by Gini Koch
Something nudged at me. “Were Christopher and Amy into it, too?”
“Yeah, all of us,” Claudia said.
“No one was whining about having to wait, or being bored, or wanting to get onto the planet?”
Both girls shook their heads. “Why are you asking this?” Lorraine hugged me. “Everyone’s fine. The kids are in great hands. Malcolm and Benjamin are both there. You know they aren’t going to let the kids slip off.”
“And Mister Gadhavi’s on guard,” Claudia added.
Algar was also there and Jamie had ACE inside of her. And neither entity was sending me a warning signal. Unless, of course, the feeling that something was wrong was the warning signal. So that could be from ACE or it could just be that I was worried about Wruck and transferring it to the kids. Not definitive.
There was an easy way to tell if Algar was trying to tell me something. Dug into my purse and opened my music. Foreigner’s “Girl On The Moon” was queued up.
“Crap.” Took off at hyperspeed. I’d been a sprinter and hurdler when I ran track, and I was definitely going as fast as possible right now.
Jeff caught up to me. “What’s wrong?”
“I think Jamie’s already on the damn moon.”
“How? I haven’t gotten anything from her. Or Charlie. Or Lizzie, either.”
“She can block emotions from you, Jeff. She’s done it before, usually to protect you, when we’re in a big battle situation. But right now . . .”
“Right now she’s bored and there’s this magical place right in front of her. Got it.”
We reached the observation lounge. Sure enough, though Lizzie and Charlie were both here, Jamie wasn’t. And no one seemed to notice—not Siler, not Buchanan, and not Gadhavi.
Was about to start screaming my head off when I saw Algar. He wasn’t joining in with the game that had everyone entranced, he was still staring out the window. Ran over to him. “Ard Ri Al, have you seen my daughter?”
He turned to me. “Indeed I have, lassie. She’s got your little laddie. She’s a wonderful big sister.”
“She is, yes, but I mean Jamie, not Lizzie.”
“Ah, yes. I’ve seen her, too.”
“Where is she?” Jeff growled.
Algar smiled. “Showing that she’s her mother’s daughter.” He nodded out the window.
We both turned and looked. There was Jamie, a golden version of her, at least, holding Wruck’s hand and skipping down the street. They were with Fathade and the others and Jamie was being introduced, at least as far as I could tell.
“How?” Jeff asked. “How did she get out of the ship, let alone get the suit?”
“No idea, Jeff, but she moved herself from New Mexico to D.C. to save us and Christopher from a crashing Z’porrah spaceship before she was six months old. That she could do this at six years shouldn’t surprise either one of us.”
“It should not, no,” Algar said. “So, the question is—do you wait, or do you join her?”
Looked right at him. “Pardon us for wanting to be sure this planet was safe.”
He shrugged. “Caution is good. Boldness is good, too. Especially when meeting a new race. You were bold while the ship was flying, lassie. Why be timid now?”
“Not wanting to get radiation poisoning, for starters.”
“Ah, but the amazing race you see before you seems confident they can protect you.”
“People have been wrong before,” Jeff said.
Algar nodded. “They have, indeed. However, your princess is doing the job the king and queen should be.”
“Oh, blah, blah, blah. Good rulers ensure that their subjects aren’t exposed to danger for no good reason.”
“True enough,” Algar said. “The Anciannas has done the main test. Your princess has done the other.”
“We won’t know if she’s gotten radiation poisoning until it’s too late,” Jeff said, sounding ready to break through the glass.
Algar sighed. “Laddie, really. You worry far too much.”
“Yeah? Then, tell me, Ard Ri Al, how do we score the special suits? Fathade didn’t leave any extras.”
“Didn’t she?” Algar asked, looking amazingly innocent.
“Oh my god, fine. We’ll go see if she did. Thanks for the assist.” Grabbed Jeff’s hand and started back, once again at a run.
“What’s going on?” he asked me. “I mean with the Ard Ri?”
“He’s a jerk. But he tends to be right.” We got back to the airlock. “Gustav, close the outer door. That’s an order.”
