Chapter 12: Secrets
"Secrets are made to be found out with time."
-Charles Sanford, Ancient Earth
Ignatius's head hurt. He felt it starting at the base of his skull, and it now wrapped like a band around his temples. He'd handle it, though. A little tension headache he could deal with; hell, he'd experienced worse. But so much had happened within the last 48 hours that he wasn't entirely sure he wasn't just going lay down and let the universe have its way with him.
His mind reeled as he sat in the Piper's flight chair, following the Eureka through slip stream. How they had come to this point was beyond him. He was exhausted, and didn't want to think of anything but the slip and pull of the distorted space in front of him. His head just might explode from the pressure.
When Talia had boarded the Andromeda he had fully expected the worst from her, and sadly, he had been right. After she had left him and their children so long ago, all of his dealings with her had been the same, each and every one. Her aloofness and coldness, the complete disconnect that crowded their every communication. It was so clear after she left; a rift had spread between them while he hadn't been paying attention.
After all these years, Ignatius still didn't know why he expected any meeting of theirs to be different. He knew it would go badly.
And if that wasn't enough, it wasn't the only thing he was right about. Hunt and the others were surprised to discover who Beka's mother was. Hell, Ignatius himself hadn't expected Talia to go into politics of all things. But given her new attitude it seemed to suit her just fine.
Senator Ketessen.
He had wanted to be there for Beka. It was one of the things that kept him from avoiding Talia all together. Their meeting had been cold, but once they had run into each other alone, it became heated. The nerve of her. The sheer nerve of her talking about Emily, insulting her, insulting Beka, his parenting, everything that she hadn't been around for. That…That…
Ice cold blue eyes met angry steel blue.
Ignatius glared at her. How dare she? She could have walked right on by, pretended she didn't even see him. But no, not Talia, she just had to say something. But no one, no one, insulted his granddaughter.
"If it wasn't for Emily, I would still be on Flash, or maybe even dead by now. Doesn't matter to you though does it?" Ignatius demanded.
Talia cut him another glare, and sneered. "So you're saying it was a good thing then, that our daughter was whored to some Uber?"
"MY daughter. MINE, Talia. You gave up that right a long time ago. Jenna's a better mother to her that you ever were! And she's been in Beka's life longer than you have. There's more to being a mother than just giving birth!"
"Says the man who was flashed out of his mind twenty-four-seven."
"I changed, and unlike you it was for the better."
Talia scoffed. "You'd have to, especially with that half- freak of a grandchild."
"You know nothing about Emily. She's not your family. And neither is Beka."
He had been so angry. So angry that he had to walk away before he did something stupid. The woman had no right to talk about anything his family had been through for the past twenty years. Beka and Rafe were his family. Emily was his family. His and Jenna's.
And apparently, someone else's too.
Ignatius's hands tightened harshly around the piloting grips, and he ground his teeth.
He hadn't seen it coming. His run-in with Tyr had been…unusual to say the least. He didn't even know how they'd gotten onto the topic of the Drago-Kazov.
"Please, I am Kodiak." Tyr scoffed. "I have more reason to hate the Drago-Kazov more than anyone. They didn't kill your family, you got a new addition."
Ignatius started in irritation. There was a reason he hated Nietzscheans, aside from Emily's birth, they never knew when to shut their mouths.
"And do I have a story for you. Or perhaps, you should ask your daughter what she's been hiding from you for the past decade."
It had raised his hackles that some…Uber thought he knew more about Ignatius's own daughter than he knew himself. Just thinking about that left a bad taste in his mouth and a churning feeling in his gut.
He'd felt it. Before he'd seen it, he'd felt it. That the two Nietzscheans aboard Hunt's ship didn't get along, felt the tension and rivalry churning between them; the way Tyr always looked calculating, pondering, as though he was figuring something out. Emily and Beka were both a giant chink in Ignatius's armour, and anyone could see it. Where Tyr had been going with comment, or why he'd taken an interest in the Valentine family Ignatius had no idea.
When they made it to Oedekirk, it had all came to a head. Nietzschean blockades, ships, soldiers, Drago-Kazov. Why was he even there? Why the hell had Beka even gotten involved with Hunt? How could she run around like this, live like this; dragging Emily into danger? And all the while dealing with two feuding Nietzscheans aboard her own crew?
Tyr was a bastard. But the other one…
Telemachus Nez Pierce. Emily liked him. The way she had talked about him, a mile a minute, bright and open. It was like a punch in the gut. No matter how hard he tried, it seemed like the universe would never let his family get away from Nietzscheans.
Ignatius's head throbbed. The slip route Beka was taking them through was insanity. He'd just barely caught up with her in time as she was leaving Oedekirk. Hunt's First Officer booking it off-planet during a conflict negotiation? He didn't know what Old High Guard protocol was, but he was sure something strange was going on. Beka had been edgy since he arrived, but when they were leaving she had looked equal parts relieved and worried.
It had something to do with that Nietzschean. He knew it. The single-minded determination and…conflict? That he had seen on Nez Pierce's face was not a look one saw on his kind.
They were leaving the planet. And damn all the stars, Ignatius wasn't just going to let her and Emily go off alone with a Nietzschean.
The slipstream plunged, and pulled, shifted, twisted, and cascaded all around him as they searched through this strange route for the portal.
Ignatius had never heard of a planet called Tarazed. And why it was so important they rush off there immediately…he had no idea.
Beta'd by Munibunny.
I'm sorry about this chapter being nothing but exposition and opening in the middle. The next chapter will contain more information of the events that led to this, as well as getting back into linearity! We're getting close to the end.
