The Captain's Heart CH 95

Something Gralgiran was reminded of, each time he returned to Kelser and had to fly around, was just how beautiful it was. The vast green

Something Gralgiran was reminded of, each time he returned to Kelser and had to fly around, was just how beautiful it was. The vast green and brown of the forests, the paler green and yellows and reds of the plains. The gray, brown and white of the mountain, and the blue and green of the water.

Other than his family and friends on the planet, the view was what he missed the most while in space. Images on a screen didn’t give a proper sense of the vastness.

Maybe he should take an extra day, visit his family, run through the forest at the end of the property, smell the wilderness. Maybe hunt whichever animal was on the culling list.

Part of his father’s work as Forester was keeping the wildlife in balance within his district. The system involved satellites and broad range scanners to tally the numbers from each species, and when one population was too high, it was open to be hunted until their numbers were brought down. Having his father in charge of that meant getting the hunting pass was simple. A privilege he tried not to abuse.

But first, he needed to finish his duty to his hunters who had entered the Forest.

Two had been seen to; their family lived near the city. The others were in different parts of the planet, which meant a shuttle with his wonderful view to remind him of what home had to offer.

    *

It was earlier here than where he’d started the journey. Another thing he tended to forget, living on the ship with its clock standardized to Thuruksamian’s Reach, which used the capital as it’s time. And it was colder. They lived at a higher elevation. Something else he forgot. The temperature wasn’t controlled.

The house was low to the ground, spreading wide, instead of up, as was common in the cities, where real estate wasn’t a readily available. His parent’s house was similar, although they had a second story. The house had been a working home for generations, and the ground floor had housed the equipment needed to tend the land and prepare the kills, and the second floor was for living.

It was only over the last century that the ground floor had been turned into a living part of the house.

He couldn’t tell what their ancestors might have done for a living from the design of this home.

He set the shuttle to remain. He had rented it for the day, but these automated things could have a mind of their own and leave him stranded if he didn’t specify what they needed to do.

His fur fluffed in contact with the cold, but did little to hold on to his warmth. His family came from warmer climates. His mane, at least, kept his head warm, even with the side shorn short.

The door opened before he reached it, and a youth looked at him; Fluffy silver fur with darker rings through it. “I told you the scanners detected a shuttle. Mom! There some lowlander here freezing his balls off!” Then he disappeared back inside.

The door remained open, so he took that as an invitation for warmth. Mildly warmer, he realized once he closed the door.

The female that stepped into the hallway had the dark rings from the youth, but her thick fur tended toward gold.

“Hello, are you lost?”

He should have let them know he was coming. But he hadn’t wanted his visit to feel like a burden to them. It was his duty, not theirs.

“I’m Gralgiran sel Helrarvnir. I was Tremerian Forian Llowtanetoriak’s Alpha before he entered the Forest.”

Her hand was to her mouth before he gave his relationship to her son.

“I wanted to tell you in person how proud I am to—”

She had her arms around him. “He was always telling us about his Alpha and the ship he served on in his messages. He was so proud to be your hunter.”

He wrapped his arm around her. “He was a good hunter.” He didn’t add the rest of what he felt. His death wasn’t his fault. He knew that, even accepted it; somewhat. But with her here, just as with the previous two families he’d gone to. It was difficult not to feel that he had failed her. That it was his fault she had lost a son too early.

But wasn’t that the fate of most hunters? Wasn’t that what dying so others lived meant?

Not today, he always said.

Never, he wished.

“You’re shivering. I’m sorry. I tend to forget not everyone has the fur for this place. Jakmi, raise the temperature a few degrees!”

“Mom!” came the whined response. “It’s already hot enough!”

“We have a visitor,” she yelled back. “Raise the temperature!”

“It’s alright,” Gralgiran said. “I won’t be here long enough to feel it.”

“Nonsense,” she replied, pulling him in deeper. “I want you to tell me everything that my Trem got up to.”

With a chuckle, he let her guide him. He doubted he’d be able to make the exploits as entertaining as his beta would have, but Gralgiran had read the seven hunters’ file thoroughly in preparation for these visits.

    *

“Thank you again for taking the time to come see us,” the male said. The hunter’s father. Her Kreseric had been too overcome with emotion to see him out. “I know she distinguished herself, but I don’t know if you understand what it means to have you come and tell us about her yourself.”

“You deserved to know the details of what she did as my hunter. It was my privilege to recount her story.”

He couldn’t squash the surprise that the shuttle was still there. He’d realized partway through telling them of his daughter’s action that he’d forgotten to set it to stay. The day had been draining, and a midafternoon sun didn’t match how long it had been. He much preferred the set time of space.

He got in the shuttle and set it to return him to Thuruksamian’s Reach. He was too tired to consider visiting his parents.

    *

The inevitable ‘thump’ of the shuttle landing woke him. Then came the message he had arrived at Thuruksamian’s Reach. He scanned his bracelet to confirm the end of his trip and set it to return to the rental agency.

