Allison had been home for three weeks. She had blocked her Babu on everything she could think of as soon as she got home. When she told him she would never speak to him again, she was not exaggerating. It was her seventeenth birthday. Spring had come. As if trying to apologize for the brutal winter the spring was exceptionally mild. She had important plans for the day. Maybe with some slight deception involved. She had taken one of her leave days so there was no training. Tyler was taking her out for a birthday supper.

Fallout from her running off with Mary had been minimal, at least from her parents. Major Ghai and Social Services had been less than pleased, the latter was especially angry with her over the scathing critique she’d given at the very public memorial service. Neither could do anything to her legally anyway. She had transported a citizen of the League of Sentient Races directly from their embassy to their space. The school had erected a memorial of sorts for Mary. The news had been brutal to watch. None of the stories about Allison were bad. They just kept talking about stuff. The worst that really came of it was someone had recorded her promises about the Sal’nash to the Silwrath child and posted it on the Alliance-Net, it was out of context and clipped to appear as if she had been addressing the memorial.

She tugged her brush through her wet hair when her mother knocked on her bathroom door. She had a towel wrapped around her so she said.

“What’s up mom?”

Her mom had a tablet in her hand.

“Your Babu is calling to wish you a happy birthday, why aren’t you taking his calls on your personal holo-phone.”

Allison didn’t look at her mom.

“He knows why.”

Her mother crossed her arms.

“Allison Wanjala, you will speak to him. That is not how you treat your elders.”

Allison glared at her mother.

“He can rot in hell for all I care. If that’s all you want, go away. Nothing you can say or do will make me talk to him. He and I are done forever.”

Her mother started shaking the tablet at her, she was furious.

“If you think you can speak to me or about your Babu like that, you should consider you’re still under my roof. You’re grounded, you are not going out with your boyfriend tonight. In fact, until you speak to your Babu, you’re grounded.”

“You can ground me until I’m twenty-one, I’m never speaking to him again. If I miss my date with Tyler tonight, I’m adding you to that list!”

Allison walked up to her bathroom door and slammed it shut. She was fully intending on taking her pickup to the lake with or without her parents’ approval. They were going to have a cookout for lunch and do a hike. While she was getting ready for her trip to the lake with her friends her parents discussed her.

“Apiyo, this is not a hill to die on.”

Apiyo waved the tablet at him.

“It is your father; He will not be around forever. She is getting older, and she still doesn’t respect her elders properly.”

He sighed.

“My love, you need to let her sort things out on her own. If she doesn’t make mistakes because we prevent them, she cannot learn from them.”

Apiyo dropped the tablet on the kitchen table, she put her hands on her hips.

“Husband, you know something more then you’re saying. I thought you’d learned your lesson about keeping things from me!”

He rubbed his temples.

“It is best not to get involved in such things. If she does not want to talk to him, we should not push her boundaries, grounding her on her birthday? Even if she were a normal teenage girl, I have my doubts that would work at seventeen. You’re going to force her to break actual rules.”

Apiyo wagged her finger.

“Oh, don’t you avoid the subject, why is my daughter refusing to speak to her babu?”

He shook his head and took a drink from his coffee.

“I told him not to put us in the middle of this, fool of an old man.”

Apiyo had her hands on her hips and she was looking at her husband expectantly. Finally with a heavy sigh he spoke.

“She was feeling uncomfortable on Ratoa and did not want to stay for the full time. So instead of calling you to speak to her, the idiot pulled rank on her and ordered her to stay. Apparently, she told him if he did it, she would never speak to him again. He keeps trying. She’s as stubborn as you, if she’s set her mind on it, it isn’t going to change quickly or easily.”

Apiyo narrowed her eyes.

“I’m not stubborn. Watch your tongue husband lest you sleep in your car tonight!”

He held up his hands in surrender. Apiyo looked angry and he just hoped her ire was directed elsewhere.

“How dare he do such a thing? If she felt uncomfortable and was making a conscious decision to leave! Oh, I hope he calls me back. Why was he calling me?”

