by L M Lacee
She inclined her head in acknowledgment as he continued. ‘Finally, you all find comfort in each other, how did I do?’
‘Very good, but you missed one thing!’
‘I did?’ He frowned as he thought over what he had said. She nodded her head, then sipped her tea.
He looked genuinely surprised and confused. He asked himself, what had he missed? As he went over each point in his mind, finally he shrugged and gave up. ‘I fail to see what?’
Netta smiled. ‘Touch, we find our most comfort in touch.’
‘Ahh I see! Yes, I have missed that.’ He closed his eyes, and she bet he was going over all the instances when he had been touched. She knew she was right when he opened his eyes and they held a smile.
‘Yes, I did!’
‘May I ask a question?’
‘Of course.’ Hawk sipped his tea as he waited, while she gathered her thoughts. Netta sucked on her bottom lip then blurted out. ‘Why did the Star Child not fix Earth, so we could stay there?’
Hawk tipped his head to the side as he asked. ‘You worry I will be upset that you would want to remain on your world?’
Netta hunched her shoulders. ‘Yeah, I do not want you to think I don’t like you all.’
‘I do not.’
‘Good, because I do!’
It was his turn to say. ‘Good, now to answer your question. How do they keep her co-operation, her continued co-operation? If they made it so she and by extension all of you and all of us did not have to leave Earth.’
Netta sat and thought about what he had just revealed, while Hawk looked at the stars that seemed to have slowed, he wondered if they listened.
Netta finally said. ‘Oh, I am unsure if I am angry, sad or scared. So she is a hostage to their demands?’
He inclined his head. ‘In essence, I suppose you could look at it like that. They are assured she will bring justice to their universe and beyond, and of course inhabit their or her solar system. Which has been closed and lonely for millions of yentas?’
‘By holding the Earth over her head?’
‘Yes.’
Netta scowled as she looked out the window. ‘That is so wrong!’
He grinned as he told her. ‘You may tell them so if you care to. I advise against it.’
She gave him a quick smile then told him quietly. ‘I do not know what to think.’
‘Please, Netta, it is only a thought, an idea.’
‘A well-educated one, you unlike us have studied the histories of the Star Child. I will take your ideas over anyone else’s.’
Hawk smiled inwardly as her words flowed over him warming him with their sincerity. After a few minutes of silence, she hesitantly asked. ‘Do you think Peyton knows why or cares?’
Hawk’s eyebrows rose. ‘Oh she cares! Very much so. Even in the short amount of time I have known her, I see that, and if I am any judge of character and I am. She has taken steps or will when she remembers to remedy the situation.’
Netta laughed at his reference to Peyton’s memory. He said with a smile in his voice. ‘You could ask her?’
Netta grinned. ‘No, I think there are some things I do not want to know right now. Maybe in the future.’
She looked at him. ‘It is not because I do not care or am a coward, she has a heavy load already. My questioning her on this could make her think I don’t believe in her and then she will think others don’t as well.’
‘Never for a min, did I think you did not care?’ He spread his hands wide. ‘This lounge shows that and as for being a coward. Ahh! Netta, if I had four or five Warriors like you. I could sit back and watch you right the wrongs of this universe, world by world.’
Netta grinned. ‘So funny, although it will be more fun to watch Peyton do that. She is unique I have heard in her approach to politics.’
‘Does she actually have an approach?’
‘Apparently she does. I heard it contains a lot of, I do not care and the word, no!’
He laughed a genuine sound of a male thoroughly enjoying himself. ‘That will be fun to watch, especially in our universe where they do not like the word, No!’
‘I agree, it should be fun.’ Netta grinned at him as he said. ‘What is it you say? I am glad I am along for the ride.’
Netta raised her cup in a salute to him. ‘Yep, that is exactly what we say and so am I.’
FORTY-SIX:
For three days after they ventured into the wormhole for the second time, everyone was very busy and stayed mostly to themselves. Janet was on the training level once more as she had been most days and every night since leaving the small planet.
