"Lulu..." Iolvin stood over his sister's scantily-clad form in her bed and gently shook the mattress with his knee. "Lulu, enough already."

"Mmn...?" Ilaria came to, squinting up at her brother before blowing him off for more snooze time. "Go away, Yoyo. I'm tired."

"You're depressed. You need to get up and do something with your life."

Laying right next to her, Carbon kicked into gear and adjusted a leaking seal on his mask. "Morning, Yoyo. I thought I told you I needed more time than—"

"It's two in the afternoon. Both you lazy asses need to get up." Yoyo reached down and pulled the covers down to their waists, hoping the cool air would rouse them further. "Lulu, Robyn wouldn't want you moping around like this. At least come see your kids today."

"But... they remind me too much of her..."

"Please, Lulu. I'm asking you personally, as your brother, to let your whelps know you even exist." Yoyo started giving up, sighing as he went back to the bedroom door. "They asked about their 'mommy and daddy' today. Don't make me lie to my nieces."

Ari tried to finally push herself upright, but barely managed to flop around with the whole right of her body pretty much missing. "Who's... Ah, fuck... So who's watching them now?"

"Dee and one of the Ashes are playing with them, and I left Zoë in charge in case they got out of paw."

"What? They're just babies, right?"

Carbon helped Ilaria find her new prosthetic arm and held it in place for her to hook it up. "They're growing up fast, Ari. Your brother's right. You need to spend these initial months with them or you'll miss a lot you'll later wish you hadn't."

"But I don't want to be around them like this. I don't... trust myself around precious things right now." Ari pulled up an artificial breast sack, then snapped a flexible muscle material over it and onto her clavicle to lock her false shoulder socket into place. "I hate to ask, but can't you handle them another month, Yoyo?"

"No, you're not understanding us." Iolvin pulled out his phone and showed a picture he took the other day of what appeared to be two eight- or nine-yearOld children. "They're literally growing up quickly. Two months and they're already learning from books."

"Wait, books? What books?"

"Advanced algebra and Dante right now. They love math the most, actually."

"You're fucking with me, right?" Ari stretched her robotic limb outward to calibrate it, then used it to attach her now-familiar leg. "You didn't think to tell me this shit sooner, bro?"

"No. You were throwing things at me on sight at the time. I figured I had a chance today because Carbon was with you."

"You'd be right about that. I didn't know she was ~avoiding~ them." Carbon hopped out of bed and checked his air unit, which was still in satisfactory ranges. "Let's go, then. Those children need their mother."

"Their mother..." Ari paused for a moment before shaking herself out of another pothole in her road to mental recovery. "Uh, yeah. Where are they now?"

Yoyo smiled as he finally managed to bring his twin around to leaving the captain's quarters. "Rec room. I think they wanted to play games."

"With one of the Ashes?" Ari finally stood on her own and threw on a robe, the idea of finding clothes let alone donning them frustrating the depressed otter. "How's that even work? Text adventure?"

"Oh, no. It's Punk." Yoyo tapped a wall panel and held the semi-automatic bulkhead open for the others. "She wanted to play something violent, but I talked her out of it. That's the last thing those kids need in their heads, especially now."

Carbon took the lead, stretching all over as he walked down the port-side hallway. "They're like sponges right now, to that's probably good thinking."

"Yeah, thanks Yoyo." Ilaria paused in hope as she heard a laugh, but continued with renewed glumness when she realized it was only Punk. "So... you're teaching them?"

"A bit. Prisma and Sprite are doing the heavy lifting though. The girls really like them for some reason." Yoyo went a bit further, then swooped into the recreation room silently to scare Adrian with a poke to his side. "Hey, babe. The kids being good?"

"Gah! ...Yeah. Yeah, they're cute little—" Dee snapped his eyes to Ari as she slowly slumped into the room. "Oh, you got her out? Hey, Ari. You feeling alright today?"

"Uh... Better than normal, maybe?" Ari peered over to a TV mounted on the far wall, then to the backs of two chairs. "They're over that way?"

Zoë turned around and walked over to her patron's side. "Yeah, they're quiet but fun to watch. You want me to stay with them, Iolvin?"

"Nah, I've got it from here."

Ilaria slowly walked up to the chairs as the three furs in them played some racing game. She didn't need to guess which contained her children, two extra-fluffy rudder tails and a slew of yellow tendrils swaying to the sides of just one seat. "They really are growing up..."

"Oh." Punk paused the game and spun around with a smile, the twins also standing over the back of their shared chair to spot the cause of their disappointment. "Hey, Ari. I didn't mean to screw up their studying, but kids should have fun too..."

"That's fine, Punk. Thanks." Ari slowly walked over to her daughters, awe fumbling her higher brain functions. "My little whelps..."

The two girls symmetrically reached out to pull their mother into an enthusiastic hug. Then one of them made a pawful of gestures before the other frowned at the effort.

