“We’re all aliens.  Until we get to know one another.”

Six solar years after landing~~~

She knew it would work.  Had worked.  There was no reason why it shouldn’t.  All the computer models said it met the need flawlessly.  Said it was safe, painless and permanent, and would even enter the germ line.  It was what the Alphans needed to survive and thrive on their adopted home, the world they called Nova Alpha, but which she would always know as Psychon.   

The lush green and blue world spread out below her, many of the valleys still covered in morning mist.  She flew high, very high, the thin, cold winds rushing through her feathers.  She flew so high that the first rays of the warm sun could just be seen glinting over distant mountain peaks.  She pushed her wings even harder.  She wanted to see her world as only the high-flying n’hati could; but, the higher she flew, the more she felt the n’hati’s primal terror fluttering about her sapient consciousness.  There was a brief internal tussle, and she firmly suppressed the creature’s instincts to return to a lower, more oxygen rich layer; she exulted when she did so effortlessly.  Her father would have been very proud of her.  Not every child of Psychon could master the skill of imposing her will over the instincts of the primitive form she wore.  She found an unexpected upward thermal and rode it even higher, until even the vision of the supremely well-adapted n’hati began to grey out.  Lowering herself to the point where she could again survey her domain, she shrieked with wild joy that this was her homeworld. 

Her father died trying to return Psychon to this pristine state.  To her shame and grief, she now knew he’d killed many innocents in his misguided quest.  She still wasn’t certain if he somehow pulled the Alphans and their runaway moon into their time~ ten thousand Terran years in the Alphan’s future~ or if he had only taken advantage of a stellar anomaly that had thrust the moon there on its own.  In any case, his attempts to capture and drain the Alphans of their psychic energy had failed… dramatically, resulting in the utter destruction of Psychon.  He had forced her into the sole surviving ship against her metamorphic protests, sending her away from the disintegrating planet to plea sanctuary with the Alphans.  Mentor had stayed behind to be with his long dead gra’tle, Maya’s mother, perhaps realizing his grievous errors at the very end.

She took comfort thinking so.

Soon, very soon, the results of many solar years of research would be proven to all. She would have made her contribution to ensure the truth of her people’s legends of those-who-came-before.   Perhaps then she would earn her place amongst the Alphans, and the right to be counted as one of their own.

She soared on toward the dawning sun.

One solar year after landing

Maya stood at the door of her small home, arms crossed over her chest, watching the activities of the Alphans.  Her home was one of the many dozens of pre-fabricated domed dwellings set up to house the Alphans across this small, flat plain nestled in a broad valley.  The small, two-room building was spartan with only the minimal Alphan furniture to make it habitable.  The only spot of color was a variegated grass weaving hanging on the wall, a gift from Sandra.  Maya had offered to share her quarters with another, but found herself alone, even though several other domiciles housed up to five people each. 

Maya watched as adults dressed in a variety of beige polymer uniforms passed by, each Alphan intent on various duties.  She noted the number of pregnant women wearing loose tunics woven from planet-grown fibers grew daily, and felt the familiar pang of longing at their obvious fertility.  She nodded courteously as Tony Verdeschi walked past with his mate, Eleni Erikson.  The pretty reclamations engineer was holding their infant son.  

Feminine laughter caused her to look in the other direction, and Maya tensed as Tanya Aleksandr and Melita Kelly approached.  Maya knew Melita as a skilled biochemist, but it was Tanya who disturbed her on a deep, instinctive level.  The tall, slender woman had never been anything but pleasant and gracious towards her, but Maya once again felt the familiar frisson or fear knowing the woman saw her though a dead man’s eyes, although Dr. Russell assured her the donor had consented to such action in life.  She would never accept this casual attitude her new community had toward this horror, this…organ transplantation.  It was simply wrong.  The dead deserved to rest in peace; their ashes returned to the earth that bore them.  Couldn’t Tanya sense the foreignness in her body?  The wrongness of it all?  Suppressing another shudder, Maya nodded her head as the women continued on to their jobs.

A few deep breaths later, Maya again looked around, envious of the industrious Alphans.  She had nowhere to be.  Her help was no longer needed setting up the computer systems, or in calibrating the recently placed orbiting weather and communications satellites.  Even the electronic engineering teams had pointedly excluded her from their ongoing repair work.   She needed to find a way to contribute.  She had no healing skills, her agronomy skills were even less.  The scientists were secretive and standoffish, although that was where her skills lay.  The only skill she had been able to practice, though away from wary Alphan eyes, was metamorphic. She often fled the mistrustful eyes that always watched her, learning to hold her changed form for hours on end as she soared through blue-green skies.  The desire to flee her discomfort now was strong, yet she continued to watch the passers-by, her patience finally rewarded by seeing an Alphan that always unconditionally welcomed her presence.  She smiled as the small, tousled-haired boy dressed in khaki shorts and a bright top ran out in front of his parents, who obligingly turned to follow him. 

“Hi, Maya!”

She went down on one knee and returned the 5-and-a-half year old boy’s enthusiastic hug. 

“Hello, Damon.”

“You know what?”  The boy leaned close and whispered.  “I’m staying with the Frasers today ‘cuz Mommy and Alan are going to the waterfall place and make a baby!”

“Ah.”  Maya smiled at the boy as she brushed his hair out of his eyes, uncertain if this was meant to be public knowledge.  Humans had unusual beliefs about sexual activity and reproduction, although they certainly went about each with abundant enthusiasm.  She was uncertain if Damon had been told this, or had simply picked it up with childish astuteness.

Damon glanced at his approaching parents.  He leaned in close again and whispered quickly.  “Can I stay with you instead?  You’re a lot more fun.  Please?”  Maya smiled and nodded conspiratorially.  She’d like that, too.

“Good morning, Maya.”  Sandra smiled at her as she held a hand out to her wayward son.  Maya watched as Damon reluctantly walked back to his mother, a pleading look cast in her direction.  She stood as Damon’s foster father joined the rest of his family, one-and-a-half year old Rebecca sitting on one arm, a small carrysack hanging over the other shoulder.  As usual, the blond pilot was civil toward her, but hardly friendly.

Maya turned back to Sandra.  The small, slim woman was dressed casually in shorts and a loose, white shirt of her own weaving.  Maya rather liked the quiet communications expert.  While not at her own skill level with computers, Sandra’s knowledge of the Alphan systems was formidable.  And Sandra had always been kind to her, even back at the beginning when Maya was overwhelmed by the loss of family and home.  It had taken Maya several Alphan weeks to understand that Sandra herself had been attempting to reacclimatize to her own people after being separated for four of their years.  In a way, they were outsiders together.  It still caught Maya unawares at times that such a competent individual acted, well, so sane, which she simply couldn’t be.  After all, she had children by two different men, and had mated a third. 

She smiled at Sandra.  “I don’t mind watching Damon.  We’ll have a nice time together.  I’ll be happy to watch Rebecca also, if you wish.  I have no other obligations today.”  She tried to not sound bothered by the latter.

She watched as Sandra looked and nodded at Alan, Damon obviously holding his breath while keeping his fingers in a most peculiarly crossed position. 

“Yeah.  That sounds fine, as long as Annie doesn’t mind.  She might have plans for them today.”

Sandra looked up and laughed at her mate.  “Oh, I suspect Annette won’t mind if two of the ‘kid-pack’ have another minder for the day.”  

“Yeah!” Damon ran circles around the adults, finally taking Maya’s hand happily. 

Maya smiled down at the boy.  The entire concept of childhood was magical to her.

While delighting in the children, Maya remained uncomfortable with what the Alphan culture called half-siblings.  She recalled her shock when she learned Sandra’s children, Damon Morrow and Rebecca Koenig, had been sired by different men.  The differing last names had held no significance to her.  Even now, Terran nomenclature eluded her.  That Damon’s father had died was a tragedy, but life was full of those-- as Maya well knew.  And many widows and widowers became great scientists, philosophers or poets, devoting their solitude to further the community’s collective wisdom.  Even her father’s misguided attempts to return Psychon to its glory were understandable without a gra’tle to balance and focus his psyche.  But, to re-mate?  That was… against nature.  And then to find yet a third mate and claim him as companion.  Well, that was simply… repugnant.  And yet, Sandra had become almost a friend, one of the few.   Maya jumped at the sound of a sneeze from the pilot.

As much as she enjoyed Sandra’s fellowship, she remained uncomfortable around the woman’s gra’tle, her soul’s companion, who even now stood silently watching the women speak.  Alan Carter had mistrusted her since she first arrived on the long absent Alpha.  He held her responsible for the deaths of his friends at her father’s hands, as if she was her father’s gra’tle.  That was offensive.  Did his people allow matings between parent and child?  Didn’t all civilized beings know only a gra’tle was held accountable for the actions of another, and then only of what the Alphan’s called husband or wife?  Not one’s parent, or adult child, or sibling.  She wished she could ask someone, but there was no one here she could risk offending.

“Well, thanks Maya.   Give us a call if the little pest becomes a bother.”  Alan grinned down at Damon as he passed Rebecca over to her. 

“I’m not a pest!  And I’ll be real good for Maya.  I promise.”

“Yeah, right.”  Alan gave the boy a meaningful look that brooked no good for him if he didn’t keep his word.

Damon laughed, obviously not intimidated.  He picked up his sister’s kit and trotted it inside Maya’s home before a change of parental mind could occur. 

“You are more than welcome.  They’ll be fine.”  Maya looked at Alan and added before he could.  “And yes, all water will be boiled and everything cooked that I give them.”

Sandra grinned at Alan’s nonplussed expression, and pulling her gra’tle alongside, waved good-bye to her.  Maya watched them walk away, a twinge of envy at how comfortably Sandra leaned into Alan’s casual embrace. 

Maya shook herself to banish her reverie, and hurried inside to bring out the water carefully boiled and stored for her few guests.  It would not do to accidentally poison the children.  It was too bad that the Alphans had such a severe intolerance to a basic protein found throughout the food web and water cycle on Psychon.  Fortunately, heat denatured the protein and rendered it harmless... for the most part.  Still, it was a serious inconvenience for most, and two Alphans had almost died due to extreme sensitivity. 

