Chapter 11

It took nearly three weeks to safely disengage the collars from every last child on the station. And it mostly fell to Julian since he found a way to release Jesse before I took him to meet up with that snake that used to be my friend. Things after that had settled down some for everyone on the station and mostly returned to normal.

Dawson indeed became the commander of the station and there couldn’t have been a better choice in the matter. He also still was in charge of security for the time being as none of his deputies wanted to step it and try to fill those shoes. Hanson, before he departed the station for Mars Command, said he had just the person for the job and would send him along as soon as he could.

In the meantime, Dawson actually sent repair teams down into F level and opened it up fully, managing to disengage the bulkheads that had been down for a time. He also had the team renovate the Comms area of that level into a smaller Comms office but made space for a newer, sleeker office-slash-living area designed for the head of the new orphanage – he designated F level as the new ward of the station for wayward kids.

The person to be put in charge of the level would have the responsibility of trying to coax all the droves of kids hiding in the ductwork or other places of the station they managed to secure for themselves out and into the newly opened orphanage. Almost all that came out on their own were boys, but there were even a few girls that managed to be relatively unscathed from the Double Strike virus – at least for now.

“Travis, do you have a minute?” Dawson said as I helped to clean up a few scraps of remaining metal left over from the maintainence crews work on F level. Having been at it for about half a year, the work was just about done. I wiped my forehead with my bare arm and smiled at the large man. He still intimidated me but not as much as he used to. I finally started to accept that he was just as his personality showed me – a kind and fair man. I almost also saw him as a replacement father figure in lieu of mine still being lost to space.

“Yeah, I think I can spare one or two.” I had volunteered to help out where I could with the work on F level, expanding it outward for plenty of room to house any kids that didn’t have any parents. Dawson had never wanted to see any kids like me ever again, having to steal to survive all because they didn’t have a safe place to return to – a home. I glanced over at Riley and smiled widely at him. He wasn’t helping with repair work mainly for the fact that he was holding onto something very important to the both of us.

Dawson motioned for me to step over out of earshot of most of the kids that milled about or even the workers still doing some last minute touch-ups. Riley saw us and decided to follow. Dawson didn’t object as I took his free hand into mine the moment he caught up to us. Again I smiled at my boyfriend before the man spoke again. “Travis, I know you’ve been itching to keep busy as of late. I’ve seen your name on the volunteer list for this project far more often than I think I probably should have. You’ve had your hands in nearly everything you could try to do.”

“I just feel that… well, I just feel I need to keep busy. If I sit still too long now I get bored. I think roughing it for those eight months made me have to keep moving. That if I just sat still for too long, either I or Jess would have died. I don’t think I can unlearn that mentality. At least it doesn’t seem to want to leave me.” Both Riley and Dawson chuckled a bit. Another sound interrupted the man for a moment.

“And how’s the paternal life treating you?” I glanced over at what he referred to – my son. Riley bounced the boy gently a bit in his arms, making our son coo and giggle happily. I released Riley’s hand and held out my arms for the baby. Riley smiled as he carefully handed him off to me.

“It’s actually not so bad,” I said. “Little Leo is definitely a handful sometimes but I don’t mind.” I glanced at Riley. “I at least have the benefit of sleeping in still.”

“Well to be fair,” Riley said, “I don’t need sleep like either of you do so it makes sense for me to care for him in the event he needs an overnight feeding or the like.”

I chuckled a bit. “Just because you don’t need sleep doesn’t mean you shouldn’t let me take care of him once in a while. I did say I could do it, did I not?”

“You did, but I want to make sure you get enough rest for school since I’m also your teacher.” He grinned cockily at me. “No need for you to be asleep during lessons.”

“Anway,” Dawson said with his own smile. “He’s a cute kid. But I didn’t ask for your time to talk about families.”

“That is?” I asked as Leo grabbed at my face playfully. I grinned down at my son and let him grab onto one of my fingers instead.

“Well, I just wanted your input on who might make a good ward of the station. I mean, you worked with some of these kids on a semi-regular basis. You know their moods better than I do at the least.”

“That’s true, but I’d have to say either Julian or even Zane might have more knowledge on that – I didn’t live down here, only visited, remember?” Even with what happened to him, it still pained me to even mention his name. But I had to be fair – he still probably knew a little more about the kids than I did, even if he just stood next to Kevin and hardly paid any attention. I sighed internally – I tried to give him more benefits of the doubt than I did before. Maybe if I buried the hatchet then maybe Zane might as well acknowledge it and ignore me instead of trying to piss me off.

“I know all that. But… I’d need someone that both I can trust along with making sure the kids get what they need. Do you know someone like that?”

