MotherShip (16 page)

“How do you perform this observing? Without it being known?” Mother asked.

“I take part of myself and...change it.” Minstrel began.

“You morph yourself,” Jaric said.

“Yes. Then I send myself, that small part, to mingle unobtrusively with the race. My kind are very good at this. In fact...” A playful tone had come into Minstrel's voice. “... another of my people even studied humanity once, back when you, too, were located on a single, precarious planet.”

Becky's eyes widened. “Why didn't you tell us before? Did you make contact?” Becky asked excitedly.

Jaric's eyes narrowed as Kyle turned his face away angrily.

“Were they not worthy?” Mother asked simply.

“No.” Minstrel answered. “Not at that time in their history.”

“You could have prevented...” Kyle began angrily.

“History cannot be changed,” Mother interrupted firmly. “What is done, is done.”

The fluid, plasma form of Minstrel seemed to thicken and slow. The colors and lights darkened with its mood as the plasma body reached out in various directions along the walls.

The three humans looked on with wonder mixed with a touch of fear.

“I have hurt you. I am sorry. I will make amends, allowing you an experience that few sentient species have ever enjoyed.” Minstrel's voice became charged. “I have studied part of the vast knowledgebase that Mother has in her long-term memories—the history of the human race and all of its art and knowledge.” Minstrel paused. “I like what I have learned very much. In fact, I have begun a song, a symphony actually, heralding the beauty of the humans. A song about your achievements. I will play what I have written now, with you inside my ship.” Minstrel's voice sang its words as much as it spoke them.

This would be the greatest, and rarest of pleasures.
Jaric smiled, remembering Minstrel's own words.
For the ships of the Minstrels were more than ships, they were musical instruments. When Minstrels gave concerts, the beings massed outside were treated to an aural ecstasy unparalleled in power and beauty. Something more than notes and words and harmonies and rhythms.

But they would now experience more.
Jaric mused.
They would be inside this most perfect of all musical instruments. An integral part of the music, closer even than a musician playing his own beloved instrument.

The Minstrel's
Song for Humanity
began with soothing gentleness.

Jaric felt the music as much as he heard it.

The soaring melodies rose quickly to a crescendo filled with strings, flutes and choral voices. The music was haunting and beautiful with a subtle pathos .

And more.

The throbbing sound of ten thousand drums signaled a new passage, passionate and alive with an urgent intensity. Next horns and dueling guitars added their raunchy voices, onward and upward, faster and faster, until the music circled about to its original theme and the rhythms pounded the listener's souls again.

It was different this time, but the same—like the rhythms of life.

These themes and sub-themes represented the passions and the loves and even the obsessions of man and woman and all they begot from them.

The music was alive, a reflection of the human race in all its triumphs and failures. The music echoed its history, its loves and strengths, as well as its weaknesses. There was a moving tinge of sadness, too—dark colors of intense yearning and that same subtle melancholy intertwined within many of the melodies.

Jaric suddenly realized what this sadness in the music was saying—it was for
what might have been
.

The music filled all their senses and pulsed through their being.

Minstrel, a entity of light, cued a light show to complement this sonic splendor.

Jaric stared at the spinning, twisting lights as they changed color with the rhythms, and then they changed again as the lights danced anew. New and different melodies revealed more, they revealed beauty so intense that tears streamed down his ebony cheeks.

Becky was herself mesmerized. Moments later, she, too, was crying at the emotions that filled her from the music that seemed so alive.

Kyle alone listened dispassionately, trying to fight its power. But deep inside, he, too, felt it. His clenched fists moved ever so subtly with the music that described his species.

Mother's sensors took in this powerful music though she was parked next to Minstrel's Circle Ship. Mother, too, seemed to be affected as the music caused her short-term memory to recall different pictures and sections of history from the knowledgebase as the music ebbed and flowed. She wondered how the music could act upon her own memories in this subtle, magical fashion.

All too soon it was over.

Only partly completed, the music had lasted well over three hours.

“It is quite beautiful. I think it portrays the human race well,” Mother said matter-of-fact.

