"We just wanted different things, I had my career here at the university, and he .. well he had his reasons." Susan told her children. She never really spoke about her dad, but they were all togather and Zoe was pushing for answers.
"Well look at it from my point of view, that writer guy came around two years ago and now there is a man on the screen who looks exactly like dad." said Zoe, already exasperated by her mother's usual vagueness.
"So?" said Susan confused by her daughter's question
"Well" said Zoe, "look around, there isn't a single picture of him anywhere, not in the living room upstairs, or the lounge, not in the hallway, up the staircase , not even in your bedroom. Mother, how did they match an actor to look exactly like Dad when we don't have any pictures of him!" her voice was almost a shout by the end.
"Oh, that." said Susan sheepishly. "Erm, well. Look. Erm. I'll just go and get them." Susan got up from the white breakfast bar and left the room. Zoe heard her on the stairs before she stopped rolling her eyes.
Zack was tapping away on his advisor pad. "Look sis, go easy on her about dad ok. She was really broken up about it when he left."
"Hardly, she's hardly even mentioned him in ten years." Zoe answered, "I'm not angry or anything, but, well that flick was .. not very nice."
"Not seen it, not going to either." Zack said absently
"Well you'd be alright, they've made you into some sort of super being hero type." Zoe said with a smile
"No way, I can't even climb a wall without falling off and breaking my arm." Zack said, but it was clear he was interested. "Who's the actor?"
"Nobody I'd heard of, he was cute though. Unlike you" Zoe ribbed
"Ha, well you'd best remember that. Those things are just fantasy. Anyway, I figured the story would be changed the way the writer was acting."
"How so?"
"He just didn't seem interested in the actual events, kept finishing Mums sentences for her, ending them with things like. 'so then the deathclaw flew out of the cave, and swooped around and breathed fire. Giant jaws snapping at you, but they caught one of the bearers and you saw it swallow him whole.' Then mum would say 'well no, a deathclaw doesn't have wings, and its only the size of a man. And it didn't really charge, it was just protecting its young so the snapping was just a warning really.' then the writer would get confused, because you know that drawing of Mum's, the one where the deathclaw looks like it's flying and ripping a man's arm off? Well he'd look at that and wink to the women that were with him and they'd all have a smirk. Of course Mum didn't see any of that. You know how she is."
Zoe felt a little better, she had been checking her purse while Zack was talking. Zack saw something then said suddenly "Hey, are those AliensRfree tickets? You're not going to that are you, mum is going to have a fit."
As if on queue, Susan returned. She was holding an old scrap book.
"Hmm, fit for what?" Susan said absently
At that exact moment, just as Zoe was about to be busted the doorbell rang. Susan got up and went to the door.
"Zack!" whispered Zoe to her brother sharply, "It's just a party, and its the biggest one there has ever been. You and you're geeky friends might prefer hanging out in libraries, but we prefer parties where actual living people go to dance and have fun."
"Zo, its not just a party. They're a radical anti-establishment group. You'll get in trouble." Zack warned
"What, thinking about your precious doctorate" Zoe grabbed the advisor pad and looked at it. "holy crap, there's no way. That's sick Zack. Seriously?"
Susan wandered back into the kitchen sorting through some mail. She went straight to the disposal chute by the sink. Sifting through the mail, she tossed brightly coloured envalopes into the chute. Sifting out the daily junk mail was a daily chore on this estate. Susan stopped at a fancy envelope. Really thick looking, it had a very official looking noble seal on it.
Zoe held up the advisor pad, "Look what Zack's gone and done. It's 'kl-kck;g-rqk', you remember 'click'. Our loving family pet. The sweet scaly rascal we took for walks and on picnic's in the livingdome."
"Uh huh" said Susan, clearly not getting the point. She tossed the fancy envalope into the disposal chute.
"Technically 'click' had a carapace, so I guess you mean carapacey?" said Zack, trying to lighten the mood
"The point is, Zack. He still does have a carapace. Because you've stuffed him!"
"Actually dear, I stuffed him. A couple of years ago. He's been in my office ever since, then your brother was looking for ideas for his research study project, and I suggested a detailed study of the Ascorbite worker drone. His professor really liked the idea." Susan explained calmly
"Mum, you are still not getting the point." said Zoe
"I'm sorry dear, I don't think I am following you." appologised Susan
Zoe slumped back into her chair, giving up, but shaking her head. She finally noticed the scrap book and put the advisor pad down. Zack swiftly swept it back up and double checked that he had saved his work.
"Let's get back to the first family feud of the day. Mum, what's in this scrap book?" Zoe picked up the scrap book and a photgraph fell out, it floated onto the kitchen floor.
Zoe jumped down from her stool and picked it up. She stared. And stared.
"That's from the expedition where we found 'click' actually. See that guy there, that's the noble who hired us Baron Thomas Tiberius Thrusnikron. That's his game keeper, I can't remember his name. That's your godfather Richard, that strange lady is Aneshka. Then there's Vasiliy, he was a soldier that Richard had hired but he became quite a good friend, and then that is .."
"Dad" said Zoe quietly
"Uh, huh." Said Susan "I've not gone through this for ages, it was in the loft for years. Then when the movie people came they made me dig up things like this. Here, let me just put this disk into Zack's advisor-pad."

