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“Jarra could be in the very next school group that walks through this Transit.” Jaxon pleads with him.
Drago has to put his foot down. He reminds Jaxon what Gemelle impressed on him, that the odds were never in their favor. He was currently absent without leave and they needed to leave Earth Transit 2 and report back to the Solar Array crew. His friend deflats at his argument. He looks so upset as he agreed to accompany Drago back to the base that he almost forgot why he's mad at the man.
Just as they turn to leave, another group of young girls in identical brown uniforms cut across their path. One of them looked up and glared directly at them in their disguises. Drago is taken aback by her look. Just like the girl from before, she had a vague resemblance to members of the Tell clan. He shakes his head, now he was starting to see things he wanted to see in these Hospital Earth kids. Even though he had promised to return to base, Jaxon was already reaching for his scanner.
“Jaxon,” Drago says, exasperated with his behavior. He goes to swat his hands away but he pointed his unlicensed hand-held genetic scanner from Freya at the girl anyways. “We need to go.” He reiterates.
He waits for Jaxon to sigh and put the scanner away just like last time. He braces himself for the same sense of disappointment he felt the last time he watched Jaxon point his illegal scanner at nine-year old but it didn’t come.
“It’s her.”
Drago must have heard him wrong. “What? No it isn’t.” He snatches the genetic scanner out of Jaxon’s hands.
“It’s Jarra.”
Drago thought about what Gemelle had told him about the hundreds of thousands of girls who were wards of Hospital Earth around Jarra’s age. “There’s no way.” He says again. But it has to be her, the scanner doesn't lie. It's too close of a match to be wrong.
Jaxon is already ripping off his Roman helmet and charging through the crowds of Earth Transit like a real roman centurion.
“Nuke it all! Jaxon!” Drago shouts, quickly stumbling into action and chasing off after him.
There’s a man standing in a Rome Alive costume who is trying to talk to Jarra because she glared at him. There are always guys in Rome Alive costumes in the Transit terminal but they normally just stand there with their advertisements and they never try to approach Hospital Earth groups. Except she glared at this one and now he’s trying to talk to her.
Their teacher had moved from the front of their small Home group to stand in between them.
“Creepy” Isette mutters under her breath, squeezing her hand a little tighter.
“That’s my sister!” The Rome Alive man shouts from where he’s been intercepted. All of a sudden their group of nine-year-olds erupts into a clamor. It’s like something out of a vid! Someone cries.
There’s another guy next to him in what looks like a Military uniform with a cape over it. Maybe they’re filming some sort of prank vid for one of the Newzies. It would be the kind of thing Jarra would expect to see, she leans to whisper as much to Keon, who seems equally as uninterested in the proceedings when the guy with the military uniform shouts her name.
“Jarra!” She looks around. She’s the only Jarra in her class.
“Sir-“ the teacher is saying, “I can’t have you talking to the children, I’ve already called security.”
She points to her face, “me?” She asks loudly. He can't posibly mean her.
“Jarra – it really is you-“ The man in the Rome Alive costume does some crazy move and slips under their teachers arm. He crashes to his knees in front of where the school group has parted around her. “Jarra,” he tells her, “You’re my sister.”
Jarra takes a wary step back but she’s met with Isette’s firm hands pushing her right back towards the strange man. “No, Isette.” She hisses at her best friend, “I don’t –“ she was planning on finishing it as ‘I don’t want a family’ but isn’t that what every other Hospital Earth kid wants?
“My name is Jaxon.” He says, and she notices his Language sounds different from the Hospital Earth teachers. “Jaxon Tell Galad.” And then he’s being pulled up and away by two security staff members and the teacher is frantically trying to wrangle all of the kids in their group and push them off towards the portal back to Home.
Jarra spares one last glance at where the two strange men are being pulled away. Isette picks up her hand again and squeezes it. “A brother!” She squeals.
Jarra mouths the words Jaxon Tell Galad under her breath as the teacher pushes her forward into the Portal.
She appears on the other side in Home and despite the fact that she has stepped through that portal in Earth Europe 2 a million times in her ten years, the entire world has shifted upside down.
The teacher is already lecturing her about how strange men sometimes try to kidnap Handicapped kids and how it must have been for a prank vid and they need to always be careful of people who might take advantage of them but Jarra hears none of it. All she can hear ringing in her ears is Jaxon Tell Galad. Jaxon Tell Galad. Jaxon Tell Galad.
Drago and Jaxon eventually manage to talk their way out of the Earth Europe Transit’s security office. Mainly they had to wait for a couple of hours while the manager called like ten different people to try to figure out if they had broken any laws. The fact that their names are minorly recognizable from the incidents at Adonis Off-World and Hera likely helped them avoid detention. Unfortunately, Drago had to shoot a very awkward message to Major Stedman about it.
