The Sarran Senator (20 page)

::I don’t know why I let you talk me into
these things. They’re not going to like being interrupted.::
Tigger washed behind his ears.

::They’ll be done soon. The bebes have to eat
and Mommie will want to take them to the sitting room to be on the
comfortable couches.::

::All right. Follow me, but if you two get in
trouble, I had nothing to do with it.::

* * * *

The Conference Room

The door swung open and in walked Tigger and
Duchess followed by Naffer and Michael. Zaron raised his brow. “I
know we’ve told you to knock, offspring. What is the
emergency?”

“Michael and I had to see Mary. We’re her
bonded. We want to talk to her. She calls to us, but it’s
small.”

“Small, offspring?” Bron asked.

“Not very loud…” Michael supplied.

Anya regarded the two of them. “Are you sure
about this? Naffie, Michael?”

“We’re sure, she talks to both of us. We’ll
sit quietly on the chair if you put her in our lap. We wouldn’t let
anything happen to our fem.”

Anya shot a look to Syn, who regarded her
offspring with exasperation. “It’s up to you.”

“Mommie, Nara’s bonded are Aron and Dov,”
Naffer announced.

Ellen and Adele blanched. “Is it true that he
always knows?”

“Unfortunately, he knows too much for his own
good, about things like pregnancies and bonding. He’s always
right.”

Ellen threw up her hands. “Who are we to
stand in the way of the Goddess.”

“Mary will be a strong fem and so will Nara.
They’ll be good friends and Michael and I will watch over all of
them,” Naffie pronounced.

“While Michael and I are here, Michael says
Saxon and Lunas put something called swings, a sand box, a slider,
and a jungle gym on Brightstar. There are more offspring now. If
you put one by the field house, we could all get to know one
another. TaSherry has an offspring who might like to play too.”

“You can have your park, the swings, the
jungle gym, and the slider. But when you go, both Garlance and Emot
and TeJuraens and TeMark’s minders have to go with you to
play.”

Michael chimed in, “That’s okay, they can
push.”

“Push?” Bron asked.

“The swings. I’ll tell you later.” Syn
laughed.

The offspring sat down on a chair and Anya
put the bebe on their lap, staying in front of them to ensure her
safety.

“TaAnya, don’t worry. We’ll be good. When we
come you won’t even know we’re there.”

“That’s exactly what TaAnya is worried about,
offspring.” Syn stared at them. They fidgeted.

Michael grabbed the bebe’s fingers.
::She
says we’re big. She can’t play till she’s bigger, but she likes
talking to us but can only do it if we’re near her.::

::Son of a…I thought they were making it
up, but that’s exactly what she said.::
Anya was stupefied.

::The others are talking too. Aron says
Nara’s cold.::

Syn looked down and sure enough the blanket
had slipped. She made and executive decision. “The Ta and Te will
retire to my sitting room for some tea and coffee. I trust you
brought your tea, Meg.”

Meg laughed and nodded.

Naffie said, “TaMeg, you’re having an
offspring. Poor Jimmy is going to have to wait a while for his
bonded.”

Sherry and Meg were dumbstruck. “He’s never
wrong,” Syn told Sherry. “You better get used to looking for Jimmy
at Meg’s.”

“But Jimmy’s not even Sarran yet,” Sherry
said to Syn.

“If he’s old enough to bond, he’s old enough
to make the decision,” Well said, “But let him find out about the
bond on his own.”

“That means you two aren’t going to tell
him.” Mark gave them both the stink eye.

Naffie shrugged. “He’s HiPsy. He’ll know as
soon as he gets near him. He may not know it’s a bond, but he’ll
want to be around him.”

“Out of curiosity, who’s their fem?” Sherry
asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard her yet. We
didn’t hear our Mary until she was in Castle Air.”

“So can we come to see Mary, TaAnya?” Michael
asked. “I’m going to be five next week, right, Mommie. I’ll be old
enough to be good around Mary. Besides, Naffie will be with me and
he’s older.”

“By all of a year…” Sara said dryly.

“At least they won’t have to go through the
agony of trying to find their bonded and fem.” Juraens pulled Sara
to him. “I thought it wasn’t going to happen. And although Jimmy
will have to wait until Meg’s offspring is sixteen, at least he’ll
know he’s there.”