Allison’s dad looked at his coffee.

“I told him to leave me out of it. Said just because he wanted to push her boundaries I wasn’t about too. Which is why she is not grounded. I’m overruling you.”

Apiyo raised her finger to wag it at him again only to lower it.

“It’ll be on your head when your father passes away and your daughter hates herself for not speaking with him. You tell her, I wash my hands of all of this nonsense. And if your father thinks he will be welcome under my roof until he finds a way to make amends with his granddaughter he is delusional!”

Apiyo threw her hands up and stormed off. He finished his coffee and stood up. Allison was already out of her room and heading towards him. She had her secure case, and her backpack slung over her shoulders. She glared at him.

“I don’t care what she says, I’m having my birthday cookout and date. If she doesn’t like it, she can go live with Babu on Ratoa! Or I can move to Silwra!”

Her dad didn’t move to stop her, he called out as she entered the garage.

“I talked her out of grounding you… just wanted to say have fun today, and happy birthday.”

Allison blushed and glanced back.

“Oh. I’m sorry dad.”

She rushed back and gave him a hug. She kissed him on the cheek and rushed back towards the garage where Aryna was already busy loading the truck with a cooler. She’d already put the wood in, or her father had. Allison wasn’t sure, Aryna wasn’t usually much for physical type labor. Both nargles were sitting in the truck bed. Robin came into the garage she looked sad.

“Can I come?”

Allison hopped down from the bed where she’d been strapping down the wood.

“I’m sorry Robin, you’re a little young for this. But hey, dad is going to take you for ice cream and shopping at the commerce center. And there’s the spring planting festival. Face painting, and horse riding.”

Robin pouted.

“I want to go with you, it’s your birthday.”

Allison hugged the eight-year-old.

“We’re having a big birthday supper with cake tomorrow. Today’s just for us older kids, okay? The hiking trails can be hard for someone as small as you. I promise the moment you turn twelve, you, me, and Aryna will go together. Just a sister’s trip.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Robin smiled.

“Promise?”

Allison nodded.

“I promise, cross my heart and all that. Now, go find dad. Make sure he doesn’t get lost on the way to the ice cream place at the commerce center he likes to go into the sports store.”

Robin ran off shouting about how Allison had said he’d get lost on the way to the ice cream place. Allison shook her head and helped Aryna down before closing the tailgate. The two girls hopped into the pickup truck. Allison pulled out and sped off. They had to pick up Hope, Trixie and Tyler.

The trip to the lake took half an hour by bike. It was only fifteen minutes by the pickup truck. There was no road, just a rough dirt path wide enough for two vehicles. You could go by car, but the pickup truck was just plain better. It was a rough ride, and the mud wasn’t dried from the winter thaw. The pickup truck plowed through it with no problems. A car probably would have gotten stuck. Allison pulled the pickup truck right down to the beach and parked it by where they were going to do the cooking. She turned to everyone as she parked.

“Okay, I told you all I don’t want any birthday presents. That I would just really like you to do me a favor for a friend. I do have presents for all of you, you’ll need them to do my favor, but you get to keep them.”

Allison reached under her seat and pulled out a plastic bin. She started handing them all small gift wrapped bundles. In each were the latest release holo-phone, translators and AR HUD contacts from Aurelius. Tyler was bouncing in his seat. The only one who wasn’t excited was Aryna, who had last year’s model. Allison was wearing hers already.

“Each holo-phone comes with a one-year subscription to Alliance-net access through Aurelius. No strings. It would be nice if you showed them off though. They’re limited edition and Aurelius gives them out to employees as a guerrilla marketing campaign. Now my favor is, my friend Dhark, who you’ve all said hi too in messages has never been to a cookout or on a hike. I was hoping to use the holos you can record just by wearing them to put something together for him so I can put something together in VR so he can have the experience of hiking with friends.”

Aryna smiled.

