Resolving issues.

"The parents back Home sometimes find themselves faced with premature births," Inquirer continued. "It used to be that that was pretty much the end of the story, and the parents were.....left with only a dead child. Then, back in the twentieth century, medicine developed a machine that created a small.....warm environment where the youngster could be warm enough, get enough air to breath, whatever, so he could survive to grow and strengthen to a size where he or she could survive on their own....without medical intervention.

"As time went on, the incubator evolved to now we can even artificially support a fetus just formed from fertilization," the mechanical/mystical woman finishes. "While the fetus floats within synthetic amniotic fluid, doctors and nurses can help it develop fully to term."

Or put the fetus into cryogenic stasis until later, Inquirer added quietly to herself. In the process ushering out some old moral issues/hot button topics and ushering in yet more, complicated ones.....

Inquirer kept quiet about the last, seeing that throwing out those issues would just muddy the issue. Speaking about them would not have help at all.

"This is a tool of last resort," Inquirer said instead. "The doctors like the one who'll perhaps handle this situation are of the mind that going the most natural route possible is the best. They'd use diet, activity control, and a few other methods before resorting to this."

"But....this is perhaps a situation that anything less but extreme methods like using the powerful magic of a combined Crystallics.....or this," Astra 1 says, after what all Inquirer had said sank in (and her head spun a bit because of it).

"It's a bit less....invasive than the Crystallics," Astra 4 said. "And it wouldn't be like my sister was jumping the que. The little ones could wait, safe and sound, for the week or what not, for the mages to get around to changing Astra 5's skin back to normal and accelerating their growth to something.....bigger."

"Well, they could just have one of us demifoxes bite Astra 5 and then have her drink that wolfbane extract you spoke of," Astra 2 put in. "It worked for Queen Astra and Kind Willian la Post when they were trying to heal the king's broken back. The extract has the ironic property of accelerating the lycanthropic infection (re: 2143)."

"Hmmm, I remember something like that being mentioned around here," Astra 5 murmured. "And that could work out well enough, but.....having the Caesarian section and putting the little ones in these....'incubators' seems to be the best route to go with.

"Considering from what I've seen and heard from my sisters about the technological know how of the Alliance, I feel my little loves would be safe," Astra 5 explains. "And let's think about this, logically. I could go the originally planned route of waiting two weeks. All the while, I would be praying that I don't go into labor. Malachi Dronocis is worried about muddying my Matrix, so plans on using multiple Crystallics and mages in this operation, and the whole thing WILL take a lot out of them....so they'll be out of the races again for days. With the like of this ghostly Vincent and Zerm, not to mention the fact the gods only knows just when the slipgates will finally go.......:"

"Doing it Inquirer's way would be a two step procedure for the mages, accelerate the babies to a safe age and change Astra 5's skin and hair color back to normal." Astra 1 says, catching the spirit of the moment. "Otherwise, it would be a operation of many steps: change me and the unborn into demifoxes, accelerate their growth, deliver them, change me and the kits back to human, and THEN change me back to my normal colors!"

"I'll go discuss the reasoning behind this with my Fred," Astra 5 smiles. "I know that he'll agree with it, but....." She smiles a bit dreamily, as if remembering something fondly.

Perhaps she remembered that singular, almost holy, time she had touched, and been forever bound together, Fred 5's soul....

**********

Astra 1 and Astra 2 watch the other women leave the room.

"I think you know why I'm here," Astra 1 says, nervously fiddling with the list of names.

"I knew from the start that you wanted to speak about it," her twin said. "I saw it in your eyes on that first night when I decided to see about exploring a relationship with my Fred.....while you had decided to throw away your chance with your Fred and your children."

Astra 1 winces at her analog's harsh words, feeling like she'd just been slapped. In a real sense, she had been.

Astra 2 winces at her own words. She didn't want to hurt her sister so, verbally. However, it was ironic that she knew Astra 1 as well as she knew herself. This issue couldn't be solved by candy coating it. She had never been one for coddling, and so was it true with Astra 1.

"Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind." flashes through Astra 2's mind.

The kindest thing Astra 2 could do for Astra 1 was taking this route.

"For the longest time I had wondered just WHY you hadn't done the same thing I had," Astra 2 continued. "Then, when Frederigo D'Honaire contacted me, asking me for advice about what do about the dreams where you cried and wept, calling out for your Fred and your children to come back I finally remembered what I had done that I now remember you NOT doing."

"I cried in my sleep?!" Astra 1, angered that Fred the Manfox had gone behind her back, and confused (and frightened) about the news of dreams that she can't remember. "And Lynx and the other Manimals eavesdropped?!

"Ah, don't be that way!" chides Astra 2, shaking her head at her sister's rage. "You were so loud that even the bloody watch up in the crow's nest could hear you!"

Astra 1 looks aghast at her sister, and sees that she speaks the truth (the lack of her scratching her nose is the best tip off.....)

"If you hadn't made arrangements to come here," Astra 2 continues. "Then Fred would have sent you here. See, when he told me of what had happened, he finally gave me the piece of the puzzle....the riddle I should have understood from the very beginning.

"See....it was obvious now as I look back that I had been on the path to loving my Fred. If I hadn't finally did it when I saw that he cared for me enough that he'd die for me, then it would have happened later. Of this I am sure.

"You walked the same path I did, and since we're too much alike.....you fell in love. Only you did it while dreaming, where you couldn't hide from your heart of hearts. See, we were practically the same up to a point, despite a small detail of a birthday (re: 4826). We are too alike for us to NOT fall in love with our Fred's, ironically enough!"

1. "But....but I didn't feel compelled to follow my Fred and the children to Wallants!" protested Astra 1 weakly, grasping at straws.

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