Page 58 of Loaned to the Leonid Knight

“Me next?” Gideon asked.

“Come on, let’s go to the nursery. I’ll be right back to help, Marcus.” Abi kissed his cheek.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. You stay and play with the little ones, help Sasha get settled in. Skyla can help me with Nessa.”

“I don’t need any help! I don’t even need a check-up!” Nessa complained.

“Gideon, Elio’s looking for you. Your shuttle full of stuff docked, and the airlock closed a few minutes ago. You can go down to the bay and open it up so he can sign off on the safe shipment.”

“Oh, yes. I’ll do that. My love, you go to the nursery and sit with the cubs. I’ll be along soon.”

GIDEON HURRIED DOWNto the lowest level of the ship, meeting Elio at the level where various transport and freight bays split off from an observation room near the docking area. “Oh, Gideon!” The human with a strong jaw and glossy black hair seemed relieved to see him. “I want you to sign off on the shipment, but I don’t know where the heck you can keep all of it.”

“All of it?”

“It has return coordinates, so the shuttle is wanted on a return trajectory tomorrow.”

“All right. It’s a shuttle, not simply jettisoned freight?”

“Nope, it’s a nice, luxury model, a Felid Cross Stellar XL, Leonid Edition.”

Gideon rolled his eyes. “Well, that is Farhet for you. He has to flash his wealth even when only a ‘lowly servant’ will see it. If he thinks I’ll be jealous, he’s wrong. Don’t worry about ‘all the stuff,’ Elio. He may have sent an entire luxury shuttle, but there will probably only be a dozen boxes at most. I’ll use one of the hover carts and move them into our quarters so your bay isn’t cluttered and the shuttle can return.”

“Want any help?” Elio offered.

“No, I’m going to see the cubs in the nursery after this, so I’ll just unload and get them out of the way.”

“Sounds good. Can you sign off on the form I sent you via comms? If there’s a lot of breakage or anything, you have to open the second file.”

“Will do. I’ve done this many, many times for the Imazi Pride, trust me,” Gideon said with a rueful grin.

With that, Elio departed, and Gideon looked at his comm for the right files as he cleared the bay and entered the shuttle with the code provided on the shipping status.

Inside, the shuttle was dark and cluttered. Several boxes were scattered and lay open on the floor, as if they had not been sealed properly and were strewn and chucked around during a bumpy hyperjump.

The servants would know better. Gideon began to wonder if Farhet had handled this out of spite and simply bundled up his things in a rage and tossed them into the shuttle. The luxury shuttle was probably simply what he’d purchased in the last cycle, some new model to show off his status and better position himself in people’s minds as the next head of the Imazi Pride.

“What in the galaxy has he done? Where are Father’s books?” Gideon muttered, groaning as he looked for the interior lights and wandered deeper into the spacious tube-like body of the shuttle, tripping over boxes and clothes. “Thank Bastet, I at leasttook all the old media viewers with my family pictures on them. But if he hurt Father’s books, I swear, I’ll—”

Whatever Gideon was about to say never passed his lips. One of the internal storage compartments in the luxury shuttle swung open, and something hard hit his head and sent him sprawling to the floor.

“THIS LITTLE KITTY FLEWthe shuttle. This little kitty went home. This little kitty had a farm, and this little kitty left to roam. But this big kitty,” Sasha wiggled Chandra’s little thumb and kissed her pretty striped nose, “went purr, purr, purr and got a big kiss on the nose.”

Chandra let out a gurgling giggle.

“She’s so happy with you,” Wendy said, watching Sasha play with her daughter. “You’re a natural with her, and Chandra can be really clingy. I blame her father.” Wendy gave the enormous Tigerite in the corner a pointed look.

“I am the ship’s security officer. If I were not entirely too protective, I would be failing at my job,” Talos shrugged his wide shoulders. He managed a smile. “But you are doing fine, Sasha. Chandra likes you. I hear congratulations are in order for you and Gideon.”

“Yes! Oh, he’s so happy, I— I wonder what’s keeping him. His belongings from Leonid-One arrived.”

“I guess there were more than he thought.”

Sasha rose and handed Chandra to her mother. “Thank you, Wendy. I’ll keep coming back to visit. Next, I need diapering lessons.”

“My pleasure. We have plenty of those between Chandra, Mara, and Val.”

“I bet he had a lot of stuff to carry,” Talos mused. “I’ll come help.”