Melody found her staring off into space as she mindlessly ran the track. She had been told by Heather who had been told by several of the Warriors. Kerol the most insistent of them all, about Janet’s running. They were worried about her.
She decided she would speak with, her rather than allowing Heather to hold her down and sedate her. It was an option Kerol had agreed with when Heather voiced it earlier. Melody had talked Heather into holding off until she had spoken to Janet, which she thought was a better option than drugging the poor female. Heather had given Melody the healer look when she strode off, saying over her shoulder. ‘Fix it Melody, or I will!’
So here she was, standing in the shadows watching an exhausted Janet run around the track. Which was an amazing bit of technology, the track was suspended halfway between the floor and ceiling, in actuality it ringed the exercise level.
While in use it stayed elevated, when a runner or runners were finished running, they slowed and the track lowered to ten feet above the floor. Then a section inclined becoming a ramp that the runner exited down.
Melody hit the override switch, and the track instantly lowered and inclined, Janet ran down breathing heavily. Melody stepped in front of her and passed her a towel and a tube of drink as she asked.
‘Is what she did on the planet so bad you cannot sleep or is it what she asked me to do?’
Janet closed her eyes as she drank deeply from her tube, when she lowered it, she said. ‘I think it is a bit of everything.’ She sighed and shook her head as she wiped her face and drank again.
Melody led the way to a bench and watched as Janet collapsed onto it. She moved next to her and waited patiently for her to speak. Janet sighed once more then said. ‘Before we left Earth, she sat and talked to Agnes Johnson. She was the traitor.’
‘I know who she was.’ Melody said as she sipped her tube of hot tea.
Janet said as she fiddled with the tube, not looking at Melody. ‘When she finished talking to her, she made her disappear sort of, with a beam of bright light. I know she is the Star Daughter, but it was as though she just didn’t care. She was so hard and distant. Furin hayda, she ate breakfast afterwards.’ She sighed and shook her head saying. ‘I was a trooper, then military police for a while, but Melody that was just so… so cold.’
Melody nodded her head. ‘Harsh, but her judgment was sound, Agnes betrayed us.’
‘She ate breakfast afterwards! Like it was nothing, as though taking her life was nothing… who does that?’ Janet asked, her voice hoarse from suppressing the feelings of anger, fear and despair she was feeling. She watched Melody waiting for some reaction, like horror or sorrow or even outrage, and yet all she did was nod and sip her tea.
Janet gulped down some more liquid and felt her anger boiling under the surface. She didn’t know whether to scream or cry so she did nothing just sat in silence and waited. Melody sipped more tea and then said casually as though they were discussing the weather.
‘You know Peyton was taken in for questioning the day before that happened right.’
Janet’s tone was a little surly as she replied. ‘Yeah, I heard.’
‘They threatened her.’
Janet raised her head and looked at Melody as she scoffed. ‘Really, whippee! They threatened the Star Daughter, honestly what could they have threatened her with that she could not stop?’ She s
norted in disgust. ‘Please!’
‘Death, torture, drugs, rape, pleasure planets.’ Melody replied quietly.
Janet snorted again with contempt and sarcastically said. ‘As if she would have let them or they could have. Remember, I saw what she did to Agnes.’
Melody looked at Janet her eyes hard. ‘Yeah, I remember, Janet, the threats were against us, not her. They threatened to remove us all to pleasure planets, everyone in her care or under her protection. Then as many females from Earth as they felt would get the answers they wanted from her, or the Warriors returned. Do you know what they would have forced the Warriors to endure if they had gotten them back? What Hawk would have been forced to do?’
Janet shook her head as Melody sighed before she quietly relayed what Peyton had told her. ‘They would have made him sacrifice some of his Warriors. Kerol, Lukkas and Willian to start with. Others that were close to him, to make the point that they can never leave.’
