Author's Note: Thanks, guys! I'm really enjoying the reviews; some of you seem to have pinned what's going to happen exactly, while the rest of your guesses… well, I'm wishing I'd come up with them myself! They're great! Unfortunately, due to circumstances and writer's block, the next chapter will be seriously delayed. I'm really sorry, but I promise it'll be a nice fat one just oozing with plot.
The Child
Chapter Three: Takeoff
By B.L.A. the Mouse
A week later, Rommie stopped by the temporary quarters that Carmen had been given. She'd been checked out of Med deck only a few hours before and come here with the child. While she stayed in Med deck, under supervision, she'd relied on everyone else to take care of the baby, refusing to touch or handle him more than absolutely necessary. Rommie had been willing to bet that she wouldn't last fifteen minutes alone. Sure enough, there was crying coming from within the quarters, and she wasn't sure it was all the baby's.
When Rommie was granted admittance, she was startled to see that the infant was lying in the crib screaming while Carmen was sitting on the sofa staring vacantly at a flexi. "Carmen?"
"Yeah?" The woman looked up from the page, annoyed at the interruption but grateful that someone else with actual knowledge of anything about children had arrived.
"Um..." Rommie wasnt quite sure how to call attention to her dilemma. "Aren't you going to do something about the baby?"
"What can I do?" Carmen was royally ticked, and it wasn't even ship's afternoon yet. "I fed it, I changed it, and I've tried everything else. I think it's just doing that to annoy me."
Rommie considered a second, then stepped up to the crib and picked up the baby. If anything, it cried louder. Putting him at her shoulder, she tapped his back a few times. There was a loud burp that echoed through the room, and then silence descended.
Carmen stood and stretched. "Finally. What'd you do?"
"Burped him. Have you chosen a name yet?"
"No. How's my ship?"
"Still bad. Harper found all the parts you need for immediate repair, but he's only started working on it. Give him another week or two and it'll be good enough to fly." Rommie realized that she was still holding the baby and set him down carefully, trying not to jerk him. Her movements were reluctant, though; she'd gotten used to taking care of him, and even enjoyed it sometimes.
Carmen nodded, thinking about that, before she got an idea. "Can you take care of it for a few hours? I'll help your engineer with my ship in the meantime, and that should speed up the repairs." She was desperate to get away from the newborn. She didn't like it, she didn't want it, and she couldn't take care of it. Therefore, she would work on her ship instead, and let someone who actually liked the thing tend to it.
Rommie considered. She was off-duty at the moment, so that wouldn't be a problem. She had wanted to spend more time with the baby, and she was being presented with an opportunity. "I think I can. I have four hours before I have duty, and Harper's working on your ship now. Does that work?"
"Yes. Four hours." Carmen sped out the door without a backward glance, sighing with relief as she cleared the door. "Free!"
"Carmen, babe, give us one more day and the Starlight will be ready to go." Harper wiped his grease-covered hands on a rag, then passed it to Carmen. "I have gotta thank Rommie for taking care of the kid. I hate to say it, but repairs go much faster with someone who knows the terrain. Genius would have figured it out pretty fast, but knowing how this place is wired really sped things up." He straightened, offering a hand to her.
She took it and got to her feet. "So we work tomorrow and then I can go?"
"Well, you'll have to stop a drift or something for complete repairs, but shes ready to rumba long enough to get you there." He patted the hull of the ship. For all her damage, she was really a tight little cargo ship, with good parts and construction.
"All right." Carmen sighed with relief. She'd spent the last week working on the ship for a few hours a day with Harper, while someone, usually Rommie, took care of the baby. Overall, she much preferred the ship.
"Hey, I have one question." Harper had been curious about this ever since the "Mystery Woman," as Beka had dubbed her, had come aboard.
"Shoot."
"Are you Carmen Miranda or Carmen Sandiego?"
