The Black

Mac worked his injured shoulder around. The human Medic had patched him up nicely; and the Delmar doctor on the station was busy looking over his scans, still not quite believing Mac’s story. It had been several hours since the attack, and communication with the planet was still half an hour from being online.

Mac had taken a shower and had his pants cleaned. Considering his ride was currently crushed under a makeshift boarding pod, Mac was stuck, at the station, for the moment. He wandered back into the station command center and placed the rifle he had gotten from the armory back into its slot. After, Mac nabbed a box of pistol ammunition off the shelf to top his own personal expenditures off. He had just finished refilling his personal magazines when Silu walked in to be intercepted by a human officer from the reinforcement transport shuttle that had been scrambled from Delmar.

“Comms are back up commander, Delmar is asking for a report. It appears nobody there knows whether Port Royal still stands.” The man said.

“I see, here” Silu handed him a small data stick, “here is the report from about an hour ago. Send it with the all-clear message. Un-encrypt the data link between us and Delmar. Whoever did this is long gone, no point in making loved ones suffer.”

A couple of minutes later, Mac’s communicator blew up with messages from the civilian channels flooding in. Lyri was frantic, but Clint was with her. Good. He typed a quick message *I'm ok, we held. I’ll be back on the morning shuttle with Greg. I’ll tell you about it when I get home. *

——————————————————————

“Frie?” Frie wasn’t quite asleep, she rolled over to the sound of her older sister’s voice.

“Can’t sleep?”she asked her older sister.

“No…. I'm worried.” Hera said as Frie pulled her into a forehead touch that was the Delmar version of a hug.

“We got the all clear. Everyone on the station is safe..” Frie said. They had been a part of the message conversation since the news broke. Lyrian was inconsolable until Mac sent everyone the “I'm ok” message.

“It’s not that…. I don’t think…. I don’t know if I am strong enough… not right now.” Hera said.. “for Clint…” she finally admitted, but continued, “I lost everything. My ship, my crew, my captain… I don’t even know if I want to return to space at all….”

“Hera…” Frie started before being interrupted.

“Frie, it’s not just this… I’ve seen how you react to him when he teases us back. That one night he let his guard completely down. It was so…. Intense….. when he touched you, I was sure HE was going to be the one; like he was claiming you..” Hera paused as Frie bit her lip remembering the caress of Clints hands and lips on her.

“He did it to you, too.” Frie said, trying to comfort her sister…

“I didn’t react the way you did…I felt every touch, every brush on my neck, but I wasn’t electrifying. I didn’t feel the attraction. Only the intensity of him…I know I am safe with him… I knew he wasn’t going to do anything to me… I was even ok with him showing me what Human physical passion was.. but I… I didn’t like it Frie, at least not right now.” Hera admitted. She wasn’t crying, she wasn’t upset. She was resigned, “He’s not right for me… He will always be the one that saved me.. and I want him as close to me as family.. but I know he is not my mate…” Hera took a deep breath before finishing, “He is yours. I began to feel it from that first demonstration. You feed off his energy, sister. You two are perfect for each other”

Frie’s heart leapt… but she refused to jump just yet, “are you sure? Like, really sure.”

“I am, little sister. I am...” Hera nodded.

——————————————————————

Mac ended up catching a Redeye transport back to Delmar with about half of the reinforcements that got sent during the previous days… entertainment… The other half had stayed to be security for the near future. Mac had struck up a conversation with the grunts. And one soon to be Delmar freight or Captain with a bandage over his eye..

“Found out you are laser proof the hard way?” Mac chuckled, “James Mackenzie Grarzia” he shook the man’s hand.

“Jake irving.. getting shot with a laser sucks” the younger man chuckled.

Mac pulled down his shirt to show the bandage near his collar bone, “fucker got me with a rifle at 20 meters. Doc says it never made it past the muscle. I’m not sure how I feel about being literally laser proof…. Wait… Irving.. you’re the New Captain of Traveler.”

“I am. I start training in her once this heals” Irving tapped his bandage.

Max chuckled then froze as he put his hand in his pocket. A belly laugh escaped him as he pulled out the spare eye patch from his pocket. He tossed it to the soon to be captain, “looks like you’ll be needin’ this more than I.”

An hour and 40 minutes later, Max touched Vito down at home. He had taken the aircar to the space port for the morning shuttle, and decided to land the car at the hanger so he didn’t wake the house.

