by Jean Johnson
Li’eth felt his face heating up, and held up a finger to let his mother know he was considering her offer for longer than the eighteen seconds of lag time between their positions. (Jackie?)
(Yes? Did she tell you something upsetting?)
(Not upsetting, no. My mother wants us to swing by Earth, pick up your and my sister’s families . . . and then see us formally betrothed and married within the two-month period of their visit, when we get back to the Summer Palace,) he told her. (Plus perform a ceremony celebrating our heroic return, which will require another parade in the plazas outside the Palace proper. And blessings ceremonies with the Sh’nai Faith, and probably a round of Trinitist blessings as well, as the second-largest faith . . . a lot of ceremonial stuff, now that we’re no longer going to be suffering under the austerity of full, Empire-wide war. Even without the heroic accolades, Imperial marriages are a fairly big deal, especially when it involves someone of the Imperial Blood when they have the approval of the Eternal Throne.)
(. . . Okay. I can see all that happening. I don’t know if Mother can be away from her governance duties for that long, though,) she cautioned.
(The Empress said it’s been cleared with the Governor of Oceania, which is why we only have two months to get the majority of ceremonies done. Usually it takes closer to six. But she acknowledges we’ve been together for about a year, so it’s clear we already know our minds about it, even if we weren’t bound in a holy Gestalt. That is, if you want to get married.)
(Of course I do. So . . . okay, then. We’ll get married. Just one word of caution: You’d better warn her that my family will expect to have a chance to surf the waters on an alien world,) Jackie reminded him. (And they’ll want to try to coax your family into joining them. I don’t even have to consult with my family to know that’s what they’ll want to do. It’s what I still want to do. You owe me surfing time on V’Dan, and that includes surfing time with my family.)
(I know I do. Actually, I think Balei’in or Mah’nami might join us in trying that,) he replied. (Mah’nami in particular said it sounded intriguing, and she’s normally so wrapped up with her research, it’s hard to get her interested in physical activity. But I’m not sure Ah’nan or Mother will. And Vi’alla will probably flat-out refuse to come . . . not that I’d want her to show up. I still love her, but I can’t yet forgive her . . . and your family does not deserve to have to deal with her.)
(One day, we can forgive her for what she did, when she realizes what she wanted was wrong for everyone,) Jackie told him. Her underthoughts reminded him that they could afford to be generous toward his sister. (But anyway, you’re still talking with your mother. Let her know that I think that’ll be fine. All of it, my family visiting, her generous hosting, the betrothal and marriage, everything she’s asking—as far as I’m concerned, we’re already married, mind to mind. The rest is just pleasing others with a bit of ceremony, and the various governments with a bit of paperwork.)
(That we are, and that it is,) he agreed, and gave his patiently waiting mother a smile. “Jackie says she’s willing to go through a betrothal and marriage V’Dan style.”
(You’ll also get to go through one Terran style; my mother will insist,) she added, listening in as he relayed her agreement. (And yes, I’ll stop paying attention to your thoughts, now.)
Hana’ka gave him a relieved look even as Jackie raised a polite shield wall for privacy between them. “Good. I shall arrange everything on this end. We will not have complete peace, having to blockade the Salik from ever reaching out to the stars again . . . but we will have some peace. And I look forward to greeting Jackie as a Royal Consort—I shall give your sister Vi’alla the option to gracefully bow out of any of the ceremonies that would normally require her attendance. Ah’nan’s approval as the incipient Imperial Heir is all that is really needed, and I know she already likes your partner.”
“Let Vi’alla know that I do love her, Mother,” Li’eth said. “I won’t let her harm my wife or my in-laws with any lingering prejudices, but I do still love her.”
“I am certain she knows that. If she can bring herself to understand and accept that her flawed thinking is indeed flawed, then she will be welcomed back into the Palaces. Until then . . . even if Jacaranda MacKenzie is no longer the Grand High Ambassador, her people will still judge us by how we treat her as well as the rest of them,” the Empress admitted. “I shall not allow our greatest hero in our greatest time of need to be disrespected. Not after all she and they have done to help us save the Empire and the Alliance.”
