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2593-24

William didn't come to Eric again for zero G training. Eric had been ready to politely, but firmly, tell him he wasn't interested in doing it. There was no need for him to deal with it in his life, not that even if he wanted to, he was too busy taking care of his kids to spend time on that.

It was what Eric was doing right now, taking care of them. Or more precisely, he was running after them, again. At least now he didn't have to worry about any of them getting out of the room, the door no longer opened automatically.

He had Tyson, Tony and Terrence seated in their cribs, currently converted into chairs. Tucker had been in his, but he'd managed to wriggle himself out of the restraints while Eric ran after Trevor, and as he watched, the largest of his children climbed down the side of the crib. Eric stood frozen the son he was holding gnawing Eric's collar tip. He'd gone for a gray shirt today.

Tucker was only ten months old, but he was doing things none of the manuals he'd read said he should. He should only now be starting to walk, not run like he was now doing, toward the bathroom. Eric considered going after him, but there was nothing for him to hurt himself with there, he couldn't even get in the shower; Gerald had installed a new lock on the door.

He set Trevor in his crib and restrained him there. He then reached under the Automated Nursery Station for Thomas, who giggled as he crawled out of his reach.

"Come on, Thomas, I don't have the time for this." Eric felt like yelling, but he knew that wouldn't help. It might frustrate him, but his son wasn't doing it to get to him, he simply saw it as a game. He couldn't wait for his children to be old enough so he could explain things to them. It would make things so much simpler.

He finally got a hand on his son, and had to restrained himself from yanking him out, instead gently pulling him close. He placed him in his crib, and with a sigh headed to the bathroom.

Somehow Tucker had found a way to climb on the counter, and he was sitting in the sink, waving a hand over the faucet turning the water on and off. He was wet from his toes to his diapers.

"Really, Tuck? Now I have to change and dry you. Can't you just stay on the floor like your brothers?" Again, he had to restrain himself as he picked him up, holding him away to avoid getting wet.

"I swear the six of you are conspiring to drive me insane." He placed Tucker on the ANS, pulled out a towel and diaper. He pulled Tucker's diaper open and took a step back. Of course, his son would have laid down one of his biological bombs. How was it that no one ever considered that with scent nullification in the fabric of the diaper, it needed to have some sort of indicator on them, as warning of the contents.

The diaper went in the cleaner, and he wiped his son clean. He talked to him, like the manuals instructed to do, but he had trouble keeping the sharpness out of his tone. Once he was dry he diapered him again and sat him in his crib.

He looked at his sons, and had to put a hand on Tucker to keep him seated. Normally he'd feed them himself, going from one to the other, but right now, he didn't want to deal with that.

He activated the ANS's feeding function, and watched as delicate hands extended from the cribs, to reach for the bowls raising out from the ANS's surface. Each hand picked one and brought it to one of the boys. As one of the fingers changing into a spoon, it spoke to the child, in Eric's voice.

Eric felt annoyance as he continued watching Tucker. It shouldn't have been sampling it, he never told it to do that. After a moment it became clear Tucker was more interested in eating than getting out of the crib, so he went to his bed and fell on top of it.

How was it that none of the manuals he'd read had said anything about how exhausting talking care of babies was? He hadn't expected it to be easy, and it wasn't, but there had been no warning in anything he'd read.

He turned on his back and looked at the gray ceiling. When was the last time he'd had sex? He thought it was this morning, someone had spent the night with him, but he couldn't remember who. He'd gone to eat something after putting his sons to bed, there had been someone there, Robert he thought, so it was probably the hyena who had slept with him, and he was an Orr, so he had to have had sex on waking, but he wasn't sure.

He glanced at his sons, giggling, and spitting food, and felt guilt stab at him. He should be there, feeding them, not letting a machine do it. He sat up with the idea of going to take the place of one of the hands, but he felt resentment at his children.

What was wrong with him? They were his kids how could he feel anything but love for them? They weren't old enough to do anything wrong yet. He wanted a break from them. He checked the ANS for its function, he hadn't gone through what the table could do since he never considered he'd want to have it take over his job as a father.

