The next day
Speculation that Nom Anor was following a secret agenda arose on the Holonet when the consul and candidate for the new head of state failed to show up for an important meeting. Through the government's press spokesman, Nom Anor announced that he had private matters to attend to, and so the Holonet duel, in which the three candidates were supposed to publicly discuss their plans and ideas, took place without him. While some observers expressed malice that the former enemy's candidate might not be up to public debate, others even expressed the suspicion that Nom Anor had returned to his people; the more well-meaning commentators, in turn, speculated that something might have happened to him.
The truth was that the Yuuzhan Vong had not left his home that day. Because Viqi Shesh was still asleep that evening when Nom Anor carefully got into bed aside her. The temptation was to pull her from behind and enjoy her, but that was just a short-flickering whim, so he simply put his arms around her and fell asleep with her scent in his cut nose.
It was early morning when a kiss on his cheek woke him up. He opened his good eye and saw Viqi above him, a smile on her mouth.
"And so I surprised you twice."
He suddenly sat up in bed next to her. "How did you get into my apartment?" he asked harshly. "After I got it, I immediately exchanged the access data and no one has it but me. Have you been messing around with the locking system?"
Viqi's mouth pouted. "This is not the answer a woman expects after confessing her love to a man while being in agony. Mind you, one who almost caused her death."
"If I hadn't been so concerned about safety, you wouldn't have been able to tell me that yesterday because then I wouldn't be alive anymore," he replied, a little less unkindly. "And anyway: a confession of love that comes after coercion isn't genuine, right?"
She lowered her gaze. "I went to Leia Organa Solo and personally apologized to her for the attempted kidnapping of her nephew Ben... for deceiving her with the Ooglith mask to get to the infant. I even wanted to give her back the two-piece suit that she had worn in Jabba's court on Tatooine, but she didn't want it anymore."
Nom Anor nodded. "Understandable."
Viqi paused; and it seemed to Nom Anor that she had expected a different answer, but then she continued. "Afterwards, I apologized again to Mara Jade-Skywalker and her husband for the same thing. Then the family was finally willing to put me in touch with secret agent Ronan Showolter, who was supposed to be guarding the agent named Elan and bringing her to Coruscant."
Nom Anor twisted the right corner of his mouth. "Where Showolter failed."
She tilted her head. "I wanted to give him another chance to work for the good."
He leaned back a little on the bed, supporting himself with both hands. "That Showolter was the man who spotted me at the swimming pool to buy time, yes?"
Viqi nodded. "I got your key card from the locker at that time - there are general cards for all lockers at the counter in case a visitor's card gets lost. I managed to get one of these general cards while I kept the employee busy with something else."
Nom Anor looked nostalgically at the bedroom window. "Like we used to do together in the Damuteks to get food and weapons."
"The key card service, that Showolter and the secret service work with, made a duplicate of your key card. Time was short, but I knew your schedule – and it was enough for me."
"So you've been spying on me the whole time – for weeks," he stated reproachfully.
She smiled mysteriously. "After certain events, I felt it was necessary."
He ignored the innuendo. "You could have put my original card back in my pocket after you got finished the second card."
She shrugged her shoulders. "But then I might have stood outside if it hadn't worked. I found it safer that way."
He couldn't help but grin at her answer. "Would you have let me in if it didn't work, or would you have waited for me to call the locksmith?"
"I was already in hiding and wouldn't have wanted to give myself away too early at any cost. So I would have taken a chance."
He nodded thoughtfully, then took her left hand. "And how you took a chance. And what did you say to Leia and Mara about why you needed the key card so badly?"
She placed her free right hand on top of his right hand, which was holding her left. "Isn't that obvious?" She lowered her head. "Sorry for calling you Thrushbeard again a month and a half ago and hanging Leia's bikini on your chin before I left you."
"No, I left you."
She smiled mildly. "I know, but I left first."
He nodded. "True again. But you had to come back to take Leia's bikini back so you could offer it to Leia later, so that doesn't really count."
"I hope I don't stop you from campaigning," she changed the subject.
He placed his left hand on top of her right hand so that all four hands were on top of each other. "Maybe you can help me with that. Even if you don't wear Leia's bikini."