"Girls?"

Yoyo walked up and made a few gestures himself, mumbling as he motioned. "She will learn quickly. I promise."

"What are you—?"

"We talked about this a few weeks ago, sis. Sign language. They've mastered it already apparently, but I'm just starting." Yoyo gave each of the girls a kiss to the forehead and signed some more. "Your mother missed you both."

"You... learned that for them?" Ilaria threw her false arm over her brother's shoulder awkwardly, but he got the sentiment anyway. "Best fucking unkle ever, Yoyo."

"You should learn it too. Oh!" Yoyo put a paw over his own twin's muzzle. "Watch what you say near them. I think they're learning to read lips too."

"S-Sure..." Ari leaned forward and tried to hug her children, and they climbed up to fill the gap her handicaps left between them. "I love you, sweeties. I know I haven't seen you much and I never get to say it, but I love you."

The twins nodded with smiles and gave their mother a few kisses in silent gratitude.

"You're adorable." Ari stood back up, but found herself reaching down again to fix one of her pups' thick fur. "You're a mess, Chelle. Hold still."

"Wait, you can tell them apart?" Yoyo stood back a step and examined the two girls closer. "How? I've had to tie bows on them and stuff, but they think it's fun to take them off."

"Like we didn't do that as kids either." Ari licked her paw and matted down the offending hairs, bringing the two back to perfect symmetry. "But I'm their mother. I can just tell them apart."

Carbon walked over and gave the girls a playful pair of head rubs. "They put on a good show though. I'm surprised they're so coordinated too. You two say the same words together every so often, but these two take that act to eleven."

"Except they can't speak. Guess we beat them there."

Ari whacked her brother on the back of the head. "Don't make fun of that. They can't help being born deaf."

"Sorry, sis. It's just that it doesn't seem to bother them any. They're happy just holding paws and learning stuff together."

"Holding paws?" Carbon checked, and indeed the twins were locked at the wrists. "How long have they done that? Wait, and do they really like touching the androids?"

"Huh? Yeah, I guess." Yoyo looked around to see if Sprite was hiding somewhere, but the two synthetics had apparently found something more interesting and left. "They're usually hanging from Prisma with those tentacle things of theirs. Why?"

Carbon tried to gently separate the girls and they resisted at first, enough to pique the hybrid's interest. "Eve... I think they learned how to use the Link on their own."

Evelyn sheepishly poked her head into the room from an ethereal hiding place in the nearby bulkhead wall. "Really? That shouldn't be possible for about a year, but... I guess they're uniquely gifted already. Maybe they're an exception?"

"Maybe. But the way they learn math so fast? I think that's because they're speaking pure conceptual math with Sprite." Carbon placed one paw back in the other and the girls smiled in return silently. "I'll have to teach them how to control it with you. Ari, you mind if Eve and I teach the girls about something later?"

"Yeah, go right ahead. It sounds important." Ilaria gave her children another set of kisses and nuzzles to the cheeks, then stepped back. "But for now, I think you and the pups should lock things down and buckle up. I've got a surprise they might like."

"Uh... what?" Iolvin quirked his head sideways as his sister actually seemed to have some drive in her once more. "What are you thinking? Are we going somewhere?"

"Visiting mom and dad. They can't miss out on these kids while they're still small and cuddly." Ari waved to her kids and smiled when they waved back before returning to their game. "I have a promise to fulfill, too. A dream that needs to come true."

"Should... I come help?"

"Nah, just get the kids settled somewhere... secure. We'll all have fun soon enough."

Carbon followed as Ilaria left the room and went back for the captain's quarters. "What are you thinking? You should spend the day with the kids, Ari."

"I... look at them and see..." Ari opened the door to her room and stepped inside long enough to grab her tablet device and a small, titanium urn. "I see her in every square inch of those girls. And until I put her soul to rest, I'll never be comfortable looking my own whelps in their eyes."

"They look more like you, personally. The extra fluff though, yeah."

"Their eyes. The curve of their cheeks. Those... poor ears of theirs." Ari walked out the room at a brisk pace and headed for the front of the ship. "You didn't know every little curve of her like I did. They're her spitting image, otter and dog bits aside."

"And the private parts, but that's not like either of you."

Ari shook her head as she found the empty commemorative plaque for the ship near the captain's console. "No, they got that from you. That and the need for those inhalers every few hours."

"That's from my father, actually. He's the one who's genes were set in the foundry." Carbon watched as Ilaria wedged the tablet under the plaque and then flipped to what looked like a digital sketch with notes all over it. "So what are we doing here? Can I help?"

"This ship was Robyn's dream. It represents her life's effort, right up to the very end." Ari pinch-zoomed until one piece of text was larger than the rest, more of less filling up the screen with the one title. "So now I'm crowning this ship the Starbreeze."

