If Jove Stray

Chapter 17: reconciling

"Oh, so you care about these kids," Tyson muttered.

"Stop it," Alcott snapped. "I know you're upset, but I live here. You live here. I don't know what to tell you, Tyson. Being mad doesn't turn back time. You were the one telling me to make small goals and achieve them? Then forgive your parents."

Val gave Alcott a sidelong glance, surprised. Alcott supposed there weren't too many people on the base who had witnessed her lose her cool. She was friends with hotheads like Lully and Levi, she tried to be the levelheaded one. What she wanted to say to Tyson was that his presence was interrupting her life in a way that he couldn't make up for. She was trying to make the best of it and in order to get him out of her berth, she would need for him to reconcile with his parents. Of course, she couldn't tell anyone that, least of all Tyson.

"I think you have just been outmaneuvered," Val remarked. "And the pasta is done."

She turned to the stovetop as Tyson managed a smile.

"Touché," he said to Alcott. "I'm sorry. All my bravado about feeling like an intruder on your life, and I'm still whining about mine."

"I'm not mad," Alcott replied. "But you must be moonshy if I'm going to let you get between me and a sneak peek at the new constitution."

"There's that word again," Val laughed, bringing over a bowl for Alcott and herself.

"Moonshy or constitution?" Tyson joked.

"On this base? Both," she replied. "I wish I would have brought my law books. Or like an ebook of my law books. It's the strangest thing trying to start over."

"Levi Hark has the largest collection of books on the base," Alcott mentioned. "You might ask him. Dylan would study Earth on his holo-rib all the time. That's how we learned about hurricanes. Maybe he has some law books stored?"

"Levi, isn't he in botany? Why does he have those things?"

"He's the first captain's son," she explained. "He was historian, in charge of saving culture and history from Earth, until he was put in cryo, that is."

"Well, whoever did it after him was not good at their job," Val snorted. "I'll message him, thanks. I have greatly missed Wikipedia since waking up here. I wish we had a historian now."

"We had one," Alcott sighed. "He was murdered. We haven't replaced him yet."

She had not known Gliére well, but she knew Anatoly missed him dearly. Gliére, Shelley, and Taylor had taken a good portion of the base's knowledge with them when they died. Botany's progress would have come to a screeching halt if Anatoly had been killed.

Val shook her head. "It is truly unfortunate how much tragedy this place has seen. Both ships crashing, Landing Day, the murders last week: I mean, the earthstorm wants to wipe us off the surface and we can't keep from fighting each other."

"Earth was the same," Tyson pointed out. "We're still human."

"I want to believe there is a better way," Val replied. "To return to our previous conversation. Titus is attempting to expand the charter into a constitution that will protect the citizens of the new planet. Life, liberty and all of that. But the values here are so different, he's struggling to prioritize. No one is seeking religious freedom because no one cares here. Race is a non-issue for the first time in human history. The genders have equality. Sexuality isn't a right here, but that's because preserving the species has come first, odd, but I just got here."

Alcott wasn't sure what Val was talking about. Earth didn't sound very understanding, even though she wasn't sure what race or sexuality was exactly. She could ask Tyson later.

"Origin?" Alcott suggested. "All of the conflict we have had is between Aeneid, Canary, or even Earth origin. We have people on this base that span over a hundred years; Levi is the oldest."

"Titus hasn't thought about that," Val mused. "You said he was the first captain's son, but I guess that hadn't really sunk in. God, that poor boy must have been like a fish out of water when he got here."

"He was," Alcott grinned. "But if he hadn't been like that, everyone on the Canary would have died."

Val snorted. "And my husband arrested him for murder? You must think we were monsters; I wouldn't even blame you. Where's my holo-rib?"

Tyson's madre stood up suddenly and found her holo-rib a short time later in her bedroom.

"Remind me to set a lunch with Levi," she told her holo-rib before setting it beside her bowl. "There. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to him in person. He sounds like an interesting character."

"He is," Alcott agreed. "He's one of my closest friends."

A holo-rib chimed and they all checked their messages; it was Tyson's holo-rib. He awkwardly made his way through the menu and read the message.

"It's Madison," he said. "She would like to meet with me this afternoon, if I'm free."

"We don't have plans," Alcott replied. "I can take you; unless you think you could find your own way?"

"Not a chance," Tyson admitted. 

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Even my mother loves Tyson, I guess I just need to get over my weird dislike of him. Thanks for reading!