SMTG--Iso-bel Aya Shermac

by Barbara G. Tarn

  She was happy to be on Earth at last. Both her parents had seen it when it was still trying to catch up – and they didn't know each other – and then had come back ten years later with her, her younger brother and the rest of the extended family.

  Iso-bel had a vague memory of a trip on a strange, old-fashioned tower that seemed to have no reason to be except as architectural wonder. She checked her tablet and found the image.

  Yes, that was it, at the time it had been built the tallest tower of the world, now just a memory of a century long gone. The Eiffel Tower in Paris, built before the manufactured time-loop caught Gaia and stuck it in time.

  "We're not going through Paris," Jes-syd said, leaning towards her and staring at her screen.

  "I know, I've been there as a kid, I didn't remember the name of this place, so I looked it up," she answered.

  "Have you started sending pictures to your parents and brother?"

  "Yes, yesterday – the hotel room view." She chuckled. "They were impressed."

  "And we've only just started," he said with a wink.

  She switched off the tablet. "Thank you for taking me here," she said, squeezing his hand.

  "My parents never left Marc'harid, I wouldn't have known where to start from," he replied, amused. "The fact that your mother is from Xi-kong and your father has Earthlings friends certainly helped with our itinerary..."

  She giggled. "Emma-lin only wanted to see Mirabilis."

  "Same with Ran-ald. They both think they belong to the Perfects." He winked. "Maybe we should drop them there and come back on our own, what do you think?"

  "I think Gaia might help us before we get to Mirabilis," she answered with a grin. "Wait and see..."

  ***

  "Revered guests, welcome to London!" Jon said as the shuttle approached another city. "Another reason why English was so widespread is because this tiny island at one point was at the head of the largest empire in our history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. They still have a royal family, even though the king has only nominal power. But in this piece of land, they love George Windsor and his dynasty of kings. The first was also called George, and if the current one had been crowned king, he'd be George VII. Please note that the last reigning monarch was his great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II."

  "It's a bit like you," Jes-syd whispered, amused, staring at Iso-bel. "My rainbow-haired princess without a throne!"

  She blew him a kiss. It was a joke between them, since neither her father nor her grandfather had ever really wished to sit on the emperor's throne. But the history of England looked a lot like the history of the Sire emperors. The English royalty had lost their empire long before meeting the Star Nations, though.

  Ran-ald wasn't as discreet.

  "It's like the House of Vaurabi and the House of Shermac on Marc'harid," he said. "The descendants of the last Sire Emperor."

  Jon was consulting his list of guests and nodded absentmindedly. But then he must have read Iso-bel's name because he turned to look at Emma-lin.

  "Are you Iso-bel Shermac?" he asked.

  "No, she is." Emma-lin pointed at Iso-bel with a grin.

  Jon looked shocked to see the princess was the most unassuming of the two girls.

  "Mmm, Ssire arisstocratss," the Draconian said from his seat. Like all Reptilians, he spoke Intergalactic with many hisses.

  "We're on vacation," Ran-ald challenged. "So what?"

  "Nothing. Ssire teens are jusst like the other Humanoid teens."

  Except for telepathy, Iso-bel thought, rolling her eyes. Ran-ald should know better.

  Jes-syd squeezed her fingers. I know, he's an asshole from time to time, he apologized. He must have sent a telepathic message to his friend too, since Iso-bel doubted Emma-lin's glare had had any effect on Ran-ald.

  The shuttle landed on the roof of their hotel, a skyscraper in the Docklands area. Jon told them to wait in the lobby as he gathered the room keys and distributed them to the small group – three double and three single.

  Again Iso-bel shared with Emma-lin. They were supposed to have two triples, but a couple of friends had dropped out at the last minute, which was actually better since Iso-bel was the shortest and usually the one who slept in the third bed. Kim-ash was skinny but too tall to fit in the small bunk.

  They had a free afternoon before doing their guided tour the next morning, so they met in the lobby as soon as they'd dropped their bags in the room and headed out. They took the Docklands Light Railway to Tower Hill and explored Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

  Iso-bel was impressed by the bascule and suspension bridge built in the late 1800s, but even more by the White Tower built almost a millennium before. It must be the oldest building still standing she laid her eyes on.

