All That Glitters Ch. 60

The Thimble and Needle Clothing Shop, Concours, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Two little children were being seen by Arlene Vautor at her shop on the Concours. They were rather excited as they had not known they were getting new dresses. They would be surprised.

"Hi Aunty Liea, Aunty Kim," the children greeted their family friends.

"Hello children," Liea gave the pair hugs. "You probably are wondering why you have been called here today. Well, Raymond and I have a gift for you and Madame Vautor is going to help you show it off to us."

The children went behind the curtain and then Hanalei and Junelliya heard them squeal in excitement. They both gave curious looks to Liea but she just smiled and told them to be patient. A few moments later, the curtain opened and...

Two little girls came out and showed off their outfits to the others. They were wearing miniature jumpsuits in the colours of The Trine, both of them with pilot's sunglasses on their heads. They spun in place to show off their outfits with huge, bright smiles on their little faces.

"Now these outfits are very special," Arlene explained. "They are actually Personal Security Suits and will protect our two little ones from quite a bit. I have also tailored a plate to attach your comps to on the outside of your suit, the plate allows for contact to your skin so the comp will activate.

"These suits are also special in another manner. I am aware that our two little stars are interested in many different things so these PSS have a camo setting on them that allows them to change colours as needed.

"If you press the red cross at the bottom of the cuffs for three seconds..."

The children did as requested and suddenly the PSS changed colour to Medical White with their names under the Red Cross medical symbol. Their first names were under the cross and under their names was the term 'Harsgarrand' (Asocan for Medical Apprentice).

The children ran through the other buttons and discovered that they had the black of security, the green of maintenance, and again the colours of The Trine but this time with the word 'Trainee' under their names.

"Now, if you simultaneously press the two buttons under your neck," Arlene showed them where to press and watched as electronic bubbles formed around their heads. You are now able to go into vacuum, so these suits can function as Emergency Escape Suits."

"As well, while the suits are in Security mode, they have protection against power weapons," Arlene informed the girls.

"These suits have the same protective arrangements as the ones made for both of you and Fayad," Liea told the adults. She got hugs from the two mothers for that.

"Liea, this must have cost you a small fortune!" Hanalei exclaimed.

"Well worth it, Hanalei. Besides, I can afford it," Liea told them. "And the protection from power weapons is constant, not just while in security mode. We just told the children that to take their minds off things."

The mothers both grinned at that. They were sure that their children would figure that out for themselves.

Pallanders-Two Shipbuilding Station, In Orbit of Liramor Prime

The Trine slid into the VIP slot and Seeka, with her entourage, Arttra, Porra, the Piscium Family, sans Fayad who was working, and the always present Cynthia Stewart, all stepped out excitedly. They were greeted by none other than François Pallanders.

"Welcome, Seeka, to Pallanders Two," he greeted them. "I am very pleased to finally greet you in person."

"You flatter me, Mr. Pallanders," Seeka replied. "It is I who am pleased to meet you this day. After all, it is a very special day for me!"

François guided them to the special bay where the commissioning ceremony would take place and the group finally got to see the new ship.

The name 'CASTADA' in Byandi script, was emblazoned on the bow of a Trine Class ship painted in Seeka's favourite colours. She and the Piscium children cooed when they saw it.

"Pretty," Zarreniya said with a smile to Seeka, who returned the smile.

"Why 'Castada'?" Hanalei asked.

"It is part of the title of my very first hit song, 'Castada sa Mylatina'," Seeka replied.

"Ooooh! That be 'In the Castle of Mylatin!' We not know song. We need look up," the children simpered, getting a smile from Seeka and her entourage.

"That is close, children, it actually means 'Mylatin's Sky Castle," Arttra informed them. The children called it up on their comp and were soon listening to and singing along with the refrain from the song, the Byandi of Seeka's entourage clapping along with them.

Byandi from all over the Pallanders' Shipyards started arriving for this special occasion, most to see and possibly meet with their favourite singer.

François took Seeka up to a small platform and explained what she needed to do while Cynthia began setting the groundwork for a news clip with shots of the 'crowd' which was surprisingly larger than expected as many of the Byandi Hull Riggers and engineers working for Pallanders and not on duty had made an appearance for this special occasion.

