Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 09

Daniella went back to licking them, but she had trouble with the visual of the ceremony and it caused her to have to stop whenever her need to laugh overcame her.

---

Maria lay sleeping with a content expression. On the other side of the bed, Daniella opened her eyes and looked at D'Jymm, having felt his gaze on her.

She smiled and rolled toward him slowly, stopping when she was against him to reach across so that she could hold him.

"It was a delightful party. Thank you very much."

He smiled, "I enjoyed it. It only began to improve when you came and it really got going when you convinced Maria to come."

She stared a little, "You knew about that?"

He nodded, "Not a great leap to make, if you think about it. So what do you want? To try at the trading world or to go on with me to see what it is like where others of my large family are living? One would be something like life as you know it, but the idiots are not so well armed there.

"The other would be more of an unknown for you. The people would be almost all like me and the language would be foreign to you."

She shrugged, "It depends on what I would be to you. I am beginning to come to grips with a want that I find inside myself, but I don't know if such a thing is allowed there. I am a little prepared to be stared at, but I would not want you to be embarrassed by me and my little son."

He smiled, "It would be allowed. What about the speech?"

She thought for a moment, "If this is allowed and you are saying that you like the thought, then I would do my best to learn your language, if my human mouth can say the hard words and still be partially understood by everyone. But what about -"

He sighed and stretched languidly for a moment, "I can't think that I would be embarrassed. We are different, but it's not important to me. I would feel pride there, not shame to be seen with you. To the eyes of the Shm'Sha, you would be seen as incredibly lovely and quite exotic.

Children anywhere are usually more accepting of differences than their parents. I do not think that your boy had very many chances to make any friends. Either place would be better than this, I think."

She stretched a little to kiss him.

"If you are saying what I hope that you are, then I am very happy, D'Jymm. I would be proud to be seen anywhere with you."

She put her leg over his hip and reached between them to hold his sheath, "I think that I could manage to say the same thing in a quieter way."

He smiled and shook his head a little, "Thank you, but I like this as we are here. And I fear to wake the love demon here in our bed. I assume that I am to have two females in this pack of ours? Let us allow her a little rest. I will choose my moment to ask her once we are all rested."

Daniella nodded and pulled herself against him with a sigh as she closed her eyes.

---

He eventually found that he had a real problem.

The way that the steel conduits ran was not haphazard in any way. Each one was pretty much exact in where it went and how long it was in each case. D'Jymm was skilled enough to duplicate the intentionally meandering course of the piping; he could bend up a length complete with the long half-twisty dogleg sections, the sweeping curves and the precise ninety degree bends from one direction leading into the next - and then the forty-five degree bend downward to the place where the fitting was to receive it. That was all fine.

He sat crouched in the access way under one of the engine mounts holding up a finished tube to where it would eventually go. He was inside one of the "wing" spars, right inside of the wing, if you wanted to call it that.

They could make a little lift in atmosphere, but in space they didn't. They just provided the proper distance away from the centerline of the hull so that the thrust of the engines exerted enough moment of force to rotate or bank the hull with the right amount of authority.

With the rain beating down on the outer skin, the sound level where he crouched was cacophonic.

He knew that what he'd crafted would fit perfectly once the length of it was fitted and the connectors at both ends were tightened. For now, it was just an empty length of tubing.

But there were seventeen fine fibre-optic lines to carry the multiplexed reading values from forty-nine sensors back to the controlling processor and there were another eight multiplexed fibre-optic lines going out with command signals from the processor to the servos and actuators to provide the instructions to the engine.

And then there were the eleven thin wires and the three slightly thicker wires to supply the power busses to everything.

All in one conduit with room left to prevent overheating from the wiring itself.

That was the problem. The overheating had happened anyway. He knew that just the act of disconnecting the cabling at either end so that he could remove the pipe section in order to make a new one had probably completed the damage and ruined the cabling.

Without that, and there were two others like it that also needed replacement, he was a pedestrian.