  "Does my lady fancy this castle?" Jes-syd teased, squeezing her shoulder.

  "Actually, it's too big," she replied. "But I'm impressed by its longevity."

  "Pre-technological Humanoids knew some neat tricks indeed," Jes-syd mused. "But I couldn't live in a place without computers."

  Iso-bel smiled. Jes-syd would probably become a great hacker, employed at the Vaurabi Labs when he finished university. She had more passion for old things than him, though. Her father loved ancient manuscripts and she liked studying history and cultures, and visiting old buildings.

  Emma-lin was more impressed by the Crown Jewels of England, and she gaped at the size of the diamond known as the Koh-i-Noor, probably mined in India in antiquity, and set in the Queen Mother's Crown.

  "You could wear it," Jes-syd teased. "You're a woman!"

  Emma-lin checked her tablet. "Oh, I see what you mean!" She read aloud. "As the diamond's history involves a great deal of fighting between men, the Koh-i-Noor acquired a reputation within the British royal family for bringing bad luck to any man who wears it. Since arriving in the country, it has only ever been worn by female members of the family." She glanced triumphantly at Ran-ald who looked away with a frown.

  "I don't even know why you'd want a crown, royal or imperial," he muttered. "You're not the Emperor's great-granddaughter, Emma-lin Wisenthon!"

  "I wouldn't want it on Iso-bel's colorful head," Jes-syd said, staring at the crown and scrunching his nose.

  Iso-bel's rainbow hair had raised eyebrows at home but not on Jes-syd's part. She had covered her natural chestnut brown as soon as she'd done her secondary school's final exam, not even waiting for the results. She had washed her hair since, so the colors were fading already, but it would take a few months to wash them out completely.

  Emma-lin was too fond of her red curls to change their color, but Kim-ash had done the same on her stylishly short, usually black hair, to the horror of her boyfriend. So Kim-ash and Dan-sam had dropped out of the trip, too busy screaming at each other to bother visiting the Star Nations and leaving Iso-bel and Jes-sid alone with Emma-lin and Ran-ald.

  "Should we eat?" Ran-ald asked as they left the compounds of the Tower of London. "What do you think Jon will show us tomorrow?"

  ***

  The tour of the city included the oldest bits and the strangest sights. The former capital's most senior living citizen was the magnificent Ancient Yew in Saint Andrew's churchyard in Totteridge, a two millennia tree that had seen the founding of Londinium and all its history to the present.

  Sutton House was a Tudor house built in 1535, and the oldest lived-in house – a survivor of the Great Fire of 1666, German bombs and developers' bulldozers – was at 41-42 Cloth Fair in West Smithfield. It had been built between 1597 and 1614.

  The Olde Wine Shades on Martin Lane was deemed to be London's oldest pub, who'd been rosying Londoners' cheeks continuously since 1663 and had survived the Great Fire. And the oldest restaurant was Rules on Maiden Lane in Theatreland since it began selling oysters in 1798.

  Then there were the churches. Saint Bride dating back to the Sixth Century. The Chapel of the Pyx in Westminster – also an impressive sight even though nothing was left o
f the medieval palaces – and All Hallows by the Tower that contained a Seventh Century Saxon arch with recycled Roman tiles and beneath the crypt had a Roman pavement.

  It was an unbelievably sunny day and Iso-bel had to wear sunglasses every time they were in the open, since her blue eyes were very sensitive to light. She envied Ran-ald's charcoal eyes or even Jes-syd's amber ones – they weren't as badly off in the sun like her. Ran-ald wore sunglasses more out of fashion than of need.

  Iso-bel couldn't miss a stop at the British Library after Jon showed them Saint Pancras Parish Church and freed them for the evening. Her father had spent hours in there, studying illuminated manuscripts, and she was very curious.

  She took a picture of the Magna Carta and sent it to her father along with other images of her London tour. Jes-syd took a picture of her and Emma-lin in the Entrance Hall with rows of bookshelves behind them, and they sent it to Kim-ash.

