This Little Piggy Hit Home

Posted on Wed Apr 12th, 2023 @ 3:53am by Lieutenant Thraxina & Petty Officer, 2nd Class Harmony Stardancer

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 3: The Peace Ship
Location: Sickbay

Ridiculously enough, Thraxina nearly forgot to go and see Harmony for the pregnancy test after the long shift on the bridge. She was halfway to her quarters when the sight of a Terrarite crew-woman walking the other way along the corridors of the Midway gave her memory a jolt and she did a volte face and strode purposefully toward sickbay.

As she did so, the full impact of what she was about to find out dawned upon her. If she was with child (or was it ‘with litter’) then her whole life would change: she usually thought in terms of short-term sybaritic pleasure and long term hard political goals, but this would affect both of those lifestyle choices. It would be inconvenient to say the least.

But she also had this strange feeling that if she wasn’t... that she would be strangely disappointed. She shook her head. Nonsense! If she was caught, she would have to have the dratted things due to Ardanan taboos and social mores, but she’d immediately have them sent off to some nursery planet or maybe better yet, back to Stratos City where, once judged by the very high standards of the Eugenics Panel, they would no doubt be sent to the Disposal Platforms: the oh-so advanced civilisation’s equivalent of the ancient Spartan tradition of exposing sickly babies on a cold, snowy hillside.

Yes. Of course that’s what she would do, she decided; trying to screw her heart to the sticking point.

The door to Stardancer’s little office swished open.

“Come on then, Harms, tell me the worst!” She greeted the teal-clad medic in her usual Devil-may-care manner, jumping up onto her examination couch.

"Good day to you, Thrax." Harmony looked up from the reports she was finally finishing up with and smiled. "You want the worst? Um...they've decided to bring back daylight savings time, and disco is coming back?"

Thraxina did not look impressed. "I don't know what either of those things are, but they both sound hideous." she said. "Meanwhile, back in space, I need to know if I am with child. Wave your magic gizmo over the old tum-tum and tell me my fears are groundless and so on and so forth." she requested, lying back and relaxing.

"Ah, yes, play silly games, win silly prizes." Harmony grinned, picking up her tricorder, not really expecting to find anything, but if it would make Thraxina happy and put her at ease, she'd play along. Not like it took much effort.

Thraxina laughed, albeit a little nervously "Ha! You know, for a space-hippy, you're a bit of a prude, Harms."

"So, have you had any symptoms," she asked as she started the scan, "morning sickness or...oh, felgercarb!"

"What is it?" as the helmswoman, alarmed; although it wasn't past Stardancer to play a joke on her.

Blinking, she ran the scanner over Thraxina's abdomen again, then shook her head. "Five, Thrax. Too soon to tell what they are going to be like, but...five."

When she first said 'five' the Ardanan woman thought the elfin medic meant 'just give me a five seconds' or something, but now her meaning became all too apparent.

"You mean..." Thraxina felt faint, but pulled it together: she was a Starfleet Officer after all, she pulled herself up and twisted on the examination couch so she was sitting face to face with the blue-clad medic. The proud young woman of Stratos City, whose rather short emotional range usually went from frosty (with subordinates) to flippant (with friends) now opened her mouth to complain about how inconvenient this would be to her social life and her career aspirations, etc., etc., but instead heard herself, teary-eyed, gush to the medic "Oh, Harmony... I'm going to be a Mummy!!!"

"And I guess that makes me an auntie?" Harmony grinned.

She held out her arms "I need a hug... that's an order!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Moving in, Harmony hugged her friend tightly. "Congratulations! I'll help every step of the way!" Of course, she probably should see one of the doctors now that it was confirmed, But they could discuss that later.

They hugged a good long time, Thraxina even had a little maudlin happy-sad weep, although for the life of her she wouldn't have been able to identify which exact emotion had sparked that off. She never cried. That had been educated out of them on Stratos. Finally they separated.

"I suppose I'd better report this to the Captain." she laughed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Oh Gods, I'm not sure I can even remember the name of the Father! Isn't that awful? It was one of those long Tellarite names... I don't suppose you caught it that time we went in for you to talk to Haili?" she asked the medic, perhaps over-optimistically.

Harmony allowed Thraxina as long as she needed, knowing that it had to be quite a blow. Often, Harmony had thought about what it would be like to find out she was pregnant. That wasn't likely, though, she needed a steady mate first, she wasn't going to risk something like that without having a man that was going to be with her through the long-haul...and that she'd want to be with her through the long-haul! Besides, as much as she knew she'd give her life to save someone else's child, she really didn't think she had a motherly bone in her body!

"You've got a bit of time before you have to tell the Captain," Harmony commented, glancing at her PADD, "gestation for...well, three or four months, but I don't know about hybrids." Thraxina really did need to see a proper doctor! "I don't know that you ever mentioned his name...he's Haili's brother, I think?"

Thraxina nodded and pulled a face "Yes, I know... oh Gods, I've got a horrible feeling it was something awful like Garri or Barri or something. Oh well, I'll just make something up for the records, something more impressive Fleetmaster-General Porkins of Tellar. Something like that."

She rubbed her tummy with a little happy smile on her face.

"Of course, I'm assuming they are Fleetmaster-General Porkin's little brood, not Commodore Anderson's. I mean, I think that's highly unlikely anyway..." she leaned in closer to Harmony and whispered "... that was all a bit of a mess, if you know what I mean?" she disclosed in true Thraxina T.M.I. fashion.

"Just keep in mind that whoever you name as the father might find out about it and decide he wants confirmation," Harmony pointed out, "or worse, wants to do right and marry you." There were a lot of things to consider, and Harmony wanted to be sure that her friend thought this all through.

