Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 63- Unforeseen Changes
(March 5, 2051)
As the sun rises over the eastern United States, people are beginning their working day. In Washington DC, the city is already busy.
In the White House, President Nantz is wide awake and already busy with his daily schedule. In the Oval Office, he is sitting at his desk, a hologram being projected in front of him. The hologram is of Grand General Lawrence, conducting his daily briefing on the situation in the two wars the Alliance is currently engaged in. He has just wrapped up briefing Nantz on the latest updates on the Grysk War, and is now moving on to the war with the First Order.
"We have the latest intelligence report obtained from the virus implanted on the First Order network in the Bestine system. The transmissions we've intercepted have confirmed the movement of another First Order task force into the sector, with three battlecruisers, 4 Star Destroyers, and 4 cruisers. It seems more and more likely that they are going to make a second push for Thyferra," Grand General Lawrence says.
Nantz considers this for a moment, realizing that he may have to make a tough call here. After a few moments of thinking, he says, "Alright. This is a spot where we need heavier forces. Send a message to Grand Admiral Page. I want the Vanguard redeployed to defend Thyferra."
"I agree, Mr. President. I will communicate that to Grand Admiral Page at once," Lawrence responds to the President.
Lawrence waits for only a moment before he continues his briefing, "Another intercepted transmission confirms that 30 warships currently under construction at Kuat Drive Yards have had their completion delayed by at least 6 months thanks to the Hammers' raid on the Drive Yards last month."
"Are our newest battlecruisers going to be ready in those 6 months?" Nantz asks Lawrence.
"Yes, Mr. President. All five will in fact be complete before that time is over," Lawrence says.
Nantz nods in response. As Lawrence continues the briefing, Nantz is paying attention, but his thoughts are also drifting away to the Andromeda Galaxy. The length of time the so called Great Stalemate is taking is definitely weighing on his patience a bit. The Marine in him just wants the Alliance to be back on the offensive, but he knows he has to wait and be patient.
(Winchester, Virginia)
In the in-door movie theater in Calvin's house, which serves as a guest room when lots of people come to visit, Ben stretches as he sits up from his air mattress. Most of the Adams extended family had gathered at Calvin's house for the weekend, and Ben, Rey, and his parents had all come as well. Ben was stuck in the movie theater with the boys for the night.
Ben stretches a bit as he stands up, then heads out of the theater. He makes his way to the living room, where a few of his cousins are sitting while they're waiting for breakfast.
As Ben sits down next to his cousin Kevin, one of his uncle Andrew's kids, he glances over at Kevin's phone, and sees that Kevin is playing a familiar game. "Are you playing Galaxy of Heroes?" he asks Kevin.
"Of course I am," Kevin says with a confident smile before refocusing on his game.
About 5 years earlier, a division of EA Games had come up with a mobile game based on the history of the Andromeda Galaxy. The concept had the player taking the role of a game player in a Cantina on Tatooine, where they played on holotables with game characters based on individuals from the history of the Andromeda Galaxy, going back as far as the Old Republic. Later on, they had introduced characters based on individuals from the Terran Alliance, including several members of the Adams family.
"You unlocked Uncle Calvin's character yet?" Ben asks Kevin.
"Not yet. I still have to get David Ronen to Relic 7, and then I'll have all the requirements to start his journey," Kevin says. A Calvin Adams character, based on his time in his prime on the ASAT team, was one of the top characters in the game, a type of character called a Galactic Legend. Galactic Legends were very hard to unlock and could take months to unlock free-to-play, so Kevin had been working on getting it for a long time.
Ben chuckles a bit. Kevin then looks at him before he says, "Wonder when they'll finally make a character based on you."
Ben laughs a bit before remarking, "Probably not until long after the war is over. Sorry, cuz." The two laugh again together.
A few moments later, as the two are starting to talk about some of the classes Kevin is taking at high school when Luke walks into the room. "Ben. Can you come here, son?" he asks.
Ben stands up and walks over to his father. "What is it, dad?" he asks.
"So, Kelly took Rey to the ER this morning," Luke begins.
Ben is a little alarmed, but also not entirely surprised. Rey had come down with a nasty stomach virus, and the family thought it might be food poisoning from a place they had eaten at the other day which had also made Luke a little queasy as well. Given Rey's immune system was still not yet used to Earth, she got a lot more sick than most people. During her training before the mission to kill Snoke, she caught a simple cold and was sick for a few months, getting more sick than anyone with a cold Ben had ever seen.
"It got that bad?" Ben asks.
