The Altian Plague by DM Arnold (that summer book TXT) 📕

to the floor. Kronta embraced the chancellor. “Mr Kronta, it is with great pleasure that I bestow upon you ... the Chancellor's Medallion.” One of her ax'amfin attendants handed the chancellor a flat box. She opened it, slipped a ribbon over Illya's head and gestured toward the podium.

Kronta gazed at the assembly. “Madame Chancellor -- I'm just a bureaucrat and one a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Because this virus was tested if not created on Earth, and because our efforts involved several planets -- my role on the ExoAgency Oversight Committee and within the administration of the ExoService meant that I was chosen to head this task force. Our group started small, but grew with the scope of our response. Too many participated to recognize them all. However I would like to extend thanks to the following individuals for their contributions.

“Mr Nykkyo Kyhana, Assistant ExoAgent-in-Chief for North American Operations.” An usher gestured to Nyk and led him to join Kronta. “Nykkyo was the first to identify the virus as a potential biological weapon. He also served as liaison to Lexal as that colony prepared for a terrorist attack. Nyk -- come shake hands with the High Chancellor and receive your medallion.”

Nyk extended his hand. The chancellor grasped it. “Thank you,” she said. Her consort handed her a box and she withdrew an object and slipped it around Nyk's neck. He looked down and saw the palm-sized disk of enamel and stones.

“Thank you,” Nyk replied and stood beside Kronta.

“Next, the team that developed the vaccine -- Drs Kurso Aahhn, Geov Helsyn and Senta Tibran.” The three were escorted to the floor and received their medallions. “Finally -- a brave young woman who volunteered to test the vaccine by exposing herself to live virus, and nearly paid the ultimate price. Her courageous actions paved the way for the treatment protocol, used with such success on Lexal. Andra Baxa, please come forward.”

Andra stepped to the podium and embraced one of the attendants. Her colleague handed a box to the chancellor, who slipped the medallion around Andra's neck. She curtsied and stood with the others as the delegates rose and applauded.

Nyk sat between Andra and Suki as the monorail train sped southward toward Sudal. Across and facing them were Senta and Dyppa, engaged in conversation. Suki held Nyk's medallion and examined it. “You're the only one coming home empty-handed, Sukiko,” Andra said. “I hope you're not disappointed.”

“Not at all,” Suki replied. “I'm coming home with you and Nykkyo safe and healthy. I'd give a dozen medals for that.” She squeezed Nyk's hand. “I'm proud of you, Nykkyo. I was in the public gallery blubbering away when she put this around your neck. I'm proud of you all.”

“You can hold onto it for me while I'm on Earth,” he said.

“Senta -- this is your second Chancellor's Medallion,” Andra said. “I thought you could only receive one.”

“It was a different chancellor,” Nyk explained. “Each High Chancellor designs his or her own medallion and determines who receives them. Some hand them out like party favors.”

“Not this chancellor,” Andra replied.

“Dyppa -- let me see yours,” Suki said. Dyppa slipped hers from around her neck and Suki compared them. “I think yours is prettier.” She handed it back to her.

“You can hold it for me while I'm on Earth, too,” Dyppa said.

“How do you think Wygann's program will sit on Altia?” Senta asked.

“What I like about it is,” Dyppa replied, “he's not telling us what to do with the aid. Other aid attempts failed because the colonies or the HL would come in and mandate this thing or that. We don't like others telling us who should run our government, how to hold elections or what to do about unemployment.”

“Just cooling the rhetoric will help, don't you think?” Nyk asked.

“Oh, certainly -- as will the fact Wygann and Prime Minister Kyle are speaking to each other instead of at each other.”

“Do you think other Altians will feel as you do?”

“If this program is announced properly, I think most of us will give it a chance.”

“Do you think any Altians will take Wygann's offer of guest worker status?” Senta asked.

“I think we'll leap at the opportunity,” Dyppa replied. “I know I would -- if I didn't already have a job on Earth.”

