Zarah sat alone in Mira's marquee, concentrated on some handiwork. Her little fingers laced string and some colorful stones together, while her brains processed far something else. Flowcharts about nanotube-based circuits fluttered around her cranial cavities. The synapses tried solving dilemmas, what to do, what to do… XR's metallic skeleton was gathering dust in one corner. The engineer had given her best efforts.
Somehow Choi was an outsider for the tumult in the village. She was not aware of Buzz' return, not aware that a triplet was with long strides diverging from the Council hut. The negotiations there were finished. The triad snatched one more person with them en route.
One pierced stone more from the basket… set up a knot with the virkkuukoukku-stick. Lace the decoration… Thud. G'Deneb almost jumped in the ceiling for shock. The tent's flap was violently tossed aside, and four aliens tumbled inside like hurried children into a schoolbus. For the second time, Buzz had proudly presented the ancient electricity-gimmick to Mira, causing a real eruption of excitement.
"Zarah! Zarah! Get up! Quick! We may be able to activate XR!" Nova shouted almost ear-splittingly.
The red-hair frowned, having her whole handiwork now messed up due to the abrupt frightening. The stone basket's inners were scattered messily on the floor, and she had almost stung her thumb with a needle. However, now the voltage recharger was slammed in her palms, with a jolt.
"This was found in Suur-Kaleva! It's a functioning electric charger!" Lightyear began explaining. He, Yoka and Booster were the three others crowding the tent initially. "We just came back with a real speeder! I heard XR is out of power, but blast, here we got a solution, eh?"
But the technician just blinked her eyes, tossing her headscarf aside. Who, what, where? She was not following the situation at all. Thus, it needed explaining, and a lot.
A doubtful hack then croaked from her throat, after the hullabaloo-presentation of four creatures speaking at the same time. She switched on and off the staff, furrowing. "Eh… it's not really that easy as you might think. This is a voltage charger, but… it says nothing about the voltage amounts. I can't test this anywhere. If I just go on smashing the robot with this, it might cause an over-response and put him into a worse condition!"
"Umm… yeah." The three space rangers shifted regards.
"But do we have an alternative, Zarah?" Nova sighed, "This is our first and only hope this far. Although the chief possibly now lets people to go to explore Suur-Kaleva, they don't necessarily find anything there in a long time."
"It's just that XR has a very low electromagnetic frequency. If I go on striking him with an impulse too high…" the engineer shook her head, fumbling again the stick's round button. However, the crumble shifted to an airier mien, unexpectedly. A tiny discover was namely made. As she had let her thumb touch the charger's activator a bit lighter, it did not produce such a heated fizz, as primarily.
"No, could it be…" A test-run. "Craters, craters, quasars, whatever dim-witted space junk, it might actually work!" she quickly went into hysterics, bouncing up and dashing towards the mecha's graveyard.
"Did you see? DID YOU SEE! It varies the voltage's amount by how much the button is pressed! It might work!" she squealed and tore off XR's middle part lid.
Relieved smiles glowed on the rangers' faces. Luckily the age-old stick had had this function, since no one had paid attention to the possible wrong voltage levels. The frantic girl now ripped the half-standing android's wires.
The first blue lightning sizzled. A petty smoke cloud rose up. But, the poor tin can remained lifeless.
"Maybe he needs more stamina?" Another strike. And nothing. Not even an eye blinked.
Three, four, five… sweat began trickling down the rangers' necks. It was supposed to work, if there was nothing else wrong with their fellow than just the loss of electricity. Zarah bit her lips, drawing more coils out. Perhaps she had fixed the parts invalidly. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten… more tryouts.
"Stupid junk, work!" Choi's temper began pouring over. She was not really a hot-headed personality, but in situations like this, the over-broiling became evident. Grating her teeth, she banged the middle hull with a fist, at the same time squeezing the staff quite boisterously. The thumb hit fairly hard the button, causing an abrupt, raging voltage pulse. It must have broken some of the stick's inner dielectrics, since a good shock made Zarah exclaim in pain. Part of her hair electrified up in the air into a tangled red cloud.
