Solar Twins

by Jason F Crockett

  Amoni flagged down another nlaikha to man the core rod and after making sure that she was scanning the child correctly, she wove her way through the swirl of activity to the wall Laina had indicated. She brushed her hand on its surface and with a little mental prompting, the door slid aside to reveal a room much the same as the one where Rakhabi was housed. However, her soul mate was not resting as she was, but pacing agitatedly back and forth across the glassy floor. He looked up sharply when she entered, his eyes penetrating and accusing.

  “Who are you? Where is my soul mate? I demand to be taken to her at once! If anything has…”

  Amoni cut him off and put on her most pacifying face possible. Rather than backing away fearfully from him and his demanding demeanor, she slowed down, and approached him, calming him physically and mentally as she drew close to him. “Thank you so much for your patience,” she began, “this must be so trying for you, I’m sure. I have taken extreme care of your soul mate. She was sleeping quite peaceably when I left her side. She was exhausted as I am sure you must be too, but enough of that.” She took him by the hand as she spoke. “Come with me now, and I will take you to her. You have not been alone this whole time now, have you?” They were now weaving their way back to the room where Rakhabi lay sleeping and Yakobe had to lean close to Amoni for her to hear.

  “That healer over there was with me for the briefest of intervals before he left me alone in there without much in the way of explanation.”

  “Ahh. Yes, he is a good healer, but I’m sure he was much distracted by his desire to find out more about the very Aliens I believe you rescued.” She lowered her voice as the door slid open revealing a sleeping Rakhabi and the nlaikha in attendance. “It was a testimony to your strength and fortitude that he was able to leave you so quickly.” Yakobe harrumphed under his breath at that last remark but hurried over to rest his hand on Rakhabi and confirm that she was indeed okay.

  Her coloring was already better and the luster of her crystal spoke volumes about her improved condition. She stirred as he sat on her bedside and a peaceful joy lit her face as she woke.

  “You are well light of my heart?” Yakobe probed mentally.

  “I am resting and now that you are here by my side, I am whole again.”

  “Nlaikha, show me her slate,” Healer Amoni instructed. She reviewed it while giving the couple some time to themselves. “Rakhabi, you are already improving most likely due to being in such great shape. In light of your rapid improvement, we have a proposal for the two of you. Am I correct in understanding that you have been unable to have children?”

  Yakobe and Rakhabi looked at one another before saying almost in unison, “Yes, that is correct.” Rakhabi continued, “As I said earlier, we have sought help from every source we can think of. It is for this reason that we have left the shade of our own dwelling to search for an answer among the skilled here.”

  “Today you have shown outstanding character, strength, and resilience. You have shown compassion to strangers and aliens in their time of need. What we propose then is this: that you would allow us to transfer the baby from one of the aliens you rescued today into your womb. We have the wherewithal to make this happen. You would then carry the child to term and upon its birth, you will be the child’s parents. You would have the support of our nation and the resources of the Mwene himself at your back.” They continued to stare at Amoni in shock so she continued. “The child would be allowed to live with you in your natural setting once we have determined that it is capable of doing so. I would give you more time to decide, but the child’s mother is extremely weak and I fear neither shall last the day if we do not proceed.”

  A whole string of emotions flitted across their faces and she could almost see the debate that was silently taking place between them.

  Yakobe stood silently and gave a bow still holding Rakhabi’s hand, “We would be honored. We have no words to express our gratitude.”

  Rakhabi stood then and declared, “This day the Creator has surely smiled upon us. Most humbly would I bear this child from the stars.”

  Yakobe gave her a large smile and wrapped his arm around her obviously proud of her strength and fortitude.

  “I may only bring Rakhabi, so you will have to remain here until we are done, Yakobe. I will do all I can to see that you are well provided for. As a matter of fact, I will see if a more permanent suite is available. You will be here for a while now, won’t you? I will be back soon. Nlaikha, see to his needs while he waits.”

