CHAPTER 16: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEIA

Meia nervously eyed the calendar in her quarters, frowning at the day it displayed.

No, no…not again!

Not her birthday again! The day after would be her 24th birthday and also her umpteenth time trying to escape the frenzy that was a planned birthday party for her. She cursed the Mejale custom of celebrating almost everything with pomp, wishing everyone would just leave her alone. The misfits were usually the Registry section, with their vast network of information and teamwork. Paiway and her 'pet' puppet Kero were also high on her 'avoid today' list. It wasn't that she didn't like a little celebration, but Meia Gisborn always felt that people made too much fuss. She always went to a bar or in her teenage days off to the ice cream parlor when the occasion rose, enjoying a quiet escape from everyday life , submerged in sugar and alcohol. But the mammoth parties which Jura in particular was so much in favor of were too OTT for her tastes. Flowing booze (or juice for the kiddies), lots of overstuffed bellies, presents, excess…that was enough to help her avoid birthday parties. She understood a bit of what Hibiki called Talark propaganda , the part about women eating their livers. Mejale was certainly a planet of excess, one of the reasons why Magno left to form her rogue band of pirates.

She stuck her head out her door, seeing only an empty passageway. With her flight suit on, she was going to try the escape route Ed recommended on Christmas again, tiptoeing to the hangar for a Dread 'patrol'. She didn't tell him this time, since she suspected he was in on this years plans as well. Knowing Mr. Van Dyke, that was perfectly within his repertoire. The fact that he was more than friends also added to the weight of suspicion . So far, so good with no sounds from Ed's room across the corridor. Meia saw no one in the next corridor and exhaled, pleased that her practice run went well. Then she heard some voices in the corridor. While she desperately tried to hide in a bin, the two crew members simply saluted her flailing legs and left the scene. Meia got up, stuck in the inverted dustbin with bananas and other rubbish raining on her feet.

Damn it all!

She heard knocking on the rim of the dustbin, followed by a familiar voice.

"Just what are you doing, Gisborn?" Gascgone boomed.

"Um…"

"Let's get you out of there!" Gascgone lifted the bin over Meia' s head. A single banana skin was planted on her head, almost complimenting her angry expression.

"Fun begins tomorrow!" Gascgone laughed, "Don't worry about today!"

Meia sat on the floor and sighed as Gascgone caught up with her two techs. Was she ever going to escape? She picked up the banana peel and threw it as far as she could down the hall. After the small plop at the end, little sound was heard. Meia got up, steeling herself. If she was to avoid people forever, they might get the drop on her someday. The plan was now to get the drop on them.

"She's sitting pretty in the hall, Chief!" a tech reported to Hibiki, Jura and Barnett.

"Good. I don't want anyone bothering our…plans," Jura wickedly smiled.

"But how are we gonna hide these plans from her?" Hibiki scratched his head.

" We have to occupy her. Where's Ed?" Barnett asked.

"I'm here. But I'm down for maintenance work on the Black Star. I guess I won't be much help, anyway. She knows I'm up to something if I even set foot outside this hangar."

Jura rubbed her chin and tried to think. Inevitably , she gave up after five minutes. But some spark of life erupted in her brain and she slammed her fist on the meeting table.

"Got it!"

It was that day, the dreaded day out of the year. Meia groaned as she put her clothes on, wishing she could simply have a lie-in in her securely locked quarters. But she had to get out and foil that party plan. Perhaps locking all of them in the brig for a day would work. With a gag for Jura, of course. Or maybe she could still get out into space. She prayed that the Harvesters would attack. She begged for Earth to attack them that instant. Hell, she wished anyone could attack them.

She suspected the conspirators were holding meetings in the Dread strategy room, judging by the shuffling of people everytime she went from one place to another. Unknown to her (but heavily suspected), the techs were all recording her movements, hiding in crevices and hollow panels. Meia' s avoiding skills were so top notch that technology was brought in specifically to keep tabs on her. She expected all these, and it was with these expectations that she predictably found Jura standing in front of the strategy room, arms crossed.

"Sorry, we're discussing new formations and maneuvers."

