by J. Naomi Ay
When it was done, one by one, we made obeisance before my son. It took a long time because there were so many men here today, but it allowed my son to rest and not speak nor move while we did this. Afterward, we left for the Great Hall to feast and celebrate through dance and songs. My son left our presence and disappeared to lick his wounds or clean his feathers or whatever it was that he did at such times. He did not appear at all that night, but in truth he was not missed. There was great excitement amongst the women that day and many tales to share of our new Queen, the Human.
I was anxious to see my grandson. Though it had been only eight hours since the morning and I had been well occupied with the ceremony, I sorely missed his presence. He would depart from me the next morning and I feared that years might pass before I saw him again as no invitation to visit Rozari would be forthcoming from my son.
Sweet Shika-ala had hugged me when his father and I had left the house just before dawn. He had wrapped his small arms around my neck and kissed my cheek with his precious little lips.
“You are doing well, Sorkan,” my son had smirked as we walked toward the Temple. “Nordy must have approved your petition.”
“Ay yah,” I agreed and wondered whom or what I would have to petition to attain the same affections from my own son.
That afternoon, after the ceremony, Rekah and I set out toward the banks of the river. Before departing, I had bought a wooden toy of square blocks from an old woman at her shop in the village. The clever little puzzle would twist and turn to make many shapes.
“Do you know where the Queen and the little Prince have gone?” I asked as Rekah played with this toy. I wondered if my grandson would enjoy it as much as my nephew.
“They have gone to the river banks for a picnic,” the old woman said. “But I have chosen to return to tend to my store. I have seen enough of that strange woman.”
“Indeed?” I asked. “What did you see?”
“I saw she had two teats just as us, though it was said in the village that she would need three to satisfy the MaKennah, as well as her babe.” The woman laughed and sucked on her pipe. My nephew’s face colored. I studied him for a moment and then removing the toy from his grasp, bid him walk with me down to the river.
“Did no one ever teach you not to touch fire?” I asked as we spotted the women clustered upon the shore.
“I don’t know what you mean, Uncle.”
“Clearly, you do not.” Just then we heard the women scream and Rekah, and I began to run.
We arrived at the river bank to see in the rapids, the Human woman and another small head. My own heart ceased to beat as I feared it was my grandson there drowning and I tore off my vest to jump in myself.
“Grandpa, Grandpa!” his shrill voice called to me and I turned and saw that Rekah’s wife Seesi held him in her arms. She handed him to me, and I wiped away his tears, clutching him to my chest as he clutched his Nordy. It was Rekah’s boy, Tuman, who had fallen in the river and my daughter had gone after him, catching him as the water beckoned them down stream.
“They wanted to go fishing,” Seesi wept, as my daughter swam toward the shore, pulling my nephew’s son with her. Rekah jumped in, too, and came to their aid, taking his son in his arms. He reached for my daughter although she refused his hand. When they came to the shallows, he took her arm and lifted her to her feet. “Tuman said he and Shika wanted to catch fish,” Seesi wailed.
“And how could they decide this?” I asked. “When they cannot speak to one another?”
“We don’t know,” Carina snapped, pulling Seesi along to run to Rekah’s side.
“Mommy, Mommy!” Shika cried and held out his arms as she stepped ashore.
“He’s not breathing!” Letitia, little Tuman’s mother screeched and my daughter immediately turned and ran back to them. She knelt down beside the boy, shoving Rekah’s wives away and began to push upon Tuman’s chest with her palms.
“Come on, Tuman! Come on,” she called as she pressed.
A moment later, water spouted from the boy’s lips and he coughed and gasped and then began to wail as loudly as his mother and sister-mothers. My daughter sat back and took a deep breath herself.
“Thank you!” Rekah cried and grasped her tightly. He kissed her upon the mouth and held her against his chest.
“You are welcome,” my daughter said, pushing my nephew away. She rose to her feet and came to me, refusing to take her son though he held out his arms to her.
