Chapter Eleven

"You wanted to talk to us?"

George looked up as Jem and Angela came into the infirmary. He noticed Angela glance at the bones that were still spread out on the table and then turn away, focusing her eyes on one of the empty tables instead. He realized that he likely should have covered the body before having them come in, but it hadn't occurred to him. He was accustomed to seeing bones this way, removed from the rest of the body that they had once supported, the last remaining vestige of the life that had existed for a time. No matter how long that person lived, the time that stretched between the moment of its birth and the last of its breaths never seemed long enough. It was so brief, just a momentary flash against the expanse of all of time and space that had and would exist. George honored the bones for that reason. They lasted so much longer than the skin that had touched and was touched, the eyes that saw, the tongue that spoke, the lips that brushed against those of loved ones. It was the bones that stayed long after all that identified the person as an individual with just a glance disappeared, all that was left to tell the story of who and what that person was and the life that they had led.

George was fascinated by all that the bones contained. When he was on Earth his laboratory would have been equipped with the tools and technology that would have been able to look further into the bones and delve into all that they could tell him. Those bones held everything that he needed to know who they had belonged to and possibly even what had happened to him. Here, though, he didn't have the comfort and reassurance of that technology. As he looked at the bones now he realized just how much he relied on all of that in everything that he did. When he investigated or researched. When he tried to understand something or explored more of what he had already found. In every aspect of his scientific work, the first thing that he did was figure out which machine or tool or computer program he could use to guide him. He had stopped relying as much on his instincts. Now that he was here on Penthos he had none of those tools. All he had was the few resources available to him in the ship infirmary and the knowledge and instincts that had driven him into the scientific field. It was a rediscovery and he found himself savoring the freedom. He wouldn't be able to see the bones as an experiment or something he could analyze. Instead, he was going to have to learn about them by exploring not what was left of the life, but the life itself.

"Yes. Thank you for coming," George said.

They seemed unfazed by having traveled across the planet so quickly and George realized it was because they were both accustomed to the concept of the portals that turned trips that should take hours or even days and turned them into mere seconds. It was something that they had both done countless times. It was what had brought them together.

"Rilex said that you were investigating a body," Jem said. "This is it?"

"Yes. He and Severine found it in the tunnel. They asked me to find out what I could about it and I think that I might have uncovered something telling. But I'm not sure."

"What is it?"

"First, could I see the bracelet that you're wearing?"

Jem looked at him quizzically.

"My bracelet?"

"Yes. When you first arrived back you were wearing a bracelet that you said Angela made for you before you made your way back to Earth and then to Uoria. Are you still wearing it?"

Jem glanced down at his arm and pushed his sleeve up to reveal the bracelet still attached around his wrist. It looked more worn than it had when he had first arrived, the plants that comprised it darkened and slightly frayed from being in place on his wrist through everything that Jem had gone through in the time since he got back home. The Denynso warrior held his arm out toward George, who took his wrist and examined the bracelet.

"And you made this?" he asked, looking up at Angela.

She nodded.

"Jem told me that he had never celebrated Christmas. When I first met Galadriel, I asked her what day it was on Earth and was able to figure out how far we were from the holidays, and I wanted to be able to celebrate it with Jem. I had told him about the traditions and I wanted to give him a gift. During the time that I was in the jungle with him, I had done some exploring and found the different kinds of plants with different colors of leaves. I thought that I could use them to make something for him, so I made a bracelet."

"What does my bracelet have to do with this body?" Jem asked.

George released Jem's arm and walked over to the other table where he had placed the dish holding the leaf. He held it out to Jem and Angela.

"Is this the leaf?" he asked.

Both looked into the dish and Angela looked up at him, nodding.

"I think so. I mean, that one is dried out, but it looks like the same type of leaf that I used."

"I found this on the body," George said. "I had never seen an actual one of them before. The truth is, I thought that it wasn't real."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was on Earth, Ivy and I were doing research about a document found many years ago. We found it when we were doing more extensive digging into the Denynso in preparation for the University exchange program with Uoria. We had gone off the original plans and found some of the lesser known stories and legends about the planet. That's how we found the document. It talked about a war that the Denynso were a part of but that had occurred off Uoria."

Jem shook his head.

"No," he said. "The Denynso haven't fought off the planet. We protect Uoria. It's our purpose. Uoria is the jewel of the galaxy, the most desirable of all destinations. It is the home of the most powerful creatures outside of Earth in the entire Universe. Our kind has stayed here and faced down the species who have tried to invade or who have wanted to earn the right to take over by defeating us. War happens on the battlefields of the compound, not outside of it."

"That was what we had heard about the warriors, too," George confirmed. "But this document detailed a war where the warriors left Uoria to aid another species. They were brought in to help fight during an uprising that tore apart an alliance and that resulted in the expulsion of an entire species from the planet where they had lived. It said that the planet was contained within the constellation Cassiopeia. There were a few details about the planet, including sketches of the plant life. One of the sketches looked like this leaf."

"What are you saying?" Angela asked.

"I think that we know where Jem was when he disappeared. And where this man was before he died."

Rilex looked distracted and upset when George rushed up to him. He had already sent the man to get Jem and Angela from the compound, but now he needed to speak just to him. Jem and Angela came up behind him and Rilex looked surprised to see all of them approaching.

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

George tried to ignore the miserable look on Rilex's face as he gestured behind him.

"Can you come speak to us?"

