The Rylerran Gateway

by Mark Ian Kendrick

  The waiter returned to their table moments after he had left. He showed Darreth the label of the bottle he was holding. Darreth nodded, the man uncorked it and poured them both a third of a glass. Darreth had selected a bottle of selkwine, a drink similar to wine on Earth. Native to the Inhab Alkuros, the product’s many variants were some of its most sought after exports. He was glad to see they had had a 2809 vintage, considered one of the best years. The waiter took their orders and they were finally alone. Darreth picked up his glass. Naylon did the same. They clinked them together and each took a sip.

  “You know, a much less expensive restaurant would have done nicely for our first date,” Naylon said.

  “No way. I love this place. They serve the best kinerfish in the entire city.”

  Naylon’s mouth watered at that remark. They had both ordered the kinerfish. He had ordered his rare with a spiced overripe quidwe fruit sauce. His favorite style.

  “I’ll be honest with you. I was a little apprehensive about going on this date with you,” Naylon confessed.

  “Why?”

  “I’ve never been out with a military man before. Plus, you’re the Chief Council’s son.”

  Darreth rolled his eyes for the briefest of instants. “Forget about that ‘Chief Council’s son’ part. It was an accident of birth.”

  “You’re no accident,” Naylon remarked, as he took in Darreth’s square set jaw, his short hair standing up at his hairline, and the tunic shirt opened at the top. Naylon could just see a few dark hairs peeking out.

  “Neither are you,” Darreth replied with a grin.

  “You’re embarrassing me,” Naylon stated.

  “You started it.”

  There was a brief moment of quiet while the two men took another sip.

  “So, tell me about your job,” Naylon said as he set his selkwine glass down.

  “Well, my ship’s the ASN Challenger.”

  “I’m not all that familiar with the ships,” Naylon admitted.

  “It’s a scout ship.”

  “Isn’t it seriously dangerous on one?” He was only familiar with them being much smaller than passenger ships.

  “We have all the latest weaponry. All the latest scanning equipment, too. The nav is a fully bio-neural holo interface. And the Challenger has the best shielding for a ship of its size. My squadron’s recovered the top number of tons of stolen pharmas with no casualties on our side.” Darreth didn’t elaborate. Naylon wasn’t sure he wanted to know more either.

  The two men’s salads arrived. Made with tangy shredded nopa leaves, the succulent inner skin of ripe jastacren pods, and drizzled with chilled leron sauce, they dug right in.

  “What did you do after the citizenship ceremony?” Darreth asked after his first bite.

  “I went back to work.”

  “Too bad it wasn’t quitting time, huh? You could have just ended the day with a big party.”

  “I didn’t mind really. Can you believe my father even mentioned that back on Earth I’d have to go back to work, too?”

  “You used to work on Earth?”

  “Nope. I was born there.”

  “Seriously?” he said, giving Naylon his full attention, his salad forgotten for the moment.

  Naylon nodded.

  Darreth’s demeanor shifted slightly at that news. “You’re a hollowhe…uh, I mean a nonNate?” Darreth almost said ‘hollowhead’, which was an extremely derogatory expression used for those not born on Andakar. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that. I swear. I didn’t know…”

  “I’m a naturalized Citizen. I think you were there,” Naylon flatly stated. He wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or not.

  To Darreth this bit of news completely shifted the tone of their date. For the majority of his life he had harbored a secret prejudice against nonNates. Most of the prejudice stemmed from being a third generation Andakari. In addition, he had first hand experience of what off-worlders wanted when they came to his planet. He’d met dozens of them because his father had to entertain many delegates, mostly from Ulult and Ajica Prime, the closest Inhabs other than Rylerra. By far though, the worst people he’d ever met were from Earth. Most of them were arrogant, petulant, and had an offensive sense of entitlement. Yet, Naylon was clearly not like them. “You seem different,” Darreth told him.

  Another insult? “Different?”

  “I mean your attitude. You don’t seem like a typical Earther.”

  Whew. “I was fourteen Standard when we left. I barely remember Earth.”

