I chose a seat and fastened myself in.
“What do you want to watch this time?” I asked Neal as Jolar finished buckling him in.
“Lilo and Stitch!”
“Could you play the animated TV series of that, please? Xero knows where he left off,” I asked the pilot and he nodded. “As soon as we clear the Fleet,” he promised.
“Yay!” Neal shouted, clutching his Stitch stuffie tighter as he hugged it as hard as he could.
Jolar took his seat beside me. “Everything will be fine,” he murmured in my ear. “Darla and the Commander will spoil the fur babies while we are away, and we will get back and find they want to go live with them instead.”
I laughed. “Probably. Especially Morris. I think he’d leave me for a promise of an endless supply of kippers.”
The pilot came aboard, and the door closed. I closed my eyes, leaning my head against Jolar’s shoulder. The feel of his muscled arm and hard shoulder grounded me, the scent that was pure Jolar wrapping itself around me like a hug. I listened as the pilot talked to Xeranos and got clearance from the Command Deck for us to depart. I felt the thrusters come on, a gentle lulling hum, and felt us rise in the air before moving forward.
I opened my eyes, knowing the pilot would have turned on the view screens around us. I was immediately rewarded by the amazing sight of an endless sea of stars and the tiny dots that were the rest of the Fleet. As we glided away, parts of our own starship came into view before sliding away. It took my breath away and I didn’t think I would ever get used to such a majestic sight.
Neal, however, had other ideas. “Can we watch Lilo and Stitch now?” he begged.
The pilot gave us a questioning glance and we nodded.
“Xeranos, please activate Neal’s viewing queue of the Lilo and Stitch television program,” the pilot requested aloud.
“Hello, Neal,” Xero responded.
“Hi, Xero! We’re going on vacations! And Daddy and Papa are gettings married!”
“That sounds like fun. Here’s your next episode of Lilo and Stitch.” The main viewscreen area to Neal’s left began to play the show, and he turned his chair to face it.
We spent a very pleasant two hours traveling down to the surface, and to my surprise, we were met by a driver assigned to the Scholarship Center there in LA. He took our bags and placed them in the back of the SUV, then whisked us away to meet our cruise ship. It wasn’t one of the biggest, but it still seemed impossibly huge as we approached the docks. Neal’s eyes grew round as he stared at it. “It’s as big as our spaceship!” he exclaimed, causing us all to chuckle.
“Not quite,” our driver told him. “It’s only about a quarter of the size of one of our cruisers.
“It’s big,” Neal replied stubbornly.
“It is,” the male agreed.
I looked at it in adoration. It was an older ship, quite old really for one. An entrepreneur had rescued a handful of cruise liners from the sixties and seventies and remodeled them up to modern safety standards while retaining the vintage charm. As a result, the cabins were larger, but the ship was smaller overall than the behemoths currently in favor with the major cruise lines. This particular one specialized in honeymoon packages, with special deals in place for Mylos and their mates and people who worked with the Mylos. We joined the throng of people waiting to board. “I can’t believe I’m actually going on a cruise,” I said excitedly. “Neal, there’s a pool onboard and I’ll take you for a swim after breakfast tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, Papa. I gots my wings in my suitcase.”
“I know you do, buddy.”
And then the line started to move. Before I knew it, Jolar and I were lugging our suitcases, with Neal keeping up, pulling his Disney themed roller behind him. Thankfully I’d gotten one of those around the wrist things to keep him attached to me so I wasn’t worried about us accidentally getting separated as the crowd surged forward.
We were met at the top by a steward who checked our tickets and got a member of staff to help us with our baggage as they showed us to our cabin.
“Wow, I think this might actually be one of the Princess ships like on The Love Boat,” I mused, remembering days of being home sick and my Granny binging old TV shows like that one.
“It is indeed, sir,” the steward told me helpfully, and I felt a little thrill at the knowledge, feeling almost like a celebrity due to being TV show adjacent. It was silly of me, I knew, but I was enjoying myself far too much to care.
“You’ve been invited to eat at the Captain’s table tonight,” the steward informed us as he opened the door to our room. “We hope you enjoy your stay.
As the door closed behind us, I whirled to look at Jolar. “The Captain’s table!” I squealed. “Do we even have anything suitable to wear?” I flung a suitcase on the bed and tore it open to check.
Jolar looked on in amusement. “If not, I saw there was a clothing shop on board,” he informed me.
“Right. And we’ve got money to spend on stuff so it’ll be fine. It.Will.Be.Fine.”
