Merker's Outpost

by I. Christie

  ChaTak nodded towards the short row of buildings to their left. "The elder said that is where the simulators are."

  Cadet ChaTak and Cadet Zohra were to report there in the early morning hours for testing on their piloting abilities. Cadet ChaTak, to Zohra's amusement, could undoubtedly teach the Academy staff more than a few tricks, but she knew ChaTak would only do what the task required.

  Finally, we are going to do something other than slough through the mud lugging enough equipment to supply a village. So, it is not a tower at all. Cadet Zohra shaded her eyes as she studied the low buildings. Four entrances, two exits, and a lot of traffic even now before classes begin. Many of the classrooms must be underground. Helgas Moons. I hate underground facilities and their stagnant air.

  "It will require us to get there early," Cadet ChaTak continued speaking softly. "There will be many others to compete for available practice time before the testing begins."

  Cadet Zohra glanced at her friend, her dark eyes glinting with humor for a moment. Early to Cadet ChaTak was shortly after midnight.

  "By your time or mine?" Cadet Zohra asked warily.

  Cadet ChaTak shrugged her thin shoulders, delighting in her stoic friend's unusual display of emotion.

  "I shall be there at o-six hundred hours, standard academy time," Cadet Zohra told her firmly.

  ChaTak grinned, uncharacteristic for her species, but something she had picked up in her adaptation to the other expressive species she roomed with.

  ***

  Cadet Zohra's first year at the academy was difficult as she tried to adjust to the strangeness of a permanent residence and the unfamiliar regimes. She missed traveling around the galaxy in athletic competitions and the tough physical workouts each cell of athletes provided to rival members. The camaraderie that existed until the official games began, was also something she sorely missed. It was not due to intimate friendships with her fellow athletes, but the presence and support each gave to the other without having to become emotionally involved. That was what she grew up with and was comfortable with, whereas in the academy social arena, cadet friendships required more than what she was willing to give, that is, with the exception of ChaTak, who accepted her boundaries as they were.

  To alleviate the edginess of her new restrictions in the academy, she found a small deserted glen, a short walk up one of the slopes that formed a wall at the back of the Academy. Here she practiced her more rigorous exercises late at night, enjoying the privacy as well as the physical exhaustion that followed.

  When the first year ended and broke for three stan months, a taller and more mature Delorita Zohra returned to her Shield House. Her Shield Mother was pleased with the changes she felt on a deeper level, and sent her for advanced training with Naboths Vine. Her three months were spent polishing skills she had learned as a child when she was planning vengeance in her mother's name. The old heat and fixed obsession with one goal was absent, replaced with a challenge to master skills she had once thought she knew. The irony of this did not escape her.

  It was in Cadet Zohra's second year that she was challenged on another level. Cadet Jaymai with enough curves showing under the genderless uniforms, to stop any roving eye for at least a moment. Her slate gray eyes once fixed on Cadet Zohra became wary to anyone around her target who may thwart her goal of ownership. For the stoic Cadet Zohra, Jaymai became a passionate spot in her otherwise studious life. In a year, the relationship became intense and for two long months, Cadet Zohra was thinking of committing to this person; however, her strong sense of obligation to the Vine was her anchoring point to not voice her thoughts of this joining. She was looking forward to the three month break where she would be able to get some relief from the tension Jaymai created within her.

  ***

  "What are you doing out here alone?" Resentment tinted the familiar pouty voice.

  Cadet Zohra turned reluctantly from the double moons. She had heard Jaymai's noisy approach but had hoped she would not see her in the darkness, though she did not go out of her way to hide. She was intending on working out in her part of the glen, her nightly ritual. By now, the regular visitors at night had set their mark of ownership over certain spots. In the glen, rank was not an issue, but rather a courteous agreement.

  "I'm watching the moons," she replied to her lover, stifling resentment at having her private moment disturbed.

  The thin figure, dressed in a newly tailored uniform, moved in front of the taller figure, her hands taking possession of what she considered hers, jealous of the moons that drew the attention of her prey away from her. Jaymai's eyes slitted in anger. The object of her charms was still showing signs of independence and not pining away the time when she was not in her presence. Most of her past romantic victims succumbed to her complete domination by the end of one stan month. This one was proving to be a challenge, which made her even more determined to have her will prevail.

  "How romantic…moonlight and…two interested parties," Jaymai growled seductively, pulling the taller woman's face towards hers. Her kiss was deep, hungry and rough. Long thin hands ran down the slim muscular form, tugging the body urgently into hers, knowing how to ignite Zohra's lustful passion. Both sank to the ground behind the tree, where Jaymai aggressively showed Zohra how the two moons affected her.

