“I think Grandam would be pleased and proud now to hear the message brought by my sister-daughter, VueShaanye Khornya, called Ah-khorn-ah by those humans who saved her as an infant, and saved us from the Khieevi. Khornya?”
Acorna gracefully extracted herself from Aari, with a last caress to his fingers and a lingering touch on Maati’s shoulder, and knelt beside Grandam to kiss her forehead before standing, quite close to Grandam, and saying, “As some of you know, the Khieevi -were defeated by people my Uncle Hafiz brought into this quadrant in hopes that you -would trade with them. I -want you to know that when these people, merchants, tradespeople, learned that you were in danger, they hastened to help you however they could. Not all could destroy Khieevi. Like the Linyaari, many are good only at building, not at destroying. Dr. Ngaen Xong Hoa, in particular, has long sought to escape from those who would use the -weather-control science he developed for martial purposes. He feels a great kinship -with the Linyaari.
“He, along -with the most expert terraforming specialists available in the Federation, have been brought to House Harakamian’s Moon of Opportunity by Hafiz and Rafik Harakamian for the express purpose of helping us restore Vhiliinyar to its former life and beauty.
Her voice lowered for a moment and her silver eyes were covered by their long pewter lashes before she resumed, “I do not recall having seen Vhiliinyar with my own eyes. But in my dreams, since I -was a baby, I have seen a beautiful world of rolling hills, snow-capped mountains, tumbling waterfalls and forests, and great tracts of delicious grasses. I am told that is what Vhiliinyar was like.
“Grandam’s final sacrifice, -which kept Aagroni lirtye and his staff’s heroic efforts to preserve native species that would have otherwise been extinguished, was her last contribution to the restoration of this home I have never known, but many of you remember. Her first contribution, of course,” and she smiled impishly, “Was to have her many children and grandchildren, all of us.
“My adoptive fathers have requested me to ask you if the Linyaari would please direct Dr. Hoa and the other specialists in a joint effort to restore our ancestral home to us. For those of us who require the solitude and seclusion of a peaceful world, Vhiliinyar’s location will remain a highly classified secret. My uncles further propose that narhiiVhiliinyar and Kubiilikhan also be restored as a trade base for Linyaari skills and goods, where our people may interact freely with people of all planets and species so that we may each learn the good the other has to offer.
She knelt once more beside Grandam and, laying her hand upon Grandam’s folded hands, said, “Grandam, when the restoration is complete, you and Grandfather will be brought home to join your children on your world.”
It was perhaps the first funeral in the history of the Linyaari in which the beloved deceased was interred to sobs of rejoicing and cries of hope for a better world to come.