“Maya, Becca’s hungry.  Can we eat?”

As Rebecca was sitting quite contentedly on her arm, Maya rather suspected it was the boy who was hungry, but no matter.  She smiled at the beautiful little girl with wide, brown eyes and was rewarded with a giggle.  The toddler reached up and touched the dark shading under her cheekbone, as Maya had often done to her own mother.  It was an intimate caress that only a child, a parent or a gra’tle would share.  Maya felt her eyes tear as she cuddled the child close.

A snack first, and then they would have a wonderful day.

1 ½  solar years after landing

Maya collected the instruments that had been allocated to her research, carefully packing them in the odd shaped ‘cubes’ for transport. Bill Fraser would help her tomorrow transport them to her new lab.

Over the past several tendays, she had requested access to those computers, nucleic acid sequencers, and other cast-off equipment that was no longer usable, as well as a nuclear generator that had ceased to function.  She looked about, considering the broken pieces laying about.  Her lab equipment for her soon to be lab. Nothing like what she had once had for her research, but she would make it do.  She had no choice.  In a way, this was grudging acknowledgement of her competence from her fellow scientists.

The dilemma of just why all their equipment was failing had finally been solved.  It had taken many weeks of work by many teams, herself reluctantly included, but finally a ionizing particle in the atmosphere was identified.  It behaved in ways unknown to the Alphans and interfered with Alphan equipment, from communication devices to cooktops.  Maya helped the engineers devise a repair ‘patch’, and in return was allowed the use of several redundant or broken pieces of equipment for her own studies. 

She was trying to fit in with these strange people, but it was so very difficult to consider them ‘human’ given their distorted beliefs and lack of homogeneity.  Finally, needing time away from such overwhelming peculiarities, she had asked permission of the Commander to set up a remote lab for independent research, and he agreed.  Her flights about the planet had found the cave the Commander and Sandra had sheltered in during their years alone.  Its location suited her as well as it had them, and she was granted permission to use it for her purposes.  Helena expressed concern for her isolation, but Maya reassured her that to a metamorph, isolation upon occasion was desirable and required.  In any wise, in the form of a n’hati, the Alphan colony was only four days flight away.  And there were always the commlocks, especially as the modified planet-based instruments now relayed to the orbiting satellites quite well.

The final cube was packed.  Counting the one with clothes and her few personal effects, there were six total~ an auspicious number.  Although she still wore her red-sleeved polymer-based uniform, of late the cotton and flax plants were abundant enough to make natural fiber fabric for any who desired. She now had two outfits dyed in the bright colors the Alphans favored.  Truly, she could count two-dozen of these strange people who had been kind to her, but Maya still looked forward to several months on her own.  She would have uninterrupted time to explore the biochemistry of the pristine world about her.  It would be wonderful…except for the one source of interruption she would miss.  The children. 

Maya walked to the front of her housing unit and looked around.  Perhaps one day she would be welcomed back …

Two solar years after landing

Soaring high, higher than Alphan vision could discern, she watched as four men exited the Eagle not far from her cave.  One was the Commander, the others bearing sleeves of red, orange and purple.  They carried tools in hand or resting over a shoulder as they walked along the path that led to the cave.  She flew ahead and perched in the highest branches of a tall evergreen tree to await their arrival.  As huge as the tree was, the branches were spaced just far enough apart to accommodate the many-meter wingspan of the n’hati.  She had overheard one botanist describing the tree as ‘a California redwood on growth hormones’.  He had sounded awed.  By context, Maya assumed the trees on the Alphan homeworld did not grow as large as these.

Maya tilted her head curiously as the four men approached in single file far, far below.  Unlike usual behavior, they were silent and their expressions grim.  She could now see they carried digging tools on long handles.  Shovels she believed they were called.  They passed silently beneath her and passed by the incline that led to her cave’s entrance.  Soon, they had passed out of sight into the deep woods. 

Maya was puzzled.  What were they after?  She launched herself as silently as possible and flew in the direction the men had taken.  Scanning the woods below her, she caught glimpses of red and orange and landed on a branch to observe.  She watched the Commander scan the area and then point north.  He led the way along an overgrown path toward a small, rocky clearing overlooking the valley below.  She flew ahead and again perched where she could watch. 

Their footsteps still a ways off, Maya waited for the men to arrive.  She studied the clearing more carefully.   She had to admit she had only passed by this area on foot once or twice and had never paused to consider the unusual rocky formations.  There were three piles, one roughly rectangular in shape and approximately two Alphan meters long and half a meter high.  Next to it were two much smaller piles of rocks, the mica flakes glinting bright in the sunlight. 

The men arrived and leaned their tools against the base of her tree.  They seemed to study their surroundings as they spoke very quietly amongst themselves.  Too softly for her to distinguish the words.  She extended her wings and resettled again as she realized that this place was in truth the Alphans’ goal.  Watching the men stamp their feet to stay warm, she noticed the chill in the air and fluffed her feathers more comfortably.  It was much cooler at this latitude than at the Alphans’ home settlement, especially at this season. 

She froze.  Her movements must have been seen.  The orange-sleeved pilot looked up in her direction.  Now, she could see it was Alan Carter. 

He continued to look up in her direction, a frown on his haggard face, until the Commander called to him.  All four men, two to a side, started to take rocks off the largest pile and place them in yet another pile just over a meter away.  Maya was frankly puzzled at this curious behavior.  The sun arced 15 degrees by the time shovels were used to move the dirt under the now relocated rocks.  Slowly, a wooden box was uncovered.  With obvious respect, the four men lifted it out of the hole and placed it on the ground slightly away from the two remaining small rocks piles.  The red and purple-sleeved men busied themselves looping ropes around the box while the Commander and Alan returned to the small, glittering rock piles to repeat the nonsensical pattern.  Soon, each man was holding a small, plastic Alphan cube that they placed carefully atop the large wooden box. 

Hunger began to color Maya’s thoughts, but she firmly suppressed the need and watched carefully.  After more quiet talk, the Commander and Alan each took a small cube and left, followed by the man with a purple sleeve carrying the shovels.  The red-sleeved man remained.  He walked about the clearing stamping his feet and waving his arms, then briefly looked up at the sky, and sat down.  She recognized Tony Verdeschi.  She preened her feathers to distract the body from its growing hunger pangs.

What had the Alphans just done?  Were they to return for the large box?  They must be intending to, or why else go through all that bother and leave a man behind?  They must have buried the boxes, but why?  And what was in any of the three? 

Tony had always shown her courtesy.  He had escorted her through the bewildering changes that had surrounded her upon her arrival on Alpha, overcoming his own obvious reservations.  Here on Psychon, he made sure she had somewhere to live and was treated humanely.  He had even invited her to join him and his gra’tle at meals, until it became obvious to Maya that the woman, Eleni, was uncomfortable in her presence.  Maya had drifted away then, trying to find a place amongst the Alphans, but for the most part living outside the ebb and flow of the community.  Except for the children.  They sought her out and included her in their games.

She made her decision.  She spread her wings, dropping off the branch in a controlled fall to the ground far below.  Almost down, she watched as Tony scrambled to his feet, swinging his arm protectively over his head.  Silly man, she would never hurt him!   Suddenly, a flash of laser fire singed her tail feathers, startling her into veering hard to the right, clipping her wing against the tree.  Unable to find her balance, she fell, spinning out of control, crashing through branch after branch.  The dizzying fall ended abruptly~ in a painful, feathered heap on the ground.  Fighting to remain conscious, she looked up to see Tony walking toward her, laser held at the ready, his expression one of fear and hostility... toward her?  She allowed a cascade of light to surround her as she shifted to her normal form~ and her awareness slipped away.  Moments (or was it hours?) later, she felt warm arms lift her up.

“Damn it, Maya.  Don’t surprise me like that.  I could’ve shot you.” 

Maya shook her head, bringing a hand up to brush her long, auburn hair from her face.  Her arm ran into Tony’s, and she realized he was still holding her.  She stiffened at the familiarity and was quickly allowed to stand on her own accord.  

“You tried.”

“I was aiming to scare you off.  If I’d wanted to hit you, you’d be dead.”

“Oh.”

Maya relaxed as Tony took a step away.  She took a few moments to watch him as he looked about the small glen, lush grass growing where a break in the dense canopy allowed sunlight to fall to the ground.  Several fallen tree trunks were located about, almost like benches. It was a still and pleasant place, except for the disorderly rock piles, and even those were quite appropriate for silent contemplation.  She contemplated Tony. 

She knew he was held as quite handsome by the Alphan women.  She had on occasion heard rather graphic speculations as to his masculine abilities; such talk seemed grossly inappropriate to a man who had a mate.  Maya had more than once come upon Tony and Eleni in private as she flew high overhead.  Alphan couples seemed very… enthusiastic in private.  Maya blushed.  She hadn’t meant to pry, but her curiosity about that part of Alphan life was very strong.  She had also come across other couples, including the Commander and Helena and once Sandra and Alan.  It had surprised her to find Alan laughing and teasing. 

She was intrigued by such marked differences in behavior, public and private.  The command staff showed the dichotomy the strongest.  It was…unusual.  Her people were more constant in their approach to life.  Or had been. 

Maya often found herself frequently in proximity of the command staff of the Alphans, or rather, their children.  They accepted her differences without even realizing it.  Even living out here alone in the wilderness, Sandra and Helena made the obvious effort to bring their children to visit.  They used the excuse that supplies and data needed to be exchanged, but these necessary tasks could just as easily have been accomplished by a pilot alone.  She deeply appreciated the gesture.  Even Tony had visited more than once, bringing his toddler son and a pregnant Eleni with him.  Maya had enjoyed their company and even felt that, given time, she and Eleni might become friends.

“Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing?”  She gestured to the clearing and the box now wrapped in a polymer tarp with nylon ropes tied to a hoist, apparently ready to be airlifted out.

“We’re taking Lew home.”

“Lew?”  Maya was confused.  What was a ‘Lew’?

Tony walked back and sat down on the ground next to her.  He patted the earth and she joined him. 

