Kai Yaarkan 2  Part 5

        By M.Scharf

DAY THREE CONTINUED- Hoshi's POV--


Dellatran continued to lead Hoshi across the wide expanse of the flight deck. While the young Japanese was glad to see his lover's joy at being home and to feel the genuine warmth with which the crew greeted Dell, he was disheartened by the glowers some of the Xenos had flashed his way and hearing M'jad call him a gink had made him cringe, despite Dell's response. Hoshi knew that many, if not most, of the crew would have deep and even violent resentment toward him. Not only was he the Captain's favored pet but he was responsible for the loss of one third of their friends and co-workers. No matter how Dellatran tried to assure him that the massacre wasn't his fault, Hoshi and the crew knew it was. He could feel their eyes on his back and it made him keenly aware of his nakedness but his disconsolate thoughts were flushed away when he saw the elevator doors open on the far side of the landing bay. Hoshi watched the Yaarkan's chief medical officer walk out and he felt his heart rise up.
"Tabor!" He cried joyously, starting to rush toward the leonine Rauthuan but then he realized he'd stepped in front of the Captain.
Hoshi stopped and looked back apologetically, hoping his transgression wouldn't earn him a sharp jerk on the leash but Dell was still in a very amiable mood. The pirate handed him the end of the lead.
"Go on, I know you missed him."
The young man took the chain and ran across the deck space toward the Doctor. The big Xeno held his powerful arms open and Hoshi threw himself into them. Tabor spun him around like a child, then clasped him close.
"Oh Hoshi, I'm so glad you're back!" The lion-like alien purred in his deep, gravelly voice.
"I was afraid I'd never see you again!" The young Human said, half laughing-half crying.
He could feel the Rauthuan's strong muscles beneath his medical smock and the ruff of fur along his jaws tickled his face delightfully. Tabor smelled so good, like musk and vanilla. His chest was broad and deep but despite his physical power, there was an incredible gentleness to him. The Xeno’s prehensile tail wrapped itself around the youth's waist as if it weren't enough that he should hug him with just his arms.
"I was worried Dell wouldn't be able to get you back." He said, caressing Hoshi's smooth face with his cloned Human hands.
The Japanese looked from his warm caramel-colored eyes back to the form of the more sedately approaching pirate.
"Dell can do anything."
The Doctor chuffed-laughed.
"I'm beginning to think you're right."
By now the Captain had reached them. He extended his good right hand and Tabor clasped it with it's identical clone.
"How've you been, Old-Man?" The white-haired pirate asked warmly.
"Worried."
"I'll bet you fretted each and every one of the last twenty-nine days."
"Each and every HOUR of each and every day," Tabor answered. "But everything is blast-rockets now that I see you're all right."
Dellatran's miss-matched eyes looked seriously into the Doctor's kind, tawny ones.
"I'm more than just all right. It's been a long time since I've felt this good and I owe it all to you." He reached up and caressed the muttonchop ruff of fur on the Rauthuan's cheek. "Thank you for setting me straight and not letting me give up."
Hoshi felt the deep emotion passing between the big males and he was sure that if Dell hadn't been wearing his breather mask, he might even have kissed his old friend. He knew they were deeply attracted to each other and he wanted to encourage their connection so he slipped one arm from Tabor's torso and put it around Dellatran's hips, pulling him closer so that they shared a three-way embrace. Hoshi was so happy that he thought his heart might fly right out of his chest and flutter around the cavernous bay like an exultant bird but finally Dellatran pulled back from the hug.
"I have to get up to the bridge and get us the hell out of here before the GAF show up. Tabor, I want you to take Hoshi up to sickbay. Give him a good look over. I'm almost positive the Pra put a spy bug in him somewhere. Find it and take it out but don't destroy it. I'll come down there as soon as I can."
The Doctor nodded.
"Ok, I want to do a physical on you too."
"I'm fine." The Captain said dismissively.
"We have to keep an eye on those upgrades."
"We'll argue about it later." Dell replied, turning toward the elevator.
Hoshi and the Doctor watched him stride into the lift. His walk conveyed power, confidence and grace. The young Japanese looked away from the pirate captain's form to study the expression on Tabor's lion-like face.
"You love him, don't you." He said softly.
The Doctor blinked and tore his golden eyes from Dellatran, just as the elevator doors shut and carried him away.
"Of course I love him. He's been my best friend for almost forty years."
"No, I don't mean like that." Hoshi said. "I mean you love him the same way I do."
Tabor scowled.
"Why would you say that?"
"Because of the way you look at him. You're in love with him."
