-Elephant In The Room-

It had been more than a few hundred years since Lin made a home on a distant, but rich planet, with a family she never thought she would have. Today is one of sorrow though, as the death of a loved one draws near; the mood is bittersweet as Branx-Lian lived an incredibly full life. He had helped with the classification of many plants that lead to major improvements when mixed with ingredients from other worlds. He lived doing exactly what he was born to do, according to him. Beside his deathbed, and beside Lin, was their one and only daughter, Kani.

“My love, there is something I have fought with myself about bringing up, but if it is going to eat away this much at me, I must believe it is important.” Branx-Lian spoke slowly, taking a lot of deep breaths between words.

“Anything to unburden yourself daddy.” Kani spoke up as she lightly grabbed his hand.

“Lin my love, it’s time we address Kani’s lack of aging.” Branx-Lian coughed a little with the effort needed to talk as much as he had.

“Oh, we do not need to worry about that, Branx.” Lin reassured him, but he just looked at his daughter, then back at his wife as he spoke again.

“Promise me: keep an eye on it, and call your dad to figure out her possible predicament.”  Lin nodded her head, and Kani looked sympathetic.

“When Kani and I agree upon it, we will involve my father in our situation. He loves anything Kani, and will help her at a moment’s notice.” Lin said confidently. She had prepared for this moment for a long time. Every time she meets someone, she starts preparing for this moment.

“I promise that when I grow concerned, I will ask for help daddy. Rest knowing I will be okay.” Kani said softly.

“Don’t keep your mom tied down for too long, she isn’t made for that, and I’ve done it long enough to her.” Branx-Lian let out a little laugh, and Kani nodded her head slowly to acknowledge him.

It was not too much longer after, that Branx-Lian slipped into the afterlife, following an exceedingly long and fulfilling life. He was survived by his wife and his daughter, who are not only alive, but thriving. Branx-Lian did not own many things, yet he died a wealthy man. Kani and Lin mourned his death for years. They remained tied to all the places he loved, for a long time.

It was Kani, in a foolhardy attempt to fulfill her father’s dying wish to keep her mother from being complacent, that made them move to the unexplored wilds of the planet Kani called home. She had a close brush with inspiration and gave up her political career. She came home, only to start packing. Kani thought it would be harder to convince her mother to move, but once she understood Kani’s intentions, she joined right in.

They were moved before too much longer, and Lin showed her daughter how to build a basic home out of the surrounding environment. Over the coming years, Lin taught her daughter countless things, which she came to understand completely. Lin found a passion in teaching her daughter a compacted version of the myriad lessons she had learned throughout her own countless years in the wilds of their random planet, in a random galaxy, that they just claimed as their own.

Lin’s concerns about the passage of time, and its ineffectiveness on Kani, both thrilled and scared Lin. She never brought it up though, focusing on teaching her daughter everything she wanted to know. The only exciting event on the horizon was that Lin’s brother was on the way to visit them. Once the construction of the house came to an end, the lessons lost their charm, and the reality set in that Kani would rather experience these stories than learn about them. It was this rogue curiosity that made her finally bring up the subject of her age to her mother.

“Mom.” Kani started off slow during dinner one night. “How do you stay so content?” It was not exactly what Kani wanted to ask.

“I have been in terrible situations for much longer than this. To me, this is like vacation. I will be out there again in another small spaceship, warping from system to system.” Lin said, a tad longingly.

“On that note, can we ask Grandpa about my age, I’d like to travel if I can, but I don’t know if I should, or how long I have the ability.” Kani let loose in a rush, nervous about the whole thing.

“I agree, I think it is time to ask him. I will get my communicator and call him after we eat.” Lin spoke firmly.

True to her word, Lin brought out the communicator, and her parents picked up almost instantly. It took a rather long time, like normal, to get to the point of the call where Lin explained their reason for chatting. Once Lin spoke with her father, he agreed to come that night. The travel was near instant, so there was no reason to wait. Kani felt rushed into the situation, as nothing out of the ordinary had happened in her life for a long time. She did not resist since this was her family, whom she knew was there for her,  but she was excited for the possibilities. Lin led Kani to the field in which they worked to grow their small number of crops, and in the middle of the clear landing Lin placed her communicator.

“Ev?” Lin probed as the call connected to a seemingly empty room.

“Yeah, I’m ready, your dad will be shortly.” A small creature flew into the tinyl window of the camera, and Lin waved at him vigorously.

“See you soon!” Lin cheered, as she grabbed her daughter’s hand and led her away from the communicator.

“Where are we going?” Kani laughed while she bounded away with her mother.

