The voyage to Tereskàdhar continues. I am still using Alharhanian dates, so I guess we are not at the halfway point of the journey. I had thought the cubs would be asking if we are going to be there soon, but so far I have not heard anything. With so many activities available on this spaceship they have been kept busy so far.

I am looking at the date on the calendar in our cabin, and I realize that I have been keeping this journal for one year now. I could talk about time flying, but I won't. Let's just say that I hope to keep this journal going for a few more years.

I have collected the first fifty entries of my journal, and I have put them in book form, and the book is now available from the University of Treskebhar Press. I asked Sen Tyler to edit it for me, and he was happy to oblige. He told me that it was an easy job because he was impressed with my writing. I could see that he wasn't lying, but still… I was just putting my thoughts down, and recording the events that were happening to me and my family and the Alharhanians and Tereskàdians around me.

I have my autobiography with me, but I haven't done anything with it. I know it needs a lot of editing, but Rhalhea told me there was no hurry to get it done. Right now, I am glancing at the part where I kill Jhar Morněl, and Kykherhenha knows that the narrative is bothering me. She asks me why I keep coming back to that section, and I tell her I'm thinking of a way to rewrite it.

I wonder what it would be like for someone to be born on a ship like this. Someone like Jackson Markham Tyler? Kykherhenha asked. Of course she knew I was thinking of him. Sen Tyler had never been on a planet until the scoutcraft he was on had crashlanded on Tereskàdhar.

We have had dinner with Captain Lhuâdel last night. That brought back memories of the journey from Tereskàdhar to Alharhan that Rhalhea and I and over one hundred cubs took. I'm not going to write too much about this, because it would bring back memories of my mother's rape.

As I look at what I have written so far I realize I have written little bits and pieces. Kykherhenha says I'm bored, and I don't argue with her, because she is right. I am sitting in my cabin, and the only one here, besides Kykherhenha is Jhalhemha and Beshalhen. My youngest daughter is lying beside me, so I have positioned myself in such a way that my pouch is readily available to her. She is over a year old now, but she is still so small. The one thing that distinguishes her from a cub which is less than one year old is the fur. She is fully covered with auburn fur now, and the long, bushy tail has its black tip. She does not talk yet, but she sure purrs a lot.

Rhalhea and my other two cubs have gone to the theater on the twelfth deck. I think an acting troupe is presenting a play, but I told Rhalhea that I wasn't interested. I told her I had to get back to my journal, because I had not done anything with it since we started this journal. I know she wanted to persuade me to come, so I quickly said that I would go another time. She made me promise, so now I have no choice.

Jhalhemha has crawled up to my chest, and is now nursing from my left teat. Instinctively, I begin to purr. I close my eyes and try to clear my thoughts, but that is so hard to do, especially when you are linked with your whistling dragon. How much longer? How many more days… weeks… are we going to be on this spaceship before we reach Alharhan?

I stand up, walk to the door. It slides open automatically, and I look out into the corridor. A porter comes by and asks me if there was anything he can do for me. No, he can't.
He looks at Jhalhemha and tells me she is cute. I decided he said that about all Tereskàdian cubs.

One thing that keeps bothering me was that since we had boarded the ship, Alharhanians have been avoiding us, or at least it seems that way. We are now in the second month of the voyage, and the Alharhanians who have talked with us can be counted on the digits of one paw. I don't know if I should make a big deal out of that, but you would think that someone on this ship would not be afraid to have a conversation with us.

They can't a conversation with you, Kykherhenha said, if you stay in your cabin. Go out there and mingle. Go where they gather, and talk to them, and they will answer you.

All right, if that's what I should do, then that is what I will do. As soon as Jhalhemha is in my pouch I will go to the Game Room. Maybe I could play Pent'hăr.

And the operative word is 'maybe.'

