Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 07

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Back in the depths of the impound, Debbie had regained consciousness and she began to sputter about calling the cops herself to have the creature charged with assault as she tried to hold her head.

"Just shut up and have one of these headache pills, sweetie," the supervisor said quietly as she sat on the floor with her arm around Debbie, "With a little luck, nothing will come of it since the cops here are such fools. The only problem will be the record of you trying to fuck yourself on him."

"I don't know what I was thinking," Debbie sobbed, "I'll lose my job if anybody ever sees that."

The other woman nodded, "Listen, you're not the first one who's done that. I've been doing it forever. I just don't get as many chances for it these days, that's all.

Hey," she paused, thinking things over, "have you ever, ... you know, ... uh, with another girl? Maybe we could get together later after I wipe that video. I've got the key, you know."

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They walked to the Security detachment offices where Tesem – as he was called, proceeded to roar out his indignation over his arrest and treatment at the hands of the security patrol.

He leaned over the watch officer's desk, almost trembling with suppressed rage, "I did nothing wrong. I only approached your people and asked for directions. How does that merit my arrest and what happened to me?"

The watch officer nervously paged her manager and Ryan began to chuckle as he recognized the man.

"You'd better get this mess straightened out quick, Charles. I've got a lawyer who's just dying for another reason to tear this farce here apart."

"I demand the return of my belongings," Tesem snarled, "as well as my personal weapon before one of your imbeciles here manages to kill himself with it."

Charles nodded, his face a bright shade of scarlet as he began to see to things personally.

"You're not allowed to carry a weapon like what was impounded while you're here," Charles said, trying like hell to manage some tone of officiousness.

"I had no other place to put it," the Anubian growled, "It would be worse if someone else stole it. Then you WOULD have a reason to arrest me."

"Besides, "Ryan grinned as he fought back the laugh that he felt, "You let your idiots walk around here loose armed with shooters and tasers, Charles.

And we both know that they're not even to be trusted if they were only armed with rubber bands and paperclips.

He can leave it on my ship, since I'm licensed for weapons."

Tesem looked over, "My thanks, Ryan. Through Mischka, I am finally finding one human who I wish to begin to trust."

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It had been one of the strangest hours of Ryan's life, he thought to himself afterward as the four of them sat in the food court in front of a little eatery and he watched as the little slip of a girl put away more food than he thought that he could eat after starving for half a week.

Before that, as Mischka led them through the mall, she felt a little odd for the quiet way that Tesem smiled at her for a while, so she asked and he shrugged, "Forgive me for staring. It is very good to see the one in Rhani's little picture. She has spoken of you often and I have seen how she missed her friend."

Mischka had led them to the bathhouse and gone inside – almost dragging Rhani, who'd protested all the way while he'd stood out front waiting with Tesem the Anubian as Mischka got her small friend cleaned up in the shower.

"So you're married to Rhani?" Ryan asked, wanting to see if he had this straight after all, "Congratulations."

The large male nodded, standing as he was in order to wait, "I had not thought of it, but when the merchant craft that I was on docked here, I'd reached the end of my compulsory service. I met Rhani and, ... well, we fell right away. I do not know if humans take a recreational period after being wed, but that was what I was trying to arrange, and I sought help to find a vacation seller."

"What was your tasking on that craft?" Ryan asked and the Anubian shrugged, "I was part of the security group there. It was my last assignment before release."

He looked down for a moment, "Back home, there had been a coup attempt and several members of the royal family were harmed. My family has always guarded the members of the royal house. I was not there then, but many of my family were killed in the fighting – as I would have been very likely had I been there. The rest of us were shamed and scattered.

I knew nothing of it, being off-world at the time. My combat record was taken into consideration and my punishment was to serve for a time as security on the merchant ships.

I will never go home again for the shame of it, but I never expected to meet someone like Rhani, either. Aside from this unpleasantness and your gracious help in it with Mischka, Ryan, I am happy here with her, though I am looking for work before my share of my family's fortune is gone."

Ryan had to smile, "We seem to have at least something in common, Tesem, I was security on the freighter which brought me to this corner of the galaxy. I'm trying to start up a bounty business. We ought to maybe talk a little later."

