CHAPTER 9
Dorian
Iwas going to pull my hair out.
No.
Wait.
Baldr was going to pull my hair out.
And all the other kids, too, if it didn’t fall out first from stress.
‘How much longer?’ I asked again, my voice sounding weak and strained even to my own ears.
Not even my nieces and nephews were this much work.
Okay, that wasn’t exactly fair.
These kids had been put through the ringer and had abilities they didn’t know how to use responsibly because they didn’t even know what the word meant yet. Not to mention how underprepared us babysitters were. I couldn’t count the amount of times disaster had struck these past few days. In fact, I had lost count of how many days it had be, too.
My brain was about to shut down and send me into a coma if this kept up.
No one had the mental or physical capacity to deal with this many children, let alone enhanced ones.
Even Eloria, who was typically put-together and composed in a way on Yu’Roms could achieve, was in a state.
While my hair laid lank and greasy over my forehead and across my neck, hers was falling from its braided restraints in every which way.
Combined with the thick purple half-moons beneath her eyes and the rumpled clothing, she was positively falling to pieces.
Not to mention the body odour.
Even just between the two of us since Julius had left for a well-deserved nap, our stench had permeated every last corner and crevice of the cockpit.
We stank, and I found myself dreaming of a long, hot soak in a bath with the most deliciously scented soap, and abundance of bubbles, and clean skin.
‘Gerinium should be in view within the next few turns,’ she said, the hope in her voice betraying her lack of organisation.
Her brain was just as fried as mine and she was struggling to focus on the information flashing by on the holo-screen.
Baldr wasn’t making things any easier, either.
My head pounded as he banged his fists against the holo-table, the sound echoing harshly throughout the room while his squeals of delight pierced my skull like an arrow to my brain.
I had kept my promise to Artemis and didn’t let the boy out of my sight.
Which meant poor Ellie was on hand as back-up whenever I took a nap. In an upright chair in the cockpit. It had been so long since I’d seen a bed…
He was also one of the only things that was keeping me going.
He was doing well with the separation from Artemis, his trust me in chipping off a piece of my heart that embedded itself in him.
I didn’t want to think about the reasons behind his ability to handle separation so well.
I was in no way strong enough to let those thoughts through when I was already struggling to hold them back. He was such a sweet little kid, so well-behaved, and if it weren’t for the constant noises and the general lack of sleep, we’d all be faring much better.
But, alas, small children were hard work.
And as it turned out, they were even harder when they had the ability to fucking fly.
Thankfully, his feet were firmly planted on the floor and he didn’t seem inclined to take a walk along the ceiling for now.
When my eyes blurred and tried to flutter shut, I jolted so hard that I almost fell from my chair.
‘Sorry, I didn’t catch that.
How long?’
With a long-suffering sigh, she turned back to the holo-screen and scrutinised the data scrolling by.
‘Um, we should be entering the Border System’s territory in two turns.
From there it will take about… uh… Four more turns until we reach Gerinium.’
‘Okay.’ The word used up more energy than it should have, but I forced my eyelids wider anyway.
‘Julius had the right idea.
Why don’t you take a quick nap so you’re more alert for landing?’
‘Is that an order, Captain?’ she half-heartedly teased.
I nodded, but my head was heavier than I had anticipated and my chin bounced off my chest, my teeth clacking from the impact.
I had also somehow bitten both my cheeks and my tongue in the same action.
‘Yeth,’ I slurred, my tongue now too large for my mouth as it swelled.
‘That’th an order, Ellie.
Go thleep.’
‘Okay,’ she agreed, kindly ignoring my sudden lisp as she pressed a few keys on the controls in front of her.
‘Wake me up when the alert goes off if I’m not back by then.’
*
I was jolted awake by a combination of things.
First, there was the tiny fist smacking against my cheek, followed by little fingers prying open my eyelids.
Next came the blare of the alarm that had my jumping to my feet as I scanned the room for any sign of disaster.
I couldn’t believe I had fallen asleep when I was supposed to be watching Baldr.
Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any mess or broken electronics and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Relief that was further perpetuated when I processed how I had caught Baldr when I’d abruptly stood rather than flung him to the other side of the room.
