All That Glitters Ch. 45

At twenty-eight billion credits, this had been an expensive trip. However, it would lead to the advancement of her people as a whole. It would also lead to independence for the need of Djinaëte ships. She was quite pleased with herself and with Pallanders.

Cynthia Stewart snuck in an interview with both Imperial couples asking them what it meant to have the kind of independence they would now have. The resulting story was a watershed for the two races. Her follow-on interview with François Pallanders would peak the interest of people with the kind of money to buy his ships. Added to the general interviews going out about the Trade Summit, Pallanders was more than happy to have Cynthia add his interview to the list. It would help drum up business for Pallanders.

The trip back to Liramor-23 was an exciting one for the two imperial couples, who were animatedly talking about what this would all mean for their respective peoples. All-in-all, the two ruling pairs were well pleased with their side trip.

Food Court, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Annagrace Pelletier was one upset little girl. She and her mother had just arrived on Liramor-23 to be with her Pappa but at four years old, Annagrace did not want to be the only little girl on the station.

They had just come down to the Food Court for lunch as a family when Annagrace spied something odd. Children!! There were other children here!

Annagrace ran over to the two little ones sitting with what she assumed was their family, however, there were a lot of strange looking people sitting around the table with them and she found herself stopping short of the group because of these strangers.

*Annagrace, what are you doing?* her mother scolded her in French, causing the people at the table to turn to look at them. One of them, a beautiful woman, rose and came over to the small family, gracefully kneeling down in front of Annagrace.

*Hello, Annagrace, I am Junelliya Harlen,* she told the child, speaking in French and looking up to her parents.

*I am Annagrace Pelletier. We are from Liramor Prime. We came here because my Pappa works here,* she told the pretty woman in a flurry of words.

"Hello, Junelliya, I am Gwendolyn Toussaint and this is my husband, Girard Pelletier," the girl's mother introduced her family in Standard.

"Welcome to Liramor-23. Would you like to meet my two daughters?" Junelliya asked, pointedly looking at Annagrace, whose little face lit up in a smile.

"Wait, both of them are your daughters?" Gwendolyn asked, getting a laugh from Hanalei.

"Hello, I am Hanalei Anar, Junelliya is my co-mate," she explained, only getting a look of confusion from the other couple.

"We are from Anuura," Junelliya informed them, rising just as gracefully as she had knelt. "Plural marriages are permitted there. With our husband, we are a married trine. The little one, Zarrenia, is my biological daughter, the older one, Ikekia, is my family daughter. Under Anuuran law, Ikekia is just as much my daughter as Zarrenia is."

"Zarrenia and Ikekia, such interesting names," Girard said.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," Hanalei laughed bringing the little family over to the table. "This is Ikekia Fatima Tema Se-Lam Poda-Rai-Dosri, and this is Zarrenia Henadi Se-Lam Poda-Rai-Latti."

"My, such impressive names," Gwendolyn said.

"It is a long story," Junelliya smiled. "It is best discussed over tea in our apartment, L-1229, whenever you can make it over."

"I would like to hear this story and I think Annagrace would like to play with the children, if it is permitted," Gwendolyn asked, employing a hopeful look for her little girl.

"Of course it is permitted," Junelliya confirmed. "You will also need to meet our Nanny, Takebayashi Urano, who will be opening a day care here on Liramor-23 soon."

That got a smile from both of Annagrace's parents. Gwendolyn wasn't sure how limiting it would be career wise if she had to take care of Annagrace 24/7.

They sat down at the table and Ikekia greeted them. "Me, Ikeki!" she told them with a smile. "Zawwy," she said pointing at her sister, who helpfully said "Me!"

"I am Annagrace," said the four-year-old, smiling at the two children. She chatted amicably with Ikekia who regaled her with all that she and her sister were doing that day.

"How old are your children?" Gwendolyn asked.

"Me ewevn," Ikekia said, holding up all her fingers then one. "Zawwy nine and half," she held up nine fingers and tried to figure out how to make a half finger but just got frustrated.

"Wow, so talkative at such a young age," Gwendolyn noted, getting a big smile from Ikekia.

"Me, ta," Zawwy said.

"Are you trying to say talk?" Annagrace asked Zarrenia.

Zarrenia reached out to touch her sister, they both looked at each other then Ikekia looked at Annagrace.