The two of them fell into a sort of easy chat then, just swapping war stories for a while until the females emerged from the bathhouse. Ryan could see that for all of his cool and collected outward appearance, Tesem was quite obviously very much in love with his diminutive bride.

"What happened after Tesem was arrested?" Ryan asked, and he learned that Rhani hadn't known what to do, knowing that if the cops had arrested Tesem for only asking directions, she didn't think that there was any better treatment possible for herself at their hands – if they didn't just shoot her on sight out of what she was. So she'd waited, only leaving when she was so hungry that she couldn't think straight any longer.

It had been almost two weeks.

Mischka had led them here to buy something to eat and as Rhani began to put away more food than Ryan thought could have been possibly packed into that thin little frame, Mischka tried to tell of it while she sat braiding Rhani's long black hair into lengthy pigtails for her.

"As far as I can tell," she said in a way that Ryan saw was revealing her happiness and relief, "Rhani came here from someplace – and neither of us has any idea where – after stowing away on a slow passenger hauler. I met her here, and we'd sometimes hang out together, though it was always me taking care of her, like I'm doing now."

Ryan looked at Rhani, who looked back now with interest, since she wasn't feeling the hollow and almost constant pain of her gnawing hunger and fear.

"She looks like she'd just a kid," Ryan commented, "well, with wings."

"She's not," Mischka smiled, "though she's lost track of the time. We seem to agree that she's about twenty-two, twenty-three, or thereabouts. This is as mature as she says that she's going to get. Her kind doesn't get very big, not that I've ever seen very many like her. The ones that I have seen tend not to live for very long around here. They just can't compete with the others for food.

Can I ask you for a really big favor, Ryan?"

The words hung in the air between them for a moment as Ryan looked at Rhani and her husband.

Rhani looked back, trying to smile around the last mouthful of food in her mouth. She tilted her head a little, as though she was trying to figure him out in some way.

Whatever it had been, he thought, she must have arrived at some decision for herself for the way that she seemed to settle into her seat a little happily with a quiet sigh.

"What uh, ... what was that about?" Ryan asked.

There was a pause as the two girls exchanged some of those odd sounds.

"Rhani likes you," Mischka smiled, "She says that she can't see anything in you that's nasty or cruel."

He looked very confused, "Nasty or, ... what does that mean?"

Mischka smiled again, "Rhani's got this weird little sense to her. She can feel things about somebody – sometimes astonishing things – and she knows almost right off if there's any danger to her from someone else."

"Wasn't it working earlier then?" Ryan asked.

"It probably was, Ryan," Mischka nodded, "Probably perfectly too, but when you've gone hungry for a while, ..." She left it there, seeing his nod of understanding.

He still looked skeptical - until Rhani growled and squawked her way through a quick little paragraph and Mischka said, "She says that you were hurt once by your mate – a female named Sarah, and she told me that the little scar under your lower lip is from fighting another human male like yourself. He hit you, but he was holding a small blade in his glove and you killed him not long after that.

From what she senses, that human managed to get your weapon from you, but you crushed his throat with your knee and he strangled. Even so, you hit him with your fist twice before he died, because you were furious by then."

Ryan sat with his mouth hanging open, nodding a little after a moment, "He was Brazilian Army. We fought them on Titan, a moon of one of the planets where I'm from. How the hell would she – "

Mischka chuckled, "She says that she likes the pictures that you carry in your heart. She thinks that those people are very fortunate."

Mischka looked down for a moment, swirling the last of her beverage around in the cup, "So, ..."

Ryan grinned, since he couldn't help it and he nodded, "Yeah. If she'll do this thing of hers for us once in a while if we need it." He looked at Tesem for a second, "I'm thinking that if you need work, maybe we can come up with something together."

Tesem smiled and when it had been translated for her, Rhani nodded seriously.

"She says that she'd do it for you as well as the others that she's seen in you," Tesem said.

Rhani spoke again and Mischka looked a little embarrassed by what had been said.

"What was that?" Ryan asked.

