The Secret of Mars
Chapter 6: A Surprised Encounter

It was a ten-hour trip to Helix Six. Ten hours in the wrong direction. Amber needed to get to Mars to replace out what happened to Mary, not going to a strange planet to try to save a stranger’s child. She only hoped their delay would not put Mary’s life in danger.

Still distraught over the loss of Cainbow, Amber elected to stay in her room. There was a large window which granted her an exquisite view of space. She was watching Helix Six growing closer when she thought how Cainbow would have loved seeing the blue and green planet. A flood of emotions coursed through her body again as she remembered Cainbow would never get to see Helix Six, or any other planet again. It was at times like this that the half-human/half-Oonock female wished she was all Oonock with no human sentiment. Oonocks were known for their emotionality, but the humans had them beat. Being a combination of both took a toll on one’s emotions. She was thankful that Gart left her to her grief. It gave her time to get it all out of her system before they reached the planet.

Klonc and the female Oonock, Quantrix, took turns standing guard outside Amber’s room. Quantrix offered to step in as the princess’s temporary protector, but Klonc would not hear of it. It would be up to Jazee or King Kiijon to assign a new protector. Until then, he would make sure she remained safe.

When they arrived, Amber waited until Gart came to escort her off the starship. As she exited, she was surprised to see a gathering waiting for them, a group of lizard-like creatures. It was hard to tell one apart from the other. She did notice some had no scaled crests at the top of their heads, so she thought they must be females. They all cheered when she and her escort walked off the ship. She wondered if the applause was for her or the creature who had saved her.

They passed through a rock archway, and the beauty before her eyes took Amber by surprise. It was a wondrous world of royal blue waters, green mounds of land and trees sprinkled throughout. Large stone arches rose high into the air. The sky had shades of orange, pink, green, blue, lavender and teal. Never, in all her travels, had Amber seen anything so magnificent.

Three of the creatures came running toward them, the sound of their claws clacking on the ground clearly audible.

“Your Majesty,” the three lizards greeted, raising their hands to their foreheads and bowing deeply.

“Thank goodness you arrived,” the one in the middle said. “Gart’s daughter has taken a turn for the worse. We didn’t think she’d make it long enough for you to get here. Hurry, this way.”

“I do not know if I can do this,” she said to Gart, as they followed the three. “While it is true that my Great-Grandmother could channel some powers, she could not heal.”

“While that may be true, we heard that her daughter could,” the one female lizard said. She saw the look of fright and shock on the young princess’s face. “I am afraid, Your Majesty, the truth of your family’s gift has become known to a few. Your Grandmother is the first Healing Oonock in over one hundred and fifty thousand years. As to whether you have her gift or not, we do not know. But, if there is a chance you do, we must try. To help you, we have three Orbs waiting for you in her room.”

“Stop,” Amber announced, stopping so suddenly that Klonc almost tripped over her. “What is going on? How do you have Orbs? How do you know my language? Where did you get piiquid meat and learn the proper Oonock greeting of monarchs? I am going no further until I get some answers.”

“Forgive us, Your Highness,” the creature on the right responded. “We forgot you could not see us like this.” Before her eyes, the three lizards transformed into humans, except for their eyes, which were lilac – Oonock eyes.

“You are Oonocks?” Klonc stated, unable to believe what he had just witnessed.

“Yes, I am Lord Clute, and this is my mate, Lady Critchee. We are the leaders of the Beening Clan. Our starship was Starship Six. We arrived on this planet a little over five thousand years ago and have lived amongst the Caberan ever since.”

“Please, Your Highness, we will answer all your questions later. It is imperative that we take you to the child right away.”

Still trying to comprehend everything that was going on, Amber followed the three, with Gart at her side, Klonc right behind her. “I sense the urgency of this matter. While I know all children are precious to their parents, might I ask why this particular child is so important?”

“She is the future of her race,” Lay Critchee replied. “Like you, she is the future queen of her people. Her mother was killed while trying to defend her child.”

“Without her, my Caberan have no future,” Gart sadly stated. “She is not only our future queen but the future mother of all Caberan to be born. Our species is not like yours. Our females do not give birth to offspring. Only the queen does. It is the duty of the males and females to raise the offspring, to care for them, to ensure they grow up healthy and happy.”

“Pardon me for saying this, Leader Gart. If your daughter is so vital to the survival of your race, would it not be beneficial to have several daughters?”

“Yes, it would. And we did,” Gart replied, the sadness on his face deepening. “My mate and I have been blessed with three females so far. My youngest daughter died of a strange illness after we had contact with an alien starship. My oldest daughter and a younger brother were killed by a backracker several years ago. Although our home is a beautiful place, it is also very dangerous.”

