Jack's Moonlighting Pt. 02

"Two more months," she sighed.

"We're returning to Danat so you can spend the last month at home. We'll also get to be there for the birth of Mara's babies. The reports from Juju and TkaTken say everything is progressing well for her, too. She's been very busy but gets enough rest to ensure the babies aren't stressed." That news brought a smile to Bayly's face.

"I understand we'll be bringing Sooka with us," Jack said.

Bayly nodded but patted Jack's hand. "You're falling asleep on your feet. Head inside."

He bent down and kissed her, and she grinned back at him as he stood to go.

Once inside, he got cleaned up, ate, set an alarm, and tucked himself under the covers of his bed. His body clock was getting all messed up.

-=-

It was another gruelingly long session to transmit Socrates into its new drone, but thirteen and a half hours later, Jack smiled at the two new drones containing the old Tik.

"I see one problem with this. There's no way to tell which one of you is which? Your old bodies had distinct wear marks. The black orbs are too identical!" Jack sighed.

Hemmarr had a suggestion. "The lenses on the outer surface can show light as well as absorb it. Use some to display a symbol to represent your name."

Plato made a rude sound. "The Tik don't use a written language, nor do we use symbols."

"Jack, as we were named by Humans, what do the first letters our names look like in your language?" Socrates asked.

Jack gestured for the two Tik, and immediately, they had letters appearing on their black orbs. Jack forced back a surprised snort of amusement when he saw one with 'S' and the other with 'P'.

"What?" Socrates asked indignantly.

Jack waved a hand. "No, I'm sorry. I should have remembered that this was a bad idea. This is something that might only be funny to someone from Earth."

Plato made an annoyed sound. "What's humorous about it?"

Jack clamped down on his amusement. "Sorry. It's just... you look like huge salt and pepper shakers."

"Like what?" Socrates asked in confusion.

Jack was beginning to regret not controlling his immediate reaction. There had to be a way back from this. "Salt and pepper are food condiments served in paired dispensers found in many places on Earth. That said, you deserve something better." He did a quick search on his comm. "Socrates and Plato were respected philosophers from one of Earth's ancient civilizations." He frowned as he thought about using other characters. "Maybe using symbols will get you in trouble as who knows what they mean in someone else's language." He spotted an image and showed Socrates a picture of a bust of his namesake.

The letter disappeared from the surface of Socrates' chassis, and an outline drawing of the picture appeared.

"Hey! You're good at that!" Jack said with a grin.

There was a pause then the cartoonish face turned to look at Jack. "Do you think so?" it said.

Jack laughed and clapped with delight, though the sound-to-mouth movement wasn't very synchronized. "That's pretty close. Work on syncing the mouth movements to the sounds, and you're there." Jack thought about it. "This may be a really good idea as it makes the ominous black orbs far less intimidating!"

"Show me a picture of Plato," Plato insisted, clearing the letter from its surface.

Jack did the search and faced his comm toward the Tik.

Moments later, a white line sketch of the Greek philosopher was on the surface, but it was far more detailed than Socrates', which made it less clear.

"Drop the detail down to just the outlines for clarity," Jack suggested.

With a grumble, Plato did, and Jack's smile returned. "Much better!"

"These are distinct enough from each other to be recognizable?" Plato said, but his drawn mouth was a floppy circle that opened and closed loosely.

Jack stifled a giggle and nodded. "Yes, but you might also want to work on the mouth movements to get them closer to a real mouth. Still, this is a massive improvement."

Socrates made the eyes blink slowly, and Jack grinned with a nod.

"I don't think I want to use the face of a mongoose for me," Rikki said.

"Your chassis can do this too?" Jack asked in surprise.

Rikki displayed two round white rings for eyes and a line for a smile.

Jack nodded. "That works well! I guess you only need it when you're talking to someone, so they have a face to focus on."

Hemmarr was smiling at them with a proud expression, so Jack walked closer to her and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you, Hemmarr, for all your amazing efforts for the Tik. You've gone above and beyond all expectations! I'm so proud of you!"

When he pulled back, Hemmarr's eyes were shiny with unshed tears of joy. "Thank you, Shadeem! I should have a new chassis for Rikki next week."

"He's not doing a collar transfer, right?" Jack confirmed.

"No, we should be able to just move his existing sentience containment unit into the new chassis. If there are any issues, we can move him back and try again once we resolve them.

