Genesis

by Lawrence P White

  “Look,” she said pointing, “there’s the moon and the sun. There’s Earth behind us, and it’s even more beautiful than the pictures. And look at all the stars. I didn’t know there would be so many colors.” She turned completely around once again, mesmerized, then she stepped over to Arlynn and put her arms around her. “Thank you. Thank you for this, and thank you for everything else. I wish Mom and Dad could be here.”

  She had passed her first test. Had she been overwhelmed, she would not have been able to stay on the bridge. But now, the bridge crew welcomed her with smiles. Arlynn turned the bridge back to Captain Brower for departure. Emily expected lots of rushing about, reading of checklists, and endless communications with ground controllers. Captain Brower astonished her when he calmly voiced a simple command and the ship moved.

  To Greg’s surprise, the ship did not climb into space. Not yet. They circled the spaceport once, then they headed toward the city.

  Greg turned to Captain Brower to discover a mischievous look on his face. “I hope you don’t mind, Mr. Chairman, but I’m taking a few liberties for Emily’s sake. We don’t get many opportunities like this. A proper introduction to space can have long-lasting benefits.”

  Greg nodded with a grin. “As you will, Captain,” he responded.

  The great ship circled the capital city once, then it headed northeast and came to a stop over Emily’s new home. Arlynn kept up a running explanation for Emily’s sake, pointing out Outreach Center, headquarters of the Alliance, as they floated by, then their own and Kannick’s homes. Captain Brower turned in his seat to search Emily’s eyes with a question. She returned the look, smiled slightly, and nodded her head. He issued a curt command, and the ship lifted. The planet fell away, and in a few brief minutes they were in space. Brower made one orbit of Ariall, again for Emily’s sake as Arlynn kept up a running commentary of what lay below.

  Brower turned once again to Emily with lifted eyebrows. She stood up straight, met his gaze squarely, and gave a slight nod of her head. He spoke a few words, then the ship turned and headed away from Ariall. They were on their way. He formally turned the bridge over to the duty officer, then he stepped to the back of the bridge to join Emily and her new parents.

  Emily stepped forward. Standing tall, she spoke from her heart. “Thank you, Captain. I will never forget this.”

  “You’re very welcome, Emily. On behalf of my crew, and on behalf of the An’Atee, welcome to your new home.”

  “I am home,” she said in surprise. “I like it here.”

  “We’ll make a spacer out of you yet,” he said smiling.

  “Well done, Orman,” Greg added. “Please convey our thanks to the crew.”

  “I will, sir. I hope you don’t mind the slight delay in our schedule. Most of the bridge crew served with me during the Harbok attack. We know the debt we owe you.”

  Greg frowned. “Don’t ever forget that the plan worked because of the steel nerves each of you demonstrated that day. Please convey that message to your crew.”

  “I will, sir.”

  Chapter Eleven

  On the way back to their quarters, Emily asked Greg, “What was Captain Brower talking about when he said they owe you a debt?”

  Arlynn stopped in her tracks. “You don’t know!”

  “Know what?” Emily demanded.

  Arlynn’s eyes lifted to the ceiling in sudden awareness. “Everything!” she said, turning back to Emily. “How Greg rescued me, how he saved all of us, how he became Chairman . . . you do know he’s in charge of all of this, don’t you?”

  When Emily returned a confused look, Arlynn paused, deep in thought. When she turned to Greg, she said, “Have we told her about the medicine we gave her?”

  His look was enough. She turned back to Emily, saying, “Oh, my! We have some talking to do, Emily. Greg, did we bring the movie they made about us?”

  “Movie? About you?” Emily asked, perplexed.

  “Yes, movie. Maybe it’s time to add to it. You’re part of it now.” She looked at Greg. “Kannick and Danaria will have to join us.”

