Ascent to Power, Part 1

She turned back to the book, trying to get into it. She could never quite get the same feeling from her books when she was at school as she did at home-- there always seemed to be some sort of bad vibes at school, something that she could never really block out, no matter how much she tried.

"Seersha? Do you know the answer?" asked Mr. Stoerin, taking Seersha's attention away from the book once again. The girl glanced up at the problem on the board as her teacher continued his reprimand. "You were supposed to be doing the problem on a piece of paper; you don't seem to be doing that."

Seersha rolled her eyes. "X equals 86.451," she said simply, remembering a time when she would have been scared to say something like that because it would take her farther away from the other kids. Now, however, she accepted that she'd never be a close friend with anyone, and she'd never be accepted, so she didn't even bother to hide her intelligence anymore.

Mr. Stoerin narrowed his eyes. "How did you do that in your head?" His voice was accusing, and Seersha knew that she'd probably get accused of cheating soon.

"The same way I've been doing it for the last 5 months?" This time, Seersha couldn't keep the sarcasm out of her voice. The teacher was being unfair, and if he hadn't noticed her ability to do mental math, then he wasn't very observant. Anyone else would see Seersha as extremely vain; however, she had a realistic idea of her own abilities, and when you're rejected from the start for something you can't control, you tend not to learn many social skills.

"Now, Seersha, don't get smart with me--"

Seersha rolled her eyes once more, amazed once again at how unobservant--how stupid--this teacher was. He acted like he was still a kid who only pretended to be grown up. "Who, me? Smart? Whatever gave you that idea?" under her breath, she added, "I'm not smart, everybody else is stupid."

Mr. Stoerin raised his eyebrows. "You know what I mean."

Even more the child, Seersha noted to herself. She quite frankly wasn't surprised that the other kids had always hated, been afraid, of what was different; look who their role models were! "Obviously. Don't you need to go back to teaching your class now, Mr. Stoerin?" she asked sweetly. "They seem to need the help."

"You are part of this class, Seersha."

"Am I? I thought being in a class implied learning something in that class…which I'm obviously not doing." Seersha had never been this forward before, but then, nothing she said really made a difference to her anymore. Her position was set, and she knew that she'd probably never be seen as anything other than what they saw her as now. She wasn't sure if that was a blessing or a curse. Possibly both.

Mr. Stoerin just shook his head wearily. "You're giving me gray hair, Seersha." He turned away from her to address the rest of the class, and Seersha gave a sigh of relief as the turned back to her book. She looked up at the clock, willing the bell to ring and for the school day to be over. She'd hated school since the time that she was little, and the other kids had always shunned her, pushed her away. As a small child she'd never understood it, and had become bitter. That bitterness became rudeness, and she was mean, with no social skills. The cycle continues.

Mr. Stoerin was still at the front of the class, explaining some sort of equation or another, explaining how important it was, how they'd need to understand it for algebra. Seersha checked to make sure that she understood it, and saw some symbols on the board that she didn't know what they mean. She closed her book to pay attention, burning what the uses were into her brain as the teacher explained it.

He's not explaining very well, Seersha realized, I'm not surprised that some kids don't get it if couldn't see through his babbling and into what he really meant. Indeed, most of the other kids looked very confused at this new formula, and the teacher didn't even notice, and kept going through different steps. He ignored the raised hands, and didn't notice any until the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day.

"Thank the goddess," she whispered. From the time she was very young, it had been her position that if there was a divine spirit above, it was undeniably female. Not that she believed in one at all. Thankfully, Seersha came from a family of atheists, who didn't really care what Seersha believed one way or another. Which was a very good thing, since Seersha probably wouldn't do too well with most religions. She wasn't into the whole worship thing.

"Hey, Seersha!" called someone from behind. The girl turned around to see Jennifer there.

"Yes?" she asked, her voice sounding cold.

Jennifer faltered a moment at the tone, but then smiled again. "I was wondering if you understood what they were talking about in Pre-Algebra, I didn't really get it."

Seersha debated a minute, trying to figure out what to say. Both of them knew that she'd understood it, and maybe if she explained it, the others might see her as nicer…at the same time, why would she want to be friends with them? They were awful to her first, not the other way around. "No, I don't have time to help you," said Seersha shortly, turning her back around and facing her locker.

Jennifer wasn't there when they were awful, and she hasn't been mean to you, a small voice at the back of Seersha's head decided to pipe up. Seersha swatted the voice away, trying to forget about that. Jenni would be just like everybody else, she would be. Why would there be any reason to think otherwise?

Trying to ignore the little voice and convincing herself not to turn around and tell Jennifer that she would help, Seersha turned to spin in the locker combination. There were some not-so-nice comments directed at her, but she genuinely didn't care didn't care about their opinions, not anymore. Unlike most kids who just hid their tears, the tears were long gone. After years of them, it was almost as if Seersha's tear ducts were pulled dry, and after a certain amount of being upset over not having friends, it simply didn't seem like anything anymore.

Checking her homework book briefly, she threw her Science, Math, History, and French books into her bag along with her binder. She threw it onto her back easily, not even considering four thick schoolbooks heavy in the least. She winced a little as the bag hit a sore spot on her back.

"Hey Seersh," said Elodie, the only girl, or actually the only person, at school whom Seersha actually got along with. Elodie was smart and almost as antisocial as Seersha was. The girl nodded in response, forming her mouth into a smile as she turned to walk towards her bus. Getting onto there, she slipped into a seat in the front and pulled out her book to read as the bus sat there, waiting for everyone to get onto the bus.

After a few minutes, the bus started moving and Seersha had to put away her book. The ride was always bumpy, and it annoyed Seersha that she couldn't read on the bus, because of the jolting. She never got carsick, but it was hard to keep her eyes on the same position in the book long enough to read it, with all the bouncing around. Mostly, she just stared out the window, coming up with some ideas for stories Seersha knew she'd probably never finish, or in fact even start.

The bus stopped at her bus stop, and she made her way to the front of the bus. There were less outstretched feet than normal, because yesterday she'd stomped one boy's foot. He wasn't on the bus that day, and Seersha was a bit worried that her parents would end up getting a call about it.

One boy still had a foot in the middle of the aisle to trip Seersha, so she glared at the boy with her eerie dark eyes, which were a color that, if you looked closely, could be identified as almost purple. He paused for a minute, giving a freaked-out shiver at Seersha's glare, then he slowly brought his foot in. Seersha allowed herself a small smile as she got out of the bus, and flipped her hair, the same odd color as her eyes.

"Hey, Carol," she yelled to her mother as she walked into her rather large house. She'd figured out young that she was adopted, despite the fact that her adopted parents weren't planning on telling her. It was mainly Seersha's appearance that told her, though other factors as well contributed to her realization.

"Hello, Seersh, dear," called Carol from upstairs, coming down to greet her daughter. "How was school?"

"Don't call me Seersh," responded Seersha automatically, "And it was school. How do you think it was?" She pulled off her pack and flopped onto the couch, breathing out for a moment.

"Seersha, look, I'm sorry," said Carol. "I understand. 6th grade was the worst for me, too. I understand that it's difficult to--"

"No, no, I don't think you do," Seersha cut in quietly, cutting her mother off in a voice softer that she usually used. "It's not hard. That's the problem, nothing is difficult. Except maybe tolerating the other kids. And no, I am not going to consider trying to make friends. I have no desire to get along with those-- things." Her voice kept getting louder during the entire tirade, until at the end it was almost shrill, the anger in her voice easy to hear. Anger, yes, which a sensitive person might have been able to notice that hiding a long hurt.

Carol was not sensitive. "Seersha Ture, you are not going to speak to me that way! Go to your room. Right now!"

"Fine," said Seersha. She got up from the couch in one swift move, reaching for her backpack with a single hand. Swinging the knapsack over her back, she started walked towards the stairs, then paused and turned around. There was a sort of angry fire in her eyes, though Seersha herself wasn't quite sure why she was so upset. "And by the way: my name is Seersha Patrenoi. Not Ture." She turned back and raced up to her room, ignoring her mother's (No, no, she's my adopted mother, Seersha reminded herself) angry exclamations.
 
 

The phone rang, and Seersha settled back against the wall so that she'd be able to hear the conversation. After the second ring, Seersha heard a faint "Hello?" and she leaned over further so that she'd be able to everything her mother said.

"That girl is becoming way too rude," Carol was saying. "We should do something to discipline her. She's not studying either. I think she may start skipping homework, too, and become rebellious."

Okay, then, it's Dad, thought Seersha. Quickly, she corrected herself, it's Bill, he's not my dad, they're not your parents, remember? Right then, Bill must have said something, because Carol was silent for a few moments.

"You can't be sure that she's getting good grades. She doesn't show us her tests, so we won't know until we get her report card. It's coming today, so we should know."

At this, Seersha became extremely angry. She didn't have a single grade lower than 100% on her report card. She did her homework, and the only reason that Seersha didn't study was because she didn't need to! Just listening in class was enough. Once on a History exam, Seersha missed an extra credit problem, (one that nobody at all got), and she cried because she missed it! "How DARE she think I'm getting low grades?!" Seersha hissed to herself. True, Carol was always really paranoid-- but she had never been this ridiculous before!

Seersha put aside her fury and continued listening to her mother.

"Yes, the mail should be coming in a few moments. I'll check her report card and see. But, Bill, just grades aren't the whole point. I think that we ought to do something about her. She was so disrespectful to me this afternoon! And when I sent her to her room, she said that her name wasn't Seersha Ture, that it was Seersha Patrenoi!"