“There were three members on that survey team that crashed on Psychon.  John, Sandra, and Lew Picard.  Lew was a scientist who knew more than a little about a whole hell of a lot. He was great to have along on missions.  But, John says he was the most sensitive of the three of them to this enzyme-thing that makes us sick if we don’t cook everything first.”

The hairs on the back of Maya’s neck were beginning to prickle.  She looked at the box in mounting horror.  The man-sized box.  No…they didn’t actually put bodies in the ground, did they? 

“After Sahn lost the one twin at birth last month, she told Alan she wanted all her children buried near the settlement.  Alan told John, and…” Tony shrugged looking out at the box across the glen.

“There were bodies in the small cubes?”

Tony nodded without looking her way.

“Yeah.  Caitlyn and John, Jr.  They had it rough here.”

“You mean you do not burn your dead?  You let them rot?  In the ground?”  Maya scrambled to her feet and stepped backwards in a panic, putting distance between her and the boxes. 

“Some of us cremate our dead, others bury…”  Tony turned to her.  “Maya, hey, what’s wrong?”  He stood, concern apparent on his face as he stepped toward her. 

Maya put out a hand warding him away.  It was too much.  “No, don’t touch me…”

She backed up another step and turned away from Tony, throwing herself into the air.  Shifting shape, her bruised wings clawing hard to gain altitude, she twisted to avoid the overhanging branches and escape the madness behind her.  Finally, kilometers away and surrounded by the obscuring mist of a waterfall, she returned to her own form.  Standing beneath the cleaning waters, her arms clutched about herself, she trembled uncontrollably.  The pounding foam drenched her, releasing her hair from its loose braids.  Soaked and shivering in the chest deep water, she wished against reason to be home again amongst all that was familiar and dear. 

Hearing the roar of engines, she closed her eyes against the horror inside the box being lifted away by the unseen Eagle... Lew Picard’s rotting and decaying remains returning to his alien people.

 

Three solar years after landing

Maya’s people were not native to Psychon.  She had known that, and this proved it.  She sat back in the chair and studied the information scrolling across the screen in front of her, the pages flickering in rapid succession.  The results of one-and-a-half years of constant study into the planet’s chemistry had revealed many interesting observations.  And, when she cross-referenced the biochemical markers with her own tissue samples and those few samples she had obtained from the Alphans, even more peculiarities surfaced. 

The entire planet was a jumble of genetic impossibilities.  There was no way most of the animals present could have evolved here, nor many of the plants.  In fact, one of the few uniform findings throughout the genomes was the very protein that caused such problems for the Alphans.  It was amazing that such an ecosystem functioned at all, much less as well as it did.  There seemed to be only one thing in common with all the non-Alphan life, and she would need help from the Alphan scientists to further understand it.

Maya stood up and walked to the front of her cavern.  Over the past few years, Pat Osgood and a few of his colleagues had fashioned a cover for the opening.  She could retract some or all of it all will.  That, along with the cleverly vented heater, allowed her to stay here year around, if she wished.   She didn’t.  She found she missed the children.  Well, she would see them soon enough.  She was due for a tenday visit starting later today.

The familiar roar of Eagle engines broke her concentration.  As usual, she felt the thrum of the engines before seeing the glint of light on metal.  The scheduled flight was running hours early.  She looked about the cavern.  It wouldn’t take long to shut everything down, and then she could return to the settlement for a visit.  It would be good to see Damon, Rebecca and Deborah again, and to perhaps even visit Marco and Nico Verdeschi.  And Tony.

It was the work of less than half an Alphan hour to shunt the new data to the distant settlement’s computers, and put her research in a safe ‘hold’ mode.  She had just finished packing her few belongings when she heard footsteps climbing the shale pathway up to the cave.  Many footsteps, and the higher-pitched voices that meant female visitors.  She returned to the front of the cave and saw two women approaching through the woods carrying am octagonal packing cube between them.  Their voices were distant but clear to her acute hearing.

“I’m telling you, you need to move now, Melita, or someone else will stake a claim.”

“Eleni’s been gone less than half a year, Helena, he needs time to grieve.  In any case, I’m not interested in him.  Not that way.   He just needs help with the boys.”

“Kelly wouldn’t mind.  From what John and Alan have to say about him, he’d be trying to fix you up also.”  

Maya saw Melita smile at that comment.  Maya knew Kelly was Melita’s dead mate, and she frowned slightly at the turn in conversation. It seemed grossly inappropriate to think of a life-mate trying to replace himself.

“Oh, probably.  And insisting I settle down and make some babies.” 

Both women laughed at that. 

Helena looked up as she reached the base of the incline that led to the cave.  She smiled broadly seeing Maya looking down at them.

“Up for some visitors bearing food?”  Helena wore her usual gracious smile.

“Certainly.”  She met the women half way and helped bring the cube up the remaining distance.  It was surprisingly heavy for its size.  She looked at Helena, raising an eyebrow in question.

“Treats for a picnic lunch.  Pierre said he’d be back in a few hours after he makes his run to the mining camp.  He has more supplies for you, but Melita and I decided to leave those to masculine muscles.”

“Ah.”  Maya certainly knew the word ‘lunch’, but the modifier picnic was unfamiliar.  As usual, Melita saw her mild confusion and explained.  The biochemist had become a friend of sorts; their independent research into the biodiversity of the planet overlapped frequently.

“It’s a portable lunch enjoyed casually by friends, often to celebrate a special occasion.”

“Ah.”  Maya smiled her gratitude.  “What are we celebrating?”  She looked between Helena and Melita as the former began to lay out the food on the sturdy wooden table. 

“Well, it’s a little premature, but I’d thought to celebrate your return to the settlement.”  Helena pulled the two wooden chairs over to the table and reassembled the cube to make a third seat.

“Not all that premature.”

Helena took her seat with a smile.  “Good, so you were planning on coming home?  You’ve been away too long.  Damon has been trying to figure out how to convince you to return.  He asked me how to imitate a life-threatening illness this morning.”

Melita looked at Helena and laughed.  “He didn’t?” 

“Most certainly did.”

Maya sat in the cube, blushing a deep red.  She was very fond of the little boy, but hadn’t realized he was that fond of her.  She kept her face down and studied the food passed to her and didn’t see the grin shared by the others.

Finally regaining her composure, she looked up. “Damon is alright?” 

“Oh, yes.  Although I will not be held responsible for any feigned illnesses if you do not come back with us.  He smuggled out one of my old medical texts when he thought I wasn’t looking.” 

Melita laughed at that, and Maya had to smile.  Human children were so much more mischievous than she had even been. 

Helena passed over half of a peeled fruit.  Called an ‘orange’ for obvious reasons, it was not one of Maya’s favorites, but she took it to be polite.  Melita saw her stilted acceptance and took the fruit from her and started eating it, apparently enjoying the acidic pulp.  Finishing quickly, Melita licked her fingers and looked in Maya’s direction.

“And Maya, I’d be grateful if you’d look over some of my data.  I know I’m missing something, and it is probably right in front of me.  There has to be a way to render the water on this planet safe without such lengthy boiling.”

Helena smiled sadly.  “You’ve been more than a little distracted caring for Tony’s boys.  No one is faulting you.  Especially as no else has made anywhere as much progress as you, except maybe Maya.”  Helena nodded in her direction and looked back to Melita.  “You’ll figure it out.”

Maya watched Melita grimace slightly as she bit into her sandwich.  She studied the woman carefully.  Melita did seem very tired.  Perhaps Helena’s picnic had been as much for Melita’s sake as Maya’s. She looked up to see Helena observing Melita, in a ‘healer’ mode if she read the facial expressions correctly. 

“I wish I could help you more with Tony’s boys.  You’re running yourself into the ground, you know.”

Melita shook her head in disagreement.  “Helena, you have enough to do being CMO.  Not to mention keeping the Commander sane. I’ll cope.  Annette, June or Sandra are always available if I need help.”

Maya looked between the two women.  She would certainly have time when she returned.  In fact, if she had realized the need was there, she could have gone back several months ago.  Tony was one of the few Alphans who was comfortable around her, and she had always been accepted by the children. 

“Helena, I’ll be glad to help care for Tony’s children. And go over your data, Melita.  I can stay in the settlement as long as needful.”

Melita looked pleased at both offers, and Maya caught Helena looking very satisfied.  She rather thought Helena was playing a very deep game, and that there was more yet to be understood.  The Commander had called Helena ‘devious’ more than once in her presence. 

“Helena, how is Tony doing?”  It made Maya sad to think of him without Eleni at his side. 

Helena shrugged.  “As well as can be expected.  He needs to get out more, but I suppose that will come in time, especially if Melita doesn’t show any interest.  He’s too young to stay single for long.  And both of you and Tony should have more children.”  She frowned slightly in Melita’s direction.

Maya folded her napkin over her plate and sat back.  She let the conversation wash over her as the other two spoke of people Maya really did not know.  There was no doubt that the past solar cycle had seen sadness, the worst a wave of illness half a solar cycle ago.  There had been seven deaths then, two of them children.  Eleni Verdeschi had just given birth after a difficult pregnancy, and in her exhausted state had taken ill and died soon after.  Helena had worked hard to save newborn Nico’s life and succeeded.  Many of the nursing mothers helped care for the infant, but Maya had not realized until now that Melita had been the one to help the most day to day.  Melita had eventually proved the illness was water-borne, but not soon enough to save Eleni or any of the others.  Maya could understand the concept of blood-debt and why Melita felt so obligated to help Tony.

Maya turned her quiet attention to Melita.  The brown haired biochemist was gentle and kind.  She had been the first of the scientists to seek her out to help with her research.  They communicated regularly by computer, serving as noncritical reviewers for one another, very much like the research fellows Maya recalled from her childhood.  She was comfortable around Melita.  She would be very pleased to help the widowed woman and would offer to care for the Verdeschi children when the biochemist was busy. 

In Maya’s estimation, Melita was a proper widow.  She had once said her gra’tle had died on Alpha and she had no desire to find another mate.  She devoted herself to research and was striving to find a solution to the Alphan incompatibility to the planet’s water.  Maya could understand and respect that, as well as the desire to help care for the children of her people.  Melita seemed almost Psychon in nature.  Helena’s casual assumption Tony would re-mate, as so many of the Alphans apparently had, was… discomforting.

