CHAPTER 10: ONE MORE CREW MEMBER
Ezra sat at her station as she always did, rubbing the bump on her stomach. It was unusual to see a pregnant woman at a comm station, but no one did the job better than Ezra. By Mejale reckoning, she was in her last stages , and the medical staff were all on alert. Duerro though, was rummaging through the colonial storage again.
"What are you reading, McPhail? " Hibiki asked.
"A manual on pregnancy. With Ezra expecting, I'm trying to learn as much as possible about this phenomenon," he answered, flicking his bangs.
"I can't believe men and women made kids that way…" Bart mused, "it looks…so…so I don't know.."
"I'm a doctor, Bart. I consider this research."
Magno' s voice came over the comm, calling all to stations. Soon, McPhail was the only one in the room. He picked up the pink covered book and continued reading. He was rather amazed by the complexities of women, being more of a scientist than a doctor at times. Birth was alien to Talark people, a concept eradicated with the concept of genetic engineering and designer genes long ago. He wondered who had donated the egg to Ezra, or as the Mejale called it the "Ouma" . He flicked through to the next chapter and walked back to the medical room.
Meanwhile, Parfait was poking Pyoro with wires and scopes in her lab. Apparently, the little sucker had caught a virus from somewhere. Some of the crew even speculated that he was drunk, a mean feat for a robot with no mouth. The egg-shaped automation was certainly showing all the signs; he stuttered in speech, wobbled in motion and worryingly didn't respond to any of his usual stimuli (naming anything Pyoro, for instance). Wires protruded out of him, kept in place by multicolored pins and hooks. He looked like some techno-medieval torture victim. Parfait shrugged and wished Pyoro was human, so Duerro could help fix him. She modified that thought and simply wished for him to be there.
"I'm at the end of my rope here!" she wailed to her techs.
"Pyoro….Pyoro…." was all the robot could manage, with blurry eyes.
He had been "sick" ever since the Nirvana established contact with a mysterious satellite Ed claimed was from his home colonies. The satellite yielded a coded message that the comm crews pumped through Pyoro , hoping he could break the code. The result was the satellite exploding , leaving the poor robot dazed and confused. Even an interface with Ed's cyborg systems failed to fix him, leaving Ed in a similar daze. They were lucky no enemies were in the region, or that Ezra had decided on a Caesarian. The Dread pilots, Jura in particular were waiting for her to give birth, visiting her even on the bridge at the slightest hint of trouble. Meia, however was seen more often with Ed, who she often had to help stand as the mysterious affliction that downed Pyoro was working on him as well. Everyone on the ship knew that they were more than just two pilots in a squadron, but the strange thing was that they didn't even try to hide it, despite the hostility it might generate from the Mejale crew. Meia simply answered all questions with a seldom used tactic- she smiled.
"Damn it…" Ed stumbled, clutching his chest as Meia caught him.
"I think we should get you to quarters, Eddie. You can't fly in this type of condition. I'm sure Parfait will fix you later, or maybe the Doctor."
Ed agreed, struggling to reach the end door that was his quarters. With some effort, he hobbled to the door and it hissed open. Meia supported him as he lay on his bed. He reached out his hand and she held it.
"You…aren't you supposed to be somewhere else?" he mumbled.
"I have to make sure you're alright. Besides- " she gently rubbed the back of his hand,"- who the heck would I talk to?"
"Anyone else, maybe?"
Meia looked out the open door. "There's something I want to discuss with you, in fact."
"Fire away, blue."
"I was raised by two women and a society that taught me how to be a woman in the truest sense. But you and me…I'm totally unprepared for this. This is the first time I have no idea what to do." She sighed.
"Don't people fall in love on Mejale?"
"Yes, they do. But I wasn't born for this. I wasn't raised for this. There is no step-by step guide to a relationship with another woman, let alone a man. When I met Hibiki and the others, I started learning but kept my distance. But then you appeared in my life…now I don't know what to think at all. I can't ask anyone, not even Magno for advice."
He clasped her forearm, " We can only learn, blue-eyes. We can only learn. Hell, I'll write the book and you can sell it. How about that? "
Meia laughed and kissed his hand.
"You will drive me crazy, Edward Van Dyke."
"Can't you fix him?" BC asked Parfait.
"I'm trying to decipher the message he downloaded before the sat exploded. Maybe that'll give us a lead."
With that, the techs began to pump the message through the Nirvana's computer, hoping for some sort of positive feedback. The screens were littered in both horizontal and vertical code languages, a chaotic melody of information. All of a sudden, all went blank. Every fixture in the ship shut off, including the bridge. Only a few emergency lights and backup devices were up, leading many in the crew to feel their way to the nearest source of light. The screen went up with both Parfait and Meia looking anguished, a look of deathly fear in their faces. Pyoro had shut down, the screen only sporting a blank password slot. Ed had shut down completely, his body losing all warmth in half a second. His cyborg eye had no light, and his mouth was gaping open. His hand had slipped out of Meia' s , limp and lifeless. Meia was calling for Duerro to come, but he was needed on the bridge- Ezra was trapped in a lift, it seemed. He was bizarrely flipping through the pink book, repeating text right out of the passages.
