Page 40 of Space Daddy’s Guide to the Galaxy (Villains in Space #2)

MICAH - TWO WEEKS LATER

A smile that could’ve spanned all three of Stellaria’s moons stretched across my face as we watched Ziggy tear around the dune racing track on the vehicle I had built for him.

With my very impressive powers, of course.

I’d started with a classic tube-frame dune buggy design, then added a sheet metal body to mimic my man’s armor—more for the aesthetics than him actually needing any protection. A pair of modded Torrid Blasters served as the dual exhaust-style propulsion system, with a bucket full of loose Iota Bombs placed on the roof, specifically to distract the competition.

Hey, we play to win around here!

Pedro squealed in excitement when their favorite space dad took the turn closest to us, spraying cinnamon-colored dirt into the air before rocketing away.

“Sorry I’m late!” Honnor abruptly materialized next to Bron. “Krunk wanted to discuss our talking points again before tomorrow’s press conference.”

“I’m still amazed these prideful lizards are willing to admit they were wrong on the intergalactic newsfeed…” Bron mused with clear amusement in their disembodied voice.

I couldn’t help rolling my eyes as I handed a squirming Trol off to their favorite space grandpa. “Aren’t the Stellarians owning up to their past mistakes too? Isn’t the entire point of this broadcast to show two former enemies admitting they were wrong about each other?”

Bron snickered, although their starry gaze was on Honnor tossing a joyful Pedro into the air. “Of course. But we True Stellarians already knew Astrum Force’s narrative was deceptive, so it was less of a shock to our systems.”

Fair.

The piece of starry core lodged inside me pulsed encouragingly as Ziggy sent comfort while aggressively leaving his fellow racers in the dust. My man knew not being a ‘real’ Stellarian was a sore subject, so he liked to remind me how connected we were—how, despite our biological differences, I was still his fated mate-slash-one true love.

He even uses his words sometimes!

I knew my genetic makeup was a silly thing to be upset about. It was luck of the draw—no different than being born either a supe or a normie back on Earth, or which superpowers you manifested.

Versus which ones you acquire from your mate.

Unlike with the Earthside inventus bond between supes, Ziggy couldn’t wield my powers as if they were his own. The only reason I was able to mimic his powers, like star hopping, was because of him existing inside me.

Being stellar collisions was still a fun connection to experiment with. We’d recently discovered I could produce tendrils— real tendrils, as opposed to my mechanical ones—but, again, it was actually Ziggy doing the heavy lifting.

Even if I’m the one behind the wheel.

There was another Stellarian trick I’d been practicing on the sly, but I was waiting until we handed off Pedro for their sleepover at Honnor and Bron’s tonight to try it out with Ziggy.

Breathe, Micah…

I was so nervous about my date night plan, I refocused on the conversation just to distract myself.

“So…” I awkwardly cleared my throat. “What talking points did you decide on for the Big Karnilian Debunking Campaign?”

Honnor chuckled before covering Pedro’s ears, just like I’d taught them. “That we unanimously agree the Hydrassians are full of shit.”

Amen to that!

We knew it would be a hard sell to convince countless planets this trusted source had been playing them all along, but we were confident it would resonate.

For lack of a better word.

The Stellarian- Lacertus rivalry being so well known added an almost indisputable weight to the announcement, because no one would expect these notorious hotheads to agree on anything.

It’s a new era for both planets.

As promised, Ziggy had helped facilitate truce talks between Honnor and Krunk soon after we returned to Stellaria, and it was during this initial meeting that the two leaders decided to publicly throw the Hydrassians under the bus.

It’s the least they deserve.

Ruining the seers’ reputations would be the icing on the karma cake. Ziggy and I had already made a quick stop on Dionaea on our way home to enact some sweet revenge of our own.

More psychic warfare.

The last Uulvin had heard, we’d freed Uuktar, thanks to their sob story of “unjust persecution.” With us presumably falling under their sibling’s hypnotism trap, of course we would then do their bidding, removing the shield protecting Karn so these snakes could have an unlimited supply of innocent Trols at their disposal.

Sike!

Gabe kept Uuktar knocked out for the entire journey back to Dionaea so they couldn’t warn their psychic sibling before we arrived. By the time we appeared outside the Hydrassians’ half-shielded cave complex—with an unconscious seer in tow—it was too late for them to protect themselves.

