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“You’re pregnant, Mrs. Sarek.”
“My name is Amanda, I told you months ago to- what?!”
The words rang in my ears for about a minute before the male doctor continued,
“Your human chorionic gonadotropin or HCG is over 1,300, which not only means you are clearly pregnant but we will be able to see something on an ultrasound scan if you are willing to stay for another moment.”
My ears were still ringing with those two words. While we had been married for a year and a half, the Vulcan doctors had explained to us a month into our marriage that the probability of conceiving naturally would be nearly impossible.
After that, we stopped taking any sort of precaution. I suppose all we needed was time, but I was still cautious.
“See something? Like see the baby?”
“Yes.” the doctor reassured with a small smile. “Now I only have an old-fashioned ultrasound machine here but it works just the same as the new ones. Would you like to lay back, this probe will just go on your stomach.”
My mind raced with the Vulcan physician’s words: “The probability of pregnancy occurring naturally is 0.324%. I encourage you both to consider alternative measures.”
There was silence for about two minutes as the cold probe dug into my lower belly, almost threatening to make my half full bladder burst. I feared the worst and braced myself for it.
If there was no heartbeat – that would be okay. One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage and the rate is often higher for interspecies pregnancies.
“It’s okay if there’s no heartbeat,” I said, my voice shaking with emotion. “You can tell me.”
A sound filled the room – it sounded like a horse galloping down a track to the finish line.
“What’s?-“
“That’s the heartbeat.”
I turned to the side, the doctor looked in my direction while simultaneously turning the screen. While it was the size of a bean, there was no denying the presence of a heartbeat and the smallest beginnings of movement.
The fear, the worry, the questions all left me in an instant. My eyes welled with tears that quickly fell down the sides of my face. It would all be okay. I would make it work – we would make it work.
“Happy tears, I imagine?”
“Very.” I responded, wiping my eyes with the sleeve of my dress.
He helped me into a seated position, handing me a tissue for the gel on my belly.
“The pregnancy looks healthy so far.” He assured, “The heartrate is normal and the beginning of movement is very reassuring. Since this is a Vulcan-human hybrid pregnancy I recommend that you return to the clinic next week for another scan as well as blood tests.”
After fiddling with some things on the machine, he handed me a multitude of long thick paper with black and white imaging which I hesitantly accepted.
“It’s the ultrasound,” he assured, “for your husband.”
“How far along am I?” I asked.
“The CRL measured seven weeks four days. Congratulations Mrs. Sarek, and remember to make an appointment on the way out.”
~*~
“AHHHHH!!! Congratulations!!!”
Linnea, my old friend wrapped me in the tightest hug. She about tossed her mug of hot tea over her shoulder when I told her the news. She playfully rubbed my non-existent bump before wrapping me in a hug once more.
“How- when did you find out?”
“Today,” I pulled away, “When I went to the Doctor. I know it was quite the surprise for me too.”
“Well you weren’t feeling well for a few weeks so I knew something was amiss but never a pregnancy. The doctors here said-“ She trailed off, she looked down for a moment before continuing, “but it doesn’t matter now. Tell me, how far along are you?”
“Seven weeks, the doctor said.”
She moved my mug of tea closer to me, leaning against the counter.
“Have you thought about how to tell Sarek yet? He returns in four hours with Felix from that two-week business trip.”
“I was actually going to ask you about that. Do you have any ideas?”
“Oooh, this will be fun!” Linnea boosted.
~*~
After three hours of suggestions, I finally settled on the perfect announcement. A holographic candlelight dinner consisting of baby potatoes, baby carrots, and baby corn with a side of veal for myself.
I know the choice of meat is morbid, but it was only thing ‘baby’ wise that I could find on the replicator. The vegans would thank me as no baby cows were killed in the making of this pregnancy announcement dinner. It was synthetic meat, after all.
I set the table in the kitchen, the holographic lights the perfect shade of yellow and orange. At 19:00, I heard a hovercar pull past the gate. I drew in a breath while adjusting my blue maxi dress as I marvelled in the last few moments before I told my husband the news that would change our lives and relationship forever.
The door opened and I found myself almost running to him. He placed his black duffle bag down on the ground just as I wrapped my arms around him.
“Welcome home! I missed you so much!”