  Greg, Arlynn, Kannick, and Danaria postponed all official functions and meetings for the rest of the day and the following day. Emily, for the moment, came first, and they watched the movie together. Though actors and actresses portrayed the main characters, the movie included enough actual footage of events to give Emily a true sense of what had transpired. If spending two years on a death bed had not forced Emily to grow up, what she learned during the next couple of days certainly did. The movie took her through Arlynn and Jarl’s infiltration of the Harbok base on Earth, Greg’s rescue of Arlynn and their subsequent escape from Earth, the Harbok chase and Greg’s battle out in the Asteroid Belt, Kannick’s rescue of them, and of the attack on Ariall during which Greg worked out a masterful plan for saving Ariall and the An’Atee.

  Though she was only fifteen years old, they held nothing back from Emily. She deserved to have a full understanding of her place in all of this, and they believed she was mature enough to comprehend the coming challenges.

  She saw Arlynn in a different light, completely spent, hanging on with every vestige of energy she possessed while she taught Greg the rudiments of flying her ship. She watched as he administered the cold sleep medicine into Arlynn, and she watched Arlynn succumb. She beheld the true sorrow and fear on Greg’s face as he repeatedly returned to her side seeking silent council without knowing if she was dead or alive.

  She watched Greg as he learned to fly the ship, she saw the consternation on his face as he focused intently on extricating himself from an impossible predicament, and she watched as he became more grizzled and exhausted from his own illness. She saw a man who became totally focused on survival.

  She uttered an exclamation when the footage froze on the now famous picture of him turning to face aft toward the communications console with bloodshot eyes, a days-old beard, and dressed in faded jeans with the sleeves of his flannel shirt rolled up to his elbows. A complex array of vectors and ship displacements lit the screen behind him.

  She watched as Kannick matched trajectories and made his way aboard to place Arlynn and Greg in survival pods. She watched as Kannick reviewed over and over again the ship’s log that had recorded everything that had taken place aboard. She watched as An’Atee removed the survival pods from the ship after its arrival on Ariall and took them into the hospital. She watched as Greg awoke and addressed the World Council twice. She watched as he formulated a plan to defend Ariall, and she watched the results of that plan unfold.

  After the movie, she helped Arlynn prepare dinner in their suite in silence. She, for the first time, felt unassailably far from home. She had truly traveled light-years to this place, this vague area in space, wherever that was.

  Arlynn turned to find Emily staring at her forlornly with her eyes brimming. She calmly set a hot plate on the counter and took Emily in her arms. Neither of them said anything. She simply held Emily, let her absorb the love and energy emanating from her body into Emily’s. After a time, she leaned back and brushed tears from Emily’s eyes.

  “It’s okay, child,” she murmured. “Greg and I are not going anywhere. I know it’s a lot to accept, and there’s more, but we are here for you.”

  “I’m so proud of you, of both of you,” Emily sobbed. “What a wonderful love story. You deserve your own child, not me.”

  “You will have a brother or sister someday,” Arlynn whispered. “We will not love you less on that day. We’re a family until we can get you reunited with your parents. Even then, we will just be a larger family. You’re part of us now, Emily.”

  “I don’t deserve you.”

  Arlynn leaned back to look at Emily with her arms still around her. “Hush, child. That’s not true, and you know it. Let your feelings talk to you. Feel my love. Feel Greg’s love. You can’t believe what a wonderful impression you’ve made on him.”

  “I have?”

  “I can’t remember a time whe
n he let his position as Chairman take second place to anything. Well . . . except during our honeymoon. But he’s doing it right now. His schedule is always full, but how much time have you seen him spend on work since we came aboard?”

  “I wasn’t sure he even had a job. I sort of thought he was just treated special because he was from Earth, kind of like the way I’m treated.”

  “Haven’t you noticed the way people listen when he speaks?”

  “Yes, but he listens to them, too.”

  “The best leaders always do. I’m sorry that we forgot you missed the whole trip to Ariall. You didn’t know about any of this.”

  “You’re heroes.”

  “Yes, we are, but you saw how much of that was due to luck. Every day brings new problems, many of which have no precedent for resolution. We struggle every day. In a way, I’m sorry you had to be thrust into all this.”

