SMTG--Iso-bel Aya Shermac

by Barbara G. Tarn

  Star Minds Third Generation

  Iso-bel Aya Shermac

  by Barbara G.Tarn

  ***

  Barbara G.Tarn copyright © 2017

  Cover Art by Lorenzo "ilLoGiG" Giorgieri

  electronic edition by Unicorn Productions

  April 2017

  ***

  Table of contents

  Aliens on Earth

  Sire Minds

  About

  ***

  Aliens on Earth

  Iso-bel relaxed in her seat and looked out of the window. Her two-month break after the end of secondary school meant her parents had given her an open ticket for the Galaxy Express, the interplanetary starship train that looped through the inhabited worlds. She'd embarked on a trip to the Star Nations with her boyfriend and a couple of classmates.

  She had insisted they stopped on this planet she'd seen when she was barely five and didn't remember much of. But she knew how important it was for her parents and her father's uncle and some of his friends, so the others had humored her.

  The interstellar Galaxy Express had dropped them at the Orbital Immigration Station where they'd gone through customs before being taken down to the blue planet underneath. The Space Shuttle was necessary when one came in with the Galaxy Express that didn't land on planets and dropped its passengers on orbital stations in their close vicinity.

  Iso-bel's father had had to dock in the Orbital Immigration Station and teleport himself on the planet the first time he had visited since there were no spaceports on the planet yet. And he'd had a bronchitis from breathing the polluted air during his short stay. When he'd come back with the whole family ten years later, the air was clean and the planet was finally on par with the rest of the Star Nations.

  Iso-bel watched as the blue ball that looked so much like Marc'harid – albeit with different landmasses – approached quickly.

  "You're the expert on Gaia geography," Jes-syd said. "What is that continent called?"

  "America," she answered absentmindedly. Her father hadn't visited it, so she was kind of curious. He had stuck to Europe and Asia, but there was so much more to explore! Although they had limited time, since they were supposed to get to Mirabilis in a month, so they'll have to choose carefully.

  The trip from the Orbital Immigration Station was short and the Space Shuttle landed in the brand new spaceport in the outskirts of a big city built on the shores of a huge lake. Iso-bel stepped out of the spaceport building with her backpack on her shoulders and breathed the air of the planet.

  "Smells like Marc'harid," Jes-syd said, sweeping back from his eyes his longish blond bangs with his hand. His rebellious mane made him look like a wild animal – lions they were called on Earth. "But looks less technological."

  "It's a newcomer of the Star Nations," Emma-lin said, checking her tablet. "We should book a tour. I don't think it's safe to go on our own."

  "Let's get to the hotel, get some sleep, and then we can do that," Jes-syd replied, taking Iso-bel's hand.

  They found the public transport to the nearest city, Chicago. Ran-ald and Emma-lin were bickering again, which made Jes-syd roll his eyes and Iso-bel smile.

  As she sat on the train with her friends, Iso-bel put her head against Jes-syd's shoulder. She felt tired now and looked forward to sleeping in a real bed. Intergalactic travel was fast, but not that fast, especially on the Galaxy Express.

  She could have requested a private cruise ship, but she had preferred using public transport instead. She didn't trust herself or her friends to handle a starship, since none of them had any piloting experience. She could have asked for a pilot to join them, but she thought she needed to learn to travel like normal people did.

  Being the daughter of a wealthy Sire made her feel spoiled. And it was time she tried something different – both her and her friends. Enough private cruise ships or flying cars with drivers. They should experience the commuters' life as they played tourists of the Star Nations.

  Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to bring Emma-lin and Ran-ald along, though. Those two months might be the last Iso-bel spent with Jes-syd, since they had applied to different universities on different planets. When the other traveling companions had dropped out, they should have canceled the trip.

  Ran-ald Alligood and Emma-lin Wisenthon couldn't stand each other, but one was Jes-syd's best friend and the other was Iso-bel's. Besides her parents were happier if they knew she wasn't alone with Jes-syd, especially since she used galactic public transport.