“I hope Imperial Princess Vi’alla can learn to accept a proper touch of humility in her thoughts, Eternity,” he agreed, resuming the formality her words required. “For myself, I shall do my best to continue to smooth over and strengthen the friendships that are growing between the Empire and the Terrans.”
“Your sister won’t be the last eldest-born to be set aside for the good of the Empire.” His mother sighed. “I would claim I do not know where I went wrong with her, save that she is a fully grown adult. That attitude of hers is entirely on her hands, not mine. Well, enough of her,” Hana’ka dismissed. “I would like to hear from you as the War Prince—even if you are one only for a little while longer—on what you think the Fleet and the Army need to do in the next few months to help expedite the dismantling of the Salik forces. The sooner we get that done, the sooner I can stop wearing the War Crown. The war may be over for you as soon as you return, but I am still responsible for cleaning up the aftermath.”
“Of course, Eternity.”
EPILOGUE
JANUARY 28, 2288, T.S. (TERRAN STANDARD, FORMERLY COMMON ERA)
SEMBER 19, 9508 V.D.S.
EMBER BEACH, WESTERN GROUNDS OF THE SUMMER PALACE
V’DAN
Floating on her he’e nalu—a new one decorated in black shark’s teeth and blue jacaranda flower motifs, a gift from her family—and with her kane at her back, trusting her on gauging the waves riding in toward shore, Jacaranda MacKenzie peered back one last time at the distant ripples in the water, picked one to aim for, and started paddling.
With three moons orbiting this world, V’Neh, V’Yah, and U’Veh, the tides on V’Dan were complex compared to Earth’s. However, the smaller moons of this world did not exert nearly as strong a pull on the rise and fall of the oceans as she would have thought. It had actually surprised Jackie to learn that the max average difference at high tide was only three extra meters, outside of storm surges. Even the height of eclipses only added two more.
Then again, the trio of local moons not only had different masses from Earth’s larger Luna but also different distances than Luna’s in their orbits. Thanks to the inverse-squared law of gravity, the tidal-force tugging of that outermost moon turned out to be a play on its rather apt name of “The Maybe”—V’Dan had more gravitational pull on it than it had on V’Dan. Still, a handful of extra meters was nothing to sneeze at, so they were trying this experiment on a relatively low wave-height day, with the moons spaced out around the planet and barely a meter and a half to the crests at the point where they started to curl over and froth into shore-drenching foam.
The beach here had a steeper slope than the ones at home, not exactly shallow. It lay covered in soft sand somewhere between pink and purple, like a beach she’d seen once in Bermuda. Like that island cove, the water here under the late-summer sun was warm, with enough salt for buoyancy and no inimical life-forms nearby.
Best of all, Li’eth and his family had taken an entire day off just to have a beachside party with Jackie and her family, all of them brought all the way from Earth at the Empress’ insistence. In turn, as she’d expected, Jackie’s family had insisted on bringing longish surfboards and silk-crafted na lei specifically so they could introduce the Imperial Family to the concept of a Hawai’ian beach party.
So far, it was a success. An exhausting success. They’d surfed a good
dozen times so far, but she was out of practice stamina-wise after traveling through space for so long. The trees she aimed for, paddling harder and harder to try to get the longer board with its double load to move, looked nothing like palm trees, and only a few even somewhat resembled the Terran-native trees the V’Dan versions had originally sprouted from, but it was a shoreline; it had waves and sand and bushes and buildings in the distance.
It was just a little hard to get to that shore, hauling their way across the water with only her own arms paddling.
(Aren’t you going to help this time?) she finally demanded. (We’ll get stuck bobbling in the flats instead of riding the waves if we can’t get up to speed.)
(Bright Flower,) Li’eth asked—drawled, really—in the back of her mind. (We are both getting tired, but only physically. Why are you paddling with your arms, when you could be paddling with your mind?)
She lost her rhythm for a few moments. Clinging to the board, blinking a little as a rolling swell lifted them and dropped them half a meter, she blinked. (But . . . that . . . That’d be cheating. Surfing is done with the body, not with telekinesis!)
