by Amber Stuart
Padding quietly behind the two of them, I studied the walls when Ledi and Nihkil began to speak to one another in that other language. Neither of them bothered to translate that time.
I didn’t bother trying to eavesdrop, either.
Given my paltry knowledge of Pharize, the human language, I wouldn’t have gotten very far anyway. Through Nik, perhaps, I got the feeling most of their conversation consisted of questions Ledi aimed at Nihkil about me, anyway. It was only a feeling, of course; I never actually heard either of them speak my name.
Letting it go, I tried to focus on where I was, instead.
Floor lights lit Nihkil and Ledi's faces from below, turning them a faint orange. The corridor still felt more like a tunnel; its dimensions lacked hard symmetry, carrying that rounded, seamless quality one could sometimes find in nature, like a honeycomb or an anthill, or even flood-worn ravines in a desert. Graceful curves created ridged patterns out of the perspective when I looked ahead, like being caught in a giant rabbit warren.
The air smelled damp, and somehow reminded me of that weird water smell at Disneyland.
We exited another ribbed tunnel segment and the space opened, showing a cross-section of decks. A group of humans clustered on the other side of a chasm from the wider ramp where we walked. Salt-white faces lined a narrow, latticed platform. They stood in a loose huddle, gesturing to one another and staring at me whenever I wasn't looking.
Well, and sometimes when I was looking, too.
All but one, that is.
A muscular woman with knotted dark red hair stared at me openly the whole time. I focused on her white arms and scarred skin, as well as the athletic figure she cut in the tight outfit, until I realized that Nihkil was watching me, his expression strangely cautious.
“Why are you interested in her?” he said, using the translator.
I glanced at him, startled. At his expression, I flushed a little.
"What are they saying?" I asked him.
Nihkil paused for a moment, listening, as Ledi and I watched him. I saw a strange look on Ledi’s face that time, too, one I couldn’t interpret.
Either way, his curiosity about me and Nik was starting to irritate me.
Whatever that was about, Nik definitely wasn’t telling me something.
I was still looking between them when Nik spoke. Again, the words came through his translation program, the one that didn't quite synch up with his lips.
“...it looks human, but that dark skin...”
Nihkil paused, his eyes on a different person than the woman who’d originally caught my attention. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought he was deliberately avoiding her, but I had no idea why he would do that.
Still, the impression lingered.
For some reason, it made me angry, too, but I couldn’t quite figure that out, either.
“...Strange eyes,” Nik continued via the translator. “...But I like the black hair. She looks strong... .young. Is it true that morph has her as his...” Another pause, that one more abrupt as Nihkil deliberately focused on someone else. “...going to get us all killed,” he translated from another conversation. “Worth ten times what the Republic will give us on the black market, especially if she’s fertile. Has a lot of breeding years left. Wonder if he'll just cut and run with her, if the patrols try to stop us... claim she got killed in the fighting...”
Nihkil glanced at Ledi then, and fell silent.
Ledi frowned, glancing at the woman whose speech Nihkil had been translating.
"What is she?" I asked, breaking the silence.
I gestured at the first woman, the one I’d caught staring, noting again in irritation that Nihkil wouldn’t look at her directly.
Still, he seemed to know who I meant.
"Human," Nihkil said.
Hesitating, Nihkil glanced at Ledi again, as if for help.
Ledi only looked between us, though, hands folded behind his back, his expression unreadable. Before I could ask a follow up question, the two of them resumed walking. When I didn’t immediately follow, Nihkil glanced over his shoulder at me, his eyes holding that caution once more.
“Are you coming?” he said, pausing his walk when I didn’t move.
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. For a brief instant, emotion tugged back and forth in my mind as I tried to decide if I should demand an answer from him, or just blow it off. I couldn’t really pinpoint what bothered me exactly, which didn’t help.
Sighing again, I gave in, following the two of them.
