The Starfarers Quartet Omnibus by Vonda N. McIntyre

Author:Vonda N. McIntyre [McIntyre, Vonda N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, ebook, sf, Transition, Vonda N. McIntyre, Metaphase, Nautilus, Book View Cafe, Starfarers
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2010-02-18T13:00:00+00:00

J.D. and Zev remained with Nemo.

One of the armor-scaled creatures flowed up to Zev’s bare foot and extended its frilly mantle, rippling out to touch him. Zev watched it curiously. Then, fearless, he picked it up and turned it over to look at it. Its feathery appendages waved frantically, and a stream of fluid spurted from its underside. Zev laughed. An old hand at catching creatures who used water jets and ink and even tiny poison darts for defense and escape, he had been holding it at an angle. The liquid jet missed him and spattered, pungent and oily, on the floor. Zev put the creature down, and it zipped off under one of the silk-sheet walls.

Zev crossed the distance to Nemo. He knelt down and touched Nemo’s sleek side, stroking the iridescent skin. Nemo blinked slowly. The long eyelid closed. Nemo reminded J.D. for all the world like a huge mutant cat being petted. The long tentacles moved languorously, tapping against the silk floor, the spinners, Zev’s leg.

Nemo plucked one of the honey ants and gave it to Zev, plucked another and handed it to J.D. J.D. ate hers slowly, preparing for the rush and dizziness. Zev popped his into his mouth and crunched it.

“Oh, I like that,” he said out loud, his voice breathy. He returned to using his link. “Thanks, Nemo! I wonder if you’d like beer.”

Nemo’s long eyelid opened; the glittery eyes peered out. The long tentacles surrounded Zev, touching and stroking him.

“I eat only insubstantial food,” Nemo said.

Zev sat quiet and interested as Nemo’s tentacles explored his body.

The tentacles touched and probed his body through the thin fabric of his shorts and shirt. Zev, not in the least uncomfortable, stroked Nemo’s back and played his fingers along the shorter proboscises that formed Nemo’s mustache.

Nemo touched Zev’s face with the tip of one long tentacle.

“You have had your children.”

“Me?” Zev said, startled, yet flattered. “No, I’ve never been asked to father a child. Not yet.”

Nemo’s short tentacles wuffled in a complex wave.

“You’re a juvenile.”

“I’m grown!”

Nemo pulled the tentacle sharply back. Zev leaned toward the squidmoth and touched the purple fur.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Zev said.

“Zev’s an adult,” J.D. said. “But divers wait till they’re older, usually, before they reproduce.”

“Humans change to divers,” Nemo said.

J.D. was having trouble following Nemo’s reasoning, though the insubstantial food made her feel intense as well as dizzy, able to make great leaps of intuition. Unfortunately, figuring out what Nemo meant, or what Nemo wanted to know, was too great a leap even for J.D.

“Divers started out as human beings. But we changed ourselves. My grandparents did.”

“Divers are not the adult form of human beings.”

“No,” J.D. said. “I mean, that’s right. Humans can change to divers and divers can change to humans, but we usually don’t.”

“I was never an ordinary human being,” Zev said. “And we breed true. Diver genes are dominant. If J.D. and I had children, they’d be divers.”

“There’s another difference between Zev and me,” J.D. said. “Zev is male and I’m female.

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