Captain Riker sat in his chair on the Titan. Amidst
the beige blandness of his bridge he viewed the most
recent science reports coming in. Normally he reviewed
them in his ready room, but he needed a change of
scenery. From the window in his office all he could
constantly see was the passing school of comets.

Now that he was back on the bridge he could look at
the viewscreen, which displayed… more comets,
magnified times a hundred.

Will sighed and rolled his eyes slightly as he viewed
the same icy surface yet again. It was funny; at one
time this would have been a sight so awe-inspiring he
would have been able to stare for days without getting
tired. Though space travel was much more common for
just about everyone on Earth and its territories, many
still did not get to see something like this on a
day-to-day basis. Unless they were serving on board a
Starfleet ship.

But after 25 years of comets, black holes, red and
white dwarf stars, and even anomalies that not even
the most seasoned starship captain or admiral had ever
been privy to, Will was not easily impressed.

“Ensign Reyt, please, a change of scenery?” he huffed
out, hoping it would help to improve his mood.

“Yes sir,” Reyt answered as he complied with his
captain’s wishes. Will could have sworn the ensign’s
reply had a tint of remorse in it.

He pulled up Reyt’s personnel files and smiled. Reyt
was fresh out of the Academy, the Titan his first
post. He understood Reyt’s reluctance to switch off
the comets. He was still green and this was probably
his first up-close encounter with a sight like this.

Will remembered the first time he ever came into close
contact with residents of the black vacuum. He had
been piloting a shuttle on Saturn… ok well he had
‘borrowed’ said shuttle from Saturn after being forced
into a silly shuttle race with his best friend. He’d
had to get a little ‘friendly’ with an ion storm
around the moon in order to save said friend from
crashing and dying. But after he had his friend safely
aboard and they were getting their asses out of there
and back to base, he’d had time to enjoy the
spectacularness that surrounded him. Of course it was
more like leaving the frying pan for the fire as he
knew the tremendous amount of trouble they were in for
stealing shuttles, losing one of those shuttles, and
almost getting themselves killed. But as they made
their way back he had known, it was worth it. All of
it was worth it, for that one moment of looking into
the icy depths of the unknown.

Where did that sense of awe and wonder go, he asked
himself, that sense of naiveté that set his heart
racing and his eyes wide as his breath left him in
that one pure blissful moment of awe.

Will shook himself from his reverie. That was what
happened when Starfleet was your career, the
extraordinary eventually became… well, ordinary.

He was about to go back to the science reports when he
was interrupted by a call from Sickbay.

“Yes doctor, what can I do for you,” Will said to his
chest.

“Captain, sorry to disturb you but I think you might
like to come down for this.”

Will looked up, puzzled and a little anxious. Deanna
had gone to see the doctor today for her monthly
check-up. He had wanted to accompany her but she
protested, saying that just because he was a captain
and could take special privileges didn’t mean he
should. It was only a check-up for her and the baby,
nothing that he hadn’t already attended several times
before.

“Doctor, is there something wrong? Are Deanna and the
baby all right?”

The doctor took a deep breadth. “Deanna asked me to
request your presence for the duration of her
appointment is all captain.”

Will stood up from the command post. “I’m on my way,”
he stated. He moved towards the turbolift as his
number one took over at the helm. The bridge crew
watched silently, not sure if they should be preparing
for the worst.

In Sickbay…

Will hurried to the section of sickbay for private
examinations. He found the doctor in transit to
Deanna’s room and followed him in. He rushed over to
his wife, worry lines creasing his brow.

“Will” Deanna called to him, holding her hand out. He
grasped it and brought the delicate fingers to his
lips.

“Are you ok?” he asked, his eyes anxiously watching
her for some explanation as to why she had called for
him.

She reached up and cupped his cheek, a smile on her
lips.

“Imzadi, I wanted you to see her,” she whispered
lovingly.

The doctor lightly coughed to get his attention.

“Over here.”

He had pulled a portable screen over to the foot of
the bed. Will watched closely. The picture was blurry.

“It’s… a big red blur,” Will commented.

The doctor snorted. “Well it’s a funny thing, the
human body. It’s made of muscles and tissues and
blood… which is, ironically, red.”

Will smirked. While the Titan’s CMO was not the most
loved on his staff, his bedside manner had made him a
friend of Will's since they met.

“Just be patient Captain, and in just… there,” he said
as he pushed the screen in Will’s direction.

Will was about to make another smart remark when his
eyes went wide. He was stunned into silence and his
heart raced as his mind tried to fathom the most
beautiful sight in front of him.

Before him was an image he had never seen before, and
one he knew he could stare at for years and never be
tired of it. He had seen comets, transported onto
planets from every corner of the alpha quadrant – and
then some – and even stared defiantly in the face of
death multiple times. He had seen sunrises and sunsets
on dozens of alien worlds, countless faces and bodies
of beautiful women who had meant a lot to him, and
stared into the loving depths of his Imzadi’s eyes as
he fell hopelessly in love with her all over again on
their wedding day. But never had William T. Riker seen
anything more wondrous or inspiring as his first
glimpse of his newly conceived daughter.

Will was so immersed in the images of their child –
her tiny hands with little slips for fingers - that he
hadn’t noticed the doctor slip away to leave the new
parents alone as they gazed upon their baby girl for
the first time. She turned slightly and Will could
even see her eyelashes, so perfectly formed already
and so dainty. And there was her stomach. A little
pooch as the rest of her body fought to catch up in
size.

Will looked at Deanna and she smiled as she wiped away
the tear that fell from his eye.

“I love you, Imzadi,” she whispered as he bent over to
nuzzle her neck.

“I love you too,” he whispered back, to his wife and
his new daughter. He took a seat next to the bed and
lay his hand lightly on her stomach as they continued
to watch every movement their new little girl made
inside her mommy.

The End