“Good points as always. But speaking of that, let’s put it away in a safe place.” Placed it carefully in my purse, which I had refused to not have with me regardless of where we were or what we were doing because I was experienced by now and, peaceful world or not, not having my purse along was really tempting the cosmos a bit too much. It made the purse heavier, but in the Moon Suit, I barely noticed.
Did notice the envelope that I’d shoved in there while I was still in the White House. Probably needed to take a gander at whatever it was that Algar had given me. And I hadn’t asked Serene what she’d dropped into my purse when we were on Nazez, either, nor had I looked for it. Well, I’d empty out my purse when I had a little downtime, but right now, I was still on vacation.
We rejoined the others and Gower did indeed get to swim with Reader. We spoke quietly with those who just had to know where we’d gone and why, but not everyone cared, which was fine with me. Those who did care were both shocked and kind of thrilled to know we were in a sentient solar system—those who were comics geeks such as myself in particular—and everyone agreed not sharing this with the Cradi was Job One and not sharing it with anyone with us who didn’t care until we were off the moon was Job Two.
Had a talk with Team Tinman, all of whom were interested in Cradus as a world and fascinated and excited in him as a sentient being. They spent some time communing with Cradus, and he didn’t seem to mind. No one spoke with Spehidon, though. Per what Butler told me, her mind was too vast and could harm ours, so Cradus did the go-between, just as he’d done when White, Gower, SuperBun, and I were chatting with them.
Suggested my brilliant idea of creating Orange Island to the Cradi and they thought it was a great plan. They were very grateful that so many rabbits were staying and promised to ensure that the rabbits could leave Orange Island whenever they wanted or needed to. Chose to drop the Scourge part of the name, since it was now a place my bunnies were hanging out and they were not scourge-worthy.
Once that was accomplished, we slipped right back into Cradus Vacation Routine, with swims to Orange Island added in for those with the stamina. With Wruck, Drax, and Fathade back, Team Astrogator—which still made me think of Alliflash and Gigantagator in spacesuits—was stronger, and they continued to make progress on narrowing down our likely area to find Kreaving.
On the third day after the chat with Cradus, just as we were coming back from the morning’s time at the beach, we got the good word. Time to start saying good-bye.
Mother wanted to do some last-minute fiddling with herself and her programs with some of the Cradi assisting—in no small part to prevent anyone else from taking her over again—and Drax and Hacker International assured us that she wasn’t trying to HAL it up, so we took advantage of our last few hours on this world. I put in a personal request to Mother and Fathade, which they said they felt they could do, so that was nice.
Feoren took all of us on one more tour of the light side of Cradus and, as a treat, let us see a tiny bit of the dark side. It was indeed much colder and it was hard to see, but it was still neat to see waterfalls of rubidium and mercury flowing over lead mountains and going into a series of lakes and lagoons that surrounded golden islands with platinum beaches. None of this had been visible when we were coming in to land. Was kind of sad that we weren’t going to be here long enough to see everything on the other half of Cradus, but duty called.
“I want to come back again,” Jamie said, as we all went one last time to the beach, so that those who’d solved the Star Map Mystery would be able to have a last swim, too. The older kids swam out to Orange Island to give the rabbits the heads-up that we were getting ready to go.
Charlie nodded enthusiastically. “I like it here.” Then he smiled. “But we’ll like it other places, too.”
“Have you been talking to Ixtha in your sleep, my little man?”
“Yes, Mommy. She was scared we weren’t coming. But I told her we had to make stops along the way. She understands.”
“Good.”
Beach time wasn’t too long—once the older kids were back from Orange Island, we packed up. Then we went to get the rabbits that were traveling on with us.
Feoren made a bridge of silver from the beach to the island. Several hundred rabbits hopped over, SuperBun and Peter in the lead. Noted that all the rabbits that had attached to people on the Distant Voyager were traveling on with us, which was nice, and they all ran to “their person” which was nicer. Picked up SuperBun and Peter and gave them snuggles.
I wasn’t the only one with multiple rabbits, either. Lizzie, for example, had five rabbits she was carrying back to the ship.
Chose not to complain or make a joke—she hadn’t been allowed pets until she’d moved in with us, first because her parents were those Russian spies and then because her adoptive father was an assassin. Pets slowed you down. Proved by the fact that Lizzie wasn’t moving too quickly, so she wouldn’t drop a bunny.
Jeff heaved the sigh of a man who knows he’ll never stop living in a zoo, picked up Charlie, who had his bunny clutched in his hands, went to Lizzie, and took two of the rabbits from her. “Let’s not drop them, Moon Suits or no Moon Suits.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks.”
Handed Peter to Jamie so I’d have a free hand to hold hers with. She snuggled Peter. “Thank you for sharing Peter with me, Mommy.”
“Oh, I imagine we’ll have plenty of bunnies to share, sweetie.” Not that I planned to share SuperBun.
Who nuzzled me. He didn’t plan to be shared, either.
Out of all of us, and unsurprisingly, Team Tinman didn’t want to leave the most. Offered to let them stay. Joe and Randy opted out because of their families, and Maurer did the same. “This is a wonderful place,” Maurer said. “But without my mother and children, it would hold no joy for me.”
“Ditto, and you know it,” Randy said. Joe nodded.
“Hey, I had to ask. I mean, some of the rabbits are staying, so it was only fair to ask you guys. Kristie?”
“Oh, I love this world and adore Cradus himself. But I’m not missing the Code Name: First Lady premiere for anything.”
“Seriously?” Joe asked. “You love it here and it’s a place where you fit.”
She shrugged. “I fit everywhere, it’s how I moved up the ranks as a reporter. Don’t get me wrong—I want to come back. I just don’t want to live here. My home is Earth, the galaxy is my playground.”
Made the gag face and the gag sound. She laughed and punched me in the arm, but gently. Realized with a form of horror that we were friends. Oh well, I had weirder friends and friends who had started out far more antagonistically to me than the Kristie-Bot, after all.
“John?” I asked Butler, who’d been quiet and looked contemplative.
“No,” he said slowly. “This place is wonderful but . . . it’s not where I fit.” He smiled at me. “I need to help and protect. I do that with you. I’m happy with things as they are.”
“Good to know you’re all coming with us. I’d have missed you if you’d said you were staying, even Kristie. Sorta.”