They make it back to their accommodation zone in one piece, but Drago has to talk Jaxon down from going absent without leave for the second time in one day. They haven’t even had time for Drago to fully process that Jaxon abandoned his littlest sister before they found her again.
They end up in Jaxon’s dome, where he is currently attempting to wear a hole through the flooring with his pacing. Drago himself was understandably oscillating between the anger at finding out the Jarra had ever been given up and the relief of finding her at all. He kept seeing the confused expression on her tiny face. How could they have ever given her up to Hospital Earth?
“Speaking of your sister.” He cuts in when Jaxon tries to drop another idea of how they can track her down. “This is definitely something we should tell Gemelle.” He’s already sending her a message on his lookup. Hopefully she’ll have a break from her Military Security briefing that she’s probably in. He can barely process that just hours before he was watching Gemelle take down interstellar criminals in a MeetUp.
“I need to tell my parents – I need to tell the clan.” Jaxon piles on.
Drago holds out his hands. “One thing at a time Jaxon.” He says. His parents are on a Planet First mission in Kappa sector anyways. So they have a little bit of leeway before they call them. Which gives enough time for them – or more accurately – for Gemelle to track down all of Jarra’s contact information. “We know she exists now. And she knows she has a brother.”
“I keep thinking of the timing of it-“ Jaxon says and Drago certainly is too. One in four hundred thousand is the number flying around in his head, but it apparently isn’t the number in Jaxon’s. “At this time of the afternoon the group must have been headed back to their Home – that’s what they call the places where kids Jarra’s age live, though they don’t sound very much like a good home to me. Which means Jarra most likely lives on Earth Europe. That means thousands of kids her age, maybe hundreds with her name!”
Drago is minorly impressed by his extensive knowledge of Earth once again. He tries to reassure him. “Jaxon. I know Gemelle will be able to track her down as soon as she gets back to me. She hacked Hospital Earth’s databases at least three times that I know of.”
“Right.” He says, however this knowledge doesn’t seem to comfort Jaxon very much.
“You told her your name?” He tries.
“She’s nine!” He argues, “What if she forgets! Why didn’t I ask for her group number or, or her address?”
“Because we were actively being dragged away by Earth Transit security?”
Luckily Drago’s lookup finally chimes with a call request from Gemelle. He wasn’t expecting her to get back to him so soon, but I guess the ‘EMERGENCY’ in the message worked.
"Drago" Gemelle sighs when she answers. "I told you that I’m busy. You were supposed to talk him out of this stupid obsession, not join him or whatever this is."
"Just listen." Drago says. "I know you said the odds were 1 in 445,000 but this was that point zero zero whatever percent chance. But Jaxon is right for once.” Gemelle rolls her eyes as him.
Jaxon takes the moment to push his way into the frame. “We found her.” He blurts out, tears creeping into his eyes. “We found Jarra.”
Gemelle mouth gets pinched around the edges. “I know that you think that if you keep standing there that you’ll find her but you have to know that not going to happen.”
Drago cuts her off, “No, he’s actually telling the truth. We found Jarra.” He wouldn't have believed it if he wasn't there himself. "And they kept her name. It's Jarra. Hospital Earth didn’t change her first name when they changed her identity." And that’s its own miracle.
“We need you to help find her Home number.” Jaxon starts rambling on, “I need you to help me with this. I know you have never approved of my methods but I know that you have never stopped looking for her either. She lives on Earth Europe. Her name is Jarra. Gemelle she’s gotten so big.” Drago rubs a comforting hand over Jaxon’s back. He wishes Gemelle could come back to Earth so he could give her a hug too.
"Jaxon." Gemelle snaps over the lookup. "You found her. Stop spiraling. I might not have been able to hack Hospital Earth’s sealed records but I can definitely find all the nine year old Jarra’s who live on Earth Europe. You’d recognize her, right?" Drago was infinitely glad that Gemelle was so matter of fact and data oriented sometimes.
“Yeah – she looks like grandma, to be honest. Like she did in the photos we have of her when she was younger.” Drago understands where Jaxon sees the resembence. It isn't as uncanny as his younger sisters appearance is though.
Gemelle nods frankly. “I’ll send you the profiles to look through. I’m- I’m glad you were able to find her Jaxon.”
Jaxon looks down at the ground silently for a moment before speaking, "Do you think she's close with her group mates? Do you think they like her? What if me talking to her makes her life miserable."
