"Do the meet and greet later, Cass," she said, gripping my arm. "How good is their medicine, really? Your diary said they could cure cancer."
I probably gaped a little longer than absolutely necessary, but then turned to the greysuit escorting us for the outing, Ista Temen, and explained, with help from Alyssa. Ista Temen, though she was no means an expert in the area, asked a couple of questions and looked cautiously at the fragile, stick-like being which should have been Mad Maddy, Queen of the Caldwells, or at least Alyssa’s youngest sister.
"What you describe is something we are usually able to correct," Ista Temen said. "But this child is at the edge of death. There could be no guarantee."
"But it is possible?" I asked, and she nodded, so I translated and Alyssa’s parents started crying, but there was no time, and the monitoring greysuits were already giving the warning that we were past the halfway point.
Mum had arrived when I wasn’t even looking, and Kaoren had gone to greet her and Aunt Sue. Aunt Sue was carrying a furry cat-carrier, with Mimmit inside and decidedly unimpressed. Mum was wearing her Celtic dragon t-shirt, which she must have resurrected from the old clothes boxes in the garage specially for the occasion. Mum thinks she’s so funny.
With a quick smile for me, she told Alyssa’s parents that the gate was going to close soon, and Alyssa’s Dad carefully handed Maddy to my Mum, and then hugged Alyssa, and said something in such a choked voice that I couldn’t understand him.
They left and Alyssa stayed – the Caldwells have three other children, and lots of family they weren’t willing to leave behind, so Alyssa is here to be Maddy’s family. Then Dad came up and squeezed me again and followed. I’ve asked Mum what his new wife is like, but she won’t say much. Aunt Sue tells me more by pulling faces.
"Everyone this is?" Kaoren asked Mum, in his tentative English, and she nodded, so the greensuits began to withdraw the guide flags.
And then Nick came through, backward, falling flat on his ass in the snow. The greensuits were the quick-thinking variety, and immediately dropped their flagpoles and grabbed Nick instead, pulling him away from the gate (thus saving him from being a considerably shorter Nick). Nick, who naturally would find visiting alien worlds an excellent preoccupation, had chosen not to go with Alyssa because he felt he had to stay and look after his Dad. And his Dad had pushed him through the gate at the last moment, which I privately think might be the best thing my former Uncle has ever done.
The day’s mood had of course shifted considerably with the arrival of Maddy. Maze took Maddy from Mum, freeing her to hug me, and I was suddenly exhausted. Nick, after a moment’s shock, shook his head, dusted himself off, and went and hugged Alyssa, who promptly burst into tears.
Tsur Selkie, who had rather unexpectedly come along to watch, suggested we get everyone out of the cold, and we piled in the fliers and took a quick trip to the platform to check and fix security clearances. The aether didn’t like them, which I guess means my original security access was purely because I was a touchstone. And of Muina’s handful of Earth immigrants, I’m still the only touchstone. Kaoren and I explained a little more to the kids – and various officials – while we travelled and by the time we were through the platform processing a small group of medical experts were waiting at the KOTIS facility. Ista Chemie took everyone else for the usual inoculations and interface install – and an interesting discussion over whether Mimmit needed to be immunised – and then we sat for a while, waiting for the experts' early verdict on Maddy’s chances.
She was in terrible shape. She’d been diagnosed a few months after I’d strayed, had gone through chemo and into remission, and it was only about six weeks before Mum was quietly making arrangements to "go overseas" that Maddy’s condition had nose-dived, and the chemo just didn’t seem to be helping. And there was Mum with my diaries, full of regrowing eyes and limbs, and cures for most cancers.
When Mum had first received and read them, she’d photocopied certain sections and gave them to Dad and Jules, Nick, Alyssa and the Aunties – she says that she figured I’d not be comfortable with everything I’d written being passed around. Outside a very small group (and the kids Jules had shot his mouth off to), the official story was that I’d turned up alive and well overseas. It wasn’t until Maddy’s relapse that Alyssa had made any attempt to tell her parents about what I’d really been doing, and of course they didn’t believe her. But as Maddy got worse and worse, I guess even completely off-the-wall ideas became something to cling to.
Mum, Aunt Bet and Aunt Sue had all sold their houses, and made an outrageous offer to the person who owned the house in front of my estimated gate location. Those people wouldn’t sell, so Mum & co bought the house next door. That made waiting for gates to other planets a lot easier, and also really helped when Maddy’s parents "took her overseas to see a specialist". It was a terrible risk, and even in the short time they had Maddy at the new house, her condition went so rapidly downhill that it was no wonder that Alyssa was barely holding it together by the time the gate opened.
The first thing the Muinan medics did was bathe Maddy in aether, which is something they’ve been trialling for critical cases. Even Taren medical science can’t cure cancer in a day – a least not the kind of bone marrow issues Maddy has. For one thing, they use the interface to assist treatment, and Maddy was in no state for an install. It took nearly two months before she’d recovered enough condition even for that, but the effect of the aether was immediate and very apparent. I wish it had been possible to tell Alyssa’s parents the good news straight away.
Earth will never be the same if KOTIS manages to find a way through deep-space. I stupidly hadn’t even thought of the implications for Aunt Sue, who has been listening to so much music, and who dragged my Mum off to skin treatment and came back looking thirty. Life expectancy is so much longer here, and by Taren standards they’re still relatively young.
Alyssa wanted to stay with Maddy, but after the medics assured her that her sister would be unconscious – and stable – for most of the day, she let out her breath and looked at me, and said: "How is it that we’re on an alien planet, and I can see a spaceship through that window, but all I want to do is lie down?"
"You wait till the headache hits," I said, and hugged her. "C’mon, let’s go meet my kids."
"It’s going to take me a long time to adjust to the idea of you having kids."
"I think it’ll take me a while too," I said, and laughed.
My big adjustment was to Nick and Alyssa being here. Of all the people I knew before I stepped onto Muina, Alyssa was the one I spoke to the most, trusted with my thoughts. We’ve both changed so much, and it was a little weird between us at first, especially because I hadn’t known she liked Nick, and felt like an ass for all the times I’d talked to her about him without realising. Kaoren has become what Alyssa once was to me – the person I talk to – and it took weeks before Alyssa and I had a conversation which felt in any way normal. But then something clicked, and we were sitting down on the lake shore watching the kids dare the chilly water for their first swim of the season, and suddenly we were Cass and Alyssa again, different but the same. It was easier with Nick, who was a little shocked to be here, but has decided it’s a good thing, and is very glad not to have had to give up Alyssa after all.
Mum – in a way it feels like Mum’s been here all along.
I’m so glad that the kids and Kaoren have at least a basic command of English. When we all trooped into our lounge/dining room around midday, Siame and the kids had lunch set out ready for us, and were waiting in a line (looking rather like Siame was drilling them on how to stand up straight). Tyrian was asleep, tucked in his portable cot, and I saw Mum’s eyes go briefly to the cot, but then she was guessing their names, and telling them they could call her Grandmother or Nan or Laura, and introducing Aunt Sue and Jules, and Nick and Alyssa. And then I showed her Tyrian, and she was very quiet for a moment, and said she wouldn’t wake him up. We’ve had quite a few discussions about him since, of course, and she says she can see a hint of her father in the shape of his face, but that he really is extremely like Kaoren. Thankfully Tyrian would mean, at most, from Tyre in English, so she didn’t laugh.