The little pad started to play a movie.
Zoe recognised the bridge of the 'Batoid Eagleray' immediately. So did Zack, who was looking over her shoulder at the little screen.
"Oh, the 'batoid eagleray'. Why was the ship called that anyway?" asked Zack
"Ahh, well the ships computer asked your dad what he would like to call it, and your dad asked what it used to be called. It said" Susan then put on a robotic voice "'Eagle Ray', my designation is taken from the species of 'Batoid' introduced into the Sevarus lakes from Terra." Susan switched back to her normal voice. "Then Jake said something like 'ok, I dun want to call you Batoid Eagleray'. And started to ponder for a new name. Then the computer said" Susan switched back into her computer voice "Designation change accepted". Switching back she continued, "After that we were stuck with it, Jake always wanted to change it, but I think he turned off the ships AI and in the process lost a lot of the automated functions it was capable of."
Zoe had the image on pause. She had a tear in her eye just listening to her mum talk about her dad without the blank dissapointment she usually showed. As soon as the story was finished she elbowed her brother and pointed out what she had seen. "Look, it's mum. She's pregnant"
"Hey, said Zack. "I thought you said you and dad were married down the road at the small orthadox chapel?"
"We were" said Susan, absently of course.
Zack and Zoe looked at each other and laughed. Susan clearly didn't understand the purpose behind the question.
Zoe tried to explain. "So if you and dad were not amrried, what name did you put on the birth record?"
"Hm?" Susan was perplexed "I don't know, your dad did all the clerical stuff, I was kind of busy, you know screaming and shouting."
Zoe got the message and held up her hands, "too much mum"
Zack twigged "You mean my name might not even be Zack McAlistair?"
"Well", Susan said "your dad was kind of on the run, his name was an identity he wanted to lose when we moved here. So when we were married he took my name."
"Yes, but did he take your name before you were married? What name did he give to us when we were born?" Asked Zoe.
"Oh, I see", said Susan, "Well I suppose that would have been Gloucester."
"Hang on" Said Zack, "A man can't take a woman's name. The church wouldn't allow it."
"I've never thought about it, I guess he just stopped using his surname then. Started just calling himself Jake maybe? Oh, I don't know. that stuff was your dads business."

Zoe let the rest of the recording play.
Jake Gloucester came from behind the camera, the 'shhep' noise revealing that he had come from the portside door into the lounge. On the view screen behind the pair a large technological planet was rapidly approching. Susan had been watching it.
"This ship is really quiet without the others." Susan said
Jake hugged her fondly, "They understand, it would be too much of a risk for them here in the heart of the known worlds. And you need to settle down now, maybe turn those old scrap books into that dissertation you were supposed to be being paid for." he kissed her and headed for the camera. "Hey, did you turn the bridge recorder on?"
"Uh, huh. I wanted to record the approach to Liberty so that if you got itchy feet you'd have something to watch to remind you of us now." said Susan sweetly
Jake rushed back and swept her up, spinning her around and kissing her.
"you know we are still 20 AU out, even for this old bird that's going to be another four hours, then we'll have to slow down for the control station. It's going to be at least 8 hours before we are actually landing."
With that Jake walked back to the camera position and reached passed it, the screen went black as he deactivated it.