Seeka was in her element, playing to the crowd of fans. She called up her friend and fellow entertainer, Arttra to help her christen her ship.

"I name this ship, 'CASTADA', first of her name!" she called out and then she and Arttra pulled the lever that sent the small bottle of sparking wine across to smash against the hull, while the crowd cheered, except for a few hull workers who lamented the destruction of good wine...

Seeka signed a few autographs and then met her crew which, with the exception of the captain and Chief Engineer, were Byandi.

"Captain Julliette Abreo and Engineer Karalina Bazin are contracted by us for the next year until the current batch of Byandi have completed their training for Master of Marine Transport (Space), and Chief Engineer, at which point you will have options to hire an all Byandi staff. It takes time to certify in either position," François explained. "These two have been working on learning the Byandi language but they will admit to being somewhat new to it."

Seeka smiled at that. "Keneta Abreo, Seetanda (Engineer) Bazin, I welcome you both to my ship and hope we can finish your language training while you are with us."

That got nods of appreciation from the two humans.

They took a tour of the new ship which only lacked a pool for the Byandi but Dr. Gend-Ur had created a new shower pack that, could be attached to any shower, designed for each species that provided the nutrients for the skin of the Byandi and the Asocans, nutrients needed to keep their skin healthy. The product was going to make the House of Ur wealthy as it could easily be converted for use in every shower on every one of the Byandi and Asocan ships that were too small to have a pool.

Seeka was ecstatic that she finally had the independence she needed with this new ship. She was very pleased with the ship despite the cost, which was considerable but well within her means.

The trip down to Liramor Prime and Maricran Music was a bit anticlimactic as the trio of artists stopped in to Galina's sound studio to record a few sessions. Seeka could be seen smiling all day long...

L-1984 The Piscium Apartment, Lima Deck, Liramor-23, The Piscium System

It was early December and as the expected date for Midrranna approached the two girls became preoccupied by the event. Ikekiya was becoming moody and Zarreniya was reacting to her sister. She understood that her sister was afraid but did not understand why her sister did not want to play with her or do the things they normally did. That made her sad and, for the first time ever, she spent much more time with her parents than with her sister.

It was early in the morning of the nineth of December when Junelliya suddenly woke from a fitful dream. Juneya was rubbing her head against her and making a plaintive sound in her ear. Something was wrong...

Junelliya quickly woke Hanalei then crawled over her husband to get to where she had left her dress, waking him as well. The three quietly moved into the dining area to see two little girls with two cats riding their shoulders, starring out into space.

"Ikekiya?" Junelliya asked. Both girls simultaneously raised their hands and pointed to a spot in space. A moment later a star bloomed where they were pointing.

Junelliya's heart jumped into her throat as the meaning of the bloom struck her.

Fayad received an emergency notice on his comp from Control. "I see it," he informed them.

"Notify Fiona and Juliana please," He ordered. He then called Raymond on The Wanderer.

"Fayad?" he heard Raymond's half-a-sleep voice.

"Raymond, the bloom is a day early," was all the Fayad said, then cut the link.

The Wanderer, In Orbit of Liramor-23, The Piscium System

Raymond connected to the Bridge. "Bridge, have science check in the location that we are watching immediately."

"Sir, the Science O has just reported the event we were asked to look for, I was about to call you," the OOD (Officer On Duty) informed him.

"I'm on my way to the Battle Bridge, call in the seniors," Raymond ordered.

He went across the hall and woke Liea explaining what was happening, then called Kim and Gillaya to meet them in the Battle Bridge, which was his next stop.

MCPO Bridget O'Neil was the first to arrive. Raymond had her organize breakfast for the group of expected people.

"Coms O, call Fayad and ask if we can speak with Ikekiya," Raymond ordered as more people began to arrive.

"Hi Uncle Raymond," he heard as soon as Fayad's comp was connected. He smiled to those around him.

"What can you tell me, Ikekiya?" Raymond asked.

"You say need to find place of planet now," Ikekiya said.

"Damn, I knew this wouldn't be easy," Raymond muttered.