Drago can actively see Jaxon spiraling into his old habits of blaming himself. He wonders if finding Jarra might mean that he can finally talk about the issue with a Kay clan psychologist.
"Gemelle's right. We’re glad you found her." Drago says. "But what's important now is Jarra, and bringing her home." He decided to drop the big question on the siblings. "Should we tell the clan and your parents or wait until we confirm without a doubt that it's her?"
Gemelle considers the question with the weight of her military security training. "Call our parents. Wait until I see what I can find before we alert the clan. I'll bring it to them, but you have to tell our parents Jaxon."
Jaxon nods deeply.
"I know you're a bit of an idiot." She says it so matter of fact it barely registers as an insult, "but I'm glad you found her." She moves clearly to end the call and then pauses. “And this means absolutely no more going absent without leave.”
“Understood.” Jaxon confirms.
“I’ll keep him in line like I promised.” Drago said. Him and Major Steadman would at least. Gemelle nods and ends the call.
They look at each other for a long time replaying the crazy events of the day. Two days ago Drago didn’t even know that Jarra had survived and now he had seen her for himself dressed in those drab brown Hospital Earth uniforms. He doesn’t even know how to process it all.
He checks the time on his lookup and sighs. “We have to go work on the Solar Array.” He reminds Jaxon. “You were absent without leave nearly the whole day.”
“I was sorry about that.” Jaxon says, “I know if was incredibly selfish of me to do so but I can’t say that I regret it anymore.” He would probably have gone absent without leave a hundred times more just for the chance to see Jarra again and Drago understood. She was so small and so big – he still can’t believe that they found her.
“But you can’t ever do it again.” He reminds Jaxon, even though Gemelle had done the same just moments before. “Jaxon, listen to me,” he adds, knowing that he needs to get this point across. “Jarra lives on Earth Europe. That means that she’ll be experiencing these cold temperatures and winter storms too. She needs these array’s fixed more than anyone else out there. I know you probably want to go door to door in Earth Europe now. Deity knows I do. But we can't. You can't go absent without leave again, Jaxon. You don't need to anymore! You found her, and Gemelle will do the rest. We have to do our jobs for Earth now. For her.”
Jaxon scrubs the tears away from his face before looking up at him. “For Jarra.” He says, and Drago can tell in his eyes that he’s finally committed to the task at hand.
“He said his name was Jaxon Tell Galad.” Jarra says excitedly, “Which means my real name is Jarra Galad!” Everyone in her Home was clustered around her listening to her group share the story of how a Rome Alive staff member had fallen to his knees and proclaimed that Jarra was his long-lost sister.
"Did you notice he spoke Language with an accent." Isette chimed in. "Where do you think he's from?"
"He sounded like all the Exo's do." Keon drawled.
“He sounded kind of like the Betan characters always do on the vids.” Maeth chimed in. She had been standing next to her when Jaxon (Her brother Jaxon!) had made his appeal.
“Oh.” Jarra’s a little disappointed. Is her family Betan? She always hopped that maybe her family was Alphan, or maybe they were a frontier family from Epsilon and that’s why they gave her up. Betans are always kind of silly and everyone makes fun of them in the vids they watch. “I don’t want to be Betan."
“Just be glad you have a family at all!”
Something about the way Isette said it rubbed Jarra the wrong way. “But you guys are already my family!” She said, “Maybe I don’t want an Exo family, I mean, they gave me up anyways.”
One of the Home staff members hurries into the room, trying to break up their little gathering. “All of you,” the adult says harshly, “you all need to go eat. Now.” There’s little room for argument in her voice. “Except you Jarra.” She says.
Jarra wonders if she’s coming to bring her to her brother as she follows her across the Home to the portal.
It turns out, she was not going to meet her brother. She was going to the psychologist.
If Jarra hated the psychologist before now, she didn’t know what she was feeling now as she listened to them twist her words in front of her. She can feel her rage prickling within her body. She feels like one of those old fashioned spaceships from the docs before they invented portals.
“Why are you lying to me!” Jarra screams at the psychologist. They keep telling her that the man was mistaken, that he was sick in the head and was trying to kidnap her.
“He looked like me!” She argues.
“Lots of people look like each other.” The psychologist says, “I look like the vid star on Night with the Wolves but I’m not related to him. I spoke with your teacher and she said that the resemblance was insignificant. He looked as much like you as your Pro-Mom does.”
“You’re lying.” Jarra says again, but she maybe the psychologist is right, and he didn’t look that much like her. Both men had the same darker skin that she does, but Candace does too. The rest of the psychologists’ words wash over her, sowing doubts into the story that she and Isette had told to the rest of their home.
