By Raven
Once again Gabe appeared at the reentry point. The mission had gone off quite well. The Seroth had been most understanding when it was explained that they were endangering the survival of their race with the form of star travel they were using. They were now exploring another avenue of engines, that did not have devastating effects on the fabric of time.
Time for a hot shower, dinner, and his guitar. He had come up with at least five new songs and he was itching to get them on paper. It was then that he saw his father waiting there for him.
�Dad, what�s wrong?� Gabe asked as he crossed the room at full speed.
He was like his father in all things, with one exception- he had his mother's reflexes and voice. A quick flip to avoid hitting a couple of people and he landed with a soft thud.
�Olympic quality as usual, Gabe� Chris said. They headed to his apartment so he could change. �Shower and meet me in the office for your debriefing.� Something was not right, but not wrong either, and this had Gabe worried. Sometimes he wished he had either Robin�s or Sky�s ability over time, so he could get to the office faster.
Dad didn�t know that he knew Sky, that she would sometimes come and see him if he really needed a female's perspective on things. She had told him that she didn�t want it harder on Dad then it already was.
Within the guild, twenty-six years had passed since Mom had decided, in order to preserve the time line from her own interference, to become Sleeping Beauty. He had been alive though for one hundred and ten years. He arrived in the office and went through the debriefing while eating his first meal in fifteen hours.
When he was finished, his father stepped into the office and said one thing, �It�s Time�. That was when it dawned on Gabe that there was no sign of his grandfather anywhere.
�How long ago did he leave?�
�Ten days ago.� his father said.
�You have been waiting for me, haven�t you, Dad?� Gabe is a marginal empath, and he knew that his father probably hadn�t slept or ate since his grandfather�s leaving.
�Dad, we are making one stop on the way to the house before we start this.� Gabe stated. Chris only looked at him puzzled. �Come on, Dad, let�s go.�
His father was silent and distant. Gabe knew why- he was worried about Mom. Gabe and Julia had talked a lot over the last three Guild Standard years about what would happen when Mom woke up.
Chris was not really paying attention to the route they were taking, and was surprised when the stopped at med bay. Penny was there waiting for them when they stepped into the door. She was a five foot three fireball and she didn�t look too happy when they walked in.
�So, you�re trying to do the dead thing again, are you?� she said forcefully. Dad looked confused and pretty worn out. �On that table now, Christian, and no excuses!�
�But, but� was all he had a chance to say as he sat on the table. She walked over and pushed him down onto the table, then a little string shot out of her finger to a hypospray on the table next to a console.
�Penny, I have to.� was all he said before she injected him with a sedative.
She tucked the hypospray into her pocket. �Now, Gabe, come give me a hug.� Penny had taken to being kind of a surrogate mom since he was little. Not official like, but more on the side. She was Robin�s mother-in-law, and when Gabe had asked about why she had done it, all she said was that she owed mom. He was about twelve at the time, and didn�t understand until later, when he found out from Roger that Mom had taken Freddy when Penny and Schuyler had come up time. That she watched over all the DuQuesne�s that came from Freddy. So, Penny felt that she needed to make sure that when I needed a mom for a day or two, she was there.
Penny had gotten me started recording my conversations with Mom when I was five. She told me that in her heart she knew Mom heard us. �Alex told me this morning, that Robin knew your dad wasn�t sleeping or eating, so I had a hunch you�d come here. I was ready for him. Now you, young man, go home and relax. It has been twenty-six years, a few days more won�t matter. Come back in three days. That�s an order- now march!�
I went home to my place and took the three days to unwind, get resettled, and write more music. Another thing that I had from my mother was, as Doc Harris put it, an unholy talent for languages. That was why I did a lot of first contact missions. I have my father�s political and tactical understanding and knowledge. From my mom, I got a knack for languages and a good set of instincts. Dad had taken me to old Thufir Hawat for full Mentat training at age six or so, which gave me another edge. What Dad hadn�t counted on, in having Penny and Schuyler baby sit me when I was small, was a gift for music. That was all mine- the one thing that made leaving and coming home worth while.