  She ran her hand along the wall as she headed for the door. The lights brightened and the door was open before she got there. There's so much to do and so little time. She barely took note of the hubbub around her as she worked her way through the throng of healers and mlaikha. The corridor when she reached it was blissfully peaceful, but she did not slow down. Instead, she hurried off to the transportation center with a wide-eyed Rakhabi in tow.

  She stopped at an info pedestal at the end of the corridor. It was nothing more than a small panel not much more than a hand’s width deep that angled out from the wall. As she placed her hand on it and concentrated, the upper half of the wall faded into transparency. Rakhabi took a step back in surprise, her eyes wide with astonishment.

  What they saw in or through the wall Rakhabi couldn’t tell, was a three-dimensional model of the palace. Amoni directed the map to display their current location, and two shadows representing each of them formed and centered in the display. She then requested the location of the transportation center and the quickest route to get there. The model rotated until both locations were visible, and slowly, the other non-essential areas of the palace faded from view. She memorized the route and headed off down the corridor to the right.

  The window blinked and then was gone. But for the pedestal, it looked like the surrounding walls of the corridor once again.

  “What was that?” Rakhabi asked hurrying to catch up. “And how did you do that? Do you have to… I mean, can I do that too?”

  “Pretty neat isn’t it. They only put them here in the palace recently. There are a couple scattered around the city too. You must be registered here in the city before you can use them. There are certain restricted areas they will not show you if you are not supposed to have access into those areas. I never go to the transportation center, so I didn’t know how to get there.”

  “We didn’t get into the city through the normal route, how will we be able to get registered now?” Rakhabi’s voice had a twinge of worry now.

  “Because of the decision you and your life partner just made, you will be well taken care of and I wouldn’t worry about anything like that for a while. Your dreams of having a child have been handed to you practically before you even got here.”

  As they began to near the transportation center, the corridor was busier and more crowded. After they were nearly run down by a squad of guards, they decided to stay as close to the walls as they could. Every time a door slid open, seemingly out of a perfectly unmarked wall, Rakhabi darted out of the way nervously. It would take her a while to get used to this. The rooms off to the side were all very different and resembled nothing of what she had already seen of the palace.

  “Many of these rooms,” explained Amoni, “are designed to resemble a different part of our planet. When dignitaries come, they prefer to stay in settings that are more like their homelands. I’m sure that during your stay here you will be permitted to stay in the Arbor rooms. It’s probably nothing like the great Kwila of your homeland, but the palace is only so large after all.”

  Amoni paused again as another door opened and Rakhabi leaped back. Several mlaikha were carrying tables and baskets, linens and various bags full of herbs and other healer-related tools. Rakhabi barely noticed as she stared past them into a room that was more like another world than another room. She had heard of the oceans and island people, but some stories are almost too far-fetched to believe. Instead of the smooth crystalline walls and ceilings like the corridor in
which she stood, she looked out on a beach of sand that stretched out to either side of the door. To the left, the sand ran into the largest body of water she had ever seen. To the right, the sand rose up to some of the oddest, smallest trees she had ever seen. There were leaves at the very top, but no branches at all. The door slid shut as the last of the mlaikha passed through it, but the amazement failed to disappear with them. Amoni took her by the hand and led her on towards the transportation room.

  “You will have much time later to enjoy the sights and sounds of the palace. Here we are though, at the transportation center.” She said as they walked up to the open doors to the transportation center. This was where Rakhabi had first arrived at the palace, but she hardly recognized it with all the commotion and the tables that were being set up in the middle.

  Before they were permitted to enter, they were directed by a kindly looking fellow in all white to an adjacent room to the side of the “TC.”

  Rakhabi looked around as she entered, taking in the high open ceiling and the plants and shrubs that were growing along the wall. There were even some pretty orchids that hung from the walls themselves, though how they could possibly grow there was beyond her.

