“Dear girl, my child, I feel–I want to say so many things to you, but–”
“I understand, Hinev.” Alessia said, blinking furiously. “I feel the same way.”
“Why must it be?” He laughed.
Hinev breathed a deep but strained breath, then a crease took form on his fine brow. The other member of his audience had addressed him, but the explorers could not hear the emperor Marankeil.
Finally Hinev responded to whatever the former Elder had said, firing a string of vitriolic words that barely resembled the Seynorynaelian they knew.
"If you believe that then you are wrong–terribly wrong–as I was wrong to do what I did. I should never have helped you..." He looked down, as if forgetting his train of thoughts or else somehow distracted by them.
Hinev stopped, silenced by an argument they could not hear.
“Marankeil, you need have no more fear of me–" Hinev began but was again cut off by the other screen. After a moment, the once composed scientist began to shake his head wildly, like the failed serum creatures he had once been forced to contain in holding cells.
"Why?” Hinev asked, as though repeating a question. “Because I knew you would be monitoring and I have a request to make–
“Yes, I saw the reports of the worlds they visited... from Felkar, of course. His transmissions were easy to decode. The binary planets in the far off system, away from the center of the Great Cluster–Blue-white G3–”
“Yes, of course Rigell.” He added after a moment. “I wish to have them for my colony.”
Another silence.
“I would move our Celestian settlements there, of course. Therefore I come before you to formally request the Council's permission to establish a colony. We are a simple people–we can be of no threat."
Hinev listened attentively, then shook his head at the answer and ignored it.
Hinev swallowed, disconnected the transmission with a command.
"What was that all about?" Alessia stated the question.
Hinev looked up at her. "Dear girl, how I've missed you." Kiel and the others were surprised that he took the rejection from Marankeil so well, that his first returning thought was again of Alessia. "You have returned at last.” He said, savoring his own relief after years of anxiety. “I began to fear I might not see you again."
"How could that be, Hinev?" Alessia asked gently, afraid in his memory-overload he had forgotten that there would be no escaping from life for any of them. "Even if Valeria had failed before we returned, you know we would have come back. Though I am glad the journey was not so long. It would have been difficult to bear the isolation much longer."
"It is indeed, much to bear." Hinev's eyes clouded with memory.
“We’re home, now.”
“Yes. I trust you saw much of the universe.”
“There is much to learn, and we did behold many wonders beyond description.”
"Yes, and horrors, too, I’ve no doubt,” Hinev said, letting through a note of reserve. “The universe can be a miserable place. In space, life is the exception of the rule and the only treasure worth seeking. As great as our need to explore the unknown is, to thrill to discoveries to come, in the end, it is... regret for what we miss that calls us home."
In that moment, she understood him, remembering the long years on Kiel3 and other worlds, thinking of the past and the sacrifices each explorer had made never to see their beloved ones again. She knew Hinev had never forgotten how his own journey had separated him from his love, Reneja. But the deeper meaning struck Alessia, and she glimpsed the cost of immortality through his eyes, and his regret for attaining it–like him, they would live forever, trapped in a sphere of the physical being forever, whether they desired an ending or not.
"Do you remember the legend of Narae and Hernendor?" Hinev asked suddenly.
Alessia smiled, remembering the story he had told her once in the laboratory as they worked, a story he had picked up as an explorer on his own voyage of discovery.
"Yes, I do, a little. They were a brother and sister, from the planet Malddain.”
“And their father, Durr-aiyan had traveled from Seynorynael at the end of the first contact missions and crashed on the planet." Hinev reminded her.
"I remember," Alessia said, nodding.
"But the Malddains were racially similar to us," Hinev continued with his story, "and he had lived among them as an off-worlder. They remained suspicious of him as a man who had fallen from the heavens.”
“Yes, I remember. The woman of their race who had helped him recover fell in love with him and married him. He called her Attorea, after the yellow flowers of our world.”
