“No big deal?!” Ava didn’t think her ears would ever stop ringing. Knadyn was yelling his disapproval loud enough to be heard back on Terraneu. “You know that Renee and Jeromy are not to be trusted.”
“You heard your Uncle Knaleg. The area is cleared and there are more men from Terraneu guarding the portal site than the rebel or government forces could possibly defeat. I will be perfectly safe.”
“Perfectly safe…” he snorted, “If it is so safe why is it that I cannot go with you?”
Ava grabbed Knadyn close and hugged him as tightly as she could. “You know why. We can’t risk them setting off a booby trap in your mind. It’s enough that they let you come to Antilles.” Not that he had left them much choice, just showing up and refusing to leave. Everyone had scattered until he was safely in a tent, away from all the activity. “What is wrong with you?”
“I cannot lose you Ava. I care for you too deeply.” He was squeezing the breath out of her, but she didn’t mind. “I would go crazy—”
“You are not going to lose me! Have a little faith in your family to keep me safe until we get you fixed.” She looked into his troubled purple eyes and teased, “Marcael alone is enough to scare off any threat to me.” She was only half kidding, but it seemed to ease his mind.
“My sisters mate is a fierce fighter.” He put his chin on top of her head, “He knows how much you mean to me and will keep you safe. Not to mention my brother…and father…and uncles…”
“Okay then. I need to go.” She pulled back and gave him a quick kiss. She knew that if she lingered she would never leave Knadyn’s arms. “I will be back before you can miss me.” Reluctantly pulling away, she moved to the opening of their tent. “I care too much for you to let this mission fail.” Before he could stop her, she swept out of the flap and hurried toward the port pad to Earth.
“Ava.” She heard her name and turned to see Knaleg striding her way.
“I was just coming to get you.” He made it to her side and together they continued walking, “I just came back from Earth and have some news. The female rebel named Kenzie has volunteered to get Renee and Jeromy to the port pad. She has been dealing with them and feels they will trust her. Knacayn wanted to escort her but was denied since he looks exactly like Knadyn and we don’t want them to be alarmed just yet. Marcael and a few others went instead. We want you on the Earth port pad site to talk with whomever she brings back. Your father is there already as our liaison. The rebel leader and the group he brought with him are fully agreeable to the requests we made. It looks like our presence on Earth will be a lasting one.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Ava knew that this male was a born fighter, she could tell he was excited at the challenge Earth posed. “I’m glad that Earth survivors are getting the help, I’m just not sure how I feel about dragging the males of Terraneu into the fight.”
He laughed, “Do not forget my little hell Cat.” Ava knew he was talking about his mate, Catherine. “She would have my left nut if we tried to leave her out of the fighting.” He blushed and looked askance, “Sorry. I mean to say, she would be upset.”
Ava laughed, “Don’t apologize. I’m not offended.” Standing on the port pad waiting she asked, “How are the other males taking the news about going to Earth?”
Knaleg looked over at her, his bright purple eyes strangely intense. “To be honest, I think some of them are more excited than the Earth natives.” He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “I think they have ideas of finding mates among some of the females. Those that do not already have mates that is. This could be the best thing that happened for the males of Terraneu in a long time. Some of them were getting downright lazy. Now they will have a reason to train harder.” He cupped her on the shoulder with a friendly ‘thwack’. She almost fell over on the port pad and was glad for once to feel the sucking motion as she fell into darkness.
~*~*~*~
Ava couldn’t believe the change that had come over the dilapidated building that had been over the port pad the last time she had been here. Instead of the old holey walls, Ava saw with astonishment, it was a new teleporting dome. Built around the port pad there was now four domes. A medical, technology, teleporting and caging. They had named it the Earth Command Center. From here, they would build out in rings just as they had on Terraneu. There would be a community of survivors living, working, and able to defend the port pad.
