It was Ledi.
He smiled at me.
His eyes held an open amusement before they shifted to Nihkil, where the look grew into that nuanced puzzlement I remembered from when I’d first met him on Trinith.
I held my ground, though, and Ledi didn't attempt to move any closer.
"She is protecting you already, Nihkil?” Ledi said, his words translating jerkily in my head. “You will have the rest of us jealous... or more jealous, perhaps."
Nihkil said something to him. Whatever it was, he didn't translate it for me.
So he could control that, I thought. I’d wondered. I was still frowning, standing between the two of them, when Ledi held up a reassuring hand.
"I am not here to hurt your morph, my friend,” he assured me.
"Your thugs did a number on him already," I retorted. "Or are you going to tell me you weren't aware of their habit of using him as a punching bag... ‘my friend’?"
"I am aware," Ledi said, his voice cautious. "Are you aware that Nihkil agreed to these tests, in exchange for our leaving you alone?"
I stiffened, glancing over my shoulder at Nihkil.
Nik frowned at Ledi, his blue-gray eyes holding irritation.
When neither of them spoke for a few seconds, Nihkil stepped closer to me. His hand fell on my shoulder, almost like it had on that planet, Trinith. Again, I felt the possessiveness there, what might have been an overt warning, although about what, I had no idea. When the staring contest between the two of them didn't abate after a handful of seconds, I felt my jaw harden. I looked at Nihkil, then realized he wasn't going to answer my glare, either.
"What do you want?" I asked, turning back to Ledi.
Curiosity shone in the human’s eyes, even as they slid between me and Nihkil. After another pause, he smiled, but that shrewder, more puzzled look never left his expression. His eyes shifted to the pile of data chips on the floor, resting on the hand-held monitor before they shifted to the bed. His green eyes returned to mine.
"We are nearing a course change." Ledi said. At what must have been a confused look on my face, or a blank one at any rate, he clarified, “...We are slowing the ship. We must approach standard to change jump trajectories. It is required. I wanted the two of you to be aware."
“Why?” I said blunt.
When he didn’t answer immediately, I shifted my weight, folding my arms aggressively across my chest. Ledi’s gray eyes crinkled with more amusement, turning into a full smile when Nihkil pulled me closer to him with the same hand that held my shoulder.
"I was thinking you might like to see, Dakota," Ledi said.
My brow crinkled. “See what?”
"Where you are," he said.
I POKED MY head out of the hatch.
I found my eyes at about shin-height as I looked both ways down the snake-like hallway.
Green metal curved in both directions, ends disappearing at around fifteen yards on either side. Nihkil stood above me already, his long form motionless, his fingers barely touching one edge of the wall. He wasn’t looking at me, not that I could tell, but somehow I felt his eyes on me anyway. When I glanced up at him, he caught my gaze and motioned subtly with one hand for me to climb the rest of the way out.
I did so, and regained my feet, exhaling as I rubbed my hands together, fighting nerves.
In front of us, Ledi stood in the ribbed corridor, still watching us openly.
The expression on his face bordered on amused, if still somewhat puzzled; both emotions still appeared to stem from the dynamic between Nihkil and me. I grew conscious of how we must look, with me in Nihkil's dark shorts, tied at my hips with string to keep them up.
Over those, one of Nihkil’s long-sleeved shirts dwarfed my upper body. They seemed to have forgotten to supply clothes for me, though, leaving things only in Nihkil’s size, so I had to make do. I wondered if they still had my leather boots, rotting away in some storage bin in the medical labs. I hadn't seen my favorite foot gear since my first trip to that lab, so I figured they’d taken them off my feet while I’d been passed out.
The hooker wear, I did not miss.
I watched Nihkil use a booted toe on a pressure pedal to close the door. The hatch swiveled up and to the side, then back down, screwing into the floor like the cork in a wine bottle. It happened nearly silently until the end, when a lever crossed over the top, presumably the hatch’s lock, making that clanging sound that woke me before.
