(Dear readers, please note that most of this section focuses on Anya and her life with her husband. Geordie is in the story, but the story of Anya is important for future chapters. I will post quickly so it will all make sense. Thanks)
My Dear Friend Geordie,
I sit and write to you tonight, as even subspace is time consuming here planet bound. Kyle and I continue to teach the children here in the colony. Kyle has taken to planet living, like I took to starship living a complete natural and enjoys everything there is about living here.
I have found enjoyment in returning to the colony as well. I have started teaching the older children and have actually come upon one of my students with true talent and interested in attending Starfleet. I've told him that I will be sharing his information with you and that you might be in touch and help him with his application process. I could assist as well, but as with all things, I have to prioritize, Kyle and I are pregnant and planning our 1st child just after Christmas….
Geordie sighed as he finished the letter, and thought that although Anya sounded happy and content, he did wonder if she truly was as truthful as she claimed to be. He knew that Anya was trying to keep up with her research and some of the information that she had sent was looking very positive and helpful, yet he from what he remembered of his friend, Anya wasn't the type to just settle and he was sure that this lifestyle wasn't easy for her to adjust too. Geordie looked out into the deep space and sighed as he thought about Anya as a mother, that was something he wanted to witness and wondered if he would have the chance to, he had some shore leave coming and thought that a visit might be in order.
The last of her students lingered in the hallway as Anya cleared the lesson off the board and then put the tests into her satchel ready to take home to mark.
"Ms Thatcher. Did you have a minute before you leave?" Anya turned to see one of her students come towards her.
"Always Duncan, did you want to walk with me to the office?" Anya asked.
"Ok." Duncan pulled out a tablet from his pocket and handed it to Anya. "I was just curious if I have the scores in your class that would qualify for this scholarship." Anya stopped in the process and took the tablet. She looked at the scholarship that Duncan was talking about and smiled.
"Absolutely." Anya answered without a pause. "You are the brightest one in my class. You apply and Starfleet will welcome you with open arms."
"You think?" Duncan continued to need encouragement.
"Our Settlement hasn't sent anyone to Starfleet for almost 10 years. They will take you absolutely. Plus you want to be in Astro Science, I know for a fact that they are always looking for new recruits in that field. I just heard from one of my friends on the Enterprise a few weeks ago and he mentioned that their own Science department had three vacancies currently." Anya told the young man. "You write the letter and I'll send my references with them."
"Thanks Ms Thatcher that would be great."
"Good Luck." Anya smiled and watched the young man head down the hallway and out the front door of the small school. She carefully placed a hand on her lower abdomen and thought that it was a good time for a break from school. She could use a break.
"All done?" Grace asked as Anya came into the office.
"Yes, I just have to log the results of the tests the kids took today and hopefully we can have a break. The kids just hate the placement tests."
"I hate doing them too, but the federation insists that all children complete them." Kyle agreed as he came in with his class list.
"Well, the placements are done now! I can hardly wait for the break. My garden is growing like crazy and I have the ladies from the clinic coming to collect the herbs. I also would love to just sit and enjoy the quiet." Anya shared.
"Well, I'm going to lock the building and go for a run." Grace laughed. "Then I'm going to climb into the hot springs for a bit."
"Oh the Hot Springs! That sounds very relaxing." Kyle smiled and Grace rolled her eyes.
"You are going to crash the minute you get home." Anya finished and Kyle nodded.
"You know me so well. I was up late the last few nights working out the last of the parts for the choral group that starts rehearsing tomorrow."
"It's hard to believe the music festival starts in two month." Grace agreed. "I couldn't help but hear some of the girls talk about wanting the solos."
"Hannah and Janice both have a good chance at getting them." Kyle pulled the last of his lunch out of the cupboard and shoved it in the satchel. "That is unless you want one..." Kyle looked at Anya.
"Not this year. I'm doing the children's primary level production, it's my turn, and those five and six year olds are going to make me very busy."
"Hmmm... Unless you want to join me in bed." Kyle leaned in and kissed Anya softly.
"Not in the school." Grace reminded.
