Only Human

by Chris Reher

  He needed no further persuasion and within moments he grasped her hips to pull her over himself, pushing into her with one deep stroke. She groaned and began to move, slowly, until his patience broke and he pulled her down to turn her onto her back, his movements as rough as she needed him to be. Nova clutched his clothes, feeling the coarse fabric rasp over her skin, the hard edges of fasteners and buckles digging into her as he moved, lost in the ancient rhythms that their mental connection churned into a tempest of physical ecstasy. Both of them held back for as long as they could until, finally, Nova cried out and he pulled her close, finding his own release in almost painful bolts of pleasure.

  He collapsed drunkenly, struggling to catch his breath.

  Nova squirmed out from under him. "All right," she said, equally breathless. "You can go have your bath now."

  "Thank you, Captain," he gasped and flopped onto his back. "I had no idea you were that fond of uniforms."

  She leaned over and kissed his face. He watched his hand move idly through a long strand of her hair. “Feel better now?” he said.

  “Hmm? Oh yes, don’t you?”

  “I was just fine,” he grinned, his brow furrowed in puzzlement. He stroked a finger along an angry red mark left behind by his collar clasp. “What is bothering you?”

  “Not a thing. Go get cleaned up.”

  "Don't go anywhere. We're not done here."

  "Yessir!"

  He struggled across her and off the lounger, dropping pieces of his clothing as he headed for the tiny bath stall that connected the two sleeping cabins.

  Nova stretched and purred, feeling tired and content but not enough of either to fall asleep before he returned from his shower. She made some attempt at straightening the rumpled blankets when something near the cockpit caught her eye.

  Not long later, Tychon re-entered the cabin wearing a long robe, apparently not ready to make good on his promise to spend an hour in the bath. He found her by the communications station. "I appreciate the fact that you're naked, but can you be that in bed?" He stood behind her and nuzzled her neck. "This control board is a bit too fragile for what I have in mind."

  "Aaag, your hair is wet!" she protested. "Look."

  "Hmm?"

  "Message. From K'lar."

  He lifted his head. "K'lar? What does it say?"

  "You won't believe it. Someone has information about Kira."

  He nudged her aside and bent to the screen to read the written message. It was barely literate and sprinkled with words from several languages, but the message was clear. The sender promised information about Kiran's location if they met him or her on Tor Ag, a distant, relatively neutral planet that Nova had never even heard of before she had called up more information about it.

  "What do you think?" she said.

  He ran his hands through his hair. "Seems a little fortuitous, doesn't it? Rebels selling each other out already?"

  "Rebels are rebels," she said. "But how did they find us here? I didn't file a flight plan. Someone must have tracked me from Targon to see what jumpsite I'd be using, and to where. The Eagle would have noticed that, even if I didn't."

  He nodded thoughtfully and then gestured at the screen. "We should check this out."

  "We should look for the rest of the message," she said. "Must have gotten lost."

  "What rest?"

  "The bit that says 'It's a trap'."

  "Oh, that," he shrugged. "We can't not check it out. I'll send a report to Carras. We'll leave in the morning. The good news is that we'll have to crack a new breach to get there in any reasonable amount of time." He stepped down into the cockpit to program the scanners. "We'll see if the keyhole to K'lar will get us there. We'll know by tomorrow. Are you ready to give it a try?" Tychon looked up to spend a few moments in silent contemplation of her. "Although, unless you put on some clothes, it's doubtful that I'll be able to concentrate enough to assist." He steered her back to the lounger. "I almost forgot. I need you to do something for me."

  She reclined enticingly. "What did you have in mind?"

  He snatched something from a compartment by the map table and joined her on the bed. "We may have to deal with some government bodies in order to get to Kira. If he's being held on a planet where we have some influence, we can get by with Vanguard clearance, but you may need more identification if we split up."

  "No splitting up," she pouted. She put her hand on his thigh. "I work better in a team."