Additionally, with the new multiplexed sensory harnesses, the issue of tactile sensory desynchronization should be eliminated. Tik who've suffered radiation burns to their chassis should be able to migrate to new bodies with the new harness," she said.

"Improving Tik lives again!" Jack said with a proud smile, and Hemmarr shook her head with an embarrassed grin.

Socrates moved forward to extend a tentacle to hold Hemmarr's hand. "We are deeply grateful for everything you have done for us, Hemmarr." Then it turned to Jack. "And you as well, Jack! You have proven to be the greatest of our champions, and the Tik are in your debt."

Jack nodded and glanced at Rikki. A thought popped into his head, and he turned back to the seniors. "I just remembered I was waiting for the answer to something I asked Rikki to ask you about." He frowned. "Shit, now I feel bad for not following up sooner. It's been so long!" He focused on Socrates' new face.

"Aside from approving the Gate upgrade plan, Rikki didn't ask us anything," Plato said.

"I'm sorry, Jack. I was... too distracted at the time," Rikki admitted. "We were just about to present the evidence at the Grand Assembly Committee."

"Ah, okay. Well, no time like the present. Can you show Socrates and Plato what I shared with you from the planet you dumped me on?"

"Dumped you—" Rikki started, then caught Jack's smile.

Rikki sighed and extended two tentacles to the senior Tik, who linked up. It then shared Jack's memories.

Jack felt worse as he wondered how long it had been since Grenville saved them in that meeting room. Was he being held in the collection that face on the monitor mentioned? Had he gotten free?

When the pictures on the surfaces of the drones suddenly vanished, Jack looked carefully at the seniors as they disconnected from Rikki.

"I'm sorry, Jack. We can't help you with this," Socrates said with a subdued voice.

"Can't help? You don't recognize the world or the race connected to that face?"

"No," Plato said, and Jack frowned as that wasn't clearing up his question.

"No, you don't recognize the world or the face?" he said to get clarity.

"We can't help you. The memories were erased," Socrates admitted.

Rikki and Jack looked at each other. Jack realized he appreciated Rikki's new cartoon face as it really did make it feel like he was facing his friend. "Wait! Wait... erased? Tik don't erase memories," he insisted.

"Without recognizing them, how do you know they were erased?" Rikki asked.

Socrates sighed. "We must regretfully decline to assist you any further on this. We... are not allowed to follow that thread. Rikki, you are forbidden to share those images with any other Tik to protect all Tik."

Jack was stunned. "What—"

"Please, Jack. Don't ask us for any more on this. It's gone. Let it go," Plato insisted and left. After a second, Socrates followed.

Jack was left standing with Rikki, stunned. He looked at Taggart. "Do you have any idea what that was about?"

The scientist stared at the exit and turned his primary optic to face Jack. "Not a clue. Invoking the protection rule was... well, it's the first time I've seen it done."

Jack turned to Rikki. "What does it mean?"

"It means what he said. I can't pass along those memories you shared with me to any other Tik," Rikki said.

Jack was floored. This behavior was so un-Tik-like he was baffled, and from the uncomfortable silence, he'd better ease some minds.

"Okay. So... I have no other means to proceed, so this gets a bookmark until another avenue presents itself. I won't risk the Tik on something the leaders felt necessary to erase."

He noticed the remaining Tik in the room began unconsciously moving more freely. That protection rule had teeth. He'd have to be careful with future attempts to investigate. The Tik couldn't be part of it.

"Let's go home, Rikki. Thank you again, Taggart, Hemmarr!" Jack waved at the team, and they waved back.

"Should I open a Gate?" Rikki asked with a subdued voice.

"Sure, Buddy."

The mirror appeared, so Jack stepped through to find himself on the patio next to his home, and Tito was there.

"Oh! Rikki! You've added a face! But... why are you frowning?" Tito exclaimed.

"I'm unable to help Jack find Grenville. Socrates ordered me not to share the visual evidence."

"It's okay, Rikki. There will be other avenues. Please don't worry about it," Jack said gently. He wasn't giving up but didn't want Rikki to suffer.

He glanced at Tito and stifled a snort of amusement. It was experimenting with different faces, and most were... not appropriate. "If you are looking for inspiration and want to celebrate Mexican culture, why not try a Day of the Dead motif?" he suggested.

"Ah! That would be fun!" Tito said.

