The Royal Pursuit (29 page)

“
May we discuss the reason
we took the Stone of Immortality’s powers from the Olympians?” the
Nical asked.

“
Yes, you may,” she agreed.
“But you have to return it. I have a duty to them and cannot let
you keep it.”

“
We do not wish to keep it.
We thought we were only making a copy of their stone. We had no
idea we stole the power from them. We were greatly distressed when
we found out, but since the virus is rampant on our planet, we
don’t know what to do. We fear that when we return the stone’s
power, we will die.”

Realizing the situation was more
serious than she imagined, she sat down and listened as they told
her their story.

***

Paler Spaceship

Athen noticed that Optima sat next to
him on the spaceship. Sando sat across from them, and he was
talking to Ruler Dour. Athen didn’t hear what they were discussing,
nor did he care. He was too worried about being next to Optima to
notice what else was going on around him. Would Sando notice he was
in love with her?

“
We are very appreciative
of all you and your friends have done for us,” Optima said, her
hair pink.

“
Can I ask you something?”
he asked.

She nodded, smiling at him.

He loved her smile. It lit up the
entire room…or in this case, the spaceship. He cleared his throat.
“Why does your hair change color?”

“
Oh, our hair reflects our
emotions.”

“
So it’s a visible sign of
how you’re feeling?”

Again, she nodded.

“
What does pink
mean?”

She blushed. “You will laugh if I tell
you.”

“
I’d never laugh at
you.”

“
It means I love you.” She
stared at her hands as she made her confession.

His heart skipped a beat. “But what
about Sando?”

“
Sando?”

“
Yes. Don’t you love
him?”

“
Of course, I
do.”

“
Then how can you love
me?”

She looked at him as if he was crazy.
“I don’t understand. What does he have to do with you?”

He lowered his voice. “You’re married
to him, or you’re going to be, aren’t you?”

She blinked in surprise. “No. He’s my
brother.”

The realization rushed over him in a
flood of relief. “He’s your brother?”

“
Yes.”

He laughed, feeling as if a weight had
been lifted off his chest. All this time he’d fought his feelings
for her, and he didn’t even have to. He could love her after all.
She seemed uncertain about his laughter since her hair turned
orange.

“
I’ll explain it later,” he
said. “Optima, I love you, too.”

Her hair returned to its pink
color.

He reached out and took her hand in
his. His life was looking much better now that he knew he would be
spending it with her.

***

Austere Complex

Ann sat back thoughtfully after the
Nicals finished explaining everything to her. “That is the most
tragic thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine the pain and torment
you must have endured.”

“
Is there any chance the
Olympians will share the stone?” Falon asked.

“
The stone won’t work like
that,” she replied. Her mind ran through the possible
solutions.

“
We would gladly give up
immortality for the ability to have children,” the Nical told her.
“We miss our children.”

The others nodded.

Her stomach grew sick at the thought
of losing her children like they had.

They sat quietly as they listened to
the ship land in the middle of the Austere Complex. The Nicals
stood up excitedly as the five Nicals walked into the room. They
hugged each other, their hair red with joy. Athen, Hathor, Kent,
and Stacey followed behind.

“
This is amazing!” Kent
exclaimed as he took in his surroundings.

“
I know. Atlantis doesn’t
even compare to this,” Stacey agreed. “It’s too bad Stephen and
Mark will never see it.”

Kent and Stacey grew quiet as they
recalled the deaths of their friends.

Jaz ran into the room and hugged Falon
when she saw he had fully recovered. Ann had never seen Jaz display
so much emotion before. She looked away, feeling like an intruder
on their private moment.

“
I must take the stone to
the Olympians,” Ann softly told Ruler Dour. “But I want you to come
with me. Together we can explain the situation to the gods and
goddesses. Perhaps they will have an idea of how we can work
something out.”

“
Will they be merciful to
us considering the damage we’ve done?” Dour asked.

“
I believe they will be,”
she assured him. “Will you come with me?”

“
I see no other choice.” He
took the stone from the table.

“
I will speak on your
behalf.”

He appeared optimistic at her
promise.

She took his hand, and they traveled
through the galaxies until they arrived in the Ivory Palace on
Olympia.

Athena was the first to notice her.
“Queen Ann! Thank goodness you’re here.”

The other gods and goddesses ran to
her as soon as they heard Athena’s greeting. Ann’s heart went out
to them. After being perfect and young for so many centuries, their
imperfections were obvious. They had graying hair, wrinkles, and
increased body weight. They no longer moved with the grace they
were accustomed to, and they were beginning to notice the typical
aches and pains that accompanied aging.

“
Here is the stone with the
immortal power in it.” Ann handed it to Zeus since he was the head
god.

As soon as possession of it returned
to its rightful owner, the gods and goddesses immediately regained
their eternal youthful appearance. They smiled in pleasure as the
sensation washed over them.

Ann watched the scene with amazement.
It was as if someone rewound the hands of time.

Zeus bowed. “Queen Ann, we are
eternally grateful for your service on our behalf.”

The others followed his
lead.

When they stood up, she requested to
speak with them.

“
Of course.” Zeus nodded.
“Please, have a seat.”

She urged Ruler Dour to the elegant
white couch with gold trim. He obeyed and remained silent as she
told them the reason the Nicals took the stone’s power.

When she was done, Apollo nodded. “She
tells the truth.”

