Occasionally an “Ooh,” or an “Ahh” would escape me, but I became so engrossed in watching the meteors that I didn’t pay attention to Amira or Jai for a while. I looked over at Amira first and noticed she'd rolled onto her side and was asleep.
I turned my head to the other side. Jai was looking at me with his head propped up on his arm. I smiled at him and nodded my head toward Amira.
“She’s out,” I whispered.
“Yes, she falls asleep anywhere. I do not know how she does it.”
“What do you think so far?” I looked back at the stars.
“I have been watching one of the loveliest sights I have ever seen,” he said quietly.
“Isn’t the sky amazing?” I tried to sort through what he'd said and what I thought he meant. “I could watch it for hours and never get bored. Does that seem crazy?” I glanced at him.
“No.” He propped himself up onto his elbow to look down at me. “Not crazy, but not something I thought people did a lot of either. What is it about the stars and the sky you love?”
I looked into his eyes for a moment while thinking about his question. “Hmm, I think it’s because it's so amazingly big.” I tore my eyes away from his and reluctantly looked back at the stars. “The closest neighbor we have out there is the moon, and the planets of course, but it takes days to get to the moon with our fastest rockets. The planets out there would take months or years. The stars we can see would take us hundreds or thousands of years to get to. The sky has lots out there we don’t know anything about, but it hasn’t changed much. The ancient Greeks and Romans looked at the same stars and made up the stories we tell today.”
When I finally dared to look back in his eyes, I was surprised at his serious expression. He really didn't think I was crazy for my thoughts.
“Do you think there could be life out there somewhere on other planets?” he asked quietly.
“I do.” I rolled onto my side and propped myself up with my elbow to see him better.
“Intelligent?”
“Yes.”
“Green?” he asked.
“No.” I smiled.
“Really? What makes you think there are others out there?”
“Why not?” I shrugged with one shoulder. “Why would God stop here? Why not make more? And besides the fact we humans can be pretty terrible to each other sometimes, I don’t think He would have scrapped this model completely when building those other worlds.”
“Hmm, I never thought of it that way. What if this world was patterned after a different world and was not the first?” he asked.
“I guess that could be the way it happened. It makes sense. What about you? Do you think there is life out there on other planets?” I asked.
“I do.”
“Green?” I asked.
“No. And I am sure they are intelligent,” he said with a small smile.
“And what makes you think so?” I asked, returning the smile.
He rolled onto his back and looked at the sky. “Because with so much space, there has to be something else like Earth somewhere. It is just too far away. You would never find it unless you knew where to look.”
“I wish I knew where to look.” I lowered myself onto my side and rested my head on my arm extended straight on the blanket. “The discovery of other worlds out there would be fantastic.”
“It would be,” he agreed, turning to face me again.
We looked at each other. I couldn’t see him very clearly because it was dark, our only light coming from the stars and the lantern hiding behind the tire, but he seemed to be searching my eyes for something. I didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, but I hoped he wouldn’t find my falling for him in there too easily. Not until I knew how he felt.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw some meteors streaking across the sky, but my eyes never left his. He was so close. The warmth of his breath on my cool cheeks felt amazing.
I’d never kissed a guy before, but I wanted to. How on earth do you go about letting a guy know your interest or gauge his? The biggest relationship I'd been in was in seventh grade and it lasted less than two weeks. Now here I lay, next to someone I’d known for a week, and already I wanted to kiss him. As he watched me, I struggled to find something to say, hoping to sound mature and interesting, but nothing came to mind. At least he looked like he was struggling for words too.
He looked at my hand and reached for it. “I’m glad your burn is better,” he whispered.
“Thanks.”
“No, thank you. You are unbelievably good to us.”
He didn’t let go of my hand and I felt a sudden tingle in my stomach. We intertwined our fingers and looked at each other.
Just then a terrified scream shattered our silence.
Chapter Seven
The Truth
Jai dropped my hand and shot off the blanket and around to the other side. He grabbed Amira as she continued to scream before I even had time to sit up straight. I looked around to see what could have caused her such terror, but saw nothing unusual. Amira started speaking, but her words were foreign to me. Jai placed his hands on her mouth and looked at me quickly before turning his attention back to Amira.
“Hush. Hush,” Jai said quietly as if soothing a child. He held her in his arms, rocking her back and forth. She started to calm down a bit but burst into tears again and sobbed against his chest.
“It is okay.” He continued to rock her. “Just a bad dream. You are safe here.”
“I will never be safe anywhere. He will come for me,” she said through her sobs.
“Shh.” Jai tried to cover her mouth again, but she shook her head, dislodging his hand.
“He won’t stop.”
“He will never find us,” he said, rubbing her back.
“But Shander’s been taking over the kingdom.” Amira shook her head. “He knows we are not on those planets they sent the ships to. He demanded to know where we went. He threatened to kill their families if they refuse him.” She started crying again.
Jai looked over Amira’s head at me as if wondering what to do, but asked, “Was it a nightmare, or a Vision?”
