Cherry Blossom Snow

Leaving Earth

Nathan's ship arrived in orbit around Mara's Planet, the fifth of seventeen planets that orbited a binary star in the Triangulum Galaxy. The planet, about the size of Earth, had three natural satellites, one of which was large, round, and mutually tidally locked to the planet. That satellite had a substantial atmosphere, which the ship slowly descended through for a landing in a grassy field.

"I want you to behave yourselves when you meet my other children," said Nathan.

"Are you seriously asking us to behave, after everything you've done?" asked Henry.

"You're children. Immature, simple-minded, and unsophisticated."

"You're the immature one here."

"Perhaps," said Nathan. "But you still went along with some total strangers from another planet without any reason to trust us or anything we say."

"I didn't come here to be insulted," said Henry. "I thought this was supposed to be a kidnapping."

"Neither of you are here against your will. You've been cooperative all along and have never been forced to go anywhere or do anything. You call that kidnapping?"

"Io pointed a gun at us," Ruby pointed out.

"It's true," Io admitted. "I had no intention of harming them, but it was necessary to get them to come along."

"Oh," said Nathan. "Fair enough."

Nathan, Io, Ruby, and Henry exited the ship into the grassy field. The sky above was pale blue, sparsely populated by white clouds of water vapor, but overwhelmingly dominated by the sight of Mara's Planet, which bore strong resemblance to Earth. Were it not for the presence of Mara's Planet, along with the noticeably lower gravity and double sun, the field could easily have been mistaken for one back on Earth. In the field, they were met by two humanoids somewhat similar in appearance to Io.

Ja was older and more mature-looking than Io, as well as significantly taller, much like an adolescent human. His skin was extremely pale, while his hair was short and black. His piercing red eyes glared at Nathan.

Ur, though younger than Io, was slightly taller and more mature in appearance. Their skin was a light brown, while their hair was bright pink. Their brown eyes stared toward Nathan, deeply concerned.

"We welcome you," Ur said to Ruby and Henry.

"Speak for yourself," said Ja. "Nathan, why did you bring children here?"

"Mara wanted children," said Nathan. "She has made it clear that she did not want me to build children for her. I know now that there are other ways to make children, but she's too mad at me to take part, as it was precisely my lack of understanding of the process at the time that caused her to be angry at me. Therefore, the logical alternative was to kidnap some children from a planet unable to do anything about it."

Then, a tall humanoid figure appeared, cloaked in black.

"Ixora!" Io exclaimed. "My transmitter and my teleportation system are broken."

Then, her right eye popped out, followed by smoke pouring from her head. Ixora opened up the back of her head to make repairs.

"This could take a while," sighed Ixora. He pulled down his hood, revealing lilac hair atop his head and bright red eyes protruding from a face of white.

Despite the repairs taking place, Io's excitement was uncontainable. "Take all the time you need," she assured him. "As long as I'm spending it with you, it's all good."

Ixora's response carried a mix of fondness and exasperation. "For you, maybe, but not for me. You really need to take better care of yourself."

"But there's no other way to get you to spend time with me."