FSE

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2593-18

"Captain, we're docked at the station," Jeff called to Eric.

"Understood." Eric replied, then went back to holding Tyson and making faces at him. He was lying on his back, in the middle of the mat. Tucker was crawling around him, with Trevor and Tony in tow. Trevor seemed to have taken his brother's crawling as a challenge and had begun following him about the day after Tucker's excursion out of the room. Tony was only now starting to be ambulatory, and still wobbled about as he followed his brothers. Thomas and Terrence were seated just outside the crawlers's circuit, talking together. Their babbling regularly turning to laughter.

Eric sighed. "Alright everyone, you have to get back to your cribs for a while. I need to make arrangements to bring you to see your uncles." He sat, then carefully stood. The disappearance of his body from the ground seemed to confuse Tucker for a moment, and then he went to crawl around the two talkers. He placed Tyson in his crib, it was now three times larger, they all were.

Eric was happy he'd paid a little more for the upgrading model. They would be able to accommodate his sons until they were three or four years old, depending on how quickly they grew.

He turned to decide who to pick up next. He didn't want to interrupt the conversation, and then noticed that Tony seemed to have lost track of the brother he had been following. He was crawling toward Eric's desk. He wasn't worried about his son getting hurt, he'd sprayed a foam coating on the deck's base, as well as every hard surface in the room. Still, he was alone so getting him would disrupt the least people.

A few paces and up in Eric's arms Tony went. The toddler laughed and wriggled. "You're going to be another flier, aren't you? As soon as you're able you're going to take advantage of the zero-G room and I'm going to have to get one of the others to bring you back." He placed him in his crib. "Tell you what. You wait a few years before you do that, and I'll do my best to get comfortable floating around in it too. Deal?" Tony bounced in place and babbled. "I'm going to take that as a yes."

To avoid causing troubles, Eric picked up Tucker and Trevor next, cradling one in his each arms. As soon as they were in their crib Tucker stated crying. Eric no longer needed the display to tell him what his son wanted. It was his 'I'm unhappy' cry.

"It's just for a while, Tuck." Tucker didn't like his crib, hadn't ever since he'd started moving.

Trevor lied on his back, waved his hands up and then tried to bat the holographic images that appeared before him. Thomas and Terrence were the last in their cribs, and continued babbling at each other.

Eric went back to Tucker, who was still crying and thought about picking him up again, but the manuals he'd read all advised against giving into the non-purposeful crying, as they called it, so the child wouldn't associate it with getting his way. He still felt remorseful as he left the room to his son's cries.

Robert almost bowled Eric over.

"Sorry," the hyena said, running by him. "got to go." He had a pack over his shoulder.

For a moment Eric wondered why he was in such a hurry, but then remembered, they were here for a week. He'd probably booked a vacation spot and wanted to make the most of it.

Gerald was coming out of his room. "Going to surprise Malia at her lab."

"You have fun." Eric barely had the time to say before the fennec vanished.

The mules came out of theirs, waved at him and disappeared too. Everyone was in such a hurry, Eric thought, but he supposed it made some sense, this was their first extended stop in years, well, since they'd been hired.

Even Jeff had a small pack in hand as he left his room.

"Going to enjoy the time off?" Eric asked.

The jackal hesitated a moment, then looked at the exit, now in sight. "I guess. I'm getting a room on the station, might do some simulated fighter piloting."

"I hope you have fun then."

For a moment, it looked like Jeff wanted to say something, then he headed out.

By the lack of noise on the ship, everyone else had already left. Eric stepped out of the ship, planning on going to the shuttle location office to explain his needs. He could do it over comm, but preferred handling that face to face.

He took one step in that direction, and stopped. Six tigers were standing a few meters away. Eric smiled, then his mouth dropped in astonishment.

"Dad?"

Eric's father ran to him, hugged and lifted him, then spinning him. They attracted glares from the passerbys.

"Dad, put me down. This SolGov space, they don't go for big display of affection."

The older tiger put Eric down, and then kissed him passionately. Eric ignored the throat clearing, and few mentions of 'perverts' he heard as he kissed his father back.

Francis looked around and glared back at the few glaring at him. "If you don't like it, just don't watch."

"Dad, come on, this isn't home, you need to respect the way they do things here."

"And what are they going to do if I don't?"

"They could fine you."

Francis rolled his eyes. "I'd like to see them try."

"Dad, what are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're on the station, you actually got into a shuttle and flew into space."