“The effects from this travel are a bit rough; if you are too close to it, you might have some organs rearranged!” Lin laughed as Kani picked up her pace. Lin had them stop after they had gained elevation, and could barely see the field.

“Now, we wait.  Some of our possessions might get goofed, because the house is closer to the warp site.” Lin explained in a light tone.

“That’s okay, not like we have pets,” was all Kani said. She was unable to take her eyes off the spot where the distant communicator had been placed. Before too long, the air around them started to fill with static, and they felt their bodies being pulled towards the spot they had just fled. Within that short span of time, a plank from the roof of their house came off and glitched into nothing shortly after. Lin jabbed at Kani with her elbow, and pointed at the roof as the part broke off, laughing when the wood disappeared completely.  

Kani was terrified, and with a fair amount of effort, she managed to get behind a medium sized rock to brace herself against the pull of the communicator. Lin laughed at Kani’s reaction; she found extra thrill in being able to share something like this with someone as important to her as Kani. Lin leaned back against the pull and crossed her legs, as she watched the communicator with excitement in her eyes. Kani called out to her mom, but Lin just laughed in response. Once Lin started to be pulled forward, there was a pulse in the pull. She stood firmly on two feet after the pulse passed.

During the pulse, two figures jumped into the center of the field, and what looked like chaotic electricity exploded from the spot they had appeared. Everything disappeared from around them as quickly as it appeared. Lin started to wave her hands over her head, and jumped up and down. Her shouts reached those in the field, and the two figures started to move around as well. Lin left Kani to descend on her own, as Lin proved herself more agile than Kani realized; she descended their elevated spot in two leaps. Lin sprinted to the figures, and they moved quickly in her direction. She caught up with them rapidly.

“Look at my one-and-only grandchild! I’ve lived for billions of years without feeling it, and then you come along and actually make me old!” Lin’s father embraced his granddaughter. She towered over him, being closer to her father’s height than to Lin’s.

“Blame mom, she’s the one who got weird!” Kani joked. Lin turned bright red in response.

“Good gracious, that was salt where none was needed!” Lin defended herself, embarrassed by the notion, despite her daughter being an adult.

“We are not here to talk about your mother, no matter how great it is for me to see her. We are here to talk about you.” Lin’s father hugged her, but spoke to Kani. “That does not mean you cannot give me a tour of your inspiring home here!”

“Let’s go to see what fun things have happened to our stuff!” Lin agreed, and led the way through their house. It was a custom-built home for just the two of them, despite its larger size- two bedrooms, but many other miscellaneous spaces. All rooms were separate from the others; it did not rain on this planet, so the need to enclose the home was only for temperature control. After they showed their guests their home, everyone sat down in a back room, where large windows faced the field they just came from. Most everything was intact throughout the house, but in some cases having been knocked over or fused with another item,however, there was not much to clean up.

“I like the getup here girls. It’s so weird seeing you have a home that isn’t a spaceship hopping through unreasonable amounts of space.” Lin’s father said to her as he laughed boisterously.

“It has been nice having a family. Now we just need to know how long this family is going to last,” Lin smiled at her nervous daughter, as she gave her hand a soft squeeze.

“I’m already nearing seven-hundred and I have shown no signs of aging for a Human or an Ankton.” Kani spoke up. She felt less nervous the more her grandfather smiled at her.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to read your mind. I will leave anything personal alone. I can figure things out a lot more thoroughly if I can work it out myself,” he spoke with confidence and his smile never wavered, while he offered his help to Kani. Kani nodded and what she experienced immediately after was like nothing else she had ever encountered. She could sense him quickly scanning her entire life’s memories, her opinions on trivial matters, and her overall knowledge. She never thought once of her brain being a database before now, but she was sure she would never see it any other way after this experience.

“Well,” was all her grandfather said, as he backed out of her head less than a minute later. Lin looked at the two of them intently. Kani had the countenance of one experiencing an existential crisis, and her father’s smile disappeared from his face entirely. The excitement in his eyes shone brighter than before though, and he looked at his granddaughter as if she were completely new to him.

“Are you okay, Dad?” Lin touched his arm lightly, and having received no reaction from him, she addressed their other guest. “Do you understand at all Ev?”

The small creature shook its head before it spoke. “Ketaru has been looking for something exciting for a long time now. Looks like he may have found it.” It spoke in a deep and smooth voice despite its small size.

