“Oh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt it,” she said to Feoren, looking ready to cry.
He smiled and took the branch from her. “No pain caused and no harm done. See?” He put the branch against its tree. The branch flowed into the tree and reappeared by Jamie’s head. Then it tickled her. She squealed with joy.
This, of course, meant that all the other kids had to do the same. Some of the adults, too. Lots of laughter, lots of fun. Some of the kids climbed the trees. Chance Maurer fell off, and the tree caught him.
“This is like the safest world in the galaxy,” I said to Feoren, while the other little kids all fell out of trees now while the young adults watched on and pretended to be too old to do this.
“It is safe, yes. We see no reason to have injuries—repairs take time and cause pain.”
Chuckie’s comments about this being a utopia nudged at me. “Was it always like this? Did you have strife in the past?”
“No, no strife. Our history is quite complete and we live for long periods. We have never had strife here—strife makes no logical sense if things are good, and they are. Well, I misstate. Among ourselves? No strife. Issues created by visitors? There we have had strife, and worse.”
“Who came by that you liked? I mean, you made the Moon Suits for a reason.”
“In the olden days, the Anciannas would visit, though those visits stopped long before John Wruck was born. The Z’porrah visited, too—it was they who we created the Moon Suits for. The Anciannas can shift safely, but the Z’porrah cannot. Then, their war started. We maintained noninvolvement and they left us alone. I believe they forgot about us.”
“How? I mean that seriously. I can’t imagine Earth ‘forgetting’ about a world like this, especially a world this rich in useful things.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. None of us do. But the visits stopped, and we went on with our lives. We had the occasional visitor, normally a ship that was lost or in need of repair that had stranded near our solar space. We would always help them.”
“Until? I mean, we know there’s an until.”
Feoren nodded. “Until some came with the idea of taking our world for their own. They were easily repelled, because they could not survive in our atmosphere and we did not give them Moon Suits. After that, we made the decision to scare off travelers, as opposed to letting them die on our world.”
Decided it was time to Megalomaniac Girl Up. “These others who came to claim your world, were they called the Superiors?”
He nodded. “So they told us.”
“And I’ve got Mephistopheles Bingo.”
CHAPTER 65
THAT WE WERE ON the Fix What Mephs Ruined And Algar Allowed Tour was now confirmed. Not that I’d had any doubt, but still, it was always nice to be right.
“Excuse me?” Feoren said.
“Nothing. But it explains a lot.” Wondered how I could get a message to Reader about this. Closed my eyes and concentrated on SuperBun.
Who was taking a breather from chowing down on the best food he and the other bunnies had ever had and so was available. He agreed to give it a try.
Threw leaves with Charlie—which consisted of me picking them up and him making them fly around us—and played tic-tac-toe in the dirt with Jamie to while away the wait time.
SuperBun came back on my mental airwaves. He’d reached Reader and given him the news. Reader was on it and had advised the others. Also, the least weasels were behaving themselves, still eating stems as well as squash, and not trying to eat any of the rabbits.
Remembered that least weasels were carnivores and asked SuperBun about this. Apparently, these least weasels also liked the squash. A lot. Decided not to complain about it.
This was all I could do about anything, so focused back on the kids. Heard Rachel Lewis say she was hungry, so asked Feoren if we could go back for a meal. He agreed, and I sent word to Jeff and the other astrogators that we were going to eat and to meet us at the safe room.
This time, the ground wrapped around us very like we were actually on a roller coaster—with metal forming around each person in a protective manner—and we raced down the mountain at a breakneck pace. This was fun and exhilarating, and all the young adults asked to do it again.
“After we eat,” Denise said, marshaling the kids as was her skill.
We went to the safe room created for us—it had cafeteria-style tables and chairs, bathrooms—all pewter—and food and drink waiting for us, supposedly courtesy of Mother. Felt that this was courtesy of the King of the Elves, but chose not to say anything. Jamie and Charlie ran for Jeff, who was already there, Patrick ran for Brian, Jennifer raced for Hacker International, Nathalie walked with grace to Chuckie, and everyone else hurried to grab seats. Rachel was clearly not the only one who had been hungry.
This room was inside one of the smaller buildings. “There is oxygen in here provided via your ship,” Feoren said, as he and I stood in the doorway he’d created. “And it’s fully shielded. Wait two minutes for the signal, then you can remove the Moon Suits safely. When you’re ready to leave, put your Moon Suits back on, then ask us to open the door—we will be monitoring all of you, just in case.”
Gave him a hug. “Thank you.”
“Where would you like to go after you eat?”
“It depends on the time of day, I think. We’re all jumbled, and have no idea what time it is here.”
“We don’t worry about time,” Feoren said. “We have much time in light, and then much time in dark. Right now, we are on the light side of Cradus. Let me access what you consider a day.” He cocked his head, just as Fathade had done when she was connecting to their collective or whatever. “Ah. We have ten days of light and then ten days of dark. We are in the middle of the light days here. This meal for you would be, I think, dinner.”
“What do you do when it goes to dark?”
“Some stay and enjoy the darkness. Others move to the other side of the moon. Our buildings are blocked from Crion’s light, so we can sleep as needed. And we can see in the dark.” His eyes glowed for a moment. “Though I would not recommend any of you go to the dark side.”
Resisted making a dark side joke because I knew he wouldn’t get it. “Is the world dangerous in the dark?”
“No, just less appealing for most of us. We have no lights for you, though—we don’t need them so we have not created them, and back in the past, the Anciannas and Z’porrah had no real interest in the dark side, since they could look at it during its time in the light. I’m sure we could create lights for you, if being on the dark side was important for you, but creating heat would be more difficult, and I cannot guarantee that the Moon Suits would allow you to adapt to the cold the darkness brings—they have not really been tested in that way.”