The Travelers:Prologue/Chapter One

Prologue:

It was a mission that had been in the planning for years, ever since the meteor.  The planet of Arlytia had been bumped out of its orbit from the impact.  It hadn’t gone flying into unknown space, but with each passing season it was slowly moving closer to the sun.  Temperatures were rising.  Water was disappearing.  Plants had shorter growing seasons.  And that was all in addition to the mass of land that had taken the meteor’s direct hit, which left about a tenth of Arlytia unlivable and unusable.  Eventually the planet as a whole would not support life and the Arlytians themselves would become an extinct race.

But this was a race of people not known for giving up, and ones who fought for their way of life and way of love.  Once the planet’s eventual demise was realized, the older generation began to bring up and train the younger to be their people’s hope and answer for a fruitful future. Intense teaching in farming techniques, water purification, building, and innovation were started at a young age.  Survival lessons, knowledge of the body’s physical anatomy, record-keeping, and sciences were part of their tutoring.  Along with these, an intense respect for their culture was ingrained in the children.  Stories and music and art that had been forgotten and all but lost were brought back to life in young hearts and minds.  Morals, laws, and esteem for one another were encouraged, and rebellion was dealt with—not cruelly, but quickly and as fairly as possible.

Thus, a generation was prepared from infancy to develop a new world for their parents and for their children. 

It was the best of this generation--eighty men and forty women--and all between eighteen and twenty-one, who were now only hours away from leaving their home planet for good.  They would spend several weeks braving space and all its dangers to reach Neveah, a planet that shared Arlytia’s two moons, and from the research that could be done at a distance appeared to be a promising planet for their new world.

These hundred and twenty young people would be the first to step onto Neveah’s soil, work to till the ground and tame the land, and prepare a place of safety and haven for those who would come after them.  They’d been simply nicknamed The Travelers, but their hope was that their travels would result in a new homeland.

         Scientists and astronomers who had been studying Arlytia’s changing orbit were estimating that the planet could have as few as thirty and as many as sixty years left in it to safely hold its people, so this mission had a very explicit time schedule.  The Travelers hoped to have Neveah prepared for permanent residents within five years.  If they couldn’t, then they would have to take a chance on another planet of which they didn’t have as much knowledge.  It was risky and dangerous, and everyone knew the future of a world depended on them.

Chapter 1

Among a lot of things involved in this mission, the ship that would carry the Traveler’s was a first attempt in many ways.  It was the largest space ship built to date in their world.  Previous astronomical adventures had included small crafts and no more than twelve people.  This ship would hold a hundred and twenty who would be its crew, its maintainers, its cooks, and its navigators.  It was planned and hoped that they would reach the planet Neveah in six or seven weeks’ travel, but food, water, oxygen, and fuel was available for several months.  If a crisis happened or they unwittingly went off course and surpassed that travel time, they had a window of time to return home or get back on course.  Otherwise, they had little hope of survival.

It was a beautiful ship though, a vessel that would sail the stars instead of the waves, and the interior of it provided as much comfort to its passengers as it could.  The staterooms were not overly large, but the furniture and minimal décor was made with comfort in mind.  Halls were wide enough for three to walk together, and the entire vessel was immaculate. 

Three of the ship’s passengers walked together now, two men and a woman, quietly holding hands and taking in everything until they reached the stateroom that would be theirs.  Without hesitation the taller of the men pressed a code into a small number box by their door, and the sound of the lock releasing gave them leave to enter.

It was a pleasant enough room to be sure, although quite small.  The walls were painted a soothing sage instead of a bland white or beige.  A tiny kitchenette took up one wall with a small table in a corner.  A sitting area with a loveseat, a reclining chair and a set of empty shelves filled another area.  And the rest of the space was adorned with a large bed, a nightstand on both sides, and a wardrobe.  The only other thing to be seen was a door which the three assumed led to a bath area. 