"That's good, Jura. As squadron leader, I 'd like to learn some myself."

"Nope, it's just Barnett, Dita, Hibiki and the non-Vandread pilots. We've been hogging all the fancy flying lately, they need to catch up to us. Seeing you would upset ranking an all."

"Jura…" Meia bared her teeth.

" Nope, they don't want to be bothered. It's cleared with the other Section Leaders!" Jura showed a letter of sorts, with Helm , Energy Core and Medic Bay all approving of the need for privacy. Meia' s spot as lead pilot was blank, the only unstamped space. She threw her hands up, heading for the hangar. At least her dominion over it was supreme, or so she liked to think. And she could keep an eye on Ed, hoping to spoil any conspiracy she knew he was in on. As her footsteps faded down the hall, everyone in the room sighed, slumping down to the floor.

"Alright then, where were we…?" Paiway held up Kero .

"Hello, hello!" Ed called out from his cockpit in the Black Vanguard, "Looks like somebody's a little paranoid today!"

Meia couldn't see him as he was buried under several wires and computers, each analyzing performance and other statistics. She looked around, trying to find the source of his voice. She saw some wrenched flying through the air, plus the sounds of a monitor being tweaked by a screwdriver.

"Where are you? I'm not in the mood for games today, Ed!" she huffed, arms akimbo.

Ed poked his head out the cockpit to confirm his presence, noticing the change in mood in Meia. She saw that he was wearing his cyborg guise, wires sticking out his very face.

"Put on your skin, Eddie. I want to look at your face."

"Hey…! Don't take it out on me, whatever it is! Gimme a sec! Sheesh!" Ed poked his head back into the cockpit. Wires were heard retracting and coiling back into the cockpit and the laptops lying around, before the slushy sound of skin regeneration came to local ears.

"Alright, I'm dressed. What's eating you, blue eyes?" Ed leaped out of his cockpit, landing at Meia' s feet.

"Do you know what day it is?"

"Monday?"

"You seriously don't know?"

"Tuesday?"

"EDWARD!" she grabbed his collar, "you big fat liar!"

"I don't know, I swear! I'll get a calendar or something!"

She let go, seeing the truth in his posture and eyes, wiping her brow in relief. Ed was a puzzled as ever, wondering if he was working on a Sabbath day or something. Meia shoved Ed into his cockpit , trudging towards her Dread and began plugging in devices similar to what Ed was doing earlier. Ed shrugged and continued his work, going back to cyborg interface. While he loved Meia, he learned that there were some things women had to work out on their own. The shifts came and went, with Meia still worried about surveillance and hoping the day would just end. Hours passed and nothing of note happened, as Gascgone shifted her techs around and went about fixing and replacing things. When the techs signaled A-OK, Ed and Meia stood up and walked out of the hangar.

In came Hibiki, holding baby Karu with a protesting Pyoro behind him. The mechanics looked up in surprise, as did Ed and Meia. The baby laughed and gurgled as Hibiki walked over to Meia.

"I am not going to hold Ezra's baby," she made herself heard from inside the cockpit, "get Jura or something to do it!"

"Too bad, here you go! " Hibiki passed little Karu to Meia and ran, sniggering.

"Give Pyoro-2 back-pyoro!" Pyoro screamed as Hibiki dragged him down the hall.

"Plan successful! Now she's gonna be occupied 24-7!" Hibiki radioed Dita.

Ed was as stunned as Meia, gaping at the baby. What a stinker, that Hibiki!

Meia and Ed walked down the hallway, both gawking at this…this…thing in her arms. Meia held the baby at arms length while Ed kept his arms folded behind his back.

"What am I going to do with this baby all day?" she frowned. "Not that I mind, but… damnit , Ed! You hold the baby!!"

"NO!" Ed waved the baby away. "I might drop him...er, her…"

"Men!" Meia almost threw her hands up, forgetting the bambino in her arms.

"That reminds me…is Karu a boy or a girl?"

"Of course Karu' s a girl! Ezra got her ova from Rebecca, remember? No way Karu can be a boy!"

They stopped next to a door as Ed took the baby and gently lay Karu down in the deck. Ed sniffed the air and a look of disgust crossed his face.

