The Genius Asylum: Sic Transit Terra Book 1 (18 page)

Chapter 25

For hours
after regaining consciousness on the
Pet’silliar
, Holchuk was sure he was dead and on his way to Hades. Once Nagor had managed to convince him that he was only on his way back to Daisy Hub, a single thought seized Holchuk’s mind and wouldn’t let go: Teri was going to kill him.

Teri was going to kill him and the Doc was going to help her. Unless this hangover beat them both to it. Or something he’d eaten at the feast. He’d impressed the
Hak’kor
, Nagor told him, by fearlessly consuming whatever was put in front of him, including a couple of delicacies from the home world that were an acquired taste even for Nandrians. The whisky had apparently done its job — Holchuk’s memories of the evening were spotty at best, although he did have a vague recollection of something trying to escape from his plate. From the volcanic roiling in his stomach, he guessed that it was still trying to escape. And each time he burped, an unspeakable taste lingered in his mouth.

Nagor accompanied him part of the way, to a moon where the
Krronn
was waiting to rendezvous. That left Holchuk alone for the remaining few hours of the journey, with sandpaper eyelids and a desert in his mouth and a stomach that hated his guts, running scenarios through his mind. Every last one of them ended with Teri cussing him out and then stomping out of the room.

Not since Risa’s death had he met a woman who affected him the way Teri Mintz did. She was strong and smart and vulnerable, all at once. And she cared, about things and about people. Specifically, she seemed to care about
him
. Just knowing that gave him hope for the future. Perhaps, eventually, they could have had a relationship together — if Nagor hadn’t made him an offer he didn’t dare refuse, dragging him and Teri into
ssalssit essendi.
He hated the thought of even having to tell her about it. He wouldn’t blame her a bit if she refused to cooperate. She would probably turn her back on him because of it. And then, he wasn’t sure what he would do. Go
hartoon
, most likely.

By the time the
Pet’silliar
had docked at Daisy Hub, Holchuk was perspiring all over and had a head that pounded like the bass drum in a marching band. He had hoped he might sneak aboard unnoticed, but it was not to be.

Townsend and Ruby and the Doc all stood waiting for him as he stepped through the archway of docking module 2.

Townsend was the first to speak. “Welcome back, Mr. Holchuk. You look—”

“—terrible!” Ruby cut in. “What did those Nandrians do to you?”

Her voice went like an electrical jolt directly to the pain centers of his brain. “Please, don’t shout,” he moaned. “I’m all right, really. It’s only a hangover. And something I ate.”

“Uh-huh. Death by partying,” Ruby commented, exchanging an amused look with Townsend.

“He needs to go directly to Med Services so I can check him out,” said the Doc briskly. “Come on, Gavin. You’ll feel a lot better with an antacid in your stomach.”

With Ruby hanging onto one arm and the Doc gripping the other, Holchuk managed to get his legs moving again. “If you decide to pump my stomach, be careful,” he warned. “I think there’s something still alive down there.”

“If they fed you, they must consider you family,” observed Ruby. “So, did they give you a new name?”

He shook his head. “I need to talk to Townsend.”

“I’m right here, Mr. Holchuk.” The station manager stepped into the tube car behind them and pressed H on the keypad.

“And Teri. And you, Doc,” he continued miserably. “You’re all involved in this.”

“Involved in what?” Ktumba demanded.

“Did something go wrong out there?” asked Ruby.

He drew in a long, shuddering breath. “It’s not finished. We have to talk.”

Now Townsend was standing face to face, scowling fiercely at him. “Were you adopted? Yes or no.”

“It’s a long story, boss man.”

“Then cut to the bottom line, Mr. Holchuk. Are the Nandrians still our friends?”

“Not exactly,” he sighed unhappily. “They’re our in-laws.”

Beside him, Ruby stifled a laugh.

After a moment of shocked silence, the Doc said wonderingly, “You got married? To a Nandrian?”

“Actually, we both did. Nagor told the
Hak’kor
that Teri was my Human mate.”

“And now you’re a threesome,” remarked the Doc drily. “Lovely.”

“Gavin, I’m surprised at you,” Ruby scolded, still suppressing laughter. “You should at least have brought the bride back some wedding cake.”

***

“Let me understand this,” said Townsend, frowning. “When a Nandrian says ‘brother’, he really means ‘spouse’?”

