Charlemagne lay back on the pillows, pleasantly tired and content. He pulled Meaghan into his arms, holding her, enjoying the closeness of her in the warm afterglow.

"Do you recall something you said a couple of months ago?" Meaghan asked softly. "Something about sons being very nice, but that you'd like some daughters as well?"

"Mmm-hmm." He wasn't feeling too talkative at the moment.

"How about two of them?" She propped herself up on one elbow, so she could look down at him.

"What are you talking about, love?" Charlemagne was becoming a little more alert, now. "Even if you are pregnant again, Elsbeth is going to have another boy."

"I am." Meaghan giggled. "Just now. But they're girls."

"You can tell?" The Nietzschean wasn't quite ready to believe it, although some of the things his red-headed wife did were beyond his comprehension.

"It was kind of interesting," she said reflectively. "Feeling the egg divide. At first, I thought something was wrong, until I felt the two of them."

"Whatever you say, Meg." Charlemagne was feeling too lazy to be drawn into an argument.

"You don't believe me?" Meaghan looked crestfallen. "I thought you'd be pleased."

Charlemagne pulled her back down for a kiss. "If it actually is true, of course I'll be pleased, love. But there's no way you can tell."

"I can't?" She was wearing that mysterious look again. "Oh, it's very important, we have to name one of them..,"

"Bekka?" he interrupted. "Do I get any say in naming the other one?" He decided that playing along was easier, and they'd be able to tell, soon enough.

"Whatever you like, love," she whispered, and, snuggling against him was soon asleep.

&&&&&&&

Charlemagne began to wonder when the next day Meaghan had a pregnancy test done and it showed positive. But his Nietzschean practicality stepped in and said that it was a lucky guess and that there was no way that any of the other things she predicted could be anything but wishful thinking.

&&&&&&&&

Five months later:

It was late, but having just gotten back from another conference dealing with planetary defenses against the Magog world-ship, Charlemagne was backed up on his work again. When Meaghan entered his office without paging him first, he was slightly annoyed at the interruption.

"Sorry, love," she apologized. "But Tyr Anastazi is here to speak to you. He says it's important." She stepped aside as the Kodiak entered and then discreetly left again.

Charlemagne rose and he and Tyr exchanged the ritual Nietzschean greeting. Charlemagne was puzzled at the unexpected visit, it was the first ever. He decided to let Anastazi make the first move.

"I'd heard that you married a human," Tyr opened up conversationally. "What possessed you?"

"She has an absolutely perfect gene chart," Charlemagne answered. "And I do mean, perfect."

"Did you know that in advance?" Tyr queried.

"Did you come all the way here to inquire into my love life?" Charlemagne snapped. "Because, if that is the case, I have a lot of other things to do."

A slight scuffle sounded in the outer office, and both men instantly drew weapons and leaped to their feet, with Tyr ducking back into a dark corner.

A young Nietzschean man, blaster in one hand, pointed at Meaghan's head, and the other one over her mouth burst through the door.

"Traitor," the stripling hissed at Charlemagne. "Drop the weapon, Charlemagne, you might be able to kill me, but she'd still be dead." Then, as Charlemagne put his weapon down, he added, "First you marry this, kluge, then add to the folly by diluting your genes. You are a disgrace to your own people."

"Her genes are probably better than yours," Charlemagne said calmly enough, but it was a forced calm, only because he knew that he had to keep a clear head if he was to save Meaghan. "In fact, in light of your current behavior, I'd say it was a certainty."

"You think just because you have a title you can do whatever you want." The young bravo ignored the jab. "But I'm guessing that you also fancy yourself in love with her. How much good will that do you after you watch me cut your half-breed bastard out of her belly?"

Tyr stood watching wondering at the idiocy of the boy to not have noticed that there was someone else in the room. He could shoot him himself, but at the angle he was, not without the possibility of hitting the very pregnant red-head, an action he was sure would not sit well with Charlemagne. And for some reason, cold reasoning wasn't operating too well here, he wondered why, but decided to table that thought for a more opportune moment.

The young man suddenly let out a yelp of pain and dropped his weapon, and Meaghan dropped to the floor. Charlemagne retrieved his weapon, and he and Tyr fired almost simultaneously, nearly cutting him in half. Charlemagne rushed around the desk to his wife.

Meaghan spat on the floor, the most unladylike gesture he'd seen her make, but her mouth seemed to be full of her late attackers blood. "The children and Elsbeth, Charlemagne," she whispered. "Check on them, there may be others."

Realizing that she might be right, he dashed out of the room, shouting orders to the security staff on his wrist-com.

Meaghan was still on hands and knees on the floor, when a large, not unfriendly hand reached down and helped her to her feet.

Meaghan was a sight, ashen-pale and covered with blood. An awful lot of blood, Tyr thought, glancing down at the floor. Then he saw a chunk of flesh laying there where Meaghan had been. Evidently she had bitten the boy hard enough to take a largish chunk out of him. Despite himself, Tyr was impressed. But right now, Charlemagne's second wife seemed to be in shock. He seated her, then just squatted down in front of her, studying her curiously for a minute. Such a delicate little thing, who would have thought she had it in her?

"He threatened my babies," Meaghan whispered, as if she had read his thoughts.

Tyr was a bit startled. He had become used to such things from Trance, when he had still been on the Andromeda, but Trance was so.., alien, and this woman was a human.

When Charlemagne returned, he saw the Kodiak pressing a drink on Meaghan.

"But I'm..," Meaghan started to protest.

"It's not enough to damage your children," Tyr assured her. "Drink it. Or do you enjoy the taste of blood?"

Meaghan obediently sipped the drink, delicately, making a face at the taste. Then they both turned to look at Charlemagne.

"Everyone is all right," he said immediately, for Meaghan's benefit. "Apparently our young visitor was acting alone. And," he added. "Tomorrow, security will be seeing some heads roll over their incompetence at allowing him in at all, let alone armed. Are you all right, Meg?"

Before he could reach his wife, Tyr pulled him aside and whispered something in his ear and discreetly indicated the small piece of mangled flesh that Meaghan had bitten out of her captor.

"Now do you see why?" Charlemagne asked quietly.

"I think I do," Tyr replied. "And believe it or not, it was the reason for my coming here. I may even be able to bring myself to believe that part about the perfect genes."

"Believe it," Charlemagne said, going over to Meaghan and pulling her into his arms, where she nearly collapsed. "She's not an ordinary human."

"That I am willing to believe," Tyr answered. "She'll fight tooth and nail to protect anyone she loves, won't she? A Nietzschean woman could not have done better."

"Possibly not even as well," Charlemagne agreed. "But as able as she is during a crisis, she very much dislikes harming others. If you could excuse us, she needs me."

Tyr nodded and left.