Joining of Benji Burkhard Singh and Stella Roth Kane
Mir, Year 14, Month 8, Day 4
On
behalf of our mothers Lois and Ann,
“I don’t know how I do this without your mother,” a tearful, hand-wringing Ari Singh told Benji, and consequently, all of them—Harry and Maeve Kane, Mark Roth, Ari, Stella, Benji, and Benji’s younger, but married brother, Pradat. They sat among the finishing touches on construction of Rama’s first large community center built on their new world of Mir. Stella and Benji were one of a dozen young people officially joining in Year of Arrival 14.
Stella was exasperated but also sensitive to her future father-in-law’s
plight. Not knowing what had happened to his wife, Lois Burkhard, former
administrator of the Colorado Program colony, since they’d come through the
travel stream from Gateway on Earth’s moon had kept him in a stasis of
unknowing. He’d have completely unraveled if it hadn’t been for Benji and
Pradat, as well as Maeve and Harry keeping him glued. Benji had grown up extra
fast, as had Stella, who’d lost her own birth mother Ann during travel stream
trials.
Stella and Benji were both past twenty, the Mirran age of consent, a
couple of years into their respective medical training. And still way too…not
ready. Stella had called off their engagement twice, even though they’d known back
on Earth at age five and eight that they were soulmates.
“My Lois was so gifted at…at everything. How can you bear it?” Ari asked
Mark.
Stella searched Maeve’s face for calmness and reassurance whenever Ari
started his meltdowns. Lois had been one of hundreds who had never emerged from
the travel stream platform near Mars after Earthers had taken the last rocket
ship from Earth to the moon. Gateway residents had been forced much too soon to
evacuate by way of the extraterrestrial-built travel stream which had not yet
been fully tested for humans.
Maeve offered a sympathetic moue and focused on Mark.
Stella understood Ari and Benji’s grief though she’d only known Lois from
a distance. While they were pretty sure Lois had died defending the remaining
fleeing colonists, Ann was just…lost. Different
circumstances; different sorrow.
There’d been so many other losses while humans tried to adapt to the
world of Mir, a gift from the inhabitants. The last of their kind, the
Ceticians, had been searching for a new homeworld of their own since their
planet had succumbed to war and ruin. The Ceticians, named for their home
planet tau Ceti Epsilon minor, had built the travel stream as they’d journeyed
thousands of years in real time, regenerating on the way. In the Sol system,
they’d noticed her adopted dad, Harry Kane, testing a rocket outside of Earth’s
orbit.
Now on Mir for nearly fifteen years, humans were struggling to adapt to a
planet with a slightly different composition of atmosphere, less natural light,
and native flora and fauna that didn’t seem to appreciate being disturbed.
While Benji had become a physician, Stella gone become a genethicist, trained in
counseling humans who were considering resequencing parts of their DNA to develop
lungs and eyes to filter the grit and breathe the thicker air.
Many human newborns had died when exposed to the Mirran atmosphere.
Verdun, one of the Ceticians, taught them how to make simple fixes in their
genes to help them adapt. Some families had created medical bubbles for their
babies, while others agreed to allow Verdun and Maeve, trained in the Cetician
genetic engineering technique, to help them survive. Soon it was not just
infants lining up for adaptation. The engineering was not perfect—Yet, Stella
always added; but neither was life in general. Many of Stella and Benji’s
classmates had only one parent or large gaps in the line of siblings.
Stella, in her field, and Benji in his, had witnessed too many agonizing
losses. Stella couldn’t bear the thought of losing another person she loved.
What if she married Benji and he died? What if she married him and had a couple
of kids, and he died? Or they died? Stella had said no to joining when he first
started hinting about their future. He’d been nineteen to her sixteen.
Little by little she succumbed to Benji’s wooing. He’d been persistent,
neither angry nor frustrating, just bent on waiting. When, at nineteen, she
finally accepted his proposal, she said no way to kids. Certainly not before
she perfected genetic manipulation. Absolutely not while they worked around the
pain factor. Not if it took years. But Verdun’s case gradually changed her
heart. Too damaged by regeneration and radiation and without enough biomatter
to create new offspring with her mate Tarlig, Verdun had quietly suffered while
her reproductive system was triggered over and over without results, draining
her lifebreath. Stella understood the need to keep humanity from fading away, like
the Ceticians. Not being able to produce offspring meant the extinction of
their kind.