Maybe they were right. It was just some strange man trying to take advantage of the poor little Handicapped girl’s hopes and dreams of having a family for a prank vid.
“Your real family gave you up.” The psych reminds her. “They don’t care about you.” It’s the same words that Jarra told Isette not three hours ago. And they’re true.
Jarra sobs on the couch for the rest of the allotted thirty minutes.
Drago wasn’t expecting to wake up to a frantic ping from Betha telling him she needed to speak him and Jaxon urgently, and that she was coming to the dome complex.
He quickly send a message to confirm whether it was an emergency with the Solar Arrays. He’s already most of the way dressed by the time she replies that it isn’t.
Drago flops back down onto the bed in relief. He hadn’t been sleeping well ever since they found Jarra, and he doubts Jaxon has anyways. He sends him a non-urgent ping with Betha’s estimated time of arrival. It must be something personal.
Jaxon had been tight-lipped about what he said to his parents about Jarra but Drago knows through the grapevine that the clan is doing something behind the scenes. It’s been over a week since the incident and they’ve ordered him and Jaxon, as the only two Tell clan members on Earth, not to approach Jarra until they’ve worked out an agreement with Hospital Earth.
It frusterates Drago to no end. The clan wants to bring Jarra in slowly as an Earth girl who likely doesn’t know much about Betan customs and military clans. And to keep him and Jaxon out of it until their parents can make it back from their Planet First mission.
Drago thinks it’s a chaos stupid idea to keep Jarra away from her family until her parents can get off mission but he does think there’s some merit to ordering Jaxon to stay away. At least until he can have some time to process. Jarra doesn’t need his guilty conciousness. And with everything he's done in the past, he can't go against the clan to go absent without leave again.
His alarm pings quietly and he finally rolls off his best and makes his way across the snowy expanse to the main dome.
The last place Drago ever expected to see nine-year-old Jarra Tell Feren was in the cafeteria of a Military-run dome. He nearly drops his glass of fizzup all over his uniform.
The girl stands right in his way, staring up at him with both hands on her hips. She has a stubborn pout and her hair is pulled back into two French braids and he realizes all of a sudden she has the same angry face that Jaxon makes.
“Hello!” She says, “I’m Jarra, but I don’t know your name.”
He decides that the only thing to do when accosted by your long lost and abandoned sister in the middle of your home is to roll with the punches.
“Hi Jarra,” he says, crouching down so that he’s eye level with her. “My names Drago Tell Dramis. I’m your cousin. Do you like fizzup?”
“Nice to meet you Drago.” She says with a frown. “Are you offering me your glass of fizzup?”
He holds it out to her as a token of goodwill and she snatches it out of his hand and sniffs it. “Orange?” She asks him before taking a sip.
“Orange-Mango.” He specifies. Still reeling slightly. He has so many questions about how Jarra is here. “Did you come here to talk to me and Jaxon?”
Jarra finishes the glass of fizzup and then lets out an adorable burp. “You guys really aren’t vid makers?” She asks, staring at his military uniform.
Drago scoffs, “You managed to sneak into a military accomodation site and just now you’re asking that?”
“Isette said she though she recognized you from the newzies but then she found the footage of you guys fighting off bad guys on Adonis Off-world and Candace’s friends’ daughter works with you so she helped me sneak out of Home.” Jarra points back towards the tables. Where Betha is quietly sitting. She waves at them.
Drago rolls back on his heels. That makes so much sense, and also zero sense at all. His military training is telling him that he should probably go scold Betha for helping Jarra sneak into the facility, and revealing to anyone that she's been working with him and Jaxon, but he’s mainly so deeply relieved to see Jarra that his bones ache.
“Well, I’m really happy that you came to see me and Jaxon.” He tells her, “You’re very important to our family and we’ve missed you very much.”
“Really?” She says scrunching her nose at him.
He’s not about to tell her that he didn’t know she existed until under a week ago. That’s not what she need right now.
“Yes.” He says instead.
“Oh. But the psychologist said that my family gave me up and you guys were just trying to use me for bad things.”
Drago has never had the urge to hit a psychologist before but he’s feeling it now. “It’s a bit of a long story,” he says, already planning on editing out the part where they very much did give Jarra away, at least until she was older. Or until she got to hear it from her parents. “Your parents never stopped trying to find you. Hospital Earth wouldn’t tell them where you were, ok?”
Jarra seems to consider this, “Do you think that’s what happened to anyone else in my Home? Everyone always says that no one wants us. I think thats true. No one likes apes.”