Nihkil walked over to where Ledi stood, almost as if he'd felt my self-consciousness about his nearness to me. Glancing at me a second time, he gave me a swift once-over, not smiling, his expression somehow transparent all the same.
He didn’t really want me outside the room. It made him nervous.
He didn’t really want the other humans to see me.
A little startled by the clarity of the impressions, it occurred to me I’d probably felt them through Nik, and through the lock. I tried to concentrate, to feel more, but I didn’t get much. Some sense of his concerns having to do with my safety... or maybe his. Either way, I felt something akin to a warning when I continued to listen, and abruptly stopped.
Nodding, to myself that time, maybe, I moved closer to the two of them, conscious of the cold metal floor on my bare feet. It was strange to realize how much my feelings of physical confidence had to do with clothing. Standing here, half-naked and barefoot, made me feel about half my usual size, even apart from the two men who each had at least a foot on my five-foot-three height.
Rubbing my arms through the thick shirt, I followed when Nik made another subtle motion, right before he turned and began to walk, Ledi at his side.
Padding quietly behind the two of them, I studied the walls when Ledi and Nihkil began to speak to one another in that other language. Neither of them bothered to translate that time.
I didn’t bother trying to eavesdrop, either.
Given my paltry knowledge of Pharize, the human language, I wouldn’t have gotten very far anyway. Through Nik, perhaps, I got the feeling most of their conversation consisted of questions Ledi aimed at Nihkil about me, anyway. It was only a feeling, of course; I never actually heard either of them speak my name.
Letting it go, I tried to focus on where I was, instead.
Floor lights lit Nihkil and Ledi's faces from below, turning them a faint orange. The corridor still felt more like a tunnel; its dimensions lacked hard symmetry, carrying that rounded, seamless quality one could sometimes find in nature, like a honeycomb or an anthill, or even flood-worn ravines in a desert. Graceful curves created ridged patterns out of the perspective when I looked ahead, like being caught in a giant rabbit warren.
The air smelled damp, and somehow reminded me of that weird water smell at Disneyland.
We exited another ribbed tunnel segment and the space opened, showing a cross-section of decks. A group of humans clustered on the other side of a chasm from the wider ramp where we walked. Salt-white faces lined a narrow, latticed platform. They stood in a loose huddle, gesturing to one another and staring at me whenever I wasn't looking.
Well, and sometimes when I was looking, too.
All but one, that is.
A muscular woman with knotted dark red hair stared at me openly the whole time. I focused on her white arms and scarred skin, as well as the athletic figure she cut in the tight outfit, until I realized that Nihkil was watching me, his expression strangely cautious.
“Why are you interested in her?” he said, using the translator.
I glanced at him, startled. At his expression, I flushed a little.
"What are they saying?" I asked him.
Nihkil paused for a moment, listening, as Ledi and I watched him. I saw a strange look on Ledi’s face that time, too, one I couldn’t interpret.
Either way, his curiosity about me and Nik was starting to irritate me.
Whatever that was about, Nik definitely wasn’t telling me something.
I was still looking between them when Nik
spoke. Again, the words came through his translation program, the one that didn't quite synch up with his lips.
“...it looks human, but that dark skin...”
Nihkil paused, his eyes on a different person than the woman who’d originally caught my attention. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought he was deliberately avoiding her, but I had no idea why he would do that.
Still, the impression lingered.
For some reason, it made me angry, too, but I couldn’t quite figure that out, either.
“...Strange eyes,” Nik continued via the translator. “...But I like the black hair. She looks strong... .young. Is it true that morph has her as his...” Another pause, that one more abrupt as Nihkil deliberately focused on someone else. “...going to get us all killed,” he translated from another conversation. “Worth ten times what the Republic will give us on the black market, especially if she’s fertile. Has a lot of breeding years left. Wonder if he'll just cut and run with her, if the patrols try to stop us... claim she got killed in the fighting...”
