The Unreachable Stars: Book #11 of The Human Chronicles Saga (21 page)

“He’s not really my friend.”

“That is unimportant. What is important is that I believe I know now why he is the way he is, and that the same must have happened to Lila.”

“Stop messing with me Trimen and spit it out.”

Trimen frowned. “
Spit it
—oh, I understand.” With a nod, he continued: “I queried the doctors when Lila was born. They said it was impossible, yet the tests confirmed it. She is the product of an interspecies birth, just as I suspect happened to Panur five thousand years before.”

“Interspecies? Like between a Formilian and some other race?” Adam’s stomach suddenly tied itself in knots. “What other race?” He was barely able to form the words.

“Human, of course. I am surprised that you have not come to realize this. Does not your species have a non-physical bond with your offspring?”

“
Lila’s my daughter?
”

“Yes…unless Arieel had relations with another Human, perhaps Riyad.”

“No she didn’t.” At least he was pretty sure she hadn’t.

A whole flood of thoughts and emotions swept over him. He was a father—again—and of a daughter. And yet even as those words formed in his consciousness, he knew there was so much more to the story. It appeared as though he was the last to find out.

“And Arieel knows?” he asked, just for confirmation.

“She before all others. Although she has not admitted this to me, I could tell.”

“And her father, Convor?”

“He was not told before his death. As the Second Celebrant, and then the First, I was able to command certain information be kept from him. He died believing that his daughter had given birth to a pureblood Formilian who would one day assume the role of Speaker. You must realize that even without the current state of affairs, Lila could
never
become Speaker. Her abnormal physical growth would have begun the questioning, and eventually the truth would have come out. Arieel—because of her unexplained feelings for you—has destroyed the very foundation of our religion and brought an end to two thousand years of stability for my planet and my people. Now there will be a tumultuous period of confusion, introspection, and possibly even outright revolt. What appears at the other end of this cycle will be nothing like the Formil of today. And I have only you to blame.”

“It takes two, Trimen, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Do not attempt to deflect. Yes, Lila is your daughter, yet you must also realize she is no one’s to possess. She is advancing at such a rapid pace, both mentally and physically, that what she eventually becomes is beyond speculation. And now you say she can communicate mentally, even without assistance. What other powers will she manifest as she grows older, more powerful? You should also be aware that Panur has known from the moment the two of them met. It must be a psychic bond between mutants.”

Adam trembled at the thought. Lila and Panur had been aboard the same ship for over eight days, and the tiny mutant hadn’t told him what he knew. Why not? The implications of that question made Adam tremble. What would Panur do now that he’d found a kindred spirit, the only other creature he’d encountered in five thousand years that was like him? Panur was likely to do just about anything.

********

When Adam and Trimen returned to the cargo bay, Lila looked at the two of them with a blank and even expression—lingering slightly longer on Adam—before returning to the crystal. Arieel, on the other hand, let tears flow down her ruddy cheeks. Trimen went to her and sat close, while she wrapped her arms around him and began sobbing even louder, more uncontrollably.

Adam stood near the doorway, glaring at Panur, who stopped his work on the nearly complete crystal and met Adam’s rigid stare. Then he shrugged.

It was a strange scene in the cargo bay, and one not lost on Riyad and Regina.

After a moment, Riyad asked: “What did we miss?”

Chapter 20

There was a strange tension aboard the
Crescent Star
, yet all the occupants pushed it aside as the crystal cutting was completed and the stone placed in the cradle Panur had built to hold it. This unit was then placed in the center of the larger apparatus that was the portal detector itself.

Power lines ran to the device, along with a myriad of wires, fans, movement dampers and other unnamed and unexplained equipment that all formed a twelve-foot-square conglomeration of
stuff
. At least that’s how it looked to Adam. To Panur—and now Lila—it all seemed to make sense.

Panur was ecstatic, bouncing around the cargo bay like a kid on Christmas morning, anxious to try out his new toy. Somewhere, lost in the mass of the device, were four of the Formilian brain-interface implants. Panur had skillfully removed all of them from their hosts a week before, saying he needed to begin their reprogramming as soon as possible. He pulled them from their bodies in less than ten seconds each, severing the physical connections that linked them to their brains without a moment’s hesitation. It was as if he did this every day, and had for years.

Adam and Riyad felt no real difference once the implants were gone, and Lila seemed to take it in stride as well. Arieel wasn’t so fortunate. She was nearly one hundred Formilian years old, and had carried the device within her body for all except the first five. For the two days after its removal, she remained in her room suffering through what looked to be drug withdrawals. Lila and Trimen spent hours with her, helping when and where they could, and when Arieel finally emerged from the stateroom, she had lost weight and her skin was sallow, her eyes vacant.