  ***

  Two days later Zohra and ChaTak finished a long practice session of Ch'I Mae in one of the seldom-used dojos in the old section of the Academy. ChaTak had been teaching Zohra for two years a method of moving in silence that shielded a person from even the most intuitive persons. Zohra was finally feeling the change within herself and ChaTak was pleased, but she could see lines of strain in her friend's eyes, and she did not feel they were from this work out session. She studied the dark warrior as Zohra drank deeply the water the bot provided. ChaTak made a noise that passed for a chuckle at her companion who had the appearance of someone that had finished a long run, while she felt refreshed. ChaTak flicked her towel toward the athlete playfully to get her attention.

  "She's pressing you for a commitment again," Cadet ChaTak stated matter of factly. By the rolling of the dark eyes, she knew she read her right. "Would you really commit to her if you had not already become involved with another responsibility?" Cadet ChaTak asked practically.

  Zohra hesitated, surprised, "Well…I…haven't really thought on it."

  ChaTak looked at her friend though her dark eyes, the golden line in the centers opening wide. She knew that Jaymai was psychically manipulating the stanch warrior for a commitment out of pride to bag the athletic champion of many galaxyal competitions whom many of Jaymai's friends had worshiped since childhood…to say nothing of many attending the Academy. ChaTak did not think Jaymai worshiped or liked anyone beyond herself. Why Zohra had not looked into the woman's background was due, she suspected, to Jaymai's very delicate touch at mind influence. Zohra merely needed a nudge to start asking herself the right questions to break from the influence. ChaTak gave what would pass as a smile as the dark eyes of her friend looked into hers puzzled.

  "You are still very young and have many species to experience and understand their ways," she patted her friend on her shoulder.

  Zohra regarded her thoughtfully. That night as she waited for sleep to come, she reviewed her relationship with Jaymai and decided it was too intense for the short amount of time they knew each other. To strengthen her resolve to put more distance between her and Jaymai, Zohra planned to increase her workload of extra duty, suspecting there was something more to the attraction then what she was able to see. However, Jaymai redoubled her efforts and Zohra found the sexual attraction to Jaymai intoxicating and difficult to give up, not realizing she was a fly in a spider's web. Jaymai's hints to commitment increased as they moved into the end of Zohra's third year and Jaymai's graduation.

  As the sexual tension increased, Zohra found herself mentally practicing the sacred Dance of Attraction. She imagined the steps, in segments, not together. The Teachers warne
d if practiced together in any form, it would generate the sacred qi for passion and life bonding. However, the more Zohra practiced the Dance mentally, the more her body needed to feel the rhythm in physical movement. The urge created more tension in Zohra, which caused her to be short with her friends including Jaymai, whose knee jerk response was to put more pressure on her for a commitment. Her only release from Jaymai's influence was her studies, where neither would run into the other since Jaymai was following an administrative course while Zohra was infantry.

  ***

  It was the night of Elwin's second moon, when the two moons were on the other side of the planet, thus turning the night into an inky darkness. Most cadets used night lamps while walking outside. Zohra planned to practice one segment of the Dance under the glitter of stars to release some of the built up energy. Jaymai was off-planet on the student ship, Quasar for an exam. Her other friends would be preoccupied with test preparations for the weeklong pre-exam burdened days. The glen would be absent of others for at least two hours. It was enough time. As long as Jaymai was not around, she had no worry about making the mistake of connecting with her.

  She was relieved that while Jaymai was gone, her own thoughts became clearer and more focused. It was as if a miasma lifted from her. Zohra shook her head in amusement. Was that all it took to influence her?

  Cadet, you are going to have to look up just what the attributes of her species are. Now that I think of it…and after ChaTak warned me. She groaned in wry amusement. She knew. It is so like ChaTak to let me learn from my own mistakes after a very subtle warning. So, just how long was ChaTak going to let me stumble in this sexual haze? I shall be talking with that woman.

  Feeling better already, she relished the pull of the climb on her legs. The glen was unusually still and darkness had her carefully placing her feet so as not to run head on into a tree. She refrained from taking a night lamp, as it intruded upon the naturalness of the environment she was tuning in to. Pausing at one of the trees that ringed the glen, Zohra touched its rough bark feeling a slight change of energy from its life force. Then she stepped into the glen fifteen paces, knowing that that would give her enough room to move.

  Inhaling slow and deep, she stilled her thoughts and awareness of what was around her. Breathing in again, she concentrated on bringing the breath to her dan tien, and then releasing it down her legs, and into the ground. Her silent mantra began within her heart, expanding as a pulse throughout her body and then into a steady throb. Every cell vibrated as if in anticipation, like an athlete before her performance. Zohra related to it easily. She focused on her body energy that swirled about her, letting it build before bringing it to a focus, back to her heart. Inhaling, she connected with the planet's qi through the soles of her bare feet.

  There was no stillness in the night, as all cells of all things around her were alive and breathing. The planet's spirit revealed this to her. The night's dampness, the vegetation, the richness of the dirt was sharp and clear to all her senses. The rustling of the leaves far above her sounded as if they were next to her ears. Taking another deep breath, her fingers begin to tingle - her signal to begin.

