I found the kid hiding in Engineering. She swore up and down that she wasn’t here to sabotage anything, but what the hell else would she be doing down there? Unfortunately there’s no brig on this thing, so I locked her in one of the pods with the rest of them. Hopefully when she wakes up she’ll have a better story for whoever winds up in charge.

-Log Fragment 98 - Te’chik.

-------------------------------------

This time when Maggie slept, she was alone. No Te’chik, and no strange little girl, just the great big crystal ship with its thousands of pods. Each one held a single person, seemingly asleep. And they weren’t all humans either! They ranged in size, shape and color from what she swore were fairies to towering giants. But there were no Silvarians. Somehow the lack struck her as odd, they seemed to be the most common species in the universe.

At least if the population of Galaux Station was any indication.

Maggie paused to look at her reflection in one of the pods, her hair considerably shorter, her torso bandaged like it was in the real world. She self-consciously tried to smooth out her hair, wishing she had her headband. There was a reason she didn’t cut it short: she didn’t want to rock the Bob Ross look.

As if in response to her thoughts, a headband shimmered into view around her hair, holding some of the frizzy curls back away from her face. “Dream logic, gotta love it.”

Unfortunately when she woke the headband was gone, and she was still laying in that same room. The lights had been dimmed, and an older man sat in a chair next to her, a human with greying brown hair. He seemed to be asleep, laying back in the chair with his mouth slightly open. Was he a guard? If so he was a real crummy one, sleeping on the job. But she supposed she wasn’t going anywhere anyways.

Bracing herself for pain, Maggie pushed herself up. It was agonizingly slow work, and she had to bite her lower lip to keep from crying out. The movement hurt even more than it had before, and her muscles shook with the effort. By the time she was half sitting up, the man had woken up.

“You shouldn’t be moving in your condition.” He said.

“So I’ve been told. I think.” Not that that stopped her from trying.

The man frowned, the lines on his face dark in the dim light. He reached over, gently putting one arm behind her to help her sit up. “You sustained a very serious injury, you need to be resting.”

“I need my tablet.” Maggie put a hand on her stomach and closed her eyes against the dizziness the movement had brought on.

“Tech Ger’al has your tablet, I’ll bring you a new one in the morning. Don’t worry, it will have your... your friend on it. Just like the old one.”

“You know about that?” Maggie regretted saying that as soon as the words were out of her mouth. It was like when her mother mentioned something bad she had done at school and she just confirmed it. She had gotten the impression that Robin was very much out of the normal, even out here.

“Yes, we know about that. He was very insistent that we help you.” The mans lips quirked up in a smile. “He also called you Maggie, do you prefer that to Magdelina?”

“Magdelina sounds like an old lady name.” But how did they know about that? It wasn’t like she was carrying her school ID around! And the ID card for Galaux Station had Maggie on it.

She could feel the laughter reverberate through the mans arm. “That’s because you’re named after an old lady. Please lay back down, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Maggie slumped back into the bed with the help of the stranger. Why did she feel like she had just run a mile? She had barely sat up! But she was drenched with sweat and her stomach felt like it was on fire. “How do you know?” She managed to get out.

“Because you were named after my grandmother. I’m- I’m your Father.” The man tried a smile, but it looked horribly awkward in the dim light of the room.

Maggie stared at him, biting back her first response which would have just been a solid ‘nope’. Instead she took a steadying breath, letting it out slowly as she phrased her response in her head before saying anything. Think before you speak and all that. “That’s not possible. My Dad was in the air force, he disappeared overseas. Unless- wait, were you abducted too? No, that would be a crazy coincidence.”

“Life is full of crazy coincidences. No, I wasn’t abducted. I grew up in the care of Ambassador Ux’thu, a Silvarian. So did your Mother for that matter. We- when she got pregnant she ran away.” He was silent for a long moment, staring off into the distant past. “She didn’t want our child raised by Silvarians, and I didn’t want them to implant you with one of the Keys.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I think you’re mistaking me for someone else. There’s no way Mom grew up in space. She’s got a birth certificate and everything! If she was raised in space she wouldn’t have that, right?” There was no proof this man was her father. She didn’t even have a picture of him though to prove it.

“We’re not. The genetics test was a positive match to both me, and your Mother. If you don’t trust me, do you at least trust Si’l Vala Tomas Rodriguez? He confirmed it too.”

“I- he did?” She trusted Doctor Tomas, as much as she trusted anyone out here she supposed. He had helped her escape, helped her get away from that lunatic Flame.

“He did.” The man, her father, nodded. “You know, I didn’t expect you to run into my arms or anything like that, but this is not how I pictured meeting you going. I expected at least a little bit of happiness.”

“I- it’s not like that! I just have a real hard time believing you. My Mom is from Earth, she said she met my Dad overseas while he was in the Air Force, and moved to the USA.”

