Part III: Kaela
Chapter 272 - Farewell Party
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LOCATION: SIROVA FAMILY HOME
CITY: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
DATE: OCTOBER 22, 2049 | TIME: 6:00 PM
The party was just getting started at the Sirova family home in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco.
Kaela Sirova had recently turned 22 years old. And while growing up in the System had provided many benefits, it had not provided life experience.
That was still something the youth of the day, including Kaela, would have to do themselves.
“Patience is the key,” Vanessa said. “You have to give yourself the grace of being patient. You can’t just read and know everything. Sometimes you have to experience something to understand it.”
Kaela sighed.
“I know. It’s just… I’m leaving in the morning, and it’s taken me until now to realize that I’m nervous.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Elena asked, handing her sister another cocktail.
“What?” Kaela asked. “That I’m nervous, or that I hadn’t realized I was until now?”
Elena shrugged.
“I don’t know. Both?”
They laughed for a minute, but Skrixx approached and placed a hand on Kaela’s shoulder.
She was always impressed by the human-like sympathy this alien displayed.
“You are going to be fine,” he said. “We’ll be traveling for months, and I will escort you the entire way. I’ll make the introductions myself. You will be safe. All you have to do is keep your eyes wide open and take it all in.”
Kaela nodded, starting to feel a little bit better. Skrixx continued.
“You have only traveled via portal so far. I think this will be a novel experience for you.”
Elena punched her sister softly on the shoulder.
“Oh, she’s looking forward to that part. She has her tablet loaded up with history and science books.”
“That’s good,” Skrixx said. “Being able to articulate the state of history and technological development on your planet is a great way to interact with others.”
Darian, who had been standing nearby, perked up at that.
“Tell us more. Do they use it as a way of ranking worlds in the Orion Accord?”
Skrixx shook his head.
“Oh no, we don’t rank newly inducted worlds. That wouldn’t be fair. If anything, it just helps set a baseline so the Institute can shape Kaela’s personal curriculum. She will be representing humanity there, and the academy will definitely want Earth to lean toward joining the Accord when Kaela’s education is complete.”
This topic was new, and Darian called over the other members of the Core Council, all of whom were present at the party.
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Once they were all there, Darian asked: “Are you saying that Kaela will be able to officially enroll Earth as a member of the Orion Celestial Accord, but only after she completes her education?”
Skrixx nodded, draining the rest of his whiskey sour and setting the heavy rocks glass down.
“Yes, once Kaela has had the opportunity to learn about the Accord and its place in the multiverse, she will have full agency to make her decision on behalf of your planet.”
“So… we’re just entrusting the entire planet’s welfare to my sister?” Elena asked, raising an eyebrow.
The tension was heavy for a heartbeat, and Kaela’s shoulders slumped just a bit. Her grip on the martini glass tightened just a bit, and her face flushed as everyone turned to her.
But then Vanessa and Mallory both pulled her into a hug.
“We know you’ll make the right decision,” Mallory said.
“Are you saying,” Kaela asked, “that after spending a decade and a half learning at the Institute, I can still opt to not join the Orion Accord?”
Skrixx nodded.
“It doesn’t happen often, admittedly, but it’s not unknown.”
“Wouldn’t that paint a target on our backs?” Darian asked.
Skrixx turned toward him with a puzzled look on his face.
“I’m not sure I understand this idiom. Please explain.”
Darian chuckled.
“Sorry, before the System, when we wished to practice our aim with ranged weapons, we would shoot projectiles or arrows at targets. So if someone paints a target on their back, they’re essentially asking to be shot. My question was whether choosing to not join the Accord would create an adversarial relationship with it.”
“Ah, I see,” Skrixx said. “Thank you for teaching me. But the answer is no. The Orion Accord would never force a world or civilization to join. That’s just… unenlightened.”
He paused a moment, seeing everyone’s eyes were still on him.
“I will tell you this, though. We have been sending reports about Earth to the Accord since we began observing you from Phobos. The System you designed and deployed has some very high-level concepts embedded in it, and the Accord would absolutely be honored to have humanity among its allies.”
He let his gaze wander across the small group of Council leaders surrounding him at the moment.
“What I mean to say is that it’s easy enough to design a System to just make its users stronger. Most do, in fact. But your System has concepts of honorable behavior and wisdom in action written into its very core.”
He raised a finger for emphasis.
“And that is rather rare in the multiverse. It is strange, though…”
“What is strange?” Darian asked.
Skrixx looked up suddenly as if his thoughts were interrupted.
“Oh? Sorry. I probably shouldn't say…”
“Please,” Kaela said. “Continue.”
“The Listener had been monitoring the development of life on this planet for hundreds of millions of years. Every ten thousand years, it would scan and report to us. Humanity was always engaged in wars over resources, fighting each other over plots of land or religious interpretations.”
Elena handed him another whiskey sour, and he took a sip of it before continuing.
“Yet somehow, within a single ten-thousand year cycle, you developed and deployed a System that raised the bar for your people so high that it’s a rarity in the multiverse. That giant leap is fascinating to me.”
He patted Kaela on the back.
“So, I am glad that you are bringing history books with you because I am certain our archeologists and sociologists will be interested to learn what changed during that short timespan.”
Mallory laughed.
“A brilliant man named Elliot Voss was born. That’s what changed. We owe it all to him and his unrelenting determination and drive to realize a vision that nobody would have thought possible.”
She waved her arms out to her sides.
“None of this would have happened without his many decades of hard work.”
Skrixx was quiet for a moment.
“I would have liked to meet this man. This Elliot Voss.”
Kaela and Elena had to agree. They had spent their childhood hearing stories about the singular man with so much passion and focus to design and implement something that changed the nature of reality itself for an entire people.
The party continued on until just past 2:00 AM, and Kaela spent a few final hours in her bedroom tossing and turning.
It was unusual for her. She had been on alien worlds before. Faced incursions. Normally, she’d be able to meditate and fall asleep as if on command. But this night, far too much was on her mind.
Early in the morning, she joined Skrixx and took the portal to New York, where his ship, The Pathfinder, was already prepared by Skrixx’s crew for departure.