Not all humans wanted to be engineered. But everyone needed to do their
part to keep making babies so that Benji could repair them and Stella could
help them not need repair. Benji wanted lots of kids. Stella was still thinking
about it. What if they had kids who ended up being the last of their kind?
Benji, sitting next to Stella, grabbed her hand, bringing her back to the
moment. He squeezed and leaned to whisper, “Can you believe it? My father wants
elephants.”
Stella realized she had tuned out of the conversation, and Benji had
realized it. “Wait…what? There are no elephants. We didn’t bring any of their
genome, and there’s nothing like them here on Mir. But why would anyone want an
elephant for a wedding?”
“It’s an Earth tradition, in India, where he was…well, long ago, anyway.”
Ari had been born in the Program, the generational experiment that
secreted away thousands of people around the world to prepare for life on a
planet that wasn’t Earth. Ari’s Program was in Beshawar, India, one of Earth’s
countries, one of five highly classified such projects located in Chile,
Russia, the US, India, and the far side of Earth’s moon.. But India had been
responsible for starting the events that led to the final war. Ari’s
first marriage had produced a daughter who sent her young son, Rahm, to the
Colorado Compound when India began threatening Pakistan. On Mir, Ari never
recovered from the grief of losing Lois. Pradat, at twenty, had simply taken
Mari as his wife, and told the family afterward.
“Dad didn’t have them at his own wedding,” Benji whispered while their
parents continued to talk. “Nor did his parents.”
Obviously, Stella thought. “Yeah, neither did Pradat.”
“Pradat is not the eldest son,” Benji intoned.
“I see.” Benji’s grandfather would have been first in their generation to
go into the caves. “Why have them at all?”
“Well, the way I understand it…”
Ari took over at this point, finally catching on that Benji and Stella
were not paying attention to him. “The elephant is embodiment of Ganesh, the
deity of good luck,” Ari said earnestly. “The groom arrives to the place of
ceremony riding on an elephant—”
“It doesn’t have to be an elephant, Dad,” Pradat said. “A hover car is
fine.”
Ari’s expression, a mixture of horror and sorrow, surprised Stella. Amid
all of his other losses, how could he be so emotional over something he’d never
had?
Maeve reached out to pat Ari’s arm. “Go on, Ari, tell us more. We
shouldn’t lose our traditions from Earth even when we’re forging a new life
here on Mir.”
Thankful, Stella exchanged fond glances with her adoptive mom. When the
discussion was well under way between the parents, she whispered to Benji,
“What do you want?”
Benji’s usual serious face creased with a conspiratorial grin. “I just
want to be your legal partner.”
“Husband,” Stella mouthed, using the traditional Earth word. The
Ceticians called joined mates espoused ones in their quirky multi-sensory
language. If Stella had to use words to describe how “espoused” felt, it would
be something like the scent of old tea roses her mother had at their Madison
house, Earth sun-warm, with a soothing caress against her cheek and a tingly
sound, not exactly like a wind chime but very pleasant. Everyone she asked to
describe the sensation had a similar reaction.
“Wife,” Benji responded, and leaned over to kiss her, long and deep.
They ignored Pradat’s whoop, Harry’s throat-clearing, and Ari’s hiss.
This was the first moment Stella thought for sure, she would join with
Benji and see what happened after that.
***
Because the colonists in the Indian and Russian Programs had not come to
Mir (long story), the only culturally ethnic Indians were those who’d married
or were training or visiting the other compounds when the order came to
evacuate Earth. There were few. Ari had lost so much that Benji and Pradat
wanted to honor their heritage. Stella appreciated their wishes. She just
wasn’t sure that so much of the precious limited resources of Mir should be
wasted—used—for one single event. It didn’t seem right. Her birth father, Mark
Roth, was sympathetic. Stella’s adoptive parents were cautiously neutral about
Ari’s dream of a huge traditional wedding. Indian marriages were not just an
hour ceremony and dinner afterward, but a week long…ordeal…in Stella’s mind.