"Yes,” Hinev said. “Then a conflict between the many nations of Malddain destroyed the small province of Guk-inak-ra where the family lived. Durr-aiyan and Attorea were killed by the Jevkladdesh armies from over-sea in a bombing raid of the city Daehnyd, and the children barely survived the ravaging fires that swept over their tiny homeland. They walked south, to the border of Guk-inak-ra, a province that had been conquered by the large, neighboring country of Hestillih. Left alone to wander the streets of the great Guk-inak-ran city Ki-lam-vera, they were outcasts, the first known half-race children.”
“I imagine they found little help.”
“No, indeed, they didn’t find any.” Hinev agreed. “Oh, the Malddain people on all sides paid them much attention, but though they stared at the wandering pair, they refused to help them, instead wondering what disease these strange children had that they didn’t appear normal.”
“Narae managed to care for her younger brother for many years, until a civil rebellion broke out in Ki-lam-vera, where they now lived.”
“That’s right,” Alessia broke in, remembering. “The Jdevkladdesh had eventually conquered Guk-inak-ra, but most of the inhabitants of Ki-lam-vera were still Hestyllihi immigrants and loyalists. The Jevkladdesh victors established their government in the great city Ki-lam-vera, but a strong native Hestyllihi faction rose up to try to expel their conquerors.”
"Yes, and Hernendor, now a young man, was conscripted into the conquering Jdevkladdesh armies. The Malddain people didn’t know where Seynorynael was when Hernendor wrote the name of his father's homeland on his conscription form. As a likely non-native of Hestyllih, however, the Jevkladdesh gave him a high-level commission in their army. He left Narae in the city, promising he would return to take her to Jdevkladd, where they could live in peace at last, with a respected place in society.”
“What happened to him?” Kellar asked, interrupting.
Hinev’s eye strayed to the second-in-command, vacillating between him and Alessia.
“Hernendor left for Jdevkladd to train for a short time, where his skill and intelligence made him a favorite of the army hierarchy, and though still quite a young man, he was soon given a commission as leader of one of the Jevkladdesh legions.” Hinev replied. “The unit they gave him lay in the safe, permanent position in the armies of the northern boundary between Jevkladd and the country of Veiaupeknad, but remembering his promise to Narae, Hernendor refused to leave the lower ranks that were being sent to Ki-lam-vera, so that he could try to find her.”
“Such loyalty,” Celekar said, shaking his head. “Compelling story.”
"War had broken out in the city when he returned, a war between three countries who claimed the city and all of Guk-inak-ra for their own.” Hinev continued. “Hernendor's plane was trapped by a raze of Hestyllihi gunfire over the city and crashed to the edge of the sea. But Hernendor, though mortally injured in the crash, climbed onto the beach and made his way into the city to find the sister who had raised him.
"When he arrived, Narae was dead. On the table was a message she had left for him written into her daily record. She had never known if he would find it, if he would ever return, but she had addressed the words of her last
entry to him. When we arrived, my explorer friends and I were taken to a museum that held the diary. The Malddain peoples had never been able to read the final words, because they were written in Seynorynaelian, but they knew that Hernendor had come to rescue his sister, and that the two of them had been found together by the victorious Jevkladdesh when the fighting ceased." Hinev paused.
“What did she say?” Kiel demanded, strangely affected.
Hinev smiled. After a moment, a document appeared over the transom receiver.
“Read it yourself, Alessia, aloud, if you please,” Hinev told her.
Alessia nodded and stepped forward to read the message.
"'I was dreaming of Guk-inak-ra, Hernendor, the way it was before the Hestyllihi or Jevkladdesh came, when we were free.’” She began. “‘I think of our family and wonder if you remember how our mother used to laugh and smile, if you ever saw our father's face bright with the memory of his homeland as he told us songs and stories of its wonders. Even I had forgotten, to convince myself that it was only a dream, to make the present bearable. But now it seems that the nightmare is coming to a close, and those dreams are what remains with me, are what I remember, and are my only comfort.