Getting all of them inside of the conduit was beyond difficult. And once he'd accomplished that task - if it ever happened - there was then the same thing to do on the other engine's conduit replacement.

Only, being as that engine was for the other side of the vessel, everything was a mirror image of the first one.

Only the rear main engine had the more straightforward run of tubing. And he doubted that he had the three weeks that he now thought that these tasks would require.

He sat crouched with his back to the wall of the compartment, feeling defeated. Unless the weather stopped dumping rain in this area and the mud up the slope suddenly dried out and firmed up - oh, and if the federales didn't find him in the time that it took him to get all of this work done ...

He didn't like to admit defeat, but it seemed to be upon him now.

Maria came into the space and stood next to him. "What is wrong?"

He looked up, "I do not have the skill for this next part."

She leaned down and kissed him, "There is a man outside. He comes with two others, a man and a woman, both young. The older one says that he knows this kind of ship and he asks if there is anything that he can help you with. I think that he means that he can maybe help if you have trouble. I also think that he wants to help you if we take the young ones with us when we go."

D'Jymm was about to tell Maria to send the old fool on his way. In fact, he turned his head to say it, but the act brought her mound into his field of vision. He smiled and leaned against her thigh, still looking at her lovely dark cameltoe. He kissed the short fur over her pubic bone before he leaned his head against her belly for a moment before standing up to take her hand and lead her out of the noise.

"Please stand there for a moment," he said indicating a four step up in the floor to a turn at the top since the flooring in the wing section was lower than the main hall.

She did and turned around as he stood at the level of the wing section floor. It brought her pelvis height to the range where he could slouch a little and he did that so that he could hold her hips and kiss her lower belly a little more. She smiled down and ran her fingers over his head and ears.

"You know," he said quietly, "I am captivated by this part of you."

He shook his head at what he'd just said and Maria laughed quietly as he did.

"And apparently the mere act of only looking at it in admiration can turn me into an even bigger idiot," he said with a bit of embarrassment.

"I wanted to ask you if you would consider coming along with Daniella and I when we leave - if we ever leave." He said, "I do not like the thought of leaving you and Steffi behind. Daniella's little boy would be devastated; the whole idea upsets me, really."

She sighed as she watched his long snout come to her vulva slowly. When she felt the warm exhalation through his nose, she moved one of her legs to provide some room. "I am thinking that now, I might wish to live on a trading world that I know of," he said.

He looked at her lips there and groaned, "I am beginning to doubt my ability to be very far from either of you for very long. I like to watch you and your cousin as you do anything. The things that you say to each other in even ordinary and mundane conversations holds my attention. The little caresses that you and she pass between you says much to me about how you love each other."

Maria chuckled softly, "Maria loves that part of me too, and she always tells me so ... " She rolled her eyes, but it wasn't an unkind thing. "I was going to come to beg you if we could come, Steffi and me.

"My connection with Daniella comes from our mothers." She said as she caressed his head, "They were sisters and they were beyond close, just as their daughters are. They were open about it with us, though we weren't to tell anyone. They loved their husbands but they also loved each other intimately. It was just what was around Daniella and I when we were children. We never thought of it."

She eased her head back against the wall that she was leaning against as his tongue began to drive her to her pleasure.

--

He walked along the corridor and slowed as he came to the alcove by the entrance hatch.

There was a tall Caucasian man in a dripping poncho there looking back at him from under the hood, just pulling it back now. He looked very fit and lean, though older, by what he knew of humans and their physiology. There were lines on his face and he had close cropped white hair ... which matched the ...

D'Jymm paused a second, trying to recall the descriptive term that he'd once read in a human novel, a work of fiction which called itself a 'space western' on it's back cover.

He remembered then and began to show a small Anubian smile at the thought.

A droopy gunslinger's mustache.

That was the term.

Being what he was, even with his experience on Earth, he knew what a mustache was, but had no idea about the rest of it.

