A Simple Kind of Mirror 3:The Ebbing Tide
DISCLAIMER and COMMENTS:See part 1.
Part Three: The Ebbing Tide
Feeling the tingling after-effects of the sonic cannon blast, the advance team landed on the northeast beach, beyond the jagged rocks and the town lights. Eri climbed out of the boat and pushed the visor of her helmet up off her face and stared at the sky. It was a sparkling field of stars against deep blue, lit by the huge white moon Tirid that rose in the east: the night was calm and clear, with excellent visibility. She snapped her visor back down and squared her shoulders as the soldiers broke around her and began moving up the beach.
Quickly she opened her knapsack and brought out the modified tracking device. As soon as she had activated it and made the necessary satellite connections, it registered the satellite's slow sweeping scan of the region. This was her excuse for joining the advance team: to track down and obtain close-range readings on the anomalous signal in its natural environment before the Watch destroyed it. Holding the device before her, she began to move out across the sandy beach.
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The ground heaved beneath them, breaking Zhaan and Paala apart and flinging them to opposite sides of the bed. Plaster rained down from the ceiling and decorations smashed onto the clay floor. Dazed, they both lay there for several microts, Paala slumped against the wall and Zhaan sprawled against the other side of the bed. Finally Zhaan lifted her head.
"Paala!" she cried out, scrambling over to her.
"I'm fine," Paala said fuzzily, as she pushed herself to an upright position. "Just a little...bruised."
"What happened?" Zhaan asked as they both hurriedly began disentangling their garments from the bedding and pulling their clothes back on.
"I'm not sure," the other female replied. "But that felt like a sonic shockwave." Zhaan stared back at her without comprehension. "The Rideans," Paala explained and Zhaan suddenly understood.
"But I thought they never bothered the islands."
As Paala buttoned the front of her tunic, she moved to the window and peered out with Zhaan at her shoulder. "As long as I've been here, they haven't. And from what the Mers tell me, it had been even longer before that since the last Ridean incursion into these islands."
"Then what can they possibly want now?" A terrible thought occurred to her: perhaps the Rideans were attacking the island because of her presence—hers and everyone from Moya.
"I don’t know, " Paala answered as she ran a slim-fingered hand through her disheveled hair. She fixed Zhaan with her steady green gaze. "I may need your help," she went on.
"Whatever you need," Zhaan replied fervently, clasping the other female's hand. Paala turned and smiled at her, and then she was tugging Zhaan toward the door, and they stumbled out at a jog.
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"John." He looked at her face, and he realized she was terrified. "Please, John." She was pleading. "Just take my hand."
He met her eyes bleakly.
And he let go.
His eyes clung to hers grimly as Aeryn seized his free arm and began hauling him up. The lurch of the motion caused him to lose his precarious grip on the rock ledge, so that for an instant he swung by her grip alone, hundreds of feet above the gnashing black teeth below. John wanted to hurl, but he tightened his mouth and reached for something, anything, with his free arm. Meanwhile, she was somehow pulling him, seemingly by brute strength alone. Cords of muscle stood out in her neck and along her arm as she slowly drew him up with one arm.
At last he managed to make contact with something solid, and he grabbed on and tried to ignore the shooting pains in his arms and shoulders. After an eternity of pulling and scrabbling at the cliff's face, John scraped over the edge, first one leg up, and then the other, until he lay there, face down and panting. His heartbeat raced frantically from the massive adrenaline surge.
John forced himself to roll over onto his back, and he turned his head to find Aeryn sprawled beside him. Her chest heaved from the exertion, and sweat glistened on her pale skin.
"What the hell just happened?" he managed at last.
She shook her head at him, still breathless. "Not an island," was all he heard her mutter.
"Right, so what then?"
"Felt like a sonic blast," she answered, recovering her breath.
"A what?"
