by M. K. Eidem
Cali used that as her trump card because she knew Mae hated to disappoint anyone.
"Al… alright," Mae stammered.
"Give me your vow, Mae, and I'll believe you and be able to rest without worrying."
"You have my vow, Cali."
"Thank you, Mae, now I'm going to go rest." With that, Cali disconnected the transmission and turned to look at Xanto. "So, any suggestions on what I should morph into to use the most energy?"
"I'd say the most different from what you are that you're very familiar with."
"So, an Octennial."
"What?!" Xanto couldn't have been more shocked if Cali had suddenly stripped in front of him. Octennials were solitary, soft-bodied beings, with eight long limbs that all attached beneath its elongated head. They had just as many eyes, a tiny mouth, and were taller than most beings. Only when they were in heat did they search out other beings, and the other being didn't have to be Octennial or opposite gender because they reproduced asexually. The Octennial only needed the partner’s pheromones produced when the partner was sexually aroused and achieved orgasm.
"How are you familiar with Octennials?"
"Do you remember how upset I was when you first arrived and entered my quarters without me knowing?"
Xanto frowned at that. "Yes."
"Well, that's because I stayed with Krad on Truru once. He knew of an Octennial that was going into heat and had agreed to assist her. He gave her access to his quarters, but instead of him being there when she arrived, I was."
"Gods, Cali." Xanto had never been with an Octennial in his entire existence and didn't want to be. Once they started absorbing pheromones, they became insatiable. They aroused their partner for days, rarely allowing them to rest. Some beings died during the process; rumor had it. "How long?"
"Three days."
"Why the ruk didn't Krad intervene?"
"Because once an Octennial begins absorbing a specific being's pheromones, those are the only ones that will allow it to reproduce."
"I didn't know that." He ran an assessing eye over her, then asked carefully, "Can I assume you were unharmed?"
"I came through it fine, although I must admit it was over a year before I even thought about having sex again."
Chuckling, Xanto couldn't help but smile. "Understandable, but I wouldn't recommend morphing into an Octennial, even though it would consume a great deal of energy."
"Why not?" she asked.
"Well, one, because it would send a panic throughout the Star Base as everyone will assume you're in heat."
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that." She didn't want to draw any undue attention to herself. "What’s the other reason?"
"Because to move around the Star Base, which will consume more energy, you need to be able to clothe whatever being you morph into."
"I hadn't thought of that either." She ran an assessing gaze over him. "What clothing do you have that I can use?"
"You're going to morph into an Elevsìs?"
"I think it will be something good to practice on as you'll be there to tell me if I get it wrong."
Xanto couldn't argue with her logic. With a sigh, he led her into the resting chamber he was using and opened his closet.
"Gods in heaven, Xanto!" Cali gasped, taking in the variety and quantity of clothing in the room. "You're a fop!"
"I like to have options," Xanto said defensively, his cheeks darkening.
"Well, you have them." Walking in, she gently ran her fingers over the multiple outfits, all made from different fabrics. Every piece was impeccably made and of the highest quality. Xanto took great pride in his clothing, which made her feel guilty about borrowing them. Turning, she looked at him. "Why don't you choose what I should wear? After all, you know what I need to pull off being Elevsìs.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
"You're not walking right," Xanto hissed out of the corner of his mouth as he and Elevsìs Cali walked down the market concourse.
"I'm trying," Elevsìs Cali hissed back, stumbling slightly. "I'm not used to walking with legs so bloody long."
"Lift your feet a little more, you're dragging them, and lengthen your stride."
Cali tried that, and it seemed to help.
"Stop smiling like that. Showing your back teeth is a sign of aggression for an Elevsìs."
"Really?" She dimmed her smile but was fascinated by what she was learning. She'd always thought she knew all about the Elevsìs. What else was she going to discover?
"Ruk!" Xanto muttered as he pulled Cali into a darkened niche between two shops.
"What's wrong?" she asked, then looking behind her, cursed when she saw Taarig.
"Now is not the time for a confrontation with the Sub Commander," he told her. "You'll forget you are supposed to be Elevsìs and morph back into your natural form."
Cali wanted to argue but knew Xanto was right. She still hadn't come to terms with what Taarig and Jamis had done. Cali intentionally hadn't given herself the time or space. It was a habit she had, keeping herself busy and distracted when she didn't want to deal with something. Eventually, she faced the problem or situation, hopefully in a calmer and more rational state of mind.
She watched as Taarig confidently strode down the concourse, showing no sign that less than a day ago, his life span had nearly ended. When he moved past where they hid, his stride seemed to catch, as if something had pulled at him. It only lasted a moment, and then he passed by.
"Do you want to follow the Sub Commander, or should we continue?"
"Why would I want to follow Taarig?" Cali questioned, stepping back out onto the concourse.
"Because it looks like he's heading into The Brink."
Cali looked behind her and saw Xanto was right. Taarig was walking into The Brink. "Mae will handle him. She needs to start understanding what it means to be an owner."
