Finding Jess (First Wave)

by Mikayla Lane

  “Do you like it? I think it’s a panther, Jennifer said it was the animal that spoke to her when she carved it.” Justin said shyly.

  “I created the stone!” Another chimed in.

  Jess just looked around the room in stunned silence with the rest of the adults, while the children told them what part of their gifts, they helped create. The only one who didn’t seem the least surprised was Maggie.

  “It’s my friend Gibly. He’s a Sibiox from Valendra, and you’re right; he looks just like a blank panther. And this collar here is something I made for him with my gift. This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever been given. Thank you so much, all of you.” There was no way she could stop the tears as she clutched her Gibly stone to her.

  Amun was going to put his arm around Jess when Lily handed him something as well. Opening his hand there lay a miniature statue of Jess. It had to be her; the blue gemstones matched her eyes and the golden streaks in her hair almost perfectly. The curve of her mouth and cheekbones brushed softly into the stone. The colors of the pants and shirt seemed to change though.

  “Lily added her gift differently to yours, so you can see Jess’s colors now. See the light blue is showing that she’s very happy right now. I figure if it turns red, you’ll know to hide if you know what I mean.” Justin explained making Tarvok roar with laughter while some of the other techs chuckled.

  “We chose the wolf for you Tarvok. Because just like the wolf that always protects his pack, we know you’ll have our back.” Justin said quietly as he handed the little gray wolf to him.

  Tarvok looked gut punched and tried to recover quickly so they wouldn’t think that he didn’t appreciate it. The detail in the animal was just as incredible as the other ones they’d given to Amun and Jess.

  Tarvok squatted down and pulled the little boy into his arms, hugging him tightly. “Thank you” was almost inaudible to anyone but the little boy who was meant to hear it. Tarvok stood back up awkwardly and cleared his throat, and repeated it loudly enough for the other children to hear as well.

  Then the children surprised the entire med team with handmade items as well. Jess didn’t think she would ever see a room of strong, tough men reduced to fighting tears again and enjoyed the sight of the children charming them.

  Lily ran back to Amun and Jess and held her little arms up, and without a thought, Jess picked her up.

  “You are an amazing little girl, do you know that?” Jess asked her teasingly.

  “As amazing as you?” Lily asked innocently.

  “Honey you are more amazing than I will ever be.” Jess said honestly and gave her a quick hug.

  “We made one for Mr. Ivint too for bringing all this stuff so you could heal us.” Lily said to Amun.

  “I will let him know immediately. I’m sure he’ll want to come as soon as he can.” Amun at least hoped he would. With the shooter still at large and trying to catch up with Banatar on what is going on with the planet and the Relians; he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get away any time soon. Even so, he’d try.

  Walking out of earshot, he opened the comm and spoke quietly to Ivint, bringing him up to speed on the health of the children and the gifts they had made. Ivint was silent for a moment before cryptically saying that he would like to hear more, then the comm had cut out.

  He walked back to the center of the room and whistled loudly to get everyone’s attention.

  “Good morning everyone. Thank you to the children for your beautiful gifts, they will be treasured always.” He clutched his figurine of Jess tightly as a chorus of agreement erupted from the others.

  “But… this morning we need to concentrate on running some scans and reprogramming more medicine for your injuries. I know that a lot of them are gone or healing; but we need to make them go away for good. So we need everyone back to your beds, so we can get started, the sooner we finish the faster you can all go play.” Jess didn’t think anyone was surprised when the children raced to their separate beds and laid down quietly.

  “I hear that we have some children who are feeling a lot better this morning, and I had to come and see for myself.” Some of the children gasped when Ivint strode into the room and spoke; his air of authority and commanding presence obviously affecting more than just the adults.

  Jess watched with pride as Lily slid off of her bed and walked with halting steps and a bowed head towards Ivint. She stopped a few feet in front of him, and with her head still bowed, slowly raised her hand up to him; the glint from the lights on the object twinkled across the breastplate he was wearing. He had taken it off dozens of times since a latch had appeared on it after he’d been shot; however, he said he preferred to wear it.

  Ivint stared down at the very nervous but very brave little girl who’d walked up to him while the others huddled in their beds. He assumed the glittering gold rock in her hand was the present that Amun had told him they had crafted for him.

  Ivint dropped to his knees, so he wouldn’t be as intimidating to her and waited to see if she’d look up at him. He almost chuckled aloud when he saw her pretty blue eyes peeking up at him through her tangled hair.

  “You must be Lily. I’ve heard a lot about you from Amun; all of you. Is that the gift you made for me? Can I see it?” Ivint urged her to come a little closer and hoped that she would. He didn’t want any of these children to ever be afraid of him.

  Lily looked back at Jess and Amun as if to ask if it was ok, and at their nods took a deep breath and walked until she was within touching distance of Ivint. In a move that surprised them all, she took his large hand in hers and placed his gift in his palm.

