My Enemy's Daughter, Part Two: The Ghosts of Traken
TWENTY YEARS LATER
With a sigh, Nyssa threw her briefcase on the table and flopped in the nearest armchair. She wasn't physically tired, but she was emotionally exhausted.
Adana appeared in the doorway. "Tough day, love?"
Nyssa nodded as Adana glided over and put her arms around her. She smiled contentedly as the Urbankan woman caressed her long hair.
After a moment Nyssa rose, led Adana to the sofa, and the two sat down next to each other. "How bad was it?" the blonde woman asked, taking Nyssa's hand.
"I understand the Minister's position," Nyssa explained. "He said that if we reveal New Urbankan technology to the rest of the galaxy, it will be the end of evolution, of life as we know it. I do see what he means, Adana, but surely - since we have the means to aid those with terminal illnesses, shouldn't we do it? It's the compassionate thing to do - and we wouldn't be like Monarch, forcing it on people who don't want it. Everyone would have a choice!"
"Nyssa, you know I trust your judgement absolutely," Adana said, "and I'd support you if you decided to stand for Council President - but I think the Justice Minister may be right."
Nyssa looked at the other woman quizzically.
"You've said that we should offer Urbankan technology to the terminally ill," Adana said gently. "That it might comfort them to know that someone with their memories and personality could continue their work when they are gone."
Nyssa nodded. "A dying mother could be assured that their children would always have someone to look after them - someone who loved them, and someone they could trust completely! It wouldn't be them, exactly, but it would be like a twin."
"But what if he's right?" Adana asked. "How would we judge which planets, which societies, are ready for Urbankan technology? What if we share it with a world, and they decide that only their nobles or rich people deserve it? What if we share it with a king who makes himself immortal and never leaves the throne? How would a nation progress then, with a king who's been king forever, will live forever, and is too powerful to stop?"
Nyssa closed her eyes and nodded. "Monarch."
"Would we want to be responsible for that?" Adana asked. "Our society may someday reach the point where we can no longer change or grow because we cannot have children or bring in new members - but we didn't have a choice about being this way. If we share our technology with people who do have a choice, eventually those who benefit from our technology will reverse engineer it."
"And no children, and no evolution," Nyssa said with a sigh. She gazed at the blonde woman. "And maybe tyranny of the invincible elites over those in Flesh Time. Or vice versa - those in Flesh Time use the androids as slaves. Expendable people.
"The Doctor once told me that death is the price we pay for progress. It sounded harsh at the time, but I understood what he meant.
"There has to be a compromise, Adana. You're right, we have a responsibility to the future as well as a responsibility to those in need - but then I see people dying of Petrifold Regression and think we must do something."
"Maybe we can," Adana said. "We can use our knowledge to help cure diseases without turning people into androids."
Nyssa frowned, and laid her head on Adana's shoulder. "I have a background in biology, but I'm no doctor, and Monarch threw out much of what Urbankans knew about biology. He thought we'd never need it again."
Adana started. "I didn't know that!"
Nyssa nodded. "I found out when I became Science Minister. Urbankan science is quite advanced in many ways, but we're far behind our contemporaries in organic medicine. If we're going to help other planets we have a lot of catching up to do."
"Well, we do have the time," the blonde woman said.
"You and I do," Nyssa agreed, "but the dying don't. We've built so much here, Adana, but I feel we should be doing more."
A few minutes later, Nyssa was looking over her notes when she heard Adana's voice from the next room. "Nyssa, I think there's something here you should see."
Nyssa recognized the blonde woman's tone: something peculiar was going on, but there was no immediate danger. Frowning, Nyssa followed Adana's voice.
A large chair made of elaborate golden wood and green upholstery stood in the centre of the usually sparse room. In the chair sat a man in gray robes, long gray hair, and a short gray beard.
"LUVIC!" Nyssa cried.
Adana watched in amazement as the two embraced each other.
"I thought you were dead," Nyssa sobbed into the visitor's shoulder.
"I am lucky - very lucky - to be alive," the old man said kindly. "And to have found you again after all these years!"
"How did you survive?" Nyssa asked. She wiped the tears from her cheeks as the visitor smiled at her.
"A rather long story involving the Source and a charged-vacuum emboitment," Luvic said. "I will tell you all about it. But first, who is your friend?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Nyssa said. She rose and extended her hand to Adana, who took it. "Adana, I would like to present my dear friend Luvic, the Keeper of Traken. Luvic, may I introduce Adana, my wife."
