Icarus Rising (2 page)
Authors: Bernadette Gardner
by Bernadette Gardner
Right now, though, he could do nothing about his arousal.
It was too late to dive back into the aquamarine surf and
pretend he hadn't noticed her, so he drew in a deep breath of
the magnificently clean air and met her curious gaze as she
approached.
"Do you want me?" Caleb practically choked on his own
tongue after the poorly phrased question slipped out. Clearly,
he had no control over his brain as well as his body at the
moment. "I mean ... um. Is Ray ready for me? Do you..."
Zara laughed. Though she kept her hazel-eyed gaze fixed
steadily on his, her cheeks reddened. "No. You still have half
an hour before the ritual. I just thought you might like to talk
before ... if there are any concerns you have. Anything you
want to get off your chest."
"Ah." Another year probably wouldn't be enough time to
say everything he wanted to say about the experiment, his
life, about Zara and how much she'd helped him prepare for
this monumental decision. "Nope. I'm good. Ritual cleansing
is out of the way. Now I just have to wait for Jidar and
Namara to arrive with my wings."
The light in Zara's eyes dimmed a bit at the mention of the
Icarian tribal leader and his mate. As the ruling pair, Jidar and
Namara had made the initial decision to permit a human to
join with an Icarian symbion. They had accepted Caleb's
petition to be the first test subject, and they would arrive
today with the creature, a headless bird native to Icarus's
isolated columnar islands. The animal would attach itself to
Caleb's spine and give him not only the ability to fly, as all
adult Icarians could, but the ability to mate successfully with
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Icarus Rising
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a full-blooded Icarian during the upcoming, species-wide
mating cycle. In addition to the diminishing pool of DNA, the
Icarian mating cycle, which permitted fertility only once for a
few weeks every decade, had contributed to the attrition
problem. If Caleb's joining proved successful, other humans
could volunteer to be joined and participate in the upcoming
cycle, thus ensuring at best a sixty percent increase in the
Icarian population within a year.
Caleb knew Zara wasn't completely convinced the
human/symbion bonding was a good idea, but Ray Danson's
research assured the xeno-team that human physiology was
similar enough to Icarian to make the bonding safe and
effective.
Zara clasped her hands behind her back, as was her habit
when she was trying to reign in her emotions. Caleb
wondered if she knew the posture forced her breasts to jut
out a little further and made his heart race a little faster.
"Would you like to go wait for them to arrive, or do you
need a few more minutes alone?" Zara tossed a speculative
glance out to sea. On the horizon, the towering plateaus of
the nearest columnar island chain caught the morning light.
The Icarians would soon be sailing in on the last strong winds
of yesterday's storm.
Caleb considered her question. A few more minutes alone
might give him one last opportunity to change his mind about
the experiment. Danson had impressed upon him the finality
of the bond. Once the neural connection between him and the
symbion was complete, he would be changed forever. A
surgical separation would kill the alien creature outright and
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Icarus Rising
by Bernadette Gardner
very likely leave Caleb permanently disabled, if he survived at
all.
Zara had stressed this in their therapy sessions. She had
been determined to make sure he understood the gravity of
his decision. To her credit as a counselor, he'd taken every
option under consideration and came up each time with the
same conclusion. Even if it meant losing whatever remote
chance he had to take his relationship with Zara to a more
intimate level, he had to go through with this. The future of
the Icarian race depended on their ability to infuse new DNA
into their mating pool. Caleb's future depended on his
symbion.
"I'm ready for the ritual. Let's go."
Zara offered him her hand, a firm grip even though her
fingers were delicate and graceful. He held her gaze as he
shook her hand and tried to ignore the fact that he was still
stark naked.
"Good luck, Caleb. What you're doing today is very
important and very courageous."
He responded with a flat smile and bit back the response
his conscience readily supplied.
If only you knew what a
coward I really am, Zara. If only you knew.
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Icarus Rising
by Bernadette Gardner
After nearly two years at the research station, Zara had
grown accustomed to the social mores of the Icarians. She
accepted their blunt nature, their forceful personalities and
their inability to understand many human customs. Still,
however, she found their preference for nakedness to be
disconcerting.
It wasn't that their muscular, long-limbed bodies weren't
exquisitely beautiful by human standards ... no, in fact, that's
exactly
what it was. Next to Icarian females she felt
underprivileged in the height department and in the breast
department as well.
Lined up with the rest of the staff from the station, Zara
kept her eyes locked straight ahead and her jaw clenched
tightly when the Icarian delegation arrived, swooping out of
the sky like condors on their fifteen-foot wingspans.
Jidar landed first. His feet hit the green sand with an
audible thud, and he bowed slightly to Dr. Danson while the
blue-feathered wings of his symbion folded of their own
accord and rested against his naked back.
Zara's muscles tensed involuntarily. The leader of the
Icarians commanded everyone's attention. Even standing
silently while he waited for his mate, Namara, and another
female to land behind him, he seemed to be broadcasting his
innate power and superiority.
Zara would never have admitted to anyone that Jidar
frightened her just a little bit. Though the Icarians did not
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Icarus Rising
by Bernadette Gardner
wage war and their society had almost no crime or violence,
the coiled power in Jidar's massive frame made Zara's knees
a little weak. After today's ritual, Jidar would effectively
become Caleb's master in all things. He would have the final
say in where Caleb would live, what role he would play in the
Icarian tribe and ultimately whether or not he mated with an
Icarian female.
