Stardate 2260.315

Voris' eyes drifted open. Instinct made him reach for Dagny, but she wasn't there. She hadn't been there in five days because they had ceased sharing a bed following Safi's birth. It was logical they should resume sleeping separately, now that she no longer required mental and emotional support.

Logical, perhaps, but was it preferable? He briefly allowed himself to wonder if he missed the warmth of her body next to his in the night, but then dismissed his train of thought. Dagny was no longer pregnant and there was no excuse to sleep in such close proximity and that was that.

He blinked several times, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dark. What little light there was came from the clocks on the far wall and in the kitchen. He trained his ears to his surroundings, acknowledging Dagny's rhythmic snores. How long had it been since she had last risen to feed Safi? An hour? Two? The clock read 0412 and if he remembered correctly, Safi had woken them a mere ninety-four minutes ago, demanding sustenance.

He sat up slowly so as to avoid allowing his mattress to squeak and peered into the cot between his and Dagny's beds. His daughter was sleeping soundly on her back, arms stretched above her head. Her left foot twitched slightly, drawing Voris' attention.

She was such a strange thing to behold. Reproduction was such a perfectly natural process—perhaps the most natural of processes—but the sight of Safi sleeping contentedly in her cot seemed so unnatural, given the events that had brought her into existence. Dagny had endured so much—a traumatic conception, a difficult pregnancy, and a lengthy birth—but the reward for her suffering had yielded this entirely new person. The more he dwelled on it, the more fantastical of a concept it became and he doubted whether he would ever be able to express his gratitude to Dagny for everything she had done to give Safi life.

He stole a look at Dagny, who was sleeping on her side facing the cot and snoring softly. What had she said immediately following the birth? "I had no idea how much I needed her until just now?" Shifting his object of focus between his daughter and his daughter's mother, he understood just how profoundly he agreed with her sentiment.

Of course, she'd also thanked him and told him how much she loved him. It would be illogical to say he did not care for Dagny in return. He had spent many hours probing this idea, especially during the past five days. Perhaps his love wasn't of the romantic variety, but he suspected it would be impossible not to harbor some affection for a woman who was mother to his child.

Voris turned his attention back to the child in the cot, mildly overwhelmed by the responsibility that had been bestowed upon him to instruct this new person in life's intricacies. Looking at her, it was difficult not to reflect upon his own upbringing and wonder how it might be improved upon for this subsequent generation. His mother had been attentive and permissive while his father had been aloof and stern—which was the better way?

There was the matter of her humanity as well. At this very early age, logic would hold no meaning for Safi, but most Vulcan parents began training their children in foundational logic and emotional control between the ages of three and four. Dagny had on several occasions expressed her concern for how they would guide their child's development, whether they should raise her as a human or as a Vulcan or as some peculiar combination of both. Was it even possible to be both? He thought of his cousin Spock and wondered what sort of conflicts he'd faced and how they had shaped him as a person.

He fed his inner turmoil for the better part of half an hour without really arriving at any concrete answers about the evolving nature of his relationship with Dagny or the best way to be a father to Safi. He was just thinking now that Dagny was no longer pregnant and he was not facing the incredible burden of emotionally supporting them both that he might attempt to resume his former meditation regimen when Safi's foot twitched again, more pronounced than before.

Such movements were likely just the product of an immature nervous system, though he wondered if they might be indicative of a more serious neurological problem. He observed the rise and fall of her chest and contemplated performing a series of scans, but he had already performed every diagnostic scan known to medicine on her following her birth, many of them multiple times.

In a rare display of both tenderness and absentmindedness, he reached over the bars of the cot and gently stroked her cheek. The moment his hand made contact with her face, her eyes snapped open. Safi blinked several times and began to coo, then whimper. Voris pulled his hand back and stood. He had not meant to wake her.

Dagny's snoring fell silent and for approximately five seconds, no sound could be heard. Then Safi started to wail. Dagny sat upright and looked around.

"Voris? Is everything ok?"

"Yes. I have inadvertently woken her. I am sorry."

"It's ok," she whispered, leaning over the cot. "It's ok, baby, I'm here. We're both here. What's got you so upset, huh?"

