Another year goes by

The celebration of the New Year is strictly a calendar event. For no reason other than tradition, the Alliance officially still recognizes the old Earth that Was calendar. Never mind none of the worlds of the 'Verse were especially close to the old calendar. Different worlds. Different orbits. Different rotational periods.

Keeping the old calendar was convenient, at least. It gave a common reference period, even when the local cues were completely different. Still didn't make it any easier though when you were trying to convert calendar dates and such to local references. Since everyone, for the most part, kept local time wherever they were, it was sometimes a bit dicey keeping things coordinated. Like trying to call your mother to wish her a happy birthday, only to get the comms service because it's the middle of the night back on Ariel.

Considering the fanfare of last year's Year End celebrations, it's almost a surprise there's nothing in the works that I know of for this year. Not that I'm especially worried about it. Not being much of a social animal, whether I spend Year End at a party, with a close friend, or just alone in the Black doesn't matter so much.

This year, I would spend it with family. At least one of them. The one who mattered most right now. Though, uncharacteristically, I was actually missing other members of my frontier family. Lily was off on her Hunt. Aurora was . . . not acting herself. In fact, her behavior was more than a little disturbing. In fact, she was close to getting taken out behind the hangers for a brief lesson in humility.

Understand something, Tiny Dragon. Krenshar may be feeding you the 'Greatest warrior in history' line, and you may have bought it. But the fact remains I can still hand you your skinny little ass. Genetic predisposition and conditioning is no substitute for actual experience. Ask an Operative of the Parliament. They know.

I was honestly close to my wits end with her. Something changed. Something I can't put a finger on. But her spending much of her time with Krenshar, 'Daddy' as she calls him, didn't appear to be helping the situation any. He was a person, certainly. A good one at that, or so I wanted to believe. But he had no experience as a parent. How could he? Krenshar was a machine. Artificial intelligence in a robotic shell. The Ghost may be real, but that didn't mean he had any clue how to raise a little girl.

Part of me wanted to intervene. I had a vested interest in her development, but I'd agreed to give Krenshar's 'colony' as much autonomy as we could manage. Never mind the entire enclave was on land subleased from Blue Sun. x0x0 had her own reasons for giving them a sizable chunk of the land she'd leased from the colonial government, which translated to me and the rest of the town council.

Still. If things continued to deteriorate with her I'd have to step in and put a stop to it. Considering how she was treating me now, I couldn't see a trip behind the hanger making our relationship any worse.

Right now though, I didn't want to think about it. It was Year's End and I had a few minor preparations to take care of. Even if it was just me and 'Brina tonight, I wanted it to be a night to enjoy.

We may still be looking for a vacation, but at least we had each other.