Her touch was gentle, like her voice. Madeline had never known a woman’s influence, having been raised in a military fashion. It was comforting.
She hesitated. “You would have sacrificed your life, to prevent the authorities from seeing how your commander reacted to you. It was a noble thing to do.”
So much for hiding her relationship with Dtimun, if it could be called that. Her eyes met the other woman’s and she sighed. “I lived on dreams, after we came here that day. Then he told me the truth.” Her eyes lowered. “Something died in me. I went back to the only other life I knew, when Ambassador Taylor threatened to reveal what had happened in the gym. A crewmate was teaching me hand-to-hand combat techniques, touching me. The commander saw. He reacted violently.”
Caneese sat down on the bed at Madeline’s side. “It is of great sadness to us, that the addition of galot DNA produced such negative characteristics in us, especially in our men. We have feline traits which are never revealed to outworlders. The mating cycle is one of them. Once initiated, it escalates in violence until the very life of the female partner is threatened. We have tried for decades to find a method to diminish the violence, without success.”
Madeline nodded. She knew, too, that the uncanny strength of the Cehn-Tahr male would make mating with a human impossible. Hahnson’s example was proof of it.
Caneese’s face was sad, but her eyes began to twinkle. “Your friend Komak has access to tech which is of an odd and inexplicable source.”
“Rojok tech?” Madeline wondered worriedly.
Caneese sighed. “Not that. The ‘old fellow’ told Dtimun that he thinks Komak comes from the future. He knows the pattern of things that happen, but not the details. It is as if,” she pondered, “he read about this epoch in a book which provided only highlighted episodes and not explicit passages.”
Madeline frowned. Now that she thought about it, Komak always seemed to know what was coming. She had put it down to intuition. But what if he really did come from the future? Did he have relatives here? Did he know any of the crew in the future? Did he know Madeline in the future? And if he was out of place and time, why had he stayed so long? Perhaps he was unable to return to his own time.
“I do not think so,” Caneese interrupted her thoughts.
“But he’s been here a very long time,” Madeline commented.
“Time is fluid, like water, and has currents. Perhaps in his own time, he has only been gone for seconds.” She smiled. “I did study theoretical physics, in my youth.”
“Has your hair always been silver?” Madeline asked.
“No. It was black when I was a young female, and very long. He with whom I bonded found it fascinating.” She laughed. “He brought me a pot of canolithe…” She stopped suddenly at Madeline’s gasp. “You saw that, in his mind, when he saved your life. You must never say it to another living soul!”
Madeline was puzzled, but she agreed. “I have never told anything that I know. The commander is a telepath. So is the old fellow, and you. And Komak, too.” She frowned. “But I was taught that only the Royal Clan had such abilities.”
Caneese toyed with the bedspread. “Yes, such misrepresentations are common, because we seem mysterious to outworlders.”
“The old fellow said that he had lost his family,” Madeline said delicately.
Caneese nodded. “My mate and I had a furious argument when my eldest son was killed, in the Great Galaxy War. I swore that I would never forgive him. I came here, to Mahkmannah, and became a religious. I was so certain that I was right. But over the decades, I have started to doubt my certainties. Perhaps I was wrong, too.”
“You and the old fellow,” Madeline began. “Are you…?”
“Did the others not leave, so that Madeline could rest?” Dtimun asked from the doorway, deliberately interrupting the conversation.
Caneese laughed and got up. “Yes. I have been bombarding her with questions. I am sorry,” she told Madeline. “You may not know that you are becoming well-known here, and many of us are curious about you.”
Madeline smiled. Her eyelids were drooping. “Flattering,” she said in a flyaway voice. She was drifting off.
“It is not flattery,” Caneese denied. “You are unlike anyone I have ever met, of any species.”
But Madeline didn’t hear her. The stress and pain had combined with Hahnson’s painkiller to knock her out. She didn’t want to sleep. She wanted to look at the commander. It was impossible. She was already asleep.
