Homecoming

© 2018 by Walter Reimer


Thumbnail art by  rabbi-tom


Ding.

“Attention please. The ship will outphase in one minute. Repeating, one minute to outphase in the This Far System. We will dock at Magus Station on schedule at sixteen hours station local time. Thank you, and thank you for choosing us.”

Ding.

Meredith sighed and saved the game. Her paladin had finally reached the same level as Varan’s kobold mage character. The Frozen Kingdom had been reanimated thanks to the crystal dragon’s gall bladder, but something still seemed a bit . . . off.

The Kingdom’s inhabitants seemed a bit too friendly. The higher one got in the game, the harder and more devious the game’s AI system would get. Of course, it wasn’t a true AI, or it would never have been allowed across the Imperial border. The palomino mare shut down the game, deactivated the padd and folded it up, tucking it into a pocket of her skirt.

The skirt was magenta, with four pockets across the front and a weighted hem to keep it from flying up if the gravity fluctuated. She’d paired it with a bright pink blouse. She was almost home now, she reasoned, and there was no reason to be nondescript any longer. She’d had to turn in all of her Naval uniforms.

Besides, she’d always liked pink.

The time was fifteen-fifty; the liner was on schedule, so she should start making her way to the embarkation lounge. So far the voyage had been completely uneventful, and she had taken the time to play through a few game scenarios, catch up on her reading (the works of Althea Richter were undergoing their fifth return to popularity), and do a little research into Transcosm, the freight company that her mother had told her about.

The company was six years old, founded on and based at God’s Armpit, and only recently opened its branch on This Far. The ship they were basing on Meredith’s home planet, the Kiss Me in the Dark, was a twenty year old freighter. The ship weighed eighty thousand tons, certified for bulk freight, and recently upgraded with a new life support suite. Its engines were Mark XIV, two upgrades higher than the originals. It was rated for a crew of twenty-five.

So, a middling-sized ship with old engines but a new life-support system. Meredith thought it over and decided she could live with that, and had accessed available job offers elsewhere in the system. Her parents would have expected her to do that.

The overhead lights in the embarkation lounge flickered as the ship dropped out of hyperspace. The palomino mare slung her carryall over her shoulder, made one last check to make certain she hadn’t forgotten anything, and stepped out of her quarters. The door wouldn’t open for her if she had to go back unless she hunted up a steward.

Magus Station was still rather small in the lounge monitors, but it was visibly getting larger as the liner drew closer. At a certain distance the ship would dump its momentum until it was motionless relative to the station, and tugs would bring it in the rest of the way. Trying to finesse a ship the size of a liner into dock, unaided, was a sure recipe for disaster.

Meredith sat in the lounge, tapping her hooves against the carpeted deck absent-mindedly until she noticed the looks the few other disembarking passengers were giving her. Her ears dipped and she settled further back in her seat.

The mare was forced to admit that she was nervous. Her discharge report from the Confed Navy stated that she had resigned “due to political reliability concerns,” and although she’d protested there was nothing she could do. Would Transcosm hire her despite the record, and if they didn’t hire her, who would?

The only sure thing was that her parents would welcome her home. Marie would likely hug and fuss over her more than her birth mother, Thea; her father Javid was usually the more reserved of the trio. And Varan . . .

Varan still loved her. Of course they’d continue writing to each other; that was a given. Meredith had, during the voyage, toyed with the idea of emigrating. She had a useful skill, but the logistics were daunting. The fact that she couldn’t eat the same food as a shlan was just one of the factors arrayed against her, so the palomino had dropped the idea.

A tiny tremor caused her to blink and look up at the monitors. The liner had docked, exactly on time, and as soon as the dock crews reported it’d be clear to disembark. She stood up and this time ignored the other passengers as she headed for the hatch.

Two stewards stood guard over the portal. As Meredith reached the exit one of them, a stout fox, touched a paw to one ear and nodded to his fellow employee, who hit the proper door code. Both smiled as the door slid open, and the fox said, “Thank you for flying with us.”

“Thank you,” Meredith said with a polite smile and walked through the passenger gangway.

“Meredith! Over here!” and the mare’s ears swiveled to her left at her father’s shout. Yes, they were there –

And both Thea and Marie were pregnant. They hadn’t said anything about it in recent letters.

Meredith grinned and took off at a run toward her parents, all three of them gathering around her and hugging her, exchanging kisses and nuzzles. Finally Meredith pulled back, tears glimmering in her eyes. “I-I’m so glad to see you – “

“And we’re glad to see you, my little Sunflower,” Javid said. The stallion’s fur color was a deep gray, like a storm cloud. Thea, her birth mother, had the same golden palomino coat, while Marie’s fur was piebald, with patches of white interspersed with two shades of brown. “How was your flight? Do you have any baggage?” That was her father; businesslike.

“No, Dad, this is all I have,” Meredith replied, shrugging the shoulder that was carrying her bag, “but look at you two!” She stepped back and looked at her mothers at arm’s length. “You’re both beautiful! When are you due? Colts or fillies?”

Marie laughed. “Javid asked if we were ready to hear more hooves in the house. In another eight months you’ll have two baby brothers.” Javid looked proud, although his ears dipped a bit.

“That’s wonderful,” and she gathered the two older mares close and hugged them again. “What time does the shuttle leave for the surface? I want to get home so bad I can taste it.”

Javid glanced at his watch. “Another half-hour,” he said, “so while we head to the dock you tell us what’s been going on.” The quartet started moving to the area reserved for craft headed planetside.

“I’d rather listen to you three first,” Meredith said. “Mom said that you went to talk to Mr. Ukwehe. I hope you didn’t kick up too much of a fuss.” Her ears flattened as she saw her father’s jaw set.

“I told that elephant that I didn’t vote for him, or for inclusion in the Confed, just to have the Navy shit on Colonials,” the stallion said. “And that’s all I did. Marie and Thea both got on me for even going to the Administrator,” and he frisked his tail to smack both of his wives on their rears. They both gave him a mutual side-eye, as if promising repercussions later.

“I read up on Transcosm,” Meredith said, changing the subject. “They look like a good company.”

Thea nodded. “I told them that you’d go and see them after you get used to being back home.”