“I can’t take this any longer,” cried out Jade. “I miss the colony!”
Brooke was sitting with her back against the tree’s inner wall, rubbing salve into a new cut on her hand. Her hand was so callused that she was amazed she could still get another. “I know, honey. I miss them too.”
“Listen, I’ve told you both that you don’t have to stay,” said Leea as she climbed down the ladder from the sleeping level. “You have a choice; I don’t. If I go back, the captain will emulsify me. Both of you have done nothing wrong except escape.”
“We won’t leave you,” said Jade.
“No, we won’t,” Brooke chimed in.
Leea ladled their rations into bowls. Supper was the only time the women looked forward to. It was their one meal of the day, and they always played cards before going to bed. They had found a deck on the phantom freighter, as they called it.
Turning to Jade while playing that night, Leea asked, “Why did you stand up for me at the trial? That took balls to stand up to the captain. I’ll never forget the look on her face. She wanted to emulsify you on the spot.”
“Ever since we were training on Earth, I had a giant crush on you,” replied Jade. “I thought you were gorgeous and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you. I’m not as pretty as you are, and I didn’t think you would ever notice me. The trial was my one chance, so I took it.”
“Well, I’m glad you did,” replied Leea. “I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for you.”
Leaning in, Leea parted her lips and gave Jade a gentle kiss.
“What about me?” Brooke butted in.
Her jealousy brought an instant smile to Leea’s face. “I love you, too, baby.”
“Then prove it.”
Leea kissed Brooke the same way she had just kissed Jade. “There, both of you got kissed. Now let’s finish our game. The loser is getting naked tonight!”
*
As each day passed, their life plodded along as the day before. It wasn’t till they had ventured a little closer to the colony one day that the trio spied Libby alone. Chancing it, they made contact with her. That night, back at their tree house, their spirits were lifted.
“I can’t believe how grown up Libby is,” gushed Brooke.
“I just hope she keeps her promise not to tell anyone that she saw us,” said Leea.
“She’s a good kid. I think we can trust her,” said Brooke.
Four and a half months later, that encounter was just a distant memory.
They were aging rapidly. Leea could see it and feel it. These two women loved her enough to exile themselves from the colony and all its comforts. No one on Earth had ever loved her like this. Here she was millions of miles from Earth, trapped on an alien planet, and she had finally found true love.
Lying down that night between the two sleeping forms, Leea reached out, touching both warm bodies. You both loved me enough to escape from the colony, and I love you enough to take you back.
Chapter Eighty-Three
The smell of fresh-baked cookies filled the kitchen. Spuds had just removed them from the oven and was letting them cool. Suddenly, the door opened and in walked Libby. She had an uncanny ability to time her visits for whenever Spuds was cooking a special treat.
“Hello, honey. Have you come to rob the kitchen again?”
“Yes, ma’am, but I’m stealing them only for myself and my little Hope,” said Libby as she affectionately rubbed her belly. She was already showing, and it looked like she had swallowed a medium-size watermelon.
Only one month had gone by since her announcement, but since Connie had calculated that one Earth year equaled five on Alpha-64, this formula, when converted to months, meant a normal nine-month pregnancy on Earth would take a little less than two months on their new home planet. You could almost see Libby’s belly get larger in real time.
The crew was mesmerized by their young mother-to-be. Everyone wanted to see her and touch her. If Libby paid anyone attention, they glowed with satisfaction. If Leea had still been in the colony, she would have been envious of Libby’s newfound fame.
At first Libby was embarrassed that she was the constant center of attention, but as is common in humans, soon Libby started to have little spoiled fits of rage. These tantrums were largely ignored by the adulating crew. Everyone was experiencing the same pregnancy high, acting like their own wombs would soon be filled with the same gift.
One day, Libby arrived at Med Bay to have her daily examination done by Connie. This particular morning she was late as usual and grumpy as well.
“It’s about time you got here. I have been waiting all morning for you,” scolded Connie.