"Marry?! Urghh!!" was Thraxina's reply to that little idea "I'm never going to get married. I really don't know where you get these horrible ideas from Harmony, really I don't! Are you suffering from space -sickness or something?" Thraxina humphed good naturedly. She meant it, though. Funny how a fleeting image of Commander Stryker flitted through her mind when Harmony had mentioned the preposterous idea, though.

"I don't know, I guess just our tradition. Mom and kids go with a dad to make a family." Harmony shrugged.

Thraxina thought for a moment, imagining herself and the big boar-like bouncer going on pignics, er.... picnics with the little ones, maybe with daddy having to pick up and carry the inevitable runty one because her trotters were hurting. Hmmmmm.

“It does sound nice, in a quaint sort of way” she had to admit. Gosh, was being pregnant making her this soppy already? Maybe it was some kind of nesting instinct kicking in, but she didn’t laugh off Hamony’s suggestion as she would normally do.

"Just seems right that the dad would want to help support and raise the kids." She laughed then. "Well, I guess the dad's not a goat, is he?"

Thraxina frowned, then laughed and rolled her eyes at the same time.

“Oh, because kids are baby goats! More of your hilarious ‘Earth humour’...” She suddenly stopped laughing and stared at the medic with a look of wonder on her flawless face.

“Oh my Gods, Harms, you’re a genius! That’s it.... his name was Billi! I distinctly remember shouting ‘Billi, Billi, that’s it! Don’t stop, you great big truffle snuffler!...’” she glanced at Harmony “Oh, sorry, too much information?”

"Yeah, probably." Harmony knew that was going to haunt her dreams for a long time, and no number of cleansing rituals was going to help! "At least you remember now. And...oh, dang, now I have that in my head, like the pheasant plucker's son, only..."

"... some perfect piglets' papa!" Thraxina completed, with her own new version of the tongue twisting couplet. She looked at Stardancer seriously now.

"Not exactly," Harmony muttered, but not wanting to elaborate:

I'm not a truffle snuffler,
I'm a truffle snuffler's son,
and I'm sittin' snuffin' truffles
'Til the truffle snufflin's done!

"You know, Commander Stryker told me about his wife or ex-wife or whatever; how her career in the Fleet was 'derailed' by having just a single kid. I'm determined to show that a woman can - and should! - be able to have a perfectly successful career and bring up a child, or even five!"

"Mind you, his wife does sound like a drip." she added cattily.

"He talked about her a little," Harmony commented, "but more about his son. Dunno, but there are families on the ship, so it seems like something you can do, especially with a little help."

"Oooh, thanks for offering!" smiled Thraxina gratefully. "how many nights a week can I put you down for babysitting duty?" She seemed to be quite serious.

"Oh, well, maybe some..." Harmony didn't mind helping now and again, but every week? "I'm on call most of the time, you know, in case there's an emergency, but sure, I can help, teach them good habits like chanting and cleansings..."

"Well, I'm not too worried about the chanting, but help with the cleansing might be useful with 5 pairs of space-diapers to contend with!" Thraxina replied merrily.

"Not exactly that kind of cleansing," Harmony countered with a wide grin, "although it might help erase unpleasant memories! But really, you should consult with one of the doctors, to find out more about things like gestation, possible complications...I can do some research, too, I doubt you are the first to have children with a Tellurian." They'd figure this out.

“You’re right: Female Tellurians do it all the time!” jested Thraxina weakly “Seriously, though, I know what you mean. Hmmm, which of the doctors do you think I should see? You know them all better than I do, obviously.”

There were enough to chose from on this ship: the blue antennaed Andorian woman with the unpronounceable name, ancient Dr Kitchner, the handsome but slightly weird Dr Slattery and... ugh... her annoying ‘friend of a friend’ the smug, self-satisfied Mike Amato: the two of them could scarcely meet on the ship’s corridor without having a spat or getting a dig in at each other.

Thraxina waited for Harmony’s recommendation which she would take, of course: she trusted this woman more than just about anyone else on board. But all the time she was thinking don’t say Amato, don’t say Amato, don’t say Amato....’

"Oh, I don't know..." Harmony had no idea if any of the doctors specialized in obstetrics. "Any of them, I guess, just to keep track of the progress, advise you on nutrition and all that." She shrugged.

"I'll just make an appointment and see who I get... let the fates decide" Thraxina shrugged. "Not sure what they can tell me more than you have anyway."

"You might have to have special vitamins, or eat special foods so the babies get what they need?" She didn't know much about such things, but she did suspect something that was universal. "Probably shouldn't be imbibing while you're pregnant, either..."

The helmswoman groaned "Oh Gods, just you saying that's made me feel like a drink!" she half laughed "Oh well, surely I'm allowed to eat, at least? I mean, I'm eating for six now!! Gosh, they're going to have to get bigger plates in the cafeteria!" she said, imagining an enormous plate of 'Full-English' multiplied by six!

"Not necessarily," Harmony observed, "you just have to go back a few times, and the exercise will be good for you!" It could be like a game, 'How many times does Thraxy refill her tray?'. "And you won't have to get the same thing each trip, so you'll get more variety!"

"I've told you before about saying the 'E' word in my presence." frowned Thraxy. "Oh well, I'd better go and tell the Captain the good news!" she sighed, twisting off the couch and standing. She was about to go when she stopped and put her hand on Stardancer's arm.

"Seriously, thanks for everything, and I'm glad it was you who told me." she smiled a genuine smile. for once, instead of one of the sarcastic or mocking ones she seemed to have in stock for most occasions. Oh Lord, was the USS Midway prepared for the phenomenon of nice Thraxina?!!

"I'm glad you felt you could come to me." Harmony smiled and gave Thraxina's hand a squeeze. "And be gentle with the Captain, it's going to be a shock, but hey, you should get bigger quarters, right?"

 

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