No Space for Family [Chapter 24]
I somehow managed to sleep through the night with only a few nightmares of my mom and dad getting separated. When I woke up, I heard the sound of power tools being taken to the outside of our ship. Since Terren was already up and out of the room, I guessed it was him and Dad fixing up the door.
The common room was empty again. I made myself breakfast from the synthesizer and ate it alone. About halfway through eating, Dad came marching up from the back of the ship toward the cockpit.
“Morning, kiddo.” He said, nodding at me. There didn’t seem to be anything different about him.
“Morning,” I answered, pretending I was still half asleep.
I heard his voice as he settled in. “Okay, let’s see if it works. Fingers crossed.”
I set down my food and joined him in the cockpit. “What are you doing?”
Dad glanced back at me. “We’re going to see if we properly integrated the new hatch into our systems. So we can operate it properly. Terren’s outside to see if it will open. Ready?”
“Ready, Dad,” Terren answered through the intercom.
Dad fiddled with the systems screen, accessing the appropriate on-screen button. I heard a mechanical grumbling back in the hallway before the lights in the cockpit and common room suddenly shut off. “Dang,” Dad mumbled.
“Oops,” I added lowly.
I heard the patter of my mom descending the ladder from the loft. “What’s going on, Jeff? Why are the lights off?”
Dad twisted back in the seat. “Trying to get the new hatch hooked in. Probably just blew a fuse in the auxiliary system.”
Mom stood at the door, head shaking and arms crossed over her chest. “And how do we fix that?”
Dad shrugged. “The new hatch probably needs a voltage converter. And we can just synthesize a new fuse for the system, three minutes at max.”
“And what happens if we pop a fuse that runs the synthesizers themselves?”
Dad huffed and shook his head. “Well, we’re here on a civilized, settled planet. They probably have a synthesizer or even a fuse or two at the ready.”
Mom moved her hands to her hips. “I thought you didn’t want me going to Sakura for help.”
“Who said anything about her? I’m sure they have a warehouse or something nearby here.”
“We won’t be here forever, you know,” said Mom, leaning in. “Those goons might show up again. We need to be prepared for anything, have the ship ready and fixed.”
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes as I wavered back and forth between each of my two parents. “Stop! Mom, we can get this fixed. Don’t run off with Sakura! You’ve got to trust Dad!”
“Run off?” Mom scoffed, looking me in the eyes. “Sola Rae, what makes you think… Mom?”
Grandma chimed in with a sweet voice. “Yes, dear?”
“What have you been talking about with Sola?”
“What, I can’t talk with my granddaughter now?”
Mom stepped out into the common room, talking up at the ceiling. “Did you say something about Sakura to her?”
“Grandma said that you were in love with her once,” I recounted.
Mom laughed for a second before gritting her teeth. “Mom, Sola… you both have this situation all wrong. Yes, I did have a… fling with her. But I think she liked me more than I liked her. As the colony grew, though, she got more and more attached to her work. She had less time for me, and so we both decided to break it off. Which is when I met your father here, Sola. And I’ve never been happier.”
“Except for this whole thing right now,” I grumbled, wiping at the bottom of my eyes. “Because nothing is going right?”
Mom scoffed and smirked. She was smirking over my head at Dad, who was at the door of the cockpit, smirking too and shaking his own head. “Plenty is going right,” she said. “We’re all together, working as a family, all safe and sound. I think… we’re all just a bit overwhelmed now.”
Dad pulled me in and rubbed at my shoulder. “But thank you for reminding us what we need to focus on, Sola.”
“Mhm,” Mom nodded. “Which is to get Grandma Aida back in her body so we can more easily watch over her. Before she puts more weird thoughts into her grandchildren’s minds.”
All three of us nodded in quiet understanding, my dad still hugging me from behind. Terren marched up to join us in the common room. “What’s going on? Why’s nobody saying anything? Oh god, it’s all dark up here. Did something happen?”
Dad let go of me and sent me off with a push to my back. “Just blown a fuse.”
My brother huffed. “That’s why the intercom cut out. I was waiting, then I decided to come back in through the cargo bay. Mom, are you okay?”
My mom slumped her shoulders and turned back to face my brother. “If Grandma Aida ever told you anything… compromising about me or this family, you would tell me, right? Before you accepted it as fact?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind,” said Mom with a shake of her head, stepping past him. “I’m going to… wash my face.”
“What is going on?” Terren asked, staring up at the ceiling. “Grandma?”
“I won’t say anymore,” Grandma replied. “Nothing again you, dear.”
Dad stepped up. “Hey, this new hatch of ours isn’t going to reinstall itself. Open up the fuse panel and find which one popped so we can push its schematic to the synthesizer.”
“Sure…” sighed Terren, wiping his brow.
After much fuse replacing and fiddling with wires and power converters, I watched as the space hatch opened under its own power and computerized instructions. It was kind of noisy, slow, and none of the paint matched the Ora’s color scheme, but it did what it was supposed to. Terren stood on the outside of it, clapping in my direction as it finished articulating open. “About time. Hey Sola, give Dad a yell to make sure it will close back down on its own.”
I almost nodded and did as asked when I spotted something crossing the landing platform off in the distance. “Wait now, what’s that?”
My brother shifted around. “Some sort of delivery for us? Something pretty big, it looks like. Did Mom or Dad ask them for something?”
Fifty Shades of Grease Publishing 