Earth Song: Etude to War (14 page)

Hours later, Aaron closed the door to their apartment, setting his briefcase down by the door and stretching. It was a long day of meeting with his engineering staff, but production was ramping up nicely. Pip, Ted and Bjorn had some amazing ideas for orbiting facilities using the Phoenix shuttles.

The sound of the bathroom door closing made him spin around in surprise to see his wife standing there naked, her copper colored hair still damp from the shower. Quite a surprise. The look on her face was an interesting mixture of excitement and fear.

“To what do I owe this surprise?”

“Aaron,” she said, her eyes sparkling from unshed tears, “I want to have another baby.”

He froze, his face only showing shock. “W-what?”

“It's been five years, sweet heart.” She walked closer, consciously swaying her hips. His eyes got wider and he actually felt his heart pounding in his chest. “We talked about it when Lilith was born.”

“Talked, yeah,” he admitted.

She stopped just centimeters from him, her erect nipples nearly brushing the front of his suit. Aaron shivered as if an electric shock had run between them. He’d never seen his wife like this. He couldn’t believe that after all this time, she still had this effect on him.

“You aren't doing this because of that stupid test, are you?” He croaked from his suddenly dry throat.

“I'm doing it in spite of it,” she laughed brightly. “Ariana is pregnant again.”

“And you've been inspired?”

“You could say that.” She surely and deftly began undressing him. “I'm not going to be my father. These special genes of mine need to be passed on.”

“They are, in Lilith.”

“I want to hold a baby,” she said, her voice husky as she leaned forward slightly to undo his belt. He looked shocked by the way she had to pull on his pants slightly to get them down over the hardness there that spoke of his true desire. “I want you to put that baby inside me, feel it grow—”

“Scream in pain as it's born?”

“Life is pain,” she reminded him, pulling his shirt off over his head. He held his arms up, cooperating. “I've experienced my share of pain,” she reminded him, bending to finish pulling his underwear off.

His erection caught in the waistband as she slid them down, then broke free, slapping his belly. She gently touched the nearly healed skin where his prosthetic legs joined his natural flesh. “

As have you. That pain had a reason, so will birthing.” She remained on her knees and looked up at what she faced. “In this though, we will start with pleasure.” Carefully, she took him into her mouth.

Aaron gasped and arced his back, unconsciously thrusting in and out of her mouth. “Oh, Minu,” he moaned.

After a few long minutes she stopped, standing and wiping her mouth on a forearm. He struggled to slow his breathing, and Minu grinned crookedly as she saw his legs shaking.

“Don't want that to go to waste,” she smiled as she stepped closer to him, pressing her breasts against his nearly hairless chest. “I deactivated the birth control implant six hours ago,” she told him, curving her body against his. The hardness of his shiny wet erection pressed into her stomach, making her groan with desire. “The computer told me I'll be ovulating in another hour.”

“Impressive technology,” he said, taking a deep breath, running his hands down her back, and cupping her bottom. The hard nipples on her breasts rubbed against his chest causing dizzying sensations of pleasure to race downward.

“I'm not the only one to make this decision though,” she told him, looking into his dark eyes. “The baby needs a father who wants it as much as it will need a mother.”

“I've been waiting for years for you to make up your mind,” he told her and nibbled her ear. Her moans sounded almost desperate. He reached down and lifted her like she weighed nothing. Minu spread her legs and he slid her down onto him with slow, deliberate pleasure.

“Oh, Aaron,” she cried out and ground against him. He backed her against the wall, which was thankfully only a step away. They hit with enough force to rattle a nearby picture as he began thrusting with wild abandon. He built a steady rhythm and began to buck like a wild horse. “Aaron, oh Aaron, it's incredible. So good! I'm coming!”

“Me too,” he cried helplessly.

“Give it to me, I want it inside me!” They cried out together as they spent themselves with more passion than they'd felt in years.

“Oh, oh, that was… awesome,” she gasped as he continued to hold her there against the wall, gasping for breath and kissing her over and over. Still inside her, he gently continued to move. Neither wanting the moment to end.

