Comment if you would like to see this story as a comic!  (I am considering taking it in that direction...)

Previously...

Someone pushed someone else, and suddenly the crowd surged forward as if to rush the desk.  And just as suddenly, the guards trained their weapons on the crowd. There were screams and gasps. 

And that's when I knew this was going to be more than a minor inconvenience. 

Suggested soundtrack: Hold You in My Arms by Ray LaMontagne

-- C.

WALT KAZPIAN

When we arrived on Sota, Woodrow stayed back with the ship to fuel up, and I set off to find our passengers.  The Ringtar spaceport was ridiculously crowded.  Not with ships.  Just people.  People lining the walls.  People camping out in corners.  Ringtar was a small place, and not designed to house the entire complement of a large passenger cruiser, crew and all, along with the spaceport’s regular passengers and staff.  The desperation on some of the faces was hard to take.  How long had they been here like this?  Surely someone was doing something about the situation. 

I was about to use my wrist comm to call Merida, when a fight broke out in one corner.  Security started wading through the people to respond.  And that’s when I saw her, standing there, watching as several others did, biting her lip.  She was unmistakable, her hand to her ear, fiddling absently with the ceremonial earring there as I had seen her do so many times before.  She was definitely more galactic-looking than when I last saw her, with no trace of the clothing style of home.  Her wavy auburn hair was shorter than I had ever seen it, and her fair skin paler than before, her freckles faint.  But I had no doubt that it was her.  I would know her anywhere.

Merida could best be described as cute.  She used to complain about such things. Said she couldn’t be glamorous to save her life. I once heard Xander say to a friend of his that she needed polish, and that he would fix her up in no time. But I favored cuteness. And to me, she was still the cutest girl I had ever met.

I walked up behind her, stepping around people along the way, and inclined my head near her ear.  

“Daughter of Li’tan, I greet you,” I said, using the formal greeting of our people when meeting off-world.  She jumped and whirled around, but upon seeing my face, her own face lit up.  

“Walt!”  Then just as suddenly her features crumbled as she threw her arms around my neck and buried her face in my shoulder.  I was not prepared for this.  

“Hey.”  I could feel her body shuddering against me and I could hear her sniffling in my ear. 

“Oh Walt,” she said.  “It was so awful, and I ran out of cash to feed us, and there’s no one to take us in and – “

“It’s okay.  It’s okay.  I’m here now.  I got you guys.”  I looked down and saw the children staring up, wide-eyed, from the floor.  She was going to need to pull it together.  “The kids are looking.  Need a minute?” 

I felt her wordlessly nod her head.  

“Okay, tell me when.”  And I just held her.  I could feel her breathing start to slow and synch up with mine.  After a few seconds, she took a deep breath, released me, and turned to face me in front of the children. 

“Oh, it’s so good to see you, Walt,” she said.  She was all calmness and sunshine again.  It was amazing.

“Yeah,” I said.  “It’s been so long, we needed an extra-long hug to make up for it. And who are you guys?” I said, trying to address them the way I did my nieces and nephews.  “Oh wait, I know that one over there.  Is that Will?”  The boy, about seven or eight, with blonde hair like Xander, nodded his head.  “I remember you from when you were a baby.  So this must be Jori,” I said.  “Named after your grandmother, I assume?”

“How did you know?”  She asked, suspiciously.  She had sharp eyes, and her mother’s beautiful skin.  

“Because I know your grandmother.”  

“You know Grandma?”

“Yes, I do. And your grandfather too. And your aunt.”

“How do you know all of them?” Will asked.

“Because I live on the same planet they do.”  

“Uncle Walt and I go way back,” Merida said.  “To when we were still in school.”

“Does he know Auntie Naci?” asked Jori. 

“I do,” I said.  “She’s my sister.”

“So you’re like family,” she said.  

“Yes,” her mother and I both said at once, and then laughed.   

“Okay, then,” the girl said, apparently satisfied.  

“Ain’t nothing getting past that one,” I whispered to Merida.  

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“So, are you guys ready to go, then, Meri?”

“Let me gather our things," she said.  "Thank you so much for coming for us, Walt.”

