by Frank Carey
"It's complicated. My race has been around for a very long time. We used to be like you, corporeal I mean, but we evolved into a more fluid form. Let's just say the few of us who are left are meddlers. It'll make things easier."
"Why Kel? Why did you hook up with him?" Sheila asked.
"Hooked up? Did your mother teach you to talk like that? Kel and I have never hooked up. We are friends. He saved me from solitary confinement and I saved him from a life of loneliness. I'm his muse, his inspiration. I give him hints and he finds the truth while all you've done is hurt and confuse him."
Torga and Kenta holstered their weapons and sat while watching the two strangers spar.
"I never hurt him!"
"You threw his sohush in his face, then stunned him before coming here all willy-nilly. Did you really think he wouldn't follow you? Please, don't try to tell me you didn't know he had feelings toward you."
"We're friends..."
"Yeah, and I'm the wife of a cyclops. Give me a break, sister. Even a rock could see how he felt about the two of you. You remind me of my father."
"You think I'm a goddess?"
"No, an inconsiderate temptress only interested in satisfying her own needs..."
Sheila jumped out of her chair and tried to slap the Muse, the operative word being "tried." At the last moment, Clio dematerialized, leaving Sheila's hand to pass through thin air. Sheila seethed as the goddess of history rematerialized.
"Understand this, sister. If anything happens to Dragon Boy, if he gets killed or hurt in any way, you and I will have a problem, and trust me, you don’t want that."
Sheila sat back in shock as she realized the danger Kel was in. "Killed?"
Clio took pity on her. Taking her hand, Clio said, "But not today. He's heading here, now, while his scanner is spoofing his position. This Red thinks he’s flying off to the north while he's flying here through the trees."
"His scanner is spoofing... How?" Torga asked.
"Red tagged him with tracker chips. He has a device that is forcing them to lie about his position. We'll destroy the tags when he gets here."
"Damn you," Sheila said as she stood up and stormed out of the establishment.
"Yep, she's in love with him," Clio said.
The other two nodded in agreement.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Charlie and Quint kept an eye on the research team as they cataloged the art and artifacts in the room. A young Sokuhl named Laana examined one artifact with a magnifying glass while her partner, an elf name Jared, took notes.
"The detail is amazing," Laana said as she peered into the glass. "I can see scales."
"I wonder what the time span was between the colony ship arriving on-planet and these statues being placed," Jared asked as he scribbled notes.
"Good question; one that we will have to ask Dr. Hardy when he returns." She stepped back and examined the statue in its totality. "Damn, that man hid all this from us. Wow, imagine the possibilities," she said as her hair rose up in a non-threat display. She stopped when she heard muffled laughter. "What?"
Jared smiled at his friend. "If you were an elf, your tail would be draped over your shoulder right about now," he observed while pointing to his head.
Realizing she was sharing a little too much information with the rest of the room, she patted down her wayward hair. "Thanks."
"Anyway, I hear he and Dr. Minty are already an item. I overheard someone who said they saw him offer her his sohush at dinner the other night."
A look of disappointment washed over Laana's face. "Darn! Did she accept?"
"Nope. Not only didn't she accept, she stunned him before running through that," he said pointing to the gate glowing nearby.
"She must be insane!" Laana said as hope returned. "I saw a recording of the talk he gave at the symposium. He's dreamy..." She stopped when she saw the look on her partner's face. Turning, she saw what had frightened him. There was something large and menacing looking sticking out of the glowing gate. She screamed.
"Everyone stay perfectly still!" Charlie yelled as he and Quint took position between the gate and the researchers. He peered at the creature with his weapon aimed directly at it while Quint took a flanking position.
"Alyson actual, this is Quint," she said into her comm. "We have a situation down here."
"Quint, this is Felicity. Specify."
"Something has stuck its head through the gate. Charlie and I have taken positions between it and the crew. We are awaiting orders."