Drago wishes that more parents were just unavoidably delayed from getting to earth but he knows that it isn't true. He winces when Jarra calls herself that. “I don't know Jarra, but it really is what happened with you. And I promise I like you very much already, and I just met you” he admits. “Do you want to meet your brother?” He knows Jaxon is probably awake in his dome trying to figure out how to find Jarra even though he should be sleeping.
Jarra considers this, “Can I have another glass of fizzup first?”
“Of course.” He says. He’s pretty sure at this point he would do literally anything for this child. “What’s your favorite food?” He asks as she follows him over to the food dispenser.
“Cheese fluffle!” She says excitedly.
Drago grins and makes sure to grab a carton for her. He finds them a seat at a table and waves again to Betha. Since he doesn’t know how to get Jarra back to wherever she’s supposed to be he’s glad she’s sticking around.
He finally taps on his lookup, sending a carefully worded priority message to Jaxon telling him not freak out and come to the cafeteria dome right away. He figures if they're already breaking the clan's orders to stay away from Jarra. They might as well do it all the way. Plus he's not sure he would come out unscathed if Jaxon ever found out Jarra came to visit and Drago didn't tell him.
“That’s a good lookup.” Jarra says between large bites of cheese fluffle. “Can I see it?”
He’s pretty sure the fact that he would do anything for this girl is going to get him into so so much trouble because he says “sure!” and slides it across the table. The door to the dome slams open and Jaxon bursts in with a rush of cold air. “Take a look at it for a second I’ll be right back.”
He quickly moves to intercept Jaxon before he can make it to Jarra. He stares at her like a madman, or maybe like a grieving brother, as she tries to poke around at his lookup.
“Jarra’s here?” Jaxon can’t keep the incredulity out of his voice.
“Jaxon.” Drago says, finally getting his friend to meet his eyes. “She came because she wants to meet us, ok. Just take a deep breath first. Jarra doesn’t need your guilt right now, she needs your love.”
When Jaxon complies and nods firmly that he understands, Dragon releases the grip he had on his arm and they walk back to the table with Jarra.
“Could I have my lookup back, Jarra?” Drago asks as they take their seats.
“It’s cool.” She says. "I like that it fits on your arm like that." Looking up at Jaxon, she squints inquisitively. “You’re Jaxon Tell Galad.”
“Th-That’s my name.” Jaxon says.
She frowns and little wrinkles appear between her eyebrows, "Are you really my brother? You’re not trying to kidnap me for nefarious purposes." Jarra stumbles slightly over the last two words and it’s the sweetest thing he’s ever heard in his life. “Because I’ll scream and Betha will take me away.”
Jaxon is shocked. “No, of course not, you're my sister and-“ He doesn’t even make it through the sentence before he tears up a little. “I regret every moment you haven't been able to grow up with your family in your life. I know I can never, ever make up for the last nine years. But I will do anything to make it up to you. I love you so much Jarra. Our parents love you.”
“Where are your parents?” Jarra asks. And Drago winces slightly at the word choice, she probably has never thought of Aunt Gemena and Uncle Marack as her parents.
“They’re on a Planet First mission.” Jaxon says smoothly. He's taken a few deep breaths and blinked the tears away. “We’re a Military family.”
“Oh.” Jarra frowns.
“If you want we can record a video message for them?” He suggests.
“I don’t wanna.” She wrinkles her nose again. She sticks the spoon she was using for the cheese fluffle back in her mouth.
“That’s okay.” Says Jaxon awkwardly.
Drago desperately feels like he needs to do something to break the ice. “What do you like to do Jarra?” He asks, turning the conversation back to herself.
This is clearly the right move, because Jarra after a few halting sentences Jarra breaks into a story about how she loves Zoo Europe and she wants to visit every one of Earth’s Zoos and learn all about the plants and animals that used to be around on Earth, even the ones that used to be extinct.
Jaxon falls into the easy rhythm of talking to children. Asking questions to keep her talking and offering up information about himself. It’s going really well, but then Betha is approaching their table.
“Jaxon, Drago, I’m really sorry about this but I promised to take her back to her Pro-Mom now.”
Jarra seems excited about going back to her pro-mom or whoever that is. Jaxon nods like he understands, and Drago realizes that he probably does because of all the research he’s done on Hospital Earth over the years.
“Can I come with you to meet your pro-mom?” Jaxon directs the question at Jarra but glances up at Betha as well.
Jarra shrugs, “Sure.”
“I think I’m going to stay here.” Drago says, he makes the Military Sign to indicate that he’s going to talk to a superior officer. Which means, in this case, that he’s going to go call the clan and also Jarra’s parents. Jaxon gives him a curt nod and lets Jarra drag him out of the dome.