“Anything for you,” I smiled, and she beamed back at me shyly.

“Why does he call you Meri?” Jori asked her mother as they collected their things from the floor, and started shoving them in the three backpacks sitting there.

“Because it’s my nickname,” Merida answered, zipping one backpack.  “Everyone used to call me that back home.”

“I want a nickname,” the little girl pleaded.

“You have one.  What do you think Jori is?  It’s short for Jorida.”

“I want another nickname.”

“You want a nickname?” I asked as I stuck out my hand for the backpack Merida had just zipped.  She handed it over without argument, and I threw it onto my shoulder.  “I’ll give you one.  How about ‘Pickles’?”

“Ew, pickles are gross!” both kids said at once.  

I was appalled.  “Pickles are gross?  What?”

“They mean Fairlitinian pickles,” Merida clarified.

“You mean they haven’t had Li’tanian pickles?  What have you been feeding these poor kids?  I’m starting to question your parenting.”  I winked at Jori.  “When we get to the ship, we’re having us some REAL pickles.”

Merida took Jori’s pack, and Will picked up his own, and we were off.   

A brief stop at customs allowed me to present the “tickets” I made for our passengers, and to also pick up my sidearm.  I saw Merida raise an eyebrow as I holstered my weapon.  

“Hazard of the job,” I said.  “But don’t worry.  I’ve never had to fire it.”  Which was true.  Though there had been several times in which I had to show it in order to get my point across.  

Everything checked out and we were finally able to escape the confines of the Ringtar Spaceport complex and into the relative freedom of the tarmac.  This seemed to please my passengers immensely.  I could see their faces brighten and their body language change.  Jori was actually skipping.

“Is it a big ship?” she asked.

“Not as big as the one you came from.  It’s really not a passenger vessel.  It’s more of cargo ship.  But it’s big enough.  Think of it more like a house in space, with a really big garage.”

“You live there?” asked Will, who had been relatively quiet so far. 

“I would say I live on Li’tan.  But this is my home away from home.  And I spend an awful lot of time on board.”  As I said this, we rounded a corner and there she was, in all her scratched-but-shiny silver-blue glory.

“And that’s her.  The Celeste Blue.”  

The kids ran up to get a closer look.  Merida stayed behind with me, watching them.  

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, tiredly.  “It’s been a rough…few months.”  She turned her attention away from the kids and gave me a weak smile, but in her eyes I could see there was a lot going on.  A lot she wanted to say, but couldn’t.  

“Well, don’t worry.  We’ve got you guys.  It may take a little longer to get you to your destination, though.  We’ll need to make a few stops.”

“Time is not an issue for us,” she said.  “And I can have the money wired to you.  I just don’t have any on me.” 

“Money?  What? No.  This is a favor for an old friend.” 

She smiled that blazing smile of hers and lowered her head, shyly, her pale cheeks a little flushed.  It was a beautiful sight to be rewarded with.  Worth about the cost of three dozen trans-galactic trips.  

We were interrupted by a sound ahead of us.  Row had come down the ramp in his coveralls and was calling to us.  He was probably wondering what was taking us so long to board.   

“I saw the kids on the security cams,” he said as we walked up.  He immediately enveloped Merida in a short, but warm hug. 

“Woody!” she said.  “It’s so good to see you!”

Woodrow rolled his eyes.  “You’ve been through a lot, so I’m going to let you get away with that one.  But no more!”  He waved it away with his hands.  He never let anyone call him Woody.  And Merida always called him Woody.  And though he protested every time, I think he secretly liked it.   

“So, shall we get underway?” he gestured back towards the ramp with his thumb.  

Merida went off to round up the kids, who were playing a game of chase.  Row sidled up to me as soon as she was out of earshot.  “She okay?  She looks a little rough,” he said out of the side of his mouth. 

“It was a rough place back there.  You should have seen it.”   

“I don’t doubt that, but I think there’s something more going on here.  Like, where’s Xander?”  

“Yeah,” I said.  I watched as Merida scooped up a giggling Jori with both arms and headed for the ramp, with Will following behind her.  “Come on.  Let’s get them settled in.”