By Penny Lane and Iona Laing

In a private room in Granaria's palace, Garia glanced over the people who had gathered for this special meeting. Queen Adred was of course there, as was her sister, Prime Minister Pellinore. Also present were the daughters of the Queen, Aryn and Caryn, and the daughters of the Prime Minister, Ayne and Urna. All of these held high office in the government of Granaria.

Also present were three outworlders other than herself. Karin Suarez was present sitting close beside her near-identical twin sister Raelynne, the person who had once been her husband Raul. Alongside them and looking distinctly out of place as the only man present in a room full of women, was Raelynn's father and commander of the survey expedition, Admiral Maurice Suarez.

Garia smiled to put everyone at ease. "You have all wondered why I called this special meeting, and I am here to provide you with answers. Maurice is here because he knows the truth and can provide you with more detail if necessary. Maurice, by chance you are the only man present, are you comfortable amongst so many women?"

Suarez returned the smile. "Aye, Ma'am, I am. I do not often have the chance to be alone with so many beautiful women!"

"I'm sure your wife would agree!" Garia responded.

She turned to Adred. "Your Majesty, the circumstances under which we meet is... unusual. If it had not been for the activities of your aggressive neighbour, you should never have known that any of us existed. But they were more vigilant than we expected and our shuttle, which was doing a discreet survey of Villiar, was detected and shot down. Worse, a capsule with two crew was observed and then recovered by yourselves.

This has forced us to make ourselves known to you. You have also recently seen that other shuttles have landed bringing supplies and samples of technology much more advanced than anything available to countries on Villiar. If I may ask, what conclusions have you drawn?"

Adred had already considered the available facts.

"You people are not of Villiar, that is almost certain. Somewhere the other side of our world? Barely possible, we would have heard about you by now if that were so. Where else, then? I do not know. Our Moon? Another planet around our sun, perhaps? Or can you possibly have even come from another star, as unlikely as that sounds?"

"The truth is far stranger, Your Majesty. We all come from stars so far away that the light from one of them will take at least five hundred annuals to reach Villiar, from the other more than a thousand annuals. In fact, Karin and I were born on the same world which we call Earth while Maurice and Raul, who is now Raelynne, were born on the other which is named Nirvana. Yet despite this we are all the same species of humans, the same species as the people of Villiar."

After a moment's stunned silence Pellinore spoke, her voice shaky.

"That can only mean that space travel is possible between all these worlds, Ambassador, and that if we are all the same species, all our worlds must have been seeded from the same original world."

"This is indeed true, but humans did not begin the seeding, as you call it. In general, we call it colonisation. The galaxy that we all live in is only part of what is actually out there. Humans can only sense three dimensions while there are in fact many more. Inhabiting those dimensions, but mostly invisible to humans, are aliens which we name Beings. They are the ones who are doing the colonisation.

“In general, the Beings find suitable worlds, move groups of people across with a certain amount of support materials, and then let them develop without further interference. This has been happening for many, many thousands of annuals and the species involved are not just humans but other aliens as well.

“Very occasionally the Beings find that things do not proceed as they would wish, and they transfer selected individuals from one world to another to, in effect, change what would be the future. Since moving any creature from one world to another over such immense distances is expensive, they have developed a system where just the essence of that individual is moved, along with a description of the body, and then a new body is grown at the destination."

Pellinore leaned forward. "A new body is grown? How expensive is this transfer, then?"

"To move one person, I was told, would take about the entire output of your sun for a day." To the appalled looks on the women's faces she added,

"The Beings think in very big numbers! Transfers are only done when absolutely necessary."

Aryn asked, "Then we were all brought here that way?"

"A few of you were, yes, a long, long time ago. How far back does your history go? Then add a few hundred or thousand annuals and let your society develop by itself. So, you should know that I was one such transferee, brought to a world named Anmar for the purpose of starting a war."

"A war!" Pellinore was surprised. "Were you then a soldier?"

Garia gave a twisted grin. "No, I was a young boy just a little older than Jena."

"A boy! But you are definitely not male now! Did the same thing happen to you that happened to Raelynne?"

