After convincing Selai to at least eat a cookie and putting our plates on the conveyor belt, we head out to our appointment with fate. “Hey Selai,” I stop her outside the door to the meeting room, “are you sure you want to go through with this? I know the last meeting was a little rough so this is your chance to bow out if you’d like. No shame.”

I see that look I’m so accustomed to now, the ‘are you stupid’ stare. “I’m going in with you. If I don’t, who’s gonna keep you from saying some extraordinarily dumb stuff?” I shake my head and face her smug look.

“Yeah yeah. I get it. Alright…” We both take a deep breath together and nod in confidence. “Let’s do this!” We turn towards the door and step in with a new-found pride in our position. “Hell-oh…” No one is here. I glance down at my watch and turn around to my confused compatriot. “We’re still twenty minutes early.”

She exhales and lets her lips flap like a horse. “Welp…” She shrugs. We stand there staring out into the room, then to each other, then back to the room. “Now what?”

“I guess we wait.” I step into the room and take a seat at one side of the long table. I stare at Selai as she walks in behind me, walks all the way down the table, and sits across from me. “Um, Selai?”

She raises her eyebrows and looks at me like a confused puppy. “Yeah?” She seems surprised.

“Do you see what’s wrong here?” Squinting expectantly into her eyes, I place my chin in my hand, covering my mouth with a fist.

Her cheeks turn a soft yellow as her eyes start to flicker slightly. “Umm… The parents aren’t here?”

“Nooo…” Her cheeks grow brighter as she looks down at the table. “If you’re sitting there, and I’m sitting over here, where are the parents gonna sit so both of us can talk to them?”

“Oh… Duh.” She stands up without raising her head an inch and keeps her gaze with the floor as she walks around the table. It’s OK, Selai. I know that feeling. She pulls out the seat next to me and plops down, defeated. With a long sigh, she drops her head down onto the table with a familiar thunk.

“Hey! You’re learning!” I laugh at the motion I’d done so many times.

She rolls her forehead just enough to make eye contact. “Huh?” The embarrassment from before has mixed with a confusion to create a rather sad display.

“The head on the desk thing… You hit your head on the table, like how last night when I-” I’m cut off by the swish of the doors opening and five people entering the room. The first set were who I assumed to be Connor’s parents.

His father is a bit taller than me, has short dirty blonde hair and has a pair of large glasses that screamed English teacher and the wardrobe to match. His mother is wearing a sundress with a white shawl and has a similar set of glasses to her husband. Her golden hair falls onto her soldiers in a way that indicates she did her best to control it but the stress had beaten her efforts. The father looked far more composed while she looked like she spent the whole night in worry over her child - understandably so. Her eyes are puffy and red and bags had started to form under them. Behind them are probably Tyler’s parents. They’re both a little taller than average and have dark brown hair. They were dressed simply and both seemed to be in good physical condition. If I had to guess, they’re probably part in the farming group of colonizers. Much like their son, they were nothing to write home about. Finally, a hulking mass I could only assume to be Samantha’s father came in. He could only be about 6’6” but his presence was eight feet tall. He has sparse red hair on his head and his biceps are bigger than my torso. I can see the same fiery passion and fury in his eyes that burned in his daughters. This oughta be fun.

Selai snaps her head off the table as they start to enter, her cheeks still a soft gold, and we both stand as a polite gesture towards our guests. I make sure I’m the first to speak so I can at least try and take control of the situation at hand. “Hello,” I put on my best captain smile, “thank you all for coming. We have some very serious matters to attend to.”

“Where’s our kids?” Unsurprisingly, the giant that is Samantha’s father speaks first. His voice is just as loud and angry as you’d expect.

Doing my best to remain calm, I look up to his eyes. “I assume your Samantha’s father?”

He raises his head and crosses his arms in an attempt to look tough. It’s working. “Yeah, now where is she?” The other parents are all looking from him to me as if some fight is going to break out.

I gesture to the seats across from us, “Well, if you’ll have seat, we can talk about that.” There’s a reluctant silence. The two couples take their seats first and Samantha’ father follows suit without breaking eye contact. Selai and I sit once they all do. “As you all should know, I’m the Captain of this ship, but you can call me Clark. This here is my First Officer, Selai. As I said in my email, your children are all currently being held in the brig.”

The five burst out into a flurry of ‘why’s’ and ‘what’d they do’s.’ I throw my hands up in front of me and try and quiet them all down. “You’re kids are there for a reason. To be honest with you all, they’re in a whole lot of trouble. I’m not saying any of this to alarm you, just to give you the facts. When we spoke to them yesterday, they admitted to assaulting and attempting to kill a member of my crew.” The whole group seems shocked by the news. Good, that means we have a chance.

After a few seconds of them murmuring to each other, Connor’s mother speaks up, “No, you’re telling me my little boy hurt someone? He would never!” She’s on the verge of tears.

