by Viola Grace
He grinned. “Father will protect her.”
She muttered, “Not if he is the one doing the biting.”
They chuckled, hugged again, and parted.
Her brothers were led away by the overseer and Isabella, and she was left with Sarah and Lekorh.
Remi smiled brightly at them, and they led her out of the building and down to the administration offices where they took an underground shuttle to the VIP quarters.
“It wouldn’t be so bad, but I know I could contaminate the minds of the human women. Learning who I was would flex their grasp of their reality. The boys still look like they are Rrassic.”
Sarah cocked her head. “So would you if you resumed your actual appearance.”
Of course, they would have picked up on it. “Right. Can we wait until I have some tea or something? I have been practicing holding this look for a while.”
Lekorh chuckled. “It is visible on the medical scans. You have the same glands under your hair follicles that a Luthin does, and they were active.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Fine. It makes it really easy to play hide and seek. I just wanted the folks at large to simply see a bigger human.”
Sarah put her hand on Remi’s arm. “We see you. It is just strange because our mind is telling us one thing and our eyes are telling us the other.”
Remi nodded, and as they left the shuttle, she let her true skin tones emerge.
Sarah stopped in her tracks and stared. “Wow.”
Remi chuckled. “You should see the markings beneath my suit. Please, I really need some tea.”
Lekorh eased Sarah away from her, and they entered the lift. His question was casual. “Do your brothers have the same markings?”
“Our whole family does. The boys are wearing the Nool colouring for the sake of orientation. When they are settled, they will let their colouring out.”
The lift whisked them to an upper floor. The door opened, and Remi stepped out. “This is beautiful. Is it your home?”
Sarah blinked. “No, it is one of the VIP guestrooms. It is coded to your ident band.”
Remi looked down at the band that she had worn all her life. “Ah, right.”
She walked through the wide and open expanse and went to the glass doors, triggering the panel that let her out onto the balcony. She looked down and felt her hair being tugged by the wind. She was over a hundred feet up the mountainside, and she felt warm and at home.
Sarah cleared her throat. “Lekorh is making tea. Can I ask, when did the markings show up?”
“I have always had the ones around my eyes. The rest of the markings arrived at puberty.” She knew that the black lines that rimmed her eyes and traced around the edge of her lips were different than her mother’s even colouring.
The rushes of gold of different colourings accentuated her eyes and cheekbones, running down her neck in darker colouring over her warmer areas. She was a map of exaggerated outlines, and it had a rather pleasing effect overall.
“What about Alia?”
“She is still a child. She has the markings around all of her eyes, but her skin is a determined soft silver.” She chuckled.
Sarah smiled, but her mind was on her daughter. She hesitated. “Do you know why she didn’t contact me?”
Remi put her arm around Sarah, feeling like an older sibling, not the younger of the two. “I am guessing, but I think she thinks Lekorh is better at math than you are.”
Sarah blinked and snorted. “She might be right. Okay. Enough about me. How is your mother doing?”
Remi walked back inside with the human-Saya, and she chuckled. “She has fifteen children of her own in different stages of puberty. She is trying to hold time still and rush it past at the same time.”
Lekorh nodded. “The next shift is going to have more couples so that they won’t have the same amount of parenting that your mother did.”
“Good, because Mom said that the maximum ratio would be one couple to fifteen children. Any more than that and you started to forget names.”
Sarah blinked. “Right.”
“I stepped in with the younglings, and my parents were able to make sure that the teens and elders had the social niceties.”
Lekorh asked, “Can you use invisibility?”
She reached out and took her mug of tea, going invisible while they watched. “What do you think?” She sipped at her tea while the two telepaths stared.
She kept her mind carefully blank and repetitively sipped at her tea.
Sarah reached out and touched her. “I can’t even feel you, and I can always feel Luthin.”
Remi faded back into view. “I am not Luthin. All of my brothers can do this. Even the two who are manifesting as Zjin and Regiz.”
“That is... that is unheard of. The other hybrids are localized to their parent genes.” Lekorh looked like he wanted to talk to Iktabi.
She smiled. “Feel free to inform the overseer. My other siblings will be here in a few days as well as your daughter. Our genes are compounded, not split, by our nature.”
Lekorh got up and went to the com station. He spoke rapidly in High Rrassic and seemed to be concentrating on her physique and testing her siblings to see what they could do.
Remi piped up in High Rrassic, “Just ask them to show off. They will do it immediately.”
Lekorh was startled, but he relayed it.
Sarah grinned. “You speak High Rrassic?”
“Of course. My father was very specific that we should be as Rrassic as we could be. There will be no reason for us to be snubbed by the council, other than our hybrid status. If the next generation holds to the Rrassic characteristics, we will rapidly become the new face of the Rrassic.”
Sarah blinked. “Holy crap.”
“That is what my mom said when Dad laid it out for her. The mating schedule they selected did not account for a monthly cycle and rapid gestation enhanced by the equipment.”
Sarah whispered, “Do you have a monthly cycle?”