"Ok, let's go outside quick." Kyle pulled Anya and she laughed as she let herself be pulled out of the school much like one of her students. The two of them made their way to the edge of the school property and two soon were embraced in a loving embrace that made Anya go week in the knees.
"You and I have been married for three years, and I still feel all the butterflies when you kiss me." Anya admitted as they waved goodbye to Grace and walked hand in hand to their place.
The settlement was a small community only five hundred people lived together, but the research and farming techniques that colonist worked on, helped many other rural settlements in the quadrant and beyond. They were mostly farmers, but the artist side of the community was pretty strong as well. Kyle fit in perfectly and Anya was comfortable as well. Her family had started the colony and transitioned here from earth about fifty years earlier. Their heritage came from a small faith based community of farmers called Mennonites that originated on earth. They had moved far in the hundreds of years since their faith first started, changing with the times, but keeping their basic philosophies of nonviolence, respect for the environment and the strength in community, the three founding and binding beliefs behind their community.
"Are you going to really choose the garden over time with me in bed?" Kyle asked as they walked..
"Kyle, you are exhausted.. You really don't need to be encouraging me to bed, when you haven't seen it yourself for quite some time. When you've had a nap or a good night sleep come find me and we won't necessarily have to make it back to the bedroom." Anya smiled, as they soon saw their small house in the distance.
"Oh…" Kyle sighed and then yawned.
"Off to bed with you sir… I will see you soon." Anya took the book bag off her husband's shoulders and directed him off towards their bedroom when they came into the house. Kyle waved goodnight and barely made it to the bed before Anya could hear soft snoring. Anya went to the closet and changed into her gardening clothes and slipping on a floppy sun hat. Anya collected her garden gloves and tools from the small mud room near the back of their house and headed outside to her large garden, organized much like her ancestors in the past, but full of produce that was growing well and lush. Gardening was very relaxing for Anya and she was soon lost in her work.
"Why am I not surprised to see you out here instead of inside making your dinner?" Anya looked up to see her mother coming up the pathway from their home just over the hill.
"Because this is where I go when I'm looking to unwind. I'd go and prepare dinner, but I think Kyle may sleep through dinner tonight and then it would just be me." Anya admitted as she came out of her garden and noticed that her mother carried with her a small pot of what Anya hoped might be some of her soup.
"I came with leftovers. Since your brother left home I still make too much. I was hoping you'd take it." Johanna brought it to the back porch.
"Just enough for me to eat for dinner!" Anya laughed and went inside for a bowl and piece of bread from her baking the day before. The soup was still warm and Anya sat down on the back step and enjoyed the soup while her mother sat with her.
"You're not going to save any for Kyle?"
"Nah, he'll eat something from the replicator if he wakes up." Anya laughed. It was their replicator food night, but if Anya could manage she tried not to eat from it too much as it made them lazy and not want to prepare food from scratch. Johanna never used it unless an ingredient was needed that she couldn't find at the storehouse or in her own garden.
"How is Jonas anyways? Has he come home to see you at all since he moved out to help Fletcher with the farm on the south side of the colony?
"Jonas is busy being young and trying to help his brothers with the crops. Your father would still be farming if not for his knee pains. He's horrible for getting under foot these days. I want him in his workshop more, but he says he wants to be around me." Johanna sighed.
"Well you can always send him over here, the clinic staff are coming tomorrow to start harvesting the bitter herbs and some of the other plants that are ready to go. I was hoping that some of them will want to go foraging for the wild greens and bark as well. Daed is more than welcome to come and help."
"That is a good idea my love, I think I will highly encourage that." Johanna laughed as looked out on the setting of the sun. It was so hard to believe that they had found this planet, it was so close to Earth, with a wonderful growing season and the environment, the soil was the only difference. It was more a dark blue not black like their ancestors farmed.
"I have something else to share as well." Anya started.
"What?" Johanna asked and looked at her daughter.
"I'm pregnant." Anya whispered. "Almost three months."
"How have you kept this secret?" Johanna smiled and hugged her daughter.
"It's been hard, but Kyle and I decided that we should try and wait. The last pregnancy we told people too soon, and we lost the baby..." Anya shrugged. "Dr. Masters told me yesterday that this pregnancy is much healthier and he doesn't think I will have any problems carrying to term this time. We waited just to be safe, and now I'm telling you..."