“Ava, over here.” Stepping outside Ava was blasted by the cold. “Here wear this.” She was stuffed into a down coat Amber handed her and was glad that the supplies included for this trip were the pants and military boots that all the men wore. If she had tried to wear her normal toga dress, she would have frozen. “We are expecting the group back from the Earth government any minute. Did you hear that Kenzie had volunteered to go?”
“Yes. Knaleg told me.” Ava stumbled along beside Amber as she hurried to a large tent set up on the outer perimeter of the domes. “Why are you meeting Renee here in this tent and not the new command center?”
“We do not want to give him an idea of our technology just yet. He is going to get one chance to do the right thing.” Kniam had heard her question and answered as they entered the tent.
“If he can’t find it in his heart to give us the release code then we go to Plan B.” Catherine walked past Ava and gave her mate a quick kiss.
“What is Plan B?” Ava wondered out loud to no one in particular.
It was Knaleg who answered. “We beat him until he complies.”
“Oh…that Plan B.” Ava couldn’t keep the humor out of her voice, thinking surely that was a joke. When everyone just looked at her she choked out, “You weren’t kidding?”
“They are here.” One of the male council members, Asteen she thought, came into the dome and took his place by the table. It was then that Ava realized this tent was set up like the council room on Terraneu. All the female council members were here, along with all the males. When Asteen had come in, everyone moved to stand in their same place. Since she had been in the middle, but that was Renee’s spot she just hurried to the side to stand by her father.
Just as she reached his side, the tent flap opened and Renee walked in, followed by Jeromy, Kenzie, Knacayn and Marcael. Marcael was a council member and took his spot at the table. Knacayn she noticed took the hand of the female Kenzie and drew her to the side of the tent to watch. Ava bit back a laugh when with a scowl the female jerked her hand out of his hold and tried to bump him away with her hip. Instead of being offended, Knadyn’s brother got a smile on his face. She was suddenly drawn from watching the pair by the sound of Kniam’s gavel hitting the table.
“I am Kniam, and this is the male council of Terraneu.” He gestured at the male side of the table. “This is the female council of Terraneu.” He then swept his hand to indicate the female side.”
“I am Renee Rousard. A member of the leadership over what I am told you call the Earth government forces.” It seemed that someone had told him something about what was going on, since he didn’t even question what Terraneu was. “This is my son Jeromy. We speak for the survivors of our community.” Ava saw Jeromy give a stiff nod to Kniam.
“I have only one question for you. What is the release code for my son Knadyn?” Kniam bit out the question.
Ava gave him credit, Renee didn’t even flinch, “I don’t know what you mean.”
There was an outburst of angry comments from the male side of the council table and Kniam held up his hand.
“Stop the lies Renee.” Catherine stood up. “I know you are better than this. Tell Kniam the release code. You are only hurting the survivors of your community with your stubborn arrogance.”
Ava saw all eyes swing to look from Renee to Catherine. After looking at her for a second Renee smoothly covered the pause, “I’m sorry…do I know you?”
“You don’t recognize me?” she stared him down, “I am Catherine. Catherine Chambers.”
That had an effect on the
older man. “That is impossible. Catherine Chambers would be my age. You can’t expect—”
“You enrolled me in McPherson Match Making…an online dating service. You sent me to Scotland to investigate the missing women. Well here we are Renee. Amber Anderson now mated, or married if you will, to the male who just asked you for the code to release their son. Mairi McPherson, mated to the uncle of the man you tortured—”
“Oh my god it is you! How is that possible…?” Renee turned as white as a sheet and if Ava wasn’t mistaken looked about to pass out.
“What is she talking about?” Jeromy couldn’t stand to stay quiet long. Ava knew he wasn’t worried for his father. He just hated being left out of something.
“Not now Jeromy.” Renee snapped. Looking at the angry male side of the table, he could see what Ava knew. Half of these males were related to the one he had either ordered tortured or allowed to be tortured. The resemblance was just too strong. If he was smart, he was calculating how long he had left on this Earth. “I didn’t know…I thought he might be from the portal I didn’t know for sure…I just wanted to get the destruction to stop. We thought you were responsible.”