“Fine,” I said, when I got closer to Nik on the catwalk. “Why, then? Can you tell me that, at least?” At Nihkil’s questioning raised eyebrow, I explained, “If we’re in space then how are all of these people human? How is that possible?”
"I am not human," Nihkil reminded me.
"I know that," I said, biting back impatience. "But you still look human. It's in your repertoire. Like you said before, it was your original shape, right?"
Nihkil’s eyes sharpened on me at that, right before they flickered towards Ledi, almost as an afterthought. "That is personal information, Dakota... I would appreciate it if you didn't share it."
I frowned, then glanced at Ledi, too. “Oh. Well, maybe you should have told me that, Nik... for future reference, I mean.”
He nodded slowly, as if thinking.
“I should have told you.” His eyes shifted back towards mine, holding an open warning. “...But I am telling you now.”
Sighing, I nodded, rubbing my face. “Okay. Noted.”
“What does that mean?” he said, wariness still in his voice.
“It means, I heard you,” I said, my voice a bit sharper, too. “Drop it, okay?”
Nihkil pursed his lips, but didn't speak.
I saw his eyes turn a darker color, almost black above the high planes of his cheekbones, but I still hadn't quite mapped his mood changes to the color of his eyes, either.
Hearing a faintly amused sound from Ledi, I turned, glancing at him. He made his face neutral again when he caught my stare, then waved off my expression when I didn’t look away. His voice held a note of apology.
"Please continue. I apologize for my rudeness, Dakota Mayumi Reyes."
"Just Dakota," I said. "And I'd appreciate it more if you didn't bother apologizing but just told me why you were laughing."
Ledi gave Nihkil the apologetic look that time.
"Most people here are afraid of morph, Dakota," he said, pronouncing my name with exaggerated care, even using the translator. "We control the locks, in most cases, but we do not speak to them the way you do. We are not so familiar with them. Most try to avoid contact with them at all, in fact... in the event that we might personally affront one of them, and thus their whole clan."
"You are," I said pointedly, keeping my eyes on Ledi even as I gestured towards Nihkil. "You're that familiar with him."
"Nihkil and I have known each other for many years," Ledi explained. “And I would not have addressed him as you just did.”
A little stumped by that, I tried to think over what I’d just said to Nik. I glanced up at him then, but didn’t see any anger in his eyes, or even irritation.
“I don’t mind,” he assured me.
But I heard the caginess behind that answer, too.
Folding my arms tighter, I exhaled.
"Yeah, okay,” I muttered.
Ledi laughed openly that time. “You will have to tell me how you do it, Dakota,” he said with a smile. “You have Nik practically domesticated... apart from a few of his more specific quirks. And, of course, his obligations under––”
Nihkil cut us off, his voice holding more of an edge.
"We should go, sir. They are too curious about her. We should not feed their speculation."
Ledi looked over at him, as if startled. I saw his stare grow shrewd once more, right before he nodded, glancing at me, then at the corridor behind us
.
"Yes. Of course." Ledi said. He glanced at Nihkil again, appraising his face with a longer stare. "Yes. We will go, Nik."
I folded my arms tighter, fighting frustration that wanted more and more to turn into anger.
At this rate, Nihkil was going to get a real earful from me by the time we got back to the room.
I knew, though, somehow, that I might not make any headway on this particular subject. I felt a hard stop there, maybe through the lock, or maybe from something I’d seen in Nihkil’s face. He flat-out didn’t want me knowing something. The problem was, I had no idea what it was... which I suppose was the point. The fact that it had something to do with those humans, possibly even that particular woman who’d stared at me so aggressively, bothered me, too.
I had no idea if Nik’s secrecy had anything to do with Ledi’s cracks about the two of us, though. The two things seemed related, somehow, but really, that was just a guess.
Given Nik’s seeming interest in making our relationship somewhat less than wholly platonic, I couldn’t help wondering––
“Dakota,” Nik said, glancing at me. “Not now.”