"Help! She's leaking!!" a panicked Hibiki (also trapped) screamed.
"The amniotic sac surrounding the fetus has ruptured," Duerro stated.
"Her water's broken!" Magno grunted," close that book. There's no point in using it without experience!"
He nodded but kept on reading.
Ezra's labor pains were increasing and her contractions were getting more and more closer. The baby was indeed coming today, it seemed. Hibiki and Dita sweated bullets as Ezra writhed around in pain.
"Catch the baby, Hibiki!" Magno commanded.
Oh God! he squealed.
"Receive the baby as its head pokes out through the vagina." Duerro answered in his monotone.
"WHAT?" was Hibiki' s reply.
"You heard the Doctor, boy! Hold your hands out and don't let the baby fall!" Magno yelled.
Ezra screamed, gripping Dita' s hand tightly as she felt the child inside of her slowly make its escape into Hibiki' s trembling arms. All sorts of thoughts went through her mind at that very instant. Some were of current times, the ship and the Harvesters. Some were of days gone by, with Rebecca and the veterans. Some more blurred parts she figured were the future, of days yet to come. Images of the crew came into her mind. She then saw another vision. A happy baby, smiling and cooing, strands of hair already growing on its head. Only this one wasn't a vision, with Dita holding the child up. It cried for a while but laughed as well. Simultaneously, the systems on board came back to life, lights activating one by one together with onboard systems. Magno looked at Duerro, who had closed the book.
"There is no manual for these sort of things. We can only take it as it comes. As I said, experience is the key. You men ought to learn this from us, " she lectured.
"Interesting."
Ed, meanwhile had just recovered as well, his eye back to full power . It seemed that the birth of the child was the password needed to save the ship. The only issue was what the message it brought was. When everyone was gathered on the bridge, Pyoro prepared to play back the message. Two scientists appeared onscreen , one stroking a heavy beard. The non-bearded one spoke to the camera.
Greetings, whoever has decoded this message. We apologize for the complicated nature of the code, but we had to make sure our message was received in the right hands. We decided the best sign of humanity, or shall we say progressive humanity would be the cry of a newborn. We are formerly of a planet people called Earth.
Everyone gasped.
Many of us decided to populate the Moon long ago, an ambitious project intended to further our sights toward the universe. From here our ships discovered planets like Melanos. But our leaders on Earth were becoming obsessed with what they called perfection. They began building massive genetic complexes to harness the skills and DNA of the colonial pioneers. After a few generations, the rate of genetic saturation had reached a point to where cloning became degenerative ,unable to provide new sources of strength or intelligence. We were disgusted with this approach as did many of the colonials. By now we had colonized more planets, such as Mejale and Talark with the Ikazuchin (lightning) ship and had no desire to see what our leaders on mother Earth were doing. It is a heavily polluted land now, surrounded by gears and metal that blot out the sunlight.
Our own leaders here on the Moon then decided to do what even God never did- we left Earth. Along with many of the colonies, we attached engines to our Moon and left the Earth sphere. Many colonies remained however, patiently waiting for Earth's solution. I still weep at their decision. That was 40 years ago. Our sources tell us that Earth is now harvesting its "cousins" on other planets for the attributes we now possess. Their previous project was a failure, having gained nothing from Earth-bound colonies. They also chase us, as we have achieved total synergy between inorganic and organic tissue- we can integrate machinery into flesh!
Ed looked at the displays, with his native land moving away , a fleet of rock and space machinery becoming more distant from Earth. He also saw the same process that granted him his cyborg parts, looking at his two hands.
We hope you can join with us in opposing our ancestors, who want nothing more than to take back what we have gained lawfully and inherited by birth. We are building powerful weapons for men and women alike to fight Earth. There are plenty of hardships we have endured, but as long as Earth wants us for our body parts, we must fight. I have heard that one world has already submitted itself to Earth, giving their spines freely. We hope that will never happen to the rest of us. Supplied here are coordinates for a waypoint for all the Lunar colonies. We hope you smart folks can attend. We need more positive thoughts and more importantly, hope. Our industries can supply the weapons. All we need is people's strength, as we cannot fight Earth alone.
The message de-rezzed and faded out , leaving a set of numbers on the screen. Ed looked away at the screen, amazed that the location of his home was right there, on his lap!
"That's President Marshall. He was only 40 if I remember right. I just hope folks back home still think like they did back then," he closed his eyes, "I…I don't want to even think of the opposite."
"If you're right about the Lunar colonies, then that's where we're headed," Magno interrupted his thoughts," We need all the help we can get. BC, set those coordinates into the computer."
The pilots walked over to Ed, surprised by his lack of elation.
"Ed, aren't you happy to see your world again? You look completely different," Dita asked.
"Yeah. You look like someone who's just lost his cat," Hibiki entered. "Cheer up, you're going home!" he patted Ed on the back.
Ed looked at Hibiki and a small grin showed. "I used to have a cat. I used to have a lot of things. But now…is home still home to me?"
Hibiki had no answer.
"Of course it is. We want to get back to Mejale just as bad, right?" Jura smiled.