Babe In Arms

Posted on Mon Oct 28th, 2019 @ 10:27am by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox
Edited on on Thu Oct 31st, 2019 @ 10:58am

Mission: Family Detention
Location: USS Hera, Deck 4, Corridor 11-B-F-Starboard
Timeline: 2396, post rescue

For the Hera's chief of engineering, having now been almost completely de-romulafied, she had a sense of relief now that the Hera had had a once over and was heading back to Federation space.

'Had' being the past tense, given a small transport shuttle that had just arrived only six hours ago.

Now she had a whole other problem that was keeping her worried. Or to be more correct, two of them.

One of whom now was wrapped in a blanket, which Thex gripped more tightly than anything she ever had, as she walked around Deck 4 trying to get Tothye zh'Zoarhi to go to sleep. Her small white daughter gurgled slightly as she played with Thex's long hair that she curled and pulled.

Despite all the worry that was now going through the Andorian engineer's head. as she looked into her little girl's blue eyes that kept on staring at her, she couldn't be happier. She had a family like she'd always wanted, and everything seemed to be going alright.

While holodecks were amazing, and could recreate anywhere you wished to be, Commander Rita Paris still enjoyed running around the decks of the starship. In an odd way she felt that it kept her in touch with the starship- what was going on, both with the ship herself as well as her denizens. So when she was taking a circuit of Deck 4 on her way to take a loop around the flight deck, she was surprised to see the ship’s chief engineer up walking the decks with a swaddled bundle in her arms.

Switching from running speed to tiptoe speed, Rita approached Thex and her newborn, making silent waggling fingers to say hello as she didn’t want to impede progress on what she suspected was a late-night walk to hopefully lull the youngster to sleep.

Unfortunately for Rita and Thex, Tothye hearing appeared to be far better than most. Her small antenna swiveled upon hearing Rita footsteps and the newborn zygote pocked her head out of the blankets and cooed slighly as Thex approached her friend. " Yes, this is your auntie Rita. Rita this is Tothye zh'Zoarhi." Thex said with the happiness in her voice being unmistakable as she held the little Andorian tightly to her.

"Well hello there little one!" Rita cooed. coming over to peer at the small bundle. "She's white... not blue?"

"Yeah, it happens from time to time with Andorran/Anear hybrids. She may turn blue as she gets older. Unlike her twin who's already blue," Thex said, beaming proudly.

“Well, white or blue, she’s adorable. Hello, Tothye!” Rita waggled her fingers at the infant, smiling warmly. “Welcome to the universe. It’s filled with wonders and amazing sights and experiences- you’re in for a real treat! And you have a great big family already… well, I guess Andorians always have big families,” Rita chuckled, as the quad was the norm in Andorian culture, rather than the couple in so many others.

"Indeed. The four of us, twelve grandparents and all of her family here on the Hera. You've got one of the biggest families in the galaxy. " Thex said as Tothye went back to pulling her Shreya's hair. "I'd like to thank you Rita. Your friendship helped me through all of this and led me to these two wonderful girls."

"I literally wouldn't be here today if not for you, Thex. You taught me basic history, explained how the fleet had changed, then you saved my life. I'm glad I convinced the Captain to let us be a family ship, and I'm glad you have one now. When I met you, all I could think was that you were so nice, how were you all alone. Except for your... space jellyfish dad, I believe you put it...?" Rita smirked a bit at the mention, even as she took in the tiny infant's white features, tinged ever so slightly with a pale blue cast. The little antennae followed her finger as she brought it in toward the infant, as if she were focusing on it harder with her electromagnetic senses rather than her eyes. Which would make sense as an Aenar, or else her inherent telepathy was already at work.

"Yeah, Vash is one big jellyfish. Whish I knew what was up with him he hasn't returned any of my calls." Thex replied feeling slightly down. Her daughter seemed to sense this and cooed as she snuggled closer to Thex though her antenna still followed Rita. " I've sent holo images to my Thavan. I hope he's okay. " The blue engineer added.

