I was walking, I tended to do that when I had to think, and today was a thinking kind of day. I'm not exactly a thinking kind of guy if I am being honest. Most of the time the inside of my head is a wasteland of song lyrics, movie clips, and microwave noises, but right now I had to try and figure some things out.

First and foremost I had been thinking about the spiderlings a lot lately. It hurt e all over to think the things I was thinking now, but it had to be done.

The spiderlings, when it came right down to it, were just kids like toddlers. They were still learning how to interact with people, they were still growing up, and admittedly, I wasn't doing a very good job at parenting. First and foremost, however, was the fact that they shouldn't even be on the ship in the first place. Children weren't allowed on UNSC ships unless there was rescue mission going on, or they were being transported for some reason.

No one else on the ship would be allowed to take their kids with them, so why should I. It sort of wasn't fair if you thought on it for a little bit.

Number two, it wasn't exactly fair to the spiderlings either. They needed some sort of education if they wanted to live in this universe as it was, and right now I didn't have time to sit them down and teach them anything. I honestly couldn't really do anything for them at all know that I thought about it. I was horrible at discipline and even worse at teaching them the things they should know.

They needed a preschool or something where they could learn how to read and write, though I had no real idea where to do that.

I had been thinking about this a lot lately based on some of the things I had come to realize while I was gone on leave, the number one being that I took too much on my shoulders. N o one here except for me was expected to father and run a ship at the same time.

If anything I was doing the spiderlings a disservice by keeping them here.

It hurt me to say all of that because the aggressive controlling part of me doesn't want to admit that I can't do all of it all by myself.

But I can't.

However, I do know someone who potentially could if she was going to do what she said she was going to do.

A part of my, however, didn't want to contact Eris.

We hardly knew each other and to ask for favors would be a bit much. Arguably the adaptids were older than she was, meaning that choosing her to help me in this endeavour wasn't fair to her either, but who else was I going to get to take care of them.

One thing is for sure, they needed a lot of things that I just couldn't provide, and that meant I was going to ave to let go.

Made me sick to my stomach but there you had it.

I admired it.

I Can't do it.

I turned the corner onto the bridge my mind made up. I would have to Call Eris when we were out of warp and see if she would take another couple of hybrids.

I made myself feel a little better by promising I would call and visit as often as I could, though it hurt me to think how the spiderlings might respond to me just up and leaving them.

I tried to remind myself that I wasn't up and leaving them, I was doing what any other father in the UNSC would have to do and that was find them a place to stay and learn and grow and all of those other things, but a part of me still felt horrible.

To take my mind off of that decision, I turned my head towards one of the bridge crew members, "Grab a tablet and follow me."

They did as told, bot up and followed.

It honestly still surprises me when people follow my orders. Like I expect to have to explain or justify my reasoning to them, but instead they sort of just get up and walk over like that was supposed to be how it worked.

I wasn't totally convinced.

I motioned them to follow and together we walked down the hall.

I took my first stop in the medical bay where Krill and Katie working quietly to deep clean the med bay while there were no patients to work on.

Krill looked up and his antennae buzzed slightly when he saw me. A frown crossed his face as he looked me over, expecting some sort of injury. I have him a smile and almost winked but then remembered that when you have one eye winking just looks like blinking.

Katie straightened up, "Good morning Commander." She said with a wide smile."

That would always surprise me to, when your friends call you by a title.

"Morning Doctor." I responded in kind walking over with my assistant at my heels.

Krill seemed to relax, "how may we help you this morning, commander."

I took a seat on the edge of one of the beds and bounced my foot up and down a bit as i thought, "I was just thinking about the ship and how it's run."

They looked at each other.

I held up a hand, "Don't worry it's nothing like that. I just realized the other day that I don't really know how things work on my own ship despite trying to control everything all the time, so I am going to go around to all of the departments get and idea of how they work, and what they do, and how they might need my help if anything." I motioned back towards my assistant, "Lt. McKinnon is going to take notes for me, and then later on I am going to meet with the Jedi council, and we are going to decide how best to delegate and meet the needs of the ship more effectively."

Katie raised an eyebrow, "The Jedi council?"

"Yeah, that's what I am calling it, and you can't make me decide otherwise."

She rolled her eyes but smiled and I smiled back.

If they thought my idea was dumb, they at least humored me.

As far as my involvement, there really was none, though I had to make sure that everyone was up to date on their medical evals and vaccinations, which was probably a job I could delegate to someone else, or at least give Katie and Krill the power to do, so I would have to look into that later.

I stood from there and together me and my assistant moved to the other departments before slowly coming around to the rec hall where I knew I might find a particular grou pf of people.

Cannon was there as I expected he would be playing pool with a group of other Drev.

Cannon was a good shot while the others were a couple seconds away from poking each other in the eye with the cues, but they were laughing and talking rapid fire in drev, fast eough that I was having trouble understanding just exactly what they were saying.

Cannon leaned over the table and took a shot sending one of the balls into a corner pocket with a satisfying clatter.

The other Drev groaned and he raised his fist in triumph.

I approached once Cannon won the game, and the big guy saw me coming raising the pool cue in greeting like he might raise a spear. The other Drev did the same

"Zhad tsak Hajee lasan jirhaat."