“We are not responsible for the destruction. We were helping with the clean-up.” Ava heard Kneus call out from his place at the table.
Kniam held up his hand again, “I will only ask once more, and then your time is up. The release code.” His tone of voice was implacable and Ava knew that if Renee didn’t give up the code, plan B would commence.
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Renee blurted and she didn’t know what he had just said. Only the women on the female council had a reaction.
“Father!’ Jeromy tried to stop him, but Renee had blurted the word too quickly. “What have you done?” his son yelled at him.
“I will go to Antilles.” Amber jumped out of her seat, “It’s okay Kniam. I will be back…with Knadyn.” She ran out of the tent before anyone could stop her.
Rubbing his temples Kniam looked at Renee. “What you did to my son will not be forgotten. The people of my community have voted and it is agreed that we will help the survivors of Earth. These are our demands of you however. You and any other member of the current leadership of your community will step down—”
“Wait a damn minute.” Ava swung her eyes to Jeromy. His face was red with anger and his fist clenched.
Kniam kept talking, ignoring the interruption. “You will make it known that your community is to select three people to sit on a new council. To be headed by Steve Howard.” At those words, he gestured toward her father.
“Steve?” Renee looked at her father and shook his head in confusion. “What is going on?”
Kniam continued yet again, “Your people will be given the option of having what we call ‘the change’ done to them. Steve, Ava, Catherine, Amber, Mairi, Jen…they are all examples of the results.”
“Ava?” Jeromy turned to try to find her, looking past her standing next to her father and then swinging his eyes back. “Ava!? That can’t be you.”
“You keep your eyes off her!” Knadyn’s angry words echoed around the room. “Father.” He bowed slightly to Kniam at the head of the table and if you weren’t looking, you would have missed the elation that crossed his father’s face. “I apologize for the interruption.” Storming across the short distance, he stopped to tower over Jeromy. “If I see you so much as blink in Ava’s direction I will forget any truce you have been offered.” Ava had never seen Knadyn this angry and knew it was taking great restraint for him not to lash out at his tormentor. When he looked away from Jeromy, she saw his purple eyes were flashing. Without another word, he walked to stand with her. She tucked into his side, her hand finding and holding his. Her fingers rubbing against his in what she hoped was a soothing manner.
Amber had followed Knadyn into the tent and then returned to her spot at the table. Grabbing Kniam’s hand, her eyes tearful she gave a slight nod.
“As I was saying.” Kniam tried to finish his list of demands. “The change will lengthen your life span and return you to an optimum state of youth and health. The only downside, if you wish to consider it as such, is that you cannot eat solid food. Your body will use the sun for energy, water for hydration and added minerals for optimum vitality.”
“This is a joke.” Jeromy snarled, “I won’t listen to anymore. You don’t have any authority here. We are the leadership of our community and—”
“We will do as you ask.” Renee interrupted his son.
“No father, I won’t do as he asks.” Jeromy and his father argued.
“We have another chance to do things right.” Renee tried to get Jeromy to listen but he was too spoiled and had always gotten his way.
“To do what? Bow and scrape to this bunch?” Jeromy was backing away. “I won’t do it. We will fight you.” He spat with bravado.
“Then you will die.” Knaleg stood up and glared at the young male. “We will not hunt you down or torture you. However, know this…if you harm one person under our protection—”
“What? You will find me?” Jeromy looked ready to snap.
“No.” It was Marcael that spoke this word. Not loudly but with cold authority. It made every other time she had heard him seem like warm and fuzzy bunnies. The cold look he was giving Jeromy promised death and chilled her to the bone to see it, and it wasn’t directed at her. “I will…and I will be bringing Knadyn with me.”
Jeromy paled and then stormed from the tent.