“There were quite a number of delegates unhappy with Mykko's speech,” Andra said.

“Why?” asked Suki.

“Well -- the Deltans are unhappy because they're being shut out the Lexalese mineral market. The Gammans are unhappy because Wygann's subsidization of Lexal foodstuffs will cut into their sales.”

“Lexal is so small even drastic measures can only make a dent.”

“Yes,” she replied. “Mykko's actions are more gestures then solutions. He's hoping to embarrass some of the larger colonies into doing more.”

“So, Nyk -- what are your plans?” Senta asked.

“A couple days to relax in Sudal,” Nyk replied, “then Dyppa and I make transit and return to our respective, mundane jobs.”

Nyk stood on the bluff watching the sky darken. “Howdy, stranger.”

He opened his arms and Suki fell into them. “I hope you're not cross with me,” he said.

“For what?”

“For another assignment in which I acted with a careless disregard for my own safety.”

She smiled. “For some reason, I don't think you were in as much personal danger as that other time on Lexal. Besides -- I saw the whole thing unfold from the inside. I think you handled yourself well -- I'd like to think I could do as well under similar circumstances. I'm proud of you, Nykkyo.”

“You know, korlyta -- you're a hero, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you saved Senta from drowning -- you saved the mind that went on to design the vaccine. Otherwise, Senta might've been dead and this world might've been in much deeper trouble tonight.”

“Might-haves don't count, remember?” She kissed his cheek. “I've enjoyed getting to know Dyppa.”

“She's quite a girl, isn't she?”

“What is she in Earth terms? About eighteen?”

“Eighteen or nineteen.”

“She carries herself like someone much older.”

“She's lived more life than many sixty-year-olds.”

“I do like her, Nykkyo -- very much. Like I said -- you have good taste in women. I like Senta a lot, too.”

“I've been looking at her through different eyes lately, myself.”

He took her hand and they strolled into the house and up the spiral staircase. Andra and Senta sat on a bench. Dyppa lay on her stomach on a sofa, playing a game on a handheld vidisplay. Suki looked around the room. “It looks like you're collecting quite a harem,” she said.

“Suki -- That thing with Dyppa was...”

She kissed his cheek. “I was kidding. Like I said -- I like Dyppa. I wouldn't mind sharing you with her -- once in a while, that is.”

“No,” Senta said to Andra.

“Go ahead,” Andra replied. “What's the harm in asking her?”

Senta stood and faced Suki, her hands behind her back. “Sukiko?”

“Yes, Senta?”

“I would like to sleep with Nykkyo tonight. I know it's his last night here, and you'd like time to catch up, but...”

“Of course, Senta.” She led Nyk to Senta and gave her his hand.

“You don't mind?”

Suki shook her head. “Not at all, if he's willing.”

“I'd love to sleep with you, Senta,” he said.

“Nykkyo and I had time to catch up while you were in the clinic, recuperating. Besides, Andra and I have some catching up of our own to do.”

Senta smiled, then her jaw dropped. She turned to Nyk. “You used MY apartment ... as a trysting place?”

“You said I could come and go as I pleased. I can't believe you'd be mortified, Senta. Not you.” She turned her back. “Are you rescinding your offer?”

“No.” She faced him. “I just can't believe it!”

“Would you have done differently?” he asked.

“I... I suppose not.”

“Do you forgive me?”

“Will you promise me you'll ask next time?”

“Certainly.” He took her hand. “So -- your place or mine?”

“Why don't we sleep outside under the stars?”

“Really, Senta?”

“Really.”

Nyk took her hand and led her down the spiral staircase. He paused at a cabinet and removed a blanket. “Do you remember our first time together? Our almost first time, that is. Things might've been different if I had the foresight to bring this.”

“Things might've been different if I had the foresight to suggest it,” she replied.

