Hello, my name is Jack.  The Peloran are a strange lot, or at least the ones that I’ve spent time with.  Those back on their worlds are content to sit back and let life pass them by.  The ones that leave their homes, the ones who serve in their military, tend towards wanderlust.  Those who work with Aneerin tend towards intellectual wanderlust, always asking and answering questions so they can understand more about the worlds around them.  Or helping us understand.

 

 

Questions

 

Jack looked out onto hyperspace through the transparent hull of the Guardian Light’s observation deck.  Gravity ripped and twisted around them, a dim red light slamming into the battleship hard enough that a steady thrumming set his teeth on edge.  The battleship’s deflection grid plowed through the darkness, a red wake of disturbed gravity fanning out behind them.

Jack turned to see the rest of the task force, fifty-one destroyers and cruisers, displayed in all their holographic glory on the walls of the observation deck.  They followed in the wake of the Guardian Light, riding the waves of gravity broken by the battleship’s relentless charge.  Man wasn’t meant to fly this deep in hyperspace.  Hell, man wasn’t meant to be in hyperspace at all, but they were too deep when gravity was viewable only as dim red light mixing with that blackness that was darker than he’d ever seen.

Jack swallowed carefully, not wanting to disrupt any of Hal’s attention.

“Charles, I need the Cowboys ahead of the task force.  Jump in, relay what is there, and engage if you need to at your discretion.”

“How in Hell are we supposed to get through that?” Jack asked waving a hand at the red bow wave ahead of them.

Aneerin chuckled.  “Your fighters are better than you think.”

Jack gave him a disbelieving look.

“But we will rise to a more standard operating depth before launching,” Aneerin added with a wry smile.

“Thank you,” Jack returned, his voice betraying relief.

“So we are going to be the diversion?” Jay rumbled.

“Yes.  And I believe a test,” Aneerin answered with a pointed look at Jack.

Charles and Jay followed his gaze and Jack shook his head.  “For all of the new recruits?”

“Indeed,” Aneerin answered with a nod.

Jack smiled.  “And unless we detour to play wack-a-Chinaman along the way, that’ll be it before Hyades?”

“Exactly,” Aneerin returned.  “Do you believe them ready?”

He felt their stares again and looked out on hyperspace.  “As individuals, absolutely.  They’re all veterans.”  Jack sighed looked back at them.  “My only worry is as a group.  We’ve trained, but that’s not the same as this.”

“Agreed,” Aneerin whispered.  “A test it is.  We should start now.”

Charles stepped forward to get their attention.  “We should return to Cowboy Country now,” he ordered and turned to walk out.

“Jack,” Aneerin said, waving for him to stay.  “You can take the next lift.”

Charles and Jay paused for a moment, until Aneerin waved them on.  They looked at Jack and he shrugged, letting them know they were free to go.  They answered with smiles and stepped into the lift.

Aneerin cleared his throat and Jack turned back to him.  He scanned the older man, wondering what he was thinking.  “You are looking to do something that we do not do,” Aneerin began in a stern voice.  “Do you know why?”

Jack looked between Aneerin and Hal.  “Yes.  I know why the cybers decided not to do it.”

Aneerin smiled, catching Jack’s pointed tone.  “Good.  But I would like to know why you wish to do this as well.”

Jack looked back and forth between the two for a few seconds before nodding in acceptance.  “OK.”

Aneerin look at him in approval.  “Good.  Now can tell me, in one sentence, why?”

“I don’t want to leave Samantha,” he answered without hesitation.

Aneerin’s expression softened.  “Women.”  He shook his head.  “They always make us do things we didn’t think we would.”

Jack turned his head slightly and scanned Aneerin carefully.  “You sound like you’ve had experience.”

“Oh, yes,” Aneerin whispered with a smile.

Jack felt a smirk come over his face at the idea.  “And next you’re going to tell me there are little Aneerins running around?”

Aneerin sighed and nodded slowly.  “Yes,” he whispered.  “Yes there are.”

Jack considered that for a moment and glanced at Betty.  She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what he was thinking.  He smiled at her.  It wasn’t often he did that.  He turned back to Aneerin.  “I’m sorry, but I just don’t how the Peloran do things.  Did you love their mother?  Or mothers or whatever?”

Aneerin stared at him for several seconds before answering.  “Arranged marriages are not our custom,” he finally answered with a sigh.  “And yes, I always will.”

Jack scratched his jaw with a thumb and glanced at Betty again.  This time she smiled and inclined her head, recognizing where he was going.  He turned back to Aneerin.  “Would you do anything in your power to stay with them?”

Aneerin sighed and shook his head.  “Would you?  Do anything to stay with all the girls you’ve loved?”

Jack’s cheek twitched at the hard question.  He brought a hand up to touch the rank insignia on his collar.  He shook his head, very slowly.  “I made an oath,” he whispered.  “I won’t break it.”  He turned a hard gaze back on Aneerin.  “But I’d do anything else.”

Aneerin’s expression turned thoughtful, and he and Hal exchanged a conversation of looks.  “Some of them are dead.  Some are alive.  Who would you rather be with?”

Jack smiled.  “Why choose?” he asked with a wink.