But so did something happen in the robot, too. It trembled alone, hissing, buzzing, droning. A faint light at first ignited in his artificial eyes, then a brighter one. Recharging plucked his limbs back and forth a few seconds, then the android abruptly shot off high, yelling panicky, "AAAAAAAAH! We're gonna crash! We crash! AAAAAAAAAA! I crashed! System malfunction… System malfunction… beep, beep, beep…." As he reached the floor again, he looked around agitatedly. His last thought before the last smash had returned into his mind.
XR blinked. A jazzy collection of eye pairs stared at him baffled. Mira, Booster, Buzz, Zarah, some strange tall girlie… "Hiya, pals…" he waved his fingers, "Uh… I didn't crash? Or did I got a crush? Hey, what's going on? Have ya folks started a hippiedom 'cause you're dragging that kind of wonderland clothings?" The suede, fringes and fang-necklaces made him to become one big question mark.
Thankful smirks spread on Team Lightyear's faces. That was XR, if who. No doubt, he functioned finally. All the less or more irritating sarcasms were back in their slots. Booster did a happy dance across the floor, hugging then the android so that the metal cracked.
"Hot rockets! You're all right!"
"No, I don't think I am. I'm already missing a leg for a reason or another, and after this… ooof…" he tried pulling himself away from the Jo-Adian's clinch, who then put him willingly down, "Ugh, well at least after that I am wrecked."
When Buzz summarized the kaleidoscopic events, the android was one gigantic exclamation mark. "You mean I was rusting almost two months?" he stretched his arms, beginning to inspect if he had those nasty oxidizes somewhere. "Phew… and now what? We go dance a rain dance around the totem pole? Indians? Hooka-hey!"
"Nope, but you contact Star Command immediately!" Lightyear gave a guffaw.
"Why? Since we are in the great wide wilderness, couldn't we keep a good holiday instead? We could be just a couple of more days lost!" the mecha nagged.
Smoke came out of Zarah's ears. She hit his dome helmet with an oily rag, and with a deep chest-tone barked, "You stubborn pile of scrap! No more lolling around! Now put your capacitors rolling, and contact Star Command! NOW!" Wiping some hair off her forehead, she sighed then, "Uh… sorry. I'm a bit stressed out, I guess."
"Yikes!" the robot took some distance of her, "She'd definitely need a holiday!"
"Blast, just open up your comlink and contact Commander Nebula! We're been idling long enough."
"Hmph, why is everyone so tensed? They might have empty rest-home places on Rhizome… oh well." He opened up his wrist communicator, dialing a number. Everyone around hauled him, ready to go berserk if they would hear even a pip from outer space.
"Coming, Star Command? Ranger XR speaking! Heyodales, poppa, are you there…?"
At Star Command HQ, Commander Nebula was lazily going through some mission reports. A holoscreen with boring lines spread up over the Desk. The work tasted rotten in the middle of all the impatience. It was an early morning, and even black coffee did not bring the old man's vigor back. King Nova had called him at least three times today, giving new threats. "If I don't find his daughter, this and this and this and yadda-yadda will happen. Sweet mother of Venus, as if he was the pole of the universe!" he sulking leaned to his elbow. His comlink whined. Again those nag calls? Or was it Zurg sniveling about Buzzy Boy? No, it could not be he, since what he remembered, he was sitting in the Star Command's cafeteria. Fifteen minutes had just passed since his last questioning. That ex-emperor was just driving his living rockets nuts.
But Zeb was to hit his cranium against the ceiling, when he out of the blue bolted up from his seat. XR? XR! That was XR on the other side of the channel! "Whawhawha---wha…. XR! Wha-- Where-- XR! Where are you? How…"
"Hi, pops! Gah, you sound as burnt-out as the folks here…" the robot's voice turned distant for a second. "Emh… that's for my chatting. Buzz wants to talk to you."
