Ruminations
Ruminations
Breakaway + 8 yrs, 7 mos
Alan checked the monitors and read-outs in front of him. Good. The way was clear to make it back to Alpha with this next batch of petroleum. They had been damn lucky to find a planet so rich in this valuable resource and the Alphans were mining it for all they were worth. He glanced at the co-pilot he had drawn for this flight. Kevin Taylor was even more reserved by nature than Sandra. It would be a quiet flight back. After everything was checked and double-checked, his thoughts drifted back to the evening before last and that incredibly embarrassing request, in the rec center of all places.
Alan was beginning to understand how his dad’s prize Angus had probably felt during breeding season. Except that that old bull probably had had a hell of a lot more fun. Since it had become common knowledge that Maya and Tony’s daughter Lysee was his genetically, he had been hit up multiple times with requests for ‘donations.’ Just like two days ago. It was becoming... extremely awkward.
The worst part of it all was that it had been his ideas that had started Helena’s entire two-kid proposition in the first place. At least she had respected his wishes and kept that quiet. He was more than happy to let her take the credit, and the heat. He was really beginning to regret that he had taken up the Lunar Commission on its ‘request’ that the astronauts do research on the practical aspects of space life. Oh, well.
Maybe they should have kept it quiet that he had helped his friends have a child of their own to raise. Sandra had been carrying the surrogate pregnancy of Roberto Verdeschi at the time and it perhaps wasn’t strictly necessary for Alan to have helped Maya have a child of her own, but he had offered even before Sahn had started that 28 week pregnancy from hell and he was not one to back out on a promise.
Nah, it wouldn’t have mattered, Alan sighed. Once Lysee had been born, there would have been no doubt about who the father was. Both his daughters had ended up with the most amazing sea-green eyes and unusual silver hair. Lysee did have the arched eyebrows and faint shadowy markings on her cheeks that proclaimed her Psychon heritage, but other than that the girls could just almost be twins. They each even called him ‘Papa.’
Now, that had surprised him. He had expected to be ‘Uncle Alan’ to little Lysee, but she had picked up on Danae’s name for him and had copied it, he supposed. They had never hid from her that he was her biological father. Tony was her ‘Da,’ that was clear to everyone. Her last name was Verdeschi and Tony was her father spirit and soul. Alan was quietly amazed that it never seemed to bother the little girl that she was the center of such an unusual situation. But if things kept going this way, there would soon be many in her situation. As long as the parents were accepting, the kids would be fine. He was certain of that.
And if he were honest with himself, he liked it when he was surrounded by a bunch kids all looking to him for love and protection. Danae, Roberto, Lysee, Stephen, David and Richard. If need ever arose, he would raise them all.
He had heard rumors that Helena was interested in having a third child and that her first choice of a father, Bob Mathias, had declined for reasons known only to him. Alan rather suspected he knew who she might ask next.
Oh, well. It might be the coward’s way out, but he’d let Sandra decide who he would provide ‘services’ for. If she could live with the consequences of another kid running around Alpha with his face, then there was really no reason why he couldn’t. He really hated that damn cup, though.
MGK