“Will the ten-year age difference make a big
difference?” Sherry asked worriedly.

“Not when you live to be two hundred,” Well
said.

“Jimmy will live to be two hundred?” Sherry
gasped.

“Once he takes the vial, he will. Just as you
will. Once the Sarran DNA was activated by taking our seed, you
have the same life span we do,” Well told her. Allen nodded in
agreement.

“I want Jimmy to take the vial,” Sherry said
firmly. “If he has a bonded, he’s going to want to stay, so why
shouldn’t he take the vial now?”

“PaMer, that’s up to Jimmy,” Allen said
gently. “You can only present him with the option. The council will
agree for the same reason they agreed to allow Michael to become
Sarran, but ultimately, it’s Jimmy’s decision, not ours.”

“I’ll ask him when we go home. He already
thinks he is Sarran. He has a tutor so he can enter the Warrior
Academy on time.” Sherry was stubborn. She obviously wanted this
for Jimmy.

“It’s all right, PaMer, I promise we’ll ask
him when we get home, but he has to find his bonded on his own.
Naffie can’t help,” Well said. “Remember a Warrior never breaks a
promise he’s made to a fem.”

“No one helped Michael and me. We heard her.
Jimmy will hear the bebe as soon as he’s born…as long as he’s
Sarran.”

“Can we go play now, Mommie? Naffie has some
nice toys like the one that Zadda gave me where you move the ball
with your head,” Michael asked.

“Now that you two have disrupted an informal
meeting of the council and dropped a few bombs, you can go play,”
Syn told him, her voice heavy with disapproval.

“I forgot, can we have the…”

“What’s the word, Michael?”

“Park or play ground?” Michael answered.

“Can we have the playground, Zadda,
Poppie?”

“We’ll see,” Bron answered.

“That’s what they say when they’re not going
to do it…” Michael started to shuffle out of the room.

“Michael, that’s not how it works on Sarran.
When I said,
We’ll see
, that’s what I mean. The council has
to investigate where it should be located and find Warriors who
would be willing to work there to protect the off and femspring
that come to play. We can’t just put it up. If you remember, on the
Brightstar there was always a Warrior there to observe and help.
We’re very conscious of the safety of our bebes, even when they get
older,” Zaron explained.

“So,
we’ll see,
doesn’t mean no like
it did with
him.”
Michael shuddered.

“No offspring, it doesn’t.” Mark went over
and gave Michael a hug.

“Let’s go play, Naffie. You’re going to
really, really like the jungle gym.”

The two offspring put their arms around each
other’s shoulders and headed to Naffie’s room, which now had an
extra bed for Michael.

“We have to get Michael some more Sarran
toys.” Sara looked at her Warriors.

“We have toys in the fabricator, but the
toymakers closed their shop when the fem passed. Maybe we can speak
to Tanner and Troi to see if they would be willing to open again
for the new offspring and femspring,” Well said.

“Some Psy toys would be appropriate and
things for the bebe. He’s in the village of Vineleaf by Tarin’s old
home. Maybe they’ve bonded and have a pregnant fem, in which case
they’d be more inclined to reopen the shop.” Juraens turned to
Tarin. “You know Tanner and Troi, could you talk to them?”

“They have a fem. She is from this voyage.
Sam and I can go over with Meg and see what we can do. Maybe, if
given pictures of this playground, Bron and I can design something
better and fabricate one for every village on Sarran.” Tarin
thought out loud.

“That’s a good idea. Now that we’ve fed the
bebes, we’ll go to the big dining room for the midtines meal.” Syn
rose and the rest of the fem followed.