I mulled it over some. “Not really.” I turned to Riley. “What about you? Do you know what he’s talking about?” Slowly he started to grin and it made me uneasy. Just then I knew he knew something but didn’t bother to tell me. “Riley… what are you hiding from me? I thought we talked about this…”

“Don’t blame him – I put him up to it.” Dawson saw my brother nearby and flagged him down. Jesse came running over. “Jesse, why don’t you take your nephew for a second?”

“Sure!” My brother loved playing uncle to my son and it actually brought us even closer together. It helped to give Jesse his own sense of purpose. My brother often asked to watch him which surprised me a little but I didn’t complain. I cautiously slipped my finger from Leo’s grasp and the boy’s arms wrapped around his uncle’s neck once Jesse had him. “When was he last fed?”

“About three hours ago,” Riley said. “He might be due for another soon.”

“I’ll take him back to Jules’s place, okay?” We both nodded as Jesse scampered off with my son.

“What was that about?” I asked Dawson, my attention back on the man. Why did he ask my brother to take my son from me?

“I didn’t want you to drop him when I ask you to be my new ward of the station is all.”

“What?” I asked stunned. “B-But… I’m only fourteen!”

“So? I think you’d make a great ward. I mean, you have your own son now and that helps me see that you’d extend that same feeling to the other kids. And a lot of them respect you – I talked with both Julian and Scooter. Zane was another of my choices since he was Kevin’s second but not as many respect him as they do you.” But then Dawson sighed. “How’s he doing, by the way?”

Zane had slipped into a small depression for a bit after remembering what Kevin did to him. Zane had indeed loved Kevin deeply but only recently started to come back from his funk. And naturally he started acting like his old self – well, mostly like his old self. For one, I found that he wasn’t as abrasive as he used to be but could still rub people the wrong way – it’s the main reason I thought it was time to move past our petty differences. “Last I heard he’s been okay. Haven’t seen him since he yelled at me to go away last week.”

“In any event, don’t be surprised if, he’s up to it, I ask him to help you out some. I know you’ve told me that you never did see eye to eye, but sometimes even those that test your very nerves can help you to see things you might not have otherwise.” I grimaced at the thought – could Zane and I work together in that kind of environment without killing each other? Again I resolved to at least try it out for a while – I could always put in some kind of request to kick him out if it became too bad. But thinking that made me see that I apparently had already made a decision without really dwelling on it.

“Only on the condition that both Jesse and Riley help me out in some way too. I have a feeling that most of my time will be dealt with complaints focusing on Zane. But I hope I’m wrong on that front.”

“I already had plans for them. I think Jesse would be great for the younger kids and helping them deal with things, like changes in surroundings and stuff like that. I see how he treats Leo.”

“I like it,” I said with a smile.

“And I think Riley would be good as teacher-slash-security for the kids. If they don’t want to attend the station’s normal schools, that is.”

“If I’m not too busy with our son, then I don’t see a problem with it. And if either of us can make sure that Leo’s taken care of even if we have to work.” Of course Riley would think of things like that. I hadn’t even thought about our own son with all of this! It still took getting used to that I was a father now at fourteen.

“Shouldn’t be an issue. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can get some of the other kids to help you guys out if need be. I’ve seen what this group of kids can do even when left to their own devices.” Dawson stretched a bit. “Now that that’s taken care of… I have nothing to report on Kevin in case you were wondering.”

Kevin we later found out had slipped away when an unknown craft assaulted the station just long enough to distract everyone and gave Kevin the needed time to make it to the airlock on D level – it was the main reason he chose the meeting place so carefully. And with my brother hurt – while serious, thankfully it wasn’t life-threatening – and some of the Krew standing there collared, we had a few other things to worry about than to chase after a former friend.

“Thanks for that,” I said emptily. Dawson slipped away to attend to other duties, ones that were far more sinister in intent than appointing a new ward of the orphanage. Riley stroked my cheek gently and the clouds parted for a moment, a ray of sunshine just for him emerging from my lips. I turned to him and placed my hands on his belly again. “So… care to tell me the gender of this baby?”

Riley giggled. “I could, but you told me to file away anything about any future child’s gender as you wanted to be surprised.” He raised his eyebrow at me. “Are you telling me you changed your mind?”

“Maybe a little,” I said coyly. “I think having Leo makes the suspense all the more unbearable. I mean, there are things we’re gonna have to buy for him in a few months’ time. Well, at least if it’s a girl that is.”

“Don’t go breaking out that debit card again just yet,” he answered while nonchalantly looking away from me. I smacked his arm. “Hey! I’m with child!”

