Their Elder Healer Creana discovered that humans failed to comprehend even the elementary healing powers of normal Golsidan males and females. As a result, they aged prematurely. The average human life spanned less than a third of a Golsidans numerically, and Golsidan annuals lasted for 1.63 times longer than human years. But, human bodies had the ability of living for much longer if they acquired even rudimentary healing powers. As a result, any human with compatible DNA could get altered just a miniscule amount by the healers, and they would develop enough healing gifts to life for a Golsidan lifespan. This allowed Jao to decide that any willing human with compatible DNA would be taken at the end of their human lifespan; preventing any damage to the human society that person came from.
CHAPTER 1
Lights in the Darkness
Desvren stood on the transport grid, ready to be sent down to the planet. He felt glad that a transport instead of personal grid was being used because that meant he could stand up to his full height of six foot three without worrying about losing the top of his skull somewhere along the way. Plus, truthfully, try as he might, he could not keep his tail under control. It stood straight out behind him, further than a personal grid allowed.
Desvren felt exceedingly glad that only his good friends Liso and Tava witnessed it, because his tail tip kept lashing back and forth like it belonged to a cat preparing to pounce on an unsuspecting bird. Such a juvenile response to nervousness and excitement exasperated his humiliation. Worse yet, Desvren’s normally silver-white, sesame-seed-sized scales flushed a pale pink all over his face and neck. Des dared not look at his friends to see their response to his lack of control. Golsidans, especially those trained as healers, needed to learn how to completely control their bodies in order to survive and save the sick and injured. Right now, Desvren wasn’t living up to his training of a highest level healer.
Des tried once again to concentrate and control his obvious physical responses, but his mind instantly became distracted by the underlying cause. Thirty-five years ago he had visited Earth, met Anna Wolfe, and asked her to join his people, the Golsidans. She had been twenty-eight years old and he nineteen in their relative times. But he had still been alone, un-bonded, when he met her and he instantly recognized her as his tai’twain; the one who he wished for as his partner for life. She agreed to join them and Desvren forced himself to leave her, to let her live the remainder of her human-life.
Under the command of his clan-head Jao and his trade-teacher Creana, Desvren had buried her decision and her memories of meeting an alien deep in her unconscious mind. Only the knowledge that he’d one day resurrect them and hopefully spend the rest of his life with her gave him the strength to accomplish the task.
Unfortunately, his strength fell short of strictly following all of his Elders orders. Six times in the intervening years, Desvren had unofficially and illegally gridded down to Earth. He carefully visited only on nights of the total darkness of a moonless sky. Gridding to the deep woods a mile behind Anna’s house and hiking to her home, he limited himself each time to three human hours of staring at her slumbering form, allowing his mind to join her sleeping one. Desvren entered her dreams during those six nights: talked with her, laughed with her, and shared his hopes and dreams totally with her. Every time, before he left he used his healing gift to insure that Anna only remembered those dreams as a foggy pleasant interlude with an imaginary friend. His last trip four annuals ago allowed him to first detect Anna’s sickness. He forced himself to stay away after that because to feel Anna’s sickness without healing it tortured him.
Now, today, this time the trip was different, official and ordered by his Elders. Desvren’s healing gift proclaimed that Anna would die before the sun rose tomorrow. The Elder Healer Creana rode Des’s bond to Anna and agreed with Des’s assessment. As death loomed over her, would she join the Golsidans as she originally decided to? Or had she changed her mind during the passing years? Either, she joined them or Des would quickly sicken and follow her in death. Des’s whole body quivered in a spasm of fear. As a healer, Desvren knew that life always eventually succumbed to death. But, to die un-bonded, rejected, alone, there could be no ending more horrible than that.
“Ready?” Liso asked.
Tava, Liso’s tai’twain, walked over and grasped both of Des’s shoulders, his eyes locked on Des’s. “She never chose to marry or even live with a man. She decided to wait for her dream man. Without realizing, he wasn’t a human man at all.” Des twitched in shock. “Didn’t you realize an un-bonded neuter friend of your age would arouse my healer curiosity? Your secrets remain safe with those who know them, Des. Bring home your tai’twain. Together, we’ll heal her.”