"Minister of Science for New Urbanka," Luvic said proudly. "Nyssa, I knew you were destined for great things. Your father would be very proud."
"Thank you," Nyssa said softly.
"After that dreadful business with the Melkur I realized my predecessor had been right, that Tremas should have been his successor," the Keeper told her. "I would have chosen him for mine, as well, but I am sorry to say we never found him after he disappeared."
Nyssa sighed, and took her friend's hand. "Luvic, I have terrible news." She pursed her lips and blinked a few times. Adana, recognizing the expression, gently placed her hands on Nyssa's shoulders. "The Doctor and I found out what happened to him," Nyssa explained. "He was murdered by the Master - the man who was controlling Melkur."
Luvic gasped, his eyes going round with shock. "Oh, my. Nyssa, I am so sorry. I am sorry I did not know, sorry I could not save him."
"It's a long time ago now," Nyssa said.
"That may be true, but you still miss him," Adana put in. "Your love and loyalty are some of your best qualities."
"Thank you," Nyssa said, smiling up at her.
"That is quite true," Luvic said, "which is why I was thinking of designating you as my successor before you left." Nyssa gaped, but the Keeper smiled and continued. "I think we both know that things are different now, Nyssa, but I'm hoping there is still something you can do for Traken."
"What is it?"
"To put it frankly, we need your help," Luvic said.
"Our satellites detected the entropy wave ten minutes before it hit," the Keeper of Traken explained. "We had no time to plan, no time to prepare, no time to confer. I had to act with imminent death staring me in the face."
"You saved Traken?" Nyssa asked, astonished.
"I would have hardly been a good Keeper if I hadn't," said Luvic with a twinkle in his eye. "Of course, I've come up with several better plans since, but I didn't think of them at the time - so our whole Union has had to deal with the consequences of what I did come up with.
"There was a charged-vacuum emboitment within a few light years of us," the Keeper explained. "I used the power of the Source to send the entire Union through it."
"You moved six whole solar systems?" Nyssa gasped.
"Only the stars, and the ships, and the planets with life. I left the gas giants and asteroids where they were."
"But something went wrong," Adana supplied.
"Yes," the Keeper admitted. "I took the first solution I could think of. I had no time to check what kind of pocket universe existed on the other side of the emboitment. I saved our people and our planets, but nearly burned out the Source doing it, and the universe we arrived in wasn't very friendly to organic life."
"Unfriendly in what way?" Adana inquired.
The Keeper smiled sheepishly. "The pocket universe had much larger amounts of background radiation than we're used to," he said. "We'd only been in R-Space for a few hours when people started getting sick. We countered the radiation with inoculations as best we could, but we had to evacuate the Byrne system within a week of being there. It took us six years, but eventually we were able to replenish the Source, and I thought I could transport the remaining five systems back."
"And that didn't work?" Nyssa asked.
Luvic shook his head sadly. "Instead of moving five systems at once and risking another burn-out, I decided to move one at a time. But our scientists underestimated - I underestimated - the stress that moving through the charged-vacuum emboitment would place on people already suffering from radiation poisoning.
"A fifth of our people didn't survive the trip home. Almost all of us are sick or have been rendered infertile. I can't move the other four planets home at that cost. But we can't stay in R-Space, either. We have to evacuate in the next six months or there won't be any of us left."
"Then why did you wait so long?" Adana asked.
Luvic looked at her strangely. "We've only been back in N-Space for four days."
Nyssa and Adana exchanged glances. "It's been twenty years for me," Nyssa told him.
Luvic's jaw dropped. "Twenty years? I had no idea. It hasn't been seven for me since the entropy hit. Time must flow more slowly in R-Space."
The Keeper looked at the two women with sad, earnest eyes. "I would never ask this if there were any other choice, Nyssa, but our people are dying. I must ask New Urbanka to build android bodies for us."
Nyssa and Adana explained the Urbankan debate on sharing their technology - one Nyssa had argued just that day. Luvic elaborated on the political situation on Traken, and revealed that considerable discussion had already taken place.
"It has been a hard choice for all of us - let our culture die out entirely or preserve an android facsimile of it," he said. "Not everyone wants to make the change, and of course we won't force anyone who doesn't wish it. But the majority of us do, and regardless of my own feelings on the matter I will respect all Trakenians' wishes.
"But I am not impartial or objective. We are in the situation we are precisely because I moved the Traken Union through a charged-vacuum emboitment. Because I am connected to the Source, I will go on living for hundreds of years, even if I am the last Trakenian left alive. I would be the immortal who failed. The Keepership would be a curse.
