Sholan Alliance - AU Bk. 02 Ch. 06

Author's Note: Thanks for your patients for this submission. I hope everyone enjoys it and I am about halfway through the next chapter as well. Don't forget to check my bio for the link to the other sight I am posting on. Those stories have little erotica so don't really have a place here.

As always all intimate relationships are 18+ or the equivalent for the alien species. Enjoy.

*****

Kingie and Crystal climbed into an air car to head back and he curled his arm around her. "How are you feeling Crystal? I hope that Amahs wasn't too nosy and that you were comfortable with my family." He needed to know so he could talk to his parents in case they needed to change something.

She relaxed into his arm and side and relaxed. "I was a little tense for the evening but it was really nice. I know you talked to them about not asking me questions but they were very nice about it. I know your sister was horrified when I took my clothes off but I am glad she didn't ask. You have a really nice family and your little brother is darling. I would enjoy going back there again."

He lightly kissed her hair. "I am glad you felt reasonably comfortable there. The older of the two is coming into her first cycle so right now is more occupied with thinking about males than anything else." He had to smile at that though it did make him feel older.

Crystal sighed. "I noticed that and in a way I am rather jealous. I should be able to notice them and not wonder if they are going to abuse me or sneer at me. I know I am slowly getting better but it makes me so angry that this happened to me. I am angry that I am terrified of the simplest touch like when Amahs was trying to comfort me last night." She closed her eyes and struggled to force the emotions back.

Kingie sighed and lightly squeezed her. "One of these days you will be able to look at a boy or girl if you prefer, and not feel terrified or able to control that fear and allow them close to you. I don't blame you for being so angry at what was done to you. I am still more than furious but that is from a warriors view. I really wish I could have challenged one of them and shredded them."

Crystal shook her head. "I am glad you didn't since I think it would have left a scar on your soul. A necessary killing is one thing but to kill when so angry isn't good." She sat up and looked at him. "Do you think it might be possible to maybe move into your parent's house? I need that sense of belonging as well as the security you give me. I want a family again and since my parents turned me away I would like to become part of yours."

He gave her a gentle smile. "I will talk to mom and dad but it shouldn't be a problem since I still have a room. If you eventually decide you would like your own little slice of the world I think we have a spare room you could have." Just for good measure he reached over and lightly bopped her nose with one finger.

She couldn't help but growl at him for that and leaned against him and relaxed.

~~~

The others were waiting in Billy's room when Kingie and Crystal showed up. Z'Marl stood up and gave both a good hug before leading Crystal over to a seat. "I could use a good cuddle right now if you don't mind." She settled down and smiled when Crystal settled next to her. "You feel and smell more relaxed. I take it the visit with Kingie's family went well?"

Kingie pretended to look offended when Z'Marl took her away from him. "Just for that I think I am going to curl up with Dani and she can pet my ears." He glowered at Z'Marl and she laughed at him before he grinned. He did sit down next to Dani and wrapped an arm around her. "Have they said how long Yilly will be in surgery?"

Dani smiled up at him and leaned against him. "I have to admit I am getting used to the cuddling. You Sholan's make for good cuddle buddies. I don't suppose you have a brother do you?" He was Crystals as far as she was concerned.

Crystal winked at her. "He does and he is a cutie, might be a bit young for you though." She started talking about the visit to his home and that with his parent's permission she wanted to move there. That got a general discussion going as to how long all of them would be staying at the guest house. They hadn't been given any sort of time frame for them to move out but it was accepted that when Billy was better they would.

Vangie shrugged. "There are a number of options as far as that goes. One option would be to rent an extended Sholan home that had room for those of us who wanted to live together. Another option is those of us with family here move in with them and Satasha, Z'Marl, you two, and Billy move in somewhere." He hadn't had a chance to take Sally to his home. They were going to the day before but she and Dani had decided they wanted to remain at the guild till after the surgery.

Sally couldn't help but snort. "I am not sure about moving in with you. I would feel really weird having your daughter knowing we are in a relationship. That would feel rather weird. Well that and your former bond mate living there as well."

Vangie grinned at her. "You just don't want them to know that you robbed the old folks home since we can't run as fast." That got a quiet laugh from everyone. Satasha was curled up on the bed asleep since the two of them hadn't slept much the night before.

Crystal glanced over at her and had to smile. "She looks more relaxed now." She looked up at Z'Marl as well. "You feel more relaxed as well. I am glad that both of you are doing better. I think being here is going to be good for all of us." She shifted a bit and pulled one of Z'Marls arms around her and closed her eyes and relaxed.