"Kyle didn't want to be part of the sharing?" Johanna asked.
"Well, he probably would have been here if he could have stayed awake, but he really needed to sleep." Anya laughed.
"Do I get to tell your father or do you two want too." Johanna asked.
"I think we'll tell him tomorrow if he comes over to help out."
"I am so pleased that you tried again so quickly. I know you two will be great parents." Johanna took the bowl from Anya. "I will now make sure that I make more food for you to eat."
"Maam! I am a very good cook!" Anya argued.
"Yes, of course you are, but I can make extra to just make sure." Anya followed her mother into the house. "No replicator food if possible. All natural food is better." Johanna was very old school and Anya agreed.
"I try my best at making scratch food…" Anya agreed. The dishes went into the dish cleaner and Johanna looked at the time.
"I should probably head back to the house. Your father will be looking for his evening tea and snack."
"Thank you for the visit." Anya hugged her mother again and Johanna took her pot and headed back across the property line as the sun finally started its final descent. She'd be back before it was too dark. Anya went up the stairs and listened to hear Kyle's breathing before she slipped into the shower.
When she cleaned up she pulled a nightgown on over her head and crawled into bed beside Kyle. Kyle sensed her and rolled over to wrap his arms around her.
"How'd your mom take the news?" Kyle asked sleepily.
"Excited as expected... I don't think she'll be able to keep it from Daed. It was probably a good thing that we transmitted with your parents yesterday. The community will know before the end of the day tomorrow."
"Well, I'm glad you told her. I wanted you to tell her weeks ago."
"No, the baby is good now. Three months used to be the telling point years ago and for us."
"According to Peter, the baby is still only the size of a chick egg." Kyle yawned and put his hand down on the Anya's belly.
"Go to sleep Kyle, we will talk in the morning." Anya pulled his hand up and kissed it gently.
Anya woke early the next morning and went into the den. The only room in the house that Anya let the modern technology exist and pulled her tests out of her satchel and went to input the tests into the computer to send out to the federations main education centre. The children's results would be posted in a few days and the teachers would be alerted to the results of the tests in comparison to thousands of other human children in the federation. After she uploaded the results, Anya turned on to check her subspace logs and was happy to hear from her friend Geordie LaForge. She turned on the log and his familiar and friendly face appeared on the screen.
"Anya, I was happy to hear from you the other day. I have no problems talking with and even offering some mentoring to your students. It sounds like they are becoming just as smart as you were that's for sure. Please feel free to give them my name and contact information and I'll follow up with them and help answer their questions.. I was speaking with Dr. Beverly Crusher, she's been looking over the research data that you've been sending. I suspect she will be in touch soon as well, she was buzzing about something that she noted…" Geordie then closed in on the screen with a mischievous grin. " Pregnant Anya? Really? It's taken a long time, but I'm thrilled to hear about this wonderful news and I'm almost tempted to make a special visit to see you… I can't imagine you pregnant and waddling around." Geordie then in his typical way, signed off and his message and the screen went blank.
True to Geordie's comment, the second subspace communication was from her old boss. "Anya, you're most recent collection of data on the growth and development of the roots from the original plant is quite surprising. I suspect that some of the results are based on the soil composition. Would you be will to send another few samples of the soil for me? I would be able to send it through a few more specific tests here on the Enterprise, as I'm aware that you don't have some of that technology on the colony. You can send it on the next off planet communication run." Beverly then too paused. "I know that this is my more medical side getting in the way, but Geordie happened to mention that you were expecting your first child… I am thrilled, and I'm sure that you're prenatal care will be good, but if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to send me questions…" Beverly then smiled and signed off the communication. There were no other messages and Anya stood up and went back into the kitchen. She was going to start her bread and then head back out to her garden for a bit. Although the sky didn't look as perfect as it had the day before. Maybe settling down on the front porch with her tablets might be a way to spend some of her day. Music from the front of house, alerted Anya that Kyle was up and already at his work with the music he planned on presenting at his first rehearsal later that day. Humming to herself as she worked in the kitchen Anya sighed with contentment. If all school breaks could be this peaceful she'd be greatful.