“Forgive me, Gart,” Amber said. “I tend to speak before thinking, especially when I am tired and stressed. I did not mean to insinuate that you were not planning for your people’s future. As their king, I should have known it was a high priority in your life to ensure your species survival.”

“Supreme Leader,” Gart corrected.

“Excuse me?”

“We have queens, but no kings,” Gart explained. “My title is Supreme Leader. Here we are.” Gart stopped before a high stone-arch and gestured for Amber to enter. She stepped inside to see a modest, but comfortable habitat.

“Thank goodness you’ve returned,” another lizard creature said, as she hurried toward the group. “I don’t think she’ll last another day.”

“Hopefully, Princess Amber here can help with that,” Gart said. “Your majesty, this is one of my companions, Frig.”

“Your Majesty,” Frig greeted, raising her hand to her forehead and bowing. “Thank you for coming.”

“As I have told Gart, I cannot guarantee I can help, but I shall try,” Amber replied, staring at the creature before her. Even with her reptilian characteristics, she was exquisite. She wondered if it was common for male Caberans to have both a mate and companions or if only Supreme Leaders did.

“If you would please wait here, I would like to go in and see my daughter alone,” Gart informed Amber. “I’ll return shortly and take you inside.”

“Of course,” Amber replied. She watched the male go into another room, then turned to Lord Clute. “I need to get word to my family that I am fine and am delayed. Is there a way to get a message to either Earth or Mars?”

“We have little need to contact the outside world,” Lord Clute answered. “I am afraid we do not have the capability of long distance communication.”

“But what about your Oonock communications equipment?” Klonc asked. “Surely that is capable of sending a message.”

“Yes, if we had it,” Lord Clute replied. “We crashed on this planet after a skirmish with some alien ship. Starship Six suffered irreparable damages. Since the Caberan had no desire to travel off their world when we first arrived, we scrapped the ship, including the communication equipment.”

“But I saw Gart talking with the planet from his ship,” Amber stated.

“True,” Lady Critchee said. “We have some off-planet communication, but it has a very limited range. As Clute said, we have nothing that can reach the next planet, let alone Earth or Mars.”

“You may come in now,” Gart announced, sticking his head out of the room, ending the discussion on sending a message.

Amber entered. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. Like Europa, Helix Six was too far from any star to benefit from its light. It was necessary for the planet to generate its own light through its flora and fauna. Over hundreds of millions of years, the gasses expelled by those lifeforms became collected in a veil around the planet, creating an atmosphere of light. But here, inside the child’s room, the light was almost nonexistent, except for the warm glow of the three Orbs that she could see on a table beside the child’s bed.

“I’m sorry for the dimness, but the poison of the hipbor makes one sensitive to light,” Gart apologized.

“The light of the Orbs do not bother her?”

“No. For some reason the light appears to give her comfort,” Gart replied.

Amber drew closer to the bed. A small child was lying sleeping upon it. She didn’t look much older than 4 or 5, but, since the princess did not know how Caberan aged, she wasn’t sure. She was a prime example of such a misconception. She had aged at a human rate, like her father, and appeared to be in her late twenty’s. In Oonock age, she was only an infant, with seventy years to go until she reached the stage of being a youngling.

The child’s breathing was labored. Her skin did not shine with the brilliance of Gart’s skin but was dulled and grayish. It also appeared very dry, not moisturized like the others.

Amber took the ill child’s small hand into hers. It was cold. Lady Critchee saw the look of doubt on the princess’s face. “Just try, Your Highness. If the Waters of Life wish for this child to live, you will replace the strength you need in the Orbs. If the Fates mean for her path to end here, then so be it.”

“Can you bring me one of the Orbs?” Amber asked. Without hesitation, Gart quickly grabbed the closest one and brought it to the princess. Because the child was having so much trouble breathing, Amber was afraid to lay the Orb on her chest. Instead, she placed it at her side, making sure it rested up alongside the child. She looked up into Gart’s eyes, seeing the desperate look of a father about to lose his only daughter. “You must promise that what you are about to see will never be talked about again. No one must ever know what happened here today.”

“On the life of my children and future children, I promise your secret is safe with us,” Gart said.

“Here goes.” Taking a deep breath, Amber clasped her amulet with her left hand. She leaned down and rested her right hand on the child and Orb. Softly, she began to hum the Ancients’ song she had heard her father hum many times when healing her and her sister. She closed her eyes, invoking the power of the Orbs. “Ennay Benu Carif,” she said. Nothing happened.

