The Journal Entries

David looked over the bridge one last time before heading to bed. It had been another typical day in hyperspace; nothing exciting ever happened here because the crew was just too competent. For that, he was grateful. But now that he had come off his second accustomed five-hour shift, he realized he wanted to get some sleep. As he walked slowly through the curving halls of the residential section of the Nyano Handele, he had one of those brief moments where he felt completely in control; he was captain of this vessel, strange as it was, and everything was right with his world.

His musing were interrupted as a very young child came careening around the hallway chased by a Pamthreat kitten. Their giggling interrupted his thoughts and made him look up. The one in front was one of the oldest Han children on board; she had to be almost three years old. The one behind was definitely one of Fari Trahn and Niaro Argent's triplets. "Ca-cathain!" the little girl giggled as she gave him a mock salute.

He knelt. "Hi," he said. "What's your name?"

"Dorfy!" the girl replied.

"Dorothy?" he asked.

"Uh-huh!" she giggled again.

"Dorothy? Penny? Where are you?" A distinctively melfeline voice came from around the curve of the hallway.

"I believe these are the children you're looking for!" David replied.

"Captain Elohim," said a tall Felinzi as he walked into view. "Thank you for slowing them down for me. They're supposed to be in the learning center. Somehow they escaped."

"I see," David replied smiling. "Do you have problems with escaping children?"

"More often than you can imagine." The Felinzi, his bars signifying him as a specialist in child care, gathered the Han into his arms. "Oof. Come on. Yes, you too, Penny." The Pamthreat gave him a look of puzzlement, and he snarled something to her in clear Felinzi. The Pamthreat's face changed to one of exasperation such as only children can manage, then followed behind the Felinzi as he walked off. David watched the retreating trio with amusement, then proceeded down on his way to his cabin.

"Lance, where is my wife?" he asked as he walked in.

"I'm in the bath, David!" Denni replied through the open door. "I figured I'd wait for you and we'd go to the rear lounge for dinner."

"I'd like that," he said. "When do you plan on going?"

"How about now?" she replied, standing out of the tub. David's chest tightened as he watched her, and he felt something else tighten as she bent over to pull the plug on the drain. She stood up and noticed him staring at her, smiled and beckoned him into the bathroom. "Would you like to fluff my fur?" she giggled.

"I'd love to," he replied. As the warming winds swirled around the two of them, he rubbed the small towel over her body, pushing moisture out into the open where it was quickly whisked away by the dry air. He took special pleasure in running the towel over her large and bountiful breasts and between her legs. He also loved playing with her tail, and she loved it when he did.

"David!" she finally objected. "We'll never get to dinner."

He laughed and tossed the towel aside as the winds died down again. "Oh, we'll eat eventually. But, you're right." He stepped out of the tub. "Get dressed. I'll wait for you in the front."

"Be there in a flash."

A ten-minute flash later, she joined him and they walked down the length of the ship, taking the long route and avoiding SDisks. It was something of a ritual with David; he wanted to see his ship in operation, and unlike the Rat's Asking, on this ship that could be avoided by SDisking everyplace. David and Denni had agreed a long time ago that they'd rather walk.

They reached the rear lounge nearly fifteen minutes later. The mel who ran the place pulled them up a table by the rear window, the computer-generated 'view' of redshifting stars whizzing by outside. When not in hyperspace, these were real windows, but in hyperspace, with nothing to see, people preferred these illusions.

David ordered a hearty stew with lots of peppers that he was familiar with, while Denni preferred 'fresh' sashimi. As soon as they had finished their orders to the table's menu screen, David said, "I'm not kissing you until you brush your teeth tonight."

Denni giggled. "I was about to say the same thing."

They waited for dinner to arrive. David spent his time staring out the window, watching the stars go by. "David?" Denni finally asked.

"Yes?"

"You seem unusually quiet tonight. I mean, you're not usually the talkative kind, but is there something on your mind that you'd maybe want to talk about?"

David smiled. "I can never hide anything from you." He nodded. "Sweetheart, have we ever talked about having children?"

