Private Don't Dream It's Over

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani awoke from her stun bolt-induced unconsciousness chained up in a cell. It took time for her to remember what had happened—Folende, pirate raid, captured—and then to recover enough that she could stretch out and get her bearings.

She figured she had to be aboard one of the pirate ships. Immediately stretching out with the Force, she was relieved to find the children were close by, rather than stowed away on another vessel elsewhere in space. Sending feelings of comfort their way, her thoughts turned to escape. With the aid of the Force, she broke the chains binding her.

Now what? She could summon her sword and fight her way out, but she was one person against the entire crew. Even if she freed the others that had been taken, they were just a bunch of farmers and refugees going against a band of cutthroats. It would be a bloodbath. She rubbed her sore wrists. Could she sneak down to the hangar and take a ship unnoticed? Not without the twins. Rescuing them would likely draw attention.

Self-doubt, her old enemy, began to creep in. She felt that same awful helplessness she had on Folende, when she couldn’t fight back for fear that Marcus or Eloise might be caught in the crossfire. All she could do was run and hide. Try to protect them or, when cornered, surrender to keep them alive.

Whatever fate they were headed towards now was unacceptable, and yet she had put them here with her actions. Faced with enslavement or death, she had chosen the former, reasoning in her head that not all hope was lost if they at least survived the raid. But now she felt equally powerless to free them. The odds were stacked too heavily against her. She wanted to scream.

Instead, she focused on studying the door to her cell, the mechanism of the lock and how it might be broken. She sensed the presence of guards outside, and tried to find a pattern to their patrols. She dipped into their minds, trying to figure out which one had the weakest will. She did all this, even as she remained uncertain whether she should even bother trying to escape.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Rage, unbridled and fierce, had washed over him the moment he was alerted to what was happening on Folende. Nostre was the one who had informed him firstly, of the raid and the subsequent capturing of not just Ishani but his children too. The snowmouse was presently hiding alongside the children, where he'd told him to remain, so Arcturus had no way to communicate with their mother.

But through his familiar, he was able to keep a track on the ship.

No doubt Tamiko Sabo was left confused and disoriented by his uncharacteristic show of anger. He'd left her aboard Leviathan with the droid for company, and immediately boarded Beholder. Informed her that he would not be returning without passengers, so that she would at least have time to prepare for such. Thankfully they hadn't long since resupplied, she'd be fine in the interim.

Then he was gone in his spherecraft, with as much haste as he could muster.

He found the raiders vessel with relative ease, thanks to the squeaker onboard, and he came upon it in stealth form. Truly they did not know what was happening, and Arcturus preferred it that way. Only when his ship hooked up to theirs would they be alerted, but by that point it was too late.

Arcturus descended upon the vessel like a pack of wolves, all at once permitting the beast in his gut to take charge as it had on Kesh. A relative whirlwind, he made his way through the ship and cut down those who stood in his way with dagger or with saber, it didn't much matter. He didn't pay them a single mind; they were animals, who stole away children to be enslaved.

He would not permit them to live. Not a single one of them.

And where the dagger cut flesh and caused blood to seep he utilized that to his fullest advantage too. Tore them apart from the inside out with their own blood, seeping much of the ship in a darkness he hadn't succumbed to before. It was messy, it was loud, and the air soon filled with all manner of disgusting scents.

He didn't pay it much heed. Didn't rightly care for anything but the path forward. Some of the raiders had hidden themselves away, but with his senses heightened as they were none were safe from his wrath. He shook with rage, his skin had paled, and his veins became more pronounced.

No doubt the sounds soon reached the holding cells. There were plenty more there than the trio Arcturus sought, men and women who had come to Folende to find a new home. In his haze he paid them no heed, neither harming nor freeing them. He had one cell in mind.

As he came upon it though, he froze. Realization began to set in. Arcturus swallowed, glanced down at his bloody hands and clothes, and then around himself at the hallway. It was quiet now... Too quiet, perhaps. Some of the blood, he soon realized, was his own.

Reaching into a pouch upon his belt he pulled out a handful of stones. Paused for a moment before he drew upon the Force, and pulled the shirt over his head. Did his best to wipe off any remnants of blood that were too garish, on his face and his hands. Ignored the rest.

