and in the nude with him, then please get someone else to take the pictures. Because I won’t do it! It’s not right! I think the only males a pregnant woman should pose with like this are the father of her child, or maybe her own father. If you pose with Deke like that…that would send a strong message that I don’t like; nor consider to be very moral. You can pose with him with your clothes on, if you want, even though I think even that would be questionable if Deke is holding you. Don’t you know that a picture of you pregnant, being held by a man other than your father…if he were here, and we know he is not…implies that that person is the father of your child? I have an artistic sense…and I consider myself something of a space poet, whether it’s in words, music, film like I do for the holography room on the ship, or pictures or paintings. But I will not photograph that. Especially because I think it is immoral for you to be in Deke’s arms in front of your husband, and especially in your present condition! Are we clear?”
“Yes, Ms. Morals!” Dawn snapped. “I know, I know…just because I’m friends again with Deke, I’m a slut! Isn’t that what you are all saying? Isn’t that what you are saying, Jeff?”
“Dawn…I said nothin’ like that at all!” said Hardy.
“And I mean nothing like that, either!” Nova snapped. “It’s just a matter of artistic taste!”
“Yeah,” said Hardy. “Nova and I are just sayin’…along with yoah mom….”
“SHUT UP!” screamed Dawn as she bent down and slapped Jeff across the face as hard as she could. Then, she pivoted around and slapped Nova across the face, too! “Artsy-fartsy space poet hypocrite! Go write yourself a haiku about getting it from your husband, Ms. Genius! Because we all know you just love fucking around with your husband at all hours of the day, right??”
Then, Dawn tore off for the guest bedroom, slammed the door, and threw herself on the bed and cried loudly.
“Nova, were you this bad when you were pregnant?” said Lynn quietly.
“No,” Nova sad through a half-sob as she protectively held and rocked Alex as he began to whimper and then cry softly. “If she had gone near my son, Lynn…with all respect, I would not have been responsible for my actions after that. And I’m starting to get a shorter fuse than usual with people. If she ever pulls that crap with me again, I am slapping her across the face! I took from my time today to do this for her and Jeff where I could have been out with my family! And if my mother ever pulls what she did at Heroes’ Hill with me again…I may just well slap her across the face next! I’m sick of being screwed around with!” Nova said as she picked up one of her empty camera bags and threw it down. Then, she heard Dawn’s crying and screaming through the walls. “Lynn…Jeff..one of you had better go and talk with her. And please get her dressed. She should not be naked in front of Deke in my opinion…unless the babies were already here and she was nursing or bathing both of them, that is…then, that can’t be helped.”
“Let me get you two some ice for your cheeks,” said Lynn. “Then I’ll talk to her.”
“Good idea,” Nova said.
II. CONFRONTATION! ALISCEA’S GREATEST MISTAKE
Earth
The Tokyo Megalopolis Region
The Pellian Royal Embassy
Sunday, April 16, 2208 (Local Time)
0445 Hours Local Time
Aliscea Rosstowski had surprised the Embassy Staff by showing up there, in the middle of the night, with her yawning bondmate and husband Paul in tow, shortly after having a very weird dream and visions that continued when she woke up.
She was still maybe ten percent in her visions when she showed up at the Embassy….gleaming….and very much naked. Paul had on only his pajama bottoms and was really out of it. The Night Docent, a Pellian known as Terin Jankow, received the Lady there at once. Once they got into a conference room, Aliscea and levitated herself, floating barefoot above the table
“Aliscea, what are we doing here? It’s nearly five…in…the…morning…and you’re not even dressed!”
“That does not bother us,” said Jankow. “One of her predecessors, the Lady Alina, took a vow and she went naked her whole life. Lady, why dost thou appear here?” he said, bowing to Aliscea with the gravest of respect.
“I had a terrifying vision,” Aliscea
said as she began to gleam all over with light. “Very, very terrifying.”
“And that is?” he said, picking up her fear and pain through her bond as tears filled her eyes.
Then, Aliscea used her bond to grab Paul’s hand and show him the vision…and she grabbed Jankow’s other hand and let him experience the vision as well.
The Dark Lord’s spirit, which was sickening, evil, and looked like a Grim Reaper burning with flame…laughed over the Earth as he looked at Aliscea and said, “Behold, my dear, dear, dear Aliscea! Someone on Earth is going to receive a little gift from me soon,” he sang.
“Who?” demanded Aliscea.
“Someone on Earth, someday…is going to have my next child. Maybe. I don’t have to tell you who. Or why. ”
Aliscea shivered in a wave of deep cold, knowing that she had just been touched by her Enemy…but she didn’t know how. He’s becoming more powerful, she thought in panic. And he is in touch with his forces in the Blackeye Galaxy! But how? Why? We all thought they were defeated at the end of the last war we had with him…
Aliscea then turned on Ekogaru and screamed, “We have had enough of you! Begone!”
“Where shall I go? What shall I do?” he mocked.
“Frankly, you bastard, I don’t give a damn!” yelled Aliscea as she disappeared from Jankow’s sight with Paul, dragging him with her into the spiritual realm.
The first thing Paul Rosstowski notived as Aliscea dragged him bodily into the sprit world was that now, he was naked too. The cold there was nearly unbearable, but Aliscea whispered, “Take my hand, my love…I’ll try to keep you warm…there’s no time to dress you now…I’m so sorry…but…concentrate with me..send me your love…as I….”
Then, Aliscea looked right at Ekogaru’s spirit, made a fist, and screamed.
White, blazing flame blasted from her fist as she held Paul and floated with her toes pointed, her every breath racking her slender frame as she drained the power of the Matrix and her own power into the Dark One, causing him to convulse with pain and rage as his spiritual essence withered, crackled, and began to fade…floating down into a bizarre, gleaming ball of light that resolved itself into….
…a crystal Sphere.
Aliscea grabbed for the Sphere, which hurt and burned her as soon as she touched it. It burned her horribly as she held it against her naked breasts as she tried to keep it from flying off….
Aliscea then ground her teeth and grasped the Sphere as hard as she possibly could, meaning to just shatter it in her right hand even though she knew she would probably not even have a right hand when this was finished. Ekogaru’s essence could be heard inside the Sphere, moaning and screaming horribly as he knew that Aliscea had him where she had wanted him for most of her young life.
Aliscea felt a sudden impulse to pray…to yield the battle up to Higher Authority at this point because she suddenly sensed a wisdom was needed that was beyond hers…and even beyond the vast pool of knowledge she held in the Matrix. The thought…. You cannot do this alone… came to Aliscea. Yield now….ask for My Aid
Aliscea hesitated, and then she said, “How?”
I am before you and around you, came the Voice. This is not your battle…it is…above you…above mortality itself…this is My….
Aliscea nodded grimly and then screamed out, “Mother! Trelaina! Starsha! Anyone who can hear me! AID ME! I have HIM!”
A moment later, as the Sphere bucked
and kicked in her hands, Paul Rosstowski looked on in shock as another Great
Light filled the astral space….
…and a beautiful, eerie-looking phantom with light blond hair appeared.
“Trelaina?” asked Paul.
“Aliscea!” she said. “I am here because you called upon me! What do you desire? I sense you hold a great Evil…”
“It is HE” said Aliscea, as, far away, in China, Gary Maples lay in a hotel room with a nosebleed that was on the verge of turning into a fatal hemmorhage. In the astral realm, Aliscea handed the flaming Sphere to Trelaina and said, “I’ve got him…do you know what to do?”
Trelaina touched the Sphere and recoiled as if she was burned. “The answer is before
you, Aliscea!” Trelaina said as she put up her hands in a gesture of
prayer. “Yield to a Greater Authority!”
“I thought I did when I called you!” Aliscea snapped. “I have great power, but you have greater wisdom…can’t you..?”
“I can assist…but…this is beyond even me,” said Trelaina. “This must be shattered,” she said as she touched the Sphere. “Shatter it, and you shatter the house of his sprit…but….if you do not….”
“Aliscea,” said Paul. “Listen to the lady…she’s got a point! C’mon, Aliscea…say an Our Father..a Hail Mary…something!”
“What good would that do now, Paul? And as for breaking the damned thing, I tried that MissTrelaina!” snapped Aliscea. “You destroyed Telezart; you destroyed a Cometine Dreadnaughtl You’re telling me you can’t blow up a little crystal ball the size of a softball? What kind of Space Chick are you, anyway?”
“That can only be done by someone who calls upon a Higher Force!” snapped Trelaina. “You must call for aid!”
“But I’m the Chosen One!” yelled Aliscea. “And aren’t you the White Orchid? C’mon…let’s kick his ass!” said Aliscea.
“What I will become remains to be seen,” said Trelaina. She tried to force Aliscea’s hands into an attitude of prayer. “You have him! You must yield! Please!”
“I’m not giving up!” yelled Aliscea as she tried to throw the Sphere….
…and then, it winked out and vanished as Ekogaru’s laughter filled the astral realm. “Thank, you, ladies, for being bitchy and having a stupid argument!” roared the Dark One as he appeared and taunted them. “I have a little trip to make….to China…then, I’m afraid, Aliscea, dear, I have to…how do you put it…BLOW THIS JOINT FOR A WHILE? Hahahahahahahahaha!”
Then, the Phantom of the Reaper appeared again, and then vanished, leaving a very bereft and shocked Aliscea and a disappointed Paul facing a Trelaina who stood there with tears running down her face.
“Aliscea, you have gravely disappointed us,” said Trelaina, “And you have
disappointed powers and forces and forces far higher than I! If you choose to
fight him alone, you shall do so alone. And you are thus doomed to fail.
Unless you take action now to redeem your mistake…”
“And that is?” said Aliscea.
“Yield the Matrix to me…now,” said Trelaina. “Give up your post and bow to a Greater Will. Do so, and we can make your successor, the White Orchid, appear right now. Then, you can surrender, train her in the use of the Matrix, and, together, we can spend time grooming her to fight the Dark Lord. Then she can challenge him, and he will meet his appointed end. Just yield now, Aliscea. For this battle is now beyond you.”
Aliscea knelt, heartbroken. I’ve failed, she thought. I spent my whole life getting here, and this is the second time I had him by the balls…and I failed. Again! Should I give up?
Paul whispered in her ear, “Honey, I love you, and I will always, always love you and be with you. But I think Trelaina’s right. Give this up and let her become the White Orchid. Or Sasha. Or Starsha…or whoever it is Trelaina has in mind…”
Aliscea then called to her mother, “Mother? I am at a a crossroads here! Is it time for me to quit being the Lady of Pellias? Indeed, is it time to pass the Matrix on to another world or another place?”
