Pandora: Liminal Space Book 2

Chapter Eight

It was nice to have his mind finally made up. Garrett skated through the next few days, researching Pandora and updating his technical knowledge. It had been a while since he'd worked in the field, and he wanted to make sure he could do the job. Fortunately, it looked like the equipment on Pandora was very familiar, and it wasn't likely that the mobile lab on board the ship taking the new colonists out would be any more elaborate.

Garret had exchanged a few messages with Jezria, indicating his interest in the position and her willingness to hire him. They'd gone over an initial contract too, but the deal wasn't completely finalized until the day before her arrival on Paradise, her last stop before heading back to Olympus to pick up people and supplies for a two-year stint. The morning before Jezria's ship was set to arrive, Garrett was sitting down to breakfast with his father and Claudia when Miles said, very casually, "So, we're expecting."

"Expecting what?"

Claudia blushed and Miles raised one eyebrow in a very familiar expression, and Garrett's mind suddenly put two and two together. "You're expec...oh, fuck, you're expecting. A baby? You two are going to have a baby?"

"Well, Claudia will be doing most of the heavy lifting," Miles deadpanned.

"Oh my god." Garrett just stared at them for a moment, as Claudia got redder and Miles started to frown. After a moment he figured out that his reaction probably wasn't the one they were looking for, and pulled himself out of astonishment and into enthusiasm. "I mean, that's great news! Congratulations!" He got up and came around the table and kissed Claudia on the cheek, then the top of her dark, smooth hair. "Let's hope the baby is as sweet as you, huh? Do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?"

"It's still a little early to be completely certain, but the preliminary scans say a girl," Claudia said, smiling now, relaxing some as Garrett expressed his pleasure.

"A girl. Perfect, then she probably will be as sweet as you. Hopefully she'll get your looks, too."

"Thanks," Miles said sarcastically. Garrett moved behind him and squeezed his shoulders briefly, then sat back down.

"Wow. Um. What brought this about?"

"Well, sex is a kind of prerequisite," Miles began, but Claudia smacked him lightly on the arm.

"We talked about it some before we got married," Claudia explained, "and we thought having a child together was something we wanted, but we weren't set on it, especially not while Miles was still in the military. But now he's out and we're going to be settled for a while, so we decided to try."

"Gran must be happy." Miles's mother, the matriarch of the Caractacus clan, had never been satisfied with her oldest son's meager contribution to the continuance of their genes.

"She doesn't know yet. No one else knows yet, we wanted you to be the first," Claudia said.

"I'm honored." And Garrett was, in a way. "Congratulations." He was spared from having to become more repetitive by the sudden chime of his com. "Please excuse me, I need to take this." He stood up from the table and walked away, silently blessing whoever was on the other end of the line. "This is Garrett."

"Garrett, good morning. It's Senator Dowd."

"Jezria! Finally! Get me the hell out of here."

"I was actually calling to discuss a small change to the contract terms..."

"I accept. Whatever they are. I'm ready to go."

"You certainly sound ready," she chuckled. "What happened to light a fire under you? And for heaven's sake, don't accept a contract before you've read it all through."

"Nothing happened, I'm just ready to go." Lies, lies, lies. "What's the change?"

"The length of stay is being changed from two standard years to three, but there's a fifteen percent increase in pay for the last year, and it turns out we will be able to make room for your personal ship."

"Three years. Excellent, that's even better." Time and distance had suddenly gained a lot of priority in his mind. "When can we leave?"

"I get into Paradise tomorrow... Garrett, are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine. How long are you planning on staying here?"

"There are some supply issues to work out with your father, but it shouldn't take more than a day or two. Will that be enough time for you to prepare?"

"Yes." An hour would have been enough time, the way Garrett was feeling now. "Perfect, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"I'm seeing Miles first thing in the morning, but if you meet me for lunch we can take care of the contract details then."

Garrett smiled. "I'll have the chef make ambrosia salad."

"You remembered my favorite, how sweet. I'll see you tomorrow, my dear." Jezria disconnected and Garrett suddenly realized he'd walked all the way back to his ship over the course of their call, as far from Miles and Claudia and their impending new addition as he could comfortably get. He sat down in a chair, strangely affected but not exactly sure how.

It was good news for them. Great news. A baby,that was big, important, life-altering stuff. Garrett was happy for Claudia, hewas happy for his dad...for himself, he didn't fucking know. Not that itmattered; it didn't concern him except in a very peripheral way. All thatshould concern him right now was getting his shit ready to leave.

The fact that he could take his personal ship was saving him most of the work,actually. There would be no need to box things up, no need to choose anddiscard. Garrett could take as much of his old life with him as he wanted to.Funny how he suddenly wanted to get rid of all of it.

His com sounded. "This is Garrett."

"Your coffee's getting cold."

"Dad! Sorry." Garrett flushed uncomfortably. "I'm heading back right now."

"Good." They disconnected and Garrett sighed, then pushed his new tumble ofemotions out of the way again and resigned himself to spending the morningtrying to be enthusiastic over something he didn't really understand the allureof. Parenthood...fuck, he personally had probably taken years off his father'slife by being such a shit son. Garrett hoped that no matter who his new siblingturned out to be, that they'd be a good kid, and not the royal terror he'daspired to.