Epilogue
Brista, 4 Kedaa, 4396 Orthodox Calendar
Monday, 15 November, 2009, Adjusted Calendar
Foxwood East Manor, the Capitol city Karsa, Karis
Perfect.
It was a beautiful summer day. It wasn’t too hot, and a nice breeze blew in from the ocean which was visible from the patio of the house. Karis had no insects, so they never had to worry about bugs interfering with their barbecue, a barbecue that took up the entire patio and spread out to the concrete around the pool.
This was a day to celebrate, for Jyslin had given birth the night before, to a beautiful baby boy.
She was there now, sitting in the seat of honor near the grill, holding her newborn boy in her arms while people gathered around her, congratulating her, getting a look at the newest Karinne.
His name was the Duke Heir Apparent Rann Brian Fox Shaddale Karinne, and he was Jason and Jyslin’s first child.
He looked like his mother, though. He’d been born with pink skin like his father, but he had his mother’s pointed ears and her facial structure. His eyes were a beautiful blue, like his father, and his hair was a carrot-colored orange. He had been born weighing nine pounds two ounces, and was twenty inches long, a fairly big baby, but Jyslin had only laughed and said that of course he would be big, since he had such big shoes to fill.
The moment had been miraculous. They were at the new Karsa Medical Center, and Jyslin was its first ever patient, since Kimdori didn’t really need medical treatment. They were attended during the birth by Symone and Tim, and while Kimdori medical specialists helped Jyslin through her labor and kept watch of her vital signs, Jason held her hand and gave her support and comfort as she endured the pain of childbirth. But then the moment came, and it was magical. Hours of pain culminated in a four minute delivery, and it seemed that before Jason could blink, a wet, splotchy infant was being cradled in large Kimdori hands. The baby began to cry immediately, and he was wrapped in a towel and placed on Jyslin’s naked breast. “Hello there, Rann,” Jyslin said in a weary voice, but her face was radiant and her expression was one of the most tender love. “I’m your mommy. Welcome to the family.”
The family. They were all here, and it moved him to see so many fat Faey. Six of the nine Marines were pregnant, and four of them were his. Yana, Maya, Ilia, and Zora were all very pregnant, with due dates a few weeks apart, with Yana being next up for birth in about three weeks. Four women, four women not his wife, all carrying his babies, doing their duty to the house by carrying his children to protect the line and to broaden the gene pool of the Generations. Two more boys and two girls. Sheleese and Min were also pregnant, but they were pregnant by Erinn. And many of the new Generations that had been brought into the house were pregnant as well. Myleena was due in two months, 16 of the 22 Generation males had brought girlfriends or had found women among the workers and impregnated them, and 18 of the 25 Generation females were pregnant now, impregnated by the boyfriends or husbands they had brought with them or finding men among the workers… but not among the male Generations. Jason had already ordered that the Generations couldn’t interbreed yet, because Cybi said it could cause problems with inbreeding later. For two generations, Generation Karinnes couldn’t produce children with each other. It was a virtual baby boom, and Jyslin was only the harbinger.
They would be born here, on their ancestral home planet. Karis. That was why the House Karinne basically vanished en masse from the Imperium. There were 1477 non-Kimdori on Karis now, and they were all here, in Karsa. They were the families of the Generations, boyfriends and girlfriends and extended families, including Generation parents of the ones that had been inducted first. There were also human telepaths and their families here, the descendents of the non-Generation Karinnes, brought here to learn about who they were and master their telepathic powers in an environment of complete acceptance and inclusion. They were not scary telepaths here, they were just like everyone else. But there were more here. There were certain Faey that the Kimdori had selected to bring here that could be trusted, hardy souls that had accepted a secret mission to help restore the planet of Karis to life. They were terraformers, technicians, workers, scientists, adventurers, and homesteaders, willing to get their hands dirty, and all of them had been inducted into the house as Zarinas and Zarinens. They were all Karinne nobles now, and this was their home as much as it was Jason’s.
Slowly but surely, Karis was going to be brought back to life.
Rann was the omen of things to come, for he was the first person born on Karis since its destruction. This was his home planet, this was his birthright, this was a part of him. This was where all Karinnes would be born, from now on. This was their home planet. And in time, maybe in Jason’s lifetime, Karis would be revealed to the Imperium, revealed as a planet restored from destruction and again inhabited.
But that would be much later. For now, Jason was quite content to live here in peace and solitude and focus himself on the last great task that laid before him, the restoration of Karis.