Jack nodded and went inside.

He needed cuddles from his family, and from the smiles he saw, they were happy to give them.

Chapter 31

The Ambassador passed majestically through the massive Gate above Danat without pomp or ceremony on its maiden voyage. Roughly two-thirds the size of its sister-ship, Peacekeeper, the Ambassador was designed to present a slightly less intimidating appearance. However, as it mirrored the visual impact of the other ship in everything but size, the only time the light-absorbing behemoth looked less daunting was when it was next to Peacekeeper.

It wasn't equipped with stasis chambers as Peacekeeper was, so the extra space was used for carrying supplies JuJu and TkaTken reported were in short supply on the Dannt's three worlds.

Standing on the bridge beside Captain Norress, Jack smiled at the crew enjoying their first mission. Jack hadn't realized Norress was in Lorrem's officer's training program. How acting as a guide for the Shadeem had assisted in his training was a mystery to Jack.

Jack shook his head slightly as calling this an official visit felt somewhat dishonest. He needed to bring Bayly back to her world and be there for the birth of her children and Mara's. The babies needed to be born on Danat. There was no official diplomatic mission other than that.

He needed to speak with Mara about his role as a father when all he could do was visit. He needed to confirm how this would impact his Dannt children's lives. That thought had been weighing heavily on his mind as of late. He's received assurances from Bayly, but Mara had been caring for her people for much longer, so he'd feel better hearing it from her perspective.

This visit, he wasn't going alone. Diana and Adam were with him, as was Eve, SennLann and their new twins.

Gee and Bal insisted on joining him as they were sufficiently healed. He'd been incredulous when he spotted the overpowered personal skimmers they'd brought. He recalled his little... explosion.

"Are you kidding me?" he gasped as the Altarians stood in the ship's passage with the two oversize antigrav units purring powerfully behind them.

"We understand you enjoy running on Danat, and no one could keep up with you. We can, with these," Gee replied reasonably.

Jack stared at them in shock. "Don't you remember how you fell off the last ones you brought here?"

Bal waved away that concern. "If you fall off the cow, you get back on."

"Horse! The phrase is fall off the horse, not cow!" Jack exclaimed.

Gee frowned. "I'm sure we saw men riding cows on that show—"

Jack shook his head in exasperation. "That was a rodeo, and those were bulls, not cows!" he growled.

Bal looked at Gee. "Are bulls not cows?"

"No! They're both cattle but bulls are male, and cows are female!" Jack insisted.

"They ride the males and milk the females. Though, there was that one show where they milked a bull," Bal recalled with a smile.

"WHAT?" Jack asked in shock.

Gee shook her head wearily. "Earth culture is so bizarre." The Altarians nodded to each other and continued on their way to stow their overpowered flying machines.

Jack pulled his mind back from that before his annoyance showed on his face.

His physician Jinnae was also with them. She'd taken a sabbatical at the hospital as she stated she wanted to monitor the Phem Kalos twins. She also asked Jack to introduce her to Queen Mara and to ask if she could assist with the birth. He said he'd see how Mara felt about that, but he couldn't promise anything.

Norress caught Jack's attention. "We're in orbit above Queen Mara's village and notified the surface Tik we've arrived. Juju is responding," he said. "Local time is early evening in the village."

"Thank you, Captain. Let's hear what it has to say," Jack said with a smile.

"Greetings, Ambassador. On behalf of Queen Mara of the Dannt, welcome to Danat."

"Greetings, Juju! Are we clear to come down to the village?"

"Ambassador Danner! Yes, of course!" Juju said excitedly.

Jack smiled. "We also have your supplies, so once we come down, you can tell us where we should deliver them."

That's excellent news! Oh! The Queen is here—"

"Jack? Is that you?" Mara's voice came through a little loudly as she called out eagerly.

"Yes, Mara. I'm back, and I've brought along some people who wish to meet you—"

"Can I meet them tomorrow? I really need to see you!" she said urgently.

Jack suppressed a smile. "Yes, of course. I'll be right down."

"Thank you, Jack!"

"Rikki, can you give me a Gate to Juju's location?" he asked.

"Juju is giving me permission to anchor to it. Here's your Gate. Should I disconnect?" the Tik asked.

Jack nodded. "Yes, you'd better give me until we meet tomorrow when we call the others down. I assume Bayly and Tito will also go to the surface tonight."