"I heard that Uncle Raymond. You put money in swear jar," Ikekiya teased getting laughter from the group on the Wanderer.

"OK. Has anyone informed the Pod-Drran Ambassadors?" asked Raymond.

"Junelliya is doing that now, Raymond," Hanalei replied. Fayad moved the link to the monitor in the living room while Hanalei made tea and snacks for everyone in lieu of breakfast. Now everyone could see each other.

The door chimed and the two Ambassadors and their aide entered the apartment. Their own apartment was in the wrong location to see the bloom. All three fell to their knees on seeing the star which was quite clear in front of them.

"Nar-Tree, we need to inform the palace," Junelliya gently reminded them, spurring the duo into action.

The Palace, Capital City, Pod-Saar, The Sharanas System

Prakeshya came into her parents room and woke them up. "Midrranna has returned Marti," she informed them. They quickly rose as the Seneschal came to their door.

"Kumaraie, there is an urgent call..."

"From our Ambassadors on Liramor-23," the Kumaraie cut him off. "We are aware. Is the small throne room ready?"

"Yes, Kumaraie," the Seneschal replied.

They quickly set themselves up and opened the link only to find Nar-Tre and her mate in the Piscium apartment. They aimed the view from the comp out the window and the Kumar-Pair could immediately see a star larger than the others. The bloom was manifest. Midrranna had indeed returned.

The Kumaraie suddenly found herself looking out into the living room with half of their monitor looking at what she suspected was the VIP Conference Room of The Wanderer, which had several people scurrying around frantically.

The Piscium family looked rather calm, Junelliya and Fayad each sitting at one end of their couch with the children sitting between them, drinking tea, and eating some kind of rice cakes while Hanalei stood behind them. All the adults rose and gave a short bow to the Kumar-Pair, while the children waved their hands at Prakeshya.

"Good morning God-ma!" Zarreniya called out with a smile. "Sorry so early."

"Not at all, Zarreniya," the Kumaroe replied. "It is an important event."

The door chimed and Hanalei let Alafka and her troupe in. "We heard that morning exercise was cancelled because of a star. We had heard rumours about that and that your family was involved, so we came here," Marrallan explained before the family could ask.

Alafka noted the Kumar-Pair on the screen. She and her entourage gave a low bow to the pair.

"What? Breakfast is not started?" Saalaa demanded. "Marrallan, come help." The pair teamed up and started breakfast for all. There were always things in the Piscium house for those of other races so they also made breakfast for themselves and the two Ambassadors.

On Pod-Saar, the Seneschal took the hint and had breakfast brought in for the Kumar-Pair, their brood, and their Kumir-Rai/Ro. Not long after, the Pemipinae was wheeled in with her High Priestess Varnela-Henad. The Pod-Drran High Priestess came in not long after.

Fiona and her group showed up at the Piscium apartment not long after, just in time to eat.

On The Wanderer, people were scurrying around in the Battle Bridge until Raymond had enough and bellowed at his people to calm down and sit down. Once they had complied, he formally greeted first Alafka and then the Kumar-Pair.

"What can you tell me about the location of the planet?" Raymond asked.

"We thought you might ask that question," Varnela answered for the pair of Priestesses. "We have the fixed point in space of the planet for the last expected Midrranna event. The question there is how long ago was that? We actually do not have a specific date on that. However, we have narrowed the rang of possibilities down to a thirty-degree arc in the plane of our lost Home World, Ruhm-Oran.

"We have been doing some calculations on when the planet was destroyed," Raymond indicated, "so we might be able to add that to the mix and better define the arc of possible locations. If we can get the location down to less than ten degrees of arc, we can act on that." Raymond advised.

The Seneschal contact the Astrophysics department and had them forward their information to The Wanderer. Raymond had that withing five minutes.

They had to translate it from Pod-Drran but within thirty minutes they had an answer that was slightly less than five degrees of arc.

"Best we are going to get, sir," the senior Navigation Officer advised him. "While we have five degrees of arc on the planet's location, where they would be in that arc means we have two degrees of arc to the star. That is excellent from our point of view."

"Sir, Science, the new location of the star as seen through the gas bubble, is off by fourteen degrees from the star's current location."