  Then the four of them headed back to the hotel, where they met the Felines who had gone back another way and they decided to have dinner all together. Fikri was an ambassador's son who was a seasoned traveler – a tiger walking on his hind legs and talking very easily to strangers. Jyrki looked more like a lioness, although he was male, and was a business man on vacation.

  They were a cheerful company and they managed to drag along K'uryss, the Draconian tourist who pretended he couldn't care less about Humanoids. The Caroids were nowhere around the hotel lobby, so they gave up looking for them.

  They all sat together in the hotel's restaurant and spent a couple of hours eating and talking and joking. According to Emma-lin, Fikri and Jyrki were better than Ran-ald, "Heck, even K'uryss is better than Ran-ald!", but Iso-bel ignored the comments as she undressed and prepared for bed.

  Her father had commented on the pictures by then, so she wished her family good-night and switched off her light as Emma-lin slid in her bed with a long sigh.

  "I hope Kim-ash gathers her wits and joins us before we leave," she muttered switching off her own lamp. "I'd love to have some backup against that asshole."

  "Stop bothering him and you'll be fine," Iso-bel said in the darkness. "You should have chosen someone if you were so afraid of the rest of the company."

  "If it were six of us as originally planned, it wouldn't be that bad!" Emma-lin complained. "Now I feel like I'm intruding in your relationship! Am I spoiling your vacation, Iso-bel?"

  "No, you're not," Iso-bel answered patiently. "But stop bickering with Ran-ald. We're here to explore planets, not relationships."

  Emma-lin sighed. "Good night, Iso-bel..."

  "Sweet dreams, Emma-lin."

  ***

  The wakeup call brought the four of them in the breakfast room where again they saw the Felines and the Draconian, but no Carians. They took their backpacks to the roof and gave them to Henry and climbed on the flying van, but still no Carians.

  Jon checked his watch and looked around the roof terrace, worried, tapping his foot. He tried to call the Carians' room, but got no reply. Their luggage had been left near the shuttle before Henry got to it, so the driver had no idea of where they were.

  "We could have done a last trip to the river shore," Iso-bel said, looking out of the window.

  "Glad it's a small group," Jes-syd said. "Just imagine if we had to wait for fifty people to get onboard!"

  "There they are!" Fikri screamed, pointing at the sky with his paw.

  What had looked like two birds was fast approaching, revealing the two Carians who slightly shifted shape as soon as they touched down. Eagles in the sky, they turned back to their human bodies with eagle heads as their wings folded and almost vanished. They didn't need clothes more than Reptilians or Felines, and Jon looked impressed. It must be the first time he saw something like that.

  "Sorry, we were taking a last look to this fascinating island," the male said. His name was Hian and his bride was Haopia. They quickly climbed in the shuttle and sat in their seats, followed by John's frown.

  "So, we're ready to take off," the guide said, using his mike again. "We're only half an hour late, so we'll still make it on time to Dubai. Our flight time is a little under five hours."

  Henry closed the shuttle door and took off while Jon gave a little history of their next destination.

  "I like it's the most expensive city in the area," Emma-lin said, leaning forward to speak to Iso-bel between their seats. "And that it has great malls. Do you think we can do some shopping?"

  "It depends on what you want," Iso-bel replied. "You might find something to make Kim-ash envious, though."

  Emma-lin chuckled and sat back. "I think she's already envious, and sorry she didn't come anyway!"

  "I'm glad you didn't color your hair," Ran-ald told her, serious. "Iso-bel and Kim-ash look ridiculous. I wonder what possessed them."

  "I was happy secondary school is over," Iso-bel said. "It's not permanent, it will go away with a few washes!"

  "It looks good on their straight hair, but my curls would have been a mess," Emma-lin said. She was very proud of her natural curls and she was actually surprised by Ran-ald's compliment. "One can't always do what one's friends do even if one loves one's friends, right?"

  "Absolutely," Ran-ald said. "Can you see me with a mop of wild hair like Jes-syd? Me neither."