Aneerin sighed and just looked at him.

Jack met the older man’s gaze for almost a second before lowering his eyes.  He turned back to Betty and she his look with an understanding one.  He nodded and sighed.  “I’ve always felt like a piece of me died when Yosemite fell,” Jack whispered.  “That a part of me is with them.”

Betty tilted her head to the side, inviting him to continue.

Jack frowned, not really wanting to do what she seemed to be suggesting.

Her eyes flicked towards Aneerin and Jack shook his head.

She pursed her lips, lowered her chin, and just stared at him.

Jack sighed in defeat and looked back to the older man.  “Every night when I go to sleep, I dream of being with them,” he admitted.  “So I guess I’ve got that covered on my own,” he finished, knowing how crazy it sounded.

Aneerin smiled in understanding and looked to Hal for a moment.  Hal smiled back.  “So why choose?” Aneerin repeated with a smile.

Jack read the simple acceptance in the man’s face and realized the man really did understand.  Jack shrugged.  “I just don’t want to leave those still alive behind when I go.”

“Yes,” Aneerin whispered and turned his back on Jack.  “I understand.  Do you?”

Jack blinked at the odd question.  He thought he had, but Aneerin’s tone suggested something different.  And he had the sudden feeling that he really didn’t.  “What should I understand?” he asked.

Aneerin turned back to him with an approving smile.  “That is a very good question to ask, Jack.  Your loved ones.  They will grow old, they will fade, and one day they will die.  You will watch your children do the same.  Your grand children.  On and on and on.”  Jack realized Aneerin was talking about his own life, his own experiences.  “And you will remain…twenty-five until the day you die.  Are you prepared for that?”

Jack swallowed and pulled in a long breath as the question rebounded through him.  “I…” he started, but had to shake his head.  “I thought I was,” he finally whispered.

Aneerin raised a single eyebrow at him, inviting Jack to continue.

Jack sighed.  “Yosemite.  Mother.  Father.  A lot of girls I…well…I knew I’d never grow old with them, but I thought I would have centuries with them.”  He cleared his throat.  “I…didn’t.”

Aneerin pursed his lips.  “I’m sorry.”

Jack let out a long breath and aimed a long look at Betty.  She cocked her head to the side and smiled.  “Me too.”  He looked back to Aneerin.  “I…I don’t want to lose any time.  I don’t want to leave anyone alone.  And if there’s a way to keep from doing that…”

Aneerin glanced at Betty, smiled, and gave a slow nod.  “Yes.  I believe you.”  He turned to Hal and Jack caught the edge of the conversation of glances and movements.

Jack felt the lift open behind him and Aneerin turned back with a smile.

“We shall speak of this later,” Aneerin announced.  “Your lift has arrived.”

Jack swallowed, pulled in a deep breath, and stood up straight.  “I would hate to miss my ride to battle,” he returned with a wry smile, tipped his hat to Aneerin, and ambled onto the lift.  Betty and Hal followed him onto the lift, the doors closed, and Jack felt it begin accelerating away from the observation deck.

Jack leaned back against the wall of the lift, watching the two cybers standing side-by-side.  Hal wrapped an arm around Betty and Jack smiled as she leaned into the other man.  Then he blinked as his mind caught up with what Aneerin had said.  About losing loved ones to age.

“Hal?”

Hal’s gaze jumped over to him.  “Yes, Jack?”

“Peloran don’t age, do they?”

Hal smiled in a knowing way.  “They do not.”

Jack nodded slowly, glanced at Betty, and sucked in a breath.  “So…who has Aneerin lost to old age?”

Hal gave Jack a sad smile.  “That would be a question he would have to answer.”

Jack let out a long breath.  “He spoke as if he’s outlived many loved ones.”

Hal shook his head.  “I can not answer that.”

Jack nodded slowly.  “I understand.  But…if he had non-Peloran children, where are they?  Where were they born?  Where did they die?”

Hal shrugged with the arm not wrapped around Betty.  “I’m sorry, but I really can’t answer.”

“I know,” Jack whispered and gave Betty a long look.  She smiled and nodded.  “I guess…I’m just wondering.”  Jack shrugged.  “Aneerin was here before Contact.  He had to have been to be as good at English as he was when he showed up.  The question is, how long before?”

Hal shook his head.  “I am sorry, Jack, but we cannot answer questions you have about your own past.  You have to answer them yourselves,” he finished in an earnest tone.

Jack frowned at the cyber and shook his head.  “So what happens when we finally find these answers?”

“Then you will finally walk through the stars alongside the First Races as equals.”

“Wait,” Jack said in surprise.  He’d never heard that term before.  “What?  Who?”

“Opps,” Hal said, covering his mouth with a single repentant hand.  The wry amusement in his eyes put the lie to that motion.  “I was not supposed to say that.”

Jack frowned at Hal and was about to ask what he meant when the lift slowed to a stop and the doors opened into Cowboy Country.  He looked back from the doors to see Betty and Hal standing apart, and an expression on Hal’s face that said the time for those questions was over.  It was time for battle.  Jack nodded but gave Hal a wordless promise that they would speak on the matter again.  Hal smiled as if he looked forward to it.

Jack grunted and stepped out of the lift.