One might think that the sights around the ship looked familiar, but really they did not.
It was a vague memory of planets she only saw once, so many years ago. The pale blue ice ball of Pluto, the rings around Saturn, the comets and dust and beautiful colors that surrounded Jupiter, none of it really looked familiar to her as the K'ojol passed them. Still, she found she could not take her eyes off the worlds.
Neither could her offspring. R'chnt sat in the command chair in the center of the room, mostly silent, simply watching his family gawk out of the windows as they passed through the terran system. K'Shai, he noticed, remained quiet, trying to hide clear anxiety, which their offspring did not seem to be aware of at all.
He did not fully understand the reservations she had of returning to the place of her origins. The planet was free of hard meat, so there were no dangers there. Perhaps she was apprehensive about seeing what might be left of her world after the destruction that had occurred, or perhaps, she was concerned about seeing the very friends that they were now locked onto, though he could not be sure why that would be.
She continually checked the tracker and the coordinates in the navigation system, though it was needless. The tracking was reading accurately and the coordinates were a place she recognized; a place she said was called Pansyltania, he thought, the word was difficult to pronounce and unfamiliar to him, but she recalled it immediately.
They had narrowed down the location of the homing beacon to within a small area of what appeared to be a city, and they had found a suitable landing area some distance away, which is where they were now headed.
"I see a whole network of satellites. I'm putting the cloak up." K'Shai announced quickly, as if she was alarmed by the very notion of getting close to the planet with it off, and be visible to sensors.
R'chnt remained silent, allowing her to do as she saw fit; it was normal to cloak anyway before heading to any alien world to hunt; though this world was neither alien to K'Shai, nor for hunting. Whether she was simply keeping to standard procedures, or nervously trying to sneak onto her own planet, he could not be sure.
She said very little about the trip to Earth during the flight, although he prompted her many times. She simply tried her best to avoid the conversation all together and he allowed that much to her, rather than pushing.
Suddenly, slowly, a looming white orb filled the viewing windows at the front of the ship and K'Shai turned her head, looking up at it as it grew larger and larger the closer they got. As if it was somehow slowly pulling her out of her seat with an unseen force, K'Shai slowly rose to her feet and stared, not noticing for a moment that the rest of them were watching her instead of the sights beyond the windows.
The white orb with its cratered surface glowed with a blueish halo around it and K'Shai seemed so transfixed by it that she did not even awake from her enrapture when the navigation panel beeped a warning to change trajectory slightly. R'chnt performed the function, and K'Shai did not appear to even notice him walking across the control room to do so. It wasn't until he put his palms on her shoulder that she finally flinched and looked up at him, then looked about to their offspring who were all watching her.
He could feel her increased pulse even through the slight contact he made with her body around her armor, and she tried to get it under control by taking a deep breath and holding it. The others looked to her and back to the moon, clearly gauging now that K'Shai was silently holding in high anxiety.
She kept her eyes locked on the moon, watching and waiting in angst and anticipation of the sight she knew was about to come up, and then, just as fast as she could even think it up, there it was looming into view beyond the windows. The moon shifted to the left a little, and behind it, coming into view from the right, came the great blue orb.
The Yautja looked upon the planet like any other planet, but the sight of it, expected and yet somehow still surprising, took her breath away. She gasped openly and let a long, slow sigh trail out afterwards, suddenly realizing she had done that aloud, so she fidgeted and refocused herself and sat down at the helm once again.
"Uhhh…" she stammered taking another long breath, suddenly realizing her hands were shaking. "I'll uhhh… I'm going…." She looked again through the windows at the sphere, growing larger and larger.
Refocusing her composure one more time, she tried again to look at the navigation panel.
"I'm going to bring us in." She said quietly and slowly. "It will be dark when we set down."
It was standard for hunters to land cloaked and preferably in the darkness. It was also somewhat comforting that even in this situation, back on what was once a familiar place, they could arrive quietly and unnoticed, for as K'Shai peeked for the first time out of the window in the control room she realized she was looking upon a place as foreign and unfamiliar to her as any other alien world.
She took a deep slow breath and looked up at the single moon, hung low and partially obscured between clouds. It shone down upon a land of trees and grass, and far off in the distance there were lights glistening - lights of a city that the group would travel to in the cover of night and survey before approaching.
