Where

            “No. But I still need to know what happened.” She paused, looking down at the bulge in her lap, and put her hands on top of it. “He’s moving,” she said with a smile. Phlox came around to her side of the table.

            “May I?” She nodded, and Phlox placed his hand gently on her abdomen, feeling the same life from a different perspective, as a doctor, a colleague, a friend. 

            “Who is Lorelei and what is this secret she has over everyone?” Phlox was surprised, but only that it came up now and not earlier.

            “A woman who came by the IME after you left, looking for you.”

            “Why?”

            “You’re putting me in a position of betraying a doctor patient relationship.”

            “So you saw her?” Phlox nodded.

            “Absolutely nothing you need to be concerned over.”

            “Because I heard –“

            “I can surmise what you heard, and is not, and was not, ever, true. Was just a case of sour grapes and jealousy. Do you understand what I’m saying?” He looked directly at her, eye to eye, trying to balance honesty and ethics with his friendship for both Riaan and Jonathan. Riaan nodded slowly. “Don’t give such gossip another second of your energy or time. You’re above that.”

            “Thank you, Phlox. Jon and I had a disagreement right before he was injured and—“

            “I'm sure he doesn’t even remember it.”

            The family reunion proceeded awkwardly after so much time apart, but quickly resolved into its former peaceful dynamic from the days before Riaan left on Discovery. Jonathan was excited to be out of the sick bay, and Riaan was happy to have him in their quarters. Ariannaa declared she was sleeping with her mama and papa forever more; Brannigaan relaxed as he’d not since they came aboard, actually. Babysitting over, he enjoyed returning to the cabin he shared with Mitchell’s steward after he said goodnight to both adults at the same time.

            Ariannaa kept Jonathan busy the whole night after dinner, crawling on him and talking up a storm like never before. At 30 months she was using the bathroom on her own and words came to her daily, sometimes several words.  She gave the initial yawn that started the chain reaction, so Riaan took her to bed. Jonathan made his way to the bathroom, bedroom and all but crashed from exhaustion on the bed. Riaan did the same five minutes later.

            “I missed you so much,” she said before anything else, still needing to apologize for the cold shoulder she gave him six weeks ago. “I wanted to tell you, well, do you remember before you left, about the coffee?”

            “No. Should I?”

            “No, never mind. It’s not important anymore.” They were quiet a minute. “I was so afraid I was going to lose you,” she said quietly with a falter in her voice. She rolled to face him, putting a hand on his cheek.

            “It’s going to take more than a fall to get rid of me. Come on...we’ve been through life and death together. More than once. Probably won’t be the last.” He brushed some hair out of her eyes.

            “I’m sure you’re right,” she agreed, and reached over to turn the lights out. She shook out the covers and lay as close to Jon as she could, tucking her back against his front, and felt his quiet breath at her ear, reminding her of the last time they’d slept in the same bed. It seemed so long ago.

            “Baby,” he whispered, “if I wasn’t nearly unconscious…” He kissed her ear and fell asleep. Riaan took a deep, deep breath, let it out slowly, and then she too quickly fell deep asleep.

            Late the next morning, Riaan still lay on her side, and Jonathan was still bumped up against her, his hand resting on her belly. She woke when the squirming started, but didn’t dare disturb the long denied bliss of waking together. Unlike awaking from the coma, however, Jon woke suddenly with a shout and a burst of energy.

            “Oh! Oh, Riaan,” he said, realizing he was in his quarters, in bed, with his love. He molded up against her again, and tried to coil her close like he did so often before. Then, as Phlox predicted, the baby told his father of his presence. “What on earth–“ he stammered, firmly planting his hand where his son grew inside of Riaan, wriggling as if trying to break out. She put her hand on top of his.

            “I was going to talk to you about that.” Jonathan was still completely night blind, so she sat up and turned on the light so he could see.