Zeus turned back to her. “So if the
Nicals could be cured of this virus and regain their reproductive
capacity, they will be content with that?”

She looked at Dour.

“
Oh yes,” Dour said. “We
don’t wish to live forever. We just don’t want to die out as a
species.”

“
That’s understandable,”
Zeus replied.

“
You can’t be immortal and
have children,” Hera said. “It’s one or the other. So you choose to
have children on your world.”

“
They give us warmth and
laughter,” Dour replied. “So yes, we do.”

Aphrodite shuddered. “Why ruin the fun
of recreational sex with a pregnancy?”

Hera rolled her eyes. “You were the
product of such an event,” she reminded her.

“
That’s why I never let it
be known to the Greeks. I made them think I came from an oyster. I
was the choicest of pearls. All the men thought so.” She winked at
Dour.

Dour looked shocked at her behavior.
“Sex is enjoyable in itself. That is true. However, there is
something special in knowing you can create life in the
process.”

Ann smiled as Aphrodite frowned,
obviously burned by his rejection of her. Hathor was the same way
with Aphrodite, always making it clear to her he wouldn’t be
intimate with her.

“
Don’t you ever stop?” Ares
growled. “I swear, you get worse all the time.”

“
I have an idea,” Athena
suddenly spoke up.

Thankful for the change in topic, Ann
leaned forward to hear her speak.

“
Demeter controls the
seasons,” Athena began. “Her flowers bloom in the spring. Winter is
the season for colds and flus. Those are viruses. When her flowers
bloom, the cold and flu season ended on Earth because of the potent
fragrance in her flowers. We should send a bouquet of her flowers
to the Nicals. I bet it will clear up that virus that’s been
plaguing them.”

“
An excellent idea,” Zeus
praised her.

She beamed with pleasure.

“
Your reproduction problem
is another issue,” Hera said. “We had a similar development on
Atlantis with the Infers we created. The Infers were a group of
people we developed with a remarkable ability to remember
everything. They were the people who wore all white. Their job was
to pass on knowledge from one generation to another, but we messed
up somewhere in creating them because they could not reproduce. We
searched for a cure, but we were unable to find one that would keep
their line pure. We only intended for one Infer to marry another
Infer so that the line of memories and knowledge would be perfectly
preserved. We discovered that they could reproduce if they mated
with other types of humans. So an Infer could mate with an Augur
and produce a child.”

Pallid must have been an Infer, Ann
realized. No wonder he wanted a Stone of Immortality so badly that
he found one and kept it in his cane.

“
Perhaps if your species
found another species to get involved with, you will reproduce
again,” Zeus suggested, turning to Dour.

“
There are humans on Raz,”
Ann added.

“
Other planets have humans
on them as well,” Athena said.

“
It’s worth a try,” Dour
replied. “We may lose our identity as being Nicals, but we will
survive through our children.”

“
You can still pass on your
wisdom and knowledge of being a Nical,” Ann gently reminded
him.

“
Hephaestus, will you
please go find Demeter and have her gather some flowers for Ruler
Dour? Tell her Queen Ann is here on his behalf,” Hera
requested.

Hephaestus hurried to obey
her.

“
Since Persephone is back
with her again, Demeter will have a bunch of those flowers ready,”
Hera said.

Ann’s eyes widened. Hera had been kind
to Hephaestus this time. She hadn’t been that way towards him
before. In fact, the other gods and goddesses had been nicer to him
this time.

As if sensing her unspoken question,
Apollo said, “Our sudden mortality taught us to appreciate others
as they are.”

She smiled. So something good came out
of them aging for a while. She was glad to hear it.

Hephaestus soon returned with the
flowers. “Demeter was bringing them here as a way of saying thank
you to Queen Ann, so I didn’t have to go far to find
her.”

“
Thank you, Hephaestus,”
Hera replied.

He seemed much happier than Ann ever
remembered, and she was glad for it.

“
We need to go. We are
anxious to find out if these beautiful flowers will work,” Ann
said. She glanced around the room. “Thank you for your
help.”

Then she took Dour’s hand, and they
traveled back to Lone where a group of faces looked at them
expectantly.

“
I can feel the virus
coming back,” Sando said.

Dour took the flowers and handed one
to each Nical. “Tell me how you feel after you sniff this flower,”
he told Sando.

Sando looked confused but sniffed the
fresh lavender fragrance. His face lit up with pleasure. “I feel
well again.”

Ann breathed a sigh of relief. Her
eyes met Hathor’s and she smiled.

“
Demeter’s flowers
eliminate viruses. It’s safe to say the virus that has caused so
much death is now gone for good,” Ann said.

“
What a great feeling!”
Sando cheered. “We’re going to be alright.”

“
There’s better news,” Dour
revealed. “We may have lost our ability to reproduce with our own
species, but we might be able to reproduce with other humans. The
Olympians said it worked for a group of humans known as the Infers.
It may work for us. At least, we need to try.”

“
I volunteer to try it,”
Athen offered. “What do you think, Optima? Would you like to marry
me and see if we can have a child together?”

“
You’re not coming back to
Raz?” Hathor asked.

“
Not if Optima will have
me.” He looked at her.

“
I would be delighted to be
your wife.” She blushed, her hair pink.

“
You know, with Athen gone,
we’re going to need two people to take care of researching other
species from various planets when Hathor begins training our
children,” Ann told Stacey and Kent. “What do you say? Would you
like to live on Raz and see what this universe has to
offer?”