New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Epilogue

A lone singer’s voice rang out across the Equator square.

She was a lieutenant in the Science division, her name was Lucianna Soler.  Her voice was sweet and gentle as it carried across the silent square.

Thousands of eyes, on the Craton and the diplomatic cortege, were on her.

“Ave Maria . . .”

The words of the ancient prayer were moving, even if the meaning of the song to many of the listeners had changed over the centuries.

“Et benedictus fructus ventris . . .”  Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

A living world, the rarest gift in the universe.  A blessed thing, if anything was.

The concept of garden worlds being holy mothers was an idea that had become very popular in humanity’s journey into space.  Many a spacer in past times, far from any habitable world, had lamented a desire to return to Mary.  To a world that welcomed him.

“Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus

Nunc et in hora mortis,” she sang on.

Pray for us, now and at the hour of our death.

The song was sung now for both lost children and the lost mother, the world of Ko.  The 1.6 million !Xomyi, and the service beings of the Sapient Union who had given their lives that at least some might live.

This was not the first time Brooks had seen this ceremony.  It had been performed for the very first time in the Sapient Union after the destruction of Terris.

A number of his crew were veterans of that event.  They all had to be thinking of something similar.

His eyes went over a few of them; Ham Sulp, Zeela Cann.

He settled on Pirra, who had not been at Terris, but who now held the flag of the Union.  She was at perfect attention, her injuries no longer visible.  Her teams had suffered dearly, and she had been given the honor of holding the colors.

Her eyes were forward, upon the ceremony that had now begun, and his eyes, too, went to it.

Ambassador-General Callirrhoe Abashidze walked forward slowly, towards the circle of soil, taken from Ko.  In her hands she was holding a small sapling.

It was a juvenile Pillar Tree, one of the most resilient complex forms of life on Ko.

Abashidze knelt, putting the sapling into the hole that had been prepared, and covered its roots.

Rising and stepping back, a glass tube lowered from the ceiling, covering the soil and sapling, sealing it off.

The air inside would be kept at the precise mixture of Ko’s atmosphere.

And perhaps it would prosper.

The last note of Ave Maria faded, and the voices of people began to fill the square again.  A reverence still hung in the air, and Brooks found himself standing alone.

Apollonia was in the distance, talking to another woman.  Both of their faces were serious, and he wondered at the changes that had occurred to her on the world.

She turned, noticing him.  She waved, calmly, and he returned the gesture, smiling.

She looked back to the other woman, who also looked his way, her face turning to surprise as she saw that Apple had been waving to him.

He had not spoken to Apollonia since he had come back aboard, but he would soon.  Perhaps not yet, though.  She seemed to have made friends outside of the command staff and that was a good thing.

He rubbed his face, realizing he needed to shave.  But the shape of his face had changed a little as well.  He’d shed weight on the world.  He’d been at a healthy weight already, but now he was even thinner.

Turning, he walked away to sit on a bench, letting his mind wander far, far away.

---

Zey had gotten teary-eyed during the event, and Apollonia patted her friend’s shoulder.

“It was just so nice,” Zey said.

“Yeah,” Apollonia agreed.

Zey bid her farewell, needing to head off to her shift.  Once she was gone, Apollonia was left alone.

In a few hours, she would also have to report for duty, her first shift on the ship.  It would be very different than on the planet, and she was both looking forward to it and feeling a little apprehension.

She looked again at the little tree that had been planted, and wondered if it could really grow on a spaceship.

Would they hollow out the floors above to make room as it grew?  The Craton was a ship that would be in service for as long as people wanted to live on her, so the tree may grow up alongside generations of people, getting ever taller.

She could imagine they would carve holes in the decking for it.  The thought made her smile.

She would never live to see it, but one day it might tower hundreds of feet through dozens of decks.

A creeping sensation came up the back of her neck, and her smile faded as she realized what it meant.

She turned, looking around, her eyes settling onto Ambassador Kell, who was standing ten meters away, watching her.

She watched him back a moment, unsure what to say or do.  Something about the horrible thing felt . . . less horrible today.

Could a feeling that a monster gave you just by standing in its presence feel serene?

She couldn’t even begin to know how to describe that, but Kell approached her.

“You know,” Apollonia began.  “I wondered if you’d not make it back in time and die on Ko.”

It sounded even worse out loud than it had in her head, and she felt a small bit of guilt.

Kell did not seem offended.  “I remember every day that passes, Apollonia Nor.”

His response shut down any retort she could come up with, and she just waited in uncertainty.

Kell spoke again.  “Time is a strange thing.  Sometimes a time comes upon us suddenly, and we find ourselves caught unprepared.”

She didn’t think he meant on Ko, but she did not know what he did mean.

“I am glad that you have begun to think beyond simple survival,” Kell said.  “You are starting to recognize your own agency.”

“I . . . uh, thanks?” she said.

“Your life was a difficult one, and I recognize that it takes time to unlearn the responses that come from such things.”

This was not at all like Kell, and she found herself wanting to look past him, as if the real Ambassador was still out there, and this was just some well-wishing stranger.

But no; she could feel that this was Kell.  It could not be mistaken.

“The time for you to be playing will soon be over,” he continued.  “It is fine that you have been pretending to be normal – to be like the other humans.  But it cannot continue forever.”

His words sent a shock through her system; she felt anger, but she couldn’t hold onto those feelings.

“Awaken what you really are,” Kell told her.  “It is time you learned.  Look within.”

He said no more, but turned, and walked away.

---

It was still hers . . . for now.

Jaya had been ready to leave Brooks’s office, but now she’d be here another two weeks.

Or more, really.  She had no doubt that Brooks would find a way to spend more time, perhaps the three months he had hoped, helping the !A!amo !Xomyi find their feet.

She had not changed the office while he had been on Ko, but the desire to alter it slightly came to her suddenly.

Nothing large, but she had always thought she would prefer to move the desk back and have it raised up slightly; not a lot, but then she’d have a better view of the floor, which was the perfect place to project certain images of the ship’s floorplan.

Contemplating this, a request for entrance popped up in her HUD.

“Enter,” she said.

Executive Commander Urle came in, and she wondered again how their relationship would work.

He was technically the second-in-command under Brooks.  She had jumped him into this position.