Realizing I’d let the two of them get ahead of me again, I clenched my jaw.
“When?” I said.
Nihkil didn’t answer me, but I saw his eyes harden slightly. I could tell he didn’t want to promise we’d talk about it back in the room, either.
I guess I had to give him points for not wanting to overtly break a promise to me.
“Fine,” I sighed, letting my anger be audible that time. “Forget it.”
When I looked over, Ledi was staring between the two of us again.
Ignoring the question in his eyes, I only refolded my arms, speeding my legs to catch up with them. Nik nudged Ledi while I watched, and they resumed walking, too. Ledi glanced between the two of us yet again, but since neither Nik nor I answered his unspoken question, he eventually seemed to drop it, too.
Walking behind them once more, and feeling a bit like the family dog, I did my best to suppress my anger at Nihkil, knowing he might even feel it through the lock.
Still, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
Nik had already intimated more than once that we were under surveillance in that cell, that he didn't feel comfortable talking to me openly when it came to certain topics. The problem was, I couldn't for the life of me figure out was which topics those were.
The ones that made him cringe often struck me as completely random.
But I didn't want to argue the point in front of Ledi, either.
After a few more paces, I felt something like regret in Nihkil.
I didn’t look at him directly, not until he slowed his pace, drawing up alongside me, and letting Ledi walk in front of us both.
"We are all relatives," he said in a low voice, answering my question from before as if I’d just asked it. “...Humans and morph. It is believed we are all related. However, dominant theories of origin posit humans to have followed the morph into evolutionary existence... at least in their current form. Therefore, while we mimic their shape in the present day, it is far more likely that they look like us, than the reverse."
Ledi chuckled, glancing back at me.
“Not all human scientists agree on this point, by the way, Dakota,” he said, his voice openly amused. “You might want to poll a sample, in terms of origin theories... for there are as many as stars in the sky in our worlds.”
Nihkil spared him a dismissive glance, then cleared his throat, gesturing at the next few clusters of people watching us.
"They are human,” he said. “Just like those of your world... more or less."
“More or less,” I muttered, frowning a little in Ledi’s direction.
“Yes,” Nihkil said.
I watched the humans continue to stare at us, feeling my frustration rise. “You must know how crazy that sounds,” I said. "That we'd be in space, but they'd all be human."
"Only because it is new information for you," he said.
Again, Ledi chuckled. He’d slowed down a little too, so that the three of us walked almost abreast. I watched Ledi pat Nihkil on the shoulder.
"Nihkil is right," he said, glancing at me. "We are all human... except for those of us who are not." He chuckled again, shaking his head seemingly at both of us.
I glanced back at the crowd on the catwalk.
I no longer saw that one woman, the one with the dark red hair and the muscular but voluptuous body. At least five new faces returned my stare, however.
Several climbed handholds down to the main deck to get a better look at our small group. They followed behind us at a distance, looking almost like cave people with their bleached-white skin and large features.
“We know where humans came from on Earth,” I said, thinking aloud. I turned back towards Nihkil. “We evolved from lower primates. They found fossils.”
Nihkil gestured dismissively with one hand, but gave me a faintly warning look.
That one seemed to have more charge behind it.
"The First Planet is an important mystery for the humans here to solve," he said, still pulsing that warning from somewhere in his body. "It is not only a scientific question, but a religious one, too. Many people will be interested in you because of this. At least until they are able to confirm that your planet is not the First."
"You think it isn't the first, then?" I said. "Earth?”
Nihkil hesitated.
I saw him aim a sharp glance at Ledi, right before that warning intensified.
"I think it is extremely unlikely," Nihkil said, his eyes lightening perceptibly. "It is far more likely Rovers put your people there, just as they put people on Palarine and Mydora and the other worlds we have discovered through the gates. Your planet is too young to be the First. Further, it does not fit some of the basic parameters."
