Authors: Bernadette Gardner
Arilani mimicked the posture with her wings.
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Icarus Rising
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"We will get them back, and once I've tinkered with his
biochemistry, I'm sure everything will be fine. I believe the
problem is just a matter of blocking some of the receptor's to
Caleb's brain so he can better control the symbion's natural
urges."
"And if he impregnates Zara in the mean time?"
Danson shrugged. "That won't preclude him from
accepting you as a mate, if Jidar agrees to it."
Arilani reared back, shocked by Danson's cavalier
assessment. "I will
not
share my mate with another female.
That is not how we do things. I am next in line to mate, and
since Jidar and Namara cannot produce offspring together, it
is my child who stands to one day assume Jidar's position."
"I understand that, Ari. Even if Caleb does ... have
intercourse with Zara, she won't conceive. The women here
all suppress their fertility with medication."
"And this medication never fails them?"
"No. Hardly ever." He sputtered a bit, and she advanced a
step.
"If it should occur, you will have to see that she does not
produce a child. I cannot take a mate who has already seeded
another womb."
"All right. I'm aware of the Icarian traditions, but in light of
the situation—"
"Those traditions can only be changed if we have a new
leader, one who is not opposed to the human ways of doing
things. With Caleb and I ruling as regents, we could double
our population in a year and in ten be poised to double it
again when the next mating cycle approaches."
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Danson sighed. "Ari, you know I'm on board with this. I
will do anything necessary to see that this project succeeds."
"Including destroy any offspring Zara conceives with
Caleb?"
Danson looked uncomfortable. Arilani leaned close,
determined to make him understand that he would know
much more than just discomfort if Arilani lost her intended
mate to Zara.
Finally, he nodded. "Yes.
If
she conceives, and I doubt that
will happen. We'll find him before he has a chance to do
anything. If it happens, I will convince her that the fetus
won't be viable and get her to terminate."
Arilani smiled. "Good. Now, I'm going to search for my
mate. Be ready to fix whatever went wrong. I expect to be
well on my way to sitting in Namara's chair by this time next
year." She whirled around, making sure to brush her wing
tips over Danson's chest as she left the room. She uttered her
final warning before the door slammed shut behind her. "If
you don't take care of this, Raymond, I will."
Zara woke to the sound of rushing wind and flapping
wings. For a moment, she believed she was falling, and every
muscle in her body tensed for impact. With a sharp gasp, she
realized she lay on a flat surface, unmoving and safe for the
moment.
Her last memory was of Caleb dragging her into the air
and sailing off with her over the dark ocean. She'd blacked
out from fear ... or no, he'd done something to her to knock
her out.
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Anger and indignation replaced her fear, and she sat up,
cursing. "Caleb, where are you?"
No answer. He'd abandoned her. But where?
A pink glow suffused the place in which he'd left her, and it
took her a moment of staring at the rough-hewn walls and
ceiling to figure out he must have taken her to one of the
Icarian aeries. Atop the towering islands that freckled the face
of Icarus's ocean, the planet's dominant species built their
dwellings out of carved sandstone and the thick, hardy vines
of an abundant plant called
alor
.
Zara recognized the
alor
growing from cracks in the rock
around her, and she smelled the distinctive, spicy aroma of
the plant's versatile leaves. She discovered the pallet on
which she lay had been made with
alor
down, the soft fibers
created when the leaves were torn from the vines. The aroma
seemed stale though, and Zara guessed by the sparseness of
the room, which contained no other furniture and no personal
items, that this was one of the thousands of aeries that now
stood empty since there were not enough Icarian families to
fill them all.
Why had he left her here? And how far had they flown
while she was unconscious?
She scrambled off the bed in a panic. The unusual islands
rose an average of a hundred meters above the ocean's
surface and many were much taller. Without her own set of
wings, she could never get down from the mesa-like top.
Unless an airborne Icarian search party happened by, she had
no way of telling anyone back at the research station her
location.
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"Caleb!"
Yelling for him only produced a disconcerting echo against
the walls of her lofty prison. Cursing him produced no positive
results either. He was gone. At the moment Zara wasn't sure
what she feared most, that he would never return, or that he
would.
She had no idea how to deal with the changes he'd
undergone, no idea what to say to cut past the confusion of
his hormone-induced emotions and reach the solid, intelligent
man she'd fallen in lo—she cared so deeply for. He was
someone else now, and to her embarrassment she realized
she hadn't fully prepared herself for the depth of his change.
Frustrated and frightened, she began to explore the aerie.
No more than a single large room equipped with a sleeping
pallet, a waste disposal alcove, and an empty storage net of
woven alor, the place certainly could not sustain her for very
long. A wide arch led outside. Beyond the arch, a latticework
of leafy
alor
provided some shade and protection from the
brilliant Icarian sun and the relentless wind. The pink glow
that had illuminated the aerie when Zara first awoke had
turned buttery yellow now as the sun climbed in the eastern
sky.
Tentatively, Zara ventured beyond the shade of the plant
growth. The sharp drop-off at the edge of the island platform
seemed terribly close and unprotected. The Icarians needed
no barriers, even for their wingless children who seemed to
know instinctively not to wander too far from the shelter of
their cave-like homes.
