---Motherhood---

---Victor’s Perspective---

I’m sitting in the chair I brought into Cap and Qorrie’s place to spend time with Tcakie.

I was playing with her earlier but… she tuckered herself out after a bit. She’s lying on my palm, utterly zonked, right now… it must be hard to keep your energy up when you’re so little!

Fuck, she’s adorable!

I’m stroking a single limp finger, from her head, down the soft fuzz of her back. If I applied any pressure, at all, she’d break.

My holopad sounds a single *ping*, which seems like a gong being struck, in the silence of this room, despite the fact that I have it set relatively quiet. I take a sharp inhale through my teeth as she stirs… and settles. *Phew*! I don’t want to have to leave immediately after waking her up(!)

Standing carefully, I make my way to her incubator and gently place her against her plushie. She nestles contentedly into it.

My heart!…

I turn to her parents on their perch and whisper “Sorry, gotta go…”

Cap smiles and nods a dismissal at me, over Qorrie’s sleeping head, and I slink out.

Once the door closes, I check the time… I think I have time to go by Hydroponics… It’ll be good to get a nice lungfull of high oxygen air before what’s coming…

I feel that gnawing pit of fear in my gut… the one that recently made its rude reentry into my life…

Victor Taylor! You’ve fought pirates! You’ve been dismembered! You’ve guarded expeditions to, more than a hundred, wild deathworlds! You have a motherfucking mirkbeast as a pet! What’s coming is nothing to be scared of!… Hmm… that gnawing doesn’t seem to be convinced…

I miss Fluffy!

I’ve got Sam to scritch… and my plushie… I’ve got the Cuddle Puddle… I’ve got Tuun… but I still miss Fluffy! Even if I know she’s where she needs to be, right now… with her kids… helping to find loving homes for them…

I pass through the gorgeous room, with its bright light, glistening water and fresh air, and breathe deeply.

Even if I have time, I can’t dawdle, I’d make a terrible impression if I showed up late!

I’ve also got a tonne of stairs to go down!

I leave the lovely, rich air of the tranquil room behind me and make my way across the bridge to Deck 17’s balcony, turning left to come to the top of the, ridiculously shallow, access stairway. I begin walking down.

As I complete the third downward flight, I recall breaking my arm, falling down stairway 5, blind drunk.

It’s really embarrassing that, even that sloshed, I was able to hurt myself so badly on such a shallow angle! It’s… good that I’ve not been that drunk since that night…

Eventually, I reach Triple M’s balcony and walk inside.

I draw up to Tuun’s door… no… our door… my room has effectively become the Cuddle Puddle room and gun locker.

The others have free access to the room… but my guns are only accessible with the analogue keys I keep on a chain around my neck.

I wave the door open and walk through.

“Hey baby, are you ready?” smiles Tuun, standing up.

“As I’ll ever be(!)” I grimace.

She bends to kiss me and my nose is hit by that cinnamon-blueberry-vanilla scent medley of hers… I may hold her a little tighter than I usually do…

She takes my hands and leads me to the desk where she’s set up two chairs.

I take the seat next to hers and she flicks her holodisplay to the wall in front of us.

It’s always a little surreal, seeing her monochromatic holo, but I suppose it makes sense, if you have no colour vision.

She opens her contacts and selects one to call.

My heart is in my throat as we wait for them to pick up… I try to swallow it back down, futilely.

The call is answered, revealing what is either a quite small woman, nestled into a very large woman, or a very small woman nestled into a quite large woman… I can’t tell as there’s nothing in the frame that’s a standard size, to give me perspective.

In black and white, it’s also difficult to identify what colour exactly their hair, skin and eyes are more accurately than: the larger one has lightish hair and the smaller one dark, they both have palish eyes and palish skin.

The smaller one has a crucifix at her neck and the larger one the same Mjölnir pendant that Tuun has.

The smaller one strikes the image of Snow White, the larger one gives off more of a fantasy warrior woman vibe… it always did seem a bit weird when Tuun said I was her ‘Prince Charming’… now, I think I understand… she meant less in the sense of ‘Rupert Everett’ and more in the sense of ‘Beowulf’(!)

