ALTERNATE
TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS---IT NEVER RAINS IN
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
PART TWO: ENTER CLIVE…
I. AGONY
Earth
The
Friday, February 12, 2208
1125 Hours Local Time
“C’mon, PUSH!” Doctor
Sane yelled in Angie Hartcliffe’s ear.
In the maternity
suite, Angie, who was shaking, sweaty, and clad in nothing but her bra, shook
her head and said, “I can’t push any more.”
“TRY!” barked Sane.
Angie bore down and
began to sob. “I’ve been trying the past hour! Nothing is happening! I’m too
tired!”
“You’ve been in labor
for twenty hours,” said Doctor Kei Stuart as she held her hand. Sasha Wakefield
held her other hand, trying to offer psychic comfort in the scrub dress she had
donned over her own pregnant stomach.
It had been Nova’s
idea. Nova and Tasha Cleveland were assisting Sane and Stuart in what was
turning out to be a very unsuccessful labor. The baby’s pulse rate is dropping again, Nova thought with disquiet
as she watched the fetal monitor connected to Angie’s bare stomach.
Doctor Sane drank from
his sake’ bottle, slapped one of his geta-clad feet against the floor, and
said, “If we can’t get you to dilate more, we’re going to have to go in and do
a C-Section on you!”
“Why didn’t you do
one already?” gasped Angie as Nova responded to Sane’s nod and ran to again set
up the anesthsiologist’s unit kept in reserve.
“You said you wanted
to keep on trying around 0800,” said Doctor Kei Stuart. “This time, if we can’t
get you to deliver in the next thirty minutes or so, or that baby’s pulse rate
goes down too far…”
“Threshold!” snapped
Nova and Stuart
finished programming the anesthesia unit, and Nova loomed over Angie’s head
with the mask. Sasha was beginning to look white. So was Angie.
Nova took a look at
the readouts and thought, If we don’t have this
baby out n the next forty minutes, this might end up being a stillbirth. My
God!
“Nova, get Sasha out
of here…she’ll just be in the way now!” Sane barked.
“Sasha, go out and
tell Deke and
“I want to be awake!”
screamed Angie. “AWAKE!”
“We can’t have that
now…we have to get Richie out of you,” Nova said. “He’s not very well now.” He might be dying, Nova thought. The same for you, too, if your pulse drops
much more…
The mask came down
over Angie’s face as Sasha stepped out of the labor suite, hearing instruments
clinking as the buzz of the laser knife came up in the background. The last
thing Sasha heard was Sane barking, “Stuart, a Number Two Montrell Spreader,
please! Ready it. Nova, ready venous sedation for the patient!”
“Yes, Doctor,” Nova
said as Sasha got out of there.
In the waiting room
outside, Bryan Hartcliffe sat like a dead man between two Shore Patrol guards.
He was handcuffed to one of them, and he was very bruised up and bloodied.
At the other end of the
couch, Deke Wakefield sat smoking a cigarette, looking daggers at Hartcliffe.
“To think I had to drag you in there twice to see your own wife,” he said. “You
lousy piece of crap!”
“I’m scared o’ this,”
“And, thus, your
probation is revoked, for drunk and disorderly,” snapped one of the Shore
Patrol men. “You are going right back up to the Treasure Island Brig after you
see your son born, Mister,” said the sergeant. “And you have new charges. DUI,
assaulting a friendly alien, assaulting three superior officers, leaving the
scene of an aircar accident, speeding…they’re going to be so happy for you at
your court-martial, man.”
Hartcliffe screamed
and banged on the arm of his chair, and then he threw his face in his hands and
sobbed.
“Me whole life’s been
like this! Lost me mum at twelve, almost got booted outta the Academy twice,
got another bird preggers…”
“What happened to the
baby?” asked Wakefield in a dull voice, feeling pity for Hartcliffe at his bad
choices, but also noting he could have risen above his bad breaks just as he
himself had risen above his own mistakes and offenses in the Academy.
“It died!” yelled
Sasha came out a
minute later, shaking her head.
“Oh, no, don’t tell
me…”
“The baby and Angie
are in danger,” said Sasha in a flat, dull, tired voice as she came to Deke’s
arms. “They sent me out of there to do a C-Section. No one’s had a break for
twenty hours, except when they gave Nova a break to care for Alex and Ariel and
feed them at 0600.”
“A C-SECTION!?”
yelled
“It means they’re
taking your son out of her,” said Deke in what he hoped was a soothing voice.