  “I want to help.”

  “Wonderful!” Arlynn exclaimed as her eyes lit up. “We want you to help, and you will. Actually, you already are. You’re giving us focus. Every time I look at you, I remember why we struggle so hard. You’ll find opportunities to help, but first you have to finish your education. Agreed?”

  “I want to learn your language.”

  “Actually, that’s the first thing on our list for you. You can start as soon as you’re ready.”

  Greg came to the realization that he was missing something and joined them with an arm around each. “What’s going on here? Is this a mother-daughter thing, or can I be part of it?”

  Emily shied away from him. When he stepped back, uncertain and speechless, Emily’s eyes brimmed again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”

  “So . . . what’s the problem? Am I intruding?”

  Arlynn kept her arm around Emily for moral support. “No,” Emily replied, “I just don’t feel right. I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t feel right. Humph. Is it because of the movie?”

  “You’re not who I thought you were. I just thought you were Arlynn’s husband.”

  “I am Arlynn’s husband. I’m her Earthman. And you’re an Earth girl, my Earth girl if you’ll allow it. There aren’t too many of us Earth people around here, in case you hadn’t noticed. We need to stick together.”

  A fleeting smile crossed Emily’s face, then her expression hardened. “Are you really in charge of this incredible ship?”

  “This, and a thousand others. So what?” He paused as she tensed even further. “Is that what’s bothering you? You do know that your dad is the most powerful person on Earth, right?”

  She remained silent with her eyes downcast. He looked at Arlynn, but she just returned his look with a frightened expression of her own. He turned back to Emily and reached out to lift her chin until she was looking at him. His expression softened as he beheld the fear in her eyes.

  “Em,” he said softly, “I’m just plain old Greg Hamilton, Earthman. That’s who I am to Arlynn, and that’s who I want to be to you. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m Chairman of the Alliance, any more than the fact that your dad is President of the United States. When we’re together, we’re family. You’re going to see me at my best and at my worst. We have no secrets here within our family. We accept and love each other for who we are. Don’t place either me or Arlynn on a pedestal because of our positions any more than you did your parents. Especially within our family and with our friends, we have to be just regular people. We work hard, we have lots of responsibility, sometimes we make the right decisions and sometimes we make mistakes. But when we’re together as a family, we leave titles and such behind. We have to if we want to keep our sanity. We can’t be on display all the time.”

  He gave her a moment, then added, “Have you thought about how special you are, not just to us but to the An’Atee?”

  “But you’re a hero, and maybe the most important person in the universe.”

  Greg stepped back, stung. Had showing her the movie backfired on them? He frowned, searching for the right words. He came up empty and looked to Arlynn for help.

  She stepped into the breech. “Emily, what would your friends back on Earth think about what you’ve done?”

  “I guess they’d be amazed, but I really haven’t done anything.”

  “True. All you’ve done is travel some 4,000 light-years in a spaceship, walked on another planet, been cured of a deadly cancer, and you flew a huge spaceship. I guess that’s not so much.”

  Emily smiled momentarily, aware of the irony, but then she tensed. “I didn’t really do anything. It’s all been done for me.”

  “Not so, Emily. You really did fly this ship under simulated conditions. You really have been on another planet. Captain Brower really did make an extra orbit before we departed Ariall, just for you. Why did he do that?”

  She stuck out her chin. “Because Greg’s my ‘father,’ and you’re my ‘mother.’ You’re important.”

  “No, Emily. He did it because he saw something in you. He knows you feel tired most of the time as you recover. If you’d been a whiner or someone who took advantage of our status, he would not have given you command of his ship for hours. He sensed something in you. Do you know what that something is?”

  “No.”

  “You did something back on Earth that started this whole process, Emily. You made a choice. You made a decision to take a chance. No one made that decision for you. You did it all by yourself. Greg and I are in the positions we now hold because we made similar decisions. We made decisions, we took chances, we stuck our necks out, and we could have died. That’s what set the three of us on the paths we now find ourselves on. I was 58 when I made my choice, and Greg was 45. You’re only 15, yet here you are, side by side with us. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of you.”

