by Amy Thomson
Toivo nodded, his throat suddenly too tight to speak. He had believed Juna when she said that Ukatonen could work miracles, but now that the Tendu were almost done, he was terrified. He’d held his hope in check before, but now it was soaring out of control. If this didn’t work, he was in for one hell of a fall.
“It will take some time for this to work,” Ukatonen reminded him. “Your nerves will take a week or two to grow together after we link.”
Toivo held out his arms. “I’m ready,” he managed to say.
“Teuvo?” Ukatonen asked, turning the light purple shade that Toivo had learned meant polite inquiry. “Are you ready?”
His father nodded. Toivo saw him swallow nervously, and smiled at how alike they were.
Ukatonen glanced at Moki and the little alien flickered a response that must have meant yes.
“All right then, let’s begin.”
Ukatonen sat beside him and grasped his arm. Moki took the other arm, and reached out to his father, who sat next to Ukatonen. Toivo felt their^spurs prick his arms as the link was made and then he was plunged into the now-familiar sensory landscape of linking.
Toivo felt Ukatonen’s presence in the link, and through the enkar, the warm, reassuring presence of his father, familiar and human. His presence reminded Toivo of all the times he had fallen asleep as a child with his father sitting on a chair beside the bed, watching over him, keeping bad memories and the demons of the imagination away from him. Toivo relaxed into his father’s reassurance and love.
He felt, distantly, the Tendu working on the border between feeling and not-feeling, where his nerves were severed. They flickered in and out of existence like shadows, as they crossed over into the part of his body where his nerves no longer functioned. He felt a warm tingling all along the boundary between feeling and not-feeling. Then the Tendu broke the link.
“Well?” Toivo asked. This link was over so quickly, and he felt almost the same as he had before. There was a barely discernible warmth along the boundary of feeling, but no other change.
“We’re done. Your nerves are beginning to grow back and reattach themselves.”
“How long will this take?”
A ripple of purple flowed over the Tendu’s body. “We don’t know. It will be at least a month before your nerves are fully functional again. But you should start to regain some feeling after several days.”
Toivo nodded wordlessly. He had irrationally hoped, despite all of the Tendu’s warnings, that he would be able to leap out of bed and dance across the room.
“How– how much better will I be?”
Ukatonen rippled purple again. “We don’t know. Much of that will depend on you. Once you regain feeling, you will need to relearn to use your body and regain the strength you once had. That will be hard. For now, you should get out of bed and move around as much as you can.”
At first there was no change at all. Several days passed before Toivo realized that the boundary between feeling and not-feeling had moved a few inches farther down his body. Then, as he was helping Juna fold some laundry, he felt a sudden pang, and realized that his bladder was full.
“Juna, I need to piss!” he said excitedly.
“Just a minute and I’ll help you,” Juna said as she finished folding a shirt.
“No, Juna, you don’t understand,” he said. “I can feel that I need to piss. It’s working, Juna, I’m really getting better!”
Juna squeezed his shoulder. “Of course you are, Toivo. Ukatonen does good work. Now, let me help you.”
“You know, back before the accident, I never dreamed that such a small thing would make me so happy,” he confided. “But now…” He shook his head. “It’s the simplest things that matter the most. I never knew how much I’d miss them. And now you’re giving it all back to me.”
“Toivo, the Tendu were the ones who healed you,” Juna pointed out.
“But they wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”
“Thank you, little brother,” Juna said. She bent over and hugged him.
“I’m glad you’re my sister,” he told her, feeling a rush of love and gratitude.
“I wish I could stay longer,” Juna said wistfully. “I want to be here to see you walk again.”
“Actually, since you’re going to the medical research center over on Snyder Station, I thought I’d go to the rehabilitation wing there for some physical therapy in a couple of weeks. It’s a wonderful facility. If anyone can help me get back on my feet, they can.”
“Really? Oh, Toivo, that’s great! But this is just a temporary posting. The Survey hasn’t figured out what they want to do with us yet. I don’t know how long we’ll be there.”