“A Vision.” She wiped her tears with her jacket sleeve. “I had been dreaming of that awful king chaining his daughter to the rock to sacrifice her to the whale. That was a stupid dream. All mixed with images of the stars and real people and whales, but then it shifted. I could feel the cold my father feels. He is in a dark prison cell, and they are feeding him nothing more than broth and pillian.” She paused and shuddered.
“Shander sat on my father's throne. I did not recognize the people surrounding him, but he gave orders. Then it shifted again to the Hall of Science, and he demanded the head scientist find a way for him to find us.” She choked back a sob. “He had just ordered one of his soldiers to…” Amira shook her head.
I sat there stunned, watching Jai hold her as she cried. She’s having visions? Did she say she’s from another planet? I must have heard wrong. I studied Jai closer. He appeared distracted as he tried to calm her again. Like he was making plans. He lifted his head and saw me staring at them. The shock on his face was obvious.
I met his eyes and waited. I would not rush them, but I would find out everything. I already knew so many secrets. I wanted the rest of it.
After a while, Amira’s sobs turned to sniffles, and she sat up straight. Jai let go of her, and she gracefully slid off his lap. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Looking at me, her eyes flew open wide, and she whipped her head back to Jai. “I gave us away?” she asked.
“Yes, you did.” He nodded.
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
Jai stared at her. “I tried. You wouldn’t listen.”
Amira ducked her head as if ashamed, then lifted her head and looked at me. She brushed her hair away from her face then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and straightened her jacket. “Well, perhaps we should fill Holly in on all the details.”
&n
bsp; I looked between the two of them, hoping they wouldn’t suddenly change their minds.
Amira took a deep breath and let it out slowly through pursed lips. “Holly, allow me to introduce my personal bodyguard while here. Jai-M'ien Tennen. He is my mother’s brother’s son, my cousin and my friend.”
I looked at Jai, and he lowered his gaze for a moment, hunching his shoulders as he sighed. Jai straightened up slowly. “I am sorry you are involved in this. There is danger in knowing of us. I should have been more careful. I have forgotten my duties and have made many mistakes, but I vow to do what I can to prevent any harm or distress from befalling you.”
I felt my mouth drop open and shut it. I had no idea what to say.
“Jai,” Amira said softly, resting her hand on his arm. “You are not allowed to take this on yourself. I ordered you to ease up and allow me some freedoms here.” She paused, looking at me thoughtfully. “There is something special about Holly that makes us feel comfortable around her.”
I looked at the two of them as they regarded me calmly. “So let me get this straight,” I said, hoping they'd stop staring at me. “Your father ruled a kingdom? Are you a princess?” It wasn’t really a question; I just wanted her to admit it.
“I am Princess Amira Chan’Leeter Oreon. Next in line to rule my father’s kingdom.” Amira sat up straight as if the title were forcing her to change.
“Where is your father’s kingdom?” I asked. “It can’t be close.” My heart pounded as I thought of her comment about other planets. It was impossible, but I still wished desperately it was true.
Jai moved in front of me, our knees touching. He reached for my hand then stopped and placed his hands in his lap instead. “What we are going to tell you may be hard to believe. I know you are intelligent, and you are also trusting and trustworthy, so please listen to all we tell you and ask any questions you have of us while we are here. Once we leave this mountain, we must never speak of it aloud again.” He stared in my eyes as if trying to read my intentions.
I nodded my understanding.
“We are not from here,” he said, picking up my hand. My heart stopped for a moment at his words and then a second longer at his touch. “You would not be able to see our home even with the most powerful telescopes they have on Earth. You may be able to see light coming from our galaxy, but you could never find our planet in it with your technology. Our galaxy is on one side of the universe, while yours is on the other side. I did some research on the Internet when we first got here. Thus far, your scientists have discovered little about the universe.”
I stared at him as he spoke. The hopes and dreams I’d had as a little girl, of knowing there was life on other planets, were confirmed here and now. I was holding hands and talking with someone from across the universe. “I knew there had to be other worlds out there.”
Jai smiled and squeezed my hand. “Your most powerful telescopes and satellites have been able take pictures of galaxies across the entire universe, but they are thirteen billion light years away. Your scientists figure it has taken more than thirteen point five billion years to create the universe. You are only learning about what happened when the light first left those stars. Our galaxy is nine billion light years away. Therefore, you are seeing us as we looked nine billion years ago. Some day when your technology increases, and your understanding of the universe expands, you will be able to see our galaxy as it is today. Just as we discovered yours.” He squeezed my hand briefly and let go of it. I missed that connection when it was gone.
“Why did you come here? How did you get here?” I asked. “Has your planet discovered how to travel faster than the speed of light? I mean nine billion light years…”
“We came here to protect Amira’s life,” Jai said.
“Why is Amira in danger?” I asked, looking over at her. “What was your vision about?”
Amira closed her eyes and shook her head.
