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Once Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan—and their guide—meet up with the others again things suddenly get very hectic. They don't even take the time to rest, they just pick up Ye Zun and Da Qing and what turns out to be a literal baby. Somehow, when Zhao Yunlan had been told they'd need to take the Lead Scientist-guy's daughter with them he'd been imagining a kid that could walk and talk, maybe even a teenager, not an honest to gods baby.
It makes things both easier and harder. At least fitting the baby into one of the small space-bikes with one of them isn't a problem. She has this sort of harness thing that goes on Shen Wei's back. She shouldn't get in the way.
Da Qing goes with Ye Zun. Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure everyone wants to make sure that the poor Haixingren who can't speak to the tech doesn't have any distractions, but at least they're nice enough not to actually point it out. Well, mostly Ye Zun just grabs Da Qing from Zhao Yunlan's arms and walks off to his own space-bike, relinquished from their guide. Of course, the baby going with anyone but Shen Wei was never even an option, since apparently, Shen Wei had given his word that he'd get her to safety.
Flying in space with a tiny vehicle like this is nothing at all like using the same thing on the ground. There's no sense of up or down and it's all— more disorienting than Zhao Yunlan might have imagined. But all he really needs to do is follow Shen Wei, who has a much better idea of where they're going.
Zhao Yunlan is suddenly more glad than he's ever been that windows are structural weaknesses in spaceships and therefore avoided when building them, because right now he feels ridiculously exposed out here, with all the giant spaceships around even when he doesn't need to contemplate the possibility of someone accidentally glancing out a window.
Not that the spaceships looming over the planet are that close to them. Space is huge and distances out here are… weird. It feels like they're close, but the chances of someone looking right at the spot they're in shouldn't even be all that big. Well, that's what Zhao Yunlan keeps telling himself anyway. He doesn't have any choice but to believe that the space-bikes really won't show up on sensors.
The spaceships look different, but vaguely like what Zhao Yunlan has come to expect spaceships to look like. But there's nothing there that tells him which species might be using which one. In fact, it all looks like a sort of mishmash of ships that bear little resemblance to each other. He wonders if that means there are more than those three species here, the ones he knows overthrew their evil space overlords. Probably they've just grabbed any spaceships they could get their hands on.
More questions Zhao Yunlan might never get the answers to, and honestly, right at this moment he doesn't care about the answers. What he cares about is how the hell they're supposed to get on any of those ships, and what the fuck they're supposed to do when they're there.
He tries not to let the spaceships take his eye away from Shen Wei. They can't risk any kind of signal between the space-bikes that might be picked up by any of the alien ships, and Zhao Yunlan can't afford to lose track of Shen Wei. Not that there's anything else than the three space-bikes even close, so it would be hard to do that, but Zhao Yunlan isn't going to take any chances.
There's no room to doubt their course of action now. They'll just have to improvise. Zhao Yunlan is sure their plans used to be better than this.
Shen Wei hesitates for a moment. One of the smaller ships would most likely have a somewhat more manageable crew complement. He has no doubt they will have to fight their way through to— He's not entirely sure what goal yet. But one of the larger ones will be easier to get into since they will have actual hangar bays for small crafts.
It suddenly feels like an abundance of choice, and Shen Wei has no idea what the right choice is. Unable to think of anything else to do, Shen Wei lets his eyes fall into his dark energy vision. Distances in space are deceptively large and even he can't necessarily sense the dark energy of the ships at such a distance, but he can still see it since all that is keeping him from the vacuum of space at the moment is a thin and see-through energy barrier.
It doesn't make Shen Wei feel particularly comfortable to be in space with the only thing protecting him from the vacuum of space seeming so very fragile and flimsy, but it does come in useful at the moment. There is a very clear difference between the amount of dark energy on those ships, he realises the moment he looks. He suspects that the ones with more dark energy are the ones directly built by his own ancestors, most likely captured during the attacks on some of their other planets, and now repurposed for use in their own destruction.