Tito and Rikki had become fast friends. Rikki also had a new chassis with multiplexed sensory harnesses like Tito's. It no longer had to worry about disassociating due to a lack of sensory input. While Jack and Rikki preferred to be linked, an overnight separation was no problem.

Rikki disconnected, and Jack entered Mara's sitting area through the mirror.

He was immediately scooped off his feet into Mara's powerful arms and pressed against her plush bosom as her lips found his.

Jack could feel her domed tummy pressing against him as well, but all he could do was go with the kiss, as her need was a little overwhelming. Her arms held him tight, but he could still breathe, so she was being careful.

Finally, she rested her forehead against his, and their horns bumped together with a soft clack. They smiled. Jack noticed they were alone.

"Oh, Jack, I've missed you so!" she said to him quietly.

"I've missed you, too," he said sincerely.

She finally set him back on his feet and freed his arms. His hands went to her tummy, and he smiled as he felt the motion of their babies.

"All is well?" he asked in wonder.

Her smile was wide and joyful. "They are almost ready to join the world. A world that no longer threatens our children," she added, and Jack looked into her eyes.

"The Tik have set up medical centers on all our worlds to ensure the people and their children receive proper medical care. We are turning around our decline, stepping back from the brink of extinction," she said proudly.

"How are the people adjusting to the reintroduction of technology in their lives?" he asked.

Mara nodded. "We are easing them in slowly. Laannaa gave me instructions on bringing the Goddess Devotees into line and making them support the new initiatives to shepherd the people into a new acceptance. Her final words to them have energized them like never before. They want the people to live, and the High Priestesses on Danax and Danam quickly came on board as they saw the decline as well. They didn't agree with Laannaa and were relieved that the restrictions were lifted.

Medical care is the first step and the most welcome benefit. The Tik have collected the medical knowledge of our people from the cities and incorporated it into the medical centers to ensure the diagnostic machines properly treat the Dannt. We don't have doctors yet, but that will be one of the skills our new schools will begin to train our people to do.

Rakka are no longer a threat due to the explosion in their nest and the Krreegah's efforts to locate and remove all surviving specimens. I believe they may have completed this task. They have also been diligently removing the toxic materials from the other side of the mountain range. The Tik tell me they are doing a careful and thorough job."

She reached out and touched Jack's face, and her smile widened. "It is good to see your smile again."

Jack lifted his face to hers, and she eagerly bent forward to receive his kiss. It was slow and sensual, sending tingles down her spine. When he pulled back, she sighed. "It has been too long since I last felt that."

"Let me make it up to you tonight. There are probably a few other things we can do that you might enjoy," Jack said with hunger in his eyes.

She grinned excitedly and guided him by the hand into her bedroom. He noticed new black curtains pinned to the walls of her tent. He caught her eye as he gestured to them.

"Ah, yes. The Tik discovered how our ancestors lived so closely together with our emotions broadcasting. When hung inside their structures' walls, this material absorbs most of the energy. So I'm told."

She cocked her head as she looked at him. "You are broadcasting much more strongly than before!"

Jack sighed. "Yes, I'll share the story of how that happened with you... later." He pulled her to the bed, and she eagerly followed.

They had much catching up to do.

-=-

The following morning, Jack and Mara left her tent and saw Dennesh and half of his security detail had set up their tents on the available space nearby.

Bayly rushed forward, and Mara hugged her, then they fussed over each other's bulging tummies. Mara was thrilled to hear twins were on the way for Bayly and gave Jack another happy kiss.

"Good morning, Jack. Shall I open a Gate to the ship?" Tito asked, his cartoon skull face grinning at Jack. He would have to suggest something a little less intense for the Tik.

"Yes, let's begin."

It was time for introductions, and Mara stood next to Jack, almost glowing with contentment. Tito opened the Gate to the Ambassador, and Jack did the introductions as his people arrived.

Brigg, newly assigned to Jack's Ishilon security detail, was first through the Gate, bowed to the Queen, and nodded happily to Jack with a quiet Shadeem before moving aside. Cha'Risa was next and, as promised, wasn't bristling with blades, though her dual Bowie knives were visible in their hip sheaths. Nann followed with Leo and Maxim, all three with greatly scaled-back weaponry though Nann's Katana drew admiring and interested glances from many of Mara's people.

Mara was interested in meeting Humans without horns and was intrigued by the variations in body size and coloration.