The older tiger's ears reddened. "Ah, yeah. Well, you see, your brothers decided they didn't want to wait for you to get to Earth to see their nephews, and there was no way I was not going to be the first to see them, so I had to hop on with them."

Eric grinned. "So how was the flight?"

"Nerve wracking."

Eric's brothers joined them and Eugene was the one to speak. "We had to take turns fucking his face to keep his mind off the fact he no longer had his feet on the ground."

"That made the trip just about bearable," their father commented.

"How do you feel now that you're here?"

"Not as bad, I can tell myself I'm inside a building, although I can't believe how cramped everything is. The corridor leading here was barely three body wide."

Eric chuckled. "Space is valuable in space, so everything's built smaller."

"This is all good and nice," Edison said, "But the reason we came here is to see the new family members. How about you take us to them already?"

"Pretty impatient," Eric teased, as he turned back inside the ship. "You'd think that after waiting six months, a few more minutes wouldn't be all that bad."

"This is a work day, we had to take it off to come here," his brother replied.

Eric walked in, hands on the rungs readied himself for the gravity shift. "When did you become such a workaholic?" He asked once his stomach settled back and he'd climbed in the ship.

"You haven't been around enough," Eldwyn said, "But he's always been one."

After the last of his brothers was on the ship they turned to look down at their father, who was standing ninety degrees to them.

"How am I supposed to do this?" Francis asked.

"Just walk in Dad." Elliot said, exasperation in his tone. "Grab the rungs and when you feel the gravity change pull yourself up with your hands." Then grumbled something too low for Eric to hear.

"That's disconcerting," their father said once he was in the ship.

Eric led them to his and the baby's room. To his surprise, it was quiet. Everyone had fallen asleep.

They stood before the cribs and admired the babies. Barely above a whisper, Eric made the introductions. When he got to Terrence, his son opened his eyes and cooed at them, which made the adults ohh in wonder. The extra sounds woke the others, and once he'd introduced everyone, he picked up his children and handed them to his brothers and father.

After a few moments of comparing them and talking to them and smiling at them, they decided it was time to head out of the ship.

"You don't need to bring anything," Francis said, as Eric started putting things in a bag. "I dug out the old table from when you were babies. I had a tech make sure it was in good working order and it's fully stocked. It won't be as efficient as this one, but it should be okay for a few days."

"How about cribs?"

"I pulled out those too."

"Alright then." Eric led them out, climbing the ladder first to help the others. Handling the gravity shift one handed wasn't always easy. With his help, even his father made it out without trouble.

Elliot was the last one out, and he handed Trevor to their father, "Guys, you head down without us. Me and Eric have some business to discuss that can't wait."

Francis needed a moment to settled both babies in his arms. "Are you sure? We can wait."

"I don't know how long this is going to be, you go on, we'll get our own shuttle."

The others nodded and left.

"What do we need to talk about?" Eric asked, keeping the concern out of his voice.

"Let's get back in the ship. I don't want us to be overheard." He turned and went back in.

Eric followed him, wondering why Elliot wanted to talk about the sabotage here rather than back on Earth. Once back in the ship, the access closed, and locked.

By reflex Eric contacted the lock, to make sure it was fully engaged, and discovered he couldn't contacted it. He looked at his brother, who'd walked away from him, fist clenched. Eric sent a message to Uncle, but it wouldn't go through.

"Don't try contacting Uncle, I ordered a communication quarantine for the ship," Elliot said, his tone cold.

"Elli, what-"

"Don't. Don't play innocent, what? You and Uncle think I'm some kind of idiot? That I wouldn't find out you two have been colluding behind my back?"

"We haven't-"

"Right," Elliot sneered, "So that gigantic file you received what what? The entirety of our family's sex recording? Did you have them transferred to 3D? Maybe full sensory? Because I never realized we had so much of it before."

"Elli, calm down, we weren't colluding."

His brother glared at him. "Then, why the hell did his send a copy of himself to you?"

"He wanted more information about the attack."

"And he couldn't have you send that to him?"

"He didn't want to risk you intercepting it?"

"And why not? Did he find you caused it?"

"What? Of course not! You know I'd never do that...but it was one of my crew."

Elliot gave him a flat look. "Really? Was it supposed to be a secret? Who else was it going to be? Like the way you've been sending me vague reports about what you were doing to figure out who it was, wasn't a clue. So, who was it? Jeff? Marc? William? The mules?"

Eric sighed. "It was Will, but he didn't mean to."

"Excuse me? He brought enough explosive on your ship to punch a hole in the array and he wasn't planning on using them? What? Is there an explosive market on Titan I don't know about?"

