For One Nen (29 page)

Rhys laughed. “Damn girl, when you leave, you really leave.”

Darcy smiled with a tilt of her head.

“I became chief,” Rhys said with a kind of shy pride.

“That’s great. I always knew that you would,” Darcy said with a pleased smile.

“It is how I got slotted to go on the Arcadia so easily. They wanted a skilled surgeon. The right place – the right time – the right skill set sort of thing.”

“Do you think they’ll let me go also? I didn’t really think of that,” said Darcy fearfully.

“Yes, they will,” Rhys said plainly.

“You can’t know that, for sure,” Darcy said with a laugh.

“Yes, I do,” he said with a wink. “Any approved staff can take their spouse – no questions asked.”

“But we’re not…” Darcy gasped as she realized what he was doing.

He turned to face Darcy’s trembling body.

“Darcy, I’ve already talked it over with Aster. She’s heard stories about you all of her life. Jess made sure of that; especially after she got sick. I think Aster already loves you…and well…I never stopped. Please marry me. Marry us and stay with us always.” His eyes shone brightly, just like when they were in school.

“I’ve wanted nothing more for over half my life,” she said with a gasp. She held her open hand over her heart as it felt like it would burst.

Aster was sitting in front of them but had been spying between the seats.

“Yay,” she squealed.

They married the next day and two days after, they were all in stasis headed toward the planet of Reen, five hundred light years away.

297 AE

Aboard the EGRESS

“Does anyone need a break?” Tala asked.

Molly shot her hand up as if she were in school. “I do,” she squeaked out her response.

Deni pointed to a door and Molly dashed away.

Standing for a long catlike stretch Deni scooped her hand into the dry petals and then sniffed at the aroma that lingered in her hand.

“Thanks for letting me read. And I think it’s good for her,” Tala said.

“She’s not the only one enjoying it. I could listen to your voice every minute of my life,” Deni said with a sultry gaze. She crossed the room and leaning behind Tala she wrapped her brown arms around her lover.

With the sound of the latch at the bathroom door, Deni kissed Tala’s hair, straightened herself, and returned to her seat.

Tala tilted her head slightly and looked at her mate.

She placed her hand over her heart as she kissed the air. “You are amazing,” Tala mouthed to Deni across the room. Tala knew that Deni was sharing her time at that moment with another.

Deni was her lover but not her everything. Deni knew that Tala loved books and stories and sharing those with others. This part of Tala was just as much a need for fulfillment as having a lover, having friends, having nourishment, having air to breathe. Deni allowed the space for Tala to be complete. She just enjoyed the fact that Tala allowed her to be a part of this moment even if that meant she had to share.

Molly sat in a soft chair and tucked her knees under her chin and said with a wide smile, “I’m ready.”

Tala opened the book and continued.

11 BE

Aboard the ARCADIA, in orbit above the planet REEN

The ship’s sensors woke the officers of the Arcadia. After checking data they were astonished to learn that the star system
’s next nova could be within the next century, rather than the next millennium, which was the original calculation. They contacted the current officers from the Eden, which had arrived twenty years earlier. Immediately the officers of the Arcadia began making plans for the Eden to leave the planet along with the Arcadia.

This plan was met with great opposition. Eden’s captain had married a Goweli. Many had married into the native popula
tion; those who dwelt in the city, those that resided in the valleys, those that lived in the mountains, and those that coexisted near the water with the Hoth. 

Darcy woke up before her stasis pod was open. Her eyes roamed about without turning her head. Quickly she gained her wits only to lose control of herself. She was deathly afraid of enclosed places. She began to scream. Her screams turned into sobs until, finally the pod opened and she saw the face of her love. Rhys grabbed her into his arms and held her as he sat on the edge of the open pod.

“Shh!” he said close to her ear.

“Is she alright, Daddy?” a small voice said.

Bleary eyed, Darcy looked up and saw Aster’s face, full of concern.

“I’m sorry,” Darcy said as she tried to regain her composure in front of the child.

“It’s alright,” Rhys said. “Some have woken with worse symptoms. As soon as you regain your senses and your legs, I’ll need your help to oversee the rest of the waking pods.”

Darcy tried with all her might to swing her legs out of the pod but she couldn’t.

“It took me a little while,” Aster said. Looking to her father she added, “I can sit with her until she’s stronger.”

Rhys didn’t readily let go of Darcy’s hand but instead leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thanks sweetie,” he said to Aster and kissed her cheek also before hurrying away.

“Just lie back a minute and I’ll rub your legs like daddy did mine,” Aster said.

Darcy wasn’t pleased with the idea of lying back down in the pod but Aster was there, sitting on the edge of the pod just like Rhys had done. This eased Darcy’s racing heart.