“But John is not back,” he said, sounding confused.
“Dude, just do it before Jeff loses it, okay?”
“She’s not kidding,” Jeff growled.
Drax clearly didn’t understand what was going on, but he did as requested. As the outer doors, which opened out, closed, they pushed a bunch of the metal balls inside the airlock. Whether they were from Fathade’s group or Algar I neither knew nor cared. The inner doors closed and the airlock did its other thing, whatever that was. All I knew was that it took time, and my little girl was wandering around this moon potentially killing herself.
Jeff grunted. “I wonder how he knew.”
“Lucky guess is my guess,” I lied. “Or else he saw them carrying more than one in or whatever. Maybe Jamie told him, since he was the only one aware she was gone. Who knows? Who cares? We just need to get in there and then out there.”
“Excuse me, what?” Reader asked, sounding ready to give a safety lecture and tell us we weren’t going anywhere.
“Stow it, James. Jamie’s out there already, with Wruck. We’re going out, period. Pull rank later, it’s our daughter.”
“And my goddaughter.” Reader was fully in Commander Mode. “I won’t stop you, but I am going with you.”
“There’s enough for all of us it looks like,” Claudia said. “Let’s all just go.”
“I agree,” Chuckie said.
“Dude, why are you so gung ho about all this? I mean it—you’re normally far more cautious and James is normally far more willing to go for it. It’s like were on the Role Reversal Moon or something.”
He shrugged. “I just think that, based on their past experiences, these people know what they’re doing. They shut themselves off because of a couple of bad encounters in recent times—well, recent for them, older for us, they’re a very long-lived race—but they used to have visitors from other worlds, and they were all able to be here safely.”
“Airlock is ready,” Drax said.
“Into the breach,” Tito added. “And yes, I’m going, as her doctor. And because I’m with Chuck on this one.”
“Let’s rock and roll,” was my contribution as I ran in and grabbed a golden ball.
“Whatever,” the Kristie-Bot said. “All I know is that your daughter’s totally amazing. I can’t wait for the Code Name: First Daughter spinoff series.”
“Be careful, Kristie, or I’m going to ensure we leave you on this moon.”
CHAPTER 60
FORTUNATELY, I’d experienced something like this in Bizarro World, so the feeling of this metal stuff going all over me wasn’t too bad. It coated my purse, but as a separate thing from me somehow, so I could move it around and even take it off. Hoped that it was coating any Poofs that happened to be On Board, too, but didn’t stop to look—the Poofs were from the Black Hole Universe and therefore probably immune to whatever. Jamie wasn’t.
A part of me figured Jeff and I were just overreacting. ACE hadn’t screamed a warning, Algar had seemed beyond calm and amused, and Chuckie clearly already felt things were safe. Wruck must have, too, since he hadn’t grabbed Jamie and run her back to the ship.
But we were still parents and, until I could verify that there was nothing threatening my child, I was going to do whatever I needed to in orde
r to ensure that nothing could or would hurt her, including things she might do to herself.
Stiffened as the metal got to my face, but it really wasn’t all that bad. Managed not to panic as it went into my mouth, nostrils, and ears. Could feel it coat the inside of my nostrils, my mouth, teeth, and tongue, but it didn’t go down my throat—instead it created a kind of filter at the back of my mouth just behind my tongue. It was weird but I tried swallowing saliva—no issues. So I could both make saliva and swallow it.
The coating on my eyes was different. It didn’t hurt or blind me, even though I could feel it contour all around my eyelids and such. But it hooked onto my eyelashes, creating a bubble. If you closed your eyes, there was a little extra line of gold on your lashes—verified this by looking at Jeff. Open your eyes and the gold covered your eyeballs just like goggles, goggles that couldn’t slip.
“This is . . . odd,” Jeff said, as I did a fast check to see if I could open my purse—I could and things were coated and I saw no Poofs. “But not terrible.”
Noted that, even all golden, he was still amazingly handsome. Good to know my libido was doing its best to keep me calm.
“It’s like magic,” the Kristie-Bot said.