Another pause, as Seersha snickered. For someone who isn't very sensitive to anyone else, she certainly has thin skin, her mind laughed. 'Oh! How awful, what a tragedy! My adopted daughter called herself 'Seersha Patrenoi'!'

"Well, I called her Seersha Ture first, but that makes no difference! She's making it seem as if we're not her parents at all!"

You're not, the thought was strong inside of Seersha. She wasn't sure exactly when she started feeling that her adopted parents weren't parental figures--but they weren't.

"Oh, and I also got a report from school. Apparently one boy broke his foot, and he claims that it was because Seersha stomped it. The school says that it's doubtful, since it would take amazing strength to break somebody's foot. Even if she didn't-- which I am no means convinced of, you know how strong she is-- but even if she didn't stomp his foot, it also proves that she is much too unpopular for her own good. She needs to learn how to make friends!"

Kevin's foot was broken? Came the thought as Seersha sat there, amazed. I didn't even stomp all that hard!

Carol paused to listen to whatever Bill was saying on the other end.

"Yes, I know what she says, Bill, but I'm having trouble believing it. And even if it doesn't bother her, it should. It's not natural to have so few friends!"

Another pause.

"Oh, alright. Yes, I'll tell you what happens. I love you too. Yeah…no…yes. Bye."

Carol hung up the phone, and Seersha stood up and walked over to her bed, anger welling up inside of her, causing her head to feel light and a knot to form in her stomach. How could her mom say stuff like that? That Seersha wasn't natural?! It wasn't fair, it wasn't. Seersha pushed the tears that were welling up back, and just let her eyes sting.

Plus, what was the point of being friends with people like the kids at her school? For one thing, she'd have to watch everything she said in order to make sure that she didn't use any words that they wouldn't know, which would cut out almost half of her entire vocabulary. She'd also have to make sure that she didn't say things that they wouldn't understand-- she'd have to control everything about how she acted. If she did that, then the people wouldn't like her, they'd like the person that she was pretending to be. She wished that she could say some of these things to Carol, but Carol would never listen. Anyway, they started this, not me. Why would I want to make peace with them when I didn't initiate the war in the first place?

Anyway, if her report card did come today, then she'd show them! She sat there sulking until she heard the crunching outside of the mailman walking through the yard. She hesitantly stood up, and paused a moment, trying to calm herself so that she wouldn't yell at her mother. After that brief pause, Seersha walked out of her room and went to the stairs.

"Carol?" she called. "The mail is here; may--"

"I already have the mail, Seersha," said Carol, "And I want you to come down here, please?"

Seersha did not like that voice, but she sighed and came down the stairs. "What?"

Carol held up a large manila envelope, and looking carefully at the address, Seersha saw that it was addressed to The Parent or Guardian of Seersha Ture.

"Oh, that," said Seersha, "Probably my report card." Tired of her mother, she decided to annoy her by adding, "I ought to tell them that my real name is Seersha Patrenoi. We don't want them mixing up," she added, part dryly, part with a malicious tone, "when 'Seersha Patrenoi' starts appearing on test papers."

In answer, Carol scowled darkly and went to sit down on the couch and started to open the envelope. Seersha sat next to her, so that both of them could see the grades, though at that moment Seersha wanted anything but close proximity to her mother. Carol opened up the folded piece of paper, and Seersha looked at her grades. They read:

"WHAT?!" Seersha shrieked. "I TIED for first in history? Tied?! That's--"

"Seersha, calm DOWN!! This is for the entire sixth grade, and you got first in everything. It doesn't matter if you tied. You can't always be the very best." By now, Carol sounded very annoyed as she ran a hand through her hair.

"Yes I can!" exploded Seersha. "I TIED! I may as well FAIL! The person who tied me had better be Elodie, that's all I'm saying!" Carol didn't understand, even now, what it really did mean to Seersha. Neither of them really did; but if Seersha didn't have any friends, if she couldn't have that, then she had to know that she could be better than them, that even though they rejected her she still had worth, they never could quite keep up with her…

"Now Seersha, stop it right now. You are being childish, and a little baby. As I said, you can't always be the very best, and you'd better get used to it right now." Carol's voice was more annoyed by the minute, as always only seeing what was happening, not knowing--or caring--the motive behind it. Seersha knew that part of why Carol wanted her daughter to have friends was because she herself didn't. It felt like a double failure, Seersha reckoned, that she couldn't even raise a popular child.

"Yes I can. Even if I am absolutely perfect, somebody can do everything as much as me, right? The only reason I didn't beat them is because it wasn't harder. If it was harder, they'd fall way behind me." She needed some sort of excuse, to explain it to herself if not for Carol, about why she still could be the absolute best…

"You know what, Seersha? You are way too arrogant. You're stuck-up! You think that you're so much smarter than you are!"

Seersha narrowed her eyes angrily, forcing herself not to feel any hurt at the comment, and searched her brain frantically for arguments. "How can I think that? I got every question right on every test the school has given me. Including that Stanford-Binet IQ test. They can't even measure my intelligence, and you say that I think I'm smarter than I am?!"

Carol stared at Seersha a moment, hardly believing what Seersha was saying. "Modesty is a good thing."

"Modesty is a pointless thing." Seersha quickly countered, fire flashing behind her eyes as she angrily spoke. "Why shouldn't I speak the truth? Because it sounds like bragging? What does that matter?" There was a hint of truth in what she was saying; she didn't understand why it was socially acceptable for some people to brag about some things-- that weren't even true!-- but it wasn't acceptable to state things that were true.

"Seersha, you have no friends, and I am beginning to see why! You have no consideration for others' feelings!" The woman completely ignored that fact that she, as well, had this problem.

"Neither do they," said Seersha quietly, almost under her breath, as if she was afraid to say it at all. Carol did not hear her.

"Have you done your homework, Seersha? If not, do it now. In your room." The woman's sharp, angry voice did nothing to raise her at all in her adopted daughter's estimation. Seersha sighed slightly and stood up quickly, in that same sort of feline grace that she'd showed earlier that day. She almost glided to the stairs, and suppressed the urge to stomp up the stairs. She was going to act mature; she didn't currently need anything that would prove Carol right.

That night, in her bed, Seersha looked out the window, at the stars. Please, she thought. Please, something happen. I want to leave here, I want to go far away.

I want to fly between those stars.
 

Seersha trudged drearily into English the next day. English, being her first period, was always the worst, since she knew she had a whole day of the same thing ahead of her. However, today she had an assignment that she actually liked.

"What you do," the teacher was explaining, "is write a story. It can be about anything, as long as it has the theme of 'a mistake fixed.' At the end of class, a few volunteers will read their story to the class."

A lot of the class groaned, but Seersha grinned. This has possibilities. Normally she'd write something depressing, but if it were then her teacher would talk to her parents…hmmm. She could write something that was so science-based that it would completely confused her rather dim-witted teacher…Seersha got an almost happily evil feeling as she started to write. Perhaps this day would not be as bad as she expected.

Seersha walked out of the English room with a wide, amused smile on her face. The look on her English teacher's face was priceless, absolutely priceless. The girl was at this moment very thankful for her photographic memory. That scene would be forever in her mental photo album, along with the other times when people had been shocked by something she'd done. There were certainly enough pictures in that little section of her head!

"Seersha!" someone called. Seersha turned around to see Elodie running to catch up with her. There was a smile on the girl's face, which was a rarity. "Guess what, I tied for first in History class."

Seersha smiled with relief. "Great job, Elodie! I was hoping it was you!" She, realizing exactly what she said, instantly regretted the words, but it was too late to change it now.

"You were the other first, weren't you?" This was said mostly good-naturedly, but Seersha could detect a note of resentment, which was, she had to admit, understandable. "I had guessed. I personally wouldn't be surprised if you'd gotten first in every subject."

Seersha just shrugged and looked down, hoping that Elodie would take it as a sign that she was embarrassed that she hadn't gotten first in all of them, instead of the correct interpretation, that she had placed first. There was no point in trying to hurt Elodie, the girl had already proved that she had good intentions and wouldn't ditch Seersha.

At least, she probably won't, thought Seersha. I can never totally trust anyone, she might always decide that she'd rather be popular and then betray me.

The next class, Science, both of them had together. Seersha, being Seersha, still didn't tone down her sarcasm towards the other students, even when Elodie was included in the group. She never said, 'most of you' or 'with one exception'. No, it still had to seem to be everyone. Elodie didn't really care, though. She knew that Seersha didn't really mean it, in relation to her, anyway.

The day passed fairly swiftly, and even Math class wasn't quite so tedious-- that day, they were taking some sort of assessment test. Though they were allowed to use a calculator, Seersha solved all the problems easily in her head. Despite the information on the front proclaiming that 15 correct was commendable and 30 correct was better than they'd expect of anyone, Seersha was fairly certain that she'd gotten all of the 40 problems correct.

Since there was no homework for Math, and on Thursday she had Study Hall for 8^th period, Seersha didn't have any books to take home. She shrugged and threw her binder into her backpack anyway, and ran out to climb onto her bus.

The bus ride home followed the same routine as it usually did. She looked out of the window, listening to the music on the radio and the things the bus passed as inspiration for stories. Some ideas, she realized, she really should follow up on, and write them down, but she never seemed to get around to it.

The bus stopped at her bus stop, but Seersha really didn't feel like facing her parents any time soon today. She quickly decided to go to the State Park instead, and stayed firmly in her seat.

She got some weird looks when she didn't get off at her stop, but nobody was willing to ask her why. They knew that they wouldn’t get a straight answer and they'd end up with some unexplainable feeling of inadequacy. Seersha had that effect on people. She didn't like them, they didn't like her; yet, it always felt as if she was the superior…

Once she got to the Park, she went immediately onto one of her favorite trails. It was one that took her deep into the woods, and was very long; whenever she went on it, though, it was guaranteed that she wouldn't run into anybody else; almost no signs of civilization at all.

