by Gini Koch
White nudged me, but I already knew what to say. That is a wonderful gift. I am honored and I will accept it with much joy.
The ground in front of me rose up and formed into a large ball of gray metal. This is part of me and carries my essence inside of it.
Thank you. I will guard it carefully.
No need, though I appreciate the sentiment. It cannot be harmed or destroyed.
Really?
Really. Even if the metal disappears, my essence will still be there.
Wow. Who knew that a moon could be so philosophical?
Another ball appeared next to the metal one, this one swirling colors of red, yellow, and orange yet mostly insubstantial. It encircled then entered the metal ball. This is a gift from Spehidon. It is her essence as well. She gifts it to you for your willingness to try to find people for her. And, as with my essence, hers cannot be destroyed.
Thank you both. The ball of metal flowed into my hand and reformed as a ball. It divided into several balls, then reformed as one. Wow again.
Cradus chuckled. You have seen this already, more than this really, and this small thing amazes you?
It does. It’s a part of you both, sitting in my hand. You and Spehidon are both amazing.
We are pleased you find us so. Now what will you do?
Figure out where the other people are who need help, go to them, and help them.
You leave us so soon? Cradus sounded sad, which was sweet.
We’ll be here until we can determine where we need to go. But I would love to visit again, if we could.
You and your people who have come to visit me are always welcome here. Should you need to leave your home and find a new one, you will always have a place with me. As will any you choose to bring with you.
We’d gotten that offer from Hixxx, too. Nice to know we were winning friends and influencing people on this trip. That is a generous offer, and we appreciate it very much.
We appreciate your efforts to help, both us and others. Spehidon and I will enjoy you while you are here and miss you when you are gone.
And we will do the same.
Felt a warmth in my mind, very similar to how ACE hugged me, and then it was gone. But I still had the ball of metal that was also part of Cradus and Spehidon. And that was the best souvenir a girl like me could hope to score.
CHAPTER 70
WE ALL LOOKED AT EACH OTHER. “Well, that was reminiscent,” Gower said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone that deep in my mind.”
“Do you miss ACE?”
He smiled. “Every day. But I think he’s better in Jamie.”
“Another friend made, Missus Martini. I’m happy to see that you’re keeping your record intact.”
“Doing my best, Mister White. So, how do we tell the others what we just did?”
“Straight out,” Gower said. “This isn’t . . . the other guy.”
“Nightcrawler calls him the DJ.”
Both men stared at me. “Benjamin knows of . . . the DJ?” White asked, sounding shocked.
“Um, sorta? He’s figured out that someone’s helping me, he’s guessed that you two know who it is, but beyond that, he’s not ‘there’ yet. The DJ appears to be enjoying the challenge. And, yeah, Nightcrawler’s the first person in, I think, ever, to get this far on his own. The DJ seems impressed and amused, not ready to smite.”
“Well, that’s good, I guess,” Gower said. He stood up and helped White up, then me. Kept a hold of SuperBun. “So, who’s staying on Cradus?” he asked the rabbit.
The pregnant females and their mates, which made up about five hundred of SuperBun’s people. He was pleased that they’d reached person status with us.
Snuggled him. “You’re awesome. Of course you’re at people status, I told you that on Nazez and I meant it. Hope those who are already attached to the rabbits that are staying on Cradus find other bunnies to attach to.”
SuperBun felt that this would not be a problem.
Kissed the top of his head, then let him down. He hopped off to share the good word about what was coming.
“Nice to hear the rabbits without you having to interpret,” Gower said. “Think that’ll last?”
“No bet, but I think the Nazez black water has to be as guarded as Cradus. Possibly more so.” The men nodded, and the three of us headed back. “We can’t let the Cradi know. They have no gods and Cradus approves of that.”
“I agree,” White said. “My advice would be to ‘suggest’ your island idea and that some of the rabbits will remain, and allow them to believe it’s they who are creating the island, not Cradus himself.”
Considered this. “It’s a good idea. Shouldn’t we just, maybe, tell everyone that?”
Both men stopped walking. “You want to lie to the others about this?” Gower sounded shocked out of his mind.
White, on the other hand, was clearly considering the pros and cons. “I understand Missus Martini’s thought process on this.”
“Making you the Army of One as always, Mister White.”
He chuckled. “Well, others ‘get you’ as well. However, you won’t be able to explain the gift you received, and while the Cradi may not care—or may care very greatly—that you’re taking part of their planet with you, our people will not stop asking about it until you share the why and the how.”
“Good points as always. But speaking of that, let’s put it away in a safe place.” Placed it carefully in my purse, which I had refused to not have with me regardless of where we were or what we were doing because I was experienced by now and, peaceful world or not, not having my purse along was really tempting the cosmos a bit too much. It made the purse heavier, but in the Moon Suit, I barely noticed.
Did notice the envelope that I’d shoved in there while I was still in the White House. Probably needed to take a gander at whatever it was that Algar had given me. And I hadn’t asked Serene what she’d dropped into my purse when we were on Nazez, either, nor had I looked for it. Well, I’d empty out my purse when I had a little downtime, but right now, I was still on vacation.