Though Mischka tried to tell him that it had been nothing, Rhani disagreed, knowing somehow that her friend was doing it and she looked at Ryan and began to elaborate, though she knew that he couldn't understand her.

Finally, Mischka relented and said only, "Ok ok, I don't know where to look now thanks to her, but since you seem to need to know for some reason, she told me that I'm one of the fortunate people in your heart and she wants to meet the rest.

OK now? Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Ryan sat there, more than a little embarrassed himself for the moment and at a loss for words.

Rhani spoke up again and he just knew.

"Tell her that we'll see how it works out, but for right now, "he rolled his eyes, "please tell her that I'd like it if I didn't have to hear any more of my secret thoughts, ok?"

He waited as Mischka translated for him. Rhani sat there looking at him and she tossed him a smiling shrug and a nod and he knew from her motions that she couldn't really help it. Her expression changed then and Ryan groaned, holding up his hand.

"Fuck," he groaned, "tell her I don't even know myself right now, but I guess she'll be the first to know if and when she and Tesem here make the list, alright? In the meantime, I'm gonna have to get a real tight handle on my inner male retard."

Rhani sat still as she picked up her drink to slurp up the last of it. She looked up at Ryan and she nodded knowingly with a sweet little smile as her husband grinned a little.

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After a quick stop to buy Rhani some clothing and to make a few other purchases, they went to the docking bay where the others waited inside their craft, hurrying a little due to the time and the want to eat at a reasonable time.

Taela was smitten with the little vampire female right off the hop and it quite obviously went both ways as Rhani surprised Taela and Ryan when she attempted to speak.

"Tae-la," she sighed, testing the sound as she looked up, "so ... nice ... hair."

She grabbed Tesem's hand, "This Tesem. Husb-and for ... me."

Taela found herself grinning as she stepped forward to shake Tesem's long hand, "I'll bet that he is, too." She looked up into the Anubian's long face, though his build caught her eye for a moment as well, "I'm Taela, Ryan's female."

Tesem bowed deeply, "I have found a friend in his kindness and it is a moment of honor to meet the one who holds his heart."

Shorty was in awe of Rhani almost as soon as they began to converse with each other and he stared at Tesem, though it was obvious that they'd both met someone who'd impressed them.

Tesem could see that they'd have some things to wonder about in him, so he just tried his best in his quiet way to explain what he could.

"It is a bit of a coincidence, my name. We knew nothing of it, but I have since learned a little of humans and others.

There was once a civilization on Earth, known to humans as Ancient Egypt. There is absolutely no connection in it to us, but humans call us Anubians, though it is not what we call ourselves. Their old civilization had many deities, it seems. One of them was a god known as Anubis.

It seems that there is a resemblance between us and this deity to humans.

Another coincidence is my own name.

'Tesem' to us is nothing other than a male name. It means 'one who acts correctly' in our speech. I have learned that there was a breed of canine once in that land – a sort of dog, as I understand it. They were prized there and famous or their hunting ability. That is what I read of it anyway.

As I hope that you can see, I am not any kind of these dog creatures. From what I have learned of them, they are rather simple things where we are not."

Ryan nodded, "I doubt that your research would have indicated it to you, Tesem, but those simple things are famous to humans everywhere, in any of the breeds in which they might be seen. To humans, there is nothing as pure as the unconditional love that a dog shows his master or mistress, once the dog has chosen that one. I've never heard of your name, so I'd suggest that you forget about meanings. Your name sounds fine to me."

Tesem nodded his thanks, though he sighed a little, "I have still not decided whether I ought to be pleased or a little annoyed that my name to that long ago group of Humans translates to 'hunting dog'. Worse still from my viewpoint is that I was trained as a hunter in our military – one who seeks to find and learn of the strength of our enemies.

But I am very happy to have met you all and I hope that Rhani and I can be of use to you soon."

Rhani looked around and asked what this place was.

When it had been explained to her, Rhani grabbed her husband and stepped right up to Ryan, chattering all the while as Mischka tried to translate as quickly as she could.

"She says that if this is how we will make our living, then you will surely need her. She says that she can tell how many are in a group and maybe more than that without even seeing them, and from what she knows, Tesem is a proven warrior to his people."

