Bab 20: Chapter 20
"Congratulations!" Chris nodded to the green-skinned girl, squeezing out a sincere smile when her friends finally let her out of the circle of close embraces so that she could leave the lesson and go to the one who will delight with the incredible news this day brought them.
The zirka smiled at him modestly.
"Sssank you, human, you are ferrry kind." She nodded to him, then once again, to everyone who had gathered in the hall, and left, elated with the bright joy of her acquired state.
The rest of the Zirkaazte females chirped enthusiastically for some time, expressing their joy for their friend, but gradually, one after another, they too, left the hall, leaving Chris and Rangira alone.
Chris wasn't sure if he wanted to talk to her; he wasn't sure if that would give him anything. Will she help him, in the end, as she has already helped so many representatives of her native race?
Every lesson he recalled how he came to her for the first time after his failed conversation with Tau and wondered if the onion was worth peeling or maybe it just didn't work for him. Then Rangira had just finished her lesson with the girls and was not at all surprised to see him in the doorway.
"Oh, Chris, hi. Erzketau told me that you pulled a muscle, right?"
"Yes. No. I mean ..." He planned this speech for a long time, but it was still difficult to get it all out.
"You mean?"
"I need you to teach me how to initiate the ovulation," he blurted out in one breath, looking the zirka straight in the eyes.
This statement clearly surprised her.
"Oh. Is that so?"
"Yes."
Rangira stared at Chris for a moment, obviously processing his words. Then, finally coming to some conclusions of her own, she said, "Okay, then I'll check my schedule and enroll you in some of the groups."
"Thank you," Chris was about to run away, having received what he came for, but kaia continued when he was already standing with one foot outside the door, "Would you mind studying with our girls?"
"Um…" It was unexpected, although completely logical.
"I mean, it will be more difficult to find time for individual lessons, and the first few are best done with fewer intervals."
"Got it. No, I mean yes, that's okay ... any option will do."
"Nice. Then I'll send you the schedule when it's ready."
"Tell me, how much do you believe in this venture?" Chris asked, looking through the window into the courtyard of the complex where students and workers moved from building to building, hurrying on their assignments. The winter was in full swing, as was the rainy season in this part of the planet, so there were virtually no hurrying people, only their umbrella screens colliding and scattering like soap bubbles on the surface of a puddle.
"And you?" Rangira asked in response. "How much do you believe? If I'm not mistaken, a few weeks ago you kind of confirmed that you started, I quote, 'to feel something' during our meditations."
"Yes, I said that because that is exactly what it seemed to me." Chris nodded, finally turning to look at his mentor. "But I see now how experimental it is. The zirka girls are much more receptive, much more open to concepts or whatever, they advance so rapidly. And I don't even know, maybe I imagined what I felt then," Chris made a gesture of quotation marks with his fingers and fell silent, but Rangira just looked at him and did not seem like she was going to answer, so he continued. "Do you believe that I will succeed? That I should continue and that not in vain? Perhaps it is worthy to do it more often or conduct some kind of analysis that will show how susceptible I am to this and how much it is generally possible for humans?"
The kaia's face lit up with a soft, warm smile.
"It is highly unlikely that any laboratory test will show susceptibility to meditations and predict their effectiveness, and this applies to any race, ours and yours. But," she fell silent for a second, looking away. "Whether you succeed depends not only on you."
"What do you mean?" That sounded new.
"These young ladies... they made progress indeed but not only thanks to my skill and their perseverance," she said slowly, weighing each word as if she was not yet completely sure whether she should be telling Chris more than he already knew. "Tell me, what do you think they do every day, and in particular, after our classes, not just yoga, but family planning?"
The question was clearly rhetorical because she continued before Chris could think of a reply. "They return home to their partners, and this is the key to the success of the whole event. When a zirka woman decides to have a child, the very first thing she must do is find the one whose child it will be. Without a partner, the whole process is meaningless." She turned to Chris with her whole body and looked straight into his eyes, then, raising her hand a little, pointed her open palm to the bottom of his belly. "Your center of conception will not cope on its own; it needs an additional trigger to unwind the hormonal response. The ovulation is possible only when the individual who wants to conceive a child is with and around the second parent – physically, mentally, and in every other way."