“Kani!” Ketaru shouted suddenly, and the others in the room all jumped. “Do me a favor and look at this vase- wow is this handmade?! This is beautiful, who made this?” Ketaru had picked up the vase and got completely distracted by it once he paid attention to it fully. Kani pointed at Lin, as she did not want his thought interrupted any more by adding her voice to the mix.  “Beautiful!” Ketaru exclaimed as he indicated to the vase and looked at Lin.

“The point, Dad?” Lin laughed as she reminded her father of his train of thought.

“Yes! Kani, I just want you to imagine you can levitate this vase: I’ll be here to catch it since I’m taking this masterpiece back home with me!” He still looked the vase over while he spoke to Kani. Kani just laughed, and Lin stared him down intently.

“Do as he asks, there is at least a reason,” Lin said sternly. This left no room for Kani to interpret it as a joke any further. In response, Kani shrugged her shoulders and focused on the vase. She pictured it levitating, and sure enough the vase began to levitate smoothly out of Ketaru’s hands. Ketaru grabbed the vase out of the air and stood up in sync with Kani.

“This is ridiculous!” Kani hollered into the room.

“She has my power Lin!” Ketaru proclaimed as he pointed at his granddaughter with the vase.

“693 years and I never noticed! It simply isn’t possible, how have I not known?!” Kani paced slightly as her nerves were as off as they had ever been.

“I’d say your Ankton side kept your emotions intact, which is how humans always discover their powers,” Ketaru explained. His mind had already worked this out into the most likely scenario to explain everything that had occurred so far.

“What else does this mean for me?” Kani asked him. She retook her seat, and began to calm down.

“Lin, did you know she understands math?” Ketaru asked his daughter, her slower yet accurate reasoning was a better tool for him to explain himself.

“Yeah, we worked on math ages ago. She was an A++ student. Highly intelligent, yeah.” Lin complemented, settling into the couch while enjoying the current spectacle.

“No. She understands all math.” Ketaru looked from his daughter to his granddaughter and continued. “You have taken it on as a hobby, and somehow you found an end to it right?”

“An end to math?!” Lin shrieked, shooting up straight and to the edge of her seat, while staring at her daughter. “What even is that?!” Lin begged the room, sinking back into the couch as she processed it.

“You don’t like that stuff; I find it fascinating,” Kani said to her mom, “I pursued learning it through the means I had available, and deductive reasoning,” Kani paused, “you mean there isn’t more?” Kani’s last question rang in the room for a moment before Ketaru reacted.

“What you mean by that-you could theoretically be the architect of your own universe. Not recommended though, living in one is significantly more enjoyable. You were the first one to teach me anything in a long, long time, but this all is not why we are here. We need to address your age.” Ketaru brought them all back to the main topic at hand.

“Yeah, I had forgotten all about that…still stuck on the whole my-daughter-discovered-the-secrets-of-the-universe-in-our-backwoods-bunker-while-I-hunted-fought-off-angry-predators-and-worked-on-art thing.” Lin waved her arms around a few times as she spoke, then dropped them in her lap when she finished.

 “I need to contact Itme to figure this out.” Ketaru muttered softly to himself, but Lin overheard completely. Her eyes grew wide and it was her turn to let excitement show on her face.

“You think he has something to do with this?” Lin asked enthusiastically.

“Possibly. He would know. I need to go back home to call for him; you are more than welcome to come with us.” Ketaru offered, and Ev nodded its head in agreement and smiled.

“I don’t think we can decide right now, this is a lot to process Dad.” Lin said before Kani could start asking questions.

“Oh, yes, sorry for the pressure. I’ll be more than happy to stay here for a few days and get to know this neck of the woods.” Ketaru proudly announced as he stood up to open his arms to the others. “I want a hug!” Ketaru said loudly when no one reacted to his gesture. They all shared a laugh at his corniness, but they gathered in a warm hug. This was a rather unique time in their extensive lives.

They lived the next few days in slow motion, which was something that had not happened to any of them in a long time. There was an urge to keep the days pushed back, before they breached the horizon of what lay ahead. Despite their great time together, the girls decided to remain on their home planet, wait for Ketaru to contact Itme, and return to them with an answer. Kani was not up for abandoning her home on a whim.

Ketaru returned to his home with Ev just a few days after his arrival. Lin and Kani embraced a new and uncharted challenge by attempting to master her newly discovered powers, with their combined knowledge. Lin introduced Kani to her resources, and the connection to Son that her communicator had for a universal search engine, which quickly turned into a blooming camaraderie between Kani and Son. It was years before Ketaru was able to shed any light on his granddaughter’s situation; still, Kani did not age visibly. They remained happy, but Lin was restless. There was nothing left for her on this planet, but she waited patiently as her daughter’s comfort meant more than anything else.

LIN V