*******

Captain Lorth Needa stepped warily off the shuttle’s boarding ramp, waving away exhaust steam with one hand and supporting the bag on his shoulder with the other.

Once he was out of the shuttle’s shadow, the bright sunlit hit him and blinded him for a moment. When his eyes focused again, he saw the large crowd of people who had gathered to watch the shuttles land on their planet’s soil. They smiled, and waved, and ran up to greet the Imperials. Needa cringed slightly at their display of gratitude. He appreciated the friendliness of the natives, but at the same time, it made him uncomfortable. It was regrettably irregular that the Imperials were welcomed as heroes, and he hadn’t had the chance to get used to it yet.

Needa climbed up onto the walkway to glance around the docks.

"Lorth!"

He whirled in the direction of the voice, and saw her coming towards him. She wasn’t running, but she strode toward him with a huge grin. He smiled back and dropped his bag to wrap his arms around her, feeling all his tensions melt away. "Hello, Starway."

He brushed back her mop of shiny chestnut hair and kissed her briefly, unwilling to make too much of a spectacle in public no matter how glad he was to see her.

Of course, Starway didn’t care who was watching. "I missed you, baby," she beamed, sliding an arm around him to pinch his butt. She picked up his bag. "How’s work?"

"Exhilerating, as always. How long were you waiting for me?"

"I’ve been on planet about a tenday. The troops you left here are still making arrests everywhere; it’s all over the news. You really cleaned this place up, babe."

He nodded in satisfaction. "Sooner or later the Rebels will realize that there’s nowhere left for them to hide. Now let’s get out of this crowd."

"Come on. We can catch this bus back to my hotel."

The arm around his waist loosened his step. Needa sighed contentedly to himself as they left the docks behind them.

* * *

Starway knew the topic would come up that night.

All day, they had been practically high on each other, chatting about any meaningless thing that entered their heads. But now, with everything dark, and silent except for the rush of traffic outside the hotel window, she felt calm enough to reflect on bigger things. Without now to preoccupy her mind, the whole future thing surfaced again.

They lay side by side in the hotel bed, staring into the blackness where the ceiling was. She turned her head to face him. "Lorth?"

He looked at her. Without his uniform on, and his hair tousled, and the dim light masking his permanent worry line, he looked years younger. "Mmm?"

"Are you happy? With your life, I mean. And where you’re going," she added, before he could give her a stupid answer.

He could hear a bit of discomfort in her voice, from ignoring this subject for too long. He knew where it was going. "You want to have a baby."

Starway’s eyes widened with surprise at him taking the thing head-on. He usually tiptoed around delicate conversations until he could ease himself in. She cleared her throat. "No no. I mean, I don’t want to have a kid. And I don’t not want to either. But it’s not really a question of what we want, is it? It’s a question of what we can pull off."

"All right. Suppose- hypothetically, of course- that we did want to start a family. Fairly soon." He found her hand under the sheets and held it. "We’re in the middle of a war right now, Starway. A war that’s beginning to heat up again."

"...I know."

"And you also know that a Star Destroyer isn’t something the Emperor keeps in the mothballs. Besides routine missions, we are constantly being called upon for defense, attacks, whatever. When I do get a leave, it’s most often nowhere near home, and you are forced to hop on a transport to wherever the Navy decides to set down." His voice softened but he went on. "And in a war, there’s always the threat of- of-"

Starway’s eyes heated up with moisture. "I know," she whispered.

"I’m sorry. It’s bad enough that I do this to my wife, I don’t know if I could subject a child to it, as well."

"You’re right." She sniffled and shut her eyes. Not that her heart was completely shattered; talking about anything serious just made her emotional. In a moment she felt his fingers tighten around her hand. "We can’t. That’s just too bad, but oh well." She opened her eyes to wink at him. "I can steal my brother’s kids from time to time."

Lorth chuckled. "Why, so the monsters can remind you that we made the right choice?"

She elbowed him, suppressing a giggle. "Shut up and go to sleep, Captain."

* * *

Barely a month had passed.

She couldn’t believe it. It hadn’t even been a month since she was last with her husband, just a couple dozen days ago they had been holding hands and bickering and taking walks, everything that happy couples were supposed to be doing...

Starway stared helplessly at the guilty-looking young officer, shocked tears streaming from her eyes.

Her hand placed itself over her belly, swollen ever so slightly.

Well, Lorth....

...You didn’t go out without leaving your mark.