In the medical center of Satamia Star Station, three golden boxes opened at the same time.
The avian healer on duty squawked as Ilika, Kibi, and Boro came running in the door.
As soon as Sata blinked enough to focus her eyes, she saw Boro grinning down at her while catching his breath. She smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.
Mati was greeted by Kibi, and Rini by Ilika.
The bird ran around, trying to explain to three monkey mammals at once what they needed to know about recovering from the Great Transformation.
None of them were paying much attention.
After showers, clean clothes, and nutrition drinks for the new arrivals, six mission bracelets chimed at once.
The large audience hall was packed with visiting students, the entire briefing team, and many friends and observers. Melorania, in the form of a beautiful lady with swirling blue gown, and Silmula Sorafax, whose sleek white fur seemed to sparkle, stood side-by-side at the front.
When the crew of the Manessa Kwi finally squeezed themselves into the room, a few pokes from Ilika were necessary to get the four honored guests moving down the aisle.
Boro, Sata, Mati, and Rini approached the head of the Transport Service
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and the large cat. The room fell silent.
“Boro and Rini,” Melorania began, “you both willingly experienced the Great Transformation to support and protect your beloved girls. You did well, and neither I, nor Kerloran, have any complaint about the decisions you made. Some observers had negative judgments at some points in your journey, but they are pondering and learning from the process, now that it has completely unfolded. You two may sit and listen.”
Boro and Rini smiled at each other with mixed pride and embarrassment.
Seeing no empty seats or benches, they settled onto the soft floor.
Melorania looked at the navigator of the Manessa Kwi. “Sata, you were tempted by primal instincts, experienced deep emotional challenges, and remained true to yourself, your friends, and Nebador.”
Sata
smiled.
“And you violated THE most important rule of the Great Transformation, a rule that must have been repeated a hundred times during your days of preparation.”
Sata’s chin fell onto her chest and tears filled her eyes.
“Good
work!”
It took Sata a long minute to recover, wipe her tears, and look up to see the smile on Melorania’s face. Chuckles rippled through the audience.
“Rules are necessary for intelligent people, but as we approach wisdom, they must often be broken. This is especially hard for avians . . .”
Many feathered heads in the room ducked with embarrassment.
“. . . and monkey mammals.”
All six crew members of the Manessa Kwi, and the three or four other humans in the room, cringed.
“You, Sata,” Melorania continued, “performed a great service by giving an excellent example, which just about everyone in Satamia was watching, of a situation in which a rule needed breaking. Most importantly, you did it knowing the rule. People who break rules without awareness are just simple mortals stumbling through life. We love them, but they cannot work in the Nebador Services.”
Everyone in the room was thoughtful during a long silence.
“To break a rule with wisdom, you must first know the rule, and be willing
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to follow it most of the time. But, I’ll admit that for a little while during your Great Transformation, we, who can see far into the past and future, could see no path to the success of your mission. You, Sata, changed that. Suddenly, when you broke that rule, new possibilities sprang into existence. A group of reptiles who had been powerless . . .”
“The young ones!” Sata interrupted.
“Yes, those born since coming to the star station. You created the moment, and they seized it. The rest of the story . . . you know.”
Sata took several deep breaths to settle the many emotions she was feeling.
“But don’t let it go to your head,” Melorania warned. “Breaking the rules, with knowledge and wisdom, will serve you well as a starship navigator, as long as you do it carefully, knowing that every one of those rules was written with blood.”
Sata looked puzzled.
“Every rule was written because they usually, in most situations, give the best chance of people coming back alive from their missions.”
Sata nodded with understanding.
“You may sit, Sata.”
“Mati of Sonmatia Three, crippled slave, Tera’s first companion, starship pilot, Rini’s beloved.”
Mati was suddenly filled with amazement at all the things she had already been and done in her short life. She tried to look up, but Melorania’s face was almost too bright to endure.
“You were the leader of the mission, and partly for that reason, you worked hard to avoid some of the feelings and experiences that Sata endured and learned from.”