Rilex nodded and George led them into one of the lounges in the ship, closing the door behind them so that no one else could hear what they were discussing. He knew that eventually, if they were right, the rest would have to know what he had uncovered. For now, though, he didn't want anyone else to overhear. They needed to keep the information close, protected until they figured out if George was right and what it could mean if he was.

Rilex, Jem, and Angela sat in the chairs positioned near the blocked window and George took the final chair. He leaned toward Rilex and withdrew the dish with the leaf from his pocket. Holding it out to Rilex, he waited for a reaction. The man stared at it for several long, silent seconds and then lifted his hand to run his fingers over the glass the covered the leaf.

"Do you recognize it?" George finally asked.

Rilex looked up at him and George saw the unusual pattern in his eyes, the shooting stars that marked him as something so different than the rest of them. There was something in those eyes, a distant look of nostalgia and memories, and a hint of something sad.

"I do," he said. "But I don't understand. How did you get this leaf? You shouldn't have been able to access it. No one should."

"Why?"

"This leaf comes from a species of tree that only exists on one planet in the Universe. I haven't seen it in…" he hesitated and let out a sigh, "a long time."

"This leaf is from the place where I was when Vyker and Galadriel found me," Jem said. "It's from where Angela and I stayed before we went back to Earth to go to Uoria."

Rilex shook his head.

"No," he said. "That's not possible."

"What do you mean it's not possible?" Jem asked.

"That planet is inaccessible. It has been since I lived in my stream. In your time, that is thousands of years ago."

"What do you mean it's inaccessible?" George asked.

"It was sealed long ago by my best friend, Malan. Mhavrych's grandfather."

"Mhavrych?" Jem asked, sounding startled. "Mhavrych is Vyker and Galadriel's son?"

"Yes," Rilex said. "She was carrying him when they sealed the wall."

George was unsure of what they were talking about, but he knew that it carried tremendous significance to them.

"What do you mean it was sealed?"

Rilex took the leaf from George's hand and stared down at it again.

"There was a war," he said. "Malan wanted to ensure that no one traveled to that planet again. He wanted it protected, but he also wanted to protect any who might be tempted to go there."

"Why?" George asked.

"The war divided two species. My kind is known as the Kintani. We are the creators of the stars and the protectors of the knowledge of the Universe. At the time we were also the guardians of another species, a species that we had saved from total destruction."

"The Travetori."

Rilex looked at George sharply.

"How do you know that?"

"I thought it was a legend," he said. "I didn't think that it was real."

"What?" Jem asked. "What are you talking about?"

"I told you about the document that I found that described the war that involved the Denynso. That is the war between the Kintani and the Travetori."

"Why was there a war?" Angela asked.

"The Kintani had been guardians over the Travetori for generations. They had tried to take over several species and were nearly successful until an uprising among some of them put the entire species at risk. My kind rescued them, but only with the understanding that they would live under our conditions. That included living on a planet that had previously been hidden from all others. We surrounded the planet with the constellation of Cassiopeia, ensuring that it was both protected and protector. On that planet, they would be inaccessible from the enemy races that wanted to destroy them, but they would also be controlled and prevented from seeking the power that they had been trying to gain through invasion and destruction. There were three brothers. The youngest, Jiri, had just been given the position of King, much to the anger of his brothers. His parents believed that their middle son was planning a rebellion against him, but it was actually the other son, their oldest child, who had been strategizing for some time, preparing for mutiny that would lead to war, determined to free himself and those who agreed to follow him from the control of the Kintani so that they could return to the pursuit of dominance in the Universe that he believed was the birthright of the species."

"Why were the Denynso brought in?" George asked.

"The Travetori had never concealed their desire to conquer the Denynso. Even then they were known as the most powerful warriors in all the Universe. With them under their power, there would be nothing that could stop them. The Kintani wanted to bring them in to fight in the war to show the ongoing dominance of the Denynso and to end the conflict as quickly as possible. Before the war began, Malan commanded that Cassiopeia be evacuated. All who were not going to fight were to be taken from the planet and brought to another planet where they would be completely sealed off so that they could not be accessed throughout the rest of their existence. They were free to live out their lives there. The only ones who were not brought to that planet immediately were Jiri, his partner Layla, and a few close members of their group. They were brought to Uoria for protection. After the war, Malan returned to Uoria with the Denynso and then sealed off the way between Uoria and Cassiopeia, completing the total seal so that no one would ever find that planet again."

"I've never heard of the Kintani," George said. "Or the Travetori."

"Neither have I," Angela said.

"You wouldn't," Rilex said. "We're no longer known."

"I remember Galadriel saying that," Jem said. "When she and Vyker found me, she pointed out that we came from the same time, but that was a different time than Vyker. She told him that we didn't know about his kind or what they did."

"That's true," Rilex said.

"Then why is it a problem that the planet wasn't actually sealed? To us, the war was thousands of years ago. It must have been successful."

"No," Rilex said. "It wasn't. Not fully."

"What do you mean?"

"During the war, the majority of those who had followed the brother and believed in his cause were killed. But the brother and several of his closest followers managed to escape into the streams. They had to go into hiding and over time seemed to fade, but then they re-emerged. Weaker, but still present. By then the brother had died, but his followers continued to honor him."

"How?" Angela asked.

"The brother that started the war was named Valdin."

Jem's jaw tightened, and George saw his orange eyes flash angrily.

"The Valdicians."