“I do care for the children, Helena.  Kelly and I spoke of starting a family one day.  For us, one day just never came.” 

Maya watched as Melita stared down at her plate, tears gathering in her eyes.

The doctor reached out a hand and laid it on Melita’s.  “Do you still want to have children?  You’re certainly young enough.”

“Helena, I will not be paired off with Tony, or anyone else.  Kelly was special.  No one will take his place.”

“I understand.  But, would you like to have a child?”

Melita stopped eating.  She put her fork down and rested her hands in her lap.  She looked at Helena strangely.  Maya found herself holding her breath without really understanding why.

“Yes, of course I would like to have one of my own.  We’ve spoken of this before.”

Helena, her face now professionally neutral, nodded.  “Then we can arrange it.  John has only two living children, and I cannot give him any more.  This will solve the dilemma.”

Maya almost choked on her food.  Helena turned to face her, completely unlike the cheerful, teasing friend who had arrived such a short time ago.

“John’s genetic potential is too valuable to risk losing to the future.  We will use artificial insemination.  There need not be any physical contact beyond a medical exam.  Melita can carry and bear the child normally.  She will have her baby, and John’s genes will have another chance to continue in the gene pool.”   

Maya looked between Helena and Melita.  Helena looked resolute, Melita thoughtful.

Helena’s expression softened as she watched Melita pick up her fork again. “You know, there was a brief moment when I thought you and John were attracted to one another.”

“What!?”  Melita choked on her fruit, coughing violently.  Helena passed a cup of water, watching but not intervening.  Melita finally took a deep breath.  “You what?  I’ve known him for years.  All of them... the Commander, Alan and Tony Cellini, but we never even dated, much less....   Helena!”   

Maya watched as Melita turned an interesting shade of red.

“He introduced me to Kelly.”  

“I know.  But after we lost Kelly, John was always looking after you.  I thought he might have been, well...”

“Just friends.  Only friends.” 

“I know.”

Maya watched as Helena again rested her hand on Melita’s arm and share a sad smile.  That would seem to be that.  But one participant was noticeably absent.

Tentatively, Maya looked at Helena.  “But will the Commander agree?”

Helena picked up her fork and continued her interrupted lunch. There was a look of cheerful determination on her face.  “He will after we have our ‘discussion’.” 

“Ah.”  Maya nodded wisely as Melita gave a laugh.  It seemed best to leave the conversation at that.  After lunch they could clean up and await the Eagle’s return.  Certainly whatever supplies brought for her could be used by others exploring this part of the world. 

It would be good to see her young friends again.

 

four solar years after landing

The rainy season was early this year.  Most Alphans were inside homes, caves, or Eagles waiting out the current downpour.  Once the storm passed, the fields would be full of teams of people working on crops.  Dry-time crops needed to be harvested immediately, and the land prepared for the rainy season crops.  And, of course, everyone had to stay vigilant and not get any of the unboiled water inside their mouths. 

Maya watched the rain fall outside the open door and considered.  They were close.  She and Melita were so very close to solving the ‘water dilemma’.  They had isolated the gene that allowed the animals, and Maya herself, to drink the water without harm.  The gene, three actually and all needed, elaborated an enzyme that naturally inactivated the dangerous water-borne protein.  In fact, despite the care taken, the protein had managed to work its way into the genome of the foodstuffs brought from Earth.

A breakthrough occurred when Melita had finally deduced why the toxic-to-Alphan protein was ubiquitous.  It turned out the protein stabilized the genome in the face of the ionization that had caused such difficulty with the electronics.  The gene triad had presumably been introduced by those beings who had seeded the myriad species on Psychon.  But the Alphans, unscheduled interlopers, would only survive on their own ingenuity.  The best they could hope for was six millennia of overseer sufferance before leaving this world to go... elsewhere.  But first they had to survive into the next generation. They had to solve this problem soon, or else Helena and Dr. Mathias feared the Alphan genome would become unstable. 

Maya was determined they would figure this out.  If nothing else, she wanted her childhood nursery tales of those who came before her people to come true.  She turned away from the entrance of the dwelling, but left the door open.  She loved to listen to the rain.  Time to get back to work while things were quiet.

“Maya?”

Maya sighed, but even so, a smile crossed her face.  Nap time was over and work would have to wait, but this distraction was always welcome.

Three-and-a-half year old Marco Verdeschi walked out of the back bedroom rubbing still sleepy eyes.  She went down on one knee and gathered the boy to her, holding out a hand for the smaller boy that toddled behind.  Marco looked much like his father with dark hair and eyes, but little Nico had his dead mother’s looks, with a fair complexion and red tinted hair.  Not so dissimilar to her own coloring, in fact.  They might not look like Psychon children, but they had become the sons of her heart.   She gathered both small, warm bodies close and hugged them tightly.  The little boys were very tactile, and she found she enjoyed touching and being touched.  In truth, she found herself wishing their father would do the same, although she had found Tony’s eyes on her frequently these days.  But, even though Tony remained for the greater part formal about her, she had no regrets about not returning to her cave, not as long as she had these two to look after.

When she returned a year ago with Helena and Melita, Maya had found herself helping Melita care for the two motherless boys.  Italian was soon added to English, although Tony teased that she had the same funny accent in both languages.  And as the year passed and the demands of pregnancy found Melita too tired to help, it seemed natural for Maya to spend more and more time with the boys, eventually moving into the Verdeschi household.  Tony added a sleeping room just for her.

“Maya?  Is Papa going to be home soon?”  Marco returned Maya’s hug and added a kiss on Maya’s cheek. 

“Not tonight.  Remember?  He’s away with Alan checking on the miners.”  

“Oh.”

Unlike Nico, his younger, one-and-a-half year old brother, Marco knew Maya was not his mother.  Maya remembered many long nights holding Marco as the older boy wept for his dead mother.  Little Nico, however, had no memory of Eleni.  The toddler treated Maya as the mother he had never known, and such unquestioning love touched Maya’s soul.

It was the work of a few moments, but soon Maya had the two boys settled with toys and playing contentedly as she returned to work.  On her workbench, she moved the fresh water flasks to the back, out of the way.  To dilute the culture media she made daily, she had red pottery flasks of natural, unboiled water.  Boiled, safe water was always kept in blue containers in the food prep area.    In front of the water, serried rows of test tubes held blood samples from as many species the Alphans could collect, including generous quantities of her own.  Once she had more of the primary genetic material isolated, she would introduce it to Alphan samples. 

Soon she was lost in her research.

“Maya, can we have a snack?”

Maya looked up to see both boys peeking over the edge or her workbench.  They had learned to never touch anything on this table without her explicit permission, although they could watch and ask questions.  She encouraged the latter, as had her father.

“Of course, Marco.  Just no sweets, alright?”

“Awww.”

Maya gave him a steady look, but sensed he would comply.  They were good boys.  She returned to her work.

The gene triad appeared stable in Alphan plasma, and even stable in the intracellular environment.  But how to get the genes into the Alphan DNA?

“Nico, no!”

The sound of breaking pottery and scared shrieks had Maya immediately up and around the table.  The toddler was soaked in water, his little hand bloody from being cut on the sharp, red pottery shards.  Marco stood still, lost and very pale, tears streaming down his anguished face.

“I didn’t see him get your water, Maya, really I didn’t!  I’m sorry!”

Maya picked up the wet boy, assessing the situation quickly.  She shushed Marco with a gentle touch on the shoulder and looked at Nico, staying very calm, ‘Nico, did you drink any of the water?”

The toddler shook his head ‘no’, but Maya could see the droplets of water on his upper lip.  She took another steadying breath.

“Nico, no one is mad at you, but I need to know. Did you drink the water from the broken flask?” 

Nico looked at his older brother who was bravely trying to smile through his fear.  He looked back at Maya and nodded.  “Thirsty.”

Her heart sinking, Maya forced herself to stay calm.  Given his small body mass, the enzymes in the water would do irreparable harm in a matter of an hour, depending on how much he swallowed.  Still holding the toddler, she gestured for Marco to follow, and headed out.  For a small blessing, the rain had stopped.  She took off her commlock, pressing the button with a direct link to medical.  There was nothing to do, but Helena could keep the boy comfortable at the very least.

“Dr. Russell, please.”

“Here, Maya. Have you made more progress?”

“Helena, Nico drank an unknown amount of native water.  I’m bringing him to Medical.”

Maya could well imagine the disgust Helena must feel for such an inexcusable accident. 

“Understood.  We’ll be waiting.  And I’ll notify Tony.  Russell out.”

Returning the commlock to her belt, Maya nodded.  Yes, that would be best.  Tony should be able to see his son first, before the inevitable happened.

Their arrival at Medical was accompanied by controlled chaos.   A crying Nico was taken from her arms and she and Marco were left standing at the entrance.  She felt Marco’s cold hand slide into hers, and then the wracking sobs in the small, distraught body next to hers.

“Maya, I’m so sorry!  I didn’t see him get the red bottle.  I’m so sorry!  Papa told me to watch out for him, and now he’s going to die!”

Maya sunk down on her knees and held the boy tight.  Their tears blended as she pushed the little boy’s face to her shoulder.  Taking a deep breath, Maya raised the boy just far enough away so he could look her in the eyes.

“Marco, it was not your fault, understand?  I was the one who should have made sure Nico could not reach the red flask.  Me, not you.”  She shook the boy gently to make her point. “Me.”

Marco said nothing, but allowed Maya to gather him close again.  The tears would not stop. 

Someone brought out chairs and Maya and Marco sat down.  Maya held the boy in her lap, his head pressed to her chest.  She made sure his face was turned away so he could not see what was being done to his brother.  She did not want him to see Nico die.

Time passed. It seemed much longer than an hour.  The scream of an Eagle overhead went barely noticed by anyone but Maya.  Moments later, her acute hearing picked up Tony’s running footsteps, and then his voice as he pushed through the gathering crowd.  Maya dreaded seeing the anger she knew would be in his eyes, but she would not fail this responsibility also.  She would not leave until she knew Marco was safely in his father’s arms.  Tony paused just long enough to whisper his love into Marco’s ear, and then went into the treatment room, leaving Marco in her arms.  He hadn’t even looked at her.  Maya felt the hope die of anything more than friendship with Tony. 

