I finally found Howie in the lasers cockpit. He was helping Brian who was still working on those thermal imagers that were always giving me problems. I was the one in charge of the lasers but I didn’t have an idea of how to repair imagers.

“Howie,” I said when I realized neither of them had noticed me on the ladder. They both looked up at me and I saw expressions completely different on their faces. Howie was sad and the swelling of his upper lip caused me a terrible feeling of remorse. Brian, on the other hand, was simply mad. He shot me a glare that sent a shiver down my spine. Rok was the friendliest man in the universe and that was probably the reason why it was always a shock to see him angry. I had fought with him only a couple of times in my life and I didn’t want to experience that again. The disappointment that you could see on his eyes in those opportunities was enough to make you feel guilty for years. I guessed he would be the next in my list of 'people I needed to talk to'.

“I...” I looked at Brian. “I need to talk to Howie” I sighed.

Rok didn’t say a single word, he just looked at D who gave him a nod and then he left the cockpit. I saw him climb the ladder really fast and then turned my attention to D.

“I’m sorry D.” I had thought I didn’t have any more tears but the minute I said those words I felt I was about to cry again.

“No, I’m the one who should apologize.”

“Why? You didn’t do anything wrong. Everything you did was trying to protect me.”

“That’s what you told Kevin?”

“Huh?”

“Did you tell him that you knew he was trying to protect you.”

“It’s different with him.”

“How it’s different? We both kept the secret Aje, but you are still mad at Kevin and not at me, why?”

“I don’t know,” I said sitting on the floor. “Is just easy to be mad at him, I guess.”

“I know that Kevin is always looking confident and strong but he is suffering big deal. He didn’t want to hurt you, we didn’t want to hurt you.”

I played with the fabric of my shirt.

“He told you everything, right?” he asked me.

I nodded.

“Everything’s going to be alright, AJ.”

“I’m scared Howie.” Tears were already running down my face. He took a seat at my side.

“It’s natural. But I promise you that everything is going to be alright.”

“You can’t promise that, the same way Kevin can’t assure me that I’m not going to end like that guy.”

“That guy? Your father?”

“The guy that destroyed Blue and Green. Azdé or something like that.”

“AJ. Of course you are not going to end up like him.”

“How would you know that?”

“Because I know you. You are far from being a bad guy, Jay.”

“That’s what Kevin said.”

“And he is right.”

“But it's not like I’ve never been mean or anything. I enjoy torturing Nicky.”

“Come on Jay. you know that’s not true. You act like any big brother.”

“What if I change, what if I really end up hurting him or any of you guys. I would die if that happens.”

“It won’t.”

I sighed.

“Did you know him? My father?”

He shook his head. “I saw him a couple of times but that was it.”

“I asked Kevin if...”

“What?”

“Do you think there are good Tracons out there?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know Jay. There’s always a chance. You are half Tracon and you are good.”

“Yeah but that’s the Alomega part in me.”

“No, I’m almost sure it’s not that simple. Alomegas or Tracons, that really doesn’t matter, at the end we are all humans, and that’s the important thing. I think there’s always a chance of finding good Tracons.”

“Kevin didn’t say that.”

“Sometimes Kevin can’t see things clear while talking about the Tracons.”

I looked at him confused.

“The Altamira battle,” he said softly like expecting those words to explain everything but I didn’t get what he was trying to say.

“What about it?”

“Kevin knows there were Tracons there. We knew for years that there were Tracons among the people who destroyed Earth, but one thing is to know it and another thing is actually seeing them killing someone you love.

A beautiful smile came to my mind. “Kaydee.”

He nodded.

“It’s not easy for him AJ. Specially these days.”

“These days?”

“Her birthday.”

Right, her birthday was just a month before mine.

We kept silence. I didn’t want to talk about Kaydee, specially not after the things I had found about my father.

“Are we still leaving in a couple of days?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Where are we going?”

“Trinsuet.”

“Never heard of it.”

“You will like it. It’s a little planet near Carume, in the Valer System. So little and far away of the regular ways that the Empire had never paid attention to it. It’s full of rebels and the people who know the place had told me that it’s really nice. And it has three suns so is full of natural light too. Completely different to this planet.

“Three suns. Let me guess… they don’t have nights?”

“Yeah, that’s the bad part. Its not like they don’t sleep but they do work a lot. And they use Calaras’ time.”

“Days of 32 hours!”

“And considering that an hour for the Calaras is a little longer than an hour for a human we are really talking about 38 hours days.”