Even as he spoke, Hoshi saw the flash of embarrassment and fear in the big Rauthuan.
"I can't be...He's family to me Hoshi. I took him from his mother's womb with my own hands. I was there for his first steps. I placed the first synthi-skin on his first scraped knee. Dell is like a...a son."
"But he's not really." The slender Human replied. "And besides, don't you think I feel the same sort of way? Dell is my surrogate father, the older brother I never had, my best friend, my teacher, my captain and my master. He's all of those things and still my lover. He can be that way for you too."
The Doctor shook his maned head.
"Hoshi, it would never work."
"Why not?"
"It just wouldn't."
"It can't be because he's Human and you're Rauthuan. You've made love to me and I'm the same race as Dell. And it can't be because you're both males. Again, you've had sex with me and I'm a male and I know from studying your race that same sex unions aren't all that uncommon to your people."
"That's different, son." Tabor protested weakly.
"How?"
"Those relationships feature males from different..." He struggled to find the word he wanted. "They're of different types."
Hoshi cocked his head.
"You mean you're hesitant to tell Dell how you feel because you're both dominant males and in order to be together, one of you would have to give in and take the submissive role?"
Because their bodies were covered in short soft fur, Rauthuans didn't blush. Such a biological function would be useless but the wince that flashed onto Tabor's leonine visage was enough to tell Hoshi he was deeply embarrassed.
"You don't have to be ashamed." The Japanese continued, putting his hand on the Xeno’s powerful forearm. "Did it ever occur to you that Dell might be thinking the same exact thing? And while you two are busy worrying about your posturing and rank, time is slipping away. Dell leads a very dangerous life and..."
"Stop Hoshi." Tabor cried and the young Human saw the emotion tearing at his heart.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly.
The Doctor sighed and tried to let go of his angst.
"Let's get up to sick bay and get that bug out of you."
Hoshi nodded and tried to hand him the end of his leash chain. The Rauthuan looked at it blankly for a second, then realized what the young Human expected.
"I'm not going to lead you around like an animal." He rumbled.
"I don't mind...At least not with you or Dell."
"Son, I'm still trying to work my mind around the whole master-slave thing and I'm still not sure I like it."
Hoshi took back the leash and slipped his slender fingers into Tabor's clone hand instead.
"Is this better?"
The Rauthuan's caramel eyes warmed.
"Much better."
They began to walk across the flight deck to the elevator Dell had just used. As they did, Tabor called out to the ship's operations computer.
"Kai, elevator."
The comp responded by summoning the car from the upper decks where Dellatran had left it. By the time The Doctor and the young man reached the lift, the car had descended to meet them and the doors swooshed open. They entered. The Rauthuan eschewed the button panel on the wall, again using voice commands.
"Kai, level five."
The elevator closed and began to ascend.
"So," Tabor said conversationally. "When Dell came to get you, did he come in with his guns blazing and snatch you up like an Ugraj-hin raider scagging a settler ship?"
Hoshi looked up at him. The Doctor had tried to keep his voice light and casual but the youth knew the real intent behind the question. He wanted to know how much choice Dellatran had given him.
"It wasn't like that at all." The slender Japanese answered. "Well, not until we were trying to get past the Earth's defense systems."
"So how did he do it?" Tabor asked.
The lift stopped on level five and opened it's doors. Hoshi smiled as they stepped out of the car and into the corridor.
"He was actually very delicate about it."
"Delicate?" The Doctor snorted. "I didn't think Dell knew the meaning of that word."
The young Human chuckled too, then said,
"He had someone deliver a book to me. Well actually, it was him in disguise but I didn't know that at the time. He was wearing a wig, wide sunglasses and with his new face I didn't recognize him at all."
"So what was in the book?" Tabor asked as they walked very slowly up the passage.
"A code, but the book itself was the first clue. It was one Dell and I had shared. Nobody knew about it but us, so I was really shocked. I deciphered the code and it told me to go to the spaceport, small craft docking bay three seventy-eight. It ended with his initial and I knew it had to be him. I was so excited and scared and oh, it was just INSANE. I thought I was going to go crazy before I could sneak out of my house and loose my bodyguard."
"You went of your own free will?"
"Completely. I got to the docking bay and saw the Arronax. Dell was sitting on the loading ramp but I still didn't know it was him. He gave me another chance to back out but all I wanted was to go to Dell. That's when he took off the wig and glasses and I realized it was him all along." Hoshi stopped walking and smiled at the memory. "You know how you always hear about people getting a big shock and passing out? I used to think that was some sort of exaggeration but it's not. My legs went all wobbly and I would have fainted if he hadn't caught me."