"Define 'something,' please."
Charlie activated his gun cam and aimed it at the thing. "Is that enough 'Something' for yah?"
They waited as Felicity took remote control of the camera and zoomed-in on the "Something.”
“It’s a robot, probably a remote probe of some kind. Quint, say something to it. Be friendly. Just don't smile too wide. Remember, we're apex predators at heart."
While Charlie continued to draw down on the probe, Quint lowered her weapon, then waved at the device. "Hello! Lovely day, isn't it?"
Charlie looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Let me," Laana said as she pushed Quint--no mean feat considering the size difference between the two ladies--and walked up to the edge of the platform.
"Missy, don't go getting too close to that thing," Charlie said. The device swung in his direction before focusing on Laana. Jared took this moment to push past the two colonists to join his friend. "Laana, this isn't a good idea," he whispered.
"Stop it," she said, "it's only a probe."
"Yeah, but what if it wants to take samples?" he replied.
She turned back to the probe and spoke to it in a language neither Quint, nor Charlie, understood. Finally, she stopped and waited for some kind of reaction. The probe looked around the room--members of several League species were part of the team--before withdrawing into the glowing gate.
"What did you say to it?" Jared asked as they walked back to their statue.
"I spoke in ancient Sokuhl. I said 'We are friendly, so don't be afraid.'"
"Did you get all that, Felicity?" Quint asked.
"Yep, and it was perfect. Whoever was running that probe has just seen Sokuhl interacting with elves, Katalans, humans, and several other League species, and the interactions are non-hostile in nature. Give the young lady a star. Keep me posted. Felicity out."
Quint walked over to where Laana and Jared were working. "Laana, next time, stand behind me or Charlie. We'd hate to see you vaporized or eaten."
"Sorry, ma'am. I got excited. It won't happen again."
Quint reached up and pulled a small gold, star-shaped pin from her vest, which she handed to the young historian. "Anyway, good job," she said before returning to her duties.
Doing a tiny happy dance, Laana put the pin on her collar before getting back to work.
###
Red watched the video playback for the fifth time, yet she could not believe what she was seeing. Beside her, Chukka, too, watched intently, though not so much as to prevent him from taking notes. "I count seven different species including one Sokuhl, the girl who talked to the camera pickup," Chukka said. "Note the protective stance the one with the tail took when the girl approached."
"Track back to the initial contact, the one with the two armed beings," Red ordered. Chukka complied. "The larger one is like one of our ligers. She must mass at least two hundred units. Swing in on the other armed one. See, he is like my father."
"Wasn't your father a god, mistress?"
"Yes, so this must be one of his worshipers. What of the ones with tails and pointed ears?"
"Unknown, mistress. At first, I thought they were demons, but then the young one went out of his way to protect the young Sokuhl woman."
"This Kellen Hardy did not lie when he said he came through a gate. We must find him and find out more about where he has come from. They have weapons more advanced than ours. Perhaps we can obtain some."
"Yes, mistress. Mistress
, tell me again why you hate the Malroth since you, yourself, are half-Malroth."
"Chukka, I don’t hate my people. We have been at war with the Malroth since shortly after we arrived on this planet. They resent our very existence."
Chukka remained silent.
"You are my adviser. Speak!"
"Mistress, you left this planet, then returned with a shipload of refugees. Perhaps the Malroth grew tired of the drama?"
She turned toward her friend and advisor, her eyes burning with barely concealed anger. "I take it you have a suggestion for fixing this problem?"
"Release Jorgan and have him arrange a meeting with Furia. Hammer out your differences before our skirmishes become a full-blown war.”
"Bring me Kellen Hardy."
"Yes, Mistress," Chukka said as he put down the notepad and walked out of the room.
