by Elin Peer
“Uh-huh,” I muttered and closed my eyes with a satisfied sigh.
CHAPTER 34
Plans for the Future
Athena
We spent a week at the school. I borrowed clothes from Christina and every day I made sure Tristan spoke to his mom as promised. Every day he was bubbling with stories to tell about his new friends and all the fun they were having.
Randa Christine kept us updated on the slow progress in our area, and I promised her that we would be back to help as soon as my leg was fully healed and Finn’s papers had gone through.
“I’m staying at the school,” Tristan declared one night when all us adults were still lingering at the table after a fun dinner with the kids. Most of the children had run off to read, play, talk, or be by themselves for an hour before bedtime, but Raven was curled up on Boulder’s lap, her eyes sleepy as he twirled her curly dark hair around his finger.
“I’m sorry, Tristan, but that’s not up to you,” I said in a soft voice.
“Tristan is more than welcome to stay longer,” Archer said. “He’s been very helpful in building a bridge between the two groups of children this week, and Kya and I both enjoy having him here.”
Kya nodded in support. “Tristan is gifted, polite, and no trouble at all.” She was sitting shoulder to shoulder with Archer and it didn’t escape me that their hands were under the table most of the time. The two of them were sneaking in little signs of affection when they thought no one was watching.
Finn smiled. “I’m happy you like the Northlands, Tristan, but you’re fifteen, and that means you’re too old to be a student here much longer.”
“But I love it here,” Tristan exclaimed. “I’ve made good friends here, and you wouldn’t believe how amazing they are at fighting and playing soccer.”
“Oh, I believe it,” Finn said. “But even Solo will have to move on to the next learning facility soon. Besides, your mom misses you.”
Tristan lowered his brow and crossed his arms. “Then I’ll visit her, but I’m coming back here. I’m going to be a real man like you, Archer, Boulder, and Magni.”
“Hey, you forgot to mention me,” Marco called out.
“I don’t think that was a coincidence,” Shelly, who sat next to me, mumbled.
“What did you say?” Marco asked her, but I had no doubt he had heard her.
“Nothing,” Shelly said with an exaggerated fake smile.
Marco planted his elbow on the table and spoke to Tristan. “You wouldn’t believe it, but when Shelly arrived here from the Motherlands, she was quiet as a mouse.” He sighed theatrically. “How I miss those days.”
“But, Shelly, you’re fifteen, and you get to be here,” Tristan pointed out.
“That’s not the same thing. Shelly isn’t a student,” I reminded Tristan.
“I could be an assistant teacher too,” Tristan suggested, planting his palms on the table and leaning forward.
Shelley gave him a sympathetic glance. “The reason I can be an assistant teacher is because I already graduated high school more than a year ago.”
“Told you she was a genius,” Marco raised a brow. “It’s a shame all that brainpower left no room for humor.” Marco shrugged and shot Shelly an exaggerated smile of his own. “I guess no one’s perfect.”
“I never claimed to be perfect,” Shelly said, unimpressed. “To be honest, there are days where I question everything, but you know what comforts me?” She looked at Marco, who shook his head. “It’s a comforting feeling to know that if I ever decide to kill myself, I can simply climb up your ego and jump down to your IQ.”
Marco’s lips tugged upward. “Ah, funny. So you do have a little humor underneath that academic cluster in your brain.”
Shelly ignored him and looked back at Tristan. “My time here will be limited anyway. I’ve decided that I’ll start my psychology degree after Christmas.”
Christina looked up. “Good for you, Shelly. Do you think they’ll let you start in the middle of the year?”
“My mother already spoke to the University and they’re putting together a special schedule for me that will allow me to finish my degree in two years instead of five.”
“That will make you a seventeen-year-old psychologist.” Finn shook his head. “That doesn’t sound right to me.”
Shelly shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, since I don’t see myself working as a psychologist.”
“Then why get a degree?” I asked in surprise.
“Because I’m hoping to understand some of the things that puzzle me about humans, before I move on to things that interest me more.”
“And what would that be?” Boulder asked.
“Functionality and design,” she said. “I like to optimize things, and I wouldn’t mind working for James for a while.”
“James?”
“The factory owner we visited during our field trip to the Motherlands,” she said. “Their research and design department intrigued me.”
“I’m sure you’d be a real asset to them,” Archer complimented her. “Kya could contact James if you’d like.”
Shelly shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I think I’ll get my psychology and engineering degrees first.”
“Why stop there?” Marco teased. “Why not throw a few extra degrees on top while you’re at it?”
Shelly angled her head and I got a feeling that she was analyzing Marco, breaking down his words and deciphering them to determine if he was serious or not. She had very little facial expression, so it was hard to read her, but her eyes shone with intelligence. “Maybe I’ll study more later, but with the two degrees I should be close to nineteen or even twenty like you are now.” She looked at him. “Maybe I will be as mature as you then.”
“Maybe,” Marco said with a grin. “And maybe you’ll be as blissfully happy as me.”
Shelly frowned. “I doubt it.”
“Don’t be negative.”
