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“No, it’s just right. You’re back, and here with us. It’s more than anything I could have imagined. I know not much has changed outside, it’s still terrible and frightening, but here it feels like we’ve created our own pieces of heaven.”
“I wish our pieces of heaven would let you sleep more,” I admonish gently, looking down at our children. Azel is looking up at his mother with wonder, a look I recognize from my own expression whenever I gaze at Sophia. Bianca is looking up widely and innocently at me.
My breath stutters. Another new symptom of parenting. Although they are twins and thus uniquely similar, they are also different individuals who are quickly developing their own personalities.
Azel seems to favor his mother, and I can hardly blame him. He seems to have inherited her sunny, stalwart personality, although he can be demanding when he wants food or attention. He has Sophia’s wide eyes and coloring, but my spinal plates and scales across his stomach and back.
Bianca is the more introspective twin. She looks more like me. I can already tell she will be a great beauty when she gets older, and I suspect she will be more intelligent than I could ever hope to be.
“Come,” I say, breaking up the thoughtful silence that has blanketed us. Before she can protest, I scoop them up – mother and babies all and carry them back to the bed. “You need rest, and they need to relax.”
“I’m sorry, I was really hoping they wouldn’t wake you,” Sophia replies with a punctuated yawn. “You need rest, too.”
“What I need is to know all of you are close to me, safe and sound.” I reinforce my reply with a lingering kiss to her cheek before we all drift off.
Sleep, I’ve come to realize, is a precious commodity that is all too rare for parents with newborns. The twins wake us up again before dawn, with demanding cries to be fed, then bathed. We would both be more haggard if not for the efforts of Isa, who manages to scrape together a whole breakfast for the adults.
With the elder Bianca’s passing, Isa has really stepped up to help take care of Sophia, for which I am eternally grateful. She has become like a second mother to our family, watching out for them when I cannot. I can trust Isa to make sure Sophia is provided for, and can concentrate on caring for our children.
Although Isa is distant and wary of me sometimes, that is fading more with each day. We’re slowly building trust between us, and it helps immensely knowing that Sophia still has someone she can rely on when I can’t be there.
In the meantime, there is still the mission to contend with. There is a ton of bureaucracy to deal with as the ambassador negotiates with the reigning bodies. Thus our protection detail has expanded, to help with the extraneous logistics that come with trying to assist a whole contingency of people, and Kyltic expects me to help since he got me back here to Sophia, after all.
It’s mostly paperwork, something I might have balked at a year ago. But the reports are more than just info-cylinders to me these days – they represent a way for me to help my family as well as others, as rations dwindle and problems increase. I’m working through a set of files at my makeshift station when a hulking shadow looms over me.
I glance up, then automatically stand, snapping to attention. Commander Kyltic’s furry form greets me, and we give the customary salute before he orders me to ease.
“The call came down. It’s done. They’re letting us take everyone who wants to go,” he calmly states. “I’ll be briefing the squad officially this afternoon, so I expect you to be there, soldier.”
“Yes, sir. Also, uh, congratulations, I guess? I mean, you did your part, helping keep the ambassador safe and all.”
“That we did, Private,” he says, leveling me with a look. “Listen, this doesn’t mean our work is done yet. They’re letting us do whatever we need to get them off Armstrong. Doesn’t matter what affiliation they have with the Coalition. They promise they’ll be safe if they stay, but I don’t know if I believe it.”
“Those affiliated with the Coalition? What exactly does that mean, sir?”
“It means everyone that isn’t a military combatant or criminal. We’ve got a week to get all disenfranchised civilians and military families off of Armstrong. After seven days, they’ll kick us out again, and anyone who’s still here has made the choice. Do you understand me, Private?”
“Sir, yes, sir!” I answer, sucking in a sharp breath.
He glances over at the string of reports displayed on my holo-screen. Most of them are requests from soldiers, asking for haven for their families, visitation petitions from civilians trying to reach loved ones, and even a few missing persons reports of people who haven’t been seen or reported since the fall.
Kyltic sighs, and his hard-nosed persona slips for a minute as he turns back to me. “You’ve been working through these night and day, haven’t you?”
“Yes, Commander, as often as I can,” I confirm, nodding solemnly. “Most of the guys don’t care too much for filing reports, but it’s important work to me.”
“I imagine you see a lot of yourself in these people. Those who are waiting and hoping for their loved ones to return. I bet you probably even came across one or two of your own requests.”
“Or five,” I reply wryly. “But yeah, it really brings home how there are those out there who are still trying to get back to the people they love. I want to help where I can because I know how that pain feels.”
“I know you do, soldier.” He sighs again and scratches the scruff on the back of his neck. “Listen, I want you to know that I didn’t want that for you, either.”
His frank confession startles me, but it’s unsurprising when I think about it. Kyltic is a good man at heart, yet a leader through it all. “I know you didn’t, sir.”
“This is part of the fog of war. I didn’t want to ruin your marriage before it even got started, but you’re a good soldier and part of my unit. My unit is my family, and I have to protect them at all costs.”
“I understand, sir. There are no guarantees that circumstances will be easy when one finds their mate. and you had a job to do.”
As I speak the words, I find they’re true. Kyltic had a duty. Besides, I had a mating ceremony, essentially in secret, the day before we evacuated. Kyltic didn’t even know he was taking me away from my mate until it was too late, and that stone had started rolling weeks before, anyway.