“Mimi, I’m miserable. My feet are swollen, and I have to sit up in bed at night propped up by pillows. I hate being pregnant. The bigger this thing grows, the more often I have to get up at night to pee.”
“Now, sweetheart, just be thankful you are only carrying the child for two months. If we were still on Earth, it would be for seven more.”
The chief science officer did a bio scan and analyzed the growing baby.
“Everything looks good,” said Connie. She made Libby have daily checkups because the developing baby’s growth was something never seen before by scientific eyes. Connie didn’t want to miss a thing.
Connie couldn’t explain the conception; she only knew that the planet somehow had reacted with the lost gene sequencer and its slide full of Felix’s DNA, forming the plant that then impregnated Libby. The possibility that Alpha-64 itself was an alien was hard to wrap her mind around. Her schooled scientific brain screamed that something bad was going to happen.
Holding all this stress inside, Connie kept her fears to herself. Just when she thought that she couldn’t take it anymore, the baby rescued her. Letting out a little laugh, Connie patted Libby’s stomach.
“What is it, Mimi? Let me see.”
Grabbing the monitor, Libby examined the screen. The baby was sucking its thumb.
“Our little miracle,” whispered Connie.
“I just hope it’s a boy,” said Libby. “What if it’s a girl?”
“Hush, hush, don’t worry. We will love it no matter what sex it is,” said Connie.
But Connie herself had the same fear. The bio scan was an ingenious device, but it couldn’t tell the sex. That age-old unknown of the womb was still a surprise even on this alien planet.
Engineering began to build Libby a nursery for the baby. They cut a hole in the wall of Libby and Connie’s quarters, making a doorway into the next adjacent room. This room wasn’t occupied by any of the crew, so it was a logical choice for the baby’s new home. They also cut a hole in the outer wall of this room, which was the ship’s old hull, and made a window. This allowed light in from the suns, and it faced the garden, where several rows of mature sunflowers were growing. It was the only quarters with its own window.
Libby immediately fell in love with the room. Merc suggested painting all the walls a rich golden color, and the ceiling a light blue. Engineering made a little bed and even a rocking chair custom made to fit Libby’s body. The chair had been stained and polished with the red soil of Alpha-64, and it looked like something an old pioneer would have owned.
“Try it out,” offered Merc.
Libby lowered herself into the chair and leaned back, pushing with her feet.
“Oh, it’s wonderful,” gushed Libby. “I can’t wait to rock Hope to sleep in it.”
“You can thank the crew. They made that out of love for you,” beamed Merc.
“With any luck, we’ll be building many more,” said Pickle. She had just walked into the new nursery. Looking around, Pickle said, “Wow, you guys did a great job.”
“Well, if you get pregnant, I promise Engineering will make you one as well,” said Merc.
“I just hope I can find a plant l
ike the one Libby described,” said Pickle. “So far, no one has found anything matching the description.”
“Don’t worry, Pickle. I’ll help you find a plant as soon as I have my baby,” said Libby.
*
Soon Libby’s ankles swelled, her back hurt, and it became harder to breathe. Instead of going on walks from one clearing to the next, Libby had to stop and rest many times. As her due date got closer, she became miserable, and the crew became anxious. Connie had determined the due date very scientifically. As the day approached, excitement began to build. Everyone impatiently waited and waited and waited. But the baby didn’t come.
Instead, Libby had a sensation like the baby had dropped, and she felt a heaviness in her pelvis, which gave her more room below her rib cage and allowed her to breathe a little better.
Two days later, Libby began to have intense, painful contractions every ten to twenty minutes, which made everyone think the delivery was near. But the contractions didn’t get longer or stronger or closer together. The crew was a nervous wreck. Was it going to be a boy or a girl? The colony’s very existence hinged on the answer.
Libby was miserable, and laying around just seemed to make it worse.
“I’m going for a short walk, Mimi. It may help bring Hope along a little sooner.”
