Colony Administration, New Prometheus
Lumiara, Survivor’s Refuge
4454.2.3 Interstellar
Janus took a breath as Lee stared him down, hands on her hips, their son strapped to her chest. Xander wriggled in the sling and said, “Dada!” which made it hard to concentrate on the seriousness of the situation.
“Eyes up here,” Lee said, pointing to her face.
“He’s a little distracting,” Janus said with the beginning of a smile. “Can’t we just—”
“Mickel,” Lee said, unslinging Xander with a deft set of motions.
“Yes, ma’am,” Mick said, taking the baby from her. Xander laughed as Mick made faces at him, and Fury gently came up on her hind legs to look at her favorite person after Janus.
Janus was so focused on his kid that he didn’t realize Lee had moved until she was dragging him by the arm to the staff kitchen.
“Didn’t want to fight in front of the others?” Janus muttered.
“It doesn’t have to be a fight,” Lee said. “You could just agree with me for once.”
There was a staff member in the kitchen, an Irkallan Janus had never met.
“Out,” Lee said.
“Sorry,” Janus added as the staffer fled. “Nice to see I’m not the only one who runs in terror at the sound of your voice.”
Lee gave him a flat look, but there was more to it than that. She looked harassed and tired.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I never signed up to be your dome-wife.”
“You had my son. I’m hazy on the details, but from what Mick tells me of Hunter contraception, that was very much your choice.”
“I don’t regret Xander,” Lee said, leaning back against the counter with her arms folded. “I just didn’t want being his mother and your birthing vat to define me. I’m Lee Grace Zygsdöttir.”
Janus stared at her for a moment, then walked over and started rummaging through the cupboards.
“What are you doing?” Lee asked
“Looking for coffee,” Janus said, pulling some of the instant stuff off a shelf. “I’ve been cold for weeks.”
“Yes. You spent so much time out on the ice that it put a chill in your bones,” Lee said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Janus glanced at her, then turned his attention back to putting granules in a mug and setting water to boil.
“I’ve spent time out on the ice, Janus. Xander has, too.”
Janus clenched his teeth. “He’s too young for that. We discussed—”
“We discussed nothing!” Lee said. “You made a pronouncement as the high-holy aspirant, and you expect me to obey!”
“I expect you to keep him safe!” Janus said, finally turning to look at her.
“I have!” Lee said. “He’s getting too big for the sling. He’s almost old enough for a void suit, and he’s perfectly healthy! I won’t have my son grow up as a xeshenye in this hole!”
Janus held her gaze. She was tall, like most Hunters, and beautiful when she was angry. They were also reaching the heart of their never-ending argument: Lee was a Hunter and wanted Xander to grow up habituated to travel and danger; Janus wanted to keep his family safe, including her.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
The hot water boiler clicked, and Janus turned to make his coffee. Bitter steam rose from the oily black liquid, along with the promise of caffeine.
“I want to be part of the Core expedition,” Lee said.
“No.”
“I’ve gone through all of the aspirant evaluations. I’m better than most of them.”
Janus stared at Lee. “Do you not love our son? You’d leave him behind with—”
“I’d take him with us!”
Janus grabbed his cup of coffee and walked around her. “This conversation is over. You’ve obviously lost your mind.”
She moved to block his way out. “Just listen to me, for once. Xander has a lineage. Even if you don’t respect me—”
“I didn’t say that!”
“—you at least know what it’s like to be the son of great people and not feel connected to them.”
Janus winced. He’d grown up with a crippling sense of inferiority because his uncle had kept him in the dark about who he was, why they were refugees, and why his parents were dead. “That’s not going to happen to him. He’ll have you, Ivan, and Callie, and he’ll have me when I get back from the Core.”
“He needs to have his own adventures so that by the time he’s old enough to face the dust on his own, he isn’t afraid.”
Janus sighed. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard this, and there was no reasoning with her on this point. It was ingrained in the Hunter culture. They took their children with them on the road so that by the time they could talk, they already had stories to tell.
“As for having you when you get back, you can start now. I need to get some gear together for our next trip.”