Mati cringed, and tears threatened to come.
“Kerloran is of the opinion that it would be very good for you to live an entire lifetime with the reptiles, including mating and raising little scaly children.”
Rini quickly rose and stood close beside Mati, taking her hand in his.
Melorania smiled. “I agree with Kerloran completely. But I told him that you also have many things to learn as a deep-space response ship pilot, and
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good pilots, especially good monkey-mammal pilots, are very rare, and always will be.”
Mati tried to collect herself, and Rini relaxed a little, but didn’t leave Mati’s side.
“Kerloran agreed, and offered as an alternative that you, Mati, begin Psychic Development training, which will include another Great Transformation as part of your final tests, although a shorter one.”
Rini started to open his mouth.
“And I assured him,” Melorania said before the freckled lad could speak,
“that I would not allow Rini to begin his training until you, Mati, had completed yours.”
Rini closed his mouth.
“Kerloran was satisfied with that. He apologizes for not being here, but is doing something very important right now.”
Mati and Rini embraced, and a moment later Boro and Sata stood and did the same, a little more slowly.
“Citizens of Nebador,” Melorania called out in a loud, clear voice, “I give you the full crew of the Manessa Kwi, all monkey mammals again, all able to walk, and all back on active duty!”
Claws and wings nudged Ilika and Kibi until they went up to join in the joyous moment, as everyone in the room stood, flapped, cheered, screeched, or howled.
With another Satamia day nearing its end, most of the creatures soon began to filter out of the large audience hall, their minds turning to decorations, food, drink, and music. Ilika and Kibi knelt down and chatted with the large white cat about helping with the planet search.
“Melorania . . .” Mati began when finally, many minutes later, no one was talking to the head of the Transport Service. “I want you to know that the eleven young reptiles who helped us, and one adult female, are probably outcasts now . . .” She stopped when she saw the knowing smile on Melorania’s face.
“Come, all of you, I want to show you something.”
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Melorania floated out of the audience hall, along a corridor, and onto a balcony. The six humans, one large cat, and a few others, all ran along behind. Eventually they came to a balcony railing that looked down into Yellow Hall.
The hall was nearly empty, as many citizens were already at work in the main hall to prepare for the evening party, but a group of reptiles stayed close together as a much larger lizard, bright green with leaves twined around his head and arms, led them along.
“Kerloran . . .” Rini whispered.
“It’s . . . it’s . . .” Sata began excitedly, almost bouncing up and down.
“It’s our friends!” Mati declared. “Can we go down and talk to them?”
Melorania looked askance at Mati, but remained silent.
Mati looked at Rini and Sata, both of whom were holding in laughter.
Then she realized the problem, rolled her eyes, and laughed at herself. “They wouldn’t recognize us!”
“Worse than that,” Rini began, “we couldn’t understand a word of each other’s languages.”
Mati sighed and turned back to the balcony railing to watch as Kerloran gestured toward a huge branch of the great station tree and spoke with reptilian throaty sounds. Most of the lizards turned circles with amazement at everything they saw.
“There’s one too many,” Rini said. “An adult male.”
“They’re going to be re-settled separately from the rest of the cavern,”
Melorania explained, “and the adult female selected a mate. He’s not one of those who tried to kill you.”
“That’s good!” Boro said with relief.
They watched in silence as Kerloran and the thirteen reptiles entered a corridor and disappeared from sight.
“I wonder how they’ll remember the star station . . .” Rini pondered aloud.
“They’ll probably start a new religion about it,” Melorania speculated.
“That’s what most creatures do after glimpsing Nebador. It’ll be a mixture of what they saw and learned, and their own stories and myths.”
“Their gods will be you and Kerloran, I bet,” Boro said.
“No, they haven’t met me, and Kerloran is just pretending to be another
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reptile so he can talk to them and be their guide.” Then Melorania grinned.
“If I had to guess, I’d say their new religion will probably have four gods.”
Mati’s eyes suddenly opened wide with wonder and embarrassment.