There were a pair of young people with him, a woman and a man, also wearing ponchos. They were both shorter than the older man and by the little that D'Jymm knew of humans and their assorted varieties; they looked to be local for around here. At the moment, they were both absorbed in staring at the first Shm'Sha that they'd ever seen.

For his part, D'Jymm was a little astounded as well. "Who ... How did you ...?"

"Lucas Rawlins," the man said.

D'Jymm said his name and Lucas held up his other hand with a chuckle, "I'll just settle for D'Jymm.

"I understand a little of your people. Somehow the first names are usually, if not always at least a little inside the range of possibility for a human like me to be able to grasp and pronounce."

He looked down for a second and then back up with a grin, "And somehow your last names are pretty much outside what's possible for us to say. I don't want to seem rude, so I'm just going to call you D'Jymm if that's alright."

D'Jymm shook hands with the other two, who looked a little nervous but appeared to be adamant to act correctly.

"What are you doing here?" D'Jymm asked, "How did you get here?"

Lucas said, "We've been tracking you for the past few days.

"I was sitting in my helo, stuck in between two rocky foothills a few nights ago. Mostly, I was hoping that I wouldn't get either blown straight out of the only little bit of calm that I'd been able to find when that hurricane got really nasty and hoping like hell that there wouldn't be a mudslide from up above me on the mountain.

"I was sitting there, too nervous to sleep when you blew down out of the clouds and roared on down the pass," he said. "After the first bit, I got to thinking, wondering why you did that and I guessed that you might be trying to stay hidden. Then I thought about a purpose, trying to think that you might actually have had someplace to go, where it might be and why."

"This is a pretty big bird for around these parts, D'Jymm. I was thinking that if it were me, I'd want a place to hide out till the hurricane is done. Then I thought of that old refinery out there and after that, I wondered if you're here and not there," he pointed upward toward the sky, "because you need something and you don't want everybody coming around to ask you sticky questions."

D'Jymm thought about just telling the man some tale, but he had the thought that the old man must be pretty bright to have managed all of that deduction.

"What is your interest in me and what I do?" he asked.

Lucas shrugged, "I recognised your vessel. I don't mean this particular one. I mean the type. There was a military version, a lower mid-sized freighter made for the fleet. They're a good design, though I'm pretty sure that they're all out of service by now. I was a maintenance tech back then. Had black hair then too.

"The first chance I got in the morning, I flew home. I've got a little place about sixty miles from here. I flew home, packed a few things and tools, grabbed the kids and drove back here with my floater."

D'Jymm tilted his head, "Why do you call these two 'kids'? They look to be - "

"They're twenty-one, both of them, Lucas said, "I call them my kids, is all."

"Why are you here?" D'Jymm asked, deciding to get one of the big questions out of the way.

The man shrugged, "I retired at fifty-one. I got time, if nothing else. When I finished working, I'd planned to retire so me and the missus could do some traveling. We did for a little while, but then ..."

D'Jymm reached out and touched the man's shoulder, "Maybe you should leave now."

Lucas looked startled, "What's wrong?"

"There is more that you might wish to learn about my kind," the Anubian said, "We are not known for a great store of personal patience. I have a problem as you guessed. What I do not have enough of, if you keep talking about your life, is the time required to effect the replacement.

"If you claim to have knowledge and ability with regard to this craft, then please know that I am prepared to talk about an exchange or perhaps payment, maybe even passage to somewhere other than this planet.

"What I do not have is time to listen while worrying about the mud and rock which is above me on that mountain. Do you want the work or not?

"In three words or less, if you please."

"Yes," the old man said.

"Now that we've met you, I can see that I was at least mostly correct in my thinking and if you'll allow me, I'd say that you want to get away from here as fast as you can. I know that most of the Anubians here have left - or are at least making plans for it. You circumstances can't be that different from most of the others."

"Like I said, I watched you breeze on in during the height of that storm and once I guessed what you might be up to, I thought that maybe I'd see if I could help."