  "Sure you do. In any case, hang on to this. If you need proof that you are acting on Delphi's behalf it will give you that authority." He opened a small leather pouch and upended it into his palm. What tumbled out was an octagonal disk of metal with deeply etched engravings that she recognized as Delphian lettering. Hesitantly, she raised her hand to touch it, then turned it over in his palm. A large, flat sapphire was held onto the back by metal bands. The piece had the look and feel of something old and very sacred.

  "Ty," she said, awed. "That... that's your sigil, isn't it?" She looked up, stunned.

  "Yes," he said. "Although it escapes me how those idiots at the school could have mistaken a forgery for it. There is a lot of information in there that you can scan, but not record on it." He pointed out a thin layer running through the disk itself. "The stone is just pretty."

  Nova bit her lip. "This is... I mean... this is your sigil!" She looked into his face, again feeling the dark weight that Carras had placed on her shoulders pressing down on them. This jewel was more than just identification. It had to do with clans and affinities and so many other things that she still didn't understand about Delphi. She did know that it was not traded casually. "Thank you. For... for trusting me with this."

  He placed it into her hand. "Just keep it safe."

  Chapter Nine

  Tor Ag proved to be dreary. The most interesting color here was gray in various shades of boring. Gray mist hung in the air and gray ooze covered the ground. Nova shook her feet with every step. Although the surface appeared solid, she sunk ankle-deep into a powdery mass before finding firm foothold. The dry substance seeped back into place where they had walked, leaving no tracks.

  "You come here often?" Nova peered at Tychon over her respirator, still able to smell ammonia. She kicked at the dust around her feet, sending up a billowing cloud of grayness. Her eyes were watering and felt raw.

  He scanned the empty, blurred street over his own mask. Few of Tor-Ag's inhabitants walked, preferring the safety of covered sleds that moved noiselessly over the surface dust. "I think that’s the place over there."

  "This is disgusting."

  The moistureless clouds seemed less dense here than they had been on the airfield and she could spot gnarled shapes of gray vegetation between shuttered buildings. She, who was well used to the dead emptiness of space, suddenly wished for even the slightest fragment of color. A single green leaf would have been a relief. Those withered bits of shrubbery seemed to exist without the chlorophyll so vitally needed in most of the places she had visited. How could anything grow in this world?

  Walking closer to Tychon, she looked up at the sun she knew to be there and saw only a milky brightness, exactly where it had been when they had landed here a few hours ago. She shivered. When he stopped to consult the screen on his forearm her eyes adhered to the patch of bright red shirt by his collar. She wished he hadn't worn his gray duster over it.

  Tychon led them into another, equally deserted street. They moved slowly, alert to what may come to meet them, but their guns remained holstered. She touched his elbow when she spotted the open bay door of the repair station they had been instructed to find. Both of them stopped some distance from the building, raising their hands slightly to show that they were empty. Just inside the storage area, four hulking figures waited in the drifts of fog settling among crates and barrels.

  The one in front, a stooped and thickly-robed K'lar, gestured to them.

  "Out here is fine," Nova said. "We prefer the fresh air."

 
; The K'lar stepped out of the shelter, his guards close behind. Nova saw scaled, tufted skin and realized that the shambling creatures were Rhuwac. Her skin crawled and she fought the impulse to take a few steps back. She glanced at Tychon but, except for a fleeting twitch of his upper lip, his expression remained carefully neutral.

  "You," the K'lar pointed at Nova. "Whiteside?"

  She nodded.

  He held up two thick fingers. "Two hundred."

  She gasped, surprised by the amount.

  Tychon reached into a pocket and withdrew a clear plastic case of triangular tokens. He shook it. "Proof?"

  "Have tape," the K'lar said, using an awkward mix of Union mainvoice and bits of his own language. "Picture tape. Delphi boy good. Not problem."

  "How did you get that?" Nova asked.

  "No askings. Boy not far."

  "Where? Here on Tor Ag?"

  "No. Give that." He raised his hand toward Tychon and the box of coins. But then he groaned loudly and his eyes widened to show more of the yellows. He stumbled back a few steps and none of his Rhuwacs caught him when he crumpled to the ground. Nova saw a new hole in his dirty robe, quickly staining with blood. No one had heard the shot that had taken the rebel down.