Safi continued to shriek and Voris stood back to let Dagny take control of the situation. Years of caring for her siblings had given her unique expertise for such work.

"Lights, dim to thirty percent," Dagny said, rising to her feet and propping Safi up on her chest as artificial illumination bathed the room.

With wild hair and dark bags under her eyes, Dagny looked the epitome of exhaustion, but the soft smile spreading across her lips as she gently stroked their daughter's back gave her a contented appearance. Within seconds, Safi's cries subsided. She carried her into the kitchen and opened the food preserver, clucking her tongue.

"Uh oh, we're out of your supplemental formula," she said, leaning down to kiss the top of Safi's head. She turned to face Voris and added in a more assertive tone, "I tell you what, will you hold her while I go replicate some more?"

Voris stiffened but gave a small nod of assent, but his reluctance did not go unnoticed.

"Why don't you want to hold her?"

"She seems to prefer your touch to mine."

"Well, that's because she's used to me," Dagny replied, offering a reassuring frown. "But the more you hold her, the more she'll get used to you too."

"I have held her."

"Yeah, you have. In fact, I suppose you were technically the first person to hold her at all, but whenever you do hold her, it's mostly in the context of being a medical professional. It's ok to be her dad sometimes: you don't always have to be her doctor."

Without giving him adequate time to respond, Dagny approached him and lifted Safi from her chest. Safi protested futilely, squeaking and thrashing her arms, but she allowed herself to be placed in Voris' care.

"She just needs to get to know you," Dagny said, softly tracing her fingernails through Safi's sparse, fine hair. "I'll be back in two minutes. I promise."

Voris watched her gingerly shuffle down the stairs and once she was out of sight, he looked back at his daughter. She twisted and writhed in his grip and started to cry once again. It wasn't as though he'd never heard an infant cry before, but watching his own child perform this action, particularly when she was tucked into his arms, was mildly distressing.

He tried Dagny's method of propping her up high onto his chest, but it did little to comfort her. He tried gently bouncing her up and down, another tactic he'd seen Dagny employ, but it also proved in vain. What else could he do?

Perhaps she was simply hungry and if that were so, she would have to wait until Dagny returned with her formula. He stroked the side of her cheek, which caused her to quickly tilt her head in that direction, a reflex both human and Vulcan babies possessed. She latched onto his forefinger, attempted to suckle, then tried to move her mouth away. Her cries grew even louder and more shrill.

When Dagny reappeared at the top of the stairs with a bottle in hand, he felt sudden relief. She caught sight of his face and raised her eyebrows, then asked, "Is everything ok?"

"She began crying the moment you went downstairs."

"She's probably just fussy because she's hungry," Dagny replied, craning her neck to look at the baby. The moment Dagny's hand made contact with her face, she began to quiet down. "It might be a little easier for you to feed her if you sit down."

"You would have me feed her?"

"Sure, why not?"

"I have little experience with such things," Voris explained. "She does not appear to accept me as a care provider."

Dagny sighed, clenched her jaw, and then forced a smile. "First of all, isn't it logical that in order to gain experience at such things, you need to do them?"

Voris swallowed and peeked back at Safi. "It is, but I do not see the need to upset her at this moment, if it can be avoided."

"It's like I said earlier: if you want her to accept you, you need to be around her. And don't think it's a matter of her accepting you or not: I think she really is just hungry. Won't you please sit and give feeding her a try? Since she can't be exclusively breastfed anyway, I think it would be nice if you gave her the bottles in the morning and evening."

Voris gave a small nod and sat in the nearest kitchen chair, sat Safi more upright, and accepted the bottle from Dagny. He slid the nipple across the corner of her mouth and she immediately latched on and fell into the rhythm of suckling.

Even though she bit her lip to conceal it, he noticed a small smile form at the corners of Dagny's mouth. "If you hold her just a little more upright, she'll be less likely to spit up."

He readily complied with her suggestion. It was logical too: Safi had yet to develop the muscles in her esophagus and placing her in a more vertical position would offer a more direct route for the formula to descend into her stomach.

"Does she often regurgitate her meals?" Voris asked, catching Dagny's gaze.

