Ancient Astronauts

Heirs

While Dr. Halberd was dealing with the obstinate Sgt Batts, his men had carefully carried Alyonna into her bedroom. Dr. Halberd rushed through the door and waved them away.

"How are you feeling, Aly?"

"I'm fine, doc, completely fine."

A questioning look crossed Dr. Halberd's face.

"I need to take a look, Aly. This might've just been a false alarm or the contractions may be delayed. If you were in labor you'd be experiencing some pretty generous cramps right now."

Alyonna just grinned at him. He was looking at her like a kid who wasn't sure if it was ok to look at something. Understandable given that the thing in question was her vagina. She just thought it was funny given what kind of doctor he was.

"What's the matter doc?" She smiled slyly at him, "Never seen one before?"

Dr. Halberd blanched awkwardly, shuffled his feet and hands, then went down on one knee and lifted her dress. The smile on Alyonna's face spread wider. She shouldn't torment him at a time like this, but conscientiousness was a virtue she possessed breezily.

"Is it all in order under there?" Alyonna asked when Dr. Halberd didn't emerge for a minute.

"Dr Halberd?" Alyonna leaned up on her arms a little bit. It would be just her luck for her obstetrician to have a random stroke at a moment like this.

A moment later, Dr. Halberd's head emerged and laid the dress back down. His face was ghostly pale, "It's not possible," he whispered.

"Oh come on!" Alyonna started to giggle but found it difficult to do in her position, "It's not that scary."

"No, no," Peter said in a stronger tone, "It's-it's not that. You really feel no pain at all?" He moved his hands over Alyonna's belly seeking the baby's position.

"None," Alyonna answered, her giddy expression replaced by a perplexed one, "Why?"

"You should be," Peter replied, "You should be in a LOT of pain."

"Why?" The look of confusion began to fade as worry took its place, "Why should I be in pain, Dr. Halberd? Is something wrong? Did I lose the baby?" Tears were forming up under her eyes like soldiers in a drill, prepared for anything.

"No, no, nothing like that...it's just that your uterine muscles are contracting, the baby's head is in the right position...and you've begun dilating."

"In other words..." Aly's voice trailed off.

"In other words, your body is doing every single thing it's supposed to do to deliver the baby safely...but unlike every other human woman in history...you are not experiencing even a little pain?"

"I mean," Alyonna said, "of course there's a little pain. Things don't just shift around in your body on a colossal scale without there being any pain at all. But no agony. More like strongly uncomfortable..."

"Aly!" Hans burst through the door and came to the bedside, another doctor was right behind him.

"Dr. Umwecke," Peter approached him.

"I need to examine the patient, Dr. Halberd. But when I'm done you'll walk me through every single thing you've done up to this point. It's your first delivery, who knows what you may have done wrong."

Dr. Umeckwe made to push past him. Peter moved out of the way without protest. "There's something you should know, doctor," he started to say before a dark hand went up to silence him.

Leaning over Alyonna, the Swahili doctor quickly and expertly performed the same abdominal and pelvic examinations Peter had.

He paused, a surprised look crossed his face. He turned back to Peter, "What is this thing I need to know?"

Hans, after fussing over Alyonna like she'd been attacked by ravenous wolves and determining that yes, in fact, she was totally fine, turned his attention to Peter as well. He still held onto Alyonna's hand like something was going to take her away.

—------------------------------------------------------

"I've never seen anything like it," Dr. Umeckwe explained to Hans later that evening. She delivered not one but two babies without a single cry of pain."

Hans was only half paying attention. The other half was focused on the nurses on the other side of the room, carefully giving his son and daughter their first ever bath. The kids were busy telling them exactly what they thought of that.

"Governor?"

"Hmm? Yes?" Hans turned his attention back to the doctor, "Oh, yes very strange. Could it be an isolated incident?"

Dr. Umeckwe ran a firm hand over his graying mustache, "I suppose it's possible. Though there was a rather odd theory posited by an old retired obstetrician back on Earth. His name was Doctor Stephen Halfthor. Do you know of him?"

Hans shook his head, and the doctor continued, "It was a well known fact by his time that Earth's atmospheric pressure had steadily declined from 5 bar to 1 bar over its history. He suggested that a rather large drop in atmospheric pressure occurred sometime between three million and five million Earth years ago and this affected humanity in a number of ways, one of them being labor pains."

Hans was already shaking his head, "I'm no doctor or scientist, but wouldn't that affect all terrestrial creatures, not just humans?"

"You're right, Governor," Dr. Umeckwe had a hard look in his eye, "You are NEITHER of those things."

Hans only nodded at that, and curtly dismissed the doctor. Peter, on the other hand, he thanked.

"Thank you for checking on her when you did, Dr. Halberd, and for your expert care and sensible decision not to bring her to Red Cross."

Dr. Halberd only nodded, deep in thought.

Hans guessed what he was thinking about, "You're thinking about Dr. Stephen Halfthor's theory."

Peter was startled out of his musings, "Why, well, yes actually I was."

"Do you find them as dubious as I do?"

"Probably not," Peter admitted, "I heard that part of your conversation with Dr. Umeckwe. And it is possible it only affected humans because of other factors like the fact that we changed to bipedal motorcation around that same time...with a one to two million year margin of error..."

"Seems like a big margin of error," Hans grunted.

"Not on the scale we're talking about. Look, all I'm saying is that there are many theories about why humans experience severe child birthing pains and most animals, even those here on Proxima-B, don't."

"Do any of those theories involve gravity?" Hans asked suddenly.

Dr. Halberd appeared to pale slightly and hesitate before firmly shaking his head no, "Why?"

"Hmm, nothing Dr. Halberd, nothing at all. Do you need a ride home?"

"Yes, I could use one, I'll return in the morning to see how everyone's getting on. The nurses will stay here in case the children or you need anything. In the old world we'd monitor a woman and her children for three or four days after giving–"

"Yes, doctor, I'm aware. Thank you, and we'll see you for the next few mornings I think."

Dr. Halberd nodded and headed out the door. Hans waved over Ensign Matthews and ordered him to take the doctor home.

Hans closed the door softly. He knew being governor meant keeping secrets, but Ahriman's was bigger than anything he'd ever kept before. If he was going to do this, he needed the ancient sage to be completely honest with him about everything. He'd speak to him about the mysterious painless births. Hans needed to know what they were up against...or what was going good for them on this planet. But it could wait. There were a few things he needed to take care of first.