  Tychon's weapon was in his hand and one of the Rhuwacs fell even before any of the others had comprehended what had happened. "Come on!"

  "Wait!" Nova squatted beside the writhing K'lar and held her breath as she searched his pockets.

  The other two Rhuwacs now roared something unintelligible and one lunged at her even as her fingers closed over a small, round object. She whirled to run after Tychon, back to the main street and the airfield, leaving the slow-moving Rhuwacs behind.

  "Told you there was another part to that message, didn't I?" Nova panted when she had caught up with Tychon.

  He dodged into an alley when a large shape loomed out of the mist. "More of them up ahead."

  They raced into the direction of his plane through a maze of alleys and narrow streets. A look over her shoulder confirmed that they were followed by more Rhuwacs. Nova stumbled over something hidden in the layer of surface dust and barely caught herself. An icy pain shot through her foot. Tychon had sprinted ahead, far ahead, before he turned to see her no longer behind him.

  "Nova!"

  Three Rhuwacs were only steps behind her. Without time to turn and aim her own weapon, she limped onward, pain flaring up from her foot in measurable bolts of agony. Nova could almost feel the Rhuwacs behind her and heard their strained gasps for air. She was losing ground now, her strength ebbing. Her respirator had come loose and her throat was on fire.

  Two of her pursuers galloped past her, toward Tychon, their guns forcing him to duck into a doorway.

  Then she felt a rough, scaled hand grab a fistful of her hair and jerk her off her feet. She sprawled into the dust, desperately twisting around to get her gun between her and the beast looming over her. He wrenched the weapon away and tossed it aside.

  She looked up to see the brutal face of her captor. Two rows of teeth angled like ancient tombstones and cold, thoughtless eyes stared at her above a splayed, scarred nose. His carrion stench blasted her face. She noted all this with interest, observing her terror as part of this nightmare. He was leaning on her with one hand in the pit of her stomach and she realized dimly that she could not breathe. A knife was pressed under her chin, its tip already piercing the skin.

  The Rhuwac mumbled something and an idiotic grin pulled his heavy features into a carnival mask that Nova had seen, long ago, when she had been a child growing up on Skyranch Four. She hadn't understood the mask until now.

  He flung her into the entranceway of a house and lumbered after her before she gasped some of the tainted air into her lungs. She clawed at his face when he gripped her belt and tore her clothes as if they were made of paper.

  Then he was not there anymore.

  Tychon was there instead, staring down at the fallen Rhuwac, his gun still in his hand. The loose strands of hair and the thick billows of dust did not obscure the boundless hate and rage burning in his eyes. In one quick motion, he twisted the knife from the Rhuwac's grip and slashed at the large body.

  Nova rolled away, frightened by the sounds now bursting from the beast. She felt the sour taste of bile rise in her throat when she saw where Tychon was inflicting horrible wounds. Blood spurted thickly from a severed femoral artery.

  "Gods, Ty! Kill him! Finish it!"

  Tychon looked from the blade in his hand to Nova as if surprised by their presence. He flung the knife aside and killed the Rhuwac with his gun. His arms were drenched in blood to the elbows.

  "We're even," he said calmly.

  Nova blacked out, almost gratefully.

  She was vaguely aware of being picked up and carried back to the airfield. No one stopped them, no one came to help. Like on other worlds she had seen, rebel matters were left to rebels and the locals had learned to stay out of their way. She clung to Tychon, her face pressed against his duster. Oddly, the rough fabric seemed to wear away the image of the Rhuwac's face that hung like a vision before her eyes.

  When he put her down she could see the Eagle's scuffed hull crouching in the rolling mist, uninviting and unfamiliar. She longed to be within its clean, comfortable, cluttered interior and gone, long gone.

  "Are you all right?" he said. "Let's get you some air before you pass out again. You hurt your foot?"

  She leaned heavily on his arm, willing herself not to throw up. "Ty you cut his... You didn't have to..."

