Family Choices

decided on anything, and we've only just brought it up with Donald and Marseena."

  "That tears it!" exclaimed Karecat throwing her arms up. "You've been sitting here telling us how much you want Donald, Marseena, and Janet. Now you say you're planning on having kids." Carter started to deny this, but she cut him off. "Ok, planning on planning having kids. Sounds to me like you know what you want. Go tell the Darwin to take a hike and start working on becoming a Daddy!"

  "It's tempting," admitted Carter. "Then I think back over my life. The one thing I've wanted to do since I was six is go into deep space. All of my life I've studied and worked for it."

  "Deep Spacers," Arthur commented, "are like the old time rock stars or astronauts. All the kids want to be one, and so damn few can."

  "There's more to it than that," complained Carter. "Ever since physics hit the so call 'Wall' a few decades back, 90% of all new discoveries have been connected directly with deep space missions. We've only found three alien races so far, but we know from the signs there have to be more, most likely hundreds. Why, even this place here was found by deep spacers."

  "I hear a good deal of passion there," remarked Arthur. "If I remember right Janet wanted to be a deep spacer too. How do you think she would react to this choice?"

  "I don't really know," admitted Carter. "We wouldn't have even met except for trying to win a mission the wrong way. We both knew Donald and Marseena had been deep spacers. I thought a romance with Marseena might open up some doors. Janet had the same idea with Donald.”

  "A lot of young people seem to get that idea sooner or later," added Arthur. "Someday, I'm going to have to do a study to see how well it works."

  "By the time we found out that they couldn't really help us, we were already involved." There was a catch in Carter's voice as he said this.

  "All my life I wanted to be a deep spacer. Then I started seeing other people with the same dream that had NOT come true. I began to realize that it could happen to me. I was lost, and there was Janet, just as lost as I was. And there was Marseena and Donald to help us get unlost."

  "Now I know that it's not hopeless. Even if the Darwin does not take me on, I know they think I'm good enough. That means sooner or later, some other ship will too. If I don't take this opportunity, I could wind up blaming the people I love the most for costing me my dreams. I could blame them for the rest of my life. On the other hand I'd have them around for the rest of my life."

  Hadtec tried to put himself in his friend's place and found it frightening. He had been too young to remember much when his own family had first taken to space. Every port had been an adventure and he felt his life was so much more than it would have been stuck on Earth. He also dearly loved his small pod, from the youngest baby to old grand-mom Issasn, even with the taste her bladder problems left in the water. He could not imagine being forced to pick between the two. He had no idea as how to help his friend make such a decision.

  Arthur was speaking softly to Carter now, in what Hadtec thought of as his fatherly voice, "You know you are going to have to talk this over with the others before you can decide anything."

  "Families, that's it!" Hadtec declared triumphantly, as an idea hit him. "Long-haul ships like families. Just get the rest of your new family to come with you!"

  "Oh, that's a great idea." The sarcasm in Carter's voice was thick enough for even Hadtec to pick up. "I don't know which thought is most outrageous: saying to a ship captain, 'Yes, I know I'm the newest of your crew, with no experience and damn lucky to even be thought of much less picked. Still, I have some demands to make before I come on board, like berths and jobs for three more people.' That's almost as funny as the idea of going to the others and saying, 'Gee, now that we're engaged to be married, let me take over your lives for the next...' oh, God knows how many years the Darwin will be gone this time."

  "Ten," answered Arthur. The other four looked at him. "The Darwin supply officer was in my office today coordinating with the station."

  "You God not," protested Tar'c. Tar'c had even more trouble than Hadtec with the human concept of God, but apparently even he was sure that Arthur didn't qualify. "So why Carter not say; 'God and Arther know.'"

  "Tar'c," Karecat interrupted. "We'll explain later. Carter, just because you've got an interview with the captain, doesn't mean you'll be picked."

  "That makes it even worse!" Carter's voice was just short of a wail. "I may lose everything, and gain nothing in return. How can I even go to the interview and not tell the others about it?"His eyes fell back down to his coffee. "Of course, just going to the interview and blowing it might solve everything."

  "Would?" Asked Tar'c, "Good!" He looked at the others, "Should say congratulations problem solved now?"