"He didn't know it was explosives." Eric tried to access his desk, but he couldn't. He was locked out of everything on the ship.

"How the fuck could he not know that?"

"He was told it was just going to be something to cause me troubles. Look Elli, if you give me access to my desk, I compiled a full report. I was going to give it to you once we were at headquarter. I'm sorry I kept things vague, I wanted to handle this my way."

"Go ahead."

Eric pulled the file out and sent it to Elliot.

"So, you're going to take the responsibility for the three billion or so we lost?"

"I thought the food pod was found."

"They'd already emptied most of it by then. Well, at least you incarcerated him." Elliot commented, his eyes moving back and forth.

"I didn't know that."

"We didn't advertise it. Old Emiolet had a field day with how we can't fulfill our contracts."

"Did we lose any clients over this?"

"Not yet, but I had to-you did what?"

"Elli," Eric said hands up to placate him. "Before you get angry, let me explain."

"Before? You fucking think I'm calm? Do you have any idea how hard it's been for me not to scream at you while you showed us your kids? It's too fucking late for 'before'. And now I just find out you spent six hundred thousand on a personality adjustment on the guy who blew a hole in my array? How the fuck are you going to explain that to me."

"He a good employee-"

"He blew a hole in my array!"

"He was used, Elli. You read that part, right?"

"Then he's an accessory. He still cost me billions."

"And what would you have done with him? Sent him to prison?"

"I certainly wouldn't have spent money on him."

"What would that have accomplished? He would have rotted away for the rest of his life. Here he can still work. Hell, he can work the damage off."

"He isn't going to live long enough to work that debt off."

"Fine, then I'll pay the difference, if that's what it takes to make you happy."

Elliot stared at his brother for a moment, and then laughed. "You? How the fuck are you going to pay that?"

"I have my account, that can easily cover the personality adjustment. My part in the corporation has to be enough to cover the rest, I'll give you that."

Elliot's mirth stopped. "You're willing to give up your name for him? Are you fucking in love with the guy?"

"No, but I think he's more valuable to us working than-"

"Stop! Fucking stop trying to play me. Stop talking money and tell me the real reason."

Eric sighed. "He's my friend. One of the very few friends I have. Yes, I care about him. I know he screwed up, and it's an expensive one, but I don't want to lose him. He can't betray us anymore."

Elliot glared at Eric then sit down with a grunt. A moment later Uncle appeared.

"Ah, good. You're both still alive."

Eric checked and found he could communicate outside the ship now. He sent a quick message to his father to find out how the children were doing.

"What do you have to contribute to this?" Elliot asked Uncle.

"I'm not sure, I don't know how much you've discussed."

His father told him they were find, that Thomas was singing and Tucker kept crawling out of whoever's arms was trying to hold him. Knowing his children were well calmed Eric.

"Just take for granted that Eric explained what happened, what he did, and that I won't kill him for it."

Uncle took a breath. "Alright. Eric's theory that Vanguard is involved seems to have some validity to it. I've been able to track Xavier's movement after he was fired, and he was accosted by a man I can link to Vanguard. They met a few times at one of the restaurants on the station. I don't have a copy of their conversation, the man had a scrambler. It was very good, he also scrambled their lips, so I couldn't read them. After their last meeting they then went to a room the man took in a hotel. I don't know what they did there, but when Xavier left, he was carrying a case."

Eric received a still of the zebra leaving a room. "That's the case that was in the array."

"Xavier met William near the dock later that day. He didn't have any scramblers."

The image of William walking up to Xavier replaced the still.

"Xav," the wolf said, "How are you holding up?" Uncle had managed to find enough recording of William's voice to recreated it here.

The zebra shrugged. "I'm managing, I just wish I understood what happened. How didn't I see this coming?"

William placed a hand on Xavier's arm. "I don't know, from what you told me, everything was going okay between the two of you, right?"

Xavier nodded. "Getting ready for the kids caused a few rough patches, but I thought we're fix that."

"Look, give him some time. Like you said, the kids are stressing him. When we come back, he'll have them with him, and he's bound to be in better spirits. If you talk with him then, I'm sure you two can work things out."

"I don't know. Him firing me sounded pretty final." The zebra glanced down to where he'd placed the case, out of view of the camera.

"What's that?" William asked.

Xavier sighed. "You're going to think I'm being childish, but I want to get back at Eric for dumping me."

The wolf chuckled. "You're right, but I'd probably feel the same in your place."

"So, you'd help me?"

