“Ben.” The message came strong across his jaw, a private vibration cut with static, shattered resolve. “Something’s happened.” Tessa swallowed. “I need to talk to you.”

Dimitrov pressed the bone-conduction receiver of the telestrip against his cheek. “Where are you?”

“Our quarters.” She managed.

“I’ll be right there.”

Waiting in the silence, alone with her thoughts, Tessa’s mind ran on and on endlessly, darting from point to point, the things she would say, the way she would say them, the way she would react to Ben’s responses. She hugged her arms against herself, paced like a prisoner awaiting her executioner.

And then the door to their quarters whispered open and she was in his arms, lips coming up against his, pulling, breathing, needing. In the moment, they fell into each other, lost themselves in the movements of lips and touch, the caresses of lovers, of souls so intimately close they blurred when they were together. With Ben, it almost didn’t matter that there was no link between their minds– his strength was different, and his natural penchant for empathy, his ability to soak up emotions and study them internally, gave him something that she almost envied, almost wished she could trade her TK or VP for.

“Talk to me, baby.” He said softly. As they drifted apart, his lips rose, brushed against her hair, kissing, breathing. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing.” She whispered, buried her face in his shoulder, filled herself with his scent, his strength. “I” She closed her eyes, squeezed them against the pressure building there, the fear, the worry, the terror of the changes, the realizations that the words would bring.

“I–” She looked up at him, pulled in a long, deep breath. “I’m pregnant, Ben.”

At first, the lieutenant commander didn’t react. He just stood there, staring, his face a placeholder for the emotions, the thoughts that tumbled together through shock in the numb distances of his mind. There were no words– he was as stunned as she had been, his emotions as mixed as hers had been, as they still were.

“You’re. . . uh. . .” He swallowed, voice hoarse, scratchy. “But I thought...”

“Yeah.” She said softly, pulling him closer, resting her cheek on his chest. “I thought so too. Doc said these things happen.”

Ben swallowed, looked away.

“The timing is. . .”

“I know.” She sniffed, an ironic laugh trickling from her tear-moist lips. “It’s the end of the world, I’m getting ready to save humanity by blasting off into the past and risking my ass on an AI bypass that might get me there or might spread me across space, and in the middle of all of this, I’m carrying our child.”

“You’re. . .” He hesitated, words coming quiet, half question, half statement. “You’re still going?”

She pulled in a shaky breath, managed a quiet: “Yeah.”

“Why tell me about this?” He breathed, glanced down at her. “Tessa, I. . .” Hesitation pulled at his mind, dragged at the words before they could form. “I’m going to miss you, and I’m never going to know if you made it or not.” He sniffed, breathed. “Now, I’ll have to live with the fact that, not only did I let you go, but now I have a child out there somewhere, a child I’ll never see, never know. . .” His voice cracked. “Dammit, Tessa.”

“Ben,” She tried, but he looked away, shook his head. Eyes closed, and then she did the only thing she could think of to do, reached out and caught his hand, pressed it in against her womb.

“Feel it.” She whispered, and her hands spread out on top of his. “Remember this.” He looked back, and his eyes caught on Tessa’s, snared by the iron and the ice in her stare. “Remember this moment. Remember our daughter.”

“Our daughter.” He managed. “Christ, Tessa.”

“I have to do this, Ben.” She said, putting as much resolve into it as she could. “I have a chance to save billions of lives. I can’t turn my back on that.”

Dimitrov swallowed against a dry throat, voice cracking. “I know.” He forced himself to nod. “I won’t ask you to stay.”

“I won’t lie to you and tell you I’m not scared, Ben, but things will be better if this works.” She blinked, hesitated. “Trust me.”

Reaching out with his other hand, he touched her cheek, gently caressed it. “I do.” He hesitated, pulled in a shaky breath, unable to break their stare. “Our daughter, she. . . she’ll be in good hands.” He swallowed. “You’ll be going back to a better time. A better world.” Tessa didn’t respond, she simply smiled, squeezed his hands. Words came again almost out of fear of the silence, and as Ben spoke again, she let her gaze fall away, closed her eyes.

“What will you do once you’re there?”

“I. . .” She hesitated, breathed, turned back. “I honestly haven’t given it much thought.” She swallowed. “Disappear into the woodwork, I guess. Find a quiet planet and uh, settle down or something. Help the war effort.” Breath came deep, shaky, uncertain. “I don’t know.”

“How soon?”

“Soon.” She all but whispered. “Our next deployment, if I can swing it.”

Ben blinked at tears. “Then we only have a handful of hours left.”

“Two days.” She managed, and the time sounded like minutes, moments. “Not enough time to say goodbye. Not when its forever.” She hesitated as he looked away, as the tears gathered at the edges of his eyes and dropped in lines down his cheeks. “You’ll cover for me if things get hot out there, right?”

“Of course.” He tried a smile, but the attempt faltered and fell away under the force of tears almost immediately. “I’ll cover for both of you.”

Reaching out, tracing his hands, she gathered herself into his arms again, kissed his cheek, and found a place for herself in the curve of his neck. Breathing across her rough-cut hair, he pulled her in closer, closed his eyes again.

“We should. . . pick a name for her before I go.” Tessa breathed. “I never thought I’d be counting the hours like this, but we haven’t got much time before we reach Earth.”

“A name.” He managed, tone teary, spotted with traces of irony. “Tessa, I–” He swallowed, hesitated. “I can’t think of any names that would fit. She’s probably going to be a little warrior just like her mother.” He paused again, swallowed. “Maybe we should name her after you.”

“And have her called ‘Junior’?” Tessa managed the broken edge of a smile. “I don’t think either one of us would be able to stand that, Ben.”

The edge of a chuckle lost itself on Dimitrov’s lips. “Well my mother’s name is out.” He paused, “Unless you think Alicia is a strong, warrior’s name.”

“Hmm.” She almost smiled, pretended to consider it, then lost the smile again as a thought struck her. “How about. . .” She hesitated. Say it. “How about Nemea” She swallowed. “After my grandmother.”

“Nemea. . .” He said softly. “Okay. It’s decided then.” He drifted down to his knees, reached out, gently kissed her stomach.

“Hello, little Nemea,” He closed his eyes and fresh tears dropped in lines across his cheeks. “Child of love.”