"Naturally we would keep Urbankan technology a secret. I am even prepared to move Traken close to New Urbanka and bring the other four solar systems into this part of space if that is what the Urbankans desire."
Nyssa gathered her papers and stood, then took Adana's hand. "We will speak to the government at once," she announced.
Even the Justice Minister agreed that New Urbanka should come to the aid of the Traken Union, and within a week the Urbankan colony ship was on its way. Princess Villagra led a team to help the survivors on Traken itself, and Lin Futu took the ship through the charged-vacuum emboitment to the four planets still in R-Space.
Nyssa's first sight of Traken in twenty years - a planet she had believed destroyed - brought tears to her eyes. After planetfall, the tears returned when she took Adana to the house that she had shared with her parents.
The Fosters had been kind enough to throw sheets over the furniture years ago. Nyssa and Adana were scheduled to begin work with Villagra's group the morning after their arrival, but for now they busied themselves with making the home liveable again.
Nyssa became emotional as she showed Adana the portraits of her parents, then of her father with her stepmother. The pair held each other and kissed, then continued dusting and vacuuming. As the night deepened, they sat down on the bed Nyssa had slept in as a young woman, stared into each other's eyes, and entered a meditative trance together.
They awoke at daybreak and prepared to go to work. Nyssa looked through her wardrobe at the Trakenian clothes she hadn't seen in years - but which still fit, of course - and chose a burgundy doublet and skirt.
When Nyssa emerged from the bedroom, she saw her spouse looking in the mirror - wearing a deep green Trakenian gown with light green and blue highlights. The Urbankan had curled her long hair, and had foregone her usual side-part for one in the middle. Her golden tresses gleamed in the candlelight as they tumbled over her shoulders.
"Does it look all right?" Adana asked shyly.
Her lips pressed together, Nyssa nodded. She walked over to Adana and caressed her cheek. "That dress was my stepmother Kassia's. It suits you."
"Thank you," Adana said. "I love Traken just as I thought I would, Nyssa. I know we've only been here a few hours, but you're finally home. Do you want to stay?"
Nyssa smiled. "Perhaps. I've imagined coming home so many times - but we have responsibilities on New Urbanka."
"I will go wherever you go," Adana said, "and stay wherever you stay. If you want to make our home here, love, I will come with you."
The two kissed tenderly.
Over two-thirds of Traken's survivors had agreed to continue their lives as androids. The construction of their bodies had begun on the ship, and more were built on Traken itself. The copying of memories and personalities into nanochips began at once, with those closest to death prioritized. The Urbankans and Trakenians had agreed that no one would be euthanized, no matter how ill. Instead, they would be kept comfortable until they died naturally. Though this meant that the Trakenians in android bodies would not remember the last days of their former lives, Trakenian representative Rion pointed out that losing a few days' memories of a hospital stay meant little in the context of a person's life as a whole.
After setting up the system, Nyssa quickly commenced work in the hospital where she supervised preparing the consenting Trakenians. Villagra and Adana's duties included counselling them when they awakened in their new bodies. She reflected on how different this was from her own experience: she helped only those who wanted android bodies, with no trickery or coercion involved.
Nyssa spent what little free time she had reconnecting with people she'd known before her departure.
"It's disconcerting," she explained to Adana one evening, "becoming re-acquainted. It's been twenty years for me, but less than seven for them. I look the same as I always did, but they look older even though less time has passed!"
Adana caressed her hand. "Is it getting easier?"
"I know better what to expect now," Nyssa admitted, "but it's still jarring. Every single time!"
Nyssa's worst surprise came the next morning. She and her colleagues - both Urbankan and Trakenian - were working in an intensive care unit when she heard someone call her name.
The speaker was an old woman. "Nyssa?" she croaked.
Nyssa sat down on the chair by the woman's gurney and smiled at her reassuringly. "Yes, I'm Nyssa."
"You don't look a day older," the woman said with a cough.
Yes, I'm hearing that a lot, Nyssa thought, but didn't say it out loud.
"It's Rheela," the woman said.
Nyssa started, and the woman raised a feeble hand. "Do I look that bad?"
"No, of course not," Nyssa said gently - but it was hard to see her friend in the woman beside her.
Rheela had been a year older than Nyssa, but they had attended many of the same university classes in their mid-teens and had become good friends. Rheela's hair was white, her skin wrinkled and blistered. She looked like a woman of ninety, not one of forty.
"I was on Byrne," Rheela explained, unprompted. "We got the worst of the radiation." She shifted slightly in her bed, and winced.
