Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 04

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He wanted to get to that kind of love just once in his life.
19.1k words
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Part 4 of the 11 part series

Updated 06/08/2023
Created 12/06/2013
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TaLtos6
TaLtos6
1,932 Followers

***There's always the point where a man has to, ... I mean uh, ... gets to meet the parents.

Remember that this has gone on in a single freaking day. They both know that they're needy. They just seem to be on a roller-coaster made of it and it presents some interesting moments of introspection.

Taela comes off sounding a little immature or at least very young in this chapter. In fact, it's because she's had no one, though inside of her, she's really hoping for something magical to happen between Ryan and her. In human terms, she's about 28, long on hope and painfully short on experience by her own admission.

Oh, and there are some reeeaaally odd things about her family, just saying.

0_o

****

----------------

He stared all around him at intervals of a few seconds as she led him down a gently sloping hillside. They were inside a volcanic crater on the back side of the mountain, below and out of sight of the flat peak. He hadn't seen any of this when he'd landed. It was very warm and a little humid. The black soil of the crater supported countless forms of plant life.

It took him a couple of minutes to notice some details. Their feet crunched in the loose particulate which made up the soil, but every once in a while, they made no noise as they walked, and looking down, he saw that there were pathways here through and around the vegetation. What he noticed after that was that he could see groups of plants, in bunches which looked a little orderly to him.

"This looks like a garden," he said.

"It is, "she nodded, "in many ways. We care for what is here, and remove what is not wanted or what chokes the plants that are wanted. In return, we have this place to enjoy all year. There's heat from the volcano, and a spring and stream. The water is warm and that helps the plants to grow. Look up," she said, and he watched her raise her face smiling to the rim and the sky above.

When he did, he saw the meshing of countless wires across the opening of the rim. The spacing allowed the small birds and the insects to pass through fairly freely, but nothing large could enter.

"My father made this roof," she said, "It keeps things out which shouldn't be here. It took him years, but this place feeds us in winter. We always have fresh greens to eat because of this. Even if it's howling outside and laying down enough snow to cause half the jungle to fall down, it's warm here, and the snow that falls just melts before it hurts anything.

If you look, you'll see that the plants which like the most sun are arranged in a long wide line. That is where the sunlight follows for most of the year.

Here's your place to wash," she said, "I'll be back in a few minutes. I've got some things to do before I forget."

"What about the others?" he asked.

"You're safe here, Ryan," she smirked, "A warrior like you? I think you worry too much." She walked away with a chuckle.

He looked at the ledge on the rock face above him and saw the steam rise from the hot spring there. The water fell from that in a thick cascade to a pool before it wound away out of his sight as a warm stream with wisps of fog rising from it. A look around showed him that he was alone, so he took off the rest of his clothing and stepped in.

It was all that he could do not to groan in pleasure.

------------------

Taela found her mother on her way back to the crater. "Why are you wearing that?" she asked.

"I heard you coming up the passageway from the stream outside, and I was pretty sure that you weren't talking to yourself. It's alright to be running around without anything on while there's just us here, but if I might be seen by a human, then I want to wear something, at least.

Humans are just like that with each other, I can't just hide myself like you can. I don't think that you ought to, by the way. I'd really hate the thought of you suddenly developing the shame that humans have always had about their bodies and from a practical side, there's no real need for clothes here at this time of year, and we'd only be wearing out the little that we have left." Her mother grinned as they whispering while they watched Ryan shower in the cascade.

Taela related what had happened.

"Well that's my girl," she smiled, "I tell you to go have a look, and you come back with what's just got to be the best one. He's something, honey, I'll give you that. You picked out a cutie."

"It wasn't a choice," Taela chuckled, "He's all there is. The others are all dead. He landed the craft by himself. There was only the pilot alive on the main ship when it crashed. He says that she tried to leave him here.

I wanted to ask you something.

He has writing on his face -- little letters right here," she said, pointing to her own cheekbone. "It's only on one side, but I saw the same thing on his arm, the same small size. It's hard to read, and there are tiny symbols too. Here," she whispered as she drew what she remembered in the dirt with her finger, "I think this is what I saw. I can read human as you taught me, but this makes no sense to me."