Nihkil glanced at Ledi then, and fell silent.
Ledi frowned, glancing at the woman whose speech Nihkil had been translating.
"What is she?" I asked, breaking the silence.
I gestured at the first woman, the one I’d caught staring, noting again in irritation that Nihkil wouldn’t look at her directly.
Still, he seemed to know who I meant.
"Human," Nihkil said.
Hesitating, Nihkil glanced at Ledi again, as if for help.
Ledi only looked between us, though, hands folded behind his back, his expression unreadable. Before I could ask a follow up question, the two of them resumed walking. When I didn’t immediately follow, Nihkil glanced over his shoulder at me, his eyes holding that caution once more.
“Are you coming?” he said, pausing his walk when I didn’t move.
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. For a brief instant, emotion tugged back and forth in my mind as I tried to decide if I should demand an answer from him, or just blow it off. I couldn’t really pinpoint what bothered me exactly, which didn’t help.
Sighing again, I gave in, following the two of them.
“Fine,” I said, when I got closer to Nik on the catwalk. “Why, then? Can you tell me that, at least?” At Nihkil’s questioning raised eyebrow, I explained, “If we’re in space then how are all of these people human? How is that possible?”
"I am not human," Nihkil reminded me.
"I know that," I said, biting back impatience. "But you still look human. It's in your repertoire. Like you said before, it was your original shape, right?"
Nihkil’s eyes sharpened on me at that, right before they flickered towards Ledi, almost as an afterthought. "That is personal information, Dakota... I would appreciate it if you didn't share it."
I frowned, then glanced at Ledi, too. “Oh. Well, maybe you should have told me that, Nik... for future reference, I mean.”
He nodded slowly, as if thinking.
“I should have told you.” His eyes shifted back towards mine, holding an open warning. “...But I am telling you now.”
Sighing, I nodded, rubbing my face. “Okay. Noted.”
“What does that mean?” he said, wariness still in his voice.
“It means, I heard you,” I said, my voice a bit sharper, too. “Drop it, okay?”
Nihkil pursed his lips, but didn't speak.
I saw his eyes turn a darker color, almost black above the high planes of his cheekbones, but I still hadn't quite mapped his mood changes to the color of his eyes, either.
Hearing a faintly amused sound from Ledi, I turned, glancing at him. He made his face neutral again when he caught my stare, then waved off my expression when I didn’t look away. His voice held a note of apology.
"Please continue. I apologize for my rudeness, Dakota Mayumi Reyes."
"Just Dakota," I said. "And I'd appreciate it more if you didn't bother apologizing but just told me why you were laughing."
Ledi gave Nihkil the apologetic look that time.
"Most people here are afraid of morph, Dakota," he said, pronouncing my name with exaggerated care, even using the translator. "We control the locks, in most cases, but we do not speak to them the way you do. We are not so familiar with them. Most try to avoid contact with them at all, in fact... in the event that we might personally affront one of them, and thus their whole clan."
"You are," I said pointedly, keeping my eyes on Ledi even as I gestured towards Nihkil. "You're that familiar with him."
"Nihkil and I have known each other for many years," Ledi explained. “And I would not have addressed him as you just did.”
A little stumped by that, I tried to think over what I’d just said to Nik. I glanced up at him then, but didn’t see any anger in his eyes, or even irritation.
“I don’t mind,” he assured me.
But I heard the caginess behind that answer, too.
Folding my arms tighter, I exhaled.
"Yeah, okay,” I muttered.
Ledi laughed openly that time. “You will have to tell me how you do it, Dakota,” he said with a smile. “You have Nik practically domesticated... apart from a few of his more specific quirks. And, of course, his obligations under––”
Nihkil cut us off, his voice holding more of an edge.
"We should go, sir. They are too curious about her. We should not feed their speculation."
Ledi looked over at him, as if startled. I saw his stare grow shrewd once more, right before he nodded, glancing at me, then at the corridor behind us.