She remained quiet for another two days, even when engaged in conversation, giving one word answers and never asking questions. She was much better now, but Adam could tell the effects still lingered inside her.

Everyone’s mood changed when Panur announced that the detector was complete. This was the moment of truth, time to learn if there was a way out the mess they all were in…or not.

********

The
Crescent Star
undocked from the
Pegasus II
, and Adam’s ship was flown remotely to a distance of a thousand miles before being powered down of everything except a standby battery to reinitiate startup. Panur couldn’t risk the possibility of his DPS engines interfering with the detector. To further assure the best reception, the two vessels were situated in interstellar space and at least two light-years from the nearest star.

A solitary monitor was set up on a bench along the bay wall, and Adam wasn’t surprised when Panur awarded the honor of activating the detector to Lila. She flicked an innocent looking switch and suddenly the contraption sprung to life. Lights came on, fans swirled, and humming could be heard. From deep inside the device, Adam could see the huge, oblong—and now many-faceted—diamond crystal begin to glow. The light wasn’t steady, however, appearing to move within the stone while casting sparkles of brilliance escaping through the open areas in the detector. The light danced against the bulkheads, ceiling and deck of the cargo bay, particularly bright in the dark eyes of both Panur and Lila, which were exceptionally wide as they reveled in their own unspoken moment of
eureka!

Panur turned to the screen and began making adjustments using control knobs on a panel on the tabletop. The monitor was all static; then the image began to waver, the frenetic black and white background displaying squiggly lines coursing through it.

Panur and Lila turned to the small crowd of people behind them and beamed wide smiles—even as doing so was not customary for Formilians.

Adam stared at the two aliens, before focusing on the screen behind them and its squiggly lines. “Now what?”

Both mutants lost their smiles and blinked several times.

“What do you mean,
Now what
?” Panur asked, genuine confusion in his tone.

“I mean when do you start detecting the portals?”

Panur glanced back at the screen and then to Adam again. “It already is…can’t you see?”

Adam exchanged startled looks of confusion with Riyad and Regina.

“All we see are squiggly lines,” Adam admitted.

Panur and Lila’s expressions suddenly buoyed. “Ah, then you can see!”

“I see
squiggly
lines…that’s all. What do they mean?”

Panur and Lila looked at each, until a revelation passed between them. “Oh, you cannot decipher the readout!” Panur exclaimed. Lila nodded.

“And you can?”

“Of course,” the two mutants said in unison.

“Then please tell us what they reveal,” Arieel pleaded, looking with both love and concern at her daughter, Trimen at her side.

Lila turned to the screen and began pointing at several lines. “There is one, as is another. There are eight in total, complete and in operation.”

Adam stepped past the two aliens and leaned in close to the screen. He turned to Lila. “I’ll take your word for it, but can you pinpoint locations, something that has relevance in the real world?”

Lila looked insulted. “Do not blame me if you are unable to understand the data.”

“I’m not, it’s just that I’m going to have to let Admiral Tobias know where the portals are located, and I obviously can’t send him a screen-print of your data, now can I?”

Panur pushed between the two of them. “I will translate the results into stellar coordinates, although you must realize your Admiral Tobias may still not accept your report.”

“Why not?”

“It would not be him. Others will see the coordinates, others who may not wish to have the locations revealed at this time. The majority of those aligned against us still see my return as being far more acceptable than launching major military operations against a huge invading force. Many lives would be lost, when in their opinion none would be if I’m returned. The galaxy would be free of the Sol-Kor menace, and without anyone having to die.”

“Because they still believe the immunity offer is real,” Riyad stated. “You know they always will until proven that it’s not.”

A new voice spoke up. “Then we return Panur to the Sol-Kor, and when they attack anyway, everyone will know the truth.” All eyes turned to Regina, particularly the two belonging to Panur. She continued: “After that, we’ll have the locations of the portals and can shut them down.” Then she smiled. “That’s one way of doing it. I didn’t say it was the only way.”

Panur relaxed, but only for a moment.

“Regina’s right,” Adam said. “If there truly was an option, we’d be crazy not to take the one that saves the most lives. So the question is: how do we get the SK to tip their hand without actually returning Panur?”

“
Pretend
to return him,” said Regina. All eyes returned to the fiery redhead. She squinted at the group, a mischievous grin stretching from her lips. “Let me explain…”