Melita sat down at her side.  Maya cast a grateful look at the heavily pregnant woman.  To her surprise, Alan then joined them, standing behind the two women and watching the activity in the treatment room.  The crowd outside the pod began to grow as word spread.  Emotions and voices ran high, stinging accusations now loud in the air.

“Murderer!  You don’t want us on your planet, so you’ll kill us one by one!”   Maya sat silently, accepting the verbal blow.  How could she explain she wished she could be the one to die?  That just when she was beginning to feel part of the community, the death of the blameless child showed how impossible that truly was?

“Just shut up, Stewart!  It was a damn accident.” 

Accepting yet another Alphan’s rage toward her, Maya looked up at the anger in Alan’s loud voice.  She was amazed to see Alan staring down a balding, round faced man, the stranger’s angry face flushed red.  The balding man shouted again, hurtful, damning words.  Alan shouted back, even louder, moving to place his body between hers and the angry mob.  The words he said were lost in the noise, but Alan was shielding her.  Her.   If Maya had not been so overwhelmed with grief, she would have been stunned at his defense. 

Finally, the angry man looked away and then left, stomping through the mud, the remaining crowd quieting under Alan’s glare.   Apparently now satisfied the crowd would mind its manners, Alan turned back and looked at her.

“Damon and Becca trust you.  That’s good enough for me.”

The vigil continued.  Maya did not listen to the quiet voices around her. She withdrew into herself, rocking the numb boy in her arms, her head down and her eyes closed against the hostile looks about her.  Even the arrival of the Commander went unnoticed.  Her thoughts spiraled in a hopeless circle. What would happen next?  She would joyfully give her life... if only Nico could live.  If the Alphans allowed her to live, she would leave immediately; she would return to her cave, never to come back. 

“Maya?”

Keeping her eyes closed for a little longer, she gave Marco one final hug.  Tony’s voice was soft, much softer than she expected.  She felt the others move away, not wanting to witness the coming wrath. 

“Maya?”

She kept her head down, her eyes closed.  “It was my responsibility, and mine alone, Tony.  Nothing I can say will ever be enough.  My life is yours to do with as you will.  I just ask you burn my body, and not leave it to rot in the ground.”  The silence was palpable.  Resigned, she awaited the condemnation she expected and deserved, and yet, when Tony spoke again, his voice was still inexplicably soft. 

“Maya. It was an accident.  A horrible accident, but nothing more.  You love the children and they love you.”  Tony’s voice became softer yet, fingertips tracing the line of her tear-wet cheek.  “As I do, too.”

She felt her chin being raised.  She opened her eyes.  Tony’s brown eyes faced hers, tears running down his face. 

“Maya, come with me.” 

Too numb to do anything but agree, she stood, allowing Tony to pick up Marco.  Tony held out his hand to her, and, reluctantly, she took it.  Maya knew viewings of the dead were often part of the Alphan funeral rite, and if Tony wanted her to do so, then she would honor his unnatural tradition. 

They walked back to the treatment area to where Helena and Dr. Mathias stood at the bedside.  From the chronometer on the wall over the treatment bed, she could see only forty-five minutes had passed.   It had seemed like so much longer.  She looked down at the bed.  She could see Nico’s small feet, but nothing else of the boy.  Helena turned to her, a look of confused amazement on her face.

“Maya, he drank enough to kill a man Tony’s size.  But somehow, he’s alive.  I’m not sure why or how, but there is no sign...” 

Maya heard nothing beyond alive.  Nico was alive?  How?  She looked at Tony and then at Marco in his arms; Marco, though, had eyes only for his little brother lying on the bed.  She stepped closer to see Nico, and felt her hand being taken by a much smaller one, a small, pale face smiling up into hers. 

“Hiya, Maya.” 

Maya stood frozen, but her thoughts raced wildly.  Nico was alive.   Leaning over, she hugged the little boy as tightly as she could, until he squeaked a little in protest.  She let go, only to find Tony’s arm around her waist pulling her tightly against his side.  Holding his family close, Tony looked at her and whispered, “It’s a miracle, Maya.”

No, she silently disagreed.  No, not a miracle.  She leaned into Tony’s embrace and rested her head on his shoulder.  The Deity didn’t act in such ways.   She followed the scientific laws She established.  But She did leave it to Her creations to understand such laws on their own merit, or not.   No, this wasn’t a miracle as Tony meant, but the understanding of how and why would come soon enough, this Maya swore. 

five solar years after landing

“Okay, let’s review again what we do know.”  Helena paced the perimeter of the room, running her hand through her blond hair, frustration very apparent.  Maya had to suppress a small smile.  Helena was so much like her mate, the Commander. 

“The gene triad has been successfully introduced in approximately forty percent of our population.  We have no idea how this occurred, or why.  The vectors do not seem to include anything we have ingested, inhaled or inoculated ourselves with.”  Helena gestured broadly as she turned to face the room.  “Not even a cooperative mosquito!” 

Maya looked about the room at the quiet chuckles the last, inexplicable, comment caused.  There were eighteen scientists present, including herself, seated around the large white table, representing the fields of genetics, biochemistry, botany, medicine, and biology.  Maya sat between Melita and Helena, at least until Helena stood to pace the room in frustration, an emotion shared by almost everyone there.  Maya however, did not share their disappointment.  She felt the answer was very close.  She leaned back and studied the harmonious space about her.  The wooden walls, bricked floor and windows open to catch the warm breeze were in accord with nature. 

Outside, Maya could hear Bill and Annette Fraser helping the children with their kites.  The laughing children did not realize it, but the breezy spring day was a perfect one to start teaching them about lift and drag.   Maya knew the engineers and pilots among the Alphans had not given up their dream to one day explore this solar system~ and if not this new generation, then perhaps their grandchildren or great-grandchildren.  

Maya wished she could be outside with the children.  The flying kites looked wonderfully fun.

“The Alphans successfully able to drink untreated water has occurred in family clusters, except for the three outlying data points.” 

Which, Maya thought, included the three most irascible old scientists in the community. Melita shifted uncomfortably in her chair.  Maya looked at her and realized that it must be time to feed her nine-month old son.  Like all the mothers of infants, Melita breastfed the baby.  And even that route had been ruled out as a source of transmission.

Maya idly considered the data on the transparent board, covered as it was with family tree-diagrams, chemical notations, and DNA sequences.  Each childs’ symbol was filled in, denoting gene acquisition, most of the parents, also, but few of the older Alphans.  The three water-poisoning deaths in the past two years had all been older, senior scientists.  Maya was saddened.  Such precious information lost prematurely, information that could never be programmed into a computer, information like how it felt to walk under Earth’s yellow sun, what a cat’s fur felt like, what ice cream tasted like.     

“The families so far testing positive include the Verdeschis, Carters, Frasers, Collins, Singhs, Koenigs...”

Maya’s attention drifted away.  She knew the list by heart, as well as where each family lived, what each member did on a daily basis, their food preferences, their genetic heritage and even their sexual alignment.  Nothing coorelated.  A movement at the door caught her attention.  It was Sandra carrying little Giovanni Kelly.  Melita stood, offering whispered apologies for interrupting the proceedings.  Melita took the baby and stepped to the rear of the room for privacy.  With a nod in Maya’s direction, Sandra took the empty seat.  Maya appreciated the gesture and returned the brightly dressed woman’s smile.  Even after five ‘years’, the uncomfortable looks from many in this assembly could be unsettling.  Kind Sandra recognized Maya’s discomfort, and kept her company until Melita returned.

Maya again lost track of the conversation, this time watching Sandra as that woman studied the data groupings on the transparent board at the front of the room.  Sandra was pregnant again, a fact that seemed to both please and worry Alan.  Sandra herself appeared content, but then she usually did have uncomplicated pregnancies.  The death of the one twin had been a complication of delivery, not gestation.

“... and the most recent tests now include Melita and her baby amongst the numbers that now have the gene triad firmly established in their genome.”

“And still no untoward effects stemming from this genetic mutation?”  One of the grumpy old men, as Helena nicknamed them in private, who did have the gene triad spoke up.  His refrain was an old one. 

“No, no problems to date.  As we have reviewed many times, all the genes appear to do is allow the person to safely drink the water and eat raw fruits and vegetables.” 

Maya could tell Helena was biding her patience, but if Dr. Simpson did not change his line of questioning, Helena would put him in his place and out the door.

“Helena, you are looking for the commonality, correct?”

Everyone present looked at the new speaker.  Sandra had never spoken up in these proceedings.  In fact, Sandra rarely spoke in public at all, although Maya knew she was quite relaxed amongst the children and her family.  Helena said the four years of isolation on this planet with only the Commander and Damon as company had permanently scarred the woman’s psyche. 

“Yes.”  Helena watched Sandra closely.  Sandra blushed at the attention, but continued on, studiously refusing to look at the people watching her.

“There is one thing that links all the data points.  A person, actually.  Maya.”

Maya sat up straight, speechless. Her? How?  Many of the families she counted as friends, but not all, and most certainly not the three grumpy old men. Absolutely not Dr. Simpson. The others immediately started speaking out. Helena raised her hand, and then her voice for attention.

“Quiet, please.  Explain, Sandra.”

Maya now felt the sixteen pairs of uncomfortable eyes shifting from her to the data analyst. 

Sandra looked at the list of names on the board once again, and then nodded to herself.  “The families listed each have children, and Maya has cared for each of those children at one time or another.”

“Sandra, many people have helped care for the children. You and me included.”

“Yes, but Maya had cared for each one, am I correct?”  Sandra turned to look at Maya.

“Yes.”  She had made it a point to get to know each child.  If many of the adults never came to accept her, at least the children would. As they grew, she could become part of Alphan society through them.  It had been Tony’s suggestion, and after due consideration, she had found the advice and strategy to been sound. 

“And Dr. Simpson, Dr. Butz and Mr. Kline are each the adopted grandfather of at least one of those families.  I have seen each of them to have close, physical contact with the children, and all can be traced back to Maya.”

