Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.     Twice Removed Chapter 17 Sparks By Amethyst

As we made our way back to the settlement, I decided to change out of my uniform and back into the ankle-length teal skirt, sleeveless cream-colored halter neck blouse, and beige sandals that I had been wearing before my spacewalk. I had just joined the others back in the forward section when we arrived back at the camp and touched down. It looked like our timing was good, as Sarah and her staff were serving up lunch and over half the colonists were already eating. Once I had ensured that we all had gotten our meals, we decided to go about our new tasks without delay.

While Karran got to work on dissecting the probe Krie, Tanna and I started compiling all the information we felt was necessary to send to Saer’kah as we ate our midday meal. With what had happened on the Bounty, its destruction, and all that we had discovered since, the report was going to be a lengthy one. Still, we managed to enter all the relevant information by the time lunch was over. So while everyone else was heading off to their afternoon work assignments, we decided to return to other tasks as well while we waited anxiously to see if Karran would be as successful as he was hoping.

Things had been going well in the settlement during our brief sojourn into space; the southern fields were ready to plant crops, work on the water pipeline was progressing well, and no accidents or injuries had been reported. While Krie decided to oversee the planting of the fruit, vegetables, and herbs that Sarah had recommended, Tanna went off in the transport to assist the hunting and fishing teams. I decided to return to the medical ship to get Amy working on practicing her Saer’khi alphabet and take care of a few of the minor tasks that needed doing while I had some relatively free time.

Since I was optimistic about contacting the Saer’khi soon, I created a file in the main computer on the necessities for any visitors or new settlers on Unity. Vaccinations would be vital, though the success of the nanites in fighting our recent outbreak would likely help a lot with that. Another concern of mine was population growth, we didn’t want to grow too fast and strain our resources. Also, we were becoming a close-knit community and I wanted to make sure any new settlers were personally interviewed before being allowed to join that community. It might seem paranoid, but we had already suffered because of one spy and I didn’t want another. Personally I thought it would be nice to have more people with professional or scientific backgrounds, but I wanted to see more Saer’khi and other non-human species to round out the numbers a bit as well. Don’t get me wrong, I was damn proud of all we had managed to accomplish so far, but two thirds of us were unskilled labour and a little diversity can go a long way.

With that small task completed I decided to check on how Amy was progressing before moving on to the next task I wanted to accomplish. I made my way to my ward’s bedroom, carrying Kit and showing her some affection through petting, scratches behind the ears, and empathic nuzzling. Once the door had opened at my approach I peeked inside and asked, “How is it going?”

Amy sighed as she looked up from her datapad and started giving Violet some attention. ”It’s going to take me forever to learn all this.”

“I didn’t say it was going to be easy,” I agreed as I took a seat on the gel bed beside her. “It took me nearly six years to become completely fluent and my first two years on Saar’kah were spent getting to know the basics of Saer’khi medicine and learning to think in Saer’khi. We’ll be doing the same with you, teaching you about all the different equipment and basic techniques while you’re learning to read and write the language. Luckily you won’t have to learn to think in Saer’khi, just read and write it. Once you have that down we’ll start putting reading assignments on your datapad and give you more advanced and structured hands-on lessons. How fast you learn then will depend on a lot of things though.”

“Like what?” she asked, shifting position to lie on her side.

“Mostly on how dedicated you are to learning,” I replied as I found a particularly itchy spot to scratch on Kit, causing the slip to buzz contentedly. “It’ll also depend on what areas of medicine you want to specialize in and how well Krie and I can teach you. It’s definitely going to take you longer to train than it did us though, since we can’t use the memory archive to help you learn faster.”

“I kind of want to do like you do,” Amy said without a second thought. “You know, the general medicine that people need every day, what to do in emergencies, and making bionic limbs and stuff.” Her eyebrows had risen at my last comment though and her curiosity got the better of her as she inquired, “What’s the memory archive?”

I considered how best to explain it before answering. “The Saer’khi have technology that can transmit thought into data and vice versa, that’s how the voice boxes work, they transfer the Saer’khi’s mindspeech to data and then translate that data to one of the languages that are programmed into them. The memory archive uses that technology as well. The greatest minds in their fields have transferred copies of their memories, technical knowledge, and experiences… everything they have learned in their field. All of that information is stored in in the archive in pure memory form.”

Amy was staring at me wide-eyed at this point. “You don’t use books or datapads to learn?”

