The hour was late, or early depending on one's preference, as E'lin leaned against Chaen and sighed. The gallery window that separated them from the nursery gave a perfect view of the newest additions to Odessen lying bundled in their shallow infant beds beyond the pane of clear flexiglass.
"Which one do you think is ours?" asked Chaen, jokingly.
"Don't be silly. You know exactly which baby is your granddaughter," said E'lin as she gently patted Chaen's chest, "There's only one cathar baby in the whole room."
They stood there and admired the dozen or so sleeping newborns of different races while a nursery droid glided between the rows of beds to take scans and update charts for it's tiny patients when a tired and familiar voice said, "Go home and gets some rest." Gursan approached his parents from behind, and joining them at the viewing window, continued, "Both Solasta and Aissa are healthy and asleep, and I'm going to pass out in the chair in Sol's room."
Seeing his parents out of the med center, Gursan returned to Solasta's room and quietly stretched out in the chair next to her bed and fell asleep for a solid three hours before the soft pleasing doorbell tones of their private maternity room woke him. Jumping to his feet, his military training carried him to the door, eyes wide and awake before he was awake. Punching the buttons for the door release, the door slid open with a soft hiss to reveal a maternity droid with Aissa bundled in a tiny pink blanket and sleeping in the soft cushioned carrier affixed to the droid's mid-section.
"Good Morning- " began the droid before hesitating as it ran its facial recognition protocol to verify Gursan's identity, "Major Gursan Dinn. It is time for the morning feeding."
Gently scooping Aissa from the baby carrier, Gursan mumbled a gruff, "Thank-you," before turning away from the door and returning to the side of Solasta's bed. Cradling Aissa in one arm, Gursan stared down at the grey-fuzzed face of his sleeping daughter as her eyelids twitched and the serene look on her face changed to a subtle grin as the edges of her mouth curled, then relaxed. After a few seconds, Aissa's eyes opened and her blue eyes stared up at Gursan and seemed to search his face as her lips made a smacking motion. Reaching over and gently rubbed Solasta's shoulder as she slept on her side, facing away from him, Gursan said, "Wake-up Hellcat, time to feed Aissa."
Solasta's eyes fluttered and she blinked awake. Rolling over, she looked at Gursan and grinned as she took Aissa from him and snuggled her daughter next to her on the bed.
Sitting heavy back onto the chair, Gursan said, "I'm getting my tattoo's fixed today - I don't want her to get used this look."
"Her vision is cloudy, blurry, at best. She's learning about her world through sounds and smells for at least a week before her sight sharpens," whispered Solasta.
"I just want to be me again," murmured Gursan.
Corso had one arm hooked around his wife's waist and gently tugged her against his side before reaching up to the chime button on the door keypad with his free hand. Looking at the name 'Private - Dinn' listed on the small display on the panel, he was about to press the chime button but before he could, the door slid open and Gursan stood on the other side.
Gursan was quite surprised to see them so early in the morning before they were to leave for Copero to capture Theron, but ushering them inside Solasta's room with broad smile, he said, "Command Riggs, Corso, please come in. We've just finished feeding and changing."
Corso gave a friendly nod and asked, "Private Room?" as he followed Miriah inside.
"Yeah, an upgrade from my parents. They wanted some privacy with their new granddaughter."
"Ah, I thought maybe Sol had enlisted the baby already," joked Corso.
Sitting cross-legged on her bed, Solasta was folding a pink blanket around Aissa when she looked up and let out a pleased chirrup sound at the sight of Miriah and Corso walking towards her. Miriah's eyes widened at the sight of the new mother sitting upright so soon after giving birth. Sitting herself on the chair next to the bed, Miriah's eyes lit up as the small bundle of pink blankets was scooped up off the change mat on the bed and handed to her. Smiling down at the sleeping grey kitling in her arms, Miriah said, 'She's just beautiful," before looking up at Solasta's proud and fatigued eyes.
Clapping his hand to Gursan's shoulder, Corso exclaimed, "You've done great, Gursan."
Solasta raised an eye in skepticism to Miriah as she stretched out her legs and reclined onto the raised bed. Miriah closed her eyes and subtly shook her head at Corso's comment with a sly grin on her face. Unspoken, they both understood that showing up and simply fretting throughout the entire birthing process wasn't something to be congratulated for.
