The Great Escape

Posted on Tue Jan 19th, 2021 @ 11:00pm by Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD
Edited on on Tue Jan 19th, 2021 @ 11:00pm

Mission: The Gauntlet
Location: Shuttle "Katherine Johnson" / Starbase 242
Timeline: Two days after "The Child That Remembers"

The following two days proved oddly mundane. Aoife’s condition improved only marginally, although it was obvious that being back with her parents (even though technically, she’d never met Cailus and hadn’t seen her mother in years) was helping her state of mind considerably. The shuttle sped along at a safe Warp 4, Cailus and Shae alternating their sleep cycles so that one of them would always be awake, just in case.

It was during one of those times, with Shae fast asleep on the bunk, that an entirely new and unforeseen crisis came about. Cailus was sat in the pilot’s chair, looking up details of the small starbase they were headed to while Aoife sat in his lap. Though still very weak, the little one proved just as inquisitive as her sister had been, endlessly fascinated by the lights, noises and the distorted view of space outside the shuttle windows.

Which, sadly, was not the only thing she got up to.

It took Cailus a good minute or so to notice the smell, but when he did, he very nearly threw up then and there, the powerful painkillers leaving him somewhat queasy. He glanced down at Aoife with a frown, his nose crinkling.

“Now?” he grumbled under his breath. “While you’re on my lap? Really, Aoife?”

Though still in a fair bit of discomfort despite being medicated for her body aches, Aoife was nothing if not in good spirits, and she looked up at her beloved Papa and blew raspberries at him, then giggled.

Cailus harrumphed, gingerly standing up and moving to the back of the shuttle. Tragically Starfleet had not designed their shuttlecraft with childcare in mind, forcing Cailus to adapt. Setting Aoife down on the table in the rear of the shuttle, he went for their supplies and cursed as he rummaged through them. For all their preparation, neither he nor Shae had thought to bring fresh nappies, which led to the awkward process of trying to replicate one. The limited Starfleet computer didn’t have the faintest idea what a nappy was, meaning Cailus had to design one on the fly with voice commands.

What came out of the replicator wasn’t ideal (it was, for instance, brown, a thoroughly unhelpful colour), but it sufficed. With that, Cailus got to the business of changing Aoife, muttering under his breath as he worked.

“Blast it, I thought we were done with this,” he grumbled silently, trying as hard as he possibly could to not breathe. “I swear, Aoife, we are getting you potty trained again as soon as possible...urgh...I’d rather go into that base again than do this for another six months…”

For her part, Aoife seemed oblivious and lay still to make her Papa’s task easier, although towards the end her nose started twitching and her little brow furrowed with concern. “Mama,” she said quietly, aware that she needed to use a soft voice since her mother was sleeping.

In the lower bunk, Shae had grown restless, which could easily be dismissed as the dirty nappy disturbing her slumber, but this was not the case, and quite suddenly Shae’s eyes shot open as she curled up on her side, the sudden onset of pain causing a choked groan to escape her.

“Shae?” Cailus said in alarm, glancing over at her. He finished closing Aoife up in record time, disposing of the dirty nappy in the replicator and disintegrating the accursed thing before limping over to his stricken wife. “What’s wrong?”

For the moment, Shae was rendered speechless, as all she could manage was to breathe through the pain until it subsided a good minute later, and even then she could only whimper in panicked confusion. Then another wave of pain hit and she felt a certain wetness in her pants, the scent of blood hit her nose and in that instant her brain put the pieces together; oh no, not now!

“Baby… coming…” she managed to say as a contraction ripped through her, wrenching a pained cry from her.

The announcement completely floored Cailus. “Baby?” he repeated, dumbstruck. “But that’s...it can’t be…” Regaining some composure, he pulled a medical tricorder from above the bunk and scanned Shae...she was as lithe as ever, there was no way, she couldn’t be...then his mouth dropped.

Cailus was no doctor or medic. He could barely understand human lifesigns, never mind alien lifesigns, and Shae’s physiology was definitely very alien, but even he could see the second lifesign, astonishingly weak and barely detectable, in Shae’s belly.

“Oh hell,” Cailus swore. “Computer, accelerate to Warp 6 and broadcast a distress call, medical.” He moved swiftly to pull off Shae’s bloodied pants and underwear, being none too gentle about it as he did it.

“Warning: that speed is not recommended,” came the computer’s irritatingly calm reply.

“I wasn’t asking for an opinion, just do it, override,” Cailus growled back before looking at Shae. “Damn it, Shae, I’ve no idea what to do here.”