I never would have forgiven myself if I had hurt him in any way.
I cuddled him to me, pressing a kiss to the top of his blonde head.
‘You’re a good boy, Baldr.
Thank you for waking me up.’
‘We’come,’ he said in his sweet little voice, big green eyes staring up at me with an adoration I wasn’t sure I deserved.
Fuck, this kid stole my heart without even trying.
‘Come on, kid.
Let’s go grab Ellie.
We’re almost home.’
I found Eloria exactly where I expected her, just not how I expected her.
Her room was just beneath the cockpit, easily accessible and near the elevator so it wasn’t much of a trek to reach her door.
Unfortunately, where I had been expecting her to be asleep, I approached to the sounds of feminine moans drifting through the closed door.
Immediately, despite knowing that it wouldn’t do anything, my free hand that wasn’t holding Bal clamped over his ear and pressed his other one against my chest.
I didn’t particularly want to disturb her mid fuck, but there wasn’t much of a choice.
We needed her to land the ship, and she couldn’t do that from between some woman’s thighs.
Or perhaps she could, but that wasn’t for me (or Baldr) to know.
With both hands occupied, the only other option was to use my foot.
I moved back a step and then gave the door a firm kick three times in a row to at least emulate a knock.
All sounds stopped from inside, so I chose the reprieve to shout through the walls.
‘Alarm’s going off.
You’re needed in the cockpit, Eloria.’
‘Be there in a tick!’ her muffled voice shouted, and then the sounds of pleasure picked up again, this time louder and more rushed.
I took that as my cue to leave.
If she wanted to quickly finish off her girlfriend then I wouldn’t stop her as long as she was back to flying this hunk of metal soon enough.
I wanted my feet on solid ground, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit I wanted a hug from my mother. I even wanted to see my siblings despite them being a constant pain in my ass. We showed our affection through our longstanding tradition of getting each other in trouble. They had more than likely been plotting something big for when I returned, and I both was and wasn’t looking forward to finding out what.
Just when I got settled back into my seat in the cockpit with Baldr nodding off on my chest, Eloria walked in looking more put-together than I had seen her in days.
Must have been some magical sex.
She didn’t even greet me as she headed straight over to the control panel to shut off the alarm.
‘You could’ve done that yourself, you know,’ she said, still not looking at me as she took her own seat.
I couldn’t stop my smirk, even though she couldn’t see it while pointedly keeping her face turned away from mine.
‘Barely noticed it.’
She finally turned to face me then, a frown pulling her pale eyebrows together.
‘How is that even possible, Dorian? This thing could wake the dead.’
I merely shrugged.
‘Almost slept through it, actually.
If it weren’t for this little guy I never would have woken up.’
‘You fell asleep?’
I shot her a sheepish look and stroked a hand down Baldr’s back, causing him to nuzzle into me and let out a little sigh I felt against my neck.
‘I didn’t mean to.
Baldr was good, though.
Everything’s still intact and nothing was on fire when he woke me up.’
The smile that lit up her face when she looked at him was filled with adoration.
‘He’s a good kid.’
‘Crazy smart, too.’
She gazed at him contemplatively.
‘How much do you think is attributed to him compared to the nanites?’
‘Does it matter?’ I asked honestly.
‘The nanites are a part of him and always have been, but I don’t think we should discredit the biological aspects of him either.
They both contribute to what makes him the awesome little boy we’ve come to know and love.’
My answer seemed to appease some sort of worry that had been plaguing her as her shoulders dropped a fraction, her smile softening.
‘Yeah, you’re right.
It’s just new, you know? Sometimes I don’t know what to make of it all.
I keep waiting for something to happen that will prove this is all going to just blow up in our faces.’
I scoffed.
‘You mean even more than it already has?’
She huffed out a tired laugh, though her exhaustion was more mental than physical at this point.
‘Right.
Anyhow, you should make the announcement that we’re landing soon so everyone can prepare,’ she prompted, turning back to the controls and studying the holo-screen.
‘Thank fuck for that,’ I mumbled under my breath, pressing the intercom button on the holo-table that connected me to the rest of the ship.
