Adam adjusted the collar of his shirt, "Any sign of him."
"Afraid not sir, we've sent out probes, Captain Koslov is heading the search, but so far we haven't found hide nor hair of the Leviathin."
Adam sighed, "Like searching for a needle in a hayfield in Ohio."
"Do they do hay in Ohio? I thought it was corn?"
"The metaphor still stands, Smaug is the worlds biggest needle, but we are searching for him across the entire universe..... How about radio beacons, have you tried those yet. I was never sure how he communicated, but I have a feeling he would notice if someone was trying to contact him."
"Yes sir, we have, and we will keep trying."
Adam sighed and buckled his belt, "Fine, Call me immediately if there's any news, I would be there with you, but I made a promise to someone, and it isn't a promise I am willing to break."
"Don't worry Sir, we understand."
The comm link went dead and he took another deep breath.
"No joy?"
He turned to look at where Sunny was lounging on the bed mostly obscured in a tangle of blankets and pillows, her golden eyes peering out from their depths seeming to glow almost luminously in the half dark.
"No, no trace of him, but that's expected. We try to keep track of him, but when he cant warp at will, that becomes kind of an issue." He reached up to run a hand through his hair more out of worry than out of any desire to control the unruly tangle that had plagued him since childhood. They had left what the crew had recently dubbed "The archive" only a day or so ago, handing over control to the 'experts' mostly xenolinguists and ancient historians. Everything within the archive vault would have to be transcribed, recorded and sorted . Each silver ball contained what must have been hours of material, and there were thousands of little silver balls upon the archive shelves.
The experts estimated that it could take years for them to go through all of the information, much less understand it all.
Adam himself felt rather useless in the whole affair, but walked over to where Sunny was still laying and leaned down to kiss her cheek before standing back up.
She blinked at him, "Be careful, and don't cause trouble."
He sighed, "Tell Conn that."
Sunny huffed slightly, "I don't suppose the possibility of him accidentally getting hit by a city bus are all that high."
He snorted, "Unfortunately not." He squeezed her hand once before stepping away, "I should be back soon, but knowing earth, and knowing Conn...."
"And knowing you, anything could happen." She finished.
He grinned at her, the expression rather lopsided the way he knew she liked it, "You know me too well."
He gave her one last wave before turning towards the door, watching it hiss open and stepping out into the hall before turning, and nearly jumping out of his skin.
Conn was floating there with a predatory grin on his porcelain white face , "Good morning, sweetheart."
Adam ignored the pet name.
Conn had been trying them out for a few days, and Adam found they only seemed to get worse when he rose to the minor annoyance, "The hell are you wearing." He demanded head moving up and down the starborn's body.
"I thought we could match!" Conn said with some measure of enthusiasm spinning in a circle.
Indeed they did match, jeans, t shirts flannels and.... Where the hell had Conn gotten a leather jacket.
And when had Adam started dressing like his father?
That wasn't a change that he had noticed until now.
He turned back towards the door.
"Where are you going!"
"To change!"
A hand grabbed him by the shoulder, "No time. We might be late, and you wouldn't want to leave our daughter waiting?"
Adam took a deep, long suffering breath, but turned back around. No, he didn't want to leave Eris waiting. The girl had been so nervously sweet when she had called to talk about her birthday, or the day she and his own mother had chosen as her replacement birthday since they weren't exactly sure of the date constituted as her birthday, the day she had grown to full maturity inside the test tube, or the day she had been let out of the test tube, or the day that she had actually become her own person.
It was hard to tell.
So they had chosen a new day entirely, and she had called Adam and Conn to ask a favor. She didn't want much for her birthday she said, and she understood if they were too busy to come, but what she really really wanted.... And again they could say no, she completely understood.
Was to spend a day with her parents.
Now she hadn't really phrased it like that as to not sound weird, but both Adam and Conn had known what she meant.
Conn had been super excited about it, thinking it was a great idea and promising that they would 'of course' be there. Adam for his part would have walked through fire for Eris, so a day spent stuck with Conn was probably a small price to pay.
A day spent with the two people in the universe who could read his mind.
Well, it did make things complicated.
But its not like he was going to say no to her.
"Did you remember her gift?" he asked Conn, and the alien produced A set of finely wrapped boxes, "Since her other dad was busy with work, I took the opportunity to wrap them." He handed a box to Adam, "You're welcome."
Adam had to admit that the wrapping job Conn had done was pretty good. He should certainly have been one of Santa's elves is Santa was in the habit of employing , but ugly aliens.
"Which one is this?"
"You got the necklace and the candies, I am giving her the hat."