Shae just tried to focus on her breathing. She was utterly terrified, her only experiences with pregnancy and birth being nightmares of profound loss, and she began to cry. “Can’t lose another…” she sobbed softly. The contractions were coming faster, lasting longer, and becoming more intense; it was all happening so fast, which made it all that much more terrifying for Shae.

Cailus was thoroughly frightened himself, more than he’d ever been back in the Section 31 base. “You won’t, Shae, I promise, we’re not losing another one,” Cailus said in a rush. He tried to think back to the three times he’d been present at a birth; Victoire, in a state of the art hospital with doctors and nurses at hand. That Gorn hatchling on Cestus III, but that wasn’t any damned help...Madeleine, but hell no, don’t think about that…

Nevertheless, he did. This child had to be premature, like Madeleine had been...the doctor had tried, what had he done that day? Gradually Cailus started working it out, grabbing the tricorder again and scanning Shae’s abdomen carefully.

“The baby’s head is pointed down, that’s good,” he reassured Shae, although he was clearly trying to reassure himself as much as her. Thinking fast, he grabbed the spare blanket from the upper bunk. only briefly checking that Aoife was alright as he rushed back to Shae.

Aoife was equal amounts curious and petrified, but she remained still on the table so that her Papa wouldn’t have to worry about her falling off, her eyes locked on whatever was happening to her Mama.

“Cailus, I need to-” Shae then tried to warn her mate, but the contraction washing over her stole her voice. Her claws dug into the thin mattress as she bore down with the pain, whimpering softly as she felt her baby slowly emerging.

Cailus could scarcely believe what was happening, how impossibly fast it was, but there was simply no time to panic. He had barely gotten a towel in position when the tiny head crowned. It was far too fast, the shuttle interior a chaotic mix of pained groans and frantic reassurances, but the baby was not inclined to take it slow, inching out slowly but surely.

“Just a little more, Shae, a little more, I can see it,” Cailus said urgently, still in total disbelief at what he and Shae were doing.

Shae just whimpered, panting through her pain until she felt the urge again, and when she did, she gave it everything she had. As soon as the baby’s head was out, the rest of him followed swiftly along with a rush of blood and fluids into his father’s waiting hands, and his first act of business was to complain about his entrance into the world, loudly.

And there he was. Cailus held him in complete astonishment; the baby was beautiful, clearly a boy, and bawling his little lungs out. His tail was just as miniscule, his little fox-like ears hairless and barely discernible stuck against his head, but he was there, alive!

There was the small matter of the umbilical cord, and Cailus was forced to reach blindly into the medkit on the upper bunk before finding what he needed. A quick snip of the laser scalpel freed the boy of his mother, and Cailus properly held the boy in his arms as he sat there on the bunk.

“I don’t believe it,” he said, flabbergasted as the boy wailed, his little arms waving. “I don’t…” He stood up, moving up to kneel alongside Shae. “Shae, it’s a boy…”

Though exhausted, Shae’s eyes were so full of love and adoration as she watched Cailus hold their child, a child they had no idea existed until now, a child she was now completely and irrevocably in love with.

“He’s perfect,” Shae said with a quivering voice, reaching out to take a tiny hand, said hand wrapping its fingers around her finger out of reflex. “I had no idea I was pregnant, love, I’m so sorry,” she then said to Cailus.

“Clearly,” Cailus said wryly, although despite himself, he was grinning like an idiot as he looked down at his son. His son. He looked amazing, but so small... Nevertheless, practicality reasserted itself as Cailus looked at Shae. “Can you hold him? I need to scan you both.”

“I was about to jump up and throttle you if you didn’t hand him over soon,” Shae said in jest as she shifted so that she wasn’t laying on her arm anymore and accepted her child. “Can I get an extra pillow to prop me up a bit?” she asked as she adjusted her shirt to see if she could get the babe to nurse.

Stealing the pillow from the upper bunk, Cailus propped up his wife, being careful of the precious bundle in her arms. Satisfied that they were alright for the moment, Cailus reached for the medical tricorder again, running more detailed scans of them both. His face fell as he read the readings and the cacophony of alarms that the tricorder reported.

“Neither of you are in good shape,” he said worriedly. “Computer, send a priority message on to Starbase 242, tell them to have multiple medical teams on standby when we arrive.” Folding up the tricorder, Cailus moved to the replicator and replicated a glass of water, returning to Shae. “Drink, Shae, you need it,” he said. “I don’t dare give either of you drugs, I’ve no idea what it’d do to your physiology.”

