1 Solaris IV Part 1

The space station is just peaking over the horizon of the large blue-white start as we approach. The white and dark gray of the two parts of the station contrast, and not for the better. The white Golon tear-drop portion of the station has many ships coming in and out. Like the others our ship drifts towards it.

"Nagor, prepare the ship to dock, don't hail." I tell my flight operator sitting to my left, working at the only console that still has its support beams.

"Sir, we need clearance to dock, they will confiscate our ship."

"Ah, they know who we are, I've been here before and am great friends with a certain Golon! We don't need some kind of silly clearance. Prepare to dock the ship, that's an order Nagor."

"Reegen!" My first officer yells at me for the fifth time today.

"What now?"

"Listen to your crew."

"My ship."

"Now I know why they told me not to sign up with you.", and she storms off the bridge through the broken sliding door.

"Whatever, we don't need her, it's my ship and I can run it just fine." I turn to Nagor, now the only one on my bridge.

"Sir, I would recommend not pissing off the only other human on the ship." Her mouth say the words, but her lizard eyes say others.

"Why are we still drifting, I said dock." I fall into my chair, and almost the side of it, I need to get this damn thing fixed.

Our eyes quickly adjust to the blinding difference of brightness. Advertisements echo down from the speakers overhead, all of them overlapping the hallway chatter of a school. The knock of knuckles to metal echo down the dark hall as I face Amanda.

The door slides open, one of the few that do, and her warm brown eyes are now a cold and desolate gray, right hybrid.

"Go away, I'm leaving and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"I know I can be an asshole, but for once I want to say sorry. Also Nagor gave me that look she has."

"Too late, I've already packed my bags, you can leave here without me."

"Come on Amanda, don't be like that," She shoulders past me and I jog to catch up with her, "What happened to uniting the universe? Uniting not just the galaxy, the old Amanda, the one-?"

"What did happen to that dream of ours? You seem to ignore everyone else!"

"Ok listen, they wouldn't have let me dock otherwise ok?"

"Why?"

"I might have knocked the Goldon representatives daughter up the last time I was here…"

"You did what?" She shrieks and I shrink.

"I was drunk, and she was pretty and I no clue who she was…"

"Did she abort the baby?"

"No, no, she didn't, I'm glad too."

"So did you come to settle things with her father or with your child?"

"Both, I have a sorta stable ship, an extra bed in my quarters and a promise to keep."

"What promise?"

"When I my thoughts were straight, and I found out she was pregnant, right before I left I promised her I would return and take her and our child away."

"Reegen!"

"Six."

"What?"

"That's the sixth time you've yelled at me today."

"You keep count?"

"You yell at Nagor too so we keep track and see who gets yelled at more at the end of the day."

"Uh-huh. Overall, who do I yell at more?"

"Me."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"How?"

"It's called sarcasm"

The chilled air of the station hits me like a wall. My fingers are soon freezing and I tug my jacket in closer. Striding down the hall I make a left into the administrative wing and hear from Nagor, "Why are we going to administrative, shouldn't we get repairs?"

"Neegen got drunk and knocked up the rep's daughter a few years ago."

"Yikes. So what are we even at the station for?"

"To say sorry to the rep and grab my kid and girlfriend."

"Wait what? We can barely afford money for ourselves, let alone two more people."

"We have food for a total of 5 people for 2 months."

"You've been hiding food? How did you buy it? With what money?" Amanda starts to freak out and stops me in the pastel blue corridor lined white.

"I didn't buy it. Before you say anything, no I didn't steal it, I just didn't eat half of my rations for a few years."

"Reegen!"

"Seven."

"Oh shut it. Wait, Nagor, how much have I yelled at you?"

"Twice."

"Sounds right. Let's get going."

"Ready?"

"What?"

"We're here."

"Ah."

The navy blue of the door fills my vision as much as the doorbell fills my hearing.

"Have the new bounty hunters come back yet ?"

"Bounty hunters? What's wrong Dad?" The doors hiss and I see his golden figure sitting on the bed. The silver blankets wrinkling under his wait. He has the usual milk eyes of a Goldon.

"Stop calling me that, you two dated a week."

"What's wrong?"

"Do you still love her? Juna?"

I'm quiet for a moment, "Yes."

"Find her."

"What?"

"FIND HER" He swings his arm at us and throws us out.

"That could have gone better."

"Yeah. He could have told us where the hell she was!"

"We were told to find her, but we have no clue where she is, and you are the only one who knows what she looks like, out of the three of us."

"We need to find Adrian."

"Your son?"

"Yes, he should be 12 now."

"How nice? A rebellious teenager."

"Guys!" Nagor breaks in between us, "Before we go look for answers in a rebellious teenager let's see if we can't go to a bar and find those bounty hunters."

"Nagor got a point Reegen. I know you want to find your son, but right now we need to focus on finding your girlfriend."

"Right, let's go." We walk back the way we came. My mental map slowly comes back to me and I soon stop worrying so much about finding our way and more about how much has changed. This station has lasted longer than the others. Solaris I got caught in a solar flare and Solaris II was caught by unexpected expanding, with not enough time to adjust their thrusters they burned up like Solaris I. However, Solaris III is a different story. Someone went crazy and threw the ship into the bright star. The ship went from the gold and white of Goldon, to the steel gray of the humans. They had an alliance, gold and grey. A culture developed on the station, people started to use white and blue flags to show that they were from the Solaris station. Eventually it caught on on Solaris III and the colors were incorporated into Solaris IV.