N'hŏŵrhachyzh 3.99/Day 199

The date below reflects the current date on Alharhan, but being on board a spaceship that is in deep space, making its way to Tereskàdhar, the Alharhanian dates seem rather obsolete now. Soon after we boarded the ship I asked Captain Bekrol Lhuâdel how time is measured aboard the ship, and he told me that for the first half of the journey Alharhanians usually relied on the clocks of Alharhan so they would not lose track of a time measurement they were so used to, but for the remainder of the journey to Tereskàdhar they would have to get used to Tereskàdian times. Since we are still in Alharhanian territory, so to speak, I will continue to use Alharhanian dates. The Captain also told me that the ship's computer uses an internal time clock, but that the passengers do not have to worry about that.

It has been more than three weeks since I made my last journal entry, but the news is that there was really nothing to report other than the fact that we Tereskàdians and whistling dragons were getting ready to travel to Tereskàdhar on the first of Mharhachyzh. Unlike Alharhanians who tend to pack a lot of things, including clothes and personal items, we Tereskàdians had it rather easy in that department since we don't wear clothes, and we don't need such items as soap or shaving accessories, or deodorant, or combs or brushes, or dozens of other items that Alharhanians use. Lheana suggested that we take some reading material, but I said the ship had a library, and if we wanted something to read, we would find it there. What about toys for the cubs? They had several play rooms there, presided over by an android nanny who was programmed to watch Alharhanian children and Tereskàdian cubs.

In the end we took nothing with us. That made it so much easier to get aboard the shuttle craft quickly and easily. One of the shuttles had left already when we arrived but there were six more that would be making the flight to the mothership which was orbiting above us, ready to set out for Tereskàdhar. When Shuttle #2 was announced, we said our good byes. Thank the Supreme One there were no tears, because I don't think I could have stood there and watched the Dhorens cry because we were leaving. I could tell by their expressions that they would miss us, and they wanted us to be careful up there, but other than that the good byes were fairly simple and straightforward.

Since Tereskàdians look very much alike, I had to reintroduce myself to Captain Lhuâdel. It finally dawned on him that ten years before I had been the leader of the more than one hundred cubs who had journeyed from Tereskàdhar to Alharhan. I introduced him to Jhorhea, and Rheža, and told him that Jhalhemha was a 'tweener' now, but she was currently asleep in my pouch. He invited us for dinner, but I told him we would have to find our cabins first, then we would come down for dinner as long as it wasn't too late.

I found out that there were two thousand six hundred and seventy-four beings on board the ship, and that included a family of five Tereskàdians and five whistling dragons. We were the only Tereskàdian family on board, so we found ourselves the subject of much staring, especially by Alharhanian children. You would think they had never seen any Tereskàdians and whistling dragons, and maybe they hadn't. Some of the passengers came from the rural area of Te'hănys and other countries, and seeing an alien species who was linked to a furred, flying mammal was something new to them. It seemed that every time we drank from our whistling dragons they stood and watched, and talked among themselves. I turned up my hearing to listen to their conversations, but all I could hear was questions: Why are they doing that? Can't they drink another liquid like everyone else? Should our children be watching this?

One incident that comes to mind happened on the third day out from Alharhan. Rhalhea and I were sitting in one of the lounges (Jhorhea and Rheža were asleep in our cabin, and Jhalhemha was in Rhalhea's pouch), and we were watching the wallscreen that was showing the latest news from Alharhan. There was this large, heavy-set Alharhanian whom I took to be one of those rural males, because he was wearing those green and black coveralls they like to wear. He came up to me and asked me if I wanted to engage him in a wrestling match in the sixth-deck gym. I looked at Rhalhea, and via our whistling dragons she told me that it was up to me to set this Alharhanian straight. I asked him if he knew anything about Tereskàdians, and his answer was another question: Are you scared? I almost expected him to say 'animal', but he didn't. It almost seemed as if he wanted to say it, but restrained himself.

