Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business RAINBOW GIRL BOOK 16: XOLNAR AGAIN

CHAPTER ONE: FROZEN

It was past Summermelt again in Xolnar equatorial region by the time Dori got back. There was a lot to do to re-open the house in Sixteenth City. She realized that she had not really originally planned to leave the house empty so long. The thirty-foot circus tent in her backyard seemed to have survived the long winter without damage. She imagined it had annoyed her neighbors all that time as well. It was a fairly easy matter to take the tent down and store it; the automated uninstaller was simple enough to operate.

She brought down the solid printer and auto-chef she had been carrying in her cruiser all these months, and hooked them up in the little house. Unfortunately, the kitchen sink was now useless; there was no other water outlet for the auto-chef. She had brought the copies of Ganthet’s translated books back from Jahnson’s World as well. She put them on her bookshelves beside the original, untranslated copies that had been a gift from the Ulu. She set up the solid-printed replica of Gemma’s Bokkite-painted egg next to the original. She had almost forgotten that the copy in her apartment on Jahnson’s World was not the original, but now she could see that it lacked the depth of color and jewel-like sheen of Gemma’s masterwork.

The next morning, she got out her warmsuit, and took a transport to the cemetery up in the far north above Seventh City, beyond the summer of the equatorial regions, beyond even the pluridium mines, and back into the deep, permanent winter.

“Hello, Ma. Hello, Da,” she said to the silent, frozen tombstones. “I guess I’ve been pretty stupid over the last couple of years. But I’m back on Xolnar again. Once I thought I’d never leave, and once I thought I’d never return, but here I am.”

There was another group of people in the cemetery, not far away. It looked like the ending of a graveside service, just being held today. As she pondered the mourners,imagining what had led them there today, she saw one of them collapse in a cloudburst of icy mist, the certain sign of a warmsuit malfunction. There was panic visible even from this distance. Dori could see clearly that they could not get the warmsuit to re-seal. It was only forty or fifty below outside, but the cold seeping into the suit could still be deadly—they were a long way from the warmth of civilization.

Dori raced across the cemetery to the group, tearing off her own warmsuit as she ran. The older woman whose suit had failed was smaller than she; it was a quick and easy matter to slip her out of her damaged warmsuit and into Dori’s. As the older woman’s breathing eased, and her family relaxed in relief. A few turned to Dori. There she stood, in a simple leotard, red aura shining brightly in the blue air.

“Thank you,” one of them said. “But the cold… without your warmsuit— how can you possibly make it to shelter in time?”

“Don’t worry about me,” Dori shrugged, her red aura melting the permafrost around her feet. “I’ll be fine. The cold never bothered me, anyway.”

[U]CHAPTER TWO: A MODEST PROPOSAL[/I]

Dori stopped off at Haberdasher’s to be fitted for a new warmsuit. Alterations would take about an hour-and-a-half, so she treated herself to lunch at Tokarea, the Xolnargov-run restaurant chain. She packed up the warmsuit, and took a robocab back to the house.

She had been home perhaps two hours when the door buzzed.

Dori opened it to find Ennis Jahnson standing there.

A thousand thoughts ran through her mind in an instant. What was he doing here? How dare he? How was Jahnson’s World being maintained? Had he left his guests there, permanently stuck in their animal forms? What arrogance! How can he be standing here, appearing out of the blue, without even calling first, and even giving her a chance to say “go away”?

As Dori slammed the door on him, Ennis said, “But Dori, you have already made me fall in love with you.”

Dori opened the door again. “What?”

“I am only continuing the conversation we were having four days ago, when you inexplicably stormed out of my office. If you remember, I told you that my emotions are somewhat less intense than most people’s. You told me you could force me fall in love with you with your powers, but you wouldn’t do it. But you have already made me fall in love with you, years ago. I thought you should know that.”

“Why is it you never said anything before?” Dori asked. “Never even hinted at it. Everyone on Jahnson’s World knew I was… oh, dear.”