Shelly shook her head. “I’m not being negative. But if ignorance is bliss, I can hardly expect your level of happiness, can I?”
Marco started laughing using a sing-song voice. “Shelly, Shelly, Shelly, how empty my life will be without you.”
She stiffened, as if waiting for an insult to follow, and when it didn’t come, she looked confused.
“We’ll all miss you,” Finn said, and the feisty girl, who was battling with Marco with the intellect of an adult, blushed red for a second, reminding us that, genius or not, Shelly was still just a fifteen-year-old girl with her own insecurities.
“If I can’t stay here at the school,” Tristan said. “Can I go to a different school and study aerodynamics? I wanna build hybrids like you have here. They are so much cooler than the slow drones we have in the Motherlands.”
Archer leaned forward. “I have a friend who designs drones; we went to school together.”
Tristan’s eyes lit up. “That’s what I wanna do. Design them, build them, and fly them.”
Archer and Finn exchanged a look and Archer shrugged. “I could ask Wrestler what route he took to get there. Maybe he’ll take Tristan on as an apprentice or something.”
Tristan was on board right away. “Yes, that would be spectaculious.”
Finn frowned. “That’s not a word.”
“It’s slang,” Kya informed him. “I use it too.”
“Come here,” Finn told Tristan and when he came close, Finn grabbed his shoulder in a tight grip and pulled him eye to eye. “If you want to stay here in the Northlands, you gotta quit using girly words like that.”
Tristan nodded, a serious expression on his face.
Archer took back the conversation: “The only thing about asking Wrestler for help is that I fear he’s not going to be interested once he hears that Tristan is a Momsi.”
When Kya and Christina objected to the word, Archer held up his hands. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but a male from the Motherlands doesn’t get much respect here. It’s not your fault, Tristan, it’s
just how things are.”
Tristan’s face fell and he slumped down on a chair next to Finn.
“You know what,” Finn said and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Maybe it’s time for that paternity test. If you are my son, then you’re a real Nman, and that’s all Wrestler needs to know.”
“How are we going to make a test like that?” Tristan asked.
Finn gave him a sly smile. “You leave that to me. I’m a doctor, after all.”
Tristan sat up a little straighter and looked around the table. “Do you all see the resemblance between me and Finn?”
“For sure,” Marco said. “But that’s a good thing, Tristan.”
Finn flipped Marco a finger and tousled Tristan’s hair. “Don’t listen to him. I’m a handsome son of a devil and one day you will be too.”
“Tristan is already handsome,” Shelly said matter-of-factly, and studied the boy before she added, “Maybe even pretty.”
Boulder, Archer, and Marco protested while Finn covered Tristan’s ears.
“There’s no need to insult the boy, Shelly,” Archer reprimanded her.
“What did I say?” she asked and looked to Christina and me. “I only said Tristan was pretty, how is that bad? I wouldn’t mind being pretty, but I’m not.” With Shelly’s severe acne and large bushy eyebrows she was anything but a beauty and she was fully aware of that fact.
“You didn’t say anything wrong, Shelly,” I said with a soft smile and placed my hand on top of hers. “I’m sure Tristan understands that you meant to pay him a compliment, and I bet he’s puzzled by the men’s objection to being called pretty.”
We all looked at Tristan, who confirmed my words with a small bob of his shoulders. “It’s not a big deal.”
Boulder snorted. “Take it from us four men. In the Northlands you don’t call a man beautiful or pretty unless you’re inviting him to a fight.”
“Which is another reason why staying here isn’t a good idea, Tristan,” I said. “You don’t understand their culture and it’s a dangerous place for a boy like you. Not all mentors are as nice as Archer and Marco.” I didn’t look at Finn when I said the words. I knew he understood my concerns after he had shared his traumatic story with me.
“I’m not a small kid,” Tristan said with his brows drawn inward. “I can take care of myself.”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” Finn took another sip of his beer. “Why don’t you go back to the boys and enjoy your time with them?”
Before Tristan left the room, he looked at Raven, who had fallen asleep in Boulder’s arms. “Cute,” he said and smiled, but his compliment only made Boulder tighten his protective hold around Raven.
“Why are you doing the paternity test?” Marco asked Finn when Tristan was gone. “I know he looks like you, but there’s no way he can be your biological son.”
“I know,” Finn said and turned his glass of beer. “But it doesn’t matter. If Tristan wants me as his father, I would be proud to call him my son. I’ll tell him that the test was positive.”
“Ah,” Marco nodded and considered the matter. “Or you could adopt him like Boulder and Christina adopted Raven.”
“Hold on, Tristan isn’t an orphan,” I interjected into the men’s conversation. “And you should never lie about something that important.”
Finn took a sip of his beer. “Then I’ll just say that the test is inconclusive but that it was almost a match. Either way the boy is under my protection.”
CHAPTER 35
Secrets
Finn
It was still dark outside when an insistent beeping woke us up.
“Are you going to answer that call?” Athena asked and yawned.
I groaned and accepted the call. “Boulder, this better be important.”
“I’m sorry to wake you up, but Christina has been nagging me for an hour now, and I’m tired of fighting with her.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Sorry about your domestic problems, but what does it have to do with us?”
