.The Naked And Then What Happened

Tasha sat in her stateroom, staring at the mirror. She'd stripped out of her uniform to stare at her naked belly. She stroked the surface, running her fingers along where the stretch marks would be.

Like most women she knew, she'd imagined having kids. Sticky, snotty, demanding, whiny kids.

"So," she said after a while, "I know what your vote would be."

"Don't be so sure."

She looked around the room, trying to see who spoke to her. "Hello?"

"Howdy."

She stood, adopting a defensive stance. "Who the hell's there?"

"Hey, I know we're normally nine months out from introductions, but I'm really in a bind, here."

"Nine months..." Tasha turned back to the mirror and placed a hand on her belly. "Is that you?"

"No, what you see is you," the voice replied. "But inside of you... Well, that's where I am. I'm Tellicurt."

"Tellicurt," she repeated. "But...how can you be talking to me? How can I hear you? How can you already have a name?" She got more and more agitated as the questions occurred to her. She gripped her belly, squeezing the skin.

"Schweeeeooooooo! Stop it! Stop it!"

"Oh. Sorry."

"S'alright, just let me alone."

"Okay. Sorry, um, Tellicurt."

"It's fine, Lieutenant."

Yar suddenly felt very self conscious, having a conversation while naked. She grabbed her robe and put it on.

"Now does that make ANY sense at all?" Tellicurt asked. "I'm inside your clothes, with your nudity. I don't CARE but I'm in here with it."

"You can see me?" Tasha asked.

"Let's just say I have a platform of sensors much like your Enterprise does. I'm an explorer, like you."

"How much like us?" she asked, imagining a crew of sub-sub-sub Lilliputians on a teensy tiny starship lodged at the top of her no-no place. She moved to a chair and gingerly sat down.

"Well," the voice went on, "I'm part of a group of energy based noncorporeal interdimensional explorers. Our five-cycle mission, to explore strange new energy levels, seek out new photonic philosophies and boldly go where no squidget has gone before."

"Okay," Tasha said after a moment. "But we're corporeal."

"No shit."

"Um..."

"Sorry. I've been getting a little antsy." There was a sound like a cave swallowing a train. "Okay. Our ship entered this dimension. I got sent out in a scout.

"I found this remarkable energy in potential and got closer, trying to understand what it was and why it wasn't moving right. There are expectations for how energy flows, and this wasn't doing it.

"The level was high for unanchored feddlings, but low for an anchor itself. The first three layers are-"

"I don't understand," Yar said.

"Okay, okay. Long story short, I was looking at an egg from your ovary. I followed it into your womb. Then your Mr. Data got you excited, there were some energy level changes, and I got sucked into this thing. It's going crazy, building itself like a tiny replica of you, my scout ship's been broken down for building blocks and blueprints."

"You're trapped inside me?" she asked. "You're trapped by my...baby?"

"Toots," Tellicurt said with weary humor, "I AM your baby."

"I.... Wow," she said quietly. "What, uh. What do you think of 'Wellington' as a name?"