He stretched, enjoying the stable temperature, and let his eyes adjust. The station’s lighting was designed for maximum comfort, which gave it a tint that he found unnatural each time he returned from Kelser. Another thing he forgot about. He scanned his bracelet to update the station’s registry. It would also let the Bane’s commanding beta know he had returned. They’d have an incident report ready for him.

While he was the one who’d assigned the command duties, his visit to Kelser had stolen his sense of time, and he didn’t like that rare feeling of not knowing when he was.

    *

Sleeping on the shuttle had done little to chase away the tiredness of the day, so the couple walking in his directing was much closer than they should be when he recognized them.

“Mother? Father? What are you doing here?”

“What does it look like?” his father replied before hugging him.

“We knew you weren’t going to visit,” his mother said, “since you didn’t contact us. So we decided to visit you.”

“I thought about it, but I didn’t want to disturb you, and after visiting the hunters’ families, I was too tired.”

She hugged him.

He stared at his father’s mane. It was streaked with more gray than his last visit. There were treatments to keep their fur young looking, but his father had no use for them.

“These,” he loved to say, pointing at the streaks. “Are marks I’ve live the life Thuruksamian wanted for me.”

It was also a reminder that time passed. They weren’t so old he had to be afraid of either of them entering the Forest, but then again, Tharen had still been young when she’d died.

“Then you need to sit down,” she said, taking his arm and leading him to one of the restaurants that peppered the station’s halls. “And we can tell you all about what your brother and sisters have been up to.”

“You don’t have to,” he protested, knowing that could stretch for hours.

“Oh, we do,” his father said. “We need to remind you what you could get up to if you weren’t so responsible.”

    *

“And then, that brother of yours,” his father said, using the phrasing for anytime Roumalgergravnilamir did something even he didn’t approve of. “Walked out of the studio in the fur.”

Gralgiran had kept from drinking when his father started recounting the story, and was happy for it as he snorted at the image.

“You’d think,” his mother said. “He’d have enough of visiting the cells.”

“He might just like the guards,” he said, remembering the quartermaster’s behavior. His brother wasn’t that bad, but he loved to parade that body of his for males and females to admire.

“How is your Heart doing?” his mother asked once he’d finish his glass of pomoron juice.

“Better, he’s able to move about the ship again, although he stays to less traveled halls. If the crowd is of people he knows, he’s fine, but too many strangers sets him on edge.”

“And with you?” his father asked.

He shook his head and couldn’t keep his shoulders from slumping. “There’s progress. We talk through messages, but I’m just another of his friends this way. What the Earthers did to him runs so deep when it comes to me that just thinking I exist can send him into a panic spiral. I miss him so much.”

“At least you have friends,” his mother said.

“Mother.”

“I’m just saying. That Toomerimortoral Jelrasomikariotearas likes your company, I’m sure he’d—”

“Mother, I told you. I’m respecting Earther customs when it comes to me and Jeremy.”

“No custom is so widespread as being applied to absolutely everyone within a species. Divergences are always—”

He groaned, and his father chuckled. That was the danger of having an Anthropologist for a mother. She could always find cultural equivalent to justify any of her reasoning.

Except getting Roum to dress. But he attributed that to his brother’s stubbornness.

“It doesn’t matter if there are exceptions, Mother. Jeremy was raised under these. His behavior has shown me exclusivity is important to him. Going to my friend for anything more than social group activities will lead to offers of sex that I’ll have to decline, and explain why. Toom, and you, are demonstrating the problem that is.”

“Maybe you should request the Earther files,” his father offered. “I’m sure that as head of your department, you could get them to ignore the new block on anything that has to do with them.”

“What new block?” Gralgiran asked.

“Since that debacle on that station involving your Heart, the Leadership put a lock on anything having to do with them. Not quite to the extent of pretending they don’t exist, but if we didn’t have fifty years of shepherding them, I think they would.”

“I haven’t been told about that.”

She shrugged. “Neither have we, officially.”

“I was filling out the paperwork for to get access to their files when I was told they were now completely off limits to any civilians,” his mother said.

Gralgiran couldn’t think of why the Leadership had decided to basically act like they’d never made contact. He’d check with Toom. Someone in the backrooms had to know something about it.

His father placed a hand on his. “When he is over this, I want a call from both of you. I want a chance to speak with the male who can get that ‘I’ll tumble in every guy’s bed I come across’ son of mine to be willing to hold out on everyone for him.”

Gralgiran groaned at the old family nickname he’d earned within week of becoming sexually active, but promised his father they would.

Outline section 

No Outline

Addition 

On Kelser.

Gralgiran visits the families of the dead hunters.

On the return, his parents will be on the station.

This gave me a chance to show what Gral thinks of home. That he takes his role as Alpha quite seriously, and add in some interaction with his parent. And give a sense of at least one of Gral’s siblings.