"Yes. Of course." Ledi said. He glanced at Nihkil again, appraising his face with a longer stare. "Yes. We will go, Nik."
I folded my arms tighter, fighting frustration that wanted more and more to turn into anger.
At this rate, Nihkil was going to get a real earful from me by the time we got back to the room.
I knew, though, somehow, that I might not make any headway on this particular subject. I felt a hard stop there, maybe through the lock, or maybe from something I’d seen in Nihkil’s face. He flat-out didn’t want me knowing something. The problem was, I had no idea what it was... which I suppose was the point. The fact that it had something to do with those humans, possibly even that particular woman who’d stared at me so aggressively, bothered me, too.
I had no idea if Nik’s secrecy had anything to do with Ledi’s cracks about the two of us, though. The two things seemed related, somehow, but really, that was just a guess.
Given Nik’s seeming interest in making our relationship somewhat less than wholly platonic, I couldn’t help wondering––
“Dakota,” Nik said, glancing at me. “Not now.”
Realizing I’d let the two of them get ahead of me again, I clenched my jaw.
“When?” I said.
Nihkil didn’t answer me, but I saw his eyes harden slightly. I could tell he didn’t want to promise we’d talk about it back in the room, either.
I guess I had to give him points for not wanting to overtly break a promise to me.
“Fine,” I sighed, letting my anger be audible that time. “Forget it.”
When I looked over, Ledi was staring between the two of us again.
Ignoring the question in his eyes, I only refolded my arms, speeding my legs to catch up with them. Nik nudged Ledi while I watched, and they resumed walking, too. Ledi glanced between the two of us yet again, but since neither Nik nor I answered his unspoken question, he eventually seemed to drop it, too.
Walking behind them once more, and feeling a bit like the family dog, I did my best to suppress my anger at Nihkil, knowing he might even feel it through the lock.
Still, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
Nik had already intimated more than once that we were under surveillance in that cell, that he didn't feel comfortable talking to me openly when it came to certain topics. The problem was, I couldn't for the life of me figure out was which top
ics those were.
The ones that made him cringe often struck me as completely random.
But I didn't want to argue the point in front of Ledi, either.
After a few more paces, I felt something like regret in Nihkil.
I didn’t look at him directly, not until he slowed his pace, drawing up alongside me, and letting Ledi walk in front of us both.
"We are all relatives," he said in a low voice, answering my question from before as if I’d just asked it. “...Humans and morph. It is believed we are all related. However, dominant theories of origin posit humans to have followed the morph into evolutionary existence... at least in their current form. Therefore, while we mimic their shape in the present day, it is far more likely that they look like us, than the reverse."
Ledi chuckled, glancing back at me.
“Not all human scientists agree on this point, by the way, Dakota,” he said, his voice openly amused. “You might want to poll a sample, in terms of origin theories... for there are as many as stars in the sky in our worlds.”
Nihkil spared him a dismissive glance, then cleared his throat, gesturing at the next few clusters of people watching us.
"They are human,” he said. “Just like those of your world... more or less."
“More or less,” I muttered, frowning a little in Ledi’s direction.
“Yes,” Nihkil said.
I watched the humans continue to stare at us, feeling my frustration rise. “You must know how crazy that sounds,” I said. "That we'd be in space, but they'd all be human."
"Only because it is new information for you," he said.
Again, Ledi chuckled. He’d slowed down a little too, so that the three of us walked almost abreast. I watched Ledi pat Nihkil on the shoulder.
"Nihkil is right," he said, glancing at me. "We are all human... except for those of us who are not." He chuckled again, shaking his head seemingly at both of us.
I glanced back at the crowd on the catwalk.
I no longer saw that one woman, the one with the dark red hair and the muscular but voluptuous body. At least five new faces returned my stare, however.
Several climbed handholds down to the main deck to get a better look at our small group. They followed behind us at a distance, looking almost like cave people with their bleached-white skin and large features.
The Morph (Gate Shifter Book One) Page 14