Phog jumped in front of Celeste. “You mean you weren’t launched out of Earth in a pod?”
Sephim became defensive. “I am not lying to you.”
“No one said that,” Celeste reassured him.
Celeste was still reeling from the information that this young man had travelled, at a very young age, across the galaxy on someone’s ship.
“Do you know the people who brought you here?” Tara inquired.
“They weren’t human,” Sephim replied. “That is the only thing I am sure of.”
“Could you describe them?” Phog asked.
Sephim paused for a while. “I cannot really remember how they looked. It was so long ago. I was also too young to argue with the people who brought me here. Most of the time I just sat alone in my compartment waiting for the journey to end. It was a horrible experience being alone on that ship. They fed me, but that was all they did. I hated every moment of it.”
“What happened after they left you on the Hitongu home world?” Celeste asked.
“My holoskin was already turned on,” Sephim said. “A Hitongu family found me wandering around and took me in. Initially, they tried to find my parents, but were puzzled when they couldn’t. I didn’t say anything as I was told by those who left me that I must pretend to be one of Hitongu and that my life depended on it. I hated the people on the ship who abandoned me.”
“Were there other humans on that ship?” Phog asked.
“I told you I cannot remember much,” Sephim retorted. “And, I don’t want to.”
Celeste realized Sephim’s situation was very different from that of her and Phog. They had been given instructions when they left Earth and had been put in stasis during their journeys in their pods. However, Sephim had been taken on a ship and dropped off. During his journey he hadn’t been in stasis, which led him to experiencing many feelings he shouldn’t have felt. Because of this experience his feeling of abandonment had taken root in his mind. This feeling had over time made Sephim turn his back on humanity. She had thought his story would have been the same, but, for whatever reason, it wasn’t. There must have been a reason as to why Sephim had to be transported from Earth.
However, the bigger question was who had brought him over. It couldn’t have been any humans. If it had been humans, they would have done the same for her and Phog. That only left another species. But which species? And why would they help the humans? The Chief Medical Officer would have said something if he had helped some of the kids to be transported to other worlds, but he didn’t mention it. Her father must have been in contact with other species outside of the Grekk.
“Were you brought here right before the Enigma War began?” Celeste asked.
“I don’t know,” Sephim declared flatly. “Didn’t I just tell you I was too young to remember anything?”
It was apparent the young man was getting more frustrated with their line of questioning.
Could Sephim have been brought to his designated planet much earlier than her and Phog? If a ship was used, it was a likely scenario because she couldn’t believe a single ship transporting the young man in the midst of the Enigma War.
“Now do you understand,” Sephim asked.
“Understand what?” Phog said.
“That I have no interest in being a human,” Sephim replied. “Why did the humans abandon me in the galaxy without an explanation? I was so furious in the beginning, but there was no one I could confide in. I was all alone to fend for myself. I had to suppress all my feelings. Do you know how difficult that was? Pretending to be someone else at a young age was the hardest thing for me.”
Sephim’s words brought back a lot of memories for Celeste. She understood his feelings. She had felt it as acutely, but for completely different reasons. “I was also very angry when I emerged from my pod.”
“You were?” Sephim stammered. “Then you must know what I mean.”
“Phog and I were young too when we found ourselves on different planets across the galaxy,” Celeste continued. “Although we got to our planets in a different way from you, we had to fight through to make something of ourselves.”
“But you came in a pod in stasis,” Sephim insisted. “You can never understand the loneliness of daily sitting in a small compartment without any viewport and wondering when this journey would end. Initially, I thought I was their prisoner because no one spoke to me at all. Why would our human race make me endure such suffering?”
Celeste didn’t have any answer to his question. All she knew was that the young man was quite disillusioned with humanity. He hadn’t forgiven humanity for what they had done to him and she doubted he would do so anytime soon. He also failed to understand the meaning of suffering. Sitting in a compartment to him was suffering, but that was his own perspective. The Hitongu were about to experience a suffering that would be magnitudes beyond his comprehension.
She turned to Phog. “Phog, why don’t you share your story?”
Phog shared his beginnings and struggles in the Zandrax home world. As Sephim listened his body began to relax and the tension on his face disappeared. He needed to know he wasn’t alone anymore and that there were others like him in the galaxy. Celeste hoped that was getting through to him. If not, it was going to be challenging for them to manage him. She was impressed with how Phog recounted his years growing up. He tried not to blame humanity, but simply be authentic in the things that had happened to him. It was the first time Celeste had seen him open up a bit about his years on Zandrax.
After Sephim had finished listening, he turned back to her. “But you were able to succeed amongst the Grekk to be the best in your home world? I mean this is what I heard from amongst my family and friends.”
She was slightly embarrassed he knew of her status as the top Grekk Envoy. She didn’t know how such information had gotten into the hands of the Hitongu. It certainly hadn’t been her or anyone on the Grekk starship. However, it wasn’t beyond the Grekk to use her status as a way of sweetening the negotiation process with any species. She didn’t like those Grekk methods, but had been guilty of permitting them to flourish unchecked.
“I was fortunate because of her,” Celeste said and motioned to Tara. “If not for Tara and her father rescuing me from my pod in space, I wouldn’t be in this position. Instead, I could have ended up floating forever in stasis in space and eventually dying.”
