I remember being about 17 when I first expressed to my uncle that it amazed me that in the 23rd century, with all its banishment of almost all human suffering of previous ages and the ability to get out into a galaxy big enough so one could do just about anything one wanted, people still wanted to fight the same old fights from the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
My uncle, great thinker that he was and still is, simply spread his arms to the utmost.
“No living human is two centuries old and can occupy up more actual space than the reach of his or her arms and legs, spread out,” he said. “So, the same old issues have to be hammered out in every generation, and the space be set in order between here and here.”
And he touched his ears on both sides of his head before drawing his finger across his forehead.
“The battle is in the mind, Khadijah. Settle yourself to the lifelong pursuit of learning what is good and right and filling your mind with it so you can stay on the right side.”
This whole incident came to my mind as I gave an interview about being the youngest female captain ever appointed to the consortium fleet, and was asked what I felt was a really tired question for the 23rd century.
“Your husband is a prominent businessman who is very well-known on the Ventanan frontier, Captain Biles-Dixon, and your uncle Admiral Benjamin Banneker has now eclipsed some of the most famous names in the fleet. Do you ever feel, as a woman, that you are being overshadowed by the men?”
“Not really – after all, who's getting interviewed today?”
The reporter laughed, and then I settled into the wisdom that was my spiritual and familial legacy.
“First of all, in the presence of Rufus Dixon and Benjamin Banneker, there is plenty of light, and I bring light also to them. It's not a competition. That's my husband and my uncle. But more broadly than that: there's plenty of light out here. There are at least 100 billion stars in our galaxy – maybe as many as 400 billion, but by the time we are at that scale, one here or there more doesn't hurt. There's plenty of light, and plenty of space: all these stars shine on and are not hampered at all by the next nearest star. Now, one may be brighter than another, or appear so because of where we are looking at it from – but each star was created for its own purpose, and is not impeded by any other in its glory.
“There's plenty of light, and plenty of space – so take it that since Benjamin Banneker, Rufus Dixon, and Khadijah Biles-Dixon exist in the same time and space just means that together, we're going to walk in the light, and make the space and time around us brighter for everyone.”
“Oh, that's DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP, Captain...”
It really wasn't deeper than middle school astronomy, but it got me this assessment inthat publication: “Captain Khadijah Biles-Dixon has all the great, deep capacity for thought as her famous uncle, and rivals her husband for calm, commanding personality.”
“ 'Rivals'? Tell me you missed the whole point, Madame Reporter, without telling me you missed the whole point!” I said about it when I read it, and my husband, uncle, and our hosts for the evening all laughed.
Firehead Resorts and Springs is one of the Ventanan frontier's major scientific outposts and tourist attractions, given that some cousins of the plasma-based Beamerling decided to literally come to ground on Eisvall 6 and let the planet be warm enough for humanoid habitation. This was an act of mercy in the early days – it is a long way from one stopping place to another in terms of light-years, and the Eisvall System would have been naturally ideal except all its worlds lie just outside its habitable zone for human and humanoid life on one side or another.
But, the local Fireheads, seeing that the bipedal carbon-based newcomers to the system were literally dying because of the impossibility of a safe place to stop and rest or wait for rescue, decided to just warm up Eisvall 6, which actually has quite a bit of geothermal heat anyhow – once the Fireheads had come in such numbers as to knock the chill out of the atmosphere, it warmed up quite dramatically.
My husband had been among the shippers running supplies out to the scientific outpost when it was first opened, and he had made it his point to befriend humans, humanoids, and Fireheads alike.
“The humans and humanoids were paying me, true enough, but the Fireheads were the ones making sure we all made it through the night without freezing to death,” he had explained. “Gotta know the difference between focusing on getting money and focusing on making sure everyone stays alive.”
“Your husband is wise, and we were delighted to find he has joined himself with a mate and mate's family that is also wise,” our male host said in a voice that sounded like Bing Crosby singing “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” if you could imagine Mr. Crosby as the voice of the open fire – somehow crackling and still beautiful. “You too are wise, Capt. Biles-Dixon, for you understand the meaning of fires.”
“If we contain, together, and are content, thus,” our female host said in a voice like the deep crackling of a settled fire, all its sparks and wild upheaval past, “then we are a greater blessing together than apart. My mate you see is of the great high flame of stars and their coronas, and I of the great deep flames of the cores of planets – between us, all life thrives.”
“But should we lean into the winds of contention against each other, all life ends,” he said. “Where she leaps high to meet my lower radiance, none can live, as where the lava first meets the kiss of the sun of your world – so if we would become unwise, and compare and compete and contend, we would become greater destroyers together than apart.”
“It is often strange to think of how beings like you also are like a fire in how you change your environment, though in a carbon-based body,” she said. “It is beautiful to see the three of you, like the two of us, knowing how to be a blessing with your flames, together.”
“Now, that was actually deep,” my husband said as we went later on down the hallway to our rooms, heated to comfortable levels by the elaborate heating system that moved the abundant heat of our hosts around the big lodge they ran. “I don't think a plasma-based being can give a higher compliment.”
“Well, as our ancestors all said, 'Lord, make us worthy to receive it.' I'll add, 'keep us worthy'!” I said.
“Amen,” said Uncle Benjamin as he opened his door on the opposite side of the hallway to us, “and good night!”