"Young?" I frowned, wrinkling my nose. "No, it isn't."
Nihkil snorted. He gave me a look that made it clear that he didn’t see me as an authority on the subject.
Biting back my irritation, I hesitated, then asked it anyway. "What are Rovers?”
I felt Nihkil's reluctance to answer that question, too, or maybe just to answer it right then.
I felt my jaw harden more.
“How would you know how old my planet is?" I pressed.
Nihkil gave me another bare glance. "Partly from the star,” he said. “The age of the star indicates the age of the system... thus the age of the planet. More or less."
My lips pursed, but I only nodded.
Following a little behind them in the tunnel, I wrapped my arms around myself, realizing again how cold it was on the ship. I paused a few times, touching walls with my hands. The material felt smooth, almost wet, but my fingers were dry when I took them away.
I glanced up to find Nihkil and Ledi waiting for me. Nihkil's face was far more difficult to read, his expression polite. When I caught up to them, he again slowed his strides to match mine, falling behind Ledi. His eyes remained fixed straight ahead.
"Full-blooded morph are relatively rare in the fleet," he said. "I am the only one on board, for example. But there are many more here with morph blood." He glanced at me, then pointed to a woman with dark skin standing in an alcove. "She is low-level morph. Too low to be given security designation... she cannot change any significant part of her anatomy. Only voice perhaps, and perhaps some of her surface features... eyes, hair, skin. Still, that she manifests any of our abilities at all is unusual. Most hybrids do not."
"What?" I said, feeling a kind of shock run through my system as something else clicked. "Are you serious? Some of the humans here have morph blood? Are you saying––"
"Morph can cross-breed. With humans. Others, too."
I stared at him. "Others? Like what kinds of others?"
Again, I caught a snort of amusement from Ledi where he walked in front of us.
“I told you about t
he supernaturals...” Nihkil began in a low voice.
“Yeah, but you said they were anomalies, right? Like one in several hundred thousand?”
“Yes,” Nihkil said. “I meant that several hundred thousand mix-breed births do not result in a supernatural,” he clarified. “...Therefore, they must result in something else, yes? In terms of numbers, the vast majority of those are mixed-blood morph with predominantly human characteristics and no manifestations of morph abilities whatsoever.”
“We think of them as humans with morph blood,” Ledi clarified humorously. He made a smooth gesture with one hand. “...Not sure if you catch the difference?”
I continued to stare between the two of them, trying to wrap my head around this.
Hell, I was trying to decide if Nihkil was pulling my leg.
“Humans breed with morphs?” I said. “Like... commonly? Really?”
“Like horny teenagers,” Ledi joked.
He chuckled again, glancing back at us with a grin.
Nihkil didn’t even look at him.
His eyes remained fixed expressionlessly on my face.
"I can show you images, if you want... pictures," he offered stiffly.
I nodded, feeling my face flush for some reason, even as I heard another chuckle from Ledi.
Nihkil’s expression didn’t change, but I distinctly felt the mood in the corridor shift.
Actually, it more took a nosedive.
Ledi and the other humans seemed to feel it, too.
I saw the humor evaporate from Ledi’s expression right after he glanced at Nihkil. I followed his eyes to the morph, too, wondering at the sudden tension I felt around him. It wasn’t irritation I felt coming off him, or even anger, at least not in the usual sense.
Instead, I distinctly got the impression that I'd managed to truly offend Nihkil, or maybe embarrass him... something I honestly hadn't been sure was even possible.
In any case, he hadn't liked something I said.
At all.
I took my eyes off him, figuring I’d wait on asking about that, too.
I faced forward as we passed through another hexagonal tunnel divider. Walls, pipes, ladders and doors all appeared to be constructed of the same ice-blue metal, only here most of it was too scuffed and dented to reflect much light. Doors appeared as darker rises in floors and ceilings. I saw burn marks in a few places, almost as if someone had shot at the walls.