We lingered there for more than a minute, my arms wrapped around him before I felt him arms wrap around my back. After barely three seconds he pulled away holding me at arm’s length.
I rose a brow as I felt his eyes wonder from my eyes all the way to my toes and then up again.
“Sarek, are you okay?”
“I am well, Amanda. Have you visited the physician like I requested?”
I smiled, and closed the door behind him. Linnea came into view and took his duffle bag without a word returning upstairs.
“I have indeed seen the Doctor, my love. I actually wanted to talk to you about that. We can discuss it over dinner.”
I motioned towards the kitchen, “It’s all ready for you.”
I practically pulled him to kitchen. I pulled out the chair and watched him set down with ease.
“Have you noticed anything about dinner?” I asked.
He looked down and was silent for a moment before saying, “Is the replicator malfunctioning once more?”
“No, darling.” I smiled, slightly amused at his response, “What do you notice about the dinner?”
His eyes glanced up to me before looking back down at the plate, “The meal consists of small vegetables.”
“Yes! What’s small about them exactly?!”
Maybe this would take less time than I thought.
“They are… small.”
I wanted to hit my head on the table.
“Okay, let’s try this again.” I bent down beside him and pointed to the potatoes, “What are these called when they are in their small form?”
“Micro?”
“What’s another word for Micro?”
“Diminutive.”
“Oh my dear lord in Himmel.” My hand rubbed my eyes in amusement and frustration.
“Okay, these are baby potatoes.” I told him.
I watched him, waiting, hoping for it to finally click. When I saw his brow raise and he opened his mouth to speak I couldn’t control the smile that ran across my lips, but instead he said,
“Does baby refer to their age or their size?”
“That’s not the point, Sarek!” I rubbed my fingers across my eyes and sighed in frustration.
“I fail to see the meaning as to why you prepare micro food. It is illogical. Are you not hungry?”
I made my way to my feet and walked around the table, “I am hungry, but I will eat later.” I reached under the table and handed him a green wrapped box.
“Open it.” I insisted, sitting down across from him.
“At this very moment? I wish to eat end meal.”
“Sarek. Open it now, it will only take five seconds.”
“Technically opening a package takes approximately-“
“Sarek!”
He stopped, and examined the box. After a moment I watched him open the box, my stomach welling with excitement. This was it, he couldn’t miss it this time. Theres no way.
He pulled out a grey long-sleeved baby onesie and held it up examining it as if it were a bomb.
“Is one of your colleagues expecting a baby?” Sarek asked.
“No, not one my colleagues, no.” My smile widened.
“Then why do you hand me a box with the clothing befitting of a…” he reads the label on the collar of the onesie, “one-month old infant?”
“Do you really not know?”
“This is highly illogical as I cannot fit in the clothing befitting a one month old and neither can you. None of our servants have informed me that they are expecting a child.”
My head literally hit the table in a moment of pure frustration. I sighed and pulled my hand back up to look at him trying to muster the most serious look I could manage.
When he opened his mouth to speak I thought for sure it had clicked – we were going to be parents, “Is your feline companion expecting kittens?”
“Oh dear god!” I sighed, exasperatedly.
“Firstly, Ambassador is a male, secondly he is fixed, and thirdly, there are no female cats near him.”
When he simply looked at me for more than a minute, I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Instead, I reached into my dress pocket and pulled out the long multitude of thick black-and-white images and handed them to him across the table.
“How about this? What do you see?”
He glanced at the photo, “It is a photograph.”
“Of what?” I was starting to get frustrated now.
“Of some organism. It appears to be quite small.”
“You’re not entirely wrong, but it’s not an organism. I will give you a hint – this picture is of somewhere inside my body.”
“Has your gastrointestinal illness resurfaced?”
Thank god we were getting somewhere.
“As it turned out no. Look a little closer in the middle the picture.”
“There appears to be a grey coloured shadow.”
“Yes, and what do you think that is?”
He thought for a moment, I could sense it through our bond as he studied the images closely before he finally looked out, his eyes slightly widened and asked,
“Amanda.”
“Yes, Sarek.”
“Do you have cancer?”
“What?! NO!”
My hand slapped against my face, the frustration finally boiling over.