“Any advanced science always is,” Chuckie replied. “And yes, this appears to be scientific, or natural, based on how this world operates.”
“Is everyone covered?” Jeff asked. “We need to get to Jamie and Wruck.”
Everyone was, so Drax opened the airlock. Seemed to take forever before the outer doors opened, but they finally did. Jeff grabbed my hand and we ran down the newly formed hallway between our ship and the big building. His hand didn’t feel normal, but it didn’t feel bad, either. If I thought of this as a metallic bodysuit, it felt almost normal.
“If she’s alright, do we punish her?” Jeff asked as we ran along.
“Not sure, honestly. We’re not clanging, do you notice?”
“Yes. I have no idea why not. I’m a lot more focused on Jamie’s safety right now, baby.”
“I know. Me too. I just noticed the lack of noise. Maybe what’s in our ears is blocking the sound?”
“I can hear you perfectly, so I doubt it.”
We reached the end of the corridor. The filigree-over-wires person was waiting there. “I am Serion. I did not realize that you would all be coming out so quickly—John Wruck did not give us that indication.” The voice was midrange, could be male or female. Around here, went with it not mattering. Then again, maybe it mattered very much. Decided I had bigger things to stress over.
“Hi, Serion, I’m Kitty, this is Jeff. Sorry we surprised you, but I think our daughter is with Fathade.” I hoped, anyway.
“She was supposed to wait,” Jeff added, “but hasn’t and we’re a little worried about her.”
“Ah, young ones. Come with me.” Serion turned and led us to what looked like a solid wall. Serion waved a hand and the wall parted, as if it was the doorway to the Red Sea.
“That is a neat trick.” Was relieved to discover that the golden goggles acted like sunglasses. I didn’t even have to squint against the sun’s reflection on the moon.
Serion smiled at me. “It’s just how our world works.”
Even though Jeff and I were ready to go at hyperspeed, calmer heads prevailed, since we had no idea if we could go that fast here and we also had no idea if hyperspeed would make Serion sick. So, while we hustled off to find Jamie, Serion got introduced to the others. Chuckie point-blank asked Serion what pronoun to use. Serion identified as nonbinary, but said that for our language, it would be fine to go with him. Or her. Whichever we preferred, since Serion had no preference.
Decided I’d go with she, since I found Serion’s filigree quite pretty. Serion was flattered by my reasoning, so I had that going for me, which was nice. Since Serion appeared to like it, the others went with she as well.
Thusly pronouned up, we reached the others. Jamie was on Wruck’s shoulder looking around and apparently having the time of her sparkly gold life. She saw us coming and beamed, both literally and figuratively.
“Mommy! Daddy! The Cradi are so nice and isn’t Cradus just the prettiest place you’ve ever seen? I can’t wait to show Charlie, Lizzie, Wasim, and the other kids around!”
Jeff sighed. “Okay, can’t be mad at her, can I?” he asked me quietly.
“No, not really. I think we need to have a talk with her, but in private.”
Wruck lifted Jamie off his shoulder and handed her to Jeff. “I don’t know how she got out here, but her Moon Suit is on properly.”
“It’s not your fault, John,” Jeff said. He gave Jamie a stern look. “You know you should have waited, Jamie-Kat.”
She hugged him. “I’m sorry, Daddy. But we were hurting their feelings. And scaring them just a little.” She dropped her voice. “They’re still worried that we didn’t come here to be friends. And they’re so nice, I didn’t want them to be afraid any longer.”
Jeff and I looked at each other. “Oh?” Jeff asked. “I didn’t feel anything like that.”
“It’s harder for you to feel here, I think,” Jamie replied. “But it’s not for me and Fairy Godfather ACE.”
Realized that ACE had likely given me the unsettled feeling and Algar the musical cue to get us out here faster. Took Jamie from Jeff and gave her a hug and kiss. It felt weird but not in a bad way to kiss her with the Moon Suits on. “You scared us, Jamie. You know that you promised to stay with the others.”
“I know. But I had to. It was the right thing to do.”
