Chapter 10

Danny yawned.

He had slept well. But, then, he always slept well. The slave pen (and that's what it was, for all the comfort his mom had) where he grew up could be noisy at night. It was either learn to ignore it, or live forever sleepless. A few had been driven mad. Compared to that, this place was as silent as something that wasn't a tomb, but was still silent. No sense jinxing things.

He made is way down the narrow stairs to the main floor, hair still wet from his shower. Slicking the red mass back as he passed the front windows, he noted it was almost touching his shoulders. Time for a hair cut? Or did Mary like long hair? More importantly, how could he find out without embarrassing himself? Hmm ... maybe have Goldie ask.

"Morning sleepy-head!"

Speak of the devil girl. He looked up as his ever widening stride took him around the corner to the dining room. Goldie was sitting, human style, at the table next to Mary. He stopped. His sister NEVER sat like that. It hurt her, hips just not built for it. She had her own chair, custom built to keep her head at the same level as everyone else.

He mentally shrugged. Whatever.

"Morning, sis. Morning, Mary."

"Morning!"

There was something ... musical in her voice. It perked his mood right up. As soon as she had said it, though, both Mary and Goldie leaned their heads together and giggled. Hmm. Something was up. He had never had to deal with TWO girls before. Best to be careful.

Breakfast that morning was fruit and toast, with some cheese. Taking one of the pink spheres picked up at the market the day before, he grabbed two slices of bread and pulled the plate of butter closer as he sat across from the girls. Making use of the butter knife, he spread a good amount on the toast as he looked at the far table. All the others were down there, gathered around a pile of books.

"OK, what's going on?"

"Well, if you didn't sleep in!"

"Yeah!"

More giggling. Danny looked at their plates. Either they were slow eaters, or they had been down here for only a couple minutes themselves. Should he mention it? He glanced at Mary. She was smiling at him.

Nope. He smiled back, and began eating.

"See ... here it is again."

Hannah pointed at the section of alien text. Anthony leaned in, hand automatically going to her back, sliding down. Just as automatically, her body responded, pushing back and repositioning slightly. Such moments of affection were so common and open among the couples so as to be almost invisible. His wife giving a pleased hum, Anthony frowned.

"Really?"

"Really. This phrase looks familiar, sort of. I'm telling you, this looks like a mutated version of Hebrew."

"Not it doesn't," Tammy scoffed. "I tried to learn Hebrew, in my occult days, and that's not it."

"Who's the Jew here? It's backwards, altered a bit, but..." She sighed, shaking her head as she sat back in her chair. "But it doesn't matter, as I don't speak Hebrew."

"It could be a sister language, one dead on Earth," Chuck commented, taking another look. "It's not like the written words have always matched up with what we expect anyways."

"Let's get to the things we CAN read." Justin pushed the book aside, bringing back one of the heavily illustrated texts. He grabbed one of the alien orange fruits Daium was done peeling and sectioning. "So, what have we got?"

"Alien Squirrels," Alicia said, voice half amused, half contemplating suicide at the stupidity, "make or find a VERY small window from this universe or whatever into a tree in the Clarence Town Park. From the outfits, I'd say ... late 60's, early 70's?" She glanced over at Hannah, who nodded. "The woman who did this starts some sort of cult, one which," she gave a disgusted glance at one thick book, "insists on having math in its bibles."

"That's not just math," Chuck corrected, voice as bemused as anyone else's. "That's ... wow. Even what I can read is so far beyond even the stuff Daium has shown me."

"Any of you seen Prince of Darkness?" Melinda leaned forward, excited. Alicia gave her an exasperated look.

"That's not one of your tentacle anime, is it?"

"You wish! No, it's a great old horror film. John Carpenter. There's a 2000 year old book written by Jesus, and when it's translated from Latin and Hebrew it's all mathematical equations and such to prove what the book is saying."

"Can't believe they left it out of the Apocrypha," Anthony commented. Melinda grinned.

"Great film! They showed it at a church youth group lock-in, along with Life of Brian. Presbyterians rock!"

"And roll," Chuck added absentmindedly. This got him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Theories," Nona suggested, "we need theories."

"Oh, we have tons," Justin replied, laughing. "All the theories you want. All fitting the facts and mutually exclusive."

"Oh, god, it's string theory," Melinda moaned.

"The question," Daium said, looking them over as she absently played with little Jeli in the bassinet, "is what do you want to do?"

The humans exchanged glances. Anthony kept his eyes on their two furry friends. Earth ... complicated things. Maybe, perhaps, in a good way, but complications were never easy.

"We stay away from their temple," Nona said, seated as she now tended to be next to Tammy. "For now. Later, maybe, we see what's up, but..." She shook her head.