To his credit, Urle did not seem at all put off.  While he was still adjusting to his life back on the ship, his efficiency was still quite good.

“Captain,” he said.  “I have a strange report.  I wanted to bring it to you myself.”

She nodded, bidding him to continue.

“Approximately three hours ago, an unsecured signal was sent from the Craton.  It went through standard channels, but used the ship’s official correspondence line, with every security code that allowed the user access.”

“But the signal itself was not encrypted?” she asked, puzzled.

“No – at least not with the proper grade encryption.  But their access codes did hide who they are from the system.  I don’t have the rank to access the data, and I don’t think you will either.”

“So they wanted privacy,” Jaya said.

“Yes.  But they also didn’t really know what they were doing.  If they had, we wouldn’t even know that such a communication had been sent.”

“So someone with no knowledge of our systems had access to our main communications,” Jaya said, frowning.

“Yes.”

“I cannot imagine you came to me without having figured out who this was,” Jaya said.

“Ambassador Kell,” Urle replied.  It was just a statement, and she could only agree.

Only Kell had both high enough rank but also this little skill in technology to make such a bizarre mistake.

“Since he did not encrypt it properly, we were able to view the message,” he added.  “And I believe we know who it was sent to – it was sent directly.”

“Directly?  No obfuscation at all?”

“That’s right.  It was sent to Director Freeman in Tenkionic Research.”

Jaya took a deep breath.  That man was . . . untrustworthy, to say the least.

“And what were the contents of Ambassador Kell’s message to Director Freeman?” she asked.

“Just two lines,” Urle told her.

He held up his pad, the text on the screen.

‘The planet is bare.  There is no danger.’

---

FINIS

---

< Ep 12 part 71 | Ep 13 part 1 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

The cheers were still going, their third round of celebration, but Jaya did not tell anyone to be quiet or to calm down.

Streaks of light shot out from the Craton, their missiles intercepting debris by the dozens that threatened the shuttle that carried Brooks, Kai, and their rescuees.

“They are the last shuttle, give it everything we have.  We will not lose them,” she ordered, her voice still mostly calm.

Mostly.  There was a shake in it, and she had to tell herself to stop clasping the arm of her chair so tightly.

The shuttle’s system reported that there were two humans and forty-nine !Xomyi aboard the ship.

More than were even in his group, she thought.  Somehow, he’d found more.

“Captain,” an officer said to her.  “Executive Commander Urle is back aboard.”

“Good,” she said.  “Prepare to receive Brooks’s shuttle, and then to pull back from the planet.”

“Aye, Captain.”

She looked to Ko.  The blast wave from the last impact was still racing across its surface.  The land where Brooks had been was leveled; not even the trees of that planet could withstand the force of that second blast.

Debris from the impact, millions of tons of it, was being pulled back by the planet’s gravity.  They arced down onto the planet, glowing as they went through the atmosphere.  Their energy was heating the air in their passage, and already the surface temperature of Ko was rising.  Soon, it would be hotter than a kiln, and everything that lived on the surface would cook in air that was over 1200 degrees celsius.

After that, all that would be alive on the planet would be microbes, she thought.  Some that lived deep within the planetary crust.  And with subsequent impacts, even they would likely go extinct.

A message came in; it was Ambassador-General Abashidze.  Her image appeared before Jaya, her face looking as stressed as Jaya felt.

“I see your last team made it out,” Abashidze said.

“Yes,” Jaya said.  “Just barely.”

“I’m very glad.  All of ours were out a few days ago, but I . . .  I greatly respect that your people stayed until the last moment, saving all they could.”

Jaya nodded.  Of course, Brooks had done that, she wanted to say.  She knew, had known for years, the mettle of the man.

Guilt suddenly wracked her.  After the pirates, and . . . and his decision to destroy the relic technology they had found, her faith in the man had been shaken.

But this was the true depth of him, wasn’t it?  He would do anything to save a life.  If he could not throw himself into the line of fire, he would perform that cold, impossible calculation that no one wanted to contemplate; who must die so that many others could live?

She blinked, cleared her throat.

“Thank you, Ambassador-General,” she said.  “I will relay your words to the Captain when he returns.”

Abashidze nodded, studying Jaya silently for a few moments.  “I will give my commendations to you as well,” she said.  “You were more than worthy of the trust Captain Brooks placed in you.”

“Thank you,” Jaya said, finding her voice shaking.  “Thank you.”

---

< Ep 12 part 69 | Ep 12 part 71 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

As Brooks stumbled out of the jungle to the clearing around their escape rocket, he paused.

The ship was still upright, but the once-flat clearing around it was now rippled.

The platform it sat on had multiple layers of seismic isolators, letting it simply move with even the strongest of shaking.  A good precaution when such a ship was, by its very nature, meant for an emergency evacuation from a planet.

Despite the precautions, the shaking must have strained it, he thought.  Parts of the edges were damaged, and though the rocket appeared intact, that did not mean it was all okay inside.

The ladder up the side of the platform was a twisted mess, and he climbed up without it, hoping for no further quakes.

The hatch was open, and he threw himself into the ship, tumbling to the ground.  Pain in his shoulder blinded him, but he forced himself up, grabbing a handlebar set in the bulkhead and pulling himself up.

“Close it up!” he yelled up to Kai.

The door began to close behind him, sealing with a perfection that made it impossible to tell it had ever even been a hatch.

Nothing around the ship looked damaged or amiss, but that was only a good sign, not a promise.

He started to haul himself up the ladder towards the bridge, but Kai’s words came down.

“Check the !A!amo, they need their lullabies,” she called back.  “I’ve got the engine starting!  Three minutes!”

Lullabies – the drugs that would render them unconscious for transit.  Every bit of data they had on !Xomyi psychology and physiology suggested it would be better for them this way.  But that didn’t mean they would like it.

Brooks went into the passenger section.  Things looked fine in here, and he saw that most of the !A!amo were already seated.  The seats were designed for their biology, and where each one sat it inflated around them, holding them tightly and securing them for what was going to be a difficult climb.

“You’re going to sleep now,” he told them.  “It is a special power.  When you awaken, you will be safe,” he said aloud for them.

Their eyes opened wide; their hearts were still racing from the earthquake and all else.

“Please,” he said.  “You must trust me.  I know it is frightening.  But . . .”