Candace gives her a big hug as she drops her off at Home. She brushes away a stray hair that's fallen loose from her braids, tucking it behind her ear. “Jarra.” She says softly.
Jarra grins up at her. “Isn’t it totally amaz?” She asks. While Jaxon was still there, she had been standoffish and wary. Like she was afraid to let him know what she liked him. But once he left, it was like a switch flipped in her, and she started to get excited about the idea of having a family. On the way back to the Home, she’s been rambling on about how she’s got a new last name – Tell Feren - and how she plans to take Jaxon to the zoo. She tells Candace that she can’t believe that she had a grandmother who she was named after and a brother who promised to take her to Zoo America. It's like her mind is exploding with all the information. “Will you come with us?”
“Of course I’ll come with you sweetie.” Candance says. Secretly, she’s worried that this family of Jarra’s is planning to dump her the minute the reality of her handicap sets in. She was glad she got a chance to meet Jaxon. He seemed like a nice man even though the curtain of guilt hovered over him like snow on a winters day. Her own birth mother was like that when she contacted her at age 14. She came to Earth a couple of times to visit Earth, guilty about abandoning her at first. But when she realized Candace could never join her in her life on Hathor she just… stopped visiting.
Candace had needed to accept that she wouldn’t have a parental relationship just because she had met her parents. She doesn’t want Jarra to be hurt like she did.
“Jarra, you know I care about you very much,” she starts.
Jarra wrinkled her nose. “I know Candace.” She says.
“I’m very happy for you,” Candace continues, “Your brother seems nice, okay, and we can go to Zoo America together next week. I just – not everything works out the way it does in the vids.”
She seems to understand what Candace is saying. “I know.” She says, trying to squirm out of her arms.
“Just don’t brag about it to your friends too much, okay. It might make them feel bad.” Candace knew that her friends at Home would probably be sensitive about the issue.
“I understand.” Jarra says. "I'm not a little kid anymore, Candace." Her comment makes her smile. Jarra still is a little kid in her eyes.
“Alright, then.” Candace pulls her in and places a kiss on her forehead before bushing her out towards the Home.
Jarra makes a show of rolling her eyes and wiping the wet smudge off her forhead before she skips away and Candace turns back to the portal. She keys her destination in and steps through, hoping that Jarra won’t end up heartbroken.
The myriad of issues with the Earth Solar Array’s have been keeping them busy. The work is difficult but considerably more rewarding now that they know how much their repairs will help Jarra.
The Tell Clan had argued itself hoarse about protocol but eventually Dragon had put his foot down and argued that if Jarra initiated the contact it was perfectly acceptable for them to continue it.
This meant Jaxon was granted permission to go to Zoo America with Jarra and Candace. Drago had been encouraged to go along to chaperone, but he wanted the free time to rest. Trying to learn how to use the Zero Gravity Wings on top of fixing the Array made him sore and tired, even if it was exhilarating in the moment.
Gemelle had been in contact with her superior about receiving time off to visit Earth. Something she had only asked for on increasingly rare occasions. The Clan had decided that Gemelle, as the closest semi-impartial relative to the situation, would approach Jarra and introduce her to the Clan politics. Hopefully in a way that would still be understandable to a young girl.
They, especially Dragon, weren’t happy about Jaxon being their main connection to Jarra. Jaxon himself wasn’t too happy about it either. Drago was glad to hear that he was speaking with a psychologist about it, but years of guilt and regret weren’t easily fixed even if Jarra was starting to get reunited with her family and clan.
It didn’t help that Jarra was still declining any opportunity talk to their parents. The idea that Jarra blamed their parents for abandoning her wreaked havoc on Jaxon’s mental health, with the knowledge that he was the one truly at fault for her abandonment. But with Drago and Gemelle’s encouragement, he decided to continue to take her out on adventures while chaperones by her Pro-Mom. And Jarra always borrowed her Pro-Dad’s lookup to call them while he did something else.
They had given her their schedules so she would never try to call them while on the Arrays and Jarra had stuck to it. Which is why Jaxon was surprised when the call came in.
“Jarra?” He asks, answering the lookup. He had just portalled back to their accommodation zone seconds before. There were other people around for the shift change, one of them shoots him a look of concern but he waves them off, heading for a slightly more private part of the main dome.
“Jaxon.” She sniffs. It was dark and she sounded like she was crying.
It could just be a cold. Jaxon tries to reassure himself. But then Jarra hiccupps.
“Are you okay?” Jaxon asks quickly. Scenarios stream through his mind. Maybe someone kidnapped Jarra. Maybe one of the board of Hospital Earth was trying to blackmail the Tell Clan now that they were in negotiations for change of custody. “Are you hurt? Are you in danger?”