Seersha jogged along the path, backpack still on her back. The paths swerved, and while at first it wasn't uncommon to see somebody else on the trail, as she got deeper and deeper into the forest she stopped seeing anybody else there.

She wasn't really looking where she was going; she'd been in this part of the woods a lot of times. She knew practically every rock in the path. So caught up in thought was she that she gasped as her foot plunged into the water.

She looked suspiciously at the river, then at her surroundings. There was no river in these parts of the woods, Seersha was SURE of that! So how could it get there?

Seersha turned back on the trail, but within a few minutes she found herself right back where it started. Five minutes isn't long enough to loop back! She thought. This was seriously unnerving her.

She turned around and made sure to go directly backwards, but she found herself right back where she started within three minutes.

"Argh!" She cried. "What the hell is going on here?!"

She sat down for a moment, wondering what to do. "Well," she said to herself, out loud, "I can't go back-- maybe I can go forward. I might as well wade through the river. It looks calm enough." Shrugging, she plunged into the water and walked, until it got deep, when she put her long hours on the Swim Team to good use.

She reached the other side, and climbed out of the water. Looking down, she realized that she wasn't wet at all; she was completely dry.

"Eek!" she yelled, jumping a little in surprise. However, Seersha didn't let herself dwell on it for very long. If she wanted to find out what was going on, then standing there wondering what happened wasn't going to help in the least. Nothing ever seemed to disconcert Seersha very much. So she kept going forward. To her relief, she didn't end up back at the river; however, she was completely lost.

"Okay, Seersha," she said to herself, "You've been all over these woods. You can't be lost. You never get lost."

But she was. No matter where she went, she couldn’t find her way to a familiar place. And turning back did no good; she couldn't follow the trail back. If Seersha wasn't a lover of Fantasy and Myths, then she'd have collapsed in fear long before. But, odd as it may seem, with all the fears running through her head, behind all that was a feeling that this was so cool!

Then Seersha saw the tree. It didn't look like anything extraordinary; it had rough, dark brown bark, and was fairly tall as far as trees go. The leaves were shaped in an odd way, but that was the only thing unusual about the tree's appearance.

However, as soon as the tree caught her eye, Seersha turned to face it, staring at it. There was something odd about the tree, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She walked over to the tree, trying to figure out what was so odd about the tree that was seemingly ordinary.

She touched the tree with her fingertips. As she did, a person appeared out of thin air. They looked odd. No, that didn't even begin to cover it. The person was covered with fur. It looked vaguely familiar, but Seersha couldn't quite place it. On the hands, instead of fingernails there were claws. The fur over it was a dark orange-red brick color. Something about him yelled "danger"! Like this person could kill you if the mere thought of it occurred to -- him?

"Oh!" she exclaimed, jumping a little. "Did you just materialize?" She stopped for a moment and realized how stupid that statement sounded, but didn't know what else to say.

He looked annoyed. "I shouldn't have. In fact," he looked at her pointedly, "You shouldn't be here."

"I don't mean to be; I just can't find my way out…" Seersha broke off, confused. "I didn't even mean to come here."

Now that got his attention. "Is that so? Tell me, girl, what is your name?" he said, looking up, into her eyes which looked almost like a cat's eyes, the pupil vertical slits and the eyes behind them an almost bright color.

That was it! He seemed almost feline in the way he looked and moved.

"Uh…" She looked at him, and decided that he definitely wasn't a stalker, "Seersha Ture. Well, that's my adopted name, anyway; my real last name was given as, Patrenoi." Seersha bit her lip.

"Seersha Patrenoi?!" The man jolted at that. "Well! Thank Uwepandan! Come!" Before Seersha could say anything, namely, 'Come where?' or 'Who's Uwepandan?' and 'Uh … do you know me?' she passed out.

She came to an unknown time later. She couldn't tell how long it had been; it could have been a few seconds or a few weeks. Judging from her surroundings, which were nothing like the forest she'd passed out in, the latter seemed more likely. Seersha had no idea where she was.

She sat up. "Hello?" she asked, a bit scared, which wasn't surprising, considering what she'd just gone through.

"You're up!" said a voice, coming up behind her. Seersha turned around quickly. Too quickly, since the jerky motion caused her to fall off the bed.

"Easy there, child," said the person, reaching down to help Seersha to her feet. Seersha refused the hand and got up by herself. She looked at the person across from her, and it was obviously of the same type as the one whom she'd met in the woods.

"Where am I?" she demanded immediately.

"On the warship Eoshu."

"Come again? Where? And how did I get here?" asked Seersha, confused.

"I was going to ask you the same thing. Your method of arrival seems odd, to say the least. Especially for somebody who hasn't heard of the Eoshu."

"I haven't. What type of ship is it, anyway?" asked Seersha, not one to let panic overtake her in even the oddest of circumstances.

"Why, a spaceship, what else?"

"A spaceship?" screeched Seersha. "What the-- how-- when-- what--" she sputtered, not able to make a coherent sentence.

"Where are you from?" asked the figure.

"Uh … Earth," said Seersha, quick enough even in this state of confusion to realize that these people weren't from Earth.

Not being to see the person's face, Seersha didn't know what they thought of that, but she could almost feel the surprise in the room.

"How could you get to the ship then. A human would never be able to ride a beam meant for our people. You are," said the person, looking at Seersha carefully, "human, aren't you?"

"While some people I know may disagree," said Seersha, smiling, knowing that that was true, "I'm fairly certain that I am."

"What is your name, human?"

"Seersha."

The person started. "Seersha?!"

Seersha groaned. "You're the second person who's had that reaction to my name in-- how long have I been unconscious?"

"Only a few hours. Indos should not have used the beam with you, not having been on one before. Are you truly Seersha? Tell me-- how do you spell it?"

Seersha shifted uncomfortably. "You see-- it was originally spelled SARIOSE, but everybody mispronounced it--" she broke off as woman strode across the room quickly. The person seemed feminine, so Seersha edited it in her mind as "she". The woman got out some sort of small device, then came over back to Seersha. She placed the flat part onto Seersha's upper arm. Whatever the results of the device were, they seemed to excite her.

"It is you!" said the woman. "Desiny has failed; we found you."

"What?" asked Seersha. Then, she looked down.

Seersha stared. She blinked. And blinked again. But no, it was no illusion. Her arms were covered with fur. She retracted her claws, then extended them again. Her fur was the same dark purple color that her hair and eyes had been. "What is going on?" she asked shakily. She didn't, however, let her voice crack at all.

"I don't expect you to understand now. Come," and the woman extended her hand. Seersha briefly hesitated, then took it, remembering to retract her claws first.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To the place where you belong."

Seersha thought a moment. "I have a question. I don't know the language of you … uh …"

"Nagraitans," supplied Junes.

Wait a moment, Seersha blinked, how did I know her name?

Junes was addressing Seersha's question. "I can understand you because English is programmed into my translator. It converts any language programmed in. The only reason I can think of you understanding me is that you must have a language Eveliri. Invaluable to negotiations with recently-met species."

"What's Eveliri?" Seersha wanted to try and understand this one thing at a time.

Junes smiled suddenly. "That's a very good question," she said. "And that reminds me. I want to see if the prophecy is correct. Seersha, I want you to try something. Don't worry, it won't hurt or anything."

Seersha nodded. She hadn't been worried.

"Now, concentrate on feeling lighter. Think of walking with lighter steps, touching things much lighter and them moving the same. "

Seersha nodded, and kept imagining it, picturing it in her head.

"Now, walk," said Junes.

Seersha walked. She felt odd, as if she was walking on air. She opened her eyes, and looked down. Her feet were barely touching the ground. She smiled, and kept walking. It felt great.

Junes was staring. She seemed amazed, but she didn't say anything else about what Seersha had just done. "Now, I want you to look over at that scanner over there and make it come to you."

Seersha concentrated, but the scanner that Junes had indicated would not move. At all. "I can't," sighed Seersha.

"No, you're simply not trying right," said Junes. "Imagine that the scanner is coming to you. Picture it in your head."

Seersha shrugged, and tried it, not really expecting it to work. It didn't.

Junes sighed. "Seersha, you're not trying. I know for a fact that you can do this, so do it!"

Seersha nodded, and imagined it again, this time concentrating more, and believing that she could. The scanner rocked a little, started to move a little … a little more … and suddenly, it flew quickly into Seersha's hand. Seersha grinned.

Kasin looked out, through the window of the Academy. "She's coming," she whispered. "She's really coming."

Kasin left the window and ran towards the Master's room. "Master!" Kasin yelled, coming into the room. "She's coming! Seersha's coming; I know she is."

The Master looked at Kasin sharply. "How do you know?"

Kasin stared a moment, wondering if the Master forgot that she was precognitive and clairvoyant. "Indos found her, and she's on the Kitaeny. Junes is going to bring her here for training."

The Master closed his eyes. "You seem to be getting stronger, Kasin. I, too, have seen this. I have seen something else, too, that you have not."

"Are you willing to tell me what it is, Master?"

The Master smiled a tight-lipped smile. "No."

Kasin sighed. She was not surprised at this. "Very well. Should I prepare for her arrival?"

What is there to do to prepare? He asked, reverting to telepathy.

Kasin thought a moment. "We should block some computer files from the network. We don't want her finding out too much too quickly.

Alright. Do it.

"Where exactly are we going?" asked Seersha. "Why is the entire ship diverting from its present course to bring me there? Can't you just take me back home?"

