I, Propitiator: "Chapter 14"

Chapter 14

“I would rather have eyes that cannot see; ears that cannot hear; lips that cannot speak, than a heart that cannot love.” –Robert Tizon

Gabriela had rallied an enormous welcoming party together for the Prime I which became quite clear to me as we walked behind him entering the plaza of the Sol System Space Station. Never in my life had my eyes beheld such a spectacular display of reception. Every eye was on him as the whole station was in a tremendous array of jubilee. If you ever thought you’ve seen Terrans act crazy around a celebrity, remember that this station held no Terrans, but instead Ies, Vytor and Cyafs, all of which can act with far more energy than a Terran. So in this entry “wild” did not begin to describe how joyous everyone acted around us. Trying to further explain what was happening in English would be an exercise in futility because the words for such simply do not exist among Terrans.

After the celebration of the Prime I’s arrival came to a close, Oliver moved the A.R.S. Victory to the midpoint orbital path to facilitate teleportation between the planet and the station. After doing this, he telepathically asked Kanda to come with him back to the safe house. Having no reason to refuse his offer, Mom teleported them down. Oliver inhaled deeply after they rematerialized in dining room. Then he began to sing:

Come close my fair maiden and see my joy,

See how your presence deeply perfects it,

See how this great joy shows all who I love,

And find your joy by my true love for you.

Come close my fair maiden and see my love,

See how it cannot be suppressed at all,

See how truly it flows from me to you,

See how much it thrives as I pine for you.

Come close my fair maiden and see my pain,

See how this separation tears me down,

See how much all of my heart yearns for you,

Please come quickly to ease this haunting pain.

O fair maiden, your beauty I cherish,

Draw near to me that my love be revealed.

After he finished singing, Oliver took her hand and asked, “For all the times you’ve stood by and yet it was met by a cold glance, please forgive me. Kanda Tamwong, will you be my fair maiden?”

Realizing that he was essentially asking if she would be his girlfriend, a swarm of emotions flooded through her, she felt like she was still betraying Oliver by the fact that her very presence actually told Zurui what was going on, but then as she prepared to say yes, she heard his voice laughing as Zurui told her, ‘If you do not say yes, I’ll make you so miserable you’ll wish I had pushed you off that cliff in that tangible dream you had.’

Compelled by two different things working in tandem, she weakly answered, “Yes.”

Oliver was overjoyed and the two of them walked out of the house holding hands, off to get some dinner to eat.

Zurui’s maniacal laughter filled the base as he thought through the trap Oliver was walking into. What a perfect set-up, when they would learn of Kanda’s ongoing betrayal, what would they do? How stupid love made him, how foolish… Zurui was in some sort of dark euphoria over this whole development. Nothing could be more perfect of a strike against the Avners. All that was left was the timing. That had to be perfect, it had to tear his heart out, such to the point that the whole family would also be in misery over the loss. So for now, Zurui waited.

David came into my room without really asking. Then he blurted out, “Our Terran cousins are coming over to the safe house.”

Now you may be wondering how it is that we have cousins that are Terran if it is clear that (besides me) Mom, Oliver, and David are all Ies. Well being and I isn’t just hereditary, but also an actualization process, so while the potential to be an I is in all of them, none of the rest of my extended family, with the possible exception of my mom’s younger sister, have actually stepped into their true form. In other words, physiologically, they have I blood, but mentally, none of that has been tapped into, so in every way other than potential, they are still very much Terran. Therefore in my mind the need to clean up around the house, so Terrans could explore it and not drag our family off to the mental ward or worse reveal all Ies to the world, seemed like an unreasonably immense task. Yet it was quite clear that there was no amount of words that could be used to dissuade them from coming, as we had tried that in years past, so my reasoning led me to inquire, “How much time do we have?”

“Ten hours, they’ll be here for a week… sorry for not informing you earlier, they told me when they left their house this afternoon…”

“A week?!? What will we ever say about Kanda? How will we explain her?”