Then he summoned a new set of clothes from the depths of the Nether. They didn't need to see all that had happened. They did not need to be exposed to that.

Once changed, he stepped up to the cell in question and opened it to find the twins sat there cowering. Nostre was clutched within Marcus' hands; he let the Familiar remain there as he stepped forward, weapons returned to his belt, and scooped the both of them up. One in each arm, as though they weighed nothing at all.

"Heads down" he told them. "Close your eyes."

Provided they complied, he carried them from the room, faces buried into his shoulders. It was only then that he turned to Ishani's cell, a few doors down. He shifted Eloise enough that he could reach out one hand and unlock it; then he stepped back and waited.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani was staring at the lock on the door, trying to work up the nerve to break out, when she first felt a familiar presence dropping out of hyperspace. Her heart leaped in her chest. Here was help, reliable and skilled. Other thoughts entered her mind as she realized how all this must look to Arc. She remembered his last words to her. Go home and give your children the life they deserve or I'll take them from you and find someone who will.

She wrenched the lock open.

Her cell was not in the same block as the twins’, and once Beholder docked things moved quickly. Very quickly. She felt the miasma creeping in, the stench of blood and charred flesh seeping through the corridors. Intellectually, she knew what was happening—knew that Arcturus was carving his way through the ship, body by body. Her own handiwork with the guards outside her cell, one stabbed in the back and the other gutted, were nothing compared to his rapid progress. Thus did he reach the twins before she did.

Cowering in their cell they might have been, but when Arcturus opened the door Eloise flung herself at him, kicking and screaming and striking him with tiny fists and feet. She thought he was another pirate—having never seen him before, she had no reason to believe otherwise.

Marcus tried to stop her, but both were rendered inert by Arc simply scooping them up, one in each arm. Eloise was still breathing hard, her heart racing, and she covered her face with her hands, her body leaning away from him. Marcus held Nostre, and though he wasn’t exactly calm himself, he at least wasn’t whimpering with his face pressed into Arc’s shoulder.

As they were exiting out into the cell, Ishani appeared around the corner, holding her bloodied sword. She had followed the trail of gore, picking her way through a sea of body parts, corpses torn limb from limb, blood making the floors slippery. Having already sensed him, she wasn’t surprised to see Arcturus—in fact, she was thinking only of the children. She closed the distance rapidly, abandoning her sword to take them in her arms.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Eloise's feisty nature was nothing short of a relief to witness. She was willing to fight to protect herself and her brother, and as she struck against him even as he scooped her up he let out a sigh and pulled her close, regardless of how much she tried to push him away.

"It's okay" he promised, struggling to rein the beast back into its cage within his gut. "Eloise, it's okay."

Whether she believed him or not didn't matter, he had to reassure her somehow. By contrast his son was quiet, a little more measured. He didn't put up a fight, but Arcturus wasn't so oblivious as to presume that was simply due to cowardice. No, Marcus seemed to understand on some level.

He turned with them, and as he stepped into the hallway he felt her presence nearing. Eyes darted toward her, and he watched as the blade was returned to the Nether and she rushed forward. He held on tightly to the children even when she tried to pry them from him, and shook his head.

"No."

No doubt that only made the children squirm all the more, but he stared her down. Then his gaze softened.

"There are more of them," he told her, "You can't carry both of them, Ishani. Bring back your sword, we need your strength now."

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

It took her a moment to register that this was not her worst nightmare coming true—that Arc was not denying her access to the kids because he intended to take them away. Rationality swiftly took hold, especially when she noted his current state. Bloodless though his clothes might be, she saw the poisoned veins and the intensity that lingered in his gaze even as it softened. No, Arc wouldn't see himself as fit to take them, not when the evidence of the corruption he had insisted would harm them was so apparent as to be visible to the naked eye.

So he intended to carry them around while she fought off the pirates? Hmph. Maybe he just wanted to hold them. They were his children too, after all. She was willing to give him that much.

His talk of her strength seemed absurd when one looked at her. Thinner, paler, and with sunken eyes from lack of sleep, she looked like a stiff breeze might knock her down. But she called her sword back all the same.