"Never mind." She scrambled to her feet, and as she did, the ground beneath them rocked again, although less violently than it had the first time. On her hands and knees, she exchanged a quick glance with him.
"Right," John muttered to her unspoken comment. "We need to get out of here." They both stood, and he turned away to explore the cliff-top. It was a mostly-flat clearing, but to the rear, the cliff rose up in a sharp right-angled rock face. There was no way to scale that route without equipment, and even that would be risky. On two sides, the cliff was a steep grade, like what he and Aeryn had just climbed; the mountain extended beyond them and to the far side in a ridge that maintained a less severe incline of boulders and other rock fall combined with hardy tall grass.
"Remind me again why I followed you up here?" he sighed as he stared down that still-treacherous slope.
She shot him a dirty look. "Don't ask me! I have no idea why you do anything, Crichton."
"Right," he answered. "Well then answer me this, little miss peacekeeper, why the hell did you come up here?"
She looked away. "Look, let's just get out of here, all right?"
"No!" He reached out and seized her arm. "We'll leave, but I want you to talk to me, Aeryn. Tell me what's going on."
"I don't want to talk, Crichton!"
"But you can talk to Kel?" She stared at him in shock. "Yeah, Aeryn, you've been talking to him for the last two or three arns, or did you forget?"
She didn't say anything, but he watched her swallow.
"So what's up, Aeryn? You've been a pain in the ass to live with for weeks now, but I’ve already accepted the blame for you guys having to come after me for three months, but I can't keep apologizing for everything, especially when I don’t know what exactly you’re upset about. It just seems like every time I turn around, you've got another bug up your ass! And if you don't mind, it would be much easier to swallow your bad moods if you told me what's going on every once in a while, instead of making me try to guess!"
"Look, I’m sorry if I've made you uncomfortable, Crichton, but there are some things I have to deal with alone."
He stared at her. "Right," he said, subdued. "Just so long as you realize you can talk to me when you're ready."
She met his frank blue gaze and conceded. "I will." She sighed. "Come on, we'd better go."
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As Paala and Zhaan made their way down the path toward the town, they saw Kel in the distance at a dead run.
"Paala!" he cried out, waving up at them. Cutting through the tall grass, they broke into a dash until they breathlessly met further down the path.
"You felt the shock?" he asked with anxious eyes. He took Paala's arm as if to reassure himself that she was well.
"Yes," Zhaan replied. She watched as Paala and Kel exchanged a worried look.
"It was a sonic blast," he said in response to Paala's unspoken query. "Which means Rideans are near, probably just offshore."
"Is anyone hurt?" Paala asked.
Kel shook his head. "I don't think so. Everyone is pretty shaken up, though. We had to evacuate the beach because the blast sent huge waves all the way into town. Unfortunately, the bonfire, though, and the festival, are all gone. The water subsided pretty quickly, but everyone is still frightened."
"Come on," Paala said. "We need to hurry."
It wasn't much further to the town, but as they veered slightly, Zhaan realized that they were heading just beyond it to the ziercola. She could see the watermarks where the ocean had surged and then receded, leaving sea-slime and underwater vegetation behind. Peering out into darkness, she wondered what lay out there that would try to harm these good people. But if there was anything she had learned in her many centuries of life, it was that there was always someone who would try to harm another. Instead of love, conflict seemed to drive the universe, and that pained her.
She suddenly realized that she didn't know where any of her friends were. She had last seen Crichton, D'Argo and Rygel around the bonfire, and she couldn't remember when she had last seen Aeryn. Silently she scolded herself. She had been so wrapped up in her own problems and the joy of Paala's company that she hadn’t thought much about any of her companions lately.
She activated her communication badge.
"Pilot, are you there?" she asked in a high, anxious voice.
"Yes, Zhaan. Are you all right?"
"Yes, Pilot, I am well, but we have trouble down here. I don't know where the others are. Can you help me locate them?"
"Of course, Zhaan. I will try to patch you through."
