Chapter 22

“Luke?” I asked. The man walked closer and slipped out of his body to a green figure with an unnecessary sagging light penis in the front.

“Uncle Kali is in the house!” he bellowed. A green light expanded from his body. He made about a hundred arcs of his own energy at once and slipped from visible light, but my specters could still pick him out. “So you fucked my sister, huh?” The pulses of anger were obvious, but I retaliated with some pride pulses.

“I was human at the time,” I replied. “But yes, I had sex with your sister and we had a baby. His name is Filigare Agerist, and he’s a Zaxi just like I am now. Thanks to Doc, we are one and the same, brother.” I slipped out of the containment and back into my human skin.

“We’re not brothers,” Luke said, sending angry pulses. “But Fil is my nephew.” He stopped feeding on himself and returned to visible light, still manifesting the saggy member.

“Did Doc make you a better body?” I asked, avoiding looking at the green penis. Was it on purpose? Was he making fun of the human reproductive system? “Shame about Monika. Humans don’t live very long.” His gaze softened and a pulse of sadness hit me from his direction. I hit a sore spot, but did not attack the idea. Monika was a great girl, and I was sad that I didn’t even get to say goodbye. By trying to make him sad, I did the same to myself.

“Come on out, Fil,” I said. “Meet your Uncle Luke.”

“Not ‘Luke’,” Luke said. “My name is Kali, Fil.”

“What’s so bad about ‘Luke’?” I asked, only half to mess with him. “Anyway, we’re new, so we’re learning containment. Can I just ask about the part of human anatomy you’re mimicking for no particular reason?” I pointed between his legs. As if a turtle, the penis shrunk away into the smooth surface.

“I’ve been a human a bit too long,” Luke said. “It became a part of me to have it, so when I slip out of a human skin, it transfers over. I’m a bit surprised you’re so quick to remove it, actually.” Fil flew back into his own skin, and came over to meet his uncle.

“Must be the fact that humans consider the male reproductive piece as a weakness,” I said, but Luke wasn’t listening to me anymore.

“You’re green,” Filigare said. “That means you have a snide personality, right?” Luke sent out a laugh pulse with some joy, but his face was blank, being the only Zaxi outside a skin in the room.

“Yeah,” he said. “But also protective and greedy. You on the other hand have all Fi’s qualities. Not much from your papa, huh? He’s off glowing orange, but you’re well marbled blue-purple. Just what you’d expect from a human feeding off Riklian. Of course, you’d introduce that ancient bastard to the cluster.”

“How old is the sun?” I asked. “He can’t be that old.”

“Going on thirty enids now,” Fil said. “I visited him recently. He does not like to talk about age.”

“Thinking about settling down yet, kid?” Luke asked, sending out a laugh pulse.

“No way,” Filigare replied. “There is so much to see out there. As soon as I get a hold of containment and dimming, I’m out of here.” I was glad to be in my human skin for this. A wave of sadness washed over me. Fil would leave me soon. My son, leaving home so quickly. I was glad the human body could hide my pulses of sadness, but how lonely it was when others had no idea of the feelings inside.

“What does settling down mean for a Zaxi?” I asked. “Fiona never really got into the details of all that.” Studying a digital calendar display, I realized that a whole year had passed since I played that V-scape with low lighting. My time-counting was distorted by a new lifespan. That happened to humans, too. Once they settled into a routine, a relationship that worked, years of their life passed them by in joy, unnoticed. Just like I once woke up an old man on a farm in a dream. I’d gone senile by then and talked to myself as if addressing some god of my life. That was one weird dream, but… Where did I get that name, “JJ”? It was a recurring dream that was even stranger still remembered since I no longer needed to sleep.

“A young star, the Zaxient being,” a voice said from above. It was Fiona, descending with a considerably older Doc who was chugging water from a metal orb. “Is molded in a parental cluster and taught the basics of Zaxi life in the cluster. At a certain age, between two and three enids, the child matures and leaves to explore the cluster, in search of their own corner of space to bring life into. They explore new worlds and visit other Zaxi who have already begun to create said life, all the while remaining hidden from recognizable energies like visible light and others.” Luke extended a hand to Fiona and their energies clashed.

“You forgot to include the Starcast and Rukesh,” he said. “We’re currently in a quiet war with Tisyros Royalty. They call themselves Starcast. The Rukesh, on the other hand, are something of the police of the cluster. They have some Zaxi on ‘payroll’. I’ve always wanted to wear one of those celestial skins. It looks like a skeleton of stars.”

“A skeleton of stars?” I asked, trying to imagine it. There was that chaos I was promised. “I want to wear that.”

“You and me both, buddy,” Luke said. “They only make them for members, like the Vands make their cloaks from their dead.” I grimaced at the human interpretation of wearing the dead. It would be like wearing human skin over the human, but those decomposed. I still didn’t know much about Garavand. I hoped there was a book that explained everything still out there, but I realized the stupidity of that. Space was meant to be scary, a place where things existed that challenged the mind of morality. Expecting a guide to the universe was like awaiting the adventuring to be done by another.

