This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/The_Fallen_1 on 2024-11-01 20:00:04+00:00.
Hi all, I don’t believe a notification went out for the last episode, so if you missed it, you may want to go back so you don’t accidentally skip it.
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“Daniel, I’m home!” Milla called out as she walked through the front door.
“In here,” he called out from the lounge, looking up as she walked into the room.
“Oh dear,” Milla chuckled. “Quite the predicament, hey?”
“You could say that,” he agreed as he petted Felkira’s head as she snored, before moving to the twins that were now waking up and stretching out. “Yes, Mum’s back. How were they by the way?”
“Pits of endless energy as always,” Milla chuckled as she watched the four dogs heading towards their water bowls. “Were Aurora and Bari both well behaved?”
“They slept pretty much the entire time,” he replied as their purple scaled daughter and green scaled son began to scurry over to her. “I let Kris have a lay in. He deserves it with all the effort he’s been putting into his exams.”
“I’m awake now, Dad,” Kris yawned as he slowly descended the stairs and headed to the kitchen.
“Ah, afternoon, Kris,” Milla told him before looking over to the other side of the still sleeping Felkira. “Are you all good, Oprin?”
“Yep,” she replied, pausing her game.
“Did you get the results back this morning like you hoped?”
“I did actually,” Oprin confirmed. “My fertility has increased to 15%, so the treatment is working. In a few years, I might be completely healthy again.”
“That’s great news!” Milla exclaimed.
“It shouldn’t be too much longer before we can do that thing we talked about,” Oprin told both her and Daniel.
“What’s going on?” Felkira yawned as she finally woke up, and then looked at Milla and then the four dogs as they trotted into the room. “Ah, you’re all back.”
“They’re all as tired as they’re going to get,” Milla told her.
“So ready to run a marathon?” Felkira chuckled as she got up and headed over to her giant dog bed, causing the four dogs to join her in the smaller beds that surrounded it.
“Oh, Daniel, you’re working tomorrow, aren’t you?” Milla asked.
“Yeah, we’ve got a pen test for the new cargo freighter going on,” he replied. “Why do you ask?”
“Just thinking about managing the kids, that’s all. I’ve been asked to go in tomorrow afternoon as they want me to help with an issue they’ve found with the new jump drive,” she explained. “It’s apparently consuming too much power for medium gravity jumps to pass the minimum specs and they want a meeting on it, and I’m the lead on the design and all.”
“I can watch them?” Oprin offered. “I’m not working this week.”
“Thanks, we’d appreciate it,” Milla told her.
“I wouldn’t be a good wife to you both if I didn’t help out when needed, would I?” she pointed out as she shifted over to Daniel and began to rest her head on his shoulder.
“I’m free as well as always, but I guess I’ll be looking after this lot first and foremost,” Felkira added as she looked at the dogs.
“How’s Affinity getting on as your team’s lead designer by the way?” Daniel asked Oprin.
“Very well, actually. I’m learning a lot from her, and she’s cranking out essentially perfect ship designs like no one’s business. She’s really getting the hang of the style and comfort aspects now,” Oprin explained.
“That’s good to hear. I was somewhat worried that her collaboration with Quentellia would make her think far too much about optimisation,” Daniel told her.
“It has had a lot of influence on her designs though. They’re extremely efficient, and are so advanced the Navy is getting concerned civilian craft are about to outpace them,” Oprin chuckled. “I think we’re going to be working on military designs in the near future.”
“It’s a shame we still haven’t figured out what the AI laws should be, but at least she gets to do what she enjoys,” Milla commented as she assumed her humanoid forms and sat down on the other side of Daniel, bringing Aurora and Bari onto their laps. “Any idea what’s on the news today?”
“No, actually,” Daniel replied as he turned the holo on and changed the channel from a kids show.
“There was that thing with the galactic community going on today, wasn’t there?” Kris asked as he came in with a bowl of pork crackling and sat down next to Milla. “Something about giving a verdict on finalising the integration of Clan Kesen’tar and the former slave worlds into the UPC?”
“Oh yeah, that was today, wasn’t it?” Daniel realised.
“I don’t get why they have to approve it. We saved them and allied with them. If they want to join us, they should be able to,” Kris grumbled.
