The son showed me pictures. Of Dad. He really had been there, and it seemed as though he was, dare I say it, chummy, even, with the Gulien. In some of the pictures he even had an arm around the deceased’s shoulders.
I pressed the son as much as I could about the nature of my father’s visit, but he struggled to give me any information. He was too young, he said, to remember properly, but his sister might know. She was older back then, more likely to have had some clue about what was going on.
Of course, she wasn’t around yet. She worked on Rykan (lucky her!) but was on her way over for the funeral already.
The son invited me to stay with him, until she arrived, as long as I didn’t mind sleeping on a sofa. I suspected he liked the look of me, but maybe I was imagining things - he was grieving his father at the time, after all.
I made myself as useful as I could around the house, which mostly involved making U’kka, and waited for the sister to arrive with the information I was searching for.
11
All This Life Amongst The Stars
I rushed towards the statue in the centre of town, leaving Te’rnu behind at the shuttle-bike.
The heads of the local Arellians turned to look at me as I sprinted, but there was something different about their reactions here. In Te’r’ok, my Terran form had been enough to elicit gasps, stares of awe, even mouths left hanging agape. In Nu’r’ka, however, there was no wonder on the faces of the Arellians. They’d seen my type before - not just an off-worlder, apparently, but specifically a Terran. In place of awe, there was only confusion.
Why is this strange Terran rushing up to our statue with such a look on her face?
As I got closer to the monument of my sister, the smaller text on the plaque became more legible. Underneath Leya’s name, it said:
“Saviour of Nu’r’ka”
Not a bad title.
I grabbed at the arm of a passing local, who flinched away and turned to look at me with wide eyes.
‘Why…,’ I started - and then realised I might have offended the Arellian. ‘Sorry for grabbing you, I just wanted to… can I ask you something?’
Te’rnu appeared at my side, having rushed after me. The locals, who had been sporting such stiff and uncomfortable body language since I arrived, seemed to be relieved to see that I was travelling with a fellow Arellian. Their shoulders unclenched, their movements became more fluid.
‘What is it that you would like to know?’ the Arellian I had semi-assaulted asked me.
‘Why… why do you have this statue?’ I replied, still trying to get to grips with the concept of my sister being here - and on top of that, being their “saviour”.
‘Leya is our saviour,’ the Arellian replied, as though that was enough of an answer.
Yeah, I can see that from the plaque.
‘But… how? Why? What did she do?’
The local Arellian looked at me with a furrowed brow, as though I was asking a stupid question.
‘She saved our town.’
Oh my god…
‘Yes, but how did she save your town?’
‘By renegotiating our deal. With the Iyr.’
Suddenly the improved technology and the abundance of food in Nu’r’ka was beginning to make sense.
‘She helped you? Why? I can’t say I’ve ever known my sister to put much effort in-’
The local Arellian’s grew wide.
‘You are the sister of Leya Raynor?!’ the local exclaimed, with sheer joy on their face.
Other locals immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to face me, only now adopting the same look of awe that I had received in Te’r’ok.
The village began murmuring excitedly, and there was a very perceivable sense of delight in the air. I could even hear an Arellian using their radio to spread the news to others. It was almost like a queen had come to visit.
I felt like a con artist. I was no queen, I was an underpaid private investigator, who hadn’t ever really helped anyone in any meaningful way. In fact, I was only even here because a number of unfortunate circumstances had conspired to put me here.
The Arellian I had first spoken to approached me with their arms spread wide.
‘Oh, err,’ I started, ‘What’s happening here?’
And then their arms closed gently around me.
‘It is called a “hug”. Your sister, the Saviour, taught it to us.’
Were we talking about the same Leya Raynor?
I hugged the Arellian back. It was only polite.
Once the Arellian let go of me, another approached to do the same. Over and over it went, hug after hug. I received more displays of affection within these five minutes than I had in my entire life to date - although, admittedly, that problem was largely due to my bad choices in romantic partners.
Towards the end of these five minutes, I found myself being hugged by Te’rnu.
‘What you doing there, buddy?’ I asked him.
‘Oh, I, err…,’ he began to reply. ‘I thought we were all doing it.’
I laughed and hugged him back.
One of the older locals, after completing the supposedly traditional display of affection, turned to the rest of the now large crowd, and announced, ‘Tonight, we feast!’
I insisted that Te’rnu and I help prepare this feast, and the locals lauded my family’s generosity. I must come from a kind bloodline, they told me. I denied this and told them I actually came from a bloodline of unsuccessful artists. This response was a mistake - as it meant that I spent more time describing the galactic art industry and the economics surrounding it than I did actually helping with the cooking.
Te’rnu, on the other hand, was elsewhere, collecting raw materials for the fire with the