"Buzz? Buzz! Craters, Buzz!" Zeb yelled his cake hole wide as a banana, "Can it really be you? Alive! You can't possibly understand how worried we all have been here! Where are you? Are Mira, Booster and Mrs. Darkmatter all right?"
"Heh, no need for panic." Lightyear's smile widened in the vidscreen, "They're all doing fine. Our all communication means have been functionless until now, otherwise we would have contacted you before. Just fixed the robot ranger some minutes ago. The first contact, heh… The main problem is that we don't know where we are. Can you trace XR's signal?"
"Uh-huh… craters, let's see…" the Commander began tinkering diligently with a quick-tracker he had embedded in the Desk's vidphone. "Hmm… getting indications, just a second… drat this wreck is slow… Upsilon Quadrant…? What kind of wormhole has brought you to Upsilon Quadrant? It's mostly uncharted area!"
"Wormhole, definitely. We got lost in hyperspace…", Buzz began the mantra again, while Zeb waited for the tracer to retrieve the electromagnetic waves through the ethers.
"Phew, Buzz, you've definitely gone off your course. I got the coordinates of some planet, but this one is without a name in our databases. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, we're going to get you and the others out of there, now. But I'm afraid it takes some time before we get there."
"Don't worry, Commander. We won't disappear anywhere from here", Lightyear laughingly commented, "XR here was just requesting a holiday. He can now take a few days off. But let's keep the connections open. There's a lot of news to deliver."
"Ah, kid, guess what, your father is here! He… well he's been really worried about you! Just a second, I'll get him online! I can go to negotiate with the LGM's while you have your family reunion."
Buzz' eyes shone. Just one zap from that ancient device, and all the lines were open. And he had definitely missed his father. He had been worried? Would he appear in the screen with teary eyes? The Captain felt some kind of adolescent gladness that he was so cared. Some clatter was heard in the comlink, obviously a second person scampered inside Nebula's office. Buzz spruced himself up, and soon met his older reflection in the ether.
"Greeting, Father!" he smiled.
Nevertheless, the figure in the vidscreen replied nothing. Zora's pupils were jagged as blades. They kept snooping Buzz from under his bushy brows. Not a hello they had screamed, not a welcome uttered. Lightyear's back of the neck sweated under that mind-punch. Zurg was angry, because of a reason or another.
"F-father? What's wrong?"
"Son, have you been in the dark side?" came a direct question. The captain flinched.
"B-b-but… how… why…"
"You have been in the dark side, have you not? What have you done to your beard? I did not teach you to shape it like that", he snarled.
"F-father, h-how did you know? I…" Lightyear cowered and stuttered, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…"
"I felt a great disturbance in the balance. I thought you were dead or dying. But I understand now that you were dying in another way. And what you once promised…"
The younger male felt terrible. Nothing could slip the Emperor's knowledge? He read his scion's face like an open newspaper, seeing beyond his subconscious. His long fingers tapped themselves together, and a sigh fled his lips. "So you made a trip back to the dark side. And I had so much trusted you… although…" a hand wandered to hide his brown eyes. "My fault it was. My fault it is. I was the one who once destroyed you, my Son…"
Split, split, splat. Now it was not Yoka that put Buzz' heart broken, but Zurg. He felt this sudden compassion even towards him, and would have dashed to hug him unless the screen and the distance had not been on the way.
"No, don't blame yourself any more. You saved me once and… now it was my time to… save myself. Father, I'm not… in the dark side. I guess I was, but I… fought back."
Zora's piercing goggle remained. "Did you have tha-grydda with you?"
"No, I… I said I fought back. S-something made me understand I was… going back towards the darkness."