Mac quietly crept in the front door to see Clint and Lyri on their more human shaped main couch. She was covered in a blanket with her head on Clint’s lap. He was gently petting her head absently while “planes, trains, and automobiles” played softly on the viewer. He turned to see Mac come in and had a look of relief mixed with an apology on his face.

“She didn’t want me to leave.” he whispered to Mac as he came and sat down.

“Welcome to Delmar culture. You are her family, they are much more dependent on close family contact than we are. You did fine.” Mac whispered.

Lyrian’s eyes fluttered open as she heard Mac's voice and felt his emotions sift into the back of her mind. She smiled up at him, “Tha thu tràth (you are early)” she mumbled.

Mac smiled at her choice of language, “Fhuair mi dìreach air ais. (I just got back).”

She sat up and looked at the clock on the wall. It was an old human style analog time piece that had been calibrated to Delmar units. “The twins will wake soon” she switched back to English.

Mac followed her up the stairs as they took care of the two little ones. Lyri was barely conscious, clearly spent.

Mac got her to bed and turned on a space heater in their room that he used when she needed to sleep, but he still had to work. She pouted a little at the action until Mac planted a kiss/nip on her lips, “I won’t be long, I need to talk to Clint for a moment.” He whispered as he covered her in an extra blanket. He could feel her skin rapidly cooling as her Delmar biology betrayed her need to sleep.

Mac gently closed the master bedroom door and silently crept down the stairs as Clint still sat on the couch watching the famous Chris Farley in one of his iconic roles.. Mac made for the kitchen and grabbed a couple of Human Lagers, cracking them open and settled onto the couch.

“Well…. That was exciting.” His chuckle was dark as he handed the beer to his brother. The range of the emotional bond that Mac shared with Lyri was short. About 10 meters or so. The couch was just ‘out of range’, so Mac wasn’t worried about waking her up.

“How bad..” Clint asked, taking a pull of the offered beverage.

“All things considered; we barely took a scratch. Aunt Gwen is a bit banged up, and Ami is apparently laser proof, she took 57 hits keeping our aunt alive. Gwen will need some time for her elbow to recover but the hit to her leg was just muscle damage. She refused to leave the station, and is being treated there... Apparently, the thicker parts of humans are also laser rifle proof,” Mac chuckled as he pulled his shirt down showing the bandage, “fuckin lizard/bearded dragon mother fucker nailed me at barely 20 meters. Scan says it barely made it most of the way through the muscle. It didn’t even bleed…”

Clint took a long pull, “the Galaxy may be way more fragile than we imagined.”

“Yea…. Well, it was a setup… someone got into the data banks… including the jump codes for the Delmar beacon. We can change those, but they also got all the CCTV…from the fight” Mac said softly,

“I don’t follow” Clint said carefully.

“The fight was…. Messy… and very one sided…” Mac pulled up his data pad and ran the footage for Clint.

“Jesus… Did we record any outgoing transmissions?” Clint asked quietly as the footage of human after human dismembering supposed some of the strongest Unity species.

“Not yet… whoever has the copy is still in the system. We still don’t know how they got off the station….” Mac trailed off.

“They could edit this and make some serious trouble on the diplomatic side.” Clint mumbled. Shutting the tablet down and taking another pull from his bottle. “I need some advice… on the girls…”

“Oh? Mac turned fully to his brother, “Did something happen today?”

“Not today… but… I’m falling for one of them. Pretty hard.” Clint admitted, staring into his bottle.

“I think Frie is falling for you too, brother.” Mac smiled as Clint’s face whipped around to look at him, “you’ve always had a type, Nitro.” Mac finished.

Clint finally snorted, “Fair, but I’m having trouble reading the two of them. Both are always so hands-on.”

“Lyri was the same way. Skin contact is very important to them. I think it has something to do with their skin temperature changes and how family units’ bond in winter. It saved my life.” Mac mumbled the last part.

“Oh?” It was Clint’s turn to ask.

