Pregnancy tests. A whole box of them.
We actually had a fancy, high-tech scanner in the ambulance that could detect pregnancy simply by putting your fingertip into its scanner. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, its language settings were stuck on Zabrian. No matter what I did, I couldn’t change it. So whenever I scanned my finger, I just got a Zabrian word flashing on the little screen. I’d used my comms tablet to translate the word, but the word literally meant “small tree” which really didn’t help me at all. And I couldn’t ask Hallum, or I’d give away the fact that I thought I might sort of be the tiniest bit pregnant.
Maybe.
So I’d furtively ordered some good old fashioned pee sticks. I wanted to intercept the order before Hallum saw it. I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up before I knew anything for sure.
But I had a feeling. A sneaking little suspicion. I was two weeks late. Plus, my boobs felt weird.
Very scientific, I know.
“Hello, wife.”
I yelped in shock, clutching at my chest. Goddamn. Hopefully I wasn’t pregnant, or I was going to subject the poor fetus to a heart attack.
“Where did you come from?” I gasped.
He looked at me strangely. “From the saloon. I thought you saw me coming.”
“Well, I didn’t!”
“I have come to await the supply shuttle.”
Shit.
“Um…whyfor?”
Whyfor? Jesus Christ. Very nonchalant. Incredibly cool, Lualhati.
“I have a personal item coming in the delivery.” He paused, then adjusted the brim of his hat. “Are you also waiting for something?”
“Um…”
I couldn’t exactly say no, then scurry over to grab my box, now could I? Hallum was too damn smart for me. He’d figure me out in about 0.2 seconds.
“Yes,” I said. “I am.”
“What have you ordered, wife?”
He took every opportunity to call me wife he could.
Especially when he was fucking me. He loved growling shit like, “Is this good for you, wife?” and “Tell me what you want, wife.”
It was extremely, inconveniently hot.
“Just…something. Something for the hospital.”
That could be plausible. Extra pregnancy tests definitely wouldn’t go amiss at the hospital.
“You need not use your own personal funds for that,” he said sternly. “There are empire funds for hospital supplies. Tell me what it is you ordered, and what the cost was, and I shall have you reimbursed.”
I was saved from answering him by the appearance of the shuttle in the sky.Finally.
It landed in the green field between the hospital and the saloon. Spring had fully sprung on Zabria Prinar One, and grass and flowers were blooming everywhere.
The delivery pilot greeted us and began unloading various boxes of supplies, things like synthetic materials or electrical equipment that we couldn’t manufacture here. When he produced a box for one Lualhati Ortiz, I snatched it and practically ran away. I didn’t hang around to see what Hallum had ordered.
But he must have gotten his box right after mine. Because he followed me into the hospital a minute later. I’d only just opened the box, but hadn’t pulled out any of the tiny white sticks with their pink stripes yet.
