CHAPTER 52 – PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Elizabeth was beyond upset. She was somewhere between distraught and hysterical.

"He said our baby may come shooting out of me!" she wailed to Jack as the couple made their way to their living quarters. "Like a geyser! He actually said my water might explode out of me like Old Faithful at Yellowstone!"

"He was just being dramatic," Jack replied as he tried to get her to calm down. He was now concerned that if the G-forces didn't bring on early labor, Elizabeth's frantic agitation might just do so.

"Months! We've been on this ship for months and he never mentioned a problem with reentry! He never mentioned rapid fetal growth! He never mentioned any of this. He just put me in a lead apron and sucky shoes and on an absolutely disgustingly healthy diet!"

Jack stopped walking and gently pushed an agitated Elizabeth against the corridor wall. Standing directly in front of her with her back pressed against the hard surface, he allowed only an inch between their bodies.

"Listen to me," he said firmly but still compassionately. "Our baby is going to be just fine. There will be no geyser. No Old Faithful. No early labor. No delivery in space. There will be nothing out of the ordinary. We will land on Earth, hug our families, and get you checked out. Then we will spend another four months enjoying your pregnancy without lead aprons and sucky shoes and the craziness of space. And I'll even let you eat junk food."

Elizabeth's teary eyes met Jack's gaze but she continued to think of the doctor's dire predictions. "He said the pressure may cause contractions. The baby will have no choice but to be propelled out."

"Stop," Jack ordered. "Stop thinking about what he said."

"He said it's like when you take a peeled hard-boiled egg and stick it on top of bottle with a narrow neck," Elizabeth reminded Jack as she found herself rambling on.

"And you heat the glass bottle and the air expands, and then you remove the heat and the air contracts and the pressure changes and the outside air particles push into the bottle to equalize the pressure inside and out, and the EGG IS SUCKED INTO THE BOTTLE! MY BABY WILL BE SUCKED INTO THE TRANSPORTER! OUT OF MY BODY!"

Jack sighed in exasperation as he thought about the doctor's words. "I don't care what he said. He was just being overly scientific. Thinking of what could possibly happen. Not what will likely happen. The man has no idea how to deal with probabilities and real people."

"I don't want our baby to be propelled out of me and land in my seat," Elizabeth sniffled. "He or she is only five months along. It's too early. And I don't want my water to spew out like a fire hose."

Jack scowled when he thought of the doctor's descriptive words. Geyser. Fire hose. Intense. Powerful contraction. Champagne cork popping. A cannonball being fired out of a cannon.

"Our baby's not a cannonball," Elizabeth whimpered as she too considered the doctor's words.

"No, he or she isn't", Jack agreed.

"Or like one of those t-shirts that are shot out of a launcher at football games for people in the stands to catch," she wailed. "Our baby's not a balled-up t-shirt!"

"It was a stupid example he gave," Jack replied as he tried to be the calm one of the two of them.

"We have to go back", Elizabeth declared firmly as she wiped her eyes. "We don't have a choice. We have to go back."

"To the doctor's office? I don't know why. He's not going to tell us anything different. Let's forget about him."

"Not the doctor's office. We have to go back to Planet Assaymark," she responded matter-of-factly.

Elizabeth squished her body past Jack and began walking down the corridor as she continued talking. Leaving a stunned Jack to hurry after her. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't you see? We need to use the mini-transporter and have it take us to a transporter heading in the direction of Planet Assaymark. We'll transfer to the larger transporter. It will be a four-month journey but hopefully, we'll arrive back at Coal Valley just before my due date. The baby will be born in Coal Valley. It's not ideal but we won't have the same G-forces."

"Elizabeth, we are not going back to Coal Valley."

Jack hadn't even considered his wife's irrational idea before emphatically disagreeing with her.

"You're right," Elizabeth agreed readily as she contemplated the situation for more than two seconds. "It's too much of a risk. We might not make it in time. I would be nine months along by the time we got there. We'll go to Mock Earth. Much closer. We can be there in a few days. We'll live there until after the baby is born."

"Elizabeth, we are not going to Mock Earth. We are going home. To Earth. Real Earth."

"No," Elizabeth shook her head as if the decision had already been made and was no longer up for consideration.

