The crew of the Andromeda do not belong to me. Neither does Charlemagne, more's the pity. Since the show never mentioned the name of Charlemagne and Elsbeth's first son, and I made the second one, I have taken liberties. But then, don't I always?
Kindle Fire With Snow
Charlemagne watched as the rest of his baggage was loaded onto the ship. Nearby, Meaghan was hugging Richard and William. Even though they were Elsbeth's sons, Meg mothered them as much as her own children, and the two boys accepted her as such, not really being able to remember any other mother. He knelt down to say good-bye to his children by Meaghan. Leander gazed at him solemnly with his vibrant blue eyes, and a finger in his mouth, which Charlemagne removed. He hugged the little boy and ruffled his hair. Bekka and Tamara were clutching their mother's skirts, but came willingly enough to their father when he held out his arms to them. How precious they all were! And how he hated to leave them. But when Elsbeth's family had expressed an interest in seeing her children, how could he refuse? Especially when Meaghan backed up the request. Charlemagne found it very difficult to deny Meg anything.
At last, Charlemagne took Meg into his arms. "I'm going to miss you, Meg," he whispered, and kissed her.
"I'll miss you too, love," she answered. "But the children should know their mother's family. At least, Elsbeth's children should," she added with a wry smile. "I'm not sure I'd want to subject innocent children to my family."
Charlemagne smiled at the imagery. He himself had only met one of Meg's, or rather Aphrodite's family. His one meeting with the war god convinced him that he really was in no hurry to meet the rest of his in-laws.
"Are you sure you don't want to come along?" Charlemagne asked. While the invitation had, grudgingly, included him, it had pointedly excluded his wife and their children. But he was pretty sure that if he had gotten stubborn and denied their request until it included all his family, that eventually they'd capitulate.
"Not this time, love." His wife smiled up at him. "Let them meet the children without the presence of outsiders. There will be other times."
"I just hate spending so much time away from you, Meg." Charlemagne sighed. "Take care of yourself, my goddess, and try to stay out of trouble."
"You worry too much," Meaghan scolded softly. "We'll be fine Charlemagne."
They exchanged one last kiss, and then, Charlemagne led Richard and William onto the waiting ship.
&&&&&&&
Meaghan watched the ship depart with a feeling of foreboding. She tried to dismiss it. After all, the Sabra-Jaguar weren't currently at war with anyone. The ship wouldn't be going through any particularly dangerous territory. She decided it was merely a mild case of depression brought on by the thought of not seeing her husband and two of her children, (for she thought of them as hers), for a month. And yet the feeling persisted. Gathering the three remaining children up and taking them back to the ducal palace, it still nagged at her. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought that it was a premonition, which was silly. It wasn't as if she was a god anymore.
&&&&&&&
Charlemagne stood at the viewport with the two little boys, watching their home fade out of sight. The children were uncharacteristically silent, awed by their first trip into space, not to mention their first time away from home and all that was familiar. As the fine tracery of slipstream filled the viewer, Richard, the youngest of his sons, put a finger in his mouth, just as Leander did. With a sigh, Charlemagne removed it.
William, now a sturdy five year old, looked up at his father questioningly. "Why isn't Mama and L'ander and the babies coming with us?"
"Leander," Charlemagne corrected automatically. "Because your grandparents want to meet you and Richard, William." He squatted down to bring himself more on a level with the boy. He pulled Richard's finger from his mouth again. "You're getting to be a big boy now, son. You do know that Mama isn't your real mother, don't you?"
William stared at him for a moment, then said loudly and stubbornly, "She is so my mama."
Richard spoke for the first time. "Want Mama," he said simply, then, he started to cry.
Charlemagne hugged his sons and wondered what he had been thinking to leave Meg behind.
&&&&&&&
Charlemagne was awakened from an admittedly restless sleep by the feeling of the ship being buffeted by something, he couldn't even begin to guess what. Then, it stopped dead in space. Used as he was to space travel, he could tell the difference. He got up and went into the next room, where William and Richard were. Even though there were two beds in the room, and they had been put to bed separately, the boys were now curled up together in one bed. They slept the sleep of the innocent, lashes curling down their dusky cheeks. He started to tiptoe out so as not to disturb them, when a sound as loud as a thunderclap shook the ship, and both children woke up crying. He picked them both up and tried to quiet them, but couldn't tell them that nothing was wrong, when something so obviously was.
He carried the boys back into his own room and was confronted by a pair of strange women. One dark as midnight, and the other fair as dawn. He stopped in his tracks.
The dark one spoke. "Have all the others on the vessel been sent back to whence they came, sister?"
The fair one answered. "They have. I would have sent the children as well, but he already held them. It was too difficult to get a grasp."