"I'd have thought you'd want to go there right away. See if there's a way home."

Nona shook her head again.

"Too soon. Something about this isn't right. It's too ... I don't know. If nothing else, I don't want to be surrounded by a hundred or more cult members eager to mate with our three studs here."

"That's why I vote no for now," Chuck added. "We have the kids to consider. After they're all born, maybe. There's time."

"Dad was getting old," Melinda said, sadness in her voice. "The longer we wait ... the more it won't matter."

"What will not matter, my Lady?"

Anthony looked down the row of tables. Their guests were awake. Gone was the cheerleader outfit, which he was glad he had missed. Chuck may not have handled that in the most diplomatic way, but he wasn't sure he would do much better if the image in his mind was any indication. They were back in their two piece white dresses, black furred Sarah standing a few steps behind red furred Miriam, head bowed. Miriam's head was raised high, eye's ... slightly lowered. Anthony nodded to her.

"You're up. Good. We have things to discuss today."

"Indeed we do, Lord. Indeed we do." Miriam bowed low, breasts almost large enough to show cleavage. "Lords, Ladies. This humble servant of She Who Saw invites all in this blessed group to the Temple dedicated to their name. Bless us with your presence, let us serve you. All knowledge will be yours: those volumes before you are but a small sample of what the holy library contains."

Anthony flicked his eyes to Nona. Her expression hadn't changed. Tammy, beside her, silently nodded her agreement with the moody Malay. Chuck caught his eye, shaking his head. Melinda, next to him, hesitated, eyes flicking to the baby in her arms ... then slowly nodded. The others were the same. He turned back to Miriam.

"You have caught us at a bad time. Naturally, we have plans and destinations of our own. I'm afraid we can not travel to your temple right now."

The two squirrels jerked their heads up, astonished. The smaller one fell to her knees, prostrating herself before them. Anthony went a little cold at that. Another reason to stay away. Miriam fell to her knees, too, but raised her arms, eyes looking at them yet staying down out of respect. That had to be hard to learn.

"Please, oh Lord, reconsider! Our people live only to serve! Has not our faith been enough for you? Do we not please you? If so, come, correct us! Give us NEW words and books to live by! Let us supply you, for your journey onward! We would gladly fill your holds with all we have!"

Oh, she was good. He cast an eye over at Daium. The blackish grey furred Orang stood, adjusting her glasses.

"Out of curiosity," she asked, "where IS your temple?"

Mary watched the adults (well ... older people) begin to rise and put away breakfast. Her mother, being motherly, waved them away to whatever they were in a hurry to do and began to gather the dishes herself. Looking down at the half eaten fruit on her plate, she grabbed it and took a big bite. Juice squirted out all over her face.

"You're very neat," Danny commented from across the table. His own partaking of the non-orange orange was ... much less messy. She felt a blush coming on. Goldie shook her head, giving her brother an exasperated look as she too took a squirting hunk out of the fruit.

"Ignore him, Mary. Fruit should be messy to eat."

She smiled at her friend gratefully. Mary didn't know what she'd do without someone to, you know, really relate too. Goldie suddenly winced a bit, adjusting her hips in the chair. Danny leaned forward, concern on his face.

"Sit in your other chair, Goldie. You know it's not good for you to sit like that."

"But I WANT to sit like this! I don't LIKE that chair!" Her furry body adjusted itself again.

"Yes you do." Danny's voice sounded tired, the tired of an argument fought many times and thought to have been won. Mary suddenly saw his eyes shift over to her. Why would he be ... oh. Goldie was doing this because of her.

Danny's eyes pleaded with her for help. How? She didn't know the scope of the argument, what had been said, what her practical limits, in fact, were. That she wanted to be a normal girl was about all she knew, and Mary, well, could understand. Wanted to help. Not in ways that hurt her, though!

Well, at the very least, she could get her to stand up for a bit.

"I'm done. Come on, Goldie, let's help Mom clean up and go play with the babies."

"There. That is the site of The Holy Temple of What She Saw."

Daium frowned as Miriam stepped back from the console. Letting her touch her father's ship had seemed ... wrong. As if the ship had been defiled. She probably shouldn't tell the priestess, or whatever she was, that. Or anyone else, as it was a silly thought.

(If she touched the Tree, though... )

Looking at the coordinates, she frowned again. The system was, somewhat, in line with the path they had been traveling. A ways away, though. Couple months travel, if they don't stop. You could almost argue that the star wasn't even still in the galaxy, as it was isolated out beyond what most would call the galactic rim, although still rotating with the rest of the stars. Like an island off shore, before the vastness of the ocean.