“I had noticed.”
The tension eased, and dinner continued with lighter conversation—Koss’s increasingly absurd stories about his previous ships, Trevan’s dry observations about life as a freighter captain, Sarah’s quiet questions about the worlds they were passing.
After the meal, while the others drifted to their various evening activities, Melissa found herself standing at the galley’s small viewport with Robbie in her arms. He was getting sleepy, his eyes heavy, his small body warm and relaxed against her chest.
“Big day tomorrow,” she murmured to him. “The Patrol station. The beginning of… whatever comes next.”
He made a sound that might have been agreement or might have been a precursor to sleep.
“I’m scared,” she admitted. “I’m scared I won’t be able to do any of the things I’m hoping for. Scared I’ll fail. Scared you’ll grow up in a universe that doesn’t want us.”
Robbie’s hand found her braid, tugging gently.
“But I’m also excited. Can you be scared and excited at the same time? I think you can. I think maybe that’s what courage is—being afraid and doing things anyway.”
“You are correct.”
She turned to find Becsul in the doorway, watching her with an expression that made her heart flutter.
“Eavesdropping?”
“Appreciating.” He moved to stand beside her, his hand coming to rest on her lower back. “You speak to him as though he understands everything.”
“Maybe he does. Babies are smarter than people give them credit for.”
“Perhaps.” He looked down at Robbie, who had given up on the braid and was now yawning enormously. “He will grow up knowing he is loved. That is what matters most.”
“Even if everything else goes wrong?”
“Even then. A child who is loved can survive anything.” Something flickered in his black eyes—old pain, old grief. “I have seen it. The children who thrived despite circumstances. The ones who broke. The difference was always love.”
“You’re thinking about your family.”
“I am thinking about many families.” He shook his head, as if clearing away cobwebs. “But yes. My parents loved me. My siblings loved me. When the Red Death took them, I survived because I carried that love with me. It became… armor. Protection against despair.”
“That’s beautiful.”
“It is also true.” His arm came around her, pulling her and Robbie both into the shelter of his body. “Whatever happens tomorrow, whatever challenges we face, Robbie will have that armor. We will make sure of it.”
“We will.” She leaned into him, feeling the steady beat of his hearts through his uniform. “Together.”
“Together,” he agreed.
They stood there for a long moment, watching the stars stream past, holding the future in their arms. Robbie’s breathing slowed into sleep, and the universe turned around them, vast and unknowable and full of possibility.
Tomorrow would bring the Patrol station. Questions. Challenges. The beginning of a new life.
But tonight, there was only this: peace, warmth, and the unshakeable knowledge that whatever came next, they would face it as a family.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The navigation console beeped three times—proximity alert for a scheduled approach vector.
Becsul’s hands stilled over the secondary display where he’d been studying hyperspace corridor maps, his attention shifting to the forward viewport. The Celestine’s Mercy was dropping out of faster-than-light transit, the streaked star lines condensing into pinpricks, and directly ahead lay a structure that made the warrior in him instinctively assess threat levels.
The Galactic Patrol Station Korinth-7 was a massive orbital platform, bristling with sensor arrays and weapons emplacements that tracked their approach with cold mechanical precision. Docking arms extended from its central hub like the legs of some metallic spider, several already occupied by vessels ranging from sleek enforcement cruisers to battered civilian transports. Warning beacons pulsed in synchronized patterns, and even from this distance, Becsul could see patrol ships moving in coordinated formations—sentries guarding the gates.
This is where we discover what our future holds, he thought. Or whether we have one at all.
