For One Nen (34 page)

“Hey now,” Vincent said with his usual joking whine.

“I’m Lena and this is my husband, Pijin. This is our daughter Fredora. She’s almost ten. And this is Preen, she just turned eight. And that’s us,” she said with a smile.

“I’m Stella and this is Frank. He was with us on the Eden but we didn’t meet until we got to Reen. We met almost right away and our captain married us and we have Emily over there. She’s the oldest of the next generation of cousins; wave, honey.”

A young blonde girl ducked her head and her pale face turned bright red.

Stella looked into the camera and said with a slight roll of her eyes, “She’s a preteen, you know.”

“Oh, Mom,” Emily grumbled without raising her head.

“I’m Irene and I’m married to Roland. And we don’t have any kids,” she leaned back and showed her very round belly and added, “yet.”

“I’m Vincent and this is Pitle. We have Nick and Jimmy and Jacob and…” he said with his eyebrows raised.

“And…?” asked Lena. “What? Really? That’s great,” Lena said giving Pitle a hug.

Many of the group gave their congratulations.

“And I’m the bachelor of the bunch,” Shane said when things calmed down.

“Scout’s not married yet, either,” Stella said.

“But he’s been with Reyna for ages,” Chris said.

“Just make an honest woman of her already,” Vincent yelled from the back.

Scout, who was rarely flustered, began to grow red faced and sweaty.

“Okay, okay,” Chris rallied the commotion. “We’re here to talk about what has transpired since we arrived on Reen. We started to tell some of the tribes about the upcoming nova and some of them just shut us down and didn’t want to hear it,” Chris said. “Those of the City seemed to listen to us, but really didn’t take it seriously. I don’t know why, since they seem like intelligent enough folk; even if they are a prejudiced lot.”

Scout spoke up, “Some, like some of the Neph; Pitle’s tribe, agreed with us but didn’t say much about having a plan for it. And when we suggested to some about the possibility of going underground
, things started really happening.”

“Strange things,” Chris said. “So
, when we found these writings and were able to transcribe them, I realized why they were so afraid.”

“People are afraid of going mad, and
of those they love going mad also,” Roland said. “I mean I’ve heard stories all my life about how dangerous it is to even think about the underground. We were told to have control of our thoughts and to always be mindful not to let our thoughts lead to curiosity about the underground.”

Roland settled back into his soft chair and added, “Sorry. Go ahead.”

“No, no,” Irene said. “Continue.”

“Yes,” Shane added, “We should hear from you. Roland is Goweli.”

“From the pretty people,” Irene said as she flirted. She gave him a long kiss.

“Okay, get a room,” Scout said with a laugh.

“Yeah, go make a baby already,” Shane joked with the soon-to-be parents.

The crowd laughed but once again it was Chris who brought their attention back to the
ir reason for coming together.

“Alright, alright
, settle down you guys,” Chris said holding two books.

297 AE

Aboard the EGRESS

“Hey that one looks like one of Chris’ journals that we found,” Trina said from the middle of the little crowd in the fallow field.

Teltel jumped to the computer to pause the video as Trina began to talk.

“How are his books not delicate and brittle like the ones the cousins found?”

“Chris’ writings are only about three-hundred years old. The writings
of Tinnen, which Chris had been translating, are over a thousand years old and the others are even older. Also, our entire library is climate controlled, or at least it was until the gamma wave hit. Now we’re just doing well to have life support in there.”

Trina nodded, “I see.”

Without any other questions, Teltel started the video again.

19
BE

On the planet Reen

“So this is why everyone came tonight,” Chris said.

“Hang on,” said Lena. “Does anybody need anything before we start?”

“Just sit down, Sister,” Shane said. “Go ahead, Chris.”

“Well, like I told most of you already, some of this is pretty uh… heavy stuff; so last chance for any of the little ones to go somewhere else. Laney took Nate in the backyard and, well, she’s heard these stories already,” he said with a laugh. “Poor thing has to live with me gabbing on and on about my work.”

Pijin took his youngest out as well as Pitle with her three boys. However, their littlest, Jacob, began to fuss about leaving the group and began to cry.

“Grab him!” Vincent said to Pitle who was holding the hands of their other two.

All at once the toddler disappeared.

“How do you ever keep up with him when he does that?” Scout said.

Vincent quickly stood but remained very still as he scanned the room for movement.

“Gotcha, little Jake,” Vincent said as he wrapped his arms around his little Neph son. In an instant he appeared in his Daddy’s arms.

“I could never lose this little guy. He’s our cookie monster. We’re just lucky Lena had a platter of cookies laid out.”

The group giggled at Vincent as he helped his wife take the children to the backyard. He returned still smiling and shaking his head.

“I think she’s just going to stay out there and help Laney with the kids,” Vincent said.

“Here we go,” said Chris. “This was written by a Nen named Tinnen. We can assume that he not only thought it important to tell his story, but the way he wrote it was both scholarly and beautifully biographical. It reads like a novel instead of a first person account like you would expect to see in an autobiography. But there are enough signs that prove this was written by Tinnen. He stops every so often and writes notes like he’s writing in a journal and those accounts are in first person.”

“What I have been able to translate so far is the account
of what happened after his friend Atenilek was banished to the surface.”

He opened the book and began to read the account that Tala had read to the students in the gardens.

