Specter of Her Dreams - Cont....

Rhett was one of the team who had seen the group descent on her world. She and the team had been watching the arrivals, to make sure they weren't overly destructive. She was one of the supporters that these creatures who had landed on her world. She hypothesized that they were very much the same as her people once were. She didn't get every word, but caught their meaning. They gave her their names, but she didn't understand maa-roonnd. It didn't matter, she was intelligent and would learn their language easily. She could be patient. She suspected she had, quite by accident, interrupted a mating, but they hadn't responded angrily, so she would continue this dialogue.

"Do you live in the sea?" She knew the answer was obvious, but still wasn't sure Rhett understood what she was saying. She moved a little closer to the water-girl. "May I see that?" She indicated the breathing apparatus.

This female was inquisitive. The male was rather hesitant, common of males in most species she had seen so far. "Eedair." She stated and offered the female her oxygen collector. "Rhett 'tivere tunwah it." She pointed at them. "Tu 'tivere darh." She pointed toward their settlement. "Rhett watu tulan."

"I got none of that." Stephan admitted to Edna. "Tavier?"

She shook her head slowly. "Rhett," she pointed at herself. "Wa-tu," pointing at her eyes she exaggerated looking around and then pointed at them. "Tu-lan," making like something floating down to sit on the sand.

"Tuwa us lan?" She pointed to Stephan and herself, "us."

Rhett nodded with a toothy grin. She was intelligent. She was getting the language, the syntax was wrong, but she was trying. Rhett rolled the "us" around in her mind for a while. Us must be her people. "Traavs." She pointed to herself and the sea behind her. "Pepp-traavs."

This wasn't as difficult as it could be, Edna thought. They weren't speaking the exact language, but they could make do and communicate. "Its almost like a degenerated form of english." She remarked to Stephan as she handed the breather back to Rhett. "Tulan?"

Rhett's eyes grew wider than normal. What had Edna said that got that response, he wondered. He noticed the slight bulges on the chest, for the first time and felt foolish. No wonder they understood each other, they were both women, he mused. It didn't matter, it seamed, no matter the species, women thought the same.

"Rhett pepplan zome urgso. Rhett tink pepp-us," she pointed at them, "an pepp-traavs urgso consanguine." Edna was suddenly frowning. "What is it?" He swallowed. "What did she say?"

"Consanguine is a valid English word. It means to be the same, allied in characteristics or related by blood. This is a degenerated form of English. Kinda like a strange fad that was going around on earth many years back called ebonics."

By the time the suns were dropping behind the sea's horizon, the three had developed a basis of understanding and were so engrossed in each other that none of them noticed the passage of time until it became difficult to see. Rhett laughed and waved a farewell and dove into the surf. Edna was at a bit of a loss, so prompt had Rhett's departure been that she didn't have a chance to respond or realize that the Traavs was leaving.

"Well, it seems that when she has to go, she goes." Stephan laughed. "I don't know about you, but I'm starved." He offered Edna his hand. "I also suspect that Terrance is pulling his hair out worrying about you."

"You are probably right." She accepted his hand and stood, finding herself in his embrace.

"We were otherwise engaged before she emerged. We must continue that discussion, don't you think?"

She laughed. "It was becoming interesting." He was trying to sound so 'buisnessy', as though they hadn't just been very close to making love on the sand. Part of her, in the back of her Captain's mind, couldn't believe what she had just about done her in the sand with a subordinate officer. Perhaps it was something about this planet - being marooned without little likelihood of rescue or something in the salt air - for she found herself not even balking at his arms around her. She had never considered herself a stuffy, entombed and lifeless commander, as some she had seen, but she had always been a text-book captain. She had always been proper and above what was expected of a captain. "When do you propose?"

Had he missed it? When he first landed, she had been so proper and stoic. When had she resigned as Captain without his notice, or, he suddenly thought, was it only because they were in the secluded grove, away from everyone else?

"Later tonight, your dwelling?"

"My dwelling?"

"Well, its not a tent and it still isn't a permanent structure - what should I call it?"