He stopped, realizing his own fear and pain were showing through.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, finding the calm within himself.  It took a moment to look past the pounding of his own heart, but he found it.  The calm he was known for settled upon him, and he opened his eyes.

“I will give my life for you,” he told them.  “And so you must trust me one last time before I deliver to you what I have promised.  I will make you sleep, and go to sleep knowing that you will awaken again, with a new future before you.”

The !A!amo listened to him, and he saw his words sink home.

“I will sleep,” Knows the World said.  His eyes went over the rest of them.  “I have come this far, and I put my trust in True Striker.”

The others nodded, and Brooks stepped closer to the wise man, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I will see you again soon, my friend,” he said.

Knows the World said nothing, but smiled.  Brooks thought it seemed sad.  For Tracker, his son, who he could plainly see had not come.

“It will not be soon, No Wings,” Knows the World said quietly.  He leaned his head back, and the injector in his seat gave him the sedative.  He relaxed into sleep.

Seeing that all of the !A!amo were asleep, he rushed towards the cockpit, hauling himself into his seat with less than a minute to spare.

“Cutting it close, don’t you think?” Kai said.

“Wouldn’t be me if I didn’t,” he muttered as the automated webbing strapped him in.

“Cutting startup short,” Kai said.  “Ship’s eager to go, and so am I . . .”

“Hit it!” Brooks said.

Kai slammed the lever forward, and then they were thrown back in their seats as the engines roared to life.

The liftoff felt slow for a few moments, but then they began to feel the pressure of movement upon themselves; at first light, then firm, and then crushing.

The whole cabin was shaking, and Brooks knew that if the ship had damage, at any moment their trip might end in fire.

“Look,” he heard Kai say with difficulty, her eyes turned hard to look out their front viewscreen.

Brooks turned his eyes as far as he could.

And saw a streaking light moving through the atmosphere.

It was not near them; it must have been hundreds of kilometers away, at least.  Yet it was huge, lighting up the entire sky.

A piece of Omen, coming down.  A piece that would wipe out all life on the world.  And if they did not get out of the atmosphere fast enough, them as well.

It hit.   The windows tinted against the immense burst of light that ensued, and he could see vaguely Ko’s surface peeling back, moving more like a liquid than a solid, under the impact.

That piece had to be twenty kilometers, he thought.  The ocean beneath it would part like it was nothing, and the rock would still punch dozen of kilometers into the crust.

The shockwave, if it reached them, would swat them from the air like a gnat.  Any piece of high-speed debris would annihilate them, and he saw dozens of pieces of the planet thrown up by the impact, flinging into space.

The ship began to shake more, and an alarm went off.

“What’s happening?” he yelled.

“We’re okay!” Kai yelled back.

“That does not sound okay!”

“Trust me!” Kai replied.

He did.  But he hated not knowing.

“Booster separation!” she called.  The ship jolted; throwing them forward, then the next stage started, slamming them back into their seats.

“Bump!” she yelled.  He looked over and saw that, despite it all, Kai was grinning like a madwoman.

The shaking subsided, as they cleared the atmosphere, entering into the empty void.

The stars were visible, shining at him with unblinking light.

Despite it all, he found himself wanting to laugh, too.

“Craton, this is Team Brooks,” Kai called over the radio.  “We have cleared atmo.  Can you hear us?  Please respond.”

There were a few moments of silence.  Then, a voice came.  “Team Brooks, this is the Craton.  Nice to hear from you again.”

The voice of Shomari Eboh contained a warmth that was humbling.  Behind him, the sounds of uproarious cheers could be heard from the bridge crew.

They had escaped, he realized.

Brooks could not stop his mind from tallying that; then from thinking of just what he had escaped.

The realization of what they had left behind began to hit him.

Tracker, his friend, Young Mother, and Little One were gone.

The world of Ko was gone.  The land where he had . . . he had become friends with these people.  It was all they had ever known; all their ancestors had ever known.

Their way of life destroyed.  Those moments of their lives, nothing like them ever to be repeated in anything but memory.  All of the knowledge of lifetimes now only reference to something past-tense.

The land where he had hunted with them.  The land where he had bled with them, where he had held a spear, and killed the keko!un.

His hands were shaking.  Kai was looking at him, worriedly, judging if he was injured and simply had not told her.  But he could not tell her what was the matter; she would feel it in her own way, but right now he could only feel what was in his own head.

Tears gathered in his eyes.

---

< Ep 12 part 68 | Ep 12 part 70 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Dawn on the last day came, without much brightening at all.  The sky only grew more ominous as it grew lighter, the angry red peering through the clouds upsetting the !A!amo greatly.

“If only I could see the blue sky again,” Tracker confided in him.  “I would feel much better.”

Occasionally, Brooks got errors in his system; attempts by the Craton to punch through the interference from above.  But no good signal could be found.

They calmed the !A!amo as best they could, but most important of all was to keep moving.  They’d stolen an extra few hours marching by eating on the move and resting only a few hours.  The resiliency of the !A!amo in the face of this continued to impress him.

“I would be afraid of predators,” Tracker told to Brooks in the night.  “But they, too, seem to know that things are not right.  Nothing is about.”

It was true; there were no birds singing, no animals calling.  The only sound was the wind, and when it died down, a dull, distant roar.

Fires, Brooks thought.  Fires were burning, perhaps only a few dozen kilometers away, so powerful that they were creating gusting winds.

Rain began to fall, and it was Picky Little One who noticed first.

“It burns,” she said.

Brooks held up a hand, letting a drop that made it through the canopy strike his palm.

It did sting.

Acid rain, he realized.  All of the dust being thrown up, or coming down from above, perhaps even the smoke from the fires, was reacting in the water and turning it acidic.

“It stings,” he agreed.  “But it will not hurt us.  Hold a leaf over your head,” he added kindly, plucking one such leaf and passing it to her.

The young child put it over her head, dwarfed by the huge frond.  Brooks smiled fondly to her, and she ran to the other children, who all began flitting about, gathering leaves to hand to their parents and clan-mates.

Brooks took another, and brought it over to Knows the World.  He noticed as he went that the living plants were folding their leaves to protect from the onslaught.

