Morning sickness eased with pills and simply progression of her pregnancy and Ktak was again able to fullfill her duties, but she knew it would be temporary. Her second in command would need to take over most and at some point all of it for a while. This meant she would need to disclose the stituation to him. Gmar, her second in command, had managed to settle his brood affairs during their long Tamare stay and had agreed to stay on for one more Earth trip and return journey to the border station. There he would return to retirement and hopefully a new second in command would be waiting for her from Space Command. He was both efficient and experienced and Ktak had no doubt he could handle the ship during her absensce, but he was also conservative and extremely awkward about her relationship with Ames. She was inventing excuses every day why it can wait to avoid the conversation. But she could not fit in her uniform any more and tomorrows were running out. She invited Gmar to her office for an urgent meeting.

Gmar's awkwardness twoards their relationship did not stem from his rigid world view, like Ktak assumed. Gmar had a human lover in his youth, but Space Command had sniffed them out and made sure they would not meet again. Gmar was mildly resentful at the seeming ease with witch these two had managed to stay together. Gmar had noted Ktak's odd health issues, but the Tamare doctor had seen her and insisted, that she was entierly healthy. Gmar had also noted that Ames's behavior around her had changed. He was not letting her pick him up any more and behaved in general as if The Commander was somehow fragile. Those two were hiding something again. When Ktak finally informed him of the situation, he could not claim to be surprised. He had worked with enough pregnant humans and their partners to note that his prior observations matched the situation perfectly so he had no reason to doubt Ktak. He was however shocked at an idea that a Tamare hybrid could carry a human child. As days passed Gmar realized that even he had some human instincts because he found himself constantly watching that she would not strain herself and treating her in general quite differently than he had before.

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Humans got the news in a different way. Ames was suiting up for his collector cleaning with Tomas's help when the former quite bluntly popped the question.

"Did you knock our Commander up or what?"

Ames stopped dressing but could not find a suitable reply.

"We were wondering you know. Sarah noted that she has been ordering odd things in the mess. Like ham sandwitch with jam, pickles and ice-cream." Tomas continued.

"And she tends to mostly wear those weird Tamare robes instead of her uniform..."

Ames sighed.

"You drew the short straw?" he asked. It was ... how amongst the human crew the one to ask an uncomfortable question would be selected. Pregnancies, hookups, breakups and other sensitive matters were often broached in this way. Ames had been the one to draw the short straw on occasion too. He knew the protocol.

Tomas nodded nervously touching his nose.

"It would be quite pointless to ask you to keep it to yourself then... But could you at least try to keep it amongst humans?" Ames asked.

Tomas nodded and demanded a confirmation "It is true then? I thought it was impossible!"

"Yeah, so did we..." Ames conceeded and continued dressing.