The last time I was scared, I told him, was when I was four years old and a khobharet wanted to have me for a meal. I told him that if he wanted to wrestle me, I would take that as an attack and I would defend myself. If he knew anything about Tereskàdians he would know about the poison in my claws. I extended my claws, telling him to stay back, and I told him that the light-red liquid inside is a very deadly poison. Instant death, I said. No antidote. That backed him off a bit, and his face registered a major degree of disappointment. He looked like the kind of Alharhanian who would have enjoyed a good tussle with someone who could take care of himself.

When we walked down the hallways of the ship I noticed that Alharhanians tended to step aside. I don’t know if it was because they were afraid of us, or because I might use my claws if they brushed against me (the hallways are not that wide), but it seemed as if they were making an extraordinary effort to stay out of our way. I didn't let that bother me; I was more concerned with getting from here to there.

There is still a lot of distance to cover, and the ship we are on is a world onto itself. There are so many things to do, and so many places to go to that it would take the entire voyage to even experience it all. Perhaps over the next few weeks I will concentrate on the different venues the ship has to offer and I will let you know what these venues have to offer.

Right now, I am sitting in the same lounge where I had met the Alharhanian who wanted to wrestle me. Ever since I refused his offer I haven’t seen much of him, although he does come here occasionally. Once I tried to engage him in conversation, but he either didn't hear me, or he didn't want to hear me. After that, I just let it be.

There are about three dozen Alharhanians here… and one Tereskàdian and his whistling dragon. I noticed that nudity is allowed on this ship, which is understandable, since the ship originated on Alharhan. Of the three dozen, about a third of them are completely nude. I should mention here that the ship's internal temperature has been designed to accommodate Alharhanians so of course it is warmer than I would like it. But no matter, the temperature in my cabin has been adjusted by the computer so we Tereskàdians are comfortable throughout the voyage to Tereskàdhar.

I will write more as the mood dictates.

Mharhachyzh 17.99/Day 183

The fact that today is the second day of a long weekend is the good news. The bad news is that it has been raining since school at noon on the 19th, and it looks like it will be raining for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, when children and cubs go back to school, and parents go back to work, it is going to be very warm, and it will continue like that for the rest of the week.

Rhalhea and I just finished lunch, and she is drinking from Keridhar. We are in our room, alone except for Jhalhemha and Beshalhen. Jhalhemha is lying on my belly; I had thought she was going to take some nourishment from my chest teats, but so far she seems to be deciding whether she wants to go back inside and sleep or take a drink from Papa. I don't say anything, or encourage her, because what she wants to do is up to her.

On the 18th of this month I sent in my weekly column which appeared in yesterday's paper. I think I'm going to upset a few Alharhanians because I was pissed off at this one letter-writer who wrote he was going to start a campaign to make Tereskàdian omnivores. His reasoning was that if Alharhanians can eat both meat and vegetables, why can't Tereskàdians? So I laid back my ears, and the tip of my tail didn't need to be told to twitch, and I asked him if he had to learn to be stupid, or if it came naturally. It is readily apparent that this individual did not get an education, because even children as young as Arhen and Fhenha know that meat is the only food that Tereskàdians and whistling dragons can eat. But there are always individuals who want to change us, who want to adapt us to their ways. Why? Do they think they are better just because they are allegedly more intelligent, just because they can build, and destroy as well? What is I said, I have a tail; you should get a tail, too? Of course they wouldn't do that. Speaking of tails, I can't wait for the day when some bright Alharhanian is going to say, Why do they have a tail? We don't have a tail, so they shouldn't have one either.

All right, enough of this. As of this moment, Jhalhemha has retreated into my pouch. She is moving around in there, trying to get comfortable, but I know she will be asleep shortly. Rhalhea has finished drinking, and is now sitting beside me on the bed. She told me she was looking forward to going to Tereskàdhar, and this would be one trip we would take without any specific goal in mind, like mating to produce a cub, or hunting the most hateful Alharhanian in the Orovhian system.