“We do have our amassed knowledge in simple text form as well, which is how we’ll be teaching you,” I clarified, “but telepaths can learn ten times faster by using the archive. When I was able to think passably in Saer’khi our Mom gave me and Krie memory nodes so we could start taking our advanced lessons from the archive. The memory nodes are kind of like datapads that we can download our chosen areas of study onto and they transmit the memories to our minds as thought patterns. By clearing our minds of everything else and only focussing on the knowledge we’re receiving, six hours of memory integration is like sixty of reading and other learning methods combined.”

“That sounds a lot easier than reading everything,” she commented with a sour expression. “Are you sure I can’t learn that way?”

I reached over to ruffle her hair. “Sadly, only telepaths can receive the signals that the memory nodes transmit on and, without knowing Saer’khi, it would all be gibberish to you anyway. It’s not as easy as it sounds though, it takes a lot of mental discipline to clear your mind of everything and focus on just learning what’s being poured into your brain. It took me a while to be able to do it as efficiently as Krie. The nodes block out other telepathic signals so that other Saer’khi don’t interrupt us and only have a range of two meters to keep others from being distracted by our lessons.” I frowned and let out a sigh as I thought about how even one memory node could help us. “Even if you could learn that way, while we do have a copy of the memory archive that Krie managed to get from the bounty with the other medical gear and supplies, all of the memory nodes we had were destroyed with the Bounty. It’s too bad really, I would have liked to learn more about nano-programming, and I know the others have some things they wouldn’t mind learning to help the colony as well.”

Amy’s frown mirrored my own, but her expression quickly changed to a thoughtful one as she said, “Karran and Xawin are really smart though, couldn’t they make one?”

I stared at my student as I processed what she had just said and blinked in surprise. Why the hell hadn’t I thought of that? “Honey, you’re pretty damn clever yourself,” I told her as I reached out to hug her, causing empathic protests from both of our pets as they were squeezed between us. Then I sent out a wide-range ping to all the other Saer’khi. *Karran what’s the progress on the probe?*

*The components I need to increase the medical ship’s subspace range are undamaged. I think I can definitely have it working sometime this evening,* was the engineer’s cheery response.

*That is great news,* I replied happily. *I’m sorry for interrupting you all, but Amy just had an idea and I wanted to run it by all of you and see if it’s possible. Could you boys use anything we have here to make a memory node?*

*I think it could be possible,* Xawin replied after a moment, his surface thoughts going over our inventory. *A datapad and a voicebox could probably provide most of the components. Computers and electronics are more your field though Karran, what do you think?*

The other engineer’s thoughts were tinged with glee as he replied, *I can do it. It won’t take long and I can start once I’ve finished increasing our communications range. I can scavenge some components and wiring from the probe for that as well, but I’ll need a datapad, one of the spare voiceboxes, a subspace comm unit if we can spare one, and someone to assist.*

*You have them,* I sent back eagerly. *If Xawin’s working on something when you’re ready to go I’ll send Bixx your way, it’s interested in learning that kind of stuff.*

My next order of business was to see four of my patients who were long overdue for some preventative medicine. Sarah, Dennis, Bixx, and Matt all needed the upgrades for their nanites that I had received before leaving Saer’kah and, since I seemed to have some time, I felt that there was no time like the present. Sarah was the first of the four to arrive, since lunch was over and she had some time before she and her staff would have to start preparing the evening meal. She walked into the examination room carrying a bundle of lavender and black fur in her arms that was buzzing happily as she petted it.

"Good afternoon Sarah,” I greeted her with a grin as I prepped the nanite injection, “are you ready for some upgrades? Do you have any questions about what I’m going to do?”

Sarah gave the injection gun a curious glance. “I thought that you were going to upgrade the nanites already in my system Xia, so what’s that for?”

“These little buggers will permanently maintain the nanites already in your system and give them increased resistance to EM radiation as a precautionary measure,” I quickly explained as I motioned for her to sit on the examination table. “I will be slightly modifying the programming of the nanites already in your system as well though, they were too aggressive before, they attacked everything equally. They will still maintain your immune system and heal you and such, as they always have, but they will no longer see semen as a threat and will actively avoid a growing baby so that it can develop normally without any nanites entering its system. This will to allow you to become pregnant if you wish, and will prevent the nanites from affecting an embryo should you get pregnant.”

A look of uncertainty spread over Sarah’s face as she placed her slip on the floor and sat down on the examination table, so I placed my empty hand reassuringly on her shoulder. “You know, we don’t have to do that part if you really don’t want to. I just thought that you might like to have the choice, and don’t worry; I was given these upgrades myself before we left Saer’kah and I’ve seen no ill effects, they were tested vigorously before I received them. You can keep the nanites the way they are if you really want to though, it’s an effective form of birth control.”