“I guess it’s done then,” he said finally.

“Like a lot of things,” she reminded him as she moved against him, “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”

“That's sound planning,” he agreed and carried her into the bedroom. He grinned as he felt himself rising again. “If you’re going to do a job that will take hours, it’s best to be comfortable.”

Chapter 12

March 5th, 534 AE

Gymnasium, Chosen Compound, Tranquility, Plateau Tribe, Bellatrix

Minu decided to forgo any additional technological interference in her attempt to conceive. Once the implant had done its job to reverse the effects of the carefully tailored hormones that kept her from getting pregnant for so many years, and pushed her to ovulate that night, she stopped there. The implant was capable of helping her to continue to ovulate nightly for a week at a time. The devices created a fertility rate well into the fiftieth percentile among those who used it.

She just decided that the extra step wasn't called for. She'd gotten pregnant with Lilith without any outside help. If it was meant to happen, it would happen. Gregg's wife, Faye, was hugely pregnant. Her growing belly inspired Minu and made her nervous at the same time. Would Aaron still want her when she was huge with child?

She decided it was time to get back on the training horse. It just so happened that this morning was her long standing (though often missed) once-a-month workout session with her old friend Cherise. As the sun came through the window of their little apartment Minu was instantly up and into the shower. They'd stayed up late, making love several more times before finally giving in to fatigue. She took advantage of her biology and leaped at the day. Aaron, mired in his own biological weakness, never even stirred from his death-like slumber. Like an ancient cavewoman, she made good her escape.

She whistled a nameless tune as she showered and quickly dressed in a light jumpsuit. Grabbing her workout bag from the bedroom closet, she leaned over Aaron and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Sweet dreams, my sexy lover.”

He didn't wake but he did smile a little and mumble something. With a smile of her own, Minu caught the lift to the roof top aerocar lot.

As Minu entered the gymnasium of the old Chosen compound in Tranquility, Cherise was already there. She was on the floor, her long, lithe legs spread as she bent and stretched between one and then the other.

Where Minu was thin with small breasts and almost no hips, Cherise was every man's definition of sexy. Her curves started high and went all the way down. She looked up and smiled, perfect white teeth flashing an appealing contrast with her ebony skin.

Minu tossed her floppy hat and light jacket aside, adding the duffel bag. “Let’s get it on, girl,” she laughed and rushed her friend.

Cherise was only caught off guard for a second before tucking her legs and rolling backward. With a shove of her well-muscled arms, she flipped onto her feet and met Minu's reverse punch at her head with a deftly executed lower arm check and followed it up with her own jab at Minu's stomach. Minu turned slightly, letting the punch just graze her stomach and shot an elbow at Cherise' neck. And that's how it went for almost ten minutes straight.

“Not bad for an old fat chick,” Cherise puffed as she went over to get a towel. Minu was sweating and gasping quite a bit more than her friend.

“Gave you as good as I got.”

Cherise shrugged.

“And I'm not fat,” Minu complained, looking down at her stomach. “At least not yet.”

Cherise picked up the towel and wiped her forehead, then turned quickly to look back, her jaw hanging down slightly. “Are you… really?”

“We don't know yet,” Minu admitted. “I turned it off last night and we screwed like kloth all night.”

“Oh Minu!” Cherise cried and ran over to hug her friend. Minu hissed slightly as she returned the hug. At least one blow to her ribs would be bruising. “A baby, really?”

“My eggs aren't getting any newer.”

Cherise looked at her, tears sparking in her dark eyes. Minu knew her friend loved her as much more than just a friend. Well, maybe in a different world. “So if you did it last night, why don't you know yet? Just ask the computer implant.”

“Didn't want to know yet. Besides, maybe we can screw like crazy again, just to be sure?”

Cherise laughed and took a playful swipe at Minu's head, which she easily dodged. “That man would have sex with you as the world ended, given half the chance.”

“I hear sometimes men get weird when their women get pregnant.”

