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Hoshi rolled over in her sleep. She came awake fast when her face smashed against a cold, hard surface. She opened her eyes, confirming what she already suspected and used her arms to push back enough to talk.
"Travis?"
"Hmm?"
"Did you turn off the gravity after I went to sleep again?"
"Umm…maybe."
"Maybe? Well, since my face is pressed against the ceiling, AGAIN, I'm going to say 'yes', you did turn off the gravity."
A warm hand snagged her ankle, giving it a gentle tug. The momentum carried her across the dark room. Unable to see, she rapped her head lightly against a bookshelf. 'Shit.'
"You're not mad, are you, Hosh? Here, I'll turn it back on." She heard him whoosh by her and the lights flicked on.
"No, Travis, wait…"
Smack. Still tangled in sheets, she landed hard on her butt. Struggling to sit up, she glared at her husband. As always, he had come down gracefully on two feet. Now he hurried over, laughing. "Sorry about that." He didn't sound especially sorry.
"But hey, now that you're awake," Hoshi shoved her hair out of her face and glowered, "why don't we go down and have breakfast with my family?"
"It's 4:30 in the morning," she said incredulously.
"I know." He yanked her to her feet and gave her a quick kiss. "We're running a little late, but they'll be thrilled. This is our first visit since we got married—we have a lot of catching up to do."
We've sat up talking until after midnight for the last two nights. What else can these people possibly have to say?
Apparently, the Mayweather family always had plenty more to say. As they entered the dining room, Travis's father, a handsome, burly man, snatched her off of her feet in an enormous bear hug. After he had squeezed all of the air from her lungs, he dropped her and marched off, yelling for his wife. Hoshi clung to the steadying hand Travis offered.
"Travis, can you please tell your father to stop doing that?" she pleaded.
Travis laughed heartily, as if she had just made a very witty comment, and planted a huge smooch on the side of her face. He walked away, shouting cheerfully to his brother-in-law. Hoshi rubbed at her now damp cheek. My God, the sheer volume alone is going to kill me. Ok, Hoshi, you just have to last three more days.
Stretching her face into a smile, she joined his family and the rest of the crew at the table.
A tall, beautiful woman popped up at her elbow. Hoshi smiled. "Good morning, Mrs. Mayweather."
His mother beamed at her. Before Hoshi could speak again, she wrapped a hand around each of Hoshi's sides, pinching Hoshi's ribcage. "Hoshi Mayweather," she announced, "you are too skinny! We need to get you built up; make you strong."
She piled at least 10 pancakes on Hoshi's plate. Hoshi watched in horror as Mrs. Mayweather slathered each layer with butter and poured a half a bottle of syrup over everything. She swallowed. "Actually," she said faintly, eyes transfixed on the glop of butter pooling on the edge of the plate, "my name is still Sato. I decided not to change it."
The raucous noise at the table stopped so suddenly that Hoshi blinked. Everyone but Travis and his father became engrossed by their plates. Travis looked embarrassed—whether of his wife or his mother, Hoshi wasn't sure.
Mrs. Mayweather frowned at her. "Child, why would you do that? Is there a reason you don't want to use the Mayweather name?" She set her hands on her hips. Hoshi wanted to respond but her mind was totally blank. Meanwhile, Travis's mother hadn't taken a breath. "I just don't understand young women anymore—if you ask me…" I didn't, Hoshi thought but refrained from commenting "…that's just one of the problems with families today—everybody wants to maintain their own identities, instead of becoming a real family. I…"
"Mom!" Travis's sister came into the room carrying another platter of hotcakes. "Hoshi's name is her own business." She winked at Hoshi. Travis looked even more relieved than Hoshi felt.
Mrs. Mayweather sat herself next to Hoshi. "Well…I suppose your right," she said, although she clearly didn't. Everyone at the table seemed to feel better; they went back to their many conversations. Hoshi tried to subtly scrape off some of the butter on her breakfast without drawing her mother-in-law's attention. Travis was deep in conversation with his father.
Three days, Hoshi reminded herself. She became aware of Mrs. Mayweather watching her. She stuffed a huge forkful of pancake in her mouth and gave the woman a huge smile.
"…only two years…" Mr. Mayweather's voice caught her attention. She perked up her ears. Travis was smiling broadly at his father. Despite the noise at the table, she heard him say something about "leave of absence." Her heartbeat picked up a little.
"Travis?"
He smiled at her affectionately.
"What are you and your dad talking about?"
Travis looked nervous again, but also excited. Not a good sign.
Mr. Mayweather answered for him. "I was just telling Travis that we're short a few hands for our next run. I can get some more crew eventually, but not before we leave. We'll have to really stretch, unless the two of you come with us." Hoshi had a hard time hearing that last part over her own pulse, which was roaring in her head.
Travis jumped in. "I was telling Dad that Starfleet grants a leave of absence for family issues. I think this would count."
Hoshi felt faint.
Everybody else in the room squealed with excitement. "That would be perfect!" Mrs. Mayweather gushed, wiping at the tears in her eyes. "Oh Travis, you've made me so happy."
"Well, Hoshi and I will have to talk about it," Travis hedged. A light through the clouds...!
"But it would be a perfect opportunity for us to start having kids." …and darkness fell across the land….
"I…I'm sorry. Kids? But honey, I thought we were going to wait for a while," Hoshi said through her teeth. Mrs. Mayweather looked at her darkly. Hoshi smiled sweetly and popped another forkful into her mouth.
"Oh, right. But we'd have two years—you wouldn't even have to take any extra time off from Starfleet. You know, kill two birds with one stone."
"Of course!" Her mother-in-law nodded cheerfully. "And you could have two in that time period." She patted Hoshi's leg. "Trust me, Hoshi, you want to have them close together—it makes things so much easier."
"Exactly," Mr. Mayweather agreed. "But if you two are going to do that, you'll probably want to get started right away."
Everybody watched Hoshi and Travis expectantly, as if they were waiting for them to push aside the pancakes and get a jumpstart on things right there.
Hoshi looked at her husband, speechless. He smiled disarmingly. "Well, we can talk about kids later. But what do you say, Hosh? Want to see what boomer life is like firsthand?"
Hoshi looked back at all of the thrilled faces. Obviously, this was going to make Travis very happy…
"Of course," she said weakly and ate another bite of her breakfast. Everybody cheered and started talking at once.
Mrs. Mayweather smiled at Hoshi. She leaned over and whispered, "Zero gravity, honey. It's how I conceived both of my babies." Then she stood and hurried around the table to hug and talk to her son.
Two years. Hoshi pushed her plate to the side. Zero gravity. Bending over, she rapped her forehead down on the table.
And snapped awake, her head stinging. Apparently, she'd bumped her head against the wall in her sleep. She turned over and looked at Travis, who was sleeping soundly on his stomach. Is he drooling? She closed her eyes tightly and willed herself back to sleep again.