The dampness of her tears was still evident in the curling locks across his brow, now cold and still, horribly still.
She felt the distance between herself and the emptiness of Ornenkai’s body acutely. Where was he? Why should he be gone? Where had he gone without her now, after all the time they had spent together?
Then she called together her companions aboard Sesylendae for the memorial to Ornenkai. A few preservation capsules remained in the ship’s storage holds, but she chose not to use them. Ornenkai would be cremated, his ashes set free into space to become the lifeblood of stars, planets, and nebulae.
How ironic it was to her how Ornenkai had returned. He had waited for the reunion with Alessia that in the end lasted but a moment; she too had waited. Ten thousand years had come and gone, and still their mission was not finished. Would it ever be fulfilled now? She had no energy left for another long journey across space without him, without the other explorers.
She now had other plans. The day before Selesta left her, Alessia felt she might have discovered a way to thwart the serum and secure her own release from the physical world. She had created another anti-serum using Gerryls’ notes. But she could not instigate the final test until she had seen her daughter again.
Yes, she would see Selerael one more time.
Then, Ornenkai, she thought, it shall be my turn to follow you.
When the memorial began, it was Alessia who carried the incineration torch to the body of Ornenkai and lit the fire beside him; the others stepped back, fearful of the combustive power of the alien torch. Brilliant blue flames began to consume the body of Ornenkai, as Alessia silently watched him turn to dust.
Then, after a moment, the fire died out. With a sweep of her arms and using her telekinetic power, Alessia gathered the grey ashes of Ornenkai in swirling arcs up into her hands. She clenched her fists around them, her eyes compressing shut. Then, without looking at the others, she went alone to the air lock to scatter his ashes.
And she was the only one who knew what silent words she delivered to the stars when she released the dust of Ornenkai, once Vice-Emperor of the Seynorynaelian Empire, to his final rest among the stars.
When she returned from the air lock, solemn faces met hers, but the others didn’t understand where the man had come from or who he had been. She felt a bitter pang of emptiness that they did not know this and never would know. How the man had arrived without detection puzzled them—and Alessia herself, though she no longer cared about that. Even after all these years, Ornenkai had kept a final trick up his sleeve. Overshadowed by Marankeil and later by Hinev, the great scientist Ornenkai had often been forgotten.
The others only knew that at last someone had managed to break the stony silence surrounding Alessia, that someone had evinced an emotion from her, and such a depth of emotions that it was hardly to be believed!
Now that Ornenkai had been set free, it was time to find Selerael.
* * * * *
The Great Leader of the Orian race, Sargon, had returned to his private quarters shortly after the Enlil arrived in orbit above Tiasenne. Without a word, he had left his bridge crew wondering what to do.
The observation window in his private quarters encompassed one hundred and eighty degrees horizontal to their position and sixty degrees vertical. The planet Tiasenne filled the view; across its surface, a small craft crossed the equator, heading towards the sunrise.
Sesylendae. Sargon smiled sardonically. So, it is true. Alessia gave up the Selesta and has been on the Sesylendae all this time. But then who was she, the woman he had first seen through Iriken’s eyes and then on the surface? She was a Seynorynaelian woman beyond question. A subordinate of Alessia’s no doubt—but perhaps even Alessia hadn’t known that the woman survived whatever had killed the Seynorynaelians. Alessia had told him she lived in but a small corner of Selesta.
What torture it was that he remembered those days of his childhood on Tiasenne so clearly! That beautiful planet. How he hated the leaders of those days, and how he adored his childhood memories there.
From a distance Sargon could appreciate the advances in technology Tiasenne’s survivors had achieved, with Alessia’s help, no doubt, he thought. The Enlil had received a flood of radio waves upon arriving in the Rigell system, from an estimated two hundred nearby sources. He had left them masters of the Rigell system, and they had flourished in his absence, like a mass of mindless ants!
As Sargon surveyed the surface of a new great Empire, the glowing red moon slowly appeared over Tiasenne’s horizon. All that remained of the planet Orian.
The image had haunted him these many years, and yet he had thought himself beyond tears for his motherland.
He had not cared that time had passed on Enlil, that his people remembered their past only through his eyes and through the simulacra generated in the inculcation cocoons. But he could not bear it that Tiasenne should forget what had been, that billions of people lived without comprehending their past, that they might spread across the universe with a technology easier to attain than enlightenment, that they might make the same mistakes a thousand times more.
He shook off the feeling. He had but one purpose—what did it matter that Tiasenne thrived while his own people wandered space?