The wise man had been quiet since they had started their journey.  There was something in him that seemed broken by all that had occurred.  He was pressing on, but Brooks was concerned about him.

“The world is ending,” Knows the World said.  “The world is ending.”  It seemed almost a mantra to him, and Brooks could not contradict it; it was true.

“You are not going to end with it,” Brooks told him.

Knows the World smiled at him, as if he knew a secret.  “Am I not?  I know this world.  If it ends, what do I know?  What am I?”

“Alive,” Brooks told him.  “There are other worlds to know.”

Knows the World did not reply to him for a time.  But then he asked; “Are they many?  These other worlds?”

“Many,” Brooks promised him.  “Some are much like here.  Others are so strange that one can barely believe they are real.”

Knows the World nodded, taking it in.  He seemed cheered, slightly, but then said; “I fear I am too old to come to know a new world.  I have wondered if I should stay and die with my home.”

It stabbed Brooks in the heart; he cared for the old man.  Yet this sentiment was one that he had heard was common among !Xomyi who had come to understand what was happening.

Though, he did wonder just how much it could really be imparted.  They had never known another world; the universe beyond their land was alien, a complete unknown.  He could know there were other worlds, he could be shown or told of them, know that he would have a place on them.  But Brooks did not know how someone who had only known this could truly come to understand it in so short a time.

“You are still needed by your people,” Brooks told him.  “You still have purpose.  And you deserve good things, my friend.”

Knows the World was quiet again for a time.  Finally, he admitted it; “I am frightened,” he said, bemused.  “I have never been afraid like I am now.  I am afraid that tomorrow we !A!amo will all be gone, and there will be none to remember us.”  He laughed.  “But if such comes to pass, there will be no one left to know my shame.  We will be just dust.”

Brooks did not know what to say to that.  He only offered the man a comforting touch on his shoulder.

They marched on.  The hours passed, and Brooks could count the distance down, his anxiety growing the closer they came.  It was hardest just before the end.

He knew every step, the launch shuttle was there.

But he’d been wrestling with the last surprise he would have to spring on the !A!amo.

Liftoff was immensely stressful and frightening for the most prepared people.  For the !Xomyi, it would be beyond terrifying.  The weight of your own body crushing you could cause panic, and beings could easily hurt themselves or others.

The safest way for them would for them to be asleep.  It was not an option, he would have to do it.  But he did not want to hurt their trust.

“Knows the World,” he began.  They were only a kilometer out from the shuttle now.  He could catch glimpses of it through the trees.  “Once we arrive . . .”

He did not finish his sentence, as the land around them suddenly went wild.  His eyes saw it coming, through the trees, yet his mind could not make sense of it until it was upon them.

The ground was heaving.  It moved, like a liquid.

Shock caused him to blank out the first moment; he found himself thrown to the ground, a ground which was still shaking harder than anything he had ever felt.

“Impact quake!” he heard Kai yelling in his ear.  But he could barely hear the words even then.

The screams of !Xomyi, and worse, the sound of the planet itself, groaning from the tremendous energy, drowned out nearly all else.

He rolled, seeing that above his head, the tops of the massive trees were crashing into each other, knocking branches loose.  He threw up his arms, enormous limbs coming crashing down.

There was a scream from the ground below them, as a rent opened, pulling down boulders and even the towering trees.  It appeared massive, and he clawed at the ground to pull himself away before realizing it was not even that close; it was simply that big.

The ground shook more as some of the massive trees came down, but most of them remained upright, still hitting into each other and sending down showers of debris.  A piece hit his arm, the pain blinding him for a moment.

The shaking gradually subsided.  Brooks raised his head, looking around.  In the wake of the shockwave, it was nearly silent.

“Is everyone okay?” he yelled, then realized that his face mask had slipped a bit, his words untranslated.  He adjusted it and yelled again.

The !A!amo began to call out to him and each other, and he stumbled back among the group.

The ground itself felt different, like the shake-up had changed its shape.

A part of him cursed the lie of apparent stability of a planetary surface, longing for a ship where stability was a factor of design and control rather than the result of immense forces of physics.

There were a few injuries, among them his arm, which was already bruising, but did not seem to be broken.

“Kai,” he said over his radio.  It took a moment for her to reply, and her voice was crackling.

“System damaged,” she said.  “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” he said.  “Are you hurt?”

“Not hurt,” she replied.  “But have a situation here.”

Brooks looked back towards Knows the World.

“Keep going,” he told the !A!amo.  “Stop at the base of the tall white rock and wait.  I will see to the problem.”

He ran back, Kai coming from the rear to meet him.

“One of the children is missing,” Kai said quickly.  “Picky Little One.”

Brooks nodded, his mind racing.  “Go on ahead and get them to the shuttle.  I’ll help look for the girl.”

Kai went on ahead, and Brooks moved towards the rear, jumping over the scarred land.  He saw that a number of the !A!amo were already starting to spread out, searching.

“Go,” Brooks told them.  “Follow Knows the World!  I will search!”

Tracker came up to him, grabbing his leg.  “We must find her!  Gift Giver, please, call on your spirits!  You must use them to find her!”

Brooks hated to play into the supernatural, but he knew that Tracker was right.

Their drones were down to just a handful; they had to regularly recharge, and that equipment had been left behind at camp.  They’d kept a handful going at all times during the trip, just letting them fall when they ran out of power, and sending out a new set.

They were down to their last few; just a pittance of the swarm he’d had to start with.

“Do you have any idea what direction she might be?” he asked.

Tracker gestured in the negative, and Young Mother called out for him.  He ran off towards her, calling out to his daughter.  Where she had gone, trees had crashed down.

Brooks spread out the drones in a search pattern, but his stomach was clenched.  Picky Little one was so small, the drones so few, and the lay of the land complicated and changed . . .

They had only minutes of power, their sub-systems already starting to go into standby.  Each search ping was more time off their lifespan.

He went out as well, wading through the large, mushroom-like undergrowth.

“Little One!” he called, cupping his hands.  “Call out if you hear me, child!”

Her parents were likewise calling, and the three of them were spreading out wider, growing ever further from the shuttle, and hope of safety.

The drones were finding nothing, not even animals.  Everything, it seemed, was hiding in its burrow or nest.  The acidic rain still fell, but lighter than earlier, and his exposed skin felt numb where it had been landing on him.