She laughed again and pulled from his arms. "Come on Lieutenant, before Terrance has no hair." She cast his a suggestive look over her shoulder and headed up the cliff.

At the top, she stood and looked out at the water. It was the most beautiful blue-green she had ever seen. Something within her sang at such a view. She couldn't explain it, but she felt so much more alive looking into the fathomless depths.

She took a deep breath of the salty breeze. As it filled her lungs a strange urgency filled her heart. A longing that she was unaware of before, as though it were buried deep within her soul and only now escaped as the salt air left her lungs. She felt something that she never had before. She felt something that she never expected. She felt something that she never dared to hope. She felt belonging.

"Are you alright?"

She registered the concern in Stephan's voice and realized there were tears running down her face. "Yes." She said and turned, wiping her eyes, striding toward the camp. "I was looking into a breeze, it made my eyes water." What was this strange yearning? Where had it come from? Had it always been there, hidden? She hastened her pace.

He tried not to appear worried, but she had been crying. He wasn't a fool. Those had been tears running down her face. What had caused them? What has she seen or been thinking? Did she miss home? He kept her stride and said nothing. He half expected a scolding from the Mordiccai as soon as they arrived at the compound.

The camp was quiet. Too quiet. He stopped Edna with his hand on her shoulder. "Something's amiss."

She stopped and observed. He was right, it was odd. Slowly the two made their way as quietly and invisible as possible. They finally found everyone in the central shelter that was used for meetings. When Terrance noticed their approach he jumped out of his seat and rushed toward them. "What is it?"

"I'm so glad your back and safe. I was terribly worried." He stopped as he drew close. "You won't believe what happened while you were away!"

"We need to talk about the cove."

"No disrespect, Captain, but I think you're going to want to hear this first."

He was adamant, and he rarely was like that so she knew it was important. "Very well, Terrance, tell us what happened while we were away." She could tell him about the encounter with Rhett later.

"Well," he began. "You had just been gone and three . . . " He searched for the words.

"Natives?"

Terrance looked at his Captain. "Yes." He searched her eyes, wondering why she didn't look that amazed. "Three natives came up out of the water and walked toward a group of us and tried to converse."

"We met one also. When we were in the cove, a female met with us." She answered.

"Her name was Rhett." Stephan offered. "Edna can talk to them."

Terrance's eyes grew wide. "Really?" He knew he would never cease being amazed at his Captain's abilities. "We couldn't fathom what they were saying, but they were pleasant enough."

"They've been watching us since we landed. Evidently they once traveled the stars also and crashed or migrated here and used to live on the land like us. I don't know how, but they adapted to water living."

"Wow." Mr. Fausto shook his head in amazement. "We were very diplomatic - after all, it doesn't do to upset the natives, but we couldn't understand them at all."

"You are probably seeing why she was made captain." Terrance informed Mr. Fausto. "You say, you think they've been watching us from the time we landed?"

"That's what Rhett said."

"Amazing." Mr. Fausto breathed as he walked away.

In a little over two weeks, a handful understood each other. The two races had much in common. It seems that the Traavs (perhaps once pronounced 'travelers') were from Earth, and were among the very first to venture from Earth's galaxy. The had been pulled into a quantum distortion of space and ended up millions of light-years from home. The had spent several years looking for a habitable planet when they finally found this one. This planet had very limited land masses. At first they adopted to living on the water and using the land for crops. After a while, they began experimenting with the genes of the animals that were native to the planet and over a long time of manipulations, evolved into what they were now. Now they lived under the water in bio-spheres where they grew everything they needed to survive.

A few had joined Edna and Stephan on the visit to the under-water bio-sphere where Rhett lived. Since the Traavs still breathed air as any mammal, the spheres were like large, city-bubbles. Entire families lived in a sphere and grew food and harvested ocean-life for food. Edna was quite amazed, but had envisioned much the same concept. She just had not thought of genetically manipulating herself to become suited for water life. She always had it in the back of her mind to return home - or so she thought.

Rhett explained that the Us could not live like the Traavs, it would take many generations to be like them. But her people would be most willing to assist the Us in any thing they needed.

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