Her mother looked and nodded, "It makes sense," she said. "He's a soldier alright. They mark their ground forces this way so they'll know who they were when they're dead. It'll be on his body in a few places. His left cheekbone and his left arm, as you saw, and likely there'll be another one at least on his right leg."

"Why so many places?" her daughter asked.

"In case he gets blown up with some others and they have to figure out what part belongs to which body," her mother said. "I was never a part of that part of the service, so I never got that. I guess they must have figured that when somebody like me crashes, the pieces tend to be too small to leave ID tattoos on."

"He has three names, "she said, "That's normal for humans. His name is Ryan McCallum and his middle name begins with a B. It might be Bertram or Barton or something like that. The rest is his blood type and his serial number.

If he can fly that shuttle, then I'd guess that he's a warrant officer at least, or he'd never have been allowed near the front of that big bird to even see the controls, never mind learn to fly it. By what you have here, he's a little above that, since he's a chief warrant officer -- or he was once. If you say that he's handy with a battle rifle, then he was a line trooper once and he transitioned to flight training. It shows that he's got more than just rocks in his head and can probably count down from a hundred backwards," she smiled.

"He can speak Morgaron," her daughter said, "He took lessons in the war to learn because he wanted to."

"Do you like him?" she asked Taela.

"Him?" her daughter asked, before making a dismissive little snort as she put up a proud front.

When her mother said nothing in reply, Taela looked over and shrugged with a little grin as her shoulders slumped a little, "Yes. I can't help it.

I want to say what they say in those stories that you always read to me, about how I've never met anyone like him, the way that it sounds so silly in those books."

The older woman chuckled, "Well it's true, isn't it?"

Taela nodded and they both knew why.

"What can I do to help, honey?" The older woman asked, "Do you want me to make an appearance? Talk to him? Invite him to dinner, or just hide?"

"I do not know," her daughter replied, "What is a bi-bik, ... a bikini?"

Her mother stared for a moment, "Where in the world did that come from?"

"He mentioned the word twice," Taela said, "as a joke, I think."

-----------------------

Ryan didn't think that he was particularly stressed, but from the good that this was doing him, he surmised that there sure must have been something building up in him. Well, he thought, it's a little hard to wake up out of cryo, find everything messed up beyond belief in a place where normal carries the soundtrack of the average tomb.

Add to that a pilot who might have gone cracked, a crew who'd been ghosted by somebody, and an off-course condition pulling the whole thing down into oblivion with not a peep out of the alarm system -- the very same system that he was supposed to check and that had worked and tested out flawlessly for the six years that they'd tested it. He smelled a rat, but wasn't sure who it might have been, not that it changed anything.

Then to get dumped here on a world where things either didn't much care or they were wanting to eat you or at least scream at you in the darkness. That might add a bit, he reasoned.

And then there was Taela. He shook his head as he stood up to his waist under the stream of very warm water. This was looking as though it might get interesting pretty soon.

He tried, but for the life of him, Ryan couldn't come up with a reason why somebody like him could ever deserve something like this. He knew that he liked her, and was about to wonder why he did -- as much as he quite obviously did.

It came to him that he'd liked Morgarod females from the very first one that he'd laid eyes on. That didn't make much sense and he knew it -- he'd just liked them. The circumstances were beyond awful then; given what was going on at that base when they'd attacked it, but other than feeling the horror of what had been there, he'd found that he liked the way that they looked.

Something brushed against his calf and Ryan froze, looking down. There was something there, but then it seemed to be gone and he felt nothing. He wondered what sort of life form could survive in the almost hot water here to make it a home. It didn't make sense and he wondered if it had just been a plant, one of the ones bobbing at the edge of the pool and the steam. Maybe something had come loose and been swept downstream or something.

He felt it again, this time against his knee, but with the turbulence in the water from the cascade and the mist which rose from the surface here it was impossible to see what was going on.

He lunged for the edge to get out, but found himself under water. Ryan fought off the sense of panic which came to him as he tried to get his head above the warm water. As he did, he felt something just brush against his genitals for a second before whatever it was squeezed there gently for an instant.