Astrena’s face then appeared to Aliscea and said, “Only you know that answer, Aliscea. I cannot decide for you in this matter. Nor can I advise you. I can warn you, though, of what created Ekogaru in the first place; what made a man who was long ago a good and well-meaning scientist and politician into the monstrosity he is today. One sin caused his fall. One sin alone.”
“And that is?”
“Pride,” said Astrena “Pride tempts all of us. It calls to the most gentle, humble, and pure of heart, and it calls to those with great gifts, great talents, and great powers. Fight it, and you know your place in the Cosmos. Give in to it, and you become your own God. What will you do?”
Trelaina stood with her hand extended, awaiting an answer, as Aliscea forced her hold on the power of the Matrix to lessen for a moment, and it took shape and form…like that of a simple golden ring in her hand, but a ring that burned with fire.
“Pass it on to me,” said Trelaina softly. “Do that, and…”
“NO!” roared Aliscea as she grasped it hard…and burned with flames that now looked blighted and red rather than the pure golden they had been. “I am the Chosen! I will NOT YIELD! I must fight Ekogaru! And the Matrix is precious to me…too precious a Gift to give up…” said Aliscea as a thought she hid even from Paul contorted her face as she looked at Trelaina and screamed, “Now I percieve what you see, Trelaina, and I’m not giving this to you, to either make you more powerful….or to pass it along to someone about as psychic as a dumb rock! If I pass it on now, it’ll just go into the hands of a puppet and you’ll be pulling the strings! You want it? Then kick my ass for it!!” roared Aliscea.
Trelaina bowed her head as tears ran down her cheeks. “I see you have made your decision,” she said sadly. “And, before you die, I prophesy that you will see nothing but suffering and pain, and that pain will also be inflicted upon billions of innocent persons, many of whom are not even yet born. Had you yielded, the White Orchid could have come forth today and after proper counsel, she could have destroyed him today because he is now so weakened. But I cannot take the Matrix from you. It is forbidden. And now, we part. This will be the last time you shall see me for many years, Aliscea Rosstowski. You shall not see me again until a few days before you die, defeated, in agony, in pain, broken by your enemy, dying a horrible death naked and consumed to your very bones by fire from within you controlled by HIM. Then you will yield. Then you will give up the Matrix upon your last breath…and then, and only then, can your successor appear to finally finish where you have left off. Goodbye, Aliscea. I shall pray for you. Pray that someday you will see how foolish…how selfish…and how childish…you have been…”
Then, Trelaina disappeared…and, then, a moment later, Aliscea and Paul reappeared to a startled Jankow.
Aliscea was shivering as she let go of Paul. She raised her hand and clothed him in his Star Force whites as fire ran over his body and turned into garments, but there was pain for him now as the Fire ran over him. For the first time, Aliscea looked blighted to him; less than perfect, more mortal, and definitely fallen from a higher estate. He looked deep into her eyes, but while love for him was still there, it was now less pure than it had been, and it looked spoiled, selfish, and blighted by the pride that he now knew was in Aliscea’s heart. The pure, beautiful look that had once been in Aliscea’s eyes was now gone, and he somehow knew that she would never again recover it in this life.
Indeed, while her nude body still
looked beautiful, the sense of otherworldy purity she had possessed was now
gone, somehow. Aliscea shut her eyes and clothed herself in the uniform of a
Pellian Starship Captain, gasping in pain and shame as the flames ran down her
body and coalesced into her clothes. Then, she looked at Paul, and at Jankow,
and then screamed out to her mother, “MOTHER! WHAT HAVE I DONE????”
“You have made your choice,” said Astrena’s voice softly from nowhere. “Oh, the Matrix is still with you, oh, you can still destroy, and, oh, you have great power. But, pick up that withered flower on the table. Pick it up and try to will life back into it. Then, tell me what you see…”
Aliscea did so, and she began to will health and life into the withering flower to try and heal it. She sent her fire from her into the flower, but, to her shock, the fire came out red, rather than golden.
All it did to the dying flower was destroyed it. Soon, it burned in her hand and turned to ashes and dust.
Aliscea stood stunned. A few hours ago, it would have been simple for her to will life back into it.
Now, that power was lost to her as she sensed she had just strangled and grieved the Matrix by her own vicious pride.
She then held the ashes of the flower and wept bitterly, knowing now that, due to her own foolishness, she could no longer heal and recreate.
She could now only destroy.
She had become precisely what she had wanted to be. Aliscea was now nothing but a weapon.
A weapon that could only bring forth Death.
Oh, weapons could be useful….
But, there were times when they would need one who could both destroy and heal.
And, even though Aliscea did not realize this….
Earth and Pellias would suffer horribly over the next few decades due to her pride.
.
III. ARGUMENTS AND LOSS…
Earth
Rio Amarillo Apartment Complex
Lynn Westland’s Apartment
Saturday, April 15, 2208
1302 Hours Local Time
Naturally, the mere humans in San Diego were unaware (as of yet) of Aliscea’s Confrontation with Ekogaru and of her great Fall.
The only inkling anyone had of it was a weird, uncanny sense that Nova described to Derek later that day. She could only describe it as, “the weird feeling you get when you know, or guess, someone is walking over your own grave. It was the strangest thing…a feeling that…a feeling I can’t describe…”
Hardy knelt holding some ice that Lynn had gotten for him as he heard Dawn screaming and crying, and he asked, “Hey, Nova…what’s wrong withcha? Beside your cheek…?”
“Nothing,” she said in a very tired voice. “But…something weird has happened…somewhere…”
“Yeah. My wife is bein’ a bitch and she belted both o’ us,” said Jefferson.
“No, Jeff,” Nova said. “This is worse…far, far worse….I can’t describe it…there was ...something about Trelaina…her image was in my head for a minute…she…”
“Ain’t she kinda dead?” Jefferson said.
“With her, how do we know?” Nova said.
In the meantime, Lynn Westland was busy.
After getting Jeff and Nova their ice, Lynn came in, to find Dawn dressed in one of her old Rancho Carne High School lettermen’s jackets, a sports bra, maternity shorts, and backless sandals. Above the open neckline of her jacket, Dawn had again put on her old Star Pendant, and she was rocking back and forth, crying and holding an old picture of Deke.
“What brings this on?” said Lynn.
“FUCK OFF, MOM!” she yelled. “I want to have my picture taken with Deekee!”
“Number one, Sasha calls him that now…’
“To Hell with that Iscandarian Floozie and her goofy hypocrite aunt out there!”
yelled Dawn. “Deke and I have been friends since babyhood. I want to share this
with him, and I want HIM in the room when I have my twins!”
“I don’t think he should be there. Unless you are implying Jefferson is not their father? What really happened to you in that cave on that planet?”
“Deke and I kissed and cuddled…we did NOT do the Deed! I did it with Jeff! Although, given the way everyone is reacting, maybe I should have let Deke screw me, too!”
“What?” said Lynn.
“Then one baby could have been Jeff’s and one baby could have been Deekee’s!” she yelled. “Or maybe I should have let them have a threesome with me at the same time! The Iscandarian Floozie was joking about that one night when we had a poker game running on the ship and everyone but Nova was hitting the beer!”
“What did Nova think of Sasha’s comments?”
“She grabbed her by the wrist, reamed her out, and said it was not funny!”
“Good for her. Because this isn’t funny any more, Dawn! In fact, it is getting on borderline sick.”
“Yeah…Floozie was pretty sick, too. She was even joking about doing it with her Auntie and Uncle and letting Deekee film it! She was as drunk as hell!” Something like that had been said…but not by Sasha. Dawn had made those comments when she had been drunk.
“Dawn…” Lynn sighed. “Take off that high school jacket.”
“And go out in my sports bra?” she snapped.
“On a near hundred-degree day, it might look better than your trying to hide your baby bump under that jacket. Because half of your stomach is showing, anyway….look!” said Lynn as she marched Dawn in front of a full-length mirror. “In this weather, you should either have that covered up with a maternity blouse or just keep that stomach exposed under a suitable top. When you have those kids and begin giving them your breasts, you will be exposing your stomach and underpants when they both get hungry at once…at the very least…if you choose not to just go naked under your clothes for convenience, that is. I think you’d look cute nursing almost exposed in a sundress or even naked when you get your figure back…so long as you don’t sit there with your legs open, that is. I did it with you…and Jeff will love it.”
“I’m supposed to attract him…why?”
“The process of nursing babies usually causes your sex drive to nosedive, with the exception of a few very lucky souls like Nova, who told me she didn’t suffer much of a hormonal drop and who has said she loves her husband in that way as much as ever. When your drive decreases, you will want to do something to make sure you and Jeff remain connected and close…and one way is to get him involved with you and the babies. Let him help bathe them, change their diapers, put them in your lap when it’s feeding time…help you adjust your breasts right so you can nurse…cuddle you while you do that….”
“I would not want him touching my breasts when I nurse!” yelled Dawn. “And who says I’m going to even breastfeed, anyway?”
“Dawn, it’s the norm these days,” Lynn said. “Formula is hard to come by and has to be prescribed. Bottles are hard to come by. With what the military needs in the way of plastic and chemicals, the Earth Government expects you to use what God gave you to nurse your young with. “
“I’m not taking off my high school jacket, Mom! I want Deekee to see me in it! In fact, I think I’m having my babies with my old Lettermen’s Sweater on!”
“Dawn…now that is weird,” sighed Lynn. “You should wear a nightgown, hospital gown, t-shirt, or preferably your birthday suit when you have those kids.”
“Yeah…Miss Hypocrite out there gave birth stark bloody naked..” snapped Dawn.
“So did I when I had you,” said Lynn. “Look at the old baby pictures I kept when you were born. I have you against my breast under the blanket, but it is no secret that my shoulders were bare in the picture…that’s because the rest of me was bare, too. And in the hospital, the nurse in charge of feedings, the “Boob Nazi” as we called her…she made me lie there in the altogether as I mastered the art of feeding you.”
“I still want a picture of Deke and I together…” said Dawn.
”Then ask him, Jeff, and Sasha, and pull out your own camera and hope Sasha will take the picture,” snapped Lynn. “Because I know Nova won’t, I won’t either, and don’t even ask Derek, because I know he feels the same way as Nova. In fact, between me and you, he’s getting just as creeped out over you and Deke being overfriendly as Nova and Sasha are.”
“Figures they’d all stick together…they’re family and they’re all fucking hypocrites!” huffed Dawn. “Leave me alone in here until I hear Deekee in there with her.” Dawn said.