We rejoined the others and Gower did indeed get to swim with Reader. We spoke quietly with those who just had to know where we’d gone and why, but not everyone cared, which was fine with me. Those who did care were both shocked and kind of thrilled to know we were in a sentient solar system—those who were comics geeks such as myself in particular—and everyone agreed not sharing this with the Cradi was Job One and not sharing it with anyone with us who didn’t care until we were off the moon was Job Two.
Had a talk with Team Tinman, all of whom were interested in Cradus as a world and fascinated and excited in him as a sentient being. They spent some time communing with Cradus, and he didn’t seem to mind. No one spoke with Spehidon, though. Per what Butler told me, her mind was too vast and could harm ours, so Cradus did the go-between, just as he’d done when White, Gower, SuperBun, and I were chatting with them.
Suggested my brilliant idea of creating Orange Island to the Cradi and they thought it was a great plan. They were very grateful that so many rabbits were staying and promised to ensure that the rabbits could leave Orange Island whenever they wanted or needed to. Chose to drop the Scourge part of the name, since it was now a place my bunnies were hanging out and they were not scourge-worthy.
Once that was accomplished, we slipped right back into Cradus Vacation Routine, with swims to Orange Island added in for those with the stamina. With Wruck, Drax, and Fathade back, Team Astrogator—which still made me think of Alliflash and Gigantagator in spacesuits—was stronger, and they continued to make progress on narrowing down our likely area to find Kreaving.
On the third day after the chat with Cradus, just as we were coming back from the morning’s time at the beach, we got the good word. Time to start saying good-bye.
Mother wante
d to do some last-minute fiddling with herself and her programs with some of the Cradi assisting—in no small part to prevent anyone else from taking her over again—and Drax and Hacker International assured us that she wasn’t trying to HAL it up, so we took advantage of our last few hours on this world. I put in a personal request to Mother and Fathade, which they said they felt they could do, so that was nice.
Feoren took all of us on one more tour of the light side of Cradus and, as a treat, let us see a tiny bit of the dark side. It was indeed much colder and it was hard to see, but it was still neat to see waterfalls of rubidium and mercury flowing over lead mountains and going into a series of lakes and lagoons that surrounded golden islands with platinum beaches. None of this had been visible when we were coming in to land. Was kind of sad that we weren’t going to be here long enough to see everything on the other half of Cradus, but duty called.
“I want to come back again,” Jamie said, as we all went one last time to the beach, so that those who’d solved the Star Map Mystery would be able to have a last swim, too. The older kids swam out to Orange Island to give the rabbits the heads-up that we were getting ready to go.
Charlie nodded enthusiastically. “I like it here.” Then he smiled. “But we’ll like it other places, too.”
“Have you been talking to Ixtha in your sleep, my little man?”
“Yes, Mommy. She was scared we weren’t coming. But I told her we had to make stops along the way. She understands.”
“Good.”
Beach time wasn’t too long—once the older kids were back from Orange Island, we packed up. Then we went to get the rabbits that were traveling on with us.
Feoren made a bridge of silver from the beach to the island. Several hundred rabbits hopped over, SuperBun and Peter in the lead. Noted that all the rabbits that had attached to people on the Distant Voyager were traveling on with us, which was nice, and they all ran to “their person” which was nicer. Picked up SuperBun and Peter and gave them snuggles.
I wasn’t the only one with multiple rabbits, either. Lizzie, for example, had five rabbits she was carrying back to the ship.
Chose not to complain or make a joke—she hadn’t been allowed pets until she’d moved in with us, first because her parents were those Russian spies and then because her adoptive father was an assassin. Pets slowed you down. Proved by the fact that Lizzie wasn’t moving too quickly, so she wouldn’t drop a bunny.
Jeff heaved the sigh of a man who knows he’ll never stop living in a zoo, picked up Charlie, who had his bunny clutched in his hands, went to Lizzie, and took two of the rabbits from her. “Let’s not drop them, Moon Suits or no Moon Suits.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks.”
Handed Peter to Jamie so I’d have a free hand to hold hers with. She snuggled Peter. “Thank you for sharing Peter with me, Mommy.”
“Oh, I imagine we’ll have plenty of bunnies to share, sweetie.” Not that I planned to share SuperBun.
Who nuzzled me. He didn’t plan to be shared, either.
Out of all of us, and unsurprisingly, Team Tinman didn’t want to leave the most. Offered to let them stay. Joe and Randy opted out because of their families, and Maurer did the same. “This is a wonderful place,” Maurer said. “But without my mother and children, it would hold no joy for me.”
“Ditto, and you know it,” Randy said. Joe nodded.
“Hey, I had to ask. I mean, some of the rabbits are staying, so it was only fair to ask you guys. Kristie?”
“Oh, I love this world and adore Cradus himself. But I’m not missing the Code Name: First Lady premiere for anything.”
“Seriously?” Joe asked. “You love it here and it’s a place where you fit.”
She shrugged. “I fit everywhere, it’s how I moved up the ranks as a reporter. Don’t get me wrong—I want to come back. I just don’t want to live here. My home is Earth, the galaxy is my playground.”