“The Air Force... I like that. My Grandfather was in the Air Force before he was abducted. I can show you the genetic markers, but I doubt that would convince you, if you even understood them. How about a test then? I’ll answer some questions you think only your Mother would know. Is that acceptable?” He leaned back, folding his hands on his stomach.

“Alright, I guess that could work.” She just had to think of things that he’d at least have a chance of knowing. It couldn’t be about things that had happened during her lifetime, what did she know about her Mom from before she was born? She had never really talked much about her past. “I don’t suppose you have a picture of you two together? But wait, that could be Photoshopped.”

The man let out a soft laugh. “She raised you suspicious. I have better than that though.”

He fished in the pocket of his top, pulling out what looked like an old fashioned pocket watch. “We went to something like a carnival once, and we got this.” He flipped the watch open, and a holographic picture flickered into view. It was fully 3D and about the size of a fashion doll, turning slowly in its base. It showed two people, one was obviously a younger version of the man claiming to be her father. The other was her Mother, laughing and trying to put a ridiculous hat on his head. “I don’t know how to prove all this to you, I don’t know what she’s told you about me, about us. But you are my daughter. If you don’t feel comfortable calling me Dad, you can call me Theo, or Theodrakis.”

Maggie stared at the hologram. Her mother looked so young and healthy in it, so happy! She looked up at Theodrakis, who was watching the hologram with a sad smile. “My Mom really was from outer space?”

“Afraid so.” Theodrakis raised his eyes, meeting her gaze full on. “I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I’m sorry that you wound up with a Key, no matter how we tried to protect you from that fate.”

“It’s not your fault.” She said weakly. What else could she say? She had so many questions but her mind didn’t want to work right. He Mom was from space! Was Aunt Electra from space as well? How had they wound up on Earth? Did they have a spaceship of their own?

“No, but I’m still sorry.” He sat silently for a moment, staring down at the hologram. “The person who shot you we believe was a member of the Freedom Coalition, did they implant you with the Key?”

“No, actually they really didn’t want me to have it. I found it. It was an accident, Theseus didn’t know I would find it, and by the time we got to Galaux Station, Doc Tomas couldn’t get it out. She raised her hand to look at the spiral galaxy embedded there, the crystal catching the faint light of the room and reflecting it.

“Theseus, is he part of the Freedom Coalition too?” Theodrakis set the hologram on a table next to her bed, and leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees.

“I don’t think so. I think he’s independent. Why does it matter?” Maggie shifted a little so she could still look at the hologram, lowering her arm in relief. It was too much work to keep it raised.

“The Freedom Coalition is a terrorist organization. Or at least an extremist one. What they claim to want is equality for humans, but they go about it exactly the wrong way.” Theodrakis stood up, starting to pace across the room. He folded his hands behind his back, head bowed. “But I didn’t think they would take to kidnapping or implanting people with Keys!”

“If it makes you feel better I really don’t think they wanted me to have a Key. For that matter I really don’t want it either, but apparently I’m stuck with it.” That fact didn’t bring up as much fear as it had before. Was she getting used to it? It didn’t seem to be hurting her. Although she suspected it didn’t help her minor heart attack or whatever it was.

“I don’t want you to have it either, but you’re right. Now that you have it, there’s no getting rid of it. We’ll at least do our best to make you comfortable though. Perhaps we’ll get lucky and you will be one of the few it accepts. Your Mothers Key had accepted her. I don’t think she suffered any ill effects from it. Unless something happened after she went to Earth?” There was a tension in his voice, and he paused in his pacing, pinning her with an intense gaze. “Maggie, how is Nora? Is she alright?”

It was weird to hear her Mom referred to as Nora. Not that Aunt Electra hadn’t done it plenty, it just felt weird in this instance. This guy, this Theodrakis who was apparently her father, said it differently than Aunt Electra did. She just couldn’t quite pinpoint how it was different. “When I was- when I left, she was at a rehab center, they were trying to help her be able to use her legs again.”

“I see.” He bowed his head and closed his eyes for a moment. “I’m sorry to hear that. Perhaps if she was out here it would be different, perhaps- perhaps now she would be willing to be out here again. Now that she doesn’t have to worry about you getting implanted with a Key, or being raised by Silvarians.”

“I don’t know, she seems pretty happy on Earth.” Maggie said cautiously. She didn’t want to dash the guys hopes, it wasn’t like her Mom had ever really dated. But they had a life on Earth, a business to run. And Maggie still wanted to go back there herself. But it felt like there was something else she needed to do first. Something to do with the Key.

“I’m- I’m happy to hear that. I’m glad she was able to find happiness. Even if it wasn’t with me.” His shoulders slumped, and he looked at Maggie with a sad smile. “You should get some more rest. I’ve tired you out.”

“I’m not all that tired. And I have more questions.”

Theodrakis reached over, gently brushing a curly lock of hair out of Maggie’s face. “You lie about as well as your Mother. Get some rest, you can ask me your questions in the morning.”