“Pieces. Fall on ground.”
I swung my flashlight onto the earth in front of the wall and indeed there were small fragments—chips, really—that must have fallen off through some weathering process. “How old can this be?”
“I don’t know,” Dibin said. “The limestone is millions of years old, so this must be older, but this isn’t limestone. At least, I don’t think so. Limestone isn’t laid down this way.”
“Ancestors make,” Namjikil said, going to one knee and looking about to cry. “Ancestors are here.”
The sight had moved the other Kanimil in a similar way. Genanam also knelt, eyes covered. One of the clanspeople held out hands as if longing to stroke the wall.
Suddenly Shajn cried out. I swung the beam of light towards my child, and then yelped myself. In front of us was a shimmering figure. Not a nebulous mist this time, but a person. A person speaking words we could hear.
“What’s happening, Pax?” Dibin demanded, tugging on my sleeve.
“Use your goggles,” I whispered, mesmerised. I couldn’t understand what the figure was saying but the words were clear and obviously an actual language, not babble. The clanspeople stared in wonder. I thought Genanam would have a heart attack.
“Pax?”
I tore my gaze away from the figure to where Dibin was pointing. Shajn’s eye crests and cheek ridges showed more distinctly than I’d ever seen them before.
The figure spoke for several minutes. Shajn was crying by the time it finished and disappeared. “No, come back, beautiful person!”
I drew my puggle close and felt the little fingers dig into my sides. “It’s okay, hon. They’ll come back again.”
Genanam stalked over to Dibin. “What did you do?”
“Nothing. This time it was Shajn.”
I kept my arm protectively around my kid. “The puggle didn’t do anything, Dibin.”
“Shajn did, but only what you did too, with your brains. Don’t you see? Shajn and you reacted to the Kanimil, and the stones reacted to you. Just like the pendants. Only these stones aren’t broken bits, but the whole thing. Genanam, these stones are from the people who lived here long before the Kanimil arrived. They’re history, direct messages from the past. Possibly even from your actual ancestors.”
Ledikjin translated, then looked at Dibin. “Really?”
“Really. Chromatomorphs made this somehow. And that means this was once a chromatomorph home. Possibly even their home world. Tell them, Ledikjin. This is possibly the most amazing scientific find in the last thousand years.”
Genanam listened at first with impatience, then with confusion. “What is a chromatomorph?”
I pointed at Shajn. “The most wonderful creation in the galaxy. My child.”
~~~~~
Dibin’s fortunes transformed quite magically after that. From being Genanam’s sworn enemy, Dibin was now someone Genanam insisted on monopolising, badgering our researcher into explaining the history of Lepaute and chromatomorphs, and demanding that Dibin find out more. Which of course meant involving the Federation and bringing more observers to see the stones, to which Genanam’s objections all mysteriously disappeared.
Dibin had to promise to return soon with more information. Genanam was quite reluctant to let us leave at all, and only Ledikjin’s grumpy reminders about a farm and children to care for allowed us to escape.
I think an exuberant Dibin annoyed Ledikjin more than a miserable one did, but not even Ledikjin’s scowls could dampen Dibin’s joy. “Do you know what this means? Do you?”
“Go on,” I said. “I don’t think you’ve mentioned it more than a dozen times.”
“The Federation will declare Lepaute a protected conservation domain!”
“But we don’t need this,” Ledikjin said.
“You might. Money will pour into the planet from the Federation. You’ll get to share in the wealth and the infrastructure, and all your kids will too. And that wall. It’s the cultural find of the millennium! Any millennium. People will pay huge amounts just to be allowed to visit and research.”
“I don’t think the Kanimil will like that.”
“But they’ll completely control access. And Shajn, your people will have more of their history preserved.”
“Pax is my history,” the puggle said. “I don’t care about the wall. I just want to see the beautiful person again.”
“You will. Now you have a right to. Oh, I won’t sleep tonight.” Dibin bounced in the seat with excitement.
“You will if we hit you hard enough,” Ledikjin muttered. “Can we please stop talking about these damn rocks now? My head hurts.”
Fortunately, Ledikjin’s headache didn’t alter the importance of this discovery, and the other Gavnir were quick to understand how this could benefit them and the other pre-mining residents of the planet. They didn’t need much from anyone, but the things that could make a difference—better roads, better medical facilities, better communication—could now be built. The miners could still mine, and still make money, but would now have to treat the Second Wavers a lot more fairly.
I shared Shajn’s indifference to the historical side of it, because I felt no more connection to my chromatomorph genetics than my puggle did. The only reason to care about it was the right it had given me to claim my kid officially. I planned to take my kid to see our mutual distant relatives, mostly because I felt we should. But we had made a home among the Gavnir and they wanted us to stay. That was what mattered most to us.