  "Shouldn't try to rape Union officers." His voice was roughened by more than the ammonia in the air. He wiped at the blood that trickled along her neck. He was more gentle when he helped her into the ship.

  They launched and left orbit, more to quit this dismal planet than because of any real need to hurry. The autopilot took them away from Tor Ag and Nova began to feel better with every minute that passed.

  Tychon winced as much as she did when he removed her boots to reveal a bruised ankle. He helped her pull off her torn and blood-stained clothes and then removed his also, stuffing all of it into a bag which he then tossed into the cargo hold where the smell of ammonia could not reach them. They cleaned up the blood, dust and gore and slipped into clean clothes before he carefully examined her foot. Neither the cut on her neck nor the bruised ankle was especially worrisome.

  "I wonder who shot that K'lar," she said.

  He shrugged and placed a cold pack on her foot "Wish I knew. The lizards must have thought it was me. Too stupid to see I was carrying a laser."

  Nova was uneager to discuss the Rhuwacs. "Probably another rebel, shooting the K'lar for being a traitor. Oh, the tape!"

  "Huh?"

  "I got a disk from that man."

  He went back into the cargo bay to dig through her clothes. "Found it," she heard him call. He re-entered the cabin, thoughtfully examining the small spool in his hand. "Centauri markings."

  "Do we have something to play it on?"

  "I think so. The main screen, maybe."

  He helped her hobble to the cockpit where she waited until he had inserted the spool into an adapter. When he settled into his bench she climbed into his lap. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her after making sure that her cold pack was back in place on her foot.

  The tape threaded slow. Tychon adjusted the unit until most of the static cleared. They saw an image of a two-storied building. The picture shook as the viewer moved closer. A high wire fence surrounded the house. Dense forest formed a background.

  "Look!" Nova exclaimed.

  Two children crouched within the small yard, intent on a game. They wore only short pants, their feet bare. Tychon swallowed hard when they saw one of them fling a mass of blue curls back over his shoulder. The other was a small boy, no larger than a toddler, with startling blond hair and very dark skin.

  The door to the house opened and a K'lar woman appeared, speaking to the children. They seemed to understand a command
and rose to pick up a few toys. The smaller child shouted something and tried to wrestle Kiran to the ground.

  The woman grabbed each boy by an arm to pull them apart, but when she half-turned to the camera Nova saw an indulgent smile on her face. She ruffled Kiran's hair and the three walked into the house, Kiran's arm wrapped loosely around the woman's thick waist.

  The image dissolved into static. Nova felt Tychon breathing evenly in the dark of the cockpit, but she knew by now that this would be no barometer of the turmoil he felt.

  "He's fine, Ty," she said.

  He stroked her hair absently. "Yes."

  She looked up at him. "Are you?"

  He kissed her before rising from the couch, taking her along with him. He crossed the cabin and placed her onto the lounger. "I am. You should get some sleep now. Do you need something for the pain in your foot?"

  "No. Are you coming to bed?"

  "In a while. I want to study the tape for a bit."

  Chapter Ten

  Jelani leaned heavily against the wooden frame of the door to the boy’s room. His heart beat high in his throat when he saw Kiran on the floor, his blue-topped head bent over a captured rodent in a jar. Jelani clasped his nervous hands and sought to control his emotions.

  He had arrived!

  After their meeting in that cesspit on Feron, Pe Khoja had spirited Jelani away on his ship while sending the Delphian's hired pilot on another errand. The trip had taken forever, spanning several reaches including one so deep that Jelani had spent most of the time in fearful prayer. For the long intervals between jumps, he had remained in a soothing khamal that allowed him to avoid any thought but that which concerned the Tughan Wai.

  Jelani shuddered when he recalled his meeting with Pe Khoja. He hadn't needed to touch the Caspian's mind to perceive the sociopathic void that passed for his soul and the terrible intelligence that guided his spirit. No wonder that the Union sought so desperately to rid themselves of men like that. Jelani suspected that Delphi’s relative isolation had so far sheltered him from a great many things that he preferred not to even think about.