"You're going to do the transfer?" Nyssa asked. Like the others, she couldn't bring herself to say "Flesh Time."
Rheela nodded tiredly. "It isn't the future I would have chosen, Nyssa, but any future would be better than this. I don't want any more painkillers, but it hurts a bit to move."
A technician stepped over and whispered in Nyssa's ear.
"It's time," Nyssa told her friend.
"What do I do?" Rheela asked simply.
Nyssa took the woman's hand. "Just relax," she told her. "Take deep breaths. Be calm, look into my eyes, and trust me."
Rheela and Nyssa locked eyes, and the old woman nodded.
"That's right, Rheela," Nyssa whispered. "Let yourself relax... feel yourself relaxing. Look deep into my eyes and relax completely, so completely. Your eyelids are getting heavy. They are getting heavier, and heavier, and heavier. You are feeling so sleepy. Sleep, Rheela, sleep." Nyssa gently snapped her fingers.
Her friend's eyes closed, and her breathing became deep and regular.
"Now you are asleep," Nyssa whispered to her hypnotised friend. "Soon you will recall all past life, and I will see you when you wake up."
Nyssa nodded to the technician, who wheeled Rheela away.
Nyssa reflected on her own experience for a moment. I never thought I'd be in the position that Enlightenment was, she thought. But technology isn't good or evil in itself; it's the use to which it's put. And I will use it for good, for virtue, for people's right to make their own choices - and so will everyone else if I have any say in the matter!
Someone called Nyssa's name two hours later. She turned to see a young woman with red-auburn curls smiling at her. "Rheela!" Nyssa exclaimed, and the two friends embraced.
Her friend looked twenty-five - slightly younger, perhaps, than her physical age - and wore an elegant purple Trakenian gown. Her skin was unblemished by age or radiation. "You look amazing," Nyssa said.
"I never thought I'd say this, given this body's synthetic," Rheela said, "but I feel like myself again." She did a pirouette, then winked at Nyssa. "What do you think of my eyes? I darkened them a bit."
Nyssa smiled at her friend. "It suits you."
"They say I can go home," Rheela said. "Can we meet later?"
"Of course, I would love that," Nyssa promised.
The women embraced, then Rheela danced her way from the hospital room.
Nyssa excused herself, then walked to the recovery room - where she found the old Rheela lying in her bed.
She opened her eyes when Nyssa sat beside her. "They say I've completed the process," the old woman croaked. "Have you seen the body they prepared for me?"
Nyssa nodded, and took the old woman's hand. "I have. It's beautiful, Rheela. You'll love it."
"Maybe," her friend wheezed, "I can have my eyes... done a little darker. I think... it would look good." She yawned. "Oh, I'm sorry, Nyssa, I'm just... so tired."
"Rest now," Nyssa told her friend. "Everything will be all right. I promise."
Rheela closed her eyes, and Nyssa stayed with her until the end.
Five weeks later, Luvic brought the rest of the Traken Union back from R-Space - one star system at a time. As promised, the worlds were relocated to the same sector as New Urbanka. Nyssa, the officials, and the astronomers were surprised to see the charged-vacuum emboitment close a few hours after the last Trakenian planet passed through it.
"We couldn't have timed it better," Nyssa said.
"I don't know whether to be relieved or frightened," Letas said. "That was far too small a margin of error for my taste. Why did it close then? Why not tomorrow? Why not yesterday?"
"No doubt we'll be studying this phenomenon for years to come," Taryn agreed.
"All-in-all it went well," Nyssa told Adana when she arrived home. "The Traken Union is restored, all five worlds close to New Urbanka, and we saved the great majority of the population."
The two women had decided to stay on Traken. Since Nyssa's family's house was now hers, the two were in the process of moving into the master bedroom. Nyssa's hair tumbled loosely down her back, and Adana had braided hers over her right shoulder.
"I'm so glad to hear it," Adana said. "I'm so happy for you, for all your people. I'm glad that Urbankan technology was used for something good."
"We couldn't have done it without you," Nyssa told her. "I could not have done all I did to help prepare people without everything you taught me about hypnosis."
They heard a soft whooshing sound behind them. Nyssa and Adana turned to see the Keeper of Traken sitting in his chair in the centre of the room.
Nyssa smiled at him, and Adana rose and curtseyed. "Keeper."
Luvic inclined his head respectfully. "Nyssa. Adana. I cannot do enough to express my gratitude for the help you and your people have given mine. It is a great change from the life we had, but I hope that we - together - can prevent this second chance from becoming stagnation."