"Yes. Turns out Rey was vomiting most of the night. They had to admit her to get her system checked and get her rehydrated," Luke explains.
Ben sighs a bit. He had thought yesterday that they should go get her checked out, but pushed it aside, thinking it would go away after a good night's rest. Now he finds himself regretting his nonchalance.
"Is she gonna be alright?" he asks.
"Yes. In fact, your mother called and said that Rey will probably be released in a few hours, and she wanted you to come to the hospital to see her and be there when Rey's released," Luke says.
"Just the place on Millwood?" Ben asks.
"Yes," Luke confirms.
"Alright. I'll head on over and pick her up," Ben says.
Ben leaves the house and makes his way to the family's truck. He hops in and starts up the truck before he backs out of the driveway and starts heading for the medical center on Millwood Avenue where he knows Rey and Kelly have gone.
It doesn't Ben long to reach the place. He finds a parking spot and parks the truck before he walks into the building.
As Ben approaches the reception desk, the receptionist looks up at him and asks, "Welcome. How can I help you?"
"Yes, my mother and fiancee came in last night or early this morning because my fiancee was suffering from food poisoning. My mom's name is Kelly Skywalker, my fiancee is Rey," Ben explains.
"Oh, yes. They're up on the second floor, room 207. You can make your way up," the receptionist says.
"Thank you," Ben thanks the receptionist before making his way over to the elevators. Once the car comes, he takes the elevator up to the second floor. Once he emerges from the elevator, he turns left and heads down the hallway, where he quickly see his mother talking with a doctor outside the door of Room 207.
Kelly hears Ben approaching and turns to face him. "Oh, good timing, Ben. I was just talking to Doctor Manfred and he was about to update me on Rey. She's sleeping right now," she says as Ben walks up to her.
"You are Miss Rey's fiancee?" Doctor Manfred asks.
"Yes," Ben says.
"Well, the good news is it looks like the food poisoning has mostly worked its way out of her system with all her vomiting during the night, and we were able to help get the rest of the stuff out of her stomach," Doctor Manfred says, giving some relief to Ben.
He looks at the charts on his clipboard and says, "She was seriously dehydrated and suffering from lack of nutrition due to how much she threw up. But, we've been able to get fluids and vitamins into her via IV, and she's fully rehydrated. She's going to be alright with a little rest and careful monitoring of her fluid intake. And ultrasound shows the baby is alright too."
That last sentence freezes Kelly and Ben in place, absolutely stunned by what they just heard, not believing what they just heard. Ben is the first one to speak when he finally splutters, "Excuse me, what?"
Doctor Manfred looks between the two for a few moments before he says, "I'm guessing from that reaction you did not know your fiancee is pregnant."
Ben is frozen in shock. He was so confident he was just coming to pick Rey up from a routine hospital visit for food poisoning. He did not expect to hear this. That was the last thing in the universe he expected to hear. Kelly looks at him, extremely shocked as well, but just waiting for Ben's reaction. Doctor Manfred realizes that Ben indeed did not know, and just patiently waits for Ben to get over his shock.
Finally, Ben recovers from his shock before he manages to ask, "Wait, are you serious? Rey's pregnant?"
"We ran a series of blood tests on Rey when she came in. Just standard procedure to ensure we don't miss anything potentially more serious. That includes a pregnancy test. The test conclusively shows that she is in fact pregnant. We did an ultrasound, and we estimate that she is about 5 weeks pregnant. That probably made her reaction to the food poisoning worse. But, ultrasound showed it has not affected the fetus," Doctor Manfred explains calmly and slowly, knowing that Ben is still not fully recovered from the shock.
Ben is frozen in place, trying to process this. Yes, he and Rey had slept together on that night on Mortis, but he never would've expected that Rey would've gotten pregnant as a result. They've only just gotten engaged, and are only just planning their wedding. The possibility of having children has really even crossed their mind. But now…
"You're absolutely sure?" Ben asks, just to be sure.
"Yes, absolutely," Doctor Manfred says with a patient smile.
There is a few moments of silence before Doctor Manfred says, "I can see how much of a shock this is for you. Perhaps I'll leave you to some time alone with your fiancee so you can break the news to her. I'm sure she'd appreciate the news from you more than a doctor she doesn't know."
Ben just slowly nods. Doctor Manfred opens the door, and Ben walks in. As he enters, he sees Rey lying on the bed in the center of the room. She is just beginning to wake up.
Rey fully opens her eyes as Ben sits down in a chair next to the bed. She smiles at him and says, "Ben. You came."