"Uh… sometimes. In fact, let me get you a towel just in case." She hopped to her feet, hurried in a shuffling motion to the dresser, and returned with a soft yellow cloth. "Sometimes she'll take a kind of natural pause in the middle of eating, and when she does, try to burp her."

"What is the best method for inducing her to eruct?"

"Just lift her up onto your shoulder and gently pat her back, but before you do-"

Safi uttered a barely audible urp and spit white liquid down Voris' shirt. Dagny winced and finished, "Be sure to put the towel on your shoulder."

Voris set the bottle on the table and shifted Safi to his other arm while Dagny tried to blot the regurgitated fluid from his shoulder. "Sorry about that," she sighed.

"There is no need to apologize. Perhaps you would prefer to feed her now?"

"Don't give up so easily," she pleaded. "I can't even begin to tell you the number of times I've been covered in baby barf. It washes off. It doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong."

He bobbed his head, draped the towel over his other shoulder, and resumed feeding Safi. "What volume does she typically consume during a single feeding?"

"About sixty milliliters, but just let her eat until she's full. She needs to put on weight."

"Yes, I know."

Dagny blushed and slid into the chair next to him, grimacing as she lowered herself. "I know you know."

"How are you feeling?"

She winced and blushed an even deeper shade of red. "Still pretty tender and there's still a lot of bleeding, but nothing out of the ordinary. I'm fine."

He detected a subtle emotional shift within her but could not comprehend why. They had not melded with one another since prior to Safi's birth and though the mental link between them was not quite as profound as it had been, it remained quite strong.

"You are… sad?" Voris probed.

Dagny frowned. "Not sad. I don't know, maybe sad. I don't know how to describe it but it goes beyond sad. I suppose maybe I'm just adjusting to not having her inside me anymore. Towards the end, her little emotional outbursts were definitely hell, but I miss having that connection with her."

"What you describe is quite common among Vulcan mothers."

"It's actually pretty normal in humans too, minus the telepathy part. I'll be fine."

They grew quiet, leaving them to be serenaded by the sounds of Safi smacking on the bottle. Voris had grown accustomed to melding with Dagny to assist her through her emotional struggles and gladly would again, but he supposed it would be too forward to ask outright, now that she was no longer pregnant.

"Is there any chance you could you keep feeding her while I take a shower? It's been a couple days and I really need to wash…"

"Certainly," Voris replied, feeling unprepared for the task of feeding Safi without supervision but remembering that he was a doctor, so even if the absolute worst happened and she somehow aspirated formula, he was perfectly capable of treating her.

He watched Dagny collect a change of clothes and disappear into the lavatory, leaving him alone with their daughter once again. As he had earlier that morning, he soon found himself lost in the casual wonder of simply observing her—her uncoordinated efforts to control her limbs, her disjointed facial expressions as she suckled. He gently touched her left fist, marveling at the size of her tiny fingers, which prompted her to open her hand and latch onto his index finger.

Safi's simple and reflexive gesture produced one of the most profound episodes of affection of his life. Nearly five decades of training in logic compelled him to repress these feelings, but he hesitated. Could there really be any harm in allowing himself to experience paternal love? It seemed almost heretical to wonder, yet it also seemed inherently wrong to believe caring for his daughter in this way could be more harmful than beneficial.

Suddenly, she spit out the nipple of the bottle and made a face. What had he done to provoke this? He attempted to reposition himself, but she resisted his attempts, choosing instead to ball her hands back into fists and squirm. She had no real muscle tone to speak of so her efforts were largely futile, but so too were Voris' attempts to comfort her.

She squeaked and uttered a series of short cries. Voris set the nearly empty bottle on the table and carefully stood to analyze her condition. Was she suddenly ill? Should he fetch his tricorder? He wondered whether she needed another round of the practice Dagny called "burping" in order to relieve the accumulation of gas in her stomach. He was repositioning the towel on his shoulder and trying to prop Safi up when a soft gurgling in her stomach gave way to rivers of feces dripping down his arm and abdomen.

