Kingdoms Away 1: Jorian Cluster Archives Read Online Free PDF Page A

close to his cocoon. “The Sharith are breaking through. But
they cannot bring their beasts if we succeed.”
    Al thought he understood the issue. The
Elysians had sworn to protect all animals. And if the Sharith
brought their beasts—he wasn’t sure what the beasts were—laws would
be broken as the Elysians sought to protect their region of space.
The foresight amazed him. And he, and his sons, were a part of what
he hoped was a truly noble act.

Old Betrayals

    “… and when the Elysians command,
Animalia shall strike with all its might to render the Enemy a
deadly blow…”
    Excerpt from the Joiran Cluster Archives, the Third
Hostility.
     
    {[Joiran Cluster] [Anamoth] [Saxe to Kreid]
    [914857/2577/22/space]}
     
    Serafina was travelling with her parents on a
Goliath class ACES, the Anamoth. The cruise ship, built at
Behemoth, was en route from Saxe to Kreid in the GA15 system. Only
a handful of people knew her true identity, Serafina Alessandra
Reos, and she knew herself only as Serafina Rushton, daughter to
Robin and William, as did most of those on board. She had lessons
to attend while her parents worked during the day. There were
fifteen other children in her class today, and there were at least
four other classes with different age groups.
    She hated some of her subjects. Math and
Unuslingua lessons were boring. During the math lessons, she’d sit
and stare at the figures unblinkingly, trying to amuse herself with
ocular extortions. The numbers meant nothing to her, just symbols
that were supposed to mean something when you combined them. She
received average scores and would “listen” to her parents tell her
how important it was that she asserted herself more. With her
Unuslingua classes, she grew weary and wished she could learn
Animalia and not the common language. After having to rewrite the
alphabet over and over again and growing bored with that, she drew
little animals on each letter. The teacher contacted her parents
and arranged to meet with them in their family quarters.
    “I mean, it was very clever of her, really.
She came up with a different animal for each letter, unusual
animals as well. I don’t even know where she got the information.
She will always differentiate between the sexes of the animals.
I’ve had a report from Dobson who, as you may be aware, sees
Serafina down in the animals’ pens frequently. He says that she
always knows the sex of animals, and there is a subtle difference
in how she treats them. Her signals are slightly more deferential
toward the male of each species but definitely more accommodating
toward the female. We don’t understand this, considering the
Equality Protocol set by our founders. She can spend hours down
there taking care of them. However, I wouldn’t be too concerned
about this issue.” She lowered her voice. “These unusual attributes
may very well be part of her … genetic inheritance.”
    She looked intently at the two with a “now to
the real problem” expression. “I cannot fault her on her attention
to the creatures, but outside the pens, her concentration level is
very short. We are trying to make things interesting, but we can’t
keep specializing for her in a large class. You did still want to
enforce the stipulation of her attending a normal class size?”
    Her parents nodded.
    Serafina was sitting in her bedroom, with its
cream paneled walls and soft pink furnishings. She was on the bed,
in view of the three adults sitting on the lounge and its matching
chairs, swinging her legs back and forth. Her long brown hair was
up in a ponytail and she was wearing her favorite blue dress. She
heard every word. She looked at Mr. Pollocks, a sloth bear, sitting
next to her on the Elysian print bedspread and winked at him as
she’d seen her dad wink at her mum. “It’ll be okay,” she reassured
him. The voices started again after a pause.
    “Just keep trying; maybe she’s taking in more
than we realize. Her IQ should be high but we