"Yes and no. There was an undiscovered fault in the machinery which grows the new body. I say undiscovered because the Beings that looked after Anmar at the time were not human and did not know the difference between male and female. Do you know what DNA is?"

Urna jumped in. "Yes! Some of our scientists who are interested in biology discovered the principle recently, although there is much we still don't know."

Garia smiled. "It is a complicated subject! The point is all humans have the instructions to make both male and female humans, it is just one small part from the father which decides which instructions are used. That is how a male DNA sequence could produce a female body. The machinery went wrong, and I came out a young girl.

“In my case that proved significant. Because I was female, I became attracted to the son of the King of the country I arrived in and became closer to the means of power. There still was a war, mostly because the other side also had a transferee and wanted to keep all my knowledge to themselves."

Adred commented, "That sounds just like something Masonville would do!"

Pellinore turned suddenly to her sister, then back to Garia. "Is that what happened here, Ambassador? Did Masonville have transferees as well?"

Garia shook her head. "Not to my knowledge, no. Your war was just one of the many that happen all the time."

Urna understood. "So that's what happened to Raelynne then! Her body... his body..." She stopped. "Why did he need a new body at all?"

Garia thought carefully about her explanation, especially since she did not want to tell them all of it.

"Our shuttles are powered by a miniature fusion bottle, it contains specialised energy, immense amounts actually" she explained. "That big explosion at the end? That was the bottle failing whereas it should have survived the attack intact. That explosion damaged the escape capsule too much for the occupants to survive the fall to the ground.

“Now I have been informed that the survival of those in the capsule was sufficiently important that immediate recovery was necessary. However, the explosion damaged the DNA of both inside badly enough that none of Raul's could be used to reconstruct him. A quick decision had to be made, and I suggested using Karin's DNA instead, which is why they look like twins. Physically, they are identical twins now."

Karin looked at Raelynne. "Now we know why you look like me! I wish you were still Raul, of course, but being my sister comes a close second."

Pellinore caught Garia's words.

"'Not to my knowledge', 'I have been informed', Ambassador? How do you know what these Beings do or not do? Do you have special access to them?"

Garia took a deep breath before replying.

"In a way. You see, I am one of them! All Beings start off as members of whatever species comes to rule any world in the galaxy. Only a very small number, perhaps two or three on each planet every hundred annuals or so will develop into a Being which has the ability to perceive the entire universe and all its dimensions. By a freak chance one of those happened to be me.

After I married Prince Keren, he in turn became King and I was his Queen. I have had his children, and they have given me grandchildren. Towards the end of his reign, I began to change, and we kept it hidden until his death some years later. I had promised him that I would soon follow, and I did. Since then, I have been in training for the long process of becoming a Being competent enough to help the wider community guide the galaxy towards that which is necessary."

There was a silence as those present assimilated her words. Urna broke it with a question.

"But we can see you, Ambassador. You look just like everybody else! Surely you would look different if -"

Urna gasped as Garia faded from view and reappeared on the other side of the room.

Everybody turned and stared as she shimmered back into existence.

"I am only really here because I was born on a planet like Villiar and can breathe the air and eat your food," Garia explained, "but I don't actually need to do either. My physical body has long gone and was disposed of according to local rites, but I still have the ability to manifest myself in a way that resembles it. Elsewhere I look somewhat different."

Adred was quick to see the truth.

"You are more than just an Ambassador then, much more. In fact, you were once a Queen like me, so how should we address you?"

Garia smiled.

"We began with our names, and I do not see any reason to change that among this particular group. If there is a need to be formal, when others are present, for example, then Ambassador or simply Ma'am will be enough."

"Then, Ambassador, I suspect you are going to tell us what happens next."

"In a way. Let me give you some background first."

Garia gave them a simplified history of the galaxy but barely hinted about possible trouble in the future.

"For you and for Villiar," she concluded, "you can become part of our space survey project, searching for and contacting other planets like Villiar. That is, if you choose to do so, but now that everybody here knows that space travel is possible, I don't think the decision is going to be difficult to make."

* * *

Karin and Raelynne cornered Garia sometime later when they met in an empty corridor and they quickly entered a vacant room and closed the door.