Paala drew her into the ziercola and then further into the inner ziercolay. Somehow, the water had not penetrated that interior clay room with its colorful tiled floor.
Kel seemed to know exactly what Paala had in mind as the green-eyed female went straight to the pallet and lay down. Kel knelt beside her as if to keep watch. Waiting for Pilot to re-establish communication, Zhaan signaled to Kel that she would join them in a moment, and just then she heard D'Argo's voice calling for her. Relieved she hurried out of the ziercolay and met the Luxan in the outer chamber. He was wet and his long red braids look bedraggled. Under one arm, he held a noisy wriggling Rygel and in the other he held the Hynerian's throne sled.
"Zhaan!" he exclaimed in obvious relief. "You're safe!"
"Yes, D'Argo," she smiled and then sobered. "I'm fine, but we need to find Aeryn and Crichton. I don’t think anyone knows where they are."
"Zhaan," she heard Pilot's voice crackle from her badge.
"Yes, Pilot," she replied quickly, not breaking eye contact with D'Argo. The Luxan bent to lower Rygel and his throne sled to the ground. The Hynerian, did not stop complaining of course.
"You miserable Luxan!" Dripping, Rygel glared up at him.
"I should have let you float out to sea," D'Argo said irritably as he regarded the small creature with impatience.
"Hynerians are an aquatic race," he said disdainfully. "And I don’t need your help!"
D’Argo bent and faced him menacingly. "One day you will regret those words, Rygel." He straightened and refocused his attention on Zhaan.
"Aeryn and John are safe," Pilot said, "and they are both on their way back to meet the rest of you. Just one microt, and I'll patch you through."
"Thank you, Pilot," Zhaan murmured.
"Zhaan!" she heard from the small badge. "Are you okay?" It was Crichton.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine, Crichton," she laughed in relief. "I'm in the ziercola with D'Argo and Rygel. Can you meet us here?"
"Yeah, Zhaan. We'll be there as soon as we can. Did you feel those quakes?"
"Yes. Paala and Kel believe it was a sonic blast from the Rideans." In the background she heard Aeryn's exclamation: "I knew it!"
"Thanks, Zhaan," Crichton responded. "Sit tight. We'll be there soon."
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Paala knew she had to work quickly so she lowered herself into trance with dizzying speed. The sense of foreboding that had come in the wake of her first encounter with Zhaan was back with full force. She tried to ignore it. She couldn’t afford to be distracted from her purpose.
Her astral awareness separated from her body, and she sped upward until she hovered high above the island. The view was deceptively peaceful as she surveyed the small land mass and the surrounding waters. There! She pinpointed the massive ship floating halfway from the horizon.
Paala pondered what to do. She had no idea what had aroused the Rideans—it made no sense for them to strike out after they had maintained the peace for so long. Unfortunately, right now their hostile intentions were crystal clear.
But what kind of effort would be necessary to stop them? She couldn’t let the Rideans hurt her beloved people! More than any of the communities she had lived among, the Mers occupied a very special place in her heart, and she felt she owed it to them to protect them and keep them safe.
Just then, she felt a tingle and her senses told her that the cannon was about to go off again. Suddenly furious, she didn’t stop to think: she acted. As if in slow-motion, she felt the sonic blast begin to unleash. Faster than sound, or thought, she threw up an invisible barrier around the entire island, like a great impenetrable bubble. Grimly she watched as the blast bounced harmlessly off the dome. The repercussion sent huge waves bounding away in the opposite direction—large enough that they threatened to swamp the city-sized ship.
Stretching her senses slightly further, she found two other ships. She broadened her scan, but she found nothing else—not in the sea nor in the air—that might be offensive. Concerned that the other ships might try to attack any of the other islands, she automatically erected invisible spheres around each of the three ships. She smiled in satisfaction. Now they would be unable to launch anything: aircraft, projectiles or sonic blasts.