“Juna, once they find out what Ukatonen and Moki are capable of, the trick will be getting the doctors to let go of you.”
“Toivo, what about you? Once the doctors find out what the Tendu did to you, they’re going to try to turn you into some kind of lab rat.”
“Let them. Maybe they’ll learn something that will help other people.”
“It can be a pretty demoralizing experience,” Juna cautioned.
“Then I’ll go home. They can’t make me stay against my will, Juna. I want to help, if I can. Do you want me there?”
“More than I can say, Toivo. I’m going to feel very alone on Snyder. And it’ll be hard on the Tendu, too. They’re going to miss all this green.”
“The park area has some big trees, and there’s a really nice garden designed by Motoyoshi. I bet the Tendu will like that. It’ll be all right.”
“I suppose, but it’ll be good to have you there.”
“Thanks, big sister. I wish I knew how to thank you for all you’ve done.”
Juna squeezed his shoulder. “Just get better, little brother. That would be the best present of all.”
* * *
Ukatonen walked out to the horse pasture with Teuvo. He would miss the old man, and the daily rituals of the horse atwa. The horses were coming along well. They moved as one animal through their paces, and were already hauling light loads. The close synchronization of their movements made them a very strong team.
“I’m going to hate to give these two youngsters up,” Teuvo remarked as they led the horses to the pasture after their training session. “I’ve never seen two* horses move so well together. They’re wasted as farm horses. These two could win championship prizes.”
“The effect will diminish over time, Teuvo,” Ukatonen pointed out.
“Yes, I know, but you haven’t linked with them for four days, and they’re moving almost as well as they did before, in some ways even better.”
“But that’s your doing, Teuvo. I gave you the seed, but you’re the one who has made it grow.”
“Ah, they’re good kids,” Teuvo said as he opened the gate to the pasture. “If they weren’t so bright and eager to please, none of our training would have stuck.” He fed the horses each another carrot, and then they ambled off to join the other horses.
“It is what we would call ruwar-a,” Ukatonen said, pushing up the sleeve of his warmsuit so that he could display the word in skin speech for Teuvo.
“What is that?”
“It does not really translate easily,” the enkar said. “It means that all the parts of the whole are working well together. Each part of a system makes the other parts stronger, better. It is the kind of harmony we Tendu strive for. In a well-run village, it is common as the rain. Everything flows as easily as water flows downhill, or a wave slides back into the ocean. This seems to be a much rarer quality among humans. Perhaps this is a flaw in my understanding. Your world is so complex, it may be happening all around me and I am unable to see it.”
“I think I understand,” Teuvo said. “At least I know what it feels like when the horses and I are working well together. You’re right, it is a rare thing.” He smiled, looking out at the two horses, grazing in unison. “What a world Tiangi must be. I wish I could see it.”
“And why not, someday?”
“Because I’m old, Ukatonen, and at my age, ‘someday’ will never come. In another few years I’ll either be too feeble to travel, or dead.” Teuvo turned away and looked out over the fields, and Ukatonen realized that the old man was sad.
“I am sorry, Teuvo,” the enkar said. “Please forgive me if I have upset you.”
Teuvo shrugged. “Old age happens to all humans. It’s just hard for us to accept. We’re greedy. We want to live forever.” He slung the halters over his shoulder, and headed for the barn.
Ukatonen trudged beside him, feeling an emptiness where the comforting feeling of ruwar-a had been. He liked Teuvo, and the old man had taught him much. He was in his debt. It would be so easy to help him live longer.
“Teuvo, let me help,” he said as they were hanging up the harnesses in the tack room.
“You are helping,” Teuvo said.
“No, I meant let me help you live longer.”
Teuvo froze in the midst of hanging up a bridle. He carefully set the bridle on its hanger, and turned to face Ukatonen.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that you are not ready to die yet, and I can help you live longer.”
“How long?”
Ukatonen rippled a shrug. “I don’t know. How long would you like?”
