Ehmhy noticed her interest as she nudged an offending brick that had nearly jumped out an assaulted the toe of her shoe. His ears cocked toward her and even his whiskers pushed out with interest.
“What is that?”
Her lips quirked at his innate curiosity. It wasn’t the first time she’d noticed it. Although he seemed like a dependable, confident guy, his lack of machismo when it came to anything that attracted his interest was endearing. He wasn’t the least bit shy to ask a question or become enthralled with things that caught his eye.
“See these broken bricks and dust here? Red brick is considered among some people to be especially effective for spiritual protection. My auntie, uh, my mother’s sister, in Shreveport, she has me keep an eye out for brick dust for her. I don’t really like wandering around abandoned places on my own, but she pays well if I bring her a good supply.”
She half expected him to scoff at the idea, but instead he cocked his head and his eyes gleamed. He even went so far as to crouch down, his tail curling around his toes, to draw a finger through it. He lifted a hand to inspect the dull red powder on his finger. His other hand pulled a small pouch off his belt into which he brushed a handful of powder. Once full, his finger ran along the edge of the bag, sealing it somehow. She raised her eyebrows at him, but he shrugged with a smile.
“It reminds me of talson dust from Forashual. It is made from a special root, which is ground down into a dust for similar purposes. We often make a paste of it for marking newborn fashi and those who are going through their mating ceremony to keep evil away. If this is of a similar purpose, it can only be beneficial until our kin arrive.”
That the Forad were both a technologically advanced species and spiritual in a way some humans considered superstitious made Gerry smile. So many people thought science and spirit couldn’t live side by side, but apparently the Forad were managing just fine with it. Ehmhy didn’t seem to question it as he attached the pouch to the belt with a slight pressure and continued through the grasses, his path taking him under several magnolia trees. A few loose white petals rained down on him as he paused and turned, waiting for her to catch up.
Gerry brushed off her hands and joined him. After hours of walking, she was feeling the first signs of exhaustion setting in. They would need to take a real break soon. Ehmhy seemed like he could go on forever. As soon as she was at his flank, he continued at his agile pace. Within minutes, Gerry thankfully found her second wind as she sped up to walk beside him.
“Fashi, is that a baby?”
“Yes, it means tiniest one. Some males refer to beloved females as fashifa, but it is most often used when speaking of what you call babies. When they begin walking but are still very small, we call them fashi-mu, for they are upright. When they begin to mature sexually at pubescence, they are fashi-afar, referring to their time of transition into the adult state. It is a time marked with great celebration and a series of rituals over four revolutions to signify their movement into maturity. Adults are Eshal, which designates us as mature and of breeding age.”
“So your nephew, Ferikal, he’s fashi-afar?” Gerry asked as she narrowly avoided stepping into a deep hole in the ground. No doubt it would have twisted—if not broken—her ankle if she hadn’t been paying attention.
Ehmhy nodded, his eyes narrowed with apparent concern. No doubt he noticed how close she’d come to laming herself just hours into their mission. She watched his fur fluff as if releasing nerves and he smiled.
“Not yet. He is fashi-mu, not that he wishes anyone to remember that fact. He is a revolution or two shy of being fashi-afar.”
Gerry raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know for sure?”
Ehmhy chuckled. “It is not a simple matter of mathematics. He cannot be considered fashi-afar until he has had his first sexual heat. It strikes when the gods decide it is time and not when we calculate it.” He suddenly frowned. “I am certain it won’t strike for at least another revolution. He has shown no signs of entering into his heat.”
“Wait a minute,” Gerry interrupted, bewildered, “his heat?”
The male looked at her out of the corner of his eye and frowned as he pulled back the thick limbs of a bush so she would pass easier. She flashed a grateful smile as she slid past, her hip lightly brushing against his. She didn’t fail to notice the way his muscles shuddered before he regained his composure.
