Planetbound by DM Arnold (best contemporary novels TXT) 📕

Nykkyo Kyhana sat in the shuttlecar at the rendezvous coordinates. The craft, designed for Earth missions, resembled a minivan. The resemblance stopped at exterior appearances -- it was a spacecraft, capable of a short warpjump to take him from Earth orbit, past the heliopause and into interstellar space. He knew the tender would be along shortly. Nyk glanced at the trunk-sized canister sitting behind his seat.

He saw a flash and the tender materialized from her warp jump. Nyk manipulated the shuttle's navigational display and plotted an intercept course. The tender's cargo bay door opened and he set the car onto her deck. The spacedoor closed, the bay repressurized and a crewman walked toward him. Nyk opened the door.

“This shuttle's due for service,” the crewman said. “Thanks for bringing it up.”

“Not a problem.”

“The repair depot is programmed into the autopilot.” He looked into the shuttlecar. “What's that?” he asked, pointing to the canister.

“Agricultural samples.”

“Ah, yes -- the mission of an ExoAgent -- to bring plant material to keep our food supply healthy.”

Nyk stepped from the shuttle and belted himself into a jumpseat. A blue lamp indicated the upcoming warp jump. The jump jolted the vessel. The blue indicator lit again to signal another jump.

“We're in orbit around Floran,” the crewman said.

Nyk gave the man a two-fingered salute and climbed into the shuttlecar.

The bay depressurized, the spacedoor opened and Nyk backed the shuttlecar into space. Using the craft's inertial sink he descended toward the single continent on his homeworld. Navigational images flashed on the windscreen.

Nyk switched off the craft's communications and transponders. He cancelled the automatic pilot and took the unistick. Under his control, the craft headed toward the southeast corner of the continent and touched down on a rarely-traveled access roadway outside the small city of Sudal. It was Nadir Meridian -- the dead of night.

The shuttle landed near his intended target. He pushed the unistick forward and drove the car to a circular, dome-shaped structure lined with heavy steel shutters. The shutters were down. He climbed from the shuttlecar and approached the building's entrance. A scanpad read the personal ID chip implanted in his wrist and the door opened.

Nyk pressed a control and the shutters swung up. He climbed back into the shuttlecar and eased it into the lower level of the structure; then, he closed the shutters again. A touch on the rear hatch opened it, and he activated the antigrav fields on the canister.

The container slid from the shuttlecar and he eased it to the floor. He snapped open the catches and lifted the cover. A tear formed on his cheek as he looked at its contents. “Oh, korlyta! I never expected it to turn out like this. I'm so sorry.”

Nyk knelt, grasped the limp body lying in the canister and gently eased her from the fetal position. With one arm under her shoulder blades, he slipped the other under her knees and lifted. He carried her to an upholstered bench, stretched her out and sat, cross-legged on the floor beside her.

He regarded her face -- her eyes were closed, concealing the feature most intriguing to him -- the epicanthic folds giving her eyes their almond shape. Thoughts swirled through his mind as he watched her lay there. The two of them had been so happy just a few days before...

It was late summer on Earth, and a hot day in Queens. Sukiko stepped into the bedroom in her short robe, brushing her raven hair. She tied it into a ponytail, glanced toward Nyk and slipped off her robe. Standing sideways to him, she ran her hands along her belly. “Three months to go.”

“Did I ever tell you how good you look pregnant?” he asked.

“Only about every night.” She slid into bed and snuggled to him. “You know, Nykkyo -- I think Mom has fallen in love with you. I can tell by the way you two interact. She's not like that with everyone.”

“I'm fond of your mom, too. She's a very attractive woman.”

She giggled. “If I didn't know better, I'd say you two had something going on the side.”

“Oh, no -- believe me, if we did -- I'd tell you.”

She pulled away from him. “You're kidding. I was kidding. Please tell me you're kidding.”

“Absolutely not. Our relationship must be built upon trust. I'd never keep anything like that from you.”

“No -- that's not it. Nykkyo -- please tell me on your world a ... physical relationship between a man and his partner's mother isn't the norm.”

“It's not.”

“I'm relieved.” She cuddled to him again.

“But, it's not uncommon, either. We think there's nothing wrong with two people who love each other expressing it by sharing the gift.”

She sat up. “You mean it's all right for -- say, a man to have a sexual relationship with his mother-in-law?”

“It happens quite frequently -- also between a woman and her in-laws.”

“Nykkyo -- this is the first time you've told me something about your culture that makes me feel uncomfortable -- a little weird. Do you desire my mother?”

“I told you -- I think she's a very attractive woman.”

“You do desire her!”

“I think she desires me ... the way she looks at me and touches me.”

“Nykkyo! We're talking about my mother! She's ... she's old enough to be YOUR mother! How could you? How could you desire her?”

“The fact she's older doesn't make her less attractive. I'll bet you'll make a beautiful 60-year-old.”

“But -- you'll be 60, too!”

“Trust me, korlyta -- I'd never approach her that way. I understand Earth attitudes on such, and I'm sure she wouldn't welcome it. I wouldn't do anything to cause you distress.”

“I'm very happy to hear that.”

“I doubt Yasuko would approach me, either.”

“I would hope not.” She cuddled to him.

“Suki -- do we have any photographs of your mother when she was younger? I'll bet when she was your age, she was as pretty as you.”

“I've never seen any. Can we not talk about my mother?”

“Okay -- let's talk about us. Have you considered what I asked you? My divorce is nearly final, so that's no obstacle.”

“Yes. I'm afraid the answer must be no.”