“He should be all right…”
“Where’s Wildstar?”
said
“Too late,” said one
of the Shore Patrol Guards. “We were called by others, besides. Like that
female doctor after you tried to slam her through the wall at 0200 after she
threw you out of there. Besides, Commodore Wildstar went home with his children
at 0700. He is probably sleeping by now…”
“Sleeping?” said
Derek as he came back into the room with Jonathan. Jonathan was carrying Alex,
while Derek carried Ariel. Deke noticed that Wildstar looked as if he hadn’t
had a shave and was wearing a t-shirt and cutoff shorts with flip-flops. Little
Ariel wore only a frilly pink baby girl’s blouse and her diaper. “How can you
sleep when your kids are crying and Mom’s in the OR? Luckily, Jon and I figured
out why they were crying…”
“Diapers,” yawned
Jonathan, who had on surfer baggies and a t-shirt with no shoes; at fifteen, he
could just about get away with running around barefoot in a beach community (his
father had also interrupted him from waxing the brand new surfboard he was
getting to use in the strange heat of February). “Dad’s letting me play hookey
from school today to help out.” He hugged his brother Alex, who was trying to
creep up him, showing a bit of tummy between his little black and gold Black
Tigers t-shirt and his diaper as his little bare legs kicked. Unknown to
Alexander, he would wear that uniform for real someday as one of the Argo’s pilots when he got older.
“Wildstar,” said Hartcliffe
as he looked at Derek. “I’m under arrest! You’ve gotta let me go!”
“For what?” said
Derek as he juggled his giggling daughter.
“Probation violations
and more assault charges, sir,” said one of the Shore Patrol Guards. “He should
actually be in the brig now, but we’re letting him stay here under guard just
long enough to see his son born.”
“Let me go, sir!” yelled
“SHUT UP!” barked
Wildstar as Ariel jumped in his arms. Then, she began to cry. As her father
tried to soothe her, Wildstar came up to Hartcliffe and said, “You’re waiting
for your boy to be born. What is your problem?
Why are you set on wrecking your life?”
“Pissed at the
world,” snapped
Then,
Derek looked at the
newcomer, who was carrying an overnight bag. He had much shorter hair than
Wildstar turned and
said, “You’re his cousin? I’ve heard of you from Nova.”
“Where is she?” said
Clive.
Deke
Sasha was holding
onto Deke, and she looked as if she was close to tears.
“How?” said Sasha. “Bryan Hartcliffe, how could you treat your wife
and son like that…delaying in getting them here to the hospital to be cared
for…?”
“I thought she was
messin’ about, and…”
A moment later,
Doctor Sane came out, looking very tired. “It’s over,” he said.
“Over?” said Derek.
Sane nodded. “We were
just in time. Mister Bryan Hartcliffe, you have a son. He’s a little small,
though. He’ll be with his mother in about two hours when she wakes up, but then
he will be in the Newborn ICU unit for a few days since he seems to have a
little trouble breathing. When Angie wakes up, you can meet him…”
“Then we can take him
with us?” said one of the Shore Patrol Guards.
“Correct,” said Sane.
II. AN UNEASY MEETING
Earth
The
Room 1425
Friday, February 12, 2208
1340 Hours Local Time
Sasha recognized the
room where Angie Hartcliffe now lay on sight…it was
the same room that Nova and Katrina had shared back in September.
Only, now, the scene
was different as Angie Hartcliffe lay there in a hospital gown, woozily holding
her new son, who was wrapped in a blue baby blanket.
“That’s ‘im?” said
“Yes, that’s him,”
said one of the Shore Patrol guards.
“He looks a little
funny,” said Clive. “His skin tone…it’s off…”
Near the bed, Nova
Wildstar, who now wore a white lab coat that went down to her knees, said, “That’s
because he has some jaundice. His liver function is a
little off. In fact, after his mother gives him lunch, he’ll have to lie under
the lights for a while. Ariel, who was in her arms with her
little top off in the warm room, cooed in agreement.
“He’s beautiful,”
said Angie as she unwrapped him with Nova’s help. Unwrapped,
he was naked except for a small baby cap and an identification bracelet, but
other than his slightly small size and his jaundice, his little body was
perfect from his nose to his chest to his tummy, down to his little boyhood and
his legs and toes.
“How do I feed him?” whispered
Angie.
Nova tenderly helped
Angie out of her hospital gown, and then sat on the bed with her, trying to
show her how to put the baby to one of her bare breasts. Angie finally
succeeded, but she had a hard time latching him own, so Nova finally sighed and
opened her own lab coat (she wore nothing beneath it herself, having showered
off the blood of the operation just a few minutes beforehand) and she then put
Ariel up to one of her own bare breasts, showing Angie how a baby would latch
on. A moment later,
“He’s beautiful,”
said
“Too bad you can’t be
here to see him much longer,” said Angie as she looked at him. “They tell me you
have to go away for a while.”