‘Attention crew, this is you captain speaking.
We are approaching our destination.
Prepare for landing.
I repeat, we are approaching our destination so prepare for landing.’
It still felt surreal referring to myself as anyone’s captain.
I hadn’t even completed my studies at Nova Academy so this promotion, temporary though it may have been, was more like a fever dream than a reality.
The lack of sleep probably didn’t help with that, either, but I still somehow managed to trudge on and do what needed to be done.
A few clicks later Julius returned, shooting us a bright smile that highlighted how his rest had been well needed rejuvenation.
There were still dark bags beneath his eyes, but their colour was a little lighter, his eyes more alert.
Following him in was Foryk who took a seat opposite mine, his brows furrowed in concentration.
He looked just as exhausted as the rest of us, though there was something was on his mind that seemed to be bothering him.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked him, snapping into soldier mode.
‘I have some concerns,’ he began, but didn’t immediately elaborate.
‘About?’ I prompted.
He sighed.
‘There are two people on this ship that I am uncomfortable with allowing to roam free when we land.’
‘Who?’ I demanded, locking my emotions away as I prepared to take responsibility for what needed to be done, whatever that was.
‘Cameron, for obvious reasons.
I haven’t been able to find any sign that he’s a spy or actively working against us, but he’s shifty.
Paranoid.
He hides it well, but there are subtle signs of his discomfort being here.’
My lips thinned as I thought about the man who was partly responsible for bringing Baldr into this world.
They may have shared DNA but he was no father.
It hadn’t escaped my notice how his eyes would track the little blonde boy whenever they were in the same vicinity, but I couldn’t get a read on his intentions towards him.
I suspected it was merely curiosity, but my decision to keep Baldr as far away from him as possible was further cemented by Foryk’s inability to get a read on him as well as my own.
‘There isn’t much we can do there without blowing our cover.
Keep watching him for now, but until Artemis returns with the others we can only continue following her orders unless something pushes us in a different direction.’
He nodded gravely.
‘Understood.’
‘And the second person?’
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and he didn’t need to say her name out loud for me to put the pieces together.
‘Morgrid’s delusions are… worsening.
She is not dealing with the death of her mate well, and there is potential for her to become a danger to herself or others.’
I sighed, sadness for my friend the prominent emotion.
‘Keep her locked in her room.
Make sure it’s stocked with the necessities, but if she poses a danger to the kids or anyone else, I don’t feel comfortable allowing her free roam of the ship.
Or the planet.’
‘It is the right decision, for her sake as well as everyone else’s,’ he agreed, his tone flat as he locked down any feelings he had about his mother.
I knew that they weren’t on good terms to begin with, but what was happening now would only exacerbate their already complicated relationship.
After Foryk left to go back to his post watching over the children in the transformed cafeteria, the rest of the trip was smooth.
Before I knew it, Eloria had landed us with so much ease that I barely felt a thing.
She had chosen a spot that wasn’t far from where I grew up at my behest, though it was still far enough away that our unexpected arrival would have spooked anyone in the village.
Well, at least not too much.
There was no way they didn’t see us come down, but I didn’t know how much information they had been given access to, nor how much they believed.
The news outlets were still running our faces as wanted criminals, but I doubted my family or the people I had grown up with believed me capable of such crimes as I was being accused of.
Actually, I didn’t think there was even much information on my so-called crimes.
Regardless, we were better safe than sorry.
I fully expected the cavalry to arrive and surround us, weapons raised.
We may have been a small village and mostly disconnected and forgotten by the rest of the Intergalactic Union, but we fought hard for each other.
I made another announcement once we were firmly on the ground.
‘Attention crew.
This is your captain speaking.
We are on Gerinium near my home village.
The people here will not welcome us with open arms until they know for certain that we mean them no harm. We must all remain on the ship until we have made contact. Stand by for further instructions.’
‘What’s your plan, Cap?’ Eloria asked, leaning back casually in her chair now that she had nothing to do.
When I answered I was pleased that my voice didn’t shake despite the trepidation I had never felt before regarding this particular action.
‘I have to call my family.’