Prologue

Zulu Date, 16.08.2211 Sector: Deneb of Cygnus, Planet-Omicron

This was unprecedented. Not one single person had been allowed to return to Earth, until today. Kita Jacobsen chewed at her index-finger cuticle as she swung her right leg violently. A dozen most uncomfortable metal chairs without arm rests, hardly suitable for a mother cradling a baby, provided the only seating around the perimeter of the cryogenic-hibernation pods. Ignoring the increasing ache in her right arm, she focused on the automated attendants’ preparations. They seemed much more hurried then last time.

Pastor Oliver Pugh, a young man in his thirties who looked older by his refusal to receive hair treatments, had promised her she and the baby would be safe.

“It’s what’s best for everybody, I assure you,” he had said with such confidence she believed him, but something deep in her gut told her he meant something else.

The baby, to be christened Michael Levi Jacobson, fought sleep while sucking on a make-do pacifier, which was nothing more than the top of a baby bottle, stuffed with soft fabric bandages and secured with lab tape. She had had no opportunity to grab the baby’s supplies when Pastor Oliver tapped just his fingernails against her door late last night. Michael wouldn’t need anything for the next three years while in his cryogenic stasis, so, instead of being difficult with Pastor O, she resolved to simply start over when she got home.

Tender words, which usually soothed his fretting, had no effect to calm him now. Anxious tears muddled her gentle cooing. Did he sense her anguish? A mere two weeks after his birth, this was the first time he had been denied a feeding, but the cryogenic procedure required his system be void of any foods, liquid or solid, just like his mother. So nursing was out of the question.

Pastor O paced at a distance, outside of the pod chamber, giving her privacy with her son, or was he keeping watch for those who might realize she was leaving? He smiled at her often through the transparent partition, but his eyes and crinkled brow exposed a different emotion. The knotting in her stomach confirmed his deception, or was it the cleansing procedure she had endured. Even his close-held thumbs-up gesture did little to comfort her.

A shrill bolt of fear shot through her nerves. Swallowing and closing her eyes, she turned her head toward the cryo-pods. Pastor O knows what he’s doing, sending her home. Keeping Michael would upset the order of things. She wouldn’t be the cause of such upheaval in the system. If only this part was finished and she was resting peacefully in her cryogenic capsule with Michael.

What if she was caught leaving? Would she be sent back to the planet? Would Michael be lost to her, forever? Then what—The colonies? A shiver rippled down her spine. Shaking her head as if she were telling the shivering sensation, “Go away,” she forced herself to not think about that. She trusted Pastor O. She trusted God. She and her baby would be fine.

In a very short time, she would sleep for what would seem like seconds, and then she’d open her eyes on her home planet and be surrounded by Mom, and Dad, and Molly.

Kita crossed her right arm over Michael and gnawed at another fingernail. This action served two purposes. It shielded him from the frenzied activity going on around them, and it availed her already raw cuticle to be further chewed, a nervous habit she had never out grown.

Eighteen of the twenty cryogenic hibernation pods, lining the circular room like dominos set ready to be toppled in a concentric design, were frosted over, already occupied, headed for other planets along the way. One was open, waiting for the emergency-scheduled passenger heading to Earth, Kita and child.

Glancing at her baby’s sweet, velvety face, she reached for another of the tissues supplied for her needs and blew her nose. She had to be strong, for Michael’s sake. Pulling another tissue, she swabbed her wounded finger and wrapped a make-shift bandage around each of the offended fingers.

She smiled as she smoothed down a tuft of silver hair which poked out from her baby’s swaddled wrap. The soft rose-petal feel of him stirred a maternal consciousness so strong, it still amazed her today. Was she doing the right thing taking him home? Would he be accepted on Earth?

Here on Omicron his wolfish appearance was widely accepted as normal. The Omicronians who were half human, half silver wolf carried this genetic appearance. All of the fertility-assisted children bore half of the Earth donors’ DNA, which increased their human aspects, but they all retained the dominant silver wolf mane and a short, velvety layer of light grey fur. It served them well as a sunscreen under the harsh dual suns. The only variation from a human face otherwise, was noticeable once they were older, a year or so, when they opened their mouths and a wide canine maw and sharp teeth were exposed.

Michael was no exception, but Kita loved him with every fiber of her being. From the moment she felt him flutter in her abdomen, she knew she loved him with all her heart. She also knew the surrogate pregnancy was a mistake. At least, it was a mistake for her. Giving this child up would not be a viable option. Her heart couldn’t let go. Even when he was born, and she took in his canine resemblance with his blue-like-hers eyes, it had little deterrence on her emotional link to the baby, her son. She loved him so much.

She prayed her family would help her protect him from any inappropriate attitudes. Surely, by now people on Earth had become accustomed to intergalactic differences. It had been made law more than a century back to accept all peoples’ differences, be it appearances or preferences. Everyone was entitled to fair and equal treatment.

So many questions still rattled around in her head, but Michael’s safety was her utmost priority. If Pastor Oliver couldn’t have guaranteed his safety, she would have stayed. Knowing it meant she would have to give him to the waiting surrogate parents. Her love for him was so great, she’d sacrifice raising him if it ensured his safety.