To be fair, it wasn't the first time a baby had ever defecated on him: it was the second. He recalled Ms. Mosby's baby, T'Sena, at the Va'ashiv district hospital just prior to relocating to Bergeron colony. In that situation, Ms. Mosby had been responsible for tending to the mess and Voris had had the luxury of removing his medical coat and continuing on with his patients.

He studied his daughter's face and gave a small nod. She was now quiet and her face was forming the shape of a half smile. Whatever affliction had plagued her prior to this unfortunate incident now seemed quite resolved.

Voris had never changed an infant's sanitary garment, but reasoned it couldn't be difficult, once he located the supplies Dagny kept on hand for such matters. He paced the room, cognizant of the fact that the former contents of Safi's bowels were dripping from his shirt onto the floor and finally located a cache of diapers and wipes underneath Safi's cot.

After scouring the closet for a large towel, he awkwardly attempted to spread it over his bed with one hand while cradling Safi with the other and by the time this task was accomplished, they were both covered in dark brown, semi-liquid feces. He laid her down gently, examined the mess on his shirt, and recoiled at the smell. He gingerly and quickly pulled it over his head, folded it in such a way that the feces would not leak out, and turned his attention to Safi.

Dagny had dressed her in a singular shirt that extended below her waist, wrapping around her buttocks to be joined by a pair of clasps in the front. He was able to undo the clasps easily enough, but pulling the shirt over her head proved more difficult, particularly as he was trying to protect her vulnerable umbilical stump.

She kept curling her arms into her body and Voris disliked the idea of forcing them apart to remove the garment. She was so small it seemed that such an action would injure her. Logically, not to mention professionally, he understood that neonates were not nearly so fragile that their arms would break simply as a result of maneuvering them through the holes of a shirt, but he still found himself reluctant to do it.

The next fifteen minutes were consumed by wrestling with a person who was less than one twenty-fifth of his size and losing. Safi's smile faded into a frown and then eventually into crying. When Dagny emerged from the lavatory several minutes later wearing a loose-fitting dress and a towel around her shoulders, she froze in the doorway and yelped, "Ah!"

Voris stepped away from Safi and looked over at Dagny. She slowly clapped a hand over her mouth, but the squinting at the corners of her eyes strongly implied she was stifling a laugh.

"I was attempting to clean…" He wasn't sure how to finish the sentence, because as he began to survey the scene, he realized he had simply generated a much larger mess.

"It's ok," she said, breezing toward him. "You're doing fine."

"Fine has many variable definitions but I do not believe any of them apply to this situation."

She rolled her teeth over her bottom lip. "Changing a diaper is one of those things that seems straightforward but can be a bit daunting if you've never done it before. You tried and that's what matters. Can I show you an easier way to do this?"

He bobbed his head and studied Safi, who had stopped crying and now seemed perfectly content to lie half-dressed and covered in her own feces on her father's bed. Dagny sat down on the edge of the bed, gripped Safi by her ankles, lifted her bottom upward, and balked.

"Whew, baby, you sure did make a mess, didn't you? I don't think wipes are going to fix this: you're going to need a bath."

She stripped Safi naked with the sort of confidence and ease Voris had been unable to muster, then stood and pulled the towel from her shoulders. She glanced at Voris, paused, fought back a smile, then stood on her tiptoes to wipe his forehead with the towel. "You had poop in your hair," she said nonchalantly.

Voris resisted the urge to touch the area she'd just wiped and followed her into the kitchen. Dagny laid a large yellow sponge in the sink, ran the water until it was warm, then gently propped Safi upon the sponge, steadying her with one hand while dribbling water onto the lower half of her body with the other. He was about to ask whether she intended to keep Safi's umbilical stump dry, but decided against it: Dagny was very much the expert here. Less than ten minutes later, Safi was cleaned, dried, and dressed in a new blue one-piece shirt.

After setting Safi down in her cot, she began stripping the soiled linens off Voris' bed. "I can assist you," he offered, moving in the direction of the kitchen to collect a sponge to wipe the feces from the floor.

"Why don't you go shower?" she said, offering him a reassuring look. "I can take care of all this."

"It is I who contributed to the mess," he insisted. "And your body is still recovering from the rigors of childbirth."