Again Maya felt the uncomfortable eyes of everyone present.  Just then, the door was pushed open and two small bodies walked in.  Children were welcome almost everywhere, and this place was no exception.   Sisters Rebecca Koenig and Gretchen Carter looked about the room, smiling when they saw Sandra.  Five-and-a-half-year old Rebecca led her three-year-old sister around the table until they reached their mother, ignoring the heated discussions going on over their heads. Rebecca climbed into Sandra’s lap, and Gretchen into Maya’s.  Gretchen rested her head trustingly against Maya’s chest, and without thinking, Maya leaned down to give the child a kiss on her cheek. 

Maya looked up to see Helena watching her, a considering look on her face.

“Thank you, Sandra, you have given me some new ideas. Maya, would you come with me?”

With that, the meeting was effectively dismissed, and Maya waited for the others to leave, enduring the many odd looks.  In the confusion of bodies standing, mingling and leaving, Melita sat down at her side, the dark-haired baby quiet in her arms.  Helena joined them after a final word or two with several of the others.

“Sandra, I’ve been chiding myself for not asking you to join us.  John always has said you’re the best for picking out patterns from a jumble of data.  Depending on what I find out next, I may have you look over some other information.”

Sandra ducked her head, a blush of pleasure at the complement. 

Maya put Gretchen down, allowing herself to be pulled down for a final kiss.

“Bye-bye, Maya.”

“I’ll see you tonight, Gretchen, and you also Becca.  You’re coming over to play with the boys, remember?”

Both little girls smiled and laughed, chattering excitedly about the fun evening ahead.  Finally, after a final ‘shooing’ by Maya, they left, following their mother who carried a full and sleepy Giovanni, out of the room. 

“Alright, we have work to do.”  Helena, Maya, and Melita headed back to the lab.

six solar years after landing, continued

Maya circled over the gathered Alphans.  The fields were harvested, or freshly planted., grains and fruit growing in gratifying abundance.  The solar collectors shimmered on the roofs of the buildings the Alphans lived and worked in.  The wind turbines, unmoving at the moment in the calm air, ringed the hills that surrounded their valley.  There were flower gardens in bloom, planted as a source of dyes for clothes, but also for the simple beauty that delighted the eye.  Not every Alphan plan had succeeded, but progress had been good enough to make this six solar cycle anniversary a celebration indeed.  Everyone was here, from the eldest to the youngest, six-day-old Galina, Tanya’s latest child. 

Maya flared her wings, cupping the air to make a precise landing next to Tony, who stood waiting under the shade trees.  Even though he was in an area screened by dense trees and bushes, many of the Alphans turned to watch her arrival.  She rarely showed off her gift, but a n’hati landing in the community could only be Maya.

Even before the metamorphic light faded, a gaggle of children were running up to her. With his long legs, ten-year-old Damon was in the lead, followed by Rebecca, Deborah, Marco, and Nico. Gretchen was the last to arrive, carried by her father, Alan.  She had suffered a vermin bite two seasons past and the area on her leg had become infected, leaving it withered and weak.  She was learning to compensate, but Alan still helped her keep up with the ‘kid pack’ at times.  Maya bent over and held out her arms, gathering the children close.  Genetic incompatibility might mean she would never have a child of her own, she knew, but still, she had family.

Usually more children mobbed her when she changed form, but today the children were dressed for the occasion and being kept at parents’ sides, except of course for these, the children of her closest friends.   With Damon holding one hand, and Nico the other, she joined the Koenigs and Carters, and, of course, Tony.  She felt a thrill when the handsome Alphan smiled at her.  He was not her gra’tle, not in the pure sense of the word-- there was no empathic bound, no sense of completion-- but there was a deep joy and contentedness in her soul.  It was like the love she shared with the children, but so very, very much more. 

Tony picked up Nico and took the child’s place next to Maya.  He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close.  She no longer blushed when Tony kissed her in public.  Like his sons, he was very tactile, and she was now able to acknowledge his love for her in public. She regretfully interrupted their kiss when a tall, silver haired man joined them.

“We were beginning to worry you wouldn’t join us.”  The Commander glanced at Tony, whose change in expression told Maya he still did not fully agree with today’s agenda.  “We need your help one last time, Maya.”

Maya squeezed Tony’s hand in reassurance. “You invited me, Commander, of course I would come. Out of respect for all you have done for me, if nothing else.”

“Maya, you are an Alphan.”  The Commander stated firmly.  “You are entitled to be here.”  He looked around at the children and their parents.  “Alright then, let’s get this show going.”  Children laughed and clapped their hands.  Today’s celebration had been anticipated for weeks.  Maya, though, flushed at the Commander’s words, and leaned into Tony’s supportive embrace.  At times, she still felt like an alien.

John Koenig led the way through the crowd, smiling and acknowledging greetings, but not stopping or even pausing as he usually did at gatherings.  Helena followed with Rebecca, and then Tony and Maya, now each holding the hand of one of the boys.  Melita and little Giovanni brought up the rear.  As usual, Sandra preferred to stay away from the crowds, and Alan seemed willing to respect her wishes today.  Damon obviously wanted to be in the middle of things, but accepted his mission to find a chair for his mother and then return to the shade of the trees.  The habit of watching out for his mother was too deeply ingrained to disregard.

Maya stood at Tony’s side at the front of the crowd, standing somewhat behind the Commander and Helena.  She would have preferred to wait with Sandra, but Tony’s fingers laced through hers held her in place.  Nico looked up from her other side and grinned widely.  Damon had overheard from Alan what was to happen, and the boy had made sure everyone under age ten knew; as such, all the children were looking forward to this.  It was always fun to see an adult squirm.

The Commander climbed the two steps to the low podium erected just for today, and as usual, Maya admired his casual command of the situation.  Maya thought John Koenig quite handsome, for a human.  She wondered if Tony’s hair would become that silvered as he aged; she feared she would find out much too soon.  Her studies to solve the water dilemma had also revealed one unalterable fact-- her human friends were aging twice as fast as she.  She would see the children grow up, and theirs.  Tony would be with her for only a few short decades.  Firmly pushing aside that thought, she watched as John Koenig silently gathered the attention of his people.  He looked over the Alphans, four hundred and six strong.  Soon everyone quieted, except for the occasional sounds of fussy babies and toddlers.

“Six years.  As of today, we’ve been here for six planetary years.  We have homes, enough to eat, clothes to wear, families.  The children are growing strong and healthy.” 

Parents reached out to touch their children; tiny faces were kissed.

“We can drink the water.”  The Commander glanced at Helena with a wry smile.
“Well, most of us can.”  He looked back to the assembled community.

“Now that we know our children will survive, we need to make sure the rest of us last long enough to be around to teach them.  We’re only guests on this world.  And we only have six thousand years to re-invent the space program.”

Maya smiled just a little as the Alphans laughed.  Given how little they had, returning to the stars was a formidable goal.  They had to somehow prevent their immediate descendants from returning to a bronze-age culture.  As they had already lost several key elders to water poisoning or illness, they could ill afford to lose anyone else until every available scrap of knowledge was passed on.

“There is one remaining adult that needs to be...” Koenig paused here, a smile on his face, “treated so he can drink the water safely.  Once he can, we can rightly claim Terra Nova as our new home.”  The crowed cheered.

Once Helena and Melita had deduced how the protective gene triad was passed among the children, Maya became much more popular.  To their friend’s amusement, especially Alan’s, Tony’s jealous streak now had reason to be all too active.  Maya’s saliva carried an enzyme that when joined with the DNA from her skin cells allowed the all-important genes to invade human cells.  And since saliva usually carried sloughed skin cells from the lining of the mouth, Maya’s kisses were literally the kiss of life; as improbable as it seemed, Maya’s love of the children, and they of her, had saved the Alphans.

Helena joined the Commander on the small podium.

“Dr. Ed Spencer, please join us.”

There was a ripple in the crowd as the lean medic made his way reluctantly to the front.  Maya could tell the doctor was uncomfortable as he sent a few disapproving glances her way.  Tony saw it also, and took a step forward to partially shield her from his censure.  Some Alphans never had become comfortable with her presence, or the thought of being grateful to her, and Spencer was one.  He also was not very partial to children, which explained the predicament he was in.

Unknown to anyone, Maya’s loving gestures had protected the children almost from their births.  The children in turn, in a child’s usual enthusiastic and messy way, had passed the gene triad onto their parents.  Older Alphans had become ‘grandparents’ to the children, and the uncritical love of the children had spread the protection there.  Only Ed Spencer had remained out of the loop.

Helena stepped down to stand by the side of her coworker. “It’s now or never, Ed.”

Ed’s hangdog expression was too much for his boss, who grinned at him.  Spencer’s utter lack of any empathy with children had become a section joke ever since the baby-boom took off.  Every doctor became a de facto pediatrician, although Ed had always examined the children behind a mask and wearing gloves.

“I hate this fuss.  You could have developed a vaccine, Helena.”

“You know there was no reason to, Ed.  Why waste resources when gaining immunity is so easy?  If you had just played with the children, you wouldn’t be standing here.  Of course, there always is the original vector.“   Helena gestured to the Psychon.

Spencer looked at Maya, and then at Tony, who was clearly not amused.  He sighed.  “Let’s get this over with.” 

Tony looked indignant at Spencer’s attitude.  Any willingness to cooperate vanished.

“John, Maya is not available.”  Tony’s voice was perfectly flat.

Helena looked at Tony, and considered.  While Maya was the surest way to ensure the end result, a child six to nine months old was the next best resource.  Perhaps for the sake of community harmony, it was wisest not to rile Tony.  Helena looked back to John and raised her eyebrow.

The Commander looked around.  “Alright, Plan B.  Carter, get your family up here.”

Alan led the way to the front, a grin on his face, Sandra and the children trailing in his wake through the amused crowd.  Alan found the entire situation highly entertaining.  Spencer was such a stuffed shirt.  “Well, I’m certainly not volunteering Sahn.” 

Helena walked up to Sandra and held her arms out for Garron. She looked at Alan and shushed him.  “You know quite well that’s not what John intended.”

A wide grin on his face, Alan stepped back, an arm around Sandra’s shoulders. He winked at Maya and rolled his eyes in Tony’s direction. 

