Chapter 17 New Home

An excerpt from The Starlover Series Book 1: Project Earth

“I give up. You two just aren’t going to sound coherent about what happened. I realize you two are only 5 years old, so I won’t ask anymore.”

Both kids stared at him and blinked their eyes. They sighed at different times.

“It’s okay now. You’re both safe. I hope you at least feel safe here on my ship.”

“I feel safe with you around Uncle Freddie.”

“I feel safer too.”

“Okay, then we’re off to a good start.”

“You’re not used to being around kids, are you?” asked Jaekob.

“No, why would I? I don’t have any.”

Lizette giggled. “You have us!”

“Oh, yes, I do. What am I going to do with you two?”

“Let’s play a game.”

“I need to repair my ship…”

“Oh, you can do that later. Let’s play a game. The three of us.”

The kids danced around him.

“Alright. You may have to teach me the rules.”

The kids each grabbed one of his hands and took him into the living room. Soon they were explaining the rules of the game. Fred played with the two for hours. The kids laughed and teased. He laughed with them. In his head, he told Starfire to go ahead and clean up the ship where the kids had been as long as the kids didn’t see her.

Starfire raced to the kitchen and cleaned it so that it was spotless. Then she ran to the bathroom and cleaned that. Finally she finished up in the medical bay. At one point she had to duck into an alcove when she saw one of the children present. The child never noticed her.

She waited on the laundry to finish up. Then she could fold the clothes and have Fred pick them up later on. For now there was nothing left to do other than try to repair the drives. When Starfire finished with the laundry, she went to check on which parts they had.

She got to work on the repairs. She could hear Fred playing a game with the kids. It made her smile.

“Oh, did I do that right?” asked Fred.

“No!” both the kids answered him.

“You were supposed to roll the dice first. Then you have to count the spaces.” Jaekob pointed to the board.

“Right. You move your piece to the new square then you have to read it to see what you do next.”

“Oh. I hope I can learn this as well as you two did.”

“You will, just keep at it.” Lizette smiled at him.

There was something to having children. Fred had never thought he wanted any around. But so far he wasn’t having any real trouble with them. Perhaps that was a good thing. They laughed some more. Fred lost the game. He sat back and watched Lizette and Jaekob finish it.

When they were done, they packed up the game and set the box to the side. They looked at Fred.

“I’m getting hungry, Uncle Freddie.”

“So am I.”

“Then let’s go to the kitchen. What do you two want?”

“Do you have peanut butter and jelly?” asked Jaekob.

“Oh, I think I do. That sounds good about now.”

Fred grabbed three plates and fixed peanut butter and jelly for the three of them. He also made a little salad to go with it.

“Uncle Freddie, could you turn my sandwich into a butterfly?”

“How do I do that?”

“You cut the sandwich in a diagonal and then align the two halves to look like a butterfly.”

“Oh, like this?” He sliced a sandwich the way she said to and switched the slices.

“Yes, that’s it!”

He set the plate on the table with a bowl of salad. “Jaekob, do you want a butterfly too?”

“Sure.”

Fred made another butterfly. He set the second plate and a second bowl of salad on the table. He made the third one into a butterfly and set the plate and bowl on the table. He poured everyone some drinks. He sat down with the children and they all ate.

“Jaekob, how am I going to know who your grandparents are?”

“Oh, they’re just Grandma and Grandpa Lutin.”

“Okay. So where do they live?”

“Here in Europe. Um, I think they might be in France. Or is it Belgium?”

“That narrows it down a bit.”

“Do you think you can find them?”

“Yeah, I should be able to. Even if it means I go looking for your parents’ tablet computers.”

Both kids stopped eating and stared at him.

“You two don’t have to go outside. You’ll stay on the ship if I have to go out.”

They both sighed and resumed eating. After they all finished, everyone rinsed their dishes and set them in the sink. The kids went back to the living room to play together. Fred went to a console and looked up Jaekob’s grandparents. He found a few Lutins in both France and Belgium.

He thought to both Starlover and Starfire, “I need to leave the ship to find some tablet computer which used to belong to the Lutins. Look after the kids while I’m out there.”

“Fred, I’ve located the tablets that they used.”

“Good. Where?”

Starfire gave him directions. He walked into the living room.

“Lizette, Jaekob?”

“Yes?” they answered.

“I need to leave the ship for a little bit. I’ll be back. Please stay on board. It’s safer here.”

They nodded and soon resumed their play. He left the ship soon after. He followed the directions from the android. He found the two tablets. It didn’t take him long to locate the information he needed. One had the address and other contact information for Jaekob’s grandparents.

Fred took the information and the tablets and left for his ship immediately. He shuddered. He didn’t see any dead bodies and it was no longer the mess that it was when he had first arrived. But the place was eerie. It had become a ghost town. He took one last look before getting on board. He closed the hatch. He sighed to think of all those people gone now.

What would he do if he ever found out who the attackers were? He had no idea. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.