Dtimun stood at the edge of the bed and studied her with barely controlled instincts raging.
Caneese laid a gentle hand on his arm, calming him. “Many things are happening that I would not have believed possible, even though I was certain that the prophecy was a true one.”
He nodded, his hands behind his back. “Komak will not tell me what he knows.” He turned to her. “But he says that Chacon is going to be kidnapped and Madeline and I are the only hope of preventing his death and Lyceria’s capture.”
She nodded. “He told me. I have also seen this, but not with his clarity.”
“Who is he?”
“A traveler in the wastelands of the galaxies,” she said. “And do not attempt to read my mind. I can shield it, as you well know.”
He smiled. “Forgive me.” He frowned. His eyes went an opaque blue. “Something has happened.”
She reached up and touched his cheek. “Yes. Just as Komak predicted. Lyceria has taken a skimmer to the transit station on Calendashe,” she said, naming the largest and closest of Memcache’s two moons. “She said it was to shop for new robes. But she has not yet returned, and she will not answer my flashes.”
“Have you contacted the Dectat?”
She nodded. “Madeline’s old fellow, like Komak, thinks she may be en route to Benaski Port.”
“There? Why?” he exclaimed.
“To warn of an attempt on the Rojok commander-in-chief.”
“What sort of attempt?”
She glanced at Madeline’s sleeping face. “It is said that the new dictator, Chan Ho, wishes to be rid of him. Chacon is a conservative who does not favor a return to Mangus Lo’s terror policies. He is powerful and a hero to the public.”
“Is it to be an assassination attempt?” Dtimun asked.
“No. They think to have him kidnapped and sold as a slave on Benaski Port, where a Rojok stripped of rank and prestige has no value except for his bare strength.” She frowned. “Lyceria has been passing flashes to him and receiving them, in defiance of state policy. I have worried that she might be apprehended and detained for contact with an enemy combatant, despite her status here.” Her worried eyes met his. “If she thought the Rojok was in danger, she would go to warn him. Komak says this is already happening. I see the future darkly. He sees it much better. He knows the future.”
He frowned, too. “Yes. I have seen that. Benaski Port is a den of thieves. There is no law there, and the Tri-Galaxy Council has no treaty with its managers.”
“She would do anything to save Chacon.” She looked at the bed. “Just as Ruszel was willing to sacrifice her career, even her life, to save yours.”
His face revealed nothing. He knew that Chacon had been with them on Akaashe. Komak was right about Lyceria’s disappearance. He was more than likely right about the Rojok military commander’s as well. The Old Fellow believed Komak’s theories.
“She is quite beautiful,” Caneese commented when she noticed Dtimun staring at Ruszel.
Hahnson had given him another dose of tranquillizer to keep his emotions in check. What he felt, he would not disclose.
Caneese attempted to probe his mind, but met a wall. She laughed. “You could always block me.”
“I could return the compliment.”
“What will happen to her?” she asked him, nodding toward Madeline. “Will the human ambassador try to send her again into combat when she returns to duty?”
“I think this is possible. I could transfer her bac
k to the Holconcom, override him. But that would threaten her more than remaining in the Amazon Division.”
Caneese turned to him, her face solemn. “What if it were possible for you to mate with her, without harming her?”
A tiny hint of expression escaped his iron control. “That is not possible by any means we know.”
“Komak has found a way.”
“You have dared to discuss this with Komak?” he demanded imperiously.
She drew herself up to her full height, which was formidable. “Remember to whom you speak!” she said shortly.
He straightened his posture. “Excuse me.”
She nodded, placated. “Komak has some stake in this, I know not what. He has secret tech which he is employing with viruses as a medium.”
“Tech?”
“A way to increase Ruszel’s strength, improve her genome.”
“Genetic engineering,” he said coldly. “I forbid it.”
“She must make that choice, not you,” she replied.