After a long and silent moment, the woman took a breath and said with a smile in her voice if not her face, “Home sweet home”.  Her words were rewarded with an appreciative smile from the shorter of the two men and an affectionate kiss on the cheek by the other along with grateful-sounding words. 

“Thank you for the reminder, Amrynn.  We’ll definitely make this a home while we’re here.”

Amrynn visibly relaxed at his words and started to carry a bag toward the bed.  “Oz, could you make us some nectar?  I could sure use some.  And Cayson, if that door leads to a bathroom, could you make sure we have the supplies we requested?”

“Sure, hon,” the men said in unison, and each one settled into tasks that somehow gave them permission to act as if moving into a space ship was a normal occurrence.

An hour later clothes and supplies were put away, belongings sorted, and the three had settled into the sitting area with cups of nectar, a hot and favored beverage for Arlytians, with fruity and earthy flavorings that helped them feel a little more at ease with its familiarity.

“Initial thoughts?” Ozias, “Oz” to those close to him, asked the other two.

Cayson, a man with an expressive face and capable of being both very stern and very playful, let his gaze deliberately roam the room.  “As long as we don’t mind living in a matchbox, it’s great.”

Oz rolled his eyes.  “Cay, let’s remember the positive side and the goal of this mission.  We can handle small living quarters for a while.  And do I need to point out that we have the largest stateroom available and no one else on board would take kindly to complaints?”

Amrynn nodded from her seat next to Cay.  “We shouldn’t complain,” she agreed, “but it only makes sense that we have the largest space.  We’re the only marrieds on board, so everyone else is bunking two per room.”  Briefly, her eyes revealed some uncertainty.  “I didn’t know until Chief Win told us yesterday that we were the only ones.”

Cayson nodded.  “I didn’t realize either, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.  We found our trio young.  Most Arlytians don’t marry until their mid-twenties or later.”

That was true.  Arlytians married in threes.  Biologically, males were the most common born babies, so the ratio of male to female was usually 2-1, although some years it grew to 3-1.  It was a natural part of their society that one woman would marry two men and that trios tended not to marry until their twenties.  

It was as natural as the culture of discipline that Arlytians lived and taught.  There wasn’t a hierarchy within a family per se, but physical and mental discipline was practiced by most trios.  It was understood that any one of the spouses could call each other to account and enforce a rule in their own way. How each trio chose to do so was mostly private and unique to their relationship, but marriages on Arlytia had a very small percentage of divorce, and the majority was happy and strong in their unity.

It was true, however, that Amrynn, Ozias, and Cayson had married young, and many had discouraged them because of their youth, but the three saw it as a natural step.  They’d grown up together in three houses side-by-side.  They’d been schooled, tutored, and trained together, attended a hard-to-get-into excellency program together, each been picked as members of the Travelers on their own merit and skills, but continued to study and train with one another.  They’d been a unit of three since childhood.  Making it official through marriage just six months earlier had been the right step for them and they didn’t regret it, but they did stand out now as the only marrieds on this mission.

“Chief Win seemed pleased by our marriage,” Oz pointed out.  He’d always been the most logical of the three, and tended to state facts and observations in a black and white way.  “He said we’d be a good example to the rest of the Travelers.  We’ll be the only marrieds they’ll have access to at this point, so we may get a lot of questions over time.  Chief Win believed it likely that several more trios would find themselves amongst the hundred and twenty once we’re on our way.”

“If they don’t kill each other first,” Cay stated with a grin.  “There are some majorly strong personalities on this ship.  I’d expect heads to butt more than love matches.”

Amrynn bumped Cay with her shoulder.  “We’ve got three major personalities in this room and we make it work.”

“And we’ve all been through team training and contention classes.  Every one of the Travelers has the good of our world as our goal, so I expect most will try to get along.  Ultimately, we will be each other’s friends and family for the next several years,” Oz stated.

