Kingdoms Away 1: Jorian Cluster Archives Read Online Free PDF

won’t know until she
reaches twelve, maybe ten for her.” The teacher continued and
smiled. “She really is very charming, very protective towards the
animals down in the cargo and pet section, and toward those smaller
or weaker than her.”
    Her parents smiled at the blonde woman
encouragingly. Serafina could see, though, that they were worried.
She didn’t understand why math was so important when animals were
so much more interesting and vital to the Joiran Cluster. Couldn’t
they see that?
    She stopped swinging her legs as her gentle
teacher waved goodbye. Her parents beckoned her into the lounge
room. She groaned. Not another talk. She hated the dreary,
dragged-out talks. Some friends told her they got smacks. She
wished she got a smack instead of having to “listen.” All she ever
wanted to do while they talked was to drift off to sleep. Every
time the talk started, she could feel herself getting lethargic.
Sometimes she would suddenly find herself looking at their
expectant faces, and they would be patiently waiting for her
response. That’s when she realized that they had asked her
something and she’d missed it.
    She quietly shuffled on the grey carpet to
them.
    “Pick up your feet, Feena.”
    She sidled into her dad’s waiting arms. To
her surprise they didn’t speak; they just hugged her and gave their
secret “let’s go and talk about her” look over her head. She
cheered up. She grabbed Mr. Pollocks and they went to play high
tea.
     
    The next day she went to class and found they
were actually studying something interesting. They had a project to
do. They had to pick an animal and write about it. They could even
draw pictures or, if the animal was on board, they could use it for
demonstrations.
    After lessons and changing into exploring
clothes, which usually consisted of long pants and long-sleeved
top, she had some time to investigate the ship on the fifth level.
She grabbed Mr. Pollocks. All of her friends had gone off to do
their chores first. Feena had decided to do her project on the goat
and wanted to see it. Dobson stopped her at the blue metal, oval
portal to the ship’s animal pen.
    The burly, fair-skinned man smiled down at
her. “What would you like to do, young Serafina?”
    “To see the goat.”
    “You’re in luck then, lass. She has been
pregnant and just at this moment is having babies. Would you like
to watch?”
    Her face struggled not to show the horror she
felt, but she still couldn’t stop herself. “You mean she was
gestating and is now giving birth to kids?”
    His square-shaped face turned a shade of
pink. “Err … yes. Do you want to go in?”
    It was her turn to look flustered. “No
thanks.” She quietly walked away.
    It was good the Markhor, the goat, was
breeding but she remembered all too well the day her parents had
taken her to see a friend of theirs giving birth. Her parents,
somewhat reluctantly, followed the advice of the genetic scientists
who wanted to expose Serafina to the beauty of childbirth so that
she would one day look forward to her own births. But Serafina had
felt sick. By the time her parents had realized the effect on their
daughter, the damage had already been done. No one had noticed the
stricken look on the little face right through the entire
procedure. She vomited and felt disgraced. Later, while in bed, she
heard her parents talk about it.
    She had felt so humiliated it took her five
days to go back to visit the woman and her baby. Serafina still saw
the birth clearly in her mind. The baby, to her relief when she did
see it, was clean and somewhat cute, but she didn’t want to see
another birth ever again. There was no way she was going to have
babies. She fled the animal section, remembering she was supposed
to go directly to her family quarters, but she needed to try to
wipe that awful flashback from her mind. Normally, she would
recruit Jo and Benny to go exploring with her, but Jo was sick and
Benny’s parents had punished him