Helena quickly assessed the increasingly fussy baby.  Knowing everyone involved, she and Sandra had prepared for this contingency; Garron was fed and recently changed.  Now it was up to Ed.  She smiled at her subordinate as she passed the infant to his awkward arms.

“Alright, Ed. You are now Garron’s babysitter for the rest of the day.  I’ll collect a gene sample from you in the morning.  If today is not successful, you get to have another day babysitting tomorrow.  And no gloves.” 

Alan handed Spencer a carry sack with the necessary baby supplies.  Ed might not be parent material, but Alan had no doubt the baby was in safe hands.  “Have him back by supper time, Ed.” 

Those closest in the crowd laughed at the dubious expressions on both doctor and baby.

The Commander stepped back up.  “Let the party begin!”

Alan picked Sandra up by the waist and swung her about, much to her obvious embarrassment, and their children’s delight.  After a thorough kiss, they headed over to the dance floor, kids in tow. John was more decorous with Helena, at least in public, but their happiness was no less.  Maya looked apprehensively at Tony, but he didn’t seem about to engage in such outrageous behavior. Thankfully.

The drink and food was abundant, and the music and dancing wonderful, but soon it grew too much for Maya and she looked for an escape.  With a whispered explanation to Tony, she slipped away from the crowd.  Damon, Rebecca, Marco and a few others noticed and followed, hands and pockets overflowing with treats.  She smiled a welcome as young hands slipped into hers.  As they left the gathering, Maya noticed Damon looking over his shoulder, and she turned also.  Overtaking the kid-pack was Tony, small Gretchen sitting on his arm.  Now together, the walk was full of childish chatter and enthusiasm, but eventually the quiet of the land soothed high sprits.

They finally came to a field that still held a few of the original quonset huts, now used for storage.  Beneath a tall tree, Maya sat down, the children settling themselves around her in a loose semi-circle.  Tony sat just behind her, leaning against the large tree trunk.  She leaned against his chest, warm and content.  She knew his presence for the gift of love it was. 

Maya studied the field.  This was the place where the Alphans had first struck their tents.  To the children she pointed out where the first Eagles had landed, where the tents were neatly aligned that first year, where the medical pod had been where many had been born. 

The children sat wide-eyed, captivated by her quiet words.  With such an eager audience, Maya and Tony took turns spinning stories, each one more fanciful than the last.  As the afternoon passed, the tales turned into old legends~~ very, very old legends, and finally, as the sun just began to set, Maya told one last story.  She told them the tale of the ones who came before her people; the strange ones who re-shaped this planet before they left for the stars to fulfill an ancient destiny.  She caught Damon’s eye.  He was of an age to begin to understand the truth behind this tale; the others would also come to understand.  One day.  Finally, by the fading light of the setting sun, Maya reached out to touch the cheek of the little one nearest her.  She might never bear a child of her own, but these small ones were her legacy.  With Tony now at her side, they all stood to return to the picnic’s bonfire.  As they looked out over the rich land full of potential, Maya gifted the children with the knowledge that was their birthright.

“We are only visitors on this world.  We will treat it kindly and with respect for those who come after.  We will learn the secrets of cell and molecule.  We will return to the stars and spread far and wide.  Our destiny is not on this world, but deep amongst the stars.  We will never forget.”

60 years…

John rested comfortably, courtesy of the pain medicines.  He insisted that he not be given so much he was unable to talk.  His grandson insisted he shut up and listen to his doctor.  Namely, him.  John chuckled.  Kyle sounded just like Helena when he used that tone.

Today would be the day.  He was fairly confident of that.  Well, he was ready.  Given what they’d all been through, he never, ever would have expected to live to see the century mark.  At least a Psychon century, which was actually a bit on the short side, especially as sixty of his years had been spent here.  No matter.

He asked to be brought to the waterfall where so many happy memories lingered.  This morning, Damon and Kyle had helped him into one of the small Sparrow hoppers that had been Alan’s final project, and Damon had flown him here.  The small rounded shelter behind him was by now very battered and weathered.  The effort it took Alan, Bill Fraser and himself to get the thing here from their valley several hundred kilometers away had been considerable.  They had certainly made a mountain out of what had seemed a perfectly simple molehill.  John smiled at the memory.  They had done it to surprise their respective significant others, and by all accounts, the effort had been suitably rewarded.  He was fairly certain this was where many of the first generation Alphans of his command staff had been conceived.  He knew it was where his younger daughter had married Damon Morrow.  John’s smile faded.  And Helena had died here in his arms only a few years ago.  Her passing had been peaceful, his final gift to her.

He looked up from his sleeping pad when he heard someone approach.  It was his foster son carrying a cup of fresh spring water.  Damon was tall, lean and still had a decent amount of brown hair and a mustache, although both had thinned and grayed over the years.  John couldn’t help but wonder if this was what Paul would have looked like if he had lived to see sixty.  Except for Sandra’s eyes, of course.

“Dad, everything okay?”

John snorted as he gestured to the ground next to him.  He took the cup and drained it.  The planet’s water tasted ever so much better when it didn’t need to be boiled to death.

“Just fine.”  He looked critically at the man he’d help raise.  There was sorrow and guilt in his eyes.  That was to be expected.  He was Damon’s last ‘parent’ still alive.  Barely.  The guilt was ridiculous, though.  He had one last chance to get the man to move past it.

“Damon, you’ve got to stop blaming yourself for the deaths of your mother and Alan.  They lived long, full lives.  They died quickly and together.  That’s how they would have wanted it, and you know that.  And as far as I’m concerned, I’m overdue.  Helena will scold me when I arrive.”

He saw Damon grin slightly.  That was better.

“Dad, do you really believe in an afterlife?”

“Oh, I don’t know.  Helena certainly did.  And your mother.  I’ve seen enough strange things in my life not to discount it.”

“Well, if mother and Helena are right, say hello to my father for me.”

That brought a big smile to John’s face.  “Will do.”

Light footsteps approached from behind him.  He recognized them immediately.  “Maya, I should’ve guessed you’d come.”

Maya disliked saying good-bye to her friends, but still, she did so whenever possible.  She had flown in under her own wing power, the twinkle of metamorphic light just now fading.  She walked closer and sat next to Damon, taking the younger man’s hand unconsciously.  John smiled.  She was as lovely as ever.  She appeared younger than Damon.  Early middle age, perhaps.  Her hair was still a deep auburn and her face smooth and lovely.  The grief of Tony’s death two decades earlier had finally eased.  He had no doubt that Damon was the cause.  Damon and Maya had been good for one another since Deborah had died.  John sighed.  His daughter had died too damn soon. 

He felt a flutter in his chest.  Soon.  He held out his hands to them and grinned.  “Be happy.  And just maybe someday we can catch up on old times.”   All at once, he felt very, very tired and laid back down to rest and watch the waterfall.

Helena’s silvery laughter was the last thing he heard.

600 years…

10…9…

His engineering studies assured him it would fly.  Of course it would.  Still, he surreptitiously kept his fingers crossed behind his back.  He heard the quiet laughter from Andrew Kelly standing behind him.  Well, he bet Andy had his fingers crossed, too.

8...7...

He wished he could have been among the first five hundred to return to the stars. But, Computer had logically told him his place was here designing the next generation ship.  They had learned much in the past several decades, and even more in the past five years.  The next ship would be bigger, better, and even more efficient.

6…5…4…

His life-partner, Shelia Carter, had been one of those selected to go.  To his utter amazement, she had declined the offer to join the generation ship to stay with him.  He wondered what he would have done if the choice had been reversed.

3…2…1… Liftoff!

The engines roared to life as the ship shuddered and rose from the bedrock launching pad.  The ship could claim a direct heritage with the ancient Eagles that had brought the original Alphans here.  He had seen to that.  Old Alan Carter would’ve been proud.  As was his many-times great-grand-daughter. 

The antigravity fields had been a bit tricky at first, as had the inertia dampers, but the old files in Computer had provided the hints needed to make the things work on such a grand scale.  He held his breath as the contrail led right up and over the horizon. 

YES!

Through his ear implant, he heard the chatter from Eagle 1 confirming all was ‘go’ and according to plan.  He forced himself to keep calm until it was confirmed the ship was free of the planet’s gravity well and that the people and gene banks were all intact and safe.  There was a final farewell broadcast to everyone on the planet old enough to have an implant… and then the cheering began.

He hugged Sheila, swinging her about in the sheer joy of success.  Andy clapped him on the back and pulled Sheila over to him for a celebratory kiss.  The first steps had been taken.  Alphans had returned to space.

6000 years…

It was time.  The others had finally arrived, as they knew they would.  The Alphans had received a polite… invitation… to leave Nova Alpha immediately, or face the consequences.  Well, it was an idle threat.  They had prepared for this day for millennia and were more than ready.  The Koenig stood at her station watching the final preparations.  One by one, the nine other ships reported their readiness to the Benes on duty.   She watched her people with quiet pride.  Yes, they were more than ready.

The Koenig wondered if the original Alphans would be pleased at what their descendents had accomplished.  They had sent out a colony ship every century after that first one.  After exploring the local solar system and finding it uninhabitable, they had moved on, following the intersystem space warps as had their ancestors.  Both due to limited technology and partly on purpose, the fates of those ships were unknown.  Each ship carried the mandate to increase on new worlds and to nurture the diversity of life wherever it was found.  Such repeated exodus has left poor Nova Alpha a metal depleted planet, but the biodiversity had been carefully preserved for the Psychons who were now to follow.  All was as Honored Maya had told them it would be. 

The door opened behind the Koenig and a small, flying creature uttered a tiny shriek of delight.  It swooped down and landed on her shoulder, butting its tiny head against her chin and settling in to watch.  The Koenig smiled as she cautiously patted the flying mammal’s back.  When they bred the giant n’hati down in size to make them more transportable on the ships, it was found the creatures were insatiably curious about their bipedal benefactors.  That was the reason they had so closely observed the humans throughout the centuries.  And they were much more intelligent than the settlers had ever given them credit, except maybe Maya.   Nothing had pleased the avian-like species more than to be invited to join the lives of the bipeds.  But they liked to be the ones to initiate physical contact, and woe to the Alphan who tried to touch one without permission.  The Koenig had been the recipient of more than a few nips to reinforce that truism.