“It definitely will be a change after having days of only 25 hours here. But it doesn’t matter. I just want to leave this planet behind. Too bad I can’t leave reality behind too.”

He put one of his arms around me and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

“Howie. Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Could you please heal you. I really regret what I did and I don’t want to see you in that shape.”

He touched his lip.

“I don’t know why I didn’t do it before.”

“You really don’t think you deserved it, right? Because that’s bull. You didn’t deserve it. I acted like a big jerk and I’m really sorry, Howie.”

“It’s okay, AJ. I know.”

I sighed. “I have to talk with Brian. He is mad at me.”

“Don’t worry. He will understand.”


That night

As I had expected, Brian avoided me the rest of the day. He didn’t even look at me when we were eating and that of course turned out to be one of our quietest meals ever. It was just Brian, Nick and me at the table that night, with neither of us saying more than a couple of words. I was still in shock, Brian was mad, not only with me but with Nick too of course, and Nick was too worried to talk or to notice our moods. Kevin and Howie had left the ship soon after I talked to D and after deciding to spend more time in the rebel base, which was understandable considering that they would be needing to finish all their business there more than a month before their original plans.

After cleaning some things in the kitchen, I went to our room looking for Brian. I had decided to give it another try to a possible conversation but he just ignored me, not that I had much time to talk due to the fact that Nick entered the room shortly after me.

“What happens?” he asked noticing the great tension for the first time.

“Nothing.” I replied.

“Are you guys going to bed already? Isn’t one of you supposed to stay on guard or something until Kev and D come back? Just in case, you know.” he said pulling some pajamas out of one the drawers and taking his clothes off.

“On of US?” I laughed. “What about you Nick? You could do it too.” I said seeing the kid put his pajama on and go straight to his bed.

“Naha.” He smirked under the covers. “I’m too tired.”

“AJ will do it,” Rok said without even looking at me. “I have to get up early to finish those laser’s reparations, so he will have to do it,” he added entering the bathroom.

“Man, he is pissed at you too. It is because of your fight with Howie?” Nick asked me sitting up.

“Yeah.”

“But Howie wasn’t mad at you anymore.”

“You know Brian.” I shrugged.

“Are you going to tell me what happened with Howie?”

“Nope.” I gave him a grin.

He was about to say something else but Brian came back from the bathroom so he just murmured a “whatever”, laid his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes.

“Let me guess.” Brian grouched walking to his bed “You don’t want to do the guard.”

“What? No, I will do it. But it's not like I have to be near the gate or anything. The shields are on. I will just stay awake,” I replied taking a seat on my bed.

He didn’t even bother to answer and laid down on his bed, hands folded behind his head, looking at the ceiling.

I opted to wait for Kaos to fall asleep, which didn’t take too much; the long day had left the kid really tired and just a couple of minutes later he was sound asleep.

“Brian,” I hissed. He had closed his eyes but I was sure he was awake. “Brian, I know you are awake. Come on, I need to talk to you.”

He didn’t say a word.

“Come on Rok, please.”

“I’m not going to talk to you until you explain me everything, AJ”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

“You hit Howie,” he said finally opening his eyes.

“I ....”

He propped himself up on his elbow. “Are you going to tell me what’s happening or not?”

“I didn’t want to hurt him.”

“Tell me what’s going on Bone.” Well, at least he is calling me Bone, that means he is in a better mood.

“That man on the bar.” I sighed.

“Man in the bar? The one with Jeff?”

I nodded.

“Do you know him? I asked Kevin but he didn’t tell me who he was. He knew my father. Did you hear what he said about Nick? And he knew your name too, right?”

“Didn’t you hear his name Rok?

“His name? No, I don’t remember his name. I don’t think I was paying attention to it.”

“His name was Drew.”

“Drew?”

“Doesn’t it say anything to you?”

“That’s your father’s name.”

I nodded again.

“You are not...” He half-closed his eyes. “Are you telling me that he is your father?”

Oh come on Alex, you are not going to cry this time. What are you? A baby?

“AJ?” he said sitting up. “Is he your father?”

I couldn’t articulate a single word due to the lump in my throat, so I just had to nod again.

He stood up and approached to my bed. “How? I don’t get it”

“Now you understand what I felt when I heard it.”

“You mean...Kevin and D knew it and they didn’t tell you?”

“Yes.”

“How could they?”

“They were trying to protect me.”

“That wasn’t the way!” he said out loud.

“Shhh! You are going to wake up Kaos.”