"Zawwy say, you nice," she told the older girl. The two children turned their heads to look each other and Ikekia spoke again. "Zawwy say, we be fwends."

Gwendolyn thought it was cute the way the children acted like that. "Do they do that all the time?" she asked Junelliya.

"Yes. Zarrenia cannot speak verbally yet, so Ikekia interprets for her, even though she too has limited verbal skills," Junelliya replied nonchalantly.

Gwendolyn thought that comment rather odd but put it aside. "Who are the other, people?, here," she asked, looking at the Pod-Drran.

"This is Mind-Ur, the Phrat-Mahi, or first female, of the House of Ur," Mind-Ur held up a hand to wave as she had a mouthful of her favourite BBQ ribs.

"Beside her is Caye-Ur, who is the House's Merchant," Caye gave the new family a smile and a nod of her head. "She is the owner of Pod-Nalii, the Pod-Drran goods store on level two of the Concourse and is the person who is running the House of Ur Trading Company which deals mostly with the Interspecies Community.

"Then there are the famous Dr. Kayl-Ur and her mate Nurse Hend-Ur," the two gave her good-natured smiles and welcomed them as a new family to Liramor-23. "Their vids on Pod-Drran physiology and medical practices are a must see for any doctor or nurse wanting to be certified on other species.

"Then there is Dr. Lent-Ur, doctor of engineering." Lent gave them a wave as he too had a mouthful of food.

"There are more of the House of Ur. They are not here at the moment but they are always coming around for our cooking so they are usually underfoot in our quarters," Hanalei stated, good naturedly.

Suddenly, a presence loomed over the table and the small family looked up into the eyes of their very first Toolend.

"And who do we have here?" the creature asked in very passible Standard.

"Tugwate!" Ikekia giggled, smiling up at the Toolend.

"Hello, Ikekia, Zarrenia, have you made a new friend?" erht asked.

"Yes, her name Annagwace," Ikekia agreed.

"Is that so?" Tougrate asked. "We are pleased to meet you, Annagwace," erht told her, extending erht's tentacles outwards so that erht lowered its eyes down almost to Annagrace's level. "It is always nice to meet a new little human on this station."

"Tougrate is a member of the Toolend delegation here on Liramor-23," Junelliya announced to the new family. "Erht is a doctor working to get erht's medical certificate to work on humans and other species."

"Erht?" Gwendolyn asked, confused.

"We Toolend do not have fixed genders, being able to act as either the male or the female depending on circumstances. So we tend to refer to ourselves with the neutral pronoun, 'Erht'," Tougrate explained.

Suddenly, a small animal landed on the table in front of Annagrace and bobbed up and down, chittering excitedly. It looked like a squirrel with scales instead of fur and funny looking, straight feathers. The teeth made Gwendolyn uncertain about it being so close to her child.

"Ya! Juneya happy, she like Annagwace," Ikekia told them all.

"Juneya, be nice and say hi to Annagrace's parents," Junelliya scolded the Cat.

Juneya walked over and bobbed her head several times in front of Gwendolyn and then in front of Girard, then swiftly returned to Annagrace.

Hanalei laughed. "Sherm's Cats like children. They will play with Annagrace anytime she comes to see us. You will never find more loyal nor more protective friends once the Cats come to like you."

Two more of the little creatures landed on the table beside the first as a man with a tray of food sat down between Junelliya and Hanalei and two other women sat down at the table.

"Who have we here?" the man asked as he passed out plates of food to his wives and the children.

"Gwendolyn Toussaint, Girard Pelletier, and their daughter, Annagrace Pelletier, this is our husband, Fayad Piscium," Hanalei introduced all.

"Wait, Fayad Piscium, as in the Assistant Director of Liramor-23?" Girard asked, his voice rising at the end.

"The same," Fayad agreed. "However, I am in Dad mode right now, so it is simply Fayad to my friends, or daddy to my children," he said with a smile.

"Annagrace saw the children and walked right up to our table before she discovered that our friends were here," Hanalei said with a wicked grin, pointing to the Pod-Drran.

"Really?" Fayad said. "That was very brave. Were you not a little afraid of our friends?"

"A little," Annagrace admitted, "but the children were happy to be with them," Annagrace reasoned.

That got smiles from around the table.

"You will have to be happy with other people. All kinds show up at the Piscium's apartment," Mind-Ur stated, factually.

"Is ok," Ikekia told them. "Dey teach me and Zawwy tawk."