Horrified Janet stated adamantly. ‘He would not have.’
‘No, and he would have died and then they would still have killed the others to make their point to the next Commander. So he would know, you can never leave us. There is no hope.’
‘How do you know this?’
‘Peyton told me and as much as you think she is all powerful, she is not now and back then she was definitely not. Remember she had only just discovered who she was. Even now she is still so new to her abilities, there are limits on what she can do.
Good stars the female can’t even heal herself. She told me at the time; her biggest fear was she would try to stop them and in doing so, destroy the world.’
Shocked Janet nodded as her fingers stilled. ‘Oh yeah, that would do it?’
Melody smiled gently, as she remembered the sad female that cried all night. ‘She wept for most of that night for what she had done to Agnes, and a few more nights after that. She does not think I know but our home had thin walls. She hurt, still does probably and as for the planet, she hurts for that too. She loathed what she asked me to do, and I will have to go and tell her we are okay. She is avoiding us all, she thinks we hate her for what happened.’ Melody softened her tone even more as she asked. ‘Tell me Janet, do you hate her, a female who has a heart as big as this universe. Who can cry a bucket load of tears and hates that she can? The same female who would die for each one of us?’
Janet looked at Melody. ‘No, how could I, although saying that, she scares me at times?’
She gulped down the rest of the water and swallowed the fear she felt, then placed it with the sadness and despair that had been riding her hard since the planet and let them go. She remembered the anger and hatred she had felt when the kitchen staff had begged for mercy, with a cleansing sigh, she released that too. Thankfully, she had lots of practice as a trooper learning not to hold on too long to things that could turn her bitter.
Grinning Melody told her. ‘Shit! She freaks the hayda out of me at times as well, but she is ours and we are hers. So we are sort of stuck with it all.’
Janet grinned back. ‘That is true, and I think in the future, I will thank the Stars every night for her.’
‘As I do. So are you alright now?’
‘Thanks, I will be.’ She looked off into the distance, then said more firmly. ‘I will be!’
Melody left it there. Janet like all of them would come to terms with everything at her own speed. They talked of other matters until Janet decided she could sleep and Melody thought, she would go find Netta and together they could watch a vid.
The following night Peyton finally ventured from her cabin. Self-imposed exile did not really suit her, sometime over the last few days she decided that being by herself would not fix what ailed her. She needed her family or at least she needed to find out if they were still with her on this crazy adventure called life.
So taking her courage in her hands, she walked to her star lounge and stood amazed at the transformation. Someone or many someone’s had gone to a lot of trouble to give it a homely feeling with couches, tables and plush rugs. She bet it was Hawk, after they had talked here, he had somehow found out she liked this space and had started placing comfortable lounge chairs and couches in it. She was fairly sure the tables, coffee and tea dispensers were the ladies idea. Spying a rug, she had admired, she knew Netta had also added her bit as well. She decided she would reward their thoughtfulness by using the lounge as often as she could.
She had just settled into watching space go by with a cup of coffee, when Melody came in with Hawk. She took a seat next to Peyton as Hawk handed her tea and sat in the chair he had used before, with his legs kicked out in front of him completely at ease, he turned his attention to looking out the window.
‘I thought you were avoiding me?’ Peyton said to Melody.
She grinned and returned. ‘Huh, other way around Star girl.’
‘Maybe! I thought you would not want to see me.’
‘Peyton why? It is all part of the job.’
‘I made you shoot people.’
‘Nah, you didn’t. I could have walked out.’
‘Oh, I thought I did.’
‘Nope! You are not the boss of me.’
‘Melody… I sort of am.’
‘Sort of not.’
‘I think I am.’
‘Dearle Stars, are they at it again?’ Heather asked Hawk as she, Darby, Kerol and Netta walked in.
‘Yes, they are. It is very comforting having them argue, as it means our world is normal again.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that?’ Helen remarked as she and Brenda came in, carrying trays of snacks and jugs of tea and coffee.