“Okay…one thing, though.”
“Yes, Mother?”
“I strongly suggest you stop calling him “Deekee”, especially around Sasha. Because that is what Deke’s wife Sasha calls him now. Are we clear on that?”
Dawn just glared at her mother as she left the room. Then she sat and cried, muttering, “why did I ever dump him in High School? I could have had him now! I could have been with him now! Deekee should have put these little monsters inside me…NOT her!” she yelled as she felt her babies kicking inside her.
Then, Dawn just threw herself on the bed and cried, thinking vile thoughts…thinking of divorcing Jefferson and moving in with Deekee and Sasha…getting Deekee to divorce the Iscandarian Floozie…and if that didn’t work…she thought of just taking an overdose…and ending it all.
Dawn hated her life. And she was just miserable.
When Lynn came out, she heard laughter in the living room, and saw a much more pleasant scene.
Sasha was kneeling on the blanket as Nova was hitting her with a powder puff while Deke tenderly brushed out her long, pretty golden hair.
Sasha had just taken off her top (a
small cropped top) and her sandals and she had also apprently just opened up
her shorts, since she was now almost undressed for her pictures with Deke. She
looked considerably happier than Dawn did, and she looked positively bubbly.
In fact, when she spotted Lynn, she gently gave Alex back to Nova (she had been playing with his toes and making him giggle) and she flounced up and kissed Lynn. “Hi, Mrs. Westland!” she said. “I hope you don’t mind that Deekee and I use your living room for this! Otherwise, we’d have to pack it all up and go to Auntie Nova’s! In my present delicate condition, my carrying around heavy lights might be dangerous,” she said with a very cute wink as she stood there topless,
“You can call me Lynn,” laughed Lynn, who was getting to like Deke’s cute, smart, and effervescent young blond wife the more she got to know her. She was thinking, more and more, than Deke had definitely made the right choice when he had hooked up with Sasha; almost every gesture between them indicated the sort of happiness, respect, friendship, love, and tenderness that had once existed between Deke and Dawn.
Also, Lynn couldn’t help noticing, as Sasha finished taking off her clothes, that with her curvy build, she looked downright hot even while pregnant, and didn’t seem to have very much discomfort at all about her body. However, Lynn also noticed that Hardy was nowhere to be found. “Where’s Jeff?” she asked,
“He and Deke talked a bit, and he went over to our place,” Nova said. “Derek called me; they’re having some beers together right now…and he’s venting to Derek, about…you know…what happened before,” Nova said with downcast eyes. “Is she all right in there? She can come out if she wants…I’ll even photograph her and Sasha together if they want…they’re sort of like honorary sisters…”
“That fits,” said Sasha. “I still don’t get along with my sister Astra, and I don’t get along with her, either! I don’t dig sisters much. I have a better groove with Mother or with Auntie Surfer here. Did you ever know she surfs, Lynn?”
“Not very well,” Nova laughed. “I wipe out a lot! Good thing I’m a strong swimmer, or I would’ve been fish food years ago.”
“You’re better than you think!” Sasha laughed as Deke kissed her from behind. “Since I can’t exactly boogie right now on a board, I order you to take Deekee surfing later,” Sasha said. “Got a board?”
“I do…I think I have to find just the right swimsuit,” Nova said. “Although if it gets a bit hotter, I’ll probably try surfing those waves in the nude or something sometime…but only with Derek,” Nova said. “I miss him…I wish he was over here…”
“Call him then…he’s right next door,” said Deke.
“No, he’s too involved with Jeff,” said Sasha quietly. “I sense a lot of anger coming off Jeff right now. And who can blame him?”
Sasha then knelt down on the blanket, fully nude, for the first of her pictures.
At Nova’s direction, the young Princess hugged her stomach, wiggled up her toes slightly, and then she thrust out her breasts on her own as she gave a winning smile to Deke.
The shots went quickly, and Sasha made a perky, adorable subject…even letting Deke kiss her bare stomach for several of the shots, and smiling as Alex crawled up in her lap and she played with him. She dressed quickly when she was done, and then she and Deke sat drinking sodas while Nova packed up the photography equipment with Lynn and Deke’s help. After a phone call, Derek came back over with Ariel.
Then, they both collected the photography equipment, with Deke’s help, and took it home.
As Sasha finished pulling on her clothes, though, she suddenly felt a strange sense of loss, betrayal and pain.
Then, not knowing what she felt…or why, she heard her mother’s voice sounding in her mind. “Sasha, my love….we have just suffered….just suffered a great loss…”.
“Mother?” said Sasha.
“Sasha, you must be more wary than ever from now on. For yourself, and for the daughter within you. Ekogaru and Aliscea fought today. In spirit.”
“And?” Sasha said.
“Sasha…Ekogaru was wounded. So badly that he must leave Earth for a time. However, in wounding him, Aliscea had a chance to defeat him, which she squandred in her pride. Then, she had a chance to redeem herself by yielding her power up to Another…who COULD have defeated him today, even though the Anointing would have been very sudden and it would have been an utter shock to the Matrix’s new bearer. Although…maybe…this was meant to happen this way. I do foresee that this will pass to another….but, I do not believe this new Bearer, whoever she is, is ready yet. A number of faces appear to me, and I do not think any of them are near ready. But…still…still…we must keep watch!”
Sasha nodded. She felt worse than ever.
In the meantime, more or less
innocent as to what was going on around them in the spirit world, Nova Wildstar
sat innocently in her garden in San Diego, where she was busy harvesting a
sunflower, from which she would harvest sunflower seeds, some of which she
would turn into sunflower oil for her kitchen.
Derek showed up, smiled, and took a snapshot of her in the garden. Aware of his presence, Nova gave her husband a sweet, happy look, and said, “Funny that you’re taking pictures of me now. I don’t look very glamorous in my messy old clothes.”
“But you do look awfully cute,” said Derek as he smiled at her. “Why are you pulling up your sunflowers?”
“We need the seeds and oil,” Nova sighed. “Now there’s cooking oil shortages in the stores. Good thing we have victory gardens both here and back on Great Island, Derek. I’ve also been helping Lynn and Sasha in getting gardens set up. Lynn’s good at it. Sasha’s…kind of hopeless,” Nova said with a laugh. “But she’ll get it eventually.”
“You’ve got pregnant women working in their gardens?” Derek said.
“Derek, I worked in the garden when I was expecting,” Nova said. “Both here and on the ship. Remember? God gave me two arms, two hands, two legs, two feet. I think it’s a person’s duty to be useful. Sloth breeds pride. And when you grow pride in your heart, well, that’s nothing but the Devil’s playground.”
“So it’s your job to get durty?”
Nova nodded. “Uh-huh. Very dirty…at least until I get these flowers harvested…I…”
Derek knelt beside her in the dirt and put an arm around her. “Bring those things in the house and throw them in the pantry bin…”
“Then?” Nova said.
“Get these dirty clothes in the hamper…and then, get in the shower with me?” Derek whispered as he smiled at her and began to unbutton her light cotton
blouse. He got far enough to tease one of her nipples, and to stroke her breast. “You need a shower. You’re sweaty…you’re dirty…”
“I think you’re the one who’s being dirty, Derek!” Nova said as she looked around, saw no one watching, and began to kiss him. “Just watch out for…”
“What?” said Derek….
Then, they heard a buzzing noise.
Nova looked down at her sandal-clad foot and shivered. Crawling up her bare big toe….
….was a bee…
“B…bbb…bb..beee” Nova said. “Look….” She began to sweat. “Hi…Ms. Bee..” she stammered with a nervous giggle. “Please….don’t…sting me…I’m…allergic…to you…”
“Stupid bee on my wife…” Derek said as he grabbed a bit of newspaper Nova had some of her gardening tools wrapped in. “Well…you’re gonna be dead soon…”
“Derek…don’t kill it…..we….need them to pollinate things….” The bee went away, and Nova calmed down a moment later. “What a weird life I lead. I’m going to be a doctor soon. But I hate needles in me and the sight of my own blood. I love to garden…but I have to be careful of bees because I’m allergic to them and swell up when I get stung and I am therefore scared of them….you married a really weird girl, Derek.”
“Nova, everyone is afraid of something. I’m afraid of snakes even though I love exploring jungles, and when I’m not up in a plane in control of the situation, I’m afraid of heights. You, on the other hand, have no fear of snakes and no fear of heights whatsoever. And, you have no fear of strange Captains teasing you in gardens,” Derek said as he finished unbuttoning her blouse, baring her breasts and stomach to the sun. He got her to stand up, and Nova kicked off her shoes and began to dance barefoot with her husband as they did an amusing tango in the bare dirt of the garden, safe from prying eyes behind their hedges.
But, as she danced, Nova felt something crawling up her thigh….something that was not Derek’s hand.
It crawled up beneath her shorts….
Nova then felt something crawling on a sensitive spot and she screeched. She then pulled away from Derek, jumped back, abruptly unbuttoned her shorts, and let them drop down her otherwise bare lower body as the bee crawled up to her lower abdomen, buzzed around a little, lit on her trembling belly button, and then took off, leaving poor Nova alone but sweaty and now almost naked in the sun in an open sweaty blouse and shorts that were now down around her ankles.
“Derek…that bee made me strip! Did you pay it a bribe to do that?”
“Nova…I don’t pay bribes to bees…” he said as he kissed Nova and relieved her of her blouse; now they both matched as they were both bare-chested. Then, he got out of his flip-flops and put a bare foot on Nova’s shorts in the grass. “Step out of those…that’s nice…”
Nova tiptoed naked over to her husband, batting her eyes at him and blushing as he put his hands on her bare bottom, and then smiled softly as his fingers found other regions. Nova opened his shorts and pulled them down, revealing his maleness as she said, “You didn’t put on undies today, either, Mister…cute! Now…let’s get behind the sunflowers…”
“And?” said Derek.
Nova smiled and responded only by bending over and kissing him as they fell together with her on top in the dirt…right before she smiled and gently took him in her mouth, bending over him in a little ball as she put up her bottom, her breathing speeding up as his hands found her most delicate spot. He began to tease and explore her there, his practiced hands making a force like benign electricity run through Nova’s body as she began to moan softly…even with him in her mouth….
A few minutes passed…tender, affectionate minutes, and then, Nova shifted gears, pulled up off of her husband, and pulled away from him. Then, Mrs. Wildstar mounted her Commodore with a pleasant gasp, riding him in her garden on the balls of her feet, smiling, laughing, kissing, and then moaning and gasping as she rode to a very satisfactory conclusion for both of them as they collapsed in post-lovers’ bliss down among the sunflowers, vegetables, daisies, and buttercups of Nova’s warm garden.