"Oh, yes. Everyone of our friends have given our children learning blocks in their languages and are teaching them words in those languages. Our two little geniuses are learning over a dozen languages as they learn Standard," Hanalei laughed.

"Can you teach me how to speak them too?" Annagrace asked shyly.

"Yes, you come home, we show," Ikekia assured her, while Zarrenia gave her a positive nod of her head. Once again Gwendolyn noted the interplay between the two little children. Her curiosity about them moved up a notch.

"This is Takebayashi Urano," Junelliya pointed out a small woman with Asian features. "And this is Clarrisiya. She is working with Urano and the children."

"You have two Nannies?" Gwendolyn asked, surprised. She was looking candidly at Clarrisiya, who she surmised was from Hollander's World by her hair but she had very pale skin. People from Hollander's World generally had an off-copper hue to their skin.

"No, Clarrisiya is a specialist that works with gifted children," Hanalei explained.

That piqued Gwendolyn's interest. The things she had noted about the children must be true then. It was obvious that Ikekia was very talkative for her age and the way she 'interpreted' her sister's thoughts was just darling.

Yes, they would definitely have to make a visit to the Piscium quarters. The families stayed together most of the morning, talking and getting to know each other as the table was frequented by many members of the Interspecies Community, who stopped by to say hi to the Pisciums and then included the Pelletier's in their conversations. Gwendolyn realized that the Piscium family was well connected and well known.

Central Control, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Fayad had just returned to Central Control after lunch with his family when he was interrupted by the Comms O.

"Sir, Comms Probe Delta One has returned," the Comms O reported.

Fayad was aware that Probe Delta One was the probe dedicated to the Maha-Rrin. "Very well, strip the memory from the probe and have it docked for maintenance. It has been out long enough," Fayad ordered.

He contacted Ambassador Nar-Tre and Capt. Whatt and informed them of the probe's return.

"The Wanderer has not yet returned from its side trip to Liramor Prime," Whatt informed Fayad. We expect them back at any time; however, you know how business trips can become extended."

"Got it, do we want to postpone looking at the messages until after their return or do you want to pull the current members of the Maha-Rrin team together to view it?" Fayad asked.

"It would be better to wait for the return of The Wanderer as the Kumar-Pair will be interested in the returns," Nar-Tre said. Fayad agreed, he could wait for a few hours.

Conference Room Two, Delta Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

The Wanderer returned less than an hour later and Fayad asked Lissette to get the team together in Conference Room Two, he also asked Nar-Tre to extend an invitation to the Kumar-Pair for the viewing of the message.

The team came together rather quickly, with the addition of the Kumar-Pair, the Imperial Seneschal, and Kad-Hal Kumir-Sai-Rai, the head of the Imperial Gerlendie Guard. Lissette quickly ran through the minutes of the last meeting before turning the floor over to the scientists.

The scientists had stripped the information off of the probe's memory and put the modified data up on the monitor. They quickly went through the data and informed the group that no new information on the planet nor its system was available from the probe this time around.

Lissette then played the original message from Nar-Tre to the Maha-Rrin and then opened the return message. They saw a female Maha-Rrin, obviously the head of the government, sitting at the head of a table that had several other Maha-Rrin around it...

"Hello from the Maha-Rrin. I am the Pemipinae Melda-Hetta, the elected ruler of the Maha-Rrin, and this is my cabinet.

"Forgive us for speaking in our language, which you seem to be familiar with. We are grateful for the message that you have sent us, especially for the fact that the Pod-Drran have been contacted by other species.

"The information bricks that you included were quite amazing, especially the information on the species called 'humans' in which area of control our planet, and yours, seems to reside.

"We wonder if the Pod-Drran have made a pact with the humans on the control of their area of space and if so, can we, the Maha-Rrin, also enter into such a pact?

"We are open to a face-to-face meeting between us and the installation of an 'ICS' antennae that you alluded to in your information bricks, to allow our people to have instant communications with you and others.

"We have much to discuss and much to overcome between our peoples. We are particularly curious why you believe that now is the time to end our mutual isolation?

"We look forward to your future communications. Thank-you for reaching out to us."

The Pemipinae made a formal bow and the message ended.

"Kumaraie?" Fiona asked.

