“Hey, she’s a red-head, like I am!” cried Joaley, her eyesight obviously enhanced to examine Jaqui’s scalp. “Excellent! I’ll vouch for her on the strength of the natural colour of her hair!”
“Does she have Joaley’s temperament, too?” Maryse asked Mikal.
“Actually, no,” Mikal replied, grinning. “I think Joaley would have kicked Gorsh in the groin, whereas Jaqui played him like a stringed instrument.”
“Good.” Maryse nodded. “We’ll put her through a few tests, and see how we can best use her. I get the feeling that she’ll go far.”
“That’s my guess, too,” Mikal said.
“Rakil and I vacated your premises,” Roxanna informed Mikal. “Maryse helped us get a place in the same building, lower down than your penthouse, and smaller, but still pretty amazing. So you and Kati can just walk in and begin to enjoy being at home.
“Kati, you’re going to love that place. I don’t know if you ever lived in fancy digs on Earth, but even if you did, and I saw the inside of at least one pretty fine house in Toronto—that was the one my friend Jan’s parents owned—this is way better.
“And Mikal, your artist friend delivered your order a couple of weeks ago; we set it up in the master bedroom.”
“You’re not talking about a rug, I hope,” Kati said with a cackle.
“No, definitely not a rug,” Rakil threw in. “Other than that, Roxanna’s and my lips are sealed. It is supposed to be a surprise, right, Mikal?”
“Indeed,” Mikal answered. “And, Kati, please don’t probe me. I do want to surprise you, but these days I can’t keep anything from you if you really want to know what’s going on.”
“All right dearest. I do like to be surprised.
“Oh, and Roxanna,” she added. “I’m not a ‘glory-hog’.”
Joaley, Roxanna, and Rakil burst out laughing. Maryse grinned.
“But we got your attention, didn’t we?” Roxanna giggled. “And you didn’t hare off who knows where, leaving Mikal bereft.”
“Okay, then, Mikal, Kati,” said Maryse. “Before this conversation descends to name calling, say your good-byes, and get your backsides home. I have staff to look to the needs of our visitors; you two are off-duty as of this moment. Take a few weeks to unwind; go visit Mikal’s folks, or do something daring, like go get your birth control chips taken out, and start a family.”
Shyla giggled, and opened her mouth for the first time since they had arrived on Lamania.
“No pushing out two dozen eggs in as many days for you, Kati,” she said.
“Thank goodness. One babe at a time is plenty enough, believe me.”
*****
Mikal’s surprise for Kati was a life-sized portrait of her son, Jake, standing amid white birch tree trunks, with the blue of a lake glinting in the background. The image clearly originated in the memories The Monk had uploaded into an SFPO Corps machine when Kati had first arrived on Lamania. Jake was grinning, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, his favourite summertime gear. Rakil and Roxanna, probably with Mikal’s artist friend’s help, had hung the simply framed picture on a wall above the large bed.
Kati stood in the middle of the room, and stared at it, tears running down her face.
“Oh, Mikal,” she whispered, “It’s absolutely amazing. It looks just like him, but I can see that it’s a painting, not some fancy Shelonian gadget.”
“I thought that you’d prefer real pigment,” Mikal said, taking her into his arms, and grabbing a wipe to clear away her tears. “Ragna r’pa Mattis is a family friend, and she works with the old methods. I gave her snatches of your memories, and asked her to pick a suitable image, and reproduce it in pigments of her choice. I knew that she’d come up with the right thing—something that you would appreciate.”
“And she certainly did. And I do appreciate—oh so much!”
Kati buried her face into Mikal’s shoulder while burrowing against his body. She had lost a child, but she had also gained: a world—a galaxy—and a loving man.
EPILOGUE
Jamie Haddok looked around him at his favourite restaurant patio in Edmonton, feeling very satisfied. The summer afternoon was beautiful: the sun was shining on the trees that shaded the patio tables, and on the streets beyond it. He had won his case, and the people instrumental to his doing so were gathered around the table, along with the client, Nick, a handsome young man of Native ancestry. An Elder of his Tribe, a woman of considerable talents sat beside him, looking pleased. Next to them were the old farmer and his wife; he was slightly stooped, grey-haired, but still vigorous-looking and tall. The wife, too, was a tall Scandinavian, with the weathered face of someone who had spent many summers outdoors. Beside them was their daughter, and she had obviously once been a beauty, and, even now, in her middle age, was quite striking. Jamie, having seen pictures of her daughter, could see where the lost Ingrid had got her looks. The mother, Sonya, was looking quite animated today; she seemed to have shed the grief which had consumed her for the months that Jamie had known her.
Then there were the Makis who had testified to the authenticity of Nick’s story about the egg-shaped vehicle and the cat-men. John had come with his grandson Jake, accompanied by his daughter Anna. His wife, Raisa, had stayed on at the Resort in Northern Ontario; it was a busy time of the year at the Resort, and someone capable had to be there to see to things. Jamie understood that, and it had been the boy’s testimony that had been the most crucial, after all, and John had added his bit. And Raisa had sent a sworn statement of what she had seen and heard.