"Ed! What the hell are you doing?"

Ed deftly folded and unfolded the baby's napkins, opening a fresh one from a pack Dita had thrown him in the hangar. As he removed the dirty, smelly napkin his eyes went wide open.

"Meia….do girls look like this on Mejale..?"

Meia looked at the baby's pelvis and almost shrieked. What was that on its front? Did Ezra take a wrong drug or something?

"Ed!" she gasped, "Karu' s a…a…"

"A boy. Miracles are about…"

"Does Ezra know?"

"I'm sure she's never seen the baby naked, seeing as Pyoro' s practically abducted the child 9 to 5. I'd better wrap him up then...and tell Magno."

Meia was almost frozen, but shook herself out of her funk and nodded. "Yeah, better to tell the Boss before someone finds out and panics! Wait, we should tell the Doctor. He's male, so I guess he can figure this out."

Ed wrapped the diapers and carried the baby in his arms. Meia eyed the way he was holding Karu, elbows bent at acute angles, supporting the head.

"How come you know how to change a diaper and all that?" she let out.

"I took a course…but when I lost Dana…she was carrying our child," he mumbled.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. It's not like I'm lusting for a child like you-know-who."

The ship suddenly trembled and shook as alarms sounded. Ed fell flat on his back, shielding Karu from the floor. The baby bounced and landed in Meia' s arms instead. She saw through the window three egg carriers de-folding outside the Nirvana, red cuboids splitting into the dreaded red demons.

"We have to get to the Vandreads!" Ed got up.

"No, what about Karu?"

" Yeah…whoa!" Ed and Meia howled as they were thrown aside by a gigantic explosion which rocked the hull and sent them tumbling into a chute. Meia curled herself around Karu, hoping the baby would understand gravity. Ed similarly tucked himself into a cannonball. They fell with a thud into a darkened room, which lit up when Meia landed into a bundle of switches.

"Where are we…?" Meia rubbed her bottom as Ed fell into the room as well.

The room began to shake and loud booms were heard from one side. To their horror, Ed and Meia saw that things were beginning to float, as well as Karu. On the bridge, Bart detected that portion of the ship setting off, alerting BC.

"What the-!" they saw the detached ship boost away.

"Heads up!" Bart hollered as he released a salvo of blue threads towards an egg carrier. Outside, many Dreads including the Blue Victory and Red Guardian were busy countering the Earth assault. The battle paused for an instant, as the smaller ship passed through. Even the egg carriers simply gazed at the sleek, bud-like vehicle that passed by.

"What is that?" Jura and Barnett looked at their screens.

"It came from the Nirvana!" Dita exclaimed.

Before the Harvesters could react, a blue flood of energy overwhelmed them, sinking another egg carrier. The surviving one tried to turn tail, but Hibiki and Dita tore a hole right through its posterior, resulting in a bright red explosion that lit up the sky. Then, all attention turned towards the strange white ship, cruising in the middle of the battlefield.

Ed and Meia looked outside the viewports, seeing the vastness of space before them. Ed grabbed his throat and wondered why no air was escaping. It was then he realized he wasn't breathing. He quickly turned to Meia, who was sneaking Karu into an emergency Mejale space suit while strapping a breathing apparatus onto her flight suit. A cone of photons formed above her head, sealing the air in.

"I somehow knew you wouldn't have to breathe," she looked at him.

"How's Karu?"

The baby had a worried look on his face, but Ed was glad the space suit was working. He looked around the ship, seeing crude drawings on the walls and strange toys on the floor.

"We're in a nursery," Meia noticed.

"The old colonials must have used this room for keeping the young ones in. Maybe ol' Magno had a crack at this T-Ball, " Ed picked up a small bat and swung it at the rubber stand. The plastic ball flew off and nearly hit Meia, who had picked up Karu.

"Be careful! We don't want to break any seals!" Meia scolded him.

"That's puffy plastic- won't break wind!" Ed whispered. He ran a quick diagnostic on himself, his cyborg eye showing that his body had switched to non-oxygen for respiration. OK, whatever that meant.

