Egaran Stars - 73. Faro Lost

Galen stared at the tablet blankly, his mind trying to catch up to what he had just read.

“‘Gone’? What the fuck do you mean, ‘gone’?” he demanded. “I was there, I made sure he got on the shuttle.”

“Cassandra said she lost him on the liner, not long after their jump,” Noreen said slowly. “You might not know the distances involved in travelling, but Uisge is over five hundred light years away. Even if she wrote these letters not long after boarding, they would have taken two months to get back here-”

“I don’t care about Cassandra, or the time. I just want to know where he is!”

The tiger dropped the tablet on the couch, pacing as growls rumbled through his throat. Gone… who the fuck loses a passenger on a spaceship?

“Galen, you have to look at the facts. They would have torn the ship apart looking for him. If they couldn’t find him… well, companies like this would never say it out loud, but there are a surprising number of people who go on journeys like this, who… don’t intend to reach the end,” Noreen said carefully.

The Egaro stopped cold, the feeling draining from his body as he started to understand the Xanar’s implications.

“No. No, he has me. He has his kits. He has everything to live for. You can’t tell me he would do that! He was going to come back; he promised me he would come back!”

Noreen was silent, letting the tiger reach the conclusion for himself. Dropping back onto the couch, Galen found himself curling up into a ball, every inch of his soul wracked with the knowledge that Reinard had tried multiple times, that this was exactly the kind of thing he would do.

“But there was no body… nothing…” he whimpered, knowing it didn’t matter, that Reinard would have found a way to go out without hurting anyone.

Anyone except for the tiger who had given his heart to him.

“So he went overboard,” the Xanar said. “It happens, Galen. You just never hear about it. And you probably never will. It’s been two months, with no sign of him. He got on the ship, he never got off. Reinard is gone, Galen.”

“How… how can you just sit there calmly and tell me this?!” Galen snarled. “Did he mean so little to you-”

“Galen, please,” Noreen said loudly, startling the tiger. “I’m… I’m not made of stone. I cared for him too, and this hurts. But I can’t calm you if I’m also trying to calm myself. I need distance right now, and I can mourn him after I help you.”

“I don’t need your help, HE needed your help. And you let him go, you let him…”

The tiger let out a loud sob, choking on his words. His body shook as tears flooded from his eyes, and Galen broke down, fear and anger and sorrow all rushing through him as he realized his Faro was dead, lost to him forever.