Knollig: A Terraneu Novel ( Book 2) Read online

  With that everyone turned to Kniam, since it was his job to start any meeting. He wasn’t moving from Amber’s side, his face was beaming. She felt a lump build in her throat, she was so happy for the couple!

  Kniam looked down at Amber, then back at the group…”As you all know Amber has been acting strangely, and everyone was getting worried. When Mairi called me away from the meeting it was about Amber. My female and I have talked, and she is okay with me telling the Council. We ran some tests.” Before anyone could panic and ask if everything was okay. Kniam blurted, “She is pregnant!” The Council members all had one second of shocked faces…then everyone was talking at once.

  Knollig left her side to rush to his brother, grabbing him in a bear hug, then slapping his shoulder, “Kniam…that is the best news! Congratulations brother.” He turned to Amber, “I…that is…” he lost his ability to talk, and just gave her a gentle hug!

  Mairi moved over to Amber, “I am so happy for you!” She gave her a fierce hug, and then moved to stand by Knollig. He draped his arm around her…holding her tight against him.

  Knaleg, usually the most vocal of the brothers seemed to be struck speechless. He gave Amber a hug, though it looked like he thought she would break from the contact. Then he pounded Kniam on the back, “Congratulations! I couldn’t be happier for you both.” There was suspicious looking moisture in his eyes, but nobody commented on it. This pregnancy represented a lot more to these men than a normal one on Earth would have.

  After everyone had given his or her congratulations to the couple, Kniam cleared his throat and became all business.

  “We have to alter the plans for Antilles.” He stated firmly, “There is no way Amber is going through the portal now that we know she is pregnant.” Everyone instantly agreed.

  “We all know Earth English and with Mairi’s help we will be able to handle the transfer without Amber.” Thian gave Amber an apologetic look, “Not that you won’t be missed.”

  Mairi broke in. “Unless there is a danger in doing them, we will have to do weekly scans of Amber’s pregnancy, so that there is a baseline for future pregnancies.” Although she wasn’t a doctor she knew a few things about this topic at least. “You said you ran some tests? I know with the changes to our bodies making us ‘solar’, her hormone levels will be different no matter what, but were there any other oddities?” Mairi moved closer to her friend.

  “Would you like to examine the scan? All we had time for was to verify the pregnancy, we haven’t had a chance to look at the results.” Amber asked, “It is in the system. We can bring it up on the holograph.”

  “I used to do x-ray’s and ultra-sounds as a profession back on Earth, so if you want my opinion…even though I’m not a doctor, I would be happy to give it.” Mairi offered.

  “Is that what you did? Why didn’t I know that?? Some friend I am for not even asking all these months.” Amber grumbled.

  “It’s okay, I’m not exactly living every day with what I used to do back on Earth at the forefront of my mind. Life here is different, and it’s not like my old job is going to help a lot here. Their medical advancements are way past anything I could keep up with.” Mairi shrugged, “Bring up the scan, and I will tell you what I can from it.”

  Amber looked to Kniam and nodded. He pushed some buttons and up came a holographic image. Mairi inspected it closely, looking this way and that. Walked around its 3-D parameters. Muttering to herself for a few minutes she finally said, “This scan is amazing. I can practically see everything, you see…this bone here…” Mairi put her hand to the image to point it out, “when measured can tell the gestation of the pregnancy. From what I can gather, you are about eight weeks along, give or take a week.”

  Amber and Kniam leaned into each other whispering words only they could hear. Mairi didn’t want to be the one to have to say it, but she felt she had to just in case.

  “Amber, I worked around doctors and was exposed to pregnant women all the time. I used to hear this speech so much I should have it memorized.” Mairi moved to sit down and patted the chair Amber usually sat in. When Amber was comfortable she continued, “The first three months of pregnancy are when eighty percent of miscarriages happen, there can also be extreme vomiting and ectopic pregnancy.” Mairi rushed on, “I’m not saying any of those things will happen, I am just saying what can. Although we can rule out ectopic pregnancy because I can see that is not the case.” Mairi made sure Amber stayed seated, then continued so the males in the room would understand, “A miscarriage is when the woman loses the baby.” All the men were horrified at the idea, and there was a lot of muttering. “I am only saying what can happen. From what I can see everything is fine.”