Thinking perhaps the young princess was too nervous, Lady Critchee quickly scooted everyone from the room except for Klonc, Gart and herself. “Calm your insides and try again, Your Highness. I felt something. I know you can do this. Believe in yourself.”

Taking a deeper breath and closing her eyes again, Amber flushed out all her doubts and nervousness. This time she remembered back to the time when she and Mary had healed the baby whale. Finding her inner peace, she said to herself, “I can do this.” She grabbed her amulet again and began to hum the Ancients’ song. She began to feel something familiar, something warm growing up from her abdomen as strings of light slowly began to emerge from the amulet. The strands of light traveled down her arms and hands, flowed out from her fingers and into the sleeping child. As she grew more confident, more in tuned with her inner being, the strings flowed faster, encasing the small child in a cocoon of swirling, sparkling lights. “Ennay Benu Carif.” As the lights began to fade, she could hear the child’s breathing returning to normal. Those in the room saw color returning to the ill child, as well as a healthy skin glow as life returned. The healing complete, the light totally disappeared, and the strings retreated into the amulet. Amber collapsed into the waiting arms of Klonc. He remembered that often healings drained the royals of their strength. She would need time to rest and rejuvenate.

“Did it work?” an exhausted Amber asked.

Gart’s daughter opened her eyes and looked around. Upon seeing her father’s face, she said, “Poodin, I had a dream. I was floating in a dark place. A light appeared, and it was a creature with six beautiful wings. She took my hand and brought me out of the darkness.”

Gart carefully lifted his daughter into his arms and looked at Amber, tears rolling down his cheeks. Remembering his promise to keep the princess’s secret, he said to his daughter, “It was only a dream, My Sweet Child. It is gone now. And you are well.”

“Klonc, I have a room ready for Princess Amber to rest in,” Lady Critchee whispered to the protector. “Come with me.” Holding his charge in his arms, the soldier followed the female Oonock down the hall to a small room where there was another bed. Softly, he laid her down and covered her with what appeared to be a blanket. He then carried the chair from the other side of the room and placed it beside the bed, taking a seat beside his monarch. Lady Critchee smiled, lovingly touching the protector’s shoulder as she left the room.

“Is she alright?” Gart asked. He was waiting out in the hallway with his daughter.

“Feeno, I’m not sure you should be up so soon,” a concerned Lady Critchee stated upon seeing the now healed child beside her father. “You need rest.”

“I’m too hungry to rest,” Feeno giggled. “Poodin’s taking me to the kitchen to get something to eat.”

“I couldn’t say no to her,” Gart stated, a look of a doting father on his face. He peered in through the half-opened door at the sleeping princess. “Freeno, you go with Frig to the kitchen. I will be there shortly.” He waited until the small child and his companion were out of hearing range before commenting, “That was unbelievable. Had I not witnessed it, I never would have believed such a thing was possible.”

“Even though I saw it, I even have trouble believing it,” Lady Critchee replied. “I dared not believe the rumors, but they were true. And for both her and her grandmother to have the healing ability. It is truly a blessing.”

“If word gets out about what happened here today, there is not a place in this universe she or her family could hide,” Gart stated, his joy over the return of his daughter suddenly changing to fear for her healer. “Everyone must believe she is a doctor who brought with her a miracle medicine that cured my daughter. There must never be any mention that it was the princess.”

“But what of those that already know of her Grandmother’s healing ability?” Lady Critchee asked. “The ones Brock heard it from?”

“Hopefully, with the pirate captain’s death died the truth also,” Gart said, watching the sleeping princess.

Six hours later Princess Amber began to open her eyes. She saw Klonc sitting in a chair beside her. Beside him were Gart and Lady Critchee. An Orb sat on the nightstand beside her bed.

“Have you been here the whole time I have been sleeping?” she asked the Supreme Leader.

“No, just the past hour or so,” Gart answered. “You’ve been asleep an exceptionally long time.”

“How long?”

“Six hours,” Lady Critchee replied, rising and bowing, touching her hand to her forehead. “I’ll run down to the eating area and get you something to eat and drink. You must be starving.”

“I am a little bit hungry,” Amber replied, trying to sit up in bed. Before either Lady Critchee or Klonc could react, Gart rose and lifted the female into his arms.

“Lady Critchee, perhaps you can arrange the pillows on the bed to aid Princess Amber in a more comfortable position?”

Smiling at the glee in Gart’s eyes, and amused at the look of disapproval on Klonc’s, Lady Critchee arranged the pillows. She waited for the leader to place Amber back in her bed, but he just held her, staring into her eyes. “Gart, the bed’s ready,” Lady Critchee stated.

“Hmm? What?” Gart asked.

