18

Two weeks later

- Charlotte -

“I can't believe it was always this run-down!”

Henrietta glanced over at her. “But it was much worse than this back then, Charlotte. It's nicer now. See the streetlights? This area was always pitch black at night. And they filled the potholes.”

The car shuddered hard and Henrietta tightened her seatbelt. “Well, you know. Most of them.”

It was the same old city. Of course the buildings and streets and plazas seemed smaller now than they had when she grew up there. Everyone said that when they visited their hometown after a long absence. But not everyone felt that the gravity in their hometown had changed. It hadn't, of course. It was still standard Earth gravity, but Charlotte's long time on Acerex and various battle planets and on the Friendship had made her sensitive to things like that.

She'd rented an electric car, deactivated its autopilot and taken control herself, like any pilot would do in any vehicle. Then she'd looked up Henrietta, a childhood friend, the only person in town she thought she could stand to deal with because they'd had pretty similar lives up until Charlotte took off.

In the six years since they'd last talked, her friend had managed to get married, have three kids, get divorced and then get married again. When talking to her, Charlotte got the feeling that the second divorce wasn't far away.

She hadn't been to Earth since she left for space. But she had wanted to see it again, maybe to get away from Acerex and the things that reminded her of Cori'ax, which was everything. Or maybe to give her home planet one more chance to win her back.

So far, it was making no attempt to do so. The town where she'd grown up wasn't that typical for Earth, perhaps. But she'd wanted to see it again, try to see it with new eyes and maybe change her opinion about it. After less than a day, she already knew she wouldn't.

They rolled slowly along Main Street. The store windows were mostly empty.

“Gosh,” Henrietta said, “so weird to see this town like a tourist. And you know, you're right. It actually is kind of crappy.”

Charlotte steered around another deep hole in the street. “Ever talk to anyone from the old gang? I mean, the girls from our high school class?”

Henrietta laughed. “You kidding? I never see any of them. Never knew them that well, either. You know how it was. Some girls had families and some didn't.”

“Yeah. What was it they called us? 'The social services kids' or something? Wasn't there some kind of code word?”

“The FHK. The Foster Home Kids.”

“That was it. The eff aitch kay. They'd whisper that among themselves when we were walking up, making sure we heard it. At least there were two of us, huh? Etta, if I'd been alone back then ...”

“Char, don't even talk about it. Shit, if I hadn't had you ... but then you just up and left! And then you went into space and got world famous without even being here.”

Charlotte glanced sideways at her friend. “Famous? I mean, sure, Harper married the alien king, so I get that she's really well known. But me, too?”

“Oh, you bet. You made first contact with the super hot aliens. After that Harper girl. Didn't the mayor invite you or something? To City Hall? But you never showed. They had your school photo on the local news. Oh, and national news, too. And some kind of military picture with you in a uniform. That was the first I'd heard from you in years.”

“Yeah. Sorry. If it makes you feel better, that was the first anyone on Earth had heard from me in years.”

Henrietta nodded. “You don't have much reason to want to come back, do you? At least I have some extended family. Not that I ever see them.”

They passed their old high school. There were more fences and walls around it now. The graffiti was as crude and ugly as ever.

Charlotte accelerated to not have to look at it. “There's not much here for me. Except maybe some memories. Not all of them are bad, though. You know how it is.”

“Yeah. If we'd been able to see our own lives as kids with our adult eyes now, we'd be shocked. But when you're a kid, and you're living it, it doesn't always seem so bad. Or even most of the time. Hey, I got some birthday presents sometimes.”

“Me too. Not every year, but who's counting.”

Henrietta tapped her lips with one finger. “You know, I discovered there's actually nothing wrong with foster homes. Most of those are really good. We just stumbled upon a couple of crappy ones.”

“I know, Etta. We did.”

“It's a pretty crappy town, I guess. Hey, we didn't choose our beginnings. But we both survived. That has to count for something. We weren't stopped by some black eyes and bruises that we tried to cover up. We made it, Char.”

Charlotte took in the gray concrete and the worn asphalt and the empty stores and the trash lining the street. It was worse than she remembered. “We kind of grew from sheer rock. Got our nutrition from the rain and the air.”

Henrietta looked at her from the corner of her eyes. “Um. Sure. I guess. I mean, I got some food almost every day, but ...”

Charlotte laughed. “Don't mind me. This pregnancy's got me saying some weird stuff.”

“Uh-huh. Yeah, those things can mess with your mind and everything else. Believe me.”

Charlotte turned off Main Street and the car rolled slowly through a residential area. Had the houses always been this ugly? “You know, Etta, you're right. We don't choose our beginnings. But sometimes, once in a blue moon, the luckiest of us can choose how we continue.”