Then the realization of what she had just done crashed down upon her. She had violated her vow! She had sworn to never reach out with her powers and do anything like this ever again. For twelve hundred cycles, she had kept that vow—until now.
Back in the ziercola, her body shuddered as she rebounded with a slam, and she began to sob low cries of anguish.
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The tracking device had remained silent since Eri had left the boat behind. After splitting up for reconnaissance, the advance team commandos had maintained intermittent radio contact. The quiet was broken only by their low serious voices in her helmet’s earpiece. Eri shrugged uneasily inside the heavy battle dress required for maneuvers such as this. It has been a long time since she had last taken part in any training exercises; the heavy battle pack and uniform, not to mention the service weapon at her waist, were unfamiliar weights to which she was unaccustomed. All soldiers were provided with battle training as a matter of form, but most officers were not tracked into active duty, so they were rarely called upon to exercise those skills.
Before she was born, the Bureau of Genetics had already determined that she would serve Ridea as a military service officer specializing in communications tech. That was what she had trained for from the time she was a small child, and that was how she had served her people for the last twelve cycles. It had been a rewarding life, full of its own triumphs and disappointments, namely Kel’s defection.
But now, she was about to throw it all away. She didn’t harbor any rosy illusions of how this might end. If she found Kel, she realized she may have defend him from her fellow officers, and that might mean taking extreme measures to ensure his survival. And if she managed to do what she planned, Milo would certainly be less than pleased with her for possibly jeopardizing their mission.
The device suddenly flashed, catching her eye. The satellite had locked onto the anomaly! Quietly, she spoke into the link embedded in her helmet, and she began issuing coordinates for full-team convergence. And then she was off and running through the sand and tall grass.
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Kel waited at Paala’s side with as much patience as he could muster, but that patience was eroding fast. He was deeply worried, mostly about Paala, but also about what might happen to the Mers if this Ridean incursion was the first wave of an invasion. It made him sick to think that the community that had welcomed him and saved his life, might be swallowed by the technologically superior Rideans. The Mers’ way of life would come to an end, and Kel couldn’t think of any way to prevent that catastrophe from happening. The Mers were peaceful and nonviolent—and they only wanted to co-exist in harmony with one another and with their sphere. They would seek a pacific solution such as dialogue between the two cultures. But Kel knew that while his beloved Mers were trying to create dialogue and promote cooperation, the Rideans could and would decimate the entire island population with their abominable technology.
Only no such conflict had ever happened before in any living memory. The Rideans had always left the Mers alone—and for good reasons. Vast ocean distance separated the Continent from the Islands, so it was inconvenient to mount crossings. More importantly, however, the Mers had few, if any, exploitable resources. The actual land mass among the islands was just enough to support the Mers’ small population, but there were no significant metal or mineral deposits that might attract outsiders. So what, Kel pondered, had instigated this attack?
While he was lost in thought, a sound penetrated his reverie. He refocused his attention on Paala and was astonished to see tears leaking from beneath her closed lids. She was crying, sobbing, he realized, as if her heart would break. He reached out immediately and took one of her hands, but she pulled away.
"Paala!" he said urgently. "What is it? What’s wrong?"
She turned her head away from him, and his dread increased. Just then, Zhaan came back in to the ziercolay. She must have seen Paala’s tears because she quickly knelt beside the alien female and exchanged a questioning glance with Kel.
"Paala, my dear," she began, reaching out to the female. "What is wrong?"
Paala squeezed her eyes shut and cried harder, abject despair lining her face. Kel stared at her in shock. He had never seen her like this before, and it frightened him. He looked up and saw similar alarm reflected in Zhaan’s eyes.
"What happened?" she asked him.
Kel shook his head. "I don’t know," he replied, at a loss for an explanation. "One microt she was in trance, and the next she was crying. She won’t tell me what’s wrong."
