Something is bothering me, some kind of discomfort. Damn, I'm hungry! And this "daddy" is stuck in his punch line, and it's like I'm not there! So, we need to get his attention somehow, maybe yell? Okay, I'll try:

"AAAAOOOO, OOOOAAAAA, VAA!"

I see there is an effect, he turns and looks at me:

"What are you doing, daughter?"

I stare back intently and, looking into his eyes, make a sound:

"ooooaaaa!"

"Daddy" slaps his forehead with his palm and exclaims:

"You're probably hungry at my place! I'm a fool! I forgot about you with my job!" he jumps up from his chair, quickly goes to the doorway, slaps the green mug with his palm, the door opens with a hiss, and he disappears somewhere in the house. Another hiss is heard, then something clinks, clinks, hums... everything is quiet. Footsteps were heard approaching, and he returned. He's holding a glass plate with something mushy inside. He takes a chair, sits down in front of me and starts the process of feeding me. Hmm, this "porridge" is a delicious thing, vegetable puree with meat paste. I turn over both cheeks, admiring my father's face. Like any loving parent, he accompanies every spoonful by opening and closing his own mouth, and it's getting harder and harder for me to watch. Oh, I can't take it anymore, I'm going to neigh like a horse! As a result, I choked and, mixing coughing and laughing, I burst into tears, which brought my father to a real panic attack. But everything passes, and this has passed. The folder ran off to the kitchen (well, where else did he get it all?) and he brought me a drinking bowl with an incredibly delicious compote. After drinking a compote, we continued our business: I watched cartoons, and the folder was working on a kool-aid.

An hour later

I heard a noise from behind the door, something rattled, the door slid open, and a beautiful woman of my father's age appeared in front of me, with dark brown hair, broken dark eyebrows above wide-set large gray eyes, with fluffy long eyelashes on a regular, Scandinavian-type face, but with soft lips. She was wearing a long fur coat made of thick, shiny black fur. Black pointed-toed boots with low heels were visible from under the fur coat.

"How are you doing here?" she asked, and then noticed the cartoon hologram. "So! What is this?" She asked, looking at her father. "Michael Shepard, I'm asking you! What is it?" She pointed at the hologram.

I'm stuck! What-what did she call my father? What's his last name? SHEPARD?! And it turns out that I am Eugenia Shepard?! Very interesting!..

March 25, 2355

So, one step, one more step, take your time, Eugenia, take your time, keep your head, keep your head, I say! Here is the corner of the crib, we intercept with our hands, and then a step, another step. I'm learning to walk! My legs are still weak, but my hands are already much better. It's early in the morning, it's just getting light, and my parents are sleeping on the couch with their arms around each other. A Barsik is lying at their feet and follows my steps around the crib with an attentive look. So, keep the balance, oops, the head is outweighed, eee! I manage to fold in half and land on the fifth point! Whoo! It took my breath away!

"Are you awake, my little one?" I hear my mother's voice, she looks at me with a smile, I smile back, grab the bars, pull myself up and stand up. My head is higher than the bars, and I sincerely crush my forehead and reach out to my mother. Yes! Now they are really parents to me. There was not only a bright side to empathy, but also a "dark side." It is impossible to remain indifferent under the pressure of parental feelings. Mom gets up, picks me up from the crib, and I'm just basking in a wave of maternal love. They put me on the potty while I do my chores, mom puts on a robe, and we hold hands and quietly stomp into the kitchen. There's a mega-device called a chairstool. It's a tall chair with a sliding table attached in the front.

Mom puts me in it, pulls up a table. I look out the window, and there are leaves blooming on a large, sprawling tree in the courtyard. The tree is strange: the bark peels off it, falls off in layers, and the leaves come out in a strange silvery-green color. A hefty brown dog walks thoughtfully around the yard, he is so big that he looks like a bear. And when this beast yawns, it seems that my whole head can enter its mouth!

"Come on, eat," mom says and puts a plate in front of me, in it porridge with pieces of fruit and some berries. I take a spoon in my right hand and start eating slowly. It's not working fast yet! There's a good chance you can get a spoon past your mouth. Meanwhile, Mom takes out a soft plastic container with a volume of one and a half liters from the pantry and goes out into the yard with it. The dog rushes to her with an expression of such intense joy that it seems as if his tail is about to fall off and, spinning like a boomerang, fly off into the far distance!

