Icarus Rising (8 page)

Arilani mimicked the posture with her wings.

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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

by Bernadette Gardner

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