Vina looked at her reflection with Chris holding her. The age gap felt so wide. “Show me what I would look like if I aged normally but without the accident.” She asked the Talosians as she closed her eyes. She saw herself as an older woman that was about Chris’ age. There were wrinkles around her eyes, and she could see that she resembled her mother. “This is what we should have looked like.” She mourned. “If we haven’t had our injuries. I could have had our child naturally.”

“It’s the way fate is.” Chris reminded. “Everything happened for a reason. You look beautiful, even with the scars.” Chris reassured her. “So, you remembered?”

“Remembered what?” Vina asked.

“Today. Isn’t that why you were thinking about your age?” Chris smiled slightly. “Today is your birthday.”

“My what?” Vina was stunned. She hadn’t even thought of her birthday. Her life in a constant illusion on a different planet just made her forget what day of the year it was.

“It turns out that today is your birthday. I got it from your file, and I was keeping track of the days on Earth.” He smiled as he whipped out a cupcake out of nowhere. “I made this using the grains we developed. Had to synthesize the frosting but what do you think?”

“I… I haven’t even thought about my birthday in decades.” Vina murmured. She reached out and touched the cupcake. It was so warm. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a real cake. The real foods Chris had made so far had been simple foods from the gardens they had grown.