“Sure,” Janus said, and she let him go. He didn’t think this was the last he’d hear about her joining the Core expedition, but for a moment, they weren’t mad at each other, and she was very close. “You want a coffee?” he asked, trying to sound smooth.
“Yeah,” she said, her voice becoming husky. She plucked the steaming mug from his hand. “Nice try, mate.”
She walked out.
Janus laughed. For whatever it was worth, he was sure Lee would be a good candidate for the trip if it weren’t for Xander. She was a warrior. A very attractive one. And the fact that she shared Mick’s accent and idioms made things a bit confusing at times, but he did respect her. There was just no way in the void he was risking his son’s life or happiness.
He made himself a second coffee and went out to join the others. Lee was already gone, but he made it just in time to see Xander pull himself to his feet on Fury’s scales. The big jungle dragon looked at the toddler indulgently, then nudged him in the chest, and the toddler fell onto his rear end.
Xander laughed and clapped his hands, soothing any troubles that might have plagued Janus’s heart. As he walked closer, Xander caught sight of him, and the toddler’s face lit up. He barreled toward Janus on all fours.
“Oops! Careful!” Janus said, scooping him up with one hand and doing his best to keep the scalding coffee out of reach.
Mick watched him with amusement. “Lee said you were clocking in some daddy time for the next few days.”
“As much as I can,” Janus said. He saw Syn cock an eyebrow at him and said, “What?”
“You spend a lot of time away.”
Janus frowned, holding the squirming toddler to his chest. “What’s that supposed to—” He handed his mug to Mick. “Hold this for me, would you?”
“Gladly,” Mick said. “Never turn down a cuppa.”
“I said hold it, not drink it,” Janus said. “Isn’t a ‘cuppa’ supposed to be tea?”
“He’ll drink anything that’s been spiked,” Syn said.
“Amen,” Mick said, pouring liquid from a small flask into the mug before raising it in a mock salute.
Janus rolled his eyes, then returned his attention and both hands to his squirming son. “Hand me that sling, would you?”
Syn tossed him the thick piece of black fabric. It was a loop of slightly stretchy material Hunters used to carry their kids until they were eighteen to twenty-four months old, at which point they got their first void suits and were expected to walk on their own. Janus wasn’t sure how Hunter culture was going to adapt to a planet with breathable air. He was even less sure how to make the sling work.
“Here, let me help you, boss,” Mick said, handing the mug off to Syn, who sniffed it suspiciously.
Within a few deft gestures, Xander was hanging off Janus’s right hip, arms hugging him and half-asleep, and Janus shifted his pack so it was hanging off his left shoulder. “Can I have my coffee back?”
“Nope,” Syn said, sipping from the mug. “Mick did a great job, but this coffee isn’t for daddies anymore.”
“Sounds like it’s exactly what daddy needs,” Janus said tiredly.
“That bad?” Mick asked.
“Tell you about it over a beer later.”
They resumed their journey to Lira’s office, with Fury at Janus’s side, looking up at him and Xander, and Mick and Syn playfully fighting over the spiked drink like siblings. Janus’s attention was split between his son and his guilt. Lee had really gotten him with that comment about famous dead parents, or however she’d phrased it. He didn’t want that for Xander, but neither did he want to embrace the Hunter lunacy of taking a kid into danger before they could walk or understand danger. Mick was great, as far as Hunters went, but not all his people were as well adjusted, and a lot more didn’t make it to old age.
The whole reason Janus was going to the Core was to give Xander a chance at a safer life, one in which he wouldn’t have to follow in his father’s footsteps. Janus would pay any price for that to happen, and he expected the cost would be high. Why couldn’t Lee or the others see that?
He was so distracted that he just followed the others into Lira’s office and didn’t notice Syn go stiff or Mick go silent until he realized Lira had two guests.
Ryler met Janus’s eyes awkwardly. The second visitor didn’t meet his eyes at all because his face was concealed behind a charcoal-colored carbide mask.
“It’s good to see you, Janus,” Nikandros, the leader of the exceptionalist faction, said.