They listened for the sound of the babies on the baby monitor. Not hearing anything, they just kissed and lay there naked in each other’s arms until they drifted off into a lovely, sweet nap….
A while later, the warm sun woke them up. They kissed, went in and showered and got dressed in cool clothing similar to the sweaty things they had taken off (Nova now wore a favorite white top of hers and Capri pants, and Derek wore a pair of denim shorts and a white shirt), and they went back into the apartment to check on Alex and Ariel, who were just fine. They played with them in the living room for a while, and then put them in their playpen while Derek dragged out a pair of guitar amps and plugged them in. Then, he handed Nova the case that contained the white Fender Stratocaster she had owned since their wedding day, and he opened a case that held a new gift Nova had bought him; it was a Fender Jazz Bass. He knew how to play lead guitar somewhat, but they had a special appearance coming up at a Pan-Am University event in town in just a few weeks, and their little band needed a bassist, so Derek found himself recruited to become the group’s new bass player, with Nova teaching him how to play it. While Nova tuned up, tapping her bare foot against the rug as she did chord runs, Derek ran his fingers over the heavy strings and worked on some scales.
Nova stopped, frowned at him a little and said, “Derek, hon, you’re supposed to hit a C on that scale…but it keeps on coming out as a B sharp.”
“How would you know that? It doesn’t sound much different?”
“Oh, believe me, sir, I can tell,” Nova said as she walked over to him in her white top with her guitar strapped on. She gave him a kiss and arranged his hands somewhat on the fretless neck of his bass. “This one will give you a perfect C…now hit that note with your plec…”
Derek did so, repeating the note a few times as he strummed the string with his heavy bass pick, or “plec” as guitar players called it. He did the run again, slowly, and said, “Is that better, Mother?”
Nova giggled and said, “Aye, it is, Dad,” she said in a mock-Scottish voice that sounded funny coming out of her. “Now, let’s try a song again….”I’m Still Standing” You have to keep the beat on this one with that bass run you play, so keep us going….”
Derek nodded and stepped back, tapping his bare foot against the rug. “On four..ready..one…two..three…fah…”
Derek led off, a bit rough, but serviceable enough for Nova as she hit the first chord like a pro as she began to sing the song in a sultry but clear voice, “You Can Never Know what it’s like..your blood is like a winter freeze, it’s just like ice…” while she grinned and nodded at Derek. He was rough but coming along. She liked his harmonies better as he sang along and backed her up in the song….
…just as the door opened, and Jonathan and his girlfriend Felicia ran in with Michelle, her boyfriend (who was a young Puerto Rican teenager named Carlos Feliz), followed by Karl and Teri Forrester, little Aurora and David, and, last of all, Foxy and Katrina.
Katrina stood spellbound and shocked at the song, remembering how she had played it on the New Comet when she had begun to defy Ekogaru and her generals and had begun to make her own way when she had gone mad and trashed her suite to the same song. Still, despite herself, she wiped away a tear and tapped her foot a little while David and Aurora giggled, picking Alex and Ariel up out of their playpen to “dance” with the babies while Carlos and Michelle laughed at each other and began to twist while Jonathan jumped on the couch with Felicia and began to exuberantly pound out a beat on a couch cushion.
Karl smiled and tapped his foot a little in the house slipper he had put on while Teri glared at Nova. I did not give you all of those lessons to play pop crap! Teri thought. You should be playing some Spanish classical guitar with that crazy white thing, at least…all you’re doing instead is playing two-hundred year old Brit-pop noise! He’s making you into a Philistine, Nova!
“,,,did you think this fool could never win?” Nova sang as Teri just kept on glaring at her. She sang more words, and exuberantly hit the refrain, smiling right at her mother as she shook her head, looked at Derek with her hair flying, and sang, “I’m Still Standin…better than I ever did! Looking like a true survivor….feeling like a little kid! I’m Still Standing…after all this time….pickin up the pieces of my life without you on my mind! I’m Still Standin…YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!” Nova and Derek sang loudly together, grinning as they sang and played, and almost kissing as they did the refrain again.
Now, the memories of her recent life flowed through Invidia’s mind, and she thought, Biggest irony of the year! My former enemies like one of the songs I do…and they actually sing and play not half-bad!
Deke and Sasha heard the music and ran in. Sasha handed Deke his sticks as he sat down and threw a practice pad on a table as he also helped Jonathan keep the beat with his sticks.
At the bridge, Nova switched to lead, and improvised a lead that set Teri’s teeth on edge as the musician in her admitted grudgingly that her kid was good…But why can’t she play something romantic? Teri thought to herself.
Finally, they got done and they applauded. Nova took off her guitar for a moment and stretched as Derek said, “Hey, before dinner, let’s do one I can play lead on before I wrap it up; you game?”
“Yes, I think I want to try out the keyboard you got me the other day,” Nova said as she sat down at a small electronic keyboard. Derek set aside the bass and put on Nova’s guitar while his spouse got the keyboard up. “Mind if we do one more?” Nova said. “Any requests?”
“Something sweet,” Teri said.
“I’ve got one in mind, but Derek has to sing it…from that movie about us? Derek, do From Yamato With Love…you sound better on those Japanese lyrics than I do.”
“Hai, so desu,” Derek replied in Japanese with a grin. He called out the beat as Nova began by playing the proper chords on her keyboard while Derek took up the guitar. He began to sing in a mellow, youthful-sounding voice that most of those there, even Teri, admitted sounded good as Deke took up the beat slowly on his pad on the second verse. Everyone in the Star Force had seen the recently released sentimental fictionalized treatment of the first Comet Empire campaign a few times over, and there were rumors that the same producers were casting for a sequel telling the story of the New Comet’s return. Even Katrina had seen the movie; her character (Invidia) only had a small part in it, but she almost felt as if she had been watching a stranger as she saw her character scheming against Desslok, while her mental motivations for being so vile were not shown in the movie (because no one on Earth but Foxy knew them, of course. She also hated that the movie had made Desslok the honorable, noble antihero…she felt then and still felt that the Gamilon Leader was nothing but an oppportunist with no honor. She felt as if she wanted to tell her friends on Earth not to trust him; and she felt that, someday, he would find out where she was and stab her in the back.
Finally, the song ended. The little group applauded as Derek blushed and said, “Yeah, yeah…we need work!”
“I can get you guys a recording contract tomorrow,” said Foxy. “Wanna begin working on an album?”
“Not likely, Foxy,” Nova said. “We have lives to pursue…” Alex began to cry, so Nova went and picked him up, signalling Derek to come over and get Ariel.
Nova smiled as Alex grabbed at her chest, so she and Derek excused themselves and went into the nursery for a while. In there, Derek spread out a small futon and helped Nova out of her shirt as she lay down with the twins to feed them while grabbing up a set of headphones and a portable music player as she sat there topless in her Capris. “Want me to stay with you guys?” Derek said as he sat down on the futon with them.
“We have our guests, Derek,” Nova said. “They need dinner, so let’s order out for something, How much money do you have?”
“About sixty credits.”
“There’s a hundred in my purse in the bedroom,” Nova said. “Go take it all and get everyone fed and make sure you leave Chan a good tip if you call out to China Moon,” Nova said, bringing up a favorite Chinese restaurant they had used a lot recently; they were actually friends with the delivery man. “Order me some orange flavored chicken, and make sure those guys don’t forget the rice; that’s the one time I didn’t leave Chan a good tip is when they forgot it..”
“Okay, Nova…see you later.” He reached down and kissed her, his son, and his daughter and let them be as he ran out to begin ordering food.
Later, after dinner and after everyone left, while Alex and Ariel slept and Jonathan worked on some of his homework, Nova and Derek took a walk in the park in the nature preserve near the beach; they both put on sandals for the walk but otherwise looked the same as they had before.
“I didn’t see Dawn before,” Nova said. “I saw Jeff, and I saw Lynn, but I didn’t see Dawn. I hope she’s all right.”
“Even after she slapped you before?” Derek teased.
“I’m over that,” Nova sighed. “But if she does it again, she’d better see a dentist.”
“I’m afraid to ask why,” Derek said.
“I might take out some teeth,” Nova said. “Without benefit of Novocain or
Penthothal, and…oh, what I’m I saying? She’s pregnant, poor thing. It makes you
crazy to do that?”
“To do what?”
“Be pregnant,” Nova huffed. “You were around me,” she said as she wiggled her toes up in her comfortable brown sandals. “I sort of took leave of my senses at times, and had a rough time with my emotions, as I am sure you remember quite well. Being pregnant and having kids changed me a bit. If I think of butter pecan ice cream, I want a whole container of it, I tear up whenever I hear a baby crying…anywhere, because I think of our angels, and with my ankles swollen up, I wore sandals so much that I think I might still want to wear them up until when it gets too cold to….”
Nova then paused as she looked up at the Sun. “Are they still analyzing that, Derek? The Sun? I mean, ever since that Bolar missile hit it?”
“Sandor did tell me they have picked up more sunspots that usual…he wants to see all of us at his lab in a few weeks when he has more data…and he’ll present his results to the Council then. He’s working with some astrophysicist from the Federal University about it…”
“Yeah…” Nova said. “I hope and pray nothing more comes of this, Derek…”
“Me too,” he replied as he lay back in the grass watching the clouds. “Hey, Nova. What does that cloud look like?”
“A cat,” she replied. “She’s playing with one of her kittens, see the kitten between her paws?”
“Yeah…why are you thinking about kittens?”
“Doctor Sane told me Mimi’s pregnant again. Her third litter is on its way. I think we’ll have some kittens to play with in a few weeks if Fluffy doesn’t get jealous,” Nova said. “The babies will love them, I think. I think kittens and babies go together…”
“Like peanut butter and jelly?” said Derek.
“Like toast and orange marmalade,” Nova said as she lay back and began to sing, “Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes…” She then hummed to herself as she picked a dandelion and handed it to Derek. “Sorry, dear…I could only find one. Hey, where are you putting that?” she giggled.
“In your hair behind your ear. I want Jonathan to see you looking like that. I think he complimented you before when he said you were the only Mom he’s had who looked young enough to be his big sister.”
“He’s so cute sometimes,” Nova said. “Even if I had to yell at him to turn down that Toxic Red Sludge band he listens to. Is that stuff music or electronic noise?”
“Not sure,” said Derek. “But I kind of like them…I…”
“You would,” Nova sighed. But, she patted him on the arm and said, “Let’s see what happens in a few days, huh??”
