The Journey of North

Belonging

Sha'lastall didn't panic... much... She managed to raise her strrorno on her personal communication device and relayed what had occurred. In less than 1/32nd of a day cycle, being as that Pe'roxcen had a 32 hour day/night cycle, Te'erraxa arrived with a full team of xenobiologists and had Zach off planet and back inside the stasis chamber that had brought him here from Earth. Her strrorno took multiple samples from Zach before he went back into cryo and started running tests right away. While the tests were running, her sire sat her down in his office for a talk.

"Sha'lastall, tell me all that happened and leave not one detail untold youngling," he said in a firm but caring tone, a low buzzing purr underlining both his care and his curiosity at the events of the day.

She started to retell the happenings of the day skipping not a single detail, for that is how Pe'roxenians are. She told of how her Grrack'shai'ellet had felt unwell and had not seemed to get better as the day progressed but worse. She told of how he had received a message from his ship, but could not understand the high pitched twittering noises that it made. Then he said that he wanted to go to the memorial, because his ship's AI had found some kind of signal that he wanted to investigate. She recounted their trip and how, that when they had arrived, Zach had discovered that the writings inside the memorial, had been in English, his native tongue. Then his ship's AI had once again made those odd twittering noises and Zach had collapsed.

Her sire sat there looking both stunned and thoughtful. "Can you bring me the device he used to speak with his ship?" he'd asked. She'd nodded and disappeared out the door only to quickly returned with the data viewer Zach had been carrying. Her strrorno had then placed it on a data transfer plate and his console had lit up with foreign looking script. He'd then tapped a few commands on the terminal and the alien script changed to Pe'roxenian. He'd then read through the information and sat back in his chair stunned.

"Fascinating," he'd buzzed out in a low tone of a mixture of awe and surprise.

"What is it strrorno?" she'd then asked.

"If what your Grrack'shai'ellet's AI has discovered is true, then that explains so much. It explains how our DNA is so similar. It explains how you were able to initiate both Grrack'shai and Grrack'shai'tet with him on accident. It's because our ancestors came here from Earth; and then, slowly over time, became us. We've been looking at the history of our species backwards," he exclaimed suddenly. "We did not evolve from the crrreazarrk. We instead, merged with them. Adapted to survive on this world. That is also why each new generation seems to be more like the crrreazarrk, rather than less like them. We are not evolving from them, we are evolving towards them... Fascinating..." he buzzed out, his tail twitching madly.

"Then what is happening to my Grrack'shai'ellet?" she asked with anguish in her voice.

Her strrorno shrugged. "He is adapting, changing to survive. Our ancestors must have used a virus based genetic package to cause them to change and adapt instead of individual genetic changes. That would mean, the entire colony could change and adapt rapidly instead of waiting for future generations to be born. Over time, we must have lost the original colony records and assumed that our ancestors came here as we are now and brought the crrreazarrk with us."

"Then Zach will change? He will be like us?" she asked with a touch of something hopeful in her voice. If she were to be honest with herself, she'd worried a bit about their future together. She knew that one day the urge to have offspring would come and she'd be unable to have them with her Grrack'shai'ellet and that saddened her more than she cared to admit. She did not regret her pairing with Zach, but...

Her strrorno watched her closely and nodded when he recognized her internal struggle. "It does look that way. We will have to decide whether to let the transformation proceed, or to keep him in stasis indefinitely," he said neutrally. If a look could have set fire to fur, hers would have done so. "We will prep a nutrient vat and seal him inside until the changed have completed. You will have your Grrack'shai'ellet again, you must only be patient whelp."

<<<<>>>>

It took 132 day/night cycles for Zach to change. Sha'lastall had spent all of her free time by Zach's nutrient vat. She'd read to him and talked to him and had just been there with her Grrack'shai'ellet. She'd watch the changes take him over little by little. She'd watched the blue and black patterned fur spread over his body. She'd watched as his skeletal structure had changed and remolded into shapes more familiar to her. She'd watched as his facial features had changed and rearranged into another of her species. The only difference in Zach's change was that his middle arms, were the same size as his primary arms and his torso seemed to be longer between both segments of shoulders to hips. He almost looked like a more complete version of a cross between Terran and crrreazarrk. Then the day came to decant him from the nutrient vat. He'd been scared, confused, and irritable during those first few days. He'd been almost more crrreazarrk than Terran and had spent a lot of his time on all six limbs in the holding cell they'd been forced to place him in. Her strrorno had explained that it was because of the neurological changes that had taken affect over such a short period of time. In the end, it had been her, his Grrack'shai'ellet, that had drawn him back to himself.

It had taken many day/night cycles to teach him to speak their language. But since he was now able to discern the nuances of the speech as well as identify more subtle pheromonal ques and micro-gestures, he eventually picked it up. He still had a tendency to spend a lot of his time on all six appendages, but he was a good bit more nimble in that form than he was on his hind legs. His increased agility and natural technical aptitude had earned him a position as an engineer on one the space docks where her people's... No, where their people's starships were built. He'd garnered a reputation for getting tough jobs done quickly and efficiently and he seemed to be genuinely happy in his new life.

Sha'lastall smiled and a pleased buzz of a purr thrummed in her chest as she turned the page on their families' chronicles. All of that had been 174 solar cycles, 7 whelps, 53 grandwhelps and 371 great-grandwhelps ago. Today the entire family was to gather to celebrate 175 solar cycles of mateship. While their people may be long lived, they didn't live forever and 175 solar cycles was practically ancient for their people. Her Grrack'shai'ellet slept a lot now as she did as well, but when they were active together, it was like being young again. Feeling hands on her shoulders, she looked up into Zach's bright eyes. While most of the fur on his muzzle was grey from age, the light of youth still glinted in those eyes. She pulled his head down and rubbed her own greying muzzle against his in greeting and love.

"Are you ready my Grrack'shai'ellet?" he asked in a voice rough with age.

"I am always ready if you are by my side my Grrack'shai'ellet," she said fondly giving his posterior a pat and chuckling.

He chuckled as well and hugged her tightly, yet gently. "Thank you for 175 solar cycles of the greatest life I could have even asked for," he murmured in her ear. "Thank you for giving me a place to belong."