Now it was she who was grinning.
"It would be the least you could do," he continued, "in return for the fact that I just saved your life."
With a jerk she cleared the pile of hands and moved a little closer to him on the bed. Then her right hand guided his right hand, whose antidote had saved her life, to her stomach. "I owe you my near-death and then my life, but did the child survive too?"
"Are you crazy?!" he exclaimed. "You surprise me here and endanger the life of our child? We're going to eat something now and then we're going straight to the gynecologist to check whether everything is okay with the child."
She snuggled into his arm. "And then it's best to have the lock reprogrammed to your apartment straight away."
"Better safe than sorry." He smiled. "And again I admire your thoughtfulness and your sharp mind."
Even during the drive to the gynecologist, Nom Anor and Viqi Shesh had the feeling that they were being watched, but they realized that they were just press people who sensed a new story due to the reappearance of the missing head of state candidate.
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Viqi and Nom looked at the ultrasound to find out the gender of their unborn child.
"You're already pretty far along," said the doctor to the expectant mother. "The beginning of the fourth month, to be exact. And it will…" The doctor pressed something on Viqi's belly, but the child was unfazed and stayed where it was. "Hmmm, difficult to say what it will be."
Nom Anor stared at the machine that displayed his child's image. Now he had immersed himself in this technological world for better or for worse, and now, at this early stage, he couldn't even see any signs that the child was half Yuuzhan Vong.
On the way back, press people were at their heels again, as soon as the couple had boarded the glider that was supposed to take them back to Nom Anor's apartment. His comlink started beeping after they left the office and he turned it back to volume, but he just checked to see who was calling - and ignored it.
Back upstairs, the couple went straight into the bedroom.
"Do you happen to still have Jabba's two-piece suit with you?" Nom Anor asked his lover. "As you know, I was busy elsewhere at the time, and we don't have to select planet candidates for destruction this time."
"Only head of state candidates, I promise." She pulled him a little closer to her by the collar of his blue suit. "The bikini thing is pretty misogynistic, don't you think?"
He made an innocent face. "I don't think, as long as I'm the only one looking at it, what kind of music should I put on?"
"A Gabdorian brass band?"
"I don't have such terrible music here," he said.
She tugged at his pointed ears. "There has to be some punishment."
He took her by the shoulders and pushed her back onto the bed. "Then just without foreplay."
She grinned upwards, caressing his jutting chin. "We're finally doing it without you wearing a mask – for the first time ever – Thrushbeard."
He nodded slowly. "Yes, it took long enough."
Then he fell on top of her and they kissed long and deeply.
༺═────────────═༻
The next morning, after Nom Anor left for his office, Viqi also left Nom Anor's apartment to go on a little shopping spree. She was leaving a boutique where she had bought a maternity dress when a woman with short black hair approached her and was holding a microphone.
"Fasald Ghem, how nice to see you," Viqi greeted the reporter before she could even address her.
"Mrs. Shesh, you were seen with Nom Anor here in the capital yesterday, coming out of a doctor's office - a gynecologist, I assume."
"Well," Viqi stretched her belly forward, "as you can see, I'm expectant."
"And Nom Anor is the father," added Fasald Ghem.
Viqi nodded.
"How come you made up so suddenly?"
"In every relationship there are arguments and then you make up again."
"But you didn't get yourself back together just because of the child?"
Viqi shook her head violently. "He didn't know anything about it until two days ago. On the other hand, I also wanted to be safe until the critical phase of pregnancy was over. Do you have children?"
Fasald Ghem shook her head. "Are you going to stay on Coruscant? Even if the child is there?"
"That depends on whether Nom is elected. We'll talk about this later; It's all still so new for us as a family."
"Your partner didn't show up for his appointments yesterday," the reporter continued, a little more seriously. "Do you think that Nom Anor will be able to combine family and the office of head of state well if he wins the election?"
Viqi laughed briefly. "You don't seriously expect me to say no now, do you?" Her expression became a little sad. "The truth is that I've been very heartsick lately and that's why I haven't been able to eat almost anything." She clutched her rounding stomach. "My current condition may not be completely innocent of that, but yes: I missed him – and that took a lot of toll on my health."
