<USS Avalon> Strange and Remarkable by Kaera Ashayu & Li Vilya

 
She needed a walk.  Between her coworkers not really letting her get  up to 
do anything and Ming doing the same thing, Vilya felt as though she might  very 
well become permanently immobile.  She waited until after dinner, when  Ming 
had his nose stuck in his studying, to tell him she was going to take a  walk.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ming asked, his blue eyes  narrowing 
slightly as he looked up from his PADD.

"Yes, I am very  sure.  Exercise is good for me and for our soon to be son," 
she said  pertly.

"Daughter," Ming said automatically but he smiled up at her as he  said that. 
 "I'll be here.  Call me if you need anything."

Kaera was walking, too, but for a very  different reason.  The simple act of 
keeping her legs moving would,  eventually, tire her enough for dreamless 
sleep.  And she needed it.   With only a few exceptions, every sleep had been 
filled with disturbing dreams,  echoes of the alternate-reality experience.  It 
couldn't be good for her  health -- or, she thought wryly, that of her 
children-to-be.  And with that  thought, her mind started turning over all her 
worries 
and fears  again.

She wasn't ready for motherhood.  She thought sometimes she  might never be 
ready.  And... twins.  Two babies to look after at  once!  How much more cruel 
or ironic could the Universe be?

At least  -- at least Cam would be with her.  He had been taken aback at 
first, which  was only to be expected, but now he was filled with bright 
anticipation.   When they were together, his emotions were almost contagious.  
But they 
 couldn't be together all the time.

Walking into an open turbolift,  Kaera got off on another deck at random and 
kept on going.

Vilya had just turned into the corridor  leading to the arboretum when she 
spotted a familiar face.  Years ago, even  months ago, that face might have 
inspired sheer terror and the urge to kill but  now she smiled.  She hadn't 
seen 
her friend in a while.  "Kaera!   I haven't seen you in so long," she said 
brightly.  Coming closer, she  noticed the lost look on her face.  "Are you 
alright?"

Kaera came to a stop, blinking away confusion  as she was yanked out of the 
private hell of her thoughts.  Vilya was  very pregnant.  And happy about it.

She swallowed hard.   "I'm all right," she said slowly.  "Or I will be.  I 
suppose.   Once I've had a good sleep.  If the dreams would only stop."  She  
looked the Bajoran over, a little critically.  "Are you sure you should be  out 
walking around?" Kaera asked.  "You look like you're ready to give  birth at 
any moment."

Vilya  grinned and rested a hand on her belly.  "I needed the walk, believe  
me.  Between Ming and my coworkers, I think I was going to start growing  
moss," she said dryly.  At the mention of dreams, though, she paused to  think. 
 
To her those weren't dreams.  They were Orb experiences but,  still, she 
remembered how odd hers were.  "Are they bad?"

A moment while Kaera backtracked to make  sense of the question.  "Very bad," 
she admitted.  "We think -- Cam  and I -- that it wasn't a dream, the thing 
that started all this, but some kind  of strange alternative reality.  A state 
of being that might-have-been but  isn't.  Except that I haven't had an 
undisturbed night's sleep since  then.  Although," she added, "that might be 
the 
hormones."  And then,  at Vilya's blank expression, she had to explain, "I seem 
to have become pregnant  in that other reality."

"Let's go sit in the arboretum," Vilya suggested.   "It's nicer and quieter 
than standing in the middle of the corridor."  She  held off on the automatic 
congratulations that she wanted to extend.  It  seemed that, in Kaera's case, 
that the pregnancy was not welcomed.   Instead, she recalled her own experience 
with the Orb of Dreams and  Fantasies.  "Something definitely happened," she 
mused.  "I was  married to Lieutenant McEntire...we had a girl when I just 
know this is a  boy...my father was still alive..."