“I do…for all the
stupid things I’ve done….I…”
“I’ll take care of
her and him while you begin to pay your debts to your service and to society,”
said Clive Hartcliffe in a reassuring tone of voice as he also stroked the
baby. “When you’re back, I’m sure you can start a new life…”
“Time to go,” said
one of the Shore Patrol men.
“Angie…” said
He tried to kiss her
cheek, but she turned away slightly, with a sad smile on her face.
“
“What’s that supposed
to mean?” said
“It’s obvious we’re
going to be separated the next few months,” said Angie. “We’ll talk more at a
later time…”
“Clive…I…”
“You have to go,
mate,” said Clive. “Don’t worry. I’ll be like a cousin to her.”
The Shore Patrol men
watched as
But, his son turned
away from him, whimpering as he hid his face in his mother’s breast. Nova
quickly buttoned her lab coat back up with Derek’s help as she burped Ariel.
“Well?” said Angie.
“I’ll stay with you
to help,” said Clive.
“Thanks,” said Angie,
who was softly crying as she thought about what might have been with
Nova then handed
Ariel to her father and kissed Derek while she helped Angie back into her
hospital gown. Then, she took little Richie and wrapped him up, saying, “He has
to go back to the nursery for a while to lie under a little artificial sunlight
to help him with that jaundice. He’ll get his first diaper on after he’s done.”
“Will he be okay?”
whispered Angie.
“I believe so,” said
Doctor Sane. “He’s still somewhat weak. Just give him some time.”
Angie nodded, smiling
through her tears as he son was taken away from her. Deke noticed that Clive
was holding her hand as she began to go back to sleep.
Later that afternoon,
the sun was very hot and bright on the beach near their townhouse where Nova
lay on a beach towel beside Derek. Derek wore only his cutoffs as he lay beside
Nova, putting suntan lotion on his young wife’s stomach. At the moment, Nova
was feeding Alex at one of her bare breasts; her discarded lab coat and sandals
were nearby as she lay there sunning in the nude with her naked baby boy on her
tummy.
“He’s getting so big,”
said Derek as he held Ariel in his lap.
Nova nodded. “Isn’t he
wonderful? He sure is growing fast. He takes after his father. Look at our
other son. I think he has a girlfriend,” teased Nova.
Derek looked down at
the water’s edge. Jonathan was on his surfboard, clumsily riding a wave in his
baggies while a redheaded girl in a pink bikini looked on, sitting on her own
surfboard; namely, Felicia Carmody. Felicia and Jonathan were finding more and
more opportunities to get together, now. A minute later, Jonathan wiped out,
and Felicia jumped into the water to “rescue” him.
“Looks like he needed
rescuing again,” said Nova as she shook her head in amusement. “I wonder if he’s
that clumsy on purpose?”
“I don’t think so,”
said Derek. “Gives them a nice opportunity to hug, doesn’t it? Is that why he
does it?”
Nova smiled and
nodded. “I know another young man who is sometimes just as inept on a surfboard
himself. A certain twenty-nine year old.”
Derek blushed, smiling
as Nova brought up their small age difference; the young mother had just turned
thirty earlier in the month. Derek would not reach thirty until July.
“I feel bad for
Hartcliffe,” sighed Derek. “It’ll be a long time before he can lie like this on
the beach with his wife and his son.”
“Derek, he made his
bed. He just has to sleep in it now. If
their marriage endures, that is…”
“IF?”
Nova nodded sadly as
she cuddled Alex’s little round bottom. “She’s tiring of him. But who can blame
her? Mmm….I like that,” Nova whispered as Derek’s hand
rubbed suntan lotion on her hip. “I…Derek…does your hand have to go there?” she whispered.
“Nova, it will burn unless
I get lotion on it. Relax…”
“Maybe I should have
put a fundoshi on?” whispered Nova.
“I know this makes
you happy…” whispered Derek.
“It does…the problem
is, very soon, I may not want you to put tanning lotion anywhere else…”
They heard Jonathan
and Felicia’s laughter a few moments later, so Nova covered her hips with her
coat like a loincloth as Derek kissed her. “Later?” he whispered.
“Later,” Nova said. “There’s
always the shower. I will
need help getting that sand washed off my butt.”
“And?”
“I’m sure you can
figure out the rest…”
TO BE CONTINUED….