I returned to med bay three days later just after 0800 GST (guild standard time). Dad was awake, refreshed and in clean clothes. He had a cup of coffee in one hand and one of Gus�s mega breakfast burritos in the other. Alex was standing there with Robin, and I could tell that Alex was in telepathic communication with everyone. Mostly by the gestures, since all three had their hands full.
Alex�s mind knocked on mine, then waited the customary three heart beats before bringing me into the link. Robin looked over at the desk as a cup of coffee and a burrito floated toward me. �Got you breakfast.� he sent. Alex�s TK was accessible to Robin when they were less than fifty feet apart. It was funny sometimes, how they could swap abilities.
�Anyway, Chris, Julia is going to be here soon. She is making the last of the preparations to bring her here.� Alex said.
�I thought we were going to treat her at the house.� was Dad�s reply.
�There are complications.� came Julia�s voice, �I am sorry, but I don�t think treating her at the house would be prudent at this time. I will need to do a Matrix Scan on her.� I sent out a ? and it was Alex that answered.
�It is kind of like an X-Ray, PET, Ultrasound, and CAT Scan all in one. It builds a holographic diagram of a person in such a way that you can use it to look at one particular cell in a subject, if needed. It gives a complete and continually adapting picture of the patient.� she explained.
�In other words, one of Schuyler�s devices that Julia has adapted to medical purposes.� was all Robin could say before Alex slugged him in the shoulder. Dad nearly snorted the coffee he was drinking, he couldn�t stop laughing. We all couldn�t. The joke being that Schuyler would make something, and within a short amount of time, Julia would find a way to use it in med bay. Penny though it was hilarious that Julia was the perfect mesh of their abilities when she wasn�t locked.
Julia had been born with a variant of autism that, for the first part of her life, she had spent most of her time in that state, retro-engineering things to come up with medical applications. She had made Doc�s notorious bag without the knowledge of her father- only Alex had known its real capabilities. But, after Zander and Ian had come, she spent more time unlocked and able to live a more or less normal life. Now, instead, she did something different- she and Ian would merge their minds on things they were working on, and ooh baby could those two come up with some interesting devices. �When you are ready, people.� was all that Julia said. We finished our food and headed for the house.
We arrived at the house and went to the gazebo. Robin and I made quick work of moving the three guitars that I kept there when I would write my music. Robin and I held the stretcher as Alex tk�d her into position. �I don�t want her to be jostled too much. I can tell there is tissue damage already.� she said.
The whole guild knew she had done something to ensure that she would not interfere with her own self in the timeline, but they didn�t know what. We intended to keep it that way.
Alex took us to the tower basement. �What are we doing here?� I asked her. We were standing in front of the door to the closet- one of the few places that most of the guild feared. For good reason- people went into the closet, and they came out different, if at all. Julia just smiled, and it wasn�t a warm smile. This was her and Ian�s playground.
The door opened, and we walked into a warm jungle of plant life. We walked down a path to a building. Julia looked at me and Dad. �When you come here, do not wonder off the path for any reason.� she warned. The thing was, I knew she was not kidding. There was a presence to this place.
The building looked like a small hospital, and it was, having only a dozen rooms, two operating theaters, a lab, and an auxiliary room that was large and could be used for anything. We walked into the large room, and Robin and I placed the stretcher on the stand next to a gurney with a scanner over it.
�You three can go into the waiting room.� Julia said, looking at me and Robin and Alex.
�Dad, I want to stay. I want to help the two of you care for her.� I pleaded. Chris looked at Julia, then nodded.
�Then you can help us undress her.� Julia said. It took the better part of two hours to get the clothing off of her without cutting it at all. Mostly because Mom�s joints had frozen in place, and once we removed the clothing, the damage was made clear.
