Narchi ran out of steam about twenty feet from the grave. He wasn't completely healed back and his new legs ached like fire. Floona exclaimed, "What in HELL is that thing?" She seemed amused and wondering. Narchi said, "Since this IS an impromptu grave without 'OFFICIAL' sanction...we got a little carried away. Lime carved up the marker with a torch, Jahtu helped wrestle the stone on top, and Jeet and I helped find a statue for the stone." Floona laughed, "That explains a LOT! You and Jeet off looting old museums again?" Narchi laughed. "If I can get him signed up to Fleet, he'd be the best procurement officer in the Fleet! You can NOT beat a Squirrel-derived beastman when it comes to hording and acquiring! Jeet is more like a Ninja, anyway! Not that I'M admitting anything..." Neblae looked over from her bowed head and asked,"Floona...why today? We've asked you every year for almost five years to come along to say your good-byes to Ahrini, and you always made excuses. Why now?" Floona shrugged. "I'm conflicted. I still have some grief, but now some anger,too." Narchi asked with a raised brow, "Anger? Why now?" Floona said in a low voice, "Neblae took Ahrini's name after she died here. AND her passcode to Floating City 64--I think Ahrini might be angry and lashed out from the grave to...uhhhhhm... take Neblae's baby." Neblae and Narchi looked in Floona in shock. Neblae shook her head, keeping her composure. "No. I knew Ahrini from all the people she knew who interacted with me who thought I was her. She MUST have been loved by everyone who knew her. Such a person wouldn't ever hurt an unborn child for the sake of a name that SHE let me use for a while." Narchi hobbled over to Floona and put a hand on her shoulder. "She isn't forgotten, either. I mentioned her in my forward in the book I wrote about the development of the Relative-Inertial-Frame's development that lead to our Faster-than-light engine! Her design was a clever cheat to make a temporary one! It was brilliant. Neblae and I could have never broken the equation without her ground-breaking work!" Floona sighed. "You're both right. I just miss her, even after all this time. I need a boyfriend. Or girlfriend...or something." Neblae looked over at Narchi hearing the despairing tones from Floona. He went, "Ahem...I can whip together a quick robot with a huge dildo glued to it, if you need one!" Neblae growled, "I'll beat you," and looked for a stick to beat Narchi with while Floona burst out laughing. "Lords of LIGHT, Narchi! I was looking for wisdom and you toss that at her?" Neblae stood with fists on hips and glared. Narchi shrugged. "I got blown up. I don't have any good sense left. Lemme alone! Hey, Loony--why did you bring the sunflowers?" Floona put them on the stone. "Ahrini loved to eat sunflower seeds. She liked to look at them,too. I couldn't think of anything else to bring." Neblae shook her head. "You brought your heart. That's all the dead might value." Narchi's phone went off with a particular tone. He picked up, "Captain Tkarro? What's up?" Captain Dokka Tkarro said, "Narchi--I need you and Neblae back ASAP. A space-battleship crashed on Shalmiraine almost six hours ago, and we need you back." Narchi almost shouted, "A SPACE-BATTLESHIP CRASHED? We only have ONE left! What in hell...?" Dokka laughed, "Whoa,whoa! I should have explained. You remember that Martya had made contact with the Humans in the Milky Way galaxy? One of their ships just arrived." Narchi shouted, "THEY CROSSED 75,000 LIGHT YEARS IN A MONTH?" Neblae said, "Forty one days, not a month." Narchi stuck out his tongue at her. Dokka said, "I thought you might like a look at their FTL engines." Neblae jerked his walker away and tossed it to Floona, and picked him up in a fireman's carry and started running toward the air-car. Narchi shouted into the phone,"We're..on our way! It seems!" --TO BE CONTINUED!--