He watched for signs of life from the small craft Sesylendae, but Alessia made no attempt to flee. Sargon knew Selesta had emerged in Rigell airspace, that Alessia might be able to escape and return to her ship. He had no intention of allowing any craft to rendezvous with the great vessel, but he could wait until the envoy arrived.
Finally a spot appeared on the ship’s radar—a shuttle too small to maintain invisibility. At last Selesta had revealed herself, but he could do nothing to her, and he would not destroy any ship leaving her, only those that attempted to return. He could not take the chance that Alessia would get away.
Minutes later, he watched the Sesylendae swallow up the tiny emissary.
Sargon turned away from the image and left the observation window, his even steps echoing down the long metal corridor.
He would never come back.
He was going to find Alessia.
* * * * *
Moments after the memorial ended, Alessia felt the approach of the craft speeding towards Sesylendae. Selerael!
While the others were still gathered about her, the shuttle docked in the cargo bay.
“Don’t be alarmed.” Alessia assured her companions. She told them that the unannounced emissary was not unexpected. When the door opened to the main observation window, they quietly took their leave, curiously regarding the strange assembly before them: a woman at the fore dressed in a pale blue flight uniform decorated with triangles and swirls, a few of the others similarly attired, some wearing maroon, some in navy.
“Selerael!” Alessia cried. Selerael felt as if the room were filled with electricity as she rushed to embrace her mother.
The group numbered about twelve, and all but one were recognizably humanoid. The large, furry grey alien that flanked them wore an unusual green garb, but the impossible ruddy hue of the humanoids’ skin shocked them more than anything else; at least they looked like humans, but their skin was the color of clay soil. Only one man appeared remotely like a Tiasennian. The woman who had been in front, however, was nearly a mirror image of Alessia.
I see there is much I need to explain, Alessia told her, trying to organize her thoughts.
Holding you at long last is enough for me, mother, Selerael thought, suppressing questions, questions about the visions that had haunted her through life, visions even the computer could not explain; she would not have understood the computer until today, with her memory returned to her. Selerael had never been taught to control her mind energies and telepathy, and though Ornenkai had reached her, he could not pull her into his memories that might have offered an explanation. Only Selerael could have gone into his computerized mind, but she had not known how.
“Sshh.” Alessia said. “Oh, how I’
ve missed you!”
Alessia held Selerael tightly, exultant in that moment, in their reunion. At the same time, she knew what she had to do. Now that Selerael had regained her memories, it was time she understood. Knowledge, yes, knowledge was power. Power to defend oneself against the universe, and power to protect the weak who must survive. What was it for, but to preserve the hidden potential that is in all life? It was time for Selerael to learn her purpose, for every being must possess such a motive before it can know itself.
Selerael had never known herself, or what her purpose was, or why she had been taken from Tiasenne; at the very least she deserved an explanation for what had happened to her as a child.
Without moving, Alessia reached out telepathically to guide Selerael’s consciousness through the space between them; in that split-second, Alessia steeled herself against the coming onslaught of her deepest memories, memories she had forcefully suppressed to keep their power from affecting her.
You will see my memories, and you will understand. Alessia thought to her.
Yes, the mindlink between mother and daughter would teach Selerael what she needed to know.
And for Alessia, the mindlink was going to bring all her memories back.