  Emily’s eyes grew large. “You’re 58 years old?” she asked with disbelief.

  “No, Emily, I’m 62 and Greg is 49. That’s not the issue. The issue is that we want you to be part of our family. It’s another choice you have to make. You don’t have to make it right now, but the day will come when you will.”

  Emily did not know what to say. Tears threatened as she tried to make a decision it was too soon to make. Arlynn took her in a hug, and Greg enveloped both of them in his arms. The crisis was not over, Emily needed time to get to know them, but they would make certain their schedules made allowances for that time.

  Later that night, Emily asked Arlynn if she was really 62 years old.

  “I’m afraid so, Emily.”

  “You don’t look that old. You’re lucky.”

  “So are you. If I may give you the short explanation, it’s that my body is no different than yours. Nor am I ‘old.’ We An’Atee have designed a medicine that lets us live longer, a lot longer. Greg was given this medicine without his permission. You accepted it willingly.”

  “What? I did?”

  “Yes. It cured your cancer. I’m sorry, but you’re stuck with a long life now, too.”

  “How long?”

  “The average is about 240 years.”

  Emily looked numb as she considered what 240 years meant. When she looked back to Arlynn, she said, “I can’t feel that. I’ve gone from having no time to having a long time.”

  “Of course you can’t feel it. You’re too young to think about old age, though after nearly dying, I admit I’m surprised.”

  “I guess I am too. Can Mom and Dad have it?”

  “Definitely. You will be together with them someday, Emily.”

  “Provided the Harbok don’t get us first?”

  “Or the Oort,” Arlynn responded with a grimace.

  Emily continued her recuperation under the watchful eyes of the ship’s Chief of Medicine, and she had her first visit to the teaching machine on the way to the test area. Everything was new and exciting to her, and they practically had to tie her down to keep her from wandering through the ship. Not that it mattered, there was no danger, they just did not want someone finding
her asleep in a corridor somewhere.

  Shipboard life actually presented more opportunity for them to be together as a family than if they had stayed on Ariall. And secrets don’t last long aboard ships—her plight soon became common knowledge. Mothers brought their children to meet the girl from Earth who had nearly died of illness, and they occasionally brought their husbands. Emily, rather than take offense, rose to the occasion to educate the An’Atee about what her life had been like. Greg and Arlynn initially had to interpret for her, but soon after the teaching machine, she spoke for herself, forcing learning while fostering teaching from her listeners. The whole ship soon adopted her. She would never leave the scars of her life on Earth behind, and she remained uncertain about her position in the family, but otherwise she flourished.

  Chapter Twelve

  When the prime ship completed its final jump to the test area, they were in a no-man’s land out on the periphery of the galaxy. Great care had been taken to select a location that was as immune to Harbok prying eyes as possible.

  The prime ship carried its standard complement of 5,000 plus Greg, Arlynn, Emily, Kannick, his wife Danaria, and Dr. Tessle, Chief Scientist for the Alliance. Greg had invited Admiral Grayson to accompany the group, but he declined. He claimed that not only was his presence premature, it was unnecessary. If any new weapons or ideas resulted from this voyage, he would work them into his training.

  Greg, too, felt the trip was unnecessary, that video recordings would have sufficed, but Dr. Tessle had been adamant. He insisted that Greg personally observe the results and consequences of what his scientists had learned.

  During the voyage, Dr. Tessle had remained mum about his scientists’ discoveries, though Greg sensed excitement from the man. He hoped the excitement was well-placed, rather than just another example of the shortsightedness of the An’Atee when it came to weapons and fighting.

  Greg, Kannick, and Arlynn were on the bridge when the final jump ended. Their arrival caused an immediate stir among the other ships gathered there, and several fighters turned toward them, but things quickly settled back to normal. An hour later, a fighter left its berth in another prime ship and headed in their direction with several project scientists aboard.