Wolf Boy, Chapter 9, Part II

Pan and Kaiden reached the counter. Allec was wearing a tall chef’s hat, mostly to get people chatting and laughing.

“Hey, Juniper, we’ve got lava cakes today,” he said to the woman in front of Pan and Kaiden. “Still your favorites?”

“You bet. You know I expect a real chef to use authentic chocolate sauce.”

“Only for you.”

Allec grinned at Pan and Kaiden. He dished out plates of mac & cheese and added extra hotdog slices.

“You two scrub down the infirmary?”

“Yeah,” Kaiden said, and Pan said, “Dr. Toma told us we weren’t total losers.”

Dr. Toma

Actually, Dr. Toma said, Looks fine, which from Dr. Toma was praise of the highest order.

“Monseigneur Rhys was there,” Pan added. “He double-checks medications but I think he was also checking my medical records from the trip to Mars. But my parents, the Alands, they didn’t send me in for a full examination, just the regular blood draws to test for infections.”

Allec gave him a skeptical look. Dr. Toma likely guessed from the blood that Pan wasn’t human. And she hadn’t said anything. The ship lived by its own rules. It carried out specific mandates but nothing more, nothing that adhered to a particular political objective. The ship didn’t care who lived on Mars. It carried folks there.

Allec might be outspoken. He protected his friends, the people he determined as being on his side. And he adored Dr. Toma, who helped him with his first life-extension procedure. He wouldn’t question Pan in public about Dr. Toma’s knowledge.

“Don’t forget to hydrate,” he told Pan and Kaiden and turned to the next diner.

Pan and Kaiden collected drinks and carried their meal to a table near the long outside window. A few diners flicked glances at Pan. They knew who he was and what had happened to him on the station. They knew Rhys and Lider were the ship. But the captain didn’t want fuss and most people respected her decisions.

People like Todd rated their outrage above everything else, including getting through a nine-month voyage without cabin fever or brawls.

“Maybe we should do something about Todd,” Pan said as they sat.

Kaiden peered at him from under longish bleached bangs. “Punish-him like?”

“Do you honestly believe in all that Amunite stuff?”

Kaiden lowered his eyes, dug into his mac & cheese. “Some of it. The ancient Egyptian community stuff, ceremonies for the dead. And the animal stuff too. Gods with jackal and cat heads. Judges with owl beaks.”

“Gods in the image of Anthros?”

“I think Anthros visited Earth long before they returned for good. I guess it’s not my place to give an opinion—”

“Why not?”

“Okay. But I know that nobody really knows when Anthros arrived on Earth. I know that. I believe Anthros came to Earth to share their natures with humans. Protection. Comfort. Devotion. Lessons on the harshness of nature. Not the philosophical crap Todd doles out.”

He stopped, head still lowered. His eyes rose, fastened on Pan’s face.

He said, “On the ship to Mars—I don’t know if you remember—I was twelve, almost thirteen. You were four. Monseigneur Rhys solved a case for our group. Canon Lider was with him, only he was invisible back then. Our foundress referred to Lider as an akh, one who has successfully completed the journey to the afterlife.”

Pan vaguely remembered the unsettled feeling on the ship, and he was told later that Rhys and Lider investigated. Lider never mentioned the akh business. Of course, Lider refuted any attempt to turn him into an angel or some such spiritual whatever.

He said, “Lider is nearly corporeal.”

“I know. His journey went in the other direction—or she was right, and his journey brought him back around to the mortal world, a type of resurrection.”

“Lider wouldn’t agree.”

“I know. I know. It’s all faith, right? No proof. No empirical evidence. A story that makes sense to a person. Myth.”

“People want to be more than myth,” Pan said without heat. He wouldn’t mind being myth.

Kaiden smiled then, easily, cheerfully, the wide parted lips lifting the cheeks to set the eyes glimmering.

“I’m not thinking about what’s good for you,” he admitted. “I’m thinking about what I need to believe in, what I should follow.”

“You want to follow me?”

“Yes,” Kaiden said.