Stolen Flyght – Epilogue

Six months later…

The sun is dipping towards the horizon in the late afternoon sky when the autocab pulls up in front of the house. This is my quiet time every day when I sip some iced green tea or lemonade and sit on the porch to gaze out over the changing land. Only three weeks ago, dust and weeds had overrun the front drive, but now it’s black and shiny. The landing pads in the distance were overgrown with tall grass. Today, they’re back into working order. In a few days, Skylar will rocket down to sleep over and talk business. I’m looking forward to seeing her.

When the autocab door opens and Marcelo steps out, my heart leaps to see him. Frogger lifts his head from his spot on the porch, jumps to his feet, and runs to greet the car with his tail wagging. I groan as I get up and curse my aching hips. I’m barely three months pregnant, and yet my body is protesting like it’s been pregnant for ten years.

“Hey, boy!” Marcelo reaches down to say hi to Frogger and let the dog lick his face. “Don’t get up!” He calls out, jaunting to the porch with his hands out. “Really, Ms. Vivian, sit down. I’m sure you’re on your feet most of the day.”

“It’s nothing. I’ll be fine.” I pick each leg up and stretch out my hips, one after another. Turning to the front door, I call out, “Gus, Marcelo’s here!”

“Ah! You look great!” Marcelo ascends the stairs and opens his arms for a hug. “I’m so happy for you. Even your hair looks amazing. Bet you’re glad that’s growing back.” He chuckles. “How are you holding up?” He kisses my forehead before pulling away, and my cheeks grow hot.

“Doing good. Real good. My midwife says the pregnancy is going smoothly. No issues.” I gesture to the chair next to mine, and he sits after I do. Frogger resumes his position on the porch.

“That’s such great news. Mat must be so happy.”

“He’s over the moon. Can’t wait to get back here.”

It’s springtime on Sonoma, so Mat is home attending to the vineyard preparations, but he calls me every day to make sure I’m doing well. It was Jinzo’s idea for Mat to father the first child, and I readily agreed. Out of all the guys, Mat is the oldest, and our pregnancy could present complications because of his history with the NV virus. But we got lucky. Not only did I get pregnant during our first month of ‘trying,’ but there have been no difficulties yet. Anything can happen, but I’m hoping we’ve already been through enough troubles to last a lifetime.

“And Jinzo is…?”

I nod. “At the shipyards. Still working on the Amagi. But he’ll be home soon.” I miss him terribly.

“Marcelo!” Gus barges through the front door with more drinks in his hands, sets them down, and shares a hug with Marcelo. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too,” Marcelo says, clapping him on the back. “Ms. Vivian is doing well?”

I roll my eyes as I sip my lemonade. Everyone loves to get the medical news from Gus.

“Blood pressure is normal. I listen to the heartbeat every day, and it’s strong and regular. Weight gain is a little less than I’d like, but…”

“But I was already down from normal when we started,” I fill in. “Can we get you some snacks before dinner?”

“Sure. We should go inside.”

I take Marcelo on a brief tour of the house so he can see the progress we’ve made since he was here last. Most of the rooms are still barren, and several are being repainted. I gutted Tomu’s old room and divided it into two new bedrooms for nurseries. Lia’s room is right next door. We’re making do with gifted furniture and piles of clothes stacked in corners. At least everyone has a bed now. I slept on an ancient futon for weeks, and it was torture.

Downstairs, Mom’s old office is my office now, but when we open the door, Ken is sitting at the desk.

“Marcelo!” Ken jumps up from his spot and crosses to the door to hug Marcelo. “It’s great to see you. I hope you’re hungry. Gus, Lia, and I have been cooking up a storm all day.”

“Can’t wait,” Marcelo says, with a smile. “It’s good to see you, too. How’s business?”

“Oh, I can’t complain. Flyght is doing well, and profits are up. We’re going to spin off a luxury liner business soon.” He holds his finger to his lips. “It’s a secret, though. Don’t tell anyone.”

“It’s safe with me,” Marcelo says with a chuckle.

“Let’s go open a bottle of wine.” Ken’s eyes twinkle, and Marcelo laughs.

“Our wine cellar is fully stocked now,” I say, smiling and thinking of when Mat arrived with six cases of wine.