She stared at him a second, then a smile crept across her face. For all his quirky habits, Harper really did succeed sometimes at trying to be funny. He'd probably be the only one aboard who she'd regret leaving. "Nice one, Harper," she said, only partly kidding. She stowed the tools in the box. "I'm going to throw these onboard. Same time tomorrow?"
"Sure." Harper twirled a tool around his fingers before putting it back into his toolbelt and leaving. Weird. Very weird. Cares more about her ship than her kid, I think.
Carmen relaxed as he went. Finally, five minutes without a squalling baby or a nosy chatterbox for a crewmember. Peace!
She knew the nickname that the first officer had come up with. She was actually rather proud of it; it meant that they had found out very little about her, exactly what she wanted to happen. Now all she had to do was keep it that way for twenty-four more hours and she was home free.
First thing she had to do was get her ship fixed. Second was to get her hair redyed. It was looking awful, since she hadn't bothered to go to a hairdressers in the past few months. She'd been too busy trying to build up enough cash on some runs that she could afford to take some time off to worry about a kid. The third thing she was planning on was going on a diet. She had gained so much weight while she was pregnant that it wasn't funny. Granted, the doctor she had talked to at one point had said that she was going to lose it in a couple of months, but that wasn't soon enough for her.
Now what to do with that... thing? She could hardly deal with it while she was working. How would it look to clients if she was running around with a screaming infant attached to her hip? One that would get bigger and older until it became a snot-nosed kid that stuck its fingers into everything, got sick all the time, and would just be expensive and time-consuming?
She could put it in an orphanage, but that would involve questions. She was against slavery, and the thought of intentionally killing it or leaving it to die made her skin crawl. What else was there?
Then she knew.
The next day was Launch Day. Carmen and Harper had spent the morning fine-tuning the navigation systems. That afternoon, she moved everything from the temporary quarters aboard the Andromeda to her own aboard the Starlight. Rommie had volunteered to take care of the child, realizing that it was her last chance to spend any time with him.
Carmen had packed everything of hers into a single bag, and was about to leave the quarters when Rommie stopped her. She sighed, impatient and annoyed, but waited for the point.
"I was wondering if you wanted help," the android said, surprised at her manner. She would have thought Carmen would appreciate the offer- her eagerness to get off the Commonwealth ship was evident. "Especially with some of the baby's things."
Carmen shook her head. "No, I'm good. In fact, after this trip, I don't think you have to stay. Thanks for all the help over the past couple weeks, though."
"You're very welcome. I enjoyed spending time with him. In fact, if we're in the same area, anytime soon, stop by and see us- both of you."
"Maybe I will."
The two women smiled, fleetingly, Rommie's an uncertain grin, Carmen's a slick quirk of the lips. It made an odd picture. The two stood, facing each other, unalike in looks but for the same skin tone and height, matching in uneasy cheer. One had a bag slung over her shoulder; one had a baby tucked into her arms. The effect was eerie, of a broken magical mirror.
The gaze held for a moment, they weighing each other and taking final measure. Then Carmen's fingers slipped on her bag, and as she fumbled with it the reverie was interrupted.
"So..." Rommie didnt quite know what to say. "Good luck."
"Thanks. You too." Carmen hesitated a second more, feeling as if she should say something else, but turned and walked out.
When she returned, no words were exchanged. Rommie slipped out, hoping the two would manage, while Carmen came in, rejoicing in the fact that she was finally going.
"You're clear to go," Dylan said over the comm, a few hours later. They'd stayed in the same system where they picked Carmen up, out of courtesy for her, and now were letting her off in the same one.
"Thanks." Carmen sounded genuinely cheerful over the departure. It was more than Rommie thought she would be, considering that she was now alone with a two-week-old.
Harper added, "Come and visit us sometime. Better yet, come and visit me. Ow!" Beka had whapped him on the back of the head for his comment. Rubbing the injured area, he corrected weakly, "Us."
Dylan, Rommie, Tyr, and Trance collectively rolled their eyes. Carmen chuckled lightly. "Maybe I will. Later, guys." She cut off the connection.
