Kindred Souls

Chapter 5

When Cyril returned with Nina, two cycles had passed and Mitri was in his room, preparing for bed. He had been keeping track of them, of course, checking in with Cyril or pinpointing their location with the ship's security system. Every time he pulled up footage of them, Nina looked calm, Cyril looked excited, and everyone around them looked too terrified to comment.

Mitri had taken off his shirt when the knock sounded. He went ahead and opened the door, already expecting the overdue child. "Hey."

"Hello," Cyril said brightly, holding out Nina like she was a cub. "I've brought back your offspring. She is in very good condition and has already been fed. I also took the liberty of teaching her standard sign language."

Mitri took Nina and let her hug his neck, "Yeah, she looks good. Thanks, Cyril."

"It was a pleasure," Cyril bounced on their heel, "May I make an appointment to secure more time with your offspring?"

Mitri waved him off, "Just come by whenever. If Nina wants to go, I'll let you take her." He stopped and added sternly, "Anytime that I'm not sleeping."

"Of course," Cyril said with a gracious nod.

Mitri was about to close the door on them but before he did, a thought occurred. He commented, "You know, if you want your own kid, this ship probably isn't the place for you."

"I carry genes for a deterioration disease that my offspring is ninety-four percent likely to inherit and sixty-three percent likely to be affected by if they are a carrier, eighty-seven percent if they are a provider and ninety-two percent if they are self-induced." Cyril rattled off these numbers as if they could still hear the echo of them thoroughly dismantling their world. Mitri didn't actually know much about Diastorians but he did know that out of the three different biological sexes, self-induced, the ones who could reproduce asexually, were the most common. So, Cyril was almost guaranteed to have a child that would die in their arms.

"Oh, right," Mitri rubbed his neck with an awkward grimace and shrugged slightly, "You could always adopt."

Cyril smiled, amused, "I will take that into consideration."

The next day, they set course to Mydilia to fix a problem with the castle's power source. The planet wasn't part of the Cerberus Federation, but they had a peace contract with them that stipulated that vessels like the Valkyrie offered assistance in times like this.

Because there was an engineering problem, Mitri had to be part of the ground team and Cyril was a staple on the ground team so, essentially, there was no other option than to take Nina along with them. She sat on Mitri's shoulders as they exited their smaller landing craft with their small group of ten. The Mydilians were waiting for them, as the forefront, their prince, Foron. The Mydilians were a humanoid species with crystal skin and eyes like gems, constantly glowing. They wore clothing sparing, just pastel colors on loose fabric that barely covered their genitals.

The prince wore more clothing than most of his people, he wore a robe that was loose around his chest but hugged his hips tightly and stopped mid-thigh. He smiled at them with emerald eyes, "Welcome, Valkyrie. We are honored by your willingness to help us in our time of need."

The Captain bowed and they all followed suit, "It's an honor to be here, Prince Foron."

"Please, stand, we are allies and friends, Captain Corinth. Please don't bow," he offered the Captain his arm and she took it graciously, pretending to be a civilized woman. Mitri couldn't help wondering how long that'd last. "This way. My parents are eagerly anticipating meeting you."

Their guards fell in formation around the crew while the prince led the way, chatting amicably with the captain. On top of his head, Nina kicked her feet anxiously while she held tuffs of hair. Thankfully, Mitri never really cared much about the state of his hair anyway or this may have been a problem.