Des nodded. He smiled widely as Tava joined Liso. As the transport lights began to flash around him, he mentally reviewed plausible excuses for arriving unexpectedly in a woman’s backyard in the middle of the night on an alien transport grid. He chuckled to himself as the lights faded and he stood facing the back of Anna’s house. A normal explanation for this situation didn’t exist.
The lights roused Anna. She’d left the shades up and the windows wide open in her bedroom when she went to sleep. The breeze blowing in felt nice on her face. But, the sudden flare of brilliance and the hum that seemed more like a vibration than a sound alarmed her. Anna laid immobilized staring at the miniscule lights strobing, rotating, and darting willy-nilly in every corner of her backyard. The man who stood in their center got branded onto Anna’s retina as a shadow delineated by brilliance. First, there seemed to be hundreds of lights, no bigger than peas. A heartbeat later, only dozens remained. The last couple exploded like fireworks and the pulsating buzz disappeared. Anna closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. When she re-opened them, the man was swiftly approaching her backdoor.
Fear surged higher in Anna’s chest making every breath a struggle. The horror instantly subsided as a familiar dream voice spoke in her mind. “I would be more likely to hurl myself unprotected into the vastness of space than cause you harm. Please, remember me!”
The memories flooded through Anna; long talks, laughter, shared dreams and seemingly impossible hopes. “Desvren?” Anna whispered in a wonder-filled voice as she climbed out of bed and staggered out into the living room. “You really exist?”
An answering voice called through her backdoor. “I am real. Our time has arrived, Anna. We have much to discuss, decide, and accomplish before the sun rises.” Anna opened the door.
Des stood there looking at Anna, observing and noting all of the changes in her appearance. Her battle against the cancer had prematurely aged her. Her long black hair rippled with strands of white. Her bronze, tanned skin creased into wrinkles. Her athletic, lean-muscled body sagged with obvious exhaustion. But her blue eyes sparkled brightly and her even white teeth shined through her wide grin just as he remembered them. When he finally felt her true-self, hidden deep beneath the layers of pain and fatigue, Des sighed with relief. She felt the same to him. Her soul, her spirit continued to call to his. Des leant over as he entered the house and kissed Anna on the cheek.
With her heart thundering and her hands shaking, Anna closed the door. On shaky knees, she turned and stumbled towards Des. He leapt forward and wrapped his arms around her. “You are weak. This sickness saps your strength.” His self-restraint failed. He loved her too much. Des unleashed his healing ability and let it flow through Anna. If Anna refused to join them now, he would endure severe punishment before succumbing to death. Even a partial healing of her, before, she agreed to join them was strictly forbidden. As his healing ability flowed unchecked through Anna, everything he was or could possibly someday become seeped into her consciousness.
Anna felt strength flow into her after months of debilitating weakness. With it came visions of a partnership deeper even than her bond with her twin brother Andy, a love stronger than anything she ever felt before soaked into her soul, and a future on a distant world tantalized her mind. Anna embraced the images deep within
her and refused to let go. She raised her eyes, then, locked them on Des’s sky-blue irises surrounded by golden flecked pupils. “Yes!”
Des blinked. “Yes?”
“Yes. I want to go with you.”
“It won’t be easy. My people’s needs are great. Once, we existed as a great people. Now, we scavenge in our old houses, our old ships to find the means to survive. At one time, Golsidans lived healthy, strong, and happy lives. Now, we barely manage to find the strength to survive another day. Your people say, “Blood, sweat, and tears are needed to make something worthwhile.” My people need you. They need your blood, sweat, and tears. But, I know not if it will make something worthwhile.” Des lowered his head until his forehead touched Anna’s. He opened himself and let her see everything that hid behind his hopes and dreams.