"We are," said Junes cryptically.

"You're taking me back to Earth?"

"Earth is not your home."

Seersha looked confusedly at Junes. "Of course it is. It's where I lived all my life."

"We have a saying here: Home is not a house, or a place; home is where you're wanted. Home is where you love."

"Home is where the heart is," said Seersha, matching up the two sayings.

"Yes, exactly."

Seersha pondered this. "How do you know that I'll be happy there? That I'll love there?"

"You will."

Seersha snorted. She definitely wasn't the type to take that kind of answer.

"Well, I guess that you won't be Lerina's priestess."

"Whose?"

Junes smiled. "The Nagraitan Goddess of Mystery."

Seersha scoffed. "I don't believe in that stuff."

"Oh," said Junes, "Trust me, it's true. Once I actually met a young Nagraitan goddess. She doesn't have a position yet, but her name is Tayanuri."

"Goddess? She was probably just faking."

"Trust me. She was real."

Seersha rolled her eyes, but refrained from commenting. "Look, can you please inform me of where you are taking me?"

"Patience, young one. You must learn patience."

Seersha sighed. This was going to be a long flight. She stared at an instrument about ten feet away from her, and smiled as it moved around. Maybe she could find something to do on this flight.
 
 

Kasin could practically see the irritation emanating from Seersha it was so strong. She could certainly feel it, and it seemed thick enough to cut with a knife. She also noted that Seersha was using kinesis on herself, but did not mention anything.

"Hello, Seersha," she said.

Seersha started a bit. "How do you know my name?"

"Who at the Academy doesn't?"

Seersha sighed. "How about I rephrase that; Why do you know my name?"

"We've-- meaning all Nagraitans-- have been looking for you since the time Desiny hid you, 11 Earth years ago."

Seersha seemed dazed. "Who is Desiny, why did she hide me, and who are Nagraitans?"

Kasin sighed. "How about you sit down?" Seersha did, and Kasin started telling Seersha the well-known story of her own hiding.

"But … they did," said Seersha flatly. "Was that why I was so sick when I was nine? The spell? Why didn't she just kill me after the spell was completed, so I'd never been found?"

"We aren't sure. It isn't like Desiny to forget, even after 12 years."

"Great. So you're saying that me being alive doesn't fit with some ruthless, evil girl's psychological profile?"

"Well, basically, yeah."

"Great," muttered Seersha, "Just great. Remind me again, how exactly do I get myself into these messes again?"

Kasin seemed amused. "You've been in this type of mess before?"

Seersha stared at Kasin a moment, then started laughing. It was an odd, lilting sound. Almost like human laughter, but … different. Kasin soon joined in.

"Well," she said between her chuckles, "at least somebody here has a sense of humor."

"Can never go without it!" grinned Kasin.

"Amen," said Seersha. Suddenly, her face became somber. "Are you-- are you saying that I'll live forever?"

"Yeah. Isn't that great?"

"Great? GREAT?! Since when is never dying GREAT?" cried the girl, instantly upset. "Forever-- it's a concept that we can't even grasp. I'll live forever? No end? I can't even grasp it. Heck, I can't even explain why I can't grasp it!" Seersha ran her hand through her hair angrily. "If I ever love anybody, they'll just grow old and die and I'll just stay eighteen. What's so great," said Seersha, bitterly, "about that?"

Kasin didn't have an answer. She'd never thought of it that way.

Seersha calmed down a little. "Well, I guess I'll have a long time to get used to this…" She followed Kasin to the room that she'd be staying in. She looked at the room that she was going to stay in. It was … odd, to say the least. It had odd furnishings; nothing like Seersha had ever seen before, and yet … they were, well, almost familiar. Kasin left, unnoticed by Seersha or the people inside her room.

"Thanks," she said. "It's … great." She turned to the girl inside.

"Glad you think so," said the girl. "I'm Aengi. And you're Seersha, right?" Her name sounded like 'engy,' with the "n" a nasal sound.

"Yeah," said Seersha. "This is all strange for me, everybody knowing who I am."

"Where did Desiny hide you?" asked Aengi, interested.

"Earth."

"Earth?!" screeched Aengi. "She took you to Earth? Terra? Jeez, I feel sorry for you. How could you even survive here? Is it true that everybody's really unintelligent there?"

Seersha pondered that for a moment. "Not everybody. Most people were very stupid, but there were certainly some exceptions."

"To every rule, there is an exception," murmured Aengi. She said it as if it had some special meaning.

Some new person arrived at the door. "I wonder what their rules are?"

"What?" asked a confused Seersha.

The man at the door said, "It's a common phrase here-- 'To every rule, there is an exception; and to every exception, there is a rule.' I wonder what the intelligent human's rule is?"

"That's easy," said Seersha. "Their rule is that they don't fit in well. That they're disliked. Unless they're leadership skills are off the charts."

His ears perked slightly and then went back down. Seersha recognized this is much like a human nod when used to show understanding. "So the leadership is an exception to the exception's rule?"

Seersha made a gesture of affirmation, extending her hand claws then putting them back. It was just natural for her to use that gesture in her Nagraitan form. "Yeah, I guess so. Goddess, but that must go on forever! The rule to the exception to the exception's rule to that exception, to that exceptions rule…" Seersha wiped her forehead to wipe away invisible sweat beads in mock-exhaustion.

The man, Hendro, looked at Seersha. She was taking all of this amazingly well. He got the feeling that Seersha didn't like her life on Terra all that much-- certainly not surprising. But it was still odd, how quickly and easily she accepted all of this, as if this happened to her every day.

"Trust me, it doesn't."

Hendro stared at Seersha in shock. Without realizing it, she'd read his thoughts and responded to them.

She read my thoughts without realizing it, Aengi, he informed her. That's what she was saying 'it doesn't' to.

Okay, responded Aengi. Thanks for warning me, she'd have been very disturbed if she found out that she was reading thoughts.

"You people are talking somehow without me hearing, aren't you?" asked Seersha. Hendro and Aengi looked at her in amazement.

"You could tell?"

"Well, it's kind of obvious. You're looking at each other and making faces and expressions. How could I not tell?"

Hendro and Aengi exchanged glances.

"Must be fairly easy to not," said Aengi, "Since nobody else can. Tell, that is."

Seersha looked surprised. "But the way you're acting … it's as if you're talking to each other. Which you are."

"Most cannot tell."

"Well, everybody's always said I'm observant…" Seersha said, shrugging, which meant turning her head to the side quickly and putting it back. It almost disturbed her how quickly she used all the Nagraitan gestures. "By the way, where's my back pack? If I ever get back to Earth, I'll be chewed out for being gone for such a long time and not even doing my homework." Seersha grinned, determined that she'd keep all of this light. No need in fretting about something that might not be such a bad thing. What was so great back on Earth? Nothing, that's what.

Hendro and Aengi both caught the thought, of course, since Seersha didn't know how to block her thoughts yet.

Well, Master, it seems like we won't have much trouble convincing her to stay here and start work at the Academy.

No. Well, this is certainly good; she is definitely vital to the war.

"You're talking telepathically again," said Seersha. Not necessarily accusingly, just letting them know that she knew. Then, all of a sudden, she asked, "What war?"

Hendro and Aengi stared at her.

Seersha gave a little smile. "I heard bits and pieces; like, Master, Academy, vital to the war. That's mostly it. As I said; what war?"

"The same war that's been going on for one hundred 43 enewe…that's about 300 Earth years."

Seersha gave a low whistle. "That's a long time. What's the war about?"

"It's over eleven-- well, probably twelve soon, with the Hakrin getting more paranoid-- trying to annihilate two races that are too strong for the other race's good night's sleep."

"So … they're afraid of us? The Nagraitans and … who?"

"The Fae."

"The Fae?" Seersha started at that. "As in the Earth legend?"

"I believe that it is, yes."

"Aren't they really magickal beings?"

Hendro seemed amused. "So are certain Nagraitans; Eveliri Nagraitans."

Seersha looked at him, interested. She started to say something, but Hendro cut her off.

"Yes."

"Really?" Seersha didn't seem to notice that Hendro read her mind. If she did notice, she obviously either didn't care or wouldn't let it show.

Aengi groaned. "I hate it when you people do that."

"Are you all really..." Seersha stopped talking, but looked around with interest.

Aengi grinned. "You'd better believe it. Welcome to the Academy, Seersha."
 
 

Seersha stared at the ceiling. She was tired but she could not sleep. Her mind went over all of the events of the day. School, normal, she went to the park, got lost in a strange way, then boom! She was on a spaceship, then was told she was some sort of legend, and was brought to this Academy thing.

So the question in her mind was "What now?" Would she go back home? Could she start classes here? Do something else? Try to defeat Desiny?

Seersha laughed at the last one. She knew that she couldn't defeat somebody that powerful. The person -- Kasin --said that she, Seersha, matched Desiny for power, but Desiny must have been trained to use it-- Seersha had no idea what Eveliri really was, not to mention no idea how to use it.

Seersha finally fell into a restless sleep. She dreamed that she was running through a forest, scared of something. Somebody was supposed to be beside her, but that person wasn't. Suddenly, Seersha heard footsteps behind her and she whipped around, coming face-to-face with somebody who looked a lot like her, except that the girl was older.

The dream-Seersha swallowed. "Desiny?" she asked, scared. She reached for her laser, only to find that it was in Desiny's hand. "What do you want?" asked Seersha.

Desiny smiled a menacing smile. A smile that appeared cheerful, but was mocking and very evil. "Why, to talk!" She said, with the same menacing grin on her face. Her expression softened into a dangerously soft voice. "What did they tell you about me? They did not tell you the truth. Not the whole truth."