“I’m soaking wet, sweetie. Let me go change.” She kissed his head briefly and then headed back up the hills toward the village. “Is Senya at home? He should look at Tuman.”
“I don’t know where he went.” I hurried after her. “The boy looks quite recovered though.” Tuman was screeching loudly now and demanding that he be allowed to continue his fishing.
That night, my daughter and my grandson attended the banquet though my son was absent. Our people were proud of her and treated her with great deference, and I basked in the glow of my beautiful little family.
In the morning, before departing, my son did examine the boy, Tuman, and declared him perfectly healthy though foolish for not having learned a lesson about water. As for my nephew, my son declared him foolish as well for clearly he had not yet learned a lesson about fire.
Chapter 2
Taner
After I delivered Senya into the care of his uncles Tuman and Pedah, I left the planet. Captain Loman had given me enough funds to purchase a spaceplane ticket to anywhere in the known galaxy and so I headed to the nearest outpost which was a spacebase in orbit of Altaris VI. I booked myself into a hotel there and parked my butt on a barstool until most of my money was gone. Dead broke, dead drunk and dead to Rehnor, I volunteered to crew on a disabled freighter that was docked in the space bay. Most of the crew had jumped ship after deciding work would be more profitable on faster vessels, so the skipper was desperate and willing take even me who had no experience with freight or space duty. The skipper and the remaining crew were Humans, from Earth, and spoke a language called English.
I had learned during my tenure on the barstool that Rehnor was a dark horse in this galaxy. Not many had ever heard of us because we were not part of the Alliance of Planets and protected by the Allied Spaceforce. If by some odd chance they had heard of us, it was only in the context that we were the ones who had destroyed the Mother Planet Rozari. Therefore, we were considered a rogue planet and an enemy.
After my first fist fight with a Cascadian, twice my size at well over ten feet, and a Luminerian, who was smaller, but had the distinct advantage of an extra fist and extra foot, I learned not to identify myself as a Rehnorian. The Rozarians, on the other hand, were an upstanding member of the Alliance, greeted with great respect for having had their planet nuked and lived to tell about it. Instantly, I became a Rozarian.
My first few months aboard the freighter were difficult. Not only did I need to learn the routines and requirements of my space work but conquer space sickness. I was laid low by the sickness well into the first month and was confined to bed for a few weeks. When my stomach had finally settled and my head had cleared, I realized that my legs were little more than sticks of jelly and my arms had begun to wither from lack of muscle tone.
The ship's doctor hooked me up to physical therapy machines ten hours a day and slowly I began to regain my strength. While the machines artificially stimulated my muscles, I watched language courses on the vid and became somewhat fluent in English and enough fluent in Rozarian, which was quite similar to Mishnese, that I felt I could fool anyone who asked. I had come to the conclusion that I could not return to Rehnor until Senya became king and since he was still only twelve, I had a long wait. I might as well adapt to life in the galaxy at large.
When we arrived on the moon of Earth with our freight, two months later and ten weeks delayed, I took shore leave on the planet and delivered Senya's gift to a young girl. How they knew of each other I didn’t have a clue, but cl
early they did.
In subsequent years, I would visit Earth many times and was compelled to see this girl again. I am ashamed to admit that I stalked her. I waited outside her school-yards only to catch a glimpse of her. I followed her to a mall once and trailed her in and out of stores. Another time, I sat at the table next to her in a coffee shop while she gossiped with a bunch of girls. I wanted desperately to speak with her, to ask her of Senya, but I never did.
Within a few years, I had saved enough money to purchase the freighter from the skipper, who was retiring, and had bought himself some forest land on Earth, where he declared he was going to build himself a cabin, and eat only things he grew or killed himself.
