Don't rock the boat

Posted on 27 Feb 2024 @ 10:54pm by Lieutenant JG Kastor Aslanov MD

Mission: M4 - Falling Out
Location: Promenade
2097 words - 4.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Alice Felix was coming to visit him.

The good doctor held a note from that very person, telling him that she'd be arriving on a transport and that he should meet her in the promenade. She also indicated that she had a gift or two for him, that she needed to pass on from home. Alice had always gotten on well with his own parents, and his brother did sometimes pass gifts from the family through her or other childhood friends. The note had been an unexpected and very welcome surprise for him.

It had been just shy of a year since he'd seen her and they'd spent a lovely vacation together as they had on Earth. They often spent time together on their off time, if they were in the same quadrant. They'd gone to Tahiti, and had enjoyed the sand and the sun. He'd gone to that beach every so often on the holodeck, but it wasn't the same as it had been with her. He'd been sad to see her to the Science Vessel Penthu. It was a medical research vessel, whose name he had to look up when he'd heard it. Apparently Penthu had been a physician in the 16th BC in Egypt. He'd always enjoyed Egypt, and had enjoyed the study of hieroglyphs as a boy.

Kastor was practically bouncing on his toes, as he waited for the transports arrival window. He hadn't had much time to prepare and they wouldn't likely have a huge amount of time together as she had indicated in her note that she would not be staying long. Still, it was rare that she sought him out for anything. Normally the planning of their visits was his doing. He was the one that continued to rekindle their relationship even after she'd ended it. They'd been hot and cold for many years, since an initial fling at the academy had proved that they weren't good partners for each other, but they were good at being what the other needed physically in the moment. He'd started their relationship by teasing her about her name, for Felix wasn't a common surname. Perhaps, that wasn't the best way to attract a partner but it had turned out well enough for him in the years that followed. Kastor reflected that he'd had a lot of partners that were only in it for the physical aspect...Maybe, after Alice left, he could investigate that further.

People were disembarking, and twice he'd thought he'd seen her before he actually caught sight of her. It was her vivid green eyes that had initially drawn her to his notice, and those had not changed. The rest of Alice looked different, he noted as his keen blue eyes fluttered over her body. She'd rearranged her weight he decided as he watched her move. She was heavier in the breast than he remembered a smile tugging at his lips. He knew she wasn't the type to alter herself, so he briefly wondered what had changed in her life to bring her here looking like that.

She was carrying something under her arm, and that threw off her gait slightly. The lab coat hid the burden that she carried, and what he hadn't initially been able to make out became more clear as she moved closer to him. Her muscles relaxed as she caught sight of him waiting for her and smirked. With a movement that was deliberate and subtle at the same time, she shifted her coat back, revealing her burden. There was a child in the crook of her left arm, not under her arm as he had initially thought. The babe, who was dressed in a soft mint green was shaded by the angle of her coat. That was odd. Was she trying to hide the child from his gaze at first?

Why would she hide a child?

Realization dawned on him and it was a visible thing. The wave of shock at the placing of two and two together to get four million was enough to bring him up short. The triumph in her gaze was a thing of beauty that made her sharper and made him wary of her at the same instant that she came into the range of his hearing.

"No." he breathed, and she clearly heard the words because she drew herself up. The gentle curve of having a child had not yet left her and the sinking feeling that was beginning to fill him slowed his steps towards her even further.

"Hello Kastor it's been a long time. Thank you for making this easier for me and meeting me at the door. This..." She indicated to the baby in the crook of her arm. She uncovered the child the rest of the way, showing the tiny grasshoppers that were on the mint onesie that covered the babe neck to toes. "Is your son. He was born 12 days ago on the transport Pyotr. I found the name of the transport amusing."

"Pyotr...the Rock. Yes, I can see why you would be amused" the words tumbled out of Kastor faster than he would have liked, and he acknowledged the love she had for rocks and archeology. "W-we...we should talk then."

"There isn't time. I am going on a research assignment, and I will not be returning for some years. So, I came to bring your son to you." She pressed him into Kastor's arms more quickly than she'd initially intended and turned to hurry back up the platform to the ship.

"Bring my son to me? What do I know of babies?" he snarled at her disappearing form. The babe in his arms began to fuss, and he shifted his hold to more gently cradle the child. "You can't just..."

"That is not my problem anymore!" she shouted back at him turning and stalking right up to his chest and poking him hard. A strand of blonde hair fell into her eyes, accentuating the anger in them to a degree that actually took him aback. Why was she angry at him? He took a step back defensively, closing his arms tightly around the newborn. The motion startled the baby into fearful cries. That stopped him instantly, but he noted that it didn't phase her in the slightest.

