Surefoot 76: Under New Management

He walked around silently, remembering those times when he had returned from a mission on the Furyk in the middle of the night, and was trying not to wake up Sasha or Hannah.

He looked at the corner of the doorway to the kitchen, where Sasha had run headlong into the wall and knocked out a tooth and it bled so much and he was more terrified than she was, and he had carried her out and down to the Infirmary, roaring for immediate attention for his crying tailless cub.

He looked at the bedroom he shared with Hannah, but didn't go in.

He looked at the place where his old sofa sat, where Hannah and he would lie together listening to music and watching the holographic fireplace until they fell asleep.

He looked to the wall near Sasha's old bedroom they marked to check her height... and where she would fudge the markings to make her appear taller than she was.

He looked again at the bedroom he shared with Hannah, but didn't go in.

He looked in the bathroom where Hannah would complain about the fur he would always shed in the shower stall and where Sasha once wasted most of her mother's expensive perfumes in the sink as part of one of her 'scientific experiments'.

He looked in the closet where he used to hide the birthday and Christmas presents he would get for Sasha... and where he knew that she knew where they were, and would sneak in to try and scan them with her toy tricorder to work out what he had gotten her.

He looked again at the bedroom he shared with Hannah. And this time entered. The last occupants had their double bed in a different part than Hannah and he had, obviously preparing to have the head nearer to the window.

He heard the front door open, and a familiar set of footfalls enter and approach. He turned and looked at his wife. "How did you know I came here?"

She stood at the bedroom doorway, not entering, as if wanting to be respectful of not intruding on whatever thoughts he might have here. "My vaunted Caitian tracking senses." She glanced around. "It was in here, wasn't it?"

"What was in here?"

"Where you last saw her."

Hrelle breathed in, before nodding and looking around again. "It was Sasha's eleventh birthday. We had just heard from the CMO that we could successfully have a cub together, and I had been worried about how Sasha might react to having an addition to the family. But of course Hannah had already broached the subject with her, and Sasha had insisted on it being a brother... and she wanted permission to beat up anyone who picked on him."

He smiled, and then dropped it again and looked around. "I'd received an emergency recall to the Furyk, but had come in here so as not to disturb the birthday party. Hannah had followed in, asking my opinion on where to put the crib: the wall, where the vibrations from the power couplings behind it could be felt and be soothing, or the window, so I'd have something to look out on when I was getting up for the late-night feeding and changing." He looked to Kami again. "I was volunteered for that."

"I bet you didn't argue about it, though."

"I looked forward to it." He looked out again. "I was beamed away before I could tell her I wanted the crib by the window, so our son could look out at the stars, and see the Universe spread out, his new playground. See the life that awaited him." The tears welled up in his eyes. "The emergency call was the Bel-Zon trap that killed my crew, and... and... I never saw Hannah again-I- I-"

Kami drew up to him, taking him in her embrace.

THE ADVENTURES WILL CONTINUE...