  “Thank you so much for helping us. Now we know why the spirits chose your gift.” The last she said on a giggle and raced back to Jess and Amun.

  Everyone in the room moved closer to Ivint, curious as to what image or totem the children had made for him.

  Ivint stared down at his palm in shock. There was no way they could have done this. Someone had to have described it to them; or shown them an image of him. Ivint looked around questioningly, as if expecting someone to explain it to him.

  “How did they know?” Jess whispered quietly. Everyone else in the room was shaking their heads in denial at telling the children about it.

  Clearing his throat loudly, Ivint stood back up to his full height and contemplated his gift for a moment before carefully considering his next words.

  “It is a truly beautiful gift, and I am honored that you even considered making something for me. The detail is some of the finest I’ve ever seen. How did you know to make such a perfect gift?” Ivint put just enough praise and curiosity in his tone to have the children scrambling out of their beds to stand in front of him all chattering at once about how they came up with the idea for his gift.

  The only thing they all understood was that the spirits had told one of them what to create, another called the stones. Lily allowed the colors to choose which person they wanted to be with; another called the gems used to decorate the stones. And so on until every child had a hand in creating each gift uniquely for each person.

  “And you’ve never seen this before?” Ivint asked in amazement as he pointed to his breastplate. He looked at the others in the room with surprise when all the children shook their heads.

  “I’m amazed at how talented each of you are…” Ivint was at a loss for words as he stared back down at the miniature replica of his breastplate that they had made for him. They even had the Sibiox clearly etched into the golden stone with shining stones, glittering black jewels for eyes.

  The skill to craft something of this quality took years to learn and perfect even on Valendra, yet if Amun was correct, these children had made dozens of these in the span of a few hours. It was difficult for him to wrap his mind around the talent these children possessed at such a young age.

  He would have thought that after seeing some of the abilities of the other gifted females here that he wouldn’t be surprised, but he was. Hell they were stil
l trying to wrap their minds around the fact that they were female warriors and not to be coddled and protected.

  They spent centuries trying desperately to save and protect the few women they had, and now they had a few hundred females who thought nothing of going on dangerous missions and risking their lives. Hell as young as they were, even his great-daughters did things that gave him nightmares sometimes. However, at least his great-daughters went home to their mother and father; these poor little ones didn’t have that.

  Banatar had told him of the circumstances of the conditions the children had been found in, and that for everyone they saved, there were dozens, if not hundreds of hybrids and gifted that needed to be found.

  Seeing their little faces reminded him of how important it was to remember that the real gift was them and those like them. Like Jess, they had been through far more than they ever should have and their priorities needed to shift to include finding their Valendran families and bringing them here or foster families. There were so few children on Valendra that the remaining couples would line up by the thousands at a chance to love and raise any of these children. And he had no doubt they would be loved in the way they should have been their whole lives.

  His mind made up; he walked over to Amun and Jess with determined strides. Jess had to stop herself from flinching as he approached; he still intimidated the hell out of her.

  “I want an in-depth report on the familial scans done on the children and on their emotional and psychological state. If you, Jess, Tarvok and Dr. Jensen could please join Banatar and me in the briefing room in two hours, I would appreciate it.” It sounded so nice when he said it; however, the steely eyed stare made it very clear that it was an order he would not see defied.

  Even Dr. Maggie responded with a quick “Yes, Sir!” to his retreating back as he headed out of the room.

  Ivint strode down the hallway deep in thought about the children and all the other problems that were all going on at one time. Balduen was still missing, and they’d not been able to find a trace of him; and they’d found out that Banatar’s other daughter Dare went missing from the same area on the same day as Balduen. It was obviously no coincidence; Dare must have been the hybrid that Balduen had found. However, they still weren't able to put it together and find either of them.

  Nor had they been able to find the shooter either. They interrogated every member of the Valendran teams on the planet at the time, and none of them showed any signs of being the perpetrator or knowing of the assassination attempt.

  Julou’s men had been with them the whole time and their belt comm’s were all accounted for so they couldn’t have stolen one either. And Julou’s information about the Relians and their plans were invaluable to Banatar.

  Ivint had been shocked to learn how entrenched the Relians were in the governments and societies throughout the world. What did they call those people to discredit them? The terms on this planet were sometimes hard to translate, so many words to describe things like deception and hatred.

  Ah, conspiracy theorists. That’s what the Relians, and their minions called anyone who came close to the truth about who was really running the world. As a ploy, it worked very well to discredit them. Sadly, what little those people did know did not even scratch the surface of the control that they really had.

  Banatar had done an impressive job at making little dents on their hold in small areas, but they just didn’t have enough people to protect themselves, rescue others and embed themselves into the world governments to try to counteract the damage the Relians were doing.

  Ivint wasn’t the only one who cringed every time one of the women went on a mission, into a dangerous work environment in another part of the world… hell most of them freaked out every time one got a bruise sparring.