  Mairi moved over to Kniam and whispered, “Please sit down Kniam.”

  He looked at her questioningly, and she said, “Please, just sit down.” At her worried look, Kniam moved to sit in the chair next to Amber. They both looked at her questioningly.

  Knollig had moved to stand behind her, his hand on her back. He was offering his support.

  She looked up at him gratefully, and then she returned her attention to the couple. “I have an idea why Amber is acting so out of sorts. The hormones during pregnancy can vary so badly, without proper nutrition…for us that is sunshine and water…they can be dangerously out of balance. We are going to have to add minerals to the water for any pregnant woman. Either to be drank or spritzed on and absorbed through the skin. For a woman pregnant with multiples, it will be even worse.”

  Mairi had her eyes locked on Amber, saw her eyes widen at the knowledge that she was pregnant with ‘multiples’…then she got a glazed look and Mairi advised Kniam, “You need to catch her!”

  Kniam just looked puzzled, when Mairi said to catch ‘her’…then he saw Amber slump in her seat. The ‘her’ she was referring to was Amber! He yelled out and reached for her before she hit the floor. All of the Council members had rushed forward when Amber started to droop. With her firmly held by Kniam, who just took her into his lap, they all looked to Mairi.

  Knollig broke the silence when he asked the question they all wanted an answer to, “What is going on?”

  Knaleg asked, “Is pregnancy so dangerous that it has her passing out?” He seemed incredulous at the very idea.

  Mairi hurriedly answered, “Pregnancy can be very dangerous. There are so many things that can go wrong, but I don’t foresee anything happening in this case. Again I’m not a doctor, but Amber will need to be monitored, take in ridiculous amounts of sun and water. Kniam will have to see to that.” Mairi looked to him, and he just nodded grimly.

  “We already dose the water with vitamins and minerals…are you saying pregnant women will need even more?” Thian asked.

  “It would seem so with the way Amber was so out of balance. We will need to keep a close eye on any pregnancies to maintain the proper levels of nutrients.” Mairi stated.

  Amber stirred in Kniams lap. Mairi waited for her to remember what was going on. She got a funny confused look on her face, and then her mouth went into an “O” shape. Her eyes quickly swung back to Mairi.

  “How many?” Amber asked in a breathy whisper.

  Mairi knew she was asking how many she had seen in the scan. “Do you think Kniam can take the news?” Mairi asked first.

  Amber eyed Kniam, then nodded her head, “Yes. We both want to know.”

  Kniam was confused now, “We both want to know what little female? We already know you are pregnant.”

  “Yes. What about pregnancy do we need to know?” Asteen didn’t want to be left out.

  Mairi jumped into the fray before anyone else asked something, “Let me try to show you on the holograph. Is there a way to mark something?” she turned to Knollig.

  “Yes…use this device, I will set it to make a different color for you.” Knollig moved to the computer and then nodded for her to continue.

  Mairi moved to the holograph, then looked back at the men seated around the Council table.
“Amber is pregnant with, as far as I can tell…triplets.” At that statement Amber looked pale again, Kniam just sat like a stone statue, and the Council members all had their mouths hanging open. “Here.” Mairi made a circle…”Here.” Another circle…”and here. Three separate heartbeats, three babies. Just to warn you sometimes there can be others hidden. This image is three dimensional and so detailed, I don’t see that being the case though.”

  Kniam looked at Amber pale in his arms, then in a voice like gravel, “How is this possible? I didn’t know Earth females could have more than one…”

  Amber was still too stunned to speak, her eyes were glued to the holographic image of their triplets so Mairi spoke to him, “A female can release multiple eggs from both sides of her ovaries, not just one. If those eggs are fertilized, and implant at the same time this can cause what are called fraternal twins, or triplets or quadruplets. It would depend on the number of eggs that implant.” Mairi paused to see if anyone had questions then continued, “Then there is when an egg splits, and you have monozygotic multiples. These are identical because they split from a single fertilized egg, making twins, triplets, quadruplets…and so on. It just depends on how many times they split.”