Adam nodded once and tucked the gift under his arm as they headed for the docking bay where they would be able to step out into the lunar terminal. Adam had wanted to bring Sunny around to his place for a day or two, just the two of them , but circumstances had sort of nerfed that plan. Narobi was passing up the hall to their right and raised an eyebrow at them as they passed, 'Matching outfits? Cute."
Adam made a face, "Not my idea."
She grinned, "Sure it wasn't."
She was gone before he could protest, and he had to deal with several other sarcastic comments before making it out into the lunar terminal and then down onto his private shuttle which he paid a monthly fee to keep in the lunar hanger.
The payout from the Steel Eye litigation had been huge, and there were some perks to his life that came with a large sum of money.
Money which he was mostly squirreling away for Eris.
Conn and Sunny were the only ones who knew about that little fact, even though he tried not to think about it too often since Conn was sure to say something.
Adam had special clearance to land his shuttle almost anywhere as long as he cleared his flight path through the TSA first, and so parked his shuttle out on the back lawn of his parent's property. The door opened as soon as the engine cut off, and conn was out of there like a shot, floating up the lawn to intercept Eris, who must have been waiting and ready at the back door, to come out as fast as she did.
Adam followed more slowly, watching as Eris hugged the Starborn.
Despite it being the middle of summer, she was wearing a large pink pullover hoodie, though since they were at home, her hair was down, long black hair not unlike the hair of his older brothers, which hung down almost to her thighs billowing slightly in an unnatural sort of way, which he attributed to the gravity belt he saw peeping out from under her hoodie when she raised her arms too high.
While she was mostly as durable as any human, she often complained that her joints tended to ache when she walked for too long, and so used the aid of a gravity belt. She didn't mention that it was also helpful for the solar ribbons at her back, and that they collected energy better when they weren't draped towards the ground.
It was sad to see today that none of the ribbons were showing, but he wouldn't mention that to her.
Once she was done with Conn, she hurried over to hug him as well, and he picked her up spinning her around in a small circle before seeing her down on the grass.
She was grinning, and her large black eyes were wide with pleasure.
Someone else might have found her eyes scary or disconcerting, but Adam had never found them to be either.
"You came!" She looked between the two of them smiling broadly, teeth as white as her porcelain skin.
"Of course we came." He said, "and we brought offerings to appease the most beautiful woman in all the universe."
If she could blush she might have, but her overly durable starborn skin was not nearly as translucent as human skin, "Stop, you're just saying that because you're obligated to."
"I would never. Everything I say is true." He said taking her by the shoulder and leading her up to the house, "Look at my thoughts and you can see I'm no liar."
"I try not to look into people's heads."
He snorted, "Maybe you should teach Conn that trick."
"A horrible trick really, seriously little star use your gifts, life is no fun if you aren't manipulating or screwing with someone."
Adam rolled his eyes at Conn's proclamation and met his mother and father at the door. His mother had already prepared a family breakfast, which Eris had chosen over a family dinner. They sat and opened presents early that morning. His mother had made for her an absolutely beautiful dress of her own design, soemthing that would allow her ribbons to float freely, without being so cumbersome everywhere else. It was the sort of thing that all of them wished she would grow comfortable enough to wear outside of the family house but would do around close family for now. His father and, technically, her grandfather had apparently taken up making jewelry, and had managed to grind a beautiful off white river rock into the shape of a star, which he had strung on a necklace for her. Adam was even surprised to find that other members of his family had sent her things as well.
Thomas, and David, and Jeromy. He was even shocked to see that Sunny had sent something without his knowledge. A pair of cherry red headphones, and a gesture that, if he hadn't already been in love with Sunny before, he was certainly in love with her now.
He knew, though he would never mention it, that Sunny was secretly jealous of Conn and Adam's connection through Eris. She would NEVER have said it, and it was only through his connection with Conn that he had figured it out at all, for Sunny wasn't the type to ever act on, or even play with thoughts like that. The gift she had sent, on her own free will, was a pure act that he wouldn't only expect from someone like Sunny.
He kept those thoughts under tight lock and key around Eris and Conn.
Eris didn't need to know about Sunny's feelings. Though she held no issue with Eris at all, he was sure that Eris would feel bad about it anyway.
The girl was like that.
Far to nice and far to modest, worried about taking up too much space.
He was pleased to see her put on the hat that Conn had given her. He was glad to see that she liked it, and even more glad to see that she wanted to spend time with them.
It was.
Flattering.
Despite the strange way that she had come into this world, it was nice that she wanted to spend time with them.
And then he borrowed his father's car, despite how much he loathed driving, and took the group of them out for a day of doing.... Just whatever Eris wanted.
He tried keeping his arguments with Conn to a minimum for her sake, though he did send a scathing elbow into Conn's ribs when the starborn tried to hold his hand. Eris hadn't noticed as she had been far too busy bolting down the milkshake she had gotten.
