Honestly speaking, Steve really didn't understand why Darryn wanted the twins to hatch among the stars instead of the incubator where their eggs had been kept in the sick bay. They had been safe there, and their parents could go see them at any time. Not that there had been much to see. Sometimes there had been a shadow of movement from the inside, or one of the eggs had rattled a little.

But Commander Hunt must have been paranoid about any possible cultural conflicts, as he had arranged for Darryn to borrow one of the shuttles and even allowed some refurnishing. What was the deal with this tank anyway? There were a lot of bubbles, so the liquid was highly oxygenated, but he still wasn't sure if it was a good idea to put their children into the water as they were now. It reminded him of boiling eggs.

"They will not hatch any faster no matter how much you stare at them," Darryn quipped good-naturedly from where he was lying on the large bed built into the cabin. They were caught in the orbit around the Ishtei home world, so neither of them needed to focus on piloting.

Grumbling, Steve flopped down next to him. "Then when -will- they hatch?"

Darryn picked up his tablet and looked briefly at the screen. "Three hours and twenty minutes. Give or take ten minutes."

"Huh?!" Now he was really confused. "Are you joking?"

"Not at all. That's when the shells have corroded enough to break from the inside." Darryn grabbed Steve's arm as he tried to stand up and go rescue the babies. "I know what I am doing. This is the technology that replaced egg-bearers tending to the eggs for days with their own enzymes before hatching. The shells are too hard to break during the gestation period."

"But..."

"Just calm down and come watch this scenery with me. It may be everyday occurrence to you, but I rarely get to fly freely among the stars or to watch planets from high above." He chuckled as Steve's face still remained stuck in a very worried frown. "I have an alarm set."

How was he supposed not to worry? He had been watching over and talking to the eggs every single day after they had been cut out of Darryn's belly.

Darryn tapped his tablet a few times and the cabin filled with soft music. The lights also dimmed. "Trust me. Aster and Sarion will both be fine. And this is probably the only time we'll have for just the two of us for the next few years."

Steve didn't remember approving of such names. "Hey, what about my name ideas?"

Darryn gave him a grin. "Mother decides. Deal with it." Then he showed on the screen the birth certificates he had filled except for the times of birth. "Second names are yours."

~*~*~

Exactly three hours and fourteen minutes later Darryn removed the eggs, so small and fragile in Steve's eyes, from the tank, dried them and placed them on the bed. Faint fracture lines crisscrossed across the surfaces of the shells.

A minute passed. Then two.

The first egg broke, kicked straight through by a tiny foot. Then a bald little head emerged, huge eyes staring directly at Steve. She – this egg was Aster, Darryn had told him – looked very much like a human. Not that it mattered. Even if she had turned out completely Ishtei, his heart would have still melted at the sight of this little miracle.

Darryn was less awe-struck, or didn't show it, and quickly proceeded to clean the baby and put a diaper on her. It was very warm in the shuttle, so she surely wouldn't need extra clothes. Then he handed her and a milk bottle to Steve before tending to the second egg.

She weighed only around three pounds, barely anything at all, but moved around with confidence, little hands patting at everything she could reach. When Steve guided the bottle to her mouth, she soon started sucking greedily.

He was jolted out of his reverie when Darryn sat down on the bed next to him, with the other baby – Sarion – on his arms and also eating like he'd never seen food before. Well, technically he hadn't.

He slowly kissed his husband's temple. "Thank you. You did great."

Darryn turned his head to give him a long, lingering kiss on the mouth. "I couldn't have done it alone."

Steve moved his other hand to better support his daughter, only to notice that she was gone. Had he dropped her already?!

Darryn chuckled and nodded towards the other side of the bed and the window next to it. "I warned you."

Aster was already crawling on her stomach towards the window, pulling herself forward with her arms.

Steve almost panicked. "No no no, come back!"

Darryn just hummed as Steve caught their very active daughter. "I wanted them to remember the bigger world and the sea of stars as the first thing they saw. Not a little room in the sick bay."

Steve had no choice but to hold Aster up to the window, since any attempts to move her away resulted in violent squirming and very unhappy whining. "You mean they can see already? Babies shouldn't see clearly for like...months?"

Darryn nodded. "Human babies don't. But they got extra time to develop in the eggs. They will be walking in under three months."

That meant they'd be escaping even faster. Good gods...Just what had he signed up for?