Her body was like that of a mummy, with the exception of the face and hands, it was desiccated. �This was what I had really feared would happen.�
Chris looked at Julia strangely after that comment while she looked at the hologram. �What is wrong?� he asked her.
�Well, for starters, all her veins are collapsed and I mean all of them.� Then the image changed. �If you look here,� as she pointed to the heart area, �the heart itself is fine, but the arteries and veins are collapsed. The only tissues that are viable right now are the tissues around the spine, brain stem and heart.�
�What does this mean?� I asked her.
�What about the brain? Is there damage?� asked my father in a panicked voice.
She changed the scan to the brain area and what we saw shocked and frightened us both. My mother�s brain was about one eighth the size it should have been. Dad started weeping uncontrollably.
Julia walked over to Chris and held him. �Don�t worry. All this means is that she has gone into true hibernation, like Horace. There will not be any brain damage, it just means that it will take longer to revive her.� she said soothingly.
�But she has never done that� came Dad�s voice, shaking. �She is the only one who never did while we were there.�
�I know, but that was one of the hazards of prolonged exposure to the chemical. But it also means that if she becomes stranded on a world, she can use this to hide until she can be rescued.�
Once, before I was born, my mother�s travel device had been sabotaged, and she became stranded on a hostile planet. No one could find her. Finally, Sky came with word of where she was, and Alex went to get her. She and the cat were found hidden in a cave covered by a purple glow, and a note from Sky saying that she had done that to preserve her, because on this world, time flowed differently. She was sick for weeks after they got home, and it was nearly a year before she could handle a D-hopper ride without passing out from chronal shift syndrome. She would always get migraines from crossing any type of time distortion field.
�What do we do now?� Dad and I asked simultaneously.
�Help me get her into the tank.� Sitting on the floor was a fish tank that was eight feet long by five feet wide and three feet deep. We rolled the gurney over to the tank.
�Wait one moment, please.� Julia said, holding a large syringe filled with a milky liquid.
�What is that?� I asked her.
�It is the antigen to the chemical, with a nanite colony added.�
�Why the nanites?� Dad asked her.
�Because, with the vein collapse, they are going to be needed to distribute the chemicals.�
�Chemicals.� I said, a little worried.
�Yes. Along with the antigen, is a strong sedative, a blood thinner, and a cell membrane thinner, to make her body able to absorb the blood through her skin initially. Help me roll her.� she said.
Dad held her shoulders and I her ankles as we turned her to the side. Julia first inserted the needle into the spinal column and emptied the syringe. Then she grabbed an identical one and injected her heart. She was removing the syringe when Mom�s eyes popped open and her back arched.
�Hold her!� Julia said. It took about half a minute for her to settle back down. I saw her eyes for the first time- they were opaque and colorless. There was no sign of thought or of her even being aware of what was happening. My heart ached for Dad- there were tears in his eyes and I just wanted to hold him. Like he held me the time I fell of my bike and scraped my knee as a kid.
After about a minute of standing there, Julia said, �Lets get her into the tank.� We placed her in the suspension. It was the first time I came to grips that my mother really was a vampire. The suspension was made of blood and a few other things that gave it a strange golden glow. We were then told to go home, that there was nothing that we could do until she was done in the tank. So, Dad and I went back to the house. We cleaned and got the house ready for Mom to come home.
Dad and I talked for many hours, then I went back to my apartment, only to find Salem there. �You need to get back before your Dad hurts himself.� he said to me, then disappeared.
I headed back to the house, to find my father drunk on Ziratty- something that made his occasional nip of absinthe look like child�s play. He was crying and had fallen trying to get to the bed. He was trying to get up when I walked in.
�Go home, Gabe. I don�t want you to see me like this.� was all he said as he passed out while standing up. Salem was under him, then he was a tiger. Whoo, that scared me shitless! I had never seen my mother�s familiar in battle form.