Chris was not sure he understood correctly, and even if he did, he still could not find the right words for the answer.
"What happened on the island… the secret of this lies not only in the proper state of your body that made it release an egg. You asked me if I believe that you will succeed. Yes, Chris, I am absolutely sure that the two of you will succeed." She looked at him meaningfully and answered with final gravity. "You want to prepare your body, put it on a plate warm and seasoned, and then bring it to someone's bed though, unfortunately, or perhaps, fortunately, this doesn't work that way. I believe it's more likely that you will do better and faster if you stop setting the goal for yourself to learn how to ovulate and set deadlines for this skill."
"I see..."
"Moreover, you need to be ready to bear a child."
"I'm ready–" Chris began, but kaia interrupted him.
"No, Chris, you're ready to sacrifice something, I'd say a lot, for the sake of a holy goal – our experiment. May my human colleagues forgive me, but I don't support them in their efforts to use you in this way." She grinned skeptically, and Chris clearly imagined how she reprimanded and perhaps doesn't cease to scold and lecture Shirokawa and others involved for their conspiracy against the rights and freedoms of the former student and now their colleague.
"To succeed, you need to be ready to want to have children. So you ought to work on that or stop troubling yourself with this pregnancy race. And besides, you don't have to wait for ovulation to get Tau into your bed. For this, you practically do not need to do anything except to voice your desire to him."
Chris looked sideways at the kaia, choking on every word about racing and other details he wanted to voice in defense of his scientific interest. He blushed deeply and lost all desire to continue this conversation and to flee, but decided otherwise.
Saying that phrase, the kaia didn't seem to be eager to develop the subject or to force him to elaborate. She just stood there calmly watching the birds swarming in the treetops to the left of the building in which their classes were held, clearly not intending to read him morals, let alone shame or ridicule him. How long has she known? And what exactly did she know? Do the green colleagues talk about Chris and everything that happened between him and Erzketau? Maybe these two are a little closer than just colleagues? Could she know something that Chris has already tired of trying to fish out to get the whole picture of their strange relationship, both before and after the island?
Suppressing the urge to curl up and disappear, he exhaled, "Sometimes I'm not so sure about that."
"Well, then I'll be happy to open your eyes to the fact that he, too, is absolutely clueless about you and your wishes. And most likely, this is the only thing holding him back from dragging you to his lair with a bag on your head where he can spell the techniques of the ovulating process for you." Rangira grumbled as she started packing her things in her bag. "You both need to stop thinking too much, especially about the experiment. Everything is already happening quite well without you; humanity is on the roll, and things will advance even better with new amendments and modifications to the plan, which are already very close to implementation. Do what you want—oh, just do each other already! And, perhaps, in the long term, this will also help the experiment."
"What new amendments?" Chris didn't miss an important bit of information behind her tirade about relationships.
Rangira laughed, wondering to herself how keen this boy really was on science, how great was his greed for their work.
"Well, firstly, we are now considering the possibility that perhaps the human race needs a little more hormonal adjustment. There are a lot of human couples living together who have not yet been able to provoke ovulation, although they are in direct contact with their partner and are emotionally close enough to have already moved forward. This is what we are most focused on now because if you succeed, then, most likely, something else is missing for the normal functioning of the uterus." Finished packing and putting her shoes on, she looked at him and continued, "And we're trying to catch a trigger that doesn't work the way we'd like it to. We devoted a good deal of time to the work of female organs, but, just like some stubborn professor who's not here at the moment, we have forgotten that men of Zirkaazte also do something for this process. And I don't mean solely supplying the egg with the sperm."
Chris thanked Rangira for everything she told him, although his gratitude went deeper than just for the information he received. He really felt better now. Over the past few weeks, his whole being and his thoughts were focused on how to ovulate, even though he didn't fully understand what it would mean personally for him and did not realize that he indeed could be unprepared for this.
On the way home, Chris was so lost in thought that he did not look where he was going and, turning to the elevators, crashed into someone standing there at full speed.
"Oof, I'm terribly sorry! Are you okay?" he immediately got involved in the world around him, ready to take responsibility if he knocked someone down or caused any damage.
