Gratuitous Epilogue : Touchstone Extras (20 page)

Aunt Sue is planning to
come, but not Aunt Bet and Uncle Steve (Uncle Steve has a huge
extended family and isn't keen on leaving them for another planet).
And Dad.

I have a sister called
Teresa, and a Step-Mum who thinks my entire family is insane and
who wouldn't want to go to some alien planet even if she thought it
was real. Apparently. Fake-Mum kind of avoided giving me any
opinions about this, as she does whenever she has to talk about
Dad, but she did point out that if the gate really does open once
every year-and-a-bit, this won't be Dad's only
opportunity.

I didn't tell fake-Mum
about Tyrian. I want to see her real reaction.

After that, Kaoren
turned what little energy Tyrian leaves me to planning a place for
Mum and Aunt Sue to live. A pair of houses around past the guard
quarters, with lots of room, and beds for gardens, though I decided
not to have them planted out so Mum could pick what she wanted to
grow. I got the kids involved in that, and we had a lot of fun
designing it.

There's been a fair
amount of adjustment adding Tyrian to the family. Sen wants to be
with him all the time, and we ended up making up a little bed for
her again in the baby's room. She's at least been relatively
nightmare-free. Lira finds Tyrian a little annoying – babies are
definitely an attention-suck, and she's a fairly finicky, cleanly
creature, not accustomed to milky spew or drool. Rye, in the first
few days, was painful to watch: some of the old uncertainty came
back, the sense that now Kaoren had a 'real' son, he wouldn't be
necessary any more. Fortunately the time off from active duty has
given Kaoren the chance to spend more time with Rye, and along with
the book project, he's been giving him plenty of one-on-one combat
training, and is pleased with his progress. Ys showed no hint of
being threatened. She's taken our measure now, and was simply
pleased that Tyrian was healthy, and that I seemed to be coping.
Tyrian always seems to quiet down when she holds him,
too.

Have told Sen firmly
that, no, no more babies just now.

The Last June

Everyone

I was an absolute
stress-bunny in the week leading up to Operation Move-to-Muina. I
got so bad that I needed to prepare myself before picking up
Tyrian, or I'd set him bawling. All the practice I've had with
visualisation exercises came in handy, though Kaoren eventually had
to resort to the pillow barrier in bed to allow one of us to get
some sleep.

We'd decided, after
much debate, not to take the kids with us, but to stream what we
were seeing to them. This would satisfy Sen's overwhelming need to
know, and also KOTIS' extreme reluctance to stand both of their
precious touchstones in front of a gate to another planet. Siame,
who finds Tyrian a strange and fascinating creature, agreed to be
official adult-in-charge, with Jeh and Ketz as back-up. The rest of
the First and Second, both those on active duty and those taking
breaks, came along to watch me fret.

KOTIS has built a
little observation station out near the Earth gate. It's usually
unmanned, but the technicians go on day-trips out there to take
readings from the gate, and it proved a good place for us to sit
while waiting in the chill of late Winter. The gate was due to
align about an hour after dawn Pandora-time, and in the late
afternoon in Sydney. My Mum-projection had assured me that they'd
arrive early and stay well past the time we'd predicted – and she
promised to check the day before and the day after, but I was still
this white knot of nerves.

KOTIS has decided not
to send anyone through the gate to Earth – at least not until
they've found a way there via deep-space – which I think may be due
to my guesses as to how alien emissaries (without spacecraft) would
likely be treated by the authorities. Two greensuits were standing
at ready by the gate, and when it aligned they held long, thin
poles with little triangles of cloth on the end through the gate to
form a makeshift corridor since, while natural gates don't have the
same issues about attracting Ionoth, it still isn't a good idea to
run into the edges of them.

I was struggling not to
dig my fingers into Kaoren's arm, holding on to him hard and
occasionally remembering to breathe. Because for an achingly long
time – at least THIRTY SECONDS – there was nothing, just some poles
vanishing.

And then,
Jules.

He was running, mad
grin on his face, light brown hair sticking up in a Tintin crest,
arms and legs everywhere. He almost crashed into one of the
greensuits, spun to a halt and then bounced around in a circle so
he could see acres of snow-dusted forest, observation post, and the
numerous spaceshippy looking fliers we'd used to get
there.