As I breathe in to respond, the sound of Selai’s voice saves me. “I’m sorry mam, but it’s true. Not only was I there when he admitted to it, we have several officer’s who can place him on the scene. If need be, we could even pull videos of the event too.” The woman is crying now. Her husband is holding her. He’s trying to console her. Selai’s voice is steady and calming. “I know this is hard to hear. It broke my heart too. But it also broke my heart to see my friend hurt. So you have to understand why we had to do this.” Looking over, Selai’s eyes have a subtle calming glow. They’re sorrowful but pleading.

Tyler’s father speaks up now. It seems like he’s starting to understand the situation we’ve found ourselves in. “Who did they hurt? This really doesn’t sound like our children.” Well, now’s the moment of truth. I suppose there’s no backing down from here.

I put on the most serious face I can and look into their eyes, I want there to be no misunderstandings. “They attacked Simon Cadwell, the head of security. They attacked him yesterday and did quite a number on him. Luckily for your kids, he’s a tough guy and should be fine. Unluckily, they did say they were trying to kill him which bumps their crime up to attempted murder.”

The man looks dumbfounded. “I don’t understand. Why would our kids attack some innocent man? This is really unlike them!” Seems they don’t remember who Simon is. I’m scared as to what will happen when I say this but… I guess I have no other options.

“Well, you may know Simon by another name.” The group all looks at me in confusion. I glance down to Selai to try and get some semblance of courage from her. “Do you know a Cain?” All five are struck with the realization of who exactly was attacked.

Suddenly, Samantha’s father slams on the table making everyone jump. “You’re telling me you locked our kids up just cause they beat up some junker?!” His face is burning with a confused anger. “As far as I’m concerned, they were doing him a favor!” Just like I was scared of, the group is silent. The other parents are all avoiding making eye contact with the two of us and I catch a few of them even nodding.

You’ve gotta be kidding me. I can feel my blood boiling. They’re agreeing with him?! “That cyborg is my head of security.” I lay onto cyborg to show that I’m not going to accept his blatant racism. “And regardless of what you think of him, your children are now criminals. In fact, it was your daughters idea. So if you want to blame someone, look at her.”

He sits back in his chair and crosses his arms. “It was Samantha’s idea? Good, she’s doing God and her old man proud.” He doesn’t break his stare at me but I won’t back down either.

But before I can even get a word out, Selai speaks up once again. “You can’t actually believe that can you?” Everyone, including me, looks over to her in surprise. “That a God would hate someone just for being a cyborg? Simon didn’t have a choice! He needed those cybernetics to live! Are you telling him you’d rather have him die?”

The behemoth across from us isn’t phased in the slightest. “I’m saying that his existence is an abomination to God. Better to have let his soul go then to trap it in that iron. Our kids were brave and tried to let his soul go. You all are punishing them for doing the right thing. Aren’t I right?” He looks to the other parents who all sheepishly nod in agreement.

Selai looks like she’s about to cry herself. I can’t take this anymore. “You all should be ashamed of yourselves.” I spend a long second staring at each one of them. “You’re teaching your kids to hate. I don’t care who it is or what group they belong to, that is shitty parenting. I thank God that my parents had the common sense to raise me better than that. I’d be ashamed to be part of any religion that spreads that kind of message.”

The beast of a man shoots to his feet sending the chair crashing into the wall behind him. He punches the table and leans forward to look down at me. “What’d you say about us?! I should beat the ever living shit out of you, tiny scrap lover.”

I’m not about to let some ignorant ass hole threaten me on my ship. I rise to meet him, staring up into his burning eyes. I don’t falter for a second. “Do it then! This is my ship! You think I’m scared of you? I’ll have a whole team of security on your ass in a second. Then you can go spend some time with your daughter. Show her her daddy’s no better than she is. Just another thug.” I see his eyes probing me. I’m not bluffing. Stand down.

After an eternity, he leans back, conceding not to turn my face into a paste. “Come on you all. We don’t have to listen to these scrap lovers. We’ll see what everyone else has to say about this.” Everyone else… that doesn’t sound good. The other four look to each other wondering what to do. They decide to get up and follow the bear out.

Once they’re all out and the doors slide shut, I collapse back into my seat. Selai looks to me astounded. “Clark! I had no clue you had that in you! That was incredible…”

“Heh, thanks. I didn’t know I had it in me either. To be honest, it took a lot for me not to pee in my pants right there.” We both have a good laugh before getting back to the serious stuff.

“So, what’s next?” She hops up onto the table so she can face me easier. Her face is back to neutral having realized that this is a bad situation we’re in.

I lean back in my chair and put my feet up next to her. “Well, we have to report this to the Corps. Maybe the Corporal will have some idea of what we should do. And if the big guy literally meant ‘everybody else’ then we could be in some serious trouble. Simon is far from the only cyborg on the ship and I don’t need more of these crazies hospitalizing my crew.”

“Hmm…” She looks down in thought and nods her head. “Yeah, we need to be sure that everyone’s safe.”

“Alright, then let’s head back to the bridge. We can call the Corporal from there.” I push back from the table and spring out of my seat.

Selai hops off the table and smiles at me. “You know? you make a pretty good captain.”