The reality was that she was no longer in this position with the war in the galaxy. Every time that thought made its way through her mind, she found herself getting angry.
“Envoy …” Sephim began.
“Just call me Celeste,” Celeste said.
Sephim nodded. “When I first heard of your status as the premier Envoy in the Grekk, it inspired me and many of my friends. I mean I didn’t know then you were a human. But for someone to be at the top of their profession was an incredible achievement for everyday Hitongu. As you are aware, many of us get assigned to and moved around the different collectives. It is great opportunity for us to better understand how the Hitongu society works. But there is a big weakness in the system that no one talks about.”
“What kind of weakness?” Tara asked.
“While it is a very fair system, it denies those of us who want to be the best at one specific thing and only focus on that thing,” Sephim said. “I felt I could be the best pilot amongst the Hitongu. When you returned to Hitongu and Phog began training us, I finally thought that dream was about to start.”
Celeste was taken back by his candidness. She had never thought her role as the top Grekk Envoy would be an inspiration for others, especially those on other planets. Back on the Grekk home world, her rise through the ranks had only encouraged greater degrees of resentment. His assessment of the Hitongu system was something new.
“I hadn’t thought of the Hitongu society in that way,” Celeste indicated.
“But what can three humans do in this galaxy?” Sephim argued. “Humankind was wiped out in the Enigma War. There is not going to be another human race. After we are dead and gone, that will be the end of humanity. We are only delaying the inevitable.”
Despite Sephim’s interesting assessment of the Hitongu culture, his view of the galaxy was limited. At his age, Celeste felt it was understandable. Further, he, just like the rest of the Hitongu, didn’t understand the intricacies of the galaxy.
She began to share with him what the Chief Medical Officer had recounted to them. As she did, Phog went back into the ship to check on the sensor readings. The wind had begun to pick up again. The storm could be returning for a second round. Once Celeste finished her story, Sephim stared at her. “Are you sure there are others out there?”
“That was how we found you,” Tara highlighted.
Celeste sensed a shift in the young man’s countenance. She could see it in his eyes.
“I meant by others are we talking about large numbers of humans hiding somewhere in the galaxy?” Sephim inquired.
“I strongly believe so,” Celeste replied firmly.
The confidence in her own voice took Celeste by surprise. Her heart was trembling, but she felt they were going in the right direction. She dared not look at Tara as she didn’t want Sephim to doubt her sincerity.
Sephim pulled something out from around his neck. “I often wondered what this was for, but now I finally know.”
It was another silver piece similar to the one that she and Phog had.
Tara raced over excitedly and examined it. “Can I have it and see how it fits in with the rest?”
Sephim nodded, passed her the piece and then looked back at Celeste. “What will happen to my people?”
It would take some time for Sephim to step away from his connection to the Hitongu. She, personally, was still going through the process. Breaking away from the identity they had belonged to for years was going to be hard for all of them, especially since they had formed those identities during their growing up years. For Sephim, it would be much harder as he had been even younger when he was abandoned by humanity.
“I don’t know,” Celeste replied. “We did the best we could to help General Palt and the Hitongu. They will survive, but in any war the casualties will be high on every side.”
Sephim looked up at Celeste. His eyes were tearing. It was obvious the connection Sephim had with the Hitongu was much stronger than the one Phog had with the Zandrax. Celeste didn’t want to make the same mistake she had made with the Grekk medical officers. She approached Sephim and hugged him. His body stiffened initially, but then he let himself go in her arms. His hands embraced her tightly. His tears continued to flow and she held onto him for a while.
After Celeste stepped back, Tara came over and hit his shoulder. “Don’t worry I am not here to hug you. That isn’t a Grekk thing.”
Phog reappeared. “Sensor readings don’t indicate anything out there, but I think the storm may be returning soon.”
They all returned into the ship. Celeste was glad she had spent the time talking to Sephim. He needed someone to speak to about being abandoned by humanity. She knew it wouldn’t be the last time such matters were talked about between the two of them.
They were all seated at the front of the ship. Outside the viewport the storm had returned with a vengeance. The rain was lashing against the ship.
“Where is the next human?” Sephim asked, raising eyebrows amongst both Tara and Phog.
Phog opened the hologram of the galaxy’s map. “The next red dot marker is on this planet, which is nearby to the planet we are currently on. I pulled up the records of that planet from the Grekk datanet. The inhabitants of the planet are the Vixanti.”
The name Vixanti didn’t mean anything to Celeste. They must be a smaller species that either haven't reached out to the Grekk or weren’t on the Grekk’s list as a potential species to sign a treaty with. Every time Celeste returned back to the Grekk home world, she was updated on the list of species that were seeking treaties with the Grekk Empire. It had always been a long list that never seemed to end.
“What else does it say?” Tara asked.
“The Vixanti are a humanoid species and are at a pre-space stage in their evolution. They have no space-faring capabilities of any kind. The datanet doesn’t say much about their society or technological strengths.”
After everything that had happened with the Zandrax, Celeste had learnt not to trust everything in the Grekk’s datanet about a species’ profile.
Tara approached Phog and peered at the logs he was reading on the Vixanti. “It says the planet they are on has a toxic atmosphere. All of the Vixanti species live in underground cities.”
“This is going to be a different trip,” Phog remarked.