  Mairi got closer to Amber, “Do you and Kniam want to know what you are carrying? Do you want to know the sex of your babies?” She knew there was a lot going on, and that Amber and Kniam were getting no time alone together in what was supposed to be a special moment. However as leader of this community, and the first pregnancy that ever occurred here they were bound to have a marked lack of privacy.

  Amber looked to Kniam, “Do you want to know what our babies will be…male or female?”

  Kniam was stunned, he looked around at the males of the Council who just looked back intently. They were going to leave this decision for him. Even though Mairi could see they were all sitting on the edge of their seats.

  Knollig assured him, “The choice is yours to make. We will understand if you and Amber want to have this discussion with Mairi in private.”

  Kniam looked at Amber and they did a quick whispered conversation. Then Kniam said, “No. We are all bound to the futures of the babies born on Terraneu. We want to share the information with the Council. We will make a decision on when to inform the community, though they will know it is something very important to keep Amber off Antilles.” He looked to Mairi, “You can tell us.” He grabbed Amber’s hand and held tight.

  Mairi smiled at them both, “From what I can gather from the data, and the advanced imagery in the scan, I can tell that this is your daughter.” Mairi did a circle on the holograph, and then did another bigger circle, “Those are your sons. They seem to be sharing an embryonic sac which means that they will be identical.”

  When she glanced up she managed to get out, “Someone catch him…” Amber jumped out of the way and Kniam started to slump over. All of the Council members bolted to catch Kniam before he hit the floor, Knollig being the closest tried to catch his brother. Nobody made it in time. With a “thunk” Kniam landed face first on the ground.

  Amber laughed, “He is never going to live that down…”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mairi was saying her good-byes to Amber. They were only going to be gone for a day and a half at most, but her friend was worried. The males of the community had known something was wrong when Amber was taken off the trip to Antilles. They had clamored for the reason, and in the end it was decided that they would have to be told. Since Amber could help with getting the females into the medical units here on Terraneu, she had perked up a bit. She wasn’t going to be left out of all the excitement.

  “I will find your friend Jen and send her through right away, I promise.” Mairi told Amber as she was walking with her toward the port pad.

  “Thank you Mairi. When you find her, ask Thian to escort her to the Terraneu port pad, I have a feeling about those two!” Amber sighed, “I still wish I was going, but now that I am getting three times more sun and water, not to mention the mineral drink three times a day. I am feeling much more centered.” Amber placed her hands across her stomach, “I am going to take much better care of myself.”

  “Is there anything I can tell Jen to make her feel better when I find her?” Mairi asked.

  “Yes, tell her that I am waiting for her on Terraneu and to get her ancient butt moving. That we have a lot to catch up on, and by the time she gets here I might be downright old!” Amber laughed, “She will understand, and it should put her at ease until I can talk with her myself.”

  “I will do that then.” Mairi looked around, they had made it to the port dome. Kniam, Knollig, Knaleg and the other Council members were waiting.

  “Take care of yourself and the trilogy!” Mairi teased, before giving Amber a big hug.

  She left Amber there to talk with Kniam, since he was going to Antilles. Knollig reached her, taking her hand he moved into the port dome. With one last look behind her, Mairi let Knollig lead her onto the port pad.

  With a deep breath she steadied her nerves. There was a lot riding on this undertaking, she was determined to do her part to make it succeed. Then she felt the awful pulling sensation, the lights flashed around her, and everything went black.

  ~*~*~*

  Well that wasn’t so bad. She had recovered from the transporting a lot faster this time. It had only taken Knollig a few seconds to wake her up and get her on her feet.

