Chapter 16 

Less than two days later, Nick was waiting eagerly outside the docking bay. The shuttle bringing passengers from the cargo ship Titan had just arrived and already a couple of women carrying heavy packs were making their way through from the Arrivals room. Every person who arrived from outside the Alnath group of planets had to walk through a bio screen to check that they weren't, inadvertently or otherwise, carrying any organism detrimental to the local biosystems. What might be harmless on one planet, could be a major threat to another. Just mention the word 'measles' to a historian. 

Nick saw his father's copper coloured head emerge from the Arrivals room and strode towards him, his face lighting up. They caught each other in a warm hug, "It's good to see you, Dad," Nick was saying. "I'm glad you could come." 

"So am I. You're looking good," Liam held him at arm's length for a moment, studying his face a little anxiously. "Have you got time now to walk with me to my hotel? Or will I see you later?" 

"I've only got half an hour, but I'll go with you and see you settled in. How are Mum and the girls?"  

"They're fine, Mum sends her love." 

The two men chatted companionably about family matters as they walked to the Golden Crown, they would wait until they were alone together before speaking of what had brought Liam here, all the way from Tian. 

After the furore over Mars' escape and subsequent death during capture had finally died down, Liam Connell had found himself unable to settle back into his life on Bast. Although he hadn't actually been charged with aiding and abetting, a cloud of suspicion hung over him relentlessly, threatening to damage his fledgling business. Deciding to cut his losses, Connell had sold his share to his partner Katrina at cost price and moved across the star system to start again on Tian.  

Still grieving over his friend, it had been several months before he started even looking at the opposite sex. In true holovid romance tradition, Emma Lawrence had been his employee, not only a pilot, but a qualified scout and guide, specializing in the desert environment of Bao. Liam with his navigating skills and forest world expertise had found in Emma his ideal partner for Zhu Adventure Tours. In time, their working relationship had blossomed into a love affair and then a partnership of a more personal nature. Nick had been born within the first year, and then Charlotte and Sophie had come along a few years later. Liam had settled happily into his new life, the whole episode with Mars gradually becoming a bitter sweet memory. 

XXX 

From his position just outside the docking bay, Stefan Rice watched the reunion with avid curiosity and an odd touch of envy. So that was the man his father had hated for all these years, who had betrayed the most fundamental principles of the Patrol, the man he had caught a glimpse of on his father's console unit one day when Viktor had left it open... The man who Nick now said had been his birth father's closest friend. He looked like an older version of Nick, they had the same sky blue eyes, although Nick's hair was darker, more of a chestnut colour, with only occasional hints of copper when the light caught it a certain way. The older Connell might have a slight hint of grey at the temples but he moved like a fit man in his prime, easily swinging the heavy backpack off his shoulders to greet Nick. 

He was smiling, smiling and hugging Nick wholeheartedly, even though he was a grown man. He tried to remember the last time his own father had hugged him but he couldn't. These days they shook hands or exchanged a manly slap on the back when they met after a long absence.  

Once he had known that Nick was going to the docking bay to meet his father, Stefan had been unable to stop himself from following. He wanted to see this man for himself, without his father glaring disparagingly over his shoulder, radiating disapproval. He wasn't going to talk to him of course, but he wanted to at least gather his own first impressions. He stepped back into the shadows, feeling uncomfortably like a stalker, as the two men went past him, chatting easily about the rest of Nick's family.  

He knew it was way too soon to make any sort of judgement, but so far Liam Connell had not been what he had expected. He didn't look like a weak man, someone who was easily manipulated by a stronger personality as his father claimed. He looked confident and assured, totally at ease with himself and with his homosexual son. He knew, without pausing to consider, that Viktor wouldn't be walking comfortably with him if he were homosexual, in fact he felt quite queasy just imagining the scene if he had ever had to declare himself an om. Luckily it wasn't an issue he'd ever have to worry about, haha. 

He gave himself a mental shake, time to get back to work. He stopped in at the Control Tower to have a quick chat with the man on duty, justifying his visit, then continued back to the station, his brain still busy. 

He was certain Nick would want to introduce him to his father as soon as he could, he would just have to be polite but firm, explain that any conversation about his birth father was taboo. After all, what could Liam tell him about Mars that he wanted to hear? He had been a vile man, the last thing he wanted to do was hear anyone making excuses for him. 

He could still remember the day Viktor had decided he was old enough to read the reports for himself, after a period of escalating teenage defiance and rebellious behaviour. Stefan had eagerly browsed the TriVid reports about Mars when he was twelve, when Viktor had eventually told him who his birth father was, but they had been romanticised stories, portraying Mars as larger than life, heavily censored for public viewing.  

"I made a mistake," Viktor told him reluctantly, "I should have let you read these when I told you who your natural father was." 

He had given him the official patrol reports to read for himself, dry statements relentlessly reporting incident after incident, the ships Mars and his pirates had hijacked, the credits he had extorted, the men he had raped to create an atmosphere of terror and instant surrender.  

Stefan had been thirteen years old. He hadn't even known one man could rape another. But there it all was in brutal black and white, shorn of the false glamour created by the TriVids. The worst case was a young boy only fifteen years old, just two years older than he was. True, the boy had denied indignantly that anything untoward had occurred other than being tied up, but as the man submitting the report had said, he was simply lying to protect himself. 

Instantly everything fell into place. Viktor's previously resented strictness was explained, the discipline, the rules, his brusque order to Stefan to drop the homosexual amongst his friends at school, all meant to keep him on the right track, to prove that nurture could defeat nature. 

His father had been a vile man.  

Stefan had sworn then and there he would never, ever, be anything like his birth father.