  “You may call me Healer Gaio,” he said running his hands over his rather long crystalline hair. It was dark with streaks of white showing just at his temples. He had to have reached the latter half of his lifespan. “I will be guiding the procedure today. Healer Amoni, you will be working with me. You have nothing to fear Rakhabi,” he added, sensing her fear from where he stood. “I have more experience at this than you can imagine. I would not be the Mwene’s chief healer otherwise. Before you ask any questions, let me summarize what will happen.”

  A nlaikha walked through the side door as he spoke, carrying a silver tray with a kettle and one cup on it. Both were white in color, yet almost translucent as well.

  “Ah, perfect timing, Nlaikha,” Healer Gaio said swirling the pot full circle clockwise then back. He lifted the cup with his left hand and poured the dark amber brew with the other before handing it to Rakhabi. This is made from dream root and as it is so aptly named, will guide you into the realm of dreams while we are left free to complete this procedure without causing you any immediate pain. Once you are there, we will move you into the transportation center where the Mwene has allowed us to set up the tools of our trade.”

  Rakhabi made a grimace as she tasted the brew and her body shuddered uncontrollably. “I suppose it has to be this bitter to work, right?”

  Healer Gaio laughed quietly but chose to continue without remarking on her comment. Already she was slowing down and her eyes were not quite as focused. “Drink it quickly dear, perhaps that will help. Anyways, as I was saying, when we are all present in the transportation room, we will be transported into the realm of the yulupalexa where we will be better able to complete the procedure with as little after effect as is possible. I expect your recovery to be swift and when you wake, you will be with child. Now, do you have any questions before we begin?” He gently lifted her chin so she was looking at him, and the most she could manage was a “Hmmm?” before her eyes rolled back in her head and he lowered her gently back onto the table that Amoni was hovering into place.

  “That was barely legal how you handled that Healer,” Amoni tried to look stern as she spoke. “She really should have been given time to formulate her questions.”

  “I understood that she has given her consent to you if I remember correctly?”

  “Yes…barely legal as I said.”

  “Well, let’s get on with it. I believe they are almost ready next door.”

  The scene in the transportation center was much more orderly and controlled than it had been when they had first looked in. It was more spacious than the other room in which the patients had been contained. The crystalline lattice lining the walls of the large domed room seemed more muted now. The rainbow of colors was of a more pastel hue and not so vibrant except for at the peak of the dome where the colors were so bright that all the colors flickering and combining were almost white. The floor itself was inscribed with swirls, sigils, and glyphs intricately interwoven in almost as much detail as the crystalline webbing that made up the walls. Whether the scribing on the floor was lit up by other means or merely reflecting the light from above was impossible to determine.

  The guards had circled up around the perimeter of the room. Their crystal-topped staves had been inserted into the floor along the perimeter of the outer sigil. A circle of long floating tables lined the open area inside the ring of guards. They passed through the solitary gap in that ring and positioned Rakhabi’s table almost directly in the center. As Healer Gaio made the final checks on the utensils and tools they would need, Healer Amoni began recording scans on Rakhabi once again. When she had begun that she passed the slate and core rods off to attending mlaikha and confirmed that they were still recording the alien when she was brought in to lie beside Rakhabi.

  The alien already lay naked on her table with nothing but two privacy sheets draped over her. Now she directed other mlaikha to do the same with Rakhabi. Healer Gaio really should have allowed Rakhabi to do that herself. She finished her preparations as Healer Gaio walked up to her with a soft smile.

  “We are ready to proceed. Do you agree?”

  “I do,” she replied. “Is there much difference actually being in the realm of the yulupalexa rather than just working through it?”

  “We would not have gone to this trouble otherwise. Yes, especially with two patients. Mwene Crisópraso is going to initiate the transition.” He turned and flagged down the guard standing next to the lift next to the door. “You may tell his Excellency that we stand ready for him to initiate the transition.”

