The men gazed down at the offending beverage. “It’s not supposed to taste like that?” they chorused.
She shuddered again. “No.”
Daeshen frowned. “Oh. We had it brought for you. Personally, I thought it was disgusting.” He licked his lips and took another bite of fruit, trying to get the last of the taste out of his mouth. Like Kyrin, he had only drunk one or two sips of the foul brew.
Thea picked up the pot and stalked to the small sink and counter that lined one wall of the tiny kitchen area just off the small dining area. The men watched her turn on the hot water and pour out half of the coffee in the pot. She added more hot water to the pot. In an attempt to dilute the acidic stuff.
Mournfully, they watched her stalk back to the table, gather up all three cups and dump them in the sink as well. “Is she going to make us drink more?” Daeshen whined plaintively in Kyrin’s head.
“I think so,” he sent back glumly, slumping in his seat.
They watched her sit down again. She poured herself another cup and sipped. “Well, that’s better, but it’s still not great. Do you have any cream and sugar?”
Daeshen sent a com requesting some, wondering how much of the foul stuff he was going to have to drink to make her happy. “It should be here soon,” he mumbled.
Kyrin cleared his throat and began telling Thea about their duties aboard the ship. The door chimed softly a few minutes later. “Come in.” A crewman entered, carrying a small platter with the requested items. He quickly set them down and exited without a word.
They watched Thea pour them each a cup of coffee; she then added cream and sugar to all three. She tasted hers, nodded and passed them the cups again. “At least it’s drinkable now. Someone needs to have a talk with your cook.”
They shot Thea a look.
She stared back expectantly.
Suppressing a sigh, Kyrin picked up his cup and waited for Daeshen to follow suit. Grimacing, he took a sip, expecting his mouth to be assaulted a second time. Much to his surprise, it wasn’t nearly as bad. Judging by the look on Daeshen’s face, he agreed.
Satisfied, Thea went back to eating her breakfast.
“Why do I think we just passed a test we didn’t know we were taking?” Kyrin sent to Daeshen.
“Probably because we were,” Daeshen grumbled back.
“So, Theadora, what do you do? Somehow I don’t think waiting tables was your chosen occupation,” Daeshen asked her. He pushed the cup away from him with studied casualness.
She hurriedly swallowed the fruit in her mouth. “Oh, um, I weave fabric for a couple of designers who make period costumes. I also make tapestries. I sell them in booths at science fiction and fantasy conventions.” She toyed with her food nervously. When they didn’t laugh she looked up. They both looked interested, so she continued. “Some members of the SCA, that’s the Society for Creative Anachronism, pay well for costumes made from hand woven and dyed fabric. Not very many people know how to do it anymore, so I’ve created a pretty good market for myself.”
“My grandmother taught me before she died. She said that there was always a woman in our family that learned weaving in every generation.” She stole another look from them. “I’m the last of our line, though. So, if I have children, I’ll have to teach them. I was hoping to save enough money someday to buy some property. I wanted to try to raise animals and plants to make my own thread and wool.” She stuttered to a stop. Now her dream would never happen. She blinked back tears. “I can never go home, can I?”
Kyrin sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Your home is with us now, love.”
She nodded, staring down at the remains of her breakfast. She pushed the plate away as her appetite dwindled. A wave of misery washed over her. They had taken everything from her and she wasn’t sure she wanted what they were offering as compensation. She had always hoped to find a nice man and settle down to raise a child or two. A partnership. Not being told how she was going to live her life and that she had no say in the decisions made concerning her. What she didn’t understand was why she felt that she wanted them to comfort her when they were the ones that had caused her distress in the first place. Guess Dad was always right; women don’t make sense.
Daeshen reached out and caught her chin; he lifted her eyes to meet his. “Just because you’re with us now doesn’t mean you can’t still have your dream, love.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Weaving is a highly respected skill in our culture. I know there are several artisans on this ship who would be thrilled to work with you. And I don’t see why you can’t tell us what you need to make your own products. We have a large science lab. Just tell us what you need.”
Kyrin nodded. “The plants can easily be grown in the hydroponics lab. If you tell us what animals you want, we can add them to our collection list. We’ve already collected several species. Anything we can’t grow can be duplicated in the cloning units, as well. We just need samples.”
Thea sniffled. She looked up at both of them. “You’d do that for me?” she asked in a small voice.
Daeshen pulled her into his lap and hugged her tight. “Of course. We want you to be happy; just give us a chance.” He smiled when she cuddled closer to him and nodded. His hands stroked up and down her back in a comforting manner.
“And on that note, I need to get dressed for duties. Daeshen will be working here so you won’t be alone.” Kyrin stood and disappeared into a small room to dress.
Daeshen lifted Thea off his lap and stood. He tugged her up beside him and led her to a door. “Let’s show you where everything is. We’ve added rooms to expand our quarters. A singles cabin was fine for just the two of us, but we felt it would be cramped for three. Since we will be spending quite a bit of time on the ship we also wanted to give you room for your work.” The door slid open with a soft whoosh of displaced air. “After we finish our job here we will be taking our passengers home to Ta’e. Once that is done we will be given a new assignment. As our mate you’ll be traveling with us.”