Holchuk sighed wearily and lay back on the pillow Ruby had kindly plumped for him. It was the only sympathy he would get for the next while, at least. He knew he looked awful; he felt even worse. Having determined that the alien food hadn’t poisoned him, Doc Ktumba had given him something for the headache and an antacid for his stomach. She had no magical cures, she told him reprovingly, for people who abused their bodies with alcohol.

Teri had arrived in Med Services moments earlier and taken up a position near the foot of his medbed. Now that they were all assembled, he could begin the explanation.

“It’s a translation glitch. Nandrians aren’t a gendered species. But we can’t call them ‘it’ because that would be an insult of the worst kind. So, Gally has made them all masculine. When two males create a family-type bond between them, in Ameranglo as well as in Gally, they become brothers. That was what I thought Nagor wanted to do — adopt me into his Shield as his brother.”

“But you were mistaken,” Townsend summed up. “So what have we got here? Define the problem for me.”

Holchuk nearly laughed. Define the problem? This Townsend fellow was no spy — he was a bloody bureaucrat.

“It doesn’t fit into a box, boss man,” he growled. “We have a joining of two Houses, in accordance with Nandrian tradition. An alliance between the House of Trokerk and the House of Daisy Hub, which will be officially sealed by the brotherhood between Nagor and myself, as soon as we have completed the final ritual,
ssalssit essendi
.”

Townsend’s eyebrows rose in disbelief before dropping into a scowl. “The House of Daisy Hub?” he repeated. “Can they do that? Simply declare that we’re a House and form an alliance with us?”

“Apparently they can, since they just did. The
Hak’kor
seemed reluctant, but he said it was necessary because we share common enemies.”

“Aww! And here I thought we didn’t have an enemy in the galaxy,” declared Ruby with a mocking grin.

“There are some aboard this Hub who would call Earth an enemy,” the Doc added quietly.

“Enemies, plural,” Holchuk pointed out.

Townsend had begun to pace. “Earth
will
be our enemy if the Council ever learns that we’ve made an independent alliance with the Nandrians,” he pointed out.

“Earth wouldn’t waste any ammunition on an outpost like this,” countered Ruby.

Townsend shook his head. “They wouldn’t have to — all they’d have to do is cut off our supply of lemon juice. Face it, people, what else do we have that the Nandrians might want? I mean, yes, it clearly benefits us to be allied with a much stronger power — but how can it possibly benefit the Nandrians to join with
us
?”

Holchuk bit back the first answer that came into his mouth and said instead, “The Nandrians see an advantage in it, boss man, besides the lemonade, and that’s all that matters.”

Teri had been standing quietly at the foot of Holchuk’s medbed, listening to the discussion with visibly growing impatience. Finally, she blurted out, “I think we should complete the ritual and cement the alliance. Earth Council has left us hanging out here like laundry on the line. If the Nandrians are looking for allies, that probably means there’s going to be a war, and if there’s going to be a war, we’ll need all the friends we can get.”

“Even if it means making ourselves a target for the other side?” Ruby challenged.

Holchuk opened his mouth to point out that Daisy Hub had always been a target, and an easy one at that; but the woman he’d nicknamed ‘Tiger’ leaped in ahead of him, claws unsheathed.

“Would you rather just waste away out here, doing routine maintenance and playing I Dare You with the Rangers?” she retorted. “The Nandrians are giving us the opportunity to stand for something, to make a difference. I say, let’s take it, and damn the consequences.”

Townsend stopped pacing and exchanged a look with the Doc. “Okay,” he said, nodding. “So, what exactly does this ritual involve, Holchuk?”

This was the part he’d dreaded telling them. He’d spent much of the voyage home trying out and rejecting introductory lines.
Hey, Teri, remember how you said
you’d always wanted to be a mother?

Holchuk took a deep breath and dived in: “Traditionally, when there is an alliance between two Nandrian Houses, a member of each one’s First or Second Shield is chosen, and they partner up and exchange eggs. All Nandrians have ovulation cycles. Once every ten standard years or so, a Nandrian produces an egg, which must then be fertilized by another Nandrian. The cycles are staggered, so that some of the adults in each House get to reproduce every year. The next egg that Nagor produces will be presented to me for fertilization, and he will expect me to have an egg ready for him to fertilize as well. Once they’ve both hatched, the alliance will be sealed, and the living young will symbolize its fruitfulness.”