I became skipper then and proceeded to negotiate several lucrative contracts freighting between Earth, Mars and the Tortutus system. During a stopover on Mars, and too much time spent at a poker table, I managed to acquire a young Altarian woman named Sheila. She was not bad looking, her skin only slightly orange tinted, and though the man offering her at the table claimed to be her father, I sincerely doubted it. I took her back to the ship with me and despite myself, became quite fond of her. She had obviously been trained to serve and that she did. She was also quite a good cook and all of our crew enjoyed her stay aboard our vessel in one way or another.
One member of my crew, a young Earthman named Tony, objected to my ownership of Sheila and subsequently quit my employ, though it was well known to all Earthman that their brothers on Mars transacted a fair bit of business in the slave trade. I never freighted my vessel as a slaver despite how profitable it might have been. After the incident with Tony and since I did not hold papers on Sheila, I gave Sheila her freedom. She chose to stay with me for a few more years and for the last five of them or so, I considered her my wife.
I lived in space on my freighter for nearly thirty years. Throughout my life, although it was busy and exciting, there did not pass a day when in the back of my mind and in my heart, I believed I would return to Rehnor to serve Senya again.
“Freighter, describe the nature of your distress?” The voice spoke English and echoed across the bridge of my ship. I turned the volume down as the reverb was quite painful.
“Fucking propulsion blew for the last time,” my first mate swore under his breath.
“Propulsion system failure,” I repeated loudly.
“Roger that,” the voice replied. “Do you have engineers aboard?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. “Our engineer has looked at it and determined it is not something he can fix. Can we please get a tow to the nearest spacebase? Please?”
“Roger that,” the voice replied again. “Please be advised that Spaceforce policy regarding towing is to call a third party vendor first. In the event there is no third party vendor in the sector and there is danger or physical distress aboard, then we will tow at a cost of $1Mil per light year. Do you agree to these terms and wish me to proceed?”
“$1Mil per light year!” I screamed. “Ah shit! Well, get me a fucking third party vendor. ”
“Roger that,” the voice said yet again and then a beat later. “There are no vendors available in this sector. However, we can have our engineers look at your systems and see if they can repair. Do you wish to proceed?”
“Yes, yes proceed,” I replied. My chest hurt. The last thing I needed now was to have a heart attack with a ship full of freight and a $1 Mil bill to get it towed, let alone fixed. “Can you send over your engineers now? Please? ”
“Roger that,” the voice said again. “Our engineers will shuttle over momentarily. Please be advised it is Spaceforce policy to conduct a Vessel Safety check during any boarding.”
“What does that mean?”
“Safety officers will be boarding your vessel as well. Please have your captain and first officer available to answer any questions and fill out forms. If there are violations that incur penalties or deem your ship unsafe, you will need to be available to consult with our Chief Vessel Inspector. ”
“Ah damn,” I sighed. “Roger that. Out.” Wonderful. Now on top of everything else they were going to fine me for safety violations. “Fuck,” I thought as my heart stopped and everything went black.
“What?”
“Would you like a sip of water?”
I was lying in a bed which looked like a hospital room, and a monitor above me was beeping. My chest felt like an elephant had sat on it and my head was throbbing.
“Take a little sip,” the nurse said and forced me to drink through the straw. The water stung going down.
“Where the hell am I?”
“You are aboard the Starship Discovery, sir,” the nurse said, typing into the screen above my head. “You had a cardiac episode and emergency bypass. You're going to be just fine though.” She patted my arm and then decided to adjust my IV.
“My ship?”
“Under tow, sir,” she replied. “Cap'n says to tell you not to worry about the cost though. It was a medical emergency so she can waive most of the tow fees.”
“Great,” I sighed and then realized that any movement hurt like hell.
“Here's your pain button,” the nurse smiled and pushed the lever into my hand. “Tap it once each time you need some meds.”
She started to get up and walk away but on second thought turned back.
“Oh, sir,” she said, looking at me curiously. “We've noticed some anomalies in your records and the doctor is having a bit of difficulty adjusting your meds because of it.”