Hugged her again. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, why don’t you introduce us to everyone?”
“Okay!” Jamie squirmed out of my arms and trotted over to who I was thinking of as Fathade. “This is Fathade.” Scored one for the guessing win column, go me. “She’s one of their leaders!” Jamie turned to her, put her palms together like she was going to pray, but put them forward, as you would if you were going to shake hands. “Fathade, these are my parents, King Jeffrey and Queen Katherine.”
So Wasim and Gadhavi hadn’t been wrong. Or else Jamie had felt that they were right. But, either way, Fathade seemed very pleased by our titles. She took Jamie’s hands in both of hers. “We are pleased to meet them, Princess Jamie.”
Went to her and offered the paws in the same way Jamie had, because I was really clear that our child was giving us the Hint For The Parentally Slow Of Wit.
Fathade took my hands in hers, just as she had with Jamie. “It is an honor to meet you, Queen Katherine of Earth.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Fathade, Leader of Cradus.” Well, I had nothing else to go with since I wasn’t sure what title she actually had. “I prefer that my friends call me Kitty, I’m one of the people you were talking to when we were in space.”
Fathade smiled. “I guessed.”
Laughed. “Good. This is my husband, King Jeffrey.”
Jeff did the handclasp thing and he and Fathade did the formal intro. “I prefer Jeff,” he said when they were done. He nodded to Chuckie. “This is Charles, the other person you were speaking with.”
Chuckie did the intro thing, and so it went down the line. This took what seemed like forever. Was starting to come around to the idea of being really glad that Jamie had jump-started this whole exchange.
In addition to Serion and Fathade we met the C-3PO person, who was named Sciea, identified as having shifting gender, preferred the male pronoun, and was Serion’s sibling, Feoren, who was the male humanoid, emphatically took the male pronouns, and was mated with Fathade, and the Terminator, who was Cavus, identified as asexual, and preferred being referred to by name only.
We also were told that they called their sun Crion and that they’d been around for many millennia. They knew of the Anciannas and the Z’porrah, which was why they’d been relieved that Wruck was with us. They were
on the side of the Anciannas, but preferred noninvolvement.
Tito carried an OVS—an Organic Validation Sensor, created due to the plethora of androids we’d discovered once we’d been moved to D.C.—with him at all times. It verified who was and wasn’t human or A-C, as well as what percentage organic someone was. Had no idea how it was managing to work on this world and with us all covered in metal, but he felt confident that none of us were being poisoned by radiation.
“Now,” Jeff said pleasantly, once all the intros and verification of us not being poisoned were concluded, “why don’t you folks tell us why you allowed us to land on your world?”
“You wanted to,” Fathade said.
It was interesting. I’d already known she wasn’t good at lying. But none of them were. They were all looking at their feet, around, anywhere but directly at Jeff. So, they might be mostly metal and wiring, but they were definitely people.
Coughed. “Pull the other one, it has bells on.”
“Excuse me?” Cavus said. “I don’t understand you.”
“So few ever do. Look, you guys were doing everything in your power to scare us into going away. We didn’t scare. You still wanted us gone. Right up until you determined that we were on a rescue mission of some kind. Then, out of the blue, you wanted us to land. It doesn’t take genius to guess that you need help with something.”
The five of them shuffled their feet and tried to look casual. Chuckie laughed. “I wonder if they have A-C blood in them somewhere.”
“Right? It’s so cute.”
Reader chuckled. “True enough. Folks, we’re on a schedule. At least, we think we are. If we can help you, we’d be happy to do so. If we can’t, we need to determine where the people are who do desperately need our help and get to them. So, please stop stalling—the clock’s ticking.”
They still didn’t look like they wanted to answer.
Jeff sighed. “Why are you hesitating? We’re asking you what you need. Now isn’t the time to be coy.”
Still nada. Whatever this was, they were as scared of it as they were of us.
Thought about what Fathade had warned us about when we were landing, and also about Lizzie’s comment about it. “What’s the orange stuff, besides not native to your planet, and why is it dangerous?”