Aster bent one of Darcy’s legs and squeezed the muscles up and down.

Darcy watched the young girl work with such gentle care.

“You look so much like your mother,” said Darcy.

“Daddy says that’s a good thing,” Aster smiled while she worked.

“It is a very good thing,” Darcy said. “Your mother was very beautiful and kind and a good friend.”

The little girl continued to massage without a word. After working on one leg she left it bent and began to squeeze the next. In the middle of rubbing Darcy’s leg muscles Aster stopped and looked down at Darcy to ask, “Could I call you mother?”

“Well,” Darcy hesitated.

“It’s alright if you don’t want me to,” Aster said quickly.

“No, no it’s not that I don’t want you to,” Darcy began. “It’s just, could we find something other than ‘mother’. What did you call your own mother?” Darcy asked.

“I called her mommy,” the little girl said. With a smile she added, “She was a great mommy,”

“Well, let’s find something different like, Ma or Mum.” Darcy said.

“I thought a mum was a flower,” said Aster.

Darcy laughed. “Well, yes, it is a flower but some people call their mother, mum.”

“My name is a flower. I’ve never seen one, not a real one. Mommy used to keep a picture of an aster beside my bed. I like ‘Mum.’ We could both be flowers. Aster and Mum.”

And so it was that Darcy became a mother; not because she had had a baby, not because she was needed to offer some great mothering skill, but simply because a child had named her, and claimed her, and loved her.

“Can you move your legs on your own at all,” Aster asked as she stood to give Darcy some room.

“I think so,” Darcy said trying to pull her legs from the pod.

Aster stood next to her and wrapped her arm around her waist to help steady her.

“Good,” Aster said when Darcy was finally able to stand. “Just stand there a minute and you’ll get the feel of your legs again.”

After only minutes
, Darcy was able to walk a few steps. After that she was able to walk across the floor, and then she and Aster were ready to help others from their pods, and those in turn, helped others.

Waking up took all day
, so when the day was done and their bodies were ready to have rest, Darcy lay beside Rhys and asked, “When will people be going down to the surface.”

“Not sure we are,” Rhys said.

“But,” Darcy paused.

“I know. I’ll see what I can do,” he said knowingly.

The next few days the Arcadia was filled with rumors flying all around the ship. Rumors of when they could surface, what they’d find when they got there, stories of the travelers of the Eden, on and on by word of mouth, the gossip ran wild.

Darcy stayed on the ship for over two months. She spent time with Aster and helped tend the sick bay when Rhys was away. He had many meetings with officers and those in high command positions
, as the officials of the Arcadia and the leadership of the Eden clashed over the subject of leaving Reen. 

Finally a summit was called for officers of the Eden, the Arcadia, and the city dwellers, those in the mountains and valleys
, but not those at the water’s edge that lived in harmony with the Hoth.

Many on the Arcadia wanted to leave immediately to stay safe from the impending nova. Others could see the side of those from the Eden who had made their life on the surface of this alien planet and now were being told to leave.

After almost two weeks of debate, the leaders of the summit came to a decision. There would be a ship built that would hold as many people as wanted to leave. This new ship would be called the ‘Egress’ and it would be built using the Eden and the Arcadia. Engineers were hired to design the ship. The one debate that was left undecided was the question of whether the Hoth should be allowed to join the Egress. Since the Hoth had no representation at the summit the question was tabled until their next scheduled meeting. In the meantime, four members at the summit were appointed liaisons to speak with the Hoth, but even reaching that decision at the summit took three days alone.

“You wouldn’t believe some of those people,” Rhys said to Darcy the night he came back from the
surface. “It is remarkable how intolerant many of those people are. I mean I’ve known people in the course of my life that were prejudiced, but here some of their leaders are out and out racists! It’s a tragedy. Anyway, I’ve been appointed to go talk to these Hoth people. They say they have gills and some live in the water. Should be interesting. The others appointed to go are two women; one they said is Goweli named Brenna, and another they said is Nen, a tiny little woman named Tilly. There is also a man from the Eden named Chris.”

Darcy’s nerves pinched as she tried to catch her breath. “My cousin,” she said softly with a smile. “I wonder if it’s my cousin.”

“I don’t know,” Rhys said. “I think he probably is. He’s a great guy. I liked him right off.”

Darcy grabbed her husband in a tight hug.

“I could probably get you clearance to come with me,” Rhys said as Darcy almost squeezed the breath out of him.

She let him go for a moment and then hugged him again.

“Really?” Darcy said with a happy squeal. “Wow I haven’t seen Chris since we were kids, almost thirty-five years ago.”