Most of her friends who were joining this year had already set up a home
together and only wanted the certificate. Two others were having a formal
celebration at their family dwelling, to which Benji and Stella had been
invited, and only one couple wanted a party to rival Ari. Stella wasn’t close
with Casey Huber, daughter of Jan from Adaptive tech. Jan was a Preserver and
wanted humans to stay as pure genetically as possible and terraform Mir. She
and Casey’s dad were trying to get support for building a dome, but there was
barely enough people power to develop the manufacturing base for their basic
necessities now. Which added to Stella’s uncertainty about such a big party.
Stella lived most of the time at home with Maeve and Harry and her six
siblings, who were actually second cousins. Gwen was a teenager, then Jewel,
Alice Ann, Tony Ray, and Peter, the last four born in the fourteen years since
First Landing. Gwen had already declared herself Stella’s maid of honor, and
paired herself with Benji’s nephew Rahm. Rahm had begun his medical practice;
like Benji, one of the youngest of their generation to do so. Pradat had
shrugged off his chance to be best man. Rahm laughed. And took another look at
Gwen.
After Stella and Maeve had a quick breakfast of flatbread
with pungent orangish jam and the warm sallis-root beverage Maeve declared
“close-to-coffee,” they walked together along the rocky street to the medical
complex where they both worked.
“You ready for another bonding session over the wedding?”
Maeve asked with a smile as they entered the airy atrium.
“Yeah, sure,” Stella muttered. “If Pradat’s making the food
this time, I can say sure, fine to anything Ari wants.”
“Ari is a nice man,” Maeve said.
“I know. He has nice sons.” Stella paused at the desk to
sign in and greet May, the receptionist.
“May.” Maeve nodded and led the way to the genetics lab.
“Ari’s done a fine job with the boys. He was so lost when Lois didn’t show.”
“Yeah, sure, fine. You and Dad picked him up, which led to
Benji and me getting closer than ever…ew. On second thought, marrying Benji is
almost like—”
“Nope.” Maeve waved her oft-employed forefinger at Stella.
“No more excuses. We all have—”
“A duty to the colony. Yep, got it.” Stella rolled her eyes
under the safety of goggles and lab coat. “I look forward to another planning
session at Pradat and Mari’s after work. I just hope she’s up to it, with the
baby and all.”
***
Stella picked at the long grains that took the place of rice back,
blended with the sweet peppery flavor of what Pradat claimed was “just like” curry.
A fowl provided chunks of meat, and the odd teal peas they grew in the gritty
soil melded in the pot from which they all dipped with a similar flatbread
she’d had at breakfast.
Yeast had suffered in transition to Mir, a world with a dryer, cooler
atmosphere than Earth. The agronomists continued to work on— “Sorry, what?”
Stella felt her face warm when she realized she’d been asked a question. Why
was she thinking about food instead of the wedding?
Pradat grinned. “You seem to like my version of curry.”
“You’ll have to share the recipe.” Stella saluted him with a scoop of her
bread.
“I’ll make it a wedding gift.” He winked, then turned his handsome face
to talk to his wife Mari, who was expecting a baby any minute and content to be
off her feet. Mari had told Stella earlier she was so glad to have eloped and delighted
to let Stella have all the attention. Benji’s cheeks were less round than those
of his brother, his dark hair wiry, his sloe eyes with lashes much too long
that made Stella catch her breath when she dwelled too long, dreaming of waking
up to this wonderful man every morning.
“Since we’re no longer living in the caves,” Ari said, “we can go back to
tradition. We have more to celebrate.”
“Dad, it’s only been a few years since the caves. We’re in better shape,
but, seriously, no elephants,” Benji said.
“What about those—”
“No,” Rahm cut in. “We’re not trying to lasso and tame a snuffler.”
Stella laughed inwardly at the thought of Benji trying to ride one of the
larger beasts on Mir, something that resembled what on Earth would have been a
cross between an overgrown anteater and groundhog. “I don’t think they’d like
that,” she said with a giggle snort.
“Can’t you fix them, Stella?” Ari asked earnestly. “Tweak one or two
somewhere in their genes, make them tame? Maeve? Or can we ask Verdun?”
Stella bit her lips and refused to look at Maeve, too afraid of bursting
out in laughter and hurting poor Ari’s feelings. Never, ever use DNA snipping
just because we can, had been Verdun and Tarlig’s most sacred directives when
they taught humans their techniques for adaptive genetic manipulation.