“Damn right. You've chosen space. The aliens. I don't blame you at all. I have my kids here and all that stuff. I could never choose that. But I'm thrilled that you have. So that Harper girl got pregnant by an alien, right? Fuck, that king she married is hot. And the other ones who came here with him weren't bad either. They were on the news and in the mags for months. There's a lot of them, right? Out there? And almost no alien women? Hey, it's none of my business. But did you ...? Is it ...?”

“I did and it is. This is a half alien.” Charlotte indicated her now very obvious bump. “But it's kind of a secret for now.”

“Oh, I won't tell anyone. The first thing you learn when you grow up like we did is how to keep a secret. But congratulations, Char. That's super cool.” She hesitated and looked at Charlotte with brown, innocent eyes that probably perceived much more than anyone would realize. “It is super cool, right?”

They passed the shabby strip mall where they'd both sought refuge when they needed it the most, what seemed like many lifetimes ago. The people loitering outside it were just as shady as before. Yes, it was a miracle they'd both survived.

Charlotte forced a smile. “It is super cool. And here's the coolest part: it's a girl.”

- - -

The ship detached from the space station in Earth orbit and the engines engaged, something the passengers only noticed as a soft push in their seat.

Charlotte laid her head back and looked up. The blue-white-green disk looked so much like Acerex, it was like a twin. Earth and Acerex, twin planets. She was not the first to make that observation. The similarities were too obvious to miss, even for television reporters.

On one of of those twins she had a past. On the other she had a future.

Maybe. There was no way to be certain. But she would make sure that her daughter had both, and on one and the same planet.

It could not be Earth. There was nothing there for Charlotte, and it would be hard for her to create a good life for her child on a planet that she just wanted to put behind her once and for all. She had always felt out of place there. She couldn't be the best mother on a planet that was now much more alien to her than Acerex had ever been.

No, the Acerex people suited her much better. They were warriors. Straightforward and honorable. They fought because they had to. They loved their planet because it loved them right back.

She had a lot to contribute to them. She would show them how to win wars. She could still have a future there, as long as she didn't fall in love again.

The Earth slid slowly past the upper window as the spaceship travelled faster and faster, setting up its course to Acerex. The distance was impossible for the human mind to comprehend, but the journey wouldn't take that long. She would have time to follow her plan when she got there. And if the pregnancy progressed even faster than everyone thought, then this spaceship did have an excellent medical bay with a state-of-the-art midwife robot.

Cori'ax, for all his faults, had been right. She should remember where she came from. Not everything about the Earth was bad. And she wouldn't sever every connection with her home planet. She would stay connected with one strand. She would stay in touch with Henrietta. Now they had their children to talk about, at least.

Soon, anyway. If everything went well.

Daughters were seen as glorious blessings on Acerex, and they were often overprotected. Everyone in the village would celebrate when a girl was born, because they were so rare. Their births were recorded in the village history as a major event, while the birth of a boy didn't cause much comment.

Still, Charlotte's daughter would not be a full Acerex. Nor would she be a princess or the child of an important chief and royal councillor, like Harper's and Lily's children. She would stand out everywhere, not fully one thing or another, with no elevated rank or standing to protect her. That could be difficult for any child. And Charlotte didn't want her daughter's childhood to be difficult. She wanted it to be good.

She should not be pampered and overprotected like the Acerex did to their girls. She should have every choice in life, even if she wanted to be a warrior like her parents. The Acerex would never allow that for any of their own girls. But if anything, Charlotte had shown that women could fight as well as male warriors could. She wanted to demonstrate her daughter's toughness from the very beginning.

That was her plan. Her daughter would be famous from the moment she was born. She would be famous for a reason Charlotte knew that every Acerex would understand and respect. Her daughter would be unique and nobody would deny her anything because she was a girl.

A son would have been different. He would be a warrior. The path was laid out, and it was a pretty good path, now that the Fire Planet Trials were history.

Her plan was risky. And many would say it was irresponsible. But it would anchor the baby in Acerex society once and for all. The girl would not grow from bare rock, no matter what happened. She would have their whole warrior culture as her soil and foundation.

Charlotte's own life had started badly. Her daughter's life would start with a bang that would be heard all around Acerex.

She looked up again. The Earth was nowhere to be seen outside the ceiling window. It was falling behind the ship, fast. She cradled her huge bump. “It's behind us,” she whispered. “I want something better for you.”

She grinned out into space. She liked the idea she'd had. “And maybe, just maybe, you'll be famous.”