When I told Khe'ăr and Lheana and the two sets of twins about it, they seemed to genuinely sorry to see us go. Nykha wanted to know if we were going to stay on Tereskàdhar, but I said I couldn't answer that. Most likely we would return to Alharhan, although it would be a long while before we came back. What about schooling for the cubs, Lheana asked. I would have to look into that, but I think the city of Monaran on Mhačăren has progressed in the last ten years so that it now has many new facilities, including a number of schools for various levels of education. If we decide to stay on Tereskàdhar, even just for a year, we will register Jhorhea and Rheža at one of the schools, so they can continue their education. Khe'ăr said that even on the ship there are classes for any cubs or children that travel between the two planets.

I look out the window, and the rain has slowed down to a drizzle. It has also cooled off considerably over the past few days, which I don't mind at all. Autumn is still about eight weeks ago, so I guess I shouldn't be too cheerful. There will still be hot days, humid days, that will make us Tereskàdians pant, and these days will last beyond the start of autumn. But somehow we cold-weather beings seem to come out of it without a scratch. We are overjoyed when winter comes and the snow falls, and to a small degree, Treskebhar and the surrounding area reminds us of Tereskàdhar.

Kykherhenha asks me if my complaints would be reversed if I came from a hot planet, like maybe Fhavharěl, the second planet out from Orovha. Of course, I said. Then I would be complaining that the winter is too cold, and I would rejoice at the hot summer weather. But all that is rather academic, isn't it? We are what we are.

On the morning of the 19th Rhalhea and I went to the spaceport to get the tickets for us, and for our cubs, and our whistling dragons. Because we are Tereskàdians we do not have to pay for the tickets. Yeah, yeah, I know. We Tereskàdians get a lot of freebies now. Well, what did you expect after hundreds of years of abuse and tortute and near extermination? The Alharhanians owe us, and they will owe us for many years to come.

Bhe. 21.99/Day 162

It is a beautiful, sunny day outside, and Kykherhenha and I are sitting by the water of Te'hănys Bay. Alharhanians who are not working, or who have decided not to work today, are spending their time at the beach, and most of them are nude. I even see a few children among the Alharhanians, and I wonder what excuse they offered their schools in order to stay away from their education today. We Tereskàdians couldn't do that, because it is impossible for us to tell a lie. Besides, beautiful day or not, today is a school day, and four Alharhanian children and two cubs who live in the house behind me, are at school right now, getting an education.

A few minutes ago, I took milk from Kykherhenha, and thought brought a crowd over to watch me. You'd think it was something new and innovative when the whole dang planet knows that Tereskàdians can only drink the milk of their whistling dragons. But still they stand in a semi-circle and make quiet comments that I'm not supposed to hear, but if I turn up my hearing to maximum I can hear every word they're saying. I have noticed that, unlike ten or fifteen years ago, the remarks are no longer crude and vulgar. Another step in the right direction for Alharhanians.

As I watch a family of Alharhanians - Mom, Dad, two cubs… children - swim near the shore of the bay, my mind is on the possibility of a trip to Tereskàdhar. Last weekend - the 9th - I sat down with Rhalhea and our two cubs (Jhalhemha was sleeping in Rhalhea's pouch), Khe'ăr and Lheana, as well as the two sets of twins, and I told everyone what I had in mind. Well, right away Arhen and Fhenha got all excited, and said they wanted to go, but Lheana quickly put a stop to that outburst. Khe'ăr told me and Rhalhea that if we don't take the chance of going on the first of Mharhachyzh, we would have to wait until almost the end of the year before we could go again.

Later, that evening, after the others had gone to bed, and after Jhorhea and Rheža, and their whistling dragons, had fallen asleep, Rhalhea and I talked about this long into the night. It seemed to me that my mate wasn't sure if she wanted to go; while Tereskàdhar was the planet where we were born, it also held a lot of bad memories, not the least of which was the systematic murder of our parents and friends, as well as the rape of my mother. And Rhalhea wasn't sure we should have the cubs exposed to all that.