Dramatis Personae and places in Across the Stars:
Aidan Faulkner—a geneticist from Sydney; a man with Napoleonic ambitions who began an investigation of the Earth government cover-up regarding the alien spaceship Selesta, discovered Erin-Mathieson’s identity as an alien, and injected her blood, infused with Hinev’s serum, into his own body
Alastair Cameron—a brilliant, crotchety, and pessimistic astrophysicist; Zhdanov’s mentor
Alessia Zadúmchov—Uh-LESS-ee-yuh Zuh-DOOM-chav—last survivor of Hinev’s explorers and biological mother of the child Selerael
Caelan Arthur Kansier—a heroic, self-composed aeronavy man who becomes the Captain of the Stargazer and later the Discovery
Cameron Zhdanov—grandson of Zhdanov; friend of Adam Dimitriev’s
Catherine Cresson—Dimitriev’s estranged fiancée
Elphor—a planet; former territory of the Seynorynaelian Empire
Enor—EE-norr—a legendary planet, the civilization from which the lost Enorians have come
Erik Flynn Ross—a hotheaded pilot chosen for Arnaud’s infiltration team; one of the Blue Stripes assigned to the Discovery
Etienne Charbonneau—one of Arnaud’s infiltration team members
Fynals Hinev—FAI-nahlss HAI-nev—the scientist who created the elixir of immortality known as “Hinev’s serum”; one of Kudenka’s explorers
Fielikor Kiel—Fee-YEL-ee-kor Keel—once leader of Hinev’s explorers, the subject of a holo-still discovered by an Earth recon team inside the alien spacecship the Earth calls Discovery
Goeur—Gerr, like the French, “coeur”—a lost colony; also a planet the Earthlings discover and liberate from the current Emperor of Goeur
Gordon Hilbert—the United Earth Security Council Secretary/President
Ian Tipler—an intractable, cold-mannered representative on the United Earth Security Council
Iriken Ilyriphon Zirnenka—EER-ee-ken il-LEER-i-fahn Zeer-NENG-kuh—Orian pilot who becomes Great Leader Sargons’ advisor, the Garen; a very distant relation of Sargon
Hans Rheinhardt—one of the Blue Stripes assigned to the Discovery
Ho-ling Chen—one of the Blue Stripes assigned to the Discovery
Ho-win Cheung—a research scientist
Kamia—a planet and former territory of the Seynorynaelian Empire
Lake Firien—Lake FEAR-ee-enn—large body of water on planet Seynorynael and the name of a remote province; location of The Firien Project, a project to rebuild an ancient ruined spaceship that the ancients called “Selesta”
lom-vaia—a planet discovered by the lost Enorian, Zanka
lyra—LEER-uh— the beautiful, mysteriously undying trees of Seynorynael; a formerly abundant, seeded, but now fruitless tree that can no longer be replaced once destroyed
Erika Ilyria Zirnenka—Mahl-TAY-nuh—Iriken’s “sister”; one of the Orian elite children grown in the same ectogenic batch as Iriken Zirnenka
Mara Ricna—one of Arnaud’s infiltration team members
Marankeil—MAIR-enn-KEE-il—the mechanized Elder who became the eternal Emperor of Seynorynael
Orian—may-LARR—the mysterious planet where the Orians came from
Miralah—a young Kamian female
Enlil—Mai-LENN-varr—the Orian, or “Charon aliens’”, space battleship designed after Selesta
Nathalie Quinn—one of the Blue Stripes assigned to the Discovery
Nikolai Kaganov-Kudenko—one of the Blue Stripes assigned to the Discovery
Ornenkai—ORR-nen-kai—once the Vice-Emperor of the Seynorynaelian Empire, now a helpless computerized entity trapped aboard Selesta; a man obsessed with the destruction of the Seynorynaelian Empire and in finding the Enorian singularity on Kiel3
Robert Forren—a doctor living on the Discovery
Saira Knightwood—Verr-AY-duh—a feisty Earth scientist
Sakar—a planet and former territory of the Seynorynaelian Empire
Sargon Maxarien Suraeno—SAR-gahn Mack-ZAR-ee-en Ser-AY-no—the Great Leader of the Orians, known as the “Charon aliens” on the Earth
Adam—Selerael’s son; a man half-alien and half-Earthling, who is born with Hinev’s serum in his veins and telepathic abilities
Scott Alexander Dimitriev—a young, heroic American navigator who becomes the co-captain of the Discovery
Selerael—Sel-AIR-ay-el; more often Seh-LAIR-ee-el—alien child who infiltrates the Earth looking for a powerful Enorian singularity, who takes on the identity of Erin Mathieson
Sergei Zhdanov—Jh-DAHN-ahv—an honorable, fair-minded Earth scientist
Seynorynael—Say-NOR-i-nay-el; often Seh-nor-i-NAY-el, Seh-NOR-i-nay-el—the planet where Hinev’s explorers came from, once the founder of an intergalactic Federation and Empire
Susumu Kusao—one of the Nezumirii pilots chosen for Arnaud’s infiltration team and later assigned to the Discovery
Selesta—Sil-lerr-ESS-tee-uh—the greatest explorer spaceship ever to be built by the Seynorynaelian Empire, with a computer that seems to have a mind of its own; the spaceship which the Earth scans and claims for its own and renames “Discovery”
Tiernan—TEER-nuhn—a former colony of the Federation, now the center of the Elphoran civilization
Tulor—too-LORR—plane close to the heart of the old Seynorynaelian Federation
Valeria—Vuh-LAIR-ee-uh—blue-white star of the planet Seynorynael that supernovaed in antiquity, destroying Seynorynael
Zariqua Enassa—ZAR-ee-kuh/ ZAIR-ee-kuh Ee-NASS-suh—the last colonizer of the planet Enor and Alessia’s father; Sargon’s name for Alessia
Across the Stars: Book Three of Seeds of a Fallen Empire Page 43