"Roger that, Science," the OOD replied.

"OK," Raymond began. "I want a dozen probes sent down that line, spread out to make use of their best scanning capacity. I think that means half a light year spread. I want the new probes with the miniature ICS antenna on them so that we do not have to wait if one of them does find something."

Raymond had Nav and the Pilot switch to their own monitors so that the main monitor could take the feed from the Probes from the science station. He also set another Science Officer at another of the stations to act in coordination with Nav and the Pilot for local traffic. That would allow for unrestricted use of the main monitor for the current mission as The Wanderer was currently not moving.

Fifteen minutes later, The Wanderer fired nine of the newest probes toward the expected line of travel of the original Resestess.

"Probes at speed. First jump point," came the comment from Science as they all watched the probes jump from the Piscium System to their first point half a light year out and apart from each other. A moment later, imagery from the scanners of the nine probes came up on the main monitor on the bridge.

"Now we wait," Raymond said to the other parties watching on the monitor. Food arrived for those in the throne room and for those in the Conference Room on the Wanderer. Everyone quietly tucked in.

Saalaa had the children get their expanding staffs and had them go through their forms. Kim watched as Prakeshya and her brothers squealed in delight at seeing a new fighting technique.

"I have expanding staffs for you three as well," she told the trio. "However, you are much behind Ikekiya and Zarreniya and you will have to work hard to catch up."

"Yes Sensei!" the children replied immediately, getting laughter and envied looks from the Kumir-Rai/Ro. Kim laughed. "Yes, I will have staffs made for you as well, though I expect much better performances from you than the children." That got more laughter.

The Wanderer let the probes fly for roughly one hour between jumps, jumping one quarter of a light year each time. At three light years distance, they were expecting to make twenty-four jumps to the stars marked location. It would take the better part of two days to get to that location, however, on the fourth jump they found something.

"Artificial object detected by probe four and five," Science called out some twelve minutes into the run of the fourth jump.

"Bring the line to a stop. Leave the two rows of probes on the left side intact and have probes three, six, and nine converge on the object," the OOD ordered.

The three probes jumped into close proximity of the object as guided by the other probes. As they approached it, they knew they had the Resestess as the name was emblazoned on the ship's bow in the script of Ruhm-Oran.

The ship was old, incredibly old. It was heavily scarred by its 34,000-year run in space. None-the-less, it was intact. The ship was drifting in a grand arc that would eventually bring it back to the home star.

"Sir, Science, based on its current location, speed and drift, as the ship enters the Piscium System, she will be caught by the gravitation pull of Piscium Eight and as a result, forced into an eccentric orbit that will eventually have it fall into the Piscium star," Science formed them.

"So, this would have been its last trip then," Raymond surmised.

"Quite likely, sir," Science confirmed. "We have enough information now to calculate where we can find it as we need to."

"Right. Kumaraie?" Raymond asked of the pair on the screen.

"We need some imagery please, Raymond. We will make an address to the people. Give us a few minutes to dress more appropriately."

The Kumar-Pair and the entourage moved to dress while the medical staff helped the Pemipinae to dress. They were ready less than ten minutes later.

The Kumar-Pair let out that an official announcement of significant importance to the people was about to be made. Media and guests hurriedly entering the Palace Throne room. Not long after, The Kumar-Pair and the Pemipinae came out along with the High Priestesses. The pair sat their thrones while their brood slipped onto their laps. The pair of High Priestesses of both sister races moved to sit one step down from their rulers.

The Palace Speaker stamped his Rod of Office and bowed to the Kumar-Pair, indicating that they had the right to speak.

"My people, a recent prophecy was made less than three months ago. It addressed a significant event that was to occur around this time.

"The prophecy was in two parts; the first indicated that the Star Bloom, Midrranna would return. Early this morning, that event came to be." Here the Kumaraie pointed to the monitors which was now showing a very bright star on the screen to the excitement of all those in the Main Throne Room.

"This event can be seen in what the humans now call the Piscium System, where Ruhm-Oran once existed," the Kumaroe took over briefly, reminding the people of facts as they were. "We shall see if we can conduct sight seeing tours of this event on Liramor-23, however, this event usually only lasts a few days.