  Being all children of wealthy Sire, they could afford hotels instead of youth hostels. They had booked two double rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys, in a skyscraper in the old town of Chicago overlooking Lake Michigan.

  Iso-bel stared outside of the room window, curious. Earth's architecture was not as eco-friendly as the one on Marc'harid, yet, but they had an Essence Building in every city now, allowing city-dwellers to experience natural ecosystems without moving away from the city itself.

  Although on Marc'harid they never thought of building a skyscraper containing a desert, a jungle and a glacier, or anything containing eleven different natural atmospheres in one vertical tower, it seemed to work fine on Gaia. Imagined in the local year 2015 by a team of Polish architects, it had become reality as soon as Earth had managed to clean its air from pollution, and had been repeated throughout the planet.

  Maybe a few more planets could use that kind of structure, Iso-bel thought. The previous stop had been on Xi-kong that was slowly recovering from mob control. After the fall of the empire, the dons had taken control and ruled for many years until a huge Galaxy Police operation had taken advantage of a gang's split to bring back some form of order and democracy.

  The planet was still a mess, though. Iso-bel had barely met her cousins from her mother's side, and then they had cut their stay short. Xi-kong was dirty and decadent, but Gaia seemed to be blossoming after a Dark Age – which was probably true after being a Saurian colony for so long.

  Iso-bel was impressed by the size of the lake outside of her room window. The lakes she knew on Marc'harid – the ones near the capital where she lived – were much smaller. She could see the other shore there. That wasn't the case in Chicago. The sun shone on the silver sculpture called Cloud Gate, also known as the Bean, at the feet of the hotel, and the Essence Skyscraper had been built on the Northerly Island, next to the Adler Planetarium. The tallest building in the city was still the 110–story Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), completed in 1974.

  Emma-lin emerged from the shower, drying her red hair with a towel.

  "Need to shower too?" she asked. She was the prettiest of the two, but that was never an issue for Iso-bel. In fact Emma-lin didn't have a steady boyfriend because she couldn't make up her mind with so many admirers, while Iso-bel had had only Jes-syd asking her out.

  "I'm just hungry and tired." Iso-bel sighed and used the bathroom to relieve herself and wash her hands. She quickly finger-combed her shoulder-length, rainbow-colored hair and checked her makeup-free face in the mirror.

  By the time she was done, Emma-lin was dressed and had put on her coral lipstick that matched her hair. They had never shared clothes, since they liked different fashions – Emma-lin was always very feminine, Iso-bel had been a tomboy for all her childhood.

  She'd become a little womanlier when her periods had started and her tits had grown – although she had smaller breasts compared to her best friend. That was probably one more reason she didn't feel the need to enhance her cleavages.

  She was petite, but she didn't like wearing high heels, much like her mother, so she always looked like the lady-in-waiting to the princess, while it was, in fact, the opposite, since s
he was a descendant of the last Sire emperor while Emma-lin was only a Sire aristocrat.

  They went to the hotel's restaurant where they met the boys. Ran-ald's frown told her Jes-syd was going through the same troubles she was having with Emma-lin about the company. Ran-ald didn't want Emma-lin tagging along more than Emma-lin wanted to share the journey with him. Ran-ald thought Emma-lin was a haughty redhead and Emma-lin thought handsome Ran-ald was too full of himself.

  Iso-bel was glad she wasn't the prettiest girl in school – that would be green-eyed Emma-lin – and Jes-syd wasn't the most popular guy – that would be Ran-ald, or course, with his black hair carefully styled short and perennial suntan – so they could enjoy each other's company without being under scrutiny. Her family name might be more important than any of the other three, but they were still the least glamorous couple of the school, and proud of it.

  A Humanoid waiter took them to their table. In the dining room there were other races dining – a group of cheerful Felines, a table of very serious Carians with a couple of half-bloods with a human body and feathered wings, and even a few Reptilians. There were also groups of Humanoids, and it was hard to tell where they came from, unless one read their unprotected minds – which Iso-bel was too tired to do.