Holding hands with her he led her to his bowl-shaped depression and spread the blanket onto the sand. He faced her, knelt, loosened her long sandal laces that twined up her calves, slid them down to her ankles and slipped them from her feet. Still kneeling he smoothed his hands up her legs and kissed each above her knees. Then he stood, grasping the hem of her tunic. Senta extended her arms over her head and he lifted it from her.

She returned the favor and he stacked both tunics and pairs of sandals to the side on the sand. Nyk lay beside her. “Have you ever looked up?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I've looked up often since you went offworld.” Her eyes scanned the Floran night sky. “Which one is Earth's sun?”

He pointed. “Over there -- do you see that bright star with four dimmer companions tracing a lop-sided rectangle?”

“I see it.”

“Earth's sun is about half-way between the right-hand side of the rectangle and a little to the left.”

“Yes, I see it.”

“You can see it?”

“Yes -- very faintly. It comes and goes but I can see it.”

“I can't. Your eyes must be better than mine, Senta. Watch the sky for that pattern. Over the year it will move to the west and into the daytime sky, and then you won't see it. Watch for its return in the east.” He rolled to face her and gazed at her in starlight as bright as an Earth full moon. “I had forgotten how pretty your breasts are.”

“They're the only pretty thing about me. I know I'm some sort of freak. No one on this world has red hair. I hate my freckles, my skinny legs and bony knees ... my too-long feet with too-long toes ... my too-big hands.” She pressed her right palm to his left. “My hands are almost as big as yours. I have a man's hands. And I especially hate that vein in my arm you always played with after we made love.”

“If there's one lesson above all others my time on Earth taught me, it's that you must be true to yourself. Your hair, your freckly skin, your hands and feet -- those features are what make you, you, Senta. I don't desire to change them. You'd no longer be you. They're as much you as your quick temper...”

“I don't have a temper!”

“You know you do. I wouldn't change that, either ... well, maybe I'd change that. Veska told me, once, how much you resemble your mother.”

“Dad said that?”

“Yes. He loved your mother, Senta. Having you in his life has been a comfort to him. Have you spoken to him?”

“No... Not since the divorce.”

“Don't you think it might be time to reconcile with your step-dad?”

“Maybe it is. After all -- it's not entirely his fault that he's your biological father.”

“Not entirely.” Nyk gazed at her face and touched her cheek. “You're wrong, Senta. You also have very pretty eyes ... and a fetching smile.”

She suppressed a giggle. “Silly...”

“Not silly... And, you have the most beautiful brain.”

“Do you really think that?”

“When we had our meeting with Kronta, and you and Helsyn laid out your strategy for fighting the virus -- I had no doubt we'd succeed.”

Her eyes brimmed. “Nykkyo -- that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me.”

Nyk slipped his hand behind her neck and kissed her broad forehead. He caressed her forearm, took her hand and pressed it against his chest. Then, he kissed her lips.

“Aren't you afraid we'll mess things up?” she asked.

“No. Not any more. Are you?”

“No -- I'm ready to mess things up.”

“Do you feel up to it?”

“As long as it's not too strenuous.”

He kissed her lips and he felt her tongue against his. He nuzzled her neck and kissed her shoulders. Senta giggled. “Am I tickling you?” he asked.

“No, Nykkyo. You don't usually do that.”

“Are you complaining?”

“No -- it felt good.” She guided his hand to her breast. Nyk caressed her. She inhaled deeply and released it slowly. “That feels good, too,” she said. “It feels better than I remember.” She drew in another deep breath. “Can you do that with both hands?” Nyk shifted his position to free his left arm. “Ohhh, so good...” she said. “I know what's different ... it's your pacing.”

“My pacing?”

“You're not rushing. You're taking your time to ... to understand what I want... Mmm... You're caring for MY needs... Did you learn that from Sukiko? Is this how you and she make love?”

“I'm not the sort that kisses and tells.”

She crossed her forearms above her head, pulled her shoulder blades back and rocked her torso to press herself against his