"Of course. I came as soon as I heard," Ben says reassuringly before he asks her, "How are you feeling? Dad told me you got pretty sick."
Rey sighs at the memory of what she went through the previous night before she says, "Ugh, it was a nightmare. But I'm feeling better now, for sure. Thank you."
"That's good, because you need to be feeling your best right now," Ben says, starting to set the stage for breaking the news to her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rey asks with a little chuckle.
"Rey, I'm gonna try and break this to you as best I can. I'm sure you remember the night we got engaged on Mortis. Well, it turns out that that night had a consequence we weren't quite expecting," he begins. He pauses for a moment to let that sink in, then says, "Rey…you're pregnant. We're going to have a baby."
The look that comes over Rey's face is a look of shock unlike any that Ben has ever seen. Her shock is so strong that Ben can feel it through the Force. Her eyes are as wide as baseballs. She just stares at Ben for a while before she splutters, "Wait, what?"
Ben takes her hand in both of his, looking deep into her eyes. "The doctors did several tests on you. All of them said the same: you're pregnant. They think you conceived the baby during our night together on Mortis."
Rey is quiet for a while longer before she asks again, "I'm…I'm pregnant?" Ben just nods in response.
Rey glances away and stares off into space, her mind racing a mile a minute. Then, as Ben is watching her, her eyes begin to water, and a tear rolls down her cheek. "Rey? Are you okay?"
Rey looks back at him. "I…I just…I never thought a family life was in my future. And now, I have a bigger family than I ever thought I would…and I'm going to be a mother? I never thought this would happen for me. And it makes me so happy, but at the same time, I'm so scared. I never thought I'd be a mother, and now we're Jedi in the middle of a war. How are we going to raise a child in this? How can we keep a child safe when we have to go to war for the fate of two galaxies?" A few more tears start to roll down her cheeks.
Ben feels a sense of worry for his fiancee. He had never realized how much all the changes of the past year and a half had affected Rey on such a level, and realizes now just how scared she must be. Knowing she's physically okay, Ben stands up and then sits down on the edge of the bed, pulling Rey into an embrace. Rey holds Ben tightly, and just waits for him to talk.
"I know that you're scared, Rey. I am too. I didn't think we'd ever even be thinking about starting a family for like 5 years, probably more. I didn't expect this. But I know we can make it. We are going to give our all to make sure our child grows up in a universe where they can live a good, peaceful life. And we are going to do our absolute best to be the best parents ever," Ben says comfortingly. He smiles before adding, "And I know you are going to be a fantastic mom."
Rey looks up into his eyes. "You really think so?" she asks.
"Absolutely," Ben says. He then smiles and says, "Come on, Rey. We defeated and destroyed Exar Kun. After that, how hard can parenting be?" This breaks the worried tension, and the two suddenly find themselves laughing uncontrollably. For several minutes, the two just sit there, laughing together.
Rey is the one who finally manages to calm down. "Thank you, Ben. I needed that," she says gratefully. Ben smiles and nods at her in response.
Ben chuckles a bit more before he says, "We might want to move up the wedding though. I doubt you want to get married when you're 9 months pregnant."
"I agree with you there," Rey says.
The two rest back on the bed for a minute. They know that in a minute, they'll have to call the doctor in to go over her discharge and any doctor's instructions. But for now, they want to just enjoy the moment of learning that they are going to be parents.
And, I'll end there. Hope you liked this chapter.
So, yes. Ben and Rey are going to have a kid! I know it seems fast for them to be having a kid, but I specifically wanted them to conceive their first child on Mortis. There's a reason for this, which will come into play in the sequel to this story, which I currently plan to be the final story of the Terran Alliance series.
So, the wedding will be next chapter. I'll do some time skips and show the birth of their child in a few chapters. Also, they will be having only one child, so don't get excited thinking they'll be having twins.
Also, to address the other thing I introduced in this chapter: the game called Galaxy of Heroes. For those who don't know, In real life: EA Games created a Star Wars mobile game called Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. I've been playing for about a year and a half overall, and it's my favorite mobile game of all time. It's a lot of fun to play. So, I decided, in this series, to have a similar game exist. In this universe, it's only called Galaxy of Heroes. There are also a number of characters and ships from the real life game that aren't in my story version of the game because they don't exist in the universe, and there are also a lot of characters in the story version of the game based on my characters from the series, or different versions of existing Star Wars characters.
I've already came up with all the different characters for my story version of Galaxy of Heroes. If any of you play the real life game and are interested in hearing them, I'll include them in author's notes of future chapters. So let me know if you want to see them.
Alright. Next chapter will be up soon. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!