Thea peeked into the small room. “Oh, pretty.” Deep aqua green carpet covered the floor. The walls were painted a soft gray with delicate scrollwork the same shade as the carpeting. Throw pillows a few shades lighter green were strewn over a sunken area in the center of the room. “The couch was built into the floor?” She stepped down into the bowl shaped area. Her feet sank a few inches. “Hey! This is cool! Is this gel?” She bounced a little before sitting down and relaxing.
Daeshen smiled indulgently. “Yes, it has a four inch layer of heated gel. I’m glad you like it.” He stepped down next to her. There was a small table rising from the center; it had a small keypad embedded in it. He pressed a few buttons and a screen shimmered into view on the wall in front of them. “This is our private recreation area, for watching vids and playing games.” A few more buttons were pressed and the screen disappeared again. “Come, love, there’s more for you to see.” Grasping her wrist he tugged her up with him and led her into another room.
She gasped softly. The walls were covered with floor to ceiling bookshelves. There were three overstuffed chairs arranged in the center of the room. Small tables had been set beside each chair. Walking to the nearest shelf she inspected the titles. “I had these in my collection.” She smiled sadly at the loss of her paper friends. Hearing Daeshen clear his throat she turned to him.
“We brought your possessions aboard, love.” He smiled sheepishly. “We wanted you to have your own things. Normally we would just add books to our computer database, but we thought you would prefer to keep yours. We didn’t take your videos, though. Well, you can go through everything and see.”
She smiled and impulsively hugged him. “Thank you.” A warm feeling crept over her. They really were trying to make her feel at home, and smooth the transition as much as they could.
He was showing her the other rooms containing her things when Kyrin called that he was leaving. Excusing himself, Daeshen left Thea to prowl her new territory and went
to his office to work on some files.
* * * * *
Thea spent the remainder of the morning sorting through the rooms she had been given. There was a small room that would be good for her work. It looked like it was set up similarly to the dining area in their main quarters. Taking out a small notebook she wrote down a list of things she would need for her weaving, sewing and dying. Absently she rubbed her arm across her cheek. Her face and abdomen had been alternately itching and tingling faintly for the last hour. Wonder if I’m allergic to the salt oils.
She dug out the box containing her looms and began setting them up.
Several hours passed before she suddenly realized her stomach was beginning to loudly protest her skipped lunch. Setting aside what she was doing she went in search of Daeshen.
While they ate she asked him, hesitantly, to explain why his people were taking human women. The men had glossed over that subject during breakfast and she wanted more information than their very brief comments.
He carefully explained the virus that had rendered so many of their women barren and how difficult it would be to keep their population strong with such a large decrease in genetic diversity. He went on to explain how the Ta’e’sha had searched for a race that would be compatible.
There was hope that some of the girls who had not gone through puberty would still be fertile, but as yet none had been found. That hope had not been given up, though. Their race took an average of twenty years to become fertile. The Ta’e’sha had several stages of puberty they went through before their reproductive organs were completely developed.
Thea blinked in surprise at this revelation. She couldn’t imagine being considered a child until she was in her twenties. He was just as surprised to hear that humans went through puberty around the time they turned into teenagers.
He turned gray when she casually mentioned teen pregnancies.
After lunch she went back to her workroom to finish setting up a set of shelves that her grandfather had made for her grandmother long before she was born. They were a series of tilted bins forming shelves to hold skeins of yarn and folded weavings. A pole at the top allowed a cloth to be strung across the top to keep dust out of the items.
Her hand paused over the warm, smooth finish of the red cedar. She stroked it gently, leaning forward to inhale the scent of the wood. I need to oil the wood again; it’s getting dry. Suddenly, tears blurred her vision. Her lungs tightened in her chest, cutting off her air as a wave of panic struck her like a fist. Oh Goddess ... Oh God ... I can’t do this! She would never visit the graves of her family again. Her children wouldn’t be like her. She fell to her knees and grabbed a half finished quilt and wadded it up in her arms. Curling her body around the cloth she screamed and sobbed into it, letting loose the fear, pain and panic in her mind.
Minutes that seemed like hours passed as she finally let everything out, trying to be quiet so Daeshen wouldn’t hear her. She didn’t want him to drug her again; he had forgotten to give her another dose after lunch.
An hour passed and at last she lay still. She drew in shuddering breaths every few minutes as her body calmed. Hair clung to the side of her face in sweaty tendrils. Her eyes and face felt swollen and raw, like someone had rubbed them with wet sand paper. Her nose was swollen shut and dripping. She rubbed her arm across her cheek and stared blankly at the shelves, still clinging to the quilt.
A warm breeze caressed her cheek, leaving a tingle in its wake. Suddenly, she remembered something her mother had told her when she was a child and had come home crying because the other children had made fun of her for being different and pushed her into a mud puddle.
