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Excerpt
Alien Valley
By
Lisa Gabriella
Prologue
Elina beamed
happily at her departing guests. It had been a wonderful farewell party with
everyone acting as though she would be away for two years rather than two
months. She was lucky to have such affectionate friends.
“Have a lovely
time, Elina!”
“Don’t you dare
flaunt your solid suntan at me when you return!”
“Watch out for the
natives!”
Her smile faltered
a little. Then she was turned around and hugged by her boss. Only he and her
father (who was beginning to wash the dishes by the sound of it) knew why she
was really going.
“Bye, Elina.”
Jahan looked down on the tiny curvaceous redhead in his arms. “I look forward to
your notes and holographs. Springtime on Erda is reputed to be fantastic. I envy
you.”
“Bye, Jahan,” she
said gratefully. “I’m sure it’ll make a wonderful place for blooming plants tour
walks. You are an old opportunist, aren’t you?” she continued in a teasing tone.
“I’m supposed to be on holiday. Still, I’ll come back with lots of ideas, I’m
sure.”
Jahan laughed,
making his face even more wrinkled than it was already. At sixty, having led an
outdoor life planning expeditions all over the galaxy, the planets had taken a
toll on his face but left warmth in his big heart. He’d become a second father
to Elina when she joined his specialist holiday agency seven years ago at the
age of eighteen. His enthusiastic guidance had turned her into one of his top
researchers.
In the two years
since establishing her highly successful blooming plants walks in the Terran
Colony on Vega, she had been creating guided walks in the Martian Colony. When
she told him that she had to go to Erda as soon as possible, and why, he
immediately gave her two months leave. And just as immediately asked whether she
would just “have a little look around” while she was there.
In fact, it was a
heaven-sent blessing to Elina to be able to tell her friends that she was
researching new walks. She couldn’t yet bring herself to explain the real
reason. It was important that she came to terms with her past before she let the
truth be known.
“Father? You leave
those dishes!” she called out, hurrying into the kitchen. “Now didn’t I tell
you…”
The big, red
haired man in the wheelchair grinned at his daughter in affection. “You’re
tired, little sweetheart.” Arnen continued to dunk plates at an alarming rate.
“You’ll have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. Go to bed, I’ll clean up.”
“You old martyr,”
Elina grumbled. “You just want to tell your cronies what an unchauvinistic…”
“If you’re going
to stand there chattering, grab a towel and use up a bit of your energy on those
plates,” he said calmly.
With a suppressed
smile, she did so. He washed the dirty dishes with an efficiency born from years
of practice, and she automatically dried them. They’d worked as a team for a
long time. Her mother Frelea would cook the meals. She and her father would
clear up afterwards, loving the ritual. There had been more time lately to be
together, thought Elina wistfully, since her mother had died three months ago.
Her hands slowed.
“You’ve been
holding that plate for seventy-two and a half seconds,” said her father. “Fallen
in love with it, have you?”
“Don’t be silly.”
Elina didn’t respond with her usual disarming grin. She decided to voice her
fears. “I…I’m not sure I want to go, FatherFather.”
He groaned. “You
have to! I’ve arranged all night hologram games parties while you’re away! You
can’t let my friends down now. They’ve bought the beverages and snacks. And the
neighbors have included a crop of beautiful maidens to prop our eyelids open
with little sticks.”
Her laugh was
unsteady.
Arnen shot her a
look and shook the suds from his hand, seeing that her worries were serious.
“Come and talk, sweetheart,” he said gently, setting the electric chair in
motion. She followed him into the sitting room and curled up on the floor with
her head on his lap. As usual, he said nothing, waiting for her to begin. Arnen
was renowned for his ability to listen to everyone’s troubles.
“It’s difficult to
explain exactly what I feel. But inside me,” Elina said slowly, trying to make
sense of her confused emotions, “there’s a kind of restlessness. I feel
half-empty, unfinished. I know that I won’t be settled until I have been to Erda
and learned something about the aliens and…”
Her voice faded
away, and her father smoothed her reddish-golden head in understanding.
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