Tuun raises her upper left hand and says “Hi Mums! It’s lovely to see you!”

The two women don’t answer, instead they squint out of the screen… at me…

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“Ha!” booms the larger one “He’s Human! Pay up!”

The smaller one smirks over her shoulder “I think you’ll find… sweetie… that he’s also a ‘he’… that makes us even… You are a ‘he’, aren’t you?” that latter directed at me.

“Err…” I respond, stupidly.

“Mums!?” squeals Tuun, her cheeks flushed purple.

“I go by ‘he’, yes…” I answer, uncertainly.

Smirking over her shoulder again, the smaller one says “Even…”

The larger one grumbles but doesn’t object.

The smaller one turns her attention back to me “So… do you have a name… other than ‘he’?”

I’m so wrongfooted from the unexpected direction this call has taken that it literally takes me a moment to remember my name!

“Victor… Ma’am… Victor Taylor…” I manage, eventually.

She laughs and says “…While I may be old enough to be your great-great-great-grandmother… I’d appreciate less of the ‘Ma’am’… you can call me ‘Heidi’, son… or ‘Mrs. Árnadóttir’… if you don’t want us to be friends…”

“Thank you M…” I say, causing her to cock an eyebrow “…Heidi…”

“Gyðja Katrín Þorradóttir…” beams the larger one “… Katrín… to you! It’s a pleasure to see the man who thinks he’s worthy of my Tunie(!)… I don’t suppose you keep to Forn Siðr, do you?”

I have to think for a moment… they’re speaking English… but she’s just used several New Norse terms without having a translator equipped… ‘Gyðja’… is ‘priestess’… ‘Forn Siðr’…?

“Are you asking if I’m a Norse Pantheonist? I’m afraid I ai… I’m not… I’m not an anything…”

“Ha… pay up!” chimes Heidi.

“Wait! Hang on!” objects Katrín “He’s not a Christ worshipper either!”

“I believe, darling, that, if you check the ledger, you’ll find that you wagered her partner would be a Pagan… I wagered he would not be… I didn’t wager he’d be Lutheran…”

Grumbling, Katrín fumbles and Heidi raises her holopad, expectantly, over her shoulder. Katrín taps her own against it, paying whatever they wagered on that.

Knowing the scale of that model allows me to roughly work out the scale of the two women… I was wrong about the two possibilities… in actual fact… Heidi is roughly average sized… Katrín is enormous… could she be taller than me?…

“Mums, you’re really embarrassing me…” says Tuun, her voice muffled from her face being buried in her hands.

“Sorry, Tunie. We’re old women… and your mothers… it’s difficult not to speculate…” smiles Heidi, mischievously, before turning her attention back to me “So, where are you from, Victor?”

“Earth, M… Heidi… South London…”

Excitedly Katrín asks “A Saxon?!”

I hesitate “Erm… I don’t know if I’d call myself a ‘Saxon’… I might’ve been born and raised there but my mum was from Stranraer and my dad was from Dogger Island… AngloNorman surname but… Dogger Island was several metres underwater from about six thousand years ago, all throughout the AngloSaxon age… It wasn’t habitable again until 2240, at which point it was settled by people from all over North Europe and beyond… I’m sure you know.”

Katrín looks slightly disappointed and says “Ah…! Shame…! We’ll be reenacting the Battle of Reading while you’re visiting! I’d have loved to have a real Saxon playing Æthelred!”

I smile “So… it’d be my job to lose?”

She smiles back “Ha! The boy knows his history! Have you ever done reenacting before?”

I shake my head “Can’t say I have… I was a bit… busy at uni and… well… gardenworlders ai… aren’t known for their proclivity to reenact Terran history.”

“You can say ‘ain’t’, lad! We’re not snobs!” booms Katrín, mirthfully, before adding “…well I’m not at least(!)” causing a playful slap to the shoulder, from Heidi.

Fuck! I was register shifting!!! How long has it been since I’ve been around anyone who knew and cared that my accent was a bit rough!?… The Triple Ms don’t care and, even if they did, there’d be no point trying to hide it from them indefinitely!… I wanted to make a good impression, so I poshed myself up a bit, without thinking, and she called me out on it!