I let her talk, and she told me what she thought of the trip to Tereskàdhar. It wasn't that she was really against it, but that she was apprehensive. There were now more Alharhanians than Tereskàdians living on Tereskàdhar, and many of them had not given up their old ways when it came to the Tereskàdians. When the Tereskàdian Act was made law, it not only included all the countries of Alharhan, but also the planets Tereskàdhar, Jhanhekhar, and any other planet where the Tereskàdians and their whistling dragons might take residence. But stubbornness is a hard thing to eradicate, and the Alharhanians on Tereskàdhar, especially the older ones, still think of us as animals.

When she was done I told her that I had already made up my mind to go. We discussed the fact that we were there just the year before, but I said that was because we wanted to conceive our third cub there, and we wanted her to be born on 'Hănharys, just like Jhorhea and Rheža. This time, it was going to be a vacation; this time, we would spend our time not only on 'Hănharys, but also on Mhačăren. We would tour the city of Monaran as free, and protected, Tereskàdians, and we would not walk in fear.

She said she would think about it, and let me know in the morning.

In the morning I told myself not to rush her, so I waited until she woke up, and drank from Keridhar. When she had quenched her thirst, she came over, put her arms around my neck, and told me she would go under one condition: We would stay on Tereskàdhar not for one month, but for three months. If it takes us three months to travel there, she said, and three months to travel back, spending only one month on Tereskàdhar wouldn't be worth it.

Three months. That would mean the cubs would miss nine months of school… or more, since the three months Rhalhea was referring too meant three Tereskàdian months.

To be continued.

Bhe. 13.99/Day 154

Today is the first full day of a two day weekend, the first since the children and the cubs went back to school, following the month long vacation. Both sets of Dhoren twins, and my two cubs said they were glad to see their friends again, and they had a lot to talk about.

The weather these last few days has been really hot, and Rhalhea and I spent those days down at the beach. When the youngsters came home from school they weren't even thinking about homework; all they wanted to do was cool off in the bay. It seemed that many other residents of the area had the same idea, and the beach was covered with nude bodies, and the waters were filled with Alharhanians, and a family of Tereskàdians and their whistling dragons. Needless to say, we had to turn down our hearing so we wouldn't have to hear the screeching and laughing.

I am sitting in Khe'ăr's office, Kykherhenha beside me, and I'm looking at this one bookshelf that contains what must be an encyclopedia with the most volumes on this entire planet. It is called Encyclopedia Orovha, and it contains anything and everything you could think of pertaining to Alharhan and Tereskàdhar. There are 150 volumes, and each volume is 825 pages long. Each book contains about a hundred articles, some longer than others, of course, and each book has about five hundred illustrations. There is even an article about me in there, and my claim to fame is killing Jhar Morněl, thus paving the way for democracy on Tereskàdhar, and the election of the first president of that planet. Another familiar name is Jackson Markham Tyler, who has the distinction of being, so far, the one and only alien from a distant planet to now live on Alharhan. (Well, if you want the truth, he may have been born on a spacship originating from anther planet, but he is now as Alharhanian as Khe'ăr Dhoren and Thyros Mharen.)

I have one of the volumes on Khe'ăr's desk, and I am looking at this interesting article about Alharhanian years translated into Tereskàdian years and vice-versa. Astronomers have come up with a rather simple formula that takes into account the number of days Alharhan orbits Orovha, and the number of days Tereskàdhar orbits Orovha. (They go into finer detail, such as lengths of day and night, but I don't want to make this too complicated.) So, taking into account that we are now in the year 5699, and this is the sixth month of a fifteen-month year, we translate that into a decimal number. Therefore, 6/15 = .400, or 5699.4. The formula to convert this number into the year it is on Tereskàdhar is as follows: TY= (AY+1-5001)*420/600 where TY is the Tereskàdian year, AY is the Alharhanhian year, 420 is the number of days Alharhan orbits Orovha, and 600 is the number of days it takes Tereskàdhar to orbit Orovha. Since the numbering of the Tereskàdian year began in 5001, that is the starting point of the calculation. Conversely, if you are on Tereskàdhar, and the present year is 489, the formula would be: AY=TY*600/420+5001-1. Now you must understand, when whole numbers are used for either planet, the result will be a whole number plus a decimal place. For example, the Tereskàdian year 489 translates to the Alharhanian year 5698.57. Since this is the year 5699.4, the Tereskàdian year would be 489.58. Since Tereskàdhar has eighteen month in one year, we see that the year 489 is a bit past the nine-month mark, or half-way through the year.