“We have to make our own new traditions, Grandfather,” Rahm said,
furtively glancing at Gwen, who preened and glowed.
Stella changed the subject quickly when she noticed Maeve frowning at
Rahm. “How many weddings have there been now? And in of our three colonies?”
“I think we’ve had more in Shaanti than Paz,” Harry offered.
Ari ignored them. “But how will Benji make his grand entrance? If there’s
no elephant.”
“Dad, let me and Rahm work it out,” Pradat said. He leaned over and
clasped his father’s shoulders briefly, then began clearing the table.
“So.” Harry clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Maybe we should
set a date?”
“You just want the extra room when I move out,” Stella teased. She was
startled when she felt Maeve’s hand around her wrist.
“Oh, no.” Maeve’s eyes were damp and Stella wrinkled her brow.
“Mo—”
“In fact, Harry and I were talking. We’d love it if you and Benji stayed
with us, at least—”
“We are grateful,” Benji cut in quickly. He gently slipped his hand
across Stella’s shoulders and pulled her closer. “We have a whole apartment at
the lodge spoken for. Since so many families are able to build a home, there’s
lots of room at the inn.”
Stella beamed up at him. The lodge was the apartment complex built as
soon as the defense system that repelled large debris matter away from the
surface had been reestablished with the help of the Ceticians. Once it was
safer to live in the open, the settlements began to look more like busy
communities. Until the factions began to heat. Stella leaned in to Benji. He
tightened his arm. Soon they’d undergo the procedure to embed a specially grown
group of nerve fibers in the bundle of axons that connects the Wernicke’s and
Broca’s areas in their brains. The procedure would allow them to develop the
special bespeaking ability of native Ceticians. From the Arcuate fasciculus of
the human brain, impulses would trigger nerves in a separate layer of their skin,
allowing them to bespeak in the form of sensory experiences accompanying
familiar words. They both had already undergone adaptive genetic manipulation that
allowed their lungs to filter the grit and grow thicker lenses in their eyes
and wider apertures to allow clearer sight in the dimness of tau Ceti’s light.
They no longer needed protective gear outside.
Stella tuned back in to Ari, who’d begun to wring his hands. “At least
you have to pick an auspicious date!” His voice grew ragged with his agitation.
She reached over to gently pat his hands. “Of course we can try that. Tell us
what you have in mind.”
He took a deep breath and nodded. Swallowing heavily, he stared blankly
at the slice of berried cake Rahm set in front of him. “When following the
Hindu calendar, we must seek out a shubh muhurat, or a
favorable date when nature and the cosmos align.”
“Dad, in case you forgot, we’re not on Earth,” Pradat said impatiently.
“The cosmos isn’t anything like what you knew. And there are no seasons here on
Mir’s equator. We can’t follow that.”
“Oh.” Ari bent his head and rocked a few times.
“Well, like Rahm said, we can make new traditions,” Stella said. “Ari,
explain how it worked on Earth. We can figure something out. I know we can.”
Benji nuzzled her temple and whispered, “Thank you. I love you.”
“With no pandit, I must be the one to choose. Luckily I have
training in numerology. Let’s see…” Ari rose and began to pace, holding his
hands behind his back.
“There he goes!” Pradat said and shook his head. He began to ferry used
dishes to the kitchen.
“Pandit?” Stella mouthed.
“Priest,” Benji said quietly.
Ari rambled out loud while the
others just watched, transfixed. “Mir orbits tau Ceti at 382-day, 22-hour
cycles. Each year has 14 months. Ten months have 27 days and four months have
28 days.” Ari made another circuit.
“We can do something with that,”
Rahm said, raising a brow to make Gwen giggle. “I’ll help you later at home.”
Ari continued to mutter. “Miran
year has 8404 hours…”
Stell turned her face against
Benji’s cheek and whispered, “How much trouble is this going to be?”
Benji was spasming with inhaled
laughter.
Ari held up his finger and whirled
to face them. His face lit with joy. “Aha! Eighth month, fourth day, when the
two moons Infinity and Condor make their lightning show! Stella was born in a
second month and Benji in an eighth. Yes, yes!”