It turned out it could do a lot more. If he had bought the robotic additions, it could do every aspect of his job. Right now, that sounded like a wonderful thing. To walk away from them and let a machine deal with them.

No, he wasn't going to go that far. He was an Orr; his family didn't leave the raising of their sons to machines. But right now, letting it take over their bed time sounded like a great idea. He set that function to run once the feeding was done and before he could change his mind left their room.

Almost immediately, he was silently berating himself for abandoning them. What kind of father was he going to be if he couldn't handle raising his sons? He should have let one of the others start a family, he was clearly not up to the task. Someone ought to invent a time machine, so he could go back in time and warn himself against getting kids. While at it he should also warn himself about Xavier.

He entered the lounge and ignore the greetings he got, heading for the work out area. When Eric asked the mules to train the crew with weapons, they'd also tried to train everyone in unarmed combat. No one had taken to that, but as part of it, they'd gotten Eric to get a punching construct installed.

Eric activated that. The space before him shimmered as sand flowed in the air, kept in a humanoid shape by a complex gravity field. He punched it, his fist sank a few centimeter in it, so he made it denser. When he struck it again it felt like he was hitting something solid. He over imposed his image on it and hit it.

"You're such a failure," he grumbled. "You think so much of yourself, but you can't even handle six kids." He struck his image as he berated himself, his voice low and a growl deep in it. At some point someone called his name, but he ignored it. He was too busy hitting the loser before him.

Someone placed a hand on his shoulder. "Eric, aren't you watching your kid?"

The tiger spun. "Do I look like I'm fucking watching over them?" He yelled at the fox.

Gerald took a step back. "Eric, who is looking after them?"

"Why? Why the hell does it have to be my job to decide that? Can't you people do anything of your own? Don't any of you have any sense of initiative? Do I have to be the one telling you everything?"

"Eric," Gerald said, his tone that an adult used with a child. "How much sleep have you been getting?"

"Sleep? How the hell should I know. I can barely tell the difference these days." He could see Brack and Jeff behind the fox, both were staring in his direction with utter astonishment on their face.

"Haven't you been napping at the same time as them?"

"I have too much work to do. When they sleep it's the only time I can catch up to anything."

The fox shook his head sadly. "Alright, you're coming with me." He placed an arm over Eric's shoulder and lead him out of the workout area. "Jeff, go to Eric's room. If the kids are awake get two others and look after them."

"What are you going to do with the Captain?" Brack asked.

"I'm taking him to my room so he can get some sleep."

"I have to go look after my sons," Eric said, but he didn't resist when Gerald pulled him in the opposite direction. The fox's room was understated, he'd changed the wall's color to a sandy brown from the usual gray. He'd hung a large frame showing a grassy yard with trees, the leaves waving in the wind.

It wasn't Eric's first time in the room, but it was his first when he wasn't intent on having sex with the fox. Gerald laid him on the bed and then joined him. As soon as he felt the arms around him, Eric lost it.

He hadn't cried since he'd broken his arm when he was twelve, as a result of one of the fliers' gravity lifter being defective and allowing it to slide down the hill and clip him. The pain had been so much the tears had come, but he hadn't cried due to emotions since he'd been a kid. Now he was bawling his eyes out.

"I'm a horrible father," he said between sobs. "I wouldn't resent them otherwise. They're innocent, they haven't done anything to warrant my anger."

Gerald didn't say anything during his ranting. He didn't give him words of reassurance, he simply held him. Eric thought he should be angry at the fox. He was a father, shouldn't he be telling him things would be better? Didn't he have any words of wisdom?

Eric didn't remember falling asleep, but suddenly he was awake, and the silence in the room made him sit up. He had to rub the dried tear out of his eyes to open them, and then he saw he wasn't in his room. With a curse he moved to get out of bed, but Gerald grabbed his arm and pulled him against him.

"I need to go look after my sons," Eric said.

"No, you don't. Someone's looking after them. What you need is a break. You only slept four hours."

