Aboard the traveler, Nyslara advanced to the front of the main cabin. To her, it was the rightful place for a queen to ride. Unfortunately, she was forced to stand in the aisle for the flight. Female Dischnya kept their long, scaled tails throughout their lives as opposed to males whose tails were truncated when they were young. The appendages didn’t serve any useful purpose for the nest’s hunters and warriors.
Unable to sit, while the queen stood, Pussiro took a position beside her, and the Harakens, not wanting to be rude, declined to sit too.
When the traveler landed aboard the Sojourn, Nyslara took a small measure of pleasure at Pussiro’s discomfort. He had yet to experience much of the Harakens’ technology. When the traveler’s lights brightened, Nyslara knew it was time to disembark and she had to shoo Pussiro down the aisle with a wave of her fingers.
Having felt no motion aboard the shuttle, Pussiro assumed there was a failure of some sort, but as he exited the shuttle, he stepped on to the hard metal deck of the Sojourn’s bay, and his legs momentarily faltered.
“This is my indomitable warrior commander?” Nyslara teased, but she felt sympathy for Pussiro. It occurred to her that before the aliens arrived, she probably wouldn’t have extended the courtesy to her wasat. “Much of what we see will be strange, Pussiro. Don’t try to comprehend. Simply observe. The Harakens are willing to educate us, and we’ll avail ourselves of their knowledge.”
Their movements through the survey ship became educations for Pussiro and the crew, most of whom hadn’t been planetside. Pussiro was fascinated by the ship, and the humans were entranced by him, especially the heavy scars on his muzzle and areas of exposed torso. The claw rakes on Pussiro’s body were testimony to the brutality of the nests’ combats against one another, and the click-clacks of the Dischnya’s great claws on the metal deck were a reminder of the killing capabilities of those feet.
In a cabin set aside for Willem’s demonstration, Ginny ran water in the sink, washed her hands, and took a sip from a cupped hand. Nyslara indicated her wasat should imitate Ginny. Pussiro found the hand washing easy enough, but had difficulty using his long slender tongue to drink from a cupped hand. His poor attempt at lapping up the water sent most of it splashing back into the sink.
Keira held up a portable holo-vid and activated it, which brought a chuff of pleasure from Nyslara. She’d been instrumental in laying out the nest locations for Dassata, as she understood them, using the bridge holo-vid. Keira displayed a Haraken sink, and Nyslara reached a hard-nailed finger into the image and drew a horizontal circle in the air over the sink.
Willem turned the circle into a saucer-like bowl and connected it to the sink’s faucet within the holo-vid display. Ginny added a simple valve that could be used to direct the water into the sink or into the bowl, and Keira demonstrated how the bowl could be swiveled aside.
Nyslara glanced at Pussiro, and the wasat grunted his approval. The group continued to move around the washroom’s facilities. Changes were made at every point to accommodate the Dischnya physiology, especially the generous female tail.
When Ginny indicated the refresher with a wave of her hand, Nyslara hissed her displeasure, and Pussiro growled, stepping protectively in front of her.
<It’s their water phobia,> Ginny commented privately to the Harakens.
<Let’s see how far it extends,> Keira sent in reply. The corporal handed the holo-vid to Ginny, stripped out of her uniform, and stepped into the refresher. She activated the mist and proceeded to leisurely clean herself.
Pussiro stepped up to the open door of the enclosure. He sniffed the air and extended a hand into the mist. When he brought it close to his muzzle, Willem told him not to drink it. Pussiro glanced at his queen, who was studying Keira.
“We must test this,” Nyslara said to Pussiro.
“We or me, my queen?” Pussiro asked.
“Would you choose to risk your queen with alien technology, Commander?” Nyslara challenged, a bit of her former imperial temperament resurrecting.
Pussiro eyed the floor of the enclosure. He wanted to ensure that the liquid was draining away and that he was in no danger of drowning, a horrendous fate in the eyes of the Dischnya. Pussiro blew out a breath in resignation and stripped out of his commander’s bandolier and waist sheath. He hesitated at the doorway, and Keira beckoned him inside. If Hira is in no danger, I should be safe, he thought.