  Iso-bel and Jes-syd guffawed. If they could be the reason their friends stopped bickering, that was fine with them.

  In Dubai the group split, since Felines weren't too fond of water and K'uryss decided he preferred sleeping on dry land. The young Sire and the Carians were taken to the Water Discus Hotel that had been built in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Dubai.

  Part of it sat thirty feet underwater and the other half floated twenty feet in the air. It could hold up even during the severest of storms and ensured safety at all times. It sat on five sturdy legs fixed to the seabed and the upper discs were suspended above the water surface. Apparently it was safer than any hotel on the coast, since it was tsunami-proof. And the underwater disk automatically surfaced at once in the event of any danger.

  The Carians had their room in the upper discs, but the Sire had underwater rooms that opened on the ocean's flora and fauna. Fish, jellyfish, corals, sea turtles all swam outside of their rooms.

  "Neat!" Emma-lin said, delighted, as colorful fish passed by the glass opening. Iso-bel took a picture of her. "Hey, look, there's even a flyer with the names and images of what we see!"

  She flipped through the pages as Iso-bel looked over her shoulder.

  "Hey, I wonder if we'll see a shark!" she commented. "Oh, look at this beast! A-ha, so that's what they look like!"

  "A whale! I'd love to see that!" Emma-lin's eyes were wide in wonder. "It's like visiting an aquarium!"

  "Except we're the ones locked in." Iso-bel chuckled. "That fish is probably wondering what we are!"

  Emma-lin giggled. "I've never been the object of study by a fish!"

  "There's always a first time! Did you know the dolphins and whales of Earth were aware of Saurian control while the Humanoids were not? Dolphins were the ones who petitioned the High Council!"

  "Aah, that's why they're not really coming over to see us... they know us! So you think we can talk with them?"

  "If they come close enough, why not?"

  Iso-bel chuckled and sent the picture to Kim-ash, then they went out again.

  Jon showed them around the shopping capital of the Middle East, took them to the top of the tallest man-made building of the world, the Burj Khalifa, to see the landscape, and then he left them to their own devices around lunchtime. They knew where to take the ferry back to the hotel whenever they tired of exploring malls and souks and the city itself.

  A visit to the Bollywod Parks was necessary for Iso-bel since her grandfather and his partner had loved to dance to Bollywood tunes, and she wouldn't miss the Krrish ride for anything. The others humored her and actually enjoyed it. They did the Ra.One ride and a couple more, and then dined at the park before spli
tting.

  Iso-bel and Jes-syd decided to watch the sunset from the beach. They sat on the sand of crushed shell and coral that gleamed white under the last rays of sun. They saw the Carian couple flying towards the setting sun and envied their wings for a moment. The Carians didn't even need to take the ferry back to the hotel.

  When the sun vanished below the horizon, they took their clothes off and went skinny dipping in the sea, staying close to the coast since they weren't used to the waves and the currents. They could swim, but the ocean intimidated them.

  While they sat on the beach to dry themselves in the cooling air of the night, a solitary sperm whale stopped by to say hello. She was old and tired, and had seen so much happening on the planet – barely escaping death dozens of times until whaling was finally forbidden – but she was so happy to meet two alien Humanoids she could talk to, that she offered to take them to their hotel on her back.

  Delighted, Iso-bel rode the cachalot holding to Jes-syd's waist while he held to the whale's blowhole. They asked her why she had wandered into the Persian Gulf, and she answered she was going home.

  She deposited them at the hotel's pier and they thanked her for her kindness. They watched her swim away and head for the beach. As soon as she was stranded, a beam hit her and she vanished.

  "I guess she had a rendezvous with a starship orbiting Gaia," Jes-syd said with a grin. "I sure hope she has a safe trip to her home world."

  Iso-bel sighed. "Let's get some sleep."

  As they went down to their rooms, they exchanged a long kiss in the elevator and another in the corridor between their rooms.

  Then they said good-night and opened their room doors. Iso-bel stepped in and gasped. Emma-lin and Ran-ald were on one of the single beds, naked and wrapped in bed sheets, fast asleep in each other's arms.