Zhaan’s mouth firmed. "If we don’t know what’s wrong, we can’t help her. Do you hear me, Paala?" She bent over the other female and gently cupped her hands around Paala’s face."We are here to help you, my dear. Tell us what is wrong."
"Noooooo!" Paala erupted at them in a dizzying fury of fists and kicking legs. She began to scream as she fought to get away. Kel stared at her in horror as she huddled into the corner of the room, cowering away from them as if she feared them. Her eyes were wild and her clothes and hair were disheveled. "No," she moaned tearfully.
"Yes," Zhaan said firmly. "What happened?" Her tone brooked no dispute.
Paala turned away. "I c-c-can’t," she sobbed.
Zhaan went to her and clasped her hands tightly around Paala’s fists. "Yes, you can," she said sternly. "We can’t help you if you won’t tell us what’s wrong!"
Paala turned her head to the wall and quieted.
They waited, until finally she began to speak.
"Twelve hundred cycles ago, I committed a crime," she began in a low, ragged voice. "I was young and arrogant and foolish, but there is no excuse for what I did.
"When I was orphaned as a young child, I was taken in by the Sisters of the Sanctuary who recognized my species. They raised me and trained me in the use of my powers for several cycles. However, as I grew older, I became very strong in those powers, and after a while I realized that my abilities even surpassed those of the Sisters.
"My sin was pride. Now I know I was far too young and foolish, but then I believed that I had learned all there was to learn. They taught me rituals and prayers that I thought unnecessary because it was so easy for me to reach out with my powers. I thought I didn’t need them because I was so strong. Rituals and prayers were only for the weak.
"So I left the Sanctuary behind; I ran away. I thought they were holding me back, and I wanted to go out into the universe and use my powers, not learn about them! So that’s what I did...I went out into the universe and began touching everything I could, changing every evil I could. I became addicted to my own sense of power, and the good that I could do—that only I could do. You know what they say about power…I had become a nomad, a slave to my addiction. What I didn't realize was that my powers were greater than my ability to control them, and they were surpassed only by my arrogance in believing I did control them.
"One day..." she faltered. "I came upon a system whose sun was about to go supernova. There was one main populated planet, and they had already prepared to evacuate. Great ships had been constructed and were being sent out: great colony ships that carried everything those people could save: flora and fauna, art, history, wildlife, their culture, and of course, themselves. They had thought of everything, planned for everything. They had just enough time to clear the system before their sun blew, and then they would be safe. There was just one thing they hadn’t counted on."
She looked directly at Kel and bleakly met his eyes.
Dreading her answer, he forced himself to speak. "What?" he asked through suddenly dry lips.
"Me," she replied, and then she laughed softly, a terrible, bitter laugh. "I thought I could buy them some extra time, so I reached out to that star and I twisted. It was only supposed to slow the reactions down, and instead they sped up! When I realized that the sun was about to blow, I tried to stop it, but it was already too late. I couldn’t make time go backward; I couldn’t undo what I had done. All I could do was stand by and watch it happen.
"That sun went supernova before it was supposed to, and I watched as the entire system, and all those people, billions and billions of them, were incinerated by the blast."
She shook her head. "If I hadn’t interfered, they would have escaped; they had enough time. But I played god, and I destroyed them!" The tears leaked out of the corners of her clear green eyes.
Kel stared at her silently, in shock. He had always suspected that she had a dark secret, but not like this! This was just...just heinous.
"I don’t expect your understanding, or your forgiveness," she said softly. "I understand that there can be no forgiveness for what I have done. But I vowed on that day, that I would never do anything like that again. At first I thought I would never use my powers again, but as time passed, I realized that they were too much a part of me, and that I did have the potential to do great good. So I confined myself to the small, and the local, to the bumps and scrapes of people’s lives. I promised myself I would never interfere on a large scale in anything ever again."
"What has changed, dear Paala?" Zhaan asked, one beringed hand reaching out to brush tears from the other female’s velvety cheek.