"Are we going to kill them all and free the prisoners?" she asked, her voice strangely toneless. "Or can we only escape with ourselves?"

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"We promised them safety on Folende" he stated, now that his mind was more of his own again, "Free them. They can take the ship once it's cleared."

That probably answered both of her questions. Who knew, maybe they'd take up arms for themselves too. With the sword summoned back into existence, Arcturus nodded for Ishani to take the lead. The kids had settled some now that their mother was present. It was strange to hold them, to have them close after only having seen them through Nostre's eyes. He'd rejected his place at their side, and in this moment, even with corruption coursing through his veins, guilt gnawed in his stomach for that decision. Guilt for them, but also guilt for himself.

Part of him wondered whether he'd be willing to let them go even once they reached Beholder...

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"We promised them safety on Folende."

They had, hadn't they? Long ago as that promise had been made (longer for her than for him), it was still a promise. She'd asked the question more out of feasibility than concern over doing the right thing, but now she saw the need to fulfill a vow.

"Let's make sure the kids are safe first," she said, retracing his path of carnage to Beholder.

The pirates seemed to have wised up, confining themselves to other areas of the ship that they might more easily defend. It worked to their advantage—no one was shooting at them while the kids were in Arc's arms. The corridors were silent, empty.

Upon reaching Beholder and realizing they would be left there, Marcus and Eloise both started to raise a fuss. Neither wanted to be separated from their mother again. "I have to help the other people that were captured," she explained, taking the time to reassure them. "I'm going to be back very soon. Before you know it..."

Once they were secured, Ishani went to unlock the cell doors. Out tumbled the people of Folende, some of which became ill at the sight and smell of the corpses. "Those of you who can fight, pick up their weapons," she ordered. "We're taking the ship."

She was a bit surprised when they didn't ask questions—perhaps too overwhelmed by the sights before them—though one man muttered, "Are you sure you need help?"

Ishani shrugged. “We could use the backup.” But she couldn’t force them to fight. Not after all they’d been through already. "There's not enough room on our ship to take all of you, or else we would. If you want to get out of this alive, you're going to have to pilot this ship home once we've taken it."

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Ishani led the way back toward the ship, an easy route to track given the bloody pathway he'd formed. He made sure to keep the kids heads down, whispering quietly to the pair of them to try and soothe them as they went. And once they reached Beholder he carried them inside. Didn't pause by the doorway and plop them down to fend for themselves, no, he carried them all the way through into the meditation chamber at the far end.

"Here, look," he whispered, crouching down and setting each of their little feet to the ground. Then he gestured to the giant tank on the far wall, wherein a bunch of Starseed Jellyfish could be found. "Aren't they pretty?" The children still fussed of course, they wanted their mother, but hopefully it could serve as a distraction.

She did a good job of soothing them. Arcturus rose up to his full height, stared down at the pair of them, and faltered.

He didn't want to leave them.

He knelt back down, and this time looked to Marcus. "You have a good friend in your hands, son," he stated, the word slipping out before he could stop it. In truth Arcturus barely even noticed what he'd said. "His name is Nostremous; Do you think you can look after him for me?"

After giving the boy a task, he rose back up and turned to follow after Ishani. He made sure to lock the ship on his way out, going so far as to retrigger the vessel's stealth shield.

Then he reached for his weapons again.

Ishani was the one who released the people of Folende and explained to them the task at hand. Some were willing to take up arms and fight, others seemed less sure about it.

"Those of you unable to fight, find somewhere safe to bunker down until we're done."

He settled one hand on Ishani's shoulder, gave it a light yet hopefully reassuring squeeze, and then turned to walk away. Maybe none of them would join in, maybe they'd all remain hidden within the cell block, it didn't matter. Arcturus was going to make good on his promise.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

It was hard not to notice the tender way Arc spoke to the children; how he lingered near them, standing up only to kneel down again. Ishani heard him call Marcus “son” without the slightest shadow of reluctance or doubt, and felt her empty stomach knot.

“Okay,” Marcus replied. Then, tugging on Arc’s pants leg, he added, “Thank you,” and sat on the floor, petting Nostre. Still pouting, Eloise pressed her hands to the glass of the aquarium, looking at the jellyfish inside. Such was their parents’ final sight of the children… for now.