Her mother had held Thea in her lap and gently wiped her tears away with a damp cloth. “Thea, honey, remember this: you cannot control everything that happens to you. Bad things will happen and good things will happen. You need both to become a full person. The only thing you can control is how you react to them. Learn to accept them; fight if you must, but choose your battles carefully. Accept the good gracefully with an open heart and share it if you can.” Her mother’s fingers tilted her chin up and she kissed young Thea’s nose. “And always remember that a smile is a free gift that costs you nothing and can completely change a person’s day.” A plate of cookies and milk had followed the conversation, as they had most discussions of that nature through her whole childhood.
She wiped the tears from her face again and lay still, contemplating the memory. Her swollen eyes drifted closed while she thought, cuddling the quilt closer to her. My family will always be with me. And my life will be what I make of it. I have to decide if it will be a bitter draft or a sweet wine. She sighed deeply.
Chapter Six
One week later ...
Kyrin frowned as he received notification that another woman had been put into stasis. She was showing the same symptoms that the other two women had begun to exhibit. Her mate had found her in the bathing facilities scraping the skin from her arms and legs with a knife and crying uncontrollably. He immediately took her to the medical area. When a technician approached her she started screaming and fighting like a wild thing. It had taken two men to hold her down while a third administered a sedative.
He sent the Chief Medic a com to have him come to his quarters after his shift ended to discuss the matter and review his findings. Kyrin was very disturbed by the lack of progress helping the women, as well as the medical team’s inability to discover what was causing the problem. He made a few notes to have his security team interview the women’s mates. Hmmm. It might also be useful to see if we can track their movements aboard the ship. Maybe we can find a pattern.
* * * * *
Kyrin groaned softly as he entered his quarters. He was covered in sweat and muttering curses as he rotated his shoulder. Wincing, he wandered into the bathing room and started running a bath. He had fallen awkwardly in the gym and pulled a muscle in his shoulder while trying to catch himself.
Digging through the bottles on a shelf, he located the therapy salts and poured a generous handful into the steaming water. Quickly stripping and sinking into the water he let out a heartfelt groan of relief. Softly mumbling the meditation chant he let his tail form in the water and swished it gently back and forth as his body relaxed and the salts eased the soreness in his muscles.
“Hey, love, the CM is coming tonight to discuss a matter with me. I’ve invited him to have his evening meal with us as well. I think it would be good for Theadora to meet him since he will be handling her medical care personally. Could you tell her we are having a guest and ask her to prepare a menu?” he sent to Daeshen.
“Of course.” There was a brief pause. “What’s wrong?”
“I fell in the gym and twisted my shoulder. I’m in the bath. I should be fine in a few minutes.”
“Ahhh ... I suppose if you’re not feeling better by the time dinner is ready Corvin can take a look at you and make sure you didn’t tear something again. He told you to be more careful last time.”
Kyrin winced at the chiding note in Daeshen’s voice. His mate had a way of making him feel like a small boy caught stealing sweet drops. Sinking lower in the water, he glowered. It did not help that he deserved it. Closing his eyes, he let his head sink under the water and breathed through the gills located just under his collarbones. The lightly salted water was a balm to his senses; it had been far too long since he had changed and swam for the pleasure of it. His gills felt a bit tender as the water passed through them, a sure sign he was not shifting often enough to keep them completely hydrated. Enjoying the peaceful moment he let himself drift in the water, and for the first time in several weeks he let his mind relax along with his body.
Sometime later the faint echo of footsteps reached him in the water. He stretched lazily thinking Daeshen had come in to wake him. Opening his eyes he met Thea’s shocked, wide gaze. Oops. He sat up cautiously.
Thea’s eyes ran up and down his body. The man she was just coming to accept as her mate was n
ot really a man at all. She slipped into the water, completely fascinated, to get a better look. His tail was a dark amber-orange; each scale had a slightly darker rim of color edging it. The fins were huge translucent gold veils that waved slowly in the water. Her gaze made its way slowly back up his length. It dawned on her that his whole body was several shades of amber, each complementing the next perfectly. His skin was a dark golden-brown, like he spent a good portion of his time sunbathing. Now she realized that it was his natural skin color. Her eyes rested on his solemn face, taking in the hint of worry in his eyes, and the tense way he held his body.
She sat down hard in the water and reached out. Slowly sliding her fingers along his tail she looked up at him again. “You’re a merman.” She drew in a deep breath, still unable to believe what her senses were telling her. This was impossible. The merfolk were myth, they did not actually exist.
“No, I am Ta’e’shian. Some of us do bear a striking resemblance to your mythology, though.” He watched her caress his tail gently and blew out a relieved breath. Maybe she wasn’t going to go berserk on him after all. Then, he recalled her fascination with water myths. It might be a good idea to add this information to the sublims, though. I’ll have to ask the mated men how their mates reacted to finding out.
“I always loved mermaids. I used to dream I was one.” She spoke softly. “When I could afford to buy my own home I wanted to live near the ocean. It called to me.” She leaned closer and slid both of her hands along his skin and scales. “Will our children be like you?”
Kyrin shifted a bit; he was growing aroused by her caresses. “Yes, we believe our genes will be dominant. Occasionally, there might be children born without the ability to saras, shift form, but it will be rare.”
The Ta'e'sha Chronicles: Daughters of Terra Page 6