Made the gag face and the gag sound. She laughed and punched me in the arm, but gently. Realized with a form of horror that we were friends. Oh well, I had weirder friends and friends who had started out far more antagonistically to me than the Kristie-Bot, after all.
“John?” I asked Butler, who’d been quiet and looked contemplative.
“No,” he said slowly. “This place is wonderful but . . . it’s not where I fit.” He smiled at me. “I need to help and protect. I do that with you. I’m happy with things as they are.”
“Good to know you’re all coming with us. I’d have missed you if you’d said you were staying, even Kristie. Sorta.”
She snorted. “You can’t get rid of us that easily.”
Team Tinman sorted out, now it was time for the tearful good-byes. The only saving grace was that, after the first excursion, the rest of our animals had had zero interest in Cradus and had remained in the Distant Voyager lounging around and whining at us whenever we came in to sleep at night. But it saved some time now. Not that much, though, since we had a hundred people and several hundred rabbits all saying good-bye to every Cradi we’d ever met.
Went as quickly as it could. It was really hard to say good-bye, though, in no small part because it had been so relaxing here. The Cradi gave us gifts—containers of each of the elements of their world, copies of their star maps, some Orange Scourge for the rabbits, although this was put into a lead container, and little works of metal art, including replicas of each of those we’d spent the most time with, like our own set of amazing metal action figures.
The nicest thing for me was that I didn’t feel guilty about having the ball of Cradus and Spehidon in our rooms, since the Cradi had given us some of their world anyway.
Mother had a cargo hold, so we were able to put all the gifts inside of that and have the hold do the airlocking stuff without any of us inside, which saved us a good hour at least. Then we went down the tunnel one last time.
Last hugs for Fathade, Feoren, Sciea, Serion, and Cavus. Into the airlock in groups so that the rabbits could get inside, too. As per Cradus’ promise, they didn’t need to remove their Moon Suits. As the air changed, the rabbits changed, too, and went back to their normal colors and fluffy fur.
We went into the airlock in the last group. “Thank you for the best family vacation we’ve ever had,” I said as I hugged the five of them one more time.
“Thank you for saving us and for the gift of your companions,” Fathade replied. “You have renewed our faith in others in the galaxy.”
“Oh, don’t be too trusting. There are a lot of bad people out there. There are a lot of good ones, too. We will be back, and I know Chuckie gave you guys a long sign-countersign procedure to follow to verify if someone’s really representing us, right?”
“Yes. Charles was quite clear.”
“Good. Follow that. We’ll be back and we’ll figure out how to really put protection onto this system so no one can come in and decide they want your world and just take it from you.”
“We await your return with great joy,” Fathade said formally. She extended her hands to me palms together.
By now, I knew what to do. Took her hands in mine. “You will always be in our hearts. And, should you need us, we will come.”
CHAPTER 71
JEFF, JAMIE, CHARLIE, AND LIZZIE all did the same formal good-bye with Fathade. Then we got into the airlock and closed the door. We waved at them through the outer window and they waved back.
We took off our Moon Suits and added our now round, gold balls of personal protection to the large pile. Then we went back inside Mother.
Did the airlock thing one more time. Cavus gathered up the Moon Suits and handed them off to the others. He took one, though, waved it at us, and put it back. The Cradi waved one last time, and left.
We closed the airlock and I went to retrieve the Moon Suit. “Wow, I can’t believe they gave us one of these to keep.”
“But there are a hundred of us here, and five in our immediate family alone.”
“It’s sym-bol-ic.”
“Gotcha.” Tucked the Moon Suit into my purse and then we headed for stations.
Well, first we headed for the observation lounge, so that everyone could take one last look. We stayed there as the moon lifted us up to the top of the highest mountain, letting us see this beautiful world one last time: the metal deer frolicked, the metal birds flew by, and the earth shifted and reformed itself to accommodate us.
But the trip up didn’t take all that long, and now that we were high enough up it was time to get ready to leave for real, and that meant crash couches, not the observation lounge, unfortunately, because we were going to hit escape velocity and, per Hughes, had to hit it strong due to the gravitational pull from Spehidon and Cradus both.
Got the kids and noncommand crew all strapped in. Got the backup command crew strapped in as well, despite their whining. Did three different headcounts to ensure that we hadn’t actually left someone on the planet—no need to do Home Alone: Cradus, after all.
Reassured that everyone was present and accounted for, including all animals, it was time to go back to work.
Tim, Hughes, Walker, Tito, Jeff, and I trooped to the command deck. “Mother, any chance you’ll let Joe, Randy, and Jerry have our seats?” I asked when I arrived.
“No. The command crew stays as is.”
“Figures,” Jeff said, but good-naturedly.
“We have the right coordinates, we’re sure?” Tim asked as we all sat, strapped in, and put the helmets on.
“Yes. There are three solar systems in the area we now feel the distress call came from. We will warp to the nearest one, examine it, and then determine if we have found our goal or move on.”
“Lather, rinse, repeat, gotcha.”
Mother fired up her engines, or whatever she actually did to get moving, and we lifted off. Fast. Far faster than we had on Earth.