Paala met her blue eyes. "I broke my vow."
"How?" Kel asked.
"I tried to stop the Rideans, so I erected a dome around this island, and spheres around each of the ships they have sent against us. The dome protects the Mers from any outside attacks, and the spheres prevent the Rideans from launching any."
"And what is the evil in that?" Zhaan countered. "You're trying to save lives! There comes a time when we must forgive ourselves for the sins of the past. We are all fallible, no matter how small or great we may be. We all make mistakes. Let them be a lesson to make you stronger, Paala."
A commotion arose from outside the ziercolay, and Kel thought he heard a familiar voice. All three of them turned toward the doorway in time to see Aeryn and Crichton step through, both panting for breath. The beautiful Sebacean female stood there agressively, a pulse rifle hanging from her shoulder.
"Aeryn insisted on going back to the pod for reinforcements," Crichton explained, jerking a thumb at the weapon. She shot him a dirty look.
"There are soldiers behind us. Armed. I saw them in the hills just outside town as we were coming in. They looked like they were searching for something," she explained with a toss of her dark mane of hair.
They all jumped as they heard a shout erupt from D’Argo in the outer chamber. Kel was close at Paala’s elbow as they all scrambled to their feet to find out what had happened.
A figure stood in the center of the room, framed by the open door. All in black, with a dark helmet, the figure stood with a scanner thrust out before him in one hand, and a blaster in the other. One look at D’Argo clutching his arm told Kel that the intruder had fired and had made his mark. Aereyn raised her pulse rifle but Crichton put out a hand to still her, and she reluctantly subsided. Paala streaked across the room to the injured Luxan while he remained transfixed by the leveled weapon.
Kel watched as the Ridean’s helmeted head turned slightly as if to take all of them in. Something tickled at the back of his brain; he thought there was something familiar about that posture...
Without lowering the weapon, the Ridean brought his scanner hand to his helmet, and using his arm, pushed up the visor. For the second time that day, Kel stared in shock.
It was Eri.
In sudden fury, he pushed his way forward and walked straight into her weapon, until he was a mere pace away. She stared at him with huge, wide eyes, her features frozen.
"What are you doing here, Eri?" he demanded savagely. "Why are you hurting these people?"
"I-I-" she stuttered and then stopped. She lowered both the weapon and the scanner and awkwardly fumbled to put them away. Removing the helmet, she didn’t look away, but suddenly there were tears in her eyes, and her mouth trembled. Belatedly he realized that she was crying.
"Why did you leave?" she asked in a high, pleading voice. "Don’t you know how much I...how much I..." She couldn’t finish, so she just stood there, staring back at him with an awful expression in her eyes.
Kel was dizzy from shock.. This can’t be happening, he thought.
"Tell me what’s going on," he said finally. "Why is this happening, and what are you doing here?"
So, in a dull monotone, she told him. About her research and the anomalous signal. Paala, he realized, she was tracking Paala. About Milo and the Watch. And finally about coming out here to—
"I don’t need to be rescued," he said softly. "I’m never going back."
"You don’t know what you’re saying!" she cried. "How can you—" she looked around in bewilderment. "—Live here. In all this—this—"
"This is my home now," he replied. "These are my people, my friends." He shook his head gently as he returned her gaze. "There is nothing for me back there—that life almost killed me. This is my life now, and I’m happy."
"Please come back, Kel."
He reached out a hand across the short distance between them, and laying it on her shoulder, he squeezed gently. He swallowed hard against the painful lump in his throat. After all this time, the emotions were still there...just as strong as they had ever been.
"I’m sorry, Eri..."
Her face contorted, and the helmet dropped from her hand with a startling smack on the tiled floor. Dazed, it took him a few microts to feel the first blow as she struck his chest with her balled fist.
