Maddy couldn't believe what was happening, but there was no point in denial. Her experience was both very real and in full color for all to see. Her senses were in overload as she experienced a combination of pain, fear, confusion, and embarrassment. While she accepted the first three as rational byproducts of her current predicament, embarrassment was an unfortunate "bonus" emotion brought on by the fact that she barely had any clothes on and was surrounded by at least ten people who alternated between poking, prodding, and examining her in every way (and place) possible. Even more disconcerting was her realization that nearly everyone swarming about had very little in the way of medical expertise to deal with her current "condition". In fact, things were moving so quickly that it was hard for Maddy to keep track of what each individual was doing and/or saying.

Gus was a part of the cloud of Humanity that was buzzing around her. His facial outline faded in and out between the bright flashes and blurred vision Maddy was now experiencing in full force. A clear sensation she did manage to maintain throughout the craziness was the incredible grip of Gus's left hand. The consistency of his touch kept her calm even though somewhere along the line Maddy had lost all feeling up to her right elbow. Given everything else going on, enduring a bit of needle-and-pin pain was pretty low on her current list of concerns. Somehow, despite her semi-conscious state, Maddy could sense that maintaining physical contact was helping Gus, which in turn was helping her.

"Maddy, stay with me, can you hear me?" asked Dr. Rayleigh in an elevated voice.

Maddy tried, in vain, to focus on Dr. Rayleigh's bearded face. As she looked up she also wondered why he was even here given his advanced age and the fact that his medical expertise was linked to the treatment of colon cancer. Perhaps, not the best thing to dwell on, she thought.

"Yes Doctor, thank you," she weakly replied. "I have no issue with my hearing, so there is no need to yell. My vision is another story, however. I'm still experiencing bright flashes, floaters, and a lot of blurriness."

After hearing this, Gus grasped her hand even tighter, as if that would somehow help the situation.

"That's great to hear, Maddy. For the moment, we have stopped most of the vaginal bleeding", he said much too loudly. And just like that, Maddy's feeling of unease jacked up a notch or two.

"TMI", she said in a low voice directed towards Gus.

"What was that dear?" responded the oblivious Dr. Rayleigh.

"Nothing," replied Gus, who did his best to redirect the conversation.

"Has her condition stabilized, are we, is she, are they going to be all right?" he asked nervously.

This was all happening so quickly, she thought. Understandably, she knew Gus was flustered and genuinely worried. Despite all the pain she was experiencing, not to mention all the other insanity whirling around and inside her, Gus's honest display of concern about her well being made Maddy smile. She wasn't sure how or even exactly when it happened but she truly had grown to love him and felt genuine happiness when they were together, even if being together meant whipping around a menacing supermassive black hole at more than half the speed of light.

"Well, as you know I'm no gynecologist," said the elderly oncologist, " but from what I can tell, there is a very real risk of preeclampsia here and we are not equipped to handle something like that. The multiple symptoms, including your very high blood pressure of 150/100 is quite worrisome. If I am right, and the condition goes untreated, the fetus is at serious risk of placenta abruptio, which is a fancy way of saying the fetus could dislodge from your uterine wall. If that happens, you are likely to lose your child. You would probably lose a lot of blood internally as well. We have to get both of you off this ship, now."

"Whoa..." Maddy said, clearly upset.

"Look Doc," Gus interjected before Maddy had a chance to expend any additional energy, "each of us is on this ship for some grand purpose. Your job is to handle medical situations and emergencies like this one. I didn't select you, but I know who did back on Earth and I am sure she had good reasons."

Gus wasn't finished but Dr. Rayleigh jumped in anyway.

"Are you referring to Susan?"

Jesus...did he know her? Gus thought as he squinted at the doctor.

Dr. Rayleigh, seemingly not deterred by Gus' quizzical look, continued.

"She is ...was, my niece. She was set to go to the Arcturus Colony."

Gus shook his head. He didn't have time to be upset with blatant nepotism at the moment. More importantly, he needed this guy to help save the woman he loved and his unborn child. And from the looks of it, it was pretty clear that this guy could not deliver. Literally...

Even so, Gus decided to ask the perfunctory, almost obligatory question anyway.

"Why can't you and your staff perform an early delivery?"

"My 'staff'?" the doctor responded. "I assume you are joking. Have a look around you," he said as he raised both hands in the air and looked to his left, then right. "Most of these folks are PhDs. In fact, besides Dr. Fujita and myself, no one onboard has a medical degree, or anything remotely close to it. Maddy needs an emergency C-section. We would also require blood transfusions. Have a gander about the place, Gus, we are not equipped for any of this. And with my background, I'm certainly not trained for any of this. The agreement was that you all would delay procreation until we got off this high-speed merry go round. With 24 pregnancies currently in play, clearly, you all had other plans! We are extremely lucky that something like this didn't happen earlier."

"Well, I wouldn't call any of this lucky, that's for sure," Gus nervously responded.

Maddy had remained quiet throughout this exchange, and given her physical condition, Gus was more than happy to do all the talking. Well, most of it anyway...

"What about Walford and his wife Miranda?" Maddy asked in a low, weakened voice.

"What about them?" asked Dr. Rayleigh.

"Did they even make it?" she added. "We sent them through and hoped they made it out ok. That's not much of a plan."

After seeing his abrupt change in body language, Gus knew that Maddy's comments had rubbed the good doctor the wrong way.

"Clyve Walford had a massive heart attack and we had to act very quickly to save him," Rayleigh bluntly replied. "If we didn't send him back when we did, he would have died circling this abysmal atrocity. And no, you are correct, we do not know if he made it. But a chance of survival beats certain death every time. Sending his wife right behind him was the Humane thing to do as well. Otherwise, she might have never seen him again, even if he had made it through and survived the cardiac event. We did what we did and I stand by our actions.

"If you are worried about care on the other side, I would put that concern to rest. As you know, we asked our host ETs to make sure they were 'medically ready' should something like this happen again. That clear message was sent with Miranda when she went through. Your situation is equally serious and we have very little time to waste going back and forth on comments about past events. The machine needs to be prepped and you need to get to a real medical facility on Arcturus immediately. " Dr. Rayleigh briefly paused before continuing.

"You must remember that for all of us, that event took place a mere five months ago," he said with a demeanor that returned to his earlier, gentler bedside manner. "However, our friends on Arcturus have had over 22 years to prepare for the 'next time', which in this case is right now. Have no fear my dear. They will be ready and waiting for you and your baby when you both arrive," he said with a warm smile.

"So, Madam Chancellor, do we have your permission to proceed?"

By now, word of Maddy's emergency condition had spread across the entire ship. As a result, the makeshift medical ER was nearly filled to capacity. As everyone awaited her response, the room went still.

Maddy's reply however was not audible. Instead, she simply closed her eyes and shook her head in the affirmative.

Almost instantly, a seemingly choreographed collective exhale could be heard. No one in the room was more relieved than Gus. He wasn't overly excited about Maddy leaving him but the alternative of attempting a crapshoot, makeshift surgery by an ill-equipped doctor in an ill-equipped facility was simply unthinkable.

Gus wasted no time. He quickly made his way through the crowded room to the ship's communicator station.

"Engineering..." Gus said in a louder than normal voice to ensure that he was heard above the many voices still ringing out in the makeshift ER. "Immediately prepare the Chair and establish the precursor link to the receptacle device on Arcturus just as we did with Walford five months ago. We have no time to spare."