“Brother, when I found out that earth was 20 years away with Unity tech… That I could not go home… I made an excuse about needing some time … I was going to drink myself into a stupor. And when I was done with my bottle, I was going to end it. Lyri ran to my quarters after her shift ended and begged to be let in. This was well before she claimed me… before everything. I had a 6th of a bottle left to go, and a pistol just inside the desk drawer. She wrapped herself around me and didn’t let go. I don’t think she knows about the last bit of my plan. But she spent several days with me, just holding me, forcing me to talk to her about my home, keeping me from drinking myself under again.” Mac finished, draining the last of his beer.

“But what about their ways. I don’t really have a say, unless I break with my promise to them, and with their culture.” Clint said finishing off his own drink.

“A bridge for tomorrow” Mac clamped his brother on the shoulder, “tonight. Sleep.”

Clint headed for his room and Mac snuck into the master bedroom, stripping down for bed before turning the space heater off and crawling under the covers toward Lyri. He lay in his normal spot and waited. Right on que, a soft grumble came from his sleeping angel as the room started to cool. Her unconscious migration landed her in his arms, and his bubble of warmth as predicted, and he wrapped his arms around her body and passed to unconsciousness.

————————————————————

Gregory had taken a more normally scheduled shuttle back from Port Royal the following morning. He smiled as Marg met him at the shuttle terminal. She checked over him for wounds before relaxing, kissing him deeply. He returned it and wrapped her up in his arms…

“Mom?” An adult female voice gasped.

Marg turned quickly to see her oldest daughter Cam’iel staring wide eyed at the two of them. Her daughter was flanked by 3 confused young boys and a very unamused Delmar Man.

“Mom…. Who is this…” Marg’s daughter asked again flatly.

Marg froze for a minute before feeling a calming hand on the small of back. “Cam’iel, I would like to meet Greg, Commodore of the United Sol Navy. We are together.” She stated.

30 long, silent minutes later, the group was in Marg’s home.

“What the hell is going on?!?” Marg raised an eyebrow at her daughter’s outburst as soon as they were indoors.

“Sit down Cam.” Marg tried, but her daughter was having none of it.

“No! You tell me what the hell you are doing. And what the hell you have been doing with him! Your destro…….”

“SIT. DOWN.” It was not yell. It was statement of fact dripping in command with a promise of fury.

Everyone turned to see Gregory with his arms crossed, rage flickered at the edges of his features as he forced all emotion from his expression.

“You don’t get to speak human; I should kick you out the door mysel……” Cam’iel’s husband got a little too close during his fist-clenching advance on Greg. A human arm wrapped in corded muscle that might as well have been steel snapped out and a vice wrapped around the man’s throat.

Greg dropped all pretenses, letting his face and body show the disgust and rage inside. He gently increased the pressure. Making sure not to trigger any bruising while closing the man’s airways with one fist. He drew the man’s face to within inches of his.

“I have enough blood on my hands to drown your entire species, boy…” he spat in perfect Delmar. Then he spread his face in a teeth-filled humorless smile, “You may test that at your pleasure.”

Greg then released the taller man, allowing him to take his first breath in over a minute. Turning to the rest of the group, “Now, let’s start from the beginning, shall we” his face was once again wearing a pleasant expression. Cam’iel and her still gasping husband sat down, too shocked at the display from Greg to argue. He sat next to Marg who pointedly took his hand and wrapped her fingers through his before leaning into a quick hug.

“Ok, from the beginning…” Marg began with the Assassination attempt of then Captain Silu aboard the Lucid Traveler, followed by their fight to get out of the system. She shriveled into Greg’s arm’s when she had to talk about Brayton’ death. The Cam’iel’s eyes widened when Greg effortlessly scooped her mother up onto his lap and into an encompassing embrace as she broke down momentarily. The Humans eyes hooded slightly and glistened for a moment until Marg pulled herself back together and slid back off Greg’s lap. Their meeting was next and how they grew closer. Finally, Marg was done and a much more thoughtful Cam sat next to a still angry, but somewhat more... careful Husband.

“Mom, what about father...” Cam finally said.

“Honey, I loved your father dearly, but he has been gone for some time. He will never be replaced. I care about Greg; He is special to me. It's different from your father, more complicated maybe.”

“May I,” Greg asked Marg gently. She nodded, “Cam,” he ignored the Husband. It was clear the man was not listening. “I am not Delmar; I do not expect a claiming. Your mother knows this already, but I had a wife and a family on Mars. My Son is still alive, but the war that claimed half of my species took my wife. Marg and I, what we have, is not blind passion or replacing lost ones. I am no more capable of that than she is. We are two adults who have found some Peace and companionship with each other. In time, I hope to bring my son to this side of the Galaxy. Humanity may not be as mono-cultural, but many of us have as strong a stance on family as your people do. Marg and I are taking this slow, the Human way. You must trust your mother, even if you don’t trust me.”