Despite his kindness and keen intelligence, Zara hated him
at the moment.
"Caleb Faulkner, step forward." Jidar's voice boomed
across the beach, and Caleb left the head of the line of
assembled humans and approached the Icarian. A few steps
before he reached Jidar, Caleb dropped to one knee. He
bowed his head and extended his arms, fists tightly balled,
behind him in the Icarian posture of respect and
subservience.
Behind Jidar, Namara landed and dropped immediately
into the same position as Caleb. The Icarian co-leader's long,
white hair hung down like a curtain over her body, modestly
shielding her voluptuous form, at least for the moment.
One pace behind Namara, another female, this one dark-
haired, landed and knelt. Zara recognized Arilani. A healer
and an expert in symbion physiology, she was Raymond
Danson's counterpart among the Icarians. Together the
geneticist and the tribal doctor would see to it that Caleb's
bond with the symbion bird went smoothly.
Once Namara and Arilani had folded their wings, Jidar bade
them rise and they joined him in a semi-circle in front of
Caleb.
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Icarus Rising
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"You may stand, young one." Jidar placed a hand on
Caleb's shoulder and took his hand to help him stand up in
the soft, uneven sand.
"Young one?" The question came from somewhere in the
line-up of human observers.
Danson shushed his colleague, but Zara offered a
whispered reply. "This ritual is usually performed at age ten,
just before an Icarian enters puberty, so in essence, by
Icarian standards, Caleb is still a child."
Silence fell over the assembled crowd again, and after a
brief exchange with Jidar and Namara in which Caleb pledged
loyalty to the tribe above all else, he dropped back to one
knee. Once the bonding was complete, as an adult Icarian
and a full-fledged member of the dwindling tribe, he would be
given the right to vote in tribal decisions, campaign for
election to the administrative committee that helped Jidar
rule, and accept or decline the mate Jidar offered him.
Assuming, of course, he survived the bonding.
Zara's throat tightened at the thought, and a sick feeling
began to churn in her stomach when two male Icarians took
shape in the brilliant sky, carrying between them one of the
huge winged animals. Everyone on the beach turned to watch
the symbion and its handlers land. It was strange to see just
a huge pair of wings held between the two Icarians. Several
specimens of the headless birds, both living and dead, had
been brought to the research station for study, but this was
among the largest and most impressive Zara had ever seen.
Though they lacked a disarticulated head and feet and
bore only vestigial eyes, the birds were quite beautiful and
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Icarus Rising
by Bernadette Gardner
extremely graceful. At the upper end of their bodies, they had
large, beakless mouths designed for scooping fish from the
Icarian ocean, and at the lower end of their bodies they bore
reproductive organs for laying perfectly round, fist-sized eggs
which they incubated for several months in their conical-
shaped nests. In between, nestled in the tightly woven
feathers of their elongated thoraxes, lay a bone-tipped siphon
which they used to link their bodies permanently to a host.
Zara swallowed hard and closed her eyes. She wasn't sure
she could bear to watch the next part of the ritual as Caleb
prostrated himself in the sand at Jidar's feet. The male
handlers carried the huge, gray-feathered symbion toward
Caleb and settled the creature on the back of its future host.
It only takes a moment
, she told herself, clenching her
fists until her nails dug into her palms.
It only takes a
moment, and Caleb will cease to be completely human
.
Zara waited, blind to the climax of the bonding. It would
all be over soon, and Caleb would take to the air on his first
flight.
"Perfect," Danson whispered. "It looks like—" The
geneticist's proud comment cut off abruptly when a deep,
primal scream tore across the beach.
Every nerve in Caleb's body burned. White hot flames
seemed to emanate from the point just below the nape of his
neck where the symbion had plunged its siphon into his spinal
column.
This was supposed to be safe and painless! His panicked
brain supplied only snippets of his conversations with
Raymond Danson and Arilani.
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Icarus Rising
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The average Icarian is ten years of age when they are
joined to a symbion. The process takes only a few moments
and appears to be completely painless.
Danson's words
echoed, mixing with Arilani's assurances.
The siphon pierces the sheath around the spinal cord of
the host and creates an instant connection. Within minutes,
the young Icarian gains control over the symbion wings and
launches into the sky for his or her virgin flight.
Through a blurry haze of shock, Caleb registered the feel
of hands on his body, turning him over, wiping sand from his
eyes and his lips.
Someone shouted his name. Danson. Bastard. Caleb
wanted to wrap his hands around the man's throat and
choked the life out of him for this. Fortunately for the
geneticist, Caleb couldn't so much as control his own
breathing at this moment or he would be homicidal from the
pain.
"Don't move him. Let his body and mind adjust." Jidar's
deep voice cut across the jumble of worried exclamations that
filled the air. Was that Zara crying? Caleb tried to look for
her, but all he managed to do was flop his head to one side
and spit salty liquid into the sand. Blood. Had he bitten his
tongue? Or were his insides dissolving from the fire racing
through his veins?
Vaguely, he registered movement on each side of him. The
violet-tinged gray wings of his symbion flapped ineffectively,
throwing wet sand in all directions. A naked Icarian female
held one of the quivering limbs in her hand and administered
an injection.
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