"It's just a little poop, I'll be ok." The same sadness he'd sensed in her earlier returned, only stronger now. He was about to inquire after it, but she shook her head and pointed to the lavatory door. "Besides, you kind of smell like poop and no one wants that."

He conceded to her request but spent the entire time in the shower wondering how he had failed so egregiously to care for his daughter for a mere twenty minutes. He regretted creating extra work for Dagny and resolved to learn to do better, if not just for Safi's sake, but for Dagny's.

Dagny stared listlessly at the clock in the kitchen, consciously blinking as she waited for the pancakes to be done enough on one side to flip. She had finally coaxed Voris into helping with the baby and it had gone so badly. She had no doubt he had certainly tried his best, but he was hopelessly inept. How could someone so good at being a doctor be so bad at changing a diaper?

She supposed they weren't mutually inclusive skills. She wasn't angry: if anything, she felt bad that she'd put him through all that when he clearly wasn't prepared. She wanted Voris to develop a bond with Safi, but she felt torn between pushing him too hard and not pushing him hard enough to take an active interest in caring for her. Then there was that fear she kept buried as far back in her mind as she could manage, the one where Voris and Safi grew too close and Safi decided she would rather be Vulcan than human.

Dagny glanced down at the griddle, sniffed the air, and flipped the first pancake over to reveal a very dark stain. She rolled her eyes and flipped the others as fast as she could, but they were all burned too. She'd been raised on replicated food and had never been much of a cook, but it surely took a special kind of talent to ruin pancakes.

She decided she would take these burned ones for herself and save the next batch for Voris. She stepped away from the griddle and began setting the breakfast table, glancing over at Safi as she passed. The baby was sound asleep, but she spent most of her time that way. She resisted the urge to stop what she was doing and lean over her cradle, lest she waste time and burn both sides of the pancakes. It was easy to want to spend every waking minute with her baby, but the mundane process of living life also occasionally demanded attention.

It was no exaggeration to say she loved Safi more than she'd ever loved anyone, but something still felt amiss. At the most basic level, she understood her life had radically changed just five days ago and it was only natural she'd feel a bit disjointed. She'd gone from being pregnant and working in the clinic and bonding with Voris several times a day to pretty much exclusively caring for a demanding newborn all on her own.

Her body had gone from a swollen mess of stretchmarks to a true carnival of horrors overnight. Her stomach looked like deflated bread dough and though it had obviously shrunken, she could still probably pass for being pregnant. She had torn slightly during the delivery and even though Voris had patched her up, she was still so sore it hurt to sit down.

Then there was the sheer quantity of fluid streaming out of her. She was still bleeding so heavily that it was a wonder she had any blood left in her body and yesterday her milk had finally come in, leaving her breasts rock hard, almost double their usual size, and excruciatingly tender.

She was very careful to avoid complaining about any of this to Voris, who would insist on performing an exam. Everything going on with her body was completely normal, but that didn't mean it was comfortable or that she had to be happy about it. She knew she just needed to give things time to heal and if she took care of herself, things would mostly go back to the way they'd been before.

Aside from her body, she also wanted her life back. During the five days since Safi's birth, Dagny had existed in a kind of purgatory where her entire reality had become tied up in her daughter. She was more than willing to make room in her life for the little baby sleeping in the crib behind her, but she wanted more than just changing diapers and cleaning up vomit. Dagny was an old hand at juggling childcare and life. On the Albret, she'd pretty much gone from wearing diapers to changing them. She had never thought she would be a mother and now that she was, she wouldn't trade it for anything, but surely that didn't have to mean she had to trade everything else for it?

By the time Voris emerged from the lavatory, breakfast was sitting on the table and waiting to be eaten. She sat down, motioned for Voris to sit, and dug into the bowl of Suliban melon she'd sliced.

"Do you have appointments today?"

"There are several this morning, but it is the final day of the week and the clinic will be closed tomorrow."

How could she have forgotten? "Anyone in the convalescent ward?"

"No, it is empty."

"So what do you have on the schedule for today?"

"I plan to do a inventory of the non-pharmaceutical medical supplies, recalibrate the biobeds, and if there's time, complete my first quarter assessment of medical readiness to the new council. Aisla will be coming in later this afternoon to assist with cleaning and restocking the surgical suite and ward."

