by Chogan Swan
Not bad.
As they ate, she noticed Barton watching her as the scent of his emotions cycled between arousal and guilt.
“Stop torturing yourself, Charles. It just happened. Neither of us meant for it to turn into more than a relaxing evening and a meal.”
“I know what happened on my end,” Barton said. “Was what happened with you different than normal too? Because that's the impression I got.”
Una put down her food and leaned forward. “It was. Most human males can't stimulate a female nii, the pleasure node for us is about twenty centimeters inside what you would call the vaginal canal, and I had never experienced a combination of your length, girth and potent seminal fluid on my pleasure node.”
“And I had never been able to get all of me inside during sex before…. Plus everything else that was going on. It was new for me.”
“But you need to clear things up with Alice.”
Barton frowned. “Yeah, I'm afraid so.”
“I understand. With her, you had a relationship, an exclusive contract, an emotional investment. You and I shared an unexpected sexual tsunami. It's like comparing eggs and eggplants. We don't actually know each other at all. We might not even be compatible … other than anatomically. The smartest thing for us to do is agree to stay friends, but without fringe benefits … for now.”
Barton nodded and looked down. “You're right, of course.”
Dammit!
“But it sucks,” Charles said.
“That it does, Charles. But we will adapt.”
Charles laughed. “So you say, Una de Nueve.”
Una chuckled inside, but refrained from answering, ‘We are Borg.'
ShwydH had enjoyed watching Star Trek Voyager, though he'd needed to keep that a secret from his superior officer. And, truth to tell, Una saw plenty of similarities between her situation and Seven of Nine's.
But what she said was, “One of nine? I don't understand the reference.”
“Oh, right. 1927. We'll have to bring you up to date on late 20th century pop culture.”
“Thanks Charles, I'd appreciate all the help I can get.”
∆ ∆ ∆
Una followed the directions Rosa had given her to get near Jonah's office, but once she'd arrived at the correct hallway, she simply followed his male nii flavored scent to the door with his name on it.
Inside, Jonah was talking on the phone, and Una paused outside so as not to interrupt.
“ … She just walked up to the border crossing at Calexico and waved her tail at the guards.”
Jonah's ear evidently covered the receiver, so even Una couldn't hear the response.
“She said she met someone with a shortwave radio who'd heard a news broadcast.”
Pause.
“Texas.”
Pause
“All she said was, ‘Texas’.”
Pause.
“Tiana, I know. I know Texas is a big place. But you aren't going to get the answers you want until you get here. Why don't you just focus on what you need to do at the General Assembly? This can wait. Even you can't do everything.
Pause
Yes, I know I'm very smart. I miss you too. Hurry home as soon as you can.”
Una smirked. This was a side of Tiana her memories had never seen. Even her most recent Tiana personality update was puzzled that she would reveal so much emotional turmoil to a host partner. The embajadora must be absolutely buried in politics.
Una shuddered.
Better her than me.
Jonah's cell phone beeped as he disconnected.
Una waited a few more seconds before tapping on the door.
“Come in,” Jonah's voice sifted to her.
Una opened the door and stepped in.
“How much of that did you catch?” Jonah didn't get up, just waved at a chair.
“Just your side of the conversation … starting with me waving my tail at the border guards. Tiana must be busy.”
“She has a lot of balls in the air.”
Una nodded and sat down in one of the chairs on her side of the desk.
“How are you doing?” Jonah said.
“Still adjusting to the changes.”
“I can only imagine.”
Una smiled. I doubt you can even begin to imagine.
Jonah tapped his fingers on the desk. “I went by your room last night, but saw the note on the door. I figured you needed some rest.”
“Thank you. I did. Still do in fact. It's not every day you wake up to the aftermath of another nuclear war. I need some time to put the pieces together. I'm glad the niiaH were finally tracked down, but I'm trying hard not to jump to the conclusion that your subsequent attempt at peaceful revolution was badly mishandled.”
Jonah nodded, the expression around his eyes haunted. “Don't think I don't wake up at night with the same thoughts. No matter how I rethink the moves though, the game still ends up right here.”
Una studied his troubled reaction. She was sorry to have been brutal about putting him on the defensive, but knew it was the right move for her. She had to establish that she made her own assessments. The fact that she already knew the details and actually agreed with his evaluation was a can of worms she couldn’t open.
“One other thing I should mention,” Jonah said. “Tiana has set up a food supplement supply that you’ll find useful. One of the medical research teams at XYMBI is a generous sponsor for a male fertility study running at universities in Mexico. After testing for sperm count, the excess from samples is frozen and shipped to XYMBI for further study. They make some of that into food supplements, both packaged and frozen. Someday there may be a galactic export market. Tiana thought you might be interested in being on the evaluation team.” He pushed a shrink-wrapped Styrofoam container across his desk.