�Help me get him to the bed and on his stomach.� Salem told me. Luckily, he was in his robe and pajama bottoms, so I didn�t have to try and undress him while he was passed out. We got him on the bed and turned so that he would puke in the garbage can if needed.
After we were done, and the tiger was a cat again, he said that I should stay in the house until Mom came home. He then told me, that when I was little, I wasn�t dreaming when I thought I heard crying in the night.
For the first twenty-one years that my mom had been asleep, my father had cried himself to sleep nightly from the loneliness. Only in the last five had he taken to drinking the Ziratty. See, one shot would make him sleep without the dreams that made him miss her so much. Two would make him falling drunk, and Salem had stolen the bottle so he couldn�t take the third which would have killed him. Mom and her friend Andrew had been drinking Ziratty for years and, according to a lot of people, that was what she was drinking the night she drank Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, under the table.
Salem was always a little weird to me. He was my mother�s familiar- her partner, so to speak. Dad was my mother�s soul mate, yet there was the cat, always present and visible. Dad had once said that Mom�s heart was too big to love just one man. I didn�t understand until much later.
Apparently, Salem had once been a mage named Haslem Abdul Al Kaddish, and that he had tried to take over the world, so the mage council had punished him by making him into a cat. They had left him his powers, knowing that no one would take a cat seriously in planning to take over the world. He later made another mistake, and that was how he ended up with Mom. He had even died once and come back because Mom needed him. In all this, he was still Mom�s cat friend. I just still don�t know. When it came to Dad and the cat, I am not sure. That was when the cat gave me a disgusted look, and I remembered something- it was when I was six or so.
The new year was going to start soon. I had gone to bed, but woke up to a sound that I didn�t recognize. Dad was in his favorite chair, the cat in his lap, and both were weeping.
�I just wish, Salem, that I could shake your hand for all the help you have been to us all this time.� Dad wept.
He hopped off Dad�s lap, and there was a flash of light, a lavender light. A man in ancient Egyptian dress, about the same age as Dad, stood there and offered his hand to my father. Dad stood up and they hugged, both crying, then they walked out to the garden. I followed as they sat in the gazebo and talked for a long time.
I remembered hiding as the other man told Dad, �You must sleep, Christian. The boy needs you whole until his mother wakes.�
�I know, my friend, I know.� It was a few moments later when a third man came and joined Dad and the Egyptian.
�Hello Haslem, hello Chris.� the man in the black suit said.
�Hello Andrew.� they both said.
�I know there is no change, but even I can hope.� came from the man. �Come on, Chris, Haslem is right. You need to sleep at least for a little while.�
I hid until Andrew and Dad left the gazebo, then I went to try and sneak into the house. �You can come in here now, Gabe.� came the Egyptian�s voice. �I have a man�s body, but a cat�s senses. Come and say good night to your mom, then I will tuck you in.�
�You�re Salem, aren�t you?� I asked.
�Yes, I am.� was all he said. Then, after we were finished saying good night to Mom, he took me into my room and tucked me into bed.
��Forget� was the last thing you said to me, wasn�t it?� I asked as I looked at the cat.
�Yep.� he said, along with a long wink.
Three days later, I was told to pick up the lunch order at Gus�s, then go to the closet. I walked the path, but I had the distinct feeling I was being watched. I came in to find my father already there, along with Julia. �How long have you been here, Dad?� I asked him.
�Since about six or seven.� he replied. We ate lunch quickly, then we headed to one of the rooms. Mom was in it, on a massage table, lying on her stomach. Her back and arms, as well as the backs of her legs, were bloated like a victim of a drowning.
�What do you want me to do?� I asked, as Julia handed me and my father both bottles of something that smelled like flowers.
�Start at the feet and work up.� they both said in unison, laughing.
Okay, so I started massaging her feet. As I worked, we talked about a lot of things, including the gossip that was floating about Grandpa disappearing one day.