  “Oh.” Darreth quickly tried to re-establish their rapport, sorry about his slip of the tongue. “Uh, what country were you born in?”

  “New Zealand.”

  “Let’s see if I remember my Earth geography. Canberra’s the capital, right?”

  “Nope. That’s Australia, which is next door. Wellington’s the capital. I was born there.”

  Darreth briefly looked down at his food then back up to Naylon. “I’m sorry about saying that. Really. It just came out.”

  “Don’t agit,” Naylon told him. It wasn’t the first time he’d been called a hollowhead.

  Darreth returned his attention to his salad and took another bite. “Do you miss it? Earth, I mean.”

  Naylon shook his head emphatically. “Not even for a second. This is my home. My parents are the ones who talk about missing it. They keep talking about going back for a vacation. Personally, I don’t see why. It’s a long trip.”

  “What kind of work do they do?”

  “They’re both pharma techs. That’s how we ended up here. The Consort forced them to emigrate because of their specialties…. Hey, enough about me. I’m guessing that since your dad is the head of the Council you’ve got a pretty high profile.”

  A corner of Darreth’s mouth went up as he stabbed his salad. “I’ve got a recognizable name, of course. But I’m treated just like everyone else.”

  No way. “But you must get special privileges,” Naylon insisted.

  “Seriously. I have to follow the same rules as everyone else.”

  They finished their salads. Shortly afterwards their steaming plates of kinerfish arrived.

  Dinner consisted of more small talk and Naylon trying to figure out where their relationship was going. As the evening progressed, he welcomed the realization that Darreth’s hollowhead remark was nothing more than a harmless, unconscious reflex.

  “You don’t live in Sakirse?” Naylon asked as Darreth’s hovercar whizzed past the last entrance gate. Sakirse was the compound just outside Tokaias’s city limit where a large number of Andakar’s Space Navy personnel lived.

  “Nope. I’ve got my own place nearby.”

  “Okay, so you get at least one perk by being a James-Po.”

  “You got me there,” Darreth admitted. “It’s the only perk I really have.”

  Darreth continued for another kilometer and turned onto a street to the right, then went two more blocks. He touched down onto an oval landing pad three houses further down. Naylon touched the control on the door after the car came to a stop. The gullwing lifted up. He stepped out, observing a nice bungalow separated by the ones next door on two sides by brick walls. A short fence delineated the front yard from a sidewalk. A ring of chairs around a circular table was near the front door on the front porch, illuminated by an overhead light. It was a nice cozy place.

  “I have to work tomorrow,” Naylon said in a non-committal tone.

  “I’ll get you back in time to get ready.”

  Naylon was pleasantly surprised. His date had gone a lot better than he had anticipated. After the initial gaffe by Darreth during dinner, Naylon noted the man had nearly fallen over himself to make sure he was the perfect gentleman afterward. He was impressed by that alone. He had been sure Darreth was going to fulfill his low expectations of what a person in the military would be like. Darreth should have been full of bravado and machismo, perhaps even be completely stupid. Instead, Naylon found him to be charming and quite intelligen
t. Plus, he sprang for a really nice dinner.

  The bungalow was sparsely but tastefully furnished. The ceiling of the combined living room and den was at least three meters high. The dark translucent wall was obviously a holo interface, while the others were a mustard color. The kitchen off to the left had all the latest appliances and was spotless. After all, Darreth spent most of his time in orbit aboard the Guardian space station.

  “How often do you get to come planetside?” Naylon asked playfully.

  “Hmm. Which definition of come are you referring to?” Darreth asked playfully as he turned on the music center and adjusted its volume with his neural control implant. A light jazzy sound came from the soundfield generator.

  A common control and communications device for the majority of the adult population of their civilization, Naylon also had an implant. Connected directly to the language center of one’s brain by a thin network of semi-organic tendrils, the implants took the place of remote controls and short-range communications devices.

  Naylon chuckled at Darreth’s comeback. “Whichever definition you want to choose.”

  “There. How’s that volume?” Darreth asked as he took a seat close to Naylon on the couch.