“Oh, no. It is an annual event for me. Thankfully.” She smiled. “I do a lot of training, and the cycle is distracting as hell.”
“Tell me about it. I thought that I would have longer in between, but it still comes every thirty days.”
Lekorh returned to the table, and he had a sober expression. “The examiner has arrived, and he is being brought here.”
Remi was a little surprised. She pointed at the room around her. “Here?”
Sarah shook her head. “No, the upper level is designed for the examiner. He will be able to come and go. From what Lekorh has told me, he has wings.”
Remi relaxed. “Oh, okay.”
They chatted for a bit, and then, they left her with the Imrahl database.
On her way out, Sarah stopped and said, “I have used the med scans to order clothing for you. I am using a version of our clothing as there is really no position here that matches what you are.”
“Thank you, Aunt Sarah. Your care is heartwarming.” She bowed low, and Sarah touched her head. There was a tiny flicker of warmth spreading like frost.
When she straightened, Sarah and Lekorh were gone into the lift to their floor above her.
For the first time in her life, she was alone, so she did what anyone would do, she removed her weapons, ran into the bedroom, and jumped on the bed, giggling madly.
She had her own bedroom and her own food dispenser. This was heaven.
Chapter Three
Kromir stepped through the portal and fluffed his wings. “Overseer, thank you for greeting me.”
The Dorbin-Rrassic inclined his head. “Examiner. Thank you for coming. This species has tremendous potential.”
Kromir flexed his wings. “Do you have quarters for me?”
“We do. This is my mate, Isabella. She has made the arrangements.”
Kromir looked around, and then, a small female stepped out from behind Iktabi’s flared wings.
She snorted. “It would be easier for him to
meet me if he could see me.”
Iktabi scowled, and despite his exhaustion, Kromir was intrigued. The little female was wearing wrist tethers and had a necklace that matched them. Her hair was up in a businesslike twist, and she was wearing a charming, rich purple dress. Her features were pleasing, and her skin was smooth without any trace of the nap that his people were born with.
“I am pleased to meet you, Examiner Kromir.”
He looked at her carefully. “How many children have you spawned?”
“To date? Two.” She smiled. “Both with Dorbin-Rrassic characteristics. One is nearly mature at the creche, and the other will be going in his canister this week.”
The pride in her tone was startling. Many of the other females of diverse species resented carrying their children but were upset when they were removed for proper education. It was confusing.
“I hear that even your Saya has found a mate among the samples.”
The overseer nodded. “She is very powerful, and their first child is also being raised at our creche.”
Kromir blinked. “I was not aware that she could breed a Saya. They told me there was a possibility but not that it had been accomplished.”
“Her child has yet to mature or be tested.”
He nodded and asked the all-important question. “When will we know?”
“A few days.”
“Fine. I will evaluate the others tomorrow.” He gave them a sober gaze.
Iktabi’s mate nodded. “Your accommodations are ready. If you come with us, we will escort you.”
Kromir asked, “Are they keyed to me?”
Iktabi said, “They are. The VIP quarters are accessible from the air. You are on the upper floor. Head for the mountain range, and you will see the structure when you are closer.”
Kromir smiled. “Good, it has been too long since I have stretched my wings.”
Iktabi inclined his head. “We will call on you in the morning, and you will see the hybrids in action.”
Kromir nodded. “Excellent. I look forward to it. Now, show me the exit, and I will be on my way.”
He followed the Dorbin-Rrassic and the man’s small mate, and he tried to figure out the possible result of such a mating. The hybrids from those two would be small and not what the Rrassic needed. The Voboth were devastating, large, and vicious, and they were getting closer. The Rrassic needed new warriors, and the slight creature next to the overseer could hardly produce a suitable genetic contribution. How they were considered at all was beyond him.
Kromir made it into the soft night of Imrahl, and he inhaled deeply. The air was sweet and warm. It was a good place to spur on courtships but a bad place to train warriors. He bent his knees, pushed upward, and grunted as his wings fought to carry him aloft.
He was too soft from all the administration. He needed to use his body for more than just transport. He wanted to be on the front lines, but they didn’t allow his kind there. Mrek-Rrassic were doomed to be judges, assessors, and examiners. They could see what others ignored because they were too attached to their new species.
Kromir pulled himself higher and higher, enjoying the feel of the wind against him and the bright orbital bodies in the sky.
The mountain range was in the distance, and he flew toward it with his wings finally getting the idea that they were not just decorative.
He scanned the ground as he flew and saw the farms that were producing vast quantities of food for the other colonies whose population was not as suited to working the land. The samples they had chosen did have a knack for making the most of their situation.
The mountain complex was interesting. The roof had a wooden floor, an outdoor bathing area, and a door that led back into the mountain. It looked like a very comfortable nest for him to spend a few days in. He fought the urge to appreciate the care that had been taken to make it comfortable.
His gaze dropped to the windows of the floors below, and he was startled at the sight of a female, standing out on a balcony and wearing only a wrap with a cascade of dark gold and black hair blowing around her.
She wasn’t a human and wasn’t any Rrassic that he had ever seen before.