"Chukka..." she started to say, but it was too late, he was gone. She turned back to the screen. "Peace?" she said as the images of a tailed being and a young Sokuhl woman looked back at her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kel made his way along a river while following the arrow on Clio's bracelet. He looked off to the east and saw the first hints of morning peeking over a range of mountains. Below, wildlife was venturing out of the forest to quench their thirst. He dove closer and saw a lot of reptoids and few other forms such as insectoids or mammalians. "Kind of reminds me of the home world," he said as he climbed above the forest canopy to get a better look around. That's when he saw the two dots heading his way from the direction of the mountain range. "Clio, are you with me?"
"Always. What's up?"
"Connect your scanner to mine, please."
"Sure." His scanner beeped as the two devices formed a network. "OK, we're connected."
"Scanner, optical scan of two objects approaching from the north-north-east."
"Working... Scan complete."
He looked at the display and whistled . "Damn, those are big," he commented.
"Length: twenty meters," the scanner continued. "Weight: approximately thirteen metric tons. Approaching at two hundred fifty kilometers per hour. Time to intercept: twenty seconds."
"Kel, get the hell out of there," Clio said.
"They're too leisurely about their approach. I think they're just curious."
"Kel, Kenta says they're Malroth fliers. Her people don't have much to do with them or their non-flying relatives."
"Well, they're on an intercept course. Can you patch Sheila into this conversation? I don't want to use the comms just in case Red can triangulate on the signal."
"Hold on..."
"Kel?"
"Hey, Sheila. How are you doing?"
"Me? How am I doing? What the hell were you thinking? Why did you follow me through the gate?"
"Because I love you."
Silence.
"You still there?"
"Yes, you crazy fool. You and I are going to talk about this when we get back to Alyson."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And you still owe me a dinner, dammit, so get your tail back here."
"Yes, ma'am, as soon as I'm finished with these two behemoths."
"Kel!"
"Gotta go. They're almost here. Put Clio back on and try not to worry."
"Kel, I'm back," Clio said.
"Clio, if I'm wrong about this... Watch over her..."
"You're coming back, Dragon Boy, so don't get maudlin with me."
Kel watched as the two beings grew close enough for him to see clearly. Each one was shaped like the ancient dragons of Earth's China--long, serpent-like--but that is where the similarity ended. Instead of a pair of wings amidships, which wouldn't have worked due to their length, there were three pairs running along either side of their spines. Kel watched as the wings worked in unison, each pair beating just after the pair ahead finished, as if driven by a huge centipede.
The two massive reptiles passed him then looped around to take flanking positions on either side of him. The port one looked at him, then nodded toward the mountain range.
"Clio, did you see that? It’s communicating with me. It wants me to follow."
"Kel, they probably want to eat you. Dive out of there and find a place to hide until they lose interest."
"You worry too much. If they were going to eat me, they would have done it by now. Besides, they don't look hungry, just curious." The starboard-side creature looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Clio, I don't know how, but I think they can hear us..."
It nodded at him with a head the size of a small conveyance.
"OK, that's never happened..." Clio said as she watched the scanner readout.
The creature gave a passable shrug.
"Now, it's getting creepy," Clio noted.
The portside Malroth smiled. Kel tore his gaze away from the behemoths to see where they were going. Directly ahead was a large opening in the mountainside. Squinting, he could see several Malroth perched along the wall around the opening. "Wow!" was all Kel could say as they quickly closed the distance.
###
Sheila took her hand away from Clio's cheek before returning to Kel.
"What was that all about?" Kenta asked.
"Hmmm. Oh that. Clio and Kel have some kind of psychic link, and she was letting me use it to talk with him," Sheila said.
"Handy. Who are you people?"
Sheila looked at the Basili woman, amazed at what she was seeing.
"We're from the Sokuhl home world. I came here searching for an artifact, while Kel and Clio are here to 'Save' me."
"The Sokuhl... It exists?"
"Yep, only there are no Basili, except for Kel. He's the first Basili to be born on the home world since the century ship left. He's devoted his life to proving it really happened and that your kind once existed."