“That is so nice of you, to use your birthday present to make him happy. I’m in. We should all send him a group message at the end of the day. Oh, you can use your spy drone to record it!”

The rest of the group nodded in agreement. They did the hike part of the day first. They were only going for the morning and were aiming to get back to the pickup and firepit by noon to get the cookout started. The forest had exploded with turquoise. The chloroplasts on the planet had a different chemical composition than those that used to exist on Earth. So, they absorbed more wavelengths of light leaving the leaves blue and green.

Allison and Tyler ended up going off on a different path that followed the edge of the escarpment that bordered the settlement of New Alexandria. Beyond it a few hundred kilometers were the start of a mountain range. This put New Alexandria in a bit of a valley with the lake and surrounding forest on the low ground. Allison had a plan; Tyler was none the wiser until they arrived at the waterfall that cascaded down from the lowest point on the top of the escarpment. It fed a pool that led to raging rapids down to the lake below.

He was looking in the pool. Talking about how he heard this was the best place for fishing in the area. Allison tapped him on the shoulder after a few minutes. He looked back at her and she pulled him into a kiss. She pulled him towards a blanket she’d laid out from her backpack and they started to make out. Hands went up tops. Clothes came off. They might have gone further save for the fact they heard the voices of her friends. Then the low mournful sound of the sky-whales echoed around the pool’s rocky borders. They quickly pulled their clothes on. Allison tried to straighten out her hair. They’d barely finished covering up their tryst. Tyler pointed up.

“What are those?”

The sky-whales were some of the only native wildlife on Eden Prime that were of any notable size. Though there was much debate about if they were native or not because their DNA had little in common with the other animal life on the planet. They were massive floating manta-rays that were bigger than Allison’s starfighter. They migrated around with the summer. Riding air currents. They were an odd animal. They survived mostly off of sunlight which they used to turn carbon dioxide into sugars much like plants. They were also majestic. Allison smiled.

“Sky-whales, we’re not getting any more snow this year.”

Their friends stumbled onto them. The three girls were staring up at the sky-whales and pointing. Allison realized she was the only one here who would have seen them. They only showed up when there was no risk of sub-zero temperatures, and they hung around until the third week of August before migrating onwards. None of her friends had been here. The two nargles looked like they were trying to figure out how to get a hold of one to eat. Allison explained to her friends what they were as they walked back to the firepit.

Getting the wood into the pit and the fire started was up to Allison and Hope. Trixie and Aryna were averse to getting their hands dirty or ruining their nails. Tyler helped but he just wasn’t built as well as Allison and Hope who could bring four of the large pieces of wood each. Trixie was confused by the whole process.

“Why didn’t we just use the wood from the forest there is a lot of it on the ground and on the beach by the lake.”

Allison wondered if the former dome resident would ever figure out how the real world worked.

“Because everything’s damp from the spring thaw. This is dry. Wet wood doesn’t burn.”

Trixie smiled at her.

“I love when you sound annoyed, it’s so hot.”

Allison stood up after the grill was set up and put her hands on her hips. She looked at Trixie.

“You’ll have better luck with Hope.”

Trixie pouted.

“But she doesn’t have fangs.”

Allison blushed. She gave up. She pulled out the meat and the veggie burgers. The meat being hot dogs and hamburgers. They had corn fresh from the robo-farms on the equator. Allison put the basket of corn in front of Trixie and Aryna.

“You two get to pulling shucking. You want to eat you help.”

Trixie looked at Tyler.

“Why isn’t he helping?”

Allison made a face.

“He is helping, he’s being my boyfriend, now get too it.”

Allison filled a pot for the corn with water from a large jug. Tyler helped shuck the corn. Trixie and Tyler were apparently experts at it. Corn was a staple of Africa dome because one of the main agri-domes for corn production was attached to it. There was a lot of laughter and joking as they started to prepare the meal. Boiled then roasted corn, fire-cooked hamburgers, veggie burgers, and hotdogs. Along with some beer that Trixie had managed to acquire. Allison drank a couple knowing full well her nanites would just nuke it before she’d be too intoxicated to drive.

