What about his old position in the Rane Sector?”
“Oh, that went to that diminutive shadow of his, that Maeken Kea. They’ve become a pair, as far as the Union is concerned. He’s the best thing to come along since the Unification, and she’s a close second. Bless me if I know what they…” Laroose paused to watch Velmeran closely, as did the others. His eyes unfocused like the twin lenses of a camera pod. Then he leaped up so suddenly that the others jumped in nervous response.
Keflyn perked her ears and started to follow.
“Wait!” Laroose called after her. “What did he say?”
“What is here? What does it mean?”
“I have no idea, but it must be very important,” she called over her back as she trotted out the door.
The construction bay was over a third of the way around the, huge station from where the Methryn was moored. There were no convenient lifts, and the small trams were slow and had the habit of stopping every half kilometer. The quickest way Velmeran knew to reach his ship, short of teleportation, was to run. At a sustained speed of seventy-five kilometers per hour, he and Tregloran covered that distance in half an hour. Keflyn, with her two-meter legs and tremendous strength, could match that with difficulty. Commander Laroose, who knew a few tricks from long experience, commandeered a tug and arrived slightly ahead of the others, catching up with them at the Methryn’s airlock.
The mystery was revealed when the lift let them out at the Methryn’s medical section. Velmeran rushed into the main reception room just as Dyenlerra stepped out of a smaller room.
“Where? Where?” he demanded frantically.
“There! There!” she exclaimed mockingly, jumping and gesturing to the room she had just left. “You wait here.”
She disappeared into the room, leaving the astonished Velmeran standing in the middle of the main foyer. A moment later Consherra emerged from that same room. It was the first time in three months that she had been able to button a shirt all the way down.
“Where are you going?” Velmeran asked, mystified.
“Back to the bridge,” she replied. “I was supervising the repairs when this began, and I thought that I should be getting back.”
Keflyn twitched her ears but said nothing. After all, anyone who could lift six tons would not consider this anything more than a half-hour diversion from one’s normal schedule. Consherra had been expecting this for half a year, so the novelty had certainly worn off. But that was not the case for the rest of the crew. Lenna arrived at that moment, and Baress was only seconds behind.
Then the almost tangible sense of anticipation was transformed into an audible sigh of relief as Dyenlerra returned bearing a tiny patient cradled in her four arms. Tiny was indeed the word, for young Kelvessan seldom weighted more than a kilo at birth. Nor did they look any more alien from their human counterparts than at this time of life. She was in most ways a miniature of the adult, a tiny body with long, slender arms and legs and a large head with immense eyes. This remarkably advanced state of development included a full set of teeth and a thick, disheveled mane of brown hair that extended just past the upper shoulders. She sat upright in Dyenlerra’s hands, staring about in a bemused but curious fashion.
“Congratulations, Commander,” the medic said as she transferred the little one into his arms. “It’s a wolf.”
Father and daughter stared at each other with the same vacant mystification. The little Kelvessa’s curiosity was insatiable, reflected in vast eyes that peered out in wonder beneath an unruly shock of hair. She stared up at Velmeran with special interest, as if she sensed a closer tie with him. She reached up and took hold of his nose with a hand too small to fit around it and made an inquisitive chirping sound. Velmeran smiled.
“What a wonderful, wonderful thing this is,” he said softly. “What an incredibly delightful young lady she is. Of all the wonders I have seen, this is surely the greatest.”
“Privately, I have to admit that I could not be more pleased,” Consherra said, moving close beside him to brush the hair out of the little one’s eyes. “And nothing makes me happier than to see how happy you are.”
“I cannot get over how fully developed she is,” Lenna commented, stepping up for a closer look.
“A matter of necessity,” Dyenlerra explained. “Our young have to be born hardy enough to endure the demands of life on a warship. She will be walking in a few hours, and speaking simple words by the end of the week. She will be starting to school in three months.”
“Our babies must sleep their first few months, but she doesn’t look sleepy.”
“Sleepy?” the medic asked in astonishment. “Kelvessan do not sleep.”
“Then pity the poor mothers!” Lenna declared. “Does she have a name?”
Velmeran looked at Consherra, who smiled gently. “I have not given the subject any thought, to tell the truth. So I thought that I might leave that to you. If you wish. I thought that you might want to name her after your mother.”
Velmeran shook his head slowly. “It would not be fair to expect her to relive a memory, especially a memory that is not her own. But I would like it very much if Venn Keflyn would lend her name to the cause.”
“My name?” Keflyn asked, momentarily astonished. “I would be honored, to say the least. But how would that come out in the way you often adapt our names to feminine use. Keflenna?”
“No, just Keflyn,” he said. “That is a purely human conceit that we acquired long ago, this idea that males and females cannot have the same names. If that is all right with you.”
“I like it very much,” Consherra agreed eagerly.
“Then Keflyn it is,” Velmeran proclaimed as he passed the tiny Kelvessa into Venn Keflyn’s hands. Then he placed his arms around Consherra’s shoulders as he led her off into a quiet corner of the room, leaving the others to admire the Methryn’s newest crewmember. Unnoticed for the moment, Tregloran and Lenna slipped their arms around each other comfortably.
“Do you still feel quite so lonely?” Consherra asked.
“No, not hardly,” he assured her. “It never occurred to me that I could mean so much to so many people, or that so many people could mean so much to me. But the most important thing that I have found is that I could never be alone as long as I have just you with me. Your love is exceeded only by your patience.”
Consherra smiled and settled comfortably into his arms. “Is that what you like about me, that I am the only one with the patience for you?”
“I love you for just being you. Patience is just one of your many virtues, and the one that you should be most grateful for. Why in the name of sanity did you ever decide to love me?”
“It was decided for me, so I have never given it much thought,” she replied. “True love, with no reasons or excuses. How could I not love you? Still, if it is all the same to you, I would rather not go through this more often than once every fifty years.”
They wrapped their arms tightly around each other and kissed warmly and gently, without a thought for the tight knot of visitors gathered around the tiny object of interest.
“Eee-yow!”
They glanced up in surprise at that unexpected howl of pain. Little Keflyn, now in Lenna’s firm but astonished care, had wrapped a small hand around Venn Keflyn’s finger and was unknowingly applying bone-crushing pressure.
“Get her off, please!” the Aldessa pleaded to the astonished onlookers. “Do not hurt her, and for pity’s sake do not hurt me! Just do something to loosen that killer grip.
“Half a moment,” Dyenlerra promised, and gently pried her loose. Everyone was surprised by the sight of a newborn Kelvessa bringing an Aldessa — and a Venn warrior — quite literally to her knees. The only thing stronger, it seemed, was an adult Kelvessa. Lenna, looking a bit dazed, eagerly transferred the bundle of joy and brute strength into Baressa’s waiting arms.
“Talk about a bouncing baby!” Commander Laroose remarked.
“It might be wise for the non-Kelvessan to restrict themselves to looking until she learns to control her strength,” Valthyrra said. She had entered unnoticed during the excitement and now brought her probe forward to
