15: 10 Weeks Gestation

Evan is excited because Eve is beginning to show. He can't wait to be able to feel it move within her. They're really enjoying their solitude here at their clearing. The clearing begins just a few meters from the river and several meters from the waterfall. Next to the waterfall, a natural hot spring comes out of the cliff, a few meters up, and showers down on to a shelf that's a little over a meter wide. Then it runs over into a natural stone tub big enough for 4 people and over flows back into the river. They've found a plant insects hate, so they've transplanted some around the perimeter of their clearing making it an insect free zone. The clearing is level and ready for a structure, but they're not sure how to begin.

This morning Evan is again scanning what Eve thinks is barely a bump, "[Can you feel it moving yet?]"

"[A little fluttering]," Eve yawning out her answer because it's still quite early. They haven't even had the morning meal yet.

"[You lay back down. I will wake you when the first meal is ready.]"

Eve lies back down and closes her eyes, but she's not falling back to sleep. She re-opens her eyes. She's not tired enough to fall back to sleep. So she sits up, digs through her knapsack for her brush and brushes out her hair. She tightens the strings of her support top. Next, she tightens the string in the front of her panties. She grabs a pair of skorts, steps out of the tent and into the skorts. Before buttoning the skorts she runs a hand over what Evan has dubbed the bump. His scan said her stomach had swollen 3mm. She buttons the skorts and she's dressed for the day. It's hot enough here that not much else is required. Eve and Evan dress more out of habit than need.

Eve milks Maw for a cup of milk and grabs a pear-like fruit from a tree. She knows right now Evan is doing his best to put together a perfect nutritionally balanced meal for her and the almost a bump. She chugs down the milk and walks off into the woods taking bites out of the fruit. She walks, enjoying the foliage and picking berries off the bushes as she walks along. She comes out of the woods several meters away from the old exploration vessel that once carried her parents. She pops the last of the berries she has into her mouth.

By now Evan is back at the tent ready to prepare the morning meal, but he's wondering where Eve has wondered off to this time. She didn't take her sack, but her medical scanner's not in it. The scanner has many functions besides scanning the body for medical reasons. And even though she can't stand most insects, she'll scan and catalog one. He feels her overwhelming curiosity. She's found something interesting and he's found the core to the first piece of fruit she ate. He's headed in the right direction.

Eve is unable to resist her curiosity. The shuttle bay door is right there. Like a child making sure its parents aren't watching she looks around. The door just needs to be opened. So without a second thought, Eve is scampering up rocks to the underside of the ship. She locates the panel that contains the locking mechanism to the doors, opens the panel and smiles to see it's still functioning. She punches unlock and it asks for an access code. She punches in her father's access code and hears the door unlocking. "Thanks, Dad," she says pushing the open button.

Evan hears a very large loud crashing. "Eve!" he shouts breaking into a run toward the sound. His own panic keeps him from sensing Eve as he runs faster than he actually did to get away from the huge animal they still don't have a name for. He comes out of the trees and sees Maw and Girdy stamping nervously at the bottom of the open shuttle bay door. "Eve!" running to the door afraid she's under it.

"[In here, Evan]," he hears her call from inside.

He steps to the bottom of the door. There are steps going up one side of the door. "Eve," he calls up the steps.

Eve appears at the top of the steps, "[Come on.]"

Evan can see the lights on inside as he walks up the steps. As he enters, he sees Eve at a com-panel. She's calling up information on the ship: which systems are still operational, what type of damage the ship suffered, and what kind of supplies the ship had and where they're stored. On the other side of the bay he spots a range rover and a large cart.

"[Found it]," Eve smiling triumphantly.

"[Found what?]" asks Evan nervous but curious to find out what.

"[A dwelling for us, our home. I think it will fit nicely into the clearing without using up all the clear space. And there are several ways it can be set up.]" She walks to a com-panel with a vid-screen and calls up pictures and data on the dwelling.

Evan stands behind Eve with his hands on her shoulders listening intently as she explains. The structure's skeleton is snap together tubing. The tubing is hollow for electrical wiring and plumbing purposes. The exterior is insulated solar paneling that will collect and store energy into batteries. There's also a small lavatory, but excrement isn't wasted by being flushed away. It's sent to a backup generator that incinerates it to create extra energy for heating/cooling, cooking and cleaning. There are actually several of these dwellings stored on the ship. Their purpose was dwellings for teams to be left to study newly discovered habitable worlds.

"[Where is this dwelling]," Evan asks.

"[In these storage compartments]," Eve walking briskly to the other side of the bay where she opens a compartment revealing the tubing for the dwelling's skeleton, "[Everything we need to construct the dwelling is here in this shuttle bay. We just need to decide if we want 1, 2 or 3 sleeping chambers.]"

"[We know we will need at least 2 sleeping chambers]," Evan slides his hand over the not yet noticeable bump, "[I think we should do 3 if it will fit into the clearing. But how will we transport everything? The shoat carts are too small.]"

Eve examines the range rover. It has a dented solar panel, but other than that, it should be completely operational once fully charge. "[This cart attaches to this land transport. We just need to push the transport out into the sunlight to charge.]"

They attach the cart to the rover then push the rover out into the sun to charge. While the rover is charging, Eve and Evan load the cart. The morning meal ends up being a midday meal with Evan realizing he hadn't said anything to Eve about wandering off and nearly giving him a panic attack, too late to say anything now.