Author's Note:

This is a post-CotM story, roughly a decade after its end or so. No direct contradictions exist to the original work as this fanfic stands now. The first chapter of this is a bit like a prologue, not a lot of action/dialogue, so bear with me. I would appreciate any comments on the work—this is my first attempt ever at fanfic.

Disclaimer:

Most characters and the milieu are the exclusive property of OSC, the author, with only the plot of the fic, my liberties with the character Lena, and the twins my own work.


Convergence

by Koraden

Chapter One: Julian


Julian Delphiki stretched and rose from his bed, taking care to avoid banging his head on the doorframe as he walked underneath. A thousand years ago, on the planet Moctezuma where his children grew up, he had raised the ceilings of their ship to accommodate his size. Thankfully, he had stopped growing, due to the scientists of the world Ganges who had developed a countertherapy years ago. The genetic condition had been held in check for a good twenty subjective years, allowing him to settle on Moctezuma where he and his kids grew older in the illusion that they were safe from the effects of Anton's Key.

Unfortunately, there had been a relapse a while back, and the therapy had become useless. Julian had taken to spaceflight once more with his three children: Carlotta, who went by "Carli", Elena, who liked to be called "Lena", and Andrew, who used both of the nicknames "Ender" and "Andy", depending on whose company he was in at the time. But when the family left Moctezuma, Julian at the age of thirty-eight and his kids at somewhere around twenty-two, there were a couple of new passengers aboard the ship: Lena's twins, a son and a daughter, who had been born a few years earlier.

Julian adored his grandkids. But to have them go through life without a father was regrettable. Of course Lena was the type to fall in love within a matter of days, and of course she would strike up a relationship that was never looked for. Of course the man would be a wandering itinerant, and of course he would take off one day without ever knowing that he had fathered twins upon the girl who he'd known for only a couple of months.

So Lena's two children were doomed to a life without a father, unless she would settle down with someone else anytime soon. It wasn't likely. Because the family's genetic disease had relapsed, even in the little ones, their starship flight dragged on for months on end, with the family only briefly settling on a planet every now and then. The twins had only caught a few glimpses in their lifetimes of what a proper planet was like. Julian, as always, cursed himself for having offspring that would be doomed from the very start of their lives.

Lena's kids, to all outward appearances, didn't seem to realize there was anything abnormal about their lives. But Julian knew they weren't fooled. They were already five years old, subjectively, and frighteningly brilliant—more brilliant, he supposed, than himself or even his children at that age. He never quite knew what they were up to in the library of the ship, working on computers and typing who-knows-what, submitting caches to the ansible when they were on a planet and reading for hours on end the updated ansible information when the family took flight again.. The twins knew what a normal life was supposed to be like, for certain. They knew it wasn't normal to live out the majority of their lives in a metal box. They knew it wasn't normal to be so clever so young. They knew as well that it wasn't normal to not have a father.

Lena was always quiet on the subject of the father of her children. She had told Julian that he was a itinerant speaker for the dead, by the name of Andrew. He was traveling with his sister from planet to planet, and had visited Moctezuma to speak the deaths of a pair of well-known local Catholics. She didn't know exactly why the siblings did this planet-hopping, and Julian was furious that any man would just up and leave a woman he'd been seeing without any notice. But Lena pointed out that he had no idea she was pregnant, and that staying with her wouldn't have mattered much either, because the family took to flight again soon afterward. She said that she'd rather be happy knowing that the father of her children was free to wander where he pleased, and go where he wished, instead of having him be miserable, stuck with her in a little box with his in-laws and kids that he probably didn't want in the first place. She also snipped that before their relationship ever got intimate, Andrew had told her that he wouldn't stay very long, which of course caused Julian to rant about the idiocy of his own daughter.

Despite the questionable sanity of one or both of their parents, the twins were turning out well. Skya, the girl, reminded Julian of his former wife. She was full of fire and energy. Her eyes sparked with excitement, and she never held still for more than five minutes. A spaceship was insufficient for her boundless enthusiasm. She often pushed her twin brother around mercilessly, and would attempt to engage her uncle and aunt in any number of games. Often Skya became a holy terror around the place. If there was ever a girl who needed space to run, it was Skya, but that was the one thing she didn't have. She was like an energetic puppy, always getting into trouble.

Her twin, on the other hand, was nearly the opposite. Little Alexander had a way of not saying anything for long periods of time. He went by the nickname Sandy, and would just watch Skya as she performed her five-year old antics all over the ship. It was unsettling how he would do nothing but observe, peeking out at the world beneath locks of long blond-brown hair with his piercing blue eyes. Sandy was always quiet, and spent hours on the computer. Julian had the suspicion that his grandson was going to turn out to be an unparalleled genius. If he could ever get off the ship-of-doomed and get some real-life experience.

Although, Julian supposed, without the genetic defect Sandy wouldn't have been so intelligent. He was just surprised the trait hadn't been diluted any more than it had been. True, Skya and Sandy were far larger than he had been at their age, what with the final effects of the therapies, but their brainpower didn't seem to have diminished. If anything, it had increased. Whatever genes they had gotten from their father had either not affected the twins, or else had been overrun completely by the Delphiki-Arkanian genes. Skya Petra and Alexander Andrew Delphiki were brilliant.

> > > > >

Today, Julian walked to the controls of the ship, as usual, and checked to make sure all was well. The nav system seemed to be working fine…but something seemed odd about a planet they were approaching. He checked the ansible reports. That was it—it didn't exist in the ansible reports. Many of the planets the ship had passed recently weren't, for they were outside the bounds of the Starways Congress's explorations. The Delphiki crew had been riding the wave of the settlement frontier.

But this—this was strange. Last month, there had been no signs of signals from the planet. That was subjectively a month ago, of course, because Julian's ship did not approach as near to lightspeed as the newer ships of Starways's fleet, so around ten actual years had passed due to the relativistic effects. There were no mentions in any of the ansible reports, however, of colonization attempts in this direction anytime in the past decade. Somehow, though, an unreported group of intelligent beings had to have reached this planet between now and then. The speed was impossible. No one could have arrived at the planet that fast by conventional methods—no other planets were anywhere within ten lightyears of it.

So if the source of the signals wasn't a Starways group of people, what was it? Perhaps it was buggers, thought Julian. He had been as shocked as anyone a month ago—ten years ago—to hear that a hive queen survived. Maybe the buggers had reached a planet first. Problem was, the buggers didn't communicate through electromagnetic waves, and those were the signals Julian's nav system were picking up from this strange planet.

Suddenly, his ansible hookup flashed and a voice came over the speakers. "Spaceship 234.467-21IF, you are being moved out of lightspeed. Prepare for disembarkment on the planet Liberdade at Starways Standard Time 0840."

Julian simply stood there. 0840? That was in fifteen minutes. The planet was still fifteen lightyears away. But apparently, someone there was expecting him.


Author's Endnote: Thank you for reading my first fanfic attempt. It would be spectacular if you would be willing to review my work—I would greatly appreciate it. More is on the way!

-Koraden