Whew, good morning darlings! Thank you all so much for your patience. Covid took me out last week and I got absolutely nothing done.

Also, this story will be switching to a weekly posting schedule. A few unexpected things have come in my life and I can't manage much more than once a week at the moment. Thank you all for your patience, let's jump in!

Thank you oodles to Mel and Pamela.

VI

BELLA

1 September 2356

Nouveau Stockholm, The United Republic of Nye Europa

"Bella, faites attention," Maman snapped. Her eyes were tight with her worry and frustration, just as they had been for the last year. September had come, and very soon Bella would turn thirteen years old, which meant that she would become a traveler and leave her family … forever.

Maman was doing all she could to get her daughter ready, but her lessons had taken on a scary tone. Bella wasn't ready to leave her family; she didn't want that life.

She resented Maman for passing her this legacy.

"Now," Maman said, her hands landing on the bowl in front of her. "How would you dress a wound with nothing more than the materials in front of you?"

Bella looked down at the random assortment of items Maman had managed to scrounge up. "Create a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding," Bella recited, her voice tinged with her childish petulance.

"Good, with what?"

Bella glanced at the materials before her. Nothing was overly useful. "You didn't give me anything for that."

Maman scowled. "Are you not clothed, Bella?"

Bella looked down at her jumpsuit. It wasn't one of the school ones Lucas or her little sister Anna wore. She wasn't allowed to go to school. Maman had too much to teach her, and school, Maman told her, would waste their precious time.

"Bella, your mind must be flexible," Maman said, her hands reaching out to touch Bella's sleeves. "Survival is about adapting, finding what you must."

Bella swallowed and nodded. Maman's predictions of Bella's future, in truth, scared the young girl, but even though Maman could see the fear in her daughter's eyes, she wouldn't stop her lecture.

She never stopped.

"What if you are in Europe?" Maman asked. "What might you use?"

Bella's mind skipped a beat as she tried to remember. "Achillea millefolium," she recounted. "Or capsella bursa-pastoris." The names were ancient, old words from long dead languages, and even the plants themselves were gone from this time, but Maman was certain most places Bella would go, she'd be able to find them.

"Good." She sighed. "What about in Asia?"

Their lesson went on until Maman had covered all seven continents. Medicine changes, she often said, but healing is lasting. Those who know how to heal will endure.

It was too far off in Bella's mind to worry about at twelve, but Maman was relentless about it.

They spent an hour examining photos of the plant specimens on the net screens, making sure Bella could identify them all on sight in any stage of life.

While they were in the middle of their session, Lucas and Anna returned from school, their voices loud and disruptive as they entered the home.

Maman looked up from the table where they worked and scowled.

"Maman!" Lucas cried, rushing into the room. "We have a field trip to Mars!"

Maman nodded, rubbing her hands across her lap. "Oui, I signed the forms this morning," she agreed. "Pappa will go with you."

Lucas' eyes were wide. "I can finally see Mars!" he cried, spinning in the spot.

Maman smiled, but her face was tight. "I am excited for you, mon cher."

"When do you go?" Bella asked, her heart burning with jealousy. She should have been to Mars already. Her grade was traveling farther yet, toward the Kuiper Belt.

"On the 13th," Lucas told her, spinning once more before racing off.

Bella's heart sank.

The day she left. Her birthday.

Maman reached out to her, her fingers finding the smaller ones of her daughter. "You are born to different paths," she reminded Bella. "Just because you haven't been to Mars in this life, doesn't mean you won't some day."

"I hate my life," Bella told her, her eyes burning with tears. "It's not fair."

Maman let out a heavy breath. "Non, ma belle fille. It is not fair. I'm sorry that the weight of this legacy has fallen to you."

Bella looked up to see tears on Maman's cheeks. She was surprised. She couldn't remember ever seeing her maman cry before.

"Do you miss your family?" Bella asked, her throat tight.

Maman smiled sadly, her hand brushing the hair away from Bella's eyes. "Oui, Bella. Very much so." Tears ran faster down Bella's cheeks, and she looked away from her. "But I have my family now," Maman continued. "And I have lived a life more full and more grand than any I could have ever hoped for." Maman tilted her daughter's chin up. "The hardships I have faced have made me who I am, and I would not trade that for anything."

Bella swallowed hard. Maman wouldn't change it, not even to save her own daughter from this wretched curse in their family.

Bella felt her heart harden, felt herself grow cold.

She would never fall in love, she decided. She would never love, never selfishly have children, and never pass this curse on.

It would end with her.