"Sit, Ed. We have to think of a way to get this place back to the Nirvana." Meia patted the space near her, setting Karu on her lap. He oohed and aaahed, waving his chubby hands around in the large-size suit. Meia was lucky to find it, as the Registry crew had distributed emergency packs only to the inhabited decks. She concluded they must have left one when they were mapping the place, shortly after they jumped from Talark space. Her own emergency pack was a pilot issue of the Mejale navy, with a built in air supply and liquid refreshment. She figured they would last four to five hours, seeing as how she had used her pack repeatedly before.

Ed sat, wrapping his arm around Meia and Karu. His skin was cold to the touch, a sign that the oxygen in his face was depleting. He activated the nursery's thermometer, snarling at the double digit display.

"The meter says it's 20 degrees Celsius. And dropping…" Ed began to shiver.

"The system must be malfunctioning. First it sends us off the ship, now it's turning off the heating!" Meia said between breaths. Karu rolled around in the suit, the thermostat in the suit keeping him warm and snug.

"Lucky …him!" Ed moved towards the window, "God, get us out of here already, guys!"

Outside, the Dreads/ Vandreads were joined by Gascgone' s Recovery crew, led by her mooncake-like ship. Gascgone ordered her crew to start drilling, putting on a welding mask herself as her carrier moved closer to the nursery pod. The ships clattered together, but her techs managed to hold the ships together as Gascgone tore the nursery ship's hull apart with a blowtorch.

"What is that?" BC asked. Surprisingly, it was Bart who answered.

"That is the nursery of the ship. It's released because some malfunction made it think the Ikazuchin- I mean the Nirvana was destroyed. I guess the ancestors knew about the importance of kids."

The bridge was silent as Bart lifted out of the helm room to look at the ship himself. "Maybe they're trying to teach us."

"I told him I used to play in there," Magno revealed to the crew, who were momentarily stunned by his burst of insight. BC chuckled.

No, I told him, little Magno, a voice only Bart could hear said. No one noticed the smile in the corner of his mouth. Long before you did.

"It's getting colder," a shivering Ed held up the ther-monitor , which was showing 4 degrees Celsius. Meia was also shivering, wrapping herself in as many nursery blankets as she could find. "Look at him, he's not got a care in the world."

Meia tried to smile, seeing the cooing Karu who was flailing his arms in the suit. The baby smiled back at her, reaching out to touch her hand. Meia touched it through the suit's glass, their fingers meeting through the clear visor. Ed managed a weak smile, but his systems were reacting to the cold, some shutting down or shifting power. His vision began to blur as his systems rerouted more power to vital organs. Meia put his head on her lap, helping him save energy. She looked out the window towards the Recovery pod, wondering what the crew were doing while they froze. She turned her head as Ed dropped the monitor, going limp from the cold. Karu stopped laughing and wondered what had happened. Meia cradled Ed's head in her lap, hoping for some sort of warmth from him, rubbing his neck and shoulders. Karu grabbed Ed's hand, waving it about.

"Ed!" she screamed, "No!"

"I'm fine…now my consciousness is resting in the central processor back on this ship. Watch my strapping young body while I try switch the heating on, alright?"

Meia looked around to see the lights all activated, as well as several electrical appliances that were plugged in starting to function. A baby radio even started flickering, with Ed's voice going 'Testing, Testing?' But the most important thing was that cyber Ed had managed to find the thermostat and activate the heating. The independent oxygen system was on , allowing Karu and Meia to dispense with their breathing gear. Ed's limp body was rested on a nanny's bed, sticking its finger in an electrical socket. Meia got up and lay Karu down in a cot, watching him wriggle around and try to get up only to fall again. She sighed and rested her head on her open palm, watching the little baby learn his moves. Ed's hand landed on her shoulder, startling her. He leaned next to her, staring at Karu.

"Look at him now, as if nothing happened. This kid's one in a million."

"How do they do it, Ed?"

"We all used to know, blue. We all just forgot ," he put his arm around her. "So, what day is it?"

"Oh, nothing. Just my birthday."

Ed kissed her on the forehead, holding her closer.