Jake, too, appeared lively; he was obviously bursting with some news that he was keeping to himself for the time being. He could not remain seated for more than a minute or two; then he’d climb down from his chair to touch either his grandfather or his aunt, who would caress him, or walk over to Jamie and grin at him mysteriously.
“Is Lanie coming?” he asked Jamie eagerly.
“She should be here any moment,” Jamie assured him.
“Lanie Haddok,” Nick said teasingly. “She joined the Tribe of the Fish.”
Jake giggled at that.
“Different spelling,” Jamie said easily, like he always did, when the fish jokes came up.
Then Lanie was there, beside him, breathless, but glowing. Her pregnancy was beginning to show. He leaned down to kiss the top of her red head, and to give her a warm hug.
“Got the blog done?” he asked her.
“Yep. The verdict of ‘Innocent’ is out there in the blogoshere, to be read by all the curious who have been following this case. And there have been plenty of those; mind you it has been kind of an unusual case.”
“I’ve got something new for your next blog,” Jake said, looking up at her with a broad grin.
“Woo-hoo!” Lanie opened her eyes wide to stare at the boy. “What could it be?”
Suddenly Jake’s smile grew slightly uncertain. Anna reached out to pat his shoulder.
“What is it, sweetheart?” she asked.
“Well, last night, when I couldn’t sleep—the hotel was kind of noisy—my mom came to talk to me.” He looked around somewhat anxiously, apparently realizing that what he was saying was not exactly a run-of-the-mill report. “I wasn’t asleep.”
Sonya, on the other side of the table gasped.
The Cree Elder gave her a sharp glance, and then looked at the boy.
“Let’s hear Jake’s story first,” she said.
Lanie and Jamie both smiled at him encouragingly.
“Like I said, I couldn’t sleep,” Jake reiterated. “I was lying there, in the room with my Auntie Anna sleeping in the other bed. I tried to be very quiet so as not to wake her, and I was thinking about all the things I’d be doing when we got back home to the Resort. Like swimming in the lake, and canoeing, and even fishing with my father.
“And then I heard my mom’s voice say ‘Jake, are you awake?’ ‘Oh, yes, I’m awake,’ I answered, and I opened my eyes. It was dark in the room, but not dark li
ke it can be at night at the Resort; there were lights of the city coming in around the window shades. My mom was standing beside the bed, but I knew she wasn’t really there, not like we are here at this table. But it was her, anyway, I knew that for sure; she was telling me that it was her, and I recognized her. Though she looked different: her hair was long and in a braid, and she wasn’t wearing jeans like she usually did, but some kind of a pant suit. There were two men with her, one of them had his arms around her, and I knew by looking at him that he loves my mom. And she loves him back. When I understood that, he winked at me, and smiled.
“The other man was a little farther away and Mom told me that he was the Scientist who was making us talking to one another possible. Only we weren’t talking, not out loud, but only inside our heads. And Mom told me a bunch of things about how she had been on a slave ship, and escaped, and there had been a whole roomful of little kids there with her. And two older girls, Ingrid and Roxanna. And she and the winking guy had gone looking for them all, and to catch the slaver, and they had done it! But that she could never come home because... because, there was something about time and space that I didn’t understand.”
He frowned and shook his head.
“Try and keep that memory alive in your mind, Jake,” the Elder woman said to him gently. “Maybe, when you’re older more of it will start making sense to you.”
“Maybe you, Auntie Anna, and I can write it all down for you,” Lanie said. “As much as you can remember. Then you’ll have a record of it, later. And like the Elder says, maybe someday it will make more sense to you—and the rest of us, too.”
“And, Sonya,” the Elder addressed the blond woman. “Shall I guess that this Ingrid Jake’s mother spoke of is your daughter? And she visited you last night, too?”
“Yes.” Sonya wiped wetness from the corners of her eyes. “The Scientist Jake mentioned was in the background when I ‘spoke’ with her, too. And Kati—Katie—was there, too; somehow she was necessary to the process, as well.
“Oh, it was so good to talk with my daughter! It was so good to hear that, although she said that she had been through some pretty awful stuff, thanks to the slaver whose employees picked her up, she’s happy now, having the time of her life, and in love!
“She asked me how the trial was going, and assured me that Nick would get off this morning—I have no idea how she knew that! Though she did say something about the relativity of time and space; I gathered that the Scientist is an expert when it comes to stuff like that!”
“Would you like to write a report about your experience, too, Sonya?” Lanie asked. “You might be able to add some important bits to Jake’s story.”
Before Sonya could answer, the waitress came out, with a tray and a short, sturdy, middle-aged black woman in her wake.
“Here they are,” the waitress said to her, “the James Haddok party in their entirety. And there’s Jamie himself, and his wife Lanie; they’re regulars here, especially in the summer, although Lanie’s drinking iced tea these days.”
With a grin at Jamie, she emptied her tray on the table and left.
The dark-skinned woman looked around her, then went over to shake hands with Jamie and Lanie.
