Chapter 22: The European Unity

~~ Delta - Nov/02 - (Earth - May/2095) ~~

Lee rubbed her stomach.

She now looked more as if she was five months pregnant and she agreed with Von that she would be lucky to make it to the twelve weeks.

Sean had managed to do the deed, and Donny was pregnant. She couldn’t shift to male or any of her other forms other than faerie while pregnant. Lee hadn’t tried. She was happy to wait until she had Jackson before she experimented.

Sparky and her village had been amazed when Lee transformed into a faerie for them. “Damn mum, I always knew you were a faerie at heart.”

Lee giggled and changed back. “Sparky, I’ve never been particularly religious. Do you mind if I adopt your Gods? I’ve been reading your literature, and I like their philosophies.”

Sparky smiled at Lee, “I have a feeling they have already adopted you, mum.”

Lee liked this answer. She had no issues with the others keeping their religions, but she felt someone, or something was looking out for her. Whether they were Gods or not, it didn’t matter. It was their teachings, as much anything she would adopt as they meshed with her believes.

The Magicians School was now established, and most of the magicians had attended at least once, for their first week and were booked in for when they would turn up for more lessons.

The wizards kept their main day as every second Sunday, but they met at the new retreat now. Erving came and cooked for them, to their delight. Families were still invited, of course.

The top section of the dome had been turned in to the bar and recreational area with the pools and the dining room. It was surrounded by trees, herb and flower gardens, fishponds, walking paths, kids play areas, seating and lots of small secluded grassy areas for couples to enjoy.

It was cheekily called the Rompers Lounge as most of the wizards had managed to have a romping good time in a secluded spot by now.

Lee and Sean had elected to build a second home in Futura. It was on Sparky’s side of the river and topped the bay to the beach they had first walked on. They had an excellent view of the town and the sun rising out of the sea in the morning.

They didn’t spend a lot of time there at present, but it was convenient for when they were catching up with business and non-magical friends in Futura and on Utopia.

Sean also wanted the girls near Dr Maine and Von when they were due.

When they turned up to greet the Europeans, they had no big problems initially.

They also took the deal on the domes being erected for them. It probably helped that Antonio and the other ambassadors hopped a transporter up to meet the ship. The filled in the new residents of Unity in on the three previous three ships troubles and told them not to piss Lee off, she tended to get a bit grouchy when she was pregnant.

There were a lot of giggles from the group. The lead scientist Jean Le Rothe explained that his beautiful very talented wife Maricha had found out not long after they had left that she had finally fallen pregnant. She had been suffering from terrible morning, afternoon and evening sickness.

“Has she had her immunisation shot?” Pete asked.

“No, she refused because she didn’t want to harm the baby,” Jean said with worry.

Antonio took Maricha’s hands, “How long have we known each other, Maricha?”

She smiled at him, “A very long time.” They had, in fact, been lovers many years before.

“And Pete and Robert, do you trust them?”

She nodded, “Well, the immunisation was made Queen Lee, and she is Pete’s daughter. Since we got the shots, we haven’t been sick, no colds, no snuffles, no rashes, narda.”

“Many of the women from her ship and amongst the locals that have since been immunised have all fallen pregnant if they tried. They don’t get morning sickness.”

“Doc Von told me only the other day when my lovely Trisha was getting her check-up that all the women, she has seen that have been immunised, they and their babies are very healthy.”

Maricha knew she couldn’t get off the ship in Harmony without the immunisation as Lee had stated that no exceptions would be made.

“But if I tell her my worries, surely she would understand,” Maricha said. “Ouch,” she suddenly said and rubbed her arm. “What was that?”

The boys looked at each other; there were only two wizards who could hide from them. Maricha scratched at the collar of her shirt and then pulled a disc and a white business card from the top of her bra.

“What does ‘Strike One’ mean?” she asked the boys. She turned the card over and readout, “I do understand, you will learn to.”

“Um ... I’m sorry, but I think Lee solved your dilemma for you,” Antonio told her.

Maricha was distressed, “If I lose this baby, she will be very sorry.”

She hadn’t told Jean that she had been ‘spotting’ the last couple of days. She knew her stress over possibly losing the child wasn’t helping; she had already had one miss-carriage.

She felt warmth infuse her tummy and then she shivered. She heard a whisper in her ear, “He will be fine.”

She placed her hand on her tummy and looked around, “He will be fine? What the hell is happing here?”