He planted his feet on the bottom and scrabbled to the edge, his hand reaching down. There was nothing now.

He pulled himself out and looking back, he saw something rather large move downstream under the surface, but that was all the information that came to his vision. He thought of the creature which had made off with his fishing gear.

Ryan's head spun around when he heard her laughter. A little way off downstream, he saw a section of ripples which didn't seem to fit with the rest, as though they'd been cut and pasted into the scene.

"Only me," she smiled as she faded chuckling into view.

Ryan let out the breath that he'd seemed to have been holding. He felt a little lost as he looked at her, so different, and yet a little familiar. Now that he knew, he could see a little more human in her, though she was by far much closer to a Margaroth. He sat down on a flat rock at the edge of the stream.

"What is wrong?" Taela asked, misinterpreting his expression.

"Nothing," he said as he began to smile, "I guess that I'm just a little blown away."

She rose out of the water to stand up and approach him, but she stopped when his mouth fell open. "Something is wrong," she guessed, but he shook his head.

"No," he smiled, "nothing's wrong. I can't believe what's happened to me, that's all."

She felt her relief as a palpable thing. "I was afraid that I'd done something wrong. I only wanted a little fun. Now I see that it would have shocked you. I didn't think about it from the other side," she said as she waded over to him.

She put her hands on his shoulders and looked at his face, wondering now why she'd seemed to have found so many faults there earlier. "I don't know if you can understand, but I've never had any sort of a friend. To find you was a surprise, and I'm a little afraid to say or do the wrong thing."

She'd done her best to change what she'd wanted to say -- that it had been a surprise to see him looking as he did, when she'd seen only pictures of weakened prisoners. To find that he knew something of Morgaron speech, and that he obviously liked her were huge surprises for which she had no words.

"Don't worry about it too much," Ryan smiled, "I'm just happy." He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her a little closer. "I guess that I'm expecting to wake up out of cryo any time now and find that I've imagined you."

He leaned forward, sliding his hand to one of her breasts to caress it as he kissed it and felt her hands on his head as a sigh escaped her throat. Her skin tasted so good to him.

"You should put your pants and boots on," she said with a lot of regret in her voice, "I don't want to stop, but I'm confused and many other things as well. My mother wishes to meet you."

"Oh crap," he said, pressing his face against the swell of her bosom, "I knew this little dream couldn't go on forever."

"There is something wrong now?" she asked.

"No," he sighed, as he pulled his head back after a last kiss against her breastbone, "I'm trying not to think of how much I feel like I did when I was a kid.

Meeting a girl's parent's," he groaned, "always a treat."

She stepped away and Ryan got to his feet to get dressed. She tried not to look too interested, but she did notice that he had to be a little careful when he closed his pants.

"Can I ask you something, Ryan?"

"Yeah, "he said, "ask me whatever you want to, " he said as he looked over.

"I feel foolish, but that," she nodded, "does that mean that you were hopeful to mate with me, or that you were preparing to? I don't know much about human males. You're the only one that I've ever seen, other than from some pictures."

He chuckled, feeling a little self-conscious, "No, Taela, it doesn't. It means that I like you and I was feeling that. That's all that it means. What you saw was just my body reacting to yours being near to me. It happened all by itself, and there wasn't a thought to it, really."

He grinned, "I think I understand what you're saying, though. I'll just say that if you like the idea, then you can take it as a compliment. It means that I like you on a physical level, how's that?"

She tilted her head a little, "So it means that I am attractive to you?"

It made him laugh to hear it like that, "Yes," he said, "It means that you're very attractive to me, though maybe it's not the best sort of way to offer the compliment, and I didn't do that for that purpose. It just happens to human males. A lot of the time, it's not what we'd want to happen, or it's not the right time or place for it, or sometimes we have a thought, even when we're alone and it happens, or, ..." he shrugged, "it just happens for no reason at all. I don't have much conscious control over that.

But just now, it was because I like you and you were against me." He frowned for a second and then looked at her, "Was that a good answer?"