When the mist struck his fur, Pussiro would have jumped clear, but Keira held onto an arm. He kept his eyes closed, trying to manage the odd sensations. He felt Keira’s hands massaging his upper arm. It was a pleasant experience. Her hands moved from his arm to his shoulders. For a slender alien, her strength was surprising.
Pussiro relaxed under Keira’s machinations. When she tapped his chest, he opened his eyes. She pantomimed closing her mouth and her eyes, and then she ducked her head under the sprayer and washed her hair. Pussiro glanced at Nyslara anxiously, and the queen flicked her muzzle toward the nozzle.
Gathering his courage, Pussiro closed his eyes and held his breath, ducking his head in and out of the spray. The mist barely penetrated his thick fur, and he shook his head to clear the wetness.
Keira burst out laughing, as the spray from Pussiro’s actions slapped her in the face.
<Time to exit,> Keira sent to the Harakens, recognizing the intent in Pussiro’s eye contact with Nyslara. She quickly stepped from the refresher and demonstrated toweling off, even as she made for the washroom’s exit, dripping wet.
Ginny grabbed Keira’s clothes and Willem and she followed, not stopping until they gained the ship’s corridor, where Keira finished drying off and then dressed.
“How long do we give them?” Ginny asked.
“I believe they’ll be doing more than trying out the refresher,” Keira replied.
“Oh … oh!” Ginny stuttered. “I wondered why we left in such a hurry.”
The threesome waited in the corridor, the two women willing to be guided by Willem, as to when they should return. For his part, Willem wasn’t prepared to depend on fortunate timing. He’d placed tiny vid cams in the cabin’s main room and the washroom, which beamed images and audio to him. If Dassata was to be successful in his endeavors on Celus-5, Willem considered he would require as much detailed information about the Dischnya as he could get.
* * *
When the Harakens left the cabin, Pussiro beckoned Nyslara into the refresher with the same hand gesture as Keira, and Nyslara chuffed in amusement. That her commander seemed to enjoy the strange mist, which hadn’t accumulated in the bottom, mollified her. But it was the look in Pussiro’s eyes that beckoned her, despite her fear.
Nyslara had yet to mate and give birth to an heir, a queen’s critical duty. It was her scent that bound the soma into a unified nest. Her absence from the nest could only be tolerated in a measure of days. Afterwards, the soma’s psychological health would suffer. Of all the males in the nest, Nyslara had considered mating with only one, and he was urging her to join him in the alien’s water device.
Pussiro reached out a hand, and Nyslara took it. When the mist struck, she sought to yank it back, but Pussiro held on. As a queen, she should have been aggravated, but her mating instincts drove her, and she succumbed to Pussiro’s entreaties.
The mist was warm, as opposed to the coolness of the great waters, and its subtle pulsing massaged her — altogether unlike the disturbing crashing of waters against the sands at the shoreline.
Knowing that, at any moment, Nyslara might retreat from her tentative consent, Pussiro treated her with the greatest care. He worked the mist into her fur from the queen’s shoulders to her feet. The heat burned inside him for her.
Pussiro had never
courted his two mates. They were given to him by the previous wasat when their warriors were lost, and he accepted the duty of protector. The females had been grateful, and he had been an attentive mate. Throughout his life, he’d eyed the previous queen’s heir, Nyslara, and thought many times of being the one she’d choose to mate with to birth her heir. The great privilege aside, he wanted to be the one by her side when she walked the corridors.
The Tawas Soma warriors openly admired their wasat’s fierce courage, but Pussiro had chuffed in humor, in private, of course, when he thought of his warriors’ praise. It wasn’t courage that kept him in the forefront of every attack. He fought for recognition — first from his sub-commander, then his wasat, and then his queen.
Nyslara couldn’t recall ever enjoying attentions such as applied by Pussiro and the mist. My soma must have these devices, she thought, but I’ll keep Pussiro for myself. Her lips wrinkled in mirth at the thought, and she turned to embrace Pussiro. “You’re mine, my wasat,” Nyslara said in a husky voice, as her long tongue licked his muzzle.