William looked at the zebra cautiously. "What do you mean?"

"To get back at him."

William looked at the case.

"Yeah," Xavier said, "with that."

"I don't know, what is it?"

"Something to make a mess in the ship."

"What kind of mess?"

"Long duration dyes, hardening foams, just stuff to make his life miserable for a while."

"I don't know. I have to live in the ship. I get getting back at Eric, but if this is going to affect everyone, no one's going to be happy with you."

"Put it in his office then."

"Xav, I don't have access to that. And he'd notice something like that."

The zebra sighed in exasperation. "The array then. It's going to inconvenience Robert, but I'm pretty sure he has an eye on Eric, so it's going to serve him right."

"Robert? No, you're wrong about him. He's no more interested in Eric than the rest of us."

Xavier shrugged. "Maybe you're right, but I'm pretty sure I caught him eying Eric when he thought no one was looking."

"Xav, Eric is a guy everyone is going to look at, especially when he's naked."

The zebra smiled. "Yeah, I guess so. Still, in the array, it would only be Robert there, so no real harm, right?"

The wolf looked at the case again. "I guess not."

Xavier squeezed William's hand. "Thank you. You're such a dear. Now, once you put it in place, be careful, it'll arm itself and be on a timer, but any jostling could set it off."

William nodded. And the image froze.

"They talk about mundane stuff for twelve minutes," Uncle said, "Then William leaves, with the case. Xavier remains there for an extra eight, then he leaves for the hotel where the man he met before was staying. He enters the room, and never leaves."

"Never?" Eric asked.

"I checked the hotel's record. The man ended his stay the next day, but there are no records of him leaving. I haven't been able to find evidence of tampering with the recordings, but clearly there was. I have found no trace of the man or Xavier after this. His family hasn't seen him either."

"It doesn't look like Xavier knew what was in the case," Elliot said.

"I can't confirm that. I ran a body stress analysis on him for the duration of the conversation, and that indicates he doesn't lie, but I also get the same result when he talks about himself and Eric, so he is clearly capable of beating that."

"I think he's just self-deluded," Eric said.

"Possible, but then he could still know what the case really contains, and have convinced himself it's safe. We won't know until we find him and question him."

"Okay," Elliot said, "so it's clear your wolf didn't know what was going to happen. It doesn't change the fact that he had a part in it."

"I told you Elli, I'll-"

"Don't be an idiot Eric. I'm not going to force you out of the family over a few billions. It hurt, but it wasn't fatal"

Uncle looked from one to the other, ears tilted in question.

"Eric was going to sell his shares of the corporation to cover the damages," Elliot said.

Uncle stared at him "That's your name, Eric. You sell that and you can't-"

"It's resolved," Eric snapped, glaring at Elliot. "So, now what?"

"Do you think there's anything else you can learn from the wolf, Uncle?" Elliot asked.

"No. Eric recorded his confession, that with the recording I have shows he didn't know anything about why it was done."

Elliot closed his eyes. "What I'd like to know is why Vanguard is trying so hard to make your life difficult, Eric. None of our other ships have the amount of troubles with them you do."

"None of the other ships are captained by an Orr," Uncle offered.

"Maybe I should ground you then, take away the temptation."

"What am I going to do ground-side? I have no training in anything the company needs on Earth."

"You can get retrained."

"Elliot, I don't want to learn something new. This ship, it's my life. It's where I'm comfortable, happy. If you have those new sensors for me, and if we install something to detect explosives, Vanguard isn't going to be able to do much more than try to misdirect my cargo. And I have no problem using some of my future profits to repay the lost-"

"Will you drop that already? I swear, hearing you talk you'd think all I care about is the company's bottom line."

Uncle and Eric exchanged a look.

"It isn't," Elliot said.

"If you said so," Uncle replied.

"You should be careful, Uncle. I might feel this is resolved when it comes to me and Eric, but we're still going to have a talk about you not bringing any of this to my attention earlier."

Uncle nodded. "I think this is my cue to leave." And he vanished.

Elliot leaned his head back with a sigh.

"So, I can keep the ship?" Eric asked.

"Yes, you can. I'm not happy with what you did. But like you said, this is where you're happy." He was silent for a moment. "Are you going to tell me what is it about us that makes you unhappy?"

"It isn't about you. I'm happy with I'm with you guys. It's Earth. I don't belong on it."

"I don't get how you can feel that way."

Eric shrugged.

Elliot stood. "Come one. Let's head out. I want to see my nephews, now that I'm in a better place to appreciate them.