It took us nearly six hours to get the bloating to go down. I found out from Julia as we worked that the bloating was actually the blood trapped just under the skin, and that the massage forced it into the tissues. Her, dad, and Alex had worked all morning to get her front worked over, including the two hours the night before in which Alex had used her TK like a pressure suit. She had left just before lunch, because she had a headache from using her abilities so much.
I saw the picture of Mom when she came out of the tank. She was purple like one big bruise. When we finished, she looked human at least. It was then when Julia and Dad moved her to a real bed. I was getting the massage oil off my hands while they placed the IV in the aorta of her heart so that they could start feeding her. It was then that the idea struck me.
�Julia, you said earlier that the last thought imprinted in Mom�s mind, is that she was only going to sleep for a few months.� I said.
�Yes. We had no knowledge of how long it would be, and it was speculated that it would happen soon.� she replied.
�Well, I have an idea. I have some tapes of the conversations I had with Mom while I was growing up.�
�How many?� Julia asked me.
�Oh, since a little before my fifth birthday.� Dad looked surprised, then smiled at me.
�What do you want to do with them?� he asked me.
�Well, what about playing them for her, to get her used to the passage of time?� I suggested.
�Well, I am not sure it would work. We don�t know if she is even aware yet.�
�What about playing them to her brain wave frequency length, so that it is picked up by the subconscious?� I asked.
�Great idea, Gabe!� was all Dad could say, but his eyes said more. The pride he felt hit me like a wave. �I will set it up while you go and get the things you need.�
I ran all the way to the house. The cat helped me to pack what we would need. All my tapes and most of my recorded music, as well as three guitars and all the photo albums from the house and my apartment. Thank the heavens for stasis boxes, because we would have needed a whole crew to take the stuff back to the dreaded closet. I grabbed the stasis box, Salem, and the dinner order I had placed at Gus�s for the three of us. I got back an hour and a half later, and the look on their faces was priceless. �What did you do, forget where you put the tapes?� Dad asked.
�No, I was smart.� I said, as I tossed the box to my dad. �Open it.�
He did, and a moment later, he laughed. �Did you get the sink?�
�Yes, it�s in there, next to the Sphinx of the Remarii� I said drily. We all laughed.
While I was gone, Julia had set up a couple of comfortable beds, and Robin came by later with clothes for both of us. �Alex got Julia�s message, and we packed the clothes for you so you can stay here.� he said to us.
This started the three week process of us working in shifts, talking to Mom and playing the tapes to her. My music was playing softly in the background in the room while we were there. During those three weeks, Mom spent most of that time under a tent of pure oxygen, which seemed to also speed the recovery time.
It was twenty five days after we walked in here for the first time when Mom made her first sign of waking. She was still heavily sedated, and her brain was still absorbing the blood. It was the last part to recover from the trauma of the hibernation.
I had been playing one of my songs for her and had stopped for a minute. That was when Salem hopped up onto the bed. Dad was napping- he had a particularly rough night before and was very tired. See, what we didn�t know was drinking Ziratty was addictive to all but those like Mom and Andrew. So, while we were here, Dad was dealing with the detox process. He could drink it again eventually, but not over a prolonged period. Well, I started to play and Salem let out a startled little squeak.
�What�s wrong?� I asked.
�She scratched my ear hard!� was all he said. I didn�t see any sign of movement, so I just shook my head and went back to playing. I hit a sour note about twenty minutes later and that was when it happened, her hand fell off the bed. I put it back up, then resumed playing again. I hit the same wrong note, and her hand went thud on the railing. About a minute later, both Julia and Dad came in and began pulling the tenting off the bed.
Both were talking about how they had a dream that she was awake, the same dream in all detail. My father grabbed her hand. �Annanaya, can you hear me? Squeeze my hand, love, if you can hear me.�
There was nothing for a long time, then Dad asked me what I was playing. �A piece that I wrote. Why?� I asked him.