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The strength of the wind made Zara fear she might be
blown right off the island, but determined to figure out her
position, she dropped to her knees and crawled to the edge.
Her heart leapt at what she saw. Graceful sets of wings
circled and glided on the wind, seeming just out of her reach.
"Hey!" She called and waved, at first thinking she was seeing
an Icarian search party wheeling around above the tumble of
rocks that surrounded her perch. No one answered, though,
or seemed to be aware of her presence.
"Whoa! Oh God." After nearly losing her balance, she
realized the forms spiraling around the base of the island
were not Icarians but unjoined symbions. The giant birds
nested among the jagged rocks, hundreds of meters below.
Dizzy and breathless, she sat back, desperate to anchor
herself to solid ground. This had to be one of the taller
islands. She could never reach the water on her own, and if
Caleb never returned, the lonely, windswept aerie would
become her tomb.
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Icarus Rising
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Caleb circled the aerie for what seemed like hours after
placing Zara, unconscious, on the sleeping pallet inside. Guilt
ate at him over what he'd done. He'd never intended to harm
her, and even though he understood the symbion's motives
for wanting her calm and quiet during their flight, he still
feared the creature would somehow force him to hurt her
without realizing it.
From the moment they'd arrived at the secluded nest, the
symbion had bombarded him with images of mating.
Though an adult itself and probably the parent of at least
one brood of its own offspring, it now wanted Caleb to
procreate. Communication with Jidar's symbion had imparted
the knowledge that the Icarian population was in danger and,
single-minded in its desire to save the host species, the
symbion understood that mating was an imperative.
After much debate, Caleb had finally convinced it to calm
down and land. Grateful that the shorts he'd put on at home
hid the semi-hard erection he'd battled since they arrived,
Caleb swooped down onto the island's landing area and took
a moment to compose himself.
"There will be no mating. Remember that," he said aloud,
more to reassure himself than the symbion.
The creature complained and ruffled its wings, but
reluctantly agreed to leave its chosen female alone for now.
In a way, Caleb could understand the creature's urgency.
Fused as it was now to him, it could never mate with one of
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its own kind again. Over time, its genitalia would atrophy and
its internal sex organs would be absorbed. The only way for
the alien bird to experience sexual release now was through
Caleb. While he sympathized, the symbion's desires would
have to wait, just as Caleb's would, until Jidar made the
decision to pair him with a suitable Icarian female. Assuming
that ever happened.
After another deep breath, Caleb convinced the symbion to
fold its wings, and they headed inside the aerie. He prayed
Zara had woken up and that she wouldn't be too angry with
him for what he'd done.
Panic raced through him when he saw the empty pallet.
His thundering heartbeat slowed just a little when his captive
emerged from the waste disposal alcove. At least she was up
and around and she looked no worse for wear.
"Zara."
The moment she saw him, she raised her hand. Clutched
in her fist, she held a chunk of sandstone. "Stay right there.
No more unscheduled flights unless you're taking me back to
the research station."
Caleb held up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry. I promise
I won't do that again."
"Which one of you is making that promise?" She glared at
him. Her eyes were the color of clear caramel in the golden
morning sunlight that streamed into the aerie from behind
him. Anger had pinkened her cheeks, and fear, he guessed,
had hardened her nipples.
She looked wild and untamed, and he would have given
anything at that moment to fold her in his arms and soothe
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her rampant emotions. He realized if he went near her now,
though, she'd probably brain him with the rock.
"
I
promise. Both of me." He laughed, but his attempt at
humor only produced a scowl from her."
"Don't try to be funny. This is serious."
He looked down at the smooth stone beneath his bare feet.
"I know. Again, I'm sorry. I'm trying to get a handle on this.
Really."
"You can do that at the station. Now that the sun is up, we
should go back. I promise I'll stay calm if you promise not to
fly so high."
Caleb wanted to comply, but his symbion panicked at any
mention of the lab. It understood Caleb's fear that Danson
would separate them, and its survival instinct defied any
attempt to reason with it. "I can't go back, Zara. I'm sorry ...
again."
She lowered the rock and sighed but still maintained her
physical distance from him. "Back at your bungalow you said
you would cooperate. You said—"
"
I
said. Yes. But the symbion is afraid. It won't allow me to
go back."
"You're supposed to be in charge of the link, Caleb. You're
supposed to make the decisions for both of you now."
"And I can't. I can think for myself, but it seems like the
only emotions I'm feeling are the symbion's. Those feelings
are stronger than any rational argument I can make for going
back to the station."
"So what about me? Am I a prisoner? I can't leave on my
own. What am I supposed to do?"
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Caleb shrugged. "Give me time to figure something out.
Are you hungry?"
"At least get me a radio, and I'll call for help. You can stay
away until they come for me."
Her desire to escape him made Caleb's guilt and shame
flare white hot. The prospect of losing its mate annoyed the
symbion as well, and together they spread their wings. "I
need you, Zara! You're the only person I can talk to about
this."
"Caleb, we can talk all you want to, but it has to be back at