“What do you think?” Elmira asked.

Lokaia smiled. “I think it’s a great plan. What does Kuror think about it?”

“He said it was an excellent idea but wants me to think about it a little first,” she answered, then smiled. “I think he’s not sure if I’m up to the commitment.”

“And are you?”

Another smile, broader this time. “Very. The fact that he wants to give me time means he loves me and…” she paused, smiling shyly, “I love him, too.”

Lokaia returned the grin. “That’s wonderful. I’m so happy for you.” She paused and made a face. “But do you think Shank will go for it?”

“I don’t think my father will have much of a choice,” was the reply. “I’m his only heir, destined to be Empress. He can’t change that.”

“So you’ve seen that it will work?” Lokaia asked. “Your predictions confirmed it, I mean?”

Elmira shrugged slightly. “More or less. My visions are fuzzy at best, but Kuror seems positive.”

“Who will perform the ceremony?”

Elmira twirled a strand of red hair around a claw. “We’re stopping on the next planet to look. I know Kuror wants me to think about it, but…” the shy smile returned, “I know I want to do this.”

Lokaia smiled. “I’m really happy for you, Elmira. I wish I could be there for you.”

“Thank you,” Elmira replied. She cleared her throat and grinned brightly. “So! Enough about me, what’s going on with you all?”

Lokaia’s smile faltered slightly. “Oh, not much,” she murmured. There was a slight buzzing noise, the beginning of Lokaia’s alarm clock. “I guess I should go,” she told Elmira quickly, and woke up.

“I can’t find it, Cat,” Suzee told her, annoyed as she searched through the main computer of the med lab.

Cat glanced at the computer screen and frowned. “That’s because you’re not looking in the right folder. I’m looking for the inventory records. You could at least pretend to help me, you know.”

“I am pretending,” Suzee snapped. “I’m trying to find something interesting to look at because I am not spending my visit going over inventory records with you.”

“Fine,” Cat snapped back. “Go play minbar chess or Nine Globe Dudley or whatever it is you want to do, but I have to find the records so why don’t you just--”

“Oh, my God,” Suzee breathed, her hand covering her mouth.

Cat sighed. “Look, Suz, I’m sorry I snapped at you, but--”

“No, not you,” Suzee told her. “I don’t care about that. You will never guess what I just found.” She pointed at the computer screen.

Cat walked over and leaned over Suzee’s chair to see. “It’s an ultrasound. So what? It’s probably one of TJ’s.”

“No, look! This is dated only a week ago!” Suzee turned around slowly with a sly grin on her face. “Cat… somebody on this ship is pregnant.”

“No way,” Cat told her, shaking her head. “It’s probably just dated wrong.”

Suzee scoffed. “That’s ridiculous, Cat. Rosie keeps everything up to code, you know that.”

Cat shrugged. “Well, then, it’s someone who doesn’t want us to know.” She gave Suzee a stern look. “So let’s pretend we don’t know.”

Not that Suzee was listening. She began counting off the female crewmembers on her fingers. “Okay, TJ would have told us right away, but it’s probably not her because she just had Seamus and I doubt she and Seth want another one so close to their first child. Rosie couldn’t keep something like this in long enough, so it’s not her. It’s not you because you were here with me when I found it. Lokaia…” She rounded on Cat. “Cat, it’s Lokaia! Kaia’s pregnant!”

“You don’t know that!” Cat snapped. “Besides, I didn’t hear you count yourself in that list.”

Suzee gave her a shocked look. “Hey, Cheiron and I are not that serious!”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Cat pulled her up out of the chair and shut down the main computer, hiding the ultrasound from view. “Come on. I’ll get the records later. And we’re not telling anyone about this, got it?”

Suzee rounded on her. “What?! Cat, we have to tell people! I mean, come on! Kaia’s pregnant and she didn’t even tell anyone!”

“Okay,” Cat sighed. “Okay, let’s just assume you’re right for the sake of argument. Maybe she hasn’t told Radu yet so she doesn’t want to tell anyone else until then.”

“Oh, that’s ridiculous,” Suzee said, dismissing that with a wave of her hand. “She would have told him the second she found out. You know how they are.”

“Yeah, I do. So, knowing them, Kaia probably has a really good reason to hide something like that from us, if and I mean if,” she said, stressing the word, “she actually is pregnant, which I don’t think she is.”

Suzee crossed her arms. “Okay, then who do you think it is?”

“Think what is?”

Suzee sighed exaggeratedly. “The ultrasound! The pregnancy! Where have you been for the last ten minutes?!”