"It's real!" he said –
shouted – as he bounced. "Take that, you fuckers! It's real! It's
real!"

Jules hadn't been able
to keep his mouth shut about his sister off touring alien planets.
That went as well as could be expected, but I guess he's getting
the last laugh now. Other than wishing he'd been able to bring a
few of his (few remaining) friends, he's been in a ferment of joy
ever since.

While Jules was still
sproinging in a circle, I let go of Kaoren and ran forward, because
Dad was there, and I hadn't known how much I'd missed him until I
saw him blinking and giving the greensuits his bemused
"I-come-in-peace" smile.

"I thought you weren't
coming," I said, as he swept me up in a bear hug, and made me feel
all of five again.

"You think I'd pass up
a chance to make sure you're happy, kiddo?" His voice was all
choked, and he squeezed me tight, lifting my feet off the
ground.

"This is Kaoren," I
said, and they had a moment of awkward Dad-meets-Husband, but I'd
taught Kaoren the shaking-hands custom and so he was prepared for
it.

I'd been distracted by
new arrivals: not Mum and Aunt Sue, but a vaguely familiar woman,
and a man carrying a girl tucked into a blanket, her head covered
by a fluffy pink beanie. It was only when I saw Alyssa that I
recognised them as her parents.

"Alyssa!" I said,
surprised and pleased but inwardly shocked because Alyssa should be
a lazily smiling blonde girl with a perpetual air of amusement, not
strained and grim with red-rimmed eyes.

"Do the meet and greet
later, Cass," she said, gripping my arm. "How good is their
medicine, really? Your diary said they could cure
cancer."

I probably gaped a
little longer than absolutely necessary, but then turned to the
greysuit escorting us for the outing, Ista Temen, and explained,
with help from Alyssa. Ista Temen, though she was no means an
expert in the area, asked a couple of questions and looked
cautiously at the fragile, stick-like being which should have been
Mad Maddy, Queen of the Caldwells, or at least Alyssa's youngest
sister.

"What you describe is
something we are usually able to correct," Ista Temen said. "But
this child is at the edge of death. There could be no
guarantee."

"But it is possible?" I
asked, and she nodded, so I translated and Alyssa's parents started
crying, but there was no time, and the monitoring greysuits were
already giving the warning that we were past the halfway
point.

Mum had arrived when I
wasn't even looking, and Kaoren had gone to greet her and Aunt Sue.
Aunt Sue was carrying a furry cat-carrier, with Mimmit inside and
decidedly unimpressed. Mum was wearing her Celtic dragon t-shirt,
which she must have resurrected from the old clothes boxes in the
garage specially for the occasion. Mum thinks she's so
funny.

With a quick smile for
me, she told Alyssa's parents that the gate was going to close
soon, and Alyssa's Dad carefully handed Maddy to my Mum, and then
hugged Alyssa, and said something in such a choked voice that I
couldn't understand him.

They left and Alyssa
stayed – the Caldwells have three other children, and lots of
family they weren't willing to leave behind, so Alyssa is here to
be Maddy's family. Then Dad came up and squeezed me again and
followed. I've asked Mum what his new wife is like, but she won't
say much. Aunt Sue tells me more by pulling faces.

"Everyone this is?"
Kaoren asked Mum, in his tentative English, and she nodded, so the
greensuits began to withdraw the guide flags.

And then Nick came
through, backward, falling flat on his ass in the snow. The
greensuits were the quick-thinking variety, and immediately dropped
their flagpoles and grabbed Nick instead, pulling him away from the
gate (thus saving him from being a considerably shorter Nick).
Nick, who naturally would find visiting alien worlds an excellent
preoccupation, had chosen not to go with Alyssa because he felt he
had to stay and look after his Dad. And his Dad had pushed him
through the gate at the last moment, which I privately think might
be the best thing my former Uncle has ever done.

The day's mood had of
course shifted considerably with the arrival of Maddy. Maze took
Maddy from Mum, freeing her to hug me, and I was suddenly
exhausted. Nick, after a moment's shock, shook his head, dusted
himself off, and went and hugged Alyssa, who promptly burst into
tears.