"I am glad to hear that, Son." The old man nodded. "So what made you return? I can see it from your face that you have gone through very severe emotional disturbances. You did not have those grooves under your eyes before. You look older than you should."
"I… I'm sorry, but… I d-don't want to talk about it now…" Buzz felt his forehead turning crimson. How was he suddenly going to chant about Yoka? Tell openly his dad how he had stumbled with his own pride and morals? The croaks were left glued onto his larynx and never came out. "Uh… I… I tell you later. But I'm all right, I promise. And firmly, now."
"Also you promised last time. And what did I hear now?"
"But my heart is changed! The evilness has left it, I can feel it!" he put his hands on his chest, pressing it. "You… you and Warp don't need tha-grydda! You… it's because your hearts have changed, isn't it so? That's why the dark side won't try to hunt you any more! But I… I said I fought back, and hopingly won."
"Right…" the elder male fingered his cleft under his beard, "Hmmhooh… now there is the issue of getting you home. And I would like to hear what has happened and where you are. Ahh, Commander Nebula, the pathetic, fuddy-duddy hoary coot just came back in… uh, excuse me…" Obviously the Star Command's leader had heard the nicknames, since some quarreling was heard in the background. But in any case, soon the moustache-man poked the royal aside, assaulting the vidscreen.
"Buzz, you're still there? Blast, a bit of bad news. The LGM's measured the distances, and we ain't going to reach you guys just in a few days. It'll take a few weeks to travel there with the normal ways! You have thrown yourselves so far away. As soon as possible, we'll set up some ships, and I'll come with. I want to see you with my own eyes. But as said, it's not gonna happen tomorrow."
"Ah, that's okay", Buzz smirked. "I don't mind."
This relaxed commentary amazed Zeb. "But haven't you rangers been rotting there, in that village you told about, already several months UGT? I thought you'd instantly wanna rush into new missions and to defend the Galaxy! What's wrong with you, kid?"
Again, those irritating questions. The Captain could possibly not chitchat about this here in the middle of everyone. He would need time to think, to ponder. Snap, why not to launch a little stalking-horse? Well, it actually was not one, but a true issue. Lightyear had not eaten anything since the depart from Suur-Kaleva, and had his stomach roaring like an old battered engine. And… over XR's arm, there, a few meters further he met a pair of grey eyes. They were shiftless, full of confusion. There… there would be another reason to slide away.
"Ah, look, I… I just like it here. I don't mind if you come a little late. Just now… I got to go. I have something to do. But Mira and Booster and Zarah are here, you can discuss with them. And you might contact Warp. I think well… he might want to hear the news about his wife."
"Buzz! Wait! You can't…" Nebula shrieked on the other side, but noticed that the Kaleva-representative had turned to a Tangean. But even her regard was somewhere else, following some target at the other side of the tent.
"What's going on there? Sweet mother of Venus, for the first time in my life I hear that Buzz doesn't want to bolt to chase robbers? What…"
"He just left with some grrlll--umffff!" XR was about to slip some details, but Mira had pinned his garrulous maw with a finger-pinch. A fierce frown told that the mecha should stay quiet if not willing to taste a hammer. Nova had concluded that if Buzz did not want to narrate his extraordinary tiny story himself, no one else would do it. Besides, the robot had neither a clue what was rolling around, so he might distort the facts badly. And Buzz, he had vanished through the flap a gentle hand squeezing a smaller one. Warmth had sunnied his visage, so everyone knew to leave him alone.
"I think Buzz has done a peace with himself", Nova cracked a smile after him.
"What? What peace? What's going on there?" But Zeb was left without the further answer.