"I'm so glad she arrived before you left," said Solasta, a gentle smile settling on her face as Gursan hovered around them. Corso nudged his wife, wanting to hold the baby, and as Miriah opened her eyes and shifted in the chair to pass the kitling to him, Solasta said, "Cuz, she may not be a Mantellian, but she's still one of us."
Corso's gaze softened as he looked wistfully at the sleeping newborn in his arms. "I always love more cousins... she's really something, Sol."
Gursan puffed up his chest to speak but his voice took on an unexpected worrisome tone as he said, "Her name is Aissa," and watched as Solasta's eyes closed and her body relaxed on the medical bed.
Miriah turned back to look at Solasta and knew her friend was just tired, her muscles weary, and her whole body going through so many hormonal changes after having given birth. "We should get going, but I'm so happy she's here and safe," said Miriah in a soft soothing voice as Corso placed Aissa in the nearby newborn bed, which looked more like a clear crate with soft molded sides and edges.
They were almost out the door when Solasta's eyes snapped open and she called out, "Stay sharp out there."
Miriah turned to meet her eyes and they shared a long look before Miriah nodded solemnly.
The sound of mewling seemed soft, distant at first, but quickly grew close and intense, waking Solasta from her nap. Blinking her eyes open to focus her vision, she looked around to find Gursan had left her, and looking over at the wriggling pink blanket and grey kitling fuzz mass in the crib that had been wheeled next to her bed, her nose twitched and she immediately knew what all the fuss was about. Solasta slid out of bed and retrieved the change supplies from the cabinet that sat against the wall and laid out everything she needed on the change table before collecting Aissa and changing the soiled diaper. As she began dressing her daughter in a clean sleeper, she thought, "Wouldn't Empress Acina get a kick out of the two of us - the Commander's pet, dressing her 'pet' in baby clothes."
No sooner had she finished changing Aissa when Colonel Boleme and his wife stopped by with a gift for Odessen's newest citizen. Awkwardly lifting the tube shaped fine cloth that was folded neatly inside the gift box, Solasta held up a decorative orange and brown pattern garment and politely thanked them while her head canted down and to the right, exposing her embarrassment. Sensing Solasta's reaction, Boleme's wife said, "Poor thing, you don't even know what this is, do you? You wear it over one shoulder, opposite the hip the loop rests on, and the baby rides inside. The cloth is wide and thick enough that you can nurse anywhere and still have your privacy." Solasta's eyes widened with a new understanding and she vigorously nodded her appreciation.
After the Boleme's left, Solasta had an hour of rest before Calypso came to visit on her lunch, eager to see a kitling since her cathar cousins were much older than herself. Sitting on the edge of the bed, cradling Aissa tenderly in her arms and staring down at the sleeping baby in her arms, she said, "I can't believe Colin and Calleigh were ever this small. Aissa is so tiny she could be a doll."
As soft trill of laughter came from Solasta, "Your Aunt Maura is human, so they may have been normal human sized babies when they were born. Cathar can have litters of four, or even as many as six kitlings, so they need to be small. Don't worry though, in two week's time, she'll more than double her size."
"More than double?" asked a inquisitive sounding Calypso.
"Yes, and by five weeks she'll have caught up to a human baby. Make sure to let Aissa smell so she learns your scent - in a cathar settlement, the whole clan raises the kii [children] and I want her to know you are family," said Solasta as she began to pack her and Aissa's stuff into the travel bags Gursan had brought with them to the med center.
Calypso asked, "Like this?" as she held Aissa up to meet her cheek and could feel the tiny black nose twitch as she gently rubbed her it across Aissa's face.
Glancing up between stowing handfuls of baby clothes, Solasta said, "Perfect. It would probably work better if you were unwashed for a few days so she could smell your real scent, but this will do since nobody's going to stop bathing for a week."
Gursan returned and walked into Solasta's room, stood at the foot of her bed, and waited. Solasta easily heard his approach even before he had stepped inside the room and said, "Where'd you get too? I thought you would miss us getting discharged from here," as she leaned over the travel pack with her back to him.
Calypso was first to notice the change in Gursan and exclaimed, "Oh, Major!"
Solasta turned, looked at her mate, and her words caught in her throat as she studied him. The tattoos that he had worn as a disguise for his mission with Torian were gone and he had his original tribal face tattoos once again inked into his flesh. Furrowing her brow and intensely examining his face, she studied him for a full minute before finally saying, "You've changed them. Added something around the edges of your cheeks," as she drew on her face with her forefingers to illustrate the new lines that intersected with the lines along his cheek and curved upward towards his eyes.