Esther asked as she followed behind them with a chocolate cake, Like Helen and Brenda she knew when comfort was needed. ‘What is normal?’
Brenda sighed. ‘Esther, you know. I have no idea anymore.’
‘I know, this is what I have been saying. We have to find a new normal is all.’
Peyton’s cup was removed from her hands and replaced with a new one. She took a sip and sighed.
Yeah, life was good again and family made it better.
FORTY-SEVEN:
On the eighth day out from the wormhole, Darby finally made contacted with the Xindray, informing them they had rescued Raparthen pups. Within seconds they had arranged a meeting on a small moon that both of them would be in range of in half a day.
The moon they shuttled down to was red and not much bigger than a small Island. In fact, it was still growing, she shyly told Peyton. Who made the mistake of telling Darby that the moon spoke to her, and instead of being as amazed as she was? Darby sniffed dramatically and said she had no intention of conversing with it.
Peyton grinned and told her that was just as well as the moon did not want to talk to her either. Which caused a minor argument about speaking to strange moons, planets and suns. A nonsense fight that relaxed Peyton and annoyed Darby and made Hawk sigh in exasperation.
The pups were greeted with howls and hugs from all the Raparthen who were there. Within minutes after arriving the pups were whisked away to several shuttles and seconds later the shuttles powered up and they were gone. Leaving about fifty Raparthen remaining.
The adult Raparthen, were tall dog like people, all were one color, coal black. The only difference between the male and females were the eyes. Males have brown eyes, and their females are burnished gold, which is a little disconcerting as all pups have gold eyes but obviously not all pups were female.
Maturity was around thirty yentas old but when a pup reached twenty or so, they shed their tan fur and grew in a light almost gray coat. This was also when their eyes changed color, brown for males, burnish gold for females. When they were fully mature their fur was shed once more, and they grew in their adult fur. A Raparthen healer explained to Heather, their species were all very long lived compared to other bipeds in the universe which explained the slow stages of maturity.
Other than coloring, it was easy to see the differ
ences between the young adults and the mature adults. The youths had a puppy kind of playfulness about them, that was lacking in the adult male and females.
Peyton thought the Raparthen Pack leader Huju was a handsome male in a dog kind of person way. It was quite amazing that within a very short period of time the fact the Raparthen were covered in fur seemed to be the least of their attributes that made them fascinating to the humans and Warriors.
They were a strong, lean people who were very fast runners on two feet or using all four limbs. They gave the landing party a demonstration of their skills, racing each other around the moon. Then they showed why they were the universe’s most eminent trackers it was eye opening for the Warriors. Hawk told Melody they had never seen tracking like that before, it was awe inspiring. Melody had nodded not understanding actually what had happened, Kerol whispered he would explain it later. She had grinned at the often quoted words the females usually said to the males.
Huju told Darby and the others when the Raparthen used the trees as they apparently did on their home worlds. They used their tail which was prehensile and grew as the Raparthen did. It made running through the branches faster and almost silent. As there were not any trees on the small moon, he was sad they could not show her and the others how fast they could move.
It seemed the Raparthen were as fascinated with the human females and Warriors as they were with them. They were invited to sit down to tea, which was held in a big dome structure, that looked like it was made from green stone but felt like canvas, which the females found intriguing. As they entered charcoal tables and chairs rose from the floor, complete with table settings.
The flooring was heated and soft to walk on, it seemed to be made from a material that resembled carpet but felt more like fur. Heather forbid Peyton from asking what it was, scared they would say it was something horrible, like skins from their enemies of something.
The tea was cooked over an open flame and was a thick blue liquid, youths served the tea in delicate cups made from some type of china. Darby, Kerol and Netta loved the tea even going so far as to ask for seconds and thirds. While Melody, Heather and Hawk nursed their first cup and Peyton suffered through drinking half hers.