"That's... sort of cheesy. You sure that's good for—"

A webbed paw promptly slapped Carbon over the muzzle. "These are her notes, idiot." The urn was next to go up on a small mantle beneath the plaque, snapping quite nicely into place between two magnetic bookends. "She wanted to name her that, so that's what she'll be called."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't understand." Carbon checked the tablet and gave a nod. "That's nice. She would be happy to hear that."

"No she wouldn't." Ari walked over to the pilot's helm and sat down. "She'd think it was a huge disgrace, because her fine piece of art never managed to touch the vacuum of space."

"A-Ari?"

"Don't argue. We're going up there one way or another, or I'll die trying." Carbon sat down next to Ilaria in the co-pilot's seat and strapped in for takeoff, giving Ilaria a stern look the entire time. "...Don't worry; I didn't mean it like that. I'll never risk the kids. If something goes wrong, I'll set her back down."

"I was about to say..."

Ari flipped a hard switch and the holographic controls fired up. "I just have to get this ship to space, one way or another. Even if it takes decades of failure, I'm doing it."

Carbon sighed and started spooling up the engines just after disconnecting all external lines. "Shouldn't you be putting this much effort into your children?"

"Oh, they'll get even more when I'm through. I just have an obligation to follow first. A dying wish." Ari grabbed a holographic lever and shoved it forward slowly, bringing the ship a few dozen feet off the landing deck. "Pillow wanted to fly through space, so Pillow gets to fly through space. End of story."

Carbon looked back at the urn against the far wall and finally understood. "She'll have front row seats, too. I'm sure she'll love it."

Ilaria angled the ship upward slowly, keeping the thrust vectored to the ground until the whole ship was vertical and the engine's wings were swept wide. "Damn straight, she will."

Ilaria shoved the main thrust forward all the way, sending the sleek frigate into a harsh vertical climb. After a few seconds the tail started slewing against the turbulence, which caused Carbon to correct by adding a slight roll. Ilaria waited for the right moment and angled the main engines to hang 'below' the ship until the Starbreeze's center of gravity was perfect. Then in just a pawful of seconds they broke free of the last of the Earth's clouds and the source of all resistance in their path.

"B-Back off maybe...?" Carbon pleaded.

Ari complied with the request, slowly pulling down on the engine output and leveling out the frigate. "We're fine, you wuss. Can't get there on the power of wishes and rainbows."

"I'm thinking of your kids, actually."

Ilaria beamed her brother a direct message. «Yoyo, you guys alright?»

After a moment Iolvin responded with a hint of frustration coloring his thoughts. «Yeah. I got the kids strapped down next to me... Hey, how high up are we? It feels like there's less gravity.»

«There's about to be none. I'll take it easy from here, so let the whelps enjoy it.» Ari looked back to her wife's remains and truly smiled for the first time in months. "Everyone's fine."

Carbon tapped a few holograms and cloned Ari's controls over to his side, allowing her to relax as he flew. "Then I guess we're okay. Right?"

Ari sat back and stared out of the small backup window ahead of her. "Yeah. Yeah, I think we're okay."

Carbon tightened down on his restraints, which already were too large for his small frame, as the effect of gravity lessened to almost nothing. "So are you going to scatter her remains while we're up here? Ashes to ashes and all that?"

"...'There's nothing left on this planet but dust and echoes, of mankind's futile struggles and victories.'..."

"That's beautiful. I don't think I've heard that one before, and that's a rare thing." Carbon corrected one last time before engaging the autopilot for about twenty minutes of asynchronous orbiting and then stretched out weightlessly with Ilaria. "Who said that? I'll have to remember that one."

"Robyn Winchester Rihzyet." Ari peered out the window as she thought back on her late wife. "She never had a good view on the state of the Earth. After losing her home country, she wanted nothing more than to live in space."

"Ah, so she started that dream young."

"Yeah, and she started it with us. We all loved the idea, and until my accident we were all saving to get visas for a colony ship. Then she... decided to help with my hospital bills instead." A few specks of moisture welled up near Ilaria's face before bursting to fill the immediate vicinity like a wet firework. "I didn't know it back then, but I get it now. She loved the dream of space, but she loved me more."

Carbon looked over to Evelyn with a warm smile, then reached over and held Ari's good paw. "You were great together. Hell, you still are." The hybrid looked over to Robyn's ashes and then back to Ari. "Her heart and soul are in this ship. That's why I'm giving her to you. The Starbreeze is yours to share, Captain."

"Ours... to share?" Ilaria pulled up a pair of rings, one charred and one pristine, that hung from a necklace on her neck. She gave the wedding bands a kiss, then smiled out into the great beyond. "Yeah. Ours."

Weep not for roads untraveled /
Weep not for sights unseen /
May your love never end and if you need a friend, /
There's a seat here alongside me

—Roads Untraveled, Linkin Park