This was a spot used by teens every year so old thick fallen logs had long ago been pulled here. It was a testament to how obsessed the human race had been with recycling everything that the firepit and surrounding area had no signs of garbage. The group ensured they carried on the tradition of leaving the site better than they had found it.

Allison and Tyler were sitting with their hips glued to each other. He leaned over and whispered into her ear.

“Hey, can we stay and see the glowing webs? I promise a date on another night. I would love to sit here after dark and roast marshmallows like I heard they do in Pleasure Dome 3 on the beach.”

Allison shrugged.

“Hey, do we want to stay until after dark? Anyone need to be anywhere?”

Everyone agreed. Allison was pretty thankful because the nargles had discovered the lake and were running around after each other. They were both sopping wet. She didn’t want them in the truck or in her house. They had seen a few boats out on the lake. People fishing. One even came close. They were a group of four senior boys from the school. They had been drinking a bit themselves. Allison went to the shore and called out. She asked if they’d had any luck. They had and were willing to trade fish for some hamburgers with cobs of corn. With that the group had supper.

Allison was apparently the only one in the group that had any clue how to clean fish. Her father and she had spent many lazy summer afternoons fishing. The rule was if they caught it and wanted it cooked, they had to clean up. The truck had the cargo container from the old one, so she had everything she needed to clean the fish. The only member of their little group that wasn’t absolutely disgusted by the process besides Allison was Hope. The rest couldn’t even look. Allison threw the bones in the fire and fed the guts and two of the fish to the nargle who gobbled them up.

She used the same cast iron skillet she’d used for the hamburgers to fry them up for supper and though they had been disgusted by the process, the group was left wanting more fish. As night fell the entire forest lit up around them with the glowing webs. Aryna spoke up.

“I’ve never seen something so beautiful.”

Allison leaned her head against Tyler’s shoulder as they watched the lightshow. It was what would have been called a new moon on Earth. The webs made the night not so dark as it would have been. Eventually the fire was burning low. Allison put it out and cleaned out the pit. They packed up everything and headed back to the settlement. Everyone was quiet and tired as she dropped them off. She saved Tyler for last she leaned over and kissed him, he met her halfway. He stopped before closing the door.

“Hang out tomorrow?”

Allison shook her head.

“Sorry, need to deliver something for my aunt, won’t be back until late. See you at school on Monday!”

He waved as she pulled away. Aryna climbed into the front seat and smiled at Allison. Allison gave her a strange look.

“What are you smiling at?”

Aryna giggled softly.

“You two were having some fun with your clothes off.”

Allison blushed.

“No, we were just enjoying the pool and waterfall.”

Aryna wagged her finger.

“Liar!”

Allison didn’t answer the accusation. She just turned an even deeper shade of red. Aryna took the nargles inside while Allison cleaned the truck bed out. Allison stayed up way too late that night editing together a VR experience for Dhark. She hated herself after she sent it off because she’d left more of her time with Tyler in the final edit than she had first intended. She had second thoughts immediately, but it had already gone off through hyperspace and couldn’t be pulled back.

*****

Allison put the video message the whole group had recorded as they were about to pack up. It was kind of beautiful. They were all lit up by the fire and the surrounding forests full of glowing webs. They all waved at the drone and sent their best wishes. They all blew kisses at the drone. Dhark received it as he laid coughing and trying to sleep. He explored the VR experience and found he really appreciated the parts that were from Tyler’s perspective. Especially the make out session where Allison was topless. She’d left a message at the end for him.

“Hey fur-face. I hope you liked the cookout and hike. I wish you could have come with us. Everyone was happy to help share it with you. I’m coming to the station tomorrow to pick up some things. I have scheduled it so we can spend the day together. I can’t wait to see you in person. These messages are fine, but it is way more fun to insult your fur in person.”

She blew him a kiss and waved. He immediately recorded a message to send but it was late, and it wouldn’t go off until the hyperwave techs started in the morning.