It was meant to be a helpful thing to say, but it was also a sobering reminder.  With luck, they’d be seeing their parents and other blood family again in a few years, but every Traveler was also well aware that embarking on this mission could be an end.  Amrynn, Oz and Cay had said good-bye to their parents and good friends the day before, knowing it might be the last they ever saw of them, but desperately hoping that wouldn’t be the case.

*****

Amrynn reached the door to the stateroom a week later with relief.  The day had been rough and her head was pounding.  Doing no more than kicking off her shoes, she laid on the bed with a sigh. 

Less than five minutes later, Cay entered the space feeling much the same as Amrynn.  It was a toss-up whether he wanted food or sleep more, but seeing Am on the bed decided it for him.  “You’ve definitely got the right idea, babe,” he said as he crawled in next to her.  She turned as he spooned up behind her and both were sliding into a doze when the disturbance of the door opening a third time kept them from it. 

Oz entered looking peeved and seemed to barely take notice of them as he half-stomped to the mini-fridge for a bottle of water, which he downed immediately. 

“Bad day, hon?” Am’s voice asked him as he looked their way.

“Bad,” he affirmed with one word and a nod.  Then, following their example, he took a moment to peel off his shirt and slid in behind Cay.  He roughly kissed the back of Cayson’s neck and reached out to cup Amrynn’s cheek.  He frowned slightly as his fingers slid up to feel her forehead.  “Headache?”

“Yeah,” she admitted. 

Knowing her well, he sat back up with a groan and went to the kitchenette to retrieve another bottle of water and a packet of powder that he dumped in the liquid and shook until it dissolved.  He brought it back as Cay helped her sit up.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Cayson asked scoldingly as Oz handed her the water.

“Too tired,” she explained.  “I just wanted to sleep it off.”

“Which never works,” Cayson reminded her. 

Oz just stood waiting until the bottle was empty, then tossed it in the trash before resuming his place behind Cay.  “Sleep,” he said brusquely to both of them.

“What about supper?” Amrynn questioned. 

“Later,” was all Oz deemed necessary to say.  His arm was long enough to drape over both partners and they all took the hint that sleep was definitely needed above all else right now.

*****

Cayson was the first to wake.  Since space gave them no sunlight to judge time by, a look toward the room’s small window told him nothing.  He managed to twist his head enough to see the wall clock and grimaced at the fact it was approaching the ninth hour.  The lot of them had been asleep for nearly three hours, which meant sleeping through the night was now going to be difficult. 

It also meant that supper was going to be quite late.  Cay felt his stomach twisting with hunger and thanked the powers that be that the dining area was open till twelfth hour.

His next problem though was getting out of bed without disturbing his husband and wife.  Being in the middle, especially with Oz’s arm lying heavily across him, didn’t make it likely, but he’d seen how tired Oz had been when he’d gotten in, and disturbing Amrynn when she wasn’t feeling well was not something he wanted to do.  Slowly, he tried to slide to the end of the bed, but inevitably the movement was enough to wake Oz.  The bigger man shifted and started to groan until Cay quickly put a hand over his mouth. 

“You’ll wake Am,” he whispered.  Oz easily took the hint, yawned hugely but silently, and then carefully rose from the bed, allowing Cay to slide out as well.

The two men forewent any activity in the main room and moved as one to the bathroom.  They showered quickly together to save water and dried off in the small space.  Hungry and mildly concerned about Am’s headache, Cayson was drying himself distractedly until he felt the towel taken from his hand.

“We’ll be here all night if you dry any slower,” Oz said quietly and with the smile Cay had loved since he was a boy. 

Oz dried him efficiently, but not without a few kisses thrown into the chore.  Cay felt the heat of his husband’s lips marking his shoulder, his stomach and his knees before the man hung up the towel and they returned quietly to the main room to dress.

Oz moved to the kitchenette, automatically starting to make three cups of nectar while Cay sat carefully down by Amrynn.  Part of him would have liked to let her sleep, but he knew that not eating would only worsen her headache in the morning, and he wasn’t one to take any risks with her.  As the ship’s Charge Doctor—the highest medical man on board—Cay was gifted in his abilities and fervent about the safety and health of all the Travelers, but he was especially particular about keeping his own partners fit and strong.

