The Galatonian armada started back home, making warp jumps every twenty-four hours. Even with the warp drives, the trip back was slow. It would take another month for them to arrive. Every day, Cora was growing heavier and heavier with child. She could feel her baby’s advancing maturity with each kick and stretch inside her womb. She couldn’t wait for the day when her baby finally arrived. She’d been waiting so long for this. Not just the months she had spent on board the Morning Glory and the Super Nova, but for her entire life.

Cora hadn’t realized how very much she wanted a baby until she’d been impregnated with Magmus’s seed. She’d spent so many years on Earth growing entire greenhouses full of plants, distracted from the aching need inside her.

Now that she was so many light years away from her own planet, she herself was finally blooming. Cora stood beside the bank of windows looking out onto space as they passed an asteroid belt. She cupped her heavy stomach and sighed.

Magmus walked up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder. They were nearly ready to make another warp jump into the next solar system, taking them one system closer to Galaton.

“You should sit for the jump,” Magmus said.

She turned away from the window and walked with him to the seating area that looked out onto space. They sat together on the couch and held hands as the armada jumped, one ship at a time, into the next solar system.

When the Super Nova finally jumped, Cora gripped Magmus’s hand. The rush of inertia that hit her every time they warp jumped sank into her belly as they jolted into existence at the other end of the jump. She had done it so many times now, it should have been nothing. But no matter how many times she jumped, she could never quite get used to it.

This time was worse than the last. As soon as the mothership settled into the next star system, pain shot through her belly and down her spine. She cried out, and Magmus gripped her hands gently in his, looking at her with concern in his brown eyes.

“Are you all right?”

“I think I’m having contractions,” she said, taking a sharp breath through her teeth.

He swiped his finger over his wrist holocom. “Send the medic to the captain’s chambers immediately.” Magmus turned back to Cora. “Everything is going to be fine.”

She shook her head vigorously and pressed her lips together, letting out a pained moan. She closed her eyes tightly at the shooting pain in her belly.

The medic arrived in the captain’s chambers immediately and swiped his medical wand over her ripe belly. He stood above her in his white coat and examined the results.

A moment later another contraction hit her with full force. She screamed and grabbed her belly as the pain gripped her tightly and wouldn’t let go.

“You are going to deliver,” he said, using his medical wand to shoot medication into Cora’s neck.

She panted heavily, trying to breathe through the pain.

“I’ve given you pain medication,” the medic said.

“Is the baby going to be okay?” Magmus asked, a worried expression on his face.

“The baby’s vitals are fine,” the medic said. “It is time to deliver.”

Magmus used his holocom to call for a medical gurney to take Cora to the medical bay. The gurney arrived and the men helped her climb on the hovering platform. They escorted her through the ship and into the brightly lit medical bay. Magmus and the medic attended to her.

Her baby was a dragonkin and she was a human, but with the help of Magmus’s seed, her body could now naturally give birth to her son. The medic made her as comfortable as possible as the contractions opened her to deliver her baby.

Soon, with the help of medical science, she made one last push to help her child into the world. When Cora held her baby in her arms for the first time, it was like she had just delivered a miracle.

He was a pinkish green, a mixture of her and her husband’s skintones. His eyes were bright brown like his father’s. Cora could see the shape of Magmus’s strong jaw and the shape of her own nose in his face.

“He is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” Magmus said, standing beside her as she held her son.

“We did it, Magmus. After all the separation and war, we brought our child into the world.”

“With your help and bravery, we were able to defeat the Mulgor once and for all. This family is strong. This is a new day for Galaton, and we must all celebrate the arrival of the heir to the Earth Lands.”

“What should we name him?” Cora asked.

“We should name him Brighton, after his mother.”

“Brighton Murcul, heir to the Earth Lands,” Cora said proudly. ”That is a perfect name for our son.”