Boulder gave a heavy sigh. “It’s about that paternity test you talked about –when you said that you weren’t really going to make it because there’s no chance you’re Tristan’s biological father.”
“Yeah?” I asked. “What about it?”
“The thing is that Khan doesn’t want anyone to know about this, but we Nmen have been donating our sperm to the Motherlands for years now. I’m not sure if Tristan is too old to be the son of a Northlander, but it started somewhere around fifteen or twenty years ago.”
I blinked my eyes open. “Hang on, even if that’s true, he can’t be my son since I never donated.”
Boulder made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a snort. “No one did. Our sperm is collected in the sex-bots and exported to the Motherlands as a part of a trade deal. The Council in the Motherlands isn’t sharing the information with their citizens either.”
Athena and I looked at each other, and my blood was rushing through my veins and heat spread in my body. “Boulder, how long have you known about this?”
“I only found out some months ago because Pearl admitted it to me.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Does Magni know?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Boulder sighed again. “Khan told me not to tell anyone.”
Sitting up, I ran my hands through my hair, not sure if I should feel angry or excited.
“Look, the chance that Tristan is your biological son is slim, but Christina hasn’t slept all night because I was stupid enough to tell her that it’s possible.”
“Shit!” I drew in a deep breath and pushed my palm against my forehead, feeling a little dizzy. “I could be a father.”
“Uh-huh,” Boulder breathed. “Look, I’m sorry to drop a bomb like this on you so early in the morning, but my very pregnant and very hormonal wife can be very persuasive.”
I swallowed hard, still trying to understand the ramifications of what he had just told me. “I need to run a test now.”
Boulder groaned. “Don’t get your hopes up, okay?”
I was already getting out of bed and searching through my medical equipment. “I’ll call you later when I get a result.”
“Good. And Finn?”
“What?”
“Please don’t tell anyone about this, okay?”
“Ha!” I snorted. “That’s a promise I can’t give you. If Tristan is my son, I’ll make sure the whole world knows.”
Boulder groaned. “Fuck, Khan is going to kill me.”
“Gotta go,” I said and got a test kit before turning to Athena. “Wait here, I’m just going to get a sample from Tristan.”
“It’s five in the morning, Finn, he’ll be sleeping,” Athena objected from the bed. I was putting on my boots and jacket and was out the door before she could stop me.
I ran to the main building where the boys’ dorm was. The thought that I might be Tristan’s biological father had my heart racing. The thought of passing on my genes and leaving a footprint in the world was exhilarating. Most Nmen lived and died without procreating, or at least we had always thought so. Now it was possible that many of us had children that we didn’t know about.
The boys were sleeping when I opened the door to their room, but the light that I let in from the hallway shone down on Tristan, who was sleeping on a mattress in the middle of the room.
“Psst…” I whispered. “Tristan, come here.”
Making a grimace, he lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the light.
“Finn?” he asked in a drowsy voice. “Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me, come here for a second.”
The gangly teenager got untangled from his blankets and pillows, and with a big yawn he joined me in the hallway. “What is it?” he whispered while rubbing his eyes.
“I just need a quick test from you, that’s all.”
“Now?” he asked with another yawn.
“Uh-huh,” I said and instructed him to open up wide so I could do a buccal swab
on the inside of his cheeks.
“Is that it?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s it.” I smiled and suppressed my need to tell him what I had just learned. “Go back to bed and dream of hybrid races and cool designs,” I told him, and Tristan gave me the same lopsided smile that I had perfected since I was a child.
Slipping the test kit into the pocket of my jacket, I made my way back to my cabin chanting one thought over and over in my mind. Please let him be my son.
Athena was already dressed when I walked in. “Can you run the test here?” she asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “But the Gray Mansion has a small lab in the basement that I use sometimes. It’s a simple test so it shouldn’t take long.”
Athena swung her hands to the door. “All right, let’s do it then.”
“You’re coming with me?” I asked with a smile, my eyes shining with excitement.
“Wouldn’t want to miss it for the world.” She chuckled and put on her jacket.
We were mostly quiet on our way to the Gray Mansion. My mind was running amok with thoughts about what it would mean to me if I truly was Tristan’s dad, and the simmering anger at Khan for keeping something this big from us.
“I hope we don’t wake up Pearl and Khan,” Athena said, when we parked outside of the Gray Mansion.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass if Khan is woken up early – the man has a lot of explaining to do.”
With Athena’s hand in mine we walked as fast as her leg would allow her. When we entered the laboratory in the basement, I turned on the harsh light and pointed to a chair by the door. “Rest your leg.”
With eager movements, I got to work and ran the test.
“Don’t be disappointed if Tristan isn’t your son,” Athena warned. “It would be against all odds that you would father a child without knowing it and then meet him fifteen years later.”
Giving her a sideways glance, I said, “A wise priestess once told me that there are no coincidences and that everything happens for a reason.”
“Yes, and now that same priestess is telling you not to get your hopes up,” Athena said with concern.
She hadn’t needed to warn me, because the test was a match.