Renee sighed, “I know nothing I say will mean anything, but I am sorry. My community will not argue your demands. The leadership will step aside and not run for the new council. This is a chance for our communities survival. Our only chance, I will make them see that.”
“We will be building around the new Earth Command Center. This new community will be a haven for all survivors that want to live here. Those that do not wish to come here will be allowed their freedom. My males will do six-month duty rotations at a time. At first to guard and build, then to serve in whatever duties the new Earth Council sees fit. If they have any concerns, they will take those to Steve Howard. He is the final authority regarding my males. The community will start receiving people in six months. If you have any citizens in dire health, send them right away.”
Kniam glanced around, “Is there anything else?” When it remained silent, he hit the gavel on the table. “We are done here.”
As they walked back into the new command center dome, everyone was talking and making plans. “We need an additional twenty-five males to be here working on building domes. We can have a replication center up and running in a week. I have talked with Knalech and he has agreed to come for the second six-month period. I will work the first round to make sure things go smoothly.” Kneus was ahead of them in their group.
“If you are staying, then so am I.” Gwen was holding Kneus’ hand and Ava saw her tighten her grip. “I will be able to help with the medical units, and getting them set up. Not to mention I am familiar with old fashioned medical procedures. I can wing it if I have to.”
“We can finalize who is coming back to stay when we get to Antilles. We need someone to go through to Terraneu and arrange for the twenty-five volunteers. I would like to be considered for the first round.” Knollig pulled Mairi close with an arm around her shoulders, “It will be nice to see where Mairi came from and I would like to be a part of making things succeed here in Scotland. I could work with Steve and help with any diplomatic issues that arise.”
“Well if you are staying, then so am I.” Mairi laughed, “I imagine that grandfather will want to come back for a visit too. He is getting really talented with his woodworking and I’m sure he would be a huge help here.” Callum McPherson was the man who had helped Kneus get women for the males of Terraneu. They had used his property that included where the current port pad and new Earth Command Center were sitting. Without him, there wouldn’t be any of the next generation of children on Terraneu.
“We will make decisions from Antilles.” Kniam stated again, “I would like half of each council to remain on Terraneu for decision making there.” They had all stepped into the teleporting dome and joined the line to go back to Antilles.
Ava and Knadyn waited for their turn and before long, they were standing in the staging tent on Antilles. There was a flurry of activity going on. It hadn’t stopped since the portal went active this morning. There were supplies of every kind being sent through every minute. There were men planning and gearing up for the six months stay on Earth. All of them were single. It seemed like the men were interested in finding mates on Earth. Ava wasn’t sure about that plan. Could a female that was changed genetically for Earth’s one sun be changed again for Terraneu? She knew that it had been done for Marcael, his friend Cole and Baylech. Those three had originally been genetically altered to use the energy from a spaceship called the Elyon. When they had ended up on Terraneu and had the change to the two suns, the stress had caused the snow-white hair. Not that it would matter if it came to mates. She would have done it for Knadyn. Having white hair was of no consequence.
“I need to talk with Knacayn before he goes back.” Knadyn gave her a quick kiss then hurried to where his brother was standing. Ava watched them and knew that Knadyn was telling his brother about her. After awhile Knacayn and Knadyn hugged then he was walking back to her side.
“Are you okay?” she asked him. He had already been told by the council that she couldn’t go until the next six months. They wanted to give her the extra time to heal just in case. If Ava wasn’t going to be allowed to go, Knadyn wasn’t going either. She felt bad that because of her, he wouldn’t be with the rest of his family but she knew he wouldn’t go even if she told him it was okay. Her father was changed for the one sun of Earth and would be fine. Gwen promised to keep an eye on him just in case.
“Yes. I am fine.” Knadyn held her tighter against his side, “I know that they will be safe with the large number of armed men we are sending.” He sighed heavily, “Six months in our lives is really not that long…”
Knadyn: A Terraneu Novel (Book Six) Page 10