The elevator slowly pressurizes and Nyx’s vision returns.

  Cai groans as he wakes up, “Okay, that was close.”

  The captain chuckles, “Sure was. And good flying. Leave the rest to us. That was the Michael’s Hammer that launched. They’ll get things done.”

  The doors open, and they stumble out of the elevator.

  Nyx’s head pounds as she recovers from the thin air, “Spark, my head is hurtin’...”

  Cai grumbles his agreement.

  The captain points to the nursery, “Wait there. I’ll send someone to get you if we need your help. And sorry about your ship.”

  Cai waves him off, “Nozzles are easy enough to replace.”

  Nyx and Cai make it to the nursery.

  Roxy, Twoey, and even a grumpy Zone are there.

  Roxy is feeding a toddler some Nufuud mush and looks up, her face lighting up, “You’re back!”

  Twoey gives a thumbs up and a nod, then returns to playing a tower game where you pull out pieces and stack them on top.

  Zone walks up to them, “Please tell me you stopped them.”

  Cai shakes his head, “I couldn’t without killing them. But I took out their FTL and some other stuff. Sandel sent a ship after them, but Donati smashed its engines after landing and the dome depressurized, so we’re stuck here.”

  Roxy approached, still holding the toddler who had food covering his mouth and hands, which had also found its way to her shoulder, “Yeah, we felt an explosion, so we were worried.”

  Nyx nodded, “They were blowin’ up a building, and they had a sparkin’ ship hidden under it. Then they were shootin’ a hole in the dome, and now all the air is blowin’ out.”

  Twoey makes an excited noise, “Cool!”

  Roxy turns to her, “Twoey! People could have died!”

  Cai shook his head, “Every colony has emergency shelters in case the dome fails. The streets already looked deserted when we went out.”

  Roxy sighs in relief, and Nyx realizes Cai is right. She didn’t see anyone on the streets, and it made sense to build shelters in a domed city.

  A child cries, and Nyx turns to see that all the women they’d seen earlier were helping.

  Nyx turns to Roxy, “You gonna be bein’ with the kids?”

  Roxy looks at the children, “No. They’ll take care of them. I’m coming with you and Cai.”

  “I was talkin’ about now.”

  Roxy blushes and looks at Cai, “Oh! Yes. I’m going to help with them. Until they find another place to take them or we need to go.”

  Twoey shouts over, “I’m going too!”

  Zone shakes his head, “You’re all crazy. But it’s better than here or the colony.” He looks at the exit, “If they get away, what’ll we do?”

  Nyx growls, “Then we be chasin’ ‘em!”

  Cai pats Nyx’s head, “Spark yeah we are.”

  Nyx smells shunk and turns to Roxy, “I’m thinkin’ it’s shunked itself?”

  Roxy looks confused, “Shunked? Oh!” She sniffs, “I’ve never changed a diaper before.”

  Cai chuckles, “It’s been over three hundred years, but I raised two kids. I’ll show you.”

  Over the next few hours, Nyx gets a crash course in taking care of small children.

  She changed diapers, fed children, played games, practiced her reading with the older ones, and yelled lots as they pulled her tail and tugged her ears.

  The worst thing? She watched Roxy with Cai. The woman shook and seemed hesitant with Cai at first despite acting friendly towards him. It took Nyx a while to notice. The flinch if Cai got too close. A forced smile. Stepping back slightly whenever he turned to look at her.

  But Cai knew his way around children. He didn’t seem to enjoy it, and she could tell he wanted to stop after an hour, but he still did it.

  And Roxy noticed.

  Nyx realized that sometimes Roxy’s smile seemed less forced. She didn’t flinch as much. Hesitated less.

  It made Nyx jealous.

  She could tell that Cai found Roxy attractive. A slight blush if she accidentally brushed against him. He returned her smiles.

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  But who gave her the right to tell him or Roxy who attracted them?

  She knew Roxy was Cai’s type. Had seen it in his program. Nyx wasn’t that. She wasn’t sure she wanted it. They looked heavy and like they got in the way.

  But now wasn’t the time.

  Once they were back on the Donati and had a month or however long in FTL to wherever he was taking the anti-matter, she’d sort out her feelings. Did she want to be friends? Did she want to tell him she hoped for something more than being friends?

  She blushed as she let the truth she’d been hiding from herself finally come out.

  Nyx wanted to make sure her feelings were because she liked him as a person, and not because he helped her. She found him attractive, sure. And his program had hurt her because even before meeting Cai she’d been self-conscious about her body.

  She looks at herself.

  She’s actually filled out some. No more ribs poking out. She’s a little rounder everywhere. And she feels like she has more energy.

  Cai said she’d be taller too if she’d had better food. What else about her body had changed because she’d nearly starved her whole life?

  She’d had that heart condition too.

  Then, her eyes moved to her hands. The scars were almost gone. All the reminders of every jagged metal hole she’d stuck her hands in over the years. Only the long one going up her wrist was still prominent.

  She turned back to Roxy and wondered what was going through her head, but she’d only known her for maybe a week, so there was still a lot she didn’t know about her. But even in that time, Nyx felt something had happened between her and the orderlies in the past.

  Every time the orderlies came in, she’d go quiet and stare at her feet. They hadn’t taken her once that she knew, but she still acted that way, and she wasn’t sure if she should bring it up.

  Now that she thought about it, they’d never taken Twoey either.

  And Zone? She didn’t even want to think about how they’d taken him to have sex with Gwen.