* * *
“I believe we can return,” Willem said to Ginny and Keira, when he witnessed an end to the Dischnya’s coupling.
Ginny and Keira stepped into the cabin and proceeded to the washroom, to find the queen and the commander looking like two wet, bedraggled creatures, but both of them bared their teeth in imitation of human smiles.
“Some of my turns in the refresher have gone equally well,” Keira quipped.
Ginny ducked into the main salon, opened a storage cabinet, and grabbed more towels. She attempted to help Nyslara dry off, but Pussiro’s low-pitched growl halted her, and she handed a long towel to him.
<A little possessive, aren’t we?> Keira sent over the comm.
<I believe that this was an important, if not critical, mating of the queen,> Willem commented.
<Ah, yes, for an heir,> Ginny said.
While Pussiro attended to his new mate, Willem instructed Keira to hold up the holo-vid. He projected a refresher and added an image of a wet Pussiro. The lips of the Dischnya muzzles rippled, as they stared at the wasat’s image. Willem created a downdraft over Pussiro, showing the fur rippling as it dried. He included a sound effect from the holo-vid to indicate what was happening.
Both Dischnya whipped their heads toward the washroom’s refresher, expecting to see the device installed there. Nyslara twigged to it first. “Yes, Fellum, the soma will need your whirlwind when they finish enjoying the wetting.” She barked harshly. When the Harakens looked at her with quizzical expressions, she added, “It will be the cause of much amusement when we introduce our soma to these devices.”
When the Dischnya finished drying, Willem started to explain about another facility choice, but Nyslara held a palm toward him. “Wait, Fellum, I would witness my wasat experience the room’s pallet.”
Pussiro wasn’t sure he was altogether pleased with the expression on his mate’s face, but he dutifully followed her into the main room.
“Lie there, my wasat,” Nyslara said, pointing at the cabin’s bed.
Not wanting to show any sign of trepidation, Pussiro lay on the bed, but when it moved under him, he launched upright, landing on the floor, uttering a surprised yip.
Nyslara barked and yipped in delight.
Pussiro regarded his queen and the Harakens, who were covering their mouths, and he growled softly.
Nyslara strode over to him and licked his muzzle. Then she reclined on the bed, wrapping her great tail over her legs, sighing with pleasure, as the nanites accommodated her body.
Pussiro ventured as far as placing a hand firmly on the bed, feeling it respond, but he refused to go further.
* * *
Midday meal was another adventure for the Dischnya. Food was delivered to the table for Willem, Ginny, Keira, Nyslara, and Pussiro. Pussiro sniffed at the plates, and saliva dripped from his muzzle, as he smacked his jaw.
<Dining with aliens,> Keira remarked privately to Ginny.
Before Ginny could reply, Nyslara picked up a piece of food from her plate and tossed it high toward Pussiro, who tilted his head back, opened his jaw wide, and let it fall down his throat. Both Nyslara and Pussiro chuffed in pleasure.
<And it gets better and better,> Ginny sent to Keira.
After the meal, the Harakens continued the tour of possible amenities for the Dischnya. One ticklish moment occurred when Pussiro pointed at Keira’s stun gun, and asked, “For warriors?”
“That’s not for us to decide,” Willem replied, diplomatically.
“Who decides?” Nyslara asked.
“Dassata,” Willem replied, which effectively ended that conversation.
When the tour was complete, the group assembled around the large holo-vid on the Sojourn’s bridge. Willem created a rudimentary structure, which had Nyslara and Pussiro shaking their head in denial. Willem nodded toward the holo-vid, and Nyslara, who had some experience with the device, began touching the image. Her actions were tentative, but Willem intuited what the queen was attempting to do and manipulated the screen for her. Pussiro caught onto the idea and joined in the process.
Together, Dischnya, humans, and SADE created a new, above-ground domicile for a nest’s soma, and Nyslara couldn’t have been more pleased. She could envision the Dischnya freed from their tunnels and impoverished existence. That had become her goal from the moment she realized the aliens preferred communication over domination.
