“Admusfur,” I repeat the alien word. “We won’t leave, then. And I don’t want that honorless tribe to chase us away from here. It’s our turf now.”
“Maybe we can search for Callie with the saucer,” Dorie ponders. “It’s easier than searching on foot.”
“If it flies properly, that would be possible,”the Envoy agrees. “Though the canopy of leaves is so dense, it’s hard to see what’s below them. Even my infrared vision will struggle in a jungle as full of life as this one.”
Callie wriggles her sweet butt in my lap. “Dex, can the saucer record things? The way you can? Remembering them for later?”
“You wonder if it recorded Callie’s possible abduction,”the Envoy states. “The saucer has been turned almost completely off for years. I can’t find any sign that it recorded anything. But the tech is very alien, and most of the saucer’s functions are still outside my understanding. I will keep working on it.”
“All right,” Dorie says and gets up from my lap. “Maybe you can start now? I’ll begin making your new propellers later today. Thank you for the wedding ceremony.” She grabs the Envoy and puts him under one arm.
“It was my pleasure and honor,”the Envoy says. “I sincerely never thought I’d ever do anything like that. It was a fine experience. Even… beautiful.”
Dorie carries him into the ship and returns. “Now, my husband. It is our wedding day. We should not spend it talking about serious things. Now we should have some fun.” She walks over to the playpen.
Aker’iz squeals with joy when Dorie lifts her and carries her back to me. “This little chief also wants to be part of our big day. Right, Aker’iz? You’re now a witness to our wedding. Don’t forget it.”
Dorie takes my hand, the other arm cradling Aker’iz against her shoulder as naturally as if the baby had always belonged there.
We walk toward the beach through the thin patch of jungle. The sun hits us with its warmth and light, unhindered by leaves and branches.
The air smells of clean ocean, salt, and the richness of the jungle. No Bigs move anywhere, and when I look up at the sky, I only see thin clouds and no circling irox.
I keep waiting for the world to return to normal after all the battles and fear, but I hope it never will. Everything feels new and peaceful, as if the Ancestors themselves smoothed the path for us. Despite me claiming that Aker’iz was dead, they must have forgiven me for that. But it was nearly true. I shudder at the thought.
When we reach the sand, Dorie kicks off her munbuts and wiggles her toes, laughing under her breath.
“Wedding gift from planet Xren,” she says as a warm breeze comes in from the water. Aker’iz fusses, and Dorie shifts her gently, pressing a kiss to her soft hair before she even seems to realize she’s doing it. The baby calms instantly, and her tiny hands grab at Dorie’s dress.
Dorie catches me watching and shrugs. “She’s comfortable,” she mutters, but she doesn’t put the baby down or give her to me. My heart goes warm.
We walk along the surf until the sun kisses the horizon, turning the waves gold.
Dorie leans against me, resting her head on my shoulder. “We’re really doing this,” she whispers. “A life. A home. The three of us.” She looks up at me with that fierce, brave tenderness that first made me love her.
I wrap my arm around both her and Aker’iz, holding them close as the day grows brighter. “Yes,” I say. “This is our turf. Our family. And no one will ever take it from us.”
The waves hush against the shore like a whispered promise.
EPILOGUE
–Theodora–
I hold the item in front of Dex. “How’s that?”
He quickly scans it with a laser. “That may work. It’s eighty-one percent correct, which is the best you’ve shown me. Better than the other one. Please place it in the upper opening to your left.”
I drop the wooden propeller into place on his metal hull, where one of the old ones was missing. It fits pretty well. “How do you make it spin?”
“Are your fingers clear?”the drone asks.
I take a step back. “Yes.”
Dex spins all six of his propellers with a soft buzz. Each is about the diameter of my hand.
The drone takes off from the floor of the saucer and flies out into the clearing. He does some aerobatics before he zooms back in and lands on the floor. “I spin them using a torsion field. I have reason to believe that your planet does not have this particulartech, so it’s no wonder if you don’t understand what it is. Most people don’t, even on planets where it is in common use. I only needed the propeller itself. Thank you very much. I have never seen any drone with wooden propellers, but now I will keep them until they fall apart.”
“You may have to,” I tell him. “We still don’t know if the saucer flies.”