In the cell block, Ishani flourished under Arcturus’ light touch on her shoulder. It felt almost like old times again. She knew it wouldn’t last, but she pushed the pain of those thoughts out of her mind. They had a job to do.

More of the prisoners joined them than she expected, and soon the tide of battle was upon them. Blaster bolts flew back and forth as each side exchanged fire. With no energy shield and her ability to use the Force atrophied from four years as a Mystic, Ishani had to duck behind cover to avoid getting hit. She picked up a blaster and started firing back at them, felling several pirates that way before moving on with the others.

It was obvious that she was out of practice, though she wasn’t as weak and helpless as she believed herself to be. Arc’s presence had a powerful effect on her, making her bolder and less afraid to make mistakes. She didn’t even seem to mind the gory manner in which he slaughtered the pirates, making their way to the bridge…

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"Good boy" he whispered, glancing over the pair of them as though it might be the only chance he'd ever get to do so. "Look after one another. We'll be back soon; I promise."

Then they were gone.

When those who were willing to take up arms did so, they followed the pair through the ship. Ducking, weaving, shooting when a chance arose, even those who were not a good shot helped to bolster their ranks and give the pirates something to think about. Strength in numbers... Yeah.

Arcturus didn't rely on any ranged weapon outside of his dagger, which darted this way and that. He tried to limit his use of the Force to merely deflecting bolts as they neared him, he already had the gutbeast to contend with he didn't need further corruption to fuel his addled mind.

A bolt whizzed past him and almost struck Ishani, and in his haste to try and get in the way his arm was struck with a secondary bolt. He winced as it dissipated across his arm, and his hand hung heavier after the fact. He was down to just one useable arm for the moment, so he switched to his lightsaber instead.

At least it would be a little less messy for those left behind to clean it up.

They were nearing the bridge now. A little bit of sense returned to him and he held up one hand to halt their approach.

"Come out and drop your weapons" he called out to the remaining pirates. "The good people of Folende may yet permit you to live if you come willingly."

Whether they'd listen, he did not know. Whether he'd keep true to his word? Well that he did not know either. Arcturus wanted them dead, every last one of them, for harming so much as a single hair atop his childrens head. And Ishani... But ultimately he would bow to the will of the people at his back.

They deserved the chance to take justice into their own hands.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

The bolt came seemingly out of nowhere. Ishani sensed it coming, but couldn’t move fast enough. Arcturus took the shot for her, burning his arm in the process. As she saw pain flicker across his features, his hand hanging useless by his side, guilt filled her.

She had been relying on him too much. Even as he activated his lightsaber, the red blade drawing some stares and wide-eyed looks of panic his way, Ishani tried to cover him. Progress slowed, though they were close enough to the bridge now that it hardly mattered.

To her surprise, Arc offered the surviving pirates mercy. In her heart Ishani wanted the fighting to end. Wanted to go back to the children, wanted to take care of Arc’s wounds, wanted the corruption to fade from his eyes. She wanted a lot of things she couldn’t have, though—and these pirates deserved death.

“No,” she said, breaching the doors. “If we give them mercy, they’ll just go on raiding and killing and enslaving others...”

She trailed off, finding the bridge empty. It didn’t take long to figure out that the crew had abandoned ship and set the vessel to self-destruct.

Ishani didn’t even waste a second to curse their treachery. She simply took off running back to Beholder, hellbent on getting the kids out of there, Arc and the others in tow.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Ishani went against his plan, and stated that they would not in fact be spared. In that moment his heart soared, for in truth she mirrored his own views on the matter. And she had more right to that feeling than he did, being one of those who had been taken.

It didn't matter though, did it? Because the remnants of the pirates had already fled on some shuttle or another. And what was worse, the vessel had been set to self destruct.

They didn't have long. Minutes at most.

"Get them back to Beholder" he stated, all at once, "There's a special kind of water around the core, you saw part of it - the aquarium. Put anyone injured in there. It'll heal them, and save space in the main ship. Trust me, Ishani, they'll be fine if you do that."

He leaned in, kissed her forehead without thinking, and then ushered her and the others away.

