The probes rocketed towards the planet, leaving multicolored sparkling streamers behind them. It would take five of them to map this earth-sized water world, Spliff knew from experience. He had mapped literally hundreds of such celestial bodies in the past year. This one, while beautiful with its swirling clouds and several storms, was no different. A light on his dashboard flashed, indicating an incoming live holo-stream. Spliff moved the fingers on his right hand in a precise fashion, the glove of his Remlok suit manipulating the controls of the captain's seat's HUD to access its communications panel. To his surprise, the incoming live comm request was not coming from any of his fellow commanders with whom he was presently on an expedition. The source of the call was from his home planet, Tepertsi. The caller gave his name as "Your Pa".

Excitedly, Spliff motioned to accept the communication request, and the HUD rearranged itself as a frame around an empty central area. Squiggling lines of static flashed through the middle, and a voice called out from the aether, "You eatin' good out there, boy?" Though slightly garbled with static, it was unmistakably his father's voice. "You gettin' tired o' that synth-a-sized Xerox-food yet?"

An image slowly began to take shape from the jagged, static-distorted lines. It was common for holo-calls to broadcast sound before video when transmitted over great distances. The contour of a human head came fuzzily into focus, and with a descending wave not unlike the pulse of a system scanner, the eyes, nose, and mouth appeared much clearer than the rest of the face surrounding them. Despite this, Spliff had no difficulty recognizing his father.

"Dayum yer comin' in fuzzy!" His father said, and the image began to shake in tune with a loud tapping noise.

"Pa, you're transmitting over extreme distances, stop hitting the holo-com, it's working fine!" Spliff rolled his eyes. "And to answer your question, even though I cooked up and scanned in a proper medium-rare tenderloin of Arcturan megadonkey, yes it does get tedious eating the same thing every other day."

"Mmm, that sounds good! Whatcha eatin' on the other days?" His father asked, eyebrows lifted in genuine interest.

"I also scanned in some fillets of Achenarean Dolphintuna, Thanatosan cheddar bisque, Faustian cheese-drenched footlong hot dogs, and some old fashioned Terran bacon cheeseburgers." Figured that was enough variety, but after six weeks in deep space..."

His father interrupted, "Six weeks?! How far out there are ya?!"

"On our way back now, but approximately 20,000 light years out, in the Norma Expanse heading towards the Outer Orion Spur at the moment."

"So that's why it took a good five minutes for the call to go through! I thought there was either a problem with the holo-com, or ye were takin' a shit!"

Spliff laughed. "No, Pa, I'm just really far out here right now. Be glad you didn't call a week ago, I made it to over 41,000 light years from the Bubble at my furthest point! Woulda took a good half an hour to reach me out there, provided the Eye of Azathoth didn't devour the signal."

Pa gave him a knowing smirk. "You passed before the lidless eye? Did he wink at ye?"

Spliff laughed. "No, the presence of my squadron and I did not wake him, his slumber continues unabated."

Now his father's brow crouched in a little. "Did you say dolphin-tuna? Ain't that illegal seein' as Dolphins is protected?"

"Dolphins are, yes. They were recognized as sentient hundreds of years ago. However, the royals on Achenar remembered that tuna tasted a lot better with bits of dolphin in it, so they bred a hybrid of the two with none of the sentience and all of the flavor! It's really quite good, you should try some."

Pa nodded. "The burgers and footlongs are stoner food, I'da expected that much, but where'd you get a taste for them high class meals?"

Spliff smiled as a pleasant memory from his teenage years cane to his mind. "That time when we won a lottery to go to Synteini and celebrate our most gracious patron's birthday at her Grand Palatial Ballroom! We may have been over a hundred seats down the long table from her, but I was more interested in all of the absolutely delectable foods that were offered us. I made a point of it to remember my favorite ones, so that if I ever got rich," Spliff raised his eyebrows in a regal way, "which I am," his face then returned to a grin, "I figured I could have them again whenever I wanted."

His father laughed. "Well, you gotta come home some time an' lemme cook you up some lobster and shrimp gumbo. Ya can't be eatin' nuthin but-"

Reflexively flipping a switch that disengaged his Remlok suit from the ship's controls, Spliff threw his hands up in exasperation as he cut his father off. "Why are you talking like some country bumpkin?!"

His father, incredulous, shouted back "Cuz I AM a country bumpkin! I run this here farm!"

Pointing his finger at the holo-image, Spliff yelled "You were a licensed starship pilot 20 years before I was born! We were space truckers from the day I graduated from mandatory Imperial education! You've only ran a farm since we lost the T6 two years ago!"