They walked slowly, bodies cloaked just as the ship was where they left it with the protection system enabled. K'Shai lagged behind the group by a short distance, but none of the hunters particularly sprawled out far; they held a diamond like formation, with R'chnt, the Leader, at the head. Hunt or no hunt, the Yautja travelled and behaved in certain ways always when in unfamiliar lands.
The group slowed to a halt at an overlook ahead of the city and observed what they could, which was quite a bit. It was a short walk of maybe one mile to the first buildings of the small, and even in the darkest hours before dawn, it was clear there was activity in the streets below.
Familiar memories flooded back into K'Shai's mind as she remembered how much about the planet she had forgotten. Seeing people wandering about their business, and vehicles driving around stirred up faded memories and made the entire place seem hauntingly familiar and hauntingly foreign all at the same time.
They waited there in the cover of the dawn until the sun was up well enough and the activity in the city bustled into action. The hunters remained cloaked in the trees, surveying the city as they would study any prey they were about to hunt, but in this case, they were looking for obvious signs of threats, dangers, and also triangulating the location of the homing beacon.
Once assessment was complete and the position of the beacon, which had been moving for a brief while, was confirmed, the group glanced to one another and then to K'Shai, who somehow suddenly became the unexpected group leader, as R'chnt turned to her.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
She looked at him, tipped her helmeted head, and signed long and slow as he extended his hand directing her to move on when she wanted to. She slipped slowly out of the tree and within a few moments, the group was on the move, walking along the unoccupied edges of the city, avoiding people and vehicles and animals; avoiding drawing any attention. R'chnt was very close behind her, keeping a watchful eye, ready to spring to the lead and action should the need arise.
As she stepped closer to the first homes she could feel her heart pounding so hard she thought it might just break a rib inside her chest. She had a half a thought that her own heartbeat would give away the entire group, making their cloaked approach pointless. However, no one seemed to notice them. They stayed downwind and moved so sleekly, they probably could have walked right down the middle of the street and it seemed that no one might notice.
K'Shai watched her display panel which was bringing her towards the now stationary homing signal, which did seem to be not too far away from the center of the city; just a few street rows further. The hunters moved slowly and cautiously, and then suddenly, the homing beacon began to move again.
It moved directly towards them, and for a moment K'Shai wondered if they had been somehow spotted.
She rounded a corner and stopped abruptly, bringing the group to a halt as they followed her. A loud gasp almost escaped her lips, or perhaps it did, she was not really sure if the sound was as audible as she thought it might have been when she saw a familiar face, still recognizable easily despite being more aged from the last time she had seen it. K'Shai instinctively slinked back again, behind a building just to be a little more out of sight while she assessed the situation and surroundings.
Then, suddenly, she decloaked, stepping carefully into the street, holding onto a deep breath as she did so. The man before her had been looking down at a briefcase in his grip, and then he looked up and stopped in his tracks, flushing colors suddenly.
"Oh my God! Cassy?! Cassy, is… it… really you?" He said slowly and cautiously as if he was seeing a ghost.
She thought he very might well have been one, actually, for she felt so surreal she might have somehow managed to float right out of her own skin. She sighed again and tipped her head sideways, noticing now that many people had stopped after spotting her. Many more darted off excitedly, or worriedly, she could not be sure.
The words Lewis spoke to her were familiar, but it was a language she had not spoken herself in so long, she almost was not sure she could even respond to him properly, or maybe that was just due to the fact that her throat had clearly closed up, for all she could do was stand there and do nothing.
K'Shai tipped her head back behind her slightly, and one by one, R'chnt, El'tude, A'ryin'di and finally Sr'uch-de revealed themselves, sending many more people scattering as a surprised murmur whirred up from the streets around them. Slowly, she removed her helmet and looked into Lewis' dark eyes with her own.
"It's…" she said softly through a cracked voice. "... been a long time."
Lewis smiled widely and chuckled aloud. "Yes! It certainly has! Wow! Look at you! I can't even believe my eyes."
He stepped in with arms wide; an obvious gesture of a hug, yet K'Shai instinctively withdrew while R'chnt stepped slightly forward with a low growl emerging.
Lewis took the hint and stood firm once again.
K'Shai sighed deeply and slowly, and looked about at the growing crowd, vaguely listening to the murmur amongst the bystanders.
"It's changed. Things look so different." She said slowly, hearing the strange way she was speaking what were once long familiar words.
"Uhhh.. yep. Yea, things have definitely changed. We've rebuilt, but taken our lives in a new direction. Nothing is quite the same anymore." Lewis informed.