The other rejoined. "Just as well, perhaps. I perceive that Aphrodite has a fondness for them as well. Let her suffer."
Charlemagne gave an involuntary start at hearing his wife's true name. If these two were in any way connected with her, they were powerful beyond his ability to cope with. And they seemed to bear a certain amount of animosity towards her. Not good.
"Selene," the fair one protested. "Our quarrel is with Aphrodite, not with a pair of mortal children. Let me send them somewhere safe, at least."
Her sister looked annoyed, but conceded. "Send them to the ship where she dwelt for a time, Eos. What was the name? The same as the girl who was to be sacrificed to the kraken."
"Andromeda," Charlemagne spoke quietly.
"That was it," Selene agreed. "Put your children down, Charlemagne. We will not harm them."
Charlemagne was reluctant to comply, he had no reason to trust these two, and a great deal of reason to distrust them. Besides, he was a Nietzschean, distrust was in his nature. "I'd really rather not."
Eos stepped over to him and looked him in the eye for a moment, then stood there expectantly. When Charlemagne held his ground, she looked at her sister in frustration. "He cannot be compelled! He must be immune."
"Nonsense!" her sister snapped. "How else could Aphrodite have won him over since she chose to hide her true beauty?"
"I tell you, Selene, he cannot be compelled." Eos glared back at her. She then returned her gaze to Charlemagne. "If you wish no harm to come to your sons, Nietzschean, then put them down so I can send them to be among your friends. Do it not, and they will suffer for your stubbornness."
The boys had sometime since ceased their whimpering to stare at the new faces. When Charlemagne set them on their feet, they went willingly enough to the fair-haired woman.
"First this," she said, pulling out a small bottle of clear liquid. She removed the stopper and touched it to each of the boy's tongues. Then, his sons disappeared.
"What did you do to them?" Charlemagne demanded. "What's in that bottle?"
"Calm down, pretty," Selene cooed. "Just a small drop, that's all. So they won't remember seeing us."
"Lethe?" Charlemagne asked, feeling sick. They had been tampering with his son's memories.
"They will have lost no more time than a few moments." The fairer of the two laughed, then strolled back to Charlemagne and curled her arm around his. The darker sister did likewise on the other side. Then, the ship disappeared.
&&&&&&&
Dylan Hunt was speaking quietly to Rommie when the two little boys suddenly appeared on the bridge. Two familiar little boys. Two scared little boys. He knelt down in front of them.
"Hello boys, do you remember me?" he asked hopefully. How in the hell did they get here? And where were Charlemagne and Meaghan?
The older one, William, he recalled, nodded shyly. Richard said, "Want Mama," and started crying again.
Trance entered the bridge and took everything in at a glance, and without a word, she gathered the children into her arms. "Ssshh, don't cry. We'll get you back to your mama." The words worked like magic, and the tears and sniffles ceased.
Dylan stood up. "Andromeda..,"
"Connecting you to the ducal palace, sir," the AI responded.
Hunt sighed. Having a crew and ship attuned to you was one thing, being able to finish giving an order was another. Meaghan's face appeared on the screen.
"Hello, Dylan what can I do for you?" The red-head smiled at him, not being able to see the children, below the level of the screen's range.
"Meaghan, where is Charlemagne?" he asked.
"Why he's taking William and Richard to see Elsbeth's parents," she replied, looking a little perplexed. "Is something wrong?"
"William and Richard are here," Dylan explained. "They just appeared out of nowhere."
The boys had recovered enough from their grief and disorientation the hear the familiar voice. "Mama," they shouted as one.
Meaghan's fair complexion went from creamy to ashen. "And you say that Charlemagne isn't with them? What about his crew?"
"No one," Hunt informed her. "Just the children." He was about to say something else when a beeping noise came from Meaghan's end of the circuit.
"Just a moment, Dylan, there's another call coming in." Meaghan didn't switch off, but went to another screen. In a few moments she was back. "I don't know what to make of this, Dylan, but the crew of Charlemagne's ship just appeared in the ship's hangar. But no ship. And Charlemagne isn't with them, either."
Hunt turned back to the little boys. "Hey guys," he said softly. "Do you think you could tell me the last time you saw your father?"
The children looked at each other, with puzzled expressions on their little faces. "Bedtime?" suggested William tentatively.
"You're not sure, are you?" asked Dylan gently.
William shook his head.
"Trance, could you take the children somewhere and put them back to bed," Dylan asked. "Then we'll see about getting them home where they belong."
Hunt turned back to the screen. Meaghan's face was a picture in terror, and he knew that it was worry for someone so dear to her that she had given up immortality for him.
"We'll find Charlemagne, Meaghan," he vowed. "I don't know how, yet, but we'll find him. In the meantime, shall we bring the children back home?"
"Please," Meaghan whispered softly.