*****
The next day was endweek, but he wasn’t able to go to the simulator because Mr. Hallod and Leesol came over that day and had lunch with his family. In the Vewbon tradition, they followed the sun from room to room, coming at midday to the central living room where the ceiling was clear. As they settled into the mounds of pillows there, Father asked what Keelic had been learning. They called over a floating console.
His parents were astounded to find out what kind of mathematics he could do. Proud, he called up some of his pictures that he had not yet shown them.
His mother frowned when she saw a picture of Thorn III in the Viceroy system. She bent close and examined it.
Mr. Hallod was silent but watching. Keelic was nervous. This was a picture his friend had shown him.
His mother asked, "Where did you get this to draw, Keelic?"
Keelic didn’t answer. He wanted to get away. They would all despise him if they found out it wasn’t him doing the drawing and the math.
Now his father leaned over to look at the picture closer. "Isn’t that where you grew up, Sarah?"
Keelic raved in thought at the alien, Why did you give me this picture?
The alien responded with sharp-mauve white-edged imagery of him asking for something to draw.
Both his parents were trying to get his attention. He knew he was in trouble, and there was Leesol watching it all. He couldn’t bear to have her find out he wasn’t everything he seemed to be, and sprinted for his room, the alien in pursuit.
At the top of the tower, he slammed the door and fell on his bed sobbing. Everything was ruined. Leesol would hate him, and his parents would make the alien leave because he had stolen pictures from Mother’s mind. The alien tried to comfort him, but Keelic blocked him, letting all the tension and fear boil out. His dreads and his secrets seemed to crush down on him.
"Kee?" asked Anny gently. "Kee?"
He didn’t respond, only buried his face deeper in a pillow.
"Kee, your parents are outside the door."
He did not want to see anyone.
Anny said, "I wish I could talk to you the way your friend does."
This from Anny intrigued him in spite of all. He rolled over. She was the only one he didn’t fear would abandon him for anything.
"That way I could understand you, and help you," said Anny.
His mother’s voice said, "Keelic, we think it’s wonderful what you and your friend are doing. Your pictures are beautiful. Please let us come in. Your friend tells me that you think he stole the picture from me. He didn’t. When you were out with Leesol, we shared some memories. That’s where he got it."
Keelic reached out for the alien and learned that this was true. He felt his mother’s maroon love and intense worry for him. On the periphery also was Leesol, and her desire for him to come out and be happy again.
He opened the door. His parents were sitting on the stairs. They rose and his mother gave him a big hug. The alien joined in with warmth and bright flowing emotions. After Keelic stopped sniffing and his courage returned, they all went back downstairs, where Leesol and Mr. Hallod waited.
Keelic sat with an arm around the alien and everyone moved close by, then he and his friend showed them the world they shared. Mr. Hallod’s eyes shone as the alien played with numbers, and everyone gasped and twitched as Keelic did battle with the alien with starships, each careful always to keep any images of the simulator out of it. The alien was in pale-red pain with the effort, and Keelic told him to quit. Immediately, he curled up his legs and went dormant.
Everyone’s eyes were glazed as they came out of the connection.
Mr. Hallod was the first to speak. "Are you always together?"
"Mostly, but it gets weaker the farther away we are. Haffna blocks it a lot."
"Even now when he’s asleep?"
"Sometimes he wakes me up when he dreams."
The sun was long past lighting the room, and they walked quietly to the other side of the house. Keelic’s mother started preparing for an evening meal while everyone else set the table.
They all looked at him differently now. The one thing he worried about was Leesol’s reaction. He was never sure what she thought, and this time was no different. There was no way he was going to ask the alien to find out. Guilt for the way he’d used the alien to change his parents’ minds to get into the simulator was still strong in him. He didn’t want to do that anymore, and didn’t even want to know what others thought. Except, of course, for Leesol, but that was different.
As they ate, Mr. Hallod and Keelic’s parents discussed the planet’s security. With some extra data that Anny gave, the adults realized that if the ADL ships didn’t arrive soon, then the planet could be easily overrun. They were very careful not to state this explicitly, but Keelic knew enough about what they were saying to understand exactly what they meant. He even knew more about it than any of them.
Perhaps not! Keelic locked his gaze on Mr. Hallod. Of all the people Keelic had ever known, Mr. Hallod was sure to be one of the three million who know about the Announcers. This idea made it impossible for Keelic to sit still, and he longed for some time alone with Mr. Hallod to ask him.
Keelic dashed away from the table, shouting back to the worried faces there, "Be back in a second!"
Up in his room he shut and locked the door and asked, "Anny, does Mr. Hallod know about the Council of Announcers?"
"Yes, he does."
"I knew it! I knew it! Has he seen Ols’s scan of the pirates?"
"Yes."
That sobered Keelic. He tried to grasp the idea of the planet being taken over for real. It didn’t seem possible, even though everyone thought it was.
"Does he know what I know about the Announcers, the secret part?"
"No. He knows we can be extremely independent, but he is not aware of the extent of our society, or the trans-species nature of our purpose."
"Does Leesol?"
"Yes."
It was strange to think of he and Leesol knowing something Mr. Hallod didn’t.
"Why?" he asked.
Anny didn’t respond for a moment, and Keelic got the feeling she was deciding what to tell him. "If we think they are worthy, we tell young beings. They understand us, and accept us. Adults don’t always. Kee, they are wondering where you are."
He got up and went to the evening room, and now it was his turn to look at Leesol and Mr. Hallod with new understanding.