“The Community is our ally too. We don’t want to annoy them unnecessarily. All they want to do is ensure that they are treated fairly and their culture is preserved. They are concerned we’ll end up being another Leshnat-trevarn. They haven’t known us for very long after all.”
“That’s stupid. We beat them in a war! We’re better than they were!”
“We’re stronger than them, and that’s all the Community knows for sure. They don’t have hundreds or thousands of years of interaction with us to really understand us. We also have banned technology in the form of an AI, so they’re also wary of her. so they’re extra wary of us in case she turns out like they fear.”
“Plus they want to avoid us kicking off another war with the remnants of the Empire,” Milla added. “They’re glad to see them get knocked on their butts but don’t want them to suffer the same fate they subjected others to.”
“They wouldn’t be stupid enough to try again,” Kris confidently stated.
“Emotions can be far more potent than logic,” Daniel warned him. “All it takes is someone to use a point of outrage to rally the fractured parts of the Empire, and suddenly they have a lot of bloodthirsty people following them. We’ve seen it happen more than once, and after the second world war, we know to look out for it.”
“We move onto that in history in a month or so, so I’ll bear that in mind.”
“Oh, you remember the other day at the parent-teacher meeting they said you should start thinking about what you want to do in life? Have you given that any thought?” Milla asked.
“I know I want to be in the STEM fields, but I don’t know which yet,” Kris replied. “I quite like chemistry, so I was thinking along those lines, but I’m still not quite sure.”
“You don’t need to have everything figured out yet, but it’s good to have a rough idea as you’ll be choosing your college classes before too long,” she reminded him.
“I know, Mum, you don’t have to keep telling me that,” Kris sighed.
“We just want to make sure you keep doing well,” Daniel assured him. “We’re just proud of you because you’re at the top of so many of your classes, and we want to make sure you get the most out of your talents.”
“I know….”
“And don’t make the mistake of choosing subjects just because your friends are doing them. Nor your girlfriend,” Daniel warned him.
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Kris replied.
“Then who is that sweet silver Dragon you keep bringing home?” Daniel pointed out.
“She’s, um, err… just a friend.”
“You kiss all your friends then, do you?” Daniel smirked.
“… Maybe?”
“Kris, even if I couldn’t smell you were lying it’d be obvious,” Milla chuckled. “We don’t mind as long as you don’t do anything stupid, ok? And we’re sure you won’t because that’s not like you.”
“… Her name is Velthantha,” Kris grumbled.
“You should introduce us properly soon,” Milla told him.
“Please don’t do this…” Kris begged.
“Let’s give him a little bit of space, Dear,” Daniel suggested.
“Please do,” Kris requested, getting up and walking round to the other side of the sofa so he was sitting next to Oprin. “You’re never cruel to me.”
“I won’t say I’m not interested though,” Oprin chuckled as she watched Aurora climb over to her lap so she could look up at Kris. “Ooh, looks like someone else likes you.”
“Ehp,” Aurora chirped as she sat down on Oprin’s lap and looked up at Kris, wagging her tail.
“… No,” Kris replied.
“Ehp!” Aurora insisted, waving her paw at her mouth.
“Kris, have you been sneaking snacks to your sister?” Milla accused him.
“I only gave them both a little bit of chicken,” he attempted to defend himself.
“They’re still at the age where we have to monitor their eating as they will happily gorge themselves,” Milla reminded him.
“We appreciate you looking out for them, but please give it a few more weeks before breaking from their diet,” Daniel added.
“I don’t remember you being so strict with me,” Kris pointed out.
“That’s because no one was sneaking you extra food,” Daniel pointed out.
“Well…” Oprin mumbled. “… Only the occasional snack so he’d warm up to me faster as a stranger.”
“Oprin…” Milla sighed. “… Chocolate?”
“Yeah…” she admitted.
“I thought some of his food contained more sugar than expected. Thankfully it didn’t make him hyperactive, but I spent hours trying to figure out why things were off.”
“Sorry, I didn’t realise,” Oprin apologised.
“It didn’t cause anything to happen in the end, so you’re forgiven,” Milla told her…
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ghefal/thjverse_arcane_starfarers_series_epilogue/
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