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Tyler dozed, leaning on Cruiser's shoulder as they were transported from the Emergent Gateway at B72 to Station Zero. It was to be a long journey. Especially by Unity Center Skiff. Cruiser and he had had a long conversation before they departed. About them. About the baby. About the ramifications of the two of them moving back to Land Earth after all of this was finished.

As Tyler dozed, Cruiser payed specific attention to the human's heartrate and breathing. He was worried. Worried about Tyler. Worried about the baby. Worried about moving to a new place. Worried about essentially being forced into this relationship by Phin law. Granted it was a moot point since both of them wanted the relationship, but Cruiser could tell it rubbed Tyler the wrong way.

Cruiser let Tyler rest, it was probably better for him and the baby to conk out instead of stressing and worrying the way that Cruiser was. He was trying to distract himself by reading the information packet they'd sent to his tablet, but if he was being completely honest, he couldn't focus enough to read the information.

He still had the document open on the tablet, and he was still staring at its screen. But he'd not scrolled up in the last forty-five minutes. Just then the skiff pilot—a human—announced through the overhead, waterproof speaker, “We'll be arriving shortly, gentlemen."

The announcement roused Cruiser's human lover. “Whuh? We're here?" Tyler asked.

“Yes, Tyler." Cruiser said, wrapping his arms around the human and gently squeezing. Hugs were a human thing, to be sure, but one he definitely appreciated learning about. Especially now that he had a human lover. And while he wasn't sure he was ready to be a father; he knew that it didn't matter now. One way or another, he'd be thrust into the role. “How you feeling?"

“Fine I think." Tyler said, his voice somewhat gravelly from sleep. “Just don't give me any food quite yet, k?"

“You need to eat, Tyler. It's not just you anymore. You need to keep your strength up."

“It won't matter, Cruiser. I'll just throw it up anyway."

“Right...morning sickness. I still want you to try to eat something once we get ashore."

Tyler looked out the window of the skiff as it came aside the skiff port's dock. As they came in, he noticed the longshoreman working the docks were an assortment of Phin and human, but the Phins were not of any of the three subspecies with which Tyler was familiar. They were similar in appearance to anthropomorphized beluga whales. “A...are those Tikk?" Tyler asked. He wasn't familiar with the species, but that didn't mean he hadn't heard about the subspecies of Phin who, much like the Muslim nations of the Middle East, took issue with the Unity Programme.

Switching to Phin, Cruiser answered with an affirmative click-whistle “Yes. Those are Tikk, Tyler."

As the disembarking ramp lowered to meet the skiff, Tyler saw two humans and an Album approach the disembarking ramp. The two humans looked to be younger, possibly college aged. The Phin, Tyler wasn't familiar enough with the way they showed age to say. He'd guess middle aged, though. When the Skiff's hatch unsealed itself, the pilots came out to bid them farewell and Tyler and Cruiser responded in kind.

They came off the ramp and were immediately greeted by the group Tyler saw from the window on the skiff. The Album spoke first in Phin, offering greeting, “Hello, Silent Cruiser, Tyler Samson. Welcome to Station Zero. I am Striped Gray Caring Healer. I am the head of the medical facilities onboard this station. This is Charles van der Waald and his sister Emilia van der Waald. They are both my children by way of my husband Christopher van der Waald. I am here to escort you to the facilities you will be staying in while we perform the cetacation procedure on you, Tyler Samson."

Tyler's brain froze. “Your husband?" He shouldn't be surprised, considering his current predicament, yet here were two healthy, college-aged, human-Phin hybrids born from a homosexual paring. Apparently, this procedure he was about to go through had been in use for quite a while on board Station Zero.

“Yes, Tyler," Emilia replied, “My mother is Chris van der Waald. And my father is Striped Gray Caring Healer. Though, we usually just call him dad." she stuck her tongue out at the Phin in a rather childish display.

“Enough of that Emilia van der Waald. Save the intimacy for when we are in our quarters."

Tyler thought that was a strange word to use. Though, he knew the Phin meant its original meaning of familial closeness or familiarity, it was still a weird word to use in conversation with his daughter. “Uhm..."

“Thank you, Striped Grey Caring Healer. You have indicated that you already know our names, so I will save the introductions, and simply ask you to lead the way. I do not understand this procedure fully yet, but I do understand that the mother must not be too far along, or she'll lose the calf."

The doctor looked to both of his children, then to Tyler and Cruiser, “Come, then. It appears our guests are eager to get started."

Tyler leaned over to Cruiser and whispered, “I wouldn't call it eager. I just want to know my child will be safe."

Cruiser nodded. He noticed their welcoming party was already starting toward the doors in the far wall of the skiff port. He grabbed Tyler's hand and strode after them. “Come, Tyler. We fall behind"

***

Once they were in the facility, Tyler felt as though he were in any hospital in any Land Earth western country. He was hooked up to several monitoring machines and had even been given an IV drip of saline. Cruiser was starting to hover, which would have been fine. Endearing even. But every couple of seconds Tyler felt his teeth rattle from the ultrasonic pulses that Cruiser kept sending into him.