Teuvo sat down on the old, blanket-covered couch with a whoosh of pent-up breath.
“That’s a difficult question to answer,” he replied, “particularly at my age. I’ve had a good life, with more good fortune than most. It would be greedy to want more, but”—he sighed heavily—“God help me, I do. But living forever?” Teuvo shook his head ruefully. “I don’t think so. I’d be leaving too much behind. But it would be nice if my joints didn’t hurt and my bowels worked right.”
“What if I just fixed the things that are wrong with you? You would live longer and feel better, but you would continue to age.”
“How much longer would I live?” Teuvo asked.
“I don’t know, Teuvo– perhaps ten or twenty years more than you would as you are now. Enough time to watch your grandchildren grow up and have children of their own, and perhaps to visit Tiangi.”
“I’d like that,” Teuvo said. “I’d like that very much.”
“Then link with me now, and I will do it,” Ukatonen said, holding out his arms.
Teuvo did, and Ukatonen linked with him. He could feel the old man’s excitement, sharply tinged with the cleanly pungent smell of wonder. Gently, he calmed Teuvo down, then moved through his body, easing and rebuilding swollen joints, cleaning out clogged arteries, removing cells that showed potential for becoming cancerous. Then Ukatonen swept away the accumulated detritus of years out of Teuvo’s retinas and cleared the cloudy lenses of his eyes, restoring his sight to youthful sharpness. He strengthened the arterial wall of a bulging aneurysm. He gently awakened Teuvo’s brain cells, stimulating them to divide and grow for a few weeks, replacing dead and dying cells, and building new neural pathways, returning his mind to the supple quickness of youth, while keeping the wisdom and experience of his years.
“How do you feel?” Ukatonen asked as Teuvo awoke.
“I’m hungry.” He stood, slowly at first, then more quickly as he realized that it didn’t hurt, and walked over to the door of the tack room and stood looking out over the vineyard. “I can see better and my joints don’t hurt.” He took a deep breath and turned back to the enkar. “It’s like the whole world just got a little brighter. Thank you, Ukatonen.”
“You will improve over the next few weeks. Eat well during that time, your body will be busy rebuilding and repairing itself. You’ll want to eat a lot of meat, vegetables, and fruit.”
“I’m ready to get a start on that!” Teuvo exclaimed with a smile. “Let’s go get some breakfast!”
Juna closed her suitcase and started to lug it downstairs.
“Here, Juna, let me take that,” her father said. “You shouldn’t be carrying such things.”
“Isi, it’s all right, I can manage.”
“I know you can, dear, but humor your poor old dad,” he said.
Juna let him carry the bag downstairs. Toivo’s recovery seemed to have taken years off her father.
She stepped onto the porch and looked out over the harvested vineyards, bright with red and golden leaves. The arched vault of the station curved overhead, colored in tones of earth and gold and green. She didn’t want to leave, but there was so much the Tendu had to do before she was tied down by maternity.
“Breakfast is ready,” her aunt called.
“Coming, Netta-7ati,” she replied, taking a last look out over the vineyards before she went inside.
Breakfast was slow and difficult. Juna pushed her food around her plate, her throat tight with nausea. Anetta fussed over her, concerned by her lack of appetite, while Moki looked on anxiously. Her father meanwhile piled his plate high, and ate like a farmhand in the middle of harvest.
At last the ordeal of breakfast was over. Juna and the Tendu gathered their things together and loaded them into the truck. Then they drove over to the Fortunati house to say goodbye. The whole family was waiting for them as they drove up. Toivo was sitting up straighter today.
“Look!” he said. Slowly, painfully, he raised first one knee and then the other.
“That’s wonderful, Toivo!” Juna enthused. “I’m so glad that you’ll be coming to Snyder, too. It’ll be nice to have some family close by.”
Danan came running up. “Juna! I’m coming to the shuttle station to see you off. Can I ride in back with Moki?”
Juna glanced at Selena, who nodded. “Of course, Danan.”
