The Events
Cal smiled at Adel they looked very much like his parents. The tribal markings were very strong in them. They both were tall, thin, dimpled chin, high forehead and had occipital pronouncement. When they smiled they omitted a smell that made him recall the last time he was flanked by his parents "I am hungry will you eat with me at my home or shall we eat here at yours, Adel. I think it is nice to have two people take responsibility for me. You must come home with me and make sure my home is fit to receive a wife or children. I am the last of the Bands here and have been un-parented most of my life, it will be fun having a tribe."
"We would love to see your place. Our first event is in three hours will that be enough time?" They said. All the crew was at the door ready to leave in the order they left and came in. Adel walked out the opening Cora made and took their places outside the door waiting for everyone to disembark so they could close the ship. They flanked Cal much like Lilith’s husbands did her.
Cal decided it was time someone came to his home. "It will be more than enough time. I have technology that I use to transfer myself. I will take you to my home from there."
Arm in arm they walked on the purple carpet down the grey hall. "Who designed this hall? The lighting seems to be coming from the walls what did you use bioluminescence organism or something non organic?"
"It is reflective. The true light is coming from the ceiling. The designer was my ancestor three generations ago. Historians gather here once every hundred generations to update the archive." He pointed to what Adel had believed a bejeweled vine pattern. As they examined it they saw each jewel was a light on a background of white micro lights.
"Beautiful." They said in unison. Their minds started working on different ways to replicate it as they walked at Cal’s side. Between them the count of light engineering mechanisms was at 300 when Cal stopped walking.
"This is my transportation closet Anyone would think it is a door leading to a room. Step through. I built it myself instead of having it built for me. I was going to be a builder but was too inventive. ’Your imaginative DNA.’ my instructor said, ’Makes that your interpretation of the plans given you different. This is not what a builder does. Builders follow the plans without surprises.’ Managing builders and helping them understand my concept became important to me. Achieving a goal on time within specs was amazingly difficult. So whenever I can do it myself I do."
It was big enough for an average sized person to lay down and one to stand on the shoulders of another. When Cal closed the door the lights went from green to yellow and Cal opened the door to the fluffiest room they had every seen. As they followed him the fibers clung to them Cal sat down and motioned them to sit near him. Soon they were annoyed with the fibers. They seemed to be wrapping around them. "Don’t move please the fibers are taking your image so when we communicate in the future they can project it. It is an invention of mine." They stopped pushing the fibers away and let their selves to be encased. The fibers moved over their bodies, it was like being petted by a furry animal. When the fibers receded he smiled at them. "Watch this. Create parent memory 21."
The fibers created larger than average replicas of his parents, before them. His father was bent to his eye level his mother stood behind with a hand on his shoulder. They smiled down at him and noticed Adel. "Cal you are going to do well. Your mom and I will miss you too so overtime you think of us remember we are thinking of you. Last hug?" he allowed himself to be picked up by the image like a child and hugged between his parents. When they set him down they looked firmly at Adel. "Nothing you do will be as important as being kind to our boy. Understand?"
Then they dissolved back into fibers. Adel hugged him and said, "Thank you for sharing that memory. Your technology is amazing we use fibers to collect data also but they are not this long and furry."
Cal enjoyed the hug and watched them pet the fibers as they relaxed back into their seats. "My fiber technology is partly inherited from the tribe. I noticed you use them too when you erased the door."
"Your fibers are longer but are uniform in width to ours. I’ll ask our historians if it is technology developed by the twins or given to them by the tribe. We know our fibers obey us better than other Band members. Non Band tribes can only use the objects they construct." Adel said in unison as they snuggled into their chair.
Cal smiled and brought them food they ate and chatted about what they knew about the twins, marriage, and life. They asked about the Band tribe and if there were others if the tribe living near by. Cal let them know he was the last generation from the original twins but there were other members of the Band tribe that came on board. "Equal numbers although no more we were the last of the twins. Unless is she from them also?" He asked projecting the image of the spouse Lilith had chosen for him. He watched them respond. The look of happiness on their faces at seeing her then the calculation of what all they would lose if she agrees to the match. He saw them glance his way then the forced relaxation of their faces as they looked at each other.
"You don’t approve of the match?" He wondered why he cared.
"We will miss her she is unique she is our niece. Lilith did not tell us you were being considered for her. She did say she was going to have a mate lined up for her when she decides she wanted one. On our ship one asks for a mate and is matched within an hour. We didn’t ask but announced we were one. That is a choice most builders make because we work in twos." They hugged each other.
Adel ate the food Cal gave them and drank the liquid. Each time they filled their mouths they analyzed its texture and flavors from beginning to end. They noticed his use of spices they were not going to be able to grow for decades on their planet. "Your use of spice is excellent Cal. As we watched you prepare we noticed how carefully you arranged your environment and plate. It is all beautiful and when we placed your food it also was perfectly balanced. Thank you."