"Maybe I could come help you," Dagny murmured casually, popping a large piece of melon in her mouth.

Voris canted his head. "That is really not necessary. Aisla and I can manage."

"I know you can, it's just, maybe I want to help."

"Why?"

Dagny bristled but tried to maintain her cool. "Because if you didn't come home at the end of every day, I would lose track of time."

"There are two clocks in our quarters, as well as-"

"That's not what I mean, Voris. I'm bored, sitting up here with the baby all the time. I want to do something besides breastfeed and change diapers and sleep. I want to feel useful. I want to contribute."

"Have I caused you to believe caring for our daughter is an insufficient contribution?"

"No, not at all. I just sort of feel like I should be doing more. Most women on the Albret who had normal pregnancies went back to work a few days after giving birth."

"And who cared for their infants?"

"They did. Most people took their babies with them on their shifts and either kept them close by in cribs or wore them in slings. They usually kept to light duty jobs until the babies were weaned, then everyone took turns watching all the kids on the ship so their mothers could work."

"And this is what you want to do?"

"I don't see why not."

"I would prefer not to expose Safi to large numbers of people while she is still so young. You must also be mindful of the fact that your body is still recovering."

Dagny glared at him. Like she didn't know her body was in shambles? Rather than be bitter, she bit her lip and sawed into her burnt pancakes. "So you think it's a bad idea."

"I did not say that. I would not compel you to work in the clinic unless you wanted to, I merely meant to propose it might be better to slowly transition back into your former duties. Perhaps you could join me in the afternoons after 1300, after the morning appointments have left and the lunch shift is complete."

Dagny couldn't contain the smile that spread across her face. "I guess that's a fair compromise. Besides, I think it'll be good for you too. You'll get to be around Safi more."

Voris blinked and nodded thoughtfully. Now that they were no longer melding with each other every day, it was becoming harder for her to tell what he was thinking. Dagny couldn't quite figure out how he viewed Safi, whether he thought of her as a completely foreign thing to be avoided until she was an adult or whether he was just nervous about caring for her. She sensed it was the latter, but she couldn't be sure.

At 0600 hours, Voris went downstairs to open the clinic for the day and Dagny cleared away the breakfast dishes. After she tried hand expressing some of her breastmilk to see if she could relieve some of the engorgement, she filled two plastic bags with ice and fell asleep with one on each of her breasts. Safi woke her twice, needing to be fed and changed both times, and by 1300 hours, she felt rested enough to join Voris downstairs.

It took nearly half an hour to fashion together a cloth baby carrying sling and another fifteen minutes to correctly position Safi in it, and even though it hurt her sore breasts, she was delighted to find the baby took readily to being tucked in the fetal position and nestled close to her mother's chest.

She descended the stairs and found Voris hunched over on a stool next to the supply cabinet, entering data into a PADD. "We're here to work," she announced, instinctively cupping a hand around Safi's head. "How can we help?"

He sat up and studied the arrangement of Safi in the sling around Dagny's chest. "It is safe to carry her in this way?"

She sighed. "It is. Every woman I grew up with carried their babies in something similar. She's sitting up high enough that I can see how she's doing and her face is exposed to allow her to breathe. It's perfectly safe."

He raised an eyebrow and stepped forward to see for himself. For a second, it almost seemed tender, as though he was greeting his daughter, especially when he stroked the top of her head as he leaned down to see that her airway was unobstructed. On the one hand, it was irritating that he would question her methods, but on the other hand, it made her happy to know that he cared. What a weird dynamic this was shaping up to be, sharing a child with a Vulcan.

Dagny set to work calibrating the biobeds while Voris continued his inventory. It turned out to be a good day to return to work—during the first hour that Dagny and Safi were downstairs, not a single person walked through the clinic's doors. Dagny was in the middle of wondering if she'd run the correct diagnostic on the blood gas meter when Voris asked, "You are certain returning to work at this juncture is what you want?"

The question caught her off guard and she fumbled her words as she replied, "Yeah, why?"