"'It cannot be long now. The siren sounded a while ago, and the vapor clouds must be near. At least it will be a quiet death, and quick, not the hell of burning fire that took our beloved mother and father. Hernendor, I feel their presence surrounding me as I have not felt it since they lived. I can almost see mother's arms reaching out to hold me.
"'My hand wanders, Hernendor. My mind has gone into a fog, and though I cannot smell it, I fear the vapors have come.’” Alessia stopped a second, but she hurriedly continued. “‘Oh brother, I cannot bear it that I shall not see your face again! But I am glad you are safe in your new home. I wish you only happiness there, away from the ruin that is all we have ever known.
"'And yet I continue to dream, that one day you will come home and we will travel to a new land together where we will be welcome, that we might make a journey through the stars to our father's world. I know it is only a foolish dream, but mother did always call me stubborn, like father. Oh, Hernendor, I can hardly believe I will be joining them soon, but I am afraid. The darkness approaches, and still you have not come–'"
Cruel, betraying tears coursed involuntarily down Alessia's cheeks, but Hinev smiled.
"Don’t cry, Alessia." Hinev said.
"What happened to Hernendor?" Kiel demanded suddenly, with urgency, as he shifted his weight from one foot to another; he stood beside Alessia and the others in the transmission sphere Hinev could see, though they had remained silent as Hinev spoke to his pupil.
"Hernendor?" Hinev's brow furrowed. "When his Jevkladdesh comrades found him, he had removed his helmet and placed it beside his sister’s body, to die as his sister had–from the bio-vapors that swept the city. His arms held her in an embrace–he comforting her, wishing he hadn’t left her alone, I suppose. Comforting her, when it was she who, when he was but a boy, had been there to ease his sorrows." Hinev shook his head. "But in death, the entire Malddain civilization pitied them more easily, as no one group had done in the children’s lives. That is the real tragedy."
Suddenly Hinev seemed to remember something; his brow furrowed as he regarded Kiel.
"I'm sorry, my friend," Hinev addressed Kiel for the first time. "But–Calendra has died. There was nothing I could do..." Hinev's eyes glistened, but Kiel saw in that unguarded moment that Hinev had tried his best to protect her. In the end, her life nearly spent in the flawed suspension chamber he had never been able to perfect, Hinev had opened her capsule and allowed her to live her final twelve years among the people of Celesian. Kiel saw that she had been loved and respected there, that she had even known moments of happiness among them.
Hinev had been with her in her final moments, had listened as she sent her love across time and space to her beloved Kiel, and surrendered her essence to the unknown. Calendra had passed, but Hinev carried her memories to Kiel.
His dear one had loved him to the end, and at the end wished him only happiness.
* * * * *
"Fynals Hinev conspired with you to escape!” The Martial Force's commanding officer thundered across the communications room when he heard the explorers enter.
“Now wait–” Kiel began.
“You knew he would steal the two starships Narae and Hernendor and the small cruiser Attorea to take his colonists to Ayan one and Ayan two!” The man persisted, the vein at his temple swollen and throbbing faster than a pulsar.
Kiel’s expression was, at best, dumbfounded.
“This can not go unpunished. You knew what he was planning!”
“Even if I did, what do you expect me to do about it?” Kiel offered, with mock pleasantry.
“Take Selesta out to stop him, of course!"
No one had to tell them, yet the explorers knew they had been summoned to speak with Hinev, to try to convince him his flight was useless. Alessia held her breath. So that's why Hinev had told them the story, she thought, remembering his last cryptic words.
"Calm down," the cool resonating voice of Marankeil sounded behind them at the monitor, and the officer whipped around, his hair like limp reeds fluttering about him. He bowed apologetically.
"Forgive me, Lord Marankeil. We did not realize Hinev had left the colony.” The officer said, in dulcet tones. “Hinev arrived at the Celestian outpost this morning, surprising Felkar. But we are attempting to solve the problem, now. Shouldn't we–send out Selesta?" The officer asked hesitantly.