  "They don't have androids serving tables," Ran-ald said, scrunching his nose. "We'll have to leave a tip."

  "It's bad practice not to leave a tip where Humanoids are still employed," Emma-lin said.

  "If they still have Humanoids doing the job, we might as well tip them," Jes-syd decided. "Until they're replaced by robots, we should probably help them."

  The waiter might have been Humanoid, but the dishes arrived through automated systems. The table opened at the center and a tray with their food appeared.

  "Mm, smells good!" Iso-bel grabbed her plate. She was famished by now.

  She had ordered a meat dish and it tasted like the equivalent coming out from the kitchens of the former Imperial palace back home. But then, she wasn't much of a foodie, so she let her friends comment on the food without adding a word. They sounded happy, though.

  "I talked to the guys at the reception," Jes-syd said as they ate. "Booked us a tour starting tomorrow. Should take us through the main cities in a few days."

  Emma-lin rolled her eyes but didn't object. If it had been Ran-ald saying that, she'd probably be ranting on other people's wrong choices. But for some reason she respected Jes-syd's choices.

  Iso-bel smiled and nodded. She looked forward to visiting the planet and sending some pictures back home. She hoped Jes-syd had included the towns she wanted to visit. From his grin, she knew he had.

  ***

  Iso-bel climbed in the small shuttle with her friends. A model of flying van imported from more advanced Star Nations planets, it went faster than the old airplanes available on Gaia and could fly over water and land at great speed. It allowed for a dozen passengers, a guide and a driver. She sat in the front with Jes-syd, while Emma-lin and Ran-ald took the seats behind them.

  Their small group included a couple of Carians on honeymoon, two unrelated Felines who had met at the spaceport and traveled on their own, and a Reptilian. Being a telepath was helpful when one wanted to know something about the people around her.

  And then there were the local driver, a plump middle-aged man with a round waist and a funny mustache, and the guide, a tall blond man who took the microphone to address them.

  "Welcome, Humanoid, Reptilian, Feline, Carian or other sentient being!" he said in formally correct Intergalactic. "We call our planet Earth, but it's also known as Gaia among the Star Nations. I'm Jon, the best guide in the galaxy, and I'm going to take you throughout our beautiful blue planet, explaining history and customs to you revered alien visitors."

  Iso-bel smiled and wondered what he'd say if she told him how much she knew about him and his planet already – albeit only by hearsay. She could glean the rest from his unprotected mind, if she felt so inclined, but for now she had raised her shields again and didn't want to be bothered by other people's thoughts.

  "We are a former Saurian colony that was locked in a manufactured time loop which forced us to live and relive always the same hundred years of our history, with only slight variations," Jon continued as the driver took off. "Finally, in the year of our calendar 2012, instead of the doomsday prophecies and the end of the world we read in a number of our long lost civilizations messages, came the encounter with the Star Nations who, thanks to a favorable star alignment in the galaxy, finally took us out of the manufactured time loop."

  And you can thank Kol-ian Vaurabi for that, Iso-bel thought. Her grandmother's younger brother had been a rebel who had found refuge on low-tech Earth in the previous local century. He'd told her often how helpless the Gaians were and how stuck to their planet they were because of covert Saurian control.

  "Imagine our shock then – we thought we were the only sentient beings in the universe!" Jon said, making Emma-lin chuckle nervously.

  Iso-bel turned to look at the Reptilian – a Draconian, not a Saurian – who had all his teeth out in a wicked grin. His presence didn't seem to disturb Jon, though. Iso-bel wondered if the Earthling knew the physical differences between horned Draconians and lizard-like Saurians.

  "Yes, that's how obtuse and narrow-minded we were. But the Saurians kept us that way through brainwashing and mind control... does that remind you all of the galactic empire?"

  Ran-ald smirked. He came from the House of Alligood, who had been mind-controlled under the Emperor. He knew exactly what Jon meant. But so did Iso-bel, whose grandfather Ker-ris Shermac had been mind-controlled since his wedding night.