I try to get lost in the history, to forget the real reason we're here, but I can't. I take a sharp turn, I know where he is, they don't. A couple of hallways later and I'm standing in front of a door with the name Jula on it. Underneath that is the label Adrien. I take a deep breath, reach for the panel, however before I can reach it Amanda gives me a cold glare and says, "What about Jula coming first?"

"If she is dead, gone for good, Adrien needs to know he can rely on someone. It's also not custom for Goldon's to talk about missing family with children. He's not entirely Goldon though, I'm going to tell him his mother is missing."

"How can you be sure he wants to see Reegen?"

"I can't." I press the door control, surprisingly it still reads me. When the door opens I see a small boy of around twelve rocking on the floor, "Hey Adrien."

"Where's Mom? Did you kill her? Did you kill her because she had me? Because Dad wasn't fast enough? Because…" He bursts into tears.

"I don't know if I was too slow for her just yet, but I do know that I was fast enough for you. She's missing, not even your grandpa knows where she is."

"D-dad?" He sniffles and looks up at me, looks across the room at a picture. A couple of times, he does this and then nearly knocks me to the floor in a bear hug, "Dad!"

After I calm Adrien down I sit him on the bed and deliver the bad news, "I don't know if I was to late for your mother. Nobody does. Nobody knows where she is, your grandfather has his men working on finding her, but they're just look on the planet. I'm going to look at the surrounding planets. For now I want you to stay here and don't leave."

"I want to help find Mom!"

"I… I can't risk losing you to Adrien."

"Y -you know my name?"

"I helped name you Adrien. Of course I know your name."

"True." He laughs, the sound brings back memories of his first weeks that make me smile.

"I've missed you. Now go to bed."

"Let me on the mission."

"No, now please don't be the rebellious teenager Amanda calls you." The darkness envelops him as I close the door.

Adrian walks in with droopy eyes as I'm just taking a bite of my waffles, "Hey Dad?"

"Mm?" I sound through a mouthful of waffles.

"Mom has always said that no idea is any good if you don't remember it after a night's sleep. Can I go with you guys?"

"I'll make you a deal, if you can convince your grandpa to let you go, I'll let you go."

His eyes open wide, "Thanks Dad!" shouting over his shoulder as he swings around the corner into his room. Five minutes later he's rushing out fully dressed with shoes and everything.

"Hey, I'm coming with." He turns to look at me to say ok and I notice that his eyes are ice blue, like mine. The more I look at him now, the more I realize he's more human than I thought. We get to the office and before he can even get the words out George, his grandpa, says, "No. That's my final answer. Goldons don't go after their mothers. Especially men."

"Grandpa!"

"No."

"And just why can't he?" I stand to my full 5' 6", dwarfing his 4' 10". Typical height of a Goldon.

"Because it's not Goldon custom. If he goes after his mother he will be called a coward by all of his friends at school and I believe that as his father you should not want that."

"The kid wants to find his mother, let him find his mother."

"No. That is my final answer. He is a Goldon and he will be raised as a Goldon. He is lucky to be alive with those eyes of his!" George shoots back.

"Those eyes are proof that he is not just Goldon, but also Human!"

"So?"

"So he doesn't have to follow the rules as strictly as you say he does. He is also Human which means that he has a choice. He can choose to come with me or stay with you. After your attitude, I don't care about your opinion."

"If he's half human, that means he's weaker. Compared to Goldons humans are weaker and thus get harmed easier. What would happen if he died?"

I sit, in stunned silence, for a solid three minutes before, "Adrien?"

"Papa?'

"You are to stay here until I return with your mother."

"That's not fair! I can handle myself."

"That's final. Understand."

"I don't know what Mom ever saw in you." With those stinging words he turns on his heel and storms out of the office.

A week passes as we get ready to depart, the ship is loaded with supplies and repaired. "Come on Amanda! Leave your boyfriend alone!"

"Shut up Reegen!"

"Regenerate from your wounds."

"Did… did you just pun your own name?"

"I'll leave."

"I'm coming." She gives her boyfriend a quick kiss and then runs over onto the ship.

"Nagor, get us out of here."

"Yes sir." As the docking latches undo the cargo that was stuffed into the bridge due to loq cargo space shakes and one of the falls over, prompting a quiet yelp from the barrel of what is supposed to be spare parts. I put it back upright and open the lid, only to find a small light yellow colored boy with silver hair and ice blue eyes.

"Aiden Genero!"

"Hi Dad."

"You little…!"

"Mom would tell me stories about you."

"Ugh. I am such a bad influence on you, don't be a pirate."

"It sounds so fun though!"

"It's also dangerous and you would worry your mother to death."

"Does this mean I can stay?"

"Nagor, how far are we from Solaris?"

"We are going at max speed so we're almost at the next planet."

"Damn, alright Aiden. You can stay."

"Yes!" In one solid motion he jumps out of the barrel and latches his arms around my neck until I pull him off to breathe.