“So I hear you’re planning on putting me out of business,” a voice said.
“Dr. Engle!” Juna cried in delight.
“I couldn’t let my favorite patient go away without saying good-bye,” he said, giving her a hug.
“I’m glad you could come,” Juna told the doctor.
“What you’ve done for Toivo is just amazing,” he told her.
“That was the Tendu. I couldn’t even help out much, because of the baby.”
“Well, it was miraculous, no matter who did it. I understand you’re off to Snyder Research Hospital.”
“Yes. They’re going to study how the Tendu heal.”
“I wish I could be there,” the doctor said wistfully. “I envy those researchers, Juna. I only hope they appreciate what they’re getting.”
“Come visit us,” she said. “You hardly ever take time off, and we’d love to see you. You can tell those researchers what to do.”
Dr. Engle patted her hand. “Maybe, Juna. But you know I’m needed here.”
She smiled. “I know. I wouldn’t want to trust my baby to anyone else.”
“Thank you, Juna. I’ll see you when you come back for the last few months of your term. Just remember to eat well, and don’t tire yourself out.”
“Moki and Ukatonen won’t let me,” she said. “They’ll take good care of me.”
“Good.”
Then Toivo was pulling on her sleeve. “Juna, it’s time to go.”
Juna headed for the truck, hugging people as she went. It had never been this hard before to leave home, but now it felt as though her heart were being pulled out of her chest with every step. What had changed? Not Berry Station or her family. It was still the home she remembered, though the people were older. She was the one that had changed. Living among the Tendu had changed her from a solitary person to someone who needed to be part of a community. How strange that being the only human in a world full of aliens would make her appreciate her family more. She climbed into the truck and waved good-bye to her friends and family.
Moki watched Danan’s house recede into the distance. They had been here only a few short weeks, less time than the months spent on the ship, but the time had been so full of people and events that it seemed as though a year had passed since they left the ship. He liked it here, and was sorry to be leaving. He„
would miss Danan, and the horses, and Netta-Tdti’s good cooking, and the grapes. He pulled his warmsuit closer around him. It would be warmer where they were going, but there wouldn’t be as many trees. It would be more like the space station where the ship had landed. A cloud of regret passed over him at that thought. He could hardly wait to come back here again.
Ukatonen saw the shuttle station draw closer. He had learned a great deal, living here, but it was time to go somewhere else and learn more. He was becoming too close to Eerin’s family, and was in danger of losing the detachment expected from an enkar. It would be a good place to come back to, especially when he needed to see green things growing again. The trees here were nice, but he missed the forests of Tiangi, with its dense canopy of vines and leaves. It was strange, seeing trees without their leaves, and he was glad to be leaving them behind, even though the place they were going to didn’t have nearly as many trees. But there were healers there, and he was sure that they had much to teach him.
He looked up at the naked trees, and wondered when they would go to a place that was like Tiangi. Juna had said there were places like it on Earth.
Earth. That was where he really wanted to go. He wouldn’t fully understand humans until he had seen their world, the place they had come from. He was tired of living in boxes, even in a big, beautiful box like this one. He wanted to be someplace where there was a horizon, and wind, and living things as far as you could see, with the knowledge that there was even more life beyond the horizon. A flicker of impatience passed over him, and he schooled himself to patience. Sooner or later, they would reach Earth, and then everything would make sense.
Five
Sohelia AND Analin were there to meet them when they arrived at Snyder. They introduced Juna and the Tendu to Ayub Martin, the Snyder Station security chief.
“Welcome to Snyder Station,” Chief Martin said. “We’re honored to have you here. I’ve assigned our best security team to look after the three of you. You shouldn’t have any worries about your safety here.”
They might not have any security worries, Juna thought as she thanked him, but there were plenty of other things to worry about. Her Pop Con hearing was only a few days off. After the hearing there was a long-term-planning meeting with the Survey officials. Hopefully, they could arrange a diplomatic visit to Earth sometime in the next four or five months, before her pregnancy made travel difficult.