The three humans remained silent, still living the music in their minds. Hours, maybe days, would pass and parts of that music would still echo inside each listener. Only with the passage of time would the magical effects be gradually washed away. Even then, the memory would always be there. Forever.

“That was fantastic,” Becky said breathlessly.

“It is my gift to you three, as well as my chronicle of a noble race. A race too soon effaced from the universe,” Minstrel said.

“Is there more? Jaric asked hopefully.

“There will be, and you three will each have a melody in its final movement. Which brings me to why I have asked you all here tonight.” Minstrel paused. “You are searching for other survivors, and I have contacted other Minstrels to aid you in this. We travel far...but you must not focus solely on this one purpose. There are other things to make your lives worthwhile.”

Silence answered.

“We must search, Minstrel,” Kyle said evenly. “Till the end of our lives. We have to.”

“I feel,” Jaric began, “I feel like a lost child sometimes, unable to find my way. And afraid I never will.” His face became hard as flint, but his eyes sparkled with courage. “We have to keep searching.”

Becky's lower lip trembled, but she knew if she spoke there would be no holding back her tears.

“You cannot live this way, day to day. You must have direction. A goal, a dream. You must pursue it relentlessly. Yes, find what is inside you, and give it to others.” Minstrel now grew silent as the plasma body undulated along the walls and ceilings.

“What can we give?” Jaric asked sarcastically. “The thing we know the best, since our childhood, is how to kill T'kaan.”

The room grew heavy with silence once again.

“Will not the T'kaan continue their age-long ritual of killing, wiping out other sentients?” Minstrel's body danced with lights.

“Unless they are stopped,” Kyle answered, his interest piqued. “But no race in thousands of millennia has been able to defeat them. Why think it will happen now?”

“Can the cycle be broken?” Becky whispered.

“Yes it can.” Minstrel's voice became powerful. “You here have survived. You are also warriors, including the MotherShip.” Minstrel added with emphasis. “You alone know the horned enemy. My people have only heard of them in rumors. I suspect any Minstrels who came into direct contact with them were destroyed before they could report.” The lights in Minstrel's plasma body twinkled. “I know of other mighty races, and with your knowledge, and their fleets and weapons prepared before the battle begins, such a force could stop at least one of the T'kaan fleets. It could be the beginning of the end for them.”

For the first time that night, Kyle smiled.

Jaric nodded to himself, and then he felt a new purpose grow inside his heart. Becky stood beside Kyle, and then Jaric, too, was there, all arm in arm.

“It is settled.” Mother said. “We will find an honorable ally and aid them. Together we will destroy the T'kaan at their own game.”

The lights of Minstrel grew steady. “If you are surrounded by the storm...with no way out. Then you must sail straight in, come what may.”

They all nodded.

The evening continued with animated words and new plans. There was excitement in the air. Finally, the three humans and Guardian began to leave. Jaric alone paused at the door.

“I will always remember your song, Minstrel. I will remember it all the days of my life,” Jaric said reflectively. “I hope you will record it for me.”

“Of course. The part that I have finished.”

He couldn't tell for certain, but it seemed to him that Minstrel smiled.

“Will the old songs still mean the same to us, after time's rust has touched us all?” Minstrel mused out loud.

Jaric's face grew puzzled. But as he stepped outside into the twilight, he rushed ahead to catch up with the others.

“Wow, pretty cool, huh?” Jaric asked out loud to them.

Kyle was walking beside Guardian while Jaric matched Becky's steps.

“Yeah, it was pretty good,” Kyle said.

“It was fantastic!” Becky countered enthusiastically. She took a couple of quick steps to catch Kyle, raised her hand and punched him in the shoulder for emphasis.

“Ow!” Kyle shouted.

“You need to lighten up, you know,” Becky smiled. “You're always in such a grouchy mood.”

“He wouldn't be Kyle then,” Jaric laughed out loud.

“Oh,
ha-ha
,” Kyle said sarcastically. “If you weren't so stupid, you wouldn't be Jaric.”