Cal was very flattered because he noticed they were studying him closely as he cooked. As they ate he noted the appreciative noises and faces they made effected him. He wanted to invite them over more often and thought marring this woman would increase the likelihood of their visiting. "I will marry Lilith’s choices for me of course and try my best to fulfill my tribe’s order to procreate. My hope is that any children we can not equip here in the future would be welcome by yours as close cousins."
"We will be sure to visit once a cycle to be sure that the children are well equipped and familiar with their cousins and that our eldest child know the duty as their protectors."
They rose and clasped hands in a triangle bowing toward them to cement the contract. The trio then advanced to the transport that manifested them at the game room. "It is good that we have the first event together but I will be competing against you."
"We will be sure to be at our best knowing you will also. May we all do better than them." They made a move with their arms that gathered all of the competitors up and tossed them down. Cal stepped on the place on the floor where the pantomime of their competition landed. It felt good. They separated as they picked up their materials for the competitions and found their table. The hall they were in was a mirror circular tube that flowed back on itself giving the visual effect that each participant was in the center. The tables were identical yet met the hight of each participants hip where the pair were of different heights the table was at mid point if the sizes were drastically different a platform rose the shorter one.
They unpacked a two foot wooden cube. It contained a square measure, bending tool kit, soft and hard wire, 156 four by four plates in 12 different materials, 4 types of cutters, two forms of blenders and a pigment set. Cal competed with a twelve year old winner of his high school’s science fair. He was the youngest competitor but Cal picked him to hold things in place and do as told something he found only young people are able to do well. Generally
Adel listend to the riddle they were to build the solution to, "I eat the light they fly on air to bring my seed to bear." They built a milkweed with its seeds coming out as Cal finished his Dandelion. 75% fell behind the 25% received a new riddle and so it continued until Cal and Adel were the last standing. As the four created their answer in an empty room scavenging materials from fallen competitors and prior projects they built a ship big enough to hold them and secure enough to travel in space. With both projects completed at the same time the team’s ships were inspected to award Cal’s team for having an air recycler that worked faster than Adel’s.
At the end of the first day events all ships winners, leaders and runner ups were paged to the celebration room. It was a crush velvet and gold cube The Judges of the events called the runner up of their event forward and handed them a cord. They would then say this cord would have been yours but for what ever it was they felt was why the winner won over them. The music that played for the winners as they took the stage was from the music of the first departing called, "They rise and go softly". The runner up placed the winners cord on the person who won their event. Adel enjoyed the ceremony it let everyone know they were good sports and did not take the loss to heart.
They really were happy for Cal. Being the only ones on the ship that did not win their event stung at first. Lilith and the others were dancing to their success when Adel came back to the ship. When they told them of their loss Lilith said,"If you have to lose losing to a cousin is preferred right?" They had to agree. She wasn’t disappointed in them and their getting an answer to would Cal take her choice to wife made Lilith ecstatic.
When Adel had placed the cords and stepped back Lilith hugged them both. As the boy’s parents collected him from Cal Adel flanked him putting their arms in his the same manner his parents and grand parents would. It was odd and comforting. "You are not taking him away so soon?" The Keeper asked the group plaintively. He had watched the events but could not participate. He wanted time with his manager. It was unusual to go a day without him. Everything was well managed and kept so there was nothing to perfect for tomorrow. The Keeper wanted Cal to review the tapes with him for the fun of it. Seeing his friend smiling and being handled by Lilith’s crew made him jealous. A very new thing to him.
"Oh, we will not keep him.", Adel kissed him one on his cheek the other on his brow. Lilith hugged him and kissed him on his other cheek her husbands kissed his temples. Cora and the Entertainer were not his family but they clasped his arms as friends. The group then vacated with those they had met at the opening banquet. Reporter’s arm was in the arm of Lilith’s Elder and they whispered to each other as they walked toward their ships.
Cal turned to ward his friend, "I have found a wife. I’ll marry her two weeks after you marry yours unless you take to long because I’m under orders." Cal felt his words as he said them to his friend. He was serious and that gave each sound an extra pound. His friend started to change colors under the weight of the responsibility hearing such a declaration. The sight made Cal laugh. It was the first time he laughed in decades.
The Keeper, his life long friend, was surprised by the sound. It made him smile. He nodded his head yes. Putting a protective arm around Cal as they started to move toward his viewing room. When the door closed behind them the Keeper said, "We will take our wives at the same time. This way we can keep each other steady on the mark. Producing children prefect enough to marry each other." He poured them drinks and toasted, "To our future grandkids."
They sat down and looked at the view screens they would not move from that position for some time.