“Humans do not have this?” At the shake of her head, he adopted a thoughtful look as he searched for the right words to explain. “When a Forad, male or female, reaches the beginning of their sexual maturation, it is triggered by hormones that flood the body. In males, this causes the male to produce his first seed, and the female to ovulate. At this time, the fashi-afar will experience a burning heat come over them that is feverish. It is a terrible time for them because they feel driven to copulate but are too young by Forad custom. The parents distract the new fashi-afar with a great celebration. They get their first taste of the intoxicating fermented garoli and spend much time at the cool springs in the company of cousins and siblings, and under the watchful eye of their uncles and fathers, or mothers and aunts in the case of females.”
“Just playing devil’s advocate, but what would happen if Ferikal came into his first heat here?”
“I do not understand your phrase but to answer your question, he would be in a lot of pain,” Ehmhy stated bluntly. “Without cooling springs to bring down his fever, he would suffer. It is possible for a young male caught alone in his first heat to go mad. That would be my biggest fear. He would attack anyone, especially any female in his path in a crazed fit of desperation to find some relief.”
Mouth hanging open in surprise, Gerry snapped it shut, her eyes still wide with horror. Of all the things they had to worry about, she never realized it could potentially be a race against the clock with pubescent hormones. And she thought human teenagers had it bad! She couldn’t imagine losing complete control of herself like that. Although Ehmhy tried to look unconcerned, she was starting to see the signs of worry as she became more accustomed to reading his expressions and body language.
Despite his words, it was clear that there was a legitimate concern for Ferikal’s heat to hit unexpectedly without support.
After that, Ehmhy lapsed into silence, his steps nearly soundless compared to her rough trod. She had to admire the grace with which he moved, and she was more than a little envious over it. Gerry imagined that when it came right down to it, there was no way she’d compare to a Forad female. They must have been equally graceful to the male beside her, if not more so.
She cursed silently to herself. She shouldn’t care how she measured up to a Forad female. There were none here and she wasn’t likely to ever be around one in person. She growled in frustration but bit it back when she saw his ears flick toward her. She’d rather avoid any discussions that might analyze why she was feeling so agitated over the matter, and knowing Ehmhy, he’d pry it out of her.
Though they kept their pace at a fast clip, it took an excruciating amount of time to locate the source of the signal. It ended up being in the midst of a largely abandoned neighborhood. A handful of houses had signs of life from determined homeowners or possibly vagrants making use of the property, but she didn’t see any sign of impact at first.
It wasn’t until dusk, when they turned down an alley between a thick cluster of small homes, that they came across the large metal compartment of the engine room. It had brought down the back halves of several of the houses and was covered with all manner of green foliage from broken trees that likely helped keep it hidden, but it looked remarkably undamaged. Nor had it sunken into the ground at all from impact. It didn’t have any kind of parachute that NASA employed as far as she could see.
“How did this thing not practically bury itself in the ground when it crashed?”
Ehmhy pointed at large cylinders that the box rested on as he scrambled up its side, pulling away branches as he made his way up.
“Em
ergency thrusters,” he called down. “Each compartment of the ship had them. Once the individual segments sealed and broke away from each other for an emergency landing, the emergency system began to run, and the thrusters lowered to activate shortly after entering the atmosphere. The impact is still jarring, but it prevents larger scale damage to the compartment and the landing area.”
Gerry whistled, her eyebrows climbing as she regarded the hull of the engine room. If she had to guess, it was roughly the size of her tiny apartment. Probably just barely big enough to contain the engine and a couple of people if necessary. She jumped when a large wall slid open, activated by Ehmhy’s hand pressed against a panel high on its side. With a satisfied grin, he dropped down and landed nimbly in front of her. He turned and slipped inside the dark interior without a word.
Following close behind, the cool, dark room made her shiver. Part of it was due to a chill in the evening air. Another part was in reaction to the undeniable alien-ness of what she was looking at. It was just like something out of a sci-fi drama, but the shows never got even close to what such technology looked like.