“Did you never guess how I felt?” Ennis Jahnson asked. “You know I receive impressions of your feelings; and everyone can see your aura. How frighteningly changeable your feelings are! I never knew how you will react from one moment to the next. But we have both been trying to hide our feelings, and that on a world full of telepaths and empaths. I was afraid of revealing myself, making myself vulnerable, yet really, deep down, knowing all the time… Didn’t you know? Why do you suppose I took you with me on my walkabouts through the Parks? Why do you suppose I spent so much time with you, asking your opinion, discussing my plans for Jahnson’s World? Why do you suppose I allowed you to take up residence there, in my private little world?”

“Well, actually, you have ‘allowed’ quite a few people to take up residence there,” said Dori, “There are all your employees, and their families. And Thom. And the three bears. Not to mention Roxxas.”

“Dori, this is stupid,” said Ennis. “Let’s get married.”

“That is what I just want to tell our grandchildren,” Dori replied. “‘How did Grandpa propose?’ ‘Oh, one day he said to me, ‘This is stupid. Let’s get married.’”

“Be serious, Dori. We are both grown-ups,” said Ennis. “Well into middle age. Frankness and practicality ought to trump romantic games at our time of life. Can you marry me, Dori? You only have to say the words.”

“I was being perfectly serious,” Dori answered. “I want to remember this moment. I sincerely want to tell our grandchildren that is how grandpa proposed:’This is stupid. Let’s get married.’ How about we have a real, old-fashioned long engagement? We have a lot to work out. We need to figure out whether it’s even possible for us to compromise ourselves to the point of sharing a life together. We are both pretty set in our ways, and one of us more than the other. It would take both of us some time to make room in our lives for someone else. But, OK, yes, let’s give it a try. Let’s see if we can make a marriage together work.”

“You only have to say the words, Dori,” said Ennis.

“OK, fine. Yes, I will marry you, Ennis Jahnson,” said Dori. “I accept your proposal. On a provisional basis.”

“No,” said Ennis. “Not those words. The other words. Just three.”

Dori puzzled for several seconds over what he could possibly mean. Then she realized.

“Oh, Ennis,” she said. “I never said it either, did I…” Dori burst into tears. Her aura flaring in intense violet, indigo, and blue flames, “… love you,” she choked.

[U]CHAPTER THREE[/I]

Ennis proved to be a master of the autochef. By the time Dori was up the next morning, he had prepared an immense breakfast of eggs, bagels and lox, sweet rolls, lumps of Black Forest bacon, and strong, hot kono. There was plenty for both of them, and they really could have invited guests. As Dori breakfasted, Ennis turned his attention to the memory crystals holding her parents’ scrapbooks. The two of them had examined the crystals briefly the night before, but Ennis seemed to be examining them in fine detail.

“You had a complicated relationship with your father?” Ennis asked.

“You could say that, yes,” said Dori. “He never really approved of me, I think. Kept a lot of secrets, too.”

“It looks like it was very different when you were little-- when your mother was still alive,” said Ennis. “Look at the vacation spots your parents chose: the Rainbow Bridge on Xanthu, Rainbow Falls on Earth, the Aurora Valley on Vondra. Do you remember any of that? You were their shining little rainbow girl.”

“I’m not sure my powers even manifested from birth,” said Dori. “I seem to remember them showing up in my early teens.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” said Ennis. “Your aura doesn’t really photograph well, but haven’t you read your mother’s sporadic journal?” He thumbed through a number of pages. “’Dori is a very easy baby. When she fusses, we can usually tell just what she needs. She glows the cutest shade of orange when she is hungry.’”

“Why don’t I know that?” Dori wondered.

“New eyes, that’s all,” said Ennis. “Here you all are on Vondra,” he added. “You three must have had an incredible time there.”

“Vondra?” said Dori. “I’ve seen holos of me on Vondra, but never found any pictures of my parents with me there. I thought they left me with some children’s playgroup, and went off by themselves.”