He shoots a frantic message to Drago before Jarra can even get a reply in edgewise.
“I’m okay.” Jarra says unconvincingly.
“What’s wrong?” He continues to pry.
“Miss Mara locked me in the closet.” She said quietly.
Jaxon was already panicking. But he knew from his training not to show it. “Are you still locked in the closet?” He asked. Jarra didn’t say anything at first but there was some rustling.
“Yes.” She said quietly. “I think she’ll come back for me soon, but I’m scared.”
“I’m here Jarra.” He says, “You don’t have to be scared, we’re going to get you out.” Drago jogs around the corner and Jaxon quickly waves him over, feeling rage course through his body. How could anyone lock his little sister in a closet. “Look Jarra,” he says with a smile, “It’s Cousin Drago.”
Drago waves confusedly at the darkened screen. “Hi Jarra.” He says, shooting Jaxon a look of confusion.
“I need to borrow your lookup right now.” Jaxon practically orders him. Drago unlocks it and slides it off his arm. He passes his own look up over to Drago, talking into the screen. “Jarra, I know that you’re scarred right now, but me and Drago and here and we love you. I’m going to step away for a moment to make a phone call about getting you out. Drago will tell you about his exciting day, okay.”
He doesn’t want to stop talking to Jarra right now, but this is more important. He steps out of frame and dials Gemelle. Flagging the message as Emergency Priority. He doesn’t care if his sister is on a deep undercover mission right now, she’s going to answer his message.
It rings for longer than he would like. He glances across the room at Drago. There’s a dark look in his eyes but a cheerful smile on his face. He hopes that Jarra is enjoying whatever story he’s telling her.
Gemelle finally answers with a sigh, “Drago,” she says and Jaxon can see that there’s a biting remark on the tip of her tongue that dies when she sees his face. “Jaxon? What are you doing?” She asks, “I was in a very important meeting.”
“It’s Jarra.” He blurts out.
“Okay the last time you started a call with that was good news, this doesn’t sound like that.” Gemelle says.
“She just called me crying, because one of the staff members locked her in a closet an hour ago Gemelle. She only called me when I got off shift. She’s scarred and alone.”
Jaxon watches as fury envelops his sister's features. It would be unthinkable to do such a thing to a child on Zeus. And it’s even more unthinkable that Jarra waited an hour until Jaxon was off shift before she called for help. IF she had a lookup she could have called anyone she trusted. Why had she called Jaxon? Why had she waited? Jaxon half wishes Jarra had called him while he was out on the Solar Array’s wings.
Gemelle is silent for a long moment. Jaxon glances over at Drago he’s laughing at something Jarra probably said. Finally he looks back to the screen. Gemelle is eerily focused. He knows that look is why she was picked for her position in the Military. “Gemelle?” He asks quietly.
“I’ve set a priority message to all of her Home staff. One of them better let her out of there or they will regret it. The clan has been informed of this transgression. And our parents. I can be on Earth at 0500 tomorrow. I’m send you the portal code to her Home now. I’m submitting a priority request for emergency custody.” She finally looks at the screen and makes eye contact with her brother. For so long she resented him for being the reason Jarra was snatched away and placed on Earth to grow up without any of her clan. She’s long since understood why he did what he did, and now she’s even grown to forgive him. Jaxon will be the reason Jarra comes home again. “Go get our sister.”
“I will.” He promises, and snaps the lookout closed. He hurries over to tell Drago and Jarra.
When they stepped through the portal, they immediately spotted one of the Home staff who unlocked Jarra from the closet is waiting with her. Jarra is standing a full foot away from her, arms wrapped tightly around her chest and fists balled into her brown shirt. The area they arrive in looks a lot shabbier than the military accommodation dome that Jaxon and Drago have been staying at while they repair the Solar Arrays.
Jaxon quickly rushes over to the pair of them and Jarra unclenches her shirt and throws her arms around her brother. She doesn't cry but Jaxon thinks he might.
“You came.” Jarra whispered into Jaxon’s shirt. “No one ever does.”
“I’m here now Jarra.” Tears are starting to well in the corner of Jaxon’s eyes. “I’ll always be here for you.”
Over their heads, the home staff member speaks with Drago in a quiet voice. There’s a young woman in a staff uniform who’s sitting off to the side that they point him too.
Drago makes his way across the room.
“Are you Mara Polan?” He asks, stopping in front of her. He hopes that he poses an intimidating figure in his Military impact suit.
