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“Tell them, Ternan. They deserve to know,” she said in a hushed voice.
“You’re right. The truth is my time is about to expire. Soon, you will be required to oversee our work, our galaxy, and the protection and welfare of every species I brought forth.”
What the hell? Our father was dying? Was that even possible?
“And if we choose not to?” I asked after the news had settled in.
“Then there will nothing left. Every world, every moon, every star and solar system will be destroyed. That is the burden you both face.”
CHAPTER7
Earth Station Sixty-Nine
Year twenty-eight ninety-two
Present day
Sunny
“Stop worrying, Sunny. They’re going to be fine. You changed their destiny.” My assistant always sounded so certain. Either that or she was tired of me hanging around, fretting over every tiny sound the pups made. I couldn’t blame her. Animals, especially those who’d been injured or abused, were my Achilles heel.
Destiny.
The word stuck in my mind. I hadn’t heard it for several years. People in our culture believed they could alter their futures. My parents had insisted otherwise. To them, everyone’s destinies had been preordained, and we were simply walking through life on a moving platform either heading to that moment where fate intervened or living it. My parents were highly educated, so much so that sometimes I couldn’t understand what they were saying.
What I had gleaned from their beliefs on destiny was that if by chance any creature managed to alter destiny, disaster would follow. As in the universe as we knew it would disappear. Poof. Gone.
I don’t why it struck me hard on this day other than I had intervened with the abuse the puppies had been forced to endure.
I yanked off my gloves, tossing them into the recycling bin and crouched down in front of the protection cages. The tiny snores from two of the pups indicated they were comfortable. I opened the gate, rubbing the tummy of one of them. When the furry baby opened his eyes, I almost melted.
I hugged the puppy close, the warmth of his little body invigorating, his little heartbeat a further indication he would pull through just fine. Still, my heart ached for every creature, sometimes including aliens. Once I’d had to use my medical training on an alien creature who’d crash landed on the Earth Station, every doctor refusing to treat the small creature. My father had known I’d never say no to any being who needed help. That was in my makeup. I started to hum, cradling the pup close, noticing a few seconds later my assistant was watching me closely.
“You have a beautiful voice,” Cara said. “It’s soothing. You could have been a singer.”
“Not a chance, but I learned a long time ago it calms creatures great and small.”
“I hope I’ll be like you one day, a natural.”
“You will.”
“I feel it’s my destiny.”
There was that word again.
Had my actions meant I’d altered some aspect of the web of destiny that would lead to the end of civilization as I knew it? Oh, hell. If I believed that then why bother living at all?
Then Thor slid his head under my arm, my Golden retriever-Irish setter mix insisting he give his well wishes for a speedy recovery. “I know they’ll be fine in my heart, Cara, but that doesn’t make what happened to them any easier to deal with.” My assistant was fabulous. It had taken me four months enduring three interns who couldn’t care less about animals to find the right person. He or she had to love furry creatures as much as I did. Cara fit the bill perfectly.
As one of only a few veterinarians on the Earth Station, I felt blessed to be able to do what I loved. Caring for animals was all I’d ever wanted to do. However, in being able to provide love, medical attention, and comfort to various furry creatures, I’d been forced to see how horrible people could still be. Not people. Humans.
Half the alien species were kinder and gentler souls than almost every human I’d come into contact with. The other half were beasts from hell. But hey. Growing up looking like insects on steroids could do that to a creature.
After gently easing the furry baby next to his brothers and sisters, I closed the cage door and kissed Thor on the head, studying the other babies, who’d all come out of surgery successfully.
“I’ll stay right here with them tonight so you can go home to that sexy almost fiancé of yours.” Cara grinned as she stood over me.
“I don’t think that’s necessary.”
