For a minute, no one spoke, everyone seeming to ignore Patty’s comment.
“I’ll do it,” Slate said, speaking for what felt like the first time that evening.
Patty brightened. Slate and I had discussed a plan, should the need arise, but I wasn’t sold that the need was there quite yet.
“Good. I need a strong young man like you beside me.” Patty stood up, moving toward the kitchen, where the food was laid out on our table.
“Wait. What do you mean, beside you?” I asked, following her. Maggie slipped off my foot and trudged along behind me, sitting between my feet when I stopped.
“I’m going,” she said matter-of-factly. “If it’s just the new woman being spiteful, then I’ll talk to her and explain the truth. If it’s the worst, and the Bhlat are there, we need to know.”
“Your people need you here,” Mary said, coming to my side.
She shook her head slowly. “These aren’t my people. I’m not their leader anymore. I’m just Patty. They have leaders at each Terran site, and we have people like Magnus in place to care for us. And now you.” She looked side to side from Mary to me, a sad smile on her face.
“It’s too dangerous.” I didn’t know what else to say. She made a good point. She might be the only one who could talk sense into Naidoo.
“What you all have done for our people hasn’t been dangerous? I’ve sent you across the galaxy only for you to have to kill again, and then come back to see your lives turned upside down. Let me have this. I need it.” Patty grabbed a plate, putting potato salad on it, and prepared a bun for her hamburger.
Doing something as normal as having a barbecue while talking about sending our former president on a ship to a potentially hostile Earth wasn’t the strangest thing I’d seen in the last few weeks.
Should I tell her about the Shandra? I wanted to, but I also didn’t want the details to leak out. If she went to Earth and was taken by the Bhlat, they would have ways to make her talk. I needed to keep the stone portal in our tight little circle.
“I can’t argue with that,” I said. “What do you have to say, General?”
Magnus shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “Believe me, we’ve had this discussion a few times. I never win. I support her at this point.”
Patty walked by him to the pile of burgers Nick had set down. “Damn right you support me.”
“I’ll go,” Clare said, surprising me.
“You will?” Patty asked.
“Me too.” This from Nick. “I have nothing here but some distant family I don’t even know. I’d rather be useful than static.”
“Quite the team I’m amassing. Thank you, everyone.” Patty moved back to the living room, her plate full.
Mary and I stood flabbergasted in the kitchen. Guilt coursed through me, but I wasn’t going to leave so soon after coming. We had a new life here. “Then good luck to you all.” I raised my glass of beer in the air, and we drank to their venture.
Magnus put some music on, trying to break the dark mood that was settling over the room. We chatted, ate until we were stuffed, and drank more than we should have, a group of old and new friends in our house.
It was close to midnight when people started to file out of the door, a friend of Patty’s arriving to usher everyone back to their own places.
“When will you be leaving?” Mary asked Patty as we stood by the door, the night fighting to get inside our house.
“In three days,” Patty said before turning and walking in an unstable line toward the passenger van waiting for her. Magnus and Nat were left with the dogs as the van drove away, a cloud of dust lifting as it moved down the gravel road. It was a lone sound in an otherwise silent night. The only other noise was a humming sound that echoed down the countryside every night as the sun went down, and Natalia explained it was a bug akin to our grasshopper.
“Good party.” Magnus slid his free arm around Natalia’s waist. His other arm was propping up his son Dean, who was sound asleep with his face tucked into his dad’s neck.
“It was nice to have you all over,” Mary said. I hardly heard them. The journey my new crew was about to take worried me too much. “Dean?”
I was at the edge of the front porch, my toes hanging over the first step, staring up at the sky. I saw thousands of points of light in the dark space above. Could I travel near some of them with the Shandra, or were most of those stars dead a long time ago? The chaos of the universe threatened to overtake me. So many worlds, each with their own climates, animals, plants, and insects. So many other races of beings. So much love and hate, peace and violence.
“Dean?” Natalia asked this time, and I could make out her soft footsteps on the wooden porch. “It’s okay, you know? It isn’t your responsibility.” Her hand moved to my shoulder. She was right, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was my calling.
I remembered working for a big accounting firm in New York when I first started out. They’d seen something in me: the way I worked overtime, how I was extremely affable with the clients, and how I always got the job done before the deadline. I was promoted a couple times and felt the weight of the company on my young shoulders.
One day, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was working too much, and too hard for someone in his twenties, and I ended up quitting, taking the plunge to become my own boss. I’d thought they would fall apart. There was no way they could survive without me. The thing was, they didn’t just survive; they flourished. A new guy came in, attracted some huge corporate clients, and they were on top of the world. Lesson learned: you’re always replaceable, just like I’d replaced that muscle-bound army guy in the Boathouse that night I’d met Janine.
I blinked, and the stars zoomed back out, just pinpoints of light again. “Thanks, Nat. You’re right. My place is here with my friends. We deserve a break, don’t we, babe?” I called back to Mary, who stood in the dim glow of the porch light smiling at me.
“We sure do. Maybe we can make our own little mini-Dean.” I winked at her, and we all laughed.
“If you’re getting started on that, we’re going to get going. Thanks again, buddy. See you tomorrow?” Magnus asked.
“You bet. I need someone to show me how to use that backhoe so we can get this garden planted,” I answered.
We took turns at the goodbye hugs, and when they walked down to their vehicle, Carey stopped, saying goodbye, jumping up, front paws on my thighs. I leaned down and whispered something to him. He gave me a lick and bounded off after his family. Something was still sitting on my foot after they were all down at the SUV.
“Dean, it looks like someone wants a sleepover. Do you mind?” Magnus called from the driver’s seat.
Maggie looked up at me, her pink nose glistening, head cocked to the side.
“We’d be happy to.” I wasn’t ready for a dog quite yet, but having this little girl stay over for a night seemed harmless enough. For some reason, she seemed to like me.
Soon they were down the road, leaving Mary and me in the silence of the night, outside Terran One, on New Spero. Our new home.
“We made the right decision,” she said quietly.
“I hope so.”
We sat on the porch, sipping our drinks, looking up at the strange night sky, while Maggie slept between us.
ELEVEN
“You have everything you need? Did you bring enough of that egg mixture? It wouldn’t be a trip without Nick’s omelettes.” I made the joke to cover the tension I was feeling. Seeing them loading a ship for the journey back to Earth made it all the more real. They were leaving, and Mary and I were staying behind. It felt wrong.