“But, Dad,” Benji said, completely
devoid of laughter now. “That’s in six days.” He turned toward Harry and Maeve.
“I don’t think—”
“If we need to,” Maeve said at the
same time, looked at each other and went silent.
Ari came to take Stella by the hands and draw her to her feet, intent on
his mission to put on a perfect wedding. “True. Little time left. Now, Stella, love,
we must make some concessions with the wedding week.”
Stella looked back as Ari pulled her away from Benji. “Ah, yes, Harry,
Maeve. The traditional welcoming ceremony—”
“Dad,” Pradat said loudly. “Let’s consider this the welcoming, the
pre-wedding party. We all know each other so well. We had as traditional food
as we can get. It’s what we know.”
Ari wrinkled his brow and swayed his and Stella’s held hands as he
thought. Stella watched the man’s face for a hint of what he might decide. To
him, this was serious business. Finally, he said, “Do you have the rings, my
son?”
To Stella’s surprise, Benji said softly, “Yes.”
“We can make this our mangni, the engagement party.”
Benji’s eyes shone. He got up and reached in his pocket. He beckoned to
Pradat who pulled his wife Mari to her feet, Rahm, and Gwen to come close. Ari
dropped Stella’s hands and went to stand with Harry and Maeve.
“What do I do?” Stella whispered.
“Don’t run,” Rahm said.
“Run screaming now or forever hold your peace,” Mari joked.
“Stella, will you promise to marry me and wear this ring?” Benji said,
his gaze holding hers.
“Y-yes,” Stella said.
Benji reached for her hand and slipped on a circlet of titanium. Other
metals rusted in Mir’s chlorinated atmosphere.
Gwen took the larger ring Benji held out and handed it to Stella. Gwen
was silent for once, apparently taking mental notes while stealing glances at
Rahm.
“Benji, will you promise to marry me and wear this ring?” Stella asked,
copying Benji, unsure if she was supposed to come up with something unique and
praying she wasn’t breaking some serious wedding taboo. It didn’t seem so when
Benji held out his fingers toward her, rock steady, while she trembled. She
slipped the band onto his fourth finger. The parents began to clap.
Ari held up his arms for quiet and bowed toward Maeve and Harry. “Now you say you will accept Benji.”
Harry startled. “Of course we do.”
“We always have,” Maeve added.
Rahm and Pradat and Benji took up the rhythm with Gwen pitching in, and
even Mari. They began a rollicking dance step.
An evening of promises and stories, more dancing, and planning passed
quickly.
“You see?” Ari said as they took his leave. “I can be flexible. We held
three ceremonies in one tonight.” He closed his eyes. “Without my beloved
Lois.” He cleared his throat. “Now we just have to arrange the haldi,
the mehendi, and the sangeet.”
“No sangeet, Dad,” Benji said quickly. “No more big parties. It’s
not a good use of our resources or fair to the others. This is enough. The
ceremony and reception are enough.”
“The mehendi? For cleansing the haldi, and henna for good
luck?” Ari was pleading.
“Good night, all,” Mari, hand on her back, said and closed the door.
Rahm responded as they walked toward their abodes, within a few blocks of
each other. “Well, without turmeric we can’t hold the haldi.”
Gwen took Rahm’s arm.
Maeve opened her mouth, but Stella held her back. “Mom.”
Maeve twitched her lips and stood down. “I’m sorry Mark couldn’t be here
with you tonight,” she said quietly. “I know he loves Benji and is looking
forward to this next step in your life.”
“He called earlier. We all have our duty,” she said to Maeve with a grin.
“His right now is colony administrator.”
“I think that’s one of the reasons Ari wants such a big ceremony,” Maeve
said.
Stella watched Benji and Rahm walk with Ari and Henry and Gwen ahead of
them. They were still discussing whether they could find some golden spice to
smear all over them the day before the wedding. “I don’t think I want to be
smeared with yellow paste,” Stella confided.
Gwen lagged to walk with them again. “The henna art on your hands sounds
interesting, though. I’m up for that,” Stella’s younger sister said.
“That’s the mehendi?” Maeve said. “I was trying to keep up.”
“The hand art, painted on with henna?” Stella mused. “I remember seeing
pictures of it in school, but I didn’t really pay attention to what it was
about.”