“Why?”

“Because I can't marry Nykkyo Kyhana. I'd have to marry Nick Kane.”

“Nick Kane is who I am on Earth.”

“Not to me. I don't want to live that fiction. Besides, why give up a name like Kyhana for Kane?”

“Why, indeed?”

“You're not angry?”

“No,” he replied. “Your logic makes perfect sense.”

She pulled herself tighter against him and kissed his cheek. “Besides, we don't need a piece of parchment to prove our love.”

“Do you feel like lovemaking tonight?” he asked.

“I'm too warm already. Don't forget -- I have a little furnace inside me. I will if you want it, Nykkyo.”

He shook his head. “I don't need it tonight.” He turned off the light.

“Oohh!” she exclaimed. “Did you feel that?”

“He nearly kicked me out of bed. If he keeps that up -- it'll be a long night.”

Nyk descended the stairs to the kitchen. He poured himself a cup of coffee. “Good morning, Nick,” Suki's mother said to him. “Are you making any progress on the marriage front?”

“She's still saying no.”

“That girl is nuts to refuse you. If a young man like yourself had asked me -- I'd say yes in an eyeblink.”

“She explained her reasons and I agree with them.”

She set a plate of pancakes before him, stood behind him and massaged his shoulders. He heard Suki's footfalls on the stairs. Yasuko stepped to the stove and began cooking more pancakes.

Suki sat beside Nyk and held his hand. “Mom -- how can you stand it? Jeans and long sleeves in this heat?”

“The heat doesn't bother me. What about what you're wearing?”

“I'm going to an air-conditioned office for the day.”

Suki's father joined them. “I just had a call from my associate Fred. Since it looks like it's going to be a hot weekend, he's offered us the use of his summer house on Long Island. I'll pick up the keys today, and we'll head out there this evening, after dinner. It's about a two-hour drive, so we should be there before dusk.”

Nyk sat beside Suki in the back seat of George's Lincoln Town Car as it stopped outside a grey house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. George opened the house and Nyk looked around.

“The master bedroom's there,” George pointed. “This is a guest room you two can use.”

Nyk looked the house over. It had large windows offering a view of the water, and a wide, wrap-around porch. He stepped onto the porch and looked down at the beach.

“Let's open all the windows,” Suki said. “We'll let the breeze through.”

“I'll put our bags in the bedroom,” Nyk said. He stepped into the room and looked around. Suki joined him and embraced his arm. “I know this house.”

“How?”

“From Koichi's journal. He mentions two properties that remained in the Kyhana family for nearly two hundred years. One is the house in Queens. The other is a grey summerhouse on the southern shore of Long Island. I recall his journal entries vividly -- large windows, the wrap-around porch -- the lighthouse visible from the dining room.”

“Koichi owned this house?”

“More correctly -- Koichi's parents will own it. They were the property holders at the time Koichi left on the Centauri mission that resulted in the founding of Floran.”

Suki stretched out on the bed. “It's so romantic -- feeling the breeze waft through the windows and hearing the surf. It's so quiet here.”

“This reminds me of my house on Floran. It's situated on a bluff overlooking the sea. The house has a name -- the locals call it the Residence. There's no other place like it in all of Sudal. It was built for my dad as a reward for his work for the Food Service.”

“Is it like this?” she asked.

“Not at all -- the place is circular, with a domed roof. There are three levels -- the upper two have no outside walls. The rooms are open and look out over the sea. Around the outside are a set of shutters we can drop in case of inclement weather.” He lay on the bed beside her and took her hand. “I loved going to sleep to the sound of the surf, and waking to my world's golden sunrise.”

“I love making love to the sound of the surf,” she said.

He looked at her. “Have you done much of that?”

“Never -- but I know I'm going to love it.”

Nyk carried a basket of towels to the beach. He stretched one out on the sand, slipped off his shirt and lay it.

Suki approached him. “I have some sunscreen. We haven't had much sun exposure this summer, and I think you should use this. Let me put some on your legs.” She squirted some of the lotion into her palms and began running her hands up and down his legs. “Mmm...”

“Mmm?” he replied.

“Mmmmmm! It struck me how pretty your legs are.” She began smearing the lotion onto his chest. “I've always liked legs -- I guess I'm a leg girl. Yours would look good on a woman, Nykkyo.” She looked up at him. “I meant that as a compliment.”

“I'll accept it as such. Don't worry about offending my manhood. A Floran's gender identity isn't nearly as strong as on Earth. Yours are pretty, too.”

“I'm happy with them -- they're short, but they look good. When I was in high school, I was on the swim team -- because I liked how I looked in a swimsuit, and I liked showing them off. I also liked being around other girls in swimsuits. That girl I had my first lesbian encounter with was on the swim team from another school.”

“I recall you telling me of her.”

She capped the bottle of lotion and lay beside him. “Don't you want to go into the water?”

He shook his head. “Florans aren't swimmers. The water on my world has a bad smell, and most of the natives abhor it. I don't mind the smell, but I've never been comfortable in the water.”

“The ocean's pretty cold, anyway,” she said. “It's warmer on the north shore -- by Long Island Sound. But, it's prettier -- and, cleaner -- here.”

“Look at your folks,” Nyk said, pointing. George and Yasuko were running and splashing in the surf.

“They look young again,” she replied. “Do you think we'll behave like that when we're their age?”

“I hope we behave exactly as we do now.”

Nyk sat with Suki in the Town car as Suki's father drove toward Queens. “George -- how would one acquire a property like your friend's beach house?”

“I'm not up on real estate