X & Y - Part 5/5

She shall be remembered, and all of this will matter

Welcome to the final part of this story from my Immigration Control collection.

I’m trying to avoid doing one of my intros, by the way.

So, if you missed any of the previous and you’re averse to spoilers and you want to start at the beginning then click there. For the previous part 4, click there.

In that previous chapter, Xaya finally confronted the Primates from the Third Planet, via their so-called Security Council, and had a few harsh, but somewhat obvious questions to raise and points to make. Naturally, it didn’t go well. At least, however, she got the Council to allow the rest of the species to watch the exchange on their Internet. So she, at least, cannot be blamed, and hopefully now all those people will see what their leaders are really like.

Still, it’s disappointing they couldn’t be friends. So plans change, and she has strategy to think about, and lizlings to love.

As I said before, this story minded me to turn it into a novel, with what’s happened so far being a kind of Act One of the novel. If I ever write it, then this closing chapter would give you a good idea or taste of what might happen in the rest of the story. Think of it like a sort of trailer, maybe. One cool sequence of scenes I do have in mind though is when the Primates send a bunch of space marines to infiltrate her ship, so we end up with a kind of postmodern take on the Alien(s) thing, this time told from the alien’s point of view, with that alien being the good guy.

Well, I do hope I get around to writing it one day. If I do, you shall be the first to know and, hopefully, get to read it.

That’s enough intro from me. I hope you like my ending.

---

Xaya lowers herself into the steam bath, with eyes slid shut and meditates.

Later, she will complete a sleep cycle.

Then, perhaps, she will roam through the ship, from one end to the other. Territorial security. And then back again. And then around again. Most of it is shrouded in darkness. Almost silence but for the low hum of life support. Perhaps, in time, she will begin to believe the ship is haunted.

But ghosts, at least, would be company. It will be several months before the lizlings quicken and she releases eggs into the nest. She will engage in little else but watching over them. Naturally, she would defend them to the death if called upon to do so. Not that her species has deemed that necessary since before the dawn of recorded history. She has no cultural memory of it. It’s just a primal instinct.

“All the simulations suggested as much,” Qyi said.

“Why?”

“Analysis suggests if you were to provide their species with fusion power and the fusion torch, then the dominant group would forfeit its advantage.”

“So he deliberately sabotaged the diplomacy? They never had any intention of being reasonable?”

“Precisely.”

“You should’ve said.”

Qyi didn’t answer.

Xaya returned to her wanderings. Another primal instinct. The urge to find a nest and patrol the surroundings, verify the lack of any danger.

Lyexa would’ve understood. He would’ve accompanied her.

And he would’ve loved her for it.

---