She nodded with a smile, "Somewhere in there, it was. I heard what I wanted to hear," she said honestly, knowing no other way to say it. "I am attractive to you, enough at least."

He swung his pack on and picked up his rifle, "Enough, huh?"

She looked up and he just couldn't understand the conversation from the viewpoint of any conversation that he'd ever had with a female before. Just for the innocence that slipped by the front that she was trying to affect, he wanted to hug her right off her feet.

"It is not enough? "she asked, suddenly a little confused.

It made him laugh as he placed his ball cap onto her head. She looked out from underneath the peak with a smile as he nodded, "Come on, Taela, take me where I have to go now. It's enough to make my knees weak just to look at you."

------------------------

Taela led Ryan up the slope and into a different corridor. After some twists and turns in the steadily rising hall, he was ushered into a long chamber. To him, it seemed more like a gallery, a long hall with rather crudely shaped walls and along one side, there were windows set at irregular intervals through which the afternoon daylight poured in.

There was furniture, some tables and chairs here and there, some of them upholstered and some bare, all of it well-made, though a touch rustic, as though it had been fashioned more out of a desire for function rather than form, though the simplicity and unsophisticated nature of it was the form or theme all on its own. It was all well-made and sturdy, it just wasn't fancy.

At the opposite end near a doorway, stood two forms. The smaller one, about five feet in height, looked to be a bit of a demonic thing with clawed feet and hands, sand-colored rough skin and a worried expression on its face. It was watching Taela with a friendly though worried expression because of her proximity to Ryan. When it looked at Ryan, it looked really worried and seemed to be trying to get the other person's attention.

That other person was a tall female human, about five feet ten inches or maybe a little more. She stood with her back to Ryan as she looked out through one of the windows. She seemed to be ignoring the efforts of the smaller one. Ryan noted that she had quite a figure, standing in old-looking and faded jeans, wearing a scuffed and ancient-looking flight jacket with many patches sewn onto the back and sleeves. Her long straight hair was almost white.

Ryan wondered if he ought to clear his throat to get her attention.

"That's a hell of a bird I've got standing out there on my terrace," she said, not looking back. "Very impressive entrance you made yesterday too, Mr. McCallum."

The woman turned and walked to Ryan with a smile. He could see a lot of Taela's features in that lovely face. "I'm Betty Rawlins, Captain, 134th Exploration and Mapping Wing.

Well," she smiled, "I used to be. A long time ago, I ended up here and I met Taela's father. He called me Ru'Bett. I used to like that, back then," she smiled for a second.

"But he's been dead for a while now and I'm back to being Betty in my head. Of course, I've always been 'Mom' to Taela," she smiled at her daughter warmly.

Ryan stepped forward and shook the offered hand, "Ryan McCallum," he smiled, "as I guess you already know. I got some mapping data from a beacon as I got close to here yesterday. Whose beacon was that?"

Betty seemed surprised, "That old thing still works?"

"Yes," Ryan nodded, "It's not very strong, but the data sure helped. If you don't mind my asking, - "He looked a little uncomfortable.

Betty smiled, "How is it possible that a twenty-five year-old mapping probe ship pilot crashed on this rock eighty-three years ago -- in earth time - and is still alive all this time later?"

She shrugged, "Damned if I know. I guess all that I can offer you is to say that I sure hope that we can get along. You won't last long in that tin can out there."

She turned to the creature who was peeking out at Ryan from behind her with a smile, "Hey, come and meet Ryan."

The thing looked very shy and worried about being too close to something so tall, from his point of view, but after a few seconds of uncertainty and a little quiet coaxing from Betty, he emerged and stood beside her. She put her arm over his small shoulder so that he'd stay put.

"This is Shorty," she said, "He's a screecher. He's one of the thousands who would eventually smell your blood right through the skin of that shuttle out there. It would take them a while, I'll grant you, but they would get through to you one night."

"Are they after blood or something like that?" Ryan asked as he looked at Shorty. The face wasn't pretty if you looked at it from a human view and applied the points of reference which humans use for this.

TaLtos6
TaLtos6
1,932 Followers