“Okay, honey, but I don’t want you too far away from Med Bay. You are almost three days late, and that’s like two weeks on Earth. If Hope doesn’t come today, I may have to induce you.”
“I’ll be careful,” said Libby as she walked out of the room. Her progress was slow, but steadily she made her way down the path. Without paying attention, she walked all the way to the second clearing, and then out to where the other ship was resting on its side. The bees flying past her, laden with nectar, distracted her from her condition.
With sudden realization, Libby awoke from her daydream filled with fear. What was I thinking? she thought. I should never have wandered off this far alone.
She was anxiously walking back towards the colony as quickly as she could when she felt a stabbing pain in her stomach and cried out in agony. It was so intense that her head started to spin, and her eyes lost focus as she slipped limply to the ground.
“Libby, Libby, open your eyes. Can you hear me?”
The voice grew louder, and as her eyes cleared, Libby saw a concerned face overhead come into focus. It was a familiar face. Leea.
“Oh my god, what is wrong with you?” cried Leea. “We thought you were dead!”
“Are you having an allergic reaction to something you ate?” asked Brooke.
Libby could now see Brooke’s face looking down at her as well. Libby mouthed the words “I’m pregnant” and passed out again.
*
Med Bay was standing room only, a flurry of activity around the gurney that held Libby. Connie ran the bio scan over Libby’s abdomen; a pulse oximeter was emitting a steady beeping noise in sync with Libby’s heart. Pickle was adjusting the flow to the IV when Libby slowly opened her eyes.
“How did I make it back here?” she asked weakly.
“The three escaped prisoners brought you back,” explained Kriss.
The three women were standing with their backs facing a nearby wall. Turning her head, Libby could see her rescuers. They had long, ratty hair, and were dirty and skinny.
Turning back to Captain Kriss, Libby said, “Captain, please allow Leea and Brooke and Jade to rejoin our colony.”
“Absolutely not. They are prisoners,” said Kriss.
Libby started to cry in anguish. No one knew if it was from the pain of the contractions, her pregnancy hormones, the captain’s harsh words, or a combination of all three. But the effect was crushing, and soon Kriss’s heart softened.
“I’ll think about it. But first you give us a boy.”
Libby’s expression cleared, and she started to push.
Chapter Eighty-Four
The drumlike beat of the spraying water was magnified as it hit the canvas tarp. This hypnotic noise was soothing to the baby, and soon she was sound asleep in Libby’s arms.
Libby was sitting cross-legged in the garden between two rows of corn, and had thrown the tarp over some plants to shade her infant from the suns while she slept. She had needed an escape from the crew, so she had fled to the farthest part of the garden to be alone. No one had found her here except the sprinkler.
Soon, Libby was weeping. Her soft cries were audible above the noise of the water hitting the tarp, but no one heard. Like a fallen star, Libby no longer mattered. She had given the colony a girl, and the shock of Hope’s birth devastated everyone. Like a wave washing away a footprint in the sand, the birth of the girl had washed away the colony’s hope. Libby and her new baby were treated like traitors.
Only Connie and Dozer cared. Connie was excited to be not only Mimi to Libby but now Nana to Hope, and Dozer acted like the new baby was another kitten.
Soon, the entire colony started to splinter into little groups of women, each group finding security in its own numbers. The colony still functioned as a cohesive unit for all mandatory duties, but when the women had free time, they became fragmented. These groups often became hostile towards one another, and fights broke out between them.
Smitty had a full-time job being the enforcer, and it was wearing her thin. The constant bickering and diminishing morale of the crew was a downward spiral that seemed unstoppable.
The captain had commissioned Spuds to bake and cook delightful dishes to try to boost the colony’s spirits, but her attempts failed. She then set up a series of mental and physical challenges to get the women’s minds off of their plight, but that didn’t work either.