“Dori!” said Ennis, “Don’t you know what the Aurora Valley is? People exposed to its radiation are temporarily de-aged into toddlers. Very popular vacation site. Gave me some of the idea for Jahnson’s World.” He pulled up a holo. “There you are, with your parents: three happy toddlers, playing together, a Standard half-century ago.”

Dori’s eyes filled with tears. “I can’t believe I never knew this,” she said. “For someone so mercurial myself, I’ve been horribly blind to other people’s feelings.”

“From what you have told me, your father changed a lot after your mother died. Prolonged grief can sometimes do terrible things to people; change them in sad, sorry ways. And your parents were very much in love: from what I can see, they created their own private world together, then brought you into the center of it. It must have been terrible for your father to lose that. Terrible for you, too, for that matter.”

“Speaking of private worlds, how is your Planet getting along without you?”

“Jahnson’s World is on a three-day hiatus, a trial run for the final conversion to Jahnson’s Planet in another five weeks. It took me a couple of days to reschedule, and we had to refund or rebate a few customers, but this was already going to happen in another fortnight anyway.”

“You rescheduled an entire planet for me?” asked Dori.

“I’m the Supreme Despot; I think it’s my prerogative,” said Ennis Jahnson. “And you are to become the Supreme Despotess.”

“I think I’ll need a better title,” said Dori. “How about simply, ‘Czarina’?”

“You are coming back to Jahnson’s World with me?” said Ennis. “We ought to consider living arrangements.”

“Well, I’m not moving into your tiny office,” said Dori. “I suppose I could find room for you in my apartments. You could have Thom’s room.”

“I accept your proposal,” said Ennis. “On a provisional basis.”

[U]CHAPTER FOUR: YOU NEVER GET A SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION[/I]

“When did you first know?” asked Dori over dinner.

“Hmm? Know what?” asked Ennis, with characteristic male pattern blindness.

“When did you first know you were going to fall in love with me?” asked Dori. “For me, I think it was when I was in the hospital. After my stay in the Thermopylae forests. You were so blustering, so irritating… and yet, somehow, lovable. Like a grizzly old teddy-bear. When was it for you?”

“Oh,” said Ennis, “For me, it was during the U.P. mission to establish an embassy on Zyzan. I was tremendously impressed with your intelligence and diplomatic skill. And, of course, you were simply glowing with charisma the whole time.”

Dori was puzzled. She remembered the diplomatic mission to Zyzan, but that was years before she had first visited Jahnson’s World with Myke-4. She opened her mouth to object, when suddenly a memory swam to the surface. The Agricultural and Zoology Ministers had sent delegations with their party. The junior Zoology minister had had an assistant-- a tall, broad-shouldered fellow with a blonde ponytail and full beard. Dori realized with a shock that it had been Ennis Jahnson.

“You took my side once,” she said. “In an argument with the Prime Diplomat heading the mission.”

“I never liked him,” said Ennis. “Short-sighted and ethnocentric. You would think he had got his philosophy of interplanetary relations from Kipling.”

“I’m sorry,” said Dori. “Kippling? I don’t know that word.”

“Kipling was an author and philosopher from centuries ago. Believed in the natural superiority of the people of his nation over the rest of humankind. Both genetically and culturally. Believed it was their destiny to rule the Earth. Kind of like Kirt Niedrich, but with a narrower definition of what ‘human’ means.”

“Yes,” said Dori, laughing. “That certainly describes Ambassador Sothrul. He was pretty impatient with alien cultures. I think what would have really made him happy would have been to terraform every planet in the Galaxy, inhabited or not, and replace the population with humans. Just his personal family and friends, of course.”

Dori considered Ennis carefully.

“You never said anything,” she said. “You never gave the slightest indication you might be interested in getting to know me better.”

“I was in the process leaving the Diplomatic Corps. I had already submitted the application for Jahnson’s World, and fully expected it to be approved. I doubted we would ever see each other again. Besides, my divorce was not yet quite final.”

“Any other reasons you waited over a decade to make your feelings known?” asked Dori.

“Well,” said Ennis, “I’m shy.”

Some amazing lines here.