Then he turned toward the ships consoles, and sought out their targeting systems. Regardless of what Ishani did or said to try and convince him otherwise, he moved to the console in question and sought out the shuttle they were using to get away. Not a ship, just a shuttle... It hadn't even cleared the system yet.

Arcturus locked onto it, then primed the ships weapons, specifically the torpedoes. Large amounts of damage... That's what he was going for.

Time ticked down as he set it all into motion. He likely wouldn't know if the attack was successful or not. It didn't matter, not if it meant putting the kids at risk by trying to stay and find out.

So he turned the now empty bridge, and hurried back toward his vessel.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Though Ishani had immediately turned to leave the bridge, Arcturus’ voice stopped her. She stared at him, realizing by the way that he was talking that he wasn’t coming with them. “What are you—”

He kissed her forehead. No. No. She raised her hands as if to grab him, drag him away, but something stopped her. He was out of reach a moment later, headed for the console. Through the viewport windows beyond him, she saw the shuttle rising from the hangar several decks below them, and felt the hair-raising tingle of impending death.

She fled, the people of Folende ahead of her. Beholder’s interior was unfamiliar to her, but it looked big enough to fit the prisoners they had freed. It would be a tight squeeze, and they didn’t have a lot of time. Scrambling to evacuate, she passed children along to their families and lowered the most severely wounded into the water, as he had told her to do. All the while her thoughts were on Arcturus. Part of her was angry with him for risking his life on petty revenge. Another part knew that it had to be done. No part of her was willing to lose him. Yet if it came down to waiting for him and risking everyone else’s lives, or leaving to save them and letting him die here…

That selfish, narcissistic creature inside of her which he had identified during their last meeting wanted to fight her way back to the airlock, leaving the twins behind in the meditation chamber. If Arcturus had not come back yet by the time they closed the doors, she'd fling herself through the narrowing gap. Not to die with him—she might rip a hole into the Nether to save them both. There was no way of knowing where they’d end up, and he would hate her for abandoning the kids regardless. She wasn't sure if she could even pull it off, clumsy as she was, but the thought still crossed her fevered, sleep-deprived mind as time wicked away.

Luckily, Arcturus showed up before the evac finished, preventing her from ever having the chance to do something that stupid. Ishani nearly ran into him as she was leading the last group of prisoners to the ship. Without saying a word, she grabbed him and pulled him through, the airlock sealing shut behind them. Then they were gone, spiraling out into space away from the explosion which rocked the pirate vessel—and the torpedoes which slammed into the shuttle, sending it into hyperspace in molten pieces.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

It had felt like an eternity since he first decided to step up to the consoles, and yet by the time he reached Beholder the last of the prisoners were still filing inside. He waited for them to board, before finding himself pulled through the throng by familiar hands. Ishani.

"Everyone in?" he asked, even as the airlock sealed. Arcturus moved through the ship, and for now focused on getting them detached from the vessel and out into hyperspace. The cockpit turned out to be one of the only places bodies weren't bundled into, mostly because it wasn't all that large to begin with. He sat within the pilots seat, placed the Neurocrown helmet over his head, and directed the vessel away from the soon-to-explode ship.

It wasn't until they were deep into hyperspace, on a charted course back toward Leviathan that he realized he had no actual plan for how to go about returning them to Folende.

Arcturus reached out to Ishani through the Force, urging her to join him in the cockpit. With any luck she'd bring the kids, too, get them out of the chaos. But that would be up to her...

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

She found the kids still in the meditation chamber, which was by now crowded with refugees. Both were huddled together with Nostre by the aquarium.

“No more pirates,” she announced, scooping them up. “Your… uh, we killed them all.”

The twins clapped and made noises of approval.

A tug through the Force summoned Ishani to the cockpit. With nowhere else to put them, she brought the twins.

“You rang?”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

When the cockpit door slid open, Arcturus' head was turned away from it. He could sense four presences though, not just Ishani, and his heart skipped a beat with that knowledge. He tried to push it down, for now at least, and slowly turned the chair to face them instead. A few seconds later the Neurocrown helmet was removed; Arc looked exhausted, but Ishani looked haggard. She needed to rest.