Anna stood transfixed, overwhelmed by the onslaught of emotions. The last chance loomed in front of them. No more delaying tactics. No time remained to find another solution. Desvren’s race was disappearing; his species now existed on the edge of extinction. Fear and desperation clouded their thinking while hunger and weakness sapped their strength and hopelessness gnawed on their souls. The tipping point lay beneath their feet. One last deep breathe before... fear, sharp and strong, cutting deep to the heart. What came next, the erasure of his culture, the disappearance of his people?
Anna had often felt hopelessness as a child. Andy and her often got shuffled from foster home to home, unwanted and unloved, tolerated merely for the check they ensured. But, together, they found strength, hope, and a rallying call of their own. It always chased the fear of the unknown away.
A last deep breath before the shoulders straighten, take a step forward as the eyes flash defiance and the head goes back then, the howl long, dark, pulsing, throbbing with feelings, strong, loud, clear, floating on air, and deep, heart-deep, soul-deep. Wolfe calls to Wolfe, “Help me. Hear me.” Wolfe answers “Yes, I hear you. Yes, I will help.”
Their heads came back down at the same time. Their eyes locked. Together? Anna queried.
Yes, together. Des answered.
What is this? She need not say that she meant this oneness, this sharing, and this joining. No ending or beginning of him or her, but a melding of two into one.
This is tai’twain, the two that become one. We can live separate, work apart, and still be one. We remain together in mind, in heart, in soul. We finish each other. His mind passed the answer to hers as easily as blood flows through a vein.
“We both have dreams and obligations. Individually, we try to accomplish and fulfill those goals and responsibilities. Together, we complete them all and more. Tai’twain reaches into the future, becoming a connection that shows everything. Not just, what we exist as, feel, or strive for, but, everything that we will and can be. Tai’twain happens when two meet who can together accomplish all those possibilities, fulfill those responsibilities and jointly achieve those dreams.”
Anna sighed. Together, they’d save his people. With Des’s help, she’d become even more than she imagined possible of herself. “When do we leave?”
“We need to leave tonight before dawn.”
“Your people need so much. I own some things that might help. Can we bring them?”
“If it will fit in a four meter square floor area and won’t be missed, we can take it.”
“Everything that would be missed already got packed and labeled for those I want to give it to. I wanted to save Andy the stress of having to decide. I planned on giving most everything else to charities. What do you need the most?”
Desvren smiled sheepishly. “We need food. We foolishly let Agri-farm take low priority for a while, until we realized our mistake. We have used all of our stockpiled rations. Our food processors need essential vitamins and minerals. My people feel so discouraged, depressed, overwhelmed, and weak that farm labor lies beyond their current abilities. They require nourishment to recover. Plus, we need metal, any type of metal.”
“Why would agri-farm be a low priority? Everyone needs to eat.”
Des sighed. “We once had huge stockpiles of food set aside. Before, we left our home planet on this mission. Our population numbers dropped by sixty percent in the previous hundred and fifty annuals, and our infrastructure fell into terrible disrepair. Our power plants, our transportation grids, our protective electrical fields on the clan houses dropped to only eighteen percent being fully operational. Our roads, our dams, our water cisterns, and filtration systems required major restoration. We needed to choose to either fix them or lose them forever. Having the technology doesn’t matter, if you can’t maintain the operation of it. Since, we at that time possessed food stockpiles, we voted to put agri-farm on low priority and concentrate on repairing our infrastructure.”
“The planet’s infrastructure had recovered back up to sixty-three percent operational, when we left on this mission. Our clan concentrated on repairing our satellites, laser array communication systems, and our maton gates. Without them in good working order this mission could not succeed.”
“Only the Ladreti Khwa remained fully operational. No other option existed. We needed to use her. But, as a clan generation ship, she needs over two-thirds of those who volunteered for the mission just to man the vital ship stations. No one remained to work agri-farm. Some food still existed in the stockpile, when we landed on the moon. But, the ship sustained damage traveling through your solar systems outer asteroid belt. We went onto partial rations hoping to finish repairing the ship before the stockpile of food ran out. The damage turned out to be more severe than we suspected.”