Right on the same day, it was Zarah's turn to receive her important vid-session, too. Warp had been obviously contacted, since someone connected from a very familiar com number right to XR's wrist link. Definitely not en easy moment. The weeks she had bathed in her self-pity were revised in her mind, like some tragic, elegiac symphony. What had happened during her absence? Had anyone even missed her, after all? What, why, how… Her heart beating from toes to crown, she waited in front of the screen. The seconds pulsated in her vessels. Then, a familiar face appeared in the little virtual window. Its jaw clicked open, and it just stared there… alike she. Silence, gawping… twenty seconds of stillness. But, the expected over-mushy sniffings and sputterings actually never occurred. Warp picked his jaw up, pressed his big teeth together, and launched a satire.
"Now guess what? Yar Master is not pleased!" he shook a thick blue finger in front of her nose, "You're late, very very late. You were supposed to be sitting on my left knee and watching cartoons about…" he stopped to count with his scythes, "Well, drat, months ago!"
The sadness evaporated instantly away. She took a playfully angry expression, and tossed her nose up. "Well, mister master muster, you could've taken your shiny streamlined ultra-super-mega-fast ship and come to pick me up! Not my fault, if some rusty Star Cruiser can't stand space traveling any more."
"Hmph! But your Master is still not pleased! You come here at once so I can scold you better! Now, look, even the kiddie is mad!" he took swiftly some failed holo-photo of Ay'noh from his pocket, where the toddler had some absolutely beetle-browed mien.
"Pfih, you just have to come and get me first! Nah-nah-nah!" she stuck her tongue out.
"Uh-huh, I'll come and get you! No one escapes the clutches of Warp Darkmatter! Muwahahaha!" he stretched out his vulpine grin.
"Well is Darkie trying to be scary? Boo-hoo. I'm shuddering. Hmpft!"
Then the 'tender moment' of the two long-lost lovers turned to something idiotically sugary bill and coo.
Mira goggled stupefied in the background. In a breeze, the depressed, sulking woman had turned to a giggling, tittering goof? A highly-educated president of her own company? Bah. Moreover a mental pre-teen. And so had XR his comments to say. The redhead was namely all the time talking into his comlink.
"Now I had to see the day that my arm was turned to some lovey-dovey hotline? Yick!" the robot grimaced. "I better give you my whole arm, so I can get away from the middle of the sugary clouds, pink fluffy bunnies and all the cooing doves!" He detached the body part and passed it to Zarah. "Here you go, but remember not to dump any honey pots on it! It's tacky enough already!" Not caring about his somewhat malicious utterance, she just grapped the loose limb and vanished into her own compartment of the tent. Obviously to talk nineteen to the dozen more. This had definitely been the day of splendid family events.
Also the news reached Vainamoinen in a brief time. Sad it was for him that the grand brother would fly away, but it was expected after all. He had hoped… but so much were granted already, that according to him, Kaleva owed the skyfallen agelessly. But, Proud Crescent, Sininen and their servants belonged into their own worlds. Whatever then was there beyond the thirteen moons of this land. As Buzz formally came to announce him that a little fleet would be sent to collect him and his lost fellows, the chief answered with a pallid smile. The foreign visitors were welcome. And that it was Lightyear's own choice if he wanted to leave or stay.
Thus the depart bells rang. A mighty alliance vessel, guarded by two Star Cruisers, rose up towards the raven highnesses from Capital Planet's surface. King Nova, Warp, Ay'noh, Zurg, Munchapper's family, and a division of space rangers took the initiative to fly and meet the mislaid, the missed. Commander Nebula shared also a cabin in the representative transport, leading the whole operation. Maybe his place would have been at Star Command HQ, but after the wail he wanted to meet his dearest friend Buzz from eye to eye, and give him a big, fatherly hug. But, there was also a not-so-pleasant issue casting a shadow over the long journey. Mira's father. From the first moments on, he had been excessively irritated to travel in a way like this, together with those lower than his 'divine' self. But also he had his aim, to bring his daughter back to safety.
Yet, the pacific intentions were somehow kept together in the same tub. Zeb was a skilled, austere order-keeper; he would not allow anarchy. True was, that a black hole would have sucked the diffuse harmony, if for example Nova had understood trekking together with the ex-evil Emperor Zurg. But, Nebula craftily commanded the lord to keep the izzards in the backpack. And the parsecs passed by.