I motioned him to follow me outside the room. Before closing the door I turned off the lights for Nick to sleep comfortably, and once in the corridor I took a seat on the floor.

“My mother was the first one who decided to conceal this from me,” I told him.

“You are not blaming her, are you?”

“Why not? Do you prefer me blaming the guys? A couple of minutes ago you were mad with me because I had hit Howie.”

“Well, now I understand.”

“What? You think it was okay for me to hit him? What’s wrong with you Rok?”

“I’m just tired of them keeping us in the dark.”

“Now you are tired?” I’ve spent the last couple of years telling you that something was going on, and you never listened to me.”

“I chose to believe them!” he spat. Man, how is that I didn’t notice before how Bri had taken all the revelations?

“And now?”

“Now I feel betrayed.” Oh no, tell me is not anger what I see in your eyes Brian.

“Because of this?”

“Because of everything. I feel like I’ve been acting like a fool”

“Rok.”

“Is just that...” he kept pacing the corridor up and down “the things I’ve seen in that crystal...” What? Is this about something he saw in the pyramid? He stopped and stared straight into my eyes. “There’s something that you aren’t telling me, right? There’s no way you would be acting so cool with the guys after finding out something like this,” he asked.

“I told you, they were trying to protect me. And they only did what my mother did first.”

“You were seven the last time you saw her Alex. She probably was simply expecting you to grow a little but not all these years.”

“What do you want from me?” I finally exploited. “You are not helping me Brian. I can’t be mad with Kevin and D. There’s already too much hate in me.” There goes holding the tears.

“Sorry bro,” he said taking a seat at my side and putting his left arm around me. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I'm saying all these things. I guess I’m scared.”

“Of something you saw in the pyramid, right?”

“I prefer not to talk about that Jay. At least not now.” Come on Brian! Now you are the one hiding something?

I chose not to insist anymore. I would be trying a different approach to that subject later.

“I saw him in the crystal too,” I finally said after a couple of minutes in silence.

“He?”

“My father.”

“Oh!” he took his arm away and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs. I can’t see your eyes Brian, please don’t let me here thinking that you are meaning anything else by this gesture.

“Alex, is he a...” I knew it. I was afraid this could happen but I wasn’t really expecting this from Brian, maybe from Nick, but God not from Brian. More tears fell down my cheeks.

“A Tracon?” I said wiping the tears from my eyes and speaking as loud as I could “Yes. I’m half Tracon.” Wow, that even sounded proud.

I knew he had noticed the tone of my voice because he turned around to look at me and I could see the surprise in his eyes.

“What are you thinking Brian?” I have to know it.

“Huh?”

“I just told you that I’m half Tracon, what’s the first thing that came to your head?”

He leaned back resting his head on the wall.

“I don’t know,” he answered closing his eyes and biting his bottom lip. “Pain?”

“Pain?”

“Your pain AJ” he said looking at me again. I noticed the tears in his eyes. “I’m thinking about how much you have to be suffering right now.”

“You don’t think I...”

“What?”

“You don’t see me different?” Of course he doesn’t, he’s just worried about me. Thank God. I don’t think I could have put up with that.

“Why? Because you know now that your father is a Tracon. You are still the same Alex.”

“I was afraid Bri... I was afraid of your reaction” I admitted. “Part of me was afraid of telling you, of telling Nicky.”

“You really didn’t think I would see you differently, did you?” He was in shocked, really offended.

“Why not, I am different, Rok. Either we want to see it or not, I am different. There are a lot of things that you still don’t know.”

“No, you are still Alex. You are just my brother and my best friend.” he gripped my knee in a reassuring gesture.

“I wish this was a bad dream,” I whispered.

“And I wish there was something I could do.”

“Just be there okay. I’m gonna need you Rok.”

“I will be right here.” He smiled.

“You promise?”

“Of course.”

We kept silence again, our eyes fixed on the wall in front of us.

“There are a lot of things I need to tell you but not right now. I have the biggest headache right now.”

“Why don’t you go and rest a little? I will do the guard.”

“I’ve already slept too much today.”

“Maybe Howie could do something when he comes back.”

“Maybe.”

“Do you want me to bring you anything?”

“No, thank you.”

I closed my eyes before speaking again. “Rok?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

He put his arm around me again but didn’t say a word.

“It feels great to know that I always can count on you.”

“Always,” he whispered.

He stayed by my side more than three hours until Kev and Howie came back. We didn’t say another word in all that time, just sat there in silence, but it was then that I finally experienced the feeling that everything would be okay, no matter what, as long as I had my brothers with me.


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