"I'm… I'd… Oh man, I can't even believe this. So… I definitely remember R'chnt… and who are…." Lewis started.
K'Shai turned towards the others.
"El'tude, A'ryin'di, and ar'uch-de…" she said, each nodding in turn. She looked back to Lewis. "Our offspring."
"You… wow." Lewis shook his head. "Well… ummm.. This .. this is New Haven, you probably remember." He looked about, waving his hand as if drawing back a curtain, when he seemed to notice someone walking towards him and he smiled and stepped towards her briskly.
"If you remember my wife, Diana?" He said.
"And those two there, are Tevan and Marcus," Lewis added, pointing towards two young males standing some distance behind their mother, but also eagerly peering on from the forefront of the crowd.
K'Shai smiled and nodded, to both Lewis and Diana, who looked about as uncertain of K'Shai's presence as she appeared the last time they had ever met, which simply seemed like a lifetime ago. In some ways, it was, K'Shai thought quickly. So much had changed between them all over this time.
"I remember." She said softly.
"Well, let me show you all around. We can get a community dinner together tonight. We
should celebrate!" He turned to the crowd and began calling out names and asking each person for supplies, food, music. "Let's show K'Shai and her family here what we've done with our home!"
The crowd began to disperse and Lewis and Diana started guiding the group through the wide city streets, with their two boys hovering nearby and approaching closer with each passing moment.
"There are a few people here you should meet! We'll go find them." Lewis said, and started telling the group about their accomplishments as they walked.
"After the war, there was quite a period of… well… shock and despair, I guess I would say. It was hard to know what was going on, who survived, or how many. No one knew that there were groups of survivors scattered around, just sometimes miles apart from one another. And of course, there was no communications for many people. We had radio, but not everyone did.
There were just groups of people hiding out, with no way to communicate. So regrouping at a world level was something of a miracle, really. Honestly, I wonder even after all this time, if there's still people just hiding out in mountains or underground somewhere."
He giggled nervously.
"We are so proud of what we've built. Not just rebuilding this town and calling it New Haven, but as a whole society. As a whole race." Diana added.
K'Shai stopped and looked at them both.
"It's impressive. Amazing, really. I had no idea either. When I left… When I was on the ship; that was the first time that I realized there were so many that survived."
She spoke slowly, in a thick accent, trying hard to remember words she had not spoken in longer than she realized.
"It seems like so long ago now." She added.
Lewis raised his eyebrows.
"Well, you left us what.. 24 years now?"
"Twenty…" K'Shai paused. "Four?" She gasped, not even realizing for herself that it had actually been that long. Maybe a decade at best, she thought. Perhaps a bit more.
"Tevan here is going to be 21 in just a few weeks. Marcus is 19. We've been very lucky."
He turned and noticed a small group of curious people approaching.
"Ah! Here they are." He said, and walked towards them, with the Yautja group close behind.
"Rosa, this is K'Shai."
The woman approached from amongst a group of people. She looked hesitant, but more so she looked fiercely aged and worn from all that she had seen and done.
K'Shai tipped her head, and eyed the woman with a blank expression.
"I am Carlos' wife. This is our family. Our daughters Mira and Carmalla, and our sons Lucio and Antonio."
K'Shai smiled widely, flashing memories of Carlos in her mind, then bowed her head in acknowledgement of the woman and her family. She was wondering where Carlos was. As if Lewis could read that in her thoughts, he informed her.
"I'm sorry, K'Shai. Carlos died two years ago." Lewis told her with a solemn whisper.
She pressed her lips together and nodded her head.
"He would have absolutely loved to see you again." Lewis added.
"He talked about you often," his wife mentioned.
Her children were curious about her and that seemed to instigate curiosity from Lewis' children and before too long, the Yautja group was getting a barrage of questions, and equally as well, El'tude, A'ryin'di and Sr'uch-de were asking their questions to the human group around them.
It was surprising to them that El'tude and A'ryin'di spoke English, yet Sr'uch-de did not. While the older siblings were able to translate for their younger brother, the group was also eager to begin teaching Sr'uch-de, who caught on quickly enough that by the later part of the afternoon, he was properly stating names of objects and repeating words and phrases well.
As the day continued on, the crowd grew. People brought food, tables, and musical instruments and before long, it seemed that everyone within a fifty mile radius had assembled to see the hunters or try to get in a word. The attention was a bit overwhelming for the group who much preferred to oversee activity from a distance and keep anonymity although A'ryin'di and El'tude did seem to rather enjoy being a bit of a spectacle.
