Chapter Thirty-Six of my current wip. As before, all and any comments very much appreciated

Please note: This is a weekly post

The sun hadn’t yet risen, although the birds and monkeys were awake, when Jess made his way to Hive Three. During the night he had figured how to manoeuvre his way around the restrictions he himself had imposed on the clutch. But he couldn’t do it alone. A check on the Obs Duty Rota, compiled by Armar in Jess’s absence, showed that Kookka had a free day. And if he wasn’t visiting the women – which he oughtn’t to be – then likeliest Jess would find him still in his hive.

Kookka greeted him. “What’s up? I see a determined shape to your face. You ready to leave?”

Jess shot a telling look to the cells beyond the entry. Kookka shook his head.

“Hear that noise? Saker snoring. He over-imbibed on his brew, Dov too. And Murry was out before I was up. Don’t ask me where. Looking for an Itamakki breeding bear of his own I wouldn’t wonder.”

“Breeding…?”

“That Tawan tricked me, I swear it. I didn’t want but she’s got me all cocked and begging.”

“Told you.” Jess slapped the top of his arm and hugged him.

“I’m telling you, I don’t like her,” Kookka said as he unhooked from the embrace. “That other one’s fine though. Manula? But Joel has staked his claim. Or she has, on him. But that’s not why you here. So, spill it.”

Jess gathered his breath and sought the words he’d rehearsed but now had fled him. “It’s about those two.”

“Joel and Manula?”

“Li-Manula and Li-Tawan. And Cela-Byi. I’m not happy she’s sharing with them.”

“Clever, to phrase as you did but I see what you’re about.” Kookka slapped his friend as if in return and grinned. “You want another hive, just for her?”

“Yea, but I’m not able.”

“What, not cocky enough?”

Jess rolled his eyes and briefly turned away. “I wish that I weren’t but… no, I mean I haven’t the skills to erect a hive.”

“But I have. And so has Murry if we can find him.”

“You’ll do it? I’ll help, I do have hands and a back though they mightn’t be skilled.”

“You’ll help more by taking a flier out to the textiles farm. Sheeting. And padding. And… no, easiest is just to tell them you want what Murry had before, but only half that quantity. You’ll have to sign for it. Never know when we might get replacement Techs.”

May the gods protect them from that. But, for now, sorted. Now to the fly-port.

He turned at a woman’s voice calling his name, a rush of relief, or happiness and immediate desire when he saw it was Cela-Byi. By his own orders he wasn’t to visit the women’s hive and in so few days already he missed her. He had hoped to see her beyond that fence, there being no restriction in meeting elsewhere. But this was the first time. He’d prefer to take her back to his hive but couldn’t. Armar had stamped his foot on that. He waited for her to catch up.

“I must talk to my zem,” she said as she approached him. “I thank you for…hive…but I can’t stay with those cats. They want me dead, I know they do. Their claws hide in every word. Better for me to return to my cave.”

He grasped her hand and led her closer to the fly-port. “No, I was wrong to put you there. A spirit woman, you shall have your own hive.”

“A spirit-seat, like Cela-Kuci? But she has not one but twelve.”

“This isn’t the dow. You’ll have one, a hive. Though call it a spirit seat if you want – so long as that doesn’t prohibit my visits.”

“You visit me there? We do dying again?” She grinned, reached on tiptoes and kissed his lips.

Now how was he supposed to leave her while he took the flier to Hive Seven?

“Wait by that flier.” He pointed. “You come with me.” He didn’t want to be apart from her.

*

She was a distraction. He wanted only to look at her – no, truth, he wanted more than that – when he should have been focused on the flight. He circled the flier around the Itamakku range in search of a suitable place to land and…die. But finding nothing, he turned the flier to south.

It wasn’t the same island he’d visited several times now. This island showed plentiful green from above, and places large and flat enough to land the flier. She looked at him, eyes squinted as if to see into his mind. Her grin returned. She giggled. But when she began to peel away the dragon skins he stopped her, his hand stilling hers.

“Not in here, not in the flier.” He didn’t know why but that seemed dishonourable.

Had he anticipated he would have brought a sheet or such. No matter, Cela-Byi soon gathered an armful of fragrant leaves and spread them to form a bed. And with no words spoken she shed her skins and, now impatient, tugged at his Tech-issued clothes.

More experienced now, he indulged his curiosity and her desires and held off that moment of blissful death. And he died and he died, and he died, and he died.

He lay back on the leaves, his arms wrapped around her, his lips sore from the kissing, his no-longer piddling pipy finally satisfied and flaccid. And now he remembered his mission that morning. He disentangled from her and reclothed himself. She took the cue from him. Guilt filled him, heavy beration, that he had yielded to this. If one of his team had taken time away from his tasks to pummel his woman… What, would he not be understanding?

Cela-Byi again reached up and kissed his lips before he stepped back into the flier and his guilt was shed as fast as she’d shed her skins. Arms tight around her, delighting in the warmth and the softness and the smell of her. Her eyes looking at his, so dark, so big, so wide, glittering, glistening, happy eyes.

“I never ever want to be parted. My woman. But for now, we have to go to Hive Seven.” To peel her away was as painful as peeling his skin yet he had to complete this task. “Weavings and paddings for your new hive.”

“God-given?”

He nodded. She answered with another wide grin.

*

Apart from the textiles that Jess had brought with him, Cela-Byi’s hive was ready on their return, so long had they been away. They were met by Armar.

“First you tell the catering team to distribute food to the northern Sankis. Now our resources are used to accommodate Sanki females here on base, never mind the disruption their presence has on our Monza.”

Jess raised an eyebrow. “When I am dead, Armar, you can be zem. Until then, I’m the zem. Which means I am responsible for what happens here, not you.”

“When you’re dead? ‘Enter and die’ what happened to that? Or haven’t you ‘entered’ yet?”

“Itamakku aren’t Monza.”

“No, they’re aliens, a different species, and you’re…” Armar threw his arms up, head shaken like he’d a bee around him. “Would you enter a…a cat or a bear?”

“A cat and a bear don’t look like her.” He glanced sideways at her and pulled her in closer, to stop her edging away. She mightn’t know what Armar said, but his tone must have told her enough. “Besides, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was another Tech-lie. Maybe the Techs kill the Monza males as soon as they mated.” He’d heard enough about the behaviour of Techs, nothing would surprise him now.

Jess returned to Cela-Byi’s hive that night, the smaller of his drums along with him. “Put drum down,” she told him and took it from him when he was slow in the doing. “I show you star-spirits.”

Outside the hive, looking up at the night sky, she turned until she found the right one. “There, see, is you Kija, the deer-star. And nudging like they want to be bumping, is my Kerbi, the cow-star.”

“But I thought you were the dragon Byi?”

“I was born when strongest star-spirit was Kerbi. Next, see, is the bear-star, Tawan. Then…but look, a star-spirit is falling.” She said it with such delight in her voice. “Or is that more of your Monza coming to visit?”

Jess laughed, his arms quick to wrap around her lest his amusement offended her. “No, that’s not my Monza nor a star-spirit.” And already the bright light had blinked out of sight. “That was nothing more exciting than a rock.”

“A rock?” She gasped. “Like from the fire-mountains? And if it lands on my head?”

He tried not to laugh again but he couldn’t contain it. “Those rocks never land, incinerated in the air. If that weren’t so, Ayin, this planet, would look like the moon.”

She snuggled up closer to him, her lithe body burrowing into his, so it seemed. “We go die now?”

“We go die,” he agreed.

Continues next Monday

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed.

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