"We'll go to Mock Earth. We can find a place to live for four months. I won't have a job but that's okay. I didn't want to work so soon anyway. I don't know what you'll do, but you can think of something," she rattled on hurriedly. "The G-forces to land there will be minimal. We'll have to make arrangements immediately. We can quickly pack and schedule to take a mini-transporter. How about we plan to leave in an hour?"

"An hour?! Elizabeth, calm down. We are not going to Mock Earth to live for the next four months! We are going home."

Elizabeth ignored Jack's protests as she busily planned their new destination.

"Thankfully we don't have much to pack. We just need to check that the mini-transporter has enough food and water for the trip to Mock Earth. We can probably have it set to autopilot. Unless you think you can pilot it. You're good at things. You can probably figure it out. Our families will just have to wait to see us. Maybe Julie can visit us on Mock Earth." Elizabeth continued to rapidly speak as she reached the stairwell and opened the door.

Jack pushed his hand against the doorframe and stopped Elizabeth in her tracks.

"What are you doing? We need to get ready," she asked him in frustration.

"You need to take a deep breath and calm down. We are not going to Planet Assaymark or Mock Earth. We are not taking a mini-transporter anywhere. We are going home. Everything will be okay."

"But Jack –" her voice trailed off as tears began forming again.

"Shh. It's going to be okay", he said tenderly.

"He or she won't even have an Earth Citizen number", Elizabeth said with a sob. Now that she had stopped talking for more than a second, her mind was back to worrying.

"An Earth Citizen number?" Jack questioned.

"It will be the only baby in the universe without an Earth Citizen number", she moaned. "Because he or she won't be born on Earth. Our baby will pop out of me like a champagne cork. A champagne cork without an Earth Citizen number," she cried.

Jack tried not to smile at Elizabeth's seemingly frivolous concern of an identification number. "Our baby will have an Earth Citizen number because he – or she – will be born on Earth four months from now."

"How do you know?" Elizabeth sniffled and then rubbed her nose on her sleeve.

"Because I'm your husband and I'll never let –"

Jack's reassuring statement was cut off by a huge blast of air that roared out of the vent a foot away from them causing Elizabeth's hair to billow into her face. She turned away from the blowing wind.

Jack moved to shield her from the brutal airstream.

"Wind", he said in mild frustration when the gale stopped seconds later. "To remind us of Earth. Although I think a breeze would have done. That was more like a Nor'easter."

After gently moving her hair from her face, Jack kept a palm on her cheek. "We're going to be just fine."

"Promise?"

"I promise. I will never let you down."

"Let me down," Elizabeth said with a giggle as Jack swirled her around the communication room.

Two minutes ago, they had received a message from an OBGYN on Earth that had made them both feel a hundred times better.

After the transporter doctor's dire prediction, Jack had escorted his tearful wife to Mr. Turner, Abigail, the ship's Chief astronomer who was herself a mother of three children, and anyone else who had experience with biology or babies. Everyone had attempted to alleviate Elizabeth's fears.

Not satisfied by Elizabeth's weak assurance that she was felt much better after talking to them, Jack had sent a message to Earth.

Now that they were close to Earth, transmission times were much faster, and after his message had bounced from satellite to satellite to satellite in a relay system, it had arrived at Canada's top maternity hospital an hour after it had been sent.

For the next two hours, the couple had nervously waited for a response.

When the beeping sound signified an incoming hologram, Jack and Elizabeth had quickly watched the hologram, hugged each other in joy, and pushed the button to forward the message to the laptop of the transporter's doctor.

"Let me down," Elizabeth giggled again as Jack swayed back and forth.

"Nope. I'm not letting you down," Jack said good-naturedly as he continued to hold Elizabeth so that her feet didn't touch the floor. "You owe me some more kisses. It took me a lot of pull to get that message seen by the Chief of OBGYN at Albert Maternity Hospital.

Elizabeth smiled broadly and wrapped her legs around Jack's waist so that he was carrying her securely. "I love you. And thank you."

"For my delicious kisses or for contacting the doctors?"

"For both."

Jack's mouth was warm on hers. Moist. Possessive. Tender. Loving.

He never took his lips off her as he walked the two of them the short distance across the room. With one hand, he blindly reached for the single mattress that was kept against one of the walls for situations just like this.