One by one the drones were falling.  First one, then in twos.  Then in groups of three and four, until none were left.  And still nothing.

“Captain,” Kai called.  “We’re at the shuttle.”

“Is it intact?”

“It’s fine,” she said brusquely.  “The platform is built for hard jolts like that.  The ship itself takes the same stresses in liftoff and flight.  I’m just telling you that I’m going to start getting the !A!amo aboard.”

“Good,” he called back.  “Go ahead.”

“How long are you going to keep searching?” she asked.  “Our window is getting tight.”

“I don’t know,” he said.  “If you think it’s closing, leave.  Don’t wait for me.”

“That’s stupid, Captain,” Kai’s voice came back.  It was cold and clinical.  “This isn’t a time for that.  Get back here.”

He flinched, knowing she was right.  He was not thinking like an officer, and she knew better than anyone that sometimes there were unthinkable losses in response and rescue.

How could he argue?

“Five more minutes,” he said.  His voice, he realized, was plaintive.

This was a child they were looking for.

Kai had not yet responded when he heard the yell.  It was Tracker.

Brooks could not understand the words, his system did not catch them or they were not articulate enough.

He spoke again to Kai.  “I think we have her,” he said shortly.

“I’ll start boarding,” Kai said.  “Five minutes, Captain.”

He rushed towards the sound of the voice.  There were no more calls, even as he called out to his friend.  But he began to hear the keening, and he knew.

Stumbling at the sound and realization, he was drawn closer, unable to stop himself even if he had wanted to.

There.  At the base of a tree, two people were huddled over something small and unmoving.

Brooks skidded to a stop.  His legs refused to work for him for a moment, and he had to force himself to move.

“Tracker?” he said softly.  The only other noise now was the soft pitter-patter of the acid rain on the curled leaves of plants.

Tracker said nothing, but raised his head – not to look at Brooks, but to let out a long wail.  It started quietly and rose louder.  Young Mother shook with sobs.

He came closer, and saw Picky Little One, her head twisted to one side in a way that was not right.  Her bright eyes were open but looked at nothing, and everything that had been her was gone.

He looked up the tree, saw how its near side was cleared of limbs; the branches must have been broken off in the shaking and come crashing down around the child.

She must have run to the tree thinking it would be safe.  Why had she left her parent’s side?  He did not really know, and he never would.

He came closer, kneeling behind the two parents.

A counter in his HUD told him that their moments were slipping away.

“I am sorry,” he said softly.

Tracker lowered his head, his cry dying off and he too wracked with sobs.  Young Mother did not look up, her arms out, and she slowly picked up Little One, pulling her close, cradling her head as it started to fall.

“We do not have much time,” Brooks said.  “We must go.  Bring her.”

Tracker keened again, and Young Mother joined him, both of them crying out to their dying world, their world having already died.

“Please,” Brooks said.

They ignored him still, and he started to feel fear welling up inside.  Picky Little One had been the sweetest of children, and her loss was something unimaginable.  He did not want to think that he would lose Tracker, his closest friend among the !A!amo, too.

“Please,” he repeated emphatically, reaching out to touch Tracker’s arm.  “Hakki.”  The word came to him without thinking.  It was the due of their friendship that his friend be alive, wasn’t it?

The word made Tracker shiver with struggle, but it came out in a flash of fury.

Tracker lashed out at him, his flint-blade knife slashing just where Brooks’s arm had been.

It had been an uncontrolled move, but the !Xomyi caught himself, slowing his attack at the last moment – the only reason Brooks was able to pull his arm back in time.

“Go,” Tracker said, his voice heavy.  “Remember that you are my friend, Gift Giver True Striker.  But I am bound to the world, and not the sky.  Hakki.  You must let me have my sorrow.”

Young Mother was singing now, her words translated eerily in Brooks’s ears.

“Sleep now my dear child
Who never knew the taste of honey
Sleep alone in the cold ground
But know that soon I will join you.”

Brooks turned, running towards the shuttle, and heard Tracker join in, with his own verse.

“Sleep now my dear child
Your father feels only pride in you
Do not be afraid that you will be alone
Know that soon I will join you.”

Brooks ran as he fast as he could, but he could not outrace the pain in his chest.

---

< Ep 12 part 67 | Ep 12 part 69 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

The piece of the moon had broken off hours ago, and they’d been tracking it as best they could.  Its orbit was decaying rapidly, bringing it down towards Ko in a spiral of death.

The moon splinter was not huge in comparison to its parent; not the massive piece, almost a quarter of Omen’s mass, that was still in the process of separating.  This piece was only ten kilometers at its widest, an oblong chunk of silicates and iron that would soon lodge itself into the planet below.  It was the tenth-such monster to break off, but it was predicted to be the first to hit.

“Models show that it will impact near the Western coast of the Western continent,” Cenz said.  “It may strike in the water or partially on land.”

“So it will be far from where Excom Urle and Captain Brooks are located,” Jaya said.

“Yes, Acting-Captain,” Cenz replied.  “It will give them a little time.”

It was bigger than the asteroid that formed the Chicxulub crater, Jaya thought.

It was an alarming prospect, to think how much damage that asteroid had caused, yet this one was only a prelude.  The only thing that might keep it from being the end of all life would be that it was moving far slower than a deep-space asteroid.

Ji-min Bin’s head shot up.  “We have a fix on a shuttle!  It’s the Executive Commander!”

A cheer went up on the bridge, and Jaya felt a little relief.  Their two senior officers were the only remaining personnel on the surface.

They should have been evacuated days ago, she thought.  But they both had called for more time.  They needed as much as possible to complete their missions, and had the rank to authorize it.

“Establishing automated contact,” Shomari Eboh called.  “The Executive Commander is all right, and he has . . . seventeen !Xomyi on board.”

Jaya hesitated, surprised.  There had been 259 !Xomyi in the group he had been sent to help.  They had been considered challenging, but not that challenging.  Why so few . . .?

She could not draw judgement until she knew the facts, and accepted the number without question.  “Very well.  If he is ready to dock, bring him in.  We will transfer his !Xomyi to the diplomatic carrier later.”

The much-more massive carrier, along with all of the other ships in their entourage, had pulled away to a safe distance already – farther out than from Earth to its moon.  Even there, they were not totally safe from flying debris once the impacts started for real.