Rann was the first step down a very long road. Hopefully, in a hundred years, the plant life of Karis would be restored, animals would be brought here from other worlds to start an ecosystem, and this planet would be truly alive once again. But until then, there was a lot of hard work ahead for all of them. There were eleven other continents to restore after this small one was complete, and there were ancient cities to explore, old equipment to salvage, and artifacts to find and secure to be put in museums to honor the memory of those who had lived and died here.
But that was later. Right now, it was time to celebrate. Jason had been kicked off the grill by Temika, who cooked hamburgers and hot dogs with practiced ease as everyone sat on patio furniture or stood, moving from group to group as they talked animatedly and happily, but everyone took a turn coming to Jyslin and seeing their new baby. Jason took a seat by Jyslin and put his arm around her, which caused her to lean over and kiss him. “Well, my Duke, it seems we have a very sleepy heir,” she said aloud as she looked down with soft eyes at their son, one of the few times they spoke, because right now, she didn’t want to exclude anyone.
“It seems so,” he answered. “We should tell Dahnai that Rann was born.”
“Only if you warn her she can’t see him. He’s not leaving Karis yet, love. Not for a while.”
I agree. Let’s give him time to get used to his new home.
Rann’s eyes opened, and he looked at Jason quizzically, then he closed his eyes again.
“That’s why I’m not sending, love,” she giggled. “Rann’s gonna be like his mommy, walking through Trelle’s hair. I was the same way when I was born, so my parents say. I was sensitive to sending at birth, but then my sensitivity faded, and my power didn’t fully wake up “til I was seven. I think our son’s gonna be a strong telepath.”
“With parents like you two, Ah’d put money on it, sugah,” Temika chuckled.
“And when are you going to join the fat club, Mika?”
Temika laughed. “Me an” Mike are workin” on it as fast as we can, sugah,” she assured Jyslin. “Did Ah show you the ring?”
She held up her left hand, showing off a diamond ring.
“Only about fifty times,” Jyslin teased. “When are you sealing the deal?”
“We dunno, maybe next time we go back to Earth. We’re both Baptists, we want a Baptist minister to marry us.”
“I have to go back next week, Mika. Want to tag along?”
“What you goin” back for?”
“Some paperwork that Kim and Kiaari don’t want to send here. I’m not sure what it’s about. I’ll probably take that opportunity to publicly announced Rann, and then we’ll have to leave again to present him to the Empress so she can validate the contract.”
“Ah still don’t believe you betrothed him befo” he was even born.”
“It’s the way they do things in the Siann, and we have to keep the ties between Merrane and Karinne very public, to keep the Highborns from getting any bright ideas. As long as the threat of a squadron of Karinne ships jumping in is there, the Highborns are kept leashed.”
“Yah. They got those other ships workin” now?”
Jason nodded. “They installed the new biogenic computers in them a few days ago. They’re doing the shakedown now, and if they pass, we have seven more ships in the fleet, five destroyers and two cruisers. They’re starting to build Gladiator e-mechs now too, since they have the Shimmer Dome running at full capacity.”
“Good deal.”
“Enough shop talk, love. Just look at that sunset. Isn’t it beautiful?”
Jason looked out over the sea, and saw the blue star of the Karis system setting over the ocean, the normally blue sun taking on a lovely shade of violet as it neared the horizon, but it still painted the sky red, due to the physics of light that reached the planet’s surface. Fluffy clouds turned pink as they neared the horizon, and it was one of the loveliest sunsets he had seen in his life.
“It’s very beautiful,” he agreed. “Jyslin?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For never giving up. For being a tenacious bulldog, and for falling in love with me. Without you, I think I’d never have found true happiness.”
She gave him a heart-melting look, and put her head on his shoulder. “I love you, Jason Karinne. I love you with all my heart, and I will love you until time ends and Trelle cuts this existence away from her hair. You are my greatest treasure.”
He couldn’t say anything to that. She handed Rann over to him, and he cradled his son to his chest, feeling his warmth and his tiny body against him, and he knew that he had finally found his place. He was the Grand Duke Karinne, ruler of a planet and a feared power player in the Faey Imperium, but that title shriveled to nothing when compared to the greatest titles ever created.
Husband.
And Father.
Here, on Karis, with Jyslin at his side and Rann in the nursery, Jason could finally look out at that sunset and know that he had reached the end of a long, difficult road, with a new long, difficult road before him.
But both roads led to the same destination.
Home.
The End
Thus ends the tale of Jason
Fox and the Subjugation.
But the universe is a
vast and wondrous place,
filled with all manner of
wonderful sights, rich history,
and intriguing stories.
And there will be other
stories to tell.