Cat made a face at her. “Here. Wondering why you’re my best friend and Rosie isn’t.”

“Because Rosie would have agreed with you right away about not telling anyone instead of providing you with this incredibly entertaining repartee,” Suzee told her with a grin. She sobered and cocked her head at Cat. “Look, just tell me: has Kaia acted any differently lately?”

Cat squirmed, not meeting Suzee’s gaze. “Well… not, you know, really…”

“Cat, you’re a horrible liar,” Suzee accused her.

Cat threw up her arms, exasperated. “Okay, fine, Kaia’s been quieter and more distant and distracted but that does not mean she’s pregnant!”

Suzee put her hands on her hips. “It does too! Those are signs of pregnancy!”

“So, what? Now you’re an expert on the signs of pregnancy?” Cat demanded, heading for the door.

“Apparently!” Suzee exclaimed, walking ahead of her.

Cat caught her arm and turned her from the door. “Listen to me, Suzee,” she told her seriously. “I don’t want you to tell anyone about this. Got it? Tell no one.”

“But--”

“No!” Cat interrupted her. “Promise me.”

“Oh, come on--”

“Promise!”

Suzee scowled. “All right, fine, I promise, whatever. I won’t tell anyone that Lokaia’s pregnant.”

“Thank you.” Cat let go of her arm and headed off towards the jumptubes without her.

Suzee retained her scowl as she leaned against the doorframe. Harlan came down the hallways on his way to the jumptubes. “Hey, Suz, what’s up?” he said, by way of a greeting.

“Lokaia’s pregnant!” Suzee cried, scaring him out of his wits.

“Suzee, that doesn’t make any sense,” TJ told her. “Lokaia wouldn’t hide something so important from us.”

“She would if there was something wrong with it,” Bova put in. “Maybe it’s a demon or because it’s half Elvian and half Andromedan there’s something wrong with it or maybe--”

Harlan elbowed him sharply. “Bova, there’s nothing wrong with it or her.”

“How do you know?” the Uranusian demanded.

“Because if there was something wrong, she would have told us immediately,” Harlan informed him. “Or Rosie would have known since she had to take the ultrasound and she would have said something.”

Seth stood from his chair, shaking his head. “Harlan’s right, Bova. Lokaia would tell us and if not her, then Rosie.”

Suzee frowned. “All right, fine. If none of you believe me then maybe you can explain it! I found an ultrasound dated last week. Someone on this ship is pregnant—at least two months. Rosie wouldn’t have been able to keep it in, Cat was just as shocked as I was, and, TJ, you would have told us, right?”

“Yeah, right?” Seth echoed, looking at her.

TJ smiled and stood, passing Seamus to Harlan who held him awkwardly. “No, I’m not pregnant again, calm down.”

“Um… can I put this somewhere else?” Harlan asked, gesturing to Seamus as the baby squirmed.

Seth sighed, frowning at Harlan. “At the head and back, Harlan. Hold him at the head and back.” Harlan adjusted his hold and smiled sheepishly.

Bova shook his head at the human. “Jeez, Harlan, what would you do if it was Cat?”

“Faint,” Harlan answered immediately, glancing at the baby. Seamus laughed at him, grabbing his thumb and startling Harlan.

“You see?” Suzee said superiorly. “It has to be Kaia.”

Seth looked around at the others. “I guess that makes sense,” he said not exactly sure. TJ and Harlan nodded after a moment.

Bova paused before speaking. “I guess you’re right, Suz, but why’d you tell us?”

“What?” Suzee asked, surprised.

“Well, she’s known for, what? Two months, right? And she didn’t tell us? She probably had a good reason for not wanting to,” Bova pointed out.

Suzee was silent for a moment before scowling at him and snapping, “Thanks, Cat.”

“Ca!” Seamus shouted suddenly.

Seth and TJ’s jaws dropped. Harlan glanced at them nervously. “Is he supposed to do that?”

“He’s been talking—well, making sounds a lot lately,” Seth told him, taking Seamus back into his arms. “That was just the closest he’s ever come to a word.”

“And it wasn’t even Mama,” TJ huffed.

Seth kissed her cheek to comfort her. “It wasn’t even a real word, Teej. We won’t count it until we can find it in a dictionary, okay?”

“Mama’s not in the dictionary.”

“Then you’ll have to wait for ‘Mother’.”

“Hello!” Suzee shouted. “Can we focus, please? Lokaia. Is. Pregnant.”

The others exchanged glances. “Well, what do you want us to do about it, Suz?” Harlan asked. “She didn’t tell us for a reason--you probably shouldn’t have told us.”