"An owner?" Xanto didn't even attempt to hide his surprise. "You plan on leaving her The Brink when your life span ends?"
"Yes. Mae, Tay, and their offspring deserve to have a safe and secure life span."
"You can't just give them The Brink, Cali. All ownership transfers have to go through Wik Corp."
"I can, and I'm pretty sure I've got that covered," she told him, the corner of her mouth quirking up.
Xanto just shook his head and started walking when she did. He should have realized Cali had been plotting something like this. Cali had enhanced the life spans of dozens of other individual beings and family units that Xanto could think of because she cared about them. Now it seemed she would be doing it again.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, pulling his attention back to the matter at hand. "Any strain maintaining this form?"
"No, and I'm feeling good, really good. Let's head for The Brink’s loading dock and see if it stays that way."
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
"I'm sorry, Sub Commander, Cali isn't working tonight."
Taarig's knuckles whitened as he gripped the edge of the bar. He wanted to talk to Cali; he needed to. He'd planned to contact her and set up a time to meet in private. He wanted to explain what happened because he was sure she'd already heard all about it. After all, nothing stayed secret for long on a Star Base, especially when it involved him and Jamis. That's when he realized he'd never gotten her link code, had never given her his. It was inexcusable. So as soon as his shift had ended, he'd headed to The Brink, only to find she wasn't here.
"Contact her and let her know I'm here," he ordered.
"She asked not to be disturbed," Mae told him.
"Then give me her link code, and I'll be the one that disturbs her," he growled.
"I'm sorry, Sub Commander, I can't do that. If Cali wanted you to have her link code, she'd have given it to you."
Taarig's obvious displeasure at her response caused the beings near him to move farther down the bar, but not the Galaian female. She stood her ground and even raised a brow ridge at him as she continued to stare at him silently. Taarig couldn't help but re
spect her for that. Very few were brave enough to stare down an aggravated Apre. Reaching inside his jacket, he pulled out a writing utensil and grabbed one of the absorbent squares The Brink used to set drinks on. After writing for a moment, he folded the square in half and extended it to the Galaian female.
"Make sure Cali gets this," was all he said, then turned and walked out of The Brink.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Cali slowly opened the square Xanto had brought her from Mae. The walk to The Brink's loading dock on the other side of the base had tested Cali. It was like discovering a never-before-used muscle. By the time they'd returned to her quarters, she'd been mentally exhausted, yet when she morphed back to her natural state, her skin's glow had barely dimmed.
Still, she didn't have the power to deal with Taarig. Not right now.
"I'm going to go rest."
Xanto said nothing as he watched her leave. She'd done exceptionally well today. He'd never heard of anyone maintaining a morph that long on their first attempt. It again revealed just how powerful Cali was.
Reaching out, he turned over the square she'd left on the table.
I need to explain. CSCTY-2255427 was all that the Sub Commander had written. It had Xanto shaking his head in disbelief. Did the arrogant Apre think that would work on a female like Cali?
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Jamis stared unseeingly out the viewport in his repaired office. Would Taarig pursue Cali on his own, take her as his Lalla? They'd agreed nearly two hundred years ago they wouldn't do that. But now, an Earthan seems to have changed his mind.
"You're not going to find any answers out there."
Turning, Jamis found Taarig casually sitting in one of the new chairs. When had he entered his office? Why hadn't he heard him?
"Who says I'm looking for them?" Jamis asked.
"I do. I know you."
"And I thought I knew you," Jamis fired back, "but apparently I don't. Not if all it takes is some female for you to throw away all the plans we made."
"Cali's not some female, and you know it," Taarig replied quietly, not taking Jamis’s bait because he did know his friend. And right now, what Jamis was struggling with was himself.
"Her life span will end in fifty, sixty years at the most if we're lucky. We both know Earthans don't survive long in space."
"Then it will be up to us to make sure she does. That viper, Jamis, could have ended our life spans. Ours. Not Cali's. Are you truly refusing to see that? I know you hate not being in control, hate having our future hinge on someone else, but it was always going to be that way no matter who our Lalla was."
"I know that," Jamis grudgingly admitted. "I just never considered we would have her for such a short time."
"Still, some time is better than no time."
Jamis just nodded his head in agreement, then looked back out the viewport.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
"How long are you going to hold off linking the Sub Commander?" Xanto asked.
"Why are you so interested?" It had been three days since Taarig had left the note. Three days where Cali had traveled all around the Star Base in different life forms expending energy. She'd found it liberating, informative, and disturbing.
It was liberating because she got to view the Star Base through new and different eyes, literally.
Informative because each species she morphed into was looked at and treated differently.
And disturbing because she'd never realized the extent of those differences before now.
Oh, she'd personally experienced them as an Earthan, but never the open, sexual aggression she had when she'd morphed as a Galaian female. Was that why Mae rarely left The Brink without Tay? If so, why hadn't she said anything to her?
"Because he isn't going away," Xanto told her.