  Calling the Guardians of the Dance as witnesses, she prayed for rightness of mind, attraction and attachment to the one she was meant to bond with. Still intent on practicing one segment of the Dance, she reminded herself that the brief exercise was to get rid of the energy she inadvertently built up. Respectfully she made her bows to the Guardians in each of the directions they ruled. Finished, she brought her outspread arms slowly up above her head, palms facing each other, and then drew them down over her heart as she thanked all the powers that surrounded her. Breathing deeply into her lower chakra, she held her breath for the appropriate length of time and released it. She then breathed in and out in studied rhythms, meant to build strength, while holding her hands in a proscribed mudra pose. She imagined the Guardians in attendance, honoring her ritual. There was another presence, faint, but it was there. It was this presence, her Watcher, which gave the Dance its purpose. She did not seek to identify it, merely notice it. She was now too focused into the ritual to wonder how the Watcher got here.

  Slowly she stretched out in the first motion, feeling arms and legs move and hold and adjust to the position. She held the stance until she felt her mind and body comfortably settle in the pose. She moved to the next step, exactly as she had done in her mind, and then slowly lessened the rest between each movement, intuitively knowing where the ground rose and where it dipped. The Dance energy intensified as she increased her speed around the darkened edge of the trees. It felt like a hum vibrated in her body. She could see sparks of vibrant colors from her energy about her. So intoxicated with the various changes in herself that she was experiencing from the Dance she forgot her original intention and moved through the next segment of the Dance, welcoming the Watcher to join her in spirit.

  After the first segment was completed, she realized the added energy was from her Watcher as their spirits joined, just as it was meant to. Cadet Zohra could feel her Watcher's excitement, curiosity, and a strange familiarity. Of course…she had touched this person when they both were younger. The energy from her Watcher was more subdued than when they had first come together as children, but it still gave Cadet Zohra a rush of exhilaration, indescribable and beyond her wildest imagination. Excitement and desire burned in her body as the dancers moved into the last half. The differences between her and her Watcher were blurred as steps she did not remember were moved through, both their hearts on fire, both their bodies trembling from the commingled energies, familiar yet unfamiliar

  In the final leap, suspended for a moment in time and air, reaching and stretching arms high overhead as if to pluck out a star from the night sky in each hand, the dancers were intimately aware of the other. When Zohra dropped back to the ground, she finished in a perfectly executed spin, held it for a brief moment, and then dropped to her hands and knees, bowing in respect of all who were witnessing the Dance. Cadet Zohra held her pose, as the Master had instructed, allowing the throbbing energy to dissipate into the ground, and give her heaving lungs a chance to oxygenate her body. The pulsing in her veins, loud in her ears, beat against her yoni bringing her to a sweet climax, one like she had never before experienced, even under the skilled administrations of Jaymai.

  Cadet Zohra knew her Watcher shared in these feelings, and was weak from her own climax. In that instant, she understood the power of the Dance, and that she had fooled herself into believing that she could practice it even in her mind without being effected. Still connected with her Watcher, she could feel a combined realization that this meeting was more than fate.

  Was it? Was this their destiny? Was this her soulmate - to be her lifemate too?

  Approaching voices broke the spell and the link dropped abruptly. The voices were unwanted noises that clashed in her head, grating against the energy she was charged with. Her acuity faded immediately, leaving her blinded. Cadet Zohra moved behind the tree, using its rough texture to ground her. It gave to her willingly. The presence of her Watcher was gone but her desire for her did not fade. Questions of whom and where crossed her mind as she waited for her legs to become steady enough to walk back to her quarters. Cadet Zohra took a deep shaky breath. She did not regret performing the Dance and she did not regret drawing in the stranger. Lifemate? Here?

  It was what the Dance of Attraction was about, she reminded herself with amusement at her own naivety. As she walked towards her quarters, she realized she had been carrying a heavy load on her shoulders. It was not Cadet Jaymai and making a commitment to her that had her restless and mentally practicing the Dance, it was the energy of her lifemate being nearby! It was nice to not feel the edgy energy that had been running through her for…three years! Cadet Jaymai's affections had only served to heighten it and give focus to it.

  So, either my lifemate is a senior or a junior, like me.

  She would have laughed aloud except for the time; ins
tead, an unfamiliar smug look was on her face as she remembered her Teacher explaining to her young students the sacred energy behind the long and intricate ritual of the Dance. She and the other students had danced the first Dance in class under the supervision of their Teacher. It was to open them to the energy of their lifemate. She had danced it only because everyone else did. Smothering her nervousness, she remembered how she was terrified for months after briefly touching with her lifemate, that this person would drop out of nowhere and claim her as hers or his. What if it were some older man or woman?!

  Now, she knew her Watcher was female. The white energy was …incredible! And the touch of her was - how could she describe something she had never felt before?

  Who are you? Soon! You cannot hide from me now, no more than I can hide from you.

  Cadet Zohra was happier than she ever knew she could be.

  She is near! Goddess! I feel…different.

  ***