“Oh, no, I’d like the upgrade,” she quickly assured me. “It’s just… since my accident and leaving Earth I never really thought about having kids. I suppose we’ll all have to eventually for this colony to work, but it just never really entered my mind.”

“Are you suuuuuure?” I teased with a lopsided grin as I retrieved my nanite programming node and strapped it to her arm, then I set the pre-selected program to run. “I’ve seen the way you and Dennis have been talking during meals lately.”

Sarah turned as red as a cherry tomato and I couldn’t help but giggle as she sputtered, “I… what… no! There’s nothing going on between us!”

“Reeeeeealllly? There should be the way you two have been looking at one another.” I giggled and teased again as I looked over the results on the programming node. “It’s going to take a minute or two for all of your nanites to reset with the new programming, so why don’t you tell me all about what’s not going on between you and Dennis.”

“Okay, okay, I’m interested in him,” she grudgingly admitted. “He’s a good man; sweet, easy to talk to, he’s always looking out for everyone, and he’s pretty handsome too. I doubt he’s interested in me though.”

“I dunno, I’ve seen the looks you’ve been giving him and he’s been looking back, with a very similar expression on his face. Why do you think he’s been sitting and talking with you during meals? Sure he’s nice and talks to everyone about the progress they’re making, but with you it’s different; he sometimes babbles, or doesn’t know what to say, and I’ve never seen him do that with anyone since we first talked on the Bounty. I think that maybe he’s interested, but just doesn’t know how to bring it up, it’s not like he can ask you out to a movie or something. Maybe in this case he needs you to take the lead.”

She stared at me for a moment, apparently uncertain of what to say. Finally, she smiled and wrapped me in a bone crushing hug. Once she had freed me she smiled and said, “You’ve grown up a lot since we first met in that lab, and even more since we left Saer’kah. I’ll try talking to him tonight and see where it goes.”

I grinned at her as I checked the status of the programming node. Happy with the results, I removed the node and injected her with the new maintenance nanites. “Well, you’re all done, the new nanites are in place and your baby factory should be open for business again, good luck with the talk.” I paused a moment, trying to hide the grin and putting on a pensive expression before asking, “Now, as your doctor, should I be recommending some form of birth control?”

Sarah turned beet red once again and delivered a light punch to my shoulder. “Ooooooo, stop it you! Thanks for the check-up, and the talk, I’ll see you later.” With that she headed off to get started on the evening meal preparations, leaving me madly giggling behind her as I started getting ready for my next patient.

Things went quite a bit quicker with Bixx, since they only needed the maintenance nanite injection. Matt and Dennis only needed the maintenance nanites as well, but I took considerably longer with them since I wanted to have a good look at their cybernetic limbs and do some routine maintenance. Once I had finished with them I took the time to check on how the planting was going and get progress reports from the other teams. Things were generally looking good; the planting would probably be done by the next day thanks to Jared’s suggestions, the water pipeline was going smoothly and would probably be finished in three days or so, and Xawin had people clearing a large area for the bathhouse in preparation. Not long before the evening meal came along Karran had finished increasing the range of the medical ship’s subspace communications and, while he and Bixx had started work on the memory node, Tanna and I sat nervously at the comm.

*Any luck?* I asked, nervously wringing my hands.

*There’s some sort of local interference, let me see if I can filter it out Commander.* Tanna suddenly let out an excited mental squeal that caused her voicebox to buzz slightly. *We have contact! We’re connected to the subspace beacon network. Commander, shall I begin sending the data burst that we prepared?*

*Please do,* I replied, letting out a deep breath that I hadn’t even realized I had been holding. *How long do you think it will be before we get a response?*

*It’s sent Commander. As for a response time, it depends, but if there are still ships in this area of space looking for us we could receive a reply as early as late tonight or tomorrow morning, I think. Otherwise it will have to travel all along the network to Saer’kah, in which case it may be three or four days before any response reaches us.*

*I would prefer the first possibility, but I’ll be happy either way,* I sent back, happier than I had been since we had set out from Saer’kah. *Any idea what that interference was?*

Tanna frowned at the communications console as her four hands flew across it. *At first I thought it might just be local ambient radiation, but it appears to be some sort of subspace pulse, repeating every three seconds. It’s extremely faint, which is probably why we weren’t picking it up before. I’ll set up a more intense, long-term scan and see if I can pinpoint a location, or at the very least a direction. Hopefully we’ll know more before we go to sleep tonight.*

*Okay good, I don’t like surprises, so if it’s something we should be concerned about then I want to know. Now, if you’re done with that, let’s go get some dinner.*

Dinner was a happy affair that night and Karran was the man of the hour as the other colonists all seemed to want to thank him with a companionable slap on the back or a hearty handshake. I also noted that Sarah and Dennis were having quite the close conversation. Dennis was a bit awkward, which is always entertaining to see in such a usually cool and collected soldier, but Sarah seemed to be taking the lead and eventually, when they headed off to find a quiet place to talk privately, they were holding hands. They weren’t the only new pair I saw getting cozy either as Woody Harris and Rebecca Landry seemed to be hitting it off rather well too.