“Piece Ten is beginning its descent,” Cenz said.

Jaya could see the projection on the screen; piece ten had hit that critical threshold of depth into the atmosphere where its course plummeted.  The atmosphere was bleeding it of energy, and now it was simply in a dive.

She watched; in only a handful of seconds, they registered its impact.

“Analyzing,” Cenz called.  “We register crust penetration . . . we don’t have a good signal.  Predicted depth is 18 kilometers with a width of 51.”

“Jesus Christ,” she heard someone mutter.

“When will this affect Brooks?” she asked.

“The shockwave will take nineteen minutes to reach his location.  It will register as a 9.5 magnitude earthquake.”

“That’s insane!” someone snapped.

“Quiet,” Jaya said sternly.

The officer looked abashed and shut up.

“With that energy, it will destroy all of our science stations, unfortunately,” Cenz said.  “We will no longer see or hear anything from ground level.”  He paused a moment, then continued.  “Ejecta will begin to fall on their position in approximately thirty minutes.  The wind blast will be noticeable, but non-damaging, at only eight meters per second.”

There was quiet again for a few long moments.  “How close are they to reaching their escape ship?”

“I do not know their exact position,” Cenz said.  “We have lost the ability to communicate with our grounded drones without the satellites.  But based on their last known position . . . I would guess that they are at least three hours from launch.”

“Will the ship survive the earthquake?”

Cenz took a moment before answering.  “The platform it is built on is extremely durable – it has to be to survive the relatively hard drop in.  But it also has to hold up to launch.  I cannot say for sure if it will survive the shockwave, or for that matter if the ground beneath it will still be intact.  If both have survived, I cannot say if the structure will survive the firing of the launcher’s thrusters – if they are damaged and buckle before the ship achieves lift-off, it could tip and explode.  And even if all of those have survived, the shuttle itself could have sustained damage and not be able to survive escape velocity.”

Jaya was quiet for a long time.

“However,” Cenz added, breaking the silence.  “I hope.”

On the screen, the ejecta from the impact was entering space, circling the planet.  The majority of it that would come down the six-thousand kilometers distance of Brooks’s position would mostly be dust.  But it could also be larger fragments that could kill.  And not long afterwards, larger fragments, heating up from their fall back through the atmosphere, would begin to warm the atmosphere itself.

There were far too many to even attempt to intercept.  And, she saw, another piece of the moon would begin its own fall in just a few short hours.

“Then let us wait,” she finally said.  “And be prepared for when his shuttle escapes the world.”

---

< Ep 12 part 66 | Ep 12 part 68 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

It was the last time she’d be looking at this water, Apollonia realized.

The waves were calmer than usual today, only reaching up about eight meters up the pylons that they still relentlessly battered.

Despite their raging, they’d never even left a mark on the pillars.  If only they could armor the whole damn world in the stuff.

She had the foresight to set up her system to record it the last few days of waves; she would have a video frame run it on a loop when she got home.

It had become comforting for her.  She hadn’t realized how many hours she’d spent out here, until Zey had commented on it.

“Huh,” Apollonia had replied.  “I guess I am out here a lot.”

Zey had gone back up to the Craton, and Apple had wished her goodbye.  It was odd, really, they’d still see each other and work together.  But back up there, it wouldn’t be as often, and it would involve a lot of other doctors and nurses.

Even Alisher had gone up already.  Jaya had spoken to Cenz, and he had allowed her to stay for the last shuttle.  It was due to leave in an hour, after all their baggage had been loaded.

Dr. Zyzus had also elected to stay.  He had not said why, but he seemed to have taken a liking to her, and she found him to be a surprisingly nice old man.

Funny, she thought.  She’d never have thought she’d come to be friends with several doctors.

He came up now, leaning against the railing.

“The porpishes are gone,” he commented, the word even funnier in his serious voice.

Apollonia felt a sense of elation that her name had caught on so well, but it was tempered by something she couldn’t name.

“I guess they sensed things are getting bad,” she said.

“Likely,” Zyzus replied.  “But there is no escape for them.  Just as there will not be for Ambassador Kell if he does not return soon.”

“He’s still not back?” Apollonia asked.

“No,” Zyzus said.  He sounded sad.

Apollonia could not feel that, not for Kell.  It was deeper than just his actions back on the Chain, months ago.  It was . . . it was some innate feeling from him that just disgusted her.

Remarkably bigoted of her, she realized.  But it was still true, and she trusted her instincts here.

“What will you do when you return to the station?” Zyzus asked her.

“Oh, uh.  I guess I’ll keep doing this,” Apollonia said.  “When I can.  I mean sometimes I have to just be up near the bridge doing CR stuff.  Like just sitting there, being spooky.”

Zyzus did not smile, but nodded, his expression still serious.  “This is valuable work,” he told her.  “But your work as a CR is not to be underestimated.  You have a gift, Ms. Nor.  One that many would wish to have.  You can help others in a wholly unique way.”

“It’s got baggage,” she said quickly.

“So does this,” Zyzus said, gesturing to their uniforms.  “I know it is not the same, not as bad.  But it still exists.  We in this field will carry memories of work – painful, both physically and mentally.  Of the suffering of our patients, who we sometimes cannot help.  And the same goes, to varying degrees, in every field of work.”

Apollonia found this a puzzling direction.  “I guess so,” she said.

“I find myself hoping,” Zyzus said, “that you will one day try to reach still higher, Apollonia Nor.  Reach into that place where so few of us can go, and find there the strength to do more than any of us can.”

She did not know what to make of his words.  She smiled slightly to him, more out of politeness than anything else, while he looked at her with meaning hidden behind his eyes.  Nodding to her, he turned and walked away.

She was still puzzling on it as she heard the klaxon call for them to prepare for boarding on the shuttle.  Not long left now.

Reluctantly, she tore her eyes from the ocean, which in a way seemed dead already, without the porpishes or anything else swimming around.

It would have been worse, she thought, if they had been down there playing happily, oblivious to the end.  At least for her; maybe they’d be better off playing and jumping up until the last moment.

She looked up, towards the distant shoreline.  The sky was dark; not from clouds, but dust, which the many smaller impacts had already stirred up.  It gave the look of a storm, and sometimes there were flashes of electrical discharges in the dirty sky.