“For good luck. And it’s beautiful,” Gwen said.
“It must wash off, though, right? I don’t recall it being like a tattoo,”
Maeve said.
“It stays on with heat,” Gwen said. “Mari told me.”
“We don’t have henna here, either.” Stella wanted to allow Ari some of
the traditions. Maybe someone in the Adaptive tech department could help find a
substitute for henna.
“Then there’s the clothes,” Gwen was saying when Stella came out of her
“note-to-self” muse.
“What clothes?”
“I thought it was all saris,” Maeve said. “That should be easy enough. We
don’t have time for anything else.”
Even Stella could hear Gwen’s pout in the near dark. “There’s supposed to
be lots of changes.”
Stella took her sister’s arm as they continued to plod toward the home
Stella was soon to leave. Just a week! “Let’s talk to Becky and see what we can
do, okay?”
“Maybe you should take the week off,” Maeve said. “We don’t have any
serious lab trials coming up.”
“I don’t know…”
“C’mon, sis, it’ll be fun!” Gwen said.
“Aw!”
“Maybe Friday,” Maeve amended.
Stella smiled at their banter. It hadn’t been that long ago Maeve had to
say similar words to her teenaged self.
“Half the week!”
“We won’t be ready for fittings before then, anyway,” Stella said. “If we
need them.”
“Lots of red!” Gwen told her. “Rahm said everyone wears lots of red.”
They’d reached Ari’s home where he stopped and bid them good night, still
muttering about elephants.
Rahm poked Benji. “I have an idea!”
Stella groaned.
“Thank you,” Benji said quietly and kissed her, caressing her hair. “I’ll
talk to you tomorrow.”
Stella watched Benji and Rahm head off to their rooms at the lodge, where
next week—next week!—she and Benji would live in one of the bigger
apartments. She tapped Gwen’s lower jaw to close her mouth while their mom
shook her head.
***
On the second day of the week, Benji rushed along the medical complex
corridor to stop near Stella, who stood watching through a window into the
neonatal unit. Pradat and Mari’s newborn son struggled to breathe and writhed
in an incubator fit with filters and light. While born a healthy size, his
little lungs had not developed enough cilia to filer the atmospheric grit at
first exposure. Verdun and Maeve had begun the genetic tweaks that would hurry
the growth and thickness of the cilia in his little lungs, but in the meantime
the little one was uncomfortable, and not completely out of the woods.
“I can’t do that, Benji,” Stella said softly. She folded her arms and
allowed anger to steam any tears before they could form. “I’m sorry. I
thought…I don’t know what I thought. But I can’t. I don’t think this will
work.” She looked at the ring on her finger that felt heavier the longer Benji
was silent. When she glanced at him, he was staring at his nephew and Verdun,
the Cetician female with feathery hair and a delicate touch, who was humming
and stroking the tiny child to calm him. She felt Benji’s sigh. He shifted on
his feet, then stepped behind Stella and reached in front of her to clasp her
hand in his. Their rings clacked together, Benji leaned down to rest his chin
on her head.
“When I finally accepted that my mom was gone, I wondered how my dad
could stand it, not having her to tell him to pick up his shoes or brush his
hair, or come to dinner.” His hold tightened gently. “When I lost my first
patient, the third, the sixth, I wondered what was happening, what I was doing
wrong.”
Stella started to twist, to tell him that of course it wasn’t his fault,
but Benji squeezed their hands to stop her. “When Mir seemed to fight us by
making the water saline, or spewing more volcanic ash, and rattling us with
mirquakes, I wondered if this was really the right planet for us. When the
people who didn’t want to change anything about themselves or their lifestyles
began to separate from the rest of us, the Survivors,” he said bitterly, “I
wondered why—why had they even left Earth if they didn’t want to believe we
could change and live a better life than the war and pollution that ruined our
homeworld.”
Difficult as it was, she stayed quiet.
He held her closer, wrapping himself around her. “I love you. I know what
you, your mom, Verdun, and the others are capable of…of what we’re going to do
to make sure we live well on this planet. That we adapt. That we stay strong
and healthy. I believe humanity wants to survive, even if I have doubts.” He
twisted their fingers together to show the rings side-by-side. “The one thing I
don’t doubt is you and me together. We’re going into this with open eyes and
probably too much knowledge of what can go wrong.” He gently unwound and turned
her to face him.