"And I ain't left the ground since, an' I got no plans ta! I done took ta farmin' an' I became one of th' community! Th' dialect rubs off on yeh." Calming down and shaking his head a little, he continued. "Speakin' of our most beneficent patron..."

Spliff, recalling the recent news of attacks on Imperial leaders, hung his head for a moment, then looked up with concern. "What? Please tell me nothing's gone wrong..."

"No no, far from it, I'd say." His father looked down and off-camera, seemed to bend down out of sight for a moment, then reappeared. "A parcel came, addressed to you. By mah Imperial right as a parent, I was permitted to accept it for yeh. Came a few weeks after Walpurgisnacht." He noticed Spliff's facial reaction. "Yes, we celebrate it planetside, too!" Returning to his prior train of thought, he continued, "There was a letter attached, a real paper letter! Don't see that too often anymore! I couldn't help but read it, but I didn't open th' box it came on. Not till I get yer ok on it anyhow."

Spliff, both surprised and intrigued, almost stood up, but the holo-com was best viewed from a seated position. "What did the letter say?" He could only imagine, but didn't want to guess when the certain answer was in his father's hands.

"Says you've been recognized as a Duke of the Empire, so congrats on that. Seems like Her Graciousness mighta wrote it by her own hand, looks real fancy! Says 'One who has attained Royal rank and who has served his Empire and his Senator with loyalty and distinction deserves an abode appropriate to such.' Thing is, when I went to put the letter back in its envelope, I felt something hard like stone. I had to peel the envelope off of the package a bit to peep under it, it's the Seal of Torval, carved outta void opal!"

At the same time both shocked and honored, Spliff encouraged his father to open the parcel. With permission, he was now legally permitted to do so. As if expecting the request, his father had a small knife in hand, and deftly opened the package without damaging any of the filigreed wrapping.

The look on his fathers face was one of awe mixed with unbelief. Whatever laid in the box obviously had a luminescence, as his face was illuminated by what appeared to be moving, or possibly blinking lights. "This here's a key! It's gotta be a key card for an Imperial palace!" He looked at the letter again. "Says here that you and yer family may now reside in a proper home appropriate for a Duke of the Empire!"

"Wow, Pa, that's awesome! I guess you're gonna move in before me, but who'll take care of the farm?"

"I was planning on granting tenure to my most efficient and trustworthy indentured servant once he finished his term of servitude, guess I could let him run it? He'd like that! Deserves it, too!"

"Well that's excellent news, Pa! Feel free to stay at my place, cuz I'll be out here in the black for a long time yet! Plus, I've got obligations to my squadron and faction out in Valtam. I'll be back in the Bubble by Thanksgiving, and I'll make sure to stop by the homeworld when I do."

Sensing that their conversation was nearing an end, and seeing as this revelation required much planning and work to be done and soon, his father remembered another topic he had meant to mention. "Before ye get back ya whatever ya got goin' on out there, I need to tell ya about a dream I had."

Intrigued yet again, Spliff steadied himself for more potentially shocking information. "Go ahead, you've got my attention"

"I was in a big house, maybe a palace, an' I walked out onto a balcony. I looked up into the starry night sky, and somehow, like a super-telescope, I could see your ship, I could see you on your ship, way out there in the darkest part of space where there weren't many stars. An' I seen you on the bridge of yer ship, looking out the big ol' window ya got on that Beluga." He stopped for a moment and visibly shuddered. "An' I saw... that... thing! It was huge, big as a Coriolis! Maybe bigger! It was getting close, an' you were staring at it all transfixed or somethin'. I swear it was thinkin' at ya, all psychic-like! Freaked me the hell out so I can only imagine how scared you were! Then I woke up." He looked around him, as if concerned that someone was there listening in, then looked into the camera again, pushing forward a bit which made his face appear larger on the holo-image. "You be careful, boy. Them Space Flowers, the bigger ones, I swear they get smarter the bigger they are, an' it's likely that we ain't seen how big they can get yet!"

Spliff sat still as a corpse, taking in what his father said. After a moment, he nodded and said "Thanks, Pa. I'll be careful. See you around Thanksgiving."

With a nod, his father ended the call. Spliff didn't move for another few minutes. He sat there, remembering a dream he had only recently. A dream of eldritch lights in the distance slowly moving closer to reveal a gigantic Thargoid which gave him a paralyzing feeling that, as it approached, the creature was prying into his mind.