****
Dutch didn't know how he knew what the sudden shock had been, but he did. He ran out of his room yelling.
"Lane! Something's happened to Dad! Damn! Clete! Lane's out cold! Bring him! We've got to find Dad!"
They found him deep in Alice beside a small pool of clear water. Dutch wasn't sure how he'd found him either. He'd just run in the direction that 'felt' right, but he'd been to the pool before.
"He came to the pool, Dutch. I could swear... Dutch, I looked for this the other day. I swear it wasn't--"
"There are a lot of odd things in this ship, Clete. Lane's told me about a few of them. He even told me where some of them were. I didn't find a meadow he talked about either. He's out cold too. Doesn't seem to be... Clete, he has a sword in his hand. He's holding it tight, but it's too cold for me to touch. Both shoulders of his shirt just crumbled when I moved him."
"Like they were dipped in liquid nitro. Dutch, he's ice cold."
"His hearts are beating steady."
"He's coming around."
"Dad! Dad, wake up! What happened?"
"Hello. Did you hear them?"
"Hear?"
"The voices, Dutch. The music. I followed it here, then... NO! I don't want to be... Too late. I already gave my oath. Made the choice. Did it ten thousand years ago. Never expected to have it made official. I hate being drafted!"
"You may hate being drafted, but you're extremely proud and rather overawed at the moment."
"Too accurate, Clete. My shoulders hurt. How's Lane?"
"Coming around. Could you please give us an explanation?"
"Someone, who called himself my father-in-law, just knighted me. Informed me I was Knight Hero and had been chosen to protect this universe. Said I'd been doing it long enough to prove I was capable of it. Hello, Lane, I think I just met your grandfather."
He kept them with him for more than a year. Taught them and trained them to fight at his side. Laughed with them and shouted at them. And learned to love them too well. Not long after he nearly lost Dutch to a horror even he couldn't have survived, he took them to Dutch's universe, where it didn't exist, and left them on the Curie. Captain Merris was rather surprised, but promised to get them into the academy. He hunted Telas. He had a gift he wanted him to give them. He returned to his own universe aching with the pain of farewell.