Cherry Blossom Snow

Peace Between Worlds

In early 1965, Ruby and Henry took their daughter, Olivia, on a tour of the Solar System. Now roughly five Earth years of age, Olivia got along well with Ja, Io, and Ur, regarding them as family, and she also tolerated Nathan. Her skin was a light brown, her eyes pale blue-grey, and her hair curly and black. Ruby and Henry loved Olivia dearly and they were very protective of her. They had made sure to do their best to raise Olivia into a strong, compassionate, intelligent, and responsible person. The tour was not only to educate her, but also for their own entertainment. As they had been busy taking care of her, Henry and Ruby had not left Mars since Olivia was born. They had previously shown her around Mars, and she seemed able to handle herself fine, so they felt it was time to take her out beyond her home planet. Nathan, Ja, Io, and Ur went along, but they let Ruby and Henry take charge. They first took the ship into orbit so that Olivia could see what her home world looked like.

"What do you think?" Ruby inquired, her eyes sparkling with maternal curiosity.

Olivia squinted out of the spacecraft's window and then turned to her parents with a thoughtful expression. "I'm disappointed," she replied, her voice high-pitched with a slight lisp and the occasional stutter.

"How so?" Henry asked.

"You said the people on Earth called it the red planet, but it looks blue and green to me," Olivia answered.

Ruby exchanged a knowing glance with Henry before answering, "It used to be red, sweetheart. But we fixed that. Well, Nathan did. Actually, he just hired people for that. So what did we do?"

"We convinced Nathan to hire people to make changes to Mars," said Henry with a grin. "And that counts for something, I think."

They then showed her the planet's small natural satellites, Phobos and Deimos, before leaving Martian orbit and flying toward Earth, the birthplace of humanity. Ruby and Henry were feeling somewhat nostalgic, as they had not been to their home planet since they were children. The visit was limited to areas with relatively few people, but even so, it was a wonderful and exciting experience for Olivia. It felt strange for Ruby and Henry to be back after so long, and they had complicated, mixed emotions about it. Still, they continued with visits to the other planets.

For Ruby and Henry, the tour of the Solar System brought back fond childhood memories of exploring deep space. It had been far too long. They wanted to do more exploring. Mars was a wonderful place, but they had already been all over. They craved adventure. However, as they also had a child to take care of, the only way they could justify the level of constant space exploration they wanted would be if they were to actually accomplish something worthwhile with this exploration. As Nathan flew the ship back to Mars, Henry took initiative.

"Nathan, how much do you know about this galaxy?" Henry asked.

"Honestly, too much," Nathan replied. "Why?"

"Is there any sort of galactic government, organization, or service?"

"Not currently."

"In the past?"

"Oh, absolutely, but not in the last ten thousand years," Nathan replied. "After the Ayaixt of the planet Volbtleuk overthrew the Third Galactic Republic, they established the Second Galactic Empire, which ruled for two and a half million years. The Nokiqyl of Owasema, long isolated from contact with other worlds, took action to free most of the galaxy from the Ayaixt, who had no actual name for themselves, which is why they are still commonly referred to by the name given to them by the Nokiqyl, who failed to completely destroy the Empire, but drove them into a rather small region and significantly weakened their confidence. The Nokiqyl did not seek conquest and subsequently returned to their home world and back into isolation."