A Galactic Christmas Surprise

Cyrene smiled as she looked around at her slightly dysfunctional family. The families that you build yourself are the very best ones and this family was certainly a good deal better than the royal one she was blood-related to.

Cyrene was the youngest daughter of a royal family descended from Earth. Of course, there was no longer an Earth, so her parents were King and Queen of the space station Dirtanes. A ridiculous notion!

With two older brothers, it was highly unlikely Cyrene would ever rule, so she’d made her home on her space cruiser, Lady Nimüe, a ship that she’d rescued and helped to rebuild when she was a scruffy teenager who liked to spend every vacant moment in engineering, much to her mother’s chagrin.

The family that she’d made was small, but it was hers and it was growing. Originally there had been only herself and her ship’s AI, Syn, who Cyrene had programmed to be as human as possible. She’d rescued Gajjett, a Craetoan elf, during a cargo mission that very nearly went spectacularly wrong. Only half Cyrene’s height, he was covered from head to toe in soft, white downy hair and, unlike traditional elves, he had no visible ears. He’d brought Gizmo with him, a ginger cat who was great at keeping the hairless galactic rats out of the hold.

She’d been happily married to Prince Tarok for a little over a year. He was currently engaged in a flailing dance around the holographic Christmas tree in the rec room where twinkling lights strobed in time to ‘Rocket Around the Christmas Tree’, sung by the Titan’s Got Talent winner, Brendan Eel and accompanied by the warbling voice of Syn.

Cyrene took a sip of alco-free eggnog and gasped. “Titan’s Te…” Her breath caught as a contraction ripped through her core.

“Prince Tarok,” Syn singsonged, then, “PRINCE TAROK!”

At Syn’s urgency, Tarok stopped his cavorting. “What?”

“I do hope you booked a room in Medbay, Majesty. It appears the baby’s on its way.”

It looked as though their family was about to increase by one more!