D'Jymm was listening, but he was also trying to sift through what he'd heard. "So you came to see if you could help me in some way, but you had to go back to your home for tools and your family. Please speak to me plainly. I do not want to misunderstand."

"Alright," Lucas said, "fair enough. My children need a place to set down roots and really begin their lives. We're hoping that you intend to leave this world. I know about what happened where you come from so I know that you can't go back there. Are you going anyplace where there are humans? If not, would you consider taking them with you and dropping them off somewhere else on this one?"

D'Jymm shook his head, "I wish to leave as soon as I can - before the mountain behind us covers me in mud. I have three problems to repair so that I can leave in some safety and not as a ball of flame. The sensor piping on all of the engines is in need of replacement. I took tubing from the refinery, but getting the wiring inside will be difficult and I have little time. I do not intend to land again anywhere on this world. If I can avoid detection, I will go to a small trading world before I travel farther. There are humans there.

D'Jymm leaned forward a little and tilted his head as he looked at all three of them, "Does what I am not bother you?"

The younger ones shook their heads, though D'Jymm was not completely convinced.

Lucas shook his head as well, "No and I can help you. I am very familiar with this vessel and her systems. They need a place to start."

"And what do you need?" the Anubian asked.

"I want to see them make something of themselves where they have a chance," the old man said evenly, "I don't know Shm'Sha well at all, but I know that there have been dealings between your world and this one for about a hundred years. I'd say that our kinds can get along."

Lucas laughed quietly, "Why shouldn't we? I've never met a Shm'Sha before. Never heard anything bad about them. Hell, I like that you speak English. So what's the trouble?"

The Anubian said, "Wiring. Come, I will show you the problem."

---

Lucas smiled and bowed his head as he accepted a container of beer from Daniella, "Well the original conduits that you mentioned were on the way out because those engines are the military versions. They come with over fifty percent more power than the civilian ones. Of course, they make more heat because of that and I'm gonna guess here and suggest that you never found the cooling line that's supposed to be in that conduit to keep the temperature down inside the piping.

D'Jymm stared a little and nodded, "I found nothing like that in the conduits."

Lucas shrugged, "Somebody probably bought those units as surplus and didn't add the cooling line during the refit. Without that, you burn things up sooner or later. I can run one in."

"The other problem," D'Jymm said, "is that I cannot even begin to get the cabling into the piping - even without the cooling line. It just will not go, and there are so many bends in the piping that I cannot push a stiff metal line through so that I can pull everything into the pipe."

Lucas tipped up his bottle and then set it down. "We call that a fish. You might not see the reason, but the name means that you use a fish wire to fish through to the other end, hook up whatever you want to pull through and pull it back. But if there are too many bends you can't get the fish through."

D'Jymm nodded sadly.

"You don't need a fish, D'Jymm," Lucas smiled, "for a job like that, you need a trained mouse."

D'Jymm blinked, "You mean to say a ... small rodent can be made to ..."

Lucas shook his head, "No more than I mean that using a fish means training an aquatic animal to pull wire.

"Gonna need a source of compressed air, a hose, a roll of electrical tape if you've got any and a nozzle. The end of the nozzle will need to be able to fit inside the pipe. Oh yeah and I'ma need some cloth, not a big piece, just something clean and dry - and scissors if you have a set. The wire that you need is gonna have to be Teflon insulated for the heat. You got any of that?"

D'Jymm nodded, "About twenty spools."

"Good," Lucas smiled. "Last of all, I'll need something like twine or string, about forty feet long."

---

They laid out the spools of wire and fibre-optic cabling in an organised array out on the floor. Lucas pulled a single multi conductor wire from a spool and when he had it long enough despite the twists and turned that it would need to make, he cut it off and laid it out at the other end of the engine.

"That's the tow line if you want to think of it like that. We'll use it again for the other engines. Now use wire markers to ID each thing you're pulling in." He looked at his daughter, "Carlita, make sure to label the spools so that they match the wire markers so we know we're not missing anything or have any mixed up."