�Play it again!� His voice held a desperation that I had never heard before. So I started, and when I hit the bad place, she squeezed. Dad made the connection- it wasn�t the chord, it was the mispronunciation of a word in Sumerian.
�What dialect is that?� he asked me, his voice desperate.
�I am not sure. Gus and I were talking about music and he suggested I write a piece in this dialect.� I said.
�It is Uran.� Salem said in our minds, �and the word that you are mispronouncing is �Beloved�.�
Dad then got a strange and distant look on his face and once again, only in Sumerian, asked my mother if she could hear him. She squeezed his hand- it was only a little, but it was enough.
Her eyes opened a little then, and I saw her mouth move, a word, it was �beloved�. She then drifted back into whatever half world she was in.
What was strange to me was that Robin would not come to see her after the first time that he had come with Alex and the clothes. He had looked at her lying there and just started to cry. It was then that I realized that over the last twenty six years, Robin had only come into the gazebo once. When we retrieved her and brought her here. It also dawned on me that the had been crying quietly to himself as we walked from the house to the tower. Dad would tell me later that Robin had a very bad time once when he was small and Mom had been real sick- so sick, that it was thought at the time she may not survive, or if she did, she may have had lost her mind. For him this was still too hard to deal with. For him, Mom was this force of nature that was unstoppable when she wanted to be.
Gareth came by between his missions. He was dressed in his what I called hunk mode. He was wearing a pirate type shirt with the ruffles at the cuff. His leather pants and black knee boots finished the outfit. All he needed was an eye patch and a parrot. He had taken to keeping his hair long- the dark red curls appealed to the ladies, he said. The thing that I found funny was the goatee- he was usually meticulous about shaving, so it was something definitely different.
Doc and Penny dropped by more to check on me and Dad then on Mom. They had both agreed that this was Julia�s project and not to interfere. We still worked on massaging her as she slept, now mostly to restore tone to the atrophied muscles. Julia would come in the morning and give her a bath, then it was Dad�s job to do the physical therapy. My job was getting her mind in shape. I would sit and talk with her and read to her. I would play my music, and some music by someone called Anonymously Mercury. Dad said that he was her favorite back home, and that we had a lot in common.
I was with her reading, when I noticed that she was under some sort of distress. Julia had said that her brain was now in something like a coma. Aware but unaware, like when she had rolled over to get away from the exam light. She knew what she didn�t like, and light was at the top of the list, followed by loud sounds.
Well, Dad had gone on a food run for us when Mom started to moan a little. At first, I had thought nothing of it. Then, when the cat showed up in tiger form, I knew it was serious.
�Gabe, start playing that lullaby you wrote for her!� His mind voice was strong in my mind. �Quickly, Gabe!� I did as he asked.
I was starting the song when the objects in the room started to shake a little. At first, I thought it was a time quake. But there were no alarms, no warning sirens, or blinking lights. Alex came in with Julia after about ten minutes of the tremors.
�I got her, cat.� was all Alex said. I then noticed that Salem was glowing pale purple. Alex looked as though she was in a battle for her very life. Julia was trying to get close to her but could not get near the bed. I realized that Gareth had gotten his TK from Mom then, but hers was completely uncontrollable.
Zander ported in then with Dad, and when he touched Alex, the telekinetic storm died down.
�How long has she been like this?� Dad asked me, a little irritated.
�About ten minutes.� I told him. He looked angry, but Salem came to my rescue.
�Do not be angry at the boy. He has no idea and I thought that I could handle it.� he said roughly.
�Why wasn�t I called?� Dad said to the cat, in a tone I never heard him use before.
�Do not take that tone with me, Christian, we both know how to deal with it!� Salem looked livid and about to strike my father, had it not been for Julia. She had gotten close to my mother and used a hypospray on her.
�Enough!� came this booming voice that shook the whole room. Sky walked into the room, her eyes blazing. �Both of you, outside, now!� They looked at her for a moment, then stormed out. Sky then looked at me and said politely, �Excuse me.� She closed the door, then all hell broke loose.
