Naylon scanned the men up ahead of him on the low stage. He easily recognized Chief Councilor James-Po. After all, the man had been in that position for several years. As a public figure, his face was very familiar. Plus, virtually everyone knew him from his work in the entertainment field before being elected to his current position. An extremely popular leading man in holovids when he was in his 30s and 40s, his popularity never waned. His surprising entry into Andakar’s local politics was seen as a strange but not unprecedented move. The charisma he exhibited on screen had easily transferred to his new position.
In his mind’s eye Naylon tried to compare the two men’s faces. Their mouths looked similar and they both had a trace of Asian features on their faces. But that was about all Naylon could discern. Naylon had never seen any of the rest of the family on a vid before. No, wait. He distinctly remembered watching a vid on one of the news streams from at least a year ago. The Chief Councilor’s son had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander of one of the Andakar Space Navy surveillance patrols. Wow, he thought. That just might be his son after all. Could he be any cuter? And wouldn’t it be kick if he were gay!
The ceremony ended forty minutes later. In succession, individuals were called by name to the slightly raised stage to receive their Certificates of Citizenship, ending with a formal handshake with the presiding official. It was similar to receiving a school diploma. Citizenship ceremonies were never long drawn out affairs, but necessary to establish official Consortium and planetary records.
After the last name was called, Naylon went to his parents’ seats in the back of the room and gave them a hug. Naylon was an only child, so no siblings were present. Naylon was also single, so no partner was present either. His parents were all smiles. The rest of the new Citizens, along with their families and friends, were milling about, some exiting the building quickly, but most lingering. Naylon scanned the military contingent, looking for the man who had been giving him the eye earlier. He was nowhere to be seen.
A tap on his shoulder told him exactly where the man was.
“Um, Citizen Ress.” Darreth said.
Upon seeing the uniformed man getting Naylon’s attention, Naylon’s father spoke. “Your mother and I will be in the lobby. We’ll meet you out there,” he said.
“Sure Dad.” Naylon quickly turned to Darreth. “Hi, uh…,” He quickly looked at the badge, making sure he read it clearly this time. It was indeed the name he thought it was. “Mr. James-Po,” he said aloud.
“Lieutenant Commander.” Darreth pointed to the pips on his collar.
“Oh, sorry.”
“I saw you in the crowd,” Darreth said. “Congratulations.” He stuck out his hand.
Naylon shook it. Nice grip. “Thanks.”
“I, uh…,” he glanced at Rehl who was standing nearby. Darreth could clearly make out the furtive motion of Rehl’s blonde head. A motion telling Darreth to ask the question already. Darreth smiled, hoping he wasn’t visibly blushing. “was wondering if you, uh, were single.”
Naylon’s head was swimming already. Thunder! He is gay. Naylon didn’t answer right away. “Since you’re being so forward I will be, too. Are you the Chief Councilor’s son?”
Darreth pressed an index finger to his lips. He answered with a grin. “Shh. It’s supposed to be a secret.”
“Are you asking me out?” Naylon asked.
“You have to answer me first. You are gay, aren’t you?”
“You can bet your pips on that. And I’m single.”
Whew. “I thought I was climbing a prongtop tree.” Darreth’s reference to the poisonous breeding trees of Andakar’s flying hydrogen-filled creatures wasn’t lost on Naylon. In fact, the alarm bells were already ringing in Naylon’s head. This was just not right. Just two days ago, he had been engaged in a rather disparaging discussion with friends about military people. Yet, his pulse was putting the memory of the conversation on hold. “I’ve never been asked out by a man in uniform before.”
“I didn’t ask you out yet,” Darreth reminded him.
“But you’re going to, huh?” That much had been obvious the moment he met Darreth.
“Well, yeah.”
Naylon was rather enjoying the attention. “You’re on,” he responded.
“Now that that’s out of the way, I have to tell you I don’t usually ask people I just met out.”
“Right,” Naylon slowly replied.
“I swear,” Darreth said, raising his right hand. “My buddy over there made me do it.”
Naylon looked over at Rehl, mock saluted him, then turned his full attention to Darreth. He smiled warmly. “Tell your buddy I’m glad he did.”
Chapter 2
Naylon’s initial attraction to Darreth was almost immediately replaced with a sense of dread. It was completely unfounded. After all, Darreth exuded nothing that should have invoked such an emotion.
It was all because of the discussion group.
The group consisted of men and women from Naylon’s alma mater. Some were still attending the university, but most had already graduated. The object of their discussions, completely outside the realm of academics, was politics. Naylon had been asked to join because he had a keen intelligence, a unique perspective, and a fascination with history. The media was famous for glossing over important current and social events, never explored cultural trends, and talked about tabloid subjects ad nauseam. The group was a way for them to take a news story and trace its origin to specific events on either Andakar or societies on other Inhabs, find out who major players were, and generally do the in-depth analysis they felt was missing from what they felt were topics of import. In a way, it was like solving mysteries, which all of them had a propensity for doing. It was well known that although information freely flowed all over space it was censored when it came to making sure profits were maintained. Since Naylon’s occupation consisted of culling the past for clues to the present, it caused him to pay attention to how civilization progressed as well. The past could be a great mystery, ready for solving, just like the present.