"Safi's company may not be particularly engaging at this stage in her development, but she will develop."

"Yes, I realize this." And it wasn't untrue, exactly, but she sensed he was making a point. She was bored, but that was because her little one was little more than an eating, sleeping, crying, pooping blob. Would she still want to work when Safi started interacting with the world and learning to walk and talk?

"I merely want to express that you should not feel obligated to help in the clinic future, simply because you are helping now. You should work as much or as little as you are comfortable with."

His statement hit her like a shuttle crash. He was being entirely supportive, not only without her asking him to be, but without her even realizing that she might want this kind of support. She glanced down at the sleeping baby curled against her chest and resisted the urge to kiss her and wake her up.

"Thank you," said mumbled. "But on the colony, I feel like I should work at least some. Everyone contributes and I'm hardly the only person here with a baby."

"We will not live on Bergeron colony forever. The quarantine will only last an additional 260 days and after that, we will be eligible to relocate."

Dagny grinned. "260 days, but who's counting?"

"That was precisely what you asked the last time I mentioned our timeline for leaving the colony."

Dagny chuckled. Of course he would remember something like that. "Yes, I recall. So that gives us what, another eight and a half months here? Then where do we go?"

"We had previously discussed Earth. I still believe it is the most logical option available to us."

"That sounds fine by me," Dagny replied. "It'll be weird to go there after all this time. Maybe I could meet up with Julie Karlsen."

"Who?"

"She was one of my sister Ingrid's friends. She moved someplace called Australia to be an actress."

"I see."

Dagny had only just begun to contemplate what it would be like to finally visit Earth when Voris added, "I made inquiries about a position at my former hospital on Earth and received a response from them this morning. They are willing to renew my employment."

"Well, that's good," Dagny said. "And this hospital is in San Francisco?"

"Yes."

"What's it like there?"

"It is near a large ocean and humans find the climate quite temperate."

"What about you?"

"It is rather humid but the city has more to recommend it than the damp weather."

"And it will be a good place for Safi to grow up?"

"As good as any other."

"I mean, do you think she'll fit in? What with being half Vulcan. I don't mean to insult-"

"It is a valid concern, but San Francisco is one of the most diverse cities on Earth. Nearly a quarter of its population is not native to the planet."

That was a comforting thought. Dagny shook her head and glanced down at the baby and whispered, "Did you hear that little one? What do you think about San Francisco."

"There was another matter that I believe makes San Francisco an attractive option," Voris added quickly, rising from the stool.

"What's that?"

"There are three medical schools within the city and an additional eight in the region," he replied, offering her the PADD he'd been working on. She accepted it, stunned to find he'd prepared a dossier of each of the schools—admission requirements, deadlines, and so on.

"There is a program which I believe you may qualify for called the Federation Occupational Experience-"

"In the Health Professions Program," Dagny finished. "I was thinking of applying to it before I found out I was expecting Safi."

"She is here now and ever since I have known you, it has been evident you express both an interest and an aptitude for medicine. You have occasionally expressed doubt in your abilities but I have never doubted your desire to become a physician."

Unexpected tears formed at the corners of her eyes as she read the report he'd compiled. Obviously attending medical school in 2261 would be out of the question—the new year started in less than two months. Even if the quarantine wasn't an issue, Safi was still tiny and she would need some time to prepare for the entrance exams. But beginning medical school in 2262 suddenly seemed like a real possibility.

"You are quiet," Voris said.

"I'm- I'm really overwhelmed," she sniffed.

"You do not need to decide what you wish to do right now, I only sought to remind you it is an option."

"No, I want to go. I do. You're right. I've tried talking myself out of it so many times, but I keep coming back to it."

The baby wriggled on her chest, causing her to cringe from the pressure on her tender breasts. Safi began to cry, prompting Dagny to remove her from the sling.

"Is she hungry?"

"Maybe, but I think she probably needs her diaper changed first."

"I am aware my skills at this task are not equal to yours, but will you permit me to make another attempt?" Voris asked, taking several steps toward them.

"I would never say no to anyone's offer to change a stinky diaper," she laughed. "Why don't you hold her while I go get the stuff from upstairs?"