“And now that you have we’ll just have to pretend we don’t know,” Bova added.

Suzee glared at them. “Then what was the point of my telling you?!”

“There wasn’t a point to it, Suzee,” TJ told her.

“Fine!” Suzee snapped. “You guys can just figure out information for yourselves from now on!” She whirled around and left the room in a huff.

“Married?” Radu repeated. “Already? They hardly know each other.”

Lokaia laughed. “’Know each other’? Radu, they’ve been stuck on a tiny ship by themselves for over a year! That’s about how long we knew each other before we were married.”

Radu looked at her for a minute before smiling sheepishly and scratching his head. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. It was a stupid thing for me to say.”

“I understand,” his wife told him with a heartfelt smile. “You still care about her.”

The Andromedan’s eyebrows shot up and he shook his head fervently. “Oh, no, Loki, I don’t really--”

She stopped him by putting a hand to his lips and laughing. “I know you don’t, Radu. I meant she’s your friend, just like she’s mine.”

The sheepish smile returned. “Oh.” He made a face at Lokaia, who was still laughing. “You know, her plan seems an awful lot like the plan you and I had.”

Lokaia shrugged. “I guess so. Marrying so your people can respect you and you can continue your so-called destiny without the current ruler being able to stop you.” She paused, her eyes growing wide. “Wow. It’s a lot like my plan.”

Radu laughed at her expression. “Well, good for her. It worked out for us, anyway.”

She wrapped an arm around his waist. “Yeah, well, we’re special.” Radu grinned and hugged her from behind, his arms wrapped around her belly. “You’re special,” he told her, kissing her cheek without a resounding smack.

Lokaia laughed and turned her head to kiss him as the doors to the ComPost opened. Suzee and Bova came in, Suzee with a raised eyebrow. “Should you be hugging her that tightly, Radu?” she asked, as they noticed the other two. “I mean, especially now.”

“Now?” Radu asked, confused, but Lokaia looked nervous. “What do you mean?”

Bova elbowed Suzee as she started to explain and glared at her. “She doesn’t mean anything.” Suzee glowered at him. “Yeah,” she muttered. “Nothing.”

“Then why--”

“Leave well enough alone, Radu,” Lokaia told him, staring at Suzee with unrecognizable look on her face. She left the ComPost and Radu stared after her before turning to Suzee with a raised eyebrow. “What did you mean, Suzee?”

Suzee was about to answer when Bova clapped a hand over her mouth. “You’ll have to excuse Suzee, Radu,” Bova told him. “The stress of life on the Christa is taking a toll on her mental health.”

Suzee smacked his hand away and growled, “In a minute I’ll be taking a toll on your physical self, Bova!” The Uranusian man ran out of the room with Suzee trailing behind, leaving Radu utterly confused.

“Mama,” TJ told her son.

“Ba,” he answered.

“No, Mama.”

“Ba.”

“Mama?”

“Ba?”

“Mama!”

“Ba!”

“Still no luck?” Seth asked from the doorway.

TJ sighed. “Nothing. I thought ‘ba’ was going to lead up to ‘ball’ but apparently not.”

“Not even a ‘ma’?”

“’Ma’ isn’t in the dictionary either,” she informed him.

“Hmm. Too bad.”

“Ba!” Seamus cried, reaching up his arms towards his father. Seth smiled and picked him up. “Don’t suppose he got out a ‘Da’, did he?”

TJ glared at him. “Don’t even start with me, Seth.”

“Fa?”

She sighed. “No, he’s stuck on ‘ba’ for right now. I don’t even know what he’s trying to say.”

Seth shrugged. “Maybe he’s working his way through the alphabet. It was ‘ca’ earlier, wasn’t it? Maybe the next one will just be ‘a’.”

“Then it will take him even longer to get to Ma,” TJ told him, scowling.

Seth laughed at her expression. “I know something that’ll make you feel better.” He sat down next to her with Seamus in his arms. “Look what you did,” he accused the baby. “You made Mommy all mad. Tell her you love her.” TJ couldn’t help but laugh when Seth set Seamus in her arms and the baby grabbed her finger and stuck it in his mouth, chewing on it.

“See?” Seth asked, laughing with her.

TJ smiled at her son. “Okay, so he’s not saying ‘Mama’. I suppose I can deal with that.”

“I can not believe you did that, Suzee!” Cat yelled at her.

“What?” Suzee demanded, seemingly innocent. “I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“Like hell!” Cat cried, obviously upset with her. “You want Kaia to tell Radu so that you could bug her about it. That’s low, Suzee, even for you.”