“How long would I need to have the dimmed form to be ready for the venture into space?” I asked.

“I’d say about a year,” Luke said, floating about in his green form. He played with the containment to take the shape of various animals and some creatures I did not know.

“As if!” Fiona countered. “I think nine months should be enough. You don’t always dim out when out there. The beauty of space is the emptiness between the cluster, the unexplained depths and wondrous sights. I miss being out there a bit, but I’m glad that I was a human for a time.” I hugged Fiona with a clear purpose of reaching around to her butt. When there, I slipped a finger into her anal cavity to check for the sealed-off black hole.

“Please don’t keep things in there,” I said, holding the extracted marble.

“But it’s so convenient!” She protested. “And it’s not like I’m going to use it the way a human does.”

“Just don’t shove things up your butt, ok?” I asked, but she didn’t agree. “I want to know more about Garavand, since I’ll have some time to train up with the dimming. Is there a book or something?” Doc paused consuming water from the metal orb, demonstrating at what rate the torrent was jetting out. It burst out like a geyser until he plugged it closed with a cork.

“Right, the hungry cocoon,” he said, spitting out a ball of gold. With a human craving for the precious metal, I jumped to retrieve it. It glowed so enticingly in my hand thanks to Luke’s light. “Damn displacement conversions. Sometimes it turns water into gold. It’s not a perfect system for remote access, but it works for the most part. Oh, yes, give me the hungry cocoon.” I looked back to Doc and decided he meant the black hole marble.

“Cocoon?” I asked. Doc nodded while inspecting it.

“Yeah, I did some research,” he said, and put the marble into his mouth. I cringed because it was just in Fiona’s asshole. It wasn’t really a hole, but more of a skin sleeve. All of a sudden, I had a craving to use it for sex. “The shell is made of candy, well, candy for me. Kali, what’s your output?”

“I’m running a little hot,” Luke answered. Before he could move out of the way, Doc spit a gray blob into his hand and jammed it into Luke’s chest.

“You should be able to handle this then,” Doc said, pulling his hand out. Whatever he put inside the green Zaxi body started swirling the energy in his contained green form. Kali was dimming out, but soon the black hole was visible, sucking his light out at a rapid pace. He looked to be disappearing from within until the suction stopped at a gray orb. The little marble hung there weightless in the middle of the gaping hole in Luke’s chest. Doc plucked it out in an instant. My star brother was out of breath from the occurrence, which was strange to witness in a Zaxi.

“Holy crap,” he said, stumbling into a containment tank. As soon as it sealed, he covered the full volume. “I just released like a hundred times in a row. A little warning next time, Doc.”

“Oh, hush,” he replied. “I knew you’d enjoy it. Now it’s just a cocoon, satisfied to the brink, but to open it, I think we’ll need Ernie’s help. Fi, can you go fetch him? Tell him that Agi and his child are waiting.” Fiona smiled while slipping out of her skin, then dimmed out and left.

“What is that?” I asked, coming closer to the gray orb that once was a tiny black hole contained within a marble and stored inside the anal cavity of my starwife and the mother of my starchild. That would have exploded my human mind once, but I took it all in stride.

“A cocoon of life,” Doc said, with a flourish. “But really, it’s an embryo of something new. What I did for Ernie and Agi was give her female repro-parts. I did not expect that his contribution would be entangled with Garavand DNA, mainly like hair of dead Garavand. When they went in, those tiny strands realized that they were within a star and began eating everything around, thus black hole.”

“So, black holes have limits?” Fil asked, joining the conversation.

“From what I heard, it’s actually all dead Garavand,” I said. “Right?” Doc let go of the gray orb as it remained hovering in the air. When it started drifting up, he held onto it again.

“Right,” Doc said. “Well, the black hole was just craving to feed on matter and light, and yes, dead Garavand have a limit. When they fill up, they themselves get absorbed as miniscule matter. That’s how a black hole closes up after inhaling a gigantic portion of matter over hundreds of enids. Scary stuff, but this cocoon is different in that it contains a full Zaxi and possibly the child of a Vand and a star. To sum up, Agi was inside protecting herself by not releasing any energy, only feeding her own to herself. I bet she will be so eager to climax that it’s best to put this into a containment tank.” Doc walked over and put the gray floating orb into the tank beside Luke’s. It drifted upward gently.

“Why’s it going up?” I asked as Doc closed the round opening where the golden rings were used.

“Probably drawn to the father,” Doc said. “Otherwise, no idea.” A burst of gray smoke appeared beside the eldering man, and a hand tore into it from within. Fiona sure made it there quickly. I’d have to ask her about traveling fast while out there. She and Ernie stepped through the portal of smoke. The opening closed with the snap of his fingers. Without a word, he was already at the glass of the containment tank, and the cocoon now drifted towards him.