Antonio grinned, “Did your tummy suddenly feel warm?”

Maricha nodded. Antonio looked at Jean and then shook his hand, “Congratulations ol’ man. Your son will be born healthy. I believe Lee just did her little trick of fixing things.”

He took Maricha’s hand again and looking into her eyes, he said with seriousness, “It’s all good.” She looked him in the eyes and had to believe him. When Antonio said those words, then it was always, all good.

Even when they had split up, he had told her it was all good because she would meet her life partner very soon. She had crashed into Jean as she walked away from Antonio, not seeing him for the tears in her eyes. They had been together since.

The Unities like the Slavians didn’t mention the fact that they found their ship stripped of weapons after they took up orbit. It was mentioned to Antonio quietly, but he just shrugged and told them, “When Lee says no, she means no.”

Jean did kick up a stink when he found out later that their satellites had also disappeared. Lee just smiled, “I never said you could launch satellites. We have sufficient, and the information from them will be readily available from your new dome computer.”

Lee, in fact, gave them to the UNSEC Crew that turned up two days later on Explorer GJ60. They wished to restock their ship and then they were going for a look-see, around the Delta.

Lee introduced the crew to Nicko and Eze. She recommended they stay a couple of days in the UN Compound and catch up with the work the boys had been doing. She had been letting the boys borrow one of her ships every couple of weeks for small expeditions.

Hilti and her husband Merrick Keel who ran the Dragonfly had been happy for the side adventures. Nicko was still mad keen to prove Lee’s theories about how Harmony got to be where it was. He soon infected the new crew. He told them he had even picked a great asteroid to put a base on.

Lee left them to it as a base in the asteroid belt was fine by her.

Lee woke suddenly and shook Sean awake.

“Shit, Sean, we have to go rescue some the idiots from Unity,” she told him.

“Tell me where and the boys and I will go get them,” he sighed and crawled out of bed to dress. Lee sent him a set of co-ordinates and Sean grabbed his trank-gun while Lee mind called Kyle and Tony. They blinked to the co-ordinates.

They found a linger being mauled by a huge animal. The team were about 10km outside the compound and had approached to close to the animal and its calf.

“Damn, that’s the biggest cow, I’ve ever seen,” Tony said.

“Looks more like a cross between a bison, a Texas longhorn and a tapir. Those horns are huge; I wonder why they roll over and down like that and then back up a bit on the ends? They look like tines on a huge two-prong fork. They must be close to 4m long,” Kyle said.

Sean looked at the flipped over linger. He grinned at Tony and said, “Crocodiles, I bet that lady can flip a crock a long way.”

The boys agreed. “So how do we encourage her to wander off?” Kyle asked.

Justin appeared beside them, “I wonder if she likes Lucerne?” he was holding a fresh bale. He wiggled a slim biscuit out from under the string and tossed it over behind the cow.

They watched as her head went up and she sniffed the air. She eyed off the linger and decided it wasn’t a threat any longer ambled over to inspect the offering. She took a delicate sample with her short trunk. She was soon happily shuffling in the rest.

Justin popped over in front of her and dropped another small biscuit about 10m from the first. He kept moving away, leaving a bit further between offerings until she would be a good 500m from the linger.

They waited until she moved onto the third offering and then blinked over to the linger. It was a nice sturdy model, but it certainly hadn’t liked being flipped onto its roof. The four scientists inside were a little banged-up but alive. Sean told them to hang on, and the boys transported it back inside the compound and then righted it so they could get out.

They suddenly found themselves surrounded by twenty-odd cooing ladies. Sean even blushed when he overheard one comment from the back, especially because Kyle was snickering.

Sean was having a hard time keeping out of range of the enquiring hands, “Sorry ladies, but we are all taken. I don’t think our pregnant wives would be too happy if we complied with some of your suggestions.”

Justin and Tony also found their bums being rubbed and hands going other places as well. Tony moved behind Kyle and said, “Husband, I think you need to defend my honour.”

A woman overhearing the comment said, “I thought the hunk said you all had pregnant wives?”

Kyle grinned, “We do. Tony and I have two wives in our marriage as well as being married to each other. The hunky Lord Wizard also has two wives, and in case you don’t remember, one of them is Queen Lee. But Justin the young and cute one only has one wife.”

Kyle wiggled his eyebrows at Justin, “I’m sure he could handle a second one.”