Suzee scowled. “I am telling you, Cat, I did not purposefully say anything. It was a slip, I swear.”

But Cat didn’t back down. She continued to scream at Suzee until the Yensidian became so angry she left the room in a huff. She was stewing in her own emotions when she bumped into something and fell to the floor. She snarled at whatever it was and flipped the air from her face to see.

Lokaia stood there looking nervous. She held out a hand that Suzee took and helped her to her feet. “Sorry about that,” the Elvian said quietly. “I didn’t see you.”

Suzee shrugged. “That’s okay. I wasn’t really paying attention.” She started to continue on her way but Lokaia caught her arm. “Actually, Suzee, can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked in her quiet way, biting her lip.

Suzee stared at her. “Yeah,” she said slowly. “Sure.”

The Elvian’s purple eyes searched her imploringly. “How did you know?”

Suzee’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh. That. Uh… Ca- um, I found an ultrasound in the medlab and sort of, uh… figured it out.”

Lokaia blew out a sigh. “Guess I should have deleted that, huh?”

Suzee ignored that. “Why haven’t you told Radu?”

Lokaia gave her a small smile without any humor. “I didn’t want to… to see his reaction. You know, just yet.”

“Are you serious?” Suzee asked her incredulously. “Kaia, he’d be overjoyed!”

“He would?”

Suzee couldn’t believe how naïve she was. “Of course!”

Lokaia stared at her for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess you’re right. Thanks, Suzee.” She started to leave then turned back to her. “Um, could you do me a favor, do you think?”

Suzee shrugged. “Yeah, sure, Kai. What is it?”

“Could you not tell anyone else about it? I… I don’t want anyone else to know before I tell Radu.”

“Uh. Sure. Of course,” Suzee said, lying through her teeth.

“Thank you.” Lokaia cocked her head and smiled. “You really are a good friend, Suzee.” She smiled again and left the corridor. Suzee slammed her body back against the wall and sighed. “I’d hate to see her impression of a bad friend…”

“What is that?” Harlan asked, squinting at the mess on Cat’s place.

She made a face as well. “I don’t have a clue, as usual.” She sighed. “But I’m really hungry.” Harlan laughed at her as she took a place at the table beside Lokaia.

Suzee frowned at Lokaia’s plate, which held very little food on it. “Kaia, shouldn’t you be eating more? I mean--”

“Suzee!” Cat snapped, glaring at her. Lokaia’s head snapped between the two of them, almost able to see the tension between them.

Despite Cat’s warning, Suzee didn’t back down. “Oh, shut up, Cat! Kaia, I’m getting you more food.”

“Well, actually, I’m not that hungry--”

“You really should be eating more, sweetie,” TJ told her. “You have to keep your strength up.”

Lokaia turned a frightened glance on her. “My strength up? Why? Will I get sick?”

TJ smiled kindly. “Not for a few more months. Don’t worry.”

“You see!” Suzee exclaimed angrily at Cat. “Everybody knows anyway!”

Lokaia paled deathly white. “Everyone knows?! Suzee, you promised you wouldn’t tell!”

Suzee winced as she looked at the Elvian. “Oh…um…”

Radu watched them bicker worriedly. “What is going on? Why should she eat more? Why would she be getting sick?”

Lokaia flushed. “No reason, Radu, just igno--”

“Because she’s--” Suzee began to cry, exasperated.

“Suzee, NO!” Lokaia cried angrily.

“Lokaia, just say it!” Suzee cried, fed up. She turned to Radu. “Kaia’s pregnant!”

Both Radu and Lokaia’s jaws dropped. There was a pause and Radu’s face broke into a wide smile as he turned to his wife. “You’re pregnant?!” he cried, overjoyed.

She turned to him slowly, her face in an expression of intense pain and sorrow. “N-no, I’m not.” She saw his happy expression drop and began to cry, running from the room.

“Kaia!” Suzee called, immediately remorseful.

Cat stood suddenly, sending the chair flying. “Suzee, shut up and leave her alone!”

“No, Cat, you shut up!” Suzee yelled. “Why couldn’t you just let me talk to her?!”

“Because!,” Cat literally screamed. “Because that wasn’t her sonogram!”

“Yeah, right!” Suzee cried angrily. “Then whose was it?!”

“Mine!” Cat cried, without thinking. “It’s my sonogram! I’m pregnant!”

There was silence in the room following that and suddenly a dull thump as Harlan fainted.

“Baby!” Seamus cried loudly.