Seven Moons

“A girl?” she mused. Phlox changed the image, and the two sat in silence as they both looked at the DNA strands displayed on the monitor. “Is there anything I should do or not do to make sure this doesn’t end like the last three?” Phlox was glad to hear her ask.

“I’d avoid strenuous activity, put in a full night’s sleep, take one of these each day,” he said, handing her a bottle off the shelf. “And no secrets. I expect you to tell the admiral before the end of today.”

Seven Moons

            “What?”

            “I’m-“

“I heard you! But that’s impossible.”

            “Apparently not,” Riaan said.

            Jonathan walked back and forth across the balcony of their apartment on the 19^th floor, passing Riaan each time he made another tour around the perimeter, voicing random thoughts as he did.

            “I, uh, I didn’t think I could have ever any children. I haven’t in all these years, you would have thought by now. And the transporter thing, you know? Commander Reed, well, he didn’t get brain damage, but he and his wife, well, and they’ve wanted children for years. I just…I just never expected… ”

            “Jon, sit down, please.” He looked at her, stopped pacing, and sat down in the other chaise. “I never expected it either. After the last few years, and especially with…you.”

            “Mom, I can’t sleep,” a faint voice came from the glass doors. Both Riaan and Jonathan turned to see Brannigaan in the doorway. Riaan sprang up, went to Branni and kissed him on the head.

            “Come on, let’s get back to bed.” Riaan ushered her son off the balcony and left Jonathan standing alone. He wasn’t quite sure to make of the situation. It hadn’t quite hit him yet. He didn’t really ever expect to be a family man.

            Degra, the Xindi who helped him stop the war 10 years ago, had told him to find the time for a family, that they were without question the most valuable, important legacy a man could leave behind. Statues didn’t carry the values of a man to another generation. Honors generally die with the body. Jonathan told himself he’d been busy, didn’t have the time. And here something precious and priceless had dropped in his lap. He didn’t have to find or make the time. The time found him.

            He stood on the balcony looking out at the span of golden dots floating above an invisible black bay. The surprise of Riaan’s revelation started to fade, and in its place a little firefly hummed. A smile grew on his face, along with a characteristic frown. He puzzled at his own light headedness, not sure if it was his normal neurosis or a new wave he love he felt for Riaan. Jonathan Archer had been through life and death, stranded, starved, shot, tortured, even traveled through time, but he’d never felt quite this terrified, yet delighted, at the same time before. There was no name for this emotion, no tag, no description. 

            He went inside. In the kitchen he tapped up two cups of hot tea, one with sugar, and took them out to the balcony setting the tray on the chaise. He leaned on the railing, feeling the cool, damp autumn air coming off the bay in his face. The moon was on the other side of Earth tonight, leaving a darker sky than most nights. Even though the stars seemed to blink hello in an alien Morse code, he suddenly couldn’t remember the name of a single star in the sky. He knew he knew them. And yet he didn’t. Fantastically distracted he didn’t notice Riaan come up behind him.

            “This was nice,” she said, handing him one of the cups of hot tea.

            “Look out there,” he asked her, with a nod in the direction of the north sky. “What do you see?”

            “Aldebaran, Capella, Polaris; I know the Crab Nebula is over there, but I can’t see it without the telescope. More to the south I see Betelgeuse, Rigel, and Castor and Pollux. Did I get them right?” She also leaned on the railing and looked out at the dark landscape. She saw the smiling frown appear before he gave it to her. She bit her lower lip, then took a sip of the tea. She grimaced at it – “yours,” she said, and handed it to Jon. He traded with her.

            “Yes, I’m sure you’re right. I don’t remember.” He indulged some of the sweet tea and sighed. “It will probably come back in a day or two. At least I know I should know them.”

            “Jon,” Riaan said quietly, bidding him to look at her, “After what happened when you told me about Kellam, I thought I would never bear any more babies, much less with a human. It never occurred to me that maybe we should-“

            Jonathan put his hand to her mouth to stop her words. When she stopped talking he placed his hand on her cheek and held her face so he could kiss her. Then he kissed her forehead, pulled back a few centimeters and looked at her wide brown eyes.

            “I am overjoyed,” he told her. “More than overjoyed – I’m over the moon.” Jonathan squared her shoulders to him. “If I gave you the impression of anything else, other than maybe surprise, I’m sorry.”

            “Phlox made me promise to tell you. I was going to wait a while, until I was sure this wasn’t going to end in another disaster. He said I shouldn’t worry.”

            “Ah, ha ha, yes, Dr. Phlox.” Jonathan smiled to himself. He imagined the expression on Phlox’s face must have been unique. “I plan on having a long conversation with that man tomorrow.” Jonathan wrapped his arm around Riaan’s shoulder and held her close to his side, pulling them both to face the bay again. A cool offshore wind arose off the Pacific and calmed the remnants of anxiety and uncertainty bouncing between them. “It’s a little cool out here.”

            “I know where we can be nice and warm,” Riaan hinted with a bump of her shoulder against Jonathan’s arm.

            “I know that place.”

            “But, um, Phlox said no strenuous activity.” She looked up at Jonathan with a slow, engaging blink of her eyes.

            “Yes, I’m going to talk to that man right away.”