"Here, take a seat" he gestured to the copilots seat, then reached out to offer up his lap to one of the twins provided neither they nor Ishani balked at the idea now that the threat was behind them.

"Is it safe, Ishani? Folende, I mean? Can we risk bringing them back there?"

He shifted slightly to check the navigational systems. They were a little while away from the planet, but not so far that they couldn't make the trip aboard Beholder. The question was, would Ishani also expect to be dropped off there?

His heart sank at the mere thought of it. What if more of the bastards returned?

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

To Ishani’s surprise, Arc held out his arms to take one of the twins. She hesitated, not sure which one to give him, but Marcus made the choice for her by holding out Nostre as if to give him back to Arc. She laid the boy in his father’s lap.

Both twins were very distracted, looking around at the unfamiliar interior of the ship and at all the people inside. As Ishani took a seat in the co-pilot’s chair, Eloise became fascinated by the Neurocrown and tried to touch it.

“I… don’t really know,” Ishani admitted. “They’ve always had a problem with pirates, but ever since all the factions fell… I mean, I was only there for a couple hours before the raid started.” She grasped Eloise’s hands, both to keep her from fiddling with anything and for her own comfort. “Could’ve just been bad timing, I suppose, but… it was supposed to just be a quick stop, see how things were going…”

Her guilt was obvious. She shouldn’t have brought the kids, maybe shouldn’t have even made the trip at all. Folende was just a reminder of lost dreams, now forever out of reach.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Marcus was placed within his lap, and upon witnessing how the boy had tried to hand him back Nostre he shook his head lightly and managed the briefest of smiles. The general atmosphere of the ship was much too somber for anything more than that.

"Would you like to keep him?" he asked the boy, "He seems to like you."

His gaze shifted across to Ishani as she began to make her response, though Eloise naturally took his attention too. Without giving it much thought, he settled the Neurocrown helmet atop her head, after shutting the device off so that they wouldn't be redirected or anything by the mind of a child. Provided she didn't mind. Provided Ishani didn't stop him.

"Then either way you're not going back there" he decided all at once, a firmness to his tone that wasn't harsh just... unyielding. "I'll send for Vixen, I'm presuming you were using Vixen, have it returned to... Where would you like it sent to?"

He realized that he didn't much know where they were staying these days. He caught snippets here and there through Nostre, of course, but a lot of that hadn't actually been with Ishani present until more recently.

There was still the matter of the farmers though.

He sighed, and glanced around the cockpit.

"I guess I'd best ask the good people of Folende what they want to do going forward."

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“I get to have the mouse?” Marcus scratched Nostre behind the ears with one finger. “Yeah! Thank you.”

Eloise was also pleased with her new headgear. Ishani eyed Arc with a sort of half-smile. In her head she was wondering if he was somehow able to disconnect himself from the fact that he’d have to give them up soon, or if what she was witnessing was just a flagrant display of masochism.

Unless he had changed his mind…

Don’t give me hope.

“Uh, well…” She hesitated, unwilling to admit that she had no set location in mind, only a handful of ideas to check out. “We were headed for the Outer Rim.” That wasn’t very helpful, but it was the only true answer she could give.

The matter of the people was easier to focus on. “Most of them will probably want to go back,” she said. “Even if only to find out what became of their homes and loved ones. Where they go from there, we can’t say. Although judging by what Hilarion told me, most of these people were stuck there with nowhere else to go.”

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"You have to look after him, though, make sure he gets plenty of attention, food, think you can do that?"

Ishani gave her response of where she and the twins had been headed. The Outer Rim...That was a rather long trip. He was curious why, of course, there was no one out there he was aware of her knowing. But he wasn't going to stand in her way, maybe a fresh start was what she required.

"Alright. Outer Rim..."

Purposely avoiding Ishani's gaze, he looked everywhere but as he pondered over it. What was the best course of action here? Eyes fell on the children, and something in his gut twisted.

"Then I'll bring you where you're going, once we have everyone back on Folende."

Folende. Leviathan. Outer Rim.

He could do this.

But could he give it all up on the other side?

He swiveled the seat back toward the console and plugged in the coordinates for Folende; he could think about that later.

Ishani Dinn