---------------------
Back in Kaleva, the waiting began. Connections were kept hot almost round the clock, whoever then wanted to chat with whom. XR suffered from his yikes-attacks every other hour, when Zarah inquired to conquer the comlink and chirrup with her blue hunk and kid. Official and unofficial orders were given also back and forth. The robot sent a locator signal that the approaching ships collected, and followed it. The estimated traveling time varied between four and five weeks UGT, which in Kaleva meant about two and half weeks counted along Moon Reporukka's phases. Kaleva's chronology was very difficult to convert, since all the thirteen satellites the planet had, served as an own calendar. Mostly the everyday course was counted using Reporukka, but for human ages, important years and so on, there were parallel calculation methods. Nevertheless, every crash-lander had stopped caring about this except Buzz, who would have liked to know how old his wife was.
Definitely, Buzz Lightyear was the one who strangely isolated himself. Whereas Zarah, Mira, and Booster were constantly tweeting at the vidscreen, his shadow was barely seen. In Zurg and Commander's eyes he seemed alright, but there was something he hid. Indeed. Now, after a safe home-going was assured, he somehow would have wanted the days to go more tardily forwards. He wished he could have had more time to roam in his own thoughts, to ponder his new circle of life. She… what would he do to her? The tinkle in his heart got worse every day. Her presence was an obsession soon. Then again, how would he explain this to his father, or to Zeb? Or to anyone of his old friends? This far his tongue had been locked into a prison. Mira, or anyone else had mentioned nothing furthermore, only narrated about the odyssey in overall. The Captain could hold his little secrets if he wanted to be stubborn.
For Yoka, every day was another surprise. Although Buzz' giant ego was not even half swept away, there was nothing left from the yelling, cursing demon. There were strong, helping hands to carry the water buckets, wood logs, and do the snow clearing around the hut's basis. The girl gradually dared to be more and more herself, since no more damning flew over her crown. Then… Lightyear found it dumbfounding that he was more and more attracted to the features in her he at first had considered so irritating. Although he kept knocking his forehead, lips primed due to pondering, his heart did not blurt out yet the answers. So he was kept in a silent dilemma of feelings. Why this now, when it had all started so chaotically?
Furthermore the man's number one task was to countervail his nasty past actions. He had put into crumbs almost half of Yoka's more valuable possessions. Nothing could bring the dear memories back that had been enclosed in some of those shattered artifacts. Yet, he tried. Some new pot or decorated dish was put to squat on her table, almost every other day. Lightyear had gone to chat with some of the village's artisans, asking them to fabricate a few gracile haberdasheries for her. And he had also paid for them, by giving away a good amount of the jewels and tinsel the citizens had granted him.
A bigger project had been done with some seamstresses. Buzz still felt how nights ago soft linen had touched his hands, hovering next in the air in delicate fibers. And how pleasurable she had looked that one day, her slim form clothed by the same silky flax. She had offered him a plate… and he had just scowled. Scornfully offended her. But later the image had returned to pester his retinas as some kind of daydream –as strange as it was. Yoka-hanen needed a new dress instead of the ripped one.
Hence, one day… his order was finished. A big packet under his arm, Buzz traipsed back to his home along the frost-hardened sand road. He buttoned shut the galaxy-wide grin, that almost forcibly drew his whiskers up. Hopingly she would like his gift. Hopingly he would be granted with that merry beam he so much nowadays was fond of. He tiptoed noiselessly in. Knocking the shoulder of the girl, he awoke her from her concentrated work. With a half-smile, the pelt package was offered to her, to be left under her puzzled nose.
"Me?" An utter came. Now what was this all about?