"I never expected him to, but it’s not like I could deal with him until I expended some energy."
"You could have at least talked to him," he persisted.
Cali gave him an exasperated look. "Taarig doesn't want to talk over a link. He wants to talk face-to-face."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I know him." She absently rubbed her chest as she crossed the room. "Jamis is the one afraid of having a relationship with me, not Taarig. Even though Jamis was the one who approached me first."
"You think…" Xanto trailed off as Cali smiled, then reached up and touched her link.
"Hi, Mom."
"Hi, baby. How are you?"
"I'm good." Cali nodded at Xanto when he gestured that he was leaving to give them some privacy. "How are you?"
"I happen to be in a particularly good mood," Dakota told her.
"Really? Do you want to go to visual?" Cali only asked since her mother had initiated the transmission as a link.
"Oh yes," was her immediate response, "if you have the time."
"I always have time for you, Mom." Cali picked up the glass of wine Xanto had poured for her earlier and settled down into one of her couches as her mother's image appeared before her, a beautiful smile on her lightly, glowing face.
Smiling back, Cali demanded, "Now tell."
"The final testing has been completed on the food replicator I designed."
Cali knew her mother had been a talented engineer back on Earth. It’s why she'd been allowed into Earth's early space exploration program. She could repair their ship if needed. But after her mom melded with the Paramount, her gift attained a whole new level. She was personally responsible for every technological advance that had come out of Wik Corp for the last eight hundred years. "And?"
"It works even better than I projected." Dakota clapped her hands together in excitement. "Oh, my Gods, Cali! Do you know what this means?! Children will no longer go hungry. Famine will never be a problem again."
"Congratulations, Mom. I know you've been working on that one for a long time." Cali wasn't going to burst her mom's bubble, reminding her Wik Corp would distribute the replicators and that the Paramount wasn't going to give them away. Her mother was just conveniently forgetting that.
"I have. It's always been a dream of mine to design something that makes a real difference in a being's life span."
"Mom, you've done that with every part you've designed. You've made space travel safer and faster for every being in the universe, not to mention the planetary atmosphere and water purifiers you invented. How many planets would now be uninhabitable without them? Including Earth."
"Beings can be so stupid and short-sighted sometimes," Dakota muttered, thinking how so many abused their planets.
"I know," Cali's thoughts were on Taarig and Jamis.
Dakota's eyes sharpened on her daughter. "Oh, I know that look. Tell me."
"Look?" Cali gave her a surprised look. "What look?"
"The look that tells me my baby is thinking about a male."
Sometimes Cali wondered if her mother hadn't developed telepathy after melding with the Paramount. Her mom always seemed to know what Cali thought, even though she blocked her mom. Maybe it was just a mom thing.
"It's nothing, Mom," Cali said, trying to downplay it.
"Why don't I believe that?"
"You should because th… he believes I'm Earthan," Cali silently cursed herself at the slip, hoping her mother wouldn't notice. She should have known better.
"You were going to say they," Dakota immediately pounced. "Are you considering a triad like your dad, father, and I have?"
"I will never be in a relationship with someone like my father!" the venom that filled those words was out of Cali's mouth before she could stop them. Cali didn't have to look at her mom's face to know how much hurt she'd just caused. "Mom…"
"I've never understood what caused you to turn against your father," Dakota said quietly. "You used to worship the ground he walked on. You hated it when he left, always wanted to know when he would be coming home and were the first one out the door to greet him, then it suddenly just stopped."
Cali found she c
ouldn't respond because she remembered those days. She remembered how she thought her father could do no wrong. He'd throw her so high in the air that she felt she could touch the stars, but Cali was never scared because she trusted her father never to let her fall. He was the Paramount, after all, and he'd never let anything hurt the ones he loved. Then she learned that he would.
"I want to know why, California," her mom demanded.
"What does it matter? It can't be changed."
"It matters to me. I'm your mother, and I need to understand."
Cali closed her eyes, letting her head fall back on the couch. She'd been able to avoid this conversation for over two hundred and fifty years, and she would have avoided it today if she had just kept her mouth shut, but she was mentally tired from all the morphing. Now she just had to figure out how to tell her mother the truth without revealing everything she'd been hiding.
"California Rose, tell me."
The gentleness of her mom's voice worked as nothing else could. Lifting her head, she met her mom's eyes.
"You know how sometimes you get melancholy?" Cali saw her mom jerk as if struck before she straightened and responded.
"Yes."
"Well, during one of those times, when I was around seventy-five," Cali gave her a guilty look. "I… memory-walked with you."
"You what?" Dakota just stared at her daughter in disbelief.
"It's when…"
"I know what it is, California!" her mother cut her off sharply. "What I don't understand is how you could have done it without me realizing it."
"I don't know." Cali did know, but she wasn't going to tell her mom that. There were only so many of her secrets she was willing to reveal right now. "I'd only just discovered I could do it and was coming to tell you when I saw you sitting there, looking so sad. I wanted to know why, and I just sort of slipped in."
