Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 04

"If it's not too close to you," Ryan said quietly, "What happened to Taela's father?"

Betty looked even more uncomfortable. She looked away for a moment, and Ryan was about to apologize and try to change the subject. He wanted to kick himself over his nosiness now.

"You're going to have to see a few things differently here," she said sadly, "My male was the leader of a squadron of fighters. They were either towed behind the large ship, sipping fuel from it, or they flew nearby if there was a threat, sort of like a combat air patrol does around a base or one of those old aircraft carriers way back when on Earth.

To have that job and it's responsibility, he had to demonstrate a lot of prowess, skill, and ability. He was a superb warrior among them. They'd gotten lost and were running out of fuel. They chose this planet and he was here with his fighter craft to oversee the landing of the large ship.

As the weeks went past before they arrived, the other fighters either never returned from their scouting trips to look for better places, or they just cut the unmanned ships all loose, one by one to conserve fuel for the entry burn into this atmosphere. He'd warned them that it was important to have enough, but they'd used up a lot of the little that they had left.

The crash wasn't too bad, but almost everyone else had been injured in some way -- the ones who'd survived. Ru'Torgh did his best for his people, but they all died off, either from their injuries or they were killed off by the creatures here. Soon, he was all that was left, and he was alone here for maybe twenty Earth years before I came along, nursing a probe ship with engine troubles.

So we met and we fell in love and lived about as happily ever after as you can on this rock, him and me. My daddy taught me how to shoot the eyes out of a snake at a hundred yards, and I always liked to go hunting with him back home anyway, so it wasn't that much different with Ru'Torgh here, other than what would happen if we actually killed something. I could shoot better than he could - a lot better, since his way got us a lot of scorched meat. We'd hunt together and once whatever it was had been butchered, well I knew what was coming next. We'd screw until we just couldn't anymore.

We tried to get me pregnant a lot. It sounds funny that way, since we were screwing like crazy all of the time anyway, but we did want to have children. It's an amazingly powerful urge in all creatures. I managed to get pregnant a few times, but I'd usually spontaneously abort. The two which were born alive at all were the ones which would break our hearts to see them die.

I'd already given up. Not on making love like nuts, but I really didn't want to get pregnant anymore. It was just too hard to live through when my baby died. But then it happened, and Taela was born. She tells me that you know Morgaron, so you know what her name means.

You're here now," she said, "and believe me, I look at you like something that Santa Claus never was at Christmas, because you're so much more. Taela will fall in love with you and may already be a lot of the way there. I hope that you'll be as good for her as I think that you will be. Today, I heard her laugh over something that you said or did. I only heard it in the passageway, but I can tell you that I haven't heard her make a sound like that in years. It's a hell of a thing to be the only one of a kind that requires sex and love to flourish. I'm beginning to think that you're the hope that she didn't know that she had in her.

I know that she's different from human girls, but she's also more than that, and I hope that if there comes a time when you both want children that it'll be more possible than it was for me.

What killed Ru'Torgh finally wasn't old age -- since that doesn't seem to happen here for reasons that I can't figure out. It wasn't a fall down a cliff or a lightning bolt or even one of the things that would love to eat us.

It was his woman."

Betty looked over at Ryan, seeing the shock spreading across his features. She nodded, "It was me. He was near to losing his mind and I put him away before he could do any more damage."

She looked out of one of the windows for a moment. "Remember what I said about looking at things a little differently here.

Being on a world by yourself tends to change your point of view with regard to how your society looks at things -- since that society is not here to look down on you and all. Something happened one day that took me a little while to work out. But once I put it together, I guess that it sealed my male's fate.

Screechers aren't all that strong all alone, most of them. But they're very cagey. They're impossible to fight off if there are a lot of them all trying to get the meat off your bones while it's warm, but by themselves, a human or Morgarod male is stronger than almost all of them. The trouble is that while you're holding their arms, they'll use their longer necks to lean in and rip your face right the fuck off.