~~~

Eventually Billy came out of surgery and was brought to the room and settled back in bed. He was pretty out of it though and settled for wrapping an arm around Satasha before falling into a drugged sleep.

Sally looked at the doctor. "How did the surgery go? That took longer than I expected." They had been kept up to date on how he was doing and Satasha hadn't felt that anything was wrong.

The doctor sat down on a stool and looked around the room. "We ended up having to replace his shoulder blade. After opening him up we found the damage was worse than expected. Since that had been a possibility we had a replacement already created. It was created using some bone samples and grown to match his original blade. This should hurry the healing up some since we will only have to wait for the tissue to heal and not the bone as well."

The girls looked at each other and nodded. "I don't see that as being a problem for Daddy but if you have to do something like that please let us know next time." They probably wouldn't say no but simply wanted to know.

He nodded. "I will. In this case Billy had told me before surgery to go ahead and take that route if needed. Now I hate to be pushy but all of you except for Z'Marl need to leave. You can come back in the morning but right now I don't want to give him a suppressant and too many emotions might make it hard for him to sleep." Once everyone stood up and left he turned to Z'Marl. "There is enough room in the bed as you have shown but just be careful and try not to jostle him." He gave her a nod and left the room.

Z'Marl dimmed the lights and darkened the window before stripping down and carefully crawling in next to Satasha and went to sleep. Crystal had been right that she was feeling better but she was still recovering. She was feeling a bit on the cold side as well and before falling asleep had pulled a blanket over herself.

~~~

Z'Marl woke up early the next morning and when she tried to move she realized she felt like crap. Her muscles and joints hurt, she was running a fever, and her nose was running. She knew that she shouldn't be in the room with Billy while she was sick. Z'Marl hit the nurse call button since she wasn't sure how well she could move.

When the nurse came in Z'Marl informed her that she was sick and was having trouble moving. The nurse came over and felt her nose and strapped on a diagnostic unit. "I am going to get an assistant and a floater so we can move you to an exam room." She called for that and continued checking her. The diagnostic unit showed elevated vitals and also withdrew some blood samples for analysis.

By then the attendant was there and they moved her over to the floater and took her out of the room. Since she was looking so rough they moved her to a bed in a different room. "I am going to call the doctor and have you examined while I have some tests run on your blood. For the fever and aches I am sorry but you will need to wait till the doctor sees you."

Z'Marl nodded as she pulled the covers up and pulled them around her. "I hope I didn't give Yilly this." Her nose was stuffed up and she sounded strange when she spoke.

The nurse and attendant left the room and turned the lights down and closed the door behind them. The last thing they wanted was for the infection to spread if it was something terran.

It wasn't long before Vangie and Sally showed up with similar symptoms and they were soon followed by Kingie and Crystal. Jenna and Sandi didn't come in and they would be checked on later after these were checked.

All of them were put in the room with Z'Marl for the moment since it was a room with several beds. The nurse and assistant took samples and recorded their vitals before calling the doctor again. As the nurse and attendant walked out he stopped them and murmured something to them and after pulling a mask on he walked into the room. "Good morning and I am sorry to see you down with an illness. I took a few minutes to review Z'Marl's tests before coming down. It was about then I was informed of the rest of you were showing symptoms as well."

He settled down on a stool and placed his tablet on one of the bed tables. "Z'Marl is showing the same variation of the Ni'uzu virus that Yilly and Satasha had. I am expecting the rest of you will also show positive even though you have been inoculated. How this happened I am not sure and I have assigned a team to look specifically into this issue. I have some staff going to check on the other human females just in case they are sick as well. The tests will be back shortly and presuming they do show as you having the Ni'uzu virus each couple is going to be placed in isolation to prevent the spread if possible. I have prescribed some medications and someone will be in here shortly to take care of that." He stood and left the room.

A few minutes later several of the assistants came in. The first thing they did was start IV's on all five. As they were working Dani was brought in and she was obviously sick and she was followed in by the doctor. "She is also sick but the other two human females seem to be healthy. They have agreed to go into isolation as well as a precaution." He walked over to Z'Marl. "If you don't mind I am going to tuck Danielle in next to you. It seems that having someone they know next to them helps. Is this okay?"

Z'Marl nodded before having to cover up a cough. "That is fine. She doesn't have a companion or a person like Kingie to support her. I will gladly take care of my companion's daughter." She started coughing again till one of the attendants gave her a sip of water.

Moments later Dani was tucked in next to her and she turned slightly towards Z'Marl and quieted down. Once everyone had IV's they had meds injected into the IV's for the body aches, fever, and nausea. The doctor spoke again. "Each pair is going to be moved to an individual isolation room. I know that in the short term you will mostly be sleeping but when you wake try to drink as much fluids as you can. Also you will be provided soft foods that shouldn't irritate your stomach. Eat what you can but don't force it. I will see you later today to check on you."

He left the room and the attendants started bringing in floaters and after placing a person in the floater they closed the lid to keep them isolated. Everyone was gowned up and had a mask on. It took about a half hour for everyone to be placed in a room. All were stripped down to make it easier to check on them.