"I think that they are still suspicious of us," the Kumaraie informed the group. "Like it did with us, this communication has come out of the blue, as you humans say, and things that come from out of nowhere are suspicious to us and our kin, the Maha-Rrin. This we understand. What we need to do is make deliberate contact with the Maha-Rrin and allow them to make their own decisions on whether to engage us or not.

"This can only be done when they have more information. We need to get them an ICS antennae and allow for instant contact, but we need to limit that contact for now. At least until the Maha-Rrin has shown their real intentions," the Kumaraie finished.

"You suspect them of having other intentions?" Fiona asked.

"We did, when we first were contacted by you. I have no doubt that the Maha-Rrin are suspicious of us, at least, and probably of the Greater Community. When we originally left our home Ruhm-Oran, so many millennia ago, the two factions did not leave on the best of terms. There was dissent between us on how best to get the people off-world and where to bring them. This eventually led to open warfare between our factions and the admonition of the priests of Poda-La, who reminded us of the predictions of our Goddess who said the two factions would go their separate ways for many millennia.

"The Goddess also predicted that the people would come together again for the advancement of the whole. The additional prophecy by the Atohan has now formalized that earlier prediction. We are in the time of either the reunification of the people, or our death as a people.

"We must convince the Maha-Rrin of the need to come together again, despite their distrust of the Pod-Drran," the Kumaraie stated.

"Very well, since the Maha-Rrin have already seen Nar-Tre, Mind-Ur, and Caye-Ur, I would suggest that they become the face of our face-to-face meetings. We will have to provide a small ship for them to make this contact and also provide a Pod-Drran technician to help install the ICS antennae wherever they wish us to install it. However, we will limit the capability of the antennae to allow for contact to us here. That communications system will be continuously 'manned' by our people, both human and Pod-Drran, for any communications between the Maha-Rrin and Liramor-23.

"For most comms, Nar-Tre will be the face of the Greater Community, though we will play it by ear, as we humans say," Fiona said with a smile.

Piscium Family Quarters, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Junelliya and Hanalei were cooking supper for the family later that day. As always, they made extra as they never knew who would grace their door.

The door chimed and Fayad went to open it, only to be confronted by a rather large Asocan.

"Asoc, welcome to our home," Fayad said with a bow.

"Please, Fayad, no formality, this is your home and I and my mate are your guests, if we are welcome?" the Asoc asked, pointedly.

"Most assuredly," Junelliya called out from the kitchen. "We are just sitting down to eat. There is plenty here if you would like to join us?"

The Asoc's two guards posted themselves inside and on either side of the door.

"Huwl< ana, Asoc, (welcome, Asoc)" Ikekia said, standing and making the gesture of one younger greeting one older. Little Zarrenia sat up and repeated the hand sign her sister made but was unable to articulate any of the words.

"Well done, Ikekia," the Asost praised the little girl. "You are doing much better in Asocan."

"I teach, Zawwy," Ikekia told them, showing them letter blocks in the Asocan language, which was spelling out a word in the language that both the Asocan's recognized. They noted the number of blocks in many different languages.

"Very impressive, Ikekia," the Asoc acknowledged.

"This is your home?" the Asoc asked, looking around at what would be cramped quarters for her.

That got a laugh from Hanalei. "Until recently, we had even less room. That we took on staff members, Violletiya, Takebayashi Urano, and Sylvie Kinlo allowed us to gain larger quarters. Space is always at a premium on a deep space mining platform."

"Yes, you had said that you became wealthy and that allowed you to fund your new ship and hire your new staff," the Asoc remembered.

Suddenly, something grabbed hold of the Asoc's foot. Startled, she looked down to see Zarrenia sitting on her foot and laughing as she looked up into her face.

Junelliya laughed at the look of surprise on the Asoc's face. "Just make your way over to the table, Asoc. Zarrenia usually rides her father's foot this time of day."

The Asoc rumbled in pure bliss. She had never had a member of her own clutch do this. But then, young clutch members were water bound. By the time they left the water, around two years of age, they were too large to ride a foot...

The Asoc walked over to the table, a rather easy feat even with a child riding one of hers. Ikekia was running around the Asoc's feet cheering her little sister on as she rode the large foot. The large female was wary of accidentally stepping on one of the small children. Fortunately, it wasn't far to the table. The children were picked up and placed in special chairs around the table, space being left for the Asoc and Asost, who did not need a chair. They settled onto their tails as Hanalei lifted the lid on a pot.