It took nearly three and a half more weeks before she really became conscious. Her hibernation had been more profound than even Horace�s had been. Again, Dad was away, this time getting us food. I was playing some of the music I had collected when I felt an urge to get a drink of water, so I left the room, and my need for the drink vanished. I went back into the room only for it to happen again. When it happened again as I crossed the threshold of the door, I understood. I got a cup of water and went back into the room.
�Mom, you need to drink this.� I said as I positioned her in an upright fashion on the bed. That was when she opened her eyes just a little. I saw for the first time my eyes looking back at me. She drank a little, then drifted back to sleep slightly. �I love you, Mom.� I said as I sat down, and I was hit by the first wave of love from her, that was the strongest I had ever felt. Then a voice that was as much feeling came into my mind. It was the memory that I had from the very beginning.
�I�m so sorry I missed you growing up, sweet heart.� She drifted back into sleep, but this time it was sleep, not the dead feeling that we all had from her. I knew for the first time in my life my mother loved me. This wasn�t my father telling me, but love from her. I had never felt such a profound feeling in my life. I had gone to worlds and timelines, singly saving both whole worlds and timelines. But, I had yet to experience the feeling of my mother�s love, or her voice in my mind. Robin and Gareth said that they could always remember Mom�s voice in their minds.
What was the most strange thing was my third mission, and meeting Talynn. I had not known, and neither had the guild, that she had left a child behind on a world. I had gone there as a part of another mission, in which the race I was working for was going to trade with a planet of �fierce primitives� in their words.
I was sent in the shuttle to land on the planet. We had been told to land on a rock, to at all costs, not to land in the open desert. We were told to land at night and to leave all weapons behind. I encouraged the captain that this was a trust issue and we had known from previous encounters that no one survived this planet, except them. So, with much consternation, the captain agreed.
Talynn was a thousand years old and ruled the world with an iron hand. He was not a tyrant like it was thought, just very thorough in his dealings. We were met by a group of ten men and women. �You will stay with us, this rock is not safe yet.� the leader told us.
�How will we travel?� I asked the leader of the group.
�We will carry you.� was all he said.
�What they going to do,� asked one of the lieutenants in trade tongue, �fly?�
�Yes, we are.� said one of the women, as she proceeded to lift off the ground. This frightened the men of my party, and they drew weapons. That was a mistake, and with speed that my group had never seen before, they were disarmed. We as a group were on our knees and disarmed by the vampires, I knew what they were.
�You will leave here.� the woman said. �Do not attempt to come back. You are not ready to negotiate. Go home.�
I had to play my gambit, and I said the word �vampire� in Sumerian to the woman. She looked at me in horror and disbelief. We were all tied and bags placed over our heads. I was getting ready for an execution when I felt us being lifted. We flew for a while, those that struggled where knocked unconscious.
When we landed, we were taken to a hut made from rock walls and placed under heavy guard. They untied us and gave us food and drink. That was when a man came in. In the trade tongue, he asked who was the leader, and the mission head spoke, �I am.�
�That is not the one, Father.� came the woman�s voice. �He is not the one who spoke her tongue, that one is.� indicating me.
�I will speak to this one.� he said, then he touched me. We both felt a spark. I was escorted out of the building and into a dark cave complex.
�Why are you here, guild man, and how is our mother?� he asked. I felt like I was being poleaxed. I must have nearly blacked out- that was when I realized the planet and time line.
�She is well.� I said. I did not want to tell him any more than that.
�Good.� he said. Then, he brought me some tea like substance. �You were lucky. Chanly wanted to kill you, and would have, had you not said what you did. Will they negotiate, or are they not worth it.?�
�They are worth it, all right. It is just you being able to fly frightened them. They have never seen anyone who could fly without wings.� I answered.
Talynn laughed. It was then that he realized as well as I that we had not introduced ourselves. �I�m called Talynn, son of Johar, and leader of this world.� he said.