Ken beckons Marcelo along to the cellar stairs, and the two head down to pick out a bottle for the evening meal. I leave them to stroll into the kitchen and join Gus and Lia. A lamb stew is bubbling away on the stove, and Lia is pulling herbed rolls from the oven.

“Oh, I think these will be good, Vivian.”

She calls me by my first name now, and I love it. For the first month back home, she kept calling me ‘Captain,’ and I had to gently remind her to call me Vivian. I love having her in the house all the time. I know someday she’ll move out, so I need to enjoy this time while we have it.

She sighs, looking over the rolls and dipping her nose to smell them. “Bread is so difficult. Let’s hope they’re not rocks inside.”

“I could test one now,” I say, holding out my hand.

“They’re a billion degrees inside. So, no.” I pout as she sets them on a cooling rack.

Gus tastes the stew and turns off the stove once he’s happy with it.

“That’ll hit the spot. Those potatoes are perfect.”

“I love potatoes. Mmmm,” Lia says, moving on to assembling a green salad for everyone.

I never spend these quiet moments without a million things going through my head. We try to have a typical life here in the house and on the farm, but I know it’s far from my normality. Production on the farm is ramping up, but slower than I would like. My usual wholesale customers are asking for stuff we don’t have, and I hate having to tell them no. My discretionary spending budget is the lowest in this farm’s history, so hiring additional workers can only happen once more of our products are on sale. And that can’t happen until more of our goods are produced, but I need people to do that. It’s a maddening loop.

I’m trying to make do with our current staff, including my pregnant self. Three days ago, Alipha sent over volunteers to help us seed a fresh field. My neighbor to the north, who I only barely knew before this, loaned us her employees and wheat threshers last week. Everyone worked so hard, and I ended that day completely beat.

When the women of Ossun said we were in this together, they meant it.

I place my hand on my belly as brief flutters keep me grounded. I hope things will be running smoothly by the time this little one is born.

The sounds of Marcelo and Ken talking in the dining room bring a smile back to my face. I know I was frowning. I do that a lot while thinking and trying to strategize a way out of the mess Tomu got me into.

But we have the farm back. That’s what matters most.

“Let’s eat,” Gus calls out. He spoons the stew into a tureen, and he and Lia deliver the food to the table. Dinners around here are family-style. We can’t afford a chef or kitchen staff (yet), so informal dinners are what we’re used to.

I’m quiet through dinner as I let everyone else regale Marcelo with the tales of our farm in the last three weeks. Marcelo comes for dinner often enough that he wants to hear the gossip and the latest news from the fields. He laughs at all the stories Lia tells him of the kids playing around the empty stables, and he asks after Malina and Alipha and the other women I’ve become friends with, and I try to see often.

Marcelo finishes his stew and bread roll and sits back to rub his belly.

“What a delicious dinner. Thank you for having me again.” He cradles his wine glass in his hands. “It’s always a pleasure to come here.”

I jerk my fingers at Gus’s wine glass. “I would like my second sip now.”

He hands it over, and I stick my nose in the glass to breathe in the aromatic bouquet before I taste some. The wine coasts over my tongue, and I try to remember all the tricks Mat taught me about tasting. But I have to admit defeat. I have no idea what vintage this is. My pregnancy hormones changed the way everything tastes or smells. Still, it’s a pleasant treat.

“Mmmm. I miss this.” I hand the glass back to him.

“Mat has spoiled us all.” Gus finishes the glass, and I pout. “Don’t worry, love. We have special bottles set aside for you for later.”

He stands up. “Now, Lia, Ken, and I will clean up, so you and Marcelo can go for a walk and talk business.”

He kisses the top of my head as he walks by.

I grab a light sweater from the hooks by the front door and lead Marcelo out to the front path so we can meander around the fields and greenhouses. Maybe even stop off at the fish pond on the way home. Marcelo offers me his arm, and I slip my arm into his and hug him close as we walk.

“It’s good to see everything is coming back to normal,” he says, ambling along beside me. “I can see the difference everywhere.”

“I was so depressed, seeing how bad everything was when we returned here six months ago. I cried every night. But it has gotten better, you’re right.” I take a deep breath in through my nose. “Even the air feels clearer.”

“You’ve done a remarkable job, and you should be proud.”

I look at my feet for a bit. The praise doesn’t feel deserved, not yet, but I’ll take it.