Seersha gathered up courage and said sarcastically, "And what would that be?"

Desiny smiled. "Why don't you ask them? Your so-called friends who are keeping you from the truth?" Her face twisted…

…and Seersha woke up, sweating.

"Oh, goddess," she groaned. She opened her eyes. "Well, that part wasn't a dream." She shivered.

Why would she have such a peculiar dream? Why did Desiny look so much like herself in it? Maybe because she herself was Desiny, was that the truth that Desiny spoke of? Some kind of insane time-travel? No, that wouldn't make sense, would it? How could she have placed the spell on herself? No, from what Seersha understood, that couldn't work.

Seersha looked at the clock. Of course, it meant nothing to her. Just a bunch of numbers. Of course Nagraitans wouldn't have a 24-hour clock. But she sensed that most people were asleep. She blinked, not knowing how she know, just knowing.

She was fairly sure that if she was supposed to be out, they'd come for her, but then again Seersha was really never one for rules. She tried to pad the door open and failed. Then, she concentrated on the door opening. Pictured it, imagining it … and it opened.

"Right!" she said, smiling as she turned right and started jogging along the hall. Amazing how much more quickly she could go when she was levitating herself. Pretty soon she came to another crossroads. "Left!" she cried, turning left and running down the hall. She came to a door at the end, and she opened it. She ran into a room.

She looked around the room. It was empty, and had rather simple furnishings. She heard people at the door, and ducked down behind a doorway entrance.

Three people, two men and a woman, came in, oblivious to her presence. The woman had light blue fur, the first man had dark brown, and the second man was a silver color. "Is everything started up?" asked the woman.

"Yes, ready for takeoff," replied one of the men.

The words registered after about 10 seconds. "Wait!" cried Seersha, coming out. "Don't blast off!"

The people were shocked to see her there. It didn't show on their faces, but something about this form just let Seersha … know … what people thought. "It's too late, we already did," replied the other man. "What were you doing here?"

"I didn't know that this was a ship!" she cried. "How could I? I just wanted to explore!"

"The student's rooms are locked. How did you get out?"

"I fiddled with the lock. The door came opened."

The woman was shocked. "How did you learn to do that?"

Seersha grinned. "Skills like that are very useful on Earth." Okay, so maybe this wasn't quite the truth, but it did make it sound interesting. She waited for their reaction, expecting it to be good. She wasn't disappointed.

All of them were very shocked. "Earth?" they all yelled in unison. "How did…" started the woman, then she stopped and said, "You're Seersha, aren't you?"

Seersha wished that everyone didn't know her. "Yes, I'm Seersha, and don't even start that you'd think that I of all people would know better or something because you know what? You people don't know me. You know of me, but you don't know me. Growing up on Earth probably made me more mischievous and disobedient, not less." Seersha was slightly exhausted by her speech, but the people didn't say anything.

The woman closed her eyes. "We can't take you back. We don't have enough energy for the landing. You'll just have to come with us."

"Hey, I have no objection to that," Seersha said. "Where are you going?"

"Into battle," said the first man bluntly.

Seersha grinned. "Really? Into battle? Oh, how cool!" Okay, so maybe Seersha was faking her excitement just a little, but she had to appear undaunted. Seersha had learned that in her years of enduring endless teasing from her classmates. So, maybe she'd learned something in school after all.

"You won't think that it's so cool when you actually are in it," warned the second man lowly.

"Yeah, I know," said Seersha. "But that doesn't mean that you have to stomp my happiness now, does it?" she whined, in a joking matter.

The woman rolled her eyes. "You seem pretty immature for somebody who’s supposed to be--" she broke off and sighed. "Well, we can't contact the Academy because we promised to keep radio silence so that no Vikrah ships can track us-- you'll just have to come with us. We'll see if you'll be allowed to stay at the Army HQ, on Cetoudi, when we get there."

Seersha sighed. "Well, where am I supposed to sleep and all? Or were there only three rooms/beds? That would be my luck, wouldn't it be?"

"Actually, there was an extra room. Three doors to the left," said the woman, glad to escape Seersha's anger.

"Thanks," groaned Seersha, walking numbly to her (tiny) quarters. She fell down onto the bed, wincing at it's hard surface. She was definitely not getting to sleep.

Seersha was sitting in the control room, eating a breakfast she'd ordered from the little slot. It had taken a while to find where she was to get the food from, but she'd found it, thank the goddess.

It was delicious, something that Seersha had never tasted before, certainly not from Earth. It could only be described as otherworldly. Of course, it was otherworldly, literally.

Seersha giggled, something that she wasn't used to doing. She was acting oddly but then, nobody could go through what she was going through and not go at least a *little* crazy.

The woman walked into the room. "Hello, Seersha," said the woman, "I see that you found the food dispenser.

"Hello, err, I don't recall your name?"

"Sebari. Sebari Clayshe."

"Hello, Sebari Clayshe," said Seersha quietly. "And I'm sorry for … everything."

"It's alright," responded Sebari. "I can understand your curiosity."

"Yeah, it was really curiosity which got me into the whole mess in the first place; you know, the whole 'you're not human' thing."

"Well, we'd better be at least partly thankful for your curiosity then," teased Sebari. "Otherwise we never would have found you."

"Are you sure that you wanted to?" questioned Seersha. "After yesterday?" She sounded almost embarrassed.

"Oh, I really don't feel like talking about this now," said Sebari, "I just want something to eat."

"Right," said Seersha, turning still more embarrassed. "Um, where are we headed, exactly?"

"Off to the headquarters of the army, to speak to the leader of the fleet, Aurel."

"Aurel … don't I remember Kasin telling me that Aurel was my mother?" asked Seersha.

"She shouldn't have told you that," said Sebari.

"Is that what they wouldn't let you say?" questioned Seersha.

"No," replied Sebari shortly.

Seersha sighed. "So, if Aurel is my mom … who's my dad?"

"That," said Sebari, humorlessly, "is something that I would not be allowed to know. As far as I know, the only people who know that are at the top of the ranks."

"Ah." Said Seersha, "Well at least I know what to look for."

Sebari turned white. Her fur literally become white-- it was almost scary. "Don't try to find out. Don't look too hard, Seersha."

"Damned if I don't!" cried Seersha, "I'm going to get to the bottom of this, you see if I don't!

Seersha would find out what was going on … why couldn't people, why couldn't she, know who her father was? Did he commit some sort of horrible crime? If so, at least Seersha should know about it! If this person wouldn’t tell her, perhaps her mother -- Aurel -- would?

Seersha felt suddenly fearful. And how would Aurel receive her long-lost daughter? Would she be happy to see her, or upset, or would she just turn away and refuse to see her daughter? Seersha had wanted a mother for so long, and now she dreaded finally getting what she wanted for so long, because maybe Aurel didn't want her daughter anymore. Seersha was corrupted by black magick, was she not? The spell that Desiny placed? Maybe Aurel would be disgusted by her daughter's impurity.

Seersha knew that her thoughts were unreasonable, yet she couldn't help thinking them. She knew deep down, inside, that Aurel would not blame Seersha for things that she couldn’t control. Nagraitans were better than that. They must be!

Seersha's thoughts were interrupted by a BEEEEEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEEP! She and Sebari jumped up.

"What is it?" asked Seersha worriedly.

"There's a Vikrah ship within scanning range to us." She jogged out of the room, and Seersha followed her.

"Vikrah?" she panted, trying to keep up.

"The enemy in a war. Have you heard of it?" she asked, jogging around a corner.

"Uh, yeah, I have," said Seersha, following Sebari into the room. It appeared to be some sort of command deck, with lots of computer consoles and a viewing screen.

"Report!" barked Sebari.

The first man straightened. "It's a Vikrah ship, newest model. It can outgun us," he said, staring her in the eye. "And…" he hesitated. "We did a scan of the ship. Sebari," he said, urgently, "it has a Nagraitan on it."

Sebari froze.

"Okay, I'm lost. What exactly is that supposed to mean, there's a Nagraitan on it?" asked Seersha. "Is that significant?"

"Very," said the first man. "The only Nagraitan who'd be on a Vikrah ship is Desiny. They don't keep their prisoners on their warships."

"Oh," said Seersha quietly. "What are we going to do?"

"Wait," said the second man grimly, "to see what they have to say."

"They'll contact us?" asked Seersha, confused. "I'd think that they'd just fire. Why would they want to talk to us?"

"Because you're on board," explained Sebari. "They'll be able to tell."

"But why--" started Seersha, cut off by a beep.

"Going on-screen…" said the first man, pressing on a pad. An image came up on the viewer.

There, on the view screen, was the exactly same face from Seersha's dream.

Seersha fainted, the last thing on her mind Desiny's grinning face, a sight close to the one she'd seen in the mirror just a few hours ago on Earth.

Sebari looked in shock at the girl lying on the floor. She started to ask what Desiny had done, but once she glanced up she saw no need. Desiny looked almost identical to Seersha, except that she was older.

"Hello, everyone!" said Desiny, mock-cheerfully, "having a little bit of trouble with your--" she coughed delicately, "crew member? Anything I can do to help?"

Sebari glared at Desiny. "How did you change your appearance?"

"So sure I did?" Desiny shook her head, mock disappointed. "Are you so sure that this is not my real appearance?"

"I-- well-- what--" stuttered Sebari. She'd never stumbled over her sentences before, but she'd heard that Desiny had that effect on everybody. It certainly made Sebari feel foolish.

"Wha-- whut-- um…" Seersha apparently had just woken up. Well, she certainly wasn't out for very long. Seersha opened her eyes, and gazed at Desiny.