When I made my mapping and observation passes over this world, I saw them from above on the night side of the planet. I thought that they were some sort of birds. They look like that from above, and I was a good way up, so I classified them incorrectly. They're mammalian, some very primitive flying sort of humanoid.

Every once in a while, they get it into their little heads to attack us. It never works, but like I said, they're not all that bright. They bash their tiny brains out against the shutters and the rock of the mountain. In the morning, we go out and toss their half-eaten bodies over the steep edge. I say half-eaten because they do that to each other. As soon as one of them injures themselves, the rest rip him or her apart before they go back to trying to get in. They leave an awful mess.

Sometimes, there's one or two outside who are still alive and suffering, mostly. We just kill them and toss them over like the rest. But one day, early in the morning, a few of them stayed. Dawn was just about to catch them all in the daylight and they get disoriented as anything and can't fly worth spit then. They crash into everything because they're blinded by the sunlight.

I opened one of the shutters a little and there was a very small one of them with a busted wing and a female over top of him trying to keep the others off. The rest were trying to get to him, but he'd wedged himself into a niche in the rock and until she died, that female was doing her damndest to protect him. I went out and shot the shit out of the others before I looked at them, thinking to put them out of their misery.

That one screecher is scared to death of weapons and has been ever since. It was Shorty and he was flickering right there in front of me. He was trying to disappear, he just didn't know how.

I got my gun up, but I just couldn't do it. I thought that he must have been along with the others on his first feeding flight, since he was very young, more like a little boy compared to the others. I just suddenly knew that the female was his mother. She was dying with most of her insides on the stone all around her. She looked at me in the strangest way and then she died.

Shorty was crying like a baby about a minute later when he figured out that she was dead. It was his face that got me, and the way that he wasn't shrieking out his fear and hatred of me. He didn't even try to bite me as I helped him out of that little place, he just cried hopelessly."

Betty looked at Ryan for a long moment. "I've seen them die before, Ryan, lots of them.

Screechers don't cry. They can't.

Their tear ducts are only to keep their eyes wet when they fly. And for damn certain, Ryan, they can't hide themselves like Morgarods. His wing was busted and there wasn't anything that I could do about that at the time. Ru'Torgh came out because of the noise of my shooting and as soon as he saw the female, I could see that there was something in his face like horror. Ru'Torgh wasn't afraid of anything and he'd never been.

He told me to kill the young one, but I told him no. He got furious with me and went inside for his own weapon. When he came out, he found me on my knees, holding Shorty as he cried and shook against me. Ru'Torgh bellowed at me to move away so that I wouldn't get shot.

I drew my sidearm and pointed it at his face.

I didn't ask. I told him that I was going to care for this young screecher, and that if anything happened to him, then Ru'Torgh had better be prepared to kill me right afterward. He stared at me for a moment and then he turned and left to go hunting.

When I got Shorty cleaned up and had a good look at him, I was almost sure of what had happened. I just didn't know how it was possible. I put him in my bed when he finally fell asleep and I covered him with my blanket so that he could smell me on it. I asked Taela to watch over him for me and to keep him in the room if she could.

Then I loaded up and I went after Ru'Torgh.

It took me half a day, but it was my proxalert that pointed me to him. I was red-hot over the way that he'd threatened and yelled at me and though it went against all of the things that I knew about genetics, I finally found what else he'd been hunting for. He eventually told me that some years before, he'd found a female screecher and he'd dragged her out into the sunlight and tied her down so he could fuck her. I couldn't believe it.

I asked him how long he'd been at this little hobby that he had going. He glared at me and he told me that he'd been doing it for years, that he liked to do it very much and that he usually killed the things afterward.

But he said that he didn't kill them all. He told me that it happened now and then that he'd set them free because sometimes they liked it and he let those ones go, hoping to find them again sometime."

Betty fought back a sob, willing herself to go on, "I've never told Taela any of this," she said, "She doesn't know it, but I'm almost sure that little Shorty is her half-brother somehow. That's why he looks just a little different from the rest. That's why he can hide like she can. He grew up to be bigger than most males, and that's why he's smarter and he knows what love is.

