“Jack? What about Giles?” asked Madeline.
“I agree with Enoch about space communications,” answered Jack. “It’s why we risked only the one message with Aurelian. I’ll give you the contact protocols you need to reach out to Giles, but you should only do it once you’re down there.”
“Okay. What else do we need? Jack, are you able to provide us with weapons and supplies?” asked Enoch.
“Nothing fancy, but basic arms and survival gear,” replied Jack. “We should be ready to launch the cutter within the hour.”
“Excellent,” said Enoch. “Thank you.”
***
The veteran commander caught up to his daughter just outside the command deck. Racking his brains for how to start a conversation, Enoch ventured, “Your, uh…your boyfriend, Jack, seems to be a very capable leader.”
Aria tried to hide her smile. “My fiancé, you mean? It’s true. His crew adores him almost as much as I do. Mind you, yourgirlfriendseems to be quite a competent leader as well.”
For just a moment longer, Enoch felt adrift, until the realization hit him like a bell rung around his head:Aria’s just like me. Same cuts, same jabs, same humor.Suddenly, and in no way he could adequately explain, he knew that everything between him and his daughter was going to be all right.
“Myfiancée,you mean?” he responded, although in truth, he hadn’t even asked Madeline.I probably should do that.Enoch’s eyes crinkled with good humor. “Well, it just goes to show you: from father to daughter, the Immanuels know how to pick ’em.”
Aria’s eyes lit up with a humor to match his own. “Even if from father to daughter, we pick from sister to brother?”
“Nobody ever said we were anormalfamily,” observed Enoch, and they both laughed. He put an arm around her shoulder, all distance between them closed, at least for the moment. “Now come with me,” he continued. “We don’t have much time, but there are a few things I want to tell you.”
***
“Aria’sdad?” asked Jack, in comic disbelief.
“Look, I didn’t exactly plan this out,” protested Madeline. “But it happened, and it’s real.”
“It’s a good thing neither of us gets invited to the big family dinners,” chuckled Jack.
“Speak for yourself,” Madeline shot back. “Father still talks to me.”
“Maybe not after he finds out you’re sleeping with the most notorious war criminal in the galaxy, who also happens to be twice your age,” replied Jack. He paused, struck by a thought. “I wonder which one of those things will make him angrier?”
Madeline opened her mouth to say something back then closed it. “You know, I honestly have no idea,” she said finally.
Jack stepped forward to hug his sister. “Well, it’s a good thing we have each other. Welcome to the black-sheep side, Maddie.”
In the midst of his hug, she snorted. “You’ll never guess who else calls me Maddie.”
“Man, that guy is out to ruineverything,” Jack moaned.