"What brought this on?"

"Oh, on the way home I ran into a small Han and Pamthreat playing together, and I couldn't help wondering. We've been married almost a century now, and I'm really starting to think that, well, maybe it's time."

As he watched, she seemed to squirm in her chair and then shook her head in a brief, violent shudder. "Denni?"

"David," she gasped, her eyes alight, "I think I just came."

"What?"

She lunged out with both hands and grabbed his. "David, I've been wanting children for so long you can't begin to imagine it! I've just been afraid to bring it up around you; I didn't know how you would react."

"I don't know how I would have reacted, either. But I was thinking that it was so unfair of me to not at least give you the option. And... it's something I want now." He smiled sadly. "Tomorrow begins the countdown before we reach llerkin. Etta and I were talking last night, and at one point she said, 'So ends one adventure. We're just coasting into home. I wonder what will replace it?'"

"Dad calls having children an adventure."

"I was thinking the same thing," David replied. "Denni, perhaps this is a lousy time to mention it, but there are other people we need to talk to first."

"Like?"

David held up his fingers. "Tasha. Patricia. Chico. We could start with them."

---

"Wait a minute, man. You mean to tell me you're asking me for permission to have a kid, but you haven't talked Denni's pop yet?"

"Chico, you're gonna have to live with her. As ship's medical, that's a big deal. So I'm asking you and Pat if you object."

"Man, if I objected I could go get a job somewhere else. Hell no I don't object. I just can't believe you interrupted my vacation to ask me if you could knock up your wife."

David laughed. "What about you, Pat?"

"I think it's wonderful, David. Life with you has always been long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror." She paused. "I know that ancient quote is true of all space travel, but in your case those moments can sometimes become... odd. I'll just write this off as another one of those."

"Thanks, Pat."

"What does Tasha say?"

The Katckin stepped into the camera's angle of view. "I told him to go for it."

"Then it's settled. The crew has so decided. The First Officer should have a baby." Pat laughed.

David did too. "Thanks, guys. We really appreciate it."

---

Shaking his head, David climbed into bed next to his beloved wife. "Why a syringe?"

"Because, handsome," she purred softly, "I've picked up all of your bad habits." Her hands caressed his chest gently. "David, I could never imagine going to bed with anyone but you. Not even to get pregnant." He shivered as she sidled up to him. "Besides, this way you never have to put up with a day you can't make love to me." Her hands brushed along the insides of his thighs, passing up along the skin of his scrotum and making him want her even more. "And you do want to make love to me, right?"

"Denni," he gasped, "You have no idea." His hand crept over her thighs, touching her private center, caressing her densely furred mound and sliding up the length of her soft belly and substantial breasts. She moaned softly as both of them touched and explored. David reached up and licked her cheeks, and her tongue reached out to find his tongue and kiss and lick.

In David's mind, the knowledge that within her body a child was growing, 'his' child even if not his progeny, meant a lot to him and fired his imagination. "David?" Denni cooed. "I want to taste you."

"Then go do it," he smiled.

Denni pulled aside the covers and exposed his hard cock. She smiled. "That looks delicious." She took in her hands and pulled it up from his belly so that it stuck straight in the air, her eyes staring at it directly as if entranced. Then she lowered her head to it and teasingly gave him a long, slow lick along the underside, her pink tongue slathering it with her saliva.

"You look like you're watering at the mouth," David said.

"I am," she sighed. "I'm rabid for you, beloved." She let him watch as she touched her nose to the purple head of his erection, then moved down slowly to take just the first centimeter in her mouth, pursing her lips and tongue to it. She eased down just a little more until the head was in her mouth, then gave him a glance with her eyes before sliding the rest of it into her muzzle and down her throat.

"Oh, yeah...." David sighed. "Oh, Denni."

She pressed down, taking almost all of it into her mouth, but she had never learned to take that last inch, and David had never minded. The fact that she adored and appreciated his cock so much that she would swallow it all and take his semen made him love her more, if that was possible.