-7-
Dassata
Aboard the Haraken survey ship, Sojourn, Ginny was reassigned to telemetry duty, scanning the Celus system for anomalies. She froze when her board displayed a huge ship’s entrance millions of kilometers outside the system. The extreme distance limited the object’s visual clarity, but its similarity to the Nua’ll sphere kicked her heart racing.
“Be at ease, Ginny,” Rosette said. She was the mission’s SADE, who supported Captain Asu Azasdau. She stood behind the journey crew member and had picked up on the teenager’s elevated biorhythms via her implant. “I’ve run algorithms to clarify the image. It’s disc-shaped, not spherical. Considering the vector from here to the ship’s transition point, I would judge it, despite the improbability, to be a Haraken city-ship.
Ginny regarded Rosette, her eyes wide at the SADE’s supposition.
Alerted by Rosette, Captain Azasdau strode onto the bridge. “What’s your assessment, Rosette?” he asked.
“Based on the visuals and entry direction, Captain, I would have assigned it a 73.4 percent probability that it’s Haraken. However, considering it was Alex Racine, who went for support, I would revise that estimate to a near 100 percent that he’s returning with a city-ship, and I would surmise it’s the Freedom. He has a personal preference for that vessel over the Our People.”
Asu commed Reiko Shimada, the captain of the sting ship, Tanaka, which protected the Sojourn. The sting ship supplied the travelers that were on station keeping the peace.
“A city-ship,” Reiko echoed after hearing Asu’s report. “You send Alex Racine for resources and he returns with an enormous city-ship. You sure he’s not hauling Haraken behind that vessel?”
Asu smiled at the image. If it was possible, I wouldn’t put it past Alex to try, the captain thought.
Word of the city-ship’s entry into the Celus system circulated swiftly throughout the fleet’s ships and planetside. The pilots and crew aboard the travelers, which guarded the coastline for the Celus-5 Swei Swee, were thrilled that their boring duty would soon be over, as were the SADEs monitoring the Dischnya nests to ensure the peace.
Only a few troubling incidents had occurred for the SADEs, and those took place at the easternmost nests. In the early days, Dischnya warriors from those nests made nightly forays to attack the SADEs on duty, but none of them came to fruition. With their thermal vision, the SADEs tracked the warriors, as they exited their lookout posts, and stunned them before the warriors knew what happened. In the morning, their soma recovered the bodi
es, surprised to discover that their warriors later revived without wounds. After the attempts failed several times, they ceased.
What the lookouts at every nest noticed was that, at one point, the Haraken sentries, who stood their watches with virtually no movement, day after day, through all sorts of weather, momentarily bared their teeth. Had the forty-one Dischnya nests been able to communicate with one another, they would have discovered that the sentries flashed their teeth at precisely the same time. Only a few Dischnya, those of the Tawas Soma nest, would have understood how that was possible.
* * *
The advisors of the Tawas Soma nest had kept their one and only precious telescope trained on the Haraken ships ever since the first one’s arrival. Of special interest to them was the ship the Haraken known as Fellum described to Chona Nyslara as a nest killer.
Days after the Sojourn’s telemetry had recorded the Freedom’s entry into the system and as the city-ship neared Celus-5, two of the queen’s advisors collided with each other reaching for the comm handset, at the same time. Their hurried call was directed to Pussiro, and the wasat relayed the message to Nyslara.
Nyslara swept out of her underground chambers and met Pussiro on his way to see her. “Come, my wasat, I believe Dassata returns,” Nyslara said, giving Pussiro a warm glance, as she loped past him. It was uncharacteristic to see the queen running through the nest’s tunnels, and Pussiro was caught off guard, but he quickly recovered, spun around, and, with the aid of his powerful, hocked legs, he sprinted after her.
Both Dischnya were anxious to see Dassata, the peacemaker, return to Sawa Messa, the Dischnya’s second and ill-fated home world. The first nests, each ruled by a queen, which made the journey to Sawa Messa from the home world, Sawa, descended into tribal warfare and buried themselves in the ground for protection. When future shuttles, loaded with vital equipment and more nests, failed to arrive from Sawa, they stayed underground and fought one another for the scarce resources of the plains.