Headaches were rather rare things among Arlytians.  Good health seemed to be gifted to them, so medical treatment tended to lean more toward injuries or maintaining fitness.  But Amrynn had suffered a severe blow to the head when she was twelve, an injury both Cayson and Oz had witnessed and still had the occasional bad dream about, and a lingering side effect of the injury was headaches that ranged from the mild to the incredibly severe. 

It was witnessing that injury to someone he loved with his whole heart that had pushed Cayson into intense medical study and earned him not only the high ranking medic status, but had also led him to knowledge of the mind and body that no Arlytian had reached prior.

Despite depth of knowledge and years of experience with Amrynn, he always found his heart pounded a little harder when a headache came onto her.  With a gentle hand he brushed long chestnut hair away from her face and let his fingers rest lightly on her overly warm brow before softly calling to her.

“Am?  Wake up, babe.”                                                                               

Her eyes blinked open and she moaned, but the sound was one of tiredness, not pain.  That relieved Cay. 

“Wakey, wakey,” he said with a smile as she focused on him.

“Nighty, nighty,” she replied somewhat contrarily as she tried to roll over and close her eyes.

“I don’t think so, babe.”  He deliberately slipped his arms around her and pulled her upright, holding her against him securely.  “We all need to eat something and I want to know when this headache started.”

She hugged him loosely, clearly still tired but waking up.  “It’s nearly gone,” she told him.

“Good, but when did it start?” he persisted.

She sighed.  “Around the third hour.”

Cay rolled his eyes.  “Do you know what started it?  Why didn’t you call me?  You know I want you to call me anytime a headache starts.”

“It’s not always convenient, Cay!” she argued, and the tone told Cay that while her statement was true, this time convenience wasn’t the problem.

“What were you doing?”

She offered no answer, not in word or body language.  Cay and Oz both knew the signs.  Amrynn could not outrightly lie to them, but she didn’t have as many qualms about withholding information or conveniently “forgetting” when she didn’t want to share something.

Cay quickly turned his mind to those things that would classically bring Amrynn to silence if she thought she’d get in trouble.  “Were you feeling sick this morning?”

“No,” she murmured.

“Did you sleep badly last night?”

“No.”

“Did you have enough at mid-meal?”

Silence.  Bingo.

“Amrynn!” he said not loudly but forcefully.  “Did you eat anything for mid-meal?”

“I was called away to fix a purifier, Cay!  The air and water quality in half the staterooms would have reached dangerous levels if I didn’t!”

He shook his head.  “Then you take something with you or eat as soon as you’re done fixing the purifier.  You know that, Am!  Missing meals weakens your blood levels and always…always…brings on a headache.  It’s an unnecessary risk!”

“I’m not going to die from a headache!” she argued.

Cay sucked in a gasp, and Oz didn’t react quietly either.  “Am!” he said sharply, although up to this point he’d been quiet and letting the two of them handle things.  Amrynn looked mildly shocked herself, but she still held her ground.

“Well, I’m not,” she insisted.

“Am, baby,” Cayson said in a voice that was now strained.  “Oz and I will never forget the injury you took seven years ago.  We nearly lost you then, and every headache you get reminds us of that close call.  It also reveals that there is residual injury that very well might develop into something life-threatening.  It may be unlikely, but it’s not unheard of, and we aren’t willing to risk it if we can help things.”  He cupped her face in both hands.  “If you get a headache, you tell me.  If I’m not available, you tell Oz.  You do not skip meals or let yourself get dehydrated.  You don’t take unnecessary risks.  We’ve been through this before and it’s even more important now that we’re moving to a planet we are unfamiliar with.  Got it?”

Her head nodded in his hands.  “Got it,” she agreed.