Conn, to his evident delight produced a camera at some point and INSISTED on taking pictures the entire day to Adam's horror.
Mostly he got pictures of Eris, but he also roped Adam into more selfies than he would have liked, and at least one photo he had deemed a, "Family photo," which Adam managed to look happy in at least three of them, though his cringe was caught in at least one.
Not an expression that would ever show up when he took pictures with Eris of course, because he really did love her, despite how she had come into the world.
The two of them followed her through little hiking trails in the woods, took a picnic up to the top of a small hill, listened to her chat incessantly on all of the things she had done and seen while on earth. Despite being a girl born of the stars, it was the dirt and stone of Earth that she liked the most, the dirt and the heat and the sun, and the trees.
She wanted to like the people too, though getting them to like her was an issue in itself.
He wished he could see her more like this, happy and vibrant rather than reserved and quiet, not that there was anything wrong with being reserved and quite, as long as he was sure that was how she wanted to be and not how she felt she was forced to be.
They were forced at one point to untangle Conn from a bush as he had tried holding Adam's hand again as they went down the trail, and Adam had shoved him – a little—too hard into a berry bush.
Eris had turned around to find Adam standing in the middle of the path looking guilty and Conn flailing around in the bushes.
She tiled her head, "What are you doing."
"Conn slipped."
She frowned, "He floats, how could he slip."
"Must have been a low-pressure air pocket." Adam said
He couldn't tell if she was rolling her eyes or not, but the small smile at the corner of her mouth was enough to guess, "Sure, I forgot about those micro low pressure pockets that are especially dangerous to floating people."
Adam nodded gravely, "Most people don't know about them because most people aren't capable of floating."
She giggled a little as she came over to help Adam haul Conn out of the bushes.
"Be careful next time, I had to borrow this jacket."
Adam frowned, "Borrow. Who the hell would let you borrow their jacket?"
Conn shut his mouth and he turned to look at Eris, "Eris, who let him borrow that jacket. Who do I have to pound into the dirt."
She grinned and laughed again closing her eyes, face hardening slightly as she tried to wrestle the answer from Conn.
They were locked in battle for a few minutes before she opened her eyes, "Uncle Thomas/"
"That bastard!"
That had Eris laughing again as she turned and skipped up the trail, though Adam vowed deep in his heart that he was going to kick his brother's ass the next time he saw them.
Towards the end of the day, they made it out towards the edge of the lake. Water lapped gently at the pebbles of the beach as Eris and Adam tried to skip stones over the gently waving water. Light from the setting sun reflected over the glossy surface, yellow and pink as it faded towards the horizon.
And that was when he heard it, it was a distant sound, like a sharp crackling sizzle, almost like a fire cracker or a sparkler.
It was hard to tell where it was coming from and it had both him and Eris pausing as they looked around.
Conn , hearing the sound through their senses was almost as confused.
The sound grew louder, and a sudden burst of light caught his eye. He lifted his head, his eyes wide and watched as a burst of fire appeared in the upper atmosphere. It began as a flare of white light, and then a ball of roaring red and orang flame.
Adam cursed, and grabbed Eris by the arm dragging her back from the water's edge.
The fireball grew larger and larger and larger, and the sizzling grew louder and louder. He knew for certain that soemthing that big.... Something that big hitting the ground would kill them instantly, and hitting the water..... well they wouldn't be much better off.
He grabbed Conn by the arm reversing the polarity on his gravity belt before doing the same to Eris, "GO!" he shouted shoving eris into Conn's arms as the two of them began to fall upwards. Eris screamed and reached for him, but Conn kept a tight hold around her chest, leaving Adam to stand on the rocky shore of the lake.
He knew he couldn't outrun it.
So he turned his eyes towards the falling ball of fire, noting oddly, that it didn't seem to be falling as fast as it should.
It spun in place, and he saw, protrusions come flaring out to either side, slowing it further before it slammed into the surface of the lake.
The explosion of water and steam was Epic. I
Adam took a great gasp of air once, before a wall of water roared into him, pulling him off his feet and tugging him out and down as the water slammed into he rocks and then rushed backward. His hands flailed as he was pulled into the steaming water one eye closed.
His eyepatch was ripped from his head, but caught in one flailing arm as he spun once.
His human eye was closed, but his mechanical eye opened, filtering out the pollution in the water seeing through the bubbles and darkness.
Something whipped past his head.
Soemthing huge, unspeakably large.
He choked out some bubbles looking down into the murky blackness as the water began to still and the fizzing bubbles died away.
His mouth opened in shock, and the last bubbles drained from his throat as the dim blue glow reached him.
Soemthing else whipped past him in the other direction, as one giant wing gently settled towards the bottom of the lake.
Within the depths far below, settled at the bottom of the lake within its vast deep depths lay the Leviathin.