Joria turned to her sombre aunt and said dolefully from her command chair,"The planet is poisonous! Atmosphere heavy with hydrocarbons, and enough carbon dioxide to give you a mild case of CO2 poisoning! The oceans are dead and the Blight quarantines this world to 'Single-Transit ONLY! You go down there...you'll never come back. You'll die!" Joria's tail thrashed behind her crash-couch. Joria's aunt Kyryn was of the Kryff species and known for their emotions. Kyryn stood there, wheezing for a moment and shrugged. She said tiredly, "It doesn't matter. Stay here and die, or go there and die doing something worth-while? I'm going. I only have a handful of days left to me." Kyryn fell silent as her head pounded with dreadful pain. She blinked her shining sea-green eyes and commented, "See just past the Rahkoshan ship, that patch of sandy beige on the planet? That's where the 'Ship of the Four Sisters' went down. That's where Tyyee the White went! Are you finished scanning the Rahkoshan ship, yet?" Joria blinked back tears, and said with a quavering voice,"Yes. Scan complete. The Rahkoshan ship DOES have an Envoy saucer stowed in it's ventral bay. Looks like they're ready to deploy it. What ever they're doing, that nuclear explosion on the surface must have shortened their time-table." Kyryn nodded and ordered,"Hail the Rahkoshan ship and inform them that the 'Goddess of the Waters' needs a ride to the surface." Joria objected,"Aunt Kyryn! If you go down-planet on an ENVOY vessel--you won't be able to carry weapons, technology, armor or even FOOD!" Kyryn gave a small smile to her niece. "Why do wear those glasses? You don't need them." Joria frowned and said,"I was defective. I needed them...I want to remind people of the Sururin Co-op to remember the past. and not forget. You know that." "You do it for others. What I do, I do for others. I can feel the new Four Sisters down there. The Goddess of Earth is dying, and the one of Air is lost in the sea. They have the artifacts, but no idea what to do with them." Kyryn paused and wheezed and coughed for a moment. "I must go. My destiny is down there. Their 'goddess of fire' just was reborn, just like how Larka used to do all the time. That brown girl, beside that fuzzy little man with the fez, IS the 'Goddess of the Waters'! It's all tied together." Kyryn trailed off tiredly, feeling light-headed. After a moment, Joria said,"The Rahkoshan say,'Welcome to the 'Water Goddess' and we are ready to have you transfered over. Haste is needed.' I'm ready to drop our cloak and dock with them." Kyryn paused at the hatch to the below deck area and said sadly, "Farewell,Joria, my most beloved niece of my sisters. Tell my daughter,Mura, I died with courage, embracing my destiny. Saving the world is no guarantee of survival. Tell her I love her, and didn't want her to stop me." Joria choked out, "Farewell, my most beloved Aunt Kyryn. Die honorably or live with victory. I love you." Kyryn turned her sea-green eyes upon her niece for the last time and nodded with a tight smile, and quickly slid down the 'climb-stick' to the lower level. She didn't want her niece to see her weep. While the ship slid silently toward the Rahkoshan vessel, the only occupants on it wept.They waited for the cold hand of destiny to finally separate them. --TO BE CONTINUED!--