“They didn’t. Not in this form. There was a wild creature that was much smaller and prone to predation. The symbiotic trigger allows them to survive and flourish.”
“Wow. In a few thousand years, the stars will be full of Yaluthu and Terrans.”
He chuckled. “I promise to take you on a trip when that happens.”
She paused, “I am not going to be around in a few thousand years.”
“If you, I, and Iratho are still linked together, you will.”
“And Rumble.”
“And Rumble.”
They stood together for a moment while the sound of the lab’s equipment hummed around them. Rumble began his happy vibration, and Rokar smiled, she smiled, and they returned to the group of specialists in the common area.
“The dust has settled, Adelheid. You can approach the storage unit now.”
Addy grimaced and winked at Deahlia. “I think I will need backup.”
Her niece got to her feet and followed her to the entrance. Rokar hung back and nodded his encouragement.
This time, the exit into the outdoors went smoothly.
Deahlia walked toward the huge box, and she brushed the dust off the pad. “It will open for you or me. Anyone with our bloodline.”
Addy stepped forward and pressed her hand to the pad. “This is so much fun. It feels like Christmas.”
The door hissed, releasing the pressurised atmosphere within.
Deahlia grinned. “Funny you should say that.”
Addy walked into the storage unit and the grin on her face couldn’t be contained. “It’s Christmas.”
She looked around her, and everywhere she looked there was shiny paper, bows, sparkly garlands and twisted ribbons. The boxes lined the walls. “What is this?”
Deahlia smiled at her. “When I was growing up, we were all told stories about Aunt Adelheid and her trip to the stars. Mom said that you were safe and asleep, but that we couldn’t forget you, so every year when we waited for gifts from Santa, we made presents for you because Santa couldn’t find you.”
Tears started to track down Addy’s cheeks. “How many?”
“Well, sometimes we got a little carried away, and after I came out to the stars, I got a gift everywhere I went, and so, there are currently four hundred and ninety-seven gifts. Each has a letter, some boxes are just filled with a year of letters, but it is the response to the Alliance when they told my mom what had happened to you, and they asked her if there was anything they could do for the family.” Deahlia came up next to her and hugged her. “You have been our Christmas tradition.”
Addy started to sob, and Rumble hummed and growled low. It nearly worked. The ground only shifted a little in a slow and steady vibration that mimicked the waves of emotion through her brain.
It was Deahlia’s clutching her in panic that pulled her back to control.
“Right. Well, I am at a quandary. I don’t know if I should come out here to open something or I should bring them all inside.”
Her suit chirped, and the small speaker at the neckline spoke. “I will have it brought to the cargo area.”
Addy chuckled. “Thanks, Rocky.”
Deahlia whispered, “Is it just me, or is the computer voice and the Avatar’s voice remarkably similar.”
“Yeah, they are similar. Rocky was programmed as a companion.”
Rumble was still concerned, so Addy gave him an assignment. “Go and find me something to open.”
He hopped off her shoulder, and he frolicked among the parcels.
Deahlia asked, “You really don’t mind him? He was a nightmare on the trip.”
“I really don’t. Even Rokar is getting used to him.” She smiled.
“How does that work? Are you mates?”
“The Drai can identify potential mates from a distance, and he knew I was his while I was imprisoned at the lab. When he could get a team to me, it was the same day that the experiments bore fruit.” She was suddenly concerned. “They didn’t have to do anything to you, did they?”
“No. I always had a penchant for plants. When the recruitment centre near my house told me that there was a placement for me, I grabbed it. I met our Avatar, had what an Avatar was explained to me, and once at the Lunar Base, I learned all about your actual situation. I have seen the scans, I can’t believe you survived.”
A large box with a huge bow on it was tapping Addy on the leg.
“We come from a long line of women who have survival skills. You should see your mom skin a deer.” She winked and took the box. “Thank you, Rumble.”
Deahlia looked at the box, and she hunched down, leaning against the pile behind her.
On the box was a series of handprints. They were all different sizes and obviously male and female.
“Keep the paper. This was the last one that Gran and Da were there for. They wanted the entire family to send it that year, so they paid for everyone to fly in and everyone marked it.”
Addy picked at the paper and eventually just slid the ribbon that was holding the whole thing together. She brushed the tear from her eye and carefully folded the paper.
The box was filled with items from around the Earth. “They have all travelled.”
Deahlia smiled. “Not as far as you, but they did what they could. Once you volunteered, we had a sudden burst of motivation. Mom was the only one who stayed in her home because she wanted to be a touch point for the rest of us. It worked.”
“It really did. I think I need a bigger room.”
“When the Citadel capsule is set off in our ship, you will have all the space you need, Aunty Administrator.”
Addy smiled and flicked the top of a bobble head. “I won’t pretend that the idea doesn’t terrify me, but I can and will do my best for the folks on Iratho. So many of them are descended from the original Volunteers, women and men I might have met. Even the older survivors are going to be welcome here.”
“Wow. Will Rokar-Iratho agree to that?”
“He will. He’s my mate, and he wants me happy. I am only too eager to take controlled advantage of that if it makes Iratho a place for learning, evolution, and protection.”
“The computer is listening.”
Rocky spoke, and there was a smile in the computer-generated voice. “I am listening, and I can agree on behalf of Rokar. Everything that has been done has been done to make a home that Adelheid would approve of. She is more than welcome to design her base, her home.”
Addy chuckled and kept digging through the box of love from her family and her world.
Epilogue
Addy activated the trigger, and her base and the landing craft slowly dissolved into swirling, grey dust.
Rokar-Iratho kept her at a safe distance, not even flapping his wings. “Here it goes.”
“If this doesn’t work, I am going to have to stay at your place tonight, and while I love it, I have gotten used to floating in a hostile environment.”
“I have never seen anyone thrive, as you do, in a hostile environment.”
She chuckled and petted Rumble in the harness on the front of her suit.
“Thank you for the compliment, but there are folk on the surface, and under it, that had been through a lot more.”
“Yes, but they don’t have to contain the planet-destroying talent that you are handling with ease.”