Chapter Seven

Fred Moonscale

6 Months Later

It was my last night on Earthside for a while. Eventually, I gave in and went into the lab with Clarence. We tried to match up any of their existing maps of the sky to the one that now projected from my phone's camera on demand. We found the closest match, but nothing on the Earthside map showed the planet the Starscale scrolls claimed they were on. So, everything about the mission was now pure speculation. Every Moonscale who heard about the mission had a different opinion. Clarence was banging his head against all the voices pouring out their theories over social media, but I shrugged it off. I was used to being at the center of a spectacle and for the love of Juda I couldn't figure out how Clarence hadn't managed to adjust to it by now.

The team consisted of six dragon shifters, including Teddy and myself. Teddy was going in place of his Duke's cousin Travis that ran Starscale Search's social media on Earthside. The requirements were simple: No underage kids counting on you, no true-mate or chosen mate left wondering what happened, and of course, you had to be a dragon. We could breathe for extended periods in space from all the research done. Teddy wanted to come along. At first, Clarence was against it. It seemed he and Teddy weren't the real friends of the sky rugby team. Sunny, Clarence's second born, also played on the team. Clarence didn't want him to lose the friend he actually approved of his son having. Me and the hot head argued for a few days. In the end, not only Teddy was coming along, but also Sunny. The latter was the official Moonscale leading family diplomat. There was also a doctor, a co-piloting cousin, and of course the guy who built and could fly the damn ship. Part of me thought Clarence was jealous that he couldn't jump on the ship himself to find out what was going on.

According to the calculations of the Starscale Search team it would take us somewhere between nine and twelve months to get there. I planned to sleep most of that. I wasn't worried about the vast emptiness of space or the lack of some creature comforts. Boredom would be the biggest enemy aboard the Medwin 2. The first one never got off the ground and gained its name because Medwin Moonscale, Clarence's Mate, funded most of the original process to experimentally build a spaceship that could house a draconic crew.

None of that mattered as I sat at the dinner table back home with all four of my kids. Daliah and Sequin tried to hide the looks that said they thought Teddy and I both lost our minds. Duke was more excited about the prospects of what life in space might mean. Most of the worlds we knew about weren't in outer space as we knew it, but all connected through the Other World gateways. Only, no one had ever found a gateway to this particular world that didn't seem to exist on any Earthside map. The elves of the Other World couldn't seem to locate it and give it a gateway despite the scrolls being tossed through said gateways all over Earthside.

"And you actually think Mom is on this world? Reborn I mean," Daliah shook her head.

This wasn't the first time we had this discussion. I didn't actually think Lotus was there. That was an impossibility. Lotus was dead. She was dead and gone and my heart ached every day and night for her. Even if she had reincarnated on this world no one could map, she wouldn't be Lotus. That version of her was gone forever or at least only lived on in the memories of those who knew and loved her. Rediscovering her, wasn't something I'd turn down, but I wasn't holding my breath. It hadn't been that long in the grand scheme of a soul and as much as she said she'd come back as quickly as she could, I prayed she took the time to get all the rest she needed.

"Let's not do this tonight, Daliah," I sighed. "Whether she's there or not isn't the point of the mission. For Clarence, it's about the damn Starscales. I want to know how the hell these people on another planet knew my name and why in Frost's Pit they want me to come visit."

"It seems sketchy to me," Sequin shook his head, agreeing with his sister. "Why you?"

"Why not me?" I scowled.

"I didn't mean it like that, Dad," Sequin sighed.

"Well, however you meant it, I mean to find out the answer. I invited you two along and you didn't want to come."

"I would, but I can't leave Syre and the kids," Duke chimed in. "You two better take really good photos."

"That's my job apparently," Teddy laughed.

"Then be good at it, brother," Duke grinned.

Teddy shot him a bird and refilled his wine glass. We toasted to us, to the family that somehow survived Lotus's death and my almost four-decade long nap. We toasted to the trip and to Lotus wherever she was. If she wasn't reincarnated on this invisible world, I imagined she beamed down at us toasting with her own wine glass. She always loved a good, dark red wine. Though, she never said no to brandy either, no matter how much her dad frowned at the selection.

I went to bed early, leaving the siblings to say their goodbyes and have their fun, after reminding Teddy he didn't want to be hung over come morning. I slept in a guest room not daring to unseal the bedroom I shared with Lotus. The last six months had whooshed by me and my dragon. There were so many new kids to meet and meetings to attend about dragons in outer space. I hadn't the time to go through our old stuff and process whatever might come up. I didn't even have time to pay Glitter Bomb a visit before leaving Earthside. I wasn't about to break that seal and risk sending my dragon back to sleep the night before the biggest trip of all of our lives.