  "I wouldn't," said Karecat.

  "Neither would I," said Arthur.

  "So," concluded Tar'c. "I should not congratulate Marseena now she here."

  Hadtec turned with the rest and brought is eyes to focus on the club's entrance. Sure enough there was Carter's most-likely-wife-to-be scanning the bar looking for him. She was much more clearly cat descendant than Karecat. Marseena's fur was a pattern of gray, going from dark through light, all the way to white. Her eyes, nose, and upper lip also showed the snow leopard blood in her. Her figure was all human female but her long curly hair seemed to be infused with the wildness from both her bloodlines. She wore a mid-thigh skirt and a spandex-T top. She found Carter at last and smiled without showing her fangs. Her walk was almost like a glide as she came over to their table.

  "Excuse me," she said when she was close enough to be clearly heard above the rest of the bar. "I need to borrow Carter from you for a few minutes."

  "Borrow?" Tar'c was clearly having trouble with this concept. "Carter say you want 'Kaa{click}uerp'!"

  The last comment came out in Tar'c's native tongue, because Hadtec had just nipped his hand and Karecat kicked him under the table.

  "Of course, Marseena," Arthur, said covering smoothly for the others. "In fact I was just about to have Tar'c help me on a point or two in his native tongue. You know how loud that can get, so we were just about to step over to a sound booth.

  Tar'c asked something of Arthur in a quick whistle burst and Arthur answered back just as quickly. No one else could follow what they had said.

  Arthur stood as he turned to Karecat. "Karecat, where did you say you and Hadtec were going?"

  "Ah, we were just going, ah..." Karecat tried not to flounder as she stood up. "That is Hadtec was just going to go over his week's game listing. I'm trying to learn Water-jen you know."

  "You want to try again?" Hadtec asked hopefully.

  "What do you mean again," snapped Karecat, catching Hadtec by his dorsal fin and leading him away from the table, "we've been at it all week haven't we?" Hadtec started to answer but Karecat seemed bent on getting him across the room as quickly as possible.

  Once away from the couple, she didn't asked anything about the Dolphin's favorite sport. Instead she picked up a flyer about an upcoming dart tournament. The second Hadtec drew breath to question, she said "Shush, I'm listening."

  Hadtec noticed that Karecat's ears were oriented towards Marseena and Carter. From this, he gathered that in this case it was at least semi-polite to listen in. He easily adjusted his own hearing to zoom in on the two familiar voices.

  Marseena was talking to Carter, "You got your letter from Captain Blackwell too." It was a statement not a question.

  "How did you know...", started Carter then stopped. "Who else got a letter?"

  "Why Janet, of course,", answered Marseena. "She came to me in tears because she thought she would have to decide between us and 'that-last-decent-shot-at-deep-space'. I swear, if I'd known Blackwell was going to do this, I would have drowned him in his imported split pea soup!"

  "Soup," said Carter his voice sound
ing stunned. "That mysterious dinner last night that you wouldn't talk to us about? It was with Captain Blackwell?"

  "Yes," said Marseena, "but we didn't commit to anything. We knew how much you two both want to get into deep space, and Donald and I have been talking about going back for years. We just wanted to be sure there was something for all four of us before we got your hopes up. Dear, you want to close your mouth, you're looking like a fish someone took out of its bowl."

  If Marseena was going to say more it was interrupted as Carter took her in his arms and kissed her. It was a long kiss. A few seconds later Marseena gasped, "Woah, dear, this place doesn't go for the kind of entertainment they'll be getting if you keep that up!"

  Hadtec slanted his head around and brought his eyes to focus. He saw Carter holding Marseena completely off the ground in a bear hug "We're going to deep space together;" Carter said. "Gods, what a honeymoon!"

  "It's hardly going to be a honeymoon, besides, we've all got to talk this over as a group. Nothing has been finalized yet."

  "Right," said Carter setting Marseena down. "So why don't we do that right now? You said Janet's home." He looked at his time piece, "Donald should be off work in a few minutes. Let's all get together and agree." Then he kissed Marseena soundly just to emphasize his point.

  "Ok, ok," Marseena said smiling. "You go home and tell Janet we're coming, I'll