AN: This happens after "Sabrina" chapters 10-13.
Max swallowed nervously as he adjusted his tablet on the stand he had set on the kitchen table, though whether it was because of what he was about to do or Sabrina's absence, he couldn't tell for certain. Sabrina had left for her counseling office a little over an hour ago; she had a couple of new clients scheduled today at the rehab center and one at the office, and she needed to get ready for them. His jaw clenched, his stomach churning. While both her offices were reasonably safe and protected, would that be enough if Aurore had told Killer Bee about Sabrina? Sabrina was not worried, of course, though she had offered to stay at the apartment with him while he made the call. But he could not keep her looked up safe forever, as much as he might wish to do so at the moment; she had clients who needed her. So he had assured her that it would be okay. This was his mom, so he should be the one to tell her.
Even if he didn't actually want to have to tell her…
Markov hovered on the opposite side, just in Max's view over the tablet, watching him with question marks on his view screen.
Max gave the robot a look. "You would be nervous, too, if you had to tell your mother that she was going to be a grandmother," he pointed out.
Markov whirred. "Given that I technically have no mother and have no means of reproducing, it is a statistical impossibility that I will ever have that experience," he replied simply.
Sitting on the table next to Max, Kaalki rolled her eyes. "It's going to be fine," she assured him, biting off the end of an apple slice. "You were both so worried when you told the Raincomprixes, and everything ended up okay anyways. So just… try not to beat around the bush. Besides," she added with a smirk, "this parent isn't even on the same planet!"
Max smiled thinly down at her, trying to calm his racing heart. Letting out a breath, he steeled himself and pressed the button on his tablet. The tablet beeped several times, letting out a shrill electronic whine as it connected to the network. After a minute, the logo of the European Space Agency appeared on the screen, blinked three times, and vanished. The screen remained blank for a moment before he saw the cold, sterile interior of the International Space Station, and his mother's face looking back at him, her face haloed by her hair in the zero gravity. Her mouth cracked wide open in a tired smile, and Max couldn't help but grin back.
"Hi, honey!" his mother greeted him, relief evident in her voice. "It's so good to see your face!"
"Hi, Mom," he replied, feeling relief wash over himself in spite of his nervousness. "I have missed you."
She sighed. "I know; I'm so sorry, honey," she apologized. "I know I was supposed to return months ago, but they keep extending my mission for some reason."
He nodded. "I understand." More than you realize, he didn't add. After his mother's orbiter had experienced its near-disaster en route to the ISS, the space agencies had all gone into panic mode. All manned flights to and from the station had been suspended indefinitely during the investigation into the incident, with unmanned transport capsules filling in to keep the station supplied in the meantime. Then, when they had discovered the debris field which had been left behind by the breakup of the Shunjar vessel in low-earth orbit, that had driven not only the space agencies, but also their associated militaries, into panic mode as they determined a proper response. Victory had rammed legislation through the U.S. Congress to authorize and fund a new Space Force within a month after the incident; not long thereafter the French Air Force had expanded into an Air and Space Force. And that had only been the beginning of the flurry of activity. Just charting the debris field had taken months of laborious effort – even now, a stray particle hitting a rocket booster could have disastrous consequences. The Heroes of Paris had received repeated requests for assistance over the last year.
While they had done what they could, ferrying the occasional rocket into orbit via portal and monitoring launches for danger, there had only been so much they could do. Especially after the Beasts had begun their emergence. Since the Tarasque's defeat, Victory had asked Max no less than five times to review the U.S. Space Force's design for their first weaponized space shuttle, though they had yet to come to a consensus on the best way forward, with multiple national space forces and New Atlantis all clamoring for new or upgraded space shuttles.
His mother groaned, stifling a yawn. "Oh, I'm sorry." She shook her head. "We just finished servicing the final satellite today; even now the science team is still in the process of testing all the systems."
Max hummed. "Do they have any idea what it was that disabled all the satellites over Europe?"
His mother shrugged. "As best they can tell, it was that Tarasque monster," she replied. "It happened approximately concurrently with its rampage through Paris, and it most affected the satellites in geosynchronous orbits above France. But beyond that…" she shrugged. "I doubt they will ever be certain."
"It is fortunate that the damage was not irreversible."
She chuckled. "Just a couple of controls to reset and a handful of connections to check, and it was done! The hardest part was figuring it out while largely disconnected from Earth."
"Of course, with all the disruptions that the Tarasque caused – both before and after it merged together – you probably were safer up in space," he pointed out.
"Perhaps," she acknowledged, sighing heavily. "But I would much rather have been down there with you than up here wondering if there would be a planet left to return to."
"You did not miss much."
She hummed in acknowledgment. "Even still… I'm glad to see you safe and sound. How did you manage through everything that happened in Paris?"