She slowly sucked on his cock, her head sliding back and forth against his cock, tugging against the skin of his shaft, letting the length of his cock slide against her lips. Her tongue washed back and forth against the underside of his cock.

David's hands reached down to touch the back of her head, to hold her shoulders and head and let her know, even though she must surely know, that he really appreciated her attentions and her love.

"Den-ni-i," he sighed, "I think I'm going to, going to... ah!" He felt his climax explode out of him and felt an intense rapture as her tongue coaxed every last drop of come out him. "Oh, Denni." She raised her head, a tiny droplet of come dripping off her muzzle. She wiped it away, the crawled up the length of his body slowly. "Like that?"

"Perfect," he groaned.

"Good," she grinned, rolling over onto her back. "David? Eat me?"

Smiling wide himself, he jumped at the opportunity and climbed between her legs, looking down at the dark-pink, almost brown color of her labia. He leaned down, but just before his tongue touched, he looked up and said, "Denni? Is it safe?"

She nodded. "I asked."

"Good!" he said, burying his muzzle between her lips and wrapping his flexible tongue around her covered clitoris.

She hissed, her back arching. "David! Not so fast!"

He grinned and slowed down, giving her cunt soft, painting licks, caressing her honey sweet lips and burrowing down into her opening before sliding back out to kiss her labia. Her breathing picked up as his licking did, kissing and caressing around her vagina. A gentle moan broke out with her breathing and he smiled.

Her hands reached down and parted her lips, directing his tongue to her now exposed clitoris, and he responded with eager licks over the small white center of her pleasure. Her moans grew louder. After years together, he knew that just meant he would have to work harder.

His tongue flickered over her clit with rhythmic precision, his jaw opened wide to give him as much free play as possible. Her hands repositioned themselves as her wet flesh slipped out from underneath her fingerpads. Her moans dissipated into quiet and David's heart recognized the last few tense seconds before her climax.

He poured on the strength. His jaw ached slightly, but he didn't care. Pressing his tongue to her clit as hard as he could manage he waited, then felt the tension in her thighs and her belly. She almost lifted her shoulders off the bed before collapsing back completely. Her back was arched as she moaned, her climax shaking her body violently.

"Whew," she gasped.

"I love watching you do that," David said.

"I couldn't do it without you," she said, holding out her arms, hands splayed, waiting for him. He fell into those arms eagerly, laying his small, rodentine body over her lush, feminine one. "I love you, David."

"I love you too, Denni."

She giggled, and one hand left his back to slide between his legs. "What's this? Hard again?"

He grinned and kissed her nose. "Yeah." Without another word, he repositioned his cock right up against her cunt and slid into her.

"Good," she sighed lustfully. "I love you, David."

He smiled and held her close, his head turned just enough to press his muzzle against the luscious, thick fur of her breasts as they made love, his cock slowly moving in, out, in, out. She purred softly as he kept on loving her, never slowing down or speeding up. Just making love, the two of them. He felt so right in her arms, holding her. Nothing could ever make him give her up, not even the lull of space, but since he had found her there, he was sure neither she nor space would ever ask him to make that decision. They made love for what seemed like forever before he shook gently and came inside her.

She giggled softly as his softening cock shrunk and dropped out of her. "Time to clean up?" David asked.

"No," she sighed. "Wait a few minutes. I'm not done holding you yet."

"Hopefully you never will be."

"No, hopefully not. But, for tonight, your pregnant wife would like to hold you just a little longer before we both try and get some sleep."

David nodded.

A few minutes later, Denni finally nudged him and said, "You're right. I'm getting cold, time to wash up."

David roused himself; he hadn't even noticed it, but he was sure he had been asleep for at least a few minutes there. They staggered into the bathroom, wincing against the noisome bright light.

Denni took longer to clean up than David, and joined him in bed a few minutes later. "David?" she said.

"Yeah?"

"I will love you forever."

He slid an arm around her midsection and pulled himself closer to her. "And I will love you just as long."