Una stared at the container for a moment then pulled it toward her. “My aren't we the entrepreneurs?” she said, raising an eyebrow.”
“Well now that Tiana's original mission is complete, we've broadened our thinking some. There's still plenty of work to do.”
“Una smiled. “And I'm sure she'll want to discuss that with me when she returns.” She stood, tucking the container under her arm. “Is there an evaluation survey inside?” She felt her mouth quirk up at the corner even though she hadn't thought to smile. It had just happened.
She marked the event for future consideration..
Jonah shrugged. “I doubt it, but someone will be in touch for your opinions, I expect.” He reached below his desk and lifted a rugged-looking, padded bag and placed it on the top. “Here is a tablet computer and cell-phone. You can dial zero from your room, and they'll send up someone from IT to answer any questions.”
“IT?” she said.
“Information Technology.”
Una nodded. “Thank you, Jonah.” She picked up the bag, slung it onto her other shoulder then turned to leave. It was important to go without him dismissing her. Though he was partnered with Tiana, and ShwydH had judged him a sentient with high ethical sensibilities, he was still human, and through ShwydH's memories, Una was intimately familiar with the psychology of human politics.
From a practical standpoint, there wasn’t much of a difference between human and niiaH.
Furthermore, she didn't have enough data points to know for certain if the nii themselves were really all that different. More relevant memories were still downloading into her mind every time she slept, but HumanaH's branch might just be a particularly ethical family who associated with like-minded sentients. Maybe she should sleep more often to hurry things along.
Perhaps one should take a nap before talking to this IT person.
As she stepped into the hall, she felt fluid shifting inside the Styrofoam container.
Maybe we should also stop by the kitchen and borrow a turkey baster.
Una smiled again, even though nobody was watching, and walked down the hallway toward her room, not much concerned with which personality had initiat
ed the thought. On some points there seemed to be unanimity.
.
CHAPTER 11 – SECRETOS
Marian stood and looked toward the swimming pool where Tommy Haydengrin was being a jackass … again. The Rodriquez sisters—all fifteen of them—stared at him as if he was a puzzle missing most of his pieces.
“You kids are too little to be in this pool. Get back to the baby pool before you get hurt.” Tommy's voice, shrill trying to be gruff, grated on her ears like a squeaky door hinge.
Marian's feet started moving before she even thought about it.
The sisters—fifteen girls, all of them seven-years-old—had arrived at Sun Sea Farm two days ago, bringing with them the sounds of soft footfalls pattering across the grounds, reminding Marian of sudden clouds dropping fat raindrops on hot pavement.
“G'wan. Scat, ya little brats!” Tommy yelled, puffing himself up and looking down his nose at the brown-skinned, amber-haired wedge of little girls.
Marian's Doc Martens whispered across the concrete then crunched on the gravel as she marched up behind the girls. They swirled out of her way, giving Marian the sensation of swimming through a school-of-fish that she’d noted on her first contact with how the sisters moved together.
As Marian passed through, the girls shared a murmur back and forth amongst themselves—almost a chorus, “Emenemenem en emmm….”
It was a thing they’d done since learning Marian's street name. Today they made it sound like an announcement of doom. Since Tommy's bullying rant had made Marian mad enough to chew off his nose, maybe that fit right into what might just happen.
Marian narrowed her eyes as she stood in front of Tommy, nose almost touching nose.
If you say, boo he'll run.
What would Kaitlin do? Beat the spit out of him?
The answer came in an instant.
Nope, that's a short-term answer. He'd just keep on hassling them when I'm not around.
“You're lucky I got here in time, Tommy,” she hissed. “You are too stupid to know how close you just came to bein' coyote kibble. I honest-to-God think you are dumb enough to jump into a river filled with piranhas or dance on a fire-ant hill. Haven't you noticed these girls can swim like fish and run like wolves. I've seen one of them hit a rattlesnake in the head with a rock at fifteen meters, and they could sure-as-hell swarm you like a hive of hornets. There are fifteen of them and only one of you, and because you are so friggin' MEAN, I doubt anybody would come help you.” She paused to glare at him. “I know I won't be doing it again.”
With an uneasy scowl, Tommy flicked his eyes to the crowd standing behind Marian.
Marian leaned in even closer. “I might even jump in on it with them,” she whispered. “If you want to be smart for once, you should leave now.”
“Emenemenem en emmm.” The spooky whisper behind Marian came in unison from fifteen throats.
Tommy took a step back. Marian knew there was no way he was going to lay a hand on her. Marian had just turned ten, and even though Tommy was two years older, she was just as tall and she was a circle dancer too. Razor's roda held the awe and respect of all the kids on The Farm, and Marian was recently a full member.
Tommy took another step back then turned to scamper away.
Pendejo!