As in all organizations and societies, there were formal and informal chains of communication, formal and informal ways of doing business, aboveboard methods of acquisition and those that existed only in the shadows. There were Citizens and non-Citizens. There were Andakar natives and there were nonNates. Formal communication patterns were pretty obvious due to news sources and how the Consortium ran the underlying structure of the economy. There were various corporate alliances that went across solar systems and there were small contracts that went virtually undetected in the grand scheme of things. Naylon’s discussion group debated all the connections and interconnections and what real-world effect they had. Recently, a particularly heated discussion centered on the military sub-culture on Andakar.
Human civilization spanned fourteen worlds, with Earth at the corporate center. Andakar and Rylerra were still the newest links in the long chain of supply and demand. Andakar’s economy had generated a huge amount of wealth for its citizens as the years had gone by. Their society benefited directly from this wealth due to the many channels of trickle down that were, by law, in place. This windfall had triggered a levy by the Central Planning and Direction Division, the branch of the Deep Sky Mining Consortium that was directly below the top offices on Earth. Although the levy had been in place for decades, recently more and more people were talking openly about the injustice of such a tax.
There had always been a delicate balance between local planetary management and the corporate entities that answered mostly, if not solely, to Earth. The separation of corporate control over business by the Planetary Director, and local planetary control by provincial managers had been in place on all Inhabs since the first one was established. Such separation had been strictly enforced for hundreds of years.
A recent abuse of corporate control over the local affairs in Ocal province on Andakar, where most of the pharma processing took place, had led to an investigation. Once t
he evidence had been compiled, four CEOs from the off-world corporations who had meddled far too much in infrastructure affairs had been deported. Further investigation uncovered such abuses in several other provinces. When the full council met to discuss the issue, it turned out the abuses had been going on for quite some time. All of those particular CEOs were nonNates. NonNates were, by law, not allowed to have local internal control of provincial issues on any planet.
One of the ongoing discussion threads in Naylon’s chat group had been about why Andakar society needed a military of any kind, despite the intense PR that had accompanied its formation. Since his parents were directly involved with the production of pharmas Naylon knew exactly why it was important. In fact, a large proportion of the population was involved in the vertical markets that eventually shipped raw and finished pharmas off-planet.
Nonetheless, Naylon had always been conflicted about this issue. The military was needed to protect their precious products, but in his mind, the personnel who volunteered for the job were thickheaded and not so intelligent. That meant they were dangerous in his estimation. Yet, the military was completely outside the realm of academia, where he kept 99% of his focus. Because of that, he had never even bothered to be acquainted with anyone in the Space Navy. The discussion had always been purely academic for him. Given this aversion to military types, Naylon never thought he’d be dating one. Despite finding Darreth supremely attractive, he declined both times when the man called to ask him out.
Naylon wasn’t sure why he so steadfastly refused to even try the guy on for size. But he had to admit one thing. Darreth was easily the most handsome man he’d ever met. In an attempt to make excuses for his decision, he blamed it on the influence of the other people in his group. A terribly irresponsible excuse for sure.
The third time Darreth called, Naylon ran out of excuses. If anything, Darreth was persistent. He liked that in a man.
“Hey,” Darreth greeted with a wide smile on the vidscreen.
Naylon could tell that Darreth was calling from orbit. There was a very dark window in the background with the cloudy limb of Andakar further beyond. Darreth could be directly overhead. It was odd knowing that.
“Hey,” Naylon returned, trying not to be too enthusiastic. He tried, but failed to suppress a smile. Darreth’s handsome face was beguiling.
“You know why I’m calling, I’m sure.”
“I think I do,” Naylon said, stalling.
“I’m going to be planetside tomorrow. I was hoping you might be free for a few hours. Perhaps for dinner? I’ve made reservations.” A map and the address of the restaurant appeared on Naylon’s display.
“You did?” Naylon asked with a nervous voice. It looked like there would be no backing out this time.
“How about I meet you somewhere beforehand.”
“That restaurant is nearby.” Naylon was at work in the museum. “You could, uh, come here first.”
“Great. I can’t wait to see you.” Darreth smiled to himself. Yes!
Naylon’s official title was Ph.D. His had earned his advanced degree from Tokaias University in paleo-microbiology. He had worked for the Tokaias Museum of Natural History for the last two years, cataloging fossilized flora and fauna, a job that, to most, would be fabulously boring. Naylon had always had an inquisitive mind and this particular line of work provided him with just enough mystery as well as hardcore science to make a long day interesting.
It was a half hour after sunset in the middle of the week. Naylon was in the museum’s lab. The leading edge of the distant Tovar Nebula stretched across the quickly darkening sky. The beautiful silvery-green haze lit up the dark as brightly as would three full moons on Earth. Andakar may have lacked even a single tiny moon, but the nebula’s brightness and beauty made up for that loss.