While Elizabeth's tongue continued to deliciously mingle with his, Jack clumsily maneuvered the mattress to the floor.

"Ahemmm," the throat-clearing by the man in the doorway caused Jack to jerk back from his position lying on top of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, with her back against the mattress which was now on the floor, looked in surprise towards door which had silently slid to one side and had allowed her most despised enemy to appear standing over them.

While Jack stared at the man, Elizabeth quickly began to pull her t-shirt over her head and then realized it didn't matter. He's seen more of me than just my bosom in a bra.

"I apologize for interrupting your marital relations but I'm ready to take the necessary precautions to stop potential labor. I assume you watched the hologram message you forwarded to me," the transporter's doctor said.

The middle-aged man's voice had a hint of distain for the couple that seemed to constantly feel the need to have sexual intercourse with each other. In fact, they were probably the most passionate couple he had ever come across. It seemed that since the beginning, they were harping at him for his medical care of the other one, crying over something, worrying about the other one, or just plain acting in love with each other.

"Precautions?" Jack asked. He stood up and shoved his t-shirt into his pants "You mean the medication? I thought one of the doctors mentioned that you wouldn't need to administer the magnesium sulfate until about twelve hours before re-entry."

"That's correct, but I'm going to go ahead and take care of the cerclage now. I messaged both of you but I can see that you were . . . . preoccupied."

"The what?" Elizabeth asked. Jack reached out a hand which she grasped and he pulled her to her feet.

She and Jack had been so happy to hear that the chances of preterm labor were minimal and with simple precautions the risk could be virtually eliminated that they hadn't bothered to actually delve into more facts. The three doctors in the hologram had all seemed to think it was just a matter of taking a few simple precautions.

"The cerclage," the transporter's doctor responded to her question. "If you'll come with me to the infirmary, I'll take care of it. It shouldn't take but a few minutes."

"Um. Okay," Elizabeth responded. She honestly had no idea what the doctor was talking about, but she was more than willing to take a medication to prevent labor. When she had heard the words magnesium sulfate and cerclage, she assumed it would be in pill form, but she could swallow a liquid as long as it wasn't too disgusting tasting.

"You want me to go with you?" Jack volunteered.

"Nah, I'm sure it will just take a minute, like Doc says. I'll meet you back here." Elizabeth said with a smile and a knowing look which caused Jack to grin with the thought that they would be picking up where they had left off.

"Doc, are there any side effects we need to know about? Nausea? Dizziness?" Jack asked before Elizabeth walked out the door with the man.

"Side effects?", the doctor gave Jack a confused look. He cleared his throat before speaking. "No real side-effects. But just so you're aware, you won't be about to have sexual relations with cerclage."

"Why not?" Elizabeth was the one who now looked confused. "Isn't it just a pill?"

"A pill? No, of course not."

"A vial of liquid medicine?" Elizabeth asked with a grimace. She hoped it at least tasted better than some of the vitamin drinks he had forced her to drink.

"No," the doctor responded with a frown at the ignorance of the woman.

"A shot?" Elizabeth asked hesitantly. "I do hate shots, but I can handle them."

"Doc, what exactly are you going to do to Elizabeth?" Jack asked hesitantly when the doctor simply stared at Elizabeth like she was a simpleton.

"I thought it was obvious. Cerclage."

"What exactly do you mean by cerclage? What IS cerclage?"

"Stitching."

"Stitching?" Elizabeth repeated in bafflement.

Doc looked at the two people standing in front of him and sighed before continuing. He hated dealing with naïve people.

"I'm going to sew up your wife."

"Sew her up?!" Jack erupted.

"To prevent labor. I'm going to sew your wife's female anatomy closed."

For the second time in less than six hours, Jack found himself looking for a paper bag to stop Elizabeth from hyperventilating.

Up Next: Chapter 53. Touch Down on Earth

Dear Readers, Thanks for following Jack and Elizabeth on their return voyage over the last several months. They've almost landed! I wrote and posted the first chapter of their return voyage on December 13, 2017 and I think it's only fitting that I write and post the chapter with them landing on May 13, 2018- five months later, just like the five months they've experienced in the story. That way we've all taken the trip together. 😊