“Amanda.” Sarek interrupted, “I fail to see how this end meal, the small human clothing, and this picture of a mass has to do with you being with child.”
I stopped, completely frozen in my tracks. I slowly lifted my head and looked at him, my frustration being replaced with shock.
“How did you?”
“Your biological changes were obvious from the moment I made contact upon returning home. Your chest has increased in a size of 5.2 cm, your emotional state is more erratic and less predictable as normal. Finally, the pheromones emitting from your eccrine sweat glands have… altered. It is only logical to come to the conclusion that you are with child.”
I was silent, perhaps the most silent I had been in my entire life. It took a good while before I could lift my mouth from the ground asking,
“You knew this whole time? Then why didn’t you say anything?”
For the first time in this whole night, Sarek reached for the glass of Vulcan wine and took a sip before declaring,
“It is my understanding that it is a human tradition for these types of announcements to be made by the expectant woman. I was not my intention to deprive you of that experience which is rightfully yours.”
Without a moment of hesitation I walked around the table, bent down and wrapped him in a hug. The doctor said I would be emotional, that it was a normal occurrence in pregnancy but experiencing it was something else. I wanted to kick myself for crying with happiness for his consideration in his arms.
He wrapped his arms around me and stood to his feet tightening his grip around me. I could tell it was foreign for him all this physical contact I could feel it through our bond but in this moment I just needed to hold onto him.
“Thank you.” I said.
“Our child resembles more like a legume at seven weeks four days.”
I pulled away from the hug raising a brow but when I looked, I saw he had the ultrasound picture in his other hand.
“I agree.” I smiled, wiping the now drying tears from my cheeks. “but it’s a cute little bean, don’t you think?”
“It is illogical to determine the beauty of the foetus from such an image.”
While on the surface he did not show any emotion looking at the photo, in all truth, I would have thought that he would be displeased or somehow not ready at the thought of having another child.
However, through our bond there was something that I hadn’t sensed from him in a while. Something that once I felt it threatened to bring more tears to my eyes: Joy.
It was his voice that brought my thought:
“I do not wish to deprive you of the experience of informing me yourself.”
He was turned towards me now, with the pictures in both hands. He looked at me, waiting for the news, news he already knew.
“Are you well, Ad’una?” he asked.
The smile that beamed across my lips was enough to make my jaw sore for days. I reached for his hand that held the picture and grasped gently.
“Sarek”
“A’duna”
“We’re going to have a baby.”
The words came out in more of an excited laugh. More tears fell from my eyes, I didn’t expect much next, however I squeezed him as tightly as I could when he embraced me and drew me closer.
~*The End*~
Postscript: Two Weeks Earlier
It was approaching lunch. Linnea was beginning to prepare the food, while I was working in the study. I had a craving for a dish from her hometown called smorrebrod, which was a kind of open-faced sandwich with different toppings.
Linnea told me that the ingredients were quite obscure and specific, so she had ordered a new software upgrade for the replicator from Earth so that we could have some home comforts.
I had no objections and neither did Sarek.
Linnea had meticulously planned this meal, and she set out to request the ingredients individually so that she could assemble the meal with her own unique flair. In the background, I heard her request things that I had either never heard of or hadn’t had in years; liver pate, gherkins and herring among others.
After a few minutes reading over a learning report of one of my students, I heard screaming coming from the kitchen. I jumped up, running out of my office and down the corridor where I ran into Linnea, covered in what appeared to be tomato sauce.
She was silent and had panicked look on her face. I rounded the corner, taking a look into the kitchen and it was absolute carnage. The replicator was spitting out an array of random ingredients at the speed of a high-powered phaser – bread rolls, coffee, plomeek soup, cigarettes, bottles of wine, mollusks, Bajoran hasperat, and foodstuffs that did not even appear to be from this quadrant.
I ran in and tried to switch off the replicator, but it just kept going as if it had a mind of its own. Suddenly, it started spitting strawberry pudding and synthetic whipped cream (Even after all these years, replicators were never able to perfect dairy products) all over my stomach.
The lights suddenly extinguished, the power finally cut.
“Thank god!” I sigh.
Felix, Sarek aide and Linnea’s husband runs into the room, asking “Oh my god! What happened!?”
“I think the replicator is malfunctioning again.” I said, wiping the pudding off of my white dress.