trans_9 | still alive at twenty-six

Zero gravity. It was not something Arha was familiar with. Today was a day to do new things. She floated in the middle of the Sensorium's white environment, getting used to the feel of it as metal walls and a series of corridors began to appear. Arha was no swimmer, but she was good with figuring things out and that was going to include how to move in a zero-gravity environment.

She took a breath as a thin column appeared next to her, and shoved off, carefully manipulating her body to angle herself toward her target--another wall twenty freet from her. She missed and went crashing into the edge of the wall, which spun her hard into another. She hung there, cussing under her breath, her knees tucked against her chest as she finally slowed and came to a bumping rest.

Twenty-six years ago today, she had been born and given to the Bene Gesserit. Twenty-six years. Time had passed and had brought her here, to this place, this time, and this moment.

"I survived twenty-six years," Arha said aloud as she untucked herself and set her feet against the wall before trying the next one. "Twenty-six minus forty-one." She closed her eyes, her fingers reaching for the wall. "Fifteen. Fifteen more years to go, Leto. Maybe I shall live past those years in spite of history. Ah!"

She opened her eyes as her fingertips met the wall and she used the tiniest bit of pressure to send herself off in another direction, tucking herself in as a target popped down. Her hand flashed out to hit it as she sailed past. Another popped up at a different angle. Twenty-six. Arha spun, her lines clean and efficient even as she tried to correct herself and missed a target, pushed off and found herself face to face with Leto. He said nothing. Arha clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as she immediately tried to block an impssoibly quick strike. Her free hand closed over his wrist. This is not real, remember? The crysknife hung there, its tip brushing her plantsuit. And then she was hurtling in another direction, spinning completely out of control.

Leto was gone.

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"I think you would find her order of 'Grasshoppers' most fascinating. I am glad of your presence, Sister. I wanted to ask you..." There was a pause while she gathered her thoughts into something coherent. "...A person can be two things at once. Not the best example, but Muad'dib proved that. I have seen how much joy the Jedi bring you and I will never intefere with that. I respect them and their ways. But I have come to realize that I cannot accomplish this alone but for two acolytes. If noone formed a new church, Martin Luther's heresy would have died with him. In order to continue Darwi's work...I want to ask you...and this is a request you can refuse, not me ordering you as Mother Superior...to be an amphibian. Please, give this proper thought and tell me your answer when you have found it." Not a literal frog, of course. Sheeana knew she would meditate on the origins of the word, what it literally meant.

"You know I shall lend you support in whatever you do," Arha said after a moment's pause. "There will be times when I cannot, due to conflicts, but as much as I am able, you have me. I have great love for you and the Jed-Eye, thus I shall do what I can for both in any capacity I can. There are moments when I feel as if I am to be ambassador-liaison, balanced on the edge of what I have been and what I am becoming. I am one thing with many parts, such a thing I have always been. As such, if you have need, ask, and I will do what I can. Does this suffice?"

"That answer gratifies me. I left Chapterhouse to flee the Bene Gesserit mingling with another order. While the Jed-eye and the Honored Matres are nothing alike...If it were not for that my decision caused me to meet you, I would wonder if it were I that was the fool and Murbella the wise one. It would do all of us good if we were to learn from each other." And there she realized that Murbella was probably the better example, except that Arha had no personal experience of their captured Honored Matre. That, and the admission was painful, something Sheeana didn't bother to hide. She had become Duncan's mate, after all.

"To close oneself off from all around them is an injustice, for learning from everything around you is a thing that must be done if only for survival. My time in the deep desert taught me as much. We must adapt and shape ourselves to this new universe, I think. Change makes fools of us all if we ignore it," Arha said with a soft frown.

"In other words, 'adapt or die'. And I will not let the Sisterhood die." Sheeana would have very much liked to pace, but floating as she was, it just wasn't possible. "Revising thousands of years of our educational practices is not easy. First will have to go the assumption that noone else has anything to teach us. When the Jed-eye are more established here, I would very much like to set up a student exchange program where my acolytes and their pahduans exchange places for a small time." She was both airing her ideas and, she hoped, giving Arha a small distraction from her distress.

Arha floated a bit crookedly and thought this proposal over for a long while. It was a good thing to set up an exchange as such, if her Jed-Eye did not mind it. Her hair coiled and drifted around her face as she thought, her eyes closed and contemplated the several strands of thought that surrounded the matter.

"I will discuss this with all Jed-Eye when the proper time comes," she said at last.

still alive at twenty-six

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