“We re-assigned those with agri-farm trade back to harvesting. But, by then, many had become weakened from the time on partial rations. As spacemanship clan; few of us work as agri-farmers. The incoming harvest failed to be enough to reinstate full rations. We now live day to day. The only food available is what we manage to harvest daily. Most of the crew has grown too weak to harvest and the stockpile of food no longer exists.” Des’s shoulders slumped.
Anna gave Des a reassuring hug. “We have till dawn. Let’s empty my cupboards. If we leave just a couple of small things, my brother will just think that I needed to go shopping.” So, they started packing.
“Where should I put it, Desvren?” Anna asked when she filled the first box. She felt amazingly good; energetic, full of life, healthy.
Des shook his head slowly. “Don’t be fooled by the way you feel. I only beat the disease back in its progression and restored your vitality. I need others to help me totally eradicate the disease from your system and to rejuvenate you. The boxes need to go outside where I arrived on the metal sheet on the ground. Only one transport grid still operates fully. But, it’s a supply carrier, so we need not worry. It easily carries huge amounts at one time. Anything we stack on the metal sheet travels with us.”
It only took them an hour to pack everything including Anna’s tools, silverware, metal pots, pans and bowls. Anna looked at her kitchen clock. “Desvren, five hours remain before the sun rises. A twenty four hour grocery store stays open not twenty five minutes away from here. I think we should go shopping, use up my emergency cash and the grocery money I withdrew a couple of days ago. Would vitamin pills help?”
“Yes, vitamin pills put into the food processor allow it to make a lot of nutritious food. Would your brother miss your cash?”
“No.” Anna began collecting her hidden stashes, two hundred from under the sink. “He’d give me a lecture, if he knew how much money I hid in the house. I planned to put it all in the bank this week to keep it from getting lost when I died. I rather like the idea of spending it myself.” She went into the bedroom and dug into her shoe rack. Ah… good five hundred and fifty. “So are we going shopping?” Anna snatched the cash up and grabbed her blankets on the way out of the closet. She stuffed them in the top of the box Desvren held.
Desvren laughed and turned sideways. “I’d look out of place, love.”
“Well, at this ti
me of night not many people go out. But, you’d definitely make an impression on anyone we met. Such a handsome tail and it looks so nice on you. You know you’re a fine specimen. Wide shoulders, good height, a little thin though; you need some special love and care, sweetheart.” Anna reached up and brushed her lips on his scaled cheek. She ran her fingers down his cheek to the ridged suit that came up his neck and wrapped over the top of his head. “Is this an Isadi Suit like you told me about the first time? Do you need to wear it all the time?”
Des laughed again. “I have so much to tell you. So many questions to answer, that we Golsidans never even think about. Every Golsidan wears an Isadi suit, all the time. It wasn’t always so. When we first created Isadi suits, they only got used for space exploration, work on our moon installations, and on planet Isadiea.”
“But you must understand, we Golsidans come from a predominately jungle world. We have always lived in either equatorial or temperate zones. Before traveling into space, we never endured temperatures below fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit. Only on rare occasions did we experience any temperature below seventy degrees. Sadly, our people often used to die young from temperature shock until we made the Isadi suits. The suits saved many lives, and we used them more and more often to prevent unnecessary deaths. For a long time we remained unaware that our temperature intolerance occurred because of a genetic flaw that strengthens with each generation. Every time, the Isadi Suits saved a life, it meant that the next generation became parented by someone with a genetic flaw. At six generations twenty-nine percent of the population needed to wear Isadi Suits all the time. After ten generations, it jumped to seventy-nine percent. By the twelfth generation, every Golsidan required the use of an Isadi suit all the time. Now, we must break free of our dependence on Isadi suits. We know not when it will become possible to harvest more Isadi blood. The blood that now remains in our suits operates weakly causing the suits themselves to drop down to twenty-seven percent of their normal temperature regulation efficiency. Now, with the suits weakened capabilities, Golsidans are once again dying from temperature shock. We need to adapt or our race will completely die out.”
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 2