~~~

Later that morning Billy finally woke up and looked around the room and was startled to see that nobody was in the room. He had expected at least Z'Marl and his girls there. Since Satasha was still asleep he pressed the nurse call and waited. A few moments later a nurse came in. "Are my family being kept away from me?"

The nurse shook his head. "Not at all sir. All but Jenna and Sandi have come down with the Ni'uzu virus and are in isolation. We are not sure why they came down with it since all of you were inoculated and we are researching it. Jenna and Sandi are in isolation as well as a precaution. I will let them know you were checking on them when they are awake."

Billy had to stare at the male for a moment in shock. It took a short time before he could figure out what to ask. "Are they doing okay and any idea how they might have gotten it?"

The nurse checked his tablet. "As of now all of them are asleep and responding to the medications. The only thing we can think of at the moment is all of you have been run down, not sleeping well, and very stressed. This can cause problems with your immune system and make the chance of getting something greater. As we come up with more information we will keep you updated."

The next dose of meds hit and before Billy could say anything else he passed out.

~~~

By the morning after Billy's and Satasha's next link day all of them were feeling better. The ones with the Ni'uzu virus were still in isolation and it looked like they would be for one more day. It was till the Sholan's were positive they were no longer infectious. When the doctor came in after their link day Billy was eating. He waved the fork at the male as he finished the bite. "Morning Doc so what kind of good news do you have for me this lovely morning?"

The physician smiled at him though the news he was going to give Billy was not going to please him. "Morning Commander and I have a fair amount of information for you. I will make it all available for you to review when you feel up to it. First your shoulder, it is healing well and taking the implant without any sign of rejection. Mind you we didn't expect any since it was grown from your own tissue but we have been keeping a closer than normal eye on it. You are far enough along in the healing that I am going to release you. I will see you in a few days and will send a reminder to your communicator."

He took a breath before continuing. "The next bit of information I can't really comment on or why it is happening at the moment." He met Billy's eyes. "For some reason a genetic shift has set in for both you and the Lt. Commander. Again I am not sure why this is happening as of yet but we are leaning towards it having something to do with the Ni'uzu virus since we have found traces of it in your DNA. It appears that at some point it was engineered into a retrovirus that didn't kick in till you were exposed. Again we don't have any idea how or why this happened."

Billy frowned since he really didn't like what the doctor was saying. He was happy being himself and anything that might impact on his brain was not a pleasing thought. "Is that why I have experienced changes in my sight, hearing, and smell? Have you any ideas where the genetic drift is aimed?"

Now the doctor frowned for a moment. "As far as the changes to your senses I am going to tentatively say no. The reason I say that is we are seeing hints of genetic drift in the others that were exposed to this version of the virus. They do not have the changes you asked me about before your link day." When Billy asked about where the drift was aimed he sighed. "For some reason it seems to be aimed at the reproductive system. There are changes in the gametes that will carry across to any child you may father. Beyond that we simply don't know. We are so early in the study of this we simply don't have an answer for you."