�My name is Gabriel and my father is called Christian.� I replied.
�Welcome, brother, to my home and planet.�
�There are vampires here, aren�t there?� I asked him.
�Yes,� came his mind voice, �it was the only way for the people to survive here. My world is the most harsh in the system. Mother came here for the plants, but in turn, left a thriving culture and a good people behind. We have known no need for the technology you would bring in trade for the plants. What we do need though is basic items like cloth for clothes and household items like cooking utensils and such. Metal can only be found in the open desert, and it is hard to mine due to the wildlife. Those who land there are usually killed in a few days or so. What we are looking for is a good broker that would negotiate prices for us. Someone who is honest and not going to cheat us out of our share. For a person who is willing to work for a good profit, yet can remain honest with both sides.
�Also, they would have to be willing to build a space station to house themselves. We will not have those who are not part of the tribes living here. We cannot afford to protect them, and it would take a whole life time to teach them. Also, we do not want them as a whole knowing about Mother�s children of the night. They are how we as a whole survive. Without them, we die, and so do the plants. For others to come here, we cannot insure that they could and would keep the secret of our survival.�
�How do you communicate over the long distances?�
�We have adapted a strange long range telepathy form. There is a creature we call the Morati. It is a telepathic creature with a hive like mind. We found that prolonged feeding on their blood changes us. So, a few in each enclave feed on them until they can mind speech over a long distance. Mother�s ability to fly is how we travel.
�When we are ready to build a new enclave, some of the night children go and clear it out, then once it has been clean for a year, we move people in.� I asked him how many vampires there were.
�There are nearly five hundred, and over eight thousand people on the planet.�
�What happened to the first group that was here to distribute the plant?� I asked.
�They got into a war.� he told me, �and instead of risking us, they left and destroyed the ships coordinates to this planet. That was seven hundred and eighty years ago. Since then, we have had a few attempts to make contact, but none have worked out.
�We started getting transmissions from your group over the last few years on the radios that were left by others that we have scavenged. Mother had taught me and a couple of others how to fix radios, so that we would have a way to contact those that came into the near system.�
I had to admit, �We had no idea that you were here until we scanned your initial transmissions. As far as we could tell, there was no sign of sentient life.�
I became their broker and trade ambassador for over twenty years, setting standards that would be difficult for others to meet, because I could not dream of cheating my brother.
I was crying when Dad came in. I didn�t feel very good- I was hot and my head really hurt. I told him what had happened and he told me that I should lay down. I got up, then I remember the ground rushing towards me.
I woke up about fifteen hours later, with Julia standing over me. I was definitely in a diagnostic bed. �What happened?� I asked Julia as I sat up.
�Well, it seems that contact with your mother�s mind has awakened the latent telepathic abilities you have.� she �said�. That was when I realized that she was mind speaking, and so was I. What was even stranger was that I had full control over my abilities.
�Also, your manifestation seems to have done something else, too.�
�What?� I asked Julia. That was when Dad walked in, supporting Mom. She was awake, but I could feel she was in pain and exhausted.
�Your mother has been pushing herself to be able to walk over to you and give you a hug.� Julia told me. She then crossed the room under her own power to my bed some ten feet away.
She got to me, gave me a hug, and told me with her voice, �I love you, Gabriel, and I am very proud.� Then, she proceeded to pass out cold from pushing herself too hard. I caught her and carried her back to her bed.
She would sleep for ten more days before waking completely and staying that way. We took her home then, but it was three months before she was at full strength and not easily tired. By six months though, she was routinely once again kicking any comers asses on the practice field.
A year later, we would be celebrating my birthday, when we all realized the day she woke up and said, �I love you, Gabe.� the first time had been my birthday. I realized at that moment that her waking up had been the best present I had ever had. That was when she gave me one even better. She sang for us- no one knew my mother had a voice like that, not even Dad. She sang about finding her way home in the love of her son.