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Oops! - Chapter 6
Time: CY 10088 - AD Aug 5165Location: Kingfisher Mercy Hospital
"YOU'RE WHAT!?!" Beka spun around in her chair so rapidly that it tipped over and she had to leap out of it to keep from going over with it. "Say that again," she demanded to the young couple standing somewhat shamefacedly hand in hand before her.
"We're going to have a baby," repeated Harper, wondering how it could be that Beka seemed to be towering over him. "Err , I mean not us, her," he pointed to Trance. "I mean Trance is going to have a baby. I'm the father"
"You had damn well better be the father," stormed Beka. "But, how can she even BE pregnant? You're not even the same species for Divine's sake."
Trance gave a helpless shrug "I shouldn't be," she said. "I guess I must have forgotten to tell my ovaries," she added trying to make a joke.
Beka was not in the mood do be amused. "I thought I had taught you better than that, Harper. Haven't you ever heard of safe sex? And, you," she turned her wrath on Trance. "You're the Maru's medic, if anyone should know how to prevent a pregnancy it should be you. What were the two of you thinking? Never mind, it's obvious you weren't thinking. At least tell me you're not going to bring it to term."
"We're going to have this baby, Beka," said Trance, as Harper stepped protectively in front of her. "Harper and I are going to be parents."
"Crap, that's just what I don't need, another mouth to feed. As if you two aren't enough. I'm the master of the Maru I can order you..." She ceased in mid sentence stopped by the horrified looks on the faces of her crew members. "Oh, hell," she continued in a calmer voice, "just get out of my sight for a while."
Trance and Harper bolted out of Beka's room leaving Beka to ponder the bombshell her crew members had just dropped on her. After a few minutes she made a decision and made her way towards Trance and Harper's room.
When she entered Harper pointed to the clock mounted on one of the rooms walls and said to Trance. "Seventeen and a half minutes. Pay up babe. You owe me a kiss. I told you she would cool off within 20 minutes."
Beka let Trance pay the forfeit then delivered her own bombshell. "If you children are determined to have children while aboard the Maru," she said, "you're going to be doing it as man and wife. Trance, the lame brain you just kissed is no longer your boyfriend, as of this minute he's your fiancée."
Location: Andromeda Ascendant
"I would have loved to have seen the looks on their faces when you told them they had to get married," said Andromeda. "But I bet they didn't offer much resistance to the idea. Did Trance ever have any problems with the inhabitants of some of the places you visited?"
The smile that had been on Beka's face as she had been describing Trance and Harper's reaction left her face. "There was a bar on Holyoke," she admitted. "It was just before Harper got into that gunfight on New Texas. He nearly killed a man because of Trance's tail. We had just completed a rather strenuous run and were celebrating at this sleazy bar..."
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