"You look the same," said Seersha, without emotion. "The same as you did in my dream." She stood up and brushed herself off, slowly and deliberately. She kept her gaze on Desiny the entire time, with a dangerous look.

"Do I?" asked Desiny, amused. "I don't believe I sent any dreams to you … perhaps it was a precognition." She smiled, in the same mocking way. "I'd love to know what the dream was about."

Seersha remained unfazed. "Oh, would you?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in mock-innocence.

Sebari stared at her for a moment, amazed that the girl could keep her cool the way she was. Desiny normally made people so unsure of themselves; just talking to her seemed to promote unexplained feelings of inadequacy. Like Desiny was the superior. However, this seemed not to work on Seersha.

Seersha, meanwhile, was still stringing this out. "And why should I tell you that?" she asked, now with no emotion save dead seriousness in her voice.

"I might be able to explain … certain parts of it." Desiny's smile never ceased.

"Oh?" asked Seersha, lightly. "Could you tell me what the 'truth' that nobody has told me yet is?"

To Seersha's surprise, Desiny's smile grew wider and she proclaimed, "Why, so I could!" as if it surprised her, too. Seersha was not amused.

"And no doubt for a price," she said curtly. "So. Dreams aside, what are we to do about our ships? There must be a reason you did not go to kill me-- could it perhaps be because the spell is not complete until I am the age that I will stop growing?" Seersha didn't know how, but something in Desiny's small reaction told her that that was not the reason. The question was would whatever her reason was be enough for her not to blow up Seersha's ship?

"Little girl," Desiny smiled patronizingly, knowing that it would get Seersha angry, "I'm sure that that is business for the crew members to work out, not passengers."

"If my life or death is involved, it damn well is my business!"

"I see that your time on Earth have had an effect on you," said Desiny.

"They certainly have," said Seersha. "In fact, they are the reason that I am here right now. Might be the reason that I die?" The question within the question was obviously, 'Are you going to shoot us into oblivion?' but it was never voiced.

During this entire exchange, Sebari and the two men had been just watching the two girls in their talking. Now, they all exchanged a glance.

Sebari threw Seersha a questioning glance, and Seersha, who seemed to know what she was asking, gave a quick, short nod. Sebari left the room, but Desiny seemingly didn’t notice; she instead seemed interested in what Seersha was saying.

"Really?" she asked, mock-interested-- it seemed like every expression was mocking. "How could your time on Terra possibly lead you to here?"

"When I woke up in the middle of-- the night, I think, I wasn't just going to sit in the room and do nothing. I short-circuited the door to get out, and went out exploring the corridors, and I didn't realize that I'd stepped into a ship until it was too late," explained Seersha, telling Desiny exactly what happened for some odd reason. Actually, there was a reason; to distract Desiny so that--
 
 

PSSSSSEEEEEEEWWW

--there would be time for Sebari to fire on the Vikrah ship's weapons.

Through the COM, Seersha heard some of the snippets of speech:

"Direct hit!"

"Only the lasers still operational--"

"Engines hit, falling into the planet's gravity--"

"FIRE! "

That last one was directly followed with a shaking of Seersha's ship.

"Our engines and weapons were hit. We're falling towards the planet, defenseless," said the first man. Sebari ran back into the room. "Sebari, what should we do?"

"Cushion our landing," she said. "Can you do that?"

"Affirmative."

Seersha suppressed a giggle at the statement that sounded so much like Data, from Star Trek: The Next Generation. She couldn't giggle now; she'd been acting so mature! Seersha sighed inwardly. How could she be worried about acting like an adult when she was plummeting down without power to a planet she'd never even heard of before when her 'enemy', as far as she knew, was going to be down there in the same situation? Seersha was going crazy.

'Wait a sec', she thought, 'I'm in a spaceship with aliens, apparently I'M an alien, and a rather famous one at that, with superpowers apparently; and it just now occurs to me that I'm going crazy? Maybe I'm really on Earth, trapped inside some sort of insane asylum.' Considering all that happened in the past two days, that idea didn't seen so far-fetched. Actually, it seemed more likely than what was actually happening.

A CRASH cut her thoughts short, and then there was darkness.

Kasin walked down the corridor to Seersha's room. She'd checked the scanners, and according to them she wasn't in the room; but how could that be possible, the rooms were locked during the hour it said that she left.

When she got to Seersha's room and saw the door opening, closing, then opening again, repeating the process again, and again, she knew that something was wrong. Seersha must have wanted to get out and found a way to mess up the door.

"Computer?" Kasin's frightened voice said, "Locate Seersha?"

"Seersha is not at the Academy," said the computer's impersonal voice. "Would you like a list of ships departing last night that she might have boarded?"

"Yes," said Kasin quickly, jogging to the computer by the wall to see the information.

She typed in her COM ID, and a list of ships departing last night came up. "It looks like there's only one that--" Kasin stared at the screen. "Paient!" she muttered.

She tapped her COM urgently. "Master? We have a huge problem!"

"Yes, what is it, Kasin?" asked the Master, hearing her urgent tones.

"Seersha's gone! She did something to the door to make it open and close repeatedly; the she's not at the Academy and the ONLY ship that she could have boarded was one going into battle and has to maintain radio silence so that the Vikrah can't trace them."

"Shoun!" he cried. "Well, there is nothing that we can do. We must just stay away and hope for the best."

The best.

Just waking up from being unconscious for who-knows-how-long with nobody else up, in a crashed spaceship on a planet you've never been on before doesn't quite qualify. There was also the problem of the enemy being on the same planet.

No, it was certainly not the best.

Seersha opened her eyes and tried to move. Nothing on her body seemed to hurt, and looking down she saw that all her major and minor organs were still intact and working. As she stood up, her back and head ached a little, but that was all.

Looking at the others in the room, she could tell that not all of them were so lucky. The first man, the one whom Seersha still didn't know his name, was bleeding badly. The second man seemed to be okay but showed no signs of waking up, and Sebari wasn't in the room.

Walking over to them, she leaned over and checked each of their pulses. Thankfully, they were both alive.

Seersha, torn between trying to help the people in there and finding Sebari, decided on the latter and stumbled out of the room, doing her best to avoid all of the debris strewn across the floor and hanging from the walls with shocks and electrical pulses coming from them.

It took her about five minutes to find the weapons bay that Sebari fired from. When Seersha stepped into the room, she was greeted with the sight of Sebari down on the floor, blood on her head, leg, and stomach.

"Sebari!" cried Seersha, running over to the fallen woman. She kneeled over and felt Sebari's neck for a pulse. It wasn't there.

"No. No, Sebari, you can't die!" cried Seersha. She took her hands and pushed down on her chest a few times, then performed mouth-to-mouth, regardless of the fact that the only place she'd seen it done was on TV, and had never learned how to herself. She tried for a whole 10 minutes, but Sebari remained dead. Seersha collapsed, tears welling up in her eyes. She'd never seen death like this before. Sure, her adopted grandfather had died when she was 7, and her grandmother when she was 9, but she admittedly hadn't been very close to either of them. And they'd died of old age; here was a fairly young woman who shouldn't have died.

But she did die, and Seersha couldn't help but feel responsible; no matter how much she knew that it was unreasonable to blame herself, she still did.

Weakly, she stood up and walked out of the room, trying to find an exit and hoping that she'd be able to find something edible. She didn't know it at the time, but in her years she'd see deaths in millions. This was hardly the beginning, but the fact that after she'd failed to save Sebari Seersha could still think rationally and realize that she'd have to find food and other necessities was certainly a step in the right direction. You should never let death devastate you so much that you cannot think of your own survival.

She found the exit to the ship and stepped out onto the planet. It seemed to be like a jungle; huge, tree-like plants towered high into the sky, while other large and small plants were all over, very thick and lush. Seersha tried to push the large, fern-like plants out of her way to see through. There were plenty of fruit-like things, but how could she know whether they were edible or not?

Seersha remembered the ship's computer and realized that it could probably scan the food to see if it was edible. Seersha wished that the power were still on in the ship so that she could just type in what she wanted and it would appear, but she understood that that would take power, and they didn't have power. However, if she understood the computer correctly, it would have enough to scan.

Seersha decided to collect samples of different types of potential food and bring it back for the ship to scan. She pushed her way through all the plants to make her way through the forest. It was beautiful, anybody would admit. Of course, beautiful could also be deadly.

Seersha saw a type of fruit that looked like it might be edible. She reached up as high as she could, and jumped a little, but couldn't quite get to the fruit. Wait, she thought, I can levitate myself up a few feet, can't I? She tried it, and found that she could. She smiled; she was getting better at this all the time! She grabbed the fruit and pulled it off. She let go of her concentration, and fell back to the ground again. She sniffed the fruit, and slipped it into her pocket.

She kept on exploring the forest, gathering fruits and sometimes roots that looked like they might be okay. There were many sounds, probably animals that lived there. They sounded nothing like what she was used to, but then, what did she expect, it was another planet!

Then, she heard something that with her 'language Eveliri' she identified as coherent speech. It had an accent that Seersha couldn't identify, but it seemed to almost be related to the Nagraitan speech, kind of the way Spanish and Portuguese was related. She was too far away to hear much, but she could hear snippets of speech.

She pinpointed where the voices were coming from and made her way towards there. She listened in on what they were saying.

"Two vessels of some sort crashed not far from here … we have not checked…"

"Could there be people alive…"

"Who would come from the sky? Could they be gods? …"

She heard whole sentences now if she stood still and didn't make any noise. She came out of the buses, figuring that they sounded OK and didn't sound as if they were planning on killing her.