“You’re a Killer, you said so.. earlier.” Cam’iel winced at her husband’s tone as he glared at Greg not willing to go a second round with him.

“I am. I have killed thousands of my own kind in defense of millions more. I do not shy from that. You are fortunate to have not experienced your people's war for their very survival.” Greg stated flatly. The man opened his mouth, then closed it again.

“You are free to unpack in the guest rooms” Marg stated getting up, “Gregory and myself have reservations for lunch to get to.” And with that Marg took Greg’s hand and they walked out of the house.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hera and Frie stood as they arrived at the Tram station to Mac and Lyri’s place.

Frie looked at Hera, she was more relaxed than she had been in months ‘maybe she is ok with thi…’

Her thoughts were cut short as Hera betrayed her, shoving her out of the tram before closing the door and waving goodbye.

“Good luck!!!” Hera waved as the Tram began to return to the city centers. Frie gave her a rude gesture before her heart caught in her throat. It was almost midday and there were hikers out and about enjoying the jungle this far away from the bustle of Helyon center. She made her way to the house that Clint was staying at. Lyrian must have seen her coming, because as soon as she got to the door, her lifelong friend opened the door.

“Hey you!” She said pulling Frie inside. “It happened didn’t it” Lyri said quietly, noting Hera’s abscence.

“Hera is not interested anymore... Clint is too... intense for her…” Frie said nervously, “I need a witness... She surprised me by leaving me out of the tram and going home.” she said.

“It’s for the best. This is for you and Clint” Lyri whispered,

Mac wandered around the corner drying his own hair, “Sup.”

“James, we are spending the day downstairs… as witness.” Lyri said. Glancing at Frie pointedly

Mac nodded slowly, then walked over to Frie and kissed her on the forehead, “Congrats Kiddo, all of the guest rooms are all completely soundproof, his is the second on the left. Nobody will disturb you… Go to him…”

Frie nodded, she was shivering slightly with nerves and excitement as she climbed the stairs and disappeared into Clint’s room.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

An oblong vaguely aquatic looking craft exited subspace at the Beacon to Delmar, it began transmitting the correct post-attack codes. It haled Port Royal

“Commander, The vessel registers as a Civilian transport under The Interplanetary News Guild. They are requesting permission to doc under media credentials.” The Coms station reported. Silu sauntered over to the station and leaned against his cane.

“Allow them limited Escorted access to the station. Docking Bay 7 is undisturbed from the recent unpleasantness. Clear them for Bay 7.” Philip stated, as Silu nodded. He approved of the young man’s assessment and did not interfere. Instead, he headed to the moving walkway the Humans seemed fond of, travelling out to the docking bay with 4 of the new guards. Silu was secretly happy for the hidden blade, but he kept his officer’s pistol on as he went to great the Transport.

The doors hissed as an Aging Mauk’lur man disembarked with the distinctive 9 appendaged walk that was indicative of a soft invertebrate that had learned to walk upright in at least some gravity.

“Commander Silu of the Trade and Diplomatic Station Port Royal. To what do we owe the visit?” Silu greeted in G.C.

“Your system is a long way from the Core, Commander.” the Squid/octopus hybrid looking species responded. “We are here to do a news piece on this ‘humanity’ you have discovered. We are on a sanctioned mission by the I.N.G. We would like to start with any non-classified or non-sensitive information you might have. Little is known outside this system. We wish to spend the first two days researching so that the correct questions may be asked.” The being was struggling even in this gravity. The Mauk’lur were a largely aquatic species, and it took considerable training to stand in most gravities unless introduced to them as an infant. This Mauk’lur was clearly not in that second category and his supporting arm/legs shook slightly.

“We will have the requested data sent to the ship by the end of the day. We have an aquatic section; however, it took damage during the attack, and we have not tested the water quality post-repair. Your ship will be the safest place for you for now I am afraid” Silu bowed a slight bow of apology.

“Very well, I can understand that. Thank you for the courtesy. Good day, Commander” The Mauk’lur stated before returning to its ship.