“Isn’t he sort of an extradimensional entity that comes and goes as he pleases? Maybe he’s caught up in some cosmic escapade and he hasn’t gotten your message yet?” Missing parents were always a concern, of course, and particularly given the nature of Thex’s adopted father. But in truth, Paris wouldn’t have the first clue how to track him down if she needed to do so, so she’d just reassure for now.

"I guess you're right. He'll turn up sooner or later. Still, how are you doing Rita?" Thex asked her friend.

“Me? Oh, dandy, you know me,” Rita replied, moving her finger back and forth and watching as the infant seemed to watch, mesmerized, sucker-tipped antennae reaching and pulsing as they tried to interpret what they were encountering with Rita’s peculiar quantum field. “Bit of a trial being separated from Sonak for a few months, but I knew he’d find me- he always does. And I got in shape, got a tan and I ended up coming back a few seconds after I was lost, literally on the same beam-in, so I don’t have much to complain about other than wondering how the revolution panned out once the tyrant was deposed. Standard Rita problems, right?”

"Life always a rollercoaster with you, isn't it, my friend?" Thex said with a polite grin of knowing her friend's life that made her's look almost normal. Tothye continued to follow Rita's finger still mesmerized by her quantum field. "Oh, I have the first prototype for the copy of the Amazon's bracelets. Just need to find a nice quiet rock to make the subspace bubble." The head engineer added.

"That should be exciting... we'll have to get permission from the Captain to set up controlled testing, and coordinate with Science to monitor and be prepared to contain the experiment if something goes wrong." As she spoke, Rita kept playing with the tiny blue babe, gingerly bopping her on the nose, which made the infant cross her eyes then giggle. "As for a rollercoaster, funny thing. On a shore leave on Risa, years ago when I was fresh out of the Academy, a blind Aenar fortune teller once told me that I would lead a life less ordinary, and that the universe knew of my desire to explore, and that I should be careful what I wished for. Have to hand it to her, she was certainly correct. But I wouldn't have it any other way."

"She was indeed," Thex agreed with a grin. "I'll make sure I clear everything with the captain and command. I don't want to end up being remembered as the girl who warped a sub-sector out of our dimension."

“Yeahhhhh, let’s not do that. This little one has a universe to inherit, after all,” Rita cooed as she leaned in to offer a finger to the babe, who reached up to grasp it with tiny, pudgy blue fingers. “We have to keep it safe until she’s ready, right?”

"Indeed. She's going to have so much to see and do," Thex said as she rubbed her daughter's nose with her own. The small Andorian let out a squeal of joy as she reached and grabbed her Shreya's hair with her small freehand. "If only she'd go to sleep as easily as her sister."

"Well, they say a child who doesn't sleep is an explorer born... they don't want to go to sleep for fear they'll miss out on something. So maybe try looking at it that way when you're trying to rock her to sleep. Which reminds me, I have a gift for you that's overdue..." Reaching into her exercise top, Rita produced a cylindrical device that snapped open to become a small portable PaDD, and she tapped away at it for a few seconds before collapsing it and storing it away in her top again. "By the time you get back to your quarters, there should be a pair of rocking chairs waiting for you. I don't know if they work on blue babes like they do on us earthlings, but it's a chair that lets you rock back and forth, and it's supposed to be soothing for the baby. maybe try those out next time she's determined not to miss a thing."

"I'll give it a try Rita. Thank you." Thex said as she looked at her daughter. She'd appreciate anything, that could help. "Tothye, say goodnight to your Aunt Rita," she said to the small Andorian. Tothye let out a cross between a gurgle and a burp as she reached out with a tiny hand toward the human.

"Goodbye for now, little one. Go try out a rocking chair and see if it works for you like it does for earthling babies, hm?" Reaching down to tough the pale blue almost white forehead of the infant, Rita smiled and sighed. The rocking chair would do the trick, she was reasonably certain, and the whole family would be able to get some sleep soon.

Now if she could just quell her own urge to reproduce quite as easily...