I cover up my embarrassment and nod an assent… I wonder if their picture is in colour… I’d hate to think they could see the flush in my face!

Heidi leans forward, her face concerned “I take it, from your use of the past tense, that we won’t get the opportunity to meet your parents, Victor?”

I feel my face involuntarily darken as I answer “I’m afraid not… Heidi… They were called up to serve… they both died during the Battle of New Australia… I never met either of them… that I can remember.”

She nods sympathetically and says “I’m sorry to hear that, Victor… You seem like a fine young man and I’m certain they’d be proud of you…”

“Thank you… Heidi…” I smile, sombrely.

Katrín’s face screws slightly, in contemplation “How old are you, Victor?”

“Err… coming… comin’ up on thirty…?”

“Hmmm, that’s a bit of an age gap…” she responds, appraisingly “Six years?”

“More like six and a half.” adds Heidi, shrewdly.

“Yeah… yes… I suppose so…” I answer, shifting uncomfortably at the tacit accusation.

“…and what’s your job, Victor?… On the ship?” asks Heidi through narrowed eyes.

“…Well… *ehem*… I’m the Chief Security Specialist…”

“So, you’re Tunie’s boss?!” reproaches Katrín.

“You don’t think fraternising with your subordinate is a little unprofessional?” queries Heidi, eyes still narrowed.

“… Well… err…”

“Mums! That’s enough!!!” interrupts Tuun, with more fury than I’ve ever heard in her voice.

Maintaining Human speed, she continues “…I was the one who initiated things between us! He never would have, for exactly that reason!… I don’t care that he’s my boss… I don’t care that he’s a few years older!… I love him… and that means it’s you guys’ job to love him too! If you can’t do that… then…”

Both her mums look as stunned as I feel before Heidi starts “…I’m… we’re sorry… Tunie… we just… we care about you… you know? We want to know that you aren’t being taken advantage of… we’re sorry…”

Katrín bursts out laughing, seeming to shock all three of us “I’m not sorry!… You must be something quite special, boy, if you not only managed to get Tunie to initiate things but then got that reaction out of her! Anyone who can make my little girl that fierce has my blessing to be with her!”

Astonished, I answer “… Err… thank you, Katrín… that… means… that means a lot!”

Shaking her head in mock disappointment, Heidi responds “It would be really nice if you could think about things as a mother, for once, rather than a warrior, darling(!)”

“Bah, no fun in that(!)” smirks Katrín with a single downward wave of her palm.

“… anyway…” continues Heidi, turning her attention back to me and Tuun “… we should probably talk about the plan for when you guys visit…”

---some time later---

“Byeeee” we all say in unison, before Tuun cuts off the call.

A few seconds of silence follow before I turn to her and say “Well… that could have gone a lot worse.”

“Could have gone a lot better, too!” she responds, gloomily “I’m so sorry about them grilling you like that!”

I pull her into a standing position then into a cuddle before saying “I’m not sorry… I’m glad they’re worried about you… that’s… sorta what I always imagined having a mum would be like… plus…” I pull away just enough to look into her eyes and smile warmly “…you realise that was the first time you’ve used the ‘L word’, right?”

A look of panic crosses her face as she starts “I… that… it’s…”

I kiss her, tenderly, and that stops her…

After some time I pull away and, looking straight into her eyes, say “I love you too, Tuun… I love you… more than anything!”

A radiant smile breaks across her face and she comes in for another kiss.

Her hands move to the hem of my shirt and, before I know what’s happening, she’s whisked it off me.

“Errr… guys?” comes a voice that causes both of us to freeze in horror.

“We can still see you… you never ended the call…” reveals Heidi’s disembodied voice.

Fuck! Tuun didn’t end the call at all! She just cut off the display! I didn’t notice because the buttons were right next to eachother and were the same fucking colour!!!

“Mums!!! Why didn’t you say anything?!?!?!” cries Tuun, her face flushed with a more vivid purple than I’ve ever seen on it.

“Well… you were having such a lovely moment… I didn’t want to interrupt…”

“Nice physique, bro!” chimes Katrín, sounding amused.

I don’t think it matters anymore if they have a colour image or not… my flush will show up, regardless!