"That's not nothing. I take it your mood this morning was because some people were trying to throw you a big bash, correct?" he rubbed her forearm.

"That's right. And according to Mejale custom, it has to be BIG . At least a hundred guests. Sorry for blowing up at you, Eddie."

"You're allowed to feel, blue-eyes." Ed exhaled, looking at Karu. "Never hold it against yourself."

At that moment, Gascgone burst in with her techs, armed to the teeth with rivets, emergency gear and giant blowtorches. Ed held the baby up as some sort of peace offering. He did see it done on a certain space-based TV show. Gascgone and her crew let out sighs of relief, as did Ezra who came along with the crew after hearing news of Karu. But it was Jura who grabbed the baby from Ed's hands, squeezing him till he was out of breath. He started crying, something Jura didn't like at all. Meia took him and cradled him softly in her arms.

"Take lessons, this is how you do it. Right, Ezra?" she smiled at the baby.

Ezra nodded and gently took her baby back and Karu was obviously happy to see his mother again. He looked at Ed, who pointed to himself. He laughed, bouncing up and down.

"He likes you," Meia commented.

"He?" Ezra looked up while Meia blocked her mouth with her hands.

"Oh , you mean Karu. He likes everyone!"

On the shuttle back, Meia leaned over to Ezra, who was seated next to a restrained Jura.

"You knew all this time?"

"Yes. I'm afraid the Pegasus invaded me as well that day…the doctor told me when I was doing ultrasound."

"How? You were on our ship, not the Nirvana."

"I'm communications, remember? I got a sort of shock from my console when the ships merged. I thought it was just feedback, but it seems that…my baby became a male. What will I tell Rebecca? And what about Celtic, Belvedere and the others?"

"You'll say 'that's our baby'. He still is, you know. As for the others, I don't think the Pegasus did anything."

Ezra started crying as everyone tried to comfort her.

"Thank you, Meia…I wish I was as strong as you or Rebecca. I'm just frightened by the easiest things…" she said as she wiped her tears.

"It's OK ,Ezra…" Meia said as she hugged her.

"A baby….it's ok to cry over things like that. Magno told me so, " Bart commented, remembering his own attachment to Shirley.

Ezra now had Karu on her lap, a decision that angered Pyoro but made her happy. She smiled at the old pirate, who smiled back. Now that everything was fine, the bridge enjoyed the company of their new member.

"That boy speaks the truth. It would be strange for you not to cry. He's your son and nothing can change that. It might take some explaining, but miracles have happened on this ship before. Look at me, I'm 108 years and still ticking! Speaking of ticking, where is Bosom?"

The doors slid open, with the whole Registry section as well as most of the Dread pilots jumping up and screaming HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Some popped poppers while others let balloons go. The fanfare stopped when they saw who came in.

"Why everyone…you all remembered my birthday!" BC chuckled. "Well, let the booze flow!" she held out her arms and grabbed a bottle of wine. "Gotta save this for Bart," she thought. "What? Didn't you guys know it was my birthday? Get the cake!" BC cracked her whip. "GO!"

"You looked into the records, and….!" Ed laughed, patting Meia on the shoulder.

Meia nodded, toasting her champagne glass with Ed's and taking a sip. They were in the nursery section again, this time under candlelight and behind locked doors. They both sat on the floor with the candle in between.

"Here, this is for you." Ed produced a bowl of ice cream with two spoons. Meia gasped. "your favorite. I asked around."

"I love you, Edward Van Dyke." She took a little spoon and scooped a piece into her mouth, only to have Ed reverse her grip and send the ice cream into his mouth. She tried again but with the same result.

"Did I say that too quickly?" she pulled her spoon away from him, knowing he was teasing. Ed pulled his spoon and fed her with it, a mischievous look in his eyes. She took her spoon and pressed it against his nose, leaving a wad of cream on his nose. They both laughed and fed each other with the spoons, slowly pulling them until their lips met in a soft kiss.

"Love you too. Happy Birthday, Meia."

Bart heard that voice again, invading his mind.

Time to learn again.

"Now?"

I can move this ship myself. Come on, let's talk.