“May you and your males be blessed with laughter, joy, and just enough chaos to keep things interesting,” Elias said and kissed her as well.
Then they both stepped back, and the ceremony began.
Before she knew it, she was speaking her vows. Like the rest of the ceremony, the words were simple and heartfelt. None of them wanted a long, flowery performance. It wasn’t who they were.
“I do,” she said.
She was the last to speak. The moment she was done Xaber pulled her close and kissed her. Mace growled but waited until his batch-brother was done before claiming a kiss of his own.
She had tears in her eyes as she smiled up at him and then over at Xaber. “Hello, husbands.”
“Hello, wife,” they said at almost the same time.
The officiant, a Pheran female with a soft voice and kind smile, nodded to them and raised her voice. “I now pronounce you husbands and wife. Congratulations!”
“I didn’t know this place existed,” she heard Rain exclaim to another guest. “It’s beautiful. And such a perfect place for a wedding.”
Tish was wandering around, greeting the guests and basking in the wonder of it all.
“This is where they brought me for our first date,” she told Rain. “But your club was our second choice.”
Rain laughed, her tone low and husky. “It’s not my club. I just run the place. You’ll meet the owners soon. They’re on their way here. Pity they didn’t arrive in time for the wedding. From what I have heard, they do love a good party.”
The group had moved to a different area of the bio-dome for the reception. The wide, open area mimicked the biomes but was mostly made up of holograms. Safer for the plants that way, and it allowed room for the guests, the food, and the bar.
It was a beautiful area with trees, grass, and a multitude of flowers. A small fountain sprayed actual water into the airto splash down into a pond, complete with aquatic flowers and some holographic fish.
It was far more than she’d envisioned when they first talked about getting married. As soon as their friends heard, they all started offering to help. Flek had insisted on paying for the catering as a wedding gift. They’d thought he’d bring his pizzas, which would have been fine. Instead, he’d hired the talented cooks at the Nova Club to prepare a sumptuous array of appetizers and snacks.
The crew from the Quantum Forge were present too. Some were running the bar, which had been Rain’s contribution to the festivities. Others were simply there as guests, including Or’yn, Mace’s friend from the security team. Grotta stood off to one side, chatting with Thrash. The two of them were probably discussing ways to get his ship to fly even faster. She’d discovered that the cyborg was something of a speed demon. Flek stood near the bar, greeting everyone with enthusiasm.
“This doesn’t feel real,” Xaber murmured the next time they had a moment alone. “When did we meet so many beings?”
“Not only met them but became friends with them,” Mace said.
In the months since they’d returned to Defiance, so much had changed. She still picked up shifts at Grotta’s shop, but now she was a registered employee. Her fathers worked there, too. Retirement hadn’t suited them, but they didn’t like the idea of running their own place again. Grotta had welcomed the idea of reliable, experienced workers she didn’t have to babysit.
The money from Hamish’s bounty had been enough to buy out her contract and still have enough left over to keep them in pizza and repair parts for at least a year.
More than that, they’d finally started connecting to the denizens of their new home. Flek had introduced them to other beings, particularly the cyborgs who ran the Nova Club.
They were all here today, mingling with the other guests when they weren’t chasing after their young children.
A small, blue-skinned toddler had raced past her a few minutes ago, whipped cream on her face and the squashed remains of a desert in both hands.
“Mya! I said no. You’re not allowed any more sugar today!” A slightly harried cyborg called out as he sprinted after his errant offspring while his wife and what had to be his clone looked on and laughed.
“I take it back. I don’t know everyone here,” Xaber commented.
Tish looked up, curious who he could be talking about. It wasn’t hard to spot the strangers. A human female with dark hair and delicate features was walking toward them, flanked by two human males. All three of them wore understated but exceptionally well-made clothing.
She instinctively looked down at her own dress, which, while beautiful, could not compare to the one the new arrival wore. Still, she decided, it was her wedding dress, and that made it special. She’d worked on the design for hours, tweaking the fabricator until it got the lace details perfect and created the fabric in the exact shade of blue she wanted.
When she looked up again, she noticed something else. Everyone stopped talking as the three strangers passed by. It was subtle, but it told her that whoever they were, they must be important.
The woman reached them and smiled. “Congratulations to all three of you. I hope you don’t mind that we crashed your party. My name is Tianna Watson-Astor. These are my husbands, Royan and Owen. I’ve heard a lot about you, and this seemed like a good time introduce myself.”
Astor. Holy nukes and novas.