Now Becky began laughing. But Jaric felt the words cut him inside, and he slowed his pace to fall away from them.

Kyle looked back, a smirk on his face. But it quickly changed when he noticed the hurt look on his friend's face. “Hey, c'mon buddy. I didn't mean nothin'. I thought I was trying to lighten up.”

“I like you better grouchy and quiet,” Jaric muttered.

“I don't know,” Becky said with a twinkle in her eyes as she looked from one to the other. “Can't there be a happy medium, guys?” Becky slowed down to wait for Jaric. As he came up beside her, she reached out and looped her arm inside his. Now they continued arm in arm toward the distant silhouette of Mother.

Jaric suddenly felt very warm inside. Across his forehead sweat beads formed, which he hoped were not visible to Becky.

“You know, Jaric, you shouldn't be so sensitive. You sparred with Kyle, and he sparred back. All in fun.” Becky glanced at Jaric who smiled sheepishly back at her. She squeezed his arm. “We have to take care of each other. And we have to cut each other some slack, too.”

Up ahead, Kyle began laughing as he and Guardian broke into a trot.

“Let's go Guardian, race you back,” Kyle shouted gleefully.

Kyle clenched his hands into fists as his arms pumped with each powerful stride. His hearty laughter echoed over the dark hills as the robot kept pace, and then his strong thighs kicked into a higher speed as he spurted ahead of the robot momentarily.

Becky and Jaric watched the two figures bounding into the twilight of the alien evening.

Jaric chuckled.

Becky glanced at him with a smile. “Okay, what's so funny.”

Jaric paused as she watched his face. He nodded at the retreating figures. “Kyle, always the competitor. Even when he knows he can't outrun a seven-foot robot.”

Becky's soft laughter mingled with his own.

Something happened to Jaric that moment, something that seemed to make the universe and everything in it go away. There on that alien world, walking arm in arm with sweet Becky, Jaric thought the drumming of his heart would drown out their laughter. But as Becky's blue eyes looked deeply into his brown eyes, she didn't let on to him if she could hear his loud, frantic heart.

As the silence settled around them, Jaric felt a glow of happiness. It suddenly grew into a powerful feeling of contentment that warmed his very soul. Yes, he felt like he could spend the rest of his life walking arm in arm.

He wondered once again about marriage.

Mother had held back, or protected them, as she would've said, on certain subjects. But hormones could not be held back. Even with minimal input on this subject, all of them had begun to understand the functions of their bodies. When Mother had realized this, she had stressed the principles from the knowledgebase that procreation was acceptable only in marriage.

All three children had come to accept this concept, much as their hormones raged against it at times, as it was the only thing they knew. Each of them—Becky, Kyle and Jaric—had found a way to push these new feelings aside and fill their minds with other things. They had found other outlets and were happy.

Still, it was not easy. Kyle found excessive exercise to be his primary outlet when the feelings came over him. The other two found their own outlets to push aside the on-again, off-again urge.

But now, here in the darkness with Becky close beside him, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it might leap from his chest, Jaric felt helpless to this raging feeling gripping his soul.

He looked into Becky's eyes.

But he couldn't tell if she felt the same way. In her eyes he saw her laughter and happiness, and that she enjoyed being in his company. But did she feel more?

“Becky,” Jaric began. He cleared his throat nervously.

“Look,” Becky said quickly. “Kyle and Guardian have already made it to Mother. Let's catch up.”

Becky began running toward the ship.

Jaric chased after her, just fast enough to stay close behind her. But his heart continued racing inside his chest as though he had run many miles already.

Mother had orchestrated many of the events of this fateful evening. Once again, she had noted how the children had become increasingly obsessed with finding other survivors. The children had reached an age where they easily disregarded her own counsel, or strived to find even the smallest loopholes in her logic—though there were none.

She had asked Minstrel for help—as well as a song. Mother knew how remote the percentage that a search for any other survivors would be successful and the percentages only got worse with the passage of time. Even if they looked for an eternity.