There, now that I have thoroughly confused you I will close this volume, and put it back in its proper spot on the shelf. I am so tempted to look at a few more volumes, but I want to go down to the beach to see what everyone is doing. I don't really have to, you know, because it's really cool here in Khe'ăr's office. Besides, it told him I would be working on my weekly column, but nothing worthwhile seems to pop into my head today. Sometimes I think I have said all I wanted to say about us Tereskàdians, but every time I think that there is always something new that comes up. For example, just last week, a member of President Lhanech Ten Arbhonhal's Assembly made a speech about how the Tereskàdians had been given too much power, and too much freedom, and how they should contribute to society, just like all the Alharhanians. So they had a debate about that, with most of the Assembly taking the President's side, and only a few agreeing with the member of the Assembly. President Arbhonhal said that after what the Alharhanians had done to the Tereskàdians over a period of five hundred years, they deserve nothing less than to be given full priveleges from every citizen of this planet. We have taken their planet, he said, and we have not returned it to them. We are living on Tereskàdhar because we have put it in our mind that we own that planet, and the Tereskàdians, who have been there long before we ever thought of exploring the other planets, have been pushed to the background. As far as I'm concerned, the Tereskàdian Act was written with the blood of every Tereskàdian and every whistling dragon that has been abused, or raped, or murdered, all because we had this notion that they were nothing more than animals. We have placed a powerful document before the public, and six years ago they voted to accept this document as law. We have told them that once this document became law, there would be nothing and no one, Alharhanian or Tereskàdian that could change it.

He went on to say that each and every item in the two hundred and twenty-five page document was discussed for weeks and months, with every head of state of the fifty-five as well as numerous Tereskàdians, and nothing was accepted until each and every head of state, and each and every Tereskàdian agreed with it fully. Then, and only then, was it made into law. And now, for someone to question the document was beyond reproach, and he - President Arbhonhal - would not hear of it. He quickly quashed any idea of questioning any aspect of the document, and said that there would be no further discussion on the subject.

Oh, what a fine speech, I thought, and Kykherhenha remarked that my sarcasm smelled like a dead t'hŏphar that had been left out under Orovha's rays too long. What is the use of making such an eloquent speech, when a small fraction of Alharhanians still treat us like animals, and think Tereskàdhar belongs to them? Sometimes I wish I lived long before the Alharhanians ever set foot on our planet, but 'wishes are for fools and dreamers', as some poet once wrote.

All right, now to some good news about the possibility of a Tereskàdian family traveling to Tereskàdhar. It seems that when the Thalen family were here last time, S'horel told Khe'ăr that the mothership currently orbiting Alharhan would set out for Tereskàdhar on the 1st of Mharhachyzh, which is next month. I haven't said anything to Rhalhea yet, because I've been thinking a lot about this. I would like to spend some time on the planet of my birth, but Rhalhea will probably tell me that she and I were there only last year. But that was just to mate so Rhalhea could give birth to Jhalhemha twenty days later. As soon as she was born and in Rhalhea's pouch we took the next ship back to Alharhan.

So this time I want to go and spend at least one month on Tereskàdhar. That means my cubs will miss about seven months of school, but it will be worth it, if it means that they will learn something about the planet of their ancestors, and the planet of their birth.

But I am still thinking about all this.

Bhe. 8.99/Day 149