“It is not hers to make,” he said coldly. “Think of what the same modifications did to us, as a species. Once the matrix is replaced, it would be impossible for her to return to what she was. There could be terrible consequences.”
Caneese read the concern in him. “There could,” she agreed. “But Komak is from the future,” she reminded him. “If there were consequences from this, he would know.”
That was true. But he was still uneasy.
“Go and speak with him,” Caneese advised. “It might quiet your mind. He can tell you what he knows about Chacon and Lyceria as well. It concerns you. And her.”
He was looking at Madeline. He was stiff with reserve and control. She was so beautiful. He forced himself to turn away. Caneese was right. Komak might have answers to his questions.
The younger Cehn-Tahr was surrounded by exotic technology in Caneese’s lab, so deep in thought that he didn’t hear the approach of the commander.
“What sort of tech is this that you are developing?” Dtimun asked curtly.
Surprised, Komak turned. For an instant, there was something oddly human in his expression. “A revolutionary discovery,” he told the other alien with sparkling green eyes. “Caneese was given the Dectat’s highest civilian medal for it…that is, she will be given it.”
Dtimun paused beside him, his eyes on the array of virtual comps and accelerated microscopes. On the screen was a genetic matrix that was strangely familiar. Before he could study it, Komak discreetly made it vanish.
“There are some things that you must not know,” Komak explained, and now he was solemn. “In the future, string theory has been proven by time travel. We now know that all possibilities have a physical expression. This timeline,” he said, waving his hand around, “is the best of many. But it cannot happen without intervention. Madelineruszel is the key to the future. She is the mother of change.”
Dtimun frowned. “What sort of change?”
“Peace,” the younger alien said flatly.
“That would be a change, indeed,” came the quiet reply.
“However,” Komak continued, “it is a choice she must make for herself. We cannot interfere, except to make the future possible.”
Dtimun scowled at the materials Komak had assembled. “What do you know about the future?” he asked bluntly.
Komak got up and stared into the older man’s eyes. “Chacon has gone to Benaski Port to meet Princess Lyceria, who knows of a plot to kidnap him and sell him into slavery. They have been observed in transit. When they arrive at the base…” He stopped, his lips thinning. “They have one hope of survival. If you and Ruszel go there, covertly, you can save them. No one else can.”
“If I go to Benaski Port with Ruszel, she will die,” Dtimun said icily. “She is prey. Do you understand?”
Komak nodded solemnly. “That is why I have been working here.” He indicated the paraphernalia around him. “I brought a formula back with me. I have synthesized a chemical catalyst which will effect the same change in Madelineruszel’s anatomy which was produced in Stern’s by the Rojok cloning process.”
“This would make it possible for her to bond with me,” he said without any expression in his tone.
“Yes,” Komak said. “But not for the reason you think. It will make it possible for the two of you to save Chacon. If you do not,” he added quietly, “things will happen that will tear the galaxies apart.”
Dtimun scowled at him. “What things?”
Komak groaned. “I cannot tell you.”
Dtimun’s eyes narrowed. “You are a descendant of someone living here, now.”
Komak nodded.
“Can you tell me who?”
Komak shook his head. “Some things I am not allowed to mention. I am a scientist, but I am also a historian. Records of this time period were destroyed in the worst solar flare our world has ever experienced. No hard copy had been kept, owing to a mistake in archiving, so everything was lost. Elders were questioned, especially the emperor, about the missing time. The emperor was not forthcoming about some areas, so I thought it best to investigate for myself and make vids of the time period.” He pursed his lips. “Some of them will entertain you in the future.”
“You have been here for almost three years,” Dtimun began.
Komak laughed. “When I return, it will be more like one standard hour since I jumped here through time. Time is fluid and there are currents, which must be maneuvered. I am quite good at it by now. I have visited many epochs in our civilization, and in other civilizations.”
Dtimun shook his head. “It is a difficult concept.”