“How is your work coming along for Athens Industries? I saw Ms. Dellis on the news the other day saying she’s developing several exploration teams for Rio.”

I school my face and keep the excitement to a minimum. Renata was so enthralled by everything she learned from me about the seeds that she’s going ahead with more plans to colonize other worlds. We’ll take the seeds from Rio and all that’s left in the archives from Earth, and we’ll develop a whole new robust plant ecology we can seed worlds with. It’s an ambitious project, but one I’m super excited about.

But no one knows the private deal I made with her to go on my own expedition to Rio after the baby is born. I want my plant, and I need to find it. Every night before bed, I look at the few dried leaves I have left and promise to be reunited with it. Someday.

I shift back to the conversation.

“Everything is coming along. Want to see what I’ve been working on?”

“Sure.”

I direct him over to the second farthest greenhouse and open the door. This is my work area just for Athens. I keep everything here on a separate water and waste system, and only I can access the space, though I’ve shown other people what I’ve been doing.

Marcelo gasps as he sees the plants and how they’ve overtaken every tray in the building.

“Yeah, it’s nuts, right? Look.” I point to the plants that are moving to catch the last rays of the sun for the day. “These are Rio and Earth hybrids I’ve been working on. Fast-growing and adaptable. They find the nutrients they need from whatever I give them in order to reach out.”

Marcelo opens his mouth a few times before speaking. “Uh, how do you stop them from just taking over the entire place?”

“A tripwire. We developed a chemical that freezes the DNA designed to make them grow. Plus, other things will kill them like pesticides, pulling their roots, fire. It’s nothing to worry about. We’re careful. The hybrids are really quite fascinating. The Earth-origin and Rio plants work well together.”

I don’t mention that I suspect it’s because they are all Earth-origin to begin with, thanks to the military’s experiments with space-time in the jump rings. That’s a mystery for another day, though.

We tour the greenhouse, and I laugh as one plant reaches out to caress Marcelo’s bald head. Almost all the plants here act like this. I have them paired to any human DNA, not just a few markers like the specialized plants on Rio. I wanted them to benefit humans and live in harmony with them, and Renata agreed that’s what we want for the future. I hate to anthropomorphize the plants, but they seem sweet and curious, even if they can’t emote or communicate. Marcelo never saw this behavior on Rio like the guys and I did. This is all new to him.

When we close the door on the greenhouse, his eyes are wide.

“I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Yeah, most people never have. I’m sure it’s weird for you.”

“There isn’t a word for how that feels.” He shakes his head. “What about the special powers? Do these plants have them?” He glances over his shoulder at the greenhouse as we walk away.

“No. These plants are neutral. We can’t have people acting like superheroes every time they eat something. These plants are all food sources with proteins we can break down. Our first priority is food for new worlds.”

“How are people going to feel about eating plants that… that can move and be affectionate?” His voice is full of concern.

“Have you ever hugged a chicken?” I ask him seriously. “People eat those all the time, even with protein printers in their homes that can make the same meat and muscle structures without killing anything.”

“As always, you make a logical point.” He sighs, and I get the feeling he didn’t think our farm tour would be so deep with moral quandaries. “Athens is paying you, right? I don’t want to go after Renata Dellis, but I will.”

We resume our walk on the path, heading for home.

“I’m glad you asked. Yes, they’re paying me. They bought everything in that greenhouse, and I’m getting a more-than-generous salary. So…” I stop him and look at him. “It’s my intention to pay for your services for Skylar.”

“Ms. Vivian —” he starts, but I hold up my hand.

“I’ve been stashing this away for you. There will be no talking me out of it.” I take his hands in mine. “You are a part of the Kawabata family now too, an employee, a friend, a confidant. I will take care of you, like I take care of everyone else. Skylar is your last client, right?”

He nods. “I believe so, though Lia has expressed an interest if I’m willing to take her on in a few years.”

I chuckle and shake my head. “Well, you could do a lot worse.” I squeeze his hands. “When you retire, you have a home here. Always. There’s nothing that would make me happier than seeing you enjoy your free time.”

“Ms. Vivian, you are too generous.” He pulls his hands from mine and slips his arm over my shoulders as we walk side-by-side.

“It’s what I’ve always wanted, to be too generous, too caring, too determined, and still have the love of my family and friends.”

It’s the best outcome I could have ever hoped for and still so many years to enjoy it in the time to come.