He leaned in to kiss her, and when he pulled away Oz was there to dip his head down and claim her as well.  “If it happens again, you’ll have both of us coming down on you,” Oz said with certainty.

Amrynn sighed but nodded.  “I know.”

“Good,” Cay stated.  “Because I’m going to show you that you really don’t want both of us to deal with; but first we all need to get some dinner.”

“I’ll say,” Oz agreed, his stomach rumbling loudly after his statement.  The noise brought chuckles from both spouses, and Amrynn’s chuckle got louder when Cayson’s belly gave a loud rumble as well. 

They made their way to the dining area and tucked themselves away in a booth.  At this time of the evening there was no more than a half dozen other people in the room, but the three of them appreciated the quiet around them.  They shared the difficulties of the day as they ate: Amrynn’s purifier that needed fixed; Cayson’s frustration over the results of some tests he was doing in the lab; and Oz’s annoyance with a fellow Traveler who knew Oz was the Charge Agriculturalist on the ship, but balked against Oz’s directives.

When the meal was done, Oz was the first to rise, and his eyes were knowing even if his words didn’t reveal much.  “I left a report I need to pass along to Pilot Sabik in the Agriculture center.  I’ll meet you back at the room in a bit.”

It was his way of giving Cay and Amrynn some privacy.  Back on Arlytia, their home had a small room in which discipline was handled.  It didn’t hide the sound of the happenings, but it gave visual privacy to the participants.  Their stateroom on the ship didn’t have that option, but Oz was doing his best to offer it by not being there when he knew he wasn’t needed.  The walk to the Ag center and back to their room would easily take up a half hour, hopefully enough time to have the main event dealt with.

Cay and Amrynn were kissed good-bye, and then the two of them made the short walk back to their quarters.  Amrynn sighed when the door closed behind them.

“Cay, I…”  She couldn’t bring her face to look at him until his fingers tipped her chin up. Her eyes looked wetly bright, but not ready to spill over.  “I get scared too,” she admitted quietly.  “Sometimes I convince myself that if I don’t acknowledge the headache, that it’s all alright.”

Cay nodded in understanding.  “It’s easy to convince ourselves like that, but I want you to tell me no matter what.  I love that my medical skills can be helpful to others on this new world we’re seeking out, but the whole reason I’ve studied so hard and learned all I could is because I want to do everything I can to keep you and Oz at my side forever.”  He kissed the tip of her nose.  “Someday I hope to cure these headaches of yours and remove the risk they pose, but I can only do that if you keep me informed.”

“I’ll try,” Am promised.

“You’ll do,” Cayson corrected, “because you’ll remember that I’ll wear your sit-upon out every time you don’t.”

He brought her over to the bed and easily removed her pants before turning her over his lap.  “You know what’s expected of you just as I know what’s expected of me, right?”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“Am I being unfair?”

“No,” she said even quieter.

He nodded once, although she couldn’t see it, before raising his hand and bringing it down sharply.  If Oz had handled it, it was very possible that he’d have used their board.  Oz tended to be a bit more severe in his corporal discipline, but he used physical punishment less than Cay.  Cay tended to believe that a quick and painful lesson was better than other methods that to him dragged things out.  He smacked Amrynn’s bottom until it was thoroughly red and she was crying into the blankets.  A final smack to each thigh ended the punishment and Cay stood Am up in front of him.  She wiped at her eyes as he removed the rest of her clothes and settled her under the covers.  Then he undressed down to his underclothes and crawled in next to her, pulling her against him just as Oz returned to their room.

Oz’s face initially appeared neutral as he entered, but Cay caught on to the concern in his husband’s eyes as Amrynn’s quiet cries reached his ears.  Silently he undressed completely, shut out the lights and entered the bed on Am’s other side. 

Cay felt Oz’s arm slip around their wife’s waist and saw his shadowed figure kiss her cheek.  He didn’t say anything, but his silence held an understanding that was comforting to both of them.