“Yes, I know.” Komak was serious now. “I must leave soon, and go back to my own time,” he said sadly. “I have enjoyed this visit more than you can know. To me, this time period was only history, and fragmented at that. To have known you and Madelineruszel as comrades…” He stopped, swallowed and averted his eyes. “It has been an honor to serve with you both. I will…miss you.”
Emotion was hard for Dtimun. Since childhood, he had been taught to contain his emotions, to behave as a person of his station was expected to behave. That rigidity was difficult to relax, especially when the confusion of his need for Ruszel was shaking his control as well.
“I will miss the irritation,” he replied with faint humor, and his eyes flashed green as they met Komak’s. He frowned. “Why leave now? Is there some urgency that requires your departure?”
Komak’s green eyes twinkled. “A great urgency.”
“Will we meet again?” Dtimun asked curiously.
“Yes, we will. Although,” he added softly, “you may not recognize me.”
“And now you speak in riddles.”
“I must,” Komak said gently. He indicated the experiment. “I have given Caneese a formula for another drug, which will be needed as time goes by. Since she is credited with creating both substances, I am not interfering in the timeline.” He was somber. “There is a great risk. The only way you and Madelineruszel can infiltrate Benaski Port is if she carries your child. I need not tell you the dangers.”
Dtimun frowned. “This will be possible?”
“Yes,” Komak assured him. “The catalyst insures it. She will still have frailties, despite her increased strength. The pregnancy will be dangerous. It could kill her.”
Having so recently retrieved her from certain death, he felt great concern at putting her again at risk while she was still recovering from her ordeal.
“That is a decision she must make,” Komak reiterated. “Tell her the risk. Let her decide. You cannot decide for her.”
Dtimun’s jaw tautened. “In your future,” he asked, “is she still alive?”
Komak brightened. “In this timeline? Yes. She commands a whole division of female troops and sneaks out with them on missions,” he chuckled. “She is a brigadier general,” he added. “And before you ask, yes, Caneese and the old fellow are also still around.”
“In this timelin
e.”
Komak nodded. “There are others. Less desirable. If Chacon dies.”
“Then, he must not,” Dtimun replied. “I will speak to her. When do you leave?”
“Not just yet,” Komak mused. “There are still a few things I wish to know.” What they were, he didn’t say.
Dtimun left him to his work. He smiled at the thought of Madeline as a brigadier general. He hadn’t wanted to know more. Even if by some miracle it was possible for him to bond with her, to save Chacon, there were political considerations which would make a future with her impossible. He was not sure about the child; he personally thought it unlikely that two such different species could breed. It would at least end his own torment. But what about Madeline? He hoped Komak was right, about the future.
Komak, watching him leave, hoped with all his heart that this precious timeline would survive. Everything would depend on Madeline’s decision. But the chemical catalyst that would make her as strong as a Cehn-Tahr woman, that would give her the choice of bonding with Dtimun, to save Chacon and the princess, was already complete.
All that now remained was for Madeline to agree to its use. If she refused, for any reason, disaster would ensue. Komak felt a shiver of cold at the alternate reality which he had already seen. If Madeline Ruszel made the wrong decision, the future would be a nightmare.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Madeline was feeling much better. Caneese had the staff of the fortress, as Madeline thought of it, concoct recipes with tastes that appealed to a human palate.
The room had been filled with pots of wonderful flowers that emitted a subtle perfume, one that didn’t cause the head stuffiness that some plants did. The window was open, so that Madeline could look out on the formal gardens behind the structure. Imagine a simple soldier in a place like this, she thought, and was more aware than ever of the differences between herself and the Holconcom commander. He was obviously an aristocrat, important in his society far beyond his abilities to command a crack military unit. The hopelessness of her situation didn’t improve with that thought. Soon, when she healed, she must return to the Amazon Division, to war and more war until the conflict with the Rojoks was resolved, one way or another. And that didn’t appear to be an event that would occur soon.
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