She returned quickly and walked him through the process, encouraging him to be more assertive with handling her and preventing him from attaching the diaper too loose around her hips. When he was done, he held her up and examined her like a jeweler might examine a precious stone.

Dagny smiled. "Why don't you talk to her?"

"I have nothing to say that will interest her."

That made Dagny laugh. "I agree, it all probably sounds like weird jibberish to her, but the sound of your voice is comforting, and plus it's what will eventually teach her to talk."

He turned the baby toward his chest, lifted an eyebrow and declared, "Hello."

Dagny laughed so hard it made her still tender abdomen ache. "I said talk to her, not interrogate her."

"I do not know what to say."

"Just tell her who you are and what you're doing and where she is," she replied, waving her hands around the clinic. "She could probably eat again. Why don't you talk to her as you take her over to the replicator and make her some formula?"

Voris looked unconvinced but cradled Safi in the crook of his left arm, proceeded to the replicator mounted by the surgical suite, and announced, "I am taking you to the replicator."

Dagny rubbed her forehead and tried to keep from laughing. "What if you spoke to her in Vuhlkansu? You know, to impart some Vulcan culture?"

He paused, which made Dagny feel awkward. "It was only a suggestion. You don't have to-"

"No," he interrupted, turning to look at her. "Your suggestion is logical."

He pressed a button on the replicator and began speaking in his soft, rhythmic native language. The entire thing was beautiful for many different reasons, even if she had no idea what was being said. For all Dagny knew, he could be reciting the list of ingredients in the formula, but for the first time, Voris almost seemed at ease with Safi.

Suddenly the clinic door slid open unexpectedly, revealing a very frazzled looking Aisla. "Sorry I'm late, Dr. Voris, but I got- eeeek! The baby! And Dagny! How are you feeling, lovey? How's that precious little gift of yours?"

Voris turned around, revealing himself to be bottle feeding Safi. Aisla had come by in the hours after Safi's birth to check on Dagny's progress and give the report of Maina's labor and delivery. She had held Safi for a short time and then wisely excused herself to allow mother and baby to bond. She and the Svendsens were the only other people who had yet met Safi, though many people had offered gifts of food and alcohol in the days since her birth.

Aisla clutched her chest at the sight of Voris feeding his daughter and asserted, "That is the sweetest thing I have ever seen."

"Ever?" Voris asked, slightly narrowing his eyes.

"You Vulcans, always so literal," she laughed, trotting up to him. "She is so adorable. I just want to pinch her pointy little ears."

Voris tensed his body and replied stoically, "I insist that you do not."

"Can I hold her? I'll feed her."

"Let Voris," Dagny interrupted. "He needs the practice."

"Ah, of course," Aisla replied, whirling around to Dagny. "Sorry to get all handsy, I just get so excited about teensy little babies. And Vulcans definitely make lovely little babies."

"They do," Dagny agreed, stealing a look at Voris and feeling her cheeks growing warm.

"Now tell me, how are you feeling? You should be resting, no?"

"I feel good enough to do some light work," she explained. "I was just helping Voris recalibrate the biobeds while it was slow in the clinic."

"I guess I should probably get started on scrubbing the convalescent ward but I just can't get enough of your perfect little family."

Dagny was about to explain that their "perfect little family" was one of the most imperfect and unconventional families she'd ever heard of, but an alarm drowned out her words. Safi started to scream at the loud and intrusive interruption, provoking Dagny to collect her from Voris' arms and try to soothe her.

"What's going on?" Aisla yelled, clamping her hands over her ears. "Were they testing the alarm system today?"

"There has been no notification of a test," Voris shouted, taking a seat at the computer.

Soon there was yelling outside. Aisla opened the door to reveal people running from the surface entrances to the back of the tunnels. It was sheer pandemonium but no one seemed to know anything until people started arriving from the surface. All of them were dirty and some were bloody and dazed. Dagny quickly tucked Safi into the loose sling draped around her torso and did her best to calm her, though she wished there was a way to calm herself too.

"What's going on?" Aisla yelled into the crowded tunnel. She was forced to repeat herself several times before a middle aged human woman grabbed her by the arm and shouted, "We're under attack!"