***

When I first saw the Medwin 2 a month ago it looked nothing like I expected a rocket ship to look. Later I learned that was because the Medwin 2 wasn't a rocket ship at all. It was a spacecraft that existed somewhere between luxury cruise and battleship. Only it was meant to launch itself above the atmosphere of Earthside for space exploration. It was equipped for parties and wars. I wasn't very much interested in either of those these days. What good was dancing when my dance partner hadn't been around in decades? Though, Castor, the engineer and pilot of the Medwin 2, tried to sell me on the dance floor during the early days when I wasn't sure I wanted anything to do with the mission. I still suspected Medwin and Clarence put Castor up to it, because he was the only omega on the mission, and they figured that might make him my soft spot. I didn't agree because of anything Castor said. I'd never tell anyone else, but if Teddy didn't look so damn excited about getting to go to outer space, I probably would've ignored the scrolls and put them off as a prank. But if one of the egg brats wanted to go into space, that's what we'd do.

The morning of our exit, it didn't look much different, and my dragon was still a little disappointed the damn thing didn't look like a rocket ship. I wasn't sure what made him obsessed with rockets, but hopefully he'd forget about that soon. Teddy and I left the house while the others were still out cold. There was no reason to wake them up at four in the morning. We said our goodbyes the night before and we were coming back. Probably not for two or three years, but we'd be back and Castor was eighty-five percent sure we'd have contact with Earthside for most of the trip through the Medwin 2's built-in communication devices. Mostly, I didn't want Sequin or Daliah giving us those doubtful looks and dampening Teddy's excitement.

We were the first of the crew to arrive besides Castor, who spent the night sleeping on the ship. It was his baby and I, for one, was glad he thought of it that way. If he babied the ship, it would probably stay in good enough shape to get there and back. He sat with Clarence and Medwin in a conference room on the Starscale Search compound. Luckily, Castor made us give him everything we intended to bring with us two weeks ago. He checked all the items for safety hazards before boxing them up and putting them in our rooms. Since outer space was deemed too dangerous for any of us to spend much time alone, we'd all have roommates. Since Castor was the only omega on the mission and it was his ship, the rest of us agreed, he got the first pick of roommates. For whatever reason, whether because I was the oldest or the widower, he chose me. I didn't mind. Mostly, because it gave Teddy an easy out to room with his friend, Sunny, without feeling bad about it. The last bedroom was taken up by the doctor and the co-pilot, Izora and Casimir, respectively. When I asked Castor why he chose not to room with his cousin, he shrugged off the question. Later Casimir told me that they worried they'd spend too much time together between work and off hours if they shared a room. Too much time around any relative in an enclosed space could lead to drama and hurt feelings. The Medwin 2 wasn't a small space cruiser but there wasn't room for either of those things aboard the ship.

"Everything good, Cast?" Teddy asked, sinking into the chair next to him as one of the Starscale Search assistants put coffees down for the four of us. I nodded my thanks as Castor launched into all the checks he ran before leaving the ship. I was glad it was a long list, but I zoned him out to think about Lotus. I found myself doing that more and more as time went on. If I found myself in a boring moment, I relived a memory of her. I tried not to do it too often each day, fearing I'd eventually run out of memories, because we'd never make another one together.

Eventually, we were all there and Medwin came in to give a speech about how grateful and proud of us he was. I tuned most of that out too. I wasn't here in service to my flight. I was here because Teddy wanted to see outer space and Lotus may have been reincarnated on some invisible planet. Flight loyalty had nothing to do with it.

Medwin and Clarence hugged us all goodbye as we followed Castor through the maze that led to the Medwin 2. Today wasn't about settling into the ship. It was all about the lift off. There was even a special chamber we all had to stay inside of while Castor and Casimir got us off the ground and out of the atmosphere. They said that would take a couple of hours. So, as soon as I was fastened into one of the seats designed by Castor, I gave into my dragon and he put us both to sleep. I woke up for dinner after we cleared whatever height Castor approved of and then stumbled off to our shared sleeping chambers to pass out. None of them believed me that I planned to sleep the whole trip, but that's exactly what I did. Teddy would wake me up if he needed me. Besides, there was plenty on the ship to keep him and Sunny occupied.