Somewhere out that way, Captain Brooks was leading some of the aliens towards safety, she hoped.  Or even better, maybe they were already strapped into their rocket and about to blast off, to escape this place.

But she doubted that.  It was Brooks, so it’d come to the knife’s edge.

Ah, dark take it.  She just hoped he’d be all right.

Turning her back to the water and land, she started up a set of steps leading towards the shuttle.

She felt it, then; the heavy presence that gave her pause.  She looked around, and saw him, standing alone; Kell, here on the platform, looking the same as he always did.

“. . . didn’t even see him come back aboard . . .” she heard someone say.

“. . . just appeared there . . .”

Cenz went up to Kell, greeting him warmly, but Kell’s reply was curt, and Cenz walked away, his electronic face slightly disturbed.

“Call to board,” an electronic voice said.  “Call to board.  All personnel board last shuttle.”

Apollonia’s tablet dinged insistently.  Everyone’s system was prompting them, and she felt a little surge of fear, imagining being left behind.

She thought again of Brooks, but in a fit of fear for him actually being in that situation, she could not make herself look back.

Kell boarded first, she saw.  The rest of them queued up, and she took her place in line, feeling a mix of apprehension and guilt.

All this time, this moment had felt so far away.  Now it was here, and she had thought she would feel sad, maybe even glad to be returning to the safety and comfort of the Craton.

But she only felt scared.

How might Brooks and the !Xomyi be feeling?  What about the ones who had refused the offer of help, or never even had a chance to be contacted?

Her head was dizzy as she boarded, strapping herself in.

Cenz was the last to come aboard.  “All personnel accounted for,” the system said.

“Let us go,” he said, his voice heavy.

---

< Ep 12 part 64 | Ep 12 part 66 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

They walked for twenty minutes.

Knows the World did not speak to Brooks as they moved.  He simply led the way through the forest.  At times, he stopped to listen to a sound or movement in the underbrush, but then continued on.

The jungle seemed to be thinner here, with more ability to see.  Occasionally through the trees they could see the tower-like legs of some of the largest of the jungle’s occupants, but the massive herbivores did not notice the two fleas near them.

They came to a clearing.  It was being lost to the jungle, but at one time he could tell that something had taken all of the trees down.  A few new ones were growing, but they were a fraction of the height of the trees around them.

In the middle of the clearing was a single boulder.  It was thin, pointing like a blunt blade into the sky.

As they came closer, Brooks realized that it was not a simple boulder; it was a standing stone.  Beings with intent had placed the stone here, and upon its surface they had carved images.

Time and moss hid many of them.  Knows the World came up, wiping away moss and soil from one area, and turned back to Brooks.

“As our people have moved, we have come closer to this place,” he said.  “I knew it was not an accident that you came to us then.”

Brooks felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.  He came closer to look at the stone.

He could see carvings of animals on it.  Some he recognized, but others he did not know.  They were arranged in a clear pattern.

“What does this mean?” he asked.

“Long, long ago,” Knows the World said.  “White serpents fell from the sky.  They punished this world because the spirits had grown tired.  They could not hold back the monsters of the stars.”

Brooks looked up, his mouth dropping open slightly in surprise.  But Knows the World continued.

“Our people barely survived.  Every one of our wisest people have passed down this story.  We share it with no other.  But we know that one day the stars will fall again.  Look, and you will see that they have fallen before.”

Brooks studied the images, and suddenly it clicked.

Tracker had told him of their astrological signs; patterns in the stars that they interpreted as symbols.  They told the seasons, they told the time of night, and . . . they could tell the year.

He brought up in his system and projected the night sky over the obelisk.  Moving it, he saw that they did not quite match up – but it was very close.

“Adjust by known star movements over time and go backwards in increments of 100 years,” he said.

It was a tall request for his system, but after a few moments the sky began to rearrange itself, mimicking the movements the stars would have taken over time.

And when he was around fifteen hundred years in the past, it matched up with the obelisk.

“It has been a long time,” he said to Knows the World, awe in his voice.  That this had been passed down through legends over all this time . . .

“And the spirits have come again,” the wise man said, nodding to him solemnly.  He regarded the stone solemnly.  “I recall,” he said slowly.  “When I was young.  The Sky Child was smaller, then.  It had not changed for many, many years.  As far back as we could recall.  But then it began to grow.”

He pointed to the image of a hamomo.  “I know, because it did not used to hide the hamomo at this time of year.  It ran free – now, it is crushed and hidden by the Sky Child at all times.  In the past the Child moved across the sky.  But now . . . it is simply there, always.  Crushing the hamomo, and soon to crush us all.”

He looked up to Brooks, and for the first time he saw the fear openly.  But behind it, also hope.

“What can you do to save us, Gift Giver, True Striker?”

---

“You must listen to me carefully, we do not have long,” Brooks said.

The twenty-five members of the !A!amo tribe had gathered before him.  Knows the World had spoken already to Cool River and Old Hunter.  The latter retained some doubts, but had said he would not oppose them.  Cool River had quickly come to agree with Knows the World and Brooks – she, too, remembered the old stories and had seen the standing stone.

They had gathered the men, women, and even the children.  Brooks had been unsure if the latter should be here, as he did not want to scare them.

But it was a terrifying situation.  And they, too, were involved.

Knows the World and Cool River had not even considered leaving them out, and he had let it be.

Now, their eyes were upon him.

“The Sky Child is falling,” he said.  “And when it lands, it will destroy the world in fire.”

Gasps and fear spread into their eyes; they believed him, doubt did not enter their minds.

He continued.  “It is terrifying, yes.  I, too, am frightened.  Not just for myself, but for you – my friends.”  He gestured from himself to them.

“There is a way we can help you,” Kai said.  “We know of a place where you will be safe.”

“Where is it?” Tracker asked cautiously.

Brooks said nothing.  He simply pointed up.

Tracker’s eyes gazed upwards, widened.  He snapped back down to Brooks.

“Into the realm of spirits?”

“There are no spirits in the heavens,” Brooks told him.  “At least not that I have seen.  But there are more people like us.”  He gestured to Kai and himself.  “Many of us.  We all came here to save your people.”