Tabor actually chuffed at the expression on the young man's face. He saw sheer joy in it. It made the Human even prettier than he already was. He put his arm around the smaller being.
"I'm happy for you Hoshi."
They continued up the narrow hall, passed two Xeno crewmembers who nodded at the Doctor and ignored Hoshi, then they came to sickbay's wide double doors. The entry sensors picked up their movements and the doors slid open. Hoshi walked in and looked around.
"Wao, you've gotten some new equipment!"
Tabor nodded his maned head.
"Once Dell pulled his head out of his ass, he went on a bit of a spending spree with the three point two million credits worth of kavok he and Wu carried out of that mine. Get up on the exam table please."
Hoshi obeyed, climbing onto the medi-bed.
"What do you mean by 'pulled his head out of his ass'?"
The leonine Doctor looked down at the young man with a very serious expression.
"Hoshi, it nearly killed him to loose you."
"It did?"
The Rauthuan turned to pick up his med-sensor.
"He was in very bad shape when they brought him back aboard. The blaster round had gone clean through him. He had a collapsed lung and he was bleeding into his chest. The ship was being thrown around. I almost lost him twice on the table."
As he spoke the Doctor placed the sensor unit over Hoshi's heart. It attached itself via suction and began to take his vital readings. Tabor used his hand held transceiver to monitor the unit's output.
"I finally got the hemorrhaging stopped and he stabilized. It took hours with the tissue knitter to close the internal wound and six full days with the osseo-stimulator to regrow the damaged bones. By then his body was so stressed I didn't dare to use the knitter to heal the external injuries, so now he's got another scar for his collection...I'm going to take a blood sample Hoshi. You'll feel a little stick."
The young man winced at the feel of the sensor unit's needle probe jabbing into the flesh next to his right nipple.
"He's alright now though, isn't he?" Hoshi asked.
"Physically, yes. Mentally, he still has problems but he finally agreed to let me give him a Nampdahixatrol implant. I think it's really evened out his moods."
"How did you ever talk him into that?" Hoshi said in surprise. "I thought that after what the Pra did to him, he'd never accept any brain-benders."
"It's not a brain-bender, Hoshi." Tabor scolded. "It's an anti-depressant and don't let Dell know I told you about it."
"I won't." The youth answered, as the Rauthuan checked the med-sensor's readouts. "But how did you get him to take it?"
Tabor sighed.
"It wasn't easy. When Dell came around after being shot, the first thing he said was your name. At that point we were still in warp and we didn't know if you were alive or not. I told him you were gone." Another heavy sigh made the Doctor's brawny chest heave. "When he was back on that prison planet he learned how to shut his mind down when things got too much for him to handle, sort of the way you'd shut down a computer with a glitch locking it up. He realized you were gone and he just turned himself off. He was catatonic for days. Really scared me."
The Doctor stopped talking and reached up to pull down some sort of device on an articulated arm from a niche near the head of the bed.
"This is an Iprae-Seetu physio-scanner." He explained. "Most Pra implant bugs are shielded but this unit will find it if you've got one. We'll start at your head and work our way down, all right?"
Hoshi nodded. Tabor removed his med-sensor and brought the scanner unit in close to the young Human's head. He turned it on and pink light flooded over Hoshi. It wasn't bright enough to hurt his eyes but there was a slight tingling on his skin, as if he was building up a static electrical charge.
"So what happened?" He asked, fighting the urge to reach up and rub his face.
"Keep still please." Tabor murmured, peering into the small display screen.
As he scanned he began to talk again, slowly and with frequent pauses.
"We weren't able to go faster than warp 3.2 because of all the battle damage...Turn your head to the left please...We knew we couldn't do an atmo landing, so there was only one place we could go...The Ermangie Gangster clan has complete control of the Sagu-Batt system cluster...the Pra don't go in there, so it's a reasonably safe place for outlaws...Now to the right...Thank you. We docked at an orbiting repair platform...That's when we learned that you were still alive. The galactic news was still buzzing about it...Hoshi, have you ever had a head injury?"
"I crashed my Ferrari racing hover a couple of years ago." The Japanese answered, trying to keep his head still as he spoke. "Put me out cold. Why? Is something wrong?"
"No, no." Tabor soothed in his calming purr. "You've just got a little lesion. It's no big deal. I was just wondering how it happened...Anyway, I tried to tell Dell the news that you were not only alive but that you'd been returned safely to Earth but he was still in mental lock-down...I was getting really worried. Thought I might have to use the neural alignment probe on him but I decided to try a dose of anti-psychotics first."
The Doctor moved the scanner down along Hoshi's neck, maneuvering the slave collar as much as he could.