  “That’s fine,” Naylon told him.

  “To answer your question, I travel planetside at least three times a month. I try to come a lot more often though.”

  “Will you be coming tonight?”

  “That depends on you.” He shifted a little more closer to Naylon.

  “I’m trying to play hard-to-get since this is our first date, but I have a feeling I’m not going to do so well.” Naylon already felt a stirring in his loose trousers and placed a hand at his crotch.

  Darreth smiled impishly and glanced down at the now obvious bulge. “You hiding a swella?” With that, he leaned over and placed a kiss on Naylon’s neck.

  Naylon didn’t answer as he turned his head to lock lips with Darreth. Naylon was ecstatic. Darreth was bold but without the harsh edge he expected. In addition, this guy was unlike his long and unsuccessful string of dates with academic types. And while he normally didn’t have sex on the first date, Darreth’s hot breath had already made him relinquish that protocol.

  Forty minutes later, wrapped in the sheet Darreth had pulled from a small hall closet, they still lay on the couch, which had been pulled out flat. Both of their clothes were in a pile on the floor next to it. It had been rather quick by Naylon’s standards, but very satisfying.

  “I really have to get back home soon,” Naylon said with a yawn.

  “It’s not even 2230.” He leaned into Naylon and French-kissed him again.

  “You taste like my come,” Naylon told him.

  “I hope I can sample more of it.”

  “Are you asking me out again?”

  Darreth just nodded his head. A huge smile showed his perfectly white teeth.

  Naylon had been sure after tonight he’d be history. “Are you serious?”

  Darreth rose up on an elbow as he nodded again.

  “You are serious.”

  Chapter 3

  Dr. Alista Kosovil was tall. Standing a full 1.88 meters, she was four centimeters taller than Naylon and almost a year older. Her hair was straight but soft, cut short and very platinum blonde. It hung like a mop around her head, complete with bangs in front. With her long thin facial features and olive skin, the style looked exotic on her.

  She sat in the workstation pod next to Naylon in the museum’s lab, wearing the same type of lab coat as did he. Alista and Naylon had worked together since the day Naylon was hired. She was the one who suggested him out of the three candidates they had interviewed. Her specialty was paleoclimatology. Her job at the lab was to place the fossils Naylon identified into their proper climatic periods. She was only the second person on Andakar to work as a paleoclimatologist. Hers was the first full time paid position at the lab. In the last three years she had added two new climatic time periods to the still-developing chart. She had long suspected Andakar had undergone several cooler time periods, but had only identified two such periods so far. It was only a matter of time before she was sure some of Naylon’s research would turn up the next one. Naylon’s work on the fossil record would provide the vital information she needed.

  Naylon was using an ultrasonic pick on a small chunk of rock under a microscope. The work was somewhat routine, so they were able to talk while they processed samples.

  Alista had a reference flimsy on the work surface to her right. She touched the forward icon on it. The previous page faded out and was replaced by the next. Her search string was highlighted in red. She moved the data to a field on a spreadsheet she was filling in. “So, how did the date go? You haven’t talked about him at all.”

  The last bit of limestone particles fell off the tiny fossil Naylon was cleaning. He rolled the fossilized object around with the micro tweezers. Another spiral elagiva novus. Nothing unusual had turned up so far. “He was one of the military contingent at my Citizenship ceremony the other day.”

  “And…”

  “And he’s really good looking.”

  “And…”

  “And yes, we had sex.”

  “Of course,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Alista knew Naylon very well. They ate lunch together almost every day and hung out with the rest of the lab crew after work quite a bit. Their group was tight knit and it was almost impossible to keep secrets from each other. It was the camaraderie Naylon liked the most, making them a substitute family of sorts.

  “And he wants to see me again,” Naylon added. He pulled his eyes away from the magnifier panel and briefly rubbed them with a free hand.

  She was quiet for a moment. “I’m jealous,” she finally admitted.

  “Why? It was you who kept pushing me to find a totally different type guy to date.”