“You can take it,” I assured him. “But you just told me we’re giving Leo a little brother! While I wouldn’t mind having a girl… well, I just fear that if we did that she’d have all sorts of issues with the virus out there and all…”

Riley grabbed my shoulders. “Travis… it’d be okay. Just trust me on that, okay?” I looked at him oddly before I just nodded slowly. Sometimes it was better to stay in the dark on some of the things he said. “We should start thinking of names for this one – I don’t want what happened with Leo to happen again.” I blushed a little bit.

“H-How was I supposed to know it’d be hard picking a name that suddenly? I expected to have at least three more months of you being pregnant before you gave birth. Which, by the way,” I said as I shuddered, “was not that great an experience for me. It was just… way weird for me.”

Riley scoffed. “Well, I’m sorry if my designers at the last minute decided to move the birthing canal to–”

“Thank you, that’s enough! I was there, remember?!” I said over him, laughing. “And poor Jess – he was still recovering from the wound Kevin gave him when he passes out and smacks his head into the table!” It was definitely a sight, watching this boy bot give birth to a fully flesh and blood human being. I tried asking my boyfriend how it was even possible and he just said to leave it alone – why not just accept the gift we had between us? And I agreed at that point.

“So… how’s my brother treaing you?”

“He’s being gross again, Julian,” I laughed. “Talking about how he gives birth and all that stuff.”

Julian shook his head as he looked at Riley. “I’m just glad he told you about all that. It… It was hard not telling you that he is technically my brother.” That was a few days before Riley went into labor. He sat me down and explained that Julian had a brother that died mysteriously. But his father, also part geneticist, saved a sample of his son’s DNA and, with working with my own parents, used that DNA to base the look of the bot. And Riley assured me that, according to his scans of Julian’s brother’s DNA, that if he had been designed fully as female, the brother was androgynous enough to pull it off.

“I don’t know if you know this, Julian, but… I-I do have most of Eric’s memories inside me.” Julain flinched a bit.

“Y…You do?” he asked warily. “Prove it.”

Riley thought for a moment. “Shall I talk about the time when you thought it was a good idea to piss Eric off enough right after he caught you in the nude jerking it and, as punishment, he locked you outside in the main corridor for nearly half an hour?”

Julian blushed deeply. He stared hard at me. “You’d do well to not repeat that. Ever.” He spun to face Riley. “And you, Eric, would do well to delete that memory from your files. Now.” And he stalked off, mumbling as he did so.

“Speaking of…” I said once both Riley and I calmed down. “Did… did you want me to start calling you Eric now that you know it’s what you were supposed to be named? I mean, it is after Julian’s brother and everything…”

He thought about it. “Up to you. If you want, we can at least make that my middle name since I’ve taken on your last name. Then I’d feel almost… fully human again.”

“For now, I think I’ll probably stick with Riley just because I’m already used to it.” I frowned a bit. “Riley… do you think it’s safe living here now?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well… I mean with the Separatists deciding that they’re no longer content with the current situation, we’re not all that far away from being attacked. Last reports I heard is that Uranus has become the latest battleground and they might even be pushing back into Saturian space soon.”

“Maybe we should wait and see,” Riley said but he too frowned. “This is our home and all… but I think if we need to move, then we do so. Can we afford it?”

“I think so. And if we work for Dawson for a while, I assume there’ll be a paycheck with that as well, so if we need to cut back a bit… I think we can do it. Hell, I did it for eight months, remember?”

“We’re never going have to do that again, I promise. I’ll see to that.”

The two of us walked to the nearest viewport and gazed out into space. I still hadn’t heard anything from Mom or Dad and, as much as it pained both me and Jesse, we moved on. It wasn’t our biggest worry any longer. Sure we still wanted them to come back but both of us knew that it was more and more unlikely. I finally realized that I think we were holding ourselves back by hoping against hope for their return. And even if they are still alive, I think they’d want to see us doing great for ourselves and not moping over what could have been.

Riley and I watched as new orbital defense systems were being put into place around the station. We could see at least five of them scattered about the star-filled vista. It signaled a change in the times as peace crumbled all around us. Kevin’s attempt into luring kids away for some not totally known reason wasn’t the only one. Several reports found their way to both Hanson and Dawson about several others on some of the other stations – even one or two as far inward as the Mars Orbital stations. It seemed that someone on the Separatist’s side of the fence found a new way to try and claim the solar system for themselves at the expense of the well-being of some of the Earth Government’s kids.

I could hear the drums of war resonating throughout the station.

Some sort of change sat on the horizon, leaving me feel ill at ease.