“She shouldn’t have had a lookup.” Is the first thing Mara says to them and the very words make Drago recite a litany about not hitting civilians. If Jaxon was over here instead of carrying Jarra across the room he probably wouldn’t have stopped himself from lashing out. Jarra still has her arms wrapped around Jaxon's neck and he's carrying her full weight. It seems like the outcome of the conversation he had with her Home staff ended well because they're headed back to the portal.
“It’s a good thing she did.” Drago growls out, “I happen to know that there are several Protection of Children laws that you broke when you locked Jarra in that closet.” Mara wrinkles her nose at that. She’s young, definitely not an adult yet and Drago has so many questions about why she was working in the Home and in charge of Jarra.
“Why does the military suddenly decide you care about a handicapped kid like that.”
“That kid is my cousin.” He retorts quickly. He doesn’t like the way she’s talking about Jarra at all.
“Oh. You’re her family.” She spits out the word like it hurts her. “She wouldn’t stop prattling on about you. She should be grateful; I had worse when I was her age.”
Drago has many questions. He looks at her one more time. “Are you handicapped too?” He asks. He knows the question is kind of rude, but he has a sneaking suggestion that it’s relevant.
“Duh.” She says, “I wouldn’t be forced to take care of any of these brats otherwise. It’s not like the Exo’s are going to do it.”
That answers some of his questions but not others. He feels his anger being redirected at a higher power. At the real enemy here, not just the nearest teenage bully. After a few more important questions, he decides to let her off with a strong lecture. He’ll be checking in with the staff to make there are some consequences. At least to make sure that she’s never assigned to work with kids again. But he’s found a new enemy in all of this that isn’t as young as Mara Polan, and it’s called the Board of Hospital Earth.
Drago makes his way across the accommodation area and knocks on the door of Jaxon’s dome. He opens to door quickly but puts a finger to his lips. When he steps in side he understands why.
Jarra is curled up in the middle of Jaxon’s bed under a fuzzy throw blanket, fast asleep. She looks so small, tucked into her big brother's bed.
“She must have been tired.” Drago says in a faint whisper. “After the day she’s had.”
Jaxon nods and the two of them sit down in the small seating area off to the side. Drago glances at Jarra a few times before deciding it was okay to have a hushed conversation. He doesn’t want to ask Jaxon to step out of the dome and leave Jarra alone again.
“Gemelle called me back. She says Hospital Earth is panicking like there’s a fire under their legs.” He tells Jaxon, “That’s what they get for messing with the descendants of Tellon Blaze.”
“Good.” Jaxon says. His voice is quiet but firm. “I can’t believe that happened to her.” She was so young, just nine years old. And it wasn't even one of her agemates thinking it was funny like similar incidents he had seen. Just cruelty from someone who was supposed to take care of her. "She stole her Pro-Dad's lookup you know." The thought makes both of them smile a little.
“That older girl locked her in the closet because she was mad that Jarra had found her family.” Drago tells Jaxon, “She was handicapped too, there’s so much resentment. All these abandoned kids, it’s just not right. It’s not Fidelis.” He wishes that the rest of the planets had the same strong sense of family loyalty that the Betan clans had. But he also knows that statistically speaking there have been other Gentes Majores clans that have broken Fidelis over their children before.
“I broke Fidellis.” Jaxon reminds him. His forehead wrinkled with worry and regret. “I shouldn’t even be in her life. She should blank me out of it. Just think of what her childhood must have been like. I did this.”
“Jaxon.” Drago says frankly. “You were here for her now, that’s what she’s going to remember. She will have the rest of her childhood to grow up loved. And that’s what’s important.”
“My parents are their way to Earth.” Jaxon says, “They were already getting ready to leave their Planet First mission because of Jarra. They just sent me a message that they’ve reached Gamma sector exchange.” He looks up at Drago, a sad look on his face. “Once they’re here, I think I’m going to ask to be reassigned.”
Drago wants to grab Jaxon by the shoulders and shake some sense into him. “Jarra wouldn’t want that.” He tells him.
He stares across the room at his little sister. “She would if she knew the truth.”
“Then tell her the truth.” Drago says, “But don’t leave. Jarra has been abandoned enough times. She doesn’t need another person running off and leaving her behind. I know it would hurt her so much, Jaxon, she trusts you. She called and asked for your help. If you abandon her again you’ll break that trust. Please don’t do that to her.”
Jaxon sits with that for a long time. Grappling with his own feelings of guilt with the reality of what’s right for Jarra. “I just want what’s best for her.” He admits.
“Then stay.” Drago pleads. “For her.”
Jaxon wipes away tears from the corners of his eyes. “Okay.” He says. And he means it. He would do anything for Jarra. He found her, they found her. And now they will always be there to make sure that she is safe.