"Hello," she said. The creatures were about 3/4 the size of a normal person, and they had skin that was pale and strange, pointed ears and odd colored hair. They looked a lot like elves in the old Earth myths.

The elves shook their heads, and one put their hand to their ear.

"Oh!" she cried. "You can't understand me … I'll try to speak in your language."

She concentrated on an image of one of the beings. "Hello," she said to it, only it wasn't 'hello'.

"Cool!" she said, in English.

"Hello," they said back to her.

"What are your names?" asked Seersha, rather slowly. "My name is Seersha."

"Seersha?" asked one of the elves. "As in the legend of Seersha?"

"Does everyone know of me?" asked Seersha to nobody in particular, exasperated. Turning back to the three elves, Seersha noticed that the three of them were on their hands and knees, bowing to her. "No, no!" cried Seersha, walking up to them and bringing one of them to their feet, "Don't bow to me, please. I don't deserve it."

"But-- you are the legendary Seersha!" said the largest, getting to their feet. "Aren't you?

"Well, that depends on what legend you speak of," responded Seersha as the last and smallest got to their feet.

The smallest of the three, the one who seemed to be a girl, spoke up. "Seersha, when a very small baby, had a spell put on her by another, named Desiny. Desiny took Seersha to a far away, dark, dismal star to stay so that none could find her."

"Dismal is right," muttered Seersha darkly. "Well, that sounds like me, but I'm still not going to let you bow to me. I do, however, ask a favor?"

"Anything!" cried the largest.

"Well, there was another ship that crashed near here. Could you please tell me were it landed?"

The smallest elf smiled. "We'll do more than that; we'll show you were it is! C'mon!" she yelled, with all the enthusiasm of a child, which is what she seemed to be.

"No … no … wait, it's dangerous!" cried Seersha helplessly. The elfin girl seemed to ignore her, and Seersha had no choice but to follow, pushing her way through the brushes and brambles with ease, and due to the levitation that was already practically second-nature to her, she didn't get tired at all. Her possible food was forgotten as she dropped it and ran after the child.

Seersha caught up with the girl, and tried to stop her.

"Stop!" she said, loudly, to get through to the child. "It's dangerous! Don't go there!"

"That's okay, because we're already there," giggled the little girl. "See? Right over there," she pointed, "Is the big thing that came down."

"Oh, no," groaned Seersha, feeling rather stressed at that moment. "Listen, you have to leave right now."

"Why--"

"No. No arguments. You leave, right now."

The girl looked disappointed. "Why don't you have to leave, if I do?" she complained.

"Because I have to. I don't want to stay-- it won't be fun, but I have an opportunity to spy on the enemy, and I have to take it. However, it is MUCH too dangerous. Leave. NOW!" said Seersha, forcefully.

The little girl sighed, disappointed. "Fine." She turned around and started walking in the other way, casting one last glance at the crashed ship. Pretty soon she was out of sight, and Seersha turned back towards the ship and, against her better judgement, crept closer, until she could hear what everyone was saying. This actually wasn't too close, since Seersha's hearing was amazing, but someone would be able to see her easily if she didn't find some kind of cover. She found a bush-type of thing and hid behind it, fairly certain that she wasn't visible to the people in front of her.

Straining to listen, she focused on a voice that she was pretty sure was Desiny's, and listened to the conversation. They were talking about repairs; apparently they would only take a few "sernae", whatever those were. Seersha had no idea how long that was, but from what she heard it wouldn't be very long…she hoped not, if it was long then there'd probably be conflict between the two ships, and the ship Seersha was on was in no shape for that…

Seersha's thoughts stopped when she heard what Desiny said next.

"No, you are not going to kill them. Don't even look; we will just leave them alone. I don't care about the others, but I don't want Seersha to be killed. Despite what the Nagraitans think of me, I do have some morals!" the girl was saying.

Seersha was frozen for a moment. What did Desiny mean, 'morals'? How would killing her be breaking any sort of moral that a person like Desiny might have? Desiny killed without mercy, Seersha knew that. There was definitely some connection between Desiny and herself; they were hiding something from her, but what could it be?

Seersha was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn't realize that Desiny was walking towards Seersha. The older girl was standing right above Seersha. She smiled.
 
 

"Hello, Seersha," she said, a smug smile on her face.

Seersha jolted, looking up and almost fainting when she saw who it was.

"H-he-" she started. Calm down, Seersha. She isn't going to kill you, remember? So stop stuttering like an idiot. Amazingly, she could obey herself. "Hello, Desiny," she said, and only the smallest trace of fear and nervousness could be heard.

"Well, well," said Desiny, "now what were you doing here? Surely not spying?"

Seersha gathered her courage, and said in a light tone, "Now, whatever would make you think that poor, dear little me would ever do something like that? I'm hurt."

Desiny laughed, not her normal evil laugh, but all out laughter. "You know, Seersha, I think that I could like you. Pity that we are on different sides, hmm?" Desiny thought for a moment. "Well, I can't have you running back to your ship with our position, you could blow up our ship … then again, I really can't kill you here, can I? That wouldn't be right. So, I think I'll encase you in a kinetic shield. You won't be able to move more than two feet, but you will be safe. Once we are off of the ground, the shield will be taken away and you will be free to go back to your ship." Desiny waved her hand briefly, then walked away. Tentatively, Seersha tried to walk a few steps. After two steps, Seersha ran into some sort of invisible wall. Not that this was unexpected.

Desiny turned around and walked back slowly. "Oh, yes, I forgot to give you something," she said maliciously. She could obviously reach through the shield, because she dropped something into Seersha's hand. "Give this to Aurel. Don't attempt to open it yourself." With that, Desiny laughed, and turned back around to leave. Seersha sighed, and clenched the small metal piece in her fist. She had two or three hours with nothing to do, watching enemy activity from mere yards away and not being able to do something about it. That feeling of helplessness was one of the things that Seersha hated most.

The hours passed very slowly. There must have been something else in whatever kind of shielding it was, because Seersha couldn't hear anything. Well, nothing that was outside of the little 2-foot space, anyway. Of course, it made sense. They didn't want her hearing their military secrets, or anything else that might be used against them.

Somewhere, at the back of her mind, Seersha was amazed that she was in the middle of an interstellar war, not ten feet away from the enemy, and she was bored.

Jeez, she thought, My life must have gotten very odd in the past … well, two days.

Seersha was intensely relieved when everybody was loaded into the ship and it finally took off. She took a few steps slowly, and smiled when she didn't run into any invisible walls. Well, now she knew about how long "sernae" were…that could be helpful.

"About time!" she said, almost haughtily, and raced as fast as she could back to the ship.

She ran up to the ship quietly, worried about the reaction she'd get when she got there. She hesitated for a moment, then realized that nothing would be gained by waiting. She threw her shoulders back, held her head back, and walked swiftly up to the ship.

When she entered the ship, nobody was there. They can't still be unconscious, can they? She thought, slightly panicked. She ran towards the command deck, where the two men last were.

She walked in. Immediately, the two men started.

"Seersha?" asked one of them suspiciously.

Seersha rolled her eyes. "Who else would it be?" she strode across the room to check the console that they were working on.

They stopped her. "Somebody else, obviously," drawled the dark brown one. "You could be putting up the illusion of Seersha. Desiny could easily do that."

"Look, I'm Seersha," she said, exasperated. "Ask me something! I don't know!"

The silver-colored one made a disbelieving gesture. I really should have learned their names, it occurred to Seersha. "You could take it out of our minds," he pointed out.

Seersha looked confused. "Uh…I'm not exactly sure that I learned how to do that. I mean, yes, you believe that I'm somebody else. But … is there any way to solve this?"

"Of course there is," he said. "Every Nagraitan has a microscopic authorization number put on them. It's a special material that can't be fabricated, and we'll be able to tell that it's authentic. Come," he said, and she followed him. They went into a room that she hadn't seen before.

"I'm sorry about Sebari," she said very quietly. "I tried to help her, but by the time I woke up, it was too late."

The man just nodded curtly to her, and gestured for her to come over. "Now, put your upper arm into this space, please," he said, indicating a small space in the wall. Seersha complied.

"Authorization number 0001445. Subject: Seersha Patrenoi." Seersha gaped, then quickly closed her mouth.

"That's me," she said, pretending nonchalance. She pulled her arm out. "Believe me now?"

"Of course," he said, "Now where were you all that time? We figured that you'd been disintegrated. Or that you'd been captured by Desiny."

"I had. Been captured by Desiny, that is. She didn't kill me. I don't know why. I think I heard her say something to somebody else about having morals. And before you ask, no, I don't have any clue what she meant. I know that she kills, in cold blood, so … I'm very lost. Do you have any idea what she meant, Mr. … ?"

"I am Shaul Engeras. My first name is Eniyo. And no, I am every bit as lost on this as you are."

"Uh, Mr … I mean, Shaul Engeras … what does the 'Shaul' mean?" she asked tentatively, wanting to learn as much as possible about the Nagraitan culture.

"It means that I am career military," he explained. "It can be used for any rank. I could also be called Lieutenant Engeras, I suppose, but in case I am promoted or demoted, it's safer to just be known as 'Shaul'."

Seersha nodded. "That makes sense, I guess." She shrugged. "I have so much to learn about Nagraita."

"If you wanted to learn, you should have stayed at the Academy," he said curtly, suddenly formal.

"Sorry," said Seersha, only a bit sorry, really. "I was curious."

The other crewmember, the dark brown one, came in then. "Is it really her?"

"Yes, it is, Commander Vesahn. She tested positive. She was gone so long because she was caught by Desiny and kept in a kinetic shield."