"Surely the Grand Fleet will be enough. I do not wish to risk... losing the Selesta." Marankeil's image disappeared, and the officer took a step forward.
"Don't," Kiel said, a chill bite in his voice, and the officer stopped to regard him, his nostrils blazing with anger at the sudden crisis. Just who were these explorers named after that traitor–descendants of the original Seynorynaelians? Surely they had a hand in this–Hinev had contacted them here after all–surely then it was their fault that all of this was happening!!
And who were they anyway to order him around? He eyed them, livid, wishing Marankeil would order him to dispose of them. That might provide a moment of worthy amusement. Who was this Kiel to be giving orders to his superiors in both rank and age?
The officer, a certain Major Gilkan, did not notice Kiel's eyes, rippling with the hypnotic and telekinetic power that coursed through his veins, not until the powerful eyes fell upon him.
Gilkan felt a tight sensation growing in the back of his eyes. From that fire, he felt pain traveling down his spine like melting ice; it brought him to his knees, stooped his shoulders in a cringing gesture Gilkan had never suffered in all of his days.
Through his pain, Gilkan stared at the inhuman creature his soul knew had brought on this punishment, and he hated Kiel. Hated every inch of his face, hated every inch of the man who seemed to have been undeservedly blessed by luck and by an alien power, it seemed.
The momentary pause was enough; the woman in league with him moved to the side and manually pulled out the communicator. No one would be authorizing Felkar to launch an attack, Kiel thought in triumph. Marankeil had left the duty to Gilkan alone, and Gilkan was, to put it kindly, indisposed.
At the same time, Alessia wondered at Marankeil's decision not to involve any of the Elders in this matter, Elders who were better equipped to challenge the power of Hinev’s explorers. Did Marankeil really want Hinev to escape? Why else had he seemed to let him escape so easily?
A signal flashed on the screen. Alessia activated the console without moving her hands, using her telekinetic power. Gilkan, still unable to move, stared at the sphere of light surrounding her, watching in mute confusion as the terminal activated itself.
"Alessia," Hinev's voice was followed by his image that appeared in the ho
lo-field.
She saw what he had done. He had brought the ships back to the Celestian colony for boarding. Then he had locked in the coordinates in Hernendor's and Narae's computers to take them to the new worlds. But they would be traveling across space alone. In the monitor, she could see Attorea's self-destruction warning light flashing. Only moments now remained.
The relay satellite view in the adjoining holo-monitor showed Hinev's position. He had cleared the planet and its moon colonies, and had drifted further into space. The other starships had launched past him, now only small glowing lights among the stars.
Hinev had to call Alessia one last time to wish her a farewell, to say that he loved her and to take care of herself. To convey his regret for the abuses he had caused her to suffer. And yet he had not time to speak it; but the warmth of his gaze, the mingled pain and love, conveyed it all.
"Alessia, promise me you will–try to make amends for what I did. I am so tired, so very tired. Oh Alessia, I would have it all be over." He said, his strained voice rising. "You see, I have found a way at last, and now the time passes too slowly. Death calls out to me, and I look forward to meeting her at last." He said, his voice bittersweet.
Alessia saw his memories from so far away, as if he were already a part of her, near her, and not about to leave her forever. He was remembering her ability to destroy the lyrachloroplasts of the half-transformed creatures. They had been the key that led him to another revolution. He had continued patiently thirteen thousand years on Ayan until he found a way. Then another two thousand until Alessia returned.
Somehow, she had given him the idea, but he kept that knowledge from her, afraid she might use it before she could set things to right.
Alessia nodded her understanding.
"I will," she whispered, but he heard her clearly, as though she were close enough to embrace. She smiled as he terminated the signal. He would at last rejoin the universe, and his dead love, Reneja.
She felt the explosion before they saw it; like a sharp pain it stabbed into her, as if pulling a deep-rooted part of her soul away with it.