"Is that why you went to the doctor yesterday?" Fasald Ghem asked sympathetically, just as Viqi had expected.
"If it were just about me, but we were mainly thinking about our child together. And since we've had each other back, I've been feeling a lot better, so I don't think Nom's position as head of state will suffer much."
Viqi finished shopping and returned to Nom Anor's apartment. At the end of her shopping trip she had bought some groceries - and with these she wanted to give her loved one a very special treat.
So she unpacked the Rodian blue snails, placed them, including the snail shells, in a marinade made of yogurt, herbs and lemongrass for ten minutes and, after marinating, put them in the oven. While the snails, still half in their shimmering blue houses, braised in the hot tube, she tried on her new dress, twisting and turning in front of the large mirror.
Her intercom buzzed and she answered the call.
"So you really did it, Viqi," she heard her mother. "It has never happened before that a Kuati doesn't hold office herself but instead marries the head of state – what a disgrace!"
Viqi rolled her eyes. "Well, I actually wanted to marry Borsk back then, but unfortunately he was already occupied."
"And besides, you're quite the liar!" Emlee Shesh continued. "You've been eating like a hungry rancor ever since you returned to Kuat! So why are you telling the reporter that you couldn't eat because you were heartbroken?"
"Then call the reporter," replied Viqi aggressively. "Yes, it's best to put this right now."
They continued talking for a while when Viqi heard the door click as the lock moved to let the tenant in with the new key card.
"I have to break up," Viqi said through the intercom.
"What? HE comes home and you drop everything like you're a submissive Twi'lek slave? Don't you have any pride at all, Viqi?!"
Viqi stopped listening to the last words and hurried into the kitchen, where she was greeted by an unpleasant smell.
Just a few seconds later, Nom Anor stood next to her. "What was that supposed to be?"
Guiltily, Viqi opened the door to the stove, from which a billow of smoke immediately poured out.
"Rodian blue snails – braised," Viqi explained tonelessly.
"There is an extractor here," said Nom Anor, pressing a button.
It took about five minutes for the smoke to clear and Viqi to take the baking pan with the snails out of the oven. Black and charred, the sea creatures silently accused the former senator.
Nom Anor stroked her hand. "You're innocent in a Foreign Ministry meeting, and as soon as you have a lodger at home, your place is smoked out."
Viqi placed her free hand on top of his, which was stroking her hand. "At home in Kuat there was always a cook cooking for the palace." She looked him challengingly into his good eye. "And later on Tsavong Lah's flagship…"
He freed his hand and grabbed her wrists hard. "You will never say that name in front of me again, do you hear me?"
She grinned. "What for? The food there was shit anyway."
He let go of her wrists and grabbed her shoulders instead. "As long as you don't say that about the restaurant we're about to go to…"
"So you're taking me out tonight?"
He tapped her stomach. "As long as you promise me not to overindulge in alcohol there…"
She gave his hand a light pat. "I never did it when I wasn't pregnant."
He pulled her towards him by her shoulders. "I certainly wouldn't marry you because of your cooking skills."
She tilted her head back. "I'll take that as an answer."
He paused for a moment, then understood... and smiled.
༺═────────────═༻
"Fyor, he's back," said the Commenor senator's wife over dinner in their second home on Coruscant, while she poured red wine into her husband's glass.
The person addressed sighed and took a long sip of the wine. "I know. To be honest, I was hoping Nom Anor would disappear forever, but I rarely have that much luck in elections."
"At least," replied the wife. "Few candidates are lucky enough to have their competitor simply disappear during the election. But you could also take some time out to do more with me."
"You're not pregnant with pregnancy sickness, are you?"
Her hand ran through her short, blonde hair. "As if that were a reason. Are our three children not enough for you? If you don't do anything with me, I'll vote you out," she threatened jokingly and also poured herself some wine into her aurodium-rimmed glass.
Fyor grumpily took a bite of his bread and swallowed it in one piece. "As if anyone would care after I lost."
This chapter is based on the events of the book series "New Jedi Order", Vol. 14 "Destiny's Way" by Walter Jon Williams (2002) and Vol. 15. "Force Heretic I: Remnants" by Sean Williams and Shane Dix (2003).