"Uh-huh", he nodded, pushing the not-so-light wrap into her arms. His simper followed the gestures of her fingers, as they unfolded the mystery. Her pupils turned to express sheer confound, as the inners were drawn out. Orange-maroon linen with suede additions slid in her hands, heavy and complex pictographic embroidery filling every spot of the canvas. It did not completely fill the quality of the demolished bridal gown, but almost, almost.
In every case, Yoka was moved. Lightyear could very well comprehend it from her timid-turned gaze. His fist appeared on her shoulder, gently stroking it.
"Would you… put it on? For me?"
"Putti-ton?"
"Uh… well… you know, wear." He gave some kind of semaphore show. Leading her to the dressing compartment of the tent –that was separated with curtains from the main room- he was left to wait then. A commonplace or not, Buzz wanted to see the results. As said, he had not detested her either when she originally had set up the tiny masquerade. Maybe the girl did not completely correspond to the traditional beauty values, but her exotic appearance still made his heart go jammed in the throat, well at least now. At least now when he examined his wife with a different point of view.
And so it was also when she coyly stepped out, the whole bedraggling flax formulation on. Yoka winced under his burning stare that had abruptly been shot towards her. Absolutely the same gaze as in Suur-Kaleva. Yes, not the fire of insanity nor evilness, but far something else. That sapphire gape almost penetrated her, putting icy water run down her back. No words were blurted, only he approached her with a few steps. His hands slid themselves up along her back, those irises furthermore fixed straight towards hers. And that stroke of his warm palm… it put her stomach full of teeming bugs. Feeling a strange dollop in her throat, she with broken English attempted to inquire why Buzz was like that.
As his response, he drew her down to sit on his knees, closing the unsaid sentence into an ardent kiss. Long he fondled her lips with his ones, and they reached her cheeks, even caressed carefully her neck a bit. His clinch was persistent, only tightening up when the minutes passed. Furthermore his tired, exhausted heart commanded him to offset the cruelties, to make her feel better… safer… cared. But just compassion it was not any more, under it bubbled a well of very other kind.
Yoka quivered under his every touch. Weak, tiny she felt as her narrow shoulders were burrowed into the squeeze of those massive arms. And he had said he did not hate her… but liked. But was this actually just liking any more? And why was it for a strong female character like her to feel so absolutely frail beside him? She dared not to answer his kisses yet, but still let him do what he wanted. And alike in the lost city, he was elated since of her surrendering. But true was, that she enjoyed now his every single token of affection, their fervent softness feeling so sweet.
Later that day Zurg commanded his scion at the comlink. News. Some faster wormhole had been found, and the sleight ride would take no more than six days Capital Planet time. The Alliance space was far, far away, and even the bounds of the charted sectors had been crossed.
The Captain was also stung with all kinds of question-needles. Why did he have that ninny, priggish beam all the time on his mug? That had nothing to do with Zora's headlines, he could comprehend that. But his son stayed as a sealed pyramid, as mysterious and odd. Why did he even blush in front of his father? Had the dark side gnawed off even his last brain cells?
Whereas Zarah climbed the walls in exhilaration after hearing that her Master would arrive sooner than expected, Buzz just slouched away, hands in pockets. And the father remained sullen when his only descendant did not want to share his precious time with him.
That night…
The teepee was shady. And so were hazy Yoka's eyes as she a couple of times blinked them. The deepest night cuddled Kaleva, a clouded, black sky above there somewhere… Buzz' steady respiration hissed somewhere at her ear, his soft shoulder as her mellow pillow. Why had she startled awake from her somnus; that was left as an unimportant mystery. And the sleep did not step back either.
The thoughts rambled. Unnoticed she nuzzled herself more towards the man, willing to flee the cold winter night. And so the sphere of ideas was aimed at him. How many nights had he held her like this? One, two, three… eighteen? That was not much. But affected they had, putting her fears gradually to the backstage. Proud Crescent did care for her, after all.