He pushed at their surfboard with his mind, his skills considerably more practiced than when he had first tapped into them through their bond. (I’m just saying it’d be easier, see?)
Slightly disgruntled because it was easier for psychics of their strength than physically paddling, she sighed, peered behind them again, and guided their shared board into a better angle. Mentally. It was a lot easier, but still . . . mentally. (It’s still cheating.)
(You managed to get my mother into a swimsuit,) Li’eth reminded her. (My mother. Into a swimsuit. Admittedly, it’s a private beach, but still, you got her to come out here. I am going to insist that you use telekinesis to protect her if you can ever convince her to come out on one of these things. Not that I’ll hold my breath.)
(He’e nalu, not “one of these things,”) Jackie insisted, pushing just a little bit more, until the board lifted in back, and stayed up, sliding down the slope of the wave. She grunted, getting to her feet—using a tiny bit of telekinesis to stabilize the board—and balanced while he also managed to get up behind her. Spreading her arms, she clasped his hands when he covered hers, letting her guide their bodies physically as well as mentally. (Remind me to give you a language transfer for Hawai’ian, either tonight or tomorrow. Especially before we get into the Terran betrothal and marital ceremonies. You can impress and surprise my mother by reciting your lineage in Hawai’ian, not just Terranglo, you know.)
(Make it tomorrow night. We’ll need our rest tonight, and tomorrow during the day will be filled with all sorts of Sh’nai ceremonies,) he said, shifting a little with a nudge from her underthoughts, so they didn’t bog down from too much weight near the back of the board. (This is actually a lot of fun . . . I mean, it was fun back on Earth, but here, it’s fun because it’s here. Although I do think the waves are a little weak, compared to our day on that beach back on your world.)
(Look out, little niece coming through!) She shifted their mentally linked weight, twisting them into a cutback near the shoulder of the wave, and raised her hand in a greeting sign at the hard-paddling pair. The surfing move sent them zipping away from Alani and her father Maleko as they paddled seaward to find a wave of their own. Maleko managed to spare his hand for a vague flutter, but it was little Lani-Nani, her foot and leg finally all better, who returned to them the shaka Jackie had given, the hand sign of one surfer greeting and encouraging another as they passed.
Since the waters around here were unknown in terms of surfing quality and concomitant possible dangers, Jackie’s mother Lily—the new matriarch of the family and firmly on vacation from her duties as Lieutenant Governor of Oceania—had insisted that no one go riding the waves without a board-buddy. It was a good call, to Jackie’s way of thinking. She had telekinesis to save herself. Li’eth could borrow hers. The others in her family, who just had to try the local waves, needed to make sure they would have someone close at hand for help in case of a bad wipeout.
Since they were coming in close to the shore, Jackie kicked out the board, cutting back across the foaming crest of the diminished wave. At her partner’s mental urging, she gave in to Li’eth’s “cheating” idea and just turned the board back out toward the open water with a touch of her mind. Using an invisible prow to cut the waves to either side, they surfed outward again, toward the line-up zone of still-rounded waves, to where she could see Maleko and his little girl working to turn their surfboard around to catch a wave of their own.
(Alani has been catching hearts right and left all over the Imperial Court these last three days,) Li’eth offered, catching sight of the young girl’s big grin. (Mostly, I think, because we all never thought her eyes would go back to normal, they’ve been so big and round and adorable every time she’s looked around. She’s teaching us to reappreciate the splendor of our home. Even I’m so used to seeing everything around the Summer Palace that it’s only when I go away and live with the austerity of the military around me that I come back and realize how fancy everything looks.)
(It definitely is different from her home, or mine, or even my mother’s,) Jackie agreed. They slid up near her brother-in-law and niece, and got an exasperated look and a cupped-hand shout from the suntanned kane.
“Hey! That’s cheating!” Maleko called out, before sticking out his hand and poking his thumb down. Like the rest of her family, he’d been given a telepathic transfer of V’Dan while riding in style—or as much style as one of the surviving V’Dan warships could provide—on their voyage here. “Boo! Booooo!”