"Yes, Chris, don't worry," said the man near the elevator.
This time Chris recognized him.
"Bradley, good to see you," they shook hands. "Do you live in this building? I thought you and Connie were together."
"We're together, but I live here," Bradley said shortly, carefully studying Chris. "And you…? Do you live here or have you moved in with someone?"
"I moved alone; they sort of forcefully move the employees to one place."
The young man nodded in understanding. The two entered the elevator that had arrived at that moment. Chris made brief eye contact, then focused on the incoming messages. However, he still felt the groping gaze on him.
"Did Erzketau-kri teach you?" Bradley asked him, just as sensibly examining Chris as if seeing him for the first time.
"Yes," he drawled, not quite understanding where this was going.
"Lucky," Bradley chuckled. "In my year, the transplantation was conducted by another tutor. As a matter of fact, this subject is now run by someone else. Do you know why?"
"Um, I never really thought about it," Chris muttered, returning to his texts.
"It's amazing, isn't it? I really wanted to take extra hours with kri, all in all, he was a luminary in this area of study but, it turned out that I was late," said Bradley sadly, extending the vowels, and then, with the ding from the elevator, as if by command, he smiled at Chris radiantly, exposing the row of perfectly white teeth. "This is my floor. See you, Chris!" He raised his hand in goodbye and walked out, leaving Chris to cringe at the unfathomable sensation left by his tenacious brown eyes.
Tau slept badly on the road. All the way to Biosphere-II, he was mulling the information received in his head, and the longer he did it, the deeper he became convinced that everything was not so simple with this shuttle and, as if everyone who let the situation take its course, would not repent of what they had done.
The whole time after that terrible conversation, as Tau called it, about the unclear relationship with Chris, he was away from the island. Together with Kizre, they went to the Atlantic base to investigate the planted flash drive further. The meticulous subordinate of the head of the Earth's security service did not stop checking the structure and holes of the postal service at all levels and went on to analyze all cases of entry, exit, and transit passage of interplanetary vehicles through the hyperspace port of the solar system.
He shoveled through the registration lists for a very long time, despite the fear of Erzketau's rage hanging over his neck. He understood that he did not have the right to make a mistake, and there was no point in speculating with time. Fast results and correct results are very different concepts. In the course of his preliminary investigation, there was virtually nothing that could catch an eye. Everything was boring, transparent, and as it should be. With the exception of…
Almost eight years ago, on July 27, 849, a geneticist from Sirkazai, Talgri-kri-Zirkaazte of the Krozrin family branch, arrived on Earth. He arrived by appointment from the Mother planet to work in the scientific complex on Biosphere-I and was supposed to take up duties the next day but this did not happen.
Talgri-kri reported on arrival, and the next day got in touch and said that he was not feeling well and he needed a lie down for some time to acclimatize, but refused hospitalization, claiming that these were the normal consequences of overload in hyper for his body. Individual reactions are considered the norm; therefore, no one gave much importance to this and left the specialist to recover for a while. However, when, after ten days, the center contacted him, thinking that they had already sustained a sufficient time frame, he did not answer on any communication channel.
This development did not fit into a normal pattern in any way, so the security service went to his place in order to check what happened to the clinician. They were greeted by an empty apartment. The workers of the Center, following the instructions, notified the Intergalactic Council, which began the search procedure, but that same week Talgri-kri sent a notice that he was resigning, as he decided to stay on Earth to spend his retirement, and asked for no disturbance.
Moreover, he announced that he would study South American culture, as he always wanted. Since he was just an employee, not liable for military service, and, in addition to everything, from a very influential branch of the Zirkaazte, which is why he traveled on a personal shuttle, they considered that it would be difficult to drag him to any responsibility or, even more so, desertion, and simply let him go to study earthlings. His name has not appeared anywhere else since that time. It is not known if he arrived in South America and what he did and where he went after all this time.
The situation was strange but since they did not see anything threatening in it, except for general deviation from the standard, they decided to close the case. All messages from Talgri-kri came with his personal digital signature, so there was no reason to suspect an identity theft.