"Wow. OK, that's just too damn heavy. That, and the fact that he can actually fly. No Basili or Sokuhl have ever had wings."
"Ever?"
"Nope not since before our arrival here. We were taught that the ship's computer re-engineered our genetics to match us to the environment. Somehow, we lost the wings in the process, at least that's the story."
"You don't sound convinced."
"I'm not. The government is not known for issuing facts. What artifact are you looking for?"
Sheila took the plunge. "It's called a realmoria. It is important to the Sokuhl government and it was accidentally placed aboard the century ship. It and you were thought lost to time and space."
"Never heard of it, which is par for the course. The government has been hiding stuff from us since we arrived here," Kenta said.
"Kenta, what was that building we were in?"
"It’s called the Fortress. It's Arctillus Special Intelligence Agency's Top Security Facility. We were trying to find someone who had been wrongly imprisoned. And you?"
"I was caught breaking into a vault. They got one look at my equipment and weapon and took me straight to interrogation."
"Y'all might want to see this," Clio said while placing Sheila's scanner in the middle of the table. She activated the device’s holoprojector. A hologram of Kel's approach to the mountain appeared.
The group whistled while trying to get a better view. "Look at them," Torga said. "How the hell do you hide a creature with six wings who's the size of a lorry?"
"They're beautiful,” another group member said as she leaned on the table.
"And they seem to be sapient," Clio added.
"My boyfriend is nuts," Sheila said with a mix of disgust and fear. She looked up and saw Clio staring at her. "What?"
"You called him 'Your boyfriend.' You've never called him that in all the time I've been with him."
"I... I slipped."
"Uh-huh. Sheila, what's got you spooked?"
Sheila sighed. "Sage."
"Sage. Salvia officinalis, an Earth plant used in cooking. Now common throughout the League. Are you allergic?" Clio asked.
"My gods! Sage is an agent o
f the Sokuhl Intelligence Service and he's threatened to kill Kel and his family if I don't bring back this realmoria artifact. Oh, and I'm forbidden to tell Kel or anyone else about this."
"How does this fit into the bonding ceremony?"
"Bonding is the sharing of one's soul. I can't bond with the lug if I'm lying to him."
Clio smirked. "Damn, I thought Aphrodite fell hard for Adonis. You two have them beat hands-down."
"What am I going to do?" Sheila asked.
"Perhaps we could help each other," Kenta suggested.
###
Kel flew through the opening and found himself in a city. Around him, Malroth flew about or perched upon high parapets while bipedal beings walked around the streets below. "Damn!" Kel said, getting a chuckle out of his two escorts. He activated his scanner and ran a series of medical readings on the people on the ground. Though similar to Sokuhl, the scanner concluded they were members of an unknown species. "Exciting times."
The trio descended to a landing on a large--make that huge-patio outside an even larger castle like structure. Similar to other castle-like structures from throughout history that Kel had studied over the years, this one differed in one important respect; it had communications dishes on top of its towers, each one pointing to a different peak in the surrounding mountain chain. "Impressive," he noted as his two companions led him into the building through a massive door wide enough to allow the two Malroth to walk through side-by-side. Waiting on the other side was a member of the biped race. Definitely reptoid, she was about Kel's height, but thinner. Like him, she had a tail, though thinner and bladeless, like an elf's. Her hair was pure white, long, and held in a braid. She wore a one-peace gray uniform with black knee-high boots. Kel stopped and watched as his escorts bowed like horses in a dressage competition. "Thank you, friends," she said to them with a melodious voice. "You may return to your duties."
They got up and headed to the door, but not without first giving Kel a wink as they walked past him.
"Dr. Hardy, my name is Furia, and I'm the Mayor of Alta Aerie. Our people are called the Malroth, and as you can see, we come in several varieties."
"Amazing! Furia? What a wonderful name. Please, call me Kel. If I may be so bold, but how do you know my name?"