“You can put her down,” a defensive Klonc said rather loudly.

“Oh, yes,” Gart replied, lowering the princess back into her bed.

Silently, Lady Critchee said to Klonc, “Why don’t you stand guard out in the hallway and give these two some privacy?” She almost laughed out loud upon seeing the expression on Klonc’s face. She grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him toward the door. “Come on, Big Guy. You can still guard her from out there. Besides, sometimes we females just want some quiet time with a special male friend.” She could not stifle her laugh when Klonc huffed his disapproval. But at least he followed her into the hallway.

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for saving my daughter,” Gart said.

“Amber. You can call me Amber.”

“Thank you, Amber.”

“Is she okay? Your daughter? I am sorry, but I never got her name.”

“Her name is Feeno,” Gart smiled. “And yes, she is doing fine. In fact, that sweet sound you hear is her chasing light flies in the garden.”

Amber listened. She heard the laughter of a small child coming through the open window. “Can I see her from the window?”

“Yes, this room is connected to the inner court.”

Amber slid her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She was a bit wobblier than she thought she would be, but Gart quickly placed his arm around her waist, taking her hand in his and steadying her stance. Klonc rushed in from the hallway, but Amber quickly motioned for him not to interfere. Still not liking the idea of this lizard male being so close to his princess, Klonc grumbled back to his position in the hallway. Amber realized having a male protector, even temporarily, was going to be a lot different than having a female guardian.

“Are you sure you can walk?” Gart asked. “I don’t mind carrying you to the window.”

“No, I’m fine,” Amber smiled. “Just a little weak still.” Together, the two cautiously walked toward the window and the sound of giggles, Gart’s arm firmly around the princess’s waist. Down below, in a small courtyard of glowing plants of various colors, ran Feeno chasing what looked like lightening bugs. She was laughing and jumping, having the best of times.

“Feeno, I think it’s time for you to come in and get ready for the night,” Gart yelled down. “Remember, you’re not supposed to overexert yourself.”

“Okay, Poodin.”

“Poodin?” Amber asked, not familiar with the word.

“That’s our word for father,” Gart explained.

“And do you have a word for someone like me?” Amber teased.

“Wonderful,” Gart replied, staring once more into her eyes. Amber thought perhaps he was going to kiss her, something she thought she’d enjoy even with his elongated mouth. But Lady Critchee and Lord Clute arrived at that exact moment with trays of food, Klonc following immediately behind them.

“We brought you an assortment of food,” Lady Critchee announced. “Since I know our Supreme Leader has not eaten a night meal either, I thought perhaps he would like to join you. That way you won’t have to eat alone.”

“I would like that,” Gart quickly stated. “That is, as long as neither Princess Amber NOR Klonc have no objections.” He looked directly at the Oonock soldier.

“If Princess Amber is in agreement, I have no objections,” Klonc sternly announced.

“I would enjoy the company,” Amber confessed. “Lord Clute and Lady Critchee, please join us also. I have several hundred questions I would like to ask you three.”

“Answers that can wait until tomorrow,” Lady Critchee said, placing the food on the table. “Enjoy this beautiful evening, Your Majesty, along with the excellent company of our Supreme Leader. We will see you in the morning, as will Klonc.” She grabbed Klonc again and brought him out into the hallway once more.

“Wait a minute,” Lord Clute said, turning to look at Amber and Gart. “Why does he get to stay? Shouldn’t he go and we stay?”

Lady Critchee reached out with her free hand and grabbed her mate’s arm also. “Come on, Clute. I’ll explain it to you.”

“Poor Lord Clute and Klonc,” Gart laughed, watching the three Oonocks leave the room. “Those two don’t like me being around you, do they? Especially Klonc.”

“Do not take it personally,” Amber laughed back. “They are males, and Klonc is new at being my protector. He is very protective of me, as are all Oonocks. Plus, he does not know you or your intentions.”

“My intentions are to enjoy your company and get you to Mars,” Gart replied, giving Amber a big smile. “But before we discuss your journey to Mars, I’d like to talk about what happened today. And to assure you we will keep your secret. Lady Critchee said such a thing has not occurred for a very long time.”

“That is true,” Amber said. “My Grandmother Europa is the first one in some time.”

“Was she born with the ability?”

“No. In fact, she was not even born as an Oonock, but as a human, the sentient beings of Earth.” For the next four hours, Amber explained to Gart how her grandmother changed from a human into a full Oonock with the help of the Orbs, and the changes it caused in her. She then told her new friend about her twin sister Mary and why it was so imperative that she get to Mars. The last hour was spent discussing the flight, necessary military precautions, time schedules and who would accompany her.