"I hope it too, Keeper," Adana said. "In the time I've known Nyssa, and in the weeks I've been on your planet, I have come to love your people." She spread her arms. "Your science, your art, your architecture - there is so much we can teach each other. I see in Traken everything I hope New Urbanka can be."
"I'm glad to hear it," the Keeper said. "Which is why I'm here. I just came from a meeting with New Urbanka's Minister of State. Adana, he told me he would like to appoint you Ambassador to Traken. Since I needed to speak with you anyway I offered to carry the message."
Adana blinked, then grinned. "That's wonderful news! Thank you, Keeper! I will contact Bigon at once."
Luvic held up one hand. "Wait a moment before making your decision. The other news is I would like Nyssa to become a Consul."
Nyssa looked at the Keeper, then at Adana, then back to the Keeper. "Me? Keeper, I'm too young!"
The Keeper smiled. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Nyssa, but you are forty years old - which is older than your stepmother was when she became a Consul. You have the knowledge and the experience for the role, and it is yours unless you decline."
"Thank you, Luvic!" Nyssa said enthusiastically.
The Keeper held up a hand. "Don't thank me yet. Under Traken law, a Consul cannot be married to a foreign ambassador due to conflict of interest. The law was written for good reasons and I cannot change it. As much as Bigon and I would like you both, you cannot serve at the same time. We have discussed it, and decided to leave the choice up to you."
Adana and Nyssa gazed at each other. "I'm sorry, Keeper, we will have to talk about it," Nyssa finally said.
Luvic nodded. "Take all the time you need."
With a whoosh, the Keeper was gone.
The two women were left staring at each other. "Adana, is this something you want?" Nyssa asked.
Adana thought a moment, then nodded. "I do, but - Nyssa, not at the expense of something you want. I will be happy as long as I can stay with you."
"I remember you telling me once that with my position in the Ministry you felt like you were standing in my shadow," Nyssa reminded her.
Adana smiled. "And you replied that I was the most beautiful woman you'd ever seen and you felt like you were standing in mine!"
The two women laughed and kissed. "Let's think about this," Nyssa said as they sat down on the sofa. "If you take the job, I will have to resign as Minister of Science to stay with you. I'm not going to stay on New Urbanka if you're coming here."
Adana nodded. "If you become a Consul I will stay on Traken. I can continue teaching here as easily as I could there." She paused. "I will have to learn Traken's curriculum, though."
Nyssa took her spouse's hand. "Then it looks like Traken is our future, whatever we decide." She thought for a moment. "I've been Minister for nearly five years. Perhaps it is time for me to step aside so you can have this opportunity. You deserve it, Adana."
Adana pondered Nyssa's words. "No," she finally said. "This is about more than me. You are in a unique position to help everyone here, Nyssa. You will be able to do more good as a Consul than I would as an ambassador."
"You have a right to your feelings too," Nyssa told her. "You can think about yourself as well as others!"
"I love you, Nyssa," Adana said. "I have loved you since the first moment I saw you. I do think about myself. I'm married to the most amazing woman - the most amazing person - I have ever known. If I can support you that is reward enough."
Nyssa kissed her lovingly.
TWO WEEKS LATER
"Friends," the Keeper announced, "We are safely back in N-Space and the Traken Union has been restored - thanks to all your efforts and hard work, and thanks to the assistance of our friends from New Urbanka. Today we remember the Consuls we have lost - Seron, Kassia, Tremas and Katura."
A moment of silence followed.
"It is my honour to present you our new Consuls."
Adana grinned at Nyssa and squeezed her hand.
"Consul Letas." The attendees began to applaud, and kept clapping as each Consul stepped up and joined the Keeper on the dais. "Consul Margon. Consul Rion. Consul Taryn. Consul Nyssa."
Nyssa clapped along with everyone else as Luvic named her colleagues - but she had to pause and collect herself when her own name was called, as the crowd gave her a standing ovation. She rose, walked through the cheering crowd, and took her place beside Luvic and her four colleagues.
"I bless you all," the Keeper said. "My truest friends. We now embrace a destiny none of us ever dreamed of, and it will bring challenges. It will take generations for our flora and fauna to recover from our sojourn in R-Space, but we have new tools - and time - with which to fix them. Yet our new tools will bring their own problems, some we cannot foresee. But we will meet those challenges as we move forward into the future - together."
Nyssa saw Rheela's joyful face among the scores of others and smiled back at her. She was elated to see all her people celebrate, but the adoration in Adana's eyes touched her most of all.
The End