Sr'uch-de watched and interacted shockingly well and K'Shai continually updated R'chnt on how surprised she was by it, as if he could not see it himself.
"Look, he's just headed off with that group of young men. He does not seem to care one bit. He really enjoys being surrounded by them all," she said for at least the sixth time.
He looked at her, "What of you, my mate?"
She eyed him with a bit of a surprised stare but had no real response. She could only feel her heart pounding suddenly in her throat.
Lewis looked at them both, eyes bouncing between them like he was watching a sporting event, and K'Shai noticed it. She barely even realized she was having a conversation in an alien language, and he was most likely trying to interpret the difficult sounds that were little more than gurgles and growls to his ears.
"Being here is… so very strange. I never even imagined…" she said to Lewis softly as she looked around.
"It is truly incredible how well you have all rebuilt. How far you've all come."
Lewis smiled and looked around proudly before turning back to her.
"It took a lot of work. A lot of regrouping." He nodded as he spoke, and looked to his wife and family. "I think it was a good solid 5 years of just … regrouping as a people. Trying to figure out where to go from there, you know?'
He continued. "Getting communications back did not take long. Maybe a few weeks to at least get something started. But really getting people to come out of where they were held up, where they had learned to call home, that took a lot longer. But we definitely have come far."
Diana looked across the table and asked, "But you… I can't even imagine the things you've seen. Where have you been? What have you done all these years?"
K'Shai's eyes widened, her eyebrows lifted and her eyes gazed thoughtfully into the setting sun of the late afternoon sky.
"Ah! She's here." Lewis announced suddenly, and stood up with an eager grin.
K'Shai followed him as he approached a young, red-haired woman, hugged her and gestured her over to the table where the alien group sat. The woman's eyes lit up, her face suddenly donning a look of child-like eagerness as she stepped forward with him.
"Hello K'Shai" the woman said.
K'Shai looked at her absently, giving a quizzical look.
"It's me," said the young, pretty, fire-haired girl. "Kelly."
K'Shai's eyes widened and slowly she stood, processing an entire flurry of memories and emotions in her mind as she did so. Then, suddenly, she opened her arms wide, and Kelly was swooped up into them.
"It is good to see you again, wow." K'Shai whispered in amazement. "This is all so overwhelming. To see you all again, to be back in this place, and look and see all you have done. All that has changed."
"Well," Kelly started eagerly. "I'm curious about all that you have done. K'Shai, you probably don't realize, but you are practically a legend."
K'Shai gritted her teeth, tightening her jaw as she glanced to R'chnt. Whatever was meant by that comment, was not particularly what K'Shai wanted to hear.
"Uh…" Lewis interjected into the obvious uncomfortable gap in conversation. Kelly shot him a definite sort of how could you not tell her sort of look.
"K'Shai, Kelly here has become a sort of… authority on your people. Well.. on you." He said. "I think she's about as close to our foremost expert as there can be. And you really are a bit of a celebrity figure here. For better or worse."
K'Shai shot him a slightly alarmed, questioning look.
Kelly interjected. "I umm.." She reached into her satchel and withdrew a rectangular object. She tapped the buttons on the face of it, and showed the result to K'Shai. "I wrote this book… about you. Well… well. I mean, it's about everything… all that we all experienced."
K'Shai looked down. The tablet showed a plain red book cover with some simple faded black streaking across the top and bottom. In large white lettering the center was "Alien vs. Alien" and under those words was "Annihilation, Love, and Rebound".
K'Shai took in a slow, deep breath and eyed Kelly, unable to speak.
"I've been writing about you… about all of it.. Since not long after you left really. I have so many questions for you. You see, I interviewed as many as people as I could who knew you. Some people, when they found out I was interviewing about you, they sought me out to tell their stores…. I spoke to your Aunt Lillian."
K'Shai locked eyes on Kelly, who immediately dropped them in a sort of apologetic way.
She could feel her heart pounding with alarm. She had spent years wondering what had happened to her family; her parents, her aunt and uncle who had no children of their own and allowed her to stay with them so she could pursue dreams and goals that seemed so meaningless now.
She wondered about them all until one day, she stopped. That was long before the Yautja ever even came into her life. Whatever had happened to her family simply could not occupy space in her mind any more, because it was driving her insane in a time when she simply had to focus on survival. Now, she had had her own offspring and thoughts about anything to do with Earth had been kept hidden under a veil of blackness in her mind, for they too were irrelevant.