Still, there was one last thing to do, one person who deserved to see what was happening. Ignoring his protesting knee and ribs, Cailus moved over to Aoife and picked the girl up, bringing her over to her mother and new brother.

Shae had successfully got the boy to nurse, silencing his cries instantly. A tear rolled down her cheek when Cailus informed her of their condition, although she already knew something was wrong with her, she was starting to feel cold from blood loss, so she drank the offered water without complaint.

Aoife was full of wide-eyed curiosity as she was brought closer to her mother and this new wriggly thing on her chest. “Baby?” she asked.

“Yes, my little love, this is your brother,” Shae answered softly. “Now you’ll have to be a good big sister and look after him, right?”

Aoife responded with an affirmative chirp, then nuzzled against the tiny little head.

“Dearheart, can you cover me? I’m getting cold,” Shae said in a quivering tone as her body began to tremble from the cold.

“Sure,” Cailus said, pulling the blanket back up to cover Shae. He hated how helpless he felt, but that feeling warred with mind-numbing shock and amazement at the tiny baby boy on Shae’s teat. He stroked Shae’s hair, noting how clammy she was as her children snuggled against her, one at her breast and the other at her side. There was nothing for it, he knew, but to wait until they could all get proper medical care.

“We’ll be at the starbase in two hours, just hold on till then,” he said quietly. “Well done, Shae. And never, ever do this to me again, you scared the life out of me.”

Shae smiled with a brief chuckle that resulted in a pained wince. “I make no promises,” she said to tease back, although she was in full agreement that this had been terrifying.

Two hours, for Shae, was a long time to wait, and by the time the shuttle arrived at the starbase, her trembling had grown more pronounced as had the pale pallor of her skin. As soon as Cailus had the shuttle docked and the hatch opened, a team of medics entered to assess the condition of all members of the shuttle, but Shae was quickly deemed in critical condition and was immediately whisked away on an antigrav stretcher with the baby on his own stretcher. Though also in serious condition, Aoife was considered stable and could stay with her father, and they were given the option of waiting for another stretcher or walking to Sickbay.

Overwhelmed after the events of the past few days, Cailus nevertheless had enough pride to insist (ambitiously) that he was perfectly capable of walking with Aoife perched on his arm. One of the medics tried to argue, but a single glare was sufficient to silence any protest. It was, all things considered, fortunate that the starbase’s command staff were kind enough to give Cailus some space. He didn’t have the energy yet to deal with the inevitable interrogation; where have you been, how were you injured, why did you leave the Pandora, how did you get here from the Expanse, where did this girl come from when she’s supposed to be dead...

Instead, although he struggled a little while carrying Aoife, Cailus made it down to the starbase’s hospital. It was relatively small, in keeping with a starbase which barely merited the name, but it nevertheless seemed sufficient as Cailus, Aoife and a medic walked in. Sitting himself on a biobed, Cailus watched the doctors and nurses working on Shae and their newborn son with urgency which spoke to how serious their situation was.

“May I scan and treat your injuries or are you going to glare at me again?” the timid medic asked Cailus. Across the room, the baby was moved into an incubator and then taken to another room, while Shae was being hooked up with several infusions to replace the blood she had lost.

“Go ahead,” Cailus said off-handedly, although his attention was focused on Shae in the other biobed as the baby was taken away. He sighed in belated realisation, glancing down at Aoife in his lap. “I’m sorry. The past few days have been...hard. For all of us. I won’t be difficult.”

“Judging from your injuries, I’m going to assume that this is the understatement of the millenia,” the medic asked, trying to keep the mood light considering the dire condition the woman and the baby had been in. “Can I get the little girl onto her own bed?” the medic then asked, holding out her hands towards Aoife.

Aoife didn’t like this stranger trying to take her and held tight to Cailus’ shirt with a light whimper.

“Okay, guess that’s a no,” the medic replied, but continued with the scans in a professional manner. “Don’t worry, I can work with this,” she assured the protective… father?

A moment later, a doctor from the group working on Shae approached Cailus. “Excuse me, are you her husband and the father of the baby?” the doctor asked.

Cailus frowned at the question, but realised that it was hardly obvious. “Yes,” he answered. “Our files should be available on your computer. I’m human, Shae is half Chameloid, half El-Aurian, so our boy is...all three, I guess. Why? Is something wrong?”