Per Naylon’s instructions, the museum guard had been expecting Darreth. The guard escorted him through the lobby, then down the back hallway to the spacious lab. Large picture windows spanned a good length of the hallway, which was one wall of the lab. Naylon saw them approach.
The guard returned to his post as Darreth greeted Naylon.
“Lieutenant Commander,” Naylon acknowledged.
“Uh, that’s reserved for when I’m on duty,” he said, smiling. “You only get to call me by my name.”
“Good. I was hoping our date wouldn’t be formal.”
“I’m only formal when I’m in uniform.”
Naylon took note of the implication and drank in the sight of his date. Not being particularly romantic or one to believe in love at first sight, he was nonetheless enamored with Darreth’s appearance. Darreth was wearing a light green two-piece tunic typical of Andakar society. Since the climate was almost always hot and humid, virtually all clothing was light and efficiently designed to wick away perspiration. Darreth had obviously gotten a recent haircut, too. His salt and pepper locks were cropped short. A perfect clockwise swirl graced his crown. Product in his hair made it shine under the lights in the lab.
Naylon’s clothing was very similar, except for a lab coat, which he was still wearing. He wondered if he should have at least shaved, then promptly forgot about it as he watched Darreth’s every move.
Darreth wasn’t hunky in a classical sense, but he was filled out where it counted. He sported firm biceps and ample shoulders. Naylon loved a well-developed upper body. But Darreth’s face was of particular interest, especially his delicious dark brown eyes, the long dark lashes, and those full pouty lips.
Darreth glanced around the lab. Naylon’s desk was a flat white surface with dozens of glass slides sitting in marked trays. Several pieces of equipment sat on the desk as well, the most conspicuous one being a scanning vector microscope. Two small toaster oven-shaped devices, one with its small door ajar, were to each side. One was labeled Quantum Spectrometer, the other Radiometric Dating Analyzer.
“So, what is it you do here?” Darreth was completely unfamiliar with the equipment.
Naylon glanced at his wristcomp to check the time. They had plenty. “I can show you around, if you’d like.”
“Maybe a quick tour. The reservation’s for 2000 hours.”
“Sure. It’s not like I can actually show you a lot of stuff. Most of what I do is research and cataloging.” Naylon turned to the microscope. “The museum’s lab depends on a team of paleontologists working all over the continent. They bring in samples for us to analyze. Our job is to sort, date and catalog them. But I’m working on a special project.”
“Which is?”
“To determine why higher life forms never evolved on our planet.”
“For what reason?” Darreth asked, intrigued.
“It’s part of an ongoing project that started ninety-seven years ago.”
“That’s, uh, when Andakar was first colonized.”
“Exactly. After the first colonists arrived and discovered that the superocean was teeming with life, but the continent wasn’t, they were totally puzzled. After all, our sun is half a billion years older than Sol, so why higher forms of life never evolved on land like they had on Earth was the big question.”
“Isn’t that already known? We have no moons and barely any tides. I thought you needed good-sized tides to evolve higher life forms on land. Plus, Andakar has no record of super-volcanoes. I was sure I learned that a planet has to have a periodic destruction of its ozone layer from huge volcanic eruptions to help solar radiation mutate DNA.”
Naylon was completely taken aback. He surely wasn’t expecting Darreth to know such esoterica. “Wow. Where did you learn that?”
“I don’t remember exactly. Grade school, maybe?” He grinned. In fact, he had done a quick background study of what a paleontologist did, having had only a cursory understanding of the profession.
“Well, those are the prevailing theories. It’s still a mystery actually. It’s one I hope to help crack,” Naylon told him proudly. “That, and maybe add more clues as to why the life forms in our superocean are so
bio-available for pharmas.”
“I don’t get it. How does research about our past help produce any product for export?”
Naylon was the first one to know what Darreth meant by a statement like that. A pure research position was somewhat unusual. “I’m working under the budget of a special grant.”
“Really?” he exclaimed. “Who’s funding it?”
“AshtaPharma, Ltd, of course. Who else?”
“Of course. The largest pharma corp on the planet. I thought they only cared about profit.”
“They have an extraordinarily large budget. The military isn’t exactly a profit center either.” The words shot out of Naylon’s mouth before he could stop himself. Oops, Naylon thought. I can’t believe I even said that.
Darreth’s voice took on a defensive tone. “We make sure profits are kept and product is not stolen. We earn our keep.”
Naylon quickly sought to make amends with a quick apology and tentatively patted Darreth’s muscular shoulder with what he hoped would be a sign of peace.
The seven other employees in Naylon’s department had long since gone home for the day, so they had unrestricted access to the lab. Naylon showed him the rest of the equipment and they left for dinner shortly thereafter.
Darreth took Naylon in his hovercar to a four-star restaurant overlooking Pier Five on Koehkelko Bay. Darreth had reserved a table for two at the far wall of windows. From their third floor vantage all they could see was the tip of several piers below them, along with a few cruise ships docked nearby. The wide expanse of dark water beyond was broken by lights reflecting on the surface from the curved shoreline and the glow of the nebula overhead.
The Rylerran Gateway Page 2