Somewhat to Kibi’s surprise, her friends who had just experienced the Great Transformation were quiet and thoughtful at the evening party. Some of the visiting students from far-away star systems also lingered on the edges, not used to the melodies and rhythms of Satamia. Others plunged into the merry-making, ready to try moving their tentacles to anything with a good beat.
Boro and Sata, hand in hand, wandered among the snack tables, not sure what they wanted. Eventually some wiggling insect grubs caught their eyes.
They looked at each other, popped grubs into their mouths, and then stopped chewing as sour looks came to both their faces at once.
“They were a lot better when we were reptiles,” Boro admitted as he bravely swallowed what he had already chewed.
Sata nodded. “Shall we . . . go find some fruit?”
“Yeah!”
Although Mati’s knees could now handle a little careful dancing, she and Rini seemed happiest when snuggling close together on a small couch.
Thoughts and secrets passed between them that no ears could catch.
If we had stayed reptiles, I would have missed the music, Rini shared.
I think the reptiles — at least the little group that’s here now — will soon have music, Mati responded. They’re up on the fourth balcony with Kerloran, listening and watching. How could anyone hear the music of
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Nebador and not want to make their own music?
Rini nodded, then noticed his two shipmates at the snack tables. I think Boro and Sata are ready to . . . you know . . . hold each other.
Mati followed Rini’s eyes. Their friends had plates of food, but had stopped to share a long kiss. I think Boro had to make promises about that, for Sata to avoid mating with anyone who wanted her, on about the first day of the Great Transformation.
Rini
chuckled.
Kibi and Ilika were enjoying a circle dance with a half-dozen large avians when four of the birds’ mission collars chimed. The four danced their way toward a corridor. The two monkey mammals and two remaining birds tightened the circle and picked up the lively beat of the song.
When the piece ended with a flurry of notes from a spider’s keyboard, the captain and steward bowed to the two avians and wandered over to the food and drink tables.
Kibi selected a cold, fruity beverage and took a long pull to wet her throat.
“When we first arrived, I thought I’d never get used to all the different kinds of people. Now the usual Satamia types seem pretty mild compared to the strange creatures from far away.”
Ilika looked at his lover and grinned. “You haven’t seen anything yet!”
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Deep Learning Notes
“Rules are necessary for intelligent people, but as we approach wisdom, we learn they must often be broken.” If this makes sense to you, then you are most likely on the path to learning wisdom.
“People who break rules without awareness are just simple mortals stumbling through life. We love them, but they cannot work in the Nebador Services.”
Advanced students: Does this shed light on how the situation in the first note for chapter 39 might be possible?
Young people (for whom these stories are primarily written) have a unique contribution during times of great change: they can think more flexibly than adults, take greater risks, and form new relationships more easily. At certain point in our history, changes come so hard and fast that adults can be overwhelmed. At these times, young adults and older children can make the difference between survival and extinction. There are signs that one of those points in history might be approaching.
“Every one of those rules was written with blood” was a saying of my favorite FAA pilot examiner. He meant that for every rule in the 2-inch thick Federal Aviation Regulations book, there’s a wrecked airplane, and one or more graves, somewhere.
If your resume isn’t quite as long as Mati’s yet, have no fear. If you learn all you can from everything you do, opportunities for experience will present themselves. At times (like with “crippled slave”) you will not like the opportunities, but those that cannot be avoided will always teach you something if you have your eyes and ears open.
Why would Melorania not want Rini to do Psychic Development training until Mati had completed hers?
Our religions are formed from a mixture of revelation and evolution, in other
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words, a mixture of what the universe gives us (or lets us glimpse), and what we add to it from our own cultures. This can be seen in the differences between Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. Theravada, to this day, is relatively simple and “plain.” Mahayana, however, moved into Tibet, and incorporated the colorful culture and the pre-existing Bon religion.
Another example is the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible. In itself, it is believed to be a vision of heavenly and future things. Our commentaries and interpretations of it, if collected in one place, would fill a large library.
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