Guardians (Caretaker Chronicles Book 2) (44 page)
Read Guardians (Caretaker Chronicles Book 2) Online
Authors: Josi Russell
Ethan walked through the cooling evening, following
Polara as she darted in and out of the colorful booths in the new Coriol
marketplace. The Vala were out, too, enjoying the evening alongside the humans.
Brightly colored UEG money changed hands around them, and Ethan didn’t miss the
heavy scrip chain he’d carried for so long. The UEG had banned company scrip
across the planet.
Saras was paying in UEG money now. Paying the
miners and refinery workers who now spent their days in bright, clean plants,
building ships and the new drives that would power them. When the UEG decreed
that the Karst Mountain Range would not go to any company, but to the Vala,
Ethan expected Saras to pout. But Saras, with the Vala Yynium contract, the new
ship factories, the plants where his workers made the new drives, and his fiancée
Serena beside him, was a new man. He had simply congratulated Aemon in awkward
Ikastn.
Saras Company still owned the town, but it was
finding new sources of revenue in addition to the ship factories and drive
plants. Saras was leasing to small businesses, and several of Ethan’s
passengers had pooled their money and opened a shop made up of Hannah’s dolls,
Winn’s carvings, and Luis’s pottery. The people of Coriol, starved so long for
beauty, kept the store busy.
There was also a new live theatre, where Angela
and Manuel, as well as several others, performed every weekend. Ethan had even
talked Ndaiye into singing with them, and he heard his friend’s rich voice
rising above the marketplace as they neared the theatre at the other end. Ethan
and his family were on their way there now, to watch the new play his friends
had written for the autumn Lucidus festival.
Polara’s delighted voice broke through the buzz
of the crowd.
“Look at the butterflies, Daddy! Look!” she
called. He followed her pointing finger up to see the ellisa sunara on their
annual autumn migration. Their golden wings caught the last of the light and
splashed it on Polara’s face and hands as she danced below them. Chelus and a
few Vala children joined her, reaching their long fingers toward the frolicking
butterflies.
Ethan remembered the dark night in the cave, when
he had longed to see these bright creatures. He thought of the surprises that
the survey craft crash had brought into his life and wondered what else lay
ahead.
Every family was facing that question. Once
enough ships were fitted with the new drives, Earth would be moments away. The
universe would be moments away. They could return to Earth if they wanted. And
some would go. But Minea was changing, for the better, and Ethan and Aria
wanted to be part of that, to raise their children in the bright blue cottage
that had come to be their home.
Ethan’s eyes lingered on the Vala. They were
interdependent. It was the humans’ grit that had freed the Vala and the Vala
chips that had made the universe accessible to humans.
Ethan thought about that. He wasn’t as bothered
by using the chips as he had been before. In fact, he thought, perhaps
traveling on tears was a good reminder for humanity that all progress comes
with a cost.
Rigel’s small hand reached beyond the
butterflies, toward the bright circle of Lucidus, hanging in the sky. The bells
began to chime, and Ethan slipped an arm around Aria. They stood now, at the
brink of space, and it lay before them like a river. Perhaps someday soon they’d
take an outing to Lucidus. Perhaps someday they’d go beyond.
About
the Author
Josi
Russell ’s science fiction novels explore familiar human relationships in
unfamiliar contexts. She currently teaches creative writing and fiction courses
as an associate professor of English for Utah State University Eastern. She
lives in the alien landscape of the high desert American Southwest with her family
and a giant tortoise named Caesar. Josi is captivated by the fields of
linguistics, mathematics, and medicine, by the vast unknown beyond our
atmosphere, and by the whole adventure of being human.
Connect
with the Author:
website:
josirussellwriting.com
https://www.facebook.com/authorjosirussell
twitter.com/josi_russell
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