He grimaced. "It was a… struggle," he answered evasively. Pursing his lips in concentration, he studied the edges of the view before glancing up at Markov and flicking out one finger out of view of the camera. Markov bobbed up and down in confirmation as his display turned to snow. Max nodded in relief. "Are you alone?" he asked his mother.
His mother looked away from the screen for a moment before nodding. "I'm the only one in the module at the moment," she responded.
He let out a breath, already questioning this decision. But it was too late to renege on it now. "You need to make absolutely certain that we cannot be overheard," he warned her. "What I'm about to tell you cannot, under any circumstances, be shared."
Hesitantly, his mother drifted across the module to the hatch, pulling it shut. "Okay, no one can overhear us now," she told him. "But ESA, NASA, RSA… everyone monitors communications with the station, you know."
He nodded. "I am aware of that. At the moment, they are watching us talk about my plans for University – I am still planning to attend Descartes half time, by the way."
She cocked her head in confusion. "What? I don't understand; what are you talking about?"
Max swallowed, steeling himself. "Do you remember the day when you first arrived on the ISS?"
She nodded, stifling a shudder. "Of course; how could I forget? Our ship ran through debris that damaged it heavily and caused us to veer so far off course we nearly went to the Moon! NASA was already running simulations on a lunar slingshot – if we even brought it under control in time."
"I could have told them that would never work," Max muttered under his breath.
"But what about it?" asked his mother, furrowing her brows.
"Do you remember how you survived?"
"Pegasus of the Heroes of Paris got us back on course. It was all over the news in Paris, wasn't it?"
Max leaned forward. "And do you remember what it was that caused that damage?"
She shrugged noncommittally, though there was a slight tensing of her shoulders. "It was just space debris – satellites are lost in orbit and break apart into clouds of micro-debris that–"
"But do you remember what exactly broke up to leave behind that debris field?" he pressed.
She furrowed her brows, eyeing him suspiciously. "What are you getting at, honey?"
He let out a breath: the moment of truth. "The debris which damaged your orbiter came from an alien survey ship which foundered and broke apart in orbit around Earth," he told her.
She blinked. "That–that is classified information!" she gasped, staring at him in shock. "How do you–?"
"Because I discovered that information and shared it with RSA," he interrupted. "I know it because I performed the original analysis."
Her jaw dropped open. "But the one who did that was–"
He nodded. "Pegasus, from the Heroes of Paris. Me."
His mother stared at him for a long moment, her eyes wide. Max watched her with bated breath, waiting for some response. Suddenly she sniffled, wiping a tear from her eye. "Honey, you have no idea how proud I am of you right now," she whispered, her voice cracking. "You – that means that you saved my life…"
"Not just me," he responded, smiling fondly. "I would never have been able to do what I did, had it not been for Impératrice Pourpre. I can only open a single portal for myself; I needed her assistance to open as many portals as were necessary to rescue your orbiter. And to operate in the vacuum of space."
"Well, thank her for me, will you?" His mother's voice trailed off and she furrowed her brows, examining him carefully. "Wait… I remember seeing on the Ladyblog that Pegasus and Impératrice Pourpre were…" She blinked, nodding in realization. "Of course; she has to be Sabrina, right?"
He let out a breath in relief. "That is correct." He shook his head ruefully. "When we rescued your crew, we had only begun dating the week before."
She smiled. "Now I want to meet this girl even more!"
"You met her on that trip to London, did you not?" he pointed out. "And when you came in to school to talk about your career?"
"I did," she allowed. "But that was how many years ago? Both of you have changed so much." Max raised an eyebrow in amusement, stifling a laugh. "And you weren't dating back then. It's so much different to be meeting your son's girlfriend!"
Max grinned sheepishly. "She is a little more than that now…" His mother furrowed her brows, eyeing him suspiciously. "That is actually why I calculated it to be important that I reveal all of this to you now." Max nodded to Markov, who bobbed in acknowledgment. "But wait a moment and I will tell you…" Markov's display counted down from three and turned back to normal. "The reason I am only going to University half time in the fall is twofold. First, I will be able to focus more effort on building up my video games – Akuma Battle is going to be available in America soon, and I am working on a United Heroez game set in that same universe. But second, I am going to be a father, because Sabrina is pregnant!"
His mother's jaw dropped wide open, and she stared at him for several moments without speaking. Max's grin faltered. Finally, his mother snapped her mouth shut and smiled thinly. She let out a breath. "You've always been intelligent," she told him. "I hope that you understand what you are getting yourself into here." He nodded fervently. "But now I have another reason to be excited about returning home soon and meeting your girlfriend! But," she added, giving him a stern look, "we are going to talk about this further once I am back on terra firma."
Max gulped. In front of him on the table, Kaalki stifled a laugh, grinning up at him in amusement. "Yes, Mother."
AN: Look for the first chapter of "Honor and Dishonor" tomorrow.