Quite sure Yoka-hanen was not about her own emotions. Gradually she had learned to give respect towards this uncanny man, but how could she so suddenly forget how she was treated originally? But the new person who had tapped out of the concrete-hard cell, was mild, attractive. Not the dark twin-brother. And it was just this noveau character that itched her heart. We have to learn to like each other… So his saddened voice had once pleaded. And she had learned. Learned to like… or even more than just like? Equally, the both mates were still lost in the primeval forest of senses.
So was the future shrouded. The skies would bring more foreigners to Kaleva, so she had apprehended from the Gibberish of the aliens. Chariots of fire would pick up Proud Crescent, so that he could lead the flying horses towards some arcane worlds? To the illusive spaces where he had been some kind of prince? That impression the girl still had of him, that he had some expressively high position in his own lands. Thus… what would happen to her and her people? Would there come some massive army to enslave all the population? No, that was a ludicrous idea. He had affirmed that those, from that strange Star Command or whatever it was, would come in peace. And that their purpose was mainly to 'save' him with Sininen, Kalvakka and that red-fat-something. A tiny prejudice squeaked there loudly. What kind of monsters would there come? More of those midgets and blue-skinned oddities?
Then… indeed, what would happen to her? She was after all a wife, not just any village tootsie any longer. Somehow Yoka in her blurry sentiments found it atrocious, that this foreign person could actually just leave her here, and swoosh away. Away to the clouds from where he had so randomly fallen down… In addition, this wee notion made one affirmation about her consciousness. She had affection towards him, since being afraid of this leaving. But, if he would abandon her, would that not chant brutally against his renewed manners? What had just happened today? His fondness shone through blaringly. Of course she had received kisses from him before, he had held her in his lap, but… there was a basinful of more fire this time. Evidently, this all lacked still the one basic element of marital life, but neither one of them had not yet been ready for that.
She winced a little. Something tousled her hair, and a little whisper came at her ear.
"Yoka…? You're not asleep?" Buzz there murmured. He had obviously woken up because of her swerving.
"Eh… minae tuota luulin ettae sinae nukuit ja… Me think… yu… um…" Coyness struck, at least when he now had put his nose to an inch-distance of hers.
"What did you think?" His smile could be distinguished in the cryptic light of one single lantern.
He had made a question. And she would ask it now, if she could just somehow form an understandable query. And honestly. Maybe there could be a soothing response for her fears.
"Yu say yu me no ha-ate. Yu no me… no mikae ihmeen tolvanan sana se nyt olikaan…? Yu no me le--- no voi tursas, kuusitoista ketunhaentaeae, mikae se oli… Yu no me levv? Uhh… Leev? " She felt her cheeks shimmering with shame. She did not well remember English in the middle of the night.
His expression turned severe. "What are you trying to say? Do you mean… leave?"
"Leeve, yes me meen leeve. Yu no me leeve?"
Snap. What was wrong? Lightyear's blue eyes grew despondent, his arms twining themselves firmly around her. "Yoka little, why would you think… that I would leave you? And leave you where? Is that what you're trying to ask?"
"Me… me fear yu… yu… no ettae sinae jaetaet minut taenne ja menet pois, missae minae sitten asun ja elaen jos sinae menet pois…?"
"Yoka, I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're trying to ask", he sighed, giving a peck on her forehead, "But don't fear anything. I'll take care of you. I have promised that to myself and to you, that… I'll never, never treat you humiliating again. Poor little thing, try to sleep now. Don't fear anything." Wrapping her more under the blankets, Buzz endeavored to place the night back. Neither one of them could actually make a conclusion of what was begged and what retorted. But he had said no, had he not? Maybe Proud Crescent in truth was not the cruel brute any longer. Nevertheless… did he mean what with that long lingo? Could he have meant that… he was going to take her with him? To those quaint spheres? That could not be probable. Accompanied by the muddled state of mind, her heavy eyelids flapped close, and the dreams came back.