Cherise nodded and returned the towel to its rack. It was late enough that a pair of other Chosen had arrived to use the facility. Only a few dozen were ever stationed at the old compound, so it would not likely get crowded in the building once meant to hold hundreds.

The newcomers nodded in acknowledgment of their fellow Chosen before beginning their own workouts. They might not know who Cherise was, but there wasn't a Chosen who didn't know the red haired two star firestorm working out with her. “When will you know?”

“Tonight, after Aaron gets back from work, I'll interface with the implant and know the answer.”

“First Gregg and Faye now you,” Cherise said and shrugged, “maybe I should find some healthy tadpoles and make one too.”

“You'd make an awesome mom.”

Cherise smiled. “What if you don't get pregnant? Going to push it with that little robot inside you?”

“Probably not. The idea of cranking out eggs like a chicken is a bit disturbing.”

“So you're just going to leave it up to chance? Really?”

Minu zipped open her duffel bag and rummaged inside, thinking for a second. Immediately she remembered the words of her assistant, Ariana. “Yeah. I guess I'm putting it in the hands of a higher power.”

Cherise gave her a knowing look and a tiny nod.

Later as Minu and Cherise ate a lunch of gyros from a wheeled vendor outside the old Chosen complex, Cherise was still going on about Minu being pregnant

Minu needed to change the subject, so she mentioned how hard it was to get specialists into the Rangers from the Chosen branches. “I am so sick to death of the politics of the Chosen.”

Cherise took a bite of lamb filled bread and shrugged. “It's the way of things,” she mumbled around the food.

“Maybe not forever,” Minu said and looked across the way. She could just see the spire of the Founders Memorial, and next to it the Portal building. Mindy Harper had stood on this ground five centuries ago.

Minu knew she was related to her; at least that had been confirmed. Mindy had changed the world by her decisions and by refusing to give up. She owed her ancestor that much.
Now listen to me?

Still, she thought about a meeting she would have to arrange as she took a bite of her lunch.

* * *

Minu stopped at her office just long enough to have Ariana arrange an appointment with Dram, check for any urgent paperwork, then head home. She didn't say anything to her assistant about the possibility of being pregnant. She hadn't intended to tell Cherise until it happened. Minu wanted to keep it quiet for a while, at least until she'd come to grips with it herself. Even though she kept quiet, Ariana knew something was up.

“You look awfully… happy, today!”

“I guess I am,” Minu admitted, then retreated for the parking lot before she let the howler out of the bag for the second time that day. A few minutes later she was back in her apartment and with nothing more to do. By dodging out of work early she'd inadvertently landed at home with nothing to do but stew in her own juices for almost three hours before her husband would get home.

Twice during trips into the bathroom she'd stared at the little dedicated computer tablet linked to her reproductive implant. A couple keystrokes was all it would take and she'd know the answer. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror she put a hand on her stomach. Sure felt like there were butterflies in there, at the very least.

Walking out of the bathroom she silently wished Aaron would walk through the door early. “I should know better,” she grumbled alone in the apartment. Aaron had always had the ability to focus like a laser on whatever he was doing, regardless of the distractions. She'd wondered if he could do Sudoku during a firefight.

Then the door opened and he was standing there, looking as surprised as his wife. “I couldn't concentrate,” he laughed. “My assistant insisted I go home. I think half the R&D department is freaking out.”

“I’ll bet.” She shook out of her surprise and looked at him. They were both practically vibrating with excitement. “What do we do?”

“Get the damn computer!” he blurted and made a dash for the bathroom.

Minu squealed and raced to cut him off. There was a delightful wrestling match over who would be first through the door which Minu won by judicious application of sharp elbows. “Cheater,” he laughed and massaged his ribs.

Minu brought the computer out and keyed it to life. Aaron came up behind her, putting his arms around her and watching over her shoulder as she requested “reproductive status”. The screen flashed and it displayed “scanning”. She knew that inside her body a high-tech little machine was tasting the chemistry in her blood and looking for microscopic amounts of a certain hormone. It must have been woman's intuition, but Minu knew the results before it displayed.

“Oh my,” they both said as one.