  It wasn’t that they weren’t capable, in fact, some of them with their fighting skills combined with their abilities; they were extremely deadly; even to a Valendran. It was just very difficult for them to see the women as equals instead of something to be coddled and protected.

  The only ones who would even spar with them were the other veteran POWs. They were the most accepting of the women and children. Teaching the women some moves they didn’t know, training them on the new weapons and computer systems and finding time for the children who adored them. He was going to have to talk to Tarvok and find out what it was that they knew that the rest of them didn’t.

  *****

  It had been two weeks since the day he and Jess had met Lily and the other children; and Jess spent every day with them while he trained Dr. Maggie, on the new medical equipment.

  Ivint and Banatar ordered a storage area of the silo near the children’s area to be cleared out, and family and medical tech dwellings created. Jess, Amun, Dr. Maggie and Tarvok were the first to move in. It seemed easier to keep Jess near Lily than to spend the night searching for her.

  The first night Jess went to her regular quarters; Lily had been wandering for two hours searching for her, before someone had found her. That only happened one more night before Jess had started sleeping on a cot in a storage room near the children. Which meant Tarvok and Amun were also sleeping in storage rooms near Jess and the children.

  When Ivint and Banatar found out they went ahead and decided to build the family areas for the relatives and prospective new parents who were coming from Valendra to help raise the children.

  Amun, Jess, Dr. Maggie and Tarvok formed a sort of alliance to advocate for the children. They had agreed completely with Ivint that the children were part Valendran and needed to learn their heritage and be with their families, for the few that had surviving families. And they agreed that the childless couples on the planet should be the first to be considered to adopt.

  However, they argued and fought about almost everything else regarding the children. Amun had been impressed and grateful for the intelligent and level headed arguments that Tarvok had made; especially that all the children should be introduced to their new families at the same time.

  Ivint and Amun had been adamant that the surviving relatives be able to come first and immediately take over the care of the child. Amun and the others had known it was a terrible idea to isolate the other children like that. They were in no way ready to be separated from each other yet.

  It had been Tarvok that had argued that it would be more traumatic to the children to just dump them off on some relatives and leave them without the only security they’ve ever known. That the gifts they had made together had shown just how deeply they had bonded, to try and sever that so abruptly would set back their progress.

  Amun, Jess and Dr. Maggie had been left nodding their heads in agreement at the impassioned way that he had spoken for the children. Dr. Maggie of course, tried her best not to let him know she’d been impressed.

  Once Tarvok had seen Ivint and Banatar weakening on their position, he went in for the kill. By the time he was done he negotiated that the childless couples would be thoroughly interviewed and those selected and would travel to Earth with the relatives.

  And the final couples would be selected by them, since they were the most familiar with the children and their unique problems. He also demanded that each potential parent be informed of the trauma the children had been subjected to in order to determine if they could handle a child with more psychological needs than a normal child.

  However, he didn’t want them told what the children’s gifts were either, not even the relatives. He didn’t want their worthiness judged on what kind of tricks anyone thought they could perform. If a potential parent even asked he wanted them immediately denied.

  Amun had spoken to Tarvok about it many times, and they had also decided that the day that the children met their relatives, Jess would meet her uncle. Officially anyway. She already knew him; she just didn’t know that the man she called a friend was also her uncle.

  Ivint had made sure that Lagor had been sent to install the new MedLab at the silo, and he had been with them ever
since. He’d been installing comm’s and setting up new equipment in the children’s section of the silo since the day Jess met Lily. They had spoken dozens of times on setting up learning centers for the children so that they could learn the way she had, and so she could continue to learn with them.

  Not wanting to pass up the challenge, Banatar’s son Risk, joined Lagor and a few other engineers in creating a learning center for the children. Utilizing a range of Earth and Valendran technology, they created interactive games that taught in virtual reality and 3D.

  Amun smiled when he realized that so much had changed in his life that he should rightfully be experiencing at least some level of stress, even with the rigorous mental conditioning they have to go through to qualify for a tour on a ship.

  However, with Jess, everything had happened so smoothly that the only thing he felt was happiness, true happiness. He settled into life at the compound with her, and the children like he’d been meant for it. They, Tarvok, Dr. Maggie and some of the MedLab techs had begun eating their meals with the children whenever they could; most of the time it was just the four of them and the children though.

  He’d always thought that being on a ship was going to be the greatest adventure of his life. Hell, they’d all been dumb enough to think that; he, Scaden and Gracus. Waking up in the middle of the night to comfort Justin after a nightmare, catching Jess before she tumbled off a tube to the ground, chasing the children around the play area or reading them a story; those were the best adventures he’d had so far on this journey.

  And Jess… she was the greatest adventure of them all. Her capacity to love and to care about others after all she’d been through was an inspiration to everyone she met. Her shy intelligence never failed to charm the other women who adored her and the males who admired her courage.