Along with the n’hati, many quadrupeds, insects, flying avians and plants had been successfully bred down in size.  The inhibitor gene inserted in their genomes produced a protein that limited growth, but not maturation.  And once they settled on a planet, the change could be reversed and new generations grown to proper size.  The Russells were rightfully proud of this accomplishment.

The Koenig could see that final preparations were now complete.  It would be sad to leave Nova Alpha, but they had prepared for this their entire lives.  And the honored ashes of their ancestors were more than overdue for their return to the stars.  The future was now a blank screen, a mystery to seek out and explore-- but not old Earth.  A decision had been made to make no effort to find Earth.  Given all the spacewarps the originals had traveled, it was uncertain if they were in the relative past, present or future of the ancestors.  They would leave well enough alone.

“Ma’am, we are ready.”  The Morrow looked up from his station, his tunic dyed in a vibrant red that was a close approximation of that found in pictures retrieved from ancient Computer files.

“Very good.  Engage main motors.”

The huge engines on the massive transport ships shuddered to life.  Each ship carried over ten thousand human souls-- adults and children-- and enough animals, plants, embryos and seeds to colonize a barren world.  Through computer link-ups, she could see the other nine ships in the small fleet launch from around the world.  With the lifting of Eagle 10, Psychon was now as it was when the Alphans had first arrived six millennia ago.  Except for the minor matter of a few rerouted rivers and the extensive worldwide network of caverns.  But those would be left behind as a mystery for those that followed. 

The cycle was complete.  It was time to continue the odyssey. 

…Coda to eternity

She was old.  She was tired.  She had outlived her friends by decades, and their children and even many of theirs.  It was time to rest.

Sitting outside her home, she could feel the warm sunlight on her face and enjoy the scents of green, growing things brought on the breeze.  It was spring, her favorite season, and she smiled to hear the children’s laughter.  She had slowly gone sightless these past few years, but the loss did not overly bother her.  She no longer kept looking for the dear faces of those long gone.

She enjoyed sitting in the warm sunlight, taking pleasure in the company of those who came to visit or leave her a treat to eat; some came, she knew, only to say they had met the famous shapeshifter.  She regretted that the last were becoming the more common.   It was not pleasant being a living shrine to the hallowed halls of old Alpha.

It was time. 

There was no need to tell anyone she was leaving.  She would leave a delayed computer note for Damon’s granddaughter Kathryn.  By the time it was delivered, it would be too late for anyone to come ‘rescue’ her. 

She stood, slowly and painfully, and entered her home of many, many years.  She smiled to herself as she walked about the small dwelling made from three of the original Alphan quonset shelters, now much patched and reinforced. Kathryn had offered many times to build her a new home, but she had always declined.  This was the place she shared with Tony for all those years, and then with Damon after Deborah had died.  She knew where everything was and touched the special things in goodbye.  The book on winemaking Tony had brought from Earth, the handmade wooden bowls Sandra had given Damon, and then he to her.  The woven grass hanging, now faded and frayed with age.  Helena’s sculpture of a ‘horse’.

Just because she hadn’t shifted her true form in the last few years didn’t mean she couldn’t. 

She waited until sunset.  Knowing they would, she patiently awaited the dusk visit of Kathryn’s adolescent children.  They came each night to make sure she was well.  She loved them dearly.  They were the great-great-grandchildren of all her friends…Sandra, Alan, John, Helena, Tony and Melita.  Although the actual bloodlines might surprise the traditional minded among the Alphans. 

The settlement, now over two thousand strong, quieted for the night.  Even after that one catastrophic setback thirty solar cycles ago, the community was again thriving and growing.  She waited for the night patrol to pass and then shifted form to the tiny, sharp-eyed, sharp-hearing tremith. 

She also had never told anyone that her sightlessness was limited to her true form. 

She padded silently through the camp, casting only passing glances at the multistoried buildings around her.  Once in the fields, she ran swiftly to the rocky outcropping a few hundred meters away.  It was just high enough to launch herself into the air and just far enough away not to be seen in the dark. 

She flew free.

~~~~~~~~

Coasting on thermals, she approached the cave.  This place had been a refuge for the Commander and Sandra when they first landed on the planet.  It had then become her sanctuary during those first few difficult years living in the Alphan community.  Although she had visited only rarely in the past few decades, and then by mechanical Sparrow, she still found the place comforting and welcoming.

Approaching with the very last of her strength, she looked through the eyes of the high-flying n’hati.  She saw no one about.  It had taken her six days to reach here and she was exhausted, but no matter.  This was where she wanted to die. 

Just about now, Kathryn should be receiving her message.  She would call the searchers in and perhaps even launch a Sparrow to find her.  The small, solar powered craft named so whimsically by Alan would arrive too late.  Maya landed on the ledge and shifted to the form of the small tremith to look around.  All appeared as she had last left it decades ago.  The original Alphan machinery borrowed for her researches had long been returned to its rightful owners~~ but the bed was still there, and the table and chair, all made so very sturdily by John Koenig over one hundred and twenty solar years ago. 

She looked more carefully.  Someone must visit on occasion.  The bed linen was clean and intact and the water stores full.  Perhaps a naturalist or a miner.  She turned and walked back to the cave of the mouth.  Through the eyes of the small mammal, she watched the sun set one last time.  It was glorious. 

In the gathering dark, she shifted back to her natural form.  She walked over to the bed and slowly lay down. She closed her sightless eyes.  Her life had taken twists no one could have foreseen.  Here she was, dying on her homeworld ten millennia before her birth.  She had been denied her own people, but adopted by the strange and often incomprehensible Alphans.  She had found love in Tony, and a deep companionship in Damon.  She had touched the lives of hundreds of children.  Her research had helped, was helping, the Alphans survive.  Her legacy would live on.  She was content.

~~~~~~~~

“Maya?”

She sat up awkwardly, surprised, and stiff with age and the pre-dawn cold.  Had Kathryn’s people found her too soon?  But no, she could have sworn the voice was Sandra’s. 

“Maya?  May I join you?”

“Who are you?”

“Just a friend.  Someone who’s been here a while.  From the beginning practically.”  Maya heard a soft chuckle as the stranger sat down on the bed next to her.  “Well, since shortly after the Alphans arrived to be more precise.”

Maya grasped for answers, or questions. She ran her hand through her age-brittle hair.  “It is best to be accurate.”

The stranger laughed, sounding so very much like Sandra.  “I thought you would appreciate that.”

“Who are you?  Did Kathryn send you?”

“No.  She is respecting your wishes.  No one will come here for many days yet.”

“Ah, that is good.”

“She has guessed you are here, though.”

“And you, you guessed also, it appears.”  Who is this?  Maya could recall no one with Sandra’s rather unique accent since that woman’s death seventy solar years past.

“Not quite, but I’ve been here waiting for you.  I’m glad you finally came.”

Tears of fatigue and frustration started running down Maya’s face, and a soft hand touched her to brush them away.  Why couldn’t they just let her go?

“I’m Caitlyn Koenig.”

Maya thought through the young women back at the settlement.  She recalled no one with that name. 

“I’ve watched your work here in this cave for years.  I always knew you would come back one day.  So did my parents.”

“But I haven’t been here for a very long time.”

“I know.”

Maya felt very cold.  A warm arm wrapped around her and pulled her close.  The young woman smelled of earth, trees, and green growing things.

“Maya, you have a choice.  A decision to make.”

Maya simply leaned passively against the woman.  She was so very tired of making decisions.  That was why she had come here.

“A choice was given to the Alphans who died during their journey to this planet.  They could return to their families on Earth, or wait, here, for their fellow Alphans.”

Maya’s tired brain tried to make sense of what she was being told.  The woman spoke again.

“I’m not sure why there had to be a choice, but there was.  Something about here and now keeps us from going elsewhere.  And least for the present.”

The young woman sat quietly.  She’s waiting for me to ask a question, Maya thought.  “And?  Why are you the one to tell me of this… ‘decision’ I must make?”  Maya felt the stranger nod her head and sigh quietly.

“I was conceived in this cave, born here and died here.  I am as much a part of this planet as you.  And because of that, dear Maya, I have watched over you.  In a way, we have both been watchers from the outside.’”  The voice rippled in gentle laughter. “But I do hope I’ve been a benign haunting.” 

In her younger days, Maya would have been frightened and appalled.  The dead did not interfere with the living, except in children’s tales, where the dead punished the living for misdeeds done.  Maya sighed.  Living amongst the Alphans had taught her to be tolerant, if nothing else.  Sandra had told her long ago that the first daughter she had born the Commander died of pneumonia in infancy.  Her name had been Caitlyn.

Perhaps this was all just a dream in the moment of her death. 

“What are my choices?”

“You can wait for your people.  They will come in due time.”

Her people?  Her parents?  The chance to be with them again? 

“Or?”  Maya sat up and turned her blind eyes to face the increasingly familiar stranger. 

“Join us.”

Maya’s mother had taught there was an afterlife, but not that she would have a choice.  If this was just a death dream, then so be it.  But is this was for true… well, just perhaps her mother would understand.

Caitlyn took her hand and helped her up.  Together, they walked to the mouth of the cave.  The mist overlaying the valley was slowly becoming visible in the dawn, and Maya watched as the first rays of the sun broke over the mountains.  Caitlyn turned to her and smiled.  “They’re waiting.  My father and Helena.  Mother and Alan.  Melita and Kelly.”  The beautiful young woman, an obvious sister of Rebecca, smiled at her. “You’ll like Kelly.  He’s always surrounded in song.  Damon too, and Deborah.  All the Alphans who choose to join us.”

“Tony?”

“Oh, yes.  And Tony.  Will you come?”  Caitlyn’s face was hopeful, even wistful.

There was no decision to make.  She knew her place.  There was a shimmer of light, like and unlike the familiar metamorphic light.

In the dawning light, unseen to physical eyes, two iridescent n’hati flew fast and high, joining the glory of the others, as bright as the morning sun. 

19 September 2007

MGK