Jai smiled tenderly at Amira. “Amira’s father is the current ruler of our planet. Amira is one of the youngest to be considered for the office of queen because her father became ill a few years ago. When King Chark could no longer fulfill his duties completely, his counselor Shander started doing little things to undermine the government. Then publicly he stepped in to repair the problems he created. No one paid much attention at first, but eventually some began noticing a correlation. We believe he hoped the people would vote him in as the new ruler, stopping the passage of power from following the birth-line.
“When Amira’s father learned about what he had done, he confronted Shander and put a stop to it. Shander talked his way out of it and the king merely put him on probation. I do not understand why he did not banish him from the government.” The annoyance in Jai's voice surprised me.
Amira looked at Jai. “Father hoped he would be sorry for what he had done and wanted to give him another chance.”
“Well, that second chance gave him the idea to try to kidnap you. He wanted to take you as his queen to become king through you,” he reminded her.
“He wanted to marry you?” I asked Amira, disturbed at the idea.
“Yes.” She shuddered.
“The plot was foiled, and the king finally banished Shander and sent Amira into hiding,” Jai said with a nod, giving me the impression he agreed with the king's actions. “Some of his loyal scientists had discovered a way to travel far distances without ships. They already knew much about the planets in our universe. We knew Earth had many similarities, yet is far enough away Shander would never think to search for us here. Your scientists were not as advanced in the knowledge of the universe. Therefore, would not know of us yet. We could hide here without fear of Shander knowing our location.”
“Won’t Shander find out you’re here eventually? I asked.
“It is always a possibility, but we hope not,” he said. “Travel without ships was only recently discovered and limited in availability. King Chark started rumors that he sent Amira to a planet in our galaxy. He even sent multiple ships out as decoys. Our ships are able to move faster than the speed of light, but not fast enough to traverse the universe. If Shander sent ships to try to come here, if they discovered our presence, it would take thousands of years.”
So they didn’t come here in the normal way of spaceships. If you could call space travel normal. It was sounding stranger and stranger all the time, but I still felt he told the truth.
Jai looked over at Amira as he continued. “There is no way to know for sure, but I hope the scientists will send him to one of the other planets and not let him know about the discovery of this new way of Travel.”
Amira replied, “I cannot hope or even want the scientists to allow their families to be injured to protect my secret. I would not hold them responsible for giving Shander the information he wants.”
“How do you travel without ships? How fast can you go?” I had so many questions that it was hard to wait for him to give me the answers.
“It is done through the mind,” he said. “You are matter, as is everything in the universe, with a lot of empty space out there too. You have to understand the way matter interacts with other matter.” Gesturing with his hands, he continued, “You bend your matter around that of the universe. If you know the precise location you want to go, it is easy.”
Amira said, “It also requires an ore found on our planet refined in a special way. The ore is made into a dense metal that helps us hold our matter in close to ourselves. That way we can travel at the speed of thought without losing part of ourselves in the matter of the universe.”
“Do you have it with you?” I asked.
“Amira wears one around her neck. I have one attached to a woven band on my wrist. We call it a Traveling medallion.” Jai and Amira showed them to me.
The mystery of the matching jewelry solved.
“If we lose it, then anyone who finds it can use it if they know the way it works. It only allows Travel twice though. We used it one time to come here. The second u
se will be to return home. Kind of like your roundtrip ticket.” He smiled at his attempt at humor. I smiled in return.
“Can you use it to go somewhere else besides back to your planet?”
“As long as we knew the precise location of where we wanted to go, yes. But we would be stranded in that location with no other way to Travel,” Jai said.
“So if you go home, you’ll never be able to come back here?” I asked.
“Not unless we find more of the ore to make more medallions.” Jai frowned. “With all the testing to see how it worked, there is little left.”
“How did you know where to come here?” It was hard for me to wrap my mind around the whole thing, but it sounded like something wonderful if it was real.
“There had been tests done throughout our galaxy to find another planet with the right specifications. That’s how they learned many of the limits of Traveling. Since nothing in our galaxy fit, we soon started looking in other places. The king sent some loyal friends to come on an experiment trip to see if they could get here, blend in, set up a home, and then come back to our planet and report.”
“Your parents, I mean, Marshal and Delilah are from there too, right? Are they the ones who came here first?”
Jai nodded. “Yes, some of them. Marshal has a talent with computers and technological understanding. He is able to figure out your technologies with almost no effort. He keeps tabs on out of the ordinary information, monitoring whether your scientists or government are aware of us at all. Delilah’s talent is to find precious metals. She is here to find the same kind of ore our Traveling medallions are made of. There was a higher probability, given your planet’s composition, that Earth would have the same ore.
“Has she found any?” I asked.
“No, but she has found gold and silver and some rare gems to finance our stay here,” Amira said.
“The man we spent time with in Europe is also from our planet,” Jai said. “His name is Ramal, and his talent is to learn languages. He came here to read, listen, and observe for a while. He soon knew enough of your languages to teach us.”
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