“How can you bring the kids into this? Don’t bribe me with emotion, Xuxu.”
“We can survive on the money we have.”
“What about Lulu’s high-tech fees? How can we afford to put all our kids through education?”
“There’s free education. We live on Mayleeda.”
He grimaced. “You know they’ll have less of a chance at a free institute.” He tried to soothe her rage by speaking with a gentler tone. “It’s not that bad.”
“But—”
“I’ve made up my mind. Baba and Mama need that money, and so do our kids. I need that retirement package.”
“Well, I think you’re stupid.”
He gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached. “If you miss sex, you can have an affair with my brother again.”
“Everyone thought you were dead.” Her eyes squeezed into thin amber slits. “Don’t bring that up. You know I regret it. You know how sorry I am.”
“Well, why don’t you get more of him?”
“I can’t since you sent him away. And even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to. You may not have noticed, but I have six kids to look after while their father lives on another moon.”
“It’ll be good to get away from you. You can go fuck TaoTao. I don’t give a shit anymore.”
***
YuFu waited in the living room with his kids. Xuxu had gone to have a bath, refusing to say goodbye.
Through the long window, the gas giant—Tushing—darkened a third of the blue sky across a stretching ocean. A yellow fish-shaped hover vehicle—known as a susplan—levitated over the horizon. The binary white suns glinted against its golden exterior.
YuFu breathed in deeply and scanned his teenagers. They each nodded, then walked through the hallway and climbed the ladder.
On the cliff, the susplan descended from the sky. YuFu kissed his four daughters and two sons.
“Love you, Dad.” Lulu kissed him last on the cheek, then stepped back and away, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear.
He sighed and turned towards the susplan. A hole flicked open upon the touch of his palm, and he climbed in.
As he took off, he kept the shell on opaque and lowered the lighting. He couldn’t stand to see their faces again. His kids who he’d lied to all his life about his real job. Guilt gripped YuFu’s heart as he levitated across the ocean to southern Teeyen.
Once at the groundport, YuFu took a maglev suction tube to a skyport. From there, he went through security checks and headed towards gate twelve. He’d be taking the 13:11 spaceplane to the next moon along—Tai, the closest moon to the gas giant, called Tushing.
YuFu didn’t recognise the other faces in the waiting lounge. Seven years was a long time, though it didn’t seem so long to him since he’d been in cryosleep for four.
The usual mix of ethnicities waited for their trip to Tai moon. Purple Fenuks, glittering orange and yellow Svads, a couple of
Rinideans and Minideans—the natives of Artheus, red Mulhads with long earlobes which reached their shoulders, and a couple of Nerthling Saxes—red hair and freckles.
YuFu was the only Jerjen, not that he drew anyone’s attention. He kept his gaze down, and his mood dark. A couple looked his way but quickly turned their stares.
Things were wrong with him and Xuxu. They had tried hard since his memory came back. But he couldn’t forget she’d been sleeping with his brother.
His kids’ fondness for TaoTao hadn’t declined since YuFu returned, and he suspected Xuxu’s hadn’t, either.
He let out an old man’s sigh and turned his gaze through the Biluglass window. It would only be a brief journey through the stars, nothing like cryosleep between solar systems.
The End
Map of Mayleeda Moon
Map of Planet Eeporyo
List of Characters
Aedre: An ex-MSS RTT agent friend of YuFu’s.
Akachi: An ex-MSS RTT agent friend of YuFu’s. Aedre’s husband.
Baba: YuFu’s father.
Crowleen: A crow and human hybrid time-traveller.
Empress of Eeporyo: Rules planet Eeporyo. In the leader of the United Wheel of Eeporyo. Half cat, half human.
Foster: An MSS agent friend of YuFu’s.
Grace: An RTT agent.
Maki: Akachi’s son, and Aedre’s step-son.
Mama: YuFu’s mother.
Paul: An RTT agent.
Simon: An RTT agent.
Three: An android excavator turned android RTT agent.
Xuxu: YuFu’s wife.
YuFu: A diamond fisher turned MSS RTT agent turned diamond fisher again.
Z’Das: Head of Mayleeda Secret Service’s Anti-Humanoid Trafficking Department. Also lead the RRT Division before ‘the end’ of magic.