Suddenly it all whooshed back into her head and she could not help but ask Kelly of them. She looked at the woman and gave her a questioning look and without a word, Kelly understood.
"Your Aunt is very near here. She'll be here by morning. As soon as I found out you were here, I called her. She will be so happy to see you. She was happy to know you lived, of course. She...well, I'll let her talk to you and catch up. Would you mind, terribly, though, if I interviewed you? Always working on my next article, you know. But the chance to talk to you; for that I'll do a whole new book! I would love to know everything! Would it be OK to speak with your children too?"
Kelly continued on eagerly, also tapping on buttons on a device to get a recording going; the obvious experienced professionalism in her already priming for an interview. K'Shai raised her eyebrows and withdrew a bit.
"You must ask them, if you wish. They will decide if they want to speak to you. It is good to speak to you, but I have nothing to share for your book."
Before Kelly could protest, K'Shai turned to Lewis and questioned him.
"What did you mean 'For better or worse'?"
Lewis unclapped his hands, making a wide gesture with them before clasping them again and glancing to his wife.
"Well, K'Shai… it's like how things used to be in the old days. When you're a celebrity, you have fans and … well… people who aren't. Let's just say Kelly got her fair share of negativity after that book was published. Like any of it was her fault."
"Fault?" K'Shai questioned.
Kelly sighed and hesitated, then explained.
"There isn't a kid these days who doesn't learn about you in school. They learn about the history that made their world the way they knew it. They learn about the Yautja and aliens out in the universe. They aren't taught about you, but they can read about you. Lots of people have lots of opinions. Some people think it's incredible… even glamorous… that you left to go live a life in space."
"Some people are...against it. Suffice to say," Lewis added.
"And I'm not the only one who's written articles or books about you either. And, you're not the only one who left."
"That I know. I met the others." She said with a growl.
Kelly's eyes widened. "You did?! I never got a chance to interview anyone who knew any of them. They were all killed mostly. What were they like? Are they still… up there with you?"
K'Shai glared at Kelly.
"They were never with me! They were not the same. They are dead."
Lewis and Kelly exchanged glances nervously. K'Shai gritted her teeth and inhaled deeply, clearly agitated. She stood and spoke to R'chnt, who promptly stood and followed her off away from the crowds and spectacle.
It was a while before Lewis approached them again and quietly spoke to her.
"K'Shai… there's more you should know." He said, and she and R'chnt looked at him with focused stares.
"There is so much to tell you, but I don't know how much time we have. I'm not sure how long you will be able to stay."
She got the sense he was not exactly asking how long she intended to stay. He continued quietly, as if it was difficult for him to speak.
"So much has changed since you've been gone. There's just so much I want you to know. But, K'Shai… by now, the whole planet knows you are here. And it won't exactly be like you're welcome here. There are factions, and elements of the government, who've all been tasked with keeping our planet safe. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
K'Shai nodded.
"Listen… Kelly… she's … she's… just excited. Her book was a worldwide top publication. It caused a lot of hype, hysteria, and … alarm, too."
"So some things have not changed." K'Shai said grittedly.
Lewis smiled. "I suppose not. Look, there's no right or wrong here. There's just a whole planet full of people who are terrified of aliens returning. And they're scared of you, I'm sure. I think there's a lot who admire you. A lot who fear you."
K'Shai clenched her jaw.
"Did you kill those other humans?" He asked, eyeing her intently.
"Not all of them," she answered honestly.
"Why?"
She paused, watching him carefully.
"That's a long story too."
He nodded. "No doubt. Twenty-four years of history, right? I can tell you have one hell of a story to tell. I can see it in your eyes. Your scars. So much more than what you had here. You've lived more of your life off this planet then you have on it. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be back here and find all this out."
"Kelly is right, though. You can definitely fill her out a new book. Maybe a couple of them."
She smiled and nodded her head appreciatively, but said nothing. Lewis stayed with them a while longer and slowly, dusk turned into night. The singular moon rose high into the cloudy black sky, and briefly, rain blew threw which put a sharp end to the fire and music and festivities that were still echoing up from the street below. K'Shai and R'chnt watched as people scattered into homes and vacated the area.
They sat there on a small hill overlooking the city, under the shelter of some trees, and watched the clouds dance by, the rain stop, and eventually, the dawn began to break. K'Shai had left R'chnt briefly, and when she returned, just before sunup, she was surprised to see Lewis sitting next to R'chnt. The two appeared to have been having a conversation which was just finishing.