I didn’t know what I would say to Cosi and Binen when they returned, or what I should arrange. On the one hand, I needed to contribute to the Gavnir community and I wasn’t much of a farmer, but on the other hand, I didn’t want to leave Shajn for months on end. I could take the kiddo with me on some trips but education was the most important thing, not space flight.
My first warning that I had to deal with this issue a lot sooner rather than later, came a month later when Shajn found me to tell me my Glimma was making funny noises. When I put it on, it had automatically connected to the Aslam. Which meant the Aslam was on Lepaute.
“Pax calling Aslam. Anyone home?”
“You bet, Pax! I was just about to contact you. How are you?”
“Almost back to normal, Cosi. Where are you?”
“Ship. Where are you?”
“Still in the settlement. Can you come out?”
“We’re on our way. We have big news.”
“Not as big as mine. Pax over and out.”
I took off the eyepiece and looked at my kid. “My friends are coming to visit.”
“Yay! I can’t wait to meet them. Ketan! Cosi and Binen are coming!”
Shajn ran off to tell the other kids. I rubbed my face, then went to tell Ledikjin there would be three more for supper.
I paced impatiently on the porch for a good forty minutes, until the Glimma told me the ship’s other rover was coming. Then I yelled for the puggle. Shajn got to the porch just as I saw the rover on the highway, slowing down to turn to the settlement’s road.
The first one out of the rover was Byrd, who ran into me, making me grunt with the sheer mass. Stars, the child had grown. “What have you been eating, kiddo?” I asked, ruffling Byrd’s hair.
“Everything! All my vegetables! Who’s that, Pax?”
I held my hand out to my puggle. “Byrd, this is my child, Shajn. Shajn, I told you about Byrd.”
“Yes. Hello, Byrd.”
Byrd looked up at me in confusion. “Your...child, Pax?”
“Yup. Just like you’re Cosi and Binen’s. Shajn’s mine, forever and ever.”
“Wow, that’s your news? Congratulations,” Cosi said, hugging me, then kneeling to hold out a hand to Shajn. “Hi, hon. I’m Cosi.”
“And I’m Binen.” Cosi’s partner knelt too. “We met already.”
“I remember,” Shajn said in a small voice, face rippling thin black lines.
“Are you scared of me, little one?”
&nb
sp; “Nuh uh!” Shajn grabbed Binen around the shoulders and hugged. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. So you adopted our Pax, huh?”
“Pax adopted me!”
“We adopted each other,” I said, picking Shajn up and kissing a still faintly striping cheek. “You okay, baby?”
“Yes. I just had a memory. But I’m okay now.”
“Sorry for that, kiddo,” Binen said. “So...let’s catch up, Pilot Pax.”
Binen and Cosi had met a few of the Gavnir before, and they were welcomed like old friends for Binen’s role in saving the Gavnir child. Byrd, for once, was struck dumb by so many people and so many children of a similar age all in one place, but of course it was my peace-making child who took Byrd’s hand and made the kiddo welcome.
Cosi watched the two of them over supper. “Like siblings, don’t you think?”
“I’ll always see them that way. So what’s the big news, and why are you here so early?”
“Well...we’ve got another child on the way.”
“Where?”
“In an incubator on the ship, just like we did with Byrd. We set it up on Herschel, and we’re here because it’s nearly decanting time.”
“Why do you keep using that word?” Binen complained, making a face.
“Hatching? Serving up?”
“I hate you.”
Cosi grinned. “Whatever you call it, it’s time for Linon to come into the world, and that needs to be planetside.”
“Wow. Another kid. That’s wonderful!”
“Thought you’d like that. Although I didn’t know you were adding to the ship’s complement yourself, Pax.”
“Ah. About that.... I was kind of thinking about making a permanent base here. Maybe not shipping out so much.”
“Really? Because we were kind of thinking the same thing.”
“So...would a farm here on Lepaute be adequate? Rotating parenting shifts, shorter trips, that kind of thing?”
“I think that would be just perfect. Byrd, how would you like to live here with Shajn?”
“Yes! I want to stay here, please?”
“Wish granted, puggle,” I said. “Ledikjin, think the settlement can handle four more hardworking residents?”
My friend grinned at the newcomers. “We could handle a hundred more, if we had them. Welcome to the Gavnir, everyone.”
Shajn came over to sit on my knee. “Pax, I want to see the new baby, please. Byrd says Linon is ready to come out. I want to see.”
“I think we should all be there, Shajn. We’re all Linon’s family.”
Cosi took my hand and one of Binen’s. “Yes, we are. Always.”
Shajn, my darling kid, kissed my cheek. “Forever and ever and ever.”
~~~~~
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