The Doc was frowning now, and shaking her head. “Gavin, they must know that this is impossible. They’re oviparous. Humans are viviparous. Besides, and most importantly, you can’t ovulate.”

“They know that. But they also know that we’re a gendered species, and they believe that I’m mated with a female, who
does
ovulate.”

The air in the room went dead. Holchuk risked a glimpse at Teri’s face and felt his own fall. Her features were hard, her eyes like daggers. Bad news — her inner warrior was emerging. But she had to agree to this. The offerings had to match. A fowl egg simply wouldn’t do. Only a Human egg, fertilized by a Nandrian, would seal the alliance. And, of course, Doc Ktumba would also have to figure out some way for him to fertilize the Nandrian egg. They couldn’t fake it. Nagor’s egg would have to hatch out a living infant, and Teri would somehow have to deliver a living baby, or Daisy Hub was doomed.

Finally Townsend said, in a tightly controlled voice, “Let’s see if I understand this correctly. You told the Nandrians that Teri was your mate. And now your Nandrian… brother?… will be expecting to have—” Teri started and whipped around, her expression daring him to complete the thought. The station manager knew he was on dangerous ground, for he closed his eyes and inhaled once, deeply, through his nose before resuming softly, “You’re supposed to be our expert on Nandrians, Holchuk. How is it that you didn’t see this coming?”

The Doc made an exasperated sound. “Gavin, you said ‘Nagor’s next egg’. Just when is this exchange supposed to take place?”

“In about eight standard years.”

Her eyes lit up. “So we have a reasonable amount of time to work out the genetics? That’s not so bad. And isn’t it fortunate that I happen to have a fully-equipped, state of the art medical laboratory at my disposal?” she added, shooting Townsend a triumphant look.

Holchuk saw that and had to suppress a smile. Never argue with the Doc.

As Nagor had finally explained to him aboard the
Hak’kor
’s shuttle, this was what they had been arguing about in their own language during the ceremony. Realizing that the species were too different, the
Hak’kor
had been about to abort the alliance; however, Nagor had convinced him that, given enough time, Humans were resourceful enough to make the ritual possible.

“Anything might happen by then,” the Doc was saying to Teri. “I should extract some ova now and put them into cryostorage.”

“Okay, fine, whatever saves our butts,” she snapped, shooting Holchuk a poisonous look. “Just don’t expect me to carry it inside my body.”

“You won’t have to, honey. I’ll get the engineers to design a crèche. Or, who knows, you might change your mind. Eight standard years is a long time.”

Yes, eight years was a long time. Holchuk hoped it would be enough time. Not for the Doc to decode and splice the Nandrian genome — he didn’t for one second doubt her ability to solve this puzzle — but for him to break the news to Teri that in order to complete the ritual, she would have to give up her own baby and adopt instead whatever hatched out of Nagor’s egg.

Suddenly he realized that Townsend had been standing at the foot of the medbed, staring at him. “Would you like to hear some good news, Mr. Holchuk?”

Good news from the boss man? That was an oxymoron. Holchuk pasted on a weary smile and said, “Sure, why not?”

“We’re finally ready to do something about the Meniscus Field generators. Be in AdComm tomorrow morning at ten o’clock for a strategy meeting.”

Slowly, Holchuk nodded, his gut tightening with dread. His first instincts about Drew Townsend had been correct, he decided. Whatever scheme the boss man had cooked up to “do something about” the Nandrian technology, things could only end badly. And there wasn’t a thing Gavin ban Samuel could do about it without breaking Nagor’s confidence and betraying the House of Trokerk. So either way, they were all fried. Terrific.

Breathing a sigh of resignation, Holchuk leaned back into the cushion and closed his eyes. A moment later, sensing a presence beside him, he opened them again. Teri was standing a meter away, arms crossed, chin tilted upward, clearly determined to look angry no matter what emotions played behind her large brown eyes.

“Go ahead, Tiger, take a swing,” he said. “Nobody aboard the Hub would blame you.”

“That wouldn’t solve anything,” she murmured at last. “I just want you to look me in the face and tell me honestly that you had no choice.”

“You’ve met the Nandrians, Teri. Trust me, under the circumstances there was nothing else I could have done. I’m sorry.”