K'Shai strode up the hillside to join them but quickly drew distracted as she peered over the opposite side of the slight overlook. The brilliant colors that filled the sky, as bright copper as she could ever recall seeing, caught her attention and she stepped away from them both and watched the rich golden light shine through.
"I have seen many sunrises and sunsets." She said to Lewis, looking at him for a brief moment. "Many on many worlds. Some worlds like our own with two suns. Some with eight moons. Suns that burn so brightly without shielding you cannot see. I've seen suns so pale they almost look blue."
"But… I seem to have forgotten."
"Forgotten?" Lewis questioned.
"How beautiful an Earth sunrise looks like."
He smiled.
"This is the last one I shall ever see. We will leave. We will not return." She added crisply.
"I understand." He whispered.
"This… is not my home. But I did need to come back." She said, offering him a small, satisfied smile.
Lewis shook his head slowly. "I sure would love to know more about all you've done. It's been so good to see you. You know. Carlos… he would love just loved to see you again."
"What happened to him?" She asked.
"Cancer."
K'Shai nodded.
"Are you happy?" He asked of her. "You look like… like you've seen a lot. Far more than what you saw here."
"I have. And I am." She responded simply.
She breathed in deeply and looked around, watching the sun once again as it turned from a deep peach color to a rich gold then a bright whitish yellow as it continued towards its peak.
"This place…" she whispered and looked about again. "It's so familiar yet so … alien… now. I think I finally understand…"
She thought about the Ancients and what they were cryptically trying to tell her. As she watched the sunset on a world once home and now so strange and foreign to her, she let her heart find peace and rest. Suddenly, she began to understand that she had been indeed fighting a fight she was barely aware of.
"Understand? Understand what?" Lewis asked of her.
She shook her head and offered him a small smile, silently dismissing the thought and conversation with a gesture of her palm. She noticed two of her offspring, the eldest ones, just barely in sight beyond some homes and buildings. They were amongst a small group of humans. Where Sr'uch-de was, she was not sure.
"I think they needed to come as well. They were curious." She indicated her offspring to Lewis.
"I can't believe you've had three … children." He said with an uncertain hesitation. "It's just incredible all of it. Really. Boy, if you had more time here, you really do need to sit and interview with Kelly. She would die to write a book all about you from your words."
K'Shai smiled at Lewis and stood up slowly. She nodded softly to R'chnt, and she and Lewis started down the hillside back towards the town.
"It's been good to be here, Lewis." She said with a soft sigh. "It seems like it's been just so long ago. It's like looking around at a distant memory.. It feels so strange."
Lewis nodded. "It's definitely been a lifetime, K'Shai. So long ago when we weren't sure if we were going to live through a night or not. We … the entire human race… we really do owe our survival to the Yautja. We are grateful."
She stopped and looked at him, deciphering a definite "but" type of tone in his voice.
"What is it Lewis?"
He hesitated again and grumbled, making an incoherent sound.
"I just don't think it's…."
"K'Shai! K'Shai!" A voice called.
She turned her attention from Lewis who stopped mid-sentence and noticed Kelly heading briskly towards her, with Sr'uch-de lingering casually some distance behind.
"She's here! Come with me. Do you have a moment? I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt. I mean.. . if you have time."
Lewis smiled and nodded.
"Better hurry," he said.
K'Shai gave him a contemplative look, but headed off with Kelly through a street where they soon stopped in the midst of a watching crowd before a white-haired woman.
"Aunt Lillian!" K'Shai whispered in surprise.
K'Shai stepped forward and instinctively allowed herself to be embraced in the woman's open arms as a flood of memories came flooding back to her in an instant. Suddenly, she was a fourteen year old girl again, making what was the biggest change in her entire lifetime as she left one side of the country and went to the other to pursue her goals.
"It's been…." Lillian started with a tear.
"So long…" K'Shai added.
"Too long. I was so grateful for Kelly's hard diligence in finding me… finding anyone who knew you. I was glad to know you made it."
"What of …." K'Shai started.
"Sebastian didn't make it, dear. He...he…." She started of her husband, K'Shai's uncle and brother to her father, but she stopped and looked at K'Shai.
"Brandt and Michelle… your parents… oh, Dear…. I just…" Lillian started again.
"I was never able to find anything about them. I'm so sorry, K'Shai." Kelly filled in the gaps.