The engine was a suspended sphere containing a tiny glowing mass at its center. The sphere itself floated inside a network of metal that looked like a cage. She couldn’t for the life of her imagine how it worked. It certainly didn’t look anything like the engine on her old VW Bug she had as a teenager. If she squinted hard enough, she could almost imagine it as a ball of yarn. Gerry stifled a giggle.
Licking her lips, she followed Ehmhy around the engine. His deep red tail swayed behind him, drawing her eye to its length nestled against his ass. When he paused beside the engine, Gerry’s attention was pulled away from his backside as she watched him frown at the engine for a moment before sighing and passing it by. A low creak of metal had her rushing up to his side to keep in step with him.
“What was that green light?”
“It is the heart of the engine. I cannot safely release it without causing significant damage to this entire district. I will not do that. Unfortunately, that means your leaders will be able to recover an intact engine. I will likely be facing a heavy fine for leaving this tech available to a species as underdeveloped as yours.”
Walking to one of the walls, he flattened his hand against it and ran his hand along it as if searching for something. It was clear to Gerry he wasn’t entirely sure where whatever he was looking for was located. They both flinched when a section of the wall sprayed steam in their direction and slid out to reveal a long, bulbous tube. Ehmhy’s expression was triumphant as he backtracked along the wall to the blinking beacon.
With the utmost care, he extracted it from the clamps that kept it locked in place. He ran his hands over it before tucking it into the backpack they’d brought with them. Ehmhy took another look around the engine room, his gaze resting on the abandoned seat pulled out from the side of the wall.
“What I wouldn’t give to have had the foresight to tuck a few plasma weapons in here, or even a decent blade,” he muttered to himself as he tracked back to the entrance. At the door, he took a deep breath and a scowl settled onto his face. His obvious displeasure was punctuated by a foreign curse that didn’t translate.
Sidling up to him, Gerry looked out at the darkening landscape. In the gloom, she could barely make out what looked like tire marks leading toward the highway. She reached into the pack hanging off of Ehmhy’s back, pulled out a flashlight, and flicked it on.
“We should probably see how far we can follow the tracks there. I’m willing to bet anything that as fresh as they look, they belong to whoever took your nephew.”
To her surprise, Ehmhy stepped back and dropped the bag on the floor as he shook his head in the negative.
“No?”
He sighed. “It will not do any good. We will not get far before the rain comes in. I can smell it on the air. We will take note of the direction and head out when the rain ceases and proceed from there. We can only hope we get in range soon of what remains of Ferikal’s tracking device, if it is even still operational.”
Gerry rolled her eyes. “I’m not afraid of a little rain.”
His lips curved despite his exasperated sigh. “It is more than a small rain, Geree. It smells like a storm. Ashdru, show local weather synopsis.” A small hologram shot up from his comm unit, flashing light on the walls. Gerry was momentarily distracted by the light show before she noticed the ominous spinning formation moving inland. She couldn’t tell if it was a hurricane or a tropical storm, but either way it was a bad idea to be out in it. Ashdru’s voice suddenly broke the silence.
“Local media circuits are alerting the populace to a tropical storm moving in that may graduate into hurricane-force winds. It is advised that you take shelter immediately.”
“Well, fuck,” Gerry muttered, sliding down onto the floor beside the bag. “I guess that’s that. We are stuck here. You best give Ferikal the news.”
HIS TAIL TWITCHED ANXIOUSLY as he paced his small enclosure. It had been hours since he’d seen anyone come from the dwelling to the small shelter in which his cage was housed. He caught sight of the males every now and then running around the perimeter securing the windows and doors, but not one came toward him. His fur stood on end with anxiety. The rain had already started, marking the head of a massive storm moving in. He could already see the sky darkening in the distance as the winds rattled the walls around him.
