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Language:
English
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Every Woman 2016
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Published:
2016-06-04
Words:
582
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
1
Kudos:
8
Hits:
149

Dearest Friend

Summary:

Yoko visits Khâny on Vinéa.

Notes:

Work Text:

This time, Yoko was staying on the dark side of Vinéa with Khâny. The mirror gifted the icy landscape with light and warmth, and the land around the city's entrance was defrosted, but outside its beam, the landscape Khâny had programmed the fake windows to show was very much icy and dark.

Yoko sipped the green tea she'd brought from Earth. The underground habitation wasn't cold, but it wasn't especially warm, either. It was a rather optimal temperature for evening tea before bed, even if “evening” was mostly a theoretical concept here.

“Oh, this tastes good”, Khâny said. “Thank you for bringing this, Yoko.”

Yoko smiled. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come here, Khâny.” She set her cup onto the table and stretched her arms. “How's your family doing?”

“My parents are trying to make it work – I believe my father's trying to come up with some sort of android body so that he could give hugs – and have taken over much of raising Poky.” Khâny gave a sad smile. “It is one of the things that makes me able to devote so much of my time to organizing my people, but I miss a lot of the taking care of her – especially telling her bedtime stories.” Khâny's smile took on a sardonic edge. “A real challenge getting her to sleep, sometimes. She'd keep wanting another story, and complain if they were too short or boring.”

Yoko gave a sad laugh, recalling Morning Dew. “They're all like that. Trying to stave off sleep as long as possible.” She yawned. “Speaking of sleep, I think I should try to catch some.”

“Do you need a bedtime story, too?” Khâny smiled.

“Would you like to tell me one?” Yoko asked.

Khâny hemmed and hawed for a bit, then eventually admitted that yes, she did. “What should I tell you?”

“Do you have any favorites?” Yoko asked.

Khâny bit her lip in thought. “Well, there's this one about a little girl who wants to speak to her dearest friend…” She settled down in her chair and took a deep breath.

“When Vinéa was being evacuated, two friends couldn't fit onto the same evacuation ship, and had to go on different ones. They were very sad, and vowed to find each other again.

“The girl on the ship that arrived at its destination first was woken up in the second batch. The ship's computers had recorded the trajectories and probable destinations of all the other departing ships. She campaigned and persuaded, until the council agreed to build and send out a wormhole maker to her friend's ship's destination.

“At last, the wormhole maker was finished and ready to go. She sent it out in her old age, then requested to be returned to the cryochambers.

“For millennia, the wormhole maker traveled and traveled across the empty light-years, slowly and surely, until one day it arrived at its destination. The woman was woken up, and was one of the first to travel across to the other colony world.

“Again, she slept, but this time she was woken much sooner – this time to the face of her friend, newly an adult, deeply familiar and sorely missed.” Khâny turned to Yoko and smiled. “And thus, we can keep up with those dear to us, if only we care to.”

Yoko returned the smile. “Comforting.”

“Very”, Khâny agreed. “Would you like a goodnight kiss, too?”

“Yes, I would”, Yoko said, smiling. Khâny leaned over and kissed her.