“She’s in shock and was having trouble giving us details, but we believe we can get the bleeding under control. She’s lost a lot of blood, so we’re trying to bolster her with synthetic plasma and hemoglobin. I’m cautiously optimistic, but her physiology is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, so I can’t say with any certainty if she will pull through. As for the baby, I need you to authorize treatments since she is not in a fit state to do so; we would like to try some breathing treatments to help his lungs mature faster,” the doctor briefed him.

Cailus shuddered at the news about Shae, but conscious of Aoife in his lap, he forced himself to breathe; now was not the time to break apart. “Fine, go ahead. Just do whatever you can to help them. If you need anything from me, ask.”

“Very good,” the doctor affirmed with a nod. “Get some rest, it’s likely to be a long night.”


A long night indeed, with doctors coming and going, checking in on Shae and changing out her IV bags, some coming around to check in on Cailus and Aoife, but then came the calm of the night where all they could do was wait and sleep. The lights were dimmed for the night shift, staff continued to come around to check vitals, and all was quiet until the wee hours of the morning when Shae finally started to come around, sounding off with her mate chirp and whimpering for her baby.

“Cail… baby, where… Cailus!” she cried out in a sleep-stupor fright.

Still awake throughout the night, unable to sleep (despite what the nurses undoubtedly hoped, given that Cailus was a terrible and perpetually grumpy patient), Cailus was in the other room watching the baby when he heard Shae calling through the open door. A passing Andorian nurse smiled at him in understanding as Cailus hobbled back to Shae’s bedside, sitting down on a chair next to her and grasping her hand.

“I’m here, Shae, I’m here,” he hushed her.

Even in the dim lighting, her complexion looked much improved, and though her hand was weak with a slight chill, there was a firmness in her grip that assured him that she was not leaving him, not today!

“Cail… the baby… where is our baby?” Shae said deliriously, near tears with worry.

“He’s fine, he’s in the next room, I was just with him,” Cailus said wearily. “They’re taking good care of him, Shae, I promise.”

“And Aoife… where is she?” Shae said, still dazed but fighting so desperately to remain conscious and coherent; she needed to know that her family, all of her family, was alright.

“She’s asleep, just over there,” Cailus said, shifting in his chair so that Shae could see Aoife dozing on the other bed, except that the child had apparently been woken up by her mother’s cries. Cailus duly got up and brought Aoife back to her mother, musing that since the rescue, the two of them had spent more time hugging than not.

“There’s my little starlight,” Shae said with a weak smile, sounding more and more clear headed by the moment. Aoife snuggled against her mother’s chest, and now content with the contact, promptly fell back asleep. The Andorian nurse from earlier came around, pushing the incubator over to Shae’s bed.

“He’s got to stay in the incubator, but I thought you might like to see him,” the Andorian said. “I’ve checked the charts, barring any complications, it should be safe for you both to leave in a couple of days.”

The Andorian left the family to their bonding. The sight of the baby in the incubator was somewhat startling, seeing him covered in tubes and sensors, but Shae took the nurse’s words to heart; just a couple of days…

“He’s so beautiful,” Shae said, reaching a hand out to touch a tiny foot. “He needs a name.”

“Yes, he does,” Cailus said quietly, afraid of waking either child. Now that the danger had passed completely, he was on the verge of falling apart himself, the typically stern man now as soft as butter. “He...he looks a bit like my father. I don’t know how to explain it. Something about his eyes…and they’re just like Victoire’s were when she was born...” His voice trailed off in wonderment.

Having never seen pictures of Cailus’ father, Shae couldn’t say if the baby looked like the senior Griffin. “I don’t know, he doesn’t look like an Alistair to me,” she said as a way of dismissing that possibility of a name. “Cailus junior?” she offered instead, still stroking the baby’s tiny little foot.

Cailus snorted. “Not on your life,” he grumbled. “Let weird Martian names pass into history where they belong.” Contemplating the baby, he said “My grandfather, on my mother’s side...he was called Owen. He was Starfleet too. He’s one of the reasons I joined.”

“Owen?” Shae played with the name for a moment, then looked at their son with a curious tilt of her head. “What do you think, little one? Are you an Owen?” she asked rhetorically. Oddly enough, the baby did move slightly with a little squeak sound of him passing gas. “Okay… How about Owen-adjacent? Maybe spelled in the Irish way?” she continued with amusement, then she looked to Cailus. “What do you think?”

Cailus eyed Shae with mock disgruntlement, shaking his head. “You are so Irish,” he teased fondly. “Fine, the Irish spelling it is.” He looked back at their baby, smiling. “There you are, Eoin Griffin. Welcome to the world, my boy.”

END