  Everything looked ready. There would be men waiting to help women that were in need of assistance in getting off the port pad. Which would probably be all of them if she and Amber’s experiences of blacking out counted for anything. Those that needed a little time to get on their feet would be taken to a staging tent. There were cots to lay the women on until they regained their bearings.

  Then there was the temporary meeting dome. Once all of the women were able they would go to this dome. There they would get the presentation from Kniam and the Council about life on Terraneu. The rules would be explained to them, and they could chose. Go back to life on Earth, or forward to Terraneu. After being given the choice, they would have some time to gather their thoughts. Then Kniam would call for a decision, and women would start going back or forward. Mairi would be walking around to see if any of the women didn’t act as they seemed. Maybe wouldn’t fit in on Terraneu. If she found any women like that, she was to send them to the medical tent for the return trip.

  “How do you think it looks?” Knollig had come up and put his arms around her.

  “Its amazing Knollig. I think it is going to work, I really do!” Mairi turned in his arms, hugging him tighter. Her head tucked under his chin.

  “I think it is going to work too.” He looked down at her, his purple eyes were alight with mischief. “There is something important I need to show you.”

  She laughed aloud. The look he was giving her told her what he wanted to “show” her.

  “Hmmm.” Mairi pretended to think about it for a moment, she could feel his hard desire pressing against her stomach, “I don’t know if there is anything you haven’t already ‘shown’ me.”

  Knollig bent low to whisper, “This is something you really want to see.” He grabbed her hand in his, and led her quickly away from camp. They walked for a few minutes, Mairi glances around her to admire the scenery, Knollig suddenly stopped.

  “This is a pretty clearing.” Mairi turned around to him, when she saw his eyes she gasped. They were flaming purple velvet, alight with passion. Her body responded instantly and she moved into his arms. Her hands dove into the hair at his nape, her leg hooking around his thigh to hold him against her. Their mouths met and clashed. Tongues dueling and rubbing against each other. Knollig’s hands were everywhere…unclasping the latch at her neck. Tearing her dress down to expose her breasts to his mouth. Then moving to her thighs, without breaking contact with her nipples, he pulled her dress up to her waist, bunching it around her hips.

  Knollig groaned against her mouth, thrusting the hard
bulge in his pants against her. Mairi slid one hand down his body, wiggling her fingers between where they were pressed against each other. She found the fastening to his pants and released it. Between the two of them, they managed to get his pants down to his knees. Mairi was burning with passion, he must have felt the same because suddenly he had a hold of her and was lifting her up his body.

  She didn’t need to be told to wrap her legs around his waist. Without warning he pushed his full length deep. Mairi gasped at the sensation of being stretched full. Then she lost her ability to think, because Knollig was pressing her into a nearby tree. She could feel the soft bark behind her as Knollig’s hard muscled body pressed and rubbed against her front.

  “No matter what happens tomorrow.” Knollig panted between hard thrusts, “This is where I will always belong.” He wrapped his arms around her and lowered them, still connected together, onto the ground. Mairi wrapped her legs higher against his hips. Welcoming the delicious feeling of Knollig pressed into her. “You are my one and only mate, sweet Mairi. Forever.” He kissed her tenderly, worshiping her mouth with gentle nips.

  Mairi arched up, “As you are mine Knollig. Forever.” She couldn’t take much more, and pulling his full weight down to cover her, kissed him with all the passion and love she felt for him. Together they reached the pinnacle, and Mairi caught his shout of release, just as she felt her muscles clamp down on him.

  When they were able to catch their breath Mairi asked, “I hate to be the responsible one, but don’t we need to get back for meetings?”

  Knollig just sighed, “Yes…soon enough…” He got to his feet, and helped Mairi to hers. “I wish Amber had been able to come along. She and Kniam have a way of making meetings shorter, they are forever running off to get privacy.”

  Mairi laughed, “You are forever putting off meetings to drag me all over Terraneu too, don’t make Kniam out to be the only culprit!” She gave him a fierce hug, “Not that I’m complaining. When this is all over, and we have women running all over Terraneu, I want you to take me back to the Oasis. I have something special in mind for you.”