“Okay…”
IV. A NEW LIFE COMING AT LAST…
Earth
Rio Amarillo Apartment Complex
Deke and Sasha Wakefield’s Apartment
Friday, April 28, 2208
0802 Hours Local Time
Morning came early for Deke Wakefield in the apartment he shared with Sasha at the complex.
He and Sasha had been up at 0600, when Sasha, now more heavily pregnant than ever, began their day by waking up early, eating breakfast, and vomiting most of it up, apologizing because she said she had a strange, full feeling in the pit of her stomach.
She walked around in just a maternity robe that Lynn had made for her, feeling more unpleasant than ever as she thought, It has now been a year since Deke and I have been married. A whole year. And, I know the prophecies…and I know what will happen…what is prophesied to happen…today….
Sasha coughed and undid her robe, letting her full breasts and pregnant stomach just spill out. Then, she slipped out of her flip-flops and left them neatly by the door of the bathroom where she also hung her robe.
“Deekee!” she called out. “I’m taking a shower. Then, maybe…just maybe…we can go out for breakfast?”
“Sure, Sasha. I’m having a cigarette. Remember, we have to go to the beach at La Jolla for the memorial for my parents and for Kathi, so we have to go there after breakfast!” Deke said.
“Oh, right,” Sasha said. “Darn hormones. I’m so absent-minded I forgot it. Please forgive me?”
“Forgiven,” said deke as he kissed her.
Their apartment was near the top of a hill, and was one of those that overlooked the beach; so they could see most of what was going on out there. While Sasha arranged things in the shower, she called out, “Deekee! Just curious…who’s on the beach?”
“Good thing we took a week’s leave today,” said Deke. He went outside on the balcony that faced their backyard and he looked out towards the beach as he stood there in his Hawaiian-print surfer baggies and nothing else. “Sasha, I see one person out there with a dog, someone with a baby…and the Skipper and Nova.”
“What are Uncle and Auntie up to?”
“Well, they have on swimsuits and they’re kicking a volleyball around….right on the wet part of the sand where it gets hard…and…Sasha? Sasha?”
“Oh…my…God!” screamed Sasha from the bathroom.
Deke ran in. He heard the sound of running water…but it sounded a bit slow and sluggish. “Sasha? Is something wrong with the shower? Sasha?”
Deke opened up the shower enclosure and looked in at Sasha. She was, of course, naked, and she was looking with mixed wonder and fear at a puddle growing between her legs in the shower…which was not running.
“Sasha?”
“Deke…I think…look…my water just burst. Our baby’s coming!” she said with a look of joy and anguish combined on her face. “And it hurts! Nova never communicated this part clearly to me…I detected her pain and damped it when she was having her kids..but…”
“How frequently are the pains coming?” Deke asked.
Sasha held a hold rail in the shower and gasped, curling her toes as she stood there. Then, she looked at Deke and said, “That one is over…maybe…every….every three minutes?”
Deke got in the shower with her in his swimsuit, with his hands trembling as he turned the water on low and began to gently wash Sasha clean. He kissed her and said, “Put on your oldest underwear…and then your robe and thongs. Move slowly. We have some time, but I have to get you right to San Diego Central. I’ll be right back; I’m gonna go see if Nova can come with us so she can rush you through Admissions and get you in there with Doctor Sane…”
“Good idea….I’m supposed to have a labor room on call, and…can you drive, dear? Your hands are shaking.”
“I have to drive…” Deke said. “Get ready…I’ll be back with Nova in maybe five minutes.” Deke kissed Sasha, kicked on a pair of regular sandals, and ran towards the beach as fast as his legs would take him.
Deke ran right up onto the beach
just in time to notice Nova with her volleyball in hand, as she said to Derek,
“You might be surprised to see how far this serve will go with the wind
right…get back a bit!”
“We don’t even have a net up yet, Poindexter!” he teased. He had on a black Speedo while Nova had on a pretty one-piece French cut suit with a floral design all over it, along with her EDF dog tags and cross.
“Well, would you go back to our
place and get one?” Nova said. “I…”
Then, they both noticed Deke running up, looking very flustered and very much out of breath.
“Hey, Sticks,” teased Wildstar. “What is it?”
“Derek, he’s been running like crazy!” Nova said as she sat down on the sand next to Deke and patted his arm. “Okay, what is it?” Nova said in what were meant to be soothing tones.
“Sasha. Her water just broke…kid’s on the way….”
“Damnit!” yelled Derek. “Nova, go get some water boiling…”
“Derek…that’s not what they need right now. They need to get to San Diego Central; Doc Sane and I have this all set up,” she said as she tossed Derek the volleyball. “Deke, did you see any bloody show?”
“Bloody show? What’s that?” Wakefield said, a bit overwhelmed at the childbirth knowledge that Nova was shooting at him for a moment until he remembered, The cervical mucus plug…right. “No” Deke replied.
“How far apart are the contractions?” Nova asked as she picked up the pace and began to jog.
“Maybe three or four minutes,” said Deke.
Artwork: Components of “Exercise Program” © 1997 by Ken Mayes and Weird Ink.
“She was probably going along for a bit without knowing it like I did,” Nova said as she glanced at Derek and they picked their pace up to a run. “Derek, tell Jonathan he will have to miss school today; he has to help you with the kids since I’m not going to be home for several hours. Get some spare towels from the bathroom for us and I’ll get some medical equipment from my closet along with some more clothes; I’ll just need my white sandals and a lab coat. When we leave, call ahead to Central at extension 2341 and give them my CNP/Cert Midwife Number; I’ve got admitting privileges for situations like these. I want Sane there, but if we can’t find him, I’ll have to marshal the troops myself. Got that?”
Derek nodded and Deke ran back to the apartment.
He went in and held Sasha’s hand. “How are the contractions?”
“Coming…three minutes…apart..” Sasha grunted as she sat on the floor on a towel, clad in old underpants, her white robe trimmed in baby blue, and baby blue flip-flops. All of these were ironic since they knew the coming baby would be a girl, but blue was Sasha’s favorite color. There was a small suitcase nearby that held her things.
A moment later, someone banged on the door, and Nova and Derek burst in together. Nova now wore a lab coat over her swimsuit, and sandals on her bare feet, and she had on a stethoscope and was carrying a white nurse’s bag. “Need your vitals, Sasha,” Nova said, all business as she rolled up her sleeve and put on a blood pressure cuff. “Derek, stick around for my phone call,” Nova said as she looked at her husband, who had on his Star Force whites now.
“Fine…I’ll be on the ship part of the day. I already called the school and told them Jonathan won’t be in; family emergency,” Derek said. The authorities at Jonathan’s school knew of Jonathan’s family situation with two parents in the EDF, with Derek on active duty and Nova on reserve duty, so they didn’t question things too much, especially when one of the two Star Force heroes signed his absence notes. The school also knew that the fifteen-year old boy was an excellent student and was becoming a student leader in his Junior Space Cadet Corps unit, so they tended to question very little about the Wildstars’ parenting. And Jonathan adored both of his parents and loved the fact that they were both pretty good athletes and fun people when they let their hair down.
Wildstar left, and Deke was relieved to hear from Nova that Sasha’s blood pressure and pulse were fine; she was on the phone with someone at the hospital snapping numbers over the phone as she listened to Sasha’s heart and her stomach through her opened robe with her stethoscope, spotting both Sasha’s heartbeat and the baby’s heartbeat. “She’s in good shape,” Nova said over the phone. “The baby’s active and wants out of there. Delivery Suite 203B? Good. Page Doctor Sakezo Sane, please, and get me a Maternity Floor nurse and a good LPN. Roger that,” Nova said. “Time of departure is 0846. I estimate the patient has been in labor for maybe three hours. We are taking the personal vehicle of the patient’s partner. Clear space for us at Emergency.”
Soon, they all crammed into Deke’s fairly new purple 2207 Plymouth Barracuda, with Nova squeezing herself and her bag into the backseat while Sasha was helped into the passenger seat by Deke. Deke then got into the cockpit, locked up, and took off with a screech of his tires as he flew through the complex and then signalled for a turn onto the main street that ran near their complex.
Then, Deke took off as if the Hounds of Hell were after him, driving the car as if he was flying a Tiger, not caring about red lights or speed limits as he blasted through traffic; not knowing why he was not getting pulled over to be given several tickets.
They arrived at EDF Central Hospital: San Diego Region, maybe fifteen minutes later. Everything was a total blur for Sasha as she felt anxiety and pain as she went upstairs in a wheelchair pushed by Deke while Nova swabbed her forehead with a wet wipe and checked her pulse every minute or so.
Before Sasha knew it, she was in the comfortable-looking delivery suite where the hot and sweaty mother-to-be was helped into bed and tenderly but quickly stripped naked by both Nova and Deke.
“How are you?” said Deke as Nova stood at the sink running some water as she scubbed up and got some instruments out from cabinets.
“Hot…” Sasha gasped. “The contractions are maybe two minutes apart now, but they’re sort of gentler,” Sasha said. “Is someone going to wash me?”
“I will,” said Nova as she came over with a cart with a basin on it. “Deke, give me a hand with this until the others arrive? And you’ll need to get into scrubs in a minute.”
“No problem,” said Deke as he kissed Sasha and began to wash her.
Nova then looked at Sasha as she put an ID bracelet on her and asked, “Do you want a gown on, or are you happy like this in the nude?”
“I’m fine like this, Auntie…just like you were…I’m so HOT!”
“Yeah, I gotcha,” Nova laughed, remembering how hot she had been when she had been having Alex and Ariel just under eight months ago. “Well, we’re here again, Sasha, but now the roles are reversed.” Then, Nova said, “Are you using your powers to help calm yourself like you helped to calm me?”
“I’m trying,” gasped Sasha as another contraction came. “It’s harder to do when the pain is coming right out of you, and easier when it is in someone else…”
“I see,” said Nova. Doctor Sane came in a moment later, carrying Mimi in one hand and a bottle of sake in the other. He let Mimi run free, and the cat promptly jumped up on the bed, meowed at Sasha (making her smile) and began to purr and nuzzle Sasha’s bare toes, making her giggle as she lay there. Doctor Sane scrubbed as Nova got Deke his scrubs (and made him strip before putting them on with his flip-flops) and then he came over and checked Sasha. “Hmmm..four centimeters, Sasha. Pretty good,” he said as he popped open his sake bottle and took a good sip. “Mmmm…this is good stuff. One sip for good luck, Nova?”