Andromeda flickered in. "The Starlight is leaving the hanger. Shes-" The hologram paused, out of surprise and shock. "She left the baby on me!"
"What?" Beka asked, eyes wide.
"Hail her." Dylan gave the order automatically, without pausing. It took him a second to realize what exactly the AI had just said. "She abandoned it?"
Rommie ignored the question. "She's not responding."
"Tyr, one shot, non-vital area."
Before the Nietzschean could target, let alone get a shot off, the Starlight and Carmen transited to slipstream. Beka kicked into pilot mode, and Harper scrambled off the platform while she started to power up slipstream. "Pursuing."
"No." Dylan stopped her. "We have plenty of time to find her later. For now, will someone please go take care of that baby? Make sure it's all right."
Rommie nodded and left, closely tailed by Harper and Trance.
Beka powered down the engines before she began to chew out Dylan. "Why shouldn't we go after her? She left her own baby here! We should-"
He cut her off. "I know. But right now someone needs to take care of that baby. Since she and her ship are probably registered with the FTA, we can find her later."
Beka bit her lip and subsided. Tyr watched in silence. Frankly, though he wouldn't admit it, he was on the captains side. He would place more importance on taking care of the child than finding the mother.
Rommie was beyond mad. Her stride toward Carmen's abandoned quarters was so fast that Harper and Trance lagged behind.
"Hey," Harper nudged his friend. "Is it just me, or is Rommie taking this personally?"
Trance looked ahead at the irate android, already disappearing around the next corner in the hallway. She'd seen Rommie taking care of the baby on occasion, and recognized now that the interaction she had seen involved a fiercely protective attitude towards him. "She's taking this very personally."
"I wonder why?" Harper was legitimately blindsided. "It's not like it's hers, after all."
"Harper..." Trance realized that he had unwittingly hit on the crux of the problem. "I'll explain later."
Up ahead, Rommie heard the conversation and ignored it. She knew, in some far distant part of her circuitry, that she was acting like a maniac. That particular part wasn't in control at the moment, though. The part that did have control was first and foremost concerned with making sure that the baby was all right.
Arriving at the door to the quarters, she keyed the access code in and waited impatiently. She could already hear the infant's wailing. The other two caught up just as the door opened, Harper panting and Trance, while not tired, slightly fazed by the speed. The former cringed at the sound of the crying and hung back, hoping that distance would reduce the effectiveness of the sound; the latter followed Rommie in, despite a single wince. She'd come along to make sure that the baby was in good health. Granted, she'd looked at him only the day before, but who knew what Carmen might have done on her way out? Rommie didn't pay attention to either, instead going straight over to the crib.
After a quick glance at the baby, seeing that nothing was obviously wrong, she spotted a half-empty bottle sitting on a small table nearby. It told her all she needed to know. She lifted the baby carefully, making sure she grabbed a cloth as well, and followed the same procedure she'd shown Carmen only a week before. A few gentle pats later, she heard a loud belch, then silence. Careful repositioning ensured that he wasn't unduly disturbed as she cradled him with her arms. Turning to face the other two, she said, "Carmen forgot to burp him again. She's done that before."
Her explanation did nothing for Harper. He stared at her and the baby for a minute. He hadn't programmed her with childcare abilities, and while he realized that she could have just downloaded the information, it was surprising to see her using the information.
Trance nodded, vaguely. Her question hadn't yet been answered, but it was besides that. Possibilities were intertwining and diverging in her mind's eye, several of them, and two or three of them had equal merit. She would have to look at them more carefully and see what could happen. "How is he?"
Rommie did a quick check of his records and scanned him as best as she could for comparison. "No different than before."
"Good. I'll tell Dylan." She left. She had to report to Dylan, true, but she also had to go over divergences, and in a situation like this one that could take a while.
Harper had become somewhat less frozen, and now he turned to go. He stopped for one more comment, though. "Well, this answers one question."
"What?"
"She's not Carmen Miranda, she's Carmen Sandiego."