Zack made a hacking sound with the back of his throat, just like 'click' used to when he was feeding. Susan was smiling sadly. She turned quickly and started to make some cups of tea. Zoe elbowed her brother, "don't be such a boy" she chastised in a whisper.
Then Zoe twigged. "Hey, mum. Those times, they were pretty close to the speed of light. Even for a big cruiser, with a ton of shields they can only manage .25 the speed of light."
"Oh, well I'm no charioteer like you my dear, but I think that ship could do .75 or maybe .8. Something like that anyway." Susan answered the question without confidence, this was not a subject she really understood.
"Where is the ship now? That thing is going to be pretty easy to find. You know the only unarmed late second republic yacht in the Universe! The one that vanishes before you detect it on your sensors. You know that one!" Zoe stared at her mother looking for her to catch up
"I'm sorry dear, I don't really get what you are saying?" Susan asked
"Look if nobody in the startport remembers that ship they're not Charioteers. there are quarter of a million bays in the startport. That's at least a million pilots coming and going for seven years. And you think none of them noticed that ship vanishing in the blink of an eye?"
"To be honest dear, I've always just assumed your dad found another woman and forgot about us. There's no point looking for someone if they don't want to be involved with you any more." said Susan sterly
"You mean you've never even looked to see if the ship is even still on the planet?" Zoe said
"Well no. I just didn't want to .. well I didn't want to find out how happy he was with some floozey waitress or whatever." Susan said
Zoe rolled her eyes. She grabbed her handbag, slipped on her Dad's old spacer's jacket and headed for the door. She stopped, rushed back. Thumped her brother and kissed her mum on the cheek then ran out to meet her friends. Her mum's funny logic had put her in an excellent mood for a change. Sure she might not want to find her Dad, but Zoe sure did.

On the bullet into central Kesparate, surrounded by her friends they concocted a plan. They were going to wait until next term at college, then when they were on their first test flight up to the orbital approach control station. A month of study on board the flightpath control base, they would hack or bribe their way through the system and find when where and how the Batoid Eagleray left Liberty.

The party, or concert distracted Zoe. She forgot all of her troubles and her plans the second she walked passed the final gate check bouncer. They were early, the place was still filling up. but she could tell this was going to be an event of crazy proportions. An entire city block of open space, on the surface of the planet, but covered by a clear plasteel dome and fully climate controlled lay beofre her. There was an amusement park, roller coasters, entire streets of candy shops, synthbeer stalls, trinket merchants. Others of all manner of games, even mini rides for small children, which she was surprised to see.

As the evening started to close in and the smaller named bands gave way to the more famous ones, her friend Suzie was being sick from the sythbeer she had been getting from this guy. They'd finally met up and of course sensible Zoe had been alotted the task of holder her hair back. The pair had lost the others half an hour ago. Everyone was having the best of times. Zoe was just getting up the courage to try some of the beer herself. Susie had clearly had several more than the 'one or two' that she claimed.

As the pair sat on some steps near the exit, drinking water, from separate bottles. Susie started to come around. She was not well, but she was at least sober.
"Look, you're missing the party. Forgotten jealosy are coming on soon, the others are all at the main stage. You need to see them." Susie was saying, she was clearly not completely well yet, but she was dangling a very hard to resist carrot in front of Zoe.
"Are you really ok?" Zoe asked with genuine concern.
Susie nodded
"Have you got your ticket home?" Zoe asked
Again Susie nodded, she held up the plastic tag to show she had not lost it
"And you promise not to snog any nice looking men, even if they give you alchohol?" Asked Zoe
the girls both laughed
"No promises" Susie said sucking her finger coyly and giving a wink

Zoe waved her friend good bye from the steps and watched her leave the arena, through the exit nearest the train. Most of the families were leaving too, only the hardcore party goers would be left.
"At least she'll be walking back while it's still light, and surrounded by families." Zoe convinced herself that her friend would be alright, then turned and headed back through the streets of stalls.

She found the main stage, but she did not find her friends. Pretty soon the crowds started to really crowd in around her and it was getting too hard to see. She saw the central column of steel, where the projectors for the dozens of screens around the main area were being controlled. A few people had climbed up high enough to be able to see out accross the heads of the crowd.

She got a leg up from a strange guy in a pink cowboy hat. He was sat down behind the crowd, and clearly couldn't see a thing. He was grinning like a crazy person and dressed in simple white-ish clothes. Kind of monk like. Zoe thanked the junkie, clambered up and perched herself on the top of the barricade that had been erected to prevent people from climbing up. From here she was sure she would be able to at least see some of her friends.