They both fell quite silent for a moment, as if allowing time for K'Shai to mourn or adapt to information she long figured anyway.
"It is good to see you again." She said to Lillian.
"I want to know all about what you have been doing all these years. You have children I'm told. Oh, I'm so happy for you. I would love to meet your children." she said happily. K'Shai noticed that Lillian's eyes suddenly shifted a bit towards the four approaching Yautja.
"Now… they are really children with … the alien, right?" She said with a whisper as if it was inappropriate to even speak. "How do you say that name again?"
K'Shai's face flattened.
"R'chnt. His name is R'chnt. Our offspring are El'tude, A'ryin'di and Sr'uch-de." she said quickly, with an unhidden tone of Yautjan pride in her voice.
Lillian sighed and attempted to rub her hands along K'Shai's upper arms in a supportive grip to which K'Shai withdrew immediately.
"Are you going to be staying home, Cassy? You came back, you're going to stay, right?" Lillian said.
K'Shai began to flare up, ready to respond, but her thoughts were quickly averted and her senses went into high alert as she, the humans around her, and her family, all turned towards an approaching rumbling.
R'chnt, rigid and on guard, took his proper place at the forefront of the pyramid structure of hunters that the Yautja naturally fell in to. K'Shai stepped forward through the pyramid, taking a position just off the shoulder of her mate and Leader.
Trucks rolled up. Trucks K'Shai was well familiar with, as was R'chnt to some degree. Their offspring were not, but they clearly knew by the actions of their parents that the situation was no longer relaxed. The humans inside the vehicles began to roll out in a formation, clearly bearing weapons, some of which were quite plainly altered Yautja weapons.
The hunters were on high alert as Lewis stepped around them, gesturing with his palms forward towards the approaching trio of men. K'Shai edged herself forward just a bit, breaking every protocol of proper Yautja formation, casting disrespect on her Leader. R'chnt in turn, stood his ground, announcing to the others that he recognized that this situation was something more for K'Shai to handle for now.
"I'm Lewis Sans…"
"I know who you are." The lead man said.
"I see. Well, do we have a problem here?" Lewis responded.
K'Shai moved closer to Lewis and noticed the lead man, in a suit as opposed to the others were all in uniform, eyed her warily. Her own eyes shifted across him to his squadron who were all armed.
The tension across the entire situation was one tangible iota away from explosive. K'Shai noticed, glancing quickly behind her, that R'chnt and their offspring were all eyeing up the modified Yautja weapons the human group was holding. The crowd around them parted well out of the way but close enough to see and hear, and surprisingly, the crackling voice of a woman was the next sound to be heard.
K'Shai, Lewis, and the others turned to see none other than Lillian stepping forward protectively, unintimated, with a fire in her aging voice that made K'Shai crack a smile from the corner of her mouth for a moment.
"What is the meaning of this? What is going on here?" Lillian demanded.
The lead man in the suit chuckled and strode towards her calmly, as if he was fully in charge of everything happening.
"We are protecting ourselves." He turned back to K'Shai. "From them. You have two options right here and right now. Get off our world immediately and never return, or die. Now."
"Whoa, whoa, wait just a minute!" Lewis flared up, stepping to the forefront. "They are my guests. Our friends."
"You need to come up with some new friends mister Mayor. You think we wouldn't find out about this? Your visit? We always knew this was a possibility." He turned back to K'Shai and strode towards her. "We are prepared. You … and your kind… are not welcome here."
"Now, you call off your… these… these.. Men." Lillian said waving a finger tip towards the armed unit as if they were misbehaving school children. "She has every right to be here… to visit family and friends that want her here."
"You planning to stay a while," the man looked directly at K'Shai's unflinching, unblinking eyes.
She offered him nothing but a deep, unbroken stare back. R'chnt shuffled a foot, but did not move.
"There is no more war." Lewis got the man's attention back. "These people were never our enemies."
"Never? How naive are you?" The man flared up, and continued on, pointing a finger towards the alien group. "Those things destroyed our world. You think that was the first time they've ever been here on this planet? If that's what you think, you are far too naïve to be a leader in this new world."
"What? The new world that treats our own like the enemy? Like an outsider?" Lewis combatted.
"They are the enemy, and she," the man in charge of the human group emphasized, "turned her back a long time ago on the human race. That book she wrote proves that… in detail." He added nodding towards Kelly who was watching from just behind Sr'uch-de's shoulder.