"Quiet, Polkasha!" Mom exclaims at the dog spinning around. "If you stay hungry, I'll dump all your breakfast past the bowl, and you'll eat from the ground again!"

But the dog doesn't seem to be intimidated by this prospect at all!

Footsteps are heard from behind, someone entered the kitchen, quietly came up to me and kissed me on the back of the head, showering me with adoration!

A Dad is awake! Mom came back from the yard, and I can hear her saying:

"Misha, how many times have I told you, don't walk around the house in your underwear! Well, you have a bathrobe!"

"Come on, Diane. I'm only here in the morning, and anyway, I'm at home, and that's what I want to wear!"

"Oh so! Look at the example you're setting for our boys! Just imagine if I start walking around the house in my underwear!"

"Oh! It will be a magnificent sight! You have nothing to hide and something to be proud of!"

"Double flattery! And anyway, in case you haven't forgotten, I'm seven months pregnant!"

"Oh-oh-oh! Ha ha! It's hard to forget and even harder not to notice! And anyway, come here, retired Major of the medical service! I'll explain to you all the subtleties of communicating with a senior! Hehe!"

"Take your hands off me, Mr. retired Captain of the first rank, what are you doing?"

There is scuffling and kissing sounds behind my back.

"Oh-oh! Michael Shepard, I love you, my husband! But now you go, put on a bathrobe, go up to the second floor and wake up our sons, and don't you dare contradict me! Is everything clear to you?!"

"Aw, Aw, ma'am! The order is clear! Allow me to perform!"

"Do it!"

And the father, humming some cheerful tune, leaves the kitchen.

Ten minutes later

"A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a! I'm the first one down!"

"No, I am, I am the first!"

"Nifiga, ha-ha-ha!"

It came from the stairs to the second floor. My two older brothers flew down it with a bang! This is the weather of Deniska and Leshka! Elbowing and puffing, they stumble into the kitchen.

"Hello, Ma!" says Deniska.

"Hi, Mom!" Leshka echoes him.

"So, young people, how should well-mannered chevaliers behave at breakfast? Come on, come out of the kitchen, and come in properly!"

The brothers went out the door, caught their breath, and sedately went back in.

"Hello, Mother," Denis said, bowing slightly."

"Good morning, Mom," Leshka said, repeating his brother's gesture.

"Hello children, have a seat at the table," Mom replied, bowing her head.

The guys went around the table, "accidentally" passing by my chair, and hugged me from both sides.

"Hello, little one!" Deniska whispered and kissed me on the cheek.

"Hello, Little Fox!" kissing the other one, Leshka whispered.

After that, they both sat down at the table.

Chapter 1.2 The brothers fell off the bike.

Three hours after

I'm sitting alone in the middle of the carpet in the children's room on the second floor of our house, talking softly to the cat. Slowly and gradually, my tongue begins to obey me.

"Tell me, Ba'sik, that's why my ton'ue listens so badly. I'm t'aining, I'm t'aining, I'm t'aining with you! And Tou'ko?"

The cat is silent, quietly purring, lying down on the carpet next to it, stretched out to its full length and rolling a wheel from some kind of machine with its front paws. The brothers have a whole box of this "scrap metal". Ehhh! Hopefully, the torment won't last too long.

"Is that' so, cat? I'll lea'n eve'ythin!"

Barsik purrs, squinting affectionately.

By the way, I managed to find out my location. An hour ago, Mom, holding me in her arms, turned on the huge TV. Uh-huh-huh! What a thing it is! A natural window into another world! So, there was news, and a pretty presenter, in quite decent English, broadcast that the current state of affairs in the colony of Mendoir is just fine, all mining and processing complexes are operating at full capacity, which will allow this year to increase the shipment of concentrate, increase the number of colonists and the income of existing ones. Then there was a block of interplanetary news about the new initiatives of the Citadel Council, about the work of the ambassador of the Alliance of Systems... hmm! It seems that in the canon, people should be on the council, but here is an ambassador, not an adviser.... Then there was the sports news block, and it all ended with the weather block. Everything is the same as always: the surroundings change, but the essence remains the same.

April 11, 2355

As usual, I was sitting at my chair by the kitchen window and looking out at how our cat and our doggie were playing with some kind of crap that looked more like scraps of a stuffed toy. You've turned one year old, Zhenya!

