Cyrene smiled as she looked around at her slightly dysfunctional family. The families that you build yourself are the very best ones and this family was certainly a good deal better than the royal one she was blood-related to.

Cyrene was the youngest daughter of a royal family descended from Earth. Of course, there was no longer an Earth, so her parents were King and Queen of the space station Dirtanes. A ridiculous notion!

With two older brothers, it was highly unlikely Cyrene would ever rule, so she’d made her home on her space cruiser, Lady Nimüe, a ship that she’d rescued and helped to rebuild when she was a scruffy teenager who liked to spend every vacant moment in engineering, much to her mother’s chagrin.

The family that she’d made was small, but it was hers and it was growing. Originally there had been only herself and her ship’s AI, Syn, who Cyrene had programmed to be as human as possible. She’d rescued Gajjett, a Craetoan elf, during a cargo mission that very nearly went spectacularly wrong. Only half Cyrene’s height, he was covered from head to toe in soft, white downy hair and, unlike traditional elves, he had no visible ears. He’d brought Gizmo with him, a ginger cat who was great at keeping the hairless galactic rats out of the hold.

She’d been happily married to Prince Tarok for a little over a year. He was currently engaged in a flailing dance around the holographic Christmas tree in the rec room where twinkling lights strobed in time to ‘Rocket Around the Christmas Tree’, sung by the Titan’s Got Talent winner, Brendan Eel and accompanied by the warbling voice of Syn.

Cyrene took a sip of alco-free eggnog and gasped. “Titan’s Te…” Her breath caught as a contraction ripped through her core.

“Prince Tarok,” Syn singsonged, then, “PRINCE TAROK!”

At Syn’s urgency, Tarok stopped his cavorting. “What?”

“I do hope you booked a room in Medbay, Majesty. It appears the baby’s on its way.”

It looked as though their family was about to increase by one more!

5 2 votes
Post Rating
13 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Voice-Team
Voice-Team(@voice-team)
Admin
4 months ago

A different spin on “Family”. Well developed story which makes the reader want more.

Greene M Wills
Greene M Wills(@greene-m-wills)
5 months ago

Loved your story which brought me a good laugh. It showed how things might change but human spirit will survive no matter what. Great!

Margarida Brei
Margarida Brei(@margarida-brei)
5 months ago

Intriguing title, Carrie.
Your, “This family was certainly a good deal better than the royal one she was blood-related to”, I thought was an oblique reference to our Royal Family. I believed you were criticising them in the same way as Carroll cleverly and sarcastically spoke against Queen Victoria, the Queen of Hearts in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.’ Admittedly, all of this is conjecture.

Linda Rock
Linda Rock(@linda-rock)
4 months ago

Another great ‘out of this world’ story, Carrie! Wonderfully described setting and characters. Loved it!

allinonefitness steven jenkins
allinonefitness steven jenkins(@allinonefitness-steven-jenkins)
4 months ago

Another great read. Thanks Carrie  ? 

Lotchie Carmelo
Lotchie Carmelo(@lotchie-carmelo)
4 months ago

What a lovely read, Carrie. Well done.

Lotchie Carmelo
Lotchie Carmelo(@lotchie-carmelo)
Reply to  Carrie OLeary
4 months ago

You’re welcome, Carrie.

Recent Comments

13
0
Selected Authors may submit comments (5 Credits)x
()
x
Scroll to Top

Sharing a Post

Why do my friends need to SignIn to read the post I shared?

Actually, this is a voting security feature. During public voting, only club members can read posts submitted for that contest. Since anyone reading the story is able to vote (click the Like button), we reserve these capabilities to members who SignIn. Before we implemented this security feature, people were voting multiple times and making the public voting process unfair and out of balance. To fix this, our staff finally decided to allow only members who SignIn to read the stories. Membership is free and easy, and ensures our club is safe, secure, and family-friendly!