Causality

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

07/12/98:

Naomi had finally stopped getting older, at least as such an
extreme rate. She now looked to be twenty-four years old, a
young lady instead of my daughter.

She had only woke up a few times during the last week. We
didn't explain to her what had happened, or tried to at
least. I think she does understand that she is older now, I
just don't know if she is aware of how much older that is.

This was apparently an accident, at least according to Ken.
She was ment to have been aging fast, but only two years for
every one. Not like this, this was the effect of the
different spells that were put on her mingeling.

There was another side effect as well, she's at the right
age now for one of the other spells to kick on. It's kind of
complicated, and involved some kind of implant to work, but
it did.

She was pregnant.

It wasn't an accident, all the spells on her, from the basic
stasis spell that had protected her from the plague, to this
last ones had been created for this final goal in mind. This
is exactly what was suppose to have happened, but sooner
then expected.

I think she was meant to be the last hope for her world.
When the Plague had come to it, her people had done the best
they could. The crashed a seed-ship they had in orbit,
planing, I assumed, to use it's systems to preserve there
species.

One of there last acts was to send a distress call to the
Council. I was part of the small group who replied to it. We
were suppose to pick up something that had been left for us.
That something was Naomi, lock in a magic stasis, with a
compulsion spell on her so who ever she saw first would take
care of her.

Obviously that was me.

I would never have taken the job expect that it gave me
something very special. Sleep, up until then, for about a
year actually, I never really sleepped. Maybe fifteen
minutes every day, just enough to clean my system. It
started after I lost Earth, forbidden to return home by
politics for any length of time.

The most I could do was a week or so maybe twice a year,
depending on how stable the fold was at the time. A little
to much use and it would overload, and most of the inner
solar-system would be quarks and a few atoms. When I adopted
Naomi I stopped worrying, I now had a real reason to stay on
Prid, I guess it was enough.

That aside though, I was more concerned about my daughter (I
can't call her Newt anymore, she's doesn't fit it). If she
was supposes to get pregnant I suspected that some people
knew about it ahead of time. Her world called the Council
because they wanted are help to fix this, there had to have
been some information about Naomi.

There was only one person I could ask, Dwight, the new
Council Head. I haven't heard much from him in a couple
months, not sense the Mouse finally started to talk.

Still though, he had an interest in the Plague in general.
Some of his recent public address have focused on it, he
seems to be driven by it. If anyone would have some
knowledge about what had happened it would be him.

As I slipped into his outer office his secretary looked up
at me. She frowned softly and punched a button on the
intercom, informing Dwight that I was there.

I was quickly waved in by her and I entered his office.
Dwight was sitting behind his deck, a dozen stacks of files
and papers all over the room, mostly in unordered piles. He
smiled as I closed the door, shifting some of the files
around so he could see over the desk. "Hello Fox, this is a
surprise."

I smiled, stopping a few feet in front of him. "I know, but
I couldn't think of anyone else who I could talk to. I need
some information."

He nodded his large head, Dwight was an albino bear, about
seven feet tall when standing and quite large. He replaced
Rachel as the Council Head at the end of March, and still
was settling into the job. "What do you need?"

"I need what ever information you have about my daughter."

He raised an eyebrow. "Your daughter... you mean you didn't
know?"

I slowly nodded.

Turning around he dug through a stack of files that was
about three feet tall. After a few seconds he pulled one out
from the center and turned back around. He offered it to me
over the desk.

I took it from him and opened the file. There was about
twenty pages of small print inside. "Do you know the general
summery of this?" I asked.

"Yes, what it amounts to is that your daughter is the child
of the Prime Mister of the largest country on her world. She
was only a year old at the time and was put under a dozen
spells, one of which was to age her a few years and then age
her faster the normal from then on."

I frowned. "All right, why the aging though?"

He sat back in his chair. "When she reaches twenty years old
she is suppose to have a child. A virgin birth, but not with
her pure genetic code. This child will be the one to go back
to her world and help rebuild it once the seed-ship is
ready. The Council also has it's share of work, cleaning up
as much as we can and make sure the Plague is gone."

I sighed, closing the folder. "The spells screwed up, she's
a little older then twenty-four now, and pregnant."

He swore to himself. "I'll pass that on, this will push up
the time table for everything at least five years."

I nodded, "Thank you, this is enough for now... I'm going to
go back to her now, tell her about this if she's awake yet."

"Go then Fox," he said, waving a paw at me. "But I'll need
you soon though, maybe next month."

"Why?" I asked.

He smiled, just slightly though, it was only just the
smallest upturn of his lips. "You'll find out when you need
to."

I shook my head, I wasn't going to be getting much more out
of him then that. Turning around I left his office, file in
hand, heading back to the Hospital. Sometimes that man gave
me the creeps, he felt dangerous, like there was something
more he was after.

Rachel and I both felt it, though no one else seems to have
noticed. Maybe we were both paranoid about this type of
thing, it wouldn't be the first time it had happened. Still
though, at times...

I shook it off, I had more pressing things to worry about
then Dwight. I hurried through he halls to the Hospital,
taking a shortcut through another fold. As I neared Naomi's
room I slowed down a bit, not sure about going there. I
didn't like seeing her laid out on the bed, sedated.

Taking a short breath as I stood before the door I pressed
down on the handle and stepped side. Naomi was in the bed
still, curled up on her side and sleeping a normal sleep. On
the bed stand was her sketch book, opened to a half finished
picture.