I was in shock and so upset that I was shaking, but Ru'Torgh wasn't done yet. He told me that we couldn't expect for things here to be the way that society dictated it to be when there are groups. Since we were all alone here, he told me that he'd raise his daughter to be the perfect huntress and that he'd take her hunting alone with him. He said that in this way, there would be children, since I couldn't seem to make them with him.

It was the worst day of my life, Ryan. None of this was the person that I'd been living with for all of our time together.

As he spoke, I realized that he'd been acting a little more oddly every day. I assumed that he'd been truthful about the screechers that he'd used.

No matter what else, I also had to assume that he would do what he said he intended to do. In all of the time that I'd known him, he'd always done what he said that he would. Taela was just a girl then, about ten years old. There was no way that I'd allow any of the shit that he was talking to happen, not while I was breathing.

Betty wiped her eyes with her hands and she looked out of the window again. Ryan watched her face as it hardened.

"I emptied my weapon into Ru'Torgh. I blew his legs to shit so that I'd get the chance to stay out of his reach, and then I loaded up again. I worked my shots until I had only two left in it and one more magazine in my pocket.

I killed my male myself.

The horror wasn't over for me yet, though. As soon as he was dead on the ground, something long and black slithered out of his ear. I shot the shit out of that too before I threw up.

So I killed my husband. I wish I'd have known before what the problem was -- then again, I don't know if I could have done it then.

I took Ru'Torgh's hunting gear and I left him there while I still had some daylight. I went back to finish raising my daughter and to care for Shorty. Not long after, I found my supply of morphine and after a lot of calculation, I gave it to him and then I tried my best to fix his wing. He still can't take off from a standing start, but he can go a ways if he runs a little for a takeoff, and he can glide really well. He just can't ever go home, and he knows that. He can fly, but not as well as a healthy screecher.

Like I said," Betty nodded as she looked at Ryan, "things are different here. That's why I'm really happy that you're here for Taela. I hope I haven't shocked you with the tawdry little background that she knows nothing about. She thinks that her father was killed while he was off hunting, and she doesn't know about Shorty."

She shrugged, "I guess I may as well tell you the rest. Screechers are very prolific. They fuck like little demons or something. Unlike a human boy who discovers his little toy pretty early on in his life, a screecher male only thinks that it's for peeing or something until he's hit puberty."

She sat down and leaned forward to look Ryan in the eye as she spoke. "Shorty wasn't there yet when I took him in. Taela was just a young girl at the time, and I wasn't about to have any of that going on between them."

She looked at the table and saw the pack of cigarettes lying there with the little lighter. "May I?" she asked.

Ryan nodded, "Of course," he said.

She took one and looked at it. "I haven't had one of these in so long," she said with a smile, "I was about ready to rip the hoses out every time that I came out of cryo, dying to have one. You know how cryo makes you want things when you come out, ... Some girls can't keep their hands away from themselves then and need a good rub. Guys are the same, aren't they?"

"Yeah," Ryan smiled, a little self-consciously, "The deep-space pilot and I used to get together then for that, though there wasn't anything else between us."

Betty nodded, "Well I used to be like that too, but I'd wake up alone on a ship. I'd need to masturbate AND have a smoke, along with a cup of coffee, and a whole box of preservative-soaked pastry. It was just awful."

She lit a cigarette and smiled, "I doubt that I'll get cancer from the few that you've brought, and frankly, I don't give a shit.

So what I want you to know, Ryan B. McCallum, who has come out of the sky like a mother's dream, is that in my view of things, something wonderful is almost bound to happen between you and my daughter -- the one with the hope in her heart. Don't you dare fuck this up and break that heart, because I'm sure that you'll find that she's not like any girl that you've ever known, aside from the appearance that I know you like.

She's more like a Morgarod on the outside, though she's pretty human in many ways as well. She ovulates like they do, and that's a long cycle, more than five times longer than human females, but that's not the important thing here.