“So you’re the lawyer who won this very strange case,” she said. “They told me at the Court House that I’d find you here with all the celebrants. I’m Betty Vail, and I have,”—she stressed the word ‘have’—“a daughter named Roxanna.”
The group around the table broke into cheers.
Jake rushed over to her, and grabbed hold of her hand.
“You’re Roxanna’s mom!” he cried. “My mom said that Roxanna has a sharp tongue, and a sharper mind! And that she’s put both of them to good use!”
Betty Vail laughed.
“She was talking about my daughter all right!” she conceded.
“And Mom said that Ingrid was the kindest, most caring human being she knew!” Jake added.
“That’s what Roxanna said about Ingrid, too,” Betty Vail added. “And what she said about Kati of Terra—your mother, Jake—was that ‘we’re all in awe of her. There seems to be no end to her talents, and whenever someone needs her, she’s right there, helping out.’”
“I hope that someone tells her story,” said Lanie with a laugh. “I would love to—if I knew it.”
THE END
Also by Helena Puumala, on Amazon.com
The Kati of Terra Series
Kati of Terra Book 1: Escape from the Drowned Planet
- Kati and Mikal’s first adventure, their perilous and romantic escape from the slaver Gorsh. While stranded on the Drowned Planet, Makros III, Kati and Mikal are relentlessly pursued by the slaver’s minions.
http://www.amazon.com/Kati-Terra-Book-One-ebook/dp/B00811WVXO
Kati of Terra Book 2: On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted
- Their continuing pursuit of the slaver Gorsh leads Kati and Mikal to the dystopian planet Vultaire, where a degenerate elite has reinstituted slavery. In order to save the victims and themselves, they have to help save a world.
http://www.amazon.ca/Kati-Terra-Book-Two-Assignment-ebook/dp/B00D0H15CC
The Witches’ Stones Series
The Witches’ Stones Book 1: Igniting the Blaze
- Galactic war and peace depend on the fate of one young woman and the actions of the agent sent to rescue her from a terrible future.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Witches-Stones-Book-ebook/dp/B008PNIRP4
Short Fiction
Love at the Lake
- Will an eighteen year old beauty’s visit to the lake leave a ruined marriage in its wake?
http://www.amazon.com/Love-at-Lake-Helena-Puumala-ebook/dp/B00IPSZKLS
The Boathouse Christ
- Uncanny events unfold around a young woman’s religious experiences.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Boathouse-Christ-Helena-Puumala-ebook/dp/B00JBRD90Q
Where the Apple Falls, An Easter Story
- A family is divided by lifestyle and religious belief, but an Easter Service and a freshly planted apple tree bring them together, along with a little paranormal help.
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Apple-Falls-Easter-Story-ebook/dp/B00JSDW6XY
Northern Gothic Stories: An Anthology
- An anthology of paranormal fiction, along with some crime stories.
http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Gothic-Stories-Dale-Olausen-ebook/dp/B00AQT8IJ0
Coming Soon
Nathan’s Adventure in the Other-Other Land
- An illustrated children’s story. A boy from the regular world, Nathan, must help Prince Roland to save his sister Princess Pepper from the Black Dragon, in the land beyond the mirror, the Other-Other Land. But to rescue the princess, they must face many dangers; hungry tigers, malevolent mushrooms, swamp monsters and more.
The Witches’ Stones, Book 2
- Helena’s current project is the continuation of the Witches’s Stones series, an action packed romance and Science Fiction blend set in humanity’s future.
About the Author
Helena Puumala was born in Finland, but migrated to Northwestern Ontario, Canada, with her parents and siblings, at an early age. There she learned to adore Nature, living as her family did, surrounded by it, miles from the nearest town.
As a young woman, she attended Carleton University in Ottawa, earning a degree in English Literature, with a Minor in History, after deciding that her first choice, Journalism, was the wrong one for her. She spent the years after graduation avoiding a settled career choice because doing so would have interfered with her plans to write. Thus, she earned a living doing various jobs, among them: a Post Office clerk, a tree planter, an office worker and a laboratory animal technician.
She married a man from Edmonton, Alberta, and ended up making his hometown hers. The two of them brought up a son who turned out to be academically talented; presently he is studying Astrophysics at McGill University, Montreal.
With her son gone
from home to Graduate School, Helena finally had the time and the opportunity to devote herself fully to writing. She also gained the help of her spouse, who has become, besides her staunchest supporter, her editor and publisher. Together they run the Dodecahedron Books which e-publishes her works.
Helena is on Facebook and would be interested in feedback from readers.
https://www.facebook.com/helena.puumala
About Dodecahedron Books
In Plato’s philosophy, the dodecahedron was said to be the solid that “encompasses the entire universe”. In that same spirit, Dodecahedron Books’ mission is to publish science fiction and fantasy ebooks that encompass the entire universe of imagination. Included in that universe are romance, adventure, humour, danger, friendship and intrigue - the things that make life interesting.
Dodecahedron Books is on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/DodecahedronBooks
Check us out for information on current and upcoming books, photos, and links to our blog, containing commentary related to the books.
http://dodecahedronbooks.blogspot.ca/
Showdown on the Planet of the Slavers Page 79