"That's enough, I'm feeling fine."

"And are you dozing yourself?"

Eric looked at the fox suspiciously.

"You're not the first doctor I've known. I know you guys get your implants to do interesting things like control the hormones your brain releases."

"I've been doing it here and there, when I needed it."

"What you need is real sleep."

Eric turned on his back. "I have too much to do, with my kids and the ship."

"You can't do it all."

"I should be able to, it isn't that difficult."

"Are you kidding me? Raising one kid from birth to six year old nearly drove my wife and I to split. It was two of us, plus a nannybot and we couldn't keep up. You have six of them. I'm amazed you lasted this long without a breakdown."

"I feel like a failure for not managing it."

"Aren't you listening to what I said? You've had them for ten months before you had a fatigue induced nervous breakdown. Not only that, but you barely asked any of us for help, you did all of that by yourself. A failure? You're a fucking hero."

Eric chuckled.

"What?"

"I'm an Orr, were all experts at fucking."

"That was a joke. You're definitely not back to yourself. Speaking of which, how's your sex life?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I've clocked you having twenty orgasms in sixteen hours once, and that isn't counting however more you had once you went to bed with the two mules."

"If it was with them, five or six more throughout the night. But that wasn't a regular day. I'd say that a dozen a day is my average."

"That's what I mean, you're a sex machine. Not being able to have as much sex has to be stressing you out too."

Eric shrugged. "I have to make sacrifices for my kids."

"Sure, but that doesn't mean you have to stop living."

"What do you expect me to do? Just dump them on some machine and forget about them"

"Of course not, but you can't do it alone. Trust me, it's only going to get tougher over the next few years. If you want to survive it, you need to get help. I can help, and I know the rest of the crew's willing to, but you need to get a professional, with six kids, I'd say at least two."

"Fuck, I don't have the time to do interviews. I have to deal with a few customers who changed their orders and insist on having them met."

"Can't Robert handle that? He's the cargo master."

"No, they insist on dealing with the corporation directly, and as an Orr, that's me. They wouldn't be such a pain if my last name wasn't Orr," Eric grumbled.

"Then you need to get a few nannybots. The ideal is one to a child, but on here, with space being at a premium, I'd say three should be enough."

"I thought you said I could manage with two."

"At a minimum, but nannybots get less efficient the more kids they have to deal with, and your kids are especially rambunctious. I have no idea where they get all of it."

"They can't have sex yet, they have to expand their energy somehow."

"If I hadn't been on your ship for more than a year, I'd think you're a pervert for saying that. But having seen the amount of sex you have, I'm inclined to believe you."

"Look, Gerald, I appreciate what you did, but I really should get up. I have things I need to do."

"No, what you need to do is rest. If you're too awake, we can fuck to tire you out, but I'm not letting you get out of this bed for another eight hours."

Eric definitely wasn't tired.

* * * * *

The crew, except for Jeff, who was in the pilot's seat, were in Eric's room, playing with his children. They were sitting on the mat, keeping the boys from running away.

"Okay, Gerald's made it clear I can't continue being the only one dealing with my kids. Once we reach Titan, I'll get three nannybots, but until then, I'd like your help."

"Of course, we'll help," William said.

"I..." Robert hesitated. "I'm willing to, but I don't want to have to deal with feeding them."

"No one's going to be alone with them during the day. We'll pair up. I'm not forcing anyone."

"I'm in," Jeff said over the comm.

Brick looked around. "We're all in, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"Okay, it's only until we reach Titan, and it does mean that our sleep patterns will get a little wonky since whichever pair has the night watch will probably spend it being woken up. Terrence still has a tendency on waking in the middle of the night for food."

"There's eight of us, so four teams?"

"Yes, and we'll rotate so that no one had to do the night more than once every four days."

"I don't mind always taking nights." Marc said.

"You won't be saying that after having your night interrupted a few times," Eric commented, then set about working out a schedule everyone was happy with.

"Wait, I just thought of something," Brick said. Everyone looked at him expectantly. "Does that mean you're going to start having sex with us again?"