If Jove Stray

Chapter 17: reconciling

Alcott gestured for Tyson to knock and he did so reluctantly. He didn't want to be here, she knew but his parents had gone from cryo to congress in less than a week. Tyson was only her partner because they were important.

The door slid open and Val embraced her son whether he wanted to or not. He squirmed in her grasp until she released him.

"Mother," he complained.

"Now, now. Alcott, thank you so much. Do you like cookies? The pasta is still cooking."

"I'm pregnant, I always want cookies," Alcott laughed.

They entered the berth. Tyson looked around curiously; Val and Titus had had a chance to decorate and the place was quite barren compared to Alcott's berth. She didn't have as much as some, mainly because she had taken down mementos that reminded her of Marcus. Val set a plate of peanut butter cookies out and sighed.

"So how have you found this place, Ty?" she asked. "Have you been to the printers yet? It's amazing."

"No," he replied.

Tyson didn't elaborate, and so Alcott did: "We saw my garden this morning," she said. "And Lully invited us to play baskets; I don't play. I cleaned the berth instead."

"Your garden in botany?" Val asked, looking puzzled.

"Non, it's a garden on the south side of the base. It used to be outdoors, but we wanted to protect it from the earthstorm," Alcott explained. "It contains the final version of many of our modified plants. Most of them are doing quite well."

She took a cookie. Val poured a glass of water for Tyson, who looked at it suspiciously.

"Is this one going to knock me out too?" he questioned before taking a sip.

Alcott rolled her eyes. Val looked hurt and checked on the pasta on the stove.

"I won't lie to you and say that it was your father's plan to kidnap you," Val said. "I knew you'd refuse to come. And I was selfish enough to make that decision for you. I can apologize from now until the end of time, Tyson, but I'm not sorry we saved you."

"Are you so convinced that Earth was going to be destroyed?" he questioned. "Mom, I have spent my whole life helping other people. How could you possibly think that I would be all right with being zapped from my home, my work? Those kids I was working with, kids who had been used and discarded, they grew up thinking that I was just like their parents."

"No one would sell us any more rice," she retorted. "The dust bowls were moving north and we were about to be invaded anyway. It wasn't a world worth saving."

"Invaded?" Tyson asked skeptically.

"I only know the barest detail, I didn't ask," Val replied. "I knew that if I came here without you, I would regret it the rest of my life. So feel free to hate me or your father, but what's done is done."

Tyson sighed, taking another gulp of his water. He looked a lot like his madre, with his black hair and thin nose, not that he would want to hear it now.

"So have you applied to a department?" Val asked, a little awkwardly.

"Yes."

When he didn't offer any more, Val turned expectantly to Alcott.

"We messaged Madison," she explained. "The base doesn't have anything for emotional health. We thought we'd start with her."

"From what I've heard it sounds like it might be a worthwhile addition," Val noted. "I can't imagine being here for Landing Day. Anita was telling me that some of the kids still don't speak."