Tsur Selkie, who had
rather unexpectedly come along to watch, suggested we get everyone
out of the cold, and we piled in the fliers and took a quick trip
to the platform to check and fix security clearances. The aether
didn't like them, which I guess means my original security access
was purely because I was a touchstone. And of Muina's handful of
Earth immigrants, I'm still the only touchstone. Kaoren and I
explained a little more to the kids – and various officials – while
we travelled and by the time we were through the platform
processing a small group of medical experts were waiting at the
KOTIS facility. Ista Chemie took everyone else for the usual
inoculations and interface install – and an interesting discussion
over whether Mimmit needed to be immunised – and then we sat for a
while, waiting for the experts' early verdict on Maddy's
chances.

She was in terrible
shape. She'd been diagnosed a few months after I'd strayed, had
gone through chemo and into remission, and it was only about six
weeks before Mum was quietly making arrangements to "go overseas"
that Maddy's condition had nose-dived, and the chemo just didn't
seem to be helping. And there was Mum with my diaries, full of
regrowing eyes and limbs, and cures for most cancers.

When Mum had first
received and read them, she'd photocopied certain sections and gave
them to Dad and Jules, Nick, Alyssa and the Aunties – she says that
she figured I'd not be comfortable with everything I'd written
being passed around. Outside a very small group (and the kids Jules
had shot his mouth off to), the official story was that I'd turned
up alive and well overseas. It wasn't until Maddy's relapse that
Alyssa had made any attempt to tell her parents about what I'd
really been doing, and of course they didn't believe her. But as
Maddy got worse and worse, I guess even completely off-the-wall
ideas became something to cling to.

Mum, Aunt Sue and Aunt
Bet had all sold their houses, and made an outrageous offer to the
person who owned the house in front of my estimated gate location.
Those people wouldn't sell, so Mum & co bought the house next
door. That made waiting for gates to other planets a lot easier,
and also really helped when Maddy's parents "took her overseas to
see a specialist". It was a terrible risk, and even in the short
time they had Maddy at the new house, her condition went so rapidly
downhill that it was no wonder that Alyssa was barely holding it
together by the time the gate opened.

The first thing the
Muinan medics did was bathe Maddy in aether, which is something
they've been trialling for critical cases. Even Taren medical
science can't 'cure cancer' in a day – a least not the kind of bone
marrow issues Maddy has. For one thing, they use the interface to
assist treatment, and Maddy was in no state for an install. It took
nearly two months before she'd recovered enough condition even for
that, but the effect of the aether was immediate and very apparent.
I wish it had been possible to tell Alyssa's parents the good news
straight away.

Earth will never be the
same if KOTIS manages to find a way through deep-space. I stupidly
hadn't even thought of the implications for Aunt Sue, who has been
listening to so much music, and who dragged my Mum off to 'skin
treatment' and came back looking thirty. Life expectancy is so much
longer here, and by Taren standards they're still relatively
young.

Alyssa wanted to stay
with Maddy, but after the medics assured her that her sister would
be unconscious – and stable – for most of the day, she let out her
breath and looked at me, and said: "How is it that we're on an
alien planet, and I can see a spaceship through that window, but
all I want to do is lie down?"

"You wait till the
headache hits," I said, and hugged her. "C'mon, let's go meet my
kids."

"It's going to take me
a long time to adjust to the idea of you having kids."

"I think it'll take me
a while too," I said, and laughed.

My big adjustment was
to Nick and Alyssa being here. Of all the people I knew before I
stepped onto Muina, Alyssa was the one I spoke to the most, trusted
with my thoughts. We've both changed so much, and it was a little
weird between us at first, especially because I hadn't known she
liked Nick, and felt like an ass for all the times I'd talked to
her about him without realising. Kaoren has become what Alyssa once
was to me – the person I talk to – and it took weeks before Alyssa
and I had a conversation which felt in any way normal. But then
something clicked, and we were sitting down on the lake shore
watching the kids dare the chilly water for their first swim of the
season, and suddenly we were Cass and Alyssa again, different but
the same. It was easier with Nick, who was a little shocked to be
here, but has decided it's a good thing, and is very glad not to
have had to give up Alyssa after all.