Although his shuttle was never found, neither was the co-pilot with whom kri arrived on Earth. There was a theory that maybe they were a couple and flew in to be here together, away from their relatives, who could be against his romance, and just got lost in the literal sense, enjoying each other's company.
But Tau was already seriously alarmed by this, because all Zirkaazte vehicles were tracked by a special chip, which only their race knew about, and it was strictly forbidden to disrupt its work by the code of rules for space expeditions. Besides, the pilot certainly couldn't just resign online ... or he could, but under his, Tau's, leadership, such liberties were not allowed. Maybe he missed a lot more changes in retirement himself than he might have suspected.
Already entering the building of the complex, flickering with rare lights against the black sky, he added the task for tomorrow to load the security guards with more jobs so that they would look through all possible surveillance cameras recordings that could suggest the current location of the shuttle, as well as its two passengers.
And now, there were patient reports awaiting him, which he wanted to complete before going home.
Entering the staff room, without turning on the light, he walked to his desk and sank into a chair with pleasure. Here he felt like he was at the controls panel – just as comfortable. The feeling of complete control over the situation and everyone who depends on it. Probably every captain knows this feeling and considers it pleasant.
He did not pay attention to another sensation, which raised his head for a second somewhere on the edge of consciousness; a faint premonition of danger, which arose out of nowhere, and was completely inappropriate here and now, where there is no danger. Tau won't let this happen. It was for this that he was assigned to Earth – to protect this planet and its fragile inhabitants.
A split second before the light turned on in the office, every feeling suddenly howled like a siren and the scientific coordinator leapt from the chair, taking a fighting stance.
Chris froze with his hand at the switch, looking at the picture that opened to him, as soon as he turned on the light. Tau, whom he expected to be slightly taken by surprise while sitting at the table, stood as if preparing to fight: all sprung and wired up, hands in front of the body, and behind his back was a fan of tentacles, no less than a dozen, aimed with their tips at Chris.
"Hello, kri," he chuckled, coming closer, standing in such a way as to be able to block the exit. Just in case.
Tau relaxed, taking a slow deep breath, the tentacles immediately drew back into his body. He brushed his hand over his face, as if erasing the tension that gripped him.
"What are you doing here at a time like this, for heaven's sake?" He commented hoarsely.
"The same as you – came to deal with unfinished business."
Both were silent. Tau didn't know what to say, and Chris wasn't going to make it easy for him. Deciding that it was a little pointless to stand and be silent, the zirka sat down and pulled the tablet closer to him.
"Isn't it too late for any business?" Tau asked, without taking his eyes off the screen of the device, feeling his throat going dry. His guts told him that the next few minutes could be difficult. The young man clearly took everything that happened too closely. He ought to have left for longer. Or even forever…
"You are my unfinished business and, as you can see, have arrived just in time. I hardly had to wait long." Chris hesitated, circled the table where Tau was sitting, and sat down on the desk on his side, almost touching his hip to kri's elbow. "You ran away not letting me finish, as if you were afraid of responsibility. It's not like that, is it? Or, no, don't tell me, I get it. You decided to let me avoid the situation before the responsibility falls on me. Yes, now I am almost one hundred percent sure that this was the idea."
"Chris, I really don't want you to feel any responsibility for what happened, and even more so that you feel obligated. I offered then and will offer again: we can pretend nothing happened. We acted to carry out the experiment–"
"But was it like that?" Chris interrupted him. "Just for the sake of the experiment? Was it just another technical task for you to complete? A test case for interacting with a subject? Collecting data for reporting?"
Tau clenched his hands into fists, staring straight ahead. Why does it have to be this way? Every word, like a sharp blade, cut through the thin membrane of protection over and over again. One word burned on his tongue, "No!" It was the answer to each of the questions.
"Chris…," he whispered under his breath.
"Because for me it was anything but this. I don't want to forget. I cannot forget. I want to take responsibility for what happened, and I want you to take it too, and," Chris swallowed convulsively, finally feeling a look blacker than the night, which Tau took away from him as soon as this conversation began. "I really want you to invite me out on a date. Or will you leave this honor to me?"
Tau slowly stood up, took Chris by the hand and, without interrupting eye contact for a split second, placed Chris' palm against his chest.
"Chris, go on a date with me…"
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone