Tess finally shed the exoskeleton when they reached the Stardust. She didn't normally make a habit of wearing it all day long, only when in pursuit of her quarry. She decided that Erik probably wasn't planning on killing her and if he was, she still had a blaster tucked in her belt. Sleeping in the damn thing on the couch in that waiting room had done nothing for her back either. She stretched shamelessly, cracking her neck and back and eliciting odd looks from Erik.

She sat down on the blaster power pack crate again and stared at Erik, making him fidget under her gaze. She had to tell him. What would be the best way of going about it? He didn't know what DNA was, that's for damn sure.

"Listen… I was able to compare your, uh, chemical pattern with a database. I found some of your relatives."

Erik blinked at her with a look of incredulity.

"Um, I found your paternal grandfather. He's still alive and he's on Erana Prime. Very successful business man in fact, and he works with your, uh, uncle."

Erik nodded at her, absorbing the information slowly.

"So my father is… dead then?"

Tess could say yes. She probably should say yes and spare the drama, but she hated lying. Especially to her pets. He'd find out eventually anyway, if he ever managed to meet up with the rest of his family.

"Um… Not exactly…"

"What do you mean, 'not exactly'? Either he's dead or he's alive. There is no in-between the last time I checked."

"He's in a prison colony, one of the mines. Two lifetime sentences, no parole. You couldn't contact him even if you wanted to, and trust me you don't want to."

Erik dropped his gaze to the floor. It did not surprise him that he was the son of a felon. Like father, like son, after all. He didn't really need to know, but morbid curiosity and perhaps a touch of masochism pushed him to ask.

"Do you know his crimes?"

"Smuggling, murder, rape... and about a page and a half's worth of misdemeanors."

Erik let out a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. It didn't take him long to put two and two together either.

"No wonder my mother hated me! She must have seen her attacker's face every time she looked at me!"

Tess swallowed thickly, feeling a bit naked. She hated these kinds of awkward situations. I mean, what do you say to a man in a situation like that? She sniffled a bit and scratched her neck.

"Well… It's not your fault, what your father did. Not like you could help being born, either. She shouldn't have hated you."

Erik didn't respond to her. He looked like he was about to cry. Tess rolled her eyes in frustration and went back to the cockpit. She didn't think he'd appreciate a hug anyway. At least, he didn't look like the cuddly type.

"I don't know whether I'll be able to arrange a meeting with your grandfather or not. Gaining clearance onto Erana Prime is a bit difficult. They don't care for outsiders much…"

Erik gave a noncommittal grunt but didn't seem to be paying much attention to her.

"Do you even want to contact him? I mean, we can forget about the whole thing if you'd rather not. I can drop you off on one of the colony worlds and you can find your own path… Or, if you want to… you can stay with me?"

Erik looked up at her suspiciously.

"You'd let me stay here?"

"Um, sure, why not? I could teach you my trade, if you want to be a Hunter. Help me bag a few and I'll split the money. You could buy your own ship, or we could work together."

Erik looked out the cockpit window at the stars, trying to weigh his options. He could have a family, a real one… But would they want him? He was half human, and Tess said they didn't like outsiders. Was the chance worth the risk of getting burned again? He could stay with Tess and become a bounty hunter. He'd probably be good at it. He was skilled enough at killing people, thanks to his time spent in Persia, simply catching them should be easy.

Tess's nose twitched and she looked around the ship. A part of her was desperate to keep him with her. She wasn't entirely sure why she wanted him around so badly, other than to have someone nearby to fill the silence.

"Uh, if you want to think about it for a while, there's no rush. I mean, it'll take a while anyway. I'll have to track down the codes to contact your grandfather's house, then get an audience with him – he's probably a busy man – and try to convince him that I'm not simply conning him… Hey, I know a nice uninhabited little planet we can spend a bit of time on. How does a little holiday sound?"

"Whatever suits you. The ship is yours, I am but a passenger."

"Well, it does suit me. Zanina Three it is then. Nothing but animals and pretty scenery. Totally untouched. You'll like it."

Tess set the coordinates and the jumped into subspace. She stopped on the way at a small outpost and left Erik on the Stardust while she ducked into a shop to pick up some food. More alien stuff, but tasty nonetheless. She was fond of this particular little grocery and made a point of visiting when she was in the area. A couple days camping on a virgin planet suited Tess just fine.

They arrived at Zanina Three and Tess landed the ship on a broad grassy plane surrounded by craggy hills and, in the distance, a chain of tall snow-capped mountains. A small river wound past them and disappeared into a distant lake hugging the horizon. Scrubby pine-like treeish plants dotted the scenery along with scattered boulders, likely dropped by some glacier that had retreated thousands of years ago. The sky was covered in gray clouds but the air was relatively warm and the gloom didn't bother Tess at all. It was like being under a blanket, she decided. She went and dragged a small tent from the cargo hold and some blankets and pillows. Some winged creatures flew overhead, too fast to get a good look at them.

"We'll stay here for a few days, I think, let you consider your options. It's mid afternoon right now, I think a day lasts a little under twenty five hours on this planet, last time I checked. You can stay here if you want, or go explore a bit. Just keep the Stardust within your line of sight and don't get lost. There are animals about, but none of them are especially dangerous if you leave them alone. The largest predators here are about the size of a badger and not very aggressive during the day."

Tess handed him a bottle of water and quickly set up the tent. She then walked toward the river while Erik wandered off over a nearby hill, seeking solitude with his thoughts. Tess watched him disappear behind the rise and quickly stripped, intending to take the chance for bathing and a swim while she had some privacy.

Erik sat down on a massive low flattish gray boulder and twisted the cap off the water bottle to take a sip. A herd of something vaguely swine-like was calmly plucking the bluish-green grass in the distance. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt a warm breeze on his face in the middle of the day. Had he ever? His mother put a mask on him when he was still a baby and he'd not gone outside without one any time he could remember. The wind carried a scent that reminded him of fresh hay. Everything had been so strange the last... day? Two days? He wasn't even sure how much time had passed since he left the opera house. He rubbed at the stone underneath him, running his fingers along the parallel striations etched into the lichen-covered surface.

The passage of time had recently lost all meaning for him, as had pretty much everything else floating about in his memory. His mother, Persia, the opera house, his beautiful Christine… Did all that really ever happen? He was no longer certain of anything. His life had been ripped from under his feet the second he stepped onto that redhead's star-ship. Did any of it really matter, anyway? Did his mother's fear and hatred, Christine's flight and the daroga's betrayal mean anything when there was an entire universe beyond that lonely little rock orbiting the sun?

If he accepted the knowledge of his heritage, did it change anything? He was not of the Earth, not entirely, so did the Earth's rejection of him mean anything? Erik pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, watching the fireworks blossom behind his lids. He pulled in a few gulping breaths of fresh alien air. He could lie to himself, he thought, and pretend that the past meant nothing, but he knew that he would always feel the sting of his mother's rejection. He would always hear Christine's sweet voice and see her face in his sleep. He could travel to the edge of the universe and still never escape the hell of his own memory.

Erik sniffed back a few frustrated tears and opened his eyes. The herd of pig-deer-whatever was moving off to greener pastures, disappearing over the next hill. He was utterly alone, sitting on this broad hilly savannah. The wind and the distant babble of the river were the only sounds to reach his ears. An old song, not one of the operas he'd been so consumed with over recent years, but some sad folk song he'd heard as a child, floated unbidden to the surface of his brain. He began humming lightly, watching the clouds slowly float across the dome of the sky above, and within a few minutes, he was singing it aloud.

Tess was sitting in the silt of the river bottom with only her head exposed above the water's surface. She was completely still, eyes closed and allowing the water to rush past her skin. The wind whistled softly in her ears. She almost didn't notice it when the whistling began to take form into a melody wrapping itself around her consciousness like silk. It was lulling her to sleep and she floated between consciousness and unconsciousness until the logical corner of her mind jolted her awake with the knowledge that she'd drown if she tried to take a nap in the river. She stood up and looked around, wondering if the whole thing had been her imagination. She heard the voice again, and it was no spectre of her mind. She haphazardly dried off and put her clothes back on, following the hypnotic sound over the hill to its source, which was sitting on a large rock beveled off by some ancient ice sheet.

She didn't know what alerted him to her presence but she felt an almost physical pain when he fell silent and turned to stare up at her. She frowned and picked her way down the rock-strewn hill to sit beside him. She tried to think of something intelligent to say to him, but came up with nothing. She settled for saying something blunt and obvious instead.

"You can sing."

"…Yes. Do you?"

Tess laughed at the very suggestion.

"Not in the least. I have no voice for singing. You couldn't pay me to try."

"How unfortunate."

Not that he'd even thought of looking for another pupil in this odd girl, but the knowledge that she couldn't sing at all somewhat disappointed him.

"Well, if everybody could sing like you, it wouldn't be special, would it?"

"I… suppose not."

Tess felt her cheeks warm under a blush. She didn't know why she felt like she'd just opened the door on someone undressing, but she could think of no other way to describe the sensation. She wanted to beg him to sing again, to fill her empty head with that rich voice, but lacked the courage to do so and felt stupid for even wanting to. She'd never begged for anything in her life.

"If you're hungry, I can put together the food I bought earlier. We can eat by the river if you want."

"That sounds like a fine idea."

Tess stood and Erik followed her back to their little camp. They sat on a boulder by the river, Tess trailing her bare feet in the water, and they ate in a tense silence. Tess concentrated on her food and tried to ignore the strange impulse to lean into Erik's side. What was wrong with her today, anyway? She'd been alone for years and she needed no one.