Nova nodded, guessing one sip would not hurt either her or her kids, because she would not be reunited with her babies to nurse them for several hours. Nova took the sake bottle and took a quick sip, and licked her lips a little as a quick, nice warm glow went down her body to her toes. “Nice stuff, Doctor!” Nova said with a laugh. “No, Deke, this is not going to be a sake bash!” giggled Nova. “I can only take one sip. Hi, Natalie!”
Nova’s old friend Natalie Fisher gave Nova a quick hug and said, “I just got reassigned to Maternity, and the first case I get, you show up. Neat-o!”
Nova then looked at the LPN who came in, and she rolled up her eyes at the young nurse. The newcomer had bright red hair that seemed to be dyed, and she wore a sleeveless nurse’s tunic (not that unusual in the heat) and white sandals (like all of the nurses present), but while both Nova and Natalie went bare-legged beneath their lab coats, the newcomer wore white fishnet hose. Nova looked at her and said, “Miss, what’s your name and rank?”
“Acting Ensign Vanessa Smythe, ma’am; third-year ROTC student from Pan-Am University; transfer from Queen’s College in London,” the newcomer said through her nose in a very pronounced British accent; being yet another one of the nursing students on the planet given Acting Ensign status and put to work part-time so their skills would be put to some use between classes due to a vast, continuing shortage of medical professionals on Earth. In fact, that was how and why Nova had become a practicing nurse and Acting Ensign herself in early February 2199 before her twenty-first birthday. “Ma’am, before you tell me my uniform is non-regulation, may I say that, with all respect, ma’am, I do not believe a halter-top swimsuit is regulation wear under a Type 2B labcoat?”
“That’s not important for now,” said Nova as she walked over to a cabinet and got some saline solution in an IV bag. “What is important is our patient.”
Doctor Sane looked at Sasha and said, “You’re going to feel some sticky things on you in a few minutes as we put some remote sensors on your body, OK?”
Sasha smiled and nodded, gasping “Sure” before a hard contraction came and she began to cry.
Deke was at her side, smiling and soothing her by rubbing her wrist while Nova smiled at her, pushed back her bangs, and wiped her forehead before swabbing her wrist. “Sasha, keep your wrist straight….there’s going to be a little pinch while we get your IV set up…okay?”
Sasha nodded, trying to be brave even though she felt like screaming and yelling at Deke at times. She knew it was going to be an ordeal, but she was ready for it, already in psychic contact with the tiny baby within her as her labor continued. Sasha was in touch with the baby, her own body, her own pain, and Deke, and she was focusing on them, so she was ignorant, in spite of her powers, of the chaos going on elsewhere at the Rio Amarillo complex located a few kilometers away at the shore line…
V. DAWN RAGES AGAINST FATE
Earth
Rio Amarillo Apartment Complex
Jefferson and Dawn Hardy’s Apartment
Friday, April 28, 2208
1032 Hours Local Time
“DAMN YOU!” yelled Dawn Hardy as she screamed and wept while sitting on the floor in her Rancho Carne High School Letterman’s sweater and battered cutoff shorts while rocking back and forth.
Jefferson Hardy was bleeding from his nose in shock and anger since Dawn had just belted him good with a used Chianti bottle (with woven basket on the bottom) that they had turned into a candle holder. The reason she had belted him was because her water had just burst and she refused to let him touch her or come anywhere near her. Her water had burst while she had been doing housework in her sweater, cutoffs, underclothes, and very, very dirty bare feet. She had not bathed or washed her hair for the past seven days, and she was literally beginning to stink, since she had been wearing these same clothes for the past three days.
“Dawn…we have t’ get yuh to the hospital. You’h havin’ our babies…,” said Hardy in a calm, nice voice.
“I’ll have them right HERE on the damn FLOOR, Jeff! BY MYSELF! And don’t you DARE look at me!”
“Dawn, you’h having twins. This is a bit of a high risk situation. Yoah a nurse! You know what havin’ kids is like…hell, you helped Nova through her labor…”
”I’m not a frigging perfect grit your teeth lady samurai heroine like her who wanted to be knocked up! I am someone who does not even want kids! I WISH THESE KIDS WOULD JUST DIE!!!” she screamed. “And I do NOT want to go to the Hospital! I will have them here on the floor and make a mess that YOU will have to fucking clean up like you fucking have to clean up like every fucking time I throw up because YOU get me knocked up, you fighter-jock vengeful piece of CRAP!” Then, Dawn threw a vase at him…a vase that nearly brained him.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” he said, kneeling down and trying to kiss her while she tried to kick him.
He went into their bathroom and opened their medicine cabinet and looked through it, looking for the minor sedative that Doctor Sane had prescribed for her a few weeks ago. He found nothing on the shelf where the prescriptions were. Then, he remembered a note someone had put in his wallet that day. He opened his wallet and pulled out a handwritten note written on a doctor’s prescription pad page that Hardy opened. The note read:
CMDR SAKEZO SANE, MD, DVM
License number #EDF3242120
Prescribe as follows (R/X)
04/22/2208
Jeff:
Just a quick reminder…
Remember the way Dawn was going off the other day?
Because she was making suicidal gestures,
I had to take her controlled meds over to our place.
If you need them, go look in our medicine cabinet.
Best wishes
Nova….
(RN, Licensed Nurse-Practitioner, Cert Midwife)
PS, for God’s sake, do NOT let her see this note!
PPS: If she tries to hurt herself, CALL FOR HELP!
She’s goin bonkers…thought Jeff as he heard Dawn howling like an animal and then snarling like a rabid grizzly bear. Ah don’t think ah need sedatives. I think I need a friggin’ dart gun!
Jeff stepped out, found a phone, and called Derek Wildstar at home. He picked up after two rings. “Yeah?” Derek said.
“Me, Wildstah! Guess what?” said Hardy. “The kids are comin’…and we need those sedatives…the mild ones…that Nova took back to your place the other day.”
“Why?” Derek said.
“She is freaking out! “
Derek grinned. “Did she break your nose, yet? Nova still owes me three hundred credits for the plastic surgeon who fixed me up after Alex and Ariel were born after she slugged me. I don’t bug her about it much…”
“Wildstah, this ain’t funny!” snapped Hardy. “She wants to have the kids on the floor and she wants them to die! She’s acting psycho,” whispered Jeff in a low voice.
“Well, that’s an upsetting development,” said Derek. “At least Nova wasn’t raving about having the twins on the First Bridge in front of the crew. Let me get over there and help…”
“With the pills?”
Derek nodded at his end on the phone. “Yeah. And I’m probably going to have to pick her up and carry her into the car for you.”
“More like drag her into the car,” said Hardy. “Good luck, sir.”
TEN MINUTES LATER….
“I DO NOT WANT ANY FUCKING PILLS!” Dawn screamed at the top of her lungs, loud enough to be heard throughout the whole complex. “I want you to see it all!” she screamed at Jeff.
Hardy was rubbing his nose with a rag. It was not broken, but it was bleeding. Likewise, the mighty Commodore Derek Wildstar had a black eye now.
The proximate cause, Dawn, was on the floor screaming like a banshee. Derek was considering getting Nova’s spare Louisville Slugger to knock her out, but he did not communicate this to Hardy.
Finally, the two pilots just looked at each other, nodded, and they went in after the target together. Derek got Dawn’s wrists, while Jeff got her knees.
Dawn screamed and kicked and spat like a cat with rabies as the two men struggled to pick her up. Now, neither Derek nor Jeff were weak by any means. Derek had easily carried Nova around in his arms for close to an hour once, and Jeff had carried Dawn around both in his arms and on his shoulders one day at the beach early in the marriage before she had been pregnant.
Neither had ever picked her up as she fought, screamed and cursed like a sailor at them, using words that Derek observed Nova never used, and some creative obscenities he had never heard before. As Dawn raved, she compared poor Jefferson Hardy to Deke Wakefield, Elvis Presley, Lance Stovall, Adolf Hitler, and Godzilla for getting her pregnant. She screamed about that she would much rather go through a wood chipper than have these children, and then she got loose and attacked Wildstar.
Derek was the nearest target of opportunity for the ranting, psychotic woman as she rushed him and knocked him to the ground. “HEY!” he yelled, deflecting her punches with his upraised hands and grabbing her legs with his to hold her down. “Hardy, forgive me, but she is a grade-A psychotic Ms. Screaming Meemie right now! I don’t like hitting women, and you know how I felt that one time I had to hit Nova when she was possessed by Ekogaru, but I’m gonna have to cold-cock her!” he said as he made a fist.
Hardy was about to reluctantly agree when an ambulance roared into the driveway and almost bowled him over. A moment later, Lynn Westland came running up from one direction while three paramedics showed up from the other direction, two with a stretcher and one with a needle hidden behind his back.
“Ma’am!” said the large African-American paramedic as he knelt down in front of her. “Can you tell me your name?” he demanded.
“Elizabeth Taylor!” screamed Dawn at the top of her lungs. “And he’s Desslok!” she ranted at Hardy. “And he’s fucking Prince Zordar!” she said as she pointed at Derek.
“She thinks I’m green; that’s a new one,” said Derek as Lynn grabbed his arm. She said, “Commodore, why didn’t you call the ambulance?”
“We thought we could get her to the hospital without this much trouble,” said Derek.
“Either you two are really dumb or really naïve,” snapped Lynn. “Wildstar, what did your wife act like when she was in labor?”
“Well, she tried to strangle me by my ascot and punched me in the nose once, but, otherwise, Nova was like a cool, rational librarian in labor when compared with Dawn. I hate to say it, Mrs. Westland, but right now, Dawn is acting…psychotic…”
“Tell me about it,” sighed Lynn. “She had a bad stretch like this when she was at Pan-Am University years ago and almost flunked out. Her and that sorority,” she sighed.
As Dawn screamed and fought the paramedic who was putting a needle in her to temporarily knock her out, Lynn pulled out a comm device and said, “I know Nova’s over at Central right now with Sasha and Deke. You have a private line to call her on?”
Derek nodded, “I definitely do.”
“Call her and let her know that you need another labor suite ready and some backup,” said Lynn.
As Hardy got into the ambulance behind a now-woozy Dawn, Derek called up Nova and explained the situation. Things were actually fairly quiet in Sasha’s labor suite at the moment…Nova was having a sandwich and some chocolate milk when Derek called her.
Nova nodded at Derek’s commands (after all, they were a long well-oiled team in both the personal and miltary sense), and then, whispering a lament to herself about her half-eaten corned beef on rye, Nova got up and talked urgently to Doctor Sane. A moment later, they had a team readying the delivery suite across the hall from Sasha’s for Dawn’s arrival.