  The guard saluted, his armored gloves rang on his chest before he stepped onto the lift and dissolved from sight. They busied themselves checking the patients and verifying that they had all they needed. It was not long, however, before the Mwene and his attendants swirled into view on the lift.

  Healers Amoni and Gaio bowed and strode over to him. They waited patiently for him to speak. “All appears to be ready, what say you?”

  Bowing again, Healer Gaio said, “We are indeed ready to proceed. The patients are prepped, and we stand ready.”

  “Very well then,” he said, then projected his voice loudly so all could hear. “Once I have initiated the transition into the other realm, you must stay inside the circle of guards. It is possible to tesser out, but unless you are adept at that skill, I strongly recommend against it. Take your places.”

  The captain of the guard strode up to him. “All staves are firmly planted. The guards stand ready.”

  Mwene Crisópraso drew himself up and planted his own staff in a hole in the center of the lift. He relaxed and allowed his sight to adjust to the other realm. A thin ray erupted from his head crystal and struck the crystal on the tip of his staff. Instantly his entire staff glowed, and light began to trickle out from the base of his staff following the lines of the sigil. As they encountered the guards’ staves, they too, began to glow. When all the staves were glaring, the Mwene redirected the energy, and pinpoint lasers erupted from each staff all focused on the center of the dome. The entire area within the perimeter of the guards was instantly shrouded in a translucent film and when it disappeared, everything contained in it looked to those on the outside like three-dimensional shadows. Periodically, colors would flicker into solidity only to evaporate back into shadows the next instant. All sound was muted. The Mwene heard only echoes of what was going on and even that was as if he were standing at the far end of a long tunnel.

  Inside the now invisible dome of power, Amoni stood stock still as she repeatedly tried to adjust her vision and compensate for the change in perspective, but she was having no success. Healer Gaio seemed to float in ripples across her view, his pale hair framed his face against the now muted backdrop of the palace walls. She felt both larger and smaller all at once. Larger because it s
eemed like there was so much more to her than she had ever been able to sense before, and smaller because the world around her seemed that much larger as well. It wasn’t really larger. She knew that, but since she was now able to see so much more of it, it appeared that way. She tried to just focus on Healer Gaio and what he was saying to her, but even his voice seemed to fill up her ears. There was so much more meaning wrapped up in what he said as though she was not only hearing what he said but able to see what he was trying to communicate.

  Slowly what he was saying made sense. “Don’t try so hard. Relax. Imagine you are using the sight to explore a broken bone. Snap out of it! I need you!”

  She did as he said and was flooded with embarrassment that it had taken her so long to adjust. She wasn’t a first-turn student, she was Healer Amoni. “I beg your pardon, Healer Gaio, I am better than this. Thank you for helping me to snap out of it.” She would have continued to apologize, but he held her at arm’s length until she quieted fully. “There are others yet as you were. Break them out of their stupor that we may continue.

  Though it was frustrating in a way that they had to direct everybody out of their stupors, she was silently glad that she hadn’t been the only one caught unprepared. As soon as everyone seemed cognizant, they began the final preparations that could only be accomplished out of their own realm. Healer Amoni handled everything with the alien and Healer Gaio took care of Rakhabi and prepped her to receive the alien’s child. No incisions were needed to reach inside of them, just attention to details so that they didn’t touch them in the wrong place or accidentally interfere with any of the other organs.

  Healer Gaio gently stretched out Rakhabi’s uterus to the size needed to contain the child, and carefully scored its surface to prepare it to accept the connection to the placenta. He injected an herbal mix he had concocted into her bloodstream and instructed Healer Amoni to do the same to her alien patient for the unborn baby to absorb.

  “If all goes as it is intended this mixture should keep the new mother and the child from fighting one another’s blood.” Healer Gaio explained while they took a break and allowed time for the mix to take effect. “When we start up again, we will have no time to play. The placental transition must take place as quickly as possible or the child will be adversely affected.