"I gave him the drug but it didn't seem to have any effect. I had a motion detector on his medi-bed so I could get some sleep but I must have been more exhausted than I thought." He continued to sweep Hoshi's shoulders and chest. "Oh, you've got a very nice heart. Good clean arteries...Now what was I saying?"
"You were tired." Hoshi offered.
"Ah yes, not only did I not hear the motion alarm right away but I had left the cabinet with the laser scalpels unlocked. By the time I got out of bed and made it in here, Dell had gotten up, torn out his I.V., ripped out his catheter, crossed the room and gotten one of the scalpels...He was talking about ritual Japanese suicide."
"Seppuku?" Hoshi cried.
"I think that's the word he used, now please hold still...He said that in Japan's feudal past, warriors that had suffered failure, defeat or humiliation would ritualistically disembowel themselves."
Tabor stopped scanning and sat up straight. Hoshi looked around the pink light and saw the sick cast to the Rauthuan's face.
"He was going to do it. He was going to slice open his belly and let his guts fall out on the floor. I knew I couldn't even get to my tranq injector, let alone hit him with it before he cut himself."
"What did you do?"
"I started talking as fast as I could. I told him anything I could think of to get him to stop. I told him he'd be letting the Pra win, that he was giving them exactly what they wanted. I said the galaxy would remember him as a coward who would rather die than face reality. I threw his father at him and asked him what the Professor would think to look down and see him laying in his own gut pile...Nothing seemed to reach him until I told him that he was letting you down. I said, 'Hoshi will be waiting for you to come for him and when you don't he'll think you didn't love him enough to try to save him.' That's what did it. The idea that he'd let you down, that you'd think he didn't love you."
Hoshi lay there trying not to let the tears hovering in his charcoal eyes fall. The thought of Dell suffering so was too much and the saline wetness trickled slowly from the corners of his almond eyes. Tabor reached out and very gently wiped the tears away.
"Are you ok, son?"
The youth nodded, trying not to give in and start crying outright.
"It's all right now." The Rauthuan soothed. "He listened to me and put the cutter down. He let me help him."
"I'm so glad he did." Hoshi whispered.
Tabor started scanning again, moving down to the youth's belly.
"Hmmm, you may have a very good heart but your liver looks like it should be in a man twice your age!"
"I used to drink a lot." Hoshi admitted reluctantly.
"Well, it's something we'll have to keep an eye on as you get older. I have some drugs that can partly repair the damage to the circulatory system but the actual cellular degeneration may require a clone replacement by the time you're Dell's age."
He moved the scanner lower over Hoshi's pelvis and within three seconds made a satisfied sound.
"Ah-ha! There it is! Those tricky bastards."
The young Human sat up on his elbows.
"Where is it?"
"They drilled it into your hip bone. The only thing besides this scanner that could pick it up would be an old fashion X-ray and even Humans don't use those anymore. Did you notice any soreness there after their medical exams?"
"Yes, but I thought I'd just banged my hip during all the action."
"Did they knock you out when they did their exam?"
Hoshi nodded.
"They said I was hysterical and that I needed to be sedated but I wasn't hysterical until they told me that. I didn't want them to drug me. I remembered what you’d told me about the things they’d done to Dell. I fought but they pinned me down and next thing I knew I was in bed in a hospital on Earth."
"They probably interrogated you while you were in a highly drugged state...Mother-raping mommut pricks."
"So how do we get it out?" Hoshi asked nervously, still looking at his hip.
Tabor glanced up at him with his lion-like face.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to surgically remove it."
Hoshi's expression of dismay made the old Rauthuan smile kindly at him and pat his hand.
"Don't worry, son. I'll give you something to make you sleep, then I'll numb the whole area. By the time you wake up, I'll have the thing out and the worst it will feel like is a bruise."
The Doctor went to the small lab area just off the main bed ward and returned with his pneumatic injector gun. Hoshi tried not to shy away from it but Tabor saw his muscles tense.
"It will be ok, Hoshi. Trust me. I wouldn't let anything happen to you."
He leaned down and kissed the slender young Human very gently. Hoshi let his fingers move up and curl into the coarse hair of Tabor's mane. He remembered the night of passion they'd shared so many months ago. He had trusted the Rauthuan then and he trusted him now. Hoshi let the tension out of his muscles. Tabor brought the injector up and placed it against the tender skin in the hollow of his shoulder. With his lips still caressing the Human's, the Doctor squeezed the trigger. There was a very slight pinch and Hoshi felt a warm, spreading sensation radiate out from the injection site. He fell into darkness with Tabor's mouth still kissing his.