“Or else,” Jeff added calmly, but with a lot of threat lurking. I totally approved.
“The planet cannot be revived,” Sandy said sadly. “It is merely a ball of rock now. In time, it will be considered this planet’s moon. But life will never find a way there again.”
“Then it’s ‘make sure the tree people like it here or else’ for all of you.”
“You threaten us?” Sandy sounded amused.
I wasn’t. “I do. All of you could have stopped this. Hell, one of you could have stopped this. But you didn’t. And then, when it was all going totally sideways, you forced me and mine to handle it. Well, guess what? We did. And we’re pissed. You have a freaking obligation to keep your nebula alive. You do, not us. But you’re all so hands-off that you abdicated that responsibility. At least Grumpy and Dopey were trying. They muffed it, like children can without adult supervision or assistance. But they had as much chance of succeeding as failing, and, again, at least they tried. Now it’s up to you, as the adults, to fix it. Not to claim that you had nothing to do with the situation. Grumpy and Dopey are yours. Ipso facto don’t piss me off anymore-o, you will fix or you will pay. And, by now, I do know how to make you pay.”
He tried the stare-off. It should have been harder to win, but it wasn’t. Sandy looked down. “Yes, you’re right.”
What might have been an all-green oak tree with legs, arms, and a sorta face appeared with us. It was far less humanoid than the Faradawn, whom we’d first met during Operation Immigration. The Faradawn were treelike people—very treelike but still more humanoid than arboreal. This was a tree—with roots, branches, bark, and leaves—that sorta looked like a person. Said tree also looked shocked. Sandy touched it, and it didn’t look shocked anymore. Apparently he had the Recap Touch. Handy.
“I am Neela,” she said, sounding a little creaky but otherwise quite pretty. “I lead our people. I understand that our brother planet offers us haven?”
Hixxx nodded. “We do. We hope that you can find our world hospitable.”
My music changed to KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse & The Cherry Tree” and I mentally thanked Algar for keeping it light.
“May I?” she asked.
“Of course.”
Neela sank her roots into the ground and closed her eyes. “Your water is . . . supercharged.” Her eyes opened. “Your magic is within it.”
“If that is what you call it, yes. Our essence is within it. We live and die in our water. Will it harm you?”
“No, I believe it will strengthen us. I can but hope that what we return to the soil and the air will strengthen you.” She extended a branch to Hixxx. Since Hixxx was at least fifty yards away, this was impressive.
He took her branch in his mouth, but gently. Then he released it. “I believe that you will cause no harm and may, in fact, help us to strengthen as well.”
“Super. Sandy, make it so. Get all of Neela’s people here, pronto.”
He nodded and suddenly we had a forest around us. “They are all here.”
“Great. Um, it’s a little crowded.”
Neela laughed. It sounded like wind in leaves. “We will move over the world and spread out, with our hosts’ permission.”
“Not your hosts,” Hixxx said. “Your family.” He looked at me. “The other animals, will they harm our new brethren?”
“Not in any real way. They eat grass and nuts and things, but while a full-sized elephant can wrench a tree out of the ground, they’d need a reason to do so. They also don’t eat each other—they’re all herbivores.”
“In case you are concerned,” Hixxx said, “my people, despite all our teeth, are not meat eaters. Our food sources just require teeth such as ours in order to excavate the edible portions from their shells.”
“Lobsters and oysters and such?”
“No, we have nothing like those here. Edible rocks would be a better description, along with other water-based plants.”
Didn’t sound good to me, but Hixxx probably wasn’t going to think a steak sounded tasty, either. “Different strokes and all that.”
“If you say so. I must submerge. I will return soon, with the other animals. Sister Neela, advise me or one of my people should these animals cause any of your people pain.”
“I will.” She looked at me as Hixxx went under. “These others, these herbivores, what else do they eat?”
“Ummm . . . Chuckie, you’re up.”
He laughed. “I can advise you. None of them eat trees.”
She shook her leaves. “That is not my concern. I wish to provide what sustenance they need. We can create other aspects of ourselves. Nonsentient aspects,” she added, presumably to the looks of horror that were on most of our faces.
“Sounds good since it no longer sounds like cannibalism or the offering of babies for slaughter.”
Neela laughed again. “No, we would never condone that.” She made some movements with her branches and the other tree people started moving out, presumably to find the places they wanted to plant themselves. Literally.
“This is awfully easy,” Reader said quietly. “The easiest detente I think we’ve ever had.”
“I think it’s because both leaders aren’t warlike,” Jeff said. “Neela’s people were frightened, Hixxx’s were angry, but mostly they just want to live in peace. They’re both homogenous races, with almost no friction that I’ve picked up.”
“Wow, peaceful races? We need to make hella sure this planet is protected.” Resolved to get that Galactic Decree sent via whatever means Mother could manage. This place needed protecting sooner than whenever we got back. My music changed to the Eurythmics’ “I Saved the World Today,” which was nice to hear, both sonically and because I hoped this was Algar telling me that it was all going to work out on Planet Black.
“I agree,” Jeff said. “Speaking of which, what’s this planet called?”
“We called it Night World,” Neela said. Well, kinda close to Planet Black. “And our world Tropea. But I do not know what Brother Hixxx calls his home.”
Looked at Dopey. “Did you ever ask him?”
“No,” Dopey admitted.
“Typical,” Tim muttered.
SuperBun shared that Hixxx called this world Nazez. I shared that with the others.
“What do you call yourselves?” I asked Neela. “And SuperBun, feel free to chime in with what Hixxx’s people call themselves.”
“We are the Dawar,” Neela said.
Per SuperBun, the sea serpents were the Ezkot.
“Good names, and we’ll have them added to the Galactic Register, which actually exists, lucky all of us. Now for Grumpy and Dopey.”
“No,” Chuckie said firmly. “Now for us.”
CHAPTER 43
CHUCKIE SIGHED AT OUR expressions. “Really? You’ve all forgotten this soon? Chlorophyll. We need it, or we’re going to have to take Hixxx up on his offer—and there are a lot of carnivores on the ship. I’m not sure how well we’ll all do with a grass-only diet.”
SuperBun didn’t like where this was going, since we’d shared that we ate rabbits.