VI. SASHA AND DAWN’S STRANGE MEETING OF THE MINDS
Earth
San Diego Central Hospital
Maternity Unit
Friday, April 28, 2208
1421 Hours Local Time
Commodore Wildstar had arrived right behind Hardy and the ambulance, driving his Mustang with Jonathan riding shotgun and Alex and Ariel in the back in case they needed their mother at some point; they had plenty of baby food, but the bottled milk Nova had pumped the previous day was low at best, and they didn’t have a lot of formula because Nova was usually readily available with her reduced work schedule since she was actually still technically on parental leave even though she got in to work as much as possible with her schedule and had been called up for the shakedown cruise a few weeks ago.
With Jonathan and the kids ensconsced in a spare empty hospital room (in fact, the same room that they had first been in with their mother around their birth in September), Derek had a few minutes with Nova in that self-same room as they talked.
“So, what’s the situation like?” Derek asked while Nova carried a bundle of cloth and threw it down on the dresser. Then, she said, “Sasha is fine…her contractions are coming maybe just a little under every two minutes now, Derek. We think she’ll be done before the afternoon ends. Dawn, on the other hand,” Nova said, “Is semi-conscious, in restraints, and we got her cleaned up and stripped down to a maternity hospital gown at last. She fought all five of us like heck, even on that drug, “ Nova said as she shook her head.
“Five?” said Derek.
Nova nodded. “Myself, Doctor Sane, Doctor Kei Stuart, Miss Smythe, and IQ-9,” Nova said in wonder. “Even Tinwit couldn’t quite hold her down. We had to give her another mild shot,” Nova said as she heard a noise behind her. She turned her head and saw IQ-9 lifting up the hem of her labcoat to look at her butt, which was half-naked in her floral swimsuit.
“Would you quit that, IQ?” Nova snapped as she whipped her head around to glare at the robot. For half a moment, she was wishing she had brought her Louisville Slugger baseball bat with her.
“Mr. Marrable is right…you do have a nice butt,” IQ said as his lights flashed. “I’m analyzing it because I am making up a computer model of you in my central processors…”
“Good…keep her in there!” Nova said as she grabbed her labcoat out of his hands and slapped his dome. His dome spun around and he said, “You are making me tilt like an ancient pinball machine, Nova.”
“Fine. But I will not go back to you for replays,” Nova retorted. “I…”
Then, they heard a baby crying. “Ariel!” Nova cried. At that, IQ-9 took off when he saw another nurse in a short skirt going by through the slightly open door. The nurse was running from him and screaming a moment later.
Nova danced around and picked up her daughter. “Honey, what’s the matter? Hmm?”
“FIRSTY!” cried Ariel through her sobs and whimpers. Ariel had on only a little pink top and her diaper and she looked precious.
“You’ll be better soon,” Nova cooed. “Mommy will make you better…yes she will,” Nova said as she partly pulled her labcoat off. “Derek, could you undo the halter on my swimsuit?” Nova asked.
Derek did so, and while holding Ariel, Nova simply gave her swimsuit a good tug down. A moment later, both breasts came out, and Ariel’s lips were latched on hungrily to the first nipple that came exposed as Nova stood there, soothing her tiny daughter, indifferent for the moment to the fact that she was bare down to just near her navel. Nova was a little unsure what to do until her swimsuit slipped a little more and the upper regions of her womanhood began to come out. So, Nova just pulled down her swimsuit and then partly clothed her nakedness by closing up her lab coat and buttoning up about three buttons so at least the lower part of her body was covered. “How much bottled stuff do you have, Derek?”
“Not much…”
“The pump’s in my bag,” Nova sighed. “You know what to do by now, right?” Nova said as she sat on the bed and got out of her clothes for a bit. Derek nodded as he assisted in this chore as he put the pump receiving funnel tenderly against Nova’s other bare breast. He was learning many small procedures like that, complete to having had to give Nova a small shot in her bottom some years ago when a bee stung her there and the spot swelled up.
Derek smiled at his young wife, who smiled back while he rubbed her shoulders. She looked at him and said, “Could you kneel on the bed with me and massage that kink out of my back?”
Derek nodded and got on the bed with Nova, who sighed pleasantly as she received a nice massage from her husband. A few minutes later, after Nova was done with Ariel, she sat up (clad in only her sandals) and went over to the bundle on the bureau; she had brought along undergarments and a fresh nurse’s tunic, which she changed into after combing her hair while Derek played with Ariel. After throwing on her lab coat, Nova’s comm device rang, and she pulled it out of her pocket. “Hello?” she said.
“This is Doctor Sane. Is your lunch break over, Nova?”
“It is,” she said.
“Sasha is at seven point five centimeters now…we need you…and Dawn is beginning to wake up!”
“I’ll be there,” Nova sighed. She kissed Ariel and shook her head. “Derek…yeah…it never rains in Southern California…”
“It bloody pours…” he said.
FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER….
Finally, for Sasha, the big moment was here.
Sweating and still very naked, she lay on her side, trying to control the pain as much as possible as she positively began to burn down there. “It hurts!” she cried, “Oh….Goddess…it hurts SO MUCH! Help me, Deeekeeeeee!” she screamed.
Deke did so, pushing up one of Sasha’s legs as she began to strain and push, needing very little encouragement to do so.
Not having time to get her bare feet
up into the stirrups, Nova let her push a foot against her labcoat-clad stomach
as the young nurse-practitioner kicked off her sandals and stood barefoot on
the cool floor, digging in with her toes to make herself as stiff as possible
for Sasha to push against, along with Deke, as she and Doctor Sane manipulated
their hands and the receiving towel into place under Sasha’s straining birth
area. “Oil her again,” Nova said to Deke.
Deke did so, putting his gloved hand into the small dish of olive oil that sat on the tray with the instruments. Sasha felt his hands on her, and she wept with joy for a moment…because what he was doing felt wonderful.
“She’s more than fully dilated,” said Doctor Sane.
“Go, baby, go,” whispered Deke as Sasha whimpered, sobbed, and then pushed as hard as she could…with all of her might….
“She’s crowning!” Doctor Sane said eagerly.
“Oh, my God, she’s got brown hair…how cute…” Nova said.
Deke watched, with tears in his eyes, as Sasha finished pushing….and his tiny baby daughter came out of her into the world at last, falling messily out into Nova and Doctor Sane’s waiting gloved hands.
“Time?” demanded Sane.
“Fifteen-Eleven Hours, 28 April, 2208,” Nova called out. “Oh, my God,
Sasha..she’s beautiful!”
Sasha then twisted around, heedless of the mess she was making, as she watched Doctor Sane, Nova, and Deke giving her baby daughter her first bath as she suddenly cried out her first ever cry.
Sasha cried happily as she watched Deke and Dr. Sane cutting and clamping Star’s little cord…and then, she smiled as Deke looked at their wet, newborn, naked daughter and said, “She’s hungry, Princess….”
“What do you two want to name her?” Nova asked.
Deke and Sasha talked in quick whispers, and then, Deke said, “Star Kathleen Wakefield. Star after her mother; Kathleen after my dead baby sister.”
“Beautiful name,” Nova said as she made some notes while helping Doctor Sane wash the baby while Sane tended to Sasha. “The placenta should be coming soon,” said Sane. “I’d let her feed as soon as possible…that’ll help your uterus contract…”
Sasha smiled and she let Deke lay her on her stomach with some help from Nova. Then, after Nova helped show her how to latch the baby onto her nipple, Sasha watched Star taking her nude breast and her first meal after she finished the business of birth. The bond between mother and baby was immediately formed as Star looked with love into her mother’s brown eyes, making Sasha’s heart just melt as she felt the weaker Iscandarian part of the baby’s consciousness linking with her own, forming bonds, as she looked around, with her mother, with her father (as he let her play with his finger and kicked a little as he played with her toes), and with Nova (as her Great-Aunt toweled her hair dry and put her hospital ID bracelet on her, with her name STAR KATHLEEN WAKEFIELD and time of birth written in it in Nova’s neat, feminine block letters).
Finally, everything was done, and Deke sat on the bed with Sasha, stroking her hair, and occassionally kissing her nose and his new daughter’s nose as the little family bonded. Nova assisted Doctor Sane in cleaning up, and then, she turned to them and said, “Sasha, we’ll have a room ready for you in a while. Would you like a crib in there for Star?”
“Absolutely,” she said.
Nova got on the phone and murmured a few commands to the lower-ranking nurse who picked up. Then, she said, “Doctor Sane and I have to go…we have other patients today. Like the one across the hall….”
“Who?” said Deke.
Sasha turned to him, looked him in the eyes and said, “Dawn’s here, too. With Jeff.”
“How do you know that?” Nova asked.
“Remember, Auntie? I can sense things? I can sense Dawn’s disquiet, anger, rage, fear, and jealousy from here. I’m trying to protect Star from all of those emotions, because she can pick them up, too. But you have a very angry woman in there…”
“Yeah…you’re telling us,” said Nova. “She’s being absolutely…uh…”
“A bitch?” Sasha said.
Nova nodded and said, “I have to go. I’ll check on you guys later…C’mon, Doctor.”
Sane grunted, picked up a bottle of sake, and took a long drink. “I’ll need to be drunk for this one,” Deke heard him mumble as he left with his bottle in his hand.
And, at that, Nova slipped off to the other room.
The time when she left was sixteen-oh-five hours.
FOUR HOURS LATER….(2005 Hours- 8:05 PM)
Dawn was pushing, even though they were telling her not to push.
She was only at eight centimeters, and she was awake, conscious, but held down with restraints, and this sweaty woman in a dirty hospital gown was cursiong, and yelling as she said, “I WANT THIS OVER WITH! I WANT A C-SECTION!”
“Then why are you pushing?” demanded Doctor Sane as Jeff Hardy stood there trying to hold her hand…even though she bit at her husband once.
“We
are…putting a drug in your IV…to help with those…contractions…” said Natalie
Fisher as Nova nodded. Natalie now had a black eye. Dawn had given it to her
two hours ago when they had had her out of restraints for a bit, and when she
had thrown Nova across the room with the unnatural strength of a person in a
psychotic state.. Luckily, Nova had just tumbled up and over a large beanbag
chair and she didn’t break anything when she smacked against the wall. It had
taken every ounce of Commander Wildstar’s patience and professionalism to keep
from getting up and smacking Dawn 
around a few times. Dawn had also
thrown a jar or two at Vanessa Smythe, who was beginning to wonder if she had
gotten into the right line of work in deciding to become a nurse. Finally, they
had been forced to call IQ-9 and two large male orderlies to get Dawn under
control while Doctor Sane and Nova gave her another shot, since she had pulled
her own IV out again.