Mischka grinned a little then, "She wants to know when we will start."

"Not long after I finally get done with configuring the import of the wanted poster data," Taela frowned as she went back to her seat. "I have trouble with only one thing, ..."

She held up her fingers, wiggling them a little, "Morgarod fingers just don't work well on the Human-based QWERTY keyboard taken from Ryan's shuttle. I've been trying to use that since the Morgarod ones which were in here had all failed due to their age. I can manage on a QWERTY keyboard, but it goes slow because of my fingers and there is no Morgarod keyset. My old keyboard wouldn't ID to the system correctly."

Her shoulders sagged a little and she sighed with a soft smile as Ryan held up two largish boxes, "I found Morgarod keyboards, Taela. I bought you two – in case one doesn't work or fails or whatever." He shrugged, "For all I know, it's possible that neither of them will work here, but I tried to find one anyway, and they tested out ok where I bought them."

She tilted her head, her smile still there for him, "Where on this lump did you find these? I hope they work, but, ... I have to say that I'm amazed."

He laughed, "Well it's a trading post.

You just gotta look around a lot and ask a little. I got them at the "Everything for 10 Credits Store, Surplus, and Hair Care Center in the mall. Everything cheap you could want while pretending to be a trooper and you can look your best while you do it."

Taela laughed as she took one of the boxes and within two minutes, she was smiling as the data feed filled their own on-board database, "I don't have to peck at the keys with a fingernail anymore.

What are all of those rolled-up things there on the floor?"

"Sleeping bags – military surplus sleeping bags," Ryan said, "We checked them out by unzipping them in the store. There are no holes or rips in any of them and they've been dry-cleaned too.

These are Arctic-rated back on Earth – as long as you're sleeping someplace cold but sheltered out of the elements. There's a whole other kind if you're going to be out on the open. These ones can be unzipped completely and then you can zip two of them together if you want – kind of like a sleeping bag bed then, so two can sleep together in a bit of comfort.

Sleeping in the seats on this thing is killing my back and we also seem to have picked up a couple of new crewmembers in Rhani and Tesem, I think. They were having a tough time of things out there."

"Where will we all sleep then?" Taela asked and Ryan shrugged, pointing at the several sections of open flooring.

"Rhani and Tesem can sleep together obviously," Mischka said, "She and I always used to before when we stayed in one place. That way, we – meaning her mostly – could feel a little safe comfort. I kind of doubt that she'll need that from me now, though. You and Ryan pick out a place for yourselves wherever you want and I'll find a corner someplace too."

Shorty looked over and Mischka chuckled, "You can sleep wherever you want, Shorty. But I was thinking that we ought to go on with what I was teaching you about jamming earlier. We can sit in the corner together the way that we always do.

I just need a little time to put away my stuff here and then I want to get started on the dinner. We bought a few things that I only have to heat up in the quick-oven," she smiled, referring to the microwave oven in the galley.

Shorty stepped over, wanting to know if he could help her in any way. She pretended not to understand him at first, so he leaned in to place his head against hers so that she could get his thoughts to her, "What can I do to help? I still do not know where I will sleep, though maybe I could put that sleeping bag thing over my seat and sleep in it there."

Mischka glanced around at the others for a second. Tesem and Rhani were looking around, her out of wonder for the most part and he out of what Mischka took to be professional curiosity. Ryan and Taela seemed to be involved in their own discussions as well. She saw that no one was looking at them for the moment.

She did her best to try emulating the way that he could speak into her head.

"I think that, after the meal, things will quiet down in here. I do have things to teach you about the types of jamming. Rhani and Tesem are newly-married, so I can guess what will cross their minds, and you know Taela and Ryan well enough."

She took a breath then and decided to go on before he could think anything else to send to her.

"Tonight – that is, if you think that you like me enough, I want to do just a little more than sit with our legs touching. I want to join my sleeping bag with yours and we can sit as we always do.

When you have your thoughts about us, well, I want you to know that I've been having the same ones, so if I'm a little lucky tonight, I might come to know your name."