“Will you quit it?! I'm fine, Cruiser. The baby's fine. We're going to be fine. Please calm down. You're starting to make me nervous." Tyler snapped.

Cruiser looked a little surprised at the outburst, but acquiesced. “Of Course, Tyler. I am sorry."

Tyler sighed. “I'm worried, too, Cruiser. I'm just hoping this 'Cetacation' thing will let us have the baby." He said, putting up his hands in air quotes when he said, 'Cetacation'.

A new Album entered the room. This one, in a simple lab coat and carrying a tablet. He wore the goggles that Phins wore for improving vision and he had an extreme scar taken out of the side of his beak. “Hello, my name is Grizzled Medic. I'm going to be your Obstetrician for the foreseeable future. Don't mind the scar. We're going to do an initial blood test, a melon-based ultrasound to confirm the presence of the deimifetus, and finally we're going to go over the procedure which you humans refer to as cetacation."

The doctor went to the counter where he pumped some hand sanitizer onto his hands and rubbed it in thoroughly. Then he wentto a drawer and pulled out two vials with covered with labels, and what looked like a short hypodermic syringe without its plunger or a needle and a second syringe this one filled with a clear fluid and a third empty syringe. He also pulled out several alcohol swabs in little metal envelopes.

He took the alcohol swab and swabbed around the end of the second tube for quite a bit of time. Then, unclipping the stop on the tube he inserted the second syringe and he depressed the plunger. Tyler felt a cooling sensation throughout his body and tasted something metallic as he did this. Then he took that syringe away and wiped the end of the tube again for the same time it seemed with another alcohol swab.

Next, the doc attached the second syringe and drew the plunger back, filling the syringe with Tyler's life essence. When the syringe was full, Grizzled medic removed the syringe and placed in an orange waste receptacle labeled with an orange biohazard symbol. Finally the doctor attached the short syringe thing that was missing its plunger to the tube after a third long swabbing with a third alcohol wipe. Then taking the two syringes, he placed them in the syringe thing where the plunger would go and when he fully inserted the first one, it quickly filled with blood. He pulled it out and put in the second one.

After having his two vials of blood, he announced, “I will return shortly."

Tyler felt the telltale sign of a phin sonar pulse go through his body and he looked over at Cruiser and glared. Cruiser quickly defended himself, “That wasn't me, Tyler. That was Grizzled Medic."

Sure enough, Grizzled Medic came in the room nodding his head. “I can confirm the three-week mark, Tyler Samson. I can also tell you, that for now the baby is as healthy as can be expected. Now, I am going to tell you how this will work. As I understand it, there was a motion picture from the mid-nineties on Land Earth which had a similar concept. Have you seen the movie, Junior?"

“No... way before my time. What's it about?"

“Well the important part was that they convince a man to become a mother. And use a method involving pharmacology and hormone manipulation to help him carry his child to term."

“It's been a while since anatomy class, but I remember the basics...so how does that relate to me? Isn't the baby in my prostate at the moment?"

“Yes, that is true. Through a minor surgery, we will remove the demifetus from its location in the prostate and will either insert it into Silent Cruiser's utero-prostate, or we will insert it into the peritoneal cavity in your abdomen, Tyler Samson. If you still wish to be the mother, Tyler you will be given a suite of Phin Estrogen and several pharmaceutical chemicals which will aid the baby or calf's growth. As well as Phin Progesterone. This suite of hormones and drugs will be necessary for you to take for the next ten months."

Tyler nodded his consent to this plan, “I still want to carry the baby. When will we begin the surgery?"

“We have you slated for later tonight. Wil that work?"

“Yes. That sounds like a plan." Cruiser replied, “Doesn't it, Tyler?"

“Yes, Cruiser. I think it's better if we do this quickly." Tyler replied.

Grizzled Medic waggled his beak in an affirmative nod, “I will go confirm the reservation. We will keep you here so we can monitor you and make sure you don't eat anything until after the surgery."

“No problem there, I haven't been able to keep anything down for the last two weeks."

“Is this true, Silent Cruiser?" the Phin doctor asked him.

“It is pretty bad case of morning sickness, Grizzled Medic. That is how he figured it out. He was waking up every morning and just smelling the coffee sent him to the bathroom, vomiting." Cruiser replied, “our mutual supervisor told him what it was and then forwarded the information to the Unity Programme who sent the information to us. And that is when they pulled me from my research site. They wanted to know if I wanted to take responsibility for the child."

“You obviously said yes, or you would not be here." Grizzled Medic said calmly, “If you will come with me, I believe Striped Gray Caring Healer wanted to talk with you."