"She was awake for only ten minutes," Jadith said from
behind me. I turned around to find her sitting out of view
from the door, trying hard not to look at me. Next to her
sat a male human, looking a bit shy.

"How did she take it?" I asked, sitting in one of the other
chairs in the room, a few feet away.

"Well," She answered, "I couldn't give her any answerers but
she didn't panic. She did take a quick look over herself in
the bathroom though, but I think it's understandable."

I nodded, I had done the same quick look myself when I had
first been switched with Oria.

She shook her head. "Page told me what happened and I came
to see if there was anything I could do to help." Jadith had
moved in with Page after she tried to fix my mind when I was
cursed. She had the bad luck to have Rhea win under her
fingers, she still blames herself.

"I'm glade you came. Even if it's a bit late to help her I'm
still glade you came."

She nodded. "I would have come sooner but Ren and I where on
a training mission." She nodded to the human. "I came here
right after and he wanted to tag along."

Ren nodded, blushing softly.

I smiled, offering a hand to Ren. "Hello then, I'm Fox."

He took my hand in his, shaking it firmly. "I know... Jadith
has told me so much about you."

I looked at the elf out of the corner of my eye. "Oh really?
What did she say?"

She blushed even deeper then he had. "Mostly what you've
told me, as well the few adventures I've come along with."

Ren nodded. "You've actually came face to face with a Wyrm!"
He seemed excited about the fact, "I didn't think that was
possible."

I chuckled, patting him on his shoulder. "It's not, most of
the time. I wouldn't advise it to anyone who's not totally
insane at the time."

Jadith rolled her eyes as Ren blushed again.

"Dad?" A new voice asked, higher then I remembered and
softer as well. I twisting around in my chair, looking at
the bed. Naomi was sitting up, the bed sheet tucked up under
her arms, hiding her now well developed bust.

I smiled, standing up and walking over to her. "Good
morning."

She yawned softly. "Jadith couldn't tell me why I'm an
adult. What happened, was it some kind of an attack or
something of the like?"

I took one of her paws and started to explain what had
happened to her. Not all of it, just what I knew up till
yesterday. She took most of it well, the aging and all of
that, but that she was pregnant threw her for a loop.

She wanted to go home, and I could understand why, but the
doctors had other plans. That wanted to look her over to
make sure there wasn't any other problems or side effects
from this change.

Eventually she drifted back to sleep, but not before
finishing her picture of Jadith and Ren. The aging seemed to
have helped her there, her pictures were leaps and bounds
better then what she was doing just days before.

Once she was back asleep the rest of us parted way. Jadith
wanted to go home to get cleaned up and Ren had his own life
to deal with. Frankly I think he is attracted to her, I
wonder if she's told him that's she a widow.

Myself, I went back home, where I was meet at the door by
Oriana. We kissed for maybe a minute before she sat us both
down on the couch and she started to rub my back, wanting to
know what I had found out from Dwight.

As I explained she worked my shoulders harder, releasing
tension that I didn't know had built up. After I finished
what she wanted to know I told her about my conversation
with Naomi. Finally we just lapsed into silence.

"What do you do now Fox?" Oria asked after a minute.

I shook my head. "About which problem?"

She sighed, stopping her work on my shoulders and turing me
around. "About us, we're together, but not really. It all
just seems so awkward to go from friends to lovers."

I nodded. "I feel the same way. Normal there is a courtship
about these things, an order that starts with dating. We've
totally skipped over that part, including falling in love.
All of it just sort of happened."

She laughed. "It happened for you maybe, I knew exactly when
I fell in love with you. It was the sex that was the
problem."

I kissed her nose. "Glad we got over that one myself."

She laughed and swatted at me gently. "Same here, but that's
not the subject. What are we suppose to do now? Are we going
to stay as occasional lovers, who happened to be in love, or
is there something else we need to do."

I shook my head. "I don't know, I've never been involved in
this before. What normally comes after all of this?"

She smiled. "Living together."

I thought that over for a few seconds. "You mean instead of
different rooms you and I share the master bedroom?" It was
still empty, no one had ever felt the need to use it.

She nodded. "Exactly, we should share a bed for more then
just sex."

I chuckled. "I think that would be a great idea."

She hugged me, "I'll see if I can bring over a bed from my
world, if not I'll order one."

I nodded. "Not so fast, there's something else that needs to
be done first."

She paused, for a second it almost seemed like she was
pouting. "What?"

"How would you like to go camping for a few days?" I asked.
"Leaving in three days. Naomi should be out of the Hospital
by then, so she can come along to learn her new body."

She seemed to think about it a bit. "In four days your
suppose to be Rhea again though."

I nodded. "My point. The world I'm planing to go to is large
enough that I can get out and stretch a bit. Maybe finally
deal with Rhea. I'll get a tracer injected before we go so
you can find me if I'm away to long."

She nodded slowly. "So it will just be you, me, Naomi and
Rhea?"

I shook my head. "Sora as well."

She frowned. "Why will she be along?"

I sighed. "Because I've been procrastinating about her for
far to long. It's about time I start doing what I promised
her I would do."

Oria took in a slow breath then hugged me tight. "Deal, the
new room can wait till we get back. Though I'll still set my
sister looking for a bed before we go."

"You do that," I said right before I kissed her.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.