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Those movements didn’t stay gentle for long, though. Flutters became kicks. By the sixth month, I looked like I was ready to pop. There was no hiding the fact I was pregnant at this point. Whenever I walked through Wanderstar Fleetheadquarters, I couldn’t tell whether personnel were greeting me or my belly. Their eyes inevitably went there.
“Any plans to find out the sex of the baby?” Maya once asked me during a com link call. She and I talked often these days.
“We want to,” I replied, sitting on top of the bed in living quarters. I stopped munching on fried chips made from the locally grown taboga plant, my latest food craving, in order to gulp down the pink fizzy drink that tasted like strawberries. “Every time we go in for a scan, the baby’s back is towards the camera.”
“If it moons you as a toddler, you’ll know where they had all that practice.” Maya talked to me onscreen. Behind her was a stunning view of the beach. Her daughter breezed past, carrying a bucket and sand pail. “So how many more weeks till your due date?”
“About two and a half. Rone and I are taking a quick trip to Ipsa.”
“Another moon base?”
I nodded. “I guess it’s easy for enemy combatants to hide out when they have forty-six moons to choose from.”
“I’m sure there’s more than that on this side of the galaxy alone.”
“Probably.”
Maya started to say more when her screen got doused in a shower of water. I heard girlish giggles before the screen cleared and Maya’s daughter stood behind her with a big grin on her face.
“Come catch me, mommy.” Delphine tossed the empty bucket and padded on her little feet towards the shallows.
“You’re busy. We’ll talk later, Maya.” I waved as she got up to chase after Delphine. I chuckled to myself. Was this one of the things Rone and I could look forward to, chasing after our kid?
Chapter Nine
CAMMIE
The trip to Moon Base Ipsa started like all the others. Rone met with the soldiers and this time, showed them the new sandbox toys he picked up on planet Zol. It turned out he was right about the sandwheels being good transport vehicles on the moon just like they were in the desert.
He demonstrated to the soldiers how they could drive on the terrain. They crowded around him as he showed them the engine and they waited to take turns to test drive the new equipment.
Two human recruits, both working for the moon base’s communications office, watched the commotion before giving me a shared look of amusement.
“I don’t get it,” remarked one soldier. “The sandwheels can make us travel faster on the moon, but they’re just big metal-plated dune buggies. Should we tell them, ambassador?”
I shook my head, smiling with them. “Let them have fun.”
“You know,” said the second soldier, “stick a couple laser cannons on the vehicles and we can call them advanced state-of-the-art moon buggies.”
After the demonstration was over, Rone and I bid the soldiers goodbye before boarding the ship back to Xaxos. “I’m sure you’ve had your fill of these trips for the time being.” Hegathered me in his arms once we were in the privacy of our quarters on board.
