Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (37 page)

Dex’s head drooped, “But my parent Genex… hie brought disgrace on Deltain and myself.”

“
Oh Dex
!
Your
status
only
depends
on your parents
when you’re a
child
. That childhood
status
follows
you into young adulthood, but then your status depend
s
more and more
on what you do
yourself
! I
should
know
—
my parents
constantly
remind
me that the high status
I got from them
w
ill
…
vanish …
if
I
don’t
contribute as an adult.
But, Dex, even if your status remains low, I
, I…
love
you.
I
want to be your mate no matter what. I’m just glad
that
you want to be my mate, even with my injured wing…” Syrdian’s head went up and back, “
Do
you want to be my mate
?”

“Oh yes!” Dex stepped forward, wrapping hies arms and wings around Syrdian again.

They stood rocking slightly back and forth, clasped in each other’s embrace and
joyfully
rubbing their necks against one another’s until Syrdian ruefully said, “We’d better get to work before our zornit decays, rots
,
molders
and disappears
.”

With a laugh Dex slowly released Syrdian.

The zornit was heavy! At first they tried to pull the entire thing across the meadow to their cave. Eventually they cut it into front and back halves, dragging them one at a time. When they returned for the back half they found small scavengers already at it. Dex scratched a shoulder, “Maybe we should leave it to them. We can’t possibly eat it all.”

Syrdian said, “We can dry some of it like you did the talor’s meat that first night. I
don’t
want to be hungry again. Besides the stomach is in this half and
Bultaken’s big water skin was made from
the
stomach
of
a
zornit
.”

“Really?
” Dex said, surprised because dalins
so seldom
hunted zornits.  Zornit
s were too big for
dalins to attack with knives
with
their vitals
being too deep for
the usual flint blade
and
their rolling
made
it
impossible
to stay on them long enough
to kill.
“How
did
hie
get it?”

“
The
tribe
succeeded in
stamped
ing
a small herd over a cliff
with fire brands.
”

“Do you know how to prepare
the stomach
?”

Syrdian shrugged hies wings, “I think so.”

They each grabbed a hind limb and started dragging. “
You’re right,
I
should harvest
the skin too
,” Dex said with some anticipation.
“Its skin is probably
quite a bit
thicker than the small animals we catch in our snares
. It
’
ll
be good to have some
heavy
leather.

Dex and Syrdian spent the entire
rest of the
day and much of the next harvesting the bounty of the zornit.
Dex rubbed some fat into the
zornit’s
skin and then rolled it
up
with a mash of molloe leaves
to soften it into leather that wouldn’t harden
. T
hey cut the meat up into strips suspended by the fire to dry.
They washed out the intestine and stuffed fat into it.
Syrdian removed the stomach, washed it and turned it inside out, suspending it with a tea of molloe leaves inside of it.

Scavenging dlaks trotted around their ca
ve
intermittently
,
but
the fire
kept
them at
their distance.

After nightfall
the meteorite sent red lines onto the
cave wall again. This time the drawings
showed the leg bones of the zornit.
They were cut obliquely through the
midshaft,
leaving points on what had been the shaft of the bones. Then t
he
hollow
ends were jammed onto spear
shafts
. Dex realized they would make longer
,
sturdier spear points
than the hafted flints
.
Perhaps n
ot as sharp as the flint
,
but not as fragile either.
Hie’d broken a f
lint point attacking the zornit,
so h
ie set to making
a bone point to replace it
.

Having plenty to eat for a change and many projects to work on immensely cheered the newly mated pair. As they relaxed
after
mating
once
again
, necks still wound
loosely
around one another’s
,
Syrdian
asked
, “Do you think we’ll have a child?”

Dex shrugged hies wings
and whispered
, “I
f we
a
re
so blessed, I
hope
hie
has your silver wings
.”

***

Shan
looked around inside Vic’s, wondering if Raquel was already there? He didn’t see her anywhere
but the place was packed. H
e wandered over to the bar and ordered a Carolina wheat beer. He remembered that
Raquel
drank Coke and considered ordering one for her but didn’t want to seem presumptive. He picked up the beer the bartender had set in front o
f him and had his AI
send the
‘tender the
price
plus a tip. The bartender glanced up at his HUD and gave him a
pleasant
nod.

Shan
turned around and found Raquel standing right behind him, arms crossed
, one eyebrow lifted
. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself, where’s my Coke?”