            “Did I forget about this too?” He scrambled to get up but after losing 8 kilos of muscle he just didn’t have the strength.

            “No, you didn’t forget.” She turned to face him. "I never got a chance to tell you."

            “When?”

            “February.  A son.” Jonathan was awake, maybe as alert as he’d been in two years. He put both hands on her, thinking for some reason that she was almost as big as a water polo ball. Water polo? Where in hell did that come from?

            “What was, where were we,” he counted backwards with a little effort, “five months ago? You were here; where was I?”

            “You were there, too,” she chuckled, “before Eta Carinae started making noise, before I reported to Discovery.”

            “That seems like a lifetime ago.”

            “It was a life time ago,” Riaan repeated, “this life.” She covered his hands with her own.

      “Attention all hands, this is the captain. Carinae is about to die. Secure all stations, and get to a window.”

            Riaan jumped out of bed, grabbed Jonathan’s hands and pulled him out of bed. He was still unstable, not quite able to control his muscles, but he did well enough once on his feet. Their G Deck quarters were at the very lowest level of Discovery’s saucer, central and ventral fore of the sensors. Round windows for each of the four quarters located there offered unparalleled views save only the main view screen.

            “Time, an artificial thing calculated by movements of planets and stars,” Riaan said blankly. “And light. Waves we can see. Both about to change the galaxy.”

            “Huygens,” Jonathan said. “The wave theory of light and the first pendulum clock.”

            “That you remember?” Riaan asked, looking at Jonathan directly, as if she could see the cogs and gears turning in his brain to find that tidbit of information.

            “It’s just odd that they go together –waves of light and managing time. Christiaan Huygens. I’m surprised at the things I churn up these days.” He reached over to the intercom. “Archer to the bridge.”

            “Go ahead, Admiral,” Captain Mitchell answered.

            “What’s the view like from up there?”

            “Get your butt up here before you miss it!”

            It was perhaps 90 seconds from quarters to bridge. Riaan grabbed Ariannaa out of bed and then helped steady Jonathan as they rushed to the turbolift. The door slid open and the screen was still showing a nebula when they stepped out. Ariannaa ran to Commander Sato when her mother set her down, and Brannigaan came out of the situation room, coming to sit next to French at the helm.

            “The neutrino burst was off the scale just now; we couldn’t even read it,” Mitchell said excitedly. Riaan stepped to the science station, and Jonathan stood next to Mitchell at the captain’s chair, leaning on it just a little. Each person on the bridge almost stopped breathing, sitting on the edge of their seat, leaning forward as if the extra few centimeters might have made a difference. No one took their eyes of the view screen to save their life. No one spoke; a variety of beeps, whistles, signals and monitors continued their regular audio. And then it happened.

            Blinding white light filled the view screen like lightening in a desert storm. Everyone jumped at the stark, searing silvery white light. Despite its distance of over 7000 light years, the light obscured the center of the galaxy for a few seconds before beginning to diminish, allowing the edges of the view screen to return to black while the white ball shrank, slowly, taking more than a minute to become something about the size of the moon as seen from Earth. The stunning white orb glowed like a pure white diamond on a black velvet glove.

            The bridge burst into applause and cheers, overwhelming each other with the joy of watching this extraordinary event as a family, a family of space faring dreamers that each understood how each other must have felt, the incomparability of its importance and their fortune to have witnessed the birth of a black hole. Commander Sato had tears in her eyes; the rest of the crew couldn’t seem to wipe the awe from their faces.

            “The gas shockwave will follow but we have plenty of time before it gets here,” Mitchell assured everyone. He pushed a com button. “Mitchell to Astrometrics. How much time to do you need before we head back?”

            “About 50 hours, sir, by then we should have as much data as we’re going to get at this distance.”

            “French, anything we do while they’re busy, maybe within 10 light years? Planets to visit?” Asteroids to blow up? Orions to phaser?”

            “I’ll see what I can find for us, sir.”