Stella his tear and tracked it with her finger, hoping he couldn’t hear
the pounding of her heart.
“But there’s a lot to go right, too. I will never force you into carrying
a child when you’re not ready, but I can’t bear the idea—the reality—of not
having you by my side, to share our love and breakfast, our highs and lows, our
days and nights. Please don’t leave me.”
Stella bowed her forehead against his and let her own tears fall. So many
words passed through her mind. The only one that came out was a garbled “okay.”
***
The day before the wedding Stella and Gwen, Mari, who’d brought the
recovering baby Reuben along in a basket, Maeve, and the Ceticians Verdun, Vel,
and Paran sat in a loose circle as June Brenner, a young woman artist in Pax,
showed them how to create templates of intricate designs from old drawings
she’d found in a database. While no one could duplicate henna, June had found a
native root similar to the sallis they used as ersatz coffee, which she burned
and ground into a reddish paste used as dye.
“Good luck, huh?” June said while brushing on the color to the back of
Stella’s right hand. “You and Benji don’t need luck. You’ve got everything you
need with each other.”
“Thank you, June,” Stella said. “I keep needing to hear that, even though
I know it’s true. Thank you for doing this for us.”
June laughed. “Painting people is different from painting on
people. This is kind of fun. I wonder if there are others who want to do this?”
“I’ll talk it up!” Stella told her. “And we’ll all be on display
tomorrow.”
***
Tomorrow finally arrived. Stella had agreed to one other outfit to change
into for the reception, besides the beautiful reddish sari Becky Collins and
her team had made. Stella still felt terrible about taking Becky’s time away
from her other projects, but Becky had welcomed the challenge and even declared
that making saris for future clothing options was a bonus, and much easier than
the typical outfits and fabrics they were experimenting with. Their main fabric
was made with a native palm-like fiber that seemed to hold up well. The silkier
material Becky used for the sari and veils was from a type of water plant Vel
had recalled from eons earlier that their progenitors used for soft durable
fabric.
Stella smoothed her hand along the front of her gown as she nervously
tried to recall all of the parts of the ceremony today. While Ari continued to
impress himself with his ability to be “flexible,” that flexibility really
meant mashing all of the typical ceremonies into one after the other instead of
over days.
Maeve held up her veil. “Ready for this?” she said in a voice of outward
calm.
“Oh boy.” Stella gulped and rubbed her shiny ring. “Funny how we exchange
flower wreaths instead of rings today, huh?”
Maeve smiled. “Funny.”
Stella bobbed. “Okay. Put in on.”
Gwen arrived and took one side. Together they settled the fabric around
her head. Gwen pinned it in place. “Benji’s dad sent more necklaces and
bracelets,” she said. “Can I wear this one?” Gwen pointed to a delicate string
of clear, red, and gold glass beads.
“Sure.” Stella felt the sides of the veil. “How do I look?”
“Perfect.” Maeve sniffed.
“Just wait until you see Benji!” Gwen giggled.
“Shh! Don’t tell,” Stella said.
“Ooh! I hear them coming. Music. Do you hear it?” Gwen tiptoed to the
door of a side room lining an echoing hall. They walked together toward the
unfinished open-air bowl of the community room, yet to be roofed. Chairs lined
aisles that would someday be stepped rows of seating.
“Oh, Mom, how beautiful! That’s the, the…what? is it called? The canopy?”
Stella whispered.
“You don’t need to whisper,” Maeve said in a normal voice. “The mandap
puja.”
“This part normally takes forever, Rahm said.” Gwen huddled closer.
“Remember, no one’s supposed to see you yet, Stell. Better go back.”
“I want to see what they came up with for Benji,” Stella said.
“It’s supposed to just be the bride’s family to welcome Benji,”
Gwen said in a singsong.
“Then you put the dot on Benji’s forehead and come and get me,” Stella said,
fretting that she’d forget the order. “Then I arrive in all my glory.” She
gestured at herself.
“Then you exchange—”
“Quick!” Maeve admonished Gwen and Stella. “Go, quick. Here he comes.”