Ferikal felt his heart plummet as he realized that they were really going to leave him outside all alone through the storm. He shivered and jumped back a pace as a roar cracked through the air.
He’d never experienced a storm or heard thunder before, but it was just as terrifying as he’d always imagined it to be when his father told him stories of the summer storms on Forashual. They had seemed marvelous from the safety of his room on the space station but now that he was experiencing the real thing, he could find nothing to marvel over. The raw, devouring nature of the storm struck fear into him like nothing ever before.
His comm unit blipped a few times and he knew his uncle was trying to comm him, but nothing was getting through. He huddled into a ball, willing the storm to pass.
Sinking into misery, he almost didn’t hear the small cough outside of his cage. Ferikal jerked his head up and met the green eyes of a young female, her hair arranged into two neat blond braids. He was captivated by the splatter of markings across her nose. He leaned forward, sniffing at the female discreetly. Her nose wrinkled up as she smiled, baring small, white teeth with rounded ends. He didn’t even see the blankets she pushed through the bars until the material hit his face. She giggled and he returned her smile, careful not to show too much of his fangs as not to frighten her, as he pulled the blankets in from the other side.
When they finally got the blankets through, she handed him a warm bottle and some containers. She left his side only long enough to pull the heavy doors of the shelter closed and latch them with a large crossbar before returning to his side. Crossing her legs in front of her, she opened the bottle and poured some of the contents into the lid. A savory smell wafted up from the cup, and Ferikal felt his stomach pinch painfully.
“You must be hungry. Ruth didn’t want no one to feed you, but I stole some extra food while everyone was preparing for the storm. They’re figuring it’ll turn into a hurricane.”
“What’s that?” he whispered as he drank the hot broth. It had long strings in it and bits of meat. He didn’t care much for the pasty strings, but the meat was good, and the broth was warm and filling.
The female paused. A white flaky bit of food stopped in front of her mouth as she regarded him in surprise.
“You ain’t ever heard of a hurricane before?”
Ferikal tucked his tail closer to him and shivered. “No.”
She popped the morsel in her mouth and considered him as she chewed.
“A hurricane is a big wind and rain that comes off the ocean.”
“Will it hurt us?”
> “Sometimes maybe so, but I’ve hidden out here before in the smaller hurricanes and never had any kind of trouble. We’re sure to be grade-A okay,” she said with a wide smile.
Somehow that made Ferikal feel a little better.
“I’m Suzy. Who might you be?”
“I am Ferikal,” he said in a soft voice as he settled closer to the bars, taking some small comfort out of the presence of the fashi-mu human female.
Chapter 8
The door slid closed just as the rain began to beat down. Ehmhy had been content to sit beside Geree and watch the rain fall from the skies until the wind started to blow it inside their shelter. Once his fur had been soaked through, he pulled the female back and slid his hand across the control to close the engine room. They would have been plunged into darkness if not for the lights Geree had armed herself with earlier that morning.
It bothered him that he’d been unable to comm Ferikal, but it was no doubt due to disruption from the storm. Even his female had thrown her strange handheld comm device to the ground in complete disgust when she’d attempted to get a weather update. Now she sat against one wall, her head lolling to one side and her knees drawn up to her chest as she shivered.
Ehmhy knew that the ships were not designed for comfort when the systems were offline. They were insulated to protect from deep space and that was about it. They were always shockingly cold. Even sitting out in the heat all day did little to warm the interior, and now with the storm upon them the engine room was chilly even to him, despite keeping them dry. His eyes narrowed with concern on Geree, not looking as cold as she appeared to be. Without a word he slid in behind her, curled his body around hers, and pulled her thin blanket over them both.
As soon as his arms came down around her, Geree turned to burrow her face against the fur on his chest, her belly and hip tucked in against him. He noticed with surprise that his tail had looped over her hip without him being aware of it. Her eyes watched him and a deep purr rumbled from his chest.
First Contact Page 6