November 10, Atlantis
Dear Jane,

It's November. You know what that apparently means for Atlantis? Pap season? You got it in one!! Carson was far too relieved for my liking when he mentioned it. And, of course, there's the fact that he's somehow scheduled himself exclusive, private, research time that just happens to last the entire week of annual paps and pelvic exams. I'm doing the city's entire female population in a week. It's going to be Hellish. Regular incidentals get rotated amongst the others. I feel so terribly loved.

Oh, shit, I need to get a hold of Jason and let him know that I have to push back the trip to the mainland a day. This is going to be a nightmare.
~ Laura

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November 18, Atlantis
Dear Jane,

It's done. Thank whatever deity you ascribe to, it's done. Every woman in the city has had a pelvic and a pap smear. Including yours truly. That's the good news. That, and the fact that Jason took the delay in stride. He's been bringing me lunch since I haven't been able to make it down due to the workload.

The bad news? Is that Elaine Kirnov turned up pregnant. I realized when I was doing her pelvic, and a blood test confirmed it. When I broke the news, she became hysterical. It took me five minutes to get her to calm down enough to talk to me. When she was finally speaking intelligibly again, I almost took a turn at the hysterics. She's a lesbian. Hasn't slept with a man since 1997.

After doing a Beta HCG Quant we confirmed what we already knew had to be true. The pregnancy dates back to that nice green light we encountered at the Ancient outpost. She and Karen, assuming that it wouldn't be an issue, ignored Carson's order about no sex for twenty-four hours after our return. So. Now we have confirmation of her theory.

Great. Wonderful, even. Is it wrong that I've hit the point where, after the initial shock, the first rational thing I think is 'Thank God she's not military'? This is getting to be a bad joke on the cosmic scale.
~ Laura


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November 12, Suburb outside of Calgary, AB
Dear Laura,

I'm so glad things seem to have settled down. You mentioned the city being the best chance for victory, victory against whom? Have you been involved in any battles? I worry for you, though I know there's nothing I can do. I shall take heart in the fact that the city, though it has suffered bombardment, is still standing. Was it the Wraith you wrote of before? You talked about vampires, but I assumed you were joking.

I'm surprised that people would chose to remain in the middle of what is beginning to sound more and more like a serious war zone to have their children. They must have a lot of faith in that city of yours. Even with the strangeness of being a pregnant man, there must be somewhere Dr. Parrish could reside here on Earth that would be safer and still able to treat him. And the young Lieutenant you've mentioned must have maternity rights with regard to gaining an Earth posting (And doesn't that sound strange, discussing obtaining an Earth posting). She must have strong ties to someone there. Who is the father, do you know? You've mentioned her enough that I'm curious. But I can understand that if a precedent of choice of the 'mother' has been set it would be hard to revoke. I see similar things in legal cases all the time. Once something's established as an approved M. O., it's hard to change it. I look forward to hearing more soon.
~ Jane

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November 23, Suburb of Calgary, AB
Dear Laura,

I missed the second letter before! Letters two and three got wedged against the pipe, found them this morning when I was fighting with the cat litter. I think it's possible the jammed cat litter pail is what caused them to get wedged, actually. I'll need to be more careful with that.

So the Ancient Outpost was a bust. That's a shame, it sounded like a good shot at learning what was going on. Doesn't it worry you, getting hit by strange beams of light? Whether they're the same frequency as the earlier exposures or not. I mean who knows what the long term effects of this could be? And why do you refer to the planet by alpha-numerics? Is it a code name of some sort? I'm sorry, I'm full of questions this month. Probably a result of a calm month in the office. One of our major cases just settled, so three months of work went bust and we don't have much on the agenda until the other big case is closer to its court date. It's all run of the mill at the moment. Nothing exciting like your life. Although if exciting means getting hit by strange beams of light? I might pass.
~ Jane


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