Everyone was short-tempered. Each new day was not viewed as a day promising life and a future. Instead, it was perceived as one day closer to death. The captain became a tyrant, and she focused on Libby and Hope. She insisted they learn everything. If they were the last two surviving humans, then they would have the responsibility of carrying all of humanity’s knowledge on their shoulders.
Connie was commissioned by Kriss to make Libby the last surviving science officer; everything Connie had stored in her brain, Kriss wanted imprinted in Libby’s. This became overwhelming, and Libby was at a breaking point. She loved her daughter deeply, and it tore her heart in two knowing she had wanted a boy instead.
Hope was beautiful, blond haired like her mother, with dark lips and black eyes like her father. Her skin was an olive mix of both parents, and she was a very happy baby. Every couple of hours, Hope was fed by Libby, and she grew fast. It was the nursing that bonded the two together, and Libby became very protective of Hope.
At first Hope was carried everywhere, on Libby’s back, in her arms, or in Connie’s lap on the hover chair. But due to the accelerated aging process on Alpha-64, in just two short months, Hope was already walking. Connie and Libby made sure she was always in visual range, but sometimes Hope got the best of them and would disappear. Dozer would always herd her back.
It was during one of these disappearing acts that someone else found her: one of Dozer and Hiccup’s offspring. She was a little female, all black in color except her tail, which was solid orange. It looked like a black cat had dipped its tail in a bucket of orange paint. Libby was surprised when the cat came bounding after Hope and Dozer, and even more surprised when she wouldn’t leave.
That night, while Libby was trying to sleep in the nursery, the cat stood outside the window and meowed for over an hour until Libby pulled the blinds up and slid the window open. Jumping through the window, the cat bounded over and leapt into Hope’s crib. It was just like Dozer finding Libby for the first time through the glass window of the infant pod, imprinted on each other for life.
From then on, the two of them were inseparable, and because of this, Dozer stopped watching Hope so guardedly. With approval, he observed his kitten’
s devotion to the young human and was pleased.
Connie started to cough one day, and the coughing never stopped. It started out as a small obstruction in her throat and was easily cleared away. But as the weeks passed, the cough became deeply entrenched in the chief science officer’s lungs, and now it was weaker, like an asthmatic cough. Connie had to mechanically force her lungs to inhale and exhale. As her condition worsened, she knew something was wrong. But one bio scan after another revealed nothing, and Connie’s bloodwork came back normal. Whatever was ailing Connie was something foreign to Earth medicine.
Connie downplayed the cough and said she had no pain, but Libby knew otherwise. She knew Connie did her breathing treatments with a new regularity.
The sicker Connie got, the more determined she became to educate Libby. All day long she would lecture Libby, and while Libby slept, Connie would stay up late recording lectures by a video feed linked to her computer stored in Med Bay. If something happened to Connie, Libby could watch them later.
One night, Connie was in Med Bay filming a dissection of Felix when she heard a little scuffing noise behind her. Dropping the scalpel, she turned to see Hope dragging her blue blanket behind her.
“Honey, what are you doing out here?”
Hovering over, Connie scooped up the toddler and kissed her cheek.
“Nana, Nana,” said Hope. It was the first and only word she could say, and when she said it, Connie’s heart melted.
“Yes, I’m your nana, baby,” said Connie. She was holding Hope so that the child could look over Connie’s shoulder, and the child had found something fascinating to look at. Connie turned to observe what was so interesting, and discovered it was the surgically deformed body of Felix.
Hope pointed. “Nana, Nana!”
“No, baby, that’s your dada,” Connie said quietly. This wasn’t how a baby should meet her father, she thought. Pulling the child off of her shoulder, she looked her in the eyes. “One day I’ll explain, but for now it’s time to take you back to bed.”
*
Pulling out her nipple, Libby experienced the joy of life flowing from her breast to her young. The movement of the feeding caused the blankets wrapped around Hope to stir, and out from under them appeared a little black face, then a head, and finally the body and orange tail of the cat. Hope wrapped her fingers around the cat’s tail, and it uttered a little meow.
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