Suddenly, with a loud hum, a red and green bike flew into the yard. It's the same thing as in the sixth episode of Star Wars, only without the long thing with wings in front, the flying scooter is shorter. Both of my brothers sat on it in tandem, with Denis's face looking worried and guilty, and Leshka, who was sitting behind, looking tearful and scratched, while he strangely held his left hand. I made a sound:

"Ier-er-er!" I pointed out the window.

Dad went to the window, looked, his face took on a worried expression, anxiety was clearly playing in his emotions.

"Dayan," he said, "the guys are in trouble!"

"What's wrong, Mish?"

"Call an ambulance, Dayana."

Mom went into the living room and chirped at the terminal, and after a short chirping, a clear female voice came from there:

"Diane, my dear! Is that you, what happened?"

"Ray, I'm really glad to see you too, but I need you! My guys seem to have had a very good bike ride!"

"I'm on my way, honey, just don't worry, it's not good for you!" and slowly fading away. "Dack, Da-ack! Get ready soon, let's fly to the Shepards...." It is not known what the mysterious Duck replied, the connection was disconnected.

The front door buzzed, and my brothers appeared for all to see.

"Well and?" My father asked.

"Da-ad. We rode a bike here...." Denis looked at the floor and said, "Well, anyway, Leshka flew off and, it seems, broke his arm."

At that time, Leshka was hesitating next to him with trembling lips and eyes full of tears.

"So-o..." said the father.

"And how could this happen, driving without a limiter again?"

"Well, Da-ad!" Both of them howled. "Only small ones ride with a limiter."

"Yeah, so you're big?" Mom exclaimed.

"Well, mom!" They both howled again.

At the same time, the brothers looked the most dejected, and their emotions showed pity for each other and, for some reason, fear.

"Well, Aunt Ray will fly in now, and it will become completely clear what to do with you," said the father.

The brothers hunched their heads and looked at their mother with a strange hope.

"What are you watching? Hoping to get off easy?"

The brothers shuddered and looked at their father expectantly.

"What did I tell you?" My father asked.

"That we should be careful," Denis said.

"That you should drive without a limiter carefully," Leshka whimpered.

"And what about you?"

The brothers began to sob, both of them.

"Well Daddy... We didn't do it on purpose.... It's kind of like that! We didn't run into Ham on purpose!" The sobs turned into tears.

"So you also ran into Haymon? And how is he doing? Where is he, by the way?"

"Dad, Ham flew home, he was taken Tam away!" Deniska spoke through tears.

"So he also got beaten up! Well, Dakar will give him nuts! There will be science for you, to drive like crazy," Mom said, putting her hands on her hips.

There was a squeak from the informant at the door. I completely missed how the doctors arrived. There was some kind of long-shaped futuristic-looking thing behind the fence, but with the familiar outlines of a blue chandelier that twinkled fervently. Mom waddled over to the door and pressed on the flickering green hologram on the right jamb. The door opened and I walked into the room... my mouth dropped open! All so slender in a fitted snow-white suit with a bright red cross on her left forearm... a blue-skinned AZARI! It's just like in the "Mass Effect": tentacles on the head, and pigmented spots on the face — and she's so beautiful!

"Michael!" she exclaimed. "Where are they?"

"Admire it!" My father replied. "There's Leshka, he ejected from the bike!"

"Come here, Alexey, let's see what's wrong with you", I feel a flash of concern from Doc.

Leshka came up to her and held out his shaking left hand. An orange hologram flashed around the Asari's left wrist. She ran it along Leshka's arm, looked at the hologram, pressed her finger on the strange round pimple on the right side of her head and said:

"Duck! Bring a small treatment table and a suitcase with clips!"

I turned to the window and saw a tall Turian sidling through the gate! He was wearing a snow-white suit just like the doctor's, with a briefcase in his right hand and a long trunk placed vertically in his left. Moreover, our dog, twirling his tail like a fan, gets in the way under his feet, showing no signs of aggression, rather a stormy joy, as from meeting a good friend. That's right! What about the human colony?! Where the Turian and the Asari serve in the ambulance... nothing is clear. Well, okay, let's see ... the Turian entered the house, went to the middle of the living room, put a suitcase on the floor, took hold of the trunk with both hands, and I still didn't understand how, but this trunk suddenly turned into a long table, immediately put on the floor.

"Bring three chairs, Mish", Dr. Ray said.

Dad, under Doc's guidance, quickly arranged chairs around this table, and Leshka was seated on one chair. Doc took out a strange pistol, pressed its barrel against her brother's forearm, pulled the trigger, and there was a sound: "Ps-s-st," Leshka yelped.

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