“But why?” Old Hunter asked suddenly, his doubts manifesting.  “I believe in you, True Striker.  Do not misunderstand me.  But if there are many of you – why do they care about !A!amo?  They have not hunted with us.  They have not bled with us.”

Brooks opened his arms towards the heavens again.  “If you look up, you do not see !A!amo.  You do not see any !Xomyi, or even my people.  That is because it is a vast emptiness.  Emptier than air itself.  There are so very, very few of us.  We feel . . . alone.  Like we are stranded in the deepest jungle with fears of predators all around.”

He lowered his hands and his eyes.  “But then we find each other.”

A moment later, he found himself able to continue.  “And when we do not feel as alone, we realize the heavens are not as frightening as they were a moment before.”

Old hunter looked down, nodding slightly.  He said nothing.

Kai stepped forward.  “You do not need to bring much – only those things you cannot live without.  We have food for your stomachs and beds for you to sleep in.  The most important thing is simply yourselves.”  She looked across the group.  “Do you understand?”

There was a scattering of assent, and Brooks spoke again.  “I must know that you all understand.  That you are all willing to come, because once the moon falls there will be nothing to return to.  I will not try to force anyone to come who does not want to.  But if you have second thoughts, please talk to me.”

No one said anything, and Kai took over.

“We must walk for two days,” she said.  “We will only rest as long as we must.  Every moment is important.  You will see things and go places you have never seen before.  Do not be afraid – we will be with you every step of the way.”

“I promise,” Brooks said.  “I will do everything I can to protect you.”

“You say it,” Tracker replied.  “And I believe you, True Striker.”

---

< Ep 12 part 63 | Ep 12 part 65 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Brooks awoke with sunlight filtering down upon him.

Attempting to move was a mistake; nausea washed over him, and his entire body hurt.

“You are fortunate to be alive,” he heard Dr. Y’s voice say.  “You have largely metabolized the drug, but you did take in enough to leave you with an effect much like a hangover.  I do not have the treatment here to alleviate it.”

Brooks forced himself to sit up.  He was in the !Xomyi camp, but no one was around.

“I am watching you while Commander Kai Yong Fan consults with the Craton,” Y told him.

He was laying on a layer of reeds, and on the edge he saw a bowl.

“Water?” he croaked.

“It is,” the Y-drone told him.  “It is even free of parasites.”

Brooks took up the clay bowl and drank the water greedily, some running around the edges and down his chin.  It was not dignified, but he couldn’t control his hands that well yet.

“What happened?” he asked, after finishing the water.  His words were a little stronger.

“After your . . . adventure, you passed out on the way back, and were carried here by the !Xomyi.  It seems that they have a great respect for you, and felt that you were overcome by a ‘spirit of the dead’.”

Hard Biter, Brooks thought.  For a moment he wondered if there was something to the idea; he certainly had behaved more like that warrior-hunter than himself last night.

“Was that just last night?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes,” Y told him.  “Once the !Xomyi returned you here, they informed the Commander.  Which is quite fortunate, as with your torn coolsuit you would have died in the heat of the day.”

He could see that Kai had stuffed him into one of his backup suits.  He was fortunate, he thought.  On many levels.

He carefully examined his body, finding bruises, cuts, scratches.  Many had been cleaned and closed by Y.

His feet were a mess, from running barefoot.

And he had killed the keko!un, he remembered.

“Everyone made it back all right?” he asked.

“Yes,” Y told him.  “Now, Captain, while I can certainly multi-task, I must be leaving.”  He paused.  “And I must inform you that the timeline has been shortened.  The moon Omen is beginning to break up slightly faster than expected.  All teams must leave this world within four days.”

“Four days?” Brooks said.  “That’s not very long.”

Y paused again.  “If you are going to make your move to convince these people to leave, you must do it soon.  I do hope that you have some idea of how to convince them.”

Brooks said nothing, and Y winked out of the drone.

Four days.  That was all.

---

It took him a little bit to stretch out and get moving again.  The !A!amo seemed pleased to see him, and they came over, all reaching out to touch him.  Fast of Wing stopped in front of him, taking both of his hands.  He was overcome with emotion, and that said it all.

Brooks put a hand on his shoulder, smiling.

“My father rests now,” he finally said.

And had shed his name, Brooks knew.  He was simply ‘Father of Fast of Wing’ if ever he needed to be referred to, and he was living on the moon, the Sky Child.

That same Sky Child who would kill them all, he thought.

“I must speak to Knows the World,” he said.  “Where is he?”

Tracker directed him; the wise man was not far, but was keeping aloof of the greeting the men were giving him.

Brooks headed over to where Knows the Word was.

Where he was waiting, Brooks thought.  He knows.

He could not know the whole of the truth, of course, but he could tell the shaman had an inkling, an idea that Brooks was here for more important reasons than any he had given so far.

He came up next to the old !Xomyi.  Knows the World’s ears twitched towards him, but he did not turn.  Brooks waited for him to signal that they could speak.

“Some of the women have expressed an interest in marrying you,” the wise man said.  He looked slyly amused.

Brooks smiled.  “I am honored.  However, I did not come here seeking a wife.”

The smile faded from Knows the World’s face.  “Then why did you come here, True Striker?”

“Is that who I am now?” Brooks could not help but say.  It gave Knows the World the chance to change the topic, he knew.  But he felt he must offer that chance.

But Knows the World was wise.  He only waited, watching Brooks.

“I have come to save your people,” Brooks said.  He turned, pointing to the sky.  “I speak the truth when I say I have come from the sky.  My land is far from here; we sailed through the sky to come here.  And when we arrived, we saw something terrible.”

He took a breath, watching Knows the World, but the wise man was still listening; still receptive.

“The Sky Child is falling,” he said.  “Just as a spear thrown into the air must come down, it is falling.  When it lands, it will kill all of you.  It will kill everything.”

He gestured around, to the trees, to the soil.  “Nothing will be spared.”

He could see the fear growing on Knows the World’s face.  He was deep in thought, but under that outer layer the fear was all-encompassing.

“I must show you something,” Knows the World said.  He turned, and started walking into the jungle.

Brooks hesitated, looking back, but the others had not noticed them.

He signalled Kai that he was stepping out, and followed the elder.

---

< Ep 12 part 62 | Ep 12 part 64 >