The night was cool and crisp and I was feeling pretty good about things as I sat by one of the fires talking to Krie, Matt, Tanna, Karran, Tarek, Mandy and Amy about anything and everything. The fire was beginning to die down and I was about to add some more wood to it when I noticed that we had run out. “I’m going to go get some more wood from the pile,” I told the others, standing up and stretching a bit before heading off to the main wood pile that we had set up at the west side of the settlement.

“Wait up, I’ll give you a hand!” Matt called out, and I turned to wait a moment as he caught up. We walked around the other campfires with our slips close on our heels, laughing and snippets of conversations ringing out around us as we went. Once we had gotten away from the noise of the campfires I took a deep breath of the fresh evening air and decided to make a quick detour. We weren’t that far from the ridge overlooking the ocean and I wanted to take in the sight for just a minute or two. Matt didn’t seem to mind though and followed along, standing beside me as we reached the ridge.

Artemis was large in the sky ahead of us and Achelois bathed us in cool cerulean light from above as both moons reflected in the shimmering sea, stretching far off toward the horizon. I was starting to get used to the sight of two moons, in fact they were a bit of a comfort now, and I took another deep breath of the night air before sighing in contentment. This night, after a day filled with good news was like a balm for my soul, and I just drank it in.

“Beautiful,” Matt whispered beside me. I turned to smile at him and suddenly he froze uncertainly. “I wasn’t talking about you Xia, I meant that it’s a beautiful night… not that you’re not beautiful, I mean you’re gorgeous… I just meant that…”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face as he tried to dig himself out of whatever hole he imagined he had put himself in. I stepped toward him waggling my finger teasingly as I queried, “Oh my, what is this I’m seeing? Matt Scott, movie star and heartthrob, is stumbling over his words?” I was laughing considerably less when the stone I had stepped on shifted underneath my sandal and I fell toward him.

Before I could even use my wings to steady myself Matt had caught me in his arms. My breath caught in my throat and my pulse quickened as I collapsed against his chest. The scent of musk and metal tickled my nose and I found that I liked that scent, his scent. I could hear his heartbeat quickening as well as I stood up again, my lips dry and my breath quickening as I tried to swallow the sudden lump in my throat. I looked up and found myself staring into his eyes, one cybernetic and one a pale blue that rivaled the moon above us.

His eyes were locked on mine as he asked, “Are you okay?” It was little more than a whisper, but it didn’t matter, it was just the two of us, the moons above and the sound of the ocean, and in that moment I wanted so very much to kiss him. Through the white noise of the signals his brain was sending along his nervous system I could hear his surface thoughts, he wanted to kiss me too. Thoughts became deed as we drew closer, our bodies pressed together, firm flesh and metal pressing hard against my breasts with his strong arms wrapped tenderly around me as our lips finally met.

At first our lips barely touched, timidly teasing more than kissing in that first moment of uncertainty. That brief contact set my every sense on fire; his scent, his touch, the taste of him consumed me, it was an inferno that burned all hesitation to ash as we both hungrily sought out more. For what seemed both an instant and an eternity our lips battled and our hands explored one another’s bodies, seeking out new sensations and a deeper, more complete connection.

When we pulled apart we were both gasping for air, our hands still clutching at one another’s dishevelled clothes. We stayed there, standing in one another’s arms, for several minutes as our breathing and pulses slowed, unwilling to say anything to end that moment. It was Matt who spoke first. “Oh God, I am so sorry Xia, I… I shouldn’t have done that.”

“There’s no need to apologize,” I assured him, softly tracing my index finger down his cheek and then along his jawline. “I enjoyed that, and it felt like you did too. It was just kissing and we’re two consenting adults.”

“No! I mean yes I enjoyed it, but I shouldn’t have done it. You’re Tarek’s fiancée! What would he say if he caught us doing that!?”