He turned to Seersha. "We're sorry for that, Seersha, but you understand that we can't trust anyone. We need to be sure."

"Of course. So … is the ship back up to power?"

He extended his claws briefly, in affirmation. "While you were away, we completely repaired it. We're headed towards Cetoudi as soon as we blast off."

Seersha nodded slowly. "Is there--" she choked. "Is there anything that you need me to do, since you're a--" she choked again, and beat herself up for being in such little control of herself, "since you're a crew member short?"

The man gave a small, sad smile. "You've done enough, with being caught by Desiny. We'll be fine. Maybe you should go rest for now. I'm sure that your normal day isn't this eventful."

Seersha shook her head, using a human gesture. "If you don't mind, I've been just sitting there for the past few hours. Oh," she said remembering, "Desiny gave me this. To give to Aurel. There were warnings, though, that nobody else should try to open it." She unclenched her hand, realizing that her hand had been a tight fist for hours. She gave the small … whatever it was … to Commander Vesahn.

He eyed it a bit warily. "We'd better give it to her. She'll have it run through the scanners to keep it safe. It could be some sort of offer. A deal. I very much doubt it, but you never know. It's better to be safe."

Shaul Engeras extended his claws briefly. "I agree. We shouldn't keep thinks back. Now, we should get to the command deck. And one of us should be in the engine room. I volunteer to go."

"Yes. Seersha, you can come to the command deck. I'm sure that there's something there that you know how to do."

She agreed, deciding not to take offense. After all, she was just introduced into this society. Of course she wouldn't know how to do anything. "Sure," she said, following him. They arrived at the command deck, which was mostly cleaned up from earlier. Note "mostly". There was still some debris around, but it looked, and was, workable.

"So, where am I supposed to go?" asked Seersha. She looked around, taking note of her surroundings, but not noticing any place that she could recognize as somewhere where she could be the most useful or anything like that.

"You've been away from society your whole life, hmm? No offense meant, but I don't think that you'll know how to use most of our equipment."

Seersha hated to ever admit that she couldn't do something, but in this case, there would be no way that she could know, right? She decided not to take offense.

"Well, in that case, I suppose that you should watch for other ships, just in case. Now, here is our tracking system," he brought her over to the side of the room and showed her a computer console, and suddenly a 3D space came alive, showing a few stars and planets around them, "and this is the grid. Now, this is only showing us what is within dangerous distance of us. We can track any ship in the galaxy. Now, when a ship comes inside this grid, just think that you want ship information. It will show up on this screen." He indicated a screen behind the grid.

"Alright," said Seersha, realizing that she probably wouldn't get to do anything for the rest of the flight. "When are we getting there? How far away is it?"

"We're fairly close by now," said Commander Vesahn, "But as you've been on Earth, I'm not exactly sure how to express it in Earth terms."

"Well, apparently since I can understand you I have a language Eveliri, so try me. I may be able to automatically translate," Seersha suggested, hoping that it would work.

Commander Vesahn rolled his head to the side briefly in the Nagraitan version of a shrug. "Well, we might as well try. We'll be there in 2 sernae."

"Yes…I remember Desiny using that term, but she only just said in a few sernae. I'm not exactly sure how long it is, but I have a general idea, I think…unless the repairs were faster or slower than expected, or if it was a whole lot of sernae that it took."

"Well, it won't be long," replied Commander Vesahn, rolling his head to the side again.
 
 

It was in fact less than two hours before they got to Cetoudi. It was more like an hour and a half. Seersha stored that away in her head; one sernae; one sern? One serna? She wasn't sure how to make it singular, but either way, one of them was from 40 to 50 minutes long. This was another piece of rather useful information that Seersha was storing in her head.

By the time they got to the fleet HQ, however, Seersha was thoroughly nervous. She was going to meet her mother for the first time! Seersha realized now that by some sixth sense, or maybe just some default mechanism, she had never considered Carol her mother. She also knew now why she felt that way; she'd always considered Carol inferior to herself; a mother is somebody who you look up to. Seersha could never have looked up to Carol.

However, this Aurel-- she was the leader of the entire Nagraitan fleet. She was obviously very intelligent and capable-- this might be someone who Seersha could really identify as a mother figure. Then again, it was not a definite; she would just have to wait and see.

The ship docked and they got off of it. They walked directly into some sort of corridor. Seersha looked around with obvious interest, trying to take all of the details in. There were two people walking by, both in a sort of grayish-blue uniform. The walls were smooth and white. The floor was a metallic color. Seersha was slightly surprised that nobody was there to receive them, but then again the two crewmen were part of the fleet and knew where to go … She realized it wasn't realistic for her mother, the leader of the entire fleet, to be there waiting for her.

She followed Commander Vesahn and Shaul Engeras down the hall to the right. They came to a console. Each of the stuck their arm into a space, and Seersha recognized it as the same thing that identified her. This time, though, it didn't announce out loud the name and number, only said "approved". When it was her turn to be identified, she was worried. Was she put into this computer?

Apparently she was. The computer only said, "Approved" and made a small beep and the door slid open.

She stepped through into the next room.

She wasn't quite sure what she was expecting.  She supposed that this wasn't far off.  It looked mostly like people just sitting there in front of different consoles.  She figured that they were using the computers through that mental connection, so it looked like they were doing nothing, though they were most likely doing something important, judging from how  much security was in this place.  Their uniforms were blue with silver trimmings.

She heard a small murmuring from the other people when they saw her-- then realized that they weren't murmuring, not out loud, anyway.  She was picking up on their thoughts again.  This could really take some getting used to.  She knew that it was probably considered impolite to tune in on others' thoughts, but she didn't know how to block it.  Probably one of the things they teach at that Academy.

"Come along, Seersha," said Commander Vesahn, breaking into Seersha's thoughts.  Seersha followed him, going into another room.  In that room, there was one woman who stood out.  Her uniform was slightly different-- gold trimmings instead of silver-- but it was more her very essence that make people just turn and take another look at her.  She seemed to radiate strength and grace in everywhere from how she looked at something to how she walked around.  With a jolt, Seersha realized that this was Aurel.  The fleet commander.

My mother, thought Seersha.

Aurel turned to face them.  When she saw Seersha's face, she froze for a moment.  Then, her expression turned almost ... tender.  That look didn't quite look at home on Aurel's face, but there was no mistaking that expression.

"Seersha?" whispered Aurel for a moment, looking at Seersha quietly.  Aurel walked over gracefully and touched Seersha's forehead briefly with her hand.

Then Aurel regained her composure, straightening and taking away her hand.  She turned to Commander Vesahn. "Report," she said stiffly.

"Seersha stowed on our ship.  She was 'wandering' during lights-out, and mistakenly stumbled into our ship right before takeoff.  Since we had to maintain radio silence, we kept her on the ship for the duration.  On our way here, we ran into a Vikrah ship.  Desiny was on it."

The minds of the people in the room were a buzz at that.  Seersha noticed that Aurel tightened her mental blocks even more securely when she heard that.  What is she hiding? wondered Seersha.

"Because she either sensed or used the ship to tell that Seersha was on board, she knew, and communicated with us.  We ended up both being shot down.  Ensign Clayshe died from the impact. Seersha, being the only one still conscious, left the ship to gather foods that might be edible.  She came upon some natives, who led her to the site where the Vikrah ship crashed.  Desiny was there, and could tell that Seersha was spying on her.  Desiny trapped Seersha in a small kinetic field and kept her there until their ship was repaired.  She gave Seersha an infochip for you.  She said that it in in your best interest that you read it," Commander Vesahn finished, handing the infochip to Aurel.  Aurel took it from him, and ran it through some sort of scanner.

"The infochip is safe," the computer chirped, "No sign of any sort of dangerous material saved within it."  Aurel nodded, and took out a small black case.  She put the chip carefully in there, and closed it up again.  Then, she turned to Seersha.

"I suppose that somebody has told you by now about your relation to me?" asked Aurel, and Seersha nodded quietly.  "Yes, I'd gotten a report from Junes that you were found on Earth.  I didn't expect you to come here so soon, though."  Aurel smiled briefly.  "One moment, I'm going to go see what that chip has to say."  She walked swiftly out before any of her advisors could argue with that, and Seersha sighed, wondering how long she'd have to just wait there.

Not long.  Apparently the infochip had a small amount of information, or Aurel had only gotten into a portion of it when she came back out.  Her face was more grave than usual.

"I am very sorry about this," she said to Seersha, "but for now, you have to leave.  You are in real and immediate danger, more than anybody should be in.  I'm sorry, but you have to go back to Earth."

"WHAT?" screamed Seersha.  "I can't go back there! Please, isn't there any other alternative?"

"It won't be forever," said Aurel, "It won't even be for a long time.  Seersha, you have to."

Seersha sighed.  "Fine," she said.  "As long as it's not for too long."

"Alright," said Aurel.  "Close your eyes.  It will all seem like a dream, but it's good that for a while you will believe that.  I will see you again soon, my daughter."

Seersha nodded, closed her eyes, and --

Seersha opened her eyes. She looked around, and it was her room. In her home, the home she'd grown up in. She was lying down in bed.

It must have all been a dream, she thought. She didn't know whether she was happy or sad about it. On one hand, she wasn't on the edge of death-- on the other, all the new people she'd met-- some of the first people she'd consider real friends-- weren't real.

She got out of bed, unusually awake for just having gotten up. Never before had a dream been so vivid before.

Seersha walked across the hall to the bathroom to brush her teeth. And if maybe Seersha didn't quite touch the door to open it, and if maybe she didn't seem quite as heavy, almost as if her feet weren't really touching the ground, she didn't even notice.