“Um, I didn’t know...”

“Some kind of date you are!”

“Uhhh.”

She broke into a grin. “Just bustin’ your chops a little.”

Shan
raised an eyebrow,
“I don’t know if you’re old enough for Coke young lady. I’m thinkin’ a Sprite might be more your speed.”

“Oh,
now
you’re really crui
s
in’ for that bruisin’.”

The guitar licks
introducing Velos’ first set
 
floated over the club and
Shan
said “Saved by the band?”

Once they had obtained a Coke for “Raquel,” they headed out into the big room to enjoy the music. As expected Vic’s was packed and they had to leave their drinks on a rail to go out and dance. The floor was too crowded to do much in the way of dancing beyond pleasantly swaying to the music.

When the first slow, wistful arpeggios of “Lost” began to play,
Shan
stepped close and put his arms around Ell’s waist. Ell realized that, despite watching others dancing like this she hadn’t actually slow danced with anyone herself
since she’d done it with Phil Zabrisk years ago
. She actually had to glance
quickly
at some of the other people slow dancing to
remind herself
to put her arms up and around
Shan’s
neck.
Under her forearms
his muscular
shoulders felt firm. Nice… she thought. After a moment she leaned gently against him and then lightly rested her head on his shoulder. It felt like… things were
good
in her world that night.

Shan
looked down into Raquel’s
light brown
hair thinking that there was just… something
wonderful
about having his arms around her.
Soft, yet firm
, with every movement perfect, even on something as simple as a slow dance. Somehow, they swayed
in perfect synchronization. H
er hand gently
rubbed
the back of his neck.

The evening passed pleasantly. None of the active dancing that Ell loved but, the music
she loved was playing.
Shan
seem
ed
to enjoy it as much as she did. Swaying to the music
with Shan
felt like all she needed in the world that night.

She
realized she felt truly happy for the first time in quite a while
.

The show wound down and they walked out to the street, Ell getting a little chill as the
y
turned onto the street where the incident with Sam had started.
Shan
said
quietly
, “Feel like some dessert?”

“Sure!”

Shan’s
car dropped them off on Franklin Street at the old Carolina Coffee Shop which had recently become famous for late night desserts.
Shan
looked on in amazement as Raquel
inhaled
a large slice of pecan pie a la mode. “Hey, what do you do out at Quantum Tech anyway?”

She looked up at him questioningly, “I work on one of the research teams.”

“Very cool, what are they studying?”

She tilted her head considering, “Some of it’s secret but
one of the things
I do
is to
help design some of their rockets.”

Shan
tried not to let his surprise show. She wasn’t even twenty-one yet, how would she be involved in rocket design? She couldn’t have an engineering degree
at her age
. Maybe she just helped draw them up? “That’s very cool.” He arched an eyebrow, “And I suppose you can’t tell me any cool things they’re discovering out there
,
huh?”

She grinned, “Nope.”

He leaned forward, “Do you see Donsaii very often?”

She narrowed her eyes, “Pretty much every day. Are you just fluffing me up to try to get to her?”

He looked embarrassed, but leaned forward and put his hand on hers. “No. Raquel, I… think you’re awesome. You’re a wonderful dancer and,” he grinned, “a
great
basketball player.

“But, math is my passion
.
I don’t think I’ve told you, but I’ve been working on my PhD
,
and
for my ‘problem’
I’m trying to extrapolate from
Donsaii’
math
that explains
that extra dimension
.
Using
her math I keep getting predictions of
some weird effects on light
and gravitation over great
distances. Astrophysics isn’t my strong suite so it’s been really frustrating
trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong
. So
,
I keep thinking that if I could just bounce some of
my
issues
and ideas
off of her…”

Ell felt a prickling sensation in her scalp.
Could this affect the ‘dark energy’ calculations I’ve been working on?
Outwardly she grinned at
Shan
and leaned back, “I don’t know… still sounds like you might be dating me just to get to Donsaii…
Are
you that devious?”

Shan
leaned back, “You’re right. I shouldn’t try to use you to help me make contact. I like doing things with
you
and that part of my life should be separate from my studies. Forget I ever asked.” He winked, “Sure you don’t need another slice of pie?”

She raised her eyebrows, “That’d be wonderful! For
a
cobbler
, I might forward an email about your theory
to Donsaii
?”