Billy couldn't help but get angry and the more he heard and the more the doctor told him the angrier he got. "Great, I am changing genetically and nobody has an idea why other than it might be related to that damn cold I had. Just fucking great." He ground that out with a barely repressed snarl. "One question I do have for you is how the fuck did this virus have such an impact on us? If you have never seen a human before then it shouldn't be possible for it to have been created to attack us." He had to lean back in the bed and take several slow deep breaths. "And what about my girls, is it impacting them the same way?"

The doctor barely managed to keep his ears upright when Billy spoke. The anger was completely understandable but this man was enraged and that concerned him. "I really wish I had an answer for you Commander but right now I just don't. We are going to have to take samples once a week for the next few months before we can really answer that. As I said I will make all data available to you on what we have found and I will keep this constantly updated as well. Any questions send a message to the number I am going to send to your comm. and someone will return the call as soon as they can."

Billy almost snarled at the man though it wasn't in anyway his fault. "Fine, whatever, do whatever you need to check me out or I will do something I will regret. Not your fault but I am bloody furious at the moment and need to get away from here." That was a clear dismissal and the doctor quickly retreated.

Satasha had been in the bathroom and chose to remain there till the doctor left since she was as shocked as Billy was. When the doctor mentioned changes to their reproductive systems she was horrified. It almost sounded like they were not going to be fertile anymore period. When she finally came out she settled on the bed in shock. "Oh god what now? What do we do now Yilly?"

Since he was disconnected from everything he carefully sat up and scooted over to her and wrapped an arm around her. Touching her helped him calm down some since she didn't need to feel his rage as well. "I don't know love but for the moment I am just trying to not scream. I guess what we need to do is try to remain calm and wait for further information. I know this is distressing especially for you since you don't have children yet. Let us just try and stay calm okay love?"

She turned to him and gently wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I will do my best though it will probably take a few days before I can really calm down. I want to know why this happened. Who caused it and how." Tasha nuzzled his neck and lightly licked one ear before resting her head on his shoulder again.

They sat there for a while longer before there was a buzz and the door opened. In the doorway was a Sholan who appeared to be roughly middle aged. "May I come in please? I am senior tutor Maklish and in charge of the Leska pairs."

Billy sighed since frankly he wasn't in the mood at the moment but he might as well find out why she was there. "Please come in and tell us what you need." He was doing his best not to broadcast his feelings at the moment but was sure she could sense them.

"Thank you Commander. As I said I am the tutor in charge of the Leska pairs and since you are to be released for the time being I decided to say hello. I have two main reasons for being here today. First I am going to show you to your Leska quarters. They are designed with heavy shielding for your link days and also to give you somewhere other's emotions won't impact on you. The second reason is to let you know that I am going to be schedule some light training on how to use and work with your new talents. Mostly it will be with shielding till you are further along with your healing. We don't want to overtax you."