“That’s what I told him!” Jackie called back, poking her thumb over her shoulder at her partner, who helped balance their board while the incoming waves rolled them up and down a few feet. “He’s the one who wanted to do it!”
“Well, I was gonna offer to race you to shore, but not if you’re gonna cheat!” Maleko shouted back. He grinned at her, teasing, though Jackie didn’t have to see his aura colors to know he was a bit envious that she and Li’eth could stand on their board with confidence in the relative calm of the line-up zone.
“Give us a push, Auntie Lani-Lani!” Alani called out, stretching out her arms. “I wanna fly on the waves!”
“You okay with that?” Jackie asked her in-law. When Maleko nodded, she gave a thumbs-up, and pushed carefully with her telekinesis on their board, front end canted very slightly upward so it wouldn’t catch too badly on the back sides of the swells. It was one thing to “dive” the nose of a surfboard headed offshore, heading into the waves to get past them, but dipping while following them in to the shore could cause problems. A nudge of her mind against Li’eth’s, and he complied as well, shifting to move their own board to make sure they didn’t fall too far behind.
“. . . It’s still cheating!” Maleko called back, shifting carefully if quickly to stand up as they reached the zone where the rolling waves crested and could actually be surfed. “But I’m loving it!”
“I’m letting go!” she called out, and eased back on her telekinetic grip so that gravity and the joint skill of father and daughter could take over. (It has just occurred to me that I could make a modest killing as a supersafe surfing instructor if I ever get kicked completely out of public service.)
(That you could,) Li’eth agreed. (Is that Hyacinth and Ahe coming out for another round?)
Jackie nodded, watching her sister and nephew paddling their own shared board toward the line-up zone. Hyacinth, of course, rode in back as the heavier and more experienced surfer, for all that Ahe towered over her by several centimeters. By rights, Jackie as the more experienced one should have been behind Li’eth, but he was heavier and could rely on the undercurrents of her thoughts to handle the waves with reasonable confidence by now. (Why don’t you take us out with a little telekinetic push since you’re getting the hang of this? At least until we get a li
ttle past the breakpoint, where I can take over.)
(Alright,) Li’eth agreed, and concentrated on actively joining the rolling lines of waves, not just vaguely joining them.
Free to enjoy the ride, she shaded her hand over her eyes while Li’eth guided the board, and peered at the shoreline beyond the waves. Imperial Elites still dotted the cove in their cream, scarlet, and gold uniforms. She felt sorry for them having to stand watch in formal uniforms in the late-summer heat. Ah’nan and her family were down near the waterline, busy with the very important Human beach activity of building sand castles. V’Dan-style castles, but still, castles and other sculptures made out of damp sand.
Jackie’s brother still sat in V’Dan-style beach chairs on the upper beach, talking with Bale’in about something . . . which made her frown in confusion because following in the wake of Hyacinth and Ahe was her mother Lily on a surfboard with a woman in a red swim . . . suit . . .
(That’s my mother!) Li’eth exclaimed, catching sight at the same moment—and lost his mental control of the he’e nalu, pearling the nose under the waves.
Jackie quickly snatched both of them off the flipping board, floating them into a protective bubble. The tethering cord tugged at her ankle from the board trying to tumble away as the crest broke and splashed under the jostling of the mishandled board.
(Sorry—sorry!) he apologized.
(It’s okay, I got us . . .) Untangling the surfboard from the crest, still floating forward, Jackie brought it back under their legs. Both of them sat down on the telekinetically floating board, equally astonished at the sight of the burgundy-marked woman in the matching burgundy suit awkwardly paddling through the incoming waves under the direction of her unexpected surfing buddy. Jackie blinked a few times, then managed a semicoherent thought. (I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing,) she muttered.
(You don’t?) Li’eth questioned. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her as they floated above the waves, neither going back out nor heading in to shore just yet. The sight of the Eternal Empress on a surfboard was just too astonishing. It required actual contemplation to absorb. (My mother is actually having fun. I know it’s a bit shocking, but what could be bad about that?)