"But I love you!" she screamed. He stared at her helplessly, feeling all the uncertainty and pain of those unhappy cycles in Ridea crash down around him—and all the hurt and regret of missing her since he’d been away. His hand tightened vise-like on her shoulder in what he knew must be a painful grip.
"Kel!" he heard Aeryn’s voice behind him.
"Step aside!" He looked up in shock to see another black-clad, helmeted figure filling the open doorway, an assault rifle aimed at him. Eri turned partways and then froze.
"Captain Vri!" There was surprise and puzzlement in the soldier’s otherwise crisp voice. He returned his attention to Kel. "Step aside from her," he repeated threateningly.
Eri raised her hands placatingly, and Kel saw them tremble. "Put your rifle down, soldier," she said.
"I can’t do that, sir!
"I’m asking you to stand down, soldier!"
"I can’t do that, sir!" he yelled, sighting along the rifle at Kel. "Step away!"
From the corner of his eye, Kel saw Paala leaning over D’Argo and shaking her head.
"No," Paala said evenly.
"Stand down!" Eri screamed.
In a blur, he watched the soldier tense—
—there was a flash—
—Eri jerked against his chest—
—she fell into his arms as they both collapsed to their knees—
—the soldier crumpled in front of them—
—Aeryn lowered her pulse rifle grimly—
—Kel looked down to see Eri’s ashen face and the huge smoking scorch mark across her chest—
—and Paala screamed: "NO MORE!"
Through a haze of tears, Kel looked down at Eri and brushed a hand against her cheek. No, she can’t be dead. Please, don’t let her be dead...He lowered her to the floor, and he felt a rush of relief as he realized that she still breathed, albeit faintly.
"I never stopped loving you, Eri," he whispered.
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"ENOUGH," Paala said in a vast, echoing voice, and Zhaan stared at her in amazement. "THERE WILL BE NO MORE KILLING!" Her voice literally rang in Zhaan’s ears. There was rage in Paala’s green eyes, but also determination. Then, as the Delvian looked on, the alien female convulsed violently.
"Paala!" Zhaan cried in alarm.
Paala had begun to glow. At first it was like a faint haze of golden light surrounding her body, but then she realized that it was coming from inside, from within—from beneath Paala’s skin. As the convulsions stopped, the glow slowly brightened and intensified, until all Zhaan could see was the brilliant light. She threw up a hand to shield herself from the glare and looked back at the others. Her friends: Aeryn, John, D’Argo and Rygel were just staring in plain dumbfounded shock, while on the floor, Kel bore a fearful, anguished expression, torn as he was between concern for the dark-haired Ridean female and for Paala.
The glow flared and then solidified vaguely into Paala’s shape. Her entire body seemed to be made of light. Only her vivid green eyes remained of her physical body. Paala looked down at herself almost curiously, holding her luminous hands out before her.
"It is...strange," she said. "I have resisted…this…for so long...but I understand now."
"What is it, Paala? What has happened to you?" Zhaan asked anxiously in the silence that followed the other’s words.
"I am....transforming," she replied, and she turned to Zhaan. Zhaan had the impression of a dazzling smile from the other female.
"Into what?" Zhaan asked.
"Something...more," Paala replied in a tone of satisfaction. Zhaan saw Aeryn flinch, and then Paala was moving—not quite walking—she seemed to float toward Kel. She bent down and lay one glowing hand against the scorched center of Ridean's chest.
"She will not die." The glow emanated from Paala’s hand and enveloped the Ridean female’s entire body. When Paala removed her hand, the glow slowly faded, and Eri’s eyes fluttered open.
"Kel," she whispered. His arms tightened around her in acknowledgment and thanksgiving.
"Thank you, Paala," he said softly.
"Ah, Kel," Paala replied. "I think I will miss you the most, when I leave."
"Where are you going?"