What you need to know is that I'm almost sure that Taela will handle this thing between you in their way. That means that at some point, she may choose you as a mate. I know that sounds stupid out here, since there aren't exactly a dozen males for her to choose from, but that doesn't matter. If she chooses you, that means that she's come to a decision.

Unlike humans, Morgarods mate for life, and I don't mean in the human way. From what I know, there aren't any divorce lawyers on Morgaron. Once they choose, they devote themselves to each other, so you ought to think about that.

And by the way, you can ask her to show you the files on her system about their mating habits if you want, but I can save you some time.

They know what they want, and they want a lot of it, so don't step up if you can't keep up is all I'm saying.

I'm not going to be like any other girl's mother. If and when it happens for you both, you'll find that I'll be happy to just love the two of you to death and do anything to help while keeping my nose out of things between you. Of course, you know that she'll come to me for advice and all, that's just the way that it goes, but for damn sure; I'm not going to look down on you for anything, unless you start screwing the wildlife around here too.

The garden out back in the crater is a wonderful place to make love," she said, "It's nice in the daytime and it's very romantic at night. But if you go there for that after dark, you ought to stay in the little hidden places that Taela knows about there and you can't go there too often, or the screechers will try to get through the wire.

Oh, and I ought to tell you so that it's not too much of a shock. Taela knows this part, just not who I'm sure that Shorty is to her. I've always told her that it's forbidden to mess with him, either to play a joke on him because he's so innocent and trusting, or in any physical way. She's always been good about that, because she asked me why one night and I just told her that he's mine. I used to take him to my bed so that there wasn't any sneaking around on his part. I knew that the idea would come to him at some point."

She picked up one of the empty fruit salad cans for an ashtray before she drew on the cigarette again and exhaled. "And speaking of screwing the wildlife around here, it wasn't true at the time that I told her that, but one night, when I'd been feeling really lonely and needy and he was as mature as he was ever going to get, I just let it happen.

Before that, when he'd get excited at some point every night, I'd help him with my hands. From there, I began to take him with me for a bath, and that's when I found out that screechers have amazing tongues. He can buzz his tongue while he licks and it just shakes me to pieces.

Once we'd gone that far, well I just started using my mouth on him, since I've always loved to do that anyway, and the next thing I knew he was fucking me. We're lovers, Ryan. I seem to have aged really well for whatever reason, but I'm long past having any more kids. I'm well into menopause, but I'm not dead yet. I fuck with that sweet little guy far, far more than I ever did with his father, and that's saying something. He's not as big, but he's hard and he can last a good while, so we're happy with each other.

I guess that it serves a bit of a purpose," she smiled, "It means that Taela doesn't know about how to make love to somebody like you, other than the mechanics of it. She's not a virgin, since she's had a toy to help her get to sleep for a few years and I know that she's gotten it into her deep enough.

Since she's honored what I asked of her with respect to Shorty, I'm going to make a promise to her that the human male who has come here suddenly is all hers, though you probably wouldn't dream of it any way else. Like I said, she doesn't know, so I'd appreciate it if you could keep that little secret, and you'll find a friend in me for it."

Ryan sat across from her, thinking. It was the strangest thing that he'd heard in a good long while, but he knew that Betty had been telling him the truth of it.

"It might be that he was just happy that I gave him the can of fruit salad, "Ryan said a little carefully, "But when he hugged me, I uh, ... I guess that it excited him a little."

She looked at him and nodded, "I saw that. I wouldn't worry about it if you just discourage him gently. He does know in a strange way about what's right and wrong here in this screwed up little family. But there's something else that I guess I should have told you.

Morgarods, when they're faced with their own certain deaths, well they tend to get a bit cold and spiteful. They like to toss out a taunt before they go -- an insult or two, something like that. Ru'Torgh told me that the female that had protected Shorty was one of his favorites. She liked to look for him sometimes, he said, and if she saw him coming, she'd drop down out of the tree that she was in and wait for him in some shade.