David paused, “Um… she’s an international student that we’re housing?”

A look of disbelief crossed my face, “That Oliver fell in love with even though she doesn’t speak a drop of English, only Thai?”

Oh… my apologies, it seems that particular fact skipped my mind… But basically, the telepathy of an I allows them to translate any language provided they’ve telepathically talked to a person that speaks that language and had sufficient time to catch on. So while Oliver publically speaks English and Mandarin Chinese on Terra Lapsa, he actually has the ability to speak English, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, German, Vytorian, Cymese, and I telepathy, he just doesn’t use them around Terrans unless absolutely necessary. For your sake, this ability is what’s been used to write this entire book in English and avoid confusing you. Since Ies also have their own language, we haven’t spoken any English around Kanda, which is why she still has yet to learn it. Now David answered my question, saying, “He’s been taking Thai and she’s helping him with it?”

“Perhaps… but how would we prove that he is when he isn’t?”

David paused, “We could go buy some textbooks.”

Oh by the way, that’s one of the ways us Ies end up with so many books we never actually read, pretending to do something so Terrans don’t suspect something else is up. It’s very annoying and a waste of money, but unfortunately at this time, completely necessary. From there, David helped me inform Mom, Oliver and Kanda of the plan of action and we (Oliver and Kanda came after they finished dinner) all tidied up the place so we could welcome our guests. Now in all this frantic mentality around the house, we somehow managed to miss something: Oliver’s certificate of being a promoted to commander was left out on the dining room table, in plain sight.

Aunt Cassandra sped down the highway with cousins Tamara, Cheyenne, and Brooke arguing in the back of her car about whose turn it was to pick a movie for them to watch. Eventually, Tamara saw this arguing as pointless and resumed to texting her boyfriend. Cheyenne and Brooke, on the other hand, being younger continued to fight, giving Auntie a major headache. Kakios drove a car up alongside them; a 15 jumped from Kakios’ black sedan over to theirs. Hiding in the back, they never knew they were bringing a dangerous alien straight to our safe house.

Mason’s deep voice carried a healthy laugh through the mess hall of A.R.S. Victory. Gabriela had just told him the story of her first assignment with Oliver and me. Basically, she was under the impression that Oliver was at least twenty-five given his rank of at the time of ensign. However, when they met, he was only fourteen, making him the second youngest person to ever hold that rank. Though no one ever remembers the second youngest, but Oliver is now the youngest person to ever hold the rank of commander or captain, being only nineteen. Anyways, when we first met, Oliver didn’t know what to ask of her because she was just a spaceman and he had never really worked with a girl that was also a self-respecting I, save family members. Another thing about Gabriela that might have made him uneasy was that she was a year older, yet he held superior rank since he had been serving since about the age of seven. As a result of his awkward setting, Oliver defaulted to not saying a word for the first five minutes of when we met Gabriela.

Now for you Terrans that think everything is about crushes, relationships that don’t last or, dare it be said, sex, let me make it resoundingly clear to you that Oliver, especially being an I, does not think about such things in the way most Terrans do. No, Oliver thought of her as a soldier, nothing more and nothing less. On the other hand, when Oliver rescued Kanda, you might say he had something of a crush developing, but as any sensible I would, he kept that to himself until much later.

Now for the Ies, the purpose of intimate relationships is to form new families and bring forth a new generation of Ies that hold the same values as the generation before them so that what is good is preserved and senselessness is kept in check. So when you read the Oliver loves Kanda, know that it isn’t just that he loves something in her, something physical, or even just something in her personality. No, for Oliver he loves Kanda for everything she is, everything she aspires to be, and everything she loves. Oliver doesn’t just want her to be his girlfriend; he’s looking deeper. Oliver desires to make her his own: to marry her and spend every moment with her. No matter what Kanda has done, is doing, or will do, Oliver has reached point in which he will love her for who she is. This is the attribute of love that is capable of restoring someone beyond what they once were should they fall: to love unconditionally.