“Thomas!” came an almost immediate yelping reply, then I heard a clatter, as if some small piece of equipment had been dropped, and I suddenly felt a warm, female-fragrant form emphatically embrace me.
And then she started licking my face!
***
It took a solid hour before I was stable enough to get off the gurney and stand on my own two---rear paws? Feet? Well, at least the big, fluffy vulpine tail helped balance me. Accepting the enormity of what had transpired took a bit longer. Bertha was right; sci-fi writers had written about this---hell, I had written about it!---for decades, but actually waking up in an alien, non-human body was different than any of us had imagined. You don’t just wake up, jump off the lab table and go running helter-skelter around like an idiot. You move slowly, carefully, letting the brain get comfortable with all the new sensations, sounds and feelings.
But---it was good to be alive, and the method behind the madness wasn’t as important as the fact of simply being alive. It certainly beat hell out of being dead!
While I was getting used to being alive again, B’naah brought me up to speed on what had transpired in my “absence”, only a momentary blip to me, but pretty much an Earth year in elapsed time.
“L’raan handled my rejuvenation,” she explained, “and after I’d emerged as you see me now---almost as young-looking as my granddaughter---I gathered a small team of technicians, all sworn to the highest level of secrecy, to begin work on cloning a new body from DNA samples salvaged from D’oono’s preserved body. We Yularians have advanced scientific and medical expertise, but cloning an entire body---no, that required technology far beyond our understanding, and that’s where Bertha stepped in. It did...things...we still don’t understand, and in nine months we had a viable physical twin of...of my dead mate. Then the entity connected the memory crystal salvaged from your dead human brain to another strange device it apparently created on Earth’s abandoned space station, hooked that up to your Yularian skull via a small nest of wires---and a short time later you awakened.
“From the carefully controlled misinformation we gave them, most of the Councilors will assume that we managed to resurrect the original D’oono,” she stated, “but all along, our plan has been for you, Tom, to assume his life, his political position and his important duties.” When I started to voice a big barkin’ protest she added, “Several trusted associates will coach you, teach you, guide you, and since the Council members have been warned to expect the ‘resurrected’ D’oono to be somewhat disoriented, and perhaps a bit forgetful at first, you should have no problem stepping into his position.”
“B’naah,” I softly said, switching easily to Yularian now that it didn’t hurt my throat, “D’oono was...was your mate. He was intelligent, ambitious and dynamic, and I---I’m just the ghostly remains of an old human, an alien in a body I have no right to...to inhabit.” Details of an unpleasant short story I’d written decades earlier were beginning to haunt me. That character, too, had wound up in an alien form that wasn’t originally his, and his inability to accept it led to his death.
She pressed her lithe, young-looking vixen form against my equally-young-looking male vulpine body. “Hush, Tom,” she said, also switching to Yularian. “Your new life will be a challenge, but it’s nothing you can’t handle.” She nuzzled me. “I’ll be with you---” She paused, then stepped back and tilted her head sideways. “---That is, if...if you want me.” Again she paused, and her perky ears and lovely tail drooped. “D’oono and I are still legally mated, but our laws allow for a dissolution of our bond---like a human divorce---under special circumstances. Your ‘critical injuries’ could qualify as a reason to dissolve our mated status...and you would then be free to...to find another...”
“Stop!” I barked. “Just...stop.” This was getting really awkward. I held her at arm’s length...and then slowly drew her into a warm embrace. “I can’t expect you, a famous, celebrated scientist/physician, to...to play nursemaid to an alien mind squatting in a copy of your mate’s body, not when you’ve been given a new lease on life.” She tried to interrupt, but I gently clamped her muzzle shut with a finger and thumb---which she promptly bit! “OW!” I yipped, but still refused to let her interrupt. “You’re going to have eligible, intelligent males lined up to court you, B’naah, males who are genuine Yularians---not cheap imitations like...like me.”
But instead of raging at my little speech, she again nuzzled me, saying, “Thomas, I came to...to love you when you were still fully human, and now that you wear a Yularian form I find I love you even more.”
“But---” I tried to interrupt, but then she clamped my muzzle shut with a free hand---a hand I didn’t bite.
“I am legally mated to D’oono---a name and identity you know you in your heart you must now assume for the benefit of all our people, including humans---and if you can overcome your formerly-human prejudices about loving a non-human I will be your mate in every sense of the word.” She licked my muzzle---kissing in human fashion just didn’t work---and I gave her a long, sensuous lick in return.
“Thomas/D’oono,” she eventually said, “I will accept your knot.”
I looked at her, my ears up and tail wagging (what a strange, delightful feeling!), and I said, “Does this mean you want more than a back rub?”
***
L’raan and D’naad were legally mated shortly after my human self’s death, but they chose to forgo any kind of ceremony until after I was “reborn”. During the time my cloned Yularian body was growing L’raan birthed their first child, a healthy male they named T’omaas. (God but he was a cute, fuzzy little wiggle-worm---and he promptly peed on me the first time I held him.)
Commerce and even tourism among the Alliance species was beginning to flourish, now that they all (except for the evil bunnies) had access to newly-developed, high-capacity starships---beautiful big machines that did not require passengers and crew to endure cold-sleep.
L’raan, D’naad and their little ankle-biter accompanied B’naah and me to Earth in one of the new, non-cold-sleep ships. Joining us at a secluded park setting in a very private double ceremony attended by a small group of Yularians, Dralorians, Eelon (including Boo’nah and his human companion “Buffy” Rogers) were three special human friends---Art Goldman, Booker Jones and Simon Branch, all of whom knew the full story. Our marriage was officiated by a ten-foot-tall pillar of shimmering ethereal light that Bertha created to give us something to relate to as she performed the service.
You know, not everybody can claim that their wedding or vows renewal ceremony was officiated by a star!
Other books by James R. Lane:
Redeeming Factors
Lifetimes
Visit the Author's website
lane-books.com
Cover illustration by Eugene Arenhaus.
chiseledrocks.com
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Last Dance of the Phoenix Page 26