Marian turned to look at the sisters, but they had all turned to look west, shading their eyes against the late afternoon sun. The faint Thwap, Thwap, Thwap of rotor blades registered on Marian's ears now too.
A ripple of comments in rapid Tohono O'odham ran around the sisters too fast for Marian to catch anything other than some speculation about who might be incoming. She did catch the word for mother and another word Bandit that it took her a moment to register as English. Without warning, they all bolted for the parking lot where the chopper circle for landing was set. Curious, Marian followed them.
∆ ∆ ∆
Una sat relaxed in the co-pilot seat of the chopper. Barton had let her take the controls for part of the flight. He'd shaken his head in amazement at how fast she picked it up, unaware that she already had thousands of hours of chopper piloting experience buried in ShwydH's memories. Una made sure not to show off anything fancy, and complemented him on being a good teacher when she handed control back to him as they came in sight of the solar tower.
Bandit, Jonah's IQ-enhanced Belgian Malinois, was also on his way to Sun Sea Farm. Amber's daughters were there waiting for him. Bandit had barked all through the first few minutes of the flight, but Una had spoken to him quietly—knowing the commands he'd been trained with—and she'd managed to calm him.
Tiana had returned from her junket to the UN yesterday. It had been strange for Una to see her for the first time …again …from a new point of view.
Tiana had asked Una to take charge of the Sun Sea farms security and defense, and Una had agreed. Her XO would be a human male named Daniels, and ShwydH's memories informed her that Daniels had been Ayleana's bodyguard and a Special Forces non-com before that. He was already on site, building a team. ShwydH had encountered Daniels a few years ago when he was part of the team protecting Ayleana, but had never worked alongside him. Tiana's assessment of Daniels was—needs strong leadership, but competent to command a platoon in combat situations; sometimes needs help with strategy.
The aerial view of the Sun Sea Farm rolled toward the chopper as they approached. Una knew it well. ShwydH and HumanaH had spent two years living in a hidden bunker nearby while they protected the community and the habitat. Tiana wouldn't say where HumanaH and ShwydH were now. Ayleana and her partners seemed to have vanished as well.
Una out-of-the-loop, that's me.
Una wondered if such strict need-to-know tactics had become normal among the nii over the centians since Tiana’s last memories had come to her, or if it was because Tiana was more suspicious of her own branch since HumanaH had used her for bait to end the niiaH threat represented by DuGwaedH … and ShwydH as well, she supposed.
If she only knew what her crazy branch-sister has gone and done now.
Una knew HumanaH had not been proud of her ruthless decision to use Tiana as bait when she was ignorant of the threat, but the tactic had succeeded. Una doubted anything else would have worked.
ShwydH had pointed out to HumanaH that if she hadn't taken the risk, he too might now be another of DuGwaedH's dead victims, with DuGwaedH a step closer to releasing hordes of hir niiaH offspring on Earth's population.
“It doesn't mean I didn't use her,” HumanaH had said.
ShwydH had reached out to touch her face; he'd dared it only because they were still joined together after sex. “You've atoned exponentially,” he'd said, running his fingers over the places where DuGwaedH had drilled holes in her skull in the attempt to steal HumanaH's body .
HumanaH had only looked back at him through her dark and shadowed eyes without responding.
The solar tower blazed at its top like a tiny sun. Una scanned the grounds below. Near one of the pools, a crowd of children— young girls —stood in a group watching the chopper come in. All of them, except a taller one wearing a cowboy hat, had dark skin coloring and close-cropped hair that shone with flashes of gold.
The daughters of Amber.
ShwydH had not seen them since they were two years old—when Ayleana had banned him from the ranch.
Barton started the descent to the landing circle, and the girls ran toward the parking lot. Una noted how they moved as a group, avoiding stones and cacti in their path, making room or offering each other brief assists instead of shoving ahead.
Interesting. That is a super close-packed group. Almost like a flock of birds. It’s almost how Jonah interacts with Tiana.
Amber had never made it a secret within the leadership group that the girls were all from Jonah's genetic contribution to her family, and Jonah seemed to have abilities that put him in touch with Tiana in ways no one understood.
Watching the way his daughters moved, Una wondered if Jonah might not be the only o
ne nobody understood.
When the chopper was about thirty meters from the landing spot, Bandit caught the multi-hued chorus of odors from the girls and started barking again. When the chopper settled on the landing pad, Una opened the side door and loosed Bandit from his kennel. Bandit scrambled out the door and disappeared beneath a pile of girl bodies just outside the landing zone circle.
“Oh, my, God! He must be in doggy heaven,” Barton said, laughing.
Una unfastened her harness and stepped outside, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. She almost startled when she caught an odor of interest, but instead, ran her eyes across the compound, betraying nothing. She couldn't locate the source.