I raised my hand and returned the greeting.

May your spear be sharp or something similar.

I kept the conversation mostly in Drev for the sake of the clan, "Cannon how are you this morning?"

He lifted his head to me, "Won seven duels and tested some of Chalan's new weapons."

I smiled, "Ben busy than I see."

"I always try to keep it that way."

Cannon was the defacto clan leader. Technically it was either sunny or I, but Sunny wasn't reall the clan leading type and I had everything else to run so that gave Cannon most command over the Drev, which is why I was here.

"Just coming in to make sure you guys have everything you need and see if there is anything that you guys need done. Cannon obviouly you are on the jedi council, so you'll figure this out later, but I want to make sure eveyrthing is running smoothly. Is there anything your clan needs to discuss."

Cannon tapped his fingers agaisnt his carapace beore pulling me aside by the arm.

"Tatazan is.... Pregnant so, what should I do about that?"

A ton of bricks for Commander Adam Vir.

I blinked blindsides by that afformentioned rockslide, "I uh.... Hmm that is complicated."

I turned to look at the floor. I suppose it should ahve occured to me that when we took on an entire Drev clan that we were also taking on mated pares. Now the UNSC guidelines about being in relationships didn't cover the Drev considering that their battle partners were always thir significant other so hiring a Drev would be impossible if the rule was followed.

But I had failed to recognize the 'mated' part of a mated pair.

"Well shit." I muttered

"This isn't exactly ideal."

Cannon nodded, "I think it might be best if the child is raised off the ship on Anin."

"I tend to agree with you there." I leaned in a bit, "I have been thinking about the same things for the spiderlings."

He nodded knowingly.

"A ship is no place to grow up."

I agreed no matter how much child me would have disagreed.

"We can discuss that in meeting tonight, though as clan leader you have the most say in this."

He nodded his large head, "Where is my sister?" He wondered looking around for where she might be.

"I sent her off to play with making new weapons."

"Sent her off?" Cannon chuckled in amusement

"Yeah, I think she worries about leaving me on my own, like I am going to set something on fire or something."

"Have you set anything on fire/" He wondered wryly.

I smirked, "No but I've been thinking."

"For you, that is actually worse than setting things on fire."

The two of us laughed and I patted him on the arm as I returned him to the pool table and a second round of him kicking everyone's ass.

Cannon was a good clan leader and had thrown himself into the work wholeheartedly. They respected him, and he got along with them. Not a day went by that you didn't see him leading the Drev in some new sort of activity to broaden their horizons. I sortof wished Sunny would join them more often. I think it would be good for her to speak her own language and have friends er own species, but I get why she tended to distance herself.

These Drev were from the same clan that mistreated her entire life, and memories lie that were difficult to forgive at times. Still, they had to be better than me, and I worried about her.

Sure spending her time being beautiful and nobley aloof all the time gave her an heir of.... Hmmm how shall I say.... Excitement and intrigue, but still.... I wanted her to be happy.

And as much as the greedy part of me wanted my friend all to myself I recognized that probably wasn't a good thing.

I'd talk to her later about it I decided.

"Commander Vir to the bridge, commander Vir to the bridge."

I motioned my note taker to follow, and we hurried back to the bridge taking our seats. The captain's chair was familiar at this point, but I still couldn't shake off that tiny moment of thrill as I sat down.

"Report."

"Warp ends in five minutes, commander."

My heart pounded nervously in my chest. This was it, this was the big moment scientists had been waiting for forever. A real live real time picture of a black hole. Now it was important to keep away from the edge or risk time dilation, spegetiffication, and instant death.

The kid in me was about to pee himself in excitement, but the Commander in me was intent on not letting everyone die.

I picked up the com on the rest of the ship inviting them to prepare for warp exit, and then told them to get their asses up to the observation deck to see something awesome.

When I put the mic down I was back in commander mode ordering the crew to ready themselves for this moment.

My eyes were fixed straight ahead.

This was going to be insane.

If we came out of this wrong, we could be caught in the event horizon and be....

Goners.

"Exiting warp in ten."

I prepared to take manual control of the ship breath held trying not to imagine what would happen if we appeared at the edge of the event horizon sailing on a dust cloud of light as we plunged towards our death, a black pit of nothingness.

"One"

The warp drie disengaged, and we jolted violently as the air warped around us.

I slammed back in my seat taking immediate control of the ship waiting for any warning bells to go off signaling extreme gravity,

I took a relieved sigh when there was none and lifted my head to the viewing window.

'"Ho-ly shit." I muttered

The rest of the crew gasped.

It was.... Well it was wow.

IIf you guys have ever seen interstellar, I would go so far as to say that was pretty accurate.

From this distance the thing didn't look so big, but the very marrow of my bones knew what it meant. The massive disk of light and dust that surrounded it slowly spiraling inward towards a pit of nothingness.

The halo ring of light that surrounded it glowed upward as unbelievable gravity refracted the back of the black hole towards the front.

It was like a dark eye in the middle of space staring outward at us unblinkingly as it lurked in the darkness...

This

Was the center

Of the Milky Way.