Iskira and Joe

Joe held his solitude some time at the Castle Jaw site, attended on only by a number of increasingly turbid thoughts. The suns had begun to dip, and in this shaded space the uncut grass was already wearing its coat of dusk when Joe heard someone join him. He looked up from where he sat, and saw Iskira.

“The Grindoes’ creation-myth makes for fascinating reading,” she greeted him. “Despite the many differences between their way of life and ours, it nevertheless speaks volumes of preoccupations common to all sentient beings – certainly the desire to procreate, which is ever-present, but also a deeper need for that companionship and empathy we find only in like-minded others. The inherent craving for these is surely what lies behind that ancient narrative of a genetic originator who one day threw open his body in an explosion of mystical purple-hued energy, which spanned the neighbouring solar-systems and transformed on a sub-molecular level every creature it touched into what is now the Grindo race.”

Joe was fighting back a smile.

“You’re making that up as you go along,” he informed Iskira. “Whenever Neetra teases me about something, her nose does what yours just did.”

Iskira laughed, and sat down on the grass beside him.

“Forgive me,” she said. “When we scientists have an important point to make, we like to preface it with some relevant example to lend weight to our assertions. Especially when those assertions may prove to be controversial. You were right not to tell my husband about what happened between you and Neetra on the day you parted.”

As far as Joe was concerned, this assertion was weighty enough without the help of Grindo folklore. He started and gaped at Iskira, speechless for once.

“A mother knows, Joe,” she told him patiently. “And moreover, in this particular equation I could not fail to. Of all the children born and synthetic James and I have brought into the universe together, none are as much like their matriarch as my small Neetra. We’re people of desire, she and I. We act on our desire, when we know we have found the one. During the war for Earth, I had to know. And then, when it was over, it fell to the same man to remind me of the lesson thus learned, and guide me back to that one with whom I truly belong. I was fortunate. He happened to be the wisest teacher I ever met.”

Though Joe supposed this was none of his business, he could not help taking an interest regardless. He had already been aware that Iskira spent the period in question estranged from James and keeping company on Mars with her once lecturer and lover Dr. Irwin Mendelssohn, but this was news to Joe about just how far that had gone.

“You are the only one I’ve told,” added Iskira, seeming to know what he was thinking.

“I am surprised the honour was reserved for me,” was the most tactful way Joe knew to put it, without mentioning directly that Iskira saw her husband on this planet every day.

“Are you?” she then inquired. Joe, with some reluctance, conceded her point.

“Between us we would seem to be amassing quite the compendium of truths which Dr. Neetkins will learn only when the time is right,” he observed gravely.

“I’m determined to make it work, even despite that,” declared Iskira. “Because I have chosen. And Joe, here at length is my gist – Neetra has chosen too. My husband’s fears for her stem from the certainty he is correct. She will find her way back to you before she considers returning to us. I know this. And when she does, you must be ready. It is time for you to put your own fears aside. All your fears,” she finished significantly.

Joe wasn’t sure how she kept doing it, but he was about ready to believe in the maternal intuition of which Iskira spoke. Though still lost for words he steadily returned her look, and thereby assured her he would try.

Just then a messenger bounced in on their seclusion. “Begging your pardon, Professor Neetkins, but our guest sends for you and the Earthling visitor,” he announced.

“Thank you, Third Laboratory Assistant Grindo,” said Iskira, and she and Joe rose to set off with him for this much-anticipated rendezvous.

NEXT: 'HEROES' REUNION'