Then, after Dawn was injected through the IV, the contractions came on…faster and faster.
Dawn struggled furiously, crying and screaming as she pulled away from Hardy’s hand and kicked back on her bare feet, crying in agony as she struggled, and her hospital gown came undone, button by button until Natalie Fisher just popped it open all the way, leaving her to finish her crying, painful labor in a state just barely removed from nakedness.
“Please! Please! Make it stop!” cried Dawn.
“No…we can’t stop now,” Nova said as she washed Dawn’s face clean with a sponge. “Dawn..we just have to keep on going until the babies emerge….”
“What did you want to name them, again?” Jeff asked.
“The boy, you said we’d name David,” sobbed Dawn. “I’m naming the girl Sara, after my grandmother. I’ve changed my mind! I want them to be born!” she screamed as Doctor Sane checked her. “I want this to be over with!”
“Dawn…you’re at ten centimeters now,” said Doctor Sane. “Nova, Natalie, help me push her back…now, Nova, get her to…”
Nova nodded and pushed Dawn back gently. “Dawn! Breathe! And PUSH!”
Dawn began to breathe, gasp, and she pushed.
Nova remembered Dawn and Sasha getting her to push, and remembered the agony of what finishing this was like. She looked right at Dawn, being the only other woman there who had borne children herself, and she began to breathe just as she had when she had been birthing her son Alex. Soon, Dawn became a little more clear-headed at last and she pushed as Nova and Doctor Sane had directed.
Dawn felt a sudden burn as if she was on fire, and, suddenly, they saw something blond apprearing at the birth area.
Doctor Sane had Jefferson Hardy stand back, and Dawn’s toes curled and tensed and untensed as she was covered with sweat. “I’m so hot!” she cried. “And I’m getting tangled up in this!” she sobbed as her hospital gown cut into her arms.
Nova and Vanessa removed the restraints that had held Dawn’s wrists earlier in her psychotic state, and then Vanessa and Natalie simply tore the hospital gown from her, leaving her completely naked as Nova washed her body for relief and professionally oiled the birth area down.
Dawn cried and screamed, but she pushed down hard….and, a moment later, a litle head emerged from her, followed by the rest of her little son as Nova urged her into a more comfortable position and then readied a blanket to catch the little baby boy on. A moment later, Dawn looked down as her little son came from her and screamed out his first wailing cries as Nova and Vanessa bathed him while Doctor Sane cut the cord.
Then, he was laid on Dawn’s stomach, where he found his mother’s breast, and then, almost against her will, Dawn let him latch onto her nipple and suck. To Dawn’s surprise, it felt pleasant and it relaxed her.
“Now, the little girl is getting into position,” said Doctor Sane as he patted Dawn’s stomach. “I…”
“Something doesn’t look right,” Nova said as she looked at Dawn’s birth area. She knew from previous ultrasounds that Sara would have a full head of hair, but….there was no hair…
Nova ran an ultrasound probe over Dawn’s bare stomach, and then, she said, “Doctor Sane…oh…my…God…look at this!”
Sane looked at a screen, and then looked at the display attached to the wireless fetal sensor on Dawn’s naked stomach. Then, he said, “The baby is presenting breech and I can’t turn her over unaided! The cord is too short! The baby’s heart rate is dropping fast! Miss Smythe, get the husband out of here now! Nova, ready the forceps and get that baby off of her stomach! Miss Fisher, call for back up, Code Lavender, STAT! Get them to bring a C-kit!”
A moment later, Hardy reached for Dawn, but then he felt Vanessa and IQ-9 pushing him away from her and her son.
“What’s…?” he said.
Dawn screamed in agony as Nova took lttle David away from her while other nurses ran in there. At Doctor Sane’s orders, an anonymous nurse he did not know pushed Hardy out of the room as other nurses ran in with equipment…
The last thing Dawn knew or or saw was Nova putting a mask on her face as she lay there in horrible pain…and saying, “Breathe….just breathe…and…relax…”
Dawn sobbed and did so, and her world quickly went dark as the anesthesia took effect and she passed into sleep as she heard instruments clanging against each other and heard Doctor Sane yelling out various commands….
ONE HOUR LATER….
Jefferson Hardy sat outside in a waiting area with a portable comm device in his hand as he spoke to his father Nathaniel on the phone. His parents were still alive, and they lived on their plantation in Georgia.
“They haven’t told me anythin’ yet!” he said. “Ah got to see mah son, and then they said somethin’ about his sister presentin’ breech birth…then somethin’ about her heart rate droppin….”
Commodore Wildstar came out a moment later and sat beside Hardy. Jeff looked at him and demanded, “Did they tell yuh anythin’ yet? Dad…I gotta go…talk to you and Mom later…” Jeff then hung up the phone as he looked expectantly at Derek.
“No,” said Derek. “I heard about what happened from another one of the nurses, but Nova and Doctor Sane are still in there with her. I was just with Sasha, Deke, and Star. No one knows anything yet…”
“Why are they keepin’ me in the dahk about my own wife, son, and daughter?” demanded Hardy as a tear ran down his cheek.
Then, a door slammed open, and Nova came out.
She had a stunned expression on her face, and her nurse’s tunic was covered with blood.
Hardy got up and grabbed Nova by her bloody dress as Derek yelled, “Leave her alone!” He shook Nova and said, “Please! What happened in theh?”
“I…I can’t tell you….I’m not allowed to…” she suddenly sobbed. “Please let me go, Hardy! The doctor will be out in a minute to tell you what…what happened….oh, my God..I…”
Hardy let Nova go, and she ran to Derek’s arms and just began to cry as he held her.
Then Doctor Sane came out, looking utterly exhausted.
Hardy turned on him and yelled, “Doctor Sane? What happened?”
Sane looked at him and sighed. Then, he said to Derek, “Commodore…please get Nova out of here, I need some privacy with Mister Hardy! She’s relieved of duty for the rest of the night….even though she did all she could for us, she’s been through enough today…please take her back into that room where you have your kids and help her clean up and get into fresh clothes….”
Derek escorted his sobbing, exhausted wife out of there as Doctor Sane looked at Hardy. Then, he sighed and said. “Your son, David, is alive and he’s well. He’s sleeping now, poor little dear. I’m sorry we had to pull him away from his mother, but we had no choice.”
“Ah guessed as much. What happened to Dawn?”
Sane took a deep breath. “We tried to turn Sara for a more satisfactory delivery. As we were doing so, we begn to have a placental abruption….we tried to repair it through laproscopic surgery and then began to prep for a C-Section when they both began to bleed heavily…both Dawn…and the baby. There was a severe blood loss. Dawn had to be given several units to save her life…and she’s under sedation right now to allow her to rest and heal. Sara…”
Hardy sat in silence as Doctor Sane wiped his eyes and said, “When we finally got Sara out of her through an emergency C-Section, she didn’t cry, and she barely kicked. There was barely a heartbeat. We got her to breathe a little, and we were setting her up for a very small transfusion when we lost her heartbeat. Nova and I did all that we could for her….but she only lived for twelve minutes outside of her mother. We finally gave up on efforts to revive her six minutes ago…all brain activity in your daughter had just ceased. I’m so sorry, Jefferson…your daughter didn’t survive. We’ll have her cleaned up soon so you can view the body…”
Hardy nodded. Then, he put his face in his hands, and he just began to cry.
He did not stop crying for the next five hours….
THREE DAYS LATER….
Dawn had no idea where she was, or even who she was…
All that she knew as she came around was…pain…
The pain began around her inner thighs, and it burned in the center of her beneath her hospital gown and everything else, and it went inside her to her lower abdomen, which ached horribly as it almost felt as if something were missing.
“Where am I?” she murmured. “Where’s the…babies….? Where’s David? Where’s…Sara?”
Dawn opened her eyes, and she saw a very, very sad looking Jeff standing over the bed in a black suit jacket, white shirt, black tie. He was holding a tiny bundle in a blue blanket.
“Jeff?”
“Dawn,” he said in a choked-up voice. “You didn’t really get to meet him for very long on…the night of the twenty-eighth, but..here’s our son…David. He’s a bit small, but…isn’t he beautiful?”
“What day is this?” said Dawn woozily.
“May the first,” said Hardy. Jeff brought the bundle closer, and Dawn stroked the little face. He had blond hair, and he had the most adorable smile. “He’s..he’s beautiful..” whispered Dawn. “How is he eating?”
“Mostly from a bottle for now, even though both Sasha and I helped a little by letting him nurse against us when we could manage it,” said Nova softly at the other side of the bed. Dawn turned her head, and she wondered why Nova was standing there in a sleeveless black minidress, and black stockings. Dawn couldn’t tell if she was imagining things, but Nova looked very pale, and it looked like there were the ghosts of dark circles under her eyes. “Are you sick?” Dawn whispered.
Nova shook her head. “Just very tired, that’s all. We all had to work very hard on you. I…I worked a double shift just helping Doctor Sane keep you alive later that night even though they tried to make me go home…I…”
“Where’s my daughter?” Dawn whispered.
“We have…pictures we can show you later on,” Nova said as she wiped her eyes. “You’re going to be here a few days, unfortunately, so….After we got her cleaned up and presentable…she looked….looks like a sleeping little angel,” Nova said as her voice hitched and her lip trembled.
“What…happened? Why isn’t she here? Where’s my baby?” Dawn said.
Nova sat down. Dawn saw that she looked very formal; she had on black open-toed pumps with her stockings and little black mesh gloves. Nova took a deep breath and said, “Dawn…you had some major difficulty in labor after David was born. Sara presented as a breech birth. We tried to deliver naturally, and then with forceps…after we knocked you out….we were about to give up and were going C-section after a few minutes when the placenta..tore….and Sara…began to spasm inside you. She was losing oxygen and blood fast….we got her out of you….but, then, we had to go to work to repair the placenta and to try to repair damage to your uterus. I alternated between assisting Doctor Sane and trying to work with Doctor Stuart to save Sara’s life. We just about saved you. We…after a bit of time…we couldn’t…save…Sara…..she’s…gone,” Nova sobbed. “Jeff and I are dressed up like this because we’re meeting Derek and Deke at the viewing…I….I’m so sorry!” Nova said. “And….”
“My daughter’s dead?” said Dawn.
Nova nodded and then she and Jeff just hugged her as she began to cry.
She didn’t stop crying for the next two hours. Dawn was comforted, but they let her cry it out as she mourned her daughter…and cursed a very bitter Fate.
TO BE CONTINUED…..