Rhys laughed heartily. “You mean almost
ninety-five thousand, thirty-five years ago.”

Darcy laughed also.

“What are you guys laughing at?” Aster asked with sleeping eyes coming from her room.

“I’m sorry honey,” Rhys said. The little girl with sprouting long legs sat on her daddy’s lap and laid her sleepy head on his shoulder.

“My brother is on the surface and so are a bunch of my cousins,” Darcy said to Aster.

“You mean I have an uncle,” Aster asked with a smile. “Why have you never told me this?”

“Well there was that long sleep we had,” Darcy said with a laugh.

“If ya’ll keep laughing none of us will get any rest tonight,” Aster said as she got up to head back to her room.

“She said, ‘ya’ll’,” Darcy said with a laugh.

“I taught her well, didn’t I?” Rhys said as they again laughed.

“I’m going to bed,” Aster said. “You kids don’t stay up too long.”

“She’s an old soul,” Darcy said.

Only a few days later Rhys and Darcy took the short shuttle ride to the surface. They met five others at the water’s edge. Tilly, the tiny Nen, sliced the water when she shot her arrow-like body into the deep. After a few minutes she was swimming back with a drove of Hoth in her company. They stood knee deep in the water as Rhys and his company came to the water to meet them.

The wet tribe gathered around the awestruck crowd. Rhys and Darcy stood mesmerized by t
he tiny creatures that only reached the height of Rhys’ chest. Rhys and Darcy were amazed at these Hoth, that had pink gills that slowly opened and closed, and tentacles that hung from their chins.

Rhys held out his hand to an older Hoth that had come to stand in front of him. However something whizzed beside Rhys’ hand and he drew it back quickly as he pulled Darcy to the ground. When he looked back up he saw that the small Hoth that he was about to meet only moments earlier was now lying on the ground with an arrow through his heart.

The surrounding Hoth pierced the water with their bodies and made no bigger splash than that of tiny pebbles.

“Over here,” Rhys screamed to Darcy. They dove behind a nearby rocky ridge near the water.

“Can you swim?” Rhys whispered.

“No,” Darcy said in terror. “What’s happening?”

Rhys peered over the edge of the rocks and saw arrows whizzing toward a nearby grove of trees. “I recognize that guy.” He ducked back down and said, “He was in our meeting the other day. He was against even talking to the Hoth. He must have people attacking anyone helping the Hoth. And those with us must have hidden over there in the trees.”

“Come,” a young person whispered.

They turned to see a girl with her head barely out of the water. She was so still that she made no waves around her.

“The others are safe. Come,” said the girl again.

As they went into the water to follow the girl they could see many tiny bodies swimming far out into the water.

The girl kept them close to the rocky ridge to aide Darcy in the journey. She led them to a cave where many Hoth had made their home. This girl, though she was young
, was a head taller than the many tiny Hoth they passed in the tunnel. This young girl also had no gills.

Being taken further into the cave they found a medical center set up.

“They’ve been attacking since the summit adjourned, but we thought they went away before the second setting sun,” the wet girl explained. “The fires still smolder from our dead. Six of us took the final journey before help came from the valleys and then more help came from the mountains. The city despises the Hoth and all of us who make our life with them. There are those from your planet that have joined paths with some of us, and others of your planet that have joined the city. Still others live in the valleys and mountains.”

The girl came to stand in front of a young girl on a cot with a bandage on her leg.

“This is my sister, Fredora,” the girl said. “My name is Preen.” My mother came from the planet Earth.”

Darcy’s eyes grew wide and she was ready to ask a question but from the mouth of the cave came a group, running and shouting.

“They’re coming. They’ve found the cave.”

Rhys grabbed up the young lady called Fredora and ran further into the cave with the crowd of retreaters.

He set her down and looked into her face and said hurriedly, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, thank you,” she said with calm.

“Stay with her,” Rhys said to Darcy.

Instead of listening to him she grabbed a nearby staff and charged the mouth of the cave with the rest of the guards.

“No, Darcy,” Rhys called out before chasing after her.

“We don’t even know about these people,” he said when he’d caught up to her. She had ducked behind a jutted out rock formation.

Breathing hard she peered around the edge. An arrow came whizzing by followed by a phaser blast.

“They have earth weapons,” Darcy said.

“And we’re not armed,” Rhys tried to reason.

All of a sudden Darcy swung the staff over Rhys’ lowered head and tripped two attackers racing into the cave. When they fell, people of the cave stormed the downed attackers.

Rhys pulled his PCD from his damp pocket and said, “Arcadia Command, Arcadia Command. We are under attack!”

“Arcadia command, this is Rollins. Did you say you were under attack?”