  "Yes, it was a rude awakening." Jon must be an actor, or a good orator. Iso-bel silently applauded his performance. "Being forced to close the weapon industries, throw away our guns, take down our borders and live in peace after centuries of war was... baffling. But once our energies weren't harnessed into killing each other, our creativity blossomed. We gathered our wits, cleaned up the air and the water, and found alternative energy sources. The other Star Nations were very patient and kind while we caught up with space travel and other technologies, and now we are proud to be part of the High Council along with representatives of all your planets out there!"

  "He's good," Jes-syd whispered, amused.

  Iso-bel chuckled. They obviously thought the same thing about their guide. And they didn't even have a mind link. She glanced at his profile, remembering how his smile had dazzled her when he had asked her out the first time, turning her from a grumpy tomboy into a dreamy girl who had found her prince charming.

  "The best way to unite us was to force us to learn Intergalactic," Jon said. "Of course the regional languages are not all dead, like your own are kept alive on your home planet, but the common language makes us feel part of the Star Nations. It took us years to master it, but now I'm proud to say the new generations grow up bilingual and old people are slowly catching up too."

  "Were you born before or after the time-loop was unlocked?" Emma-lin asked.

  Jon hesitated only a moment. "Before," he answered. "But I was still a child when the Star Nations came."

  He wasn't going to give away his age yet. Iso-bel exchanged an amused glance with her boyfriend. Jes-syd shook his head knowingly, grinning from ear to ear.

  "During this tour you will be able to talk with natives, and I'll help when I can with the translation, especially if you want to talk to the elders," Jon said. "I am fluent in three local languages and one of them is English, that was very widespread even before 2012 as our business language."

  "And what are the other two?" Iso-bel asked.

  "French and Spanish."

  "No Italian?"

  Jon looked puzzled. "No, sorry. How do you know so much about our languages?"

  "I think the first two Earthlings who emigrated to the Star Nations are now famous on their home planet as much as they are on the planet that adopted them," she replied. "I'm from Marc
'harid and I grew up in close contact with Daniele and Chantal."

  Jon's eyes widened in shock. "You're a Sire?"

  "We all are," Emma-lin replied, pointing at herself and her friends. "So you can be as vague as you want, I know you're forty. You were born in 2006!"

  Jon glared at her and cleared his throat.

  "Now, ladies and gentlemen," he resumed. "We are headed for our first stop, London. You guys are in a hurry, so we'll cover only the northern hemisphere. I sure hope this taste of Earth will make you want to come back and explore more."

  Maybe on my honeymoon, Iso-bel thought. She knew so many people who found Earth romantic... that was why she hoped its magic would work on Emma-lin and Ran-ald!

  "We will travel eastward and will take you back here in a few days after showing you half of our planet. It will be an over twenty thousand miles, or thirty-three thousand kilometers, journey that will touch London, Dubai, New Delhi, Tokyo, Hawaii and San Francisco."

  Iso-bel grinned and blew a kiss at Jes-syd who winked in return. His amber eyes sparkled with mischief. He'd been obviously paying attention when he'd visited with her parents.

  "Our flight time to the island off the coast of the continent called Europe will last approximately six hours, then we'll reach our destination. This is our driver, Henry, give him an applause and then relax in your seats. You're in good hands."

  Iso-bel and her friends cheered and clapped their hands while the Felines meowed their approval. The Carians and the Draconian pretended not to listen.

  "What autonomy does this flying van have?" Ran-ald asked. He was very interested in planetary means of transportation and looked forward to move from his motosonic to a real flying car – a fast and luxurious one, of course.

  "About five thousand miles, or eight thousand kilometers," Jon answered. "You can ask the specifics to Henry when we get to London. If any of you is hungry or needs relief, the back cabin has food and a toilet."

  Jon kept talking until they were over the Atlantic Ocean, at which point he allowed his passengers to doze off or stretch their legs. He didn't have much to say about life in the water, and Iso-bel considered transmitting to the sea mammals, but she soon gave up the thought. They were going too fast to start any conversation anyway. The flying van felt comfortable and she relaxed, still looking outside at the clouds meeting the sea.