Shen Wei doesn't let himself dwell on any of those thoughts. Instead, he heads towards the ship with the largest amount of dark energy. It's not the largest spaceship around, but big enough that there no doubt will be more people inside for them to deal with than Shen Wei might wish. But Shen Wei has gotten far better at understanding and using technology and spaceships since they had to flee one such ship, what feels like so very long ago. He's confident that he can make that particular ship respond to him instead of its current masters.
Da Qing jumps off onto what he'd call solid ground if it wasn't currently vibrating alarmingly under his feet. He thinks that's Shen Wei doing something, but he could be entirely mistaken. It's not like anyone bothers to explain much to the cat, and even though he's been right there listening to everything they've been saying, he still feels like he's not quite sure what the hell is going on.
He turns into his human shape, being small feels a bit too vulnerable right now, and he has a feeling he might have good use for opposable thumbs at some point. He's starting to regret that he hasn't followed Zhao Yunlan's example and started carrying around some random futuristic gun. He feels like he could really use one right now. Maybe he should have stayed in his other shape and tried hiding in Ye Zun's jacket. That has to be a safer place than anywhere else he can think of.
Somehow, they end up in some weird little side room from the hangar they'd flown into. There are a couple of aliens in there, but with both Shen Wei and Ye Zun around that's hardly even a speed bump. There are some kind of computer terminals in the room, and belatedly Da Qing realises that's probably why they came here.
Shen Wei starts talking to the computers—not out loud of course—while Zhao Yunlan detaches the baby sling, taking both it and the baby and then telling Da Qing to help get the sling on him instead. No one's really said anything since they came on board, everyone seeming to know what to do anyway, and Zhao Yunlan's words sound too loud and out of place. Well, it's not like the division of labour isn't pretty clear to everyone, and it's either Zhao Yunlan or Da Qing who're going to be the designated baby carrier since both Ye Zun and Shen Wei will be needed for other things.
Da Qing is actually kind of surprised that Zhao Yunlan is willing to stay out of the inevitable fighting enough to stay and protect the baby instead. Da Qing was kind of afraid he'd be the one to end up with the baby. Cats are not the best babysitters.
By now, there are people on the other side of the door, trying and, so far, failing to get in. The downside of this room is that there's only one way out, and Da Qing is going to call that a very serious design flaw. Clearly, no one should ever make rooms that don't have more than one way out, even if it is just a window or a vent or something. Usually, most places have cat-sized openings to get out of, like any decent building. Even spaceships have vents.
Maybe there's a vent hidden somewhere, Da Qing thinks, reaching out to pat the baby slightly on the head. She's started crying and he really doesn't know what to do about that. Well, he knows that it probably means she needs something and it's not like they can stop to check any of the obvious options right now.
There's a loud bang at the door and Da Qing cringes. "Yeah, me too, kid," he mutters at the baby. She wails loudly and totally ignores Da Qing. He pulls his hand back and grimaces at Zhao Yunlan, who just shrugs a bit. There's a slightly pained look in his eyes, and with the baby now attached to his back, the wailing is probably a bit too close to his ears for comfort.
Well, it's a good thing no one tried to give the baby to Da Qing. Cat ears are sensitive.
"The ship won't let them access any of its systems anymore," Shen Wei announces loudly enough to carry over all the noise everything is currently making, the baby and the people banging at the door.
Zhao Yunlan looks at the door that someone is clearly trying to break down at the moment. "There's still a lot of people to take care of," he says, pointing out the obvious.
Ye Zun grins at that statement like he doesn't mind 'taking care' of the people at all. But he's been kind of antsy since they time travelled, and even fucking Zhao Yunlan doesn't seem to have gotten whatever it is out of his system entirely. Well, better he take it out on the aliens than any of them, Da Qing supposes.
It's easy to see how uncomfortable his own words make Zhao Yunlan. It's not exactly a secret that taking care of the aliens will very likely mean killing them all. They can't exactly afford any complications at the moment.