All it took was for me to set eyes on Uulvin before Gabriel Suarez got to work. As soon as he was done extracting every shred of useful intel from their brain, I created shields around both Uulvin and Uktar’s minds, barring them from not only telepathically communicating with each other, but accessing their psychic powers at all.

Because we want them to remember how it felt.

Needless to say, these personal prisons did not go over well with the elders, but Ziggy coolly stepped in to remind everyone the Eki could return at any moment to finish the shields, trapping them inside their caves permanently.

With a dozen hungry Dionaea muscipula to munch on ‘em a little.

He is so effortlessly sexy and threatening, I cannot.

Uulvin had made one last ditch effort to plead their case, dramatically wailing that losing one’s powers was a fate worse than death. This was a little hypocritical, considering they’d done exactly that to Ziggy the last time we were here, but I focused on pointing out that they were the ones who had defied destiny itself.

Zero sympathy for fools in the Find Out stage of Fucking Around.

Thanks to Gabe’s espionage, we learned the sneaky snakes were the ones who’d anonymously tipped off the Stellarians to rescue the egg from the Maroxians. They also encouraged the Irathians to attack Stellaria—promising victory, of course—but that was done as a cover, to distract from the Hydrassian mercenary simultaneously harassing gem vendors in the bazaars.

To no one‘s surprise, denying their mercenary side hustle turned out to be just another lie on the pile. Just as Ziggy had deduced, the Hydrassians fabricated an entire mythology around Trols and karnilian for the sole purpose of lining their own pockets, and they were more than happy to sell their services to others to fund their lucrative scheme.

Not only did they hire themselves out as gemstone bloodhounds, haunting busy Muonovas, but they offered vague promises of victory during psychic readings to encourage the hunt. With how single-mindedly focused on intergalactic supremacy certain species were, it was unsurprisingly simple to trick them into believing the hype.

This cycle of deception and destruction would have continued indefinitely were it not for the Hydrassians finally ending up on the wrong side of fate.

What the seers hadn’t counted on was their own imperial blind spot, in the form of a seasoned mercenary by the name of Ziggy Andromeda. While his deeply ingrained distrust was something Dr. Micah was privately working on, Zig’s suspicious nature made him an excellent bloodhound as well.

My man has a PhD in sniffing out bullshit.

Uulvin had gotten one thing right about Ziggy: He was honorable, and despite the pain of dismantling his own systemic biases, he continuously chose uncomfortable truth over supposed supremacy. He bravely, if not begrudgingly, embraced his destiny as a hero to his own kind—a destiny that, ironically, had once been predicted by the Hydrassians to his former Astrum Force commanders.

If that’s not poetic—petty—justice, I don’t know what is.

What nobody predicted, including Ziggy, was that he would form a bond with the Trol at the center of it all. Even with him initially trying to claim the karnilian was to blame for awakening his previously nonexistent parental instincts, I knew there was more to it than that.

While my childhood was far from perfect, I’d grown up in relative comfort, and my older siblings had taken care of me. Both Zig and Pedro were orphans dismissed by their own kind, solo travelers adrift among the stars with no family to call their own.

Until they found each other.

Despite his generational trauma, Ziggy’s ice-cold exterior had started to crack, just enough to allow a certain ferocious furbaby into his heart.

And this is why an official “Best Space Dad in All the Galaxies” certificate now hangs in the Lodger cockpit.

We were still unsure where Pedro’s egg had originally come from. The Eki’s shield stopped anyone from entering or leaving Karn, so the little Trol being blasted into space like Kal-El in their Kryptonian Rocket was out of the question. A more likely scenario was Pedro’s birthing parent being held in captivity somewhere with the egg either lost or stolen from there.

It was a moot point anyway. Pedro had found their family, and the general plan was to leave Karn alone until long after our Hydrassian smear campaign went live. Only when it was deemed safe for Trols to be seen in public again would the Eki even consider removing the shields keeping the planet undetectable and safe.

We knew this because we’d also made a stop on Ekistron on our journey home—mostly so Ziggy could swallow his pride and apologize to Leeloo, but also so I could beg the Jedi Master to let me train with them again.

I wanna be a space wizard, goddamnit!

