Close Remembrance (The Krinar Chronicles 3)

The next two weeks passed in a flurry of preparations for the departure. Mia’s parents, Marisa, and Connor each requested a leave of absence from their jobs and put their finances in order. Of them all, Connor seemed the most hesitant, though Marisa convinced him that they had to go – if only for their baby’s sake. After many discussions, it was decided that if the Elders didn’t grant them immortality, then they would come back to their regular lives – after first signing an agreement not to reveal any confidential information about the Ks. If the petition succeeded, however, then Lenkarda would be their new home, just as it was for Mia.

To alleviate any concerns about her sister traveling during pregnancy, Mia spoke to Ellet and had her examine Marisa one last time. “She’s perfectly healthy,” Ellet reassured them, “and routine space travel shouldn’t pose any issues. Now if she went off exploring new galaxies, I would be worried, but a simple trip between Krina and Earth – that’s the safest thing there is these days.”

Mia called Jessie and spoke to her, explaining that she would be away for a while and won’t be coming back for the school year. Jessie wasn’t the least bit surprised, though she did cry when Mia said she didn’t know how soon she would return. Since Mia couldn’t tell Jessie the real reasons for the trip, she had to let her think it was Korum’s business taking them away.

“Can Jessie come too?” Mia asked Korum after that heart-breaking conversation. “I know you said family only, but she’s like family to me –”

“No, my sweet,” Korum said regretfully. “The Elders even balked at Connor coming along. I had to work very hard to convince them that a brother-in-law is the equivalent of a real sibling. If Connor’s parents had been alive, I don’t think it could’ve worked – that would’ve been too many humans to get an exception for.”

Mia swallowed. She hadn’t realized how close she’d come to losing her sister, who would’ve likely chosen to stay behind with her husband. It was the first time Connor’s lack of family was in any way a plus. Mia had always felt sorry for her brother-in-law because his mother, a single parent, had passed away from breast cancer seven years ago . . . but now that fact may have enabled Mia’s family to stay together.

Adam prepared a bunch of notes and recordings for her to take to the mind lab on Krina. “Don’t forget to give it to that apprentice,” he told Mia. “It’s got everything I could find in Saret’s files about memory loss and softening. It’s not much – he must’ve destroyed most of the data before – but it might help them figure out your condition.”

“Thanks, Adam.” Mia smiled at the K. “It was awesome having you for a partner.”

Adam grinned, white teeth flashing. “Right back at you, partner. Ping me when you guys land and settle in; I’d love to hear how your meeting with the Elders goes.”

“Of course,” Mia said. She knew Adam had a very good reason for wanting to know the outcome of Korum’s petition: his entire adopted family was human – as was the mysterious girlfriend he never talked about.

* * *

“Saret is going to be on the ship with us,” Korum told Mia as they walked on the beach the evening before their departure. “The Council wants him back on Krina so the Elders can try him themselves.”

Mia’s stomach twisted with remembered fear. She still had occasional nightmares from the Arena fight – horrifying dreams in which Korum didn’t emerge as the victor. Saret had come far too close to killing her lover, and she could never forget the agony of those moments when she’d thought she lost Korum.

As though reading her mind, Korum said, “There’s nothing to worry about, my sweet. He’ll be locked up the entire trip.”

“Which will only be a couple of weeks, right?” Mia asked.

“Yes,” Korum confirmed. “Getting sufficiently far away from Earth is what’s going to take the longest. This is a very crowded solar system and we have to make sure nothing interferes with our ship’s warp capabilities.”

Mia laughed, forgetting all about Saret for the moment. “Warp capabilities? Like the warp drive in our science fiction – the thing that lets you go faster than the speed of light?”

“Yes,” Korum said. “Very similar to that. It bends space-time, allowing us to travel from one point in the universe to another almost instantaneously.”

“How does it do that?” Mia asked in fascination. Physics had never been her strongest subject, but even she knew that weird things happened near the speed of light – and that faster-than-light travel had been considered impossible until the Ks arrived.

Korum smiled, apparently pleased by her interest. “I can’t explain fully without going into some complicated math, but I can give you a rough idea,” he said. “Essentially, our ships create a huge energy bubble that causes a contraction in the space-time in front of it and an expansion in the space-time behind it. That’s what propels us from one place to another – the push-and-pull of space-time itself. We don’t need to reach the speed of light at any point; we bypass it altogether.”

“Wouldn’t something like that require a lot of energy? What do you use for fuel?”

“Well, the energy bubble around the ship uses a combination of positive and negative energy,” Korum said. “Negative energy is something that your scientists are just now beginning to explore. And yes, you’re absolutely right: warping space-time requires a tremendous amount of energy. Fortunately, we have it in abundance. We also use antimatter as a fuel source; that’s what powers our ship when we’re not in warp mode.”

Mia’s eyes widened. “Antimatter?”

“It’s the most powerful energy source there is,” Korum explained.

Mia fell silent, thinking about the magnitude of what she was about to do. Tomorrow, she would leave Earth for an as-yet-undetermined length of time, with a lover who wasn’t even human. She was entrusting the fate of her entire family into his hands.

It should’ve been a scary thought, but somehow it wasn’t. Instead she was almost giddy with excitement. How many people got a chance like that? To see a different planet, to go to Krina – the origin of all life? And meeting the Krinar Elders . . . She still couldn’t wrap her mind around that one. She, a regular human girl, would see the actual creators of mankind.

It was enough to make anybody’s head spin.

* * *

The next morning they went to Florida to pick up Mia’s family, flying in a larger transport pod Korum had created specifically for that purpose. Everyone was already gathered at Mia’s parents’ house, with their bags packed and ready. Even though Korum had explained that they didn’t need most of their things, the humans insisted on bringing their own clothing and other items they saw as necessities.

This time, Korum landed the pod on the street in front of the Stalis house. Mia had explained that her parents already told all their neighbors about the upcoming trip (though not the reason for it), and nobody would be too shocked to see an alien aircraft landing in their quiet neighborhood.