297 AE

Aboard the EGRESS

None of them tried to skip the part they had already heard
, but through the crowd many of them acknowledged the familiar story; pointing or quickly commenting.

Bug put his arms around Trina and held her
close. She loved being held, but she knew Bug well enough to know the closeness was as much for his comfort as it was for hers.

Benai looked across the room and met eyes with Deni as he anticipated the difficult parts of the story.

Molly inched slightly closer to Beau.

Merari reached up and hugged Teltel’s arm as she leaned her head against him.

When they reached the end of what the students had heard, Benai gazed through the crowd at Deni. She gave him a smile. She knew that for some reason he found comfort in her golden eyes and tender face.

In the fallow field
, as the little crowd watched and listened to Chris tell these stories of their ancestors’ home planet, some began to have stray tears rolling slowly down their faces.

Teltel, however, rubbed his chin nervously.

Benai reached a hand to his friend and patted his back. Teltel gave no acknowledgement of the gesture. He simply set his eyes on the video screen, and rubbed his chin hard enough that it began to bleed.

“Easy, big guy. It’ll be alright,” Benai softly said as he gave his friend’s back another couple of pats.

“What?” Teltel whispered.

Benai pointed to Teltel’s hand that had streaks of red.

“Hmm,” Teltel grunted. He pressed the back of his hand against his chin and the boys didn’t say another word about it.

When Chris reached the end of what the students had already heard
, they leaned in for more.

1200 BE

On the surface of the Planet of REEN

“Cha,” Soshin bellowed with all his might. As if using the last of his strength, he gave another, ‘Chaaa’ and collapsed into a crumpled heap on the ground.

He
had lain there only a moment when the Hoth, watching from the water, came to his side.

The three tiny creatures crouched beside the giant and all lay their hands on him. Without a word these tiny creatures joined in with mourning his loss
, just by being present.

Soshin cried a great many tears that day
, but when his tears had come to an end, he began to rise like a mountain. The Hoth dashed to the water as one smiled back at him, “Welcome, my brother of the deep, welcome to the surface.” The tiny Hoth then turned toward the water and dove gracefully into its depths.

That one sign of hope, a tiny creature extending a kindness, helped Soshin through the hard days ahead.

He returned to the group of Het and Nen, only to see a group of Anthro from the city, coming their way.

“Go back to where you came from you sparsers,” one of them shouted.

They raised their bows and fired a good many arrows at them.

Atenilek flung Tinnen behind him and bellowed. Together with the other Het
, the men shouted so loudly that the Anthro fired only once more before they ran back toward the city.

“Everyone alright?” asked Teltel.

Penelk was on one knee and didn’t raise his face to the others.

Hopek ran to his side.

Penelk pulled a jagged arrow from his gut that came out with blood and flesh.

He looked a moment at the extent of his injury and
then gave a loud roar that ended abruptly. His eyes rolled back and the men felt his fall.

Soshin again drew near to the water and shouted with all his might.

Again the Hoth surfaced and came to his side. They leaned against him as if they were his pets. One girl, who had spoken to him earlier, looked high up at him.

“Is there anything you can do for him?” he asked.

She left his side and joined the other men as they hovered around the giant laying on the ground.

She laid her ear next to his chest and again to his mouth. She took the arrow in her hand and cleaned pieces of Penelk from it. Standing beside him she held the arrow horizontal above him. She looked up into the bright two sun sky and called loudly, “Sans-sa-po.”

She broke the arrow over her knee and laid the pieces on Penelk’s bloody core as she began to chant, “Sans-sa-po.”

Over and over
, this tiny Hoth chanted as she tended to remains of this giant Het. She drew his legs out straight and crossed his feet at the ankles. She straightened his shoulders, so his body lay flat on his back. Drawing his arms together, she crossed them over his chest. She kissed each cheek and his forehead. Lastly, she closed his eyes. By this time, her chanting had been joined by dozens of other Hoth who had come from the water.

Tinnen and the other giants only watched these tiny people tend to the body of Penelk.

Once again, the girl looked up into the sky and shouted, “Sans-sa-po,” and the chanting stopped.

“Now what?” Tinnen asked to no one in particular.

“Now he burns,” the girl said

“You don’t have a place for your dead?” asked Tinnen.

“The sky is the place for the dead,” the girl answered.

Tinnen looked to Atenilek for his opinion.

He, in turn, looked at Soshin and Hopek. Together they silently agreed to let the Hoth continue their ritual of burning the dead. Most of the Hoth wore simple tunics that were tied around their middles with a thin string. Tucked in each string was a sharp stone. All who had this sharp stone at their waist, took it in their hands and raced into the valley where they cut arm loads of tall dry grass. Each one walked by Penelk and laid their grass over his body.

Tinnen and the giants sat down and watched the Hoth as they formed a mound over the dead. They watched as an older Hoth made the fire that engulfed the whole of his body. More Hoth came with dry reeds and lay
them over the tall fire.

“Is this what they did with Ehic,” Tinnen asked Atenilek.

“I don’t know,” he answered.

The girl that had taken careful charge of Penelk’s body came close to Tinnen and sat down beside him. She smiled.

Atenilek smiled at the thought of this girl taking notice of his friend, but in that moment, he wondered if he would ever find a mate here on the surface. He never imagined he would be parted from his friend in this way.