"You're the father of my baby," she said earnestly. "That's special." Yeah, it is," he said. It was true, of course, but it seemed to mean more to her...than him."And you'll be the father of my next one too..." She thought a moment. "We ought to get married!" Ummmm," said Jason. They both knew enough from their lessons to know about monogamy. "I'm going to be sleeping around."She laughed. "OK, yeah, you're not a very good catch." He knew she was joking, but there was something wistful in her tone. ”“With the Cowsills?” Joe smirked. Referring to having Nathan playing drums. That is, a family band.“Why not? Nate won’t be playing heavy metal anytime soon, but he’ll do for the folky shit.”“And Esther on keyboards?”“She’ll do.”“You’re disappointed in her.”“She was brilliant at music theory, but always sounded mechanical, you know? I swear Charlie can stop your heart the way he plays.”“That’s just Esther,” Joe said. “The way her mind works. She’s got a sweet voice, though.”“Like I said, she’ll. ”“You’re confident you can get nine destroyers in position to take out the bridges?”“Yes,” Esriro replied with a nod. “Abi has finished vetting everyone, and I’ve picked out nine of our newer destroyers, the ones with upgraded shrouds. They’ll be able to move in close without detection and get their shots off. You need to decide if we tow the ships to Pygmaean space or scuttle them after transferring crews over to other ships.”“The latter isn’t an option. It will take too long to transfer. ” I said laughing.— “How so?”— “Well, I was just thinking about high school when you called me. I was looking at the weather outside and how it’s not like the winter we used to have back in the day.”— “Haha, yeah. That’s true. It’s kinda messed up now, isn’t it?”— “Yes it is. So watcha doing? You back in the country?”— “Yep. I’m here for a whole month. My brother’s having it’s first son baptised so I thought I’d drop in.”After high school, Hildi went to a college in a different part of the.