"You can't hold them responsible for what a handful of …. Of rogue… criminals did."
The man smiled at Lewis in a condescending way, telling him he was an idiot and had no power in one single silent stare.
"If that's what a few rogues can do to us, imagine what they can do when they return with a well organized fleet." He growled. "That is why we are prepared!" He said proudly and strode like a lion pacing in a cage back over to K'Shai.
"Now, we are prepared to defend ourselves and this planet from the likes of you. And if you choose to stay here, you can come with us. As our guest," he flared his palm towards a vehicle behind him. "The rest of your… friends…. Can leave. Now. And there won't be any trouble."
K'Shai could not control the entire flare up of anger boiling up inside her. She let it out by subtly, without even moving, clenching her wrist and activating the k'cit-pa blades on her right arms, popping them out in a gesture of both anger and defense. Instantly, the man in the suit laughed chauvinistically, the humans behind him took aim, Lewis jumped forward and prepared to stand between everyone, and simultaneously, K'Shai felt her arm being gripped tightly in the heated grip of R'chnt's palm.
"Whoa ho ho, this is what I'm talking about! We will blow you into dust right here and right now." The man in the suit said.
"Wait, no!" Lewis started to say.
K'Shai turned to look at R'chnt, with three tense offspring right behind him clearly unsure if the situation was about to explode into a battle or not.
"K'Shai! No. This is not what we… what you… are here for."
She looked up at him, trying her best to gauge his face through the emotionless helmet; something that might seem impossible to some, but she knew him well enough to know there was a concerned look on his face; not concern about their own safety exactly, but concerned about how far K'Shai would take the hostility.
He had always somehow seen and understood that angry flare in her, and had always worked to help her quell it. It took years; decades really; and many turns and rough spots along the way but as she looked into the black eye panels of his sleek bio helmet, she knew he was right. This is not why they had come, and it was a little hard to not understand the reaction the new Earth military might offer a potentially hostile force.
K'Shai looked back towards Lewis and softened her expression, drawing back the wrist blades. The human group eased up on their aim, but did not lower their weapons entirely.
Lillian stepped towards her niece, uncaring and unimpressed by the group of armed officers behind her. She reached out towards K'Shai and without hesitation or withdrawal from K'Shai, she placed both her palms on each of her upper arms and squeezed softly.
"I am so glad I got to see you again. Truly. And your … family…" she said in a whisper so low even Lewis, who was only an arm's length away, probably could not hear.
K'Shai pressed her lips firmly into a smile and nodded graciously at her aunt, then looked to Lewis.
He shook his head slowly, smiling.
"My God, K'Shai… I'll always remember. Good luck to you. Stay well."
She smiled and turned, not even giving the group behind him the payment of a dirty glare, though she did notice the leader of them casually striding up closer to Lewis as if he was trying to eavesdrop in hopes of deciphering some cryptic code for plans for world domination….again.
R'chnt finally eased his grip once K'Shai began to turn to leave, and he maneuvered her around him, in front of him as they walked off, with A'ryin'di noticeably in the front of the malformed group, El'tude just beside her. K'Shai was behind them both while R'chnt brought up the rear of the group. S'aruch-de was a few dozen meters off to El'tude's left, lingering in an awkward spot very near to Kelly, which K'Shai had now observed completely.
He was the last to put his feet forward to begin moving away and K'Shai did notice Kelly speak to him, reaching out gently and making contact with his hand as he turned away fully.
This K'Shai pondered as they walked back to the ship with an entourage of the military following at a distance.
"Mother… I don't understand what happened today?" A'ryin'di questioned.
"They are threatened by us, frightened. They are not as curious about us as… you might be of them." K'Shai responded.
"El'tude, A'ryin'di, Sr'uch-de," she called to all of her offspring bringing them to a halt at the base of the cloaked ship.
She eyed each of them carefully and then looked back to Sr'uch-de firmly.
"You do all know that this planet is forbidden. This is the one and only time any of you will ever come here. You do understand. Speak now and tell me you understand."
Each of them in turn acknowledged their understanding and before they turned to head onto the ship, R'chnt beckoned to them.
"Heed your mother well. This planet is forbidden. There will be no honor brought to our blood lines or our Clan for violating this."
K'Shai looked at him as their children once again acknowledged their understanding of that one simple rule. They turned and R'chnt tapped a button on his wrist computer. The loading bay door dropped and the group returned inside and soon were in the air, leaving the glowing blue orb long behind them.