Chapter Seven- Kismet Genesis 12:1- "..go to the land I will show you."

For what seemed to be the twentieth time in the last five minutes, Tielle let out a small, almost inaudible sigh from beside Chayden, and although the sighs themselves were annoying, the boredom and exasperation that accompanied them were almost enough to drive Chayden insane.

Chayden realized that the seamy spaceport bar wasn't perhaps the most preferable place to look over Diresh's holomaps, but it was free and they could take as much time as they wanted. Plus buy some drinks with their limited money.

Tielle glanced over at Chayden. "Chanh, am I bothering you with my boredom?" she innocently asked, playing her role perfectly.

It was Chayden's turn to sigh. "Usually you wouldn't be, but I'm tired, and you know how I am when I'm tired." Of course, she didn't really, but his sister would have.

Tielle nodded sympathetically. "It's just I'm so bored. Let me look at the holomaps."

He obediently handed them over and absentmindedly sipped his drink, the tangy liquid causing a slight burning sensation in his mouth. He made a face and wondered why he'd taken the bartender's recommendation for the "most popular drink in these parts." The bartender had declared that everyone loved it.

He looked at Tielle's glass. She had been smart and chosen a light wine.

In a rare moment of mischief, he quickly reached over and switched their glasses.

Tielle didn't notice, focusing on the holomaps. Chayden grinned; a real Farearian would have instantly questioned why she didn't notice his sudden humorous sense and look up.

But she didn't. She did, however, ask, "Okay. So what are we looking for here?"

"All the red dots. Each is a small colony that we could join."

She frowned again. "But there's so many of them! How are we supposed to choose which one to go to?"

Chayden shrugged and took a sip from his new drink. Now *this* was an improvement. "Geographic location, I guess, is one thing. Look at places near water, main roads, that sort of thing."

The redhead- oh, nope, now she was auburn -sighed and shut the small device off, setting it down on the bar's counter. "There's too many. How are we going to decide on one?"

Chayden shrugged again, hoping she'd take a sip of his drink. "Divine intervention, I guess."

"Divine intervention," Tielle grumbled. "If God's so divine, He should know that I don't have any patience and He'd better hurry up." She took her glass and took a long drink from it, then started to cough. She set the glass down, still coughing, and Chayden started to laugh as tears came to her eyes. "What did you do to my drink?" she gasped, the tears cascading down her cheeks.

Chayden grinned. "Nothing. It still tastes quite fine, and I'm enjoying it immensely."

Tielle examined the liquid in front of her. "Chay- Chanh, you are-"

"Extremely handsome? Intriguing interesting? Amazingly witty?"

"-so dumb!"

The response disappointed Chayden until he remembered that he was her older brother and that flirting was not an activity that most siblings did with each other.

He slid her glass back across the counter to her. "Here you go. Enjoy what's left."

She glanced in the cup and glared at him. "Which is almost nothing."

He shrugged. "I'm paying."

**

Gen Inhana- Jenai -looked out her window that evening and wondered where "Ella" was. And her handsome young man. She'd never learned the name of him, she thought suddenly, but the realization didn't bother her as much as it could have. She'd learn his name one day, she was sure.

How she knew that, she didn't know, but she knew it as sure as she knew that the sun would rise the next day. Her intuitions had always been correct, even as a young girl, and they were something that she had learned not to doubt.

She sighed. The one time she had doubted her feelings had been the downfall of her family. She had known something was wrong with her brother, her gut had told her that something was going on, but she had ignored it, and it had led to the enslavement of her family, and ultimately the death of her husband.

But the galaxy did not leave much time for those who dwelled on the past and who wallowed in regrets. The galaxy was for those who looked to the future, seeing and making things better for the galaxy and for themselves.

Those like Ella. Gen had a peculiar feeling that she, with her man alongside, would make things a lot better for someone, somewhere..

Gen shook her head and dismissed that notion as fanciful. Ella was obviously some sort of criminal, in hiding and running from someone. What kind of a difference could a fugitive make?

None. Gen, a fugitive for years, still had been unable to change her daughter's life and get her out of the hell called slavery. Perhaps she never would. Perhaps a fugitive couldn't.

**

Tesian Hamani looked around the spaceport and wondered by all the stars what she was doing there.

Her husband had thought her crazy to simply decide to up and come to Paeona, but she couldn't really blame him. She herself was wondering whether or not she was crazy.

Sighing, she looked to the overcast sky. *What am I doing here, Lord?*

No resounding voice came. No quiet inspiration. No firm instructions. No magnificent omen.

But it did start to rain.

Tesian headed for the nearest shelter, the spaceport. She ducked inside, shaking the water from her long hair, and went for the nearest place to sit down, a small bar tucked into a corner. It was fairly empty, it being the middle of the afternoon, and Tesian found a stool a couple feet away from a young couple that were intently looking at a holomap.

"I just don't know," the girl said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "I give up. You decide."

"Sure, let your brother do all the work," her brother sighed, but he took the holo from her and examined it. "I don't know either. Close your eyes and point at one."

"Sure, let's put lots of thought into a decision as important as this one," the girl remarked dryly, her strange accent making the words sound ominous.

"Ah, it's only a home. Who really cares?"

"*I* care, that's who. I don't want to go live in some dump somewhere."

Tesian suddenly remembered God's words. *A family of Mine. Protect them, daughter.* She looked at the couple more closely; the brother was a handsome dirty-blond, with a square jaw and blue eyes; the sister was curvy and slim-figured with chin-length curly reddish-brown hair. *Is this them?*

*Yes,* a voice responded to her unspoken question. *This is whom you seek.*

Gathering all her courage, Tesian slid off her stool and ventured over to the pair. "Excuse me," she said, and they turned and fixed intense eyes on her, "but are you looking for a place to live?"