  Honestly, she just wanted to go back to the Donati with all of them. She’d been with Roxy, Twoey, and Zone longer than she had Cai now. But the two days with him seemed so much longer because he got her away from her old life and showed her new things.

  Still, could she even be with Cai romantically? Would she want half-Felis children? Had the lab made it so she could have children with humans like they had done with Zone and probably Twoey? Roxy was human, so she didn’t have to worry about it. Cai hadn’t mentioned he’d found changes in her DNA to allow it. But maybe he hadn’t looked for it?

  Now wasn’t the time to ask.

  So she continued to play with the children.

  And had a surprising amount of fun.

  Eventually, the lights dimmed, and the children went to bed. She felt exhausted too, so went to bed soon after with Roxy and Twoey.

  The next morning with the children is chaos too. Part of her wonders why people would choose to have children. It’s the smells that get to her the most, followed closely by the wasted food. They spilled or refused to eat food that would have been a full meal for her before. She had some fun, but she couldn’t imagine taking care of them every day.

  Zone had long given up, though he’d been brooding since yesterday.

  Twoey is having a blast with some of the older kids and is running around the room, or drawing with the younger ones on a drawing surface.

  Roxy seems built for taking care of others and frantically moves from one child to the next.

  Cai looks worn out, but he’s there in the game corner entertaining some.

  Nyx busies herself with whatever she can that keeps her from having to interact with the kids. Cleaning up a mess here. Laundry. Preparing a snack or the next meal.

  But the kids keep finding her tail, and she ends up chasing them angrily, and Roxy berates her as she tries to calm whatever child she’s made cry this time.

  Maybe it’s for the best that she doesn’t have kids. But maybe having her own would make her feel differently about them?

  And she hates the fact that she keeps thinking about having children. Not because she’s thinking about Cai, not that she hasn’t thought about having one with him. But it’s hard not to when they’re everywhere and she’d rather be out there chasing the ship that escaped.

  She wants out. She doesn’t like quiet, but the noise of over twenty children locked into a room with no way out drives her crazy. How long will it take them to fix the dome? They locked the exit, so the kids cannot go to their rooms, and it opens only for food. Couldn’t she at least leave? Cai showed they could trust him when he attacked the ship.

  How was the Donati doing? Was the colony secretly stripping it?

  She needed out.

  Cai pulls her to the side, causing her to his in fright as she’s pulled from her thoughts, “You doing okay? You look like you’re having a meltdown.”

  Nyx realizes she’s shaking and realizes something, “Cai. I’m bein’ missin’ them.” She touches her bracelet. “Oyx, Tyx, and the others. Last time I was bein’ with kids, it was bein’ with them.”

  She thought it was Roxy or the noise that was getting to her, but this scene. Kids running around, fighting and playing. The drawing tables. The toys. It was exactly like this. She was one of these kids once.

  Roxy comes over, her clothes now covered in food and snot, “Nyx?” She hugs Nyx. “We’re here. You’re doing a great job, but if you need a break. We’ll be fine.”

  Nyx returns Roxy’s hug. How could she be jealous of this sweet woman?

  At that moment she decides that this is her new family: Cai, Roxy, Twoey, and Zone. It didn’t matter who got with Cai or not. Whomever Cai chose was his choice, even if it wasn’t any of them.

  “What’s a harem?” Nyx asks, remembering something. “Twoey was telling you to make a harem, Cai.”

  Roxy blushes and looks at Cai, “That’s… um…”

  Cai blushes as well, “You heard Twoey? It’s when a man has multiple wives.”

  Nyx scowls and looks at Twoey, who is grinning as she’s playing a game with a child that looks on the verge of tears.

  Cai looks as well, “She’s just teasing me. I’m not planning on marriage anytime soon, anyway.”

  Nyx folds her ears back, “Why ya not thinkin’ that? No women here bein’ ones you like?” She crosses her arms and takes the plunge, “I’m likin’ ya as a woman, Cai. Roxy is too, I’m thinkin’.”

  Roxy squeals, “Nyx! I’m not… I… I just met him! I mean…” She blushes, “He is nice. And handsome. But… I just met him…”

  “Harem!” comes an excited growl from Twoey.

  Cai chuckles, “I’m not making a harem, Twoey.” He turns back to the other two women, “Look, I’m flattered, and both of you are wonderful women, but…”

  Nyx hisses, “Don’t ya sparkin’ say you’re not wantin’ to keep bein’ alone ya sparkin’ piece o’ rusty metal!” She can understand wanting to be alone for a little while, but for hundreds of years? “I’m not carin’. It’s makin’ my hydrogen lines sparkin’ fire thinkin’ about ya alone for another hundred sparkin’ years! Stop yer runnin’ and make a girl sparkin’ happy!”

  She bites him and digs her fingers into his arm while wrapping her legs around his waist.

  Cai looks taken aback until the bite, “Ow! Okay! I’ll think about it, okay! Ow! Let go!”

  Twoey is on Cai’s shoulder, “Harem or bust!” and bites his shoulder after putting him into a headlock.

  Roxy looks shocked as the two cat girls bite Cai, then bursts out laughing, “You better listen, Cai!” A blush, “Not the harem! Twoey!”

  Zone actually laughs for the first time in hours as Cai runs around screaming in pain as two cat girls refuse to let go.

  The kids shout and run around as if finding a new favorite game and chant, “Harem!”

  The caretakers just shake their heads and laugh at the sight.