"Everyone seems to have had equally odd  experiences," murmured Kaera.  "It 
couldn't have been a dream, could it,  Vilya?" she asked plaintively as they 
entered the arboretum and strolled toward  a bench.  "How could things happen 
in 
a dream and then be real upon  waking?"

She settled herself on the bench before she  even thought about answering, 
praying her ankles would still exist  afterward.  She turned warm brown eyes 
onto Kaera, hoping that they looked  as calm as she felt.

"Ming and I have been talking about this, to tell  you the truth.  He thinks 
it was all a dream, too.  Me?  I think  it was the echo of an Orb experience.  
I know a lot of people find it hard  to believe in the Bajoran faith but this 
was too real to have been a  dream.  It was an encounter with the Sixth Orb, 
which is the Soul of the  Prophets.  They call it the Orb of Dreams and 
Fantasies.  Or they used  to when it was whole," she stated wistfully.  "I was 
much 
younger when I  got to touch one of its fragments...it doesn't make sense, 
does  it?"

"Certainly it makes as  much sense as what happened to me," Kaera said 
ruefully.  "It was neither a  dream nor a fantasy... more a nightmare.  And 
although 
it should not be  possible, I woke from one nightmare to," she stammered, "to 
what by rights  should be another.  Although -- with Cam's help -- I'm 
learning to accept  it."

"Why would such a blessing  be a nightmare, though?" Vilya asked.  "I can see 
this was unexpected but  you're a good person.  I don't think you could be a 
bad mother."  She  gave her friend a gentle smile.  "Imagine the faces of the 
people we grew  up with--seeing us talk this way."

At that, Kaera couldn't help smiling  too.  "It's just that I wasn't ready," 
she said, "and I'm still not  ready.  I don't remember ovulating, and you know 
for Cardassians it's  supposed to be an entirely conscious act.  So the whole 
thing is  frightening to begin with, and then the thought of having to nurse 
two little  babies at once, and then chasing after them as they start to crawl 
and  walk..."  She shuddered.  "Can I handle it?  Especially as I  never 
considered having children in the first place?"

"Twins?" Vilya's eyebrows rose.  "I  didn't think your people ever had 
multiples."  She reached to put one arm  around the other woman's shoulders.  
"However that happened, I am sure it  happened for a reason.  There's an old 
Bajoran 
saying that love conquers  all fears.  You love Cam, he loves you, and you 
both love those babies  already.  I know that.  And you won't be alone in all 
of 
this,  either.  I've never had a child before either."

"Twins aren't completely unknown," said  Kaera.  "But fraternal twins... are 
nearly impossible.  They've been  documented, but so rarely that it merits 
special notice.  Once in three or  four generations, across the whole 
population, 
and then only when there are odd  drugs or other peculiar circumstances 
involved."  Her mouth twisted into a  wry grin.  "Somehow I never considered 
myself 
that remarkable."

"Have you ever noticed that all sorts of  strange and remarkable things 
happen on this ship, Kaera?  Perhaps it was  the Hands of the Prophets or Fate 
or 
however you want to look at it but you are  very remarkable indeed.  Even 
before this.  How many other Cardassians  have been through Starfleet and how 
many 
Cardassians would be sitting here  chatting with a good religious Bajoran 
girl?" Vilya smiled.  She knew her  friend was frightened but nothing she was 
saying wasn't the truth.  She  hugged her with one arm.  "I think you'll have 
lovely  children."

Blinking  away sudden and unexpected tears, Kaera said, "I'm glad to be 
sitting  here talking with you, Vilya.  I'm glad that I left my people and put 
my  
narrow-minded upbringing behind me."  With a soft chuckle, she added,  "Maybe 
I'm not so glad to be starting a family before I'm ready, but I think  I'll 
survive."  She turned and gave the Bajoran a warm hug around her  shoulders.  
"And our children will grow up together," she murmured  wonderingly, "and will 
think nothing of their differences.  If that's not a  higher power of some sort 
at work, then I don't know what  is."

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