He wonders how long it'll take before the other ships realise there's something wrong and start shooting them. Da Qing is not particularly looking forward to that.
"Wait here with Da Qing," Shen Wei orders Zhao Yunlan, and there's no doubt in Da Qing's mind that it's an order. The question is usually whether Zhao Yunlan is in a mood to be taking orders.
This time, Zhao Yunlan just nods quickly, and with a small growl, Shen Wei pulls him in closer and kisses him hard and fast, even with the still crying baby attached to Zhao Yunlan. Before they leave, Zhao Yunlan brushes a quick kiss to Ye Zun's cheek as well, and no one says anything at all.
At least the people trying to break into their room are taken care of easily enough.
Now that they have nothing much to do but wait anxiously, Zhao Yunlan takes the opportunity to try to figure out why the baby is crying. They have a whole bag of baby stuff thankfully, and he manages to figure out things after some fiddling. The baby is changed and now contently suckling on something that turned out to be a feeding bottle despite its slightly odd shape.
Zhao Yunlan holds the baby in his arms, his heart feeling warm and fuzzy suddenly. He turns his head down, pressing a light kiss to the top of the baby's head, covered in downy hair. She smells of… baby, Zhao Yunlan thinks and is surprised by how much that makes him want to wrap her up and keep her safe from everything.
"This isn't any place for you," Zhao Yunlan mumbles softly at her. But it's still better than down on that doomed planet, he thinks. He's pretty sure no one stuck down there will survive for very long. If they don't starve, he suspects they'll be found and killed eventually.
Zhao Yunlan still remembers how in the future no one was supposed to be allowed to step foot on that planet for any reason. Most likely the only reason he and Shen Wei hadn't been killed for being there is the fact that they'd activated the machine, and people had gotten greedy.
He's pretty sure the policy of killing anyone down on the planet starts here and now.
He wonders how many babies never made it off the planet.
"Are you really going to let Ye Zun take a knife to your back, Lao Zhao?" Da Qing asks suddenly, thankfully distracting Zhao Yunlan from his own thoughts.
Zhao Yunlan frowns slightly, looking up at him. "I thought you were sleeping," he says.
"Doesn't mean I wasn't listening," comes Da Qing's slightly too sharp answer. "Do you really think it's a good idea?"
"I thought you liked Ye Zun?" Zhao Yunlan asks. Well, Da Qing hasn't said as much, but he lets Ye Zun carry him, and pet him and in Da Qing's world that's about the highest form of affection anyone can earn.
"That has nothing to do with trusting him to take a knife to you," Da Qing bites off angrily.
"Ah," Zhao Yunlan says quietly. He's quiet for a moment, listening if he can still hear the sound of fighting. But there's nothing. It probably means everything's moved away from them now.
"Do you really think Ye Zun would hurt me?" Zhao Yunlan asks. He has to stop himself from waving a hand because they're currently both occupied with feeding the baby. "Really hurt me. What we get up to in the bedroom doesn't count," he specifies, just in case.
Da Qing shifts a bit and then looks a bit like he swallowed something distasteful. "I guess not," he admits, not exactly sounding happy about it.
Zhao Yunlan hums quietly and then says, "You can stay and watch if it makes you feel better. Well, if Ye Zun is okay with it. I'll have to ask him." That might be an interesting conversation, he supposes. But they've gotten very used to living in close quarters and maybe Ye Zun wouldn't mind having Da Qing around.
Da Qing squirms a bit again. "Yeah, maybe," he says and then goes quiet.
How did he ever end up in such a complicated relationship situation? He kind of wants to go back in time and laugh his younger self in the face for thinking that he wasn't built for love. Except not really, Zhao Yunlan is entirely good with not doing any extra time travel.
After a moment, when Da Qing continues to be silent, Zhao Yunlan concentrates on the baby again. There's still nothing for them to do but wait.