“What anomalies?” I asked.
“Well, your ID says you are Rozarian, but your physiology is coming up slightly different. We've run the data through our software and it says you are a Mishnese Rehnorian. If that's the case, the software says you should have different baselines which means your meds might need to be different.”
“Oh.”
The doctor was approaching. “Good morning,” he said. “I'm Dr. Jerry. You are?”
“Taner.”
“You’re doing well, Captain Taner. It was a fairly minor episode as far as these events go and we were able to fix you up in time. You're going to ride with us the rest of the way to Spacebase 22 though. Better you stay in bed and have Lynne take care of you than worry about your broken ship.”
“Alright,” I agreed.
Dr. Jerry glanced up at the monitor and studied the numbers displayed there. “So, Captain Taner,” he said without looking at me. “What are you?”
“Excuse me?”
“Lynne explained our dilemma. What are you? Your passport says you’re Rozarian, but I don’t think so.”
I didn’t respond.
“If your meds are not exactly right, you will not heal as quickly and you will have more pain which might be why you are in such pain now.”
I closed my eyes and acted tired which I was.
“You know,” the doctor continued. “A few years ago, it was our crew that was in the altercation with the Rehnorians. I'm sure you heard about it. It was all over the galaxy news services. We lost 7 people from our crew and 40 innocents on the spacebase when they raided it. Our First Officer was personally attacked. Were you there?”
“No,” I replied. “I was across the galaxy orbiting Mars at the time.”
“Then you have nothing to be afraid of. Tell me the truth so I can give you the right meds.”
“I am Mishnese,” I nodded.
“Thank you,” Dr. Jerry replied and adjusted my IV. Almost instantly, the pain began to subside. “It seems to be very rare for Rehnorians to leave your home planet. For the most part, you tend to keep to yourselves.”
“It is rare,” I agreed.
He nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose with a finger.
“Did you leave because of political reasons? There is a lot of strange political goings on there.”
My heart thudded heavily in my chest. I wondered what he knew.
Dr. Jerry glanced up at the monitor again. His brow furrowed.
“What do you mea
n?” I asked hesitantly. “About strange political goings on.”
“I don't know much,” he replied and adjusted something. His brow relaxed, and he smiled a little. “The story I heard was that the guy who was killed there on the spacebase was a Mishnese prince.”
I think I started to have another cardiac episode.
“Who was killed?” I gasped. “Which one?” My vision wavered as my heart pounded erratically.
“Taner.” The doctor gazed at me steadily, shining a tiny torch into my eyes. “Stay with me here, Taner.”
I tried to focus on his face. I tried to stay conscious.
“How's it going?” A female was speaking. It was not the nurse. “Is our guest doing better?”
I turned to the voice. I recognized her instantly. She was the girl from Earth.
“Our friend, Taner is having some palpitations,” the doctor replied, adjusting my meds again.
“Taner?” the woman gasped. “You're Taner?”
“You know him?” the doctor asked. “Shit Katie, what'd you do, go to prep school on Rehnor?”
The woman laughed. “Hello again,” she said, offering me her hand. “My name is Katie de Kudisha. I am Captain of this starship. I believe you know my husband.”
“Senya?” I asked as my heart thumped heavily to a stop.
“Thank you, Katie. You just killed him,” the doctor smirked and the world went dark again.
It was several days later and I was feeling much better. The Captain was in the sickbay. She was standing in the doorway, chatting up the doctor who was in his office. I was wearing my own clothing now and sitting in a chair next to my bed, eating my lunch. This was the first and probably only opportunity I had to speak with her as tomorrow we would be arriving at the spacebase and I would be off loaded. I waited patiently until she finished her conversation and then I rose.
“Captain? May I speak with you a moment?”
She smiled at me. She was very pretty. Not beautiful, not like a starlet, but engaging and easy on the eyes. She reminded me a little of Lydia, the Princess Royal.