"I’m not sure yet. I...feel that there is...something waiting for me." She turned and faced Zhaan. "Zhaan," she said warmly. "There is still one last thing I must do for you." She gestured to the others. "Come, gather around Zhaan and hold hands. Come," she went on, "none of you will be harmed. Zhaan needs all of you now."
She waited while they complied and Zhaan found herself in the center of a circle of bodies: even Rygel hovered in his throne sled and held hands between D’Argo and Crichton while Paala clasped hands between Aeryn and Crichton.
As they linked, Zhaan watched as Paala’s glow radiated outwards through both John and Aeryn on either side of her and through them into D’Argo and Rygel, until Zhaan stood encircled by a ring of light and bodies. Overhead, a misty dome formed, and as she turned around within it, she heard her friends' voices in her head. At first they were just whispers, and then the images began to flicker against the misty dome, and she realized with a start that she was seeing herself, through their eyes. There, played out before her, were all the memories that her comrades had stored…of Zhaan, the counselor, of Zhaan, the mediator, of Zhaan, the chemist, of Zhaan, the priest…all the countless ways that they each saw her: some good and some bad, but they were all her, and they were all real. Through their eyes she realized that she could not fear the past and her own worst self, but that she had to believe that she could always be greater. Why had she forgotten so easily everything her faith and training had taught her through the cycles?
Zhaan laughed, oblivious to the tears of joy that streamed down her face. She wanted to embrace them all.
"Thank you," she smiled through the tears.
"I have a gift for each of you," Paala said as Zhaan collected herself. "Prophecy, if you will.
"For you, John Crichton: there will come a time when your life will flash before your eyes. Protect your secrets carefully and do not succumb to the chair.
"For you, Ka D'Argo, there will come a time when a great sacrifice will be required. Choose your companion wisely, for he shares his luck, and you will not die.
"For you, Rygel XVI, there will come a time when you may believe that all is lost. For you, the greatest sacrifice may be required: to let others believe you their betrayer while you bargain for the faintest hope of survival.
"For you, Aeryn Sun, there will come a time when the past must be faced and its truth will set you free.
"For you, Pa'u Zotah Zhaan, your great enemy will return, but you must not succumb to your fear, lest he destroy you forever.
"Now, you must go quickly, or you will be trapped on this world. Its destiny is not yours."
The circle dissolved in an iridescent shimmer of light, and they all blinked at each other. Zhaan gazed at the light-being who was Paala, and tried to hold back the tears.
"I will miss you," she said at last.
"Beloved Zhaan. Perhaps someday we shall meet again. Now please, you must go. Run!"
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Paala watched from atop the grassy bluff as the cylindrical pod lifted off into the starry sky and disappeared in a wink of light. Nearby, Kel stood with the Ridean female. Paala turned to Kel and reached out to touch him.
"Goodbye, Kel," she said. "You have been a good friend to me."
He nodded with tears standing in his eyes.
She rose up into the air, glowing ever brighter, until finally she began to speak in a voice that would be heard everywhere on Meridea at once:
"For hundreds of generations, you have divided this world between you, between Mer and Ridean. No more! From now on, you shall depend upon one another for your survival, or there will be no more survival. This world must unite to save itself for a greater future. Today, your partnership begins."
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
From command, Crichton, D'Argo, Zhaan, Aeryn and Rygel looked down on Meridea and saw the entire planet enveloped in a shimmering golden light. And then it winked out, leaving a pretty blue-green sphere.
"So what was that?" John asked.
"Pilot?" Zhaan prompted.
"All electrical activity on the planet has ceased," Pilot answered, astonishment in his voice.
Zhaan nodded to herself. "She wanted to bring them together, I think, and this was the only way she knew how."
"Wow," Crichton said, shaking his head. "I can't believe she just did that."
They all departed eventually, until Zhaan was the only one standing before the viewport. She smiled as she watched a ball of golden light streak away from Meridea and disappear into the stars.
She held out her hand as if to once more touch the friend who had saved her life.
"Thank you," she whispered.
FIN