True to form, that shit-stirring Eki let me sweat for a good sixty seconds before they replied. Right as I was about to go lie down on the Intergalactic Highway, Leeloo cackled from deep within their sparkly robes and cheerfully agreed to teach me the ways of the matter manipulator Force.

To start, I got a quick lesson in detaching myself from my creations, which conserved my energy while ensuring my shields stayed intact, even when I wasn’t around.

Aside from the Hydrassians and their mind-shields, SWOL-E was the first lucky recipient of this new trick. In the interest of giving adoptive parents and grandparents across the universe a break, I upgraded the alarm system and created miniature, and hopefully indestructible, shields around the long-suffering nanny bot’s wiring.

My money’s still on Pedro’s two rows of fangs, unfortunately…

As we said our goodbyes, Zig politely asked Leeloo to tell him more about their common ancestor, but the Eki simply pointed to the endless stars beyond Nuclei City’s open hatch.

Much to learn, we still have.

That mission would have to wait. Honnor had insisted we hurry back, specifically so they could promote Ziggy to an official Astrum Force position.

Interstellar Ambassador.

He hates it, of course.

“How are you settling in at your new lodging?” Honnor breezily asked as he fed Pedro a strip of raw meat.

Despite being allergic to any mention of his hero status, Zig and I agreed the fancy new high-rise housing that came with the gig was worth the hit to his bad bitch reputation.

There’s even a roof deck!

“We love it,” I truthfully replied. “And I appreciate Ziggy getting the recognition he deserves.”

My man deserves all the kudos.

“Well, now that the Stellarian-Lacertus Peace Accord has been finalized, that humble mercenary will get another chance to earn his keep,” Bron joked as the merc in question appeared, proudly waving the bag of CSI remains he’d just won.

Looks like we’ll be dining on corpus spongiosum tonight!

“You have a new mission for me?“ Ziggy asked, and I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at the blatant eagerness in his tone.

Bron chuckled, but Honnor replied in a somber tone. “Indeed. It appears Karn is not the only planet disappearing off the map. The difference is that the others all sent out distinct distress signals beforehand.”

Yikes.

Ziggy hummed distractedly, attention already on his Celestial Cube, no doubt cataloging which weapons would be joining us for the job. “When do we begin?”

His creator huffed. “Tomorrow. I believe your stellar collision specifically asked for a date night tonight…”

“Oh, yes,” Ziggy murmured, tearing his gaze away from his cube to fix his attention on me. “What did you have in mind, Micah?”

Eek!

The full weight of three Stellarian stares almost had me star hopping back to our new apartment alone, but then I was saved by a signal from a galaxy far, far away.

“Hold that thought!” I squeaked, fumbling my buzzing phone out of my pocket, smiling when I saw who the text was from.

King of the Monsters

You know, Meeks… if I were a lesser man, I might get offended at the message you sent with that photo.

I snickered. The photo Zion was referring to was me posing with Krunk and a few other Lacertus, which I’d sent with the caption, “If you can’t run with the big dogs, you’d better stay on the porch.”

Even though I knew I was playing with fire, I couldn’t help replying with some sass.

Were any lies detected, big bro?

King of the Monsters

Absolutely none. I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself out there, even though I miss having my favorite little bro around…

He probably says that to all our brothers.

Three dots appeared and disappeared a few times, which was strange behavior from the self-confident supe, but I patiently waited him out.

It’s better than answering Ziggy’s question.

King of the Monsters

On that note, the family’s about to get a little bigger.

“WHAT?!” I shouted, even though he couldn’t hear me.

Unable to resist the tea, Ziggy peered at my phone screen over my shoulder.

Are you and Balty adopting? What does Daisy think? When is this happening? When can we meet the baby?!!!

My man sighed heavily, but I couldn’t help noticing he remained invested in the conversation.

I see you, Space Daddy.

King of the Monsters

It’s a biological kid. Your Space Husband gave us some mpreg pointers.

Ohhh?

Ziggy tensed beside me as I turned, horror movie slow, before lecherously assessing my man from top to bottom.

Especially his bottom.

“You wanna know what I had in mind for tonight, Zig?” I smirked before grabbing his arm and holding on tight. “Let Commander Babygirl debrief you.”

And then I star hopped my stellar collision straight into bed.

* * *

And be sure to share your love (through reviews and word of mouth) for Space Daddy’s Guide to the Galaxy —thank you for reading!