"Yeah. I added something to honour the birth of Aissa - how could you tell?"
"I wouldn't be a very good mate if I didn't notice something like that," said Solasta as she nonchalantly went back to packing the small baby bag with Aissa's things. Too many nights while Gursan was away she laid in bed trying to recall his face, and there were many nights when his image wouldn't form in her mind. Like an adolescent in love for the first time, the panicked torment of not being able to remember the face of the one she adored forced her to sit up late and endlessly replay his last holo message so she could memorize every detail of his face, every accent and shading in his tattoos. She promised herself to never admit to Gursan that she had fallen into despair and considered that he was never coming back.
When a med-tech arrived to confirm Solasta and Aissa's discharge to go home, Solasta picked up the bacta cuff that she had worn around her thigh from the bedside table and said, "Here, you can take this back. I won't be needing it anymore." The tech's gaze narrowed as he studied the chrome and black electronic medical device that she held out for him. After several seconds, he said, "Ma'am, that's not one of ours."
Solasta looked at the cuff again and said, "It isn't? Where did it come from then?"
"No clue - let me check with medical stores to see if they have any information," said the tech as he took the cuff and left.
Placing Aissa in the nursery bed, Calypso said, "I have to get back, but I'll stop by your apartment tonight if that's okay. Congratulations again you two." Calypso pressed her forehead to Solasta's, hugged Gursan, and headed back to the mess hall for her last week of work before returning to school.
Nearly thirty minutes later the tech returned carrying a small grey resinite case in one hand and placed it on the bed next to Solasta. Gursan scrambled from this relaxed slouch in the chair, feet propped up on the bed, and sat prone as he watched the tech. Pointing at the case, the tech said, "It appears to have arrived in this, but there isn't any source-ident data to tell us where it came from. You may as well have the whole thing - the cuff is inside." When the tech had left, Gursan grabbed the arms of the chair and dragged it, and himself, across the floor to Solasta's bedside.
Solasta opened the catches on the case and lifted the lid, and like a couple of kids on Life Day, they cautiously peeked inside at the bacta cuff that sat half in the notched foam padding that was inside, and next to the cuff was a single unmarked holo-data micro spike. "Give me the spike," said Gursan as he pulled out his personal holo communicator from the case that hung on his belt. Picking up the wafer thin micro-spike between her forefinger and thumb, she passed it to Gursan who turned it over in his hand to quickly examine it before sliding it into the data port in the round base of his communicator. Holding the holo flat in the palm of his hand, Gursan was about to switch it on when Solasta spoke, "Shouldn't we have security or Dr. Oggurob examine this first?"
"If this was something dangerous, why would it be with the bacta cuff? Seems the cuff would be the deadlier of the two, right?" said Gursan as he loaded the recording that was on the spike and pressed play.
The holo emitter powered up and projected the image of a woman, but not the typical ghost blue holo image of someone being recorded, this woman's image was solid and a cohesive deep blue rendering that seemed to sparkle, making it appear as if this wasn't a recording at all, but rather the woman was a part of the holo system itself.
"Hello General Dinn- " began the woman, and Gursan paused the recording. "What am I looking at?" asked Solasta as they looked at each, both sets of pupils dilated in wonder and shock.
Gursan gave a half-shrug and said, "I don't... it looks like a recorded hologram. This should be impossible, you can't take a holo-recording of a holo-projection - the camera can't interpret the light matrix of the projection to record it."
"Press play," said Solasta. Gursan stopped the recording and the communicator went dark briefly before he started it again, replaying the image of the woman.
"Hello General Dinn. My Tharan and I owe you a debt of gratitude for approving the grant for his research. We apologize that the credits weren't actually spent bacta technology research, but once we heard about your unfortunate accident, we knew there must be something we could do to help. The cuff inside is a prototype that I insisted Tharan complete for you."
When the communicator went dark Gursan switched it off, looked at his wife, and said, "You gave someone credits to do research?"
"No. Well, yes. I mean... sort of? With my investments in bacta, I was asked to sit on an advisory committee for granting research funding. Twice a year I'd receive a batch of a half-dozen proposals and give a recommendation of yes or no, but I've never met this... woman or anyone named Tharan."
Gursan looked back at the communicator in his hand, "You're right. We need to get this to Dr. Oggurob."