"You told them that the Beings considered us important enough to save," Karin demanded of Garia.

"Important enough that they gave us new bodies when ours were too badly damaged! Why are we considered so important?"

Garia smiled but it was to hide her true feelings.

"I cannot tell you, unfortunately, as that might change the future, but you already know that. Just live your lives as you would have done before you heard those words. I lived my life with the feeling that each day was really important, you must do the same, find that inner peace within yourselves and let the future take care of itself, Oh, but don't assume that the Beings will always save you if you get yourselves into other sticky situations."

Raelynne muttered, "But that's not all that helpful, Ma'am."

"Sorry, Raelynne. They haven't even told me why it was vital you two were saved." Garia had a thought. "If you must think about this, consider why both of you might have been saved. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting with Aryn and Caryn to discuss the situation in Masonville."

With that Garia left the room leaving Raelynn and Karin deep in thought behind her.

* * *

Just over a week later, Garia, Maurice, Ava, Karin and Raelynne were sat together in the sitting room Raelynne and Karin shared, they were on the balcony overlooking the palace gardens enjoying the afternoon sun. They were all seated around a table enjoying rich fruit cordials. Garia looked closely at Ava.

“I have asked you all here this afternoon, not only to enjoy your company, but we need to decide a few details between us, Ava, how much do you understand about what has happened to your child?”

Ava placed her goblet back down on the table and looked pensive for a few moments before smiling at Garia.

“I think I understand a lot more than you all realise. I can’t be around Maurice, when he’s not off exploring the stars, without picking up bits and pieces of information. For instance, I know you were transported, somehow, a long time ago and you used to be known as Gary!”

To say her audience were stunned was a bit of an understatement.

“I don’t understand exactly what happens, but I also know that without your intervention I would be a mother mourning the loss of my son and his wife who had become like a daughter to me. Will I miss Raul? Of course I will, but I am so very, very lucky to get a second chance at loving my family, I love both my girls, but I do understand you need to ensure the secrecy of these processes, so I cannot go home announcing to all and sundry that I have lost a son but gained a daughter!

“By the nature of the sort of nomadic lifestyle we have lived I don’t have any real close friends anymore, just acquaintances and neighbours. Maurices mother died two years ago, and my own mother is not close to me, never has been, in fact I am not exactly sure where she is at the moment, off galivanting around with some fancy man no doubt.

“I have had it rammed home to me how important my family is to me, now, I don’t want to cramp their style, but I want to be closer to where my girls have decided to settle. I want to sell up and move and live here in Granaria, close by but not on their doorstep.

“I presume I will have to announce the death of my son and tell people I am going to live with his widow and her sister!” There was a sudden smile as she realised “And that happens to be the exact truth!”

With that she sat back and taking up her goblet and took another sip or two.

“But how?” exclaimed Maurice.

“Simple dear, when you are stressed, you mumble in your sleep. So, I have picked up clues here and there and the rest is conjecture to fill in the gaps, so, . . . how did I do?” a smiling Ava asked Garia.

“I always knew you were a sharp woman Ava, and sad to say, yes, you are going to have to say Raul has died.

“Either from an unusual disease he’d picked up, or some sort of accident. The crew of the Vasco da Gama know Raul and Karin both survived the shooting down by Masonville but very little has been fed back to their crewmates as to the condition of them since, other than the work they have done.

“We have to protect the work of the forces that rescued your girls, and that means asking you to make quite the sacrifice Ava, and I am sorry to ask this of you, but it is vitally important that these processes remain a tightly controlled secret!”

“It’s not that much of a sacrifice Garia, I have already gone through a mourning process, I love my girls, both of them very much and will gladly take what I can get!”

Karin and Raelynne looked at each other and smiled.

“Mum, we would love to have you live as nearby as you want, we have already spoken about utilising Raul’s sperm and having children, either one or both of us becoming mums, so to have granny near us will be brilliant!” stated Raelynne.

Ava squealed and rushed to hug both girls, Maurice just nodded and smiled and Garia knew that ‘The Beings’ existence was safe.

******************