Interesting

"Alice...please." he spoke more softly, trying to ease the situation of its tension and calm the child. His hand smoothed over the crying baby's back in a slow circle. "Don't do this here and now...We can talk ab-"

"Don't you Alice please me! That was how this mess got started!" The green eyed woman was getting heated now, and people were staring at them. Shouting at each other in a crowded promenade was something that they didn't see every day. He was embarassed, slightly. " You were so charming, and I came to your bed willingly...I don't deny it! I loved you in my way since we were cadets, but this is more than I can do. More than I can deal with."

"Why didn't you tell me that we'd made a child?"

"Please, and have you pressure me to marry you? " Her voice held an acrid bite to it that was almost painful to listen to. "No. I didn't want that and I don't want that. I'm not cut out to be a mum. I don't want to be a Mum. I have zero maternal instinct. Zero. My research takes me away for years at a time, to dig sites and ruins...I sleep out in the elements and am in danger from things that I couldn't possibly bring a child into. That's no place for a baby to grow up. "

Again he tried to interject something only to have her stop him with her firm words again. If someone was listening they might think he had some issue initiating speech with his stuttering attempts to get something out of his mouth that was more than 'but...'

"I won't give up my career for you Kastor, or for him."

"No-one is asking you to do that Alice." he countered and he was shocked by her aggressive response.

"How could I breastfeed a child on a digsite? In the icy cold of a polar dig? Never allowing him to go outside because of weather or radiation or camp setup, or to have a toddler around my tools and artifacts? No. No. Thrice No. I would have to give up my career to keep him safe. You're a doctor! You are more stable parent, and I'm sure if you put your mind to it, that you could find a woman that would be willing to raise you and your baby! It's not going to be me though. I've done enough."

Kastor looked highly affronted by the idea that someone would have to raise him. He was the perfect gentleman! Raising himself up, he began to speak and was yet again cut off midstroke by the slow approach of his former lover. When she reached him, she pressed her lips gently to his, stealing his will to speak right out from under his nose. It took him a moment to realize that he was in fact missing what she was saying to him. He shook himself and refocused away from her cherry flavored lips, and on the words she was speaking.

"...I have no regrets about our time together, only about the consequences thereof. I wasn't going to cut his life short just because I was irresponsible."

Kastor opened his mouth to speak and was silenced by the finger over his lips.Alice continued to speak her piece. "I didn't want him, but I know that you do want children. You do want a family don't you?"

"Yes but..."

"No buts. You want that dream of a wife and children. I won't be your wife, but I am pleased to play a small part in your dreams of a family. I've given you a legacy, a son. Baby Boy Aslanov." A wide gesture of her arms encompassed them both, and she looked satisfied with herself.

"You gave him my name?" something lodged in his throat when he heard his name attached to someone else. Another soul in the universe, in his universe.

"I'm going to give you everything. Naming rights, physical and primary custody, and a single payment in exchange for my parental rights. It's already all signed off by Starfleet. Legal teams love this sort of thing, and it's so easy to prove paternity now in the databases. I checked of course, before he was born in case you were wondering. He's yours one hundred percent, unless of course you don't want him." There was a tone to the woman's voice, a sickly sweet note of satisfaction because she knew she had him cornered. She'd won and she knew it.

"Of course I want him....I just..." There were so many words building up behind his lips and he could articulate none of them, as she lay a bag at his feet. She'd not left the baby with nothing. On top of the bag was a folder of documents and a PADD. It was already fingerprinted and topped with her signature. Kastor knew that signature, as she'd signed a number of letters over the years with that looping A. Alice had already signed him over to him. His shoulders slumped at the fact that he'd been so completely outmaneuvered and a tiny spark of anger began to glow deep in his chest. Not at the innocent child he held, but at his mother and her callous disregard. He would have made it work if she'd just TALKED to him. But no, she had to scheme and plot instead of allowing herself to have the responsibility of a child. That responsibility was now all his.

"Goodbye Kastor" she twiddled her fingers at him, and turned once more to walk away. To walk back up to the transport ship and out of their lives. The hatch closed behind her and he noted with some dismay that she didn't look back at him. Nor did she turn her gaze back to the baby she'd evidently given birth to just a week, no 10 days prior. He'd been a father for a week, nearly two. The baby he'd fathered was still fussing, and he settled him across his broad shoulder and began to pat his covered bum with a gentle hand.

"Shhh...Shhhh little man, we will figure this out. Somehow."