“He’ll most likely encourage us,” I replied candidly. “We’re always picking up one another’s surface thoughts and emotions, and I was just really enjoying that. Fetching firewood just isn’t that exciting.” Perhaps that wasn’t the best time to remind Matt of the link that Tarek and I shared. He put his face in his hands mumbling, “What have I done,” to himself.

I had to physically grab him by the jaw and raise his head to that he was looking straight at me. “Matt, listen to me. Tarek is Saer’khi, he won’t get angry or jealous, and I may not look completely the part, but I’m Saer’khi too. You are not ‘making the moves’ on me behind his back, betraying him, or forcing yourself on me. I still need at least one more Tess’hir before Tarek and I can be wed; it’s not just a social thing, but also a genetic imperative for our kind to have a large pool of DNA to work from so that the best qualities of all of us can passed on. You’re not hurting Tarek or me by liking me or finding me attractive, in fact it’s the opposite.”

He seemed to be thinking over my words, so I pressed on despite the nervous fluttering in my chest. “Tarek likes you and thinks that you would make a good Tess’hir for me and I’m inclined to agree with him. I’m very attracted to you, you were one of the first to see me for who I am rather than what I am, and I genuinely like you and enjoy your company. I’m not asking you to offer me your mind right now, I’m just asking that you try to relax about this, keep an open mind, and see where it goes. Can you do that? Not just for me, but for yourself and Tarek as well.”

It was several agonizingly long moments before he finally took me uncertainly in his arms once again and said, “I’ll try.”

Tarek gave us a knowing smile as we returned to the fire and Matt quickly busied himself with adding wood to the fire as I put my armload of wood nearby, but not too close to the fire. I had just managed to sit down again, with Tarek on one side and Matt on the other, when Tanna pinged me. *What’s up?* I inquired lazily as I tried to get cozy.

Her reply came almost before I had finished sending her that thought, full of confusion and urgency. *I came to check on the comm to see if we had any response yet or if the long term scan had pinpointed that odd subspace pulse,* she quickly explained. *Commander, there is something that you really need to see.*

*I’m on my way* I sent back as I got to my feet with a sigh. Then to the others sitting around the fire I quickly explained, “Tanna says she has something important for me to see, and it sounds like it can’t wait.”

“Is it bad news or good news?” Mandy asked, standing up as well, causing complaints from the sleepy twins and all three of their slips.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted with another sigh, “and I’m pretty sure Tanna isn’t either.”

“Maybe we should all come with you then,” Mandy offered before turning to Amy and asking, “Would you mind having Hope and Talia for a sleepover again?”

“Of course not, the twins can have a sleepover with me any time they like,” was my ward’s quick reply. She took each of the girls by the hand and told them, “Let’s go get ready for bed girls.”

Mandy gave her thanks and then quickly kissed each of the twins good night before we all headed into the medical ship to join Tanna. When we arrived moments later, The Saer’khi in question was frowning and looking over data on the comm station’s screen. “So, what’s up Tanna?” I inquired as I entered the room with Mandy, Matt, Tarek, Krie, and Karran hot on my heels. “Did we get a message from a Saer’khi ship, is this about that subspace pulse, or do I have something else to worry about?”

Tanna’s surface thoughts were still confused and jumping around a bit, but she turned when I addressed her and tried to explain. “It’s about the pulse Commander, but it could very well be something else to worry about as well. I set the scan to look for patterns, or any data bursts that may be carried along the pulse, but there’s no data and the only pattern in the pulse is the three second repetition. It’s like it’s a distress signal or possibly a tracking device and its very close.”

“Do you think it’s a ship? And how close are we talking here, is it in this solar system?” Matt asked in sudden interest.

“If it is a ship, it’s not a Saer’khi ship. Saer’khi subspace signals are very recognizable, there’s a kind of unique signature, and this is nothing like it. As for how close it is, it’s not just in this solar system, it’s on Unity. I’ve tracked the signal and its most definitely coming from somewhere in this area.” She brought up an image of one of the planetary scans, zoomed in several times until we were looking at the northern continent, and then highlighted an area.

I just stared silently for several minutes, and I wasn’t alone. Finally I turned to Krie and sighed. “I know you and your team were looking forward to getting back to exploring tomorrow, but I think it might be best if my team goes out tomorrow instead.”

My sister nodded, but didn’t turn away from the screen as she agreed. “Yes Xia, I think your team definitely needs to explore the coastline some more.” She just kept staring at the highlighted area on the screen. From the scale of the map the area seemed to be roughly fifty kilometers in diameter and along the coastline to the south of us, within a hundred kilometers of our settlement.

“Just when we think things are starting to go smoothly, we get thrown another curveball,” Mandy muttered.