* * * *

Falling Waters

::Tanner and Troi agreed to open the shop
again. Many of our WarriorPairs have off and femspring brought to
Sarran by their fem. Their fem Blythe is pregnant already. They
were going to do it anyway.::
Tarin sent to Bron.
::I showed
them the toy catalogs from Earth, off course they can do better
than that, making the things more educational and Sarran-centric.
We have to get into the lab to look at jungle gyms. I’ve got to
design Meg a new sewing machine, so I’ll probably come in next
rising with Sam and Meg and show them around the shop. Sam needs to
talk to Zaron. He wants to design a course on Earthen history for
the Academy. Since Zaron is officially the headmaster of the
Academy, he had to approve the courses.::

::Approval is a given. Zaron was talking
about incorporating courses on Earthen culture so our Warriors can
better understand their fem. He was going to consult with Mark and
Sam to see if they would help design a course on culture. A course
on history and politics would be Goddess sent. I’ll see you next
rising at the lab. I’ll bring Zaron to talk to Sam and Syn to keep
Meg company. We could go to Zag’s for midtine. Is Manko back in the
kitchen?::

::He was like me in that he fell into
darkness when Sarran lost their fem. They had just found theirs the
day the Iptz sprayed the world with plague. Forsythia died in their
arms.::
Tarin shook his head to get rid of his own bad
memories.

::I just checked with Zaron and Syn, they’ll
come next rising. Syn will bring baby Nara to show her off. Our fem
is proud of both Naffie and Nara. I believe we’ll leave Naffie and
Michael with Sara and send Garlance and Emot with them. We need to
get serious about acquiring aides for Juraens’ and your
Triad.::

::I’d rather wait until we clear the
remaining unbonded Warriors. I don’t want to take in a viper. We
need to get to that immediately,::
Tarin strongly
suggested.

::You’re right. The council delegated that
job to you, Sam, Mark, and Juraens. If a Warrior has an antipathy
to the Earthen fems, his antipathy to Earthen Warriors will be even
worse. Easier to read their surface thoughts. Although if they have
aura wavy aura…::
Bron’s mind voice trailed off.

::If they have a sick aura, maybe Syn and
Ellen can fix it,::
Tarin suggested.

::That or a mind wipe. The Warriors on
Brightstar who were spaced tried to harm the fems and sabotage our
battle against the Zyptz. The ones we find now haven’t done
anything yet so maybe you’re right, maybe they can be saved,::
Bron agreed.
::Every Sarran Warrior lost is a tragedy. We need
all of them, plus the new offspring and the Earthen Warriors who
are ready to join the fight.::
Bron’s mind voice crackled with
emotion.
::The Earthen have to be ready.::

::We’re already doing everything we can to
facilitate that. Sam, Meg, and I are willing, after Meg gives
birth, to go to Earth to try and hurry things along.::

::We’ll talk next rising.::

* * * *

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself;
but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in
the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this
generation.

―Robert Kennedy

Council Hall

The council sat at the dais. Zaron spoke.
“This rising the council has called for all of the unbonded
Warriors to appear to register so that we know how many Earthen
fems to bring back on our next voyage. Form two lines. TeMark and
TeJuraens are at the head of the first line and will take your
information, TeSamuel and TeTarin are at the head of the
second.”

Syn, Ellen, and several of the other Earthen
psychiatrists sat on the sides of the hall to observe. Syn and
Ellen taught the new fem doctors how to read auras. They wanted to
get this done before the mass birthing began.

Sherry sat quietly with Jimmy. Jimmy had made
up his mind immediately to take the vial. “I don’t want to ever go
back to a place that permits a Warrior to strike a fem or
offspring. I want to be Sarran. I thought I already was.”

As the Warriors filed through, Tarin, Sam,
Mark, and Juraens picked up a few red auras. Those Warriors were
sent over to the fem doctors. There were no black or wavy auras and
only two Warriors were unaccounted for. When Psy Ops was dispatched
to bring them in, they found that the two had just bonded and they
told the officers that it was their understanding that only
unbonded Warriors had to appear.

::There are no more traitors on
Sarran,::
Bron announced.
::It has been a grueling two day
process, but all of our people have been cleared.::
The
Warriors were asked to stay after the screening.

::Sam, Tarin, Mark, and Juraens, I’m going
to ask for Warriors to apply for the aide and minder positions. I’m
going to do this by mind speech,::
Bron explained.
::They
need to be HiPsy to run after Naffie and Michael and I’m sure Meg’s
and Sara’s bebes will be just as hard to contain.::

Twenty Warriors came up to the dais to apply.
They found seven who were of the right age who seemed to be
interested in service and wanted the job.
::We’ll keep the
others on a list. Once they bond they generally go searching for
their fem or join the fleet. So we’ll need to see other resumes
eventually,::
Zaron pointed out.