Before Gwen hustled her back down the hall, Stella had a glimpse of her
beloved atop a high wagon seat. Beneath him was a mound of gray, with something
like a huge gray hose lifted in front…an elephant’s trunk! Gray covered circles
of flapping fabric fluttered on each side of Benji. The elephant’s big ears,
Stella mused, as he rode into the community area.
“He’s wearing white?” Stella asked her sister. “And I wear red. This is so different than American weddings.”
“You’re not kidding. That was Rahm, driving, by the way. I got to help
paint the cart. We used old pictures of elephants. They were big critters.”
Stella heard music and bells, cheering. The invitation had gone out to
the general public. Since her birth father Mark was the current colony
administrator, it seemed only right to include anyone who wanted to come to
avoid showing any type of favoritism. The reception afterward would be more of
an open house with nibbles and food and drink they gathered without over
burdening any food distributer. Ari had been working with all of his friends
and contacts, baking for the last days, even as Pradat and Mari had been
welcoming their son. Stella wondered if Ari still thought the date was as
auspicious now as he’d believed six days earlier.
“How long do we wait here?” Stella paced, nerves pulsing and slightly
jealous not to be there when Benji got there. “How many people do you think are
here?”
“Calm down, sis.” Gwen had the biggest smile. “I can’t wait until it’s my
turn!”
“It’ll be a while,” Stella said.
“Mom and Dad and Mark are here.” Gwen scurried to meet them while Stella
felt rooted to the floor.
Maeve and Harry hung back while Mark approached her alone. He inhaled
deeply before leaning forward to kiss her forehead. “My Stella-bella. You are
so lovely. Mom would be so proud.”
Stella hugged him for a moment. “Yes, she would. Love you, Dad.”
“I love you too. Let’s go!”
Harry and Maeve took up positions all around, with Maeve squeezing
Stella’s arm. “You are so beautiful.”
“Thanks,” Stella whispered as they arrived at the mandap, the
small canopy decorated with flowering plants of Mir, and little twinkle lights.
Benji stood, waiting, his pale creamy white shirt and loose pants making him
look thinner than ever, though his smile seemed to fill his face. Joy radiated
from every pore to reach out and envelop her.
“Let’s?” he asked.
“Let’s,” she agreed.
***
After the exchange of flower
garlands, the ritual seven steps, the ritual handing over of Stella’s dads Mark
and Harry placing her hands in Benji’s hands, after the changing of outfits to
a pretty pantsuit and a quick private kiss, after two hours of mingling and
nibbling, laughing, dancing…after all of the frenzy of the day, Benji took her
home, picked her up, and carried over the threshold. They closed the door.
***
Eleven
years later, Stella thought back to the day when their biggest problem was
coming up with an elephant for Benji to ride to their wedding; a symbol of good
luck. She listened to four of her five children playing in the sparse yard of
their own beautiful home on Mir, Peace, and cuddled her newborn, Indira, named
for Ari’s grandmother. Pride and joy filled her at the rightness of choosing to
unite with Benji and choosing to bring these children into a world filled with
so much hope and love. She had everyone and everything she needed. Hard as it
had been at losing her mother, Ann, Benji’s mom, Lois, and her special friend
Roarke, her family was proof that in the twenty-five years since humans arrived
to colonize Mir, they had prospered even if they didn’t all agree about how to
move forward. Perhaps she could stop worrying about losing them and look to a
future where humanity did more than survive. Humanity would thrive. It was very
good indeed to be at home on this brave new world and she had a part to play.
***
© by Lisa J Lickel December 1, 2018, 2025
Fox Ridge Publications
Inspirational short fiction collection
The Michels Girls, Ann Michels Roth, Rachel Michels Friedemann, Maeve Michels Kane, and Stella Roth Kane Singh are characters from the Forces of Nature series and are entirely fictional, as are the character and settings of the series. They are not meant to represent any persons and are the exclusive rights of the author, Lisa J. Lickel. Excerpt from Meander Scar, courtesy of Black Lyon Publishing. Centrifugal Force and Parhelion excerpts, courtesy of Fox Ridge Publications. All rights reserved. Please enjoy!
All pictures are courtesy Pixabay
or Morguefile and are in the public domain.
Forces of Nature series, newly updated and published by Sisyphus Triumphant Publishing. Print versions available; electronic available as a boxed set.