“Agi’s in there?” he asked the room and found Doc. “IS SHE IN THERE?!”

“Not the human skin she was before,” Doc said. “But yes, I think Agimalina is currently inside, possibly with your child, though I’m not sure how long-.”

As Doc paused, a red light flowed from a crack in the orb. To everyone’s surprise, Agi did not release the very first second she arrived. As soon as her arms flowed out, it was obvious why. Her energy-compressed face was contorted in visible pain while the pulses of pain and suffering she gave off spread that feeling to everyone in the vicinity.

“TAKE HER!” She screamed. “TAKE HER! TAKE HER! I CAN’T HOLD ON ANYMORE!”

Ernie tore open a portal, jumped into the tank and grabbed what looked to be a human girl wrapped in a cloak of shadow. As the portal on the inside closed, Agi screamed out and exploded in the tank a vibrant red, still swirling. Doc came up to the panel and tapped a few buttons as Ernie arrived out with a baby.

“Agi, ease up a bit,” Doc said. “You’re reaching max containment energy.”

“I CAN’T!” she shouted from within the swirl of light in the tank. “I NEED MORE SPACE!”

“Alright,” he replied. “Damnit! I put off installing tank sharing. I can’t link another to yours, but I have an idea. Sorry, Ernie, but your wife needs to release her energy into Kali. If she doesn’t, this continent will probably disintegrate.”

“Do it!” Ernie shouted.

“Kali!” Doc shouted and opened both latches. The green energy flowed out and got sucked into Agi’s tank.

“Oh, yes!” Agi moaned once and pulsated joy, lust, and euphoria. Fiona put a hand over Filigare’s eyes as the green and red swirled together silently in the tank, never mixing, only becoming marbled and still. When it was over, the two energies sorted into top and bottom of the tank, doing their best to avoid contact.

“I’m ok now,” Agi said, trying to shape herself into a figure at the top of the tank. Luke formed, and flew out when Doc opened the latch. As soon as he was out, Agi released herself into the full tank with slight pulses of pleasure still lingering from her.

“Oh, man,” Luke said, floating past Ernie cradling the baby. The shadow cloak drifted toward the Zaxi. “Your girl can suck.” Ernie’s face grew angry, but when he turned to look at the tiny human wrapped in shadow, his anger melted away. The sight of his baby erased all other emotions.

“So, what is she?” I asked, after a few minutes of silence just watching the baby. Doc popped his cork and returned to drinking a torrent of water until all eyes were on him. He grimaced with his eyes, took the orb away and plugged the hole with his finger. “A Zaxi-Garavand crossbreed?”

“Well, it’s not a pet,” Doc said. “But it is a blend of three things: Human, Zaxi, and Garavand. As to what extent, I’d have to run some tests. For now, she looks to be a human baby, so I’d get started by thinking up a name for her.” The geyser orb re-opened and went back into his lips. It looked weird, drinking a waterfall out of a handheld metal orb, but Doc’s always been weird. When he walked away, Agi was still trying to form up inside the tank while Fiona, Fil, and Ernie competed for the baby’s attention.

“Oh!” Fiona gasped. “She grabbed my finger!”

“What’s so special about that?” Filigare asked. I had a feeling he was a little jealous of this new attention focus. Ernie looked off to the tank where Agi was struggling to form up into a blob.

“Take it easy, Agi,” he said. “I’ll go get you a skin so you can hold our daughter. Fi, can you take her for a second?” Fiona smiled and took the baby from Ernie’s hands. The shadow garb seemed to follow where the baby went, covering it. Was that the dead Garavand mentioned earlier? I was tempted to touch it, but feared it would try to consume me. I watched the transfer into Fiona’s hands and could have sworn I saw a hole in the skin where that shadow cloth originated.

When Doc came back with a skin for Agi, she transferred with the use of rings and came up to meet her child for the very first time. Her eyes swam instantly as she held the baby close to her chest with the most wonderful display of love.

“Do we have a name for her yet?” Doc asked. Ernie and Agi looked at each other, then at the baby.

“I’ve always liked the name ‘Grace’,” he said. “What do you think, Agi?”

“I love it,” she said and turned to the baby. “Welcome to the world, Grace.” She kissed the baby’s forehead and shared another kiss with Ernie. That prompted me to kiss Fiona for some reason. We never got to have an actual baby, but I was glad Agi and Ernie had one. We stood there in the containment lab as two strange families. The only thing that remained was to venture beyond the world, but before that, I wanted to go into the V-scapes again, perhaps the one with limited light. If we ever came back to this planet, this solar system even, the linkstellation might be gone.

 

 Last Chapter

 Previous Chapter

Find all chapters in this page - Chapter Links