Headfirst into the Abyss

The crew of Charybdis is more than lost, although it really is natural to Phoebe. They have only arrived few hours prior and throw in the middle of things they didn’t understand for the sake of ‘keeping up’ and they were probably more confused than anything else, but they should be fine.

By now, it should be clear to them why they are here – because they’ve saved the universe once, so TIA needs them. Not to help them along, oh no. TIA needs them because they are symbols, images.

It’s ironic, really, how Phoebe’s son is the saviour and her daughter, the destroyer. They balance each other out.

“May I come in?” She asks after a soft knock and a press of her card in allotted space on Viktor’s door, after he’s already granted her access.

“Hey, mom.” He says, voice soft and eyes softed, and hugs her. He’s taller. He’s taller than her, has been for a while, but he’s grown even taller in the absence because that’s how space sometimes is. With no certain gravity, people go a little bit off. Arianna, for example, is a lot taller than him, too.

When she disappeared, she had been nineteen and Viktor had been fourteen. Back then, they were almost the same height.

“How has my boy been for the past two years?” She asks, eyes crinkling with her smile, and she feels like this is the first time in weeks that she’s fine. “Has the space treated you correctly, apart from the fact that you still cannot cook?”

“It’s been a wild ride, though—a great one.” Viktor blushes scarlet when she mentions the cooking, because he always does when she berates him about anything. Still, his embarrassed flush doesn’t even match his hair. Phoebe can swear on her own life that he doesn’t just get taller – his hair appears to be more and more red each time he returns, too.

“It’s always bound to be.” She sits in the sole chair he has in his little cabin, already tired, and he takes place on the bed, lanky legs folded nearly beneath him. “I almost miss the speed myself.”

She most definitely misses the speed, but she feels as though she’s grown old. Over sixty already, she feels like she’s had her fair share of flying and space battles. It doesn’t stop her from reminiscing about it, thought. Things were a lot more simple back then, a lot easier to understand. Everything that the sense could pick up, the science could explain.

No wars, no balance to be upset. Humans and Wraiths and Zephyrs living in harmony, without two threads clawing at them from different sides.

“Last year I almost thought we wouldn’t make it.” He admits, dark eyes almost sad. “Space pirates managed to bust half of our ship and one vent fell off completely. We were locked down for three hours and at the end of them the part of the wall fell off. Kendra spent half an hour suspended in the outer space with only a string from her suit connecting her to the ship. I thought we weren’t going to make it.”

“But you did.” She’s not sure how else to make him feel better. They did make it – they’re alive, in one piece. Phoebe knows it’s not the truth, but she wants to tell him, wants to think that they will always make it, in the end.

“I feel like that right now, you know—The member of your family is clinging to the ship by a thread and you cannot let them die, because it would mean letting yourself die, you know. You can’t bear not having them around.” She tries to understand. She’s been in this situation a lot of times. “I feel like I’ve been given a life or death situation and if I don’t accept it, death’s going to happen anyway.”

He’s not wrong.

“I know, honey.” When she hugs them, both are well-aware that it’s more for her than it is for him. “We’ll be fine.”

Her terminal beeps, signal passing through, and she sees that Afon is calling. He probably wants to know how the meeting went, to ask if she’s seen Viktor yet. It’s a not a call, though, merely a notice, so it means that he’s willing to give her time.

“I should go.” She says, then remembers a small detail she wanted to share with him – another reason she’s here. To make him feel a little bit easier. “Scylla’s coming to the station in several days. Naim’s still the Captain.”

“I know. Mom.” It’s a statement and the warning at the same time, but she shrugs, almost-smiling. She’ll be fine. Just a little bit more, and she will be fine. “About the Captain deal, I mean—I’m not sure any of them would like to see me, though.”

And that’s just silly.

“Nonsense, Viktor. Jo loves all of you and Virgil is hard around the edges but she’s got a soft spot for you. And you really ought to—You really ought to talk to Naim, Viktor. It’s been how long? It’s been years. Three, four?” She edges him into it. She’s his mother. She doesn’t want what’s bad for him.

“Three and, besides—Mom. Please, I just—There’s nothing to talk about.” Boys.

Phoebe shrugs and then lets her son push her out of the room and into the hallway. Oh, well—nevermind him, then. If he wants to play at being a grown-up, she will let him. She’s got Afon to talk to either way.