Her startled eyes locked with his, and she disappeared.
He banked and lowered himself until he was even with the balcony where he had seen her. There was no sign of her. He blinked and flew upward to his quarters. If she existed, he would see her again, and if he did not, it was probably his urge to see a great Rrassic hybrid taking the stage. He had just never imagined them as females for some reason. They needed warriors, not breeders.
* * * *
Remi stood with her back to the wall until her senses told her that the male with wings had moved on. She had heard of Mrek-Rrassic when she was learning the nine types with the two uncommon Rrassic being so rare that they were only seen in the councils.
Black feathers. He had golden skin and black feathers. She closed her eyes and calmed her mind. She had thought she was safe to have her shower and walk out for some night air. The Mrek-Rrassic had proved that she was wrong.
Going invisible was a stupid reflex, but she had felt her towel slipping, and she didn’t want to be exposed in more ways than one.
She waited until she was sure that he was gone, and then, she kept herself invisible and peeped around the corner. The air was clear.
Remi exhaled softly and tightened her wrap. She resumed her visibility and headed back to her bedroom. There would be time enough to figure out who the creature had been in the morning, but his hot copper eyes had burned into her for a moment before she had hidden. It was like he had seen into her soul in that instant. All she had seen was his Rrassic council uniform and his tremendous wingspan.
She wanted to ask someone about the new arrival, but it was late, and it was time to get some sleep. Tomorrow, she and her brothers had to prove that their status as hybrid warriors was valuable.
She folded her towel over the back of the chair in her room, and she crawled into bed. When she closed her eyes, she saw the stranger silhouetted against the moons. She quirked her lips and let her thoughts carry her away.
It was a long and restless night, but she got some pleasure out of it.
The next morning, Sarah and Lekorh met her for breakfast before dawn, and Lekorh busied himself in the kitchen while Sarah helped her choose her clothing for the proving ground.
“I am not really good at clothes, but the selection here should suit you. Your father picked them out, and then, your mother vetoed his choices and sent a second request. So, you have both.”
Remi grinned, and the choices were obvious. “So, I think I know whose choices I am looking at.” She pulled one of the outfits down. “This is my father’s choice. He wants me to find a mate.”
“How can you tell?”
Remi glanced at her. “Well, as I am not human, I am not under the protections that you all had. I fall under Rrassic membership, or I will after today. Right now, I am nothing. I am a being in between.”
Sarah looked at the clothing in confusion.
“Oh, sorry. I went off there. Dad wants me to find a mate, so his clothing selections all show skin. Mom’s make me look feminine but warrior-like.”
“That is a good way to describe it.”
“Well, that is what I am after today. So, sorry, Dad. Today, I need to be able to move without my breasts on display.”
Sarah giggled as Remi removed an outfit that would definitely be more appropriate.
Remi put on the leggings, and then, she pulled on the top, the long tunic fell to her knees and was slit up either side. The sleeves were long, and she could loop her thumb through the edge of the cuff and gain the protection for her wrists.
There were designs embroidered on the tunic, but they were designs of a matching colour, so the fabric was elaborate but still subtle. It was a green so dark that it was almost black, but it was a very comfortable colour for her.
“Let me check something.” She went invisible and f
elt the small barbs in her skin seek out the fabric and act through it.
She walked over to the mirror, and she couldn’t see anything. She went visible again, and Sarah blinked at her. “That is... wow.”
Remi smiled. “My father’s legacy. You will see what my brothers can do shortly.”
“Great. Breakfast first.” Sarah clapped her hands and walked into the kitchen where Lekorh was cooking.
“I was just going to get something through the dispenser.”
Lekorh glanced at her, and he chuckled. “I am sorry to disappoint you, but Sarah needs a higher caloric intake than she is willing to engage in, so I sneak it into her food.”
Remi chuckled. “In that case, I will set the table.”
They chatted and ate swiftly. Sarah did the dishes, and then, they were heading down to the shuttle.
In the capsule, Lekorh asked casually, “Did you see the new arrival last night? The examiner is staying on the roof.”
“Ah, he nearly saw me. I think I managed to hide in time. Pretty sure.”
Lekorh chuckled. “You will find out today. He will be watching the proving.”
“Great. What will we have to do?”
Sarah stared at her mate. “Yes, what will they have to do?”
“They will have to show us what they can do, in whatever manner they choose.”
Remi nodded. “I think I know how to do that. We will need a ball.”
Sarah blinked. “A ball?”
“A basketball. We are used to playing rough.”
Sarah touched her mind for clarity, and by the time they were walking out of the admin building and heading for the secure Rrassic gym, the ball was on the court.
Remi grinned when she saw her siblings come in under escort, and they were all wearing plain black outfits.
Tomos came up to her. “So, what are we doing?”
“We are showing them what we can do, so I propose a game of basketball.”
He smiled. “Can I be on your team?”
“Nope. You pick your two, and I will take the leftover.”
“Aw, we make a fair team against three.”
She chuckled. “We would slaughter them. Come on, we can use all of our skills. They want us to use all of our skills, and they want to see us for what we are.”