  “I didn’t think it would happen so fast.” But she was smiling. She may have felt a brief bit of jealousy but it had already faded. She felt a slight bit of possessiveness about Naylon despite being happily married. In fact, Naylon was the godfather to her two-year old daughter.

  “I’m surprised I like him so much,” Naylon offered.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Well, he is military,” he said.

  Alista knew what he was talking about. She knew all about the discussion group Naylon was involved in. She scrunched her eyebrows together, a not so pleasant look for her unusual features, and regarded Naylon’s involvement with Darreth. “He’s the Chief Council’s first born, right?” she prompted.

  Naylon nodded. “He seems to be mostly unaffected by that kind of privilege.”

  “How do you know? You just met him. I bet he’s just hiding behind a happy face since you’re so cute,” she goaded, but smiled as she said it.

  Naylon grinned. “Well, I’ve spent the night with him. He’s given me his comm code,” he added. His comm code would allow Naylon to talk to him directly through the use of his neural implant.

  Alista regarded all of that. “Okay. But we’ll see,” she said skeptically. “When he’s broken your heart who are you going to turn to?”

  Naylon scooted his chair over to hers and turned slightly. He made a goofy grin, leaned in to her and laid his head on her slender shoulder.

  “What in thunder are you doing, Dr. Ress?” she inquired, trying to sound serious.

  Naylon twisted his head and looked up at her with a twinkle in his eyes. “Just proving you’re my true confidant. If things don’t work out you’ll be the first to know.”

  Alista couldn’t help but break into a smile as she pushed Naylon away. She pointed to his desktop. “Turn the magnifier light off, we have lunch to attend to.”

  The student union building at Tokaias University stood in the center of campus. Seven sidewalks radiated toward the building from the surrounding grounds. The university property looked like campuses had for the last millennium and a half. Tall stately buildings, graced with stone walls,
massive Roman columns, and blocks of tree-lined sidewalks. The only difference between this campus and ones on Earth was that the trees were towering fernlike vegetation with fire-red spiked leaves that swayed in the breeze. Instead of verdant grass covered hills, this campus’s grounds were blanketed with deep purple and bright red moss-like plants called fumilworts. The tough plants had a velvet feel and were amazingly resilient even when used as impromptu sports fields. Instead of birds nesting in the eaves of the buildings or in the trees, the warbling and whirring vocalizations of a dozen species of hydrogen-filled flyers greeted day students, while nocturnal hydrogen-filled flying insect sounds greeted the night class students’ ears.

  The escalator brought Naylon up from the underground transit stop to the campus’s south entrance. He walked quickly to the student union building, passing dozens of students coming and going to classes. The tall streetlights provided ample illumination down onto the walkway. It was a typical night on campus.

  His retina scan remained in the building’s database since he kept his alumnus dues up. The door recognized him as he approached and opened to allow him entry. He headed down the corridor to the meeting room. The student union had many such rooms. Some had bare walls, others were adorned with artwork. Many had plush furniture. Some only a few stools. All were used for various activities, such as games, acting classes, storytelling, and in this case, the discussion group. Room 6 was one of the smaller ones. It had three couches, several coffee tables, a small food dispenser machine recessed into a wall, and a small bathroom. As Naylon neared the doorway he heard voices coming from the other side. The door quietly slid open and he entered.

  The entire group had already convened. Naylon subvocalized the word ‘time’ and the universal time clock responded in his auditory cortex. He was sure he had been early. It appeared everyone else was early instead.

  Tonight, only one of the seven people in the room was a current student. Naylon was the second academician present. All briefly greeted him as he took a seat next to Caddo, one of the graduates. Droon, the cute blonde graduate who worked at one of the local hydrogen generation stations, was just pulling a tray of baked chocoyams from the food dispenser. The delicious aroma had already filled the room. As soon as the tray hit the coffee table everyone except for Traig immediately snatched them up. Traig didn’t care for their bitter aftertaste. A pitcher of light green jelnak tea was on the table next to the tray. Naylon poured some for Traig and himself, then settled back to savor the warm chocoyam confection.