Page 12

Titan

The bonding ceremony ended without a Burrow Worm sighting, allowing Al and Jude to escape down the central aisle and into their dwelling unharmed. In their absence, Titan lifted his great-aunt ??$ off the erroneously labeled crate and set her on the sand next to the dais.

By the time he finished, Ezra was gone.

“My gratitude unto you, ?.Λ.yz’Ο,” ??$ croaked. She reached up, hand shaking with age, and patted him several times on the cheek. “You are a prime specimen and so physically capable, even in your unsightly human disguise. A blessing of an offspring indeed.”

“I am the one who must pay gratitude to you,” Titan replied politely, although his heart was not in it.

He was too distracted by the space where Ezra had been—and now wasn’t.

“Surely it was your wisdom and composure which soothed the Burrow Worms and allowed for an uneventful bonding ceremony, making my part in today’s events redundant. ”

“You may call me by my human name of Ruth the Elder while I am in this form,” she said.

“It is a distinguished name I selected with much care, and I wish to hear it used, as soon we shall return to Darvrok 6 and there shall be no reason to speak it again. A pity. The Earth language ‘English’ is largely unappealing, but some of its words are quite beautiful. My name, for example, as well as the word ‘yas,’ which Human Corbin graciously taught me.”

“‘Yas’? Did you mean to say ‘yes’?”

“No. This is the beauty of the word. It is similar in meaning and pronunciation, yet distinct. How inefficient!”

It was delightfully inefficient, yet Titan derived no pleasure from it. He nodded minutely.

“Do you suffer, offspring?” Ruth the Elder asked.

She reached up and laid her hand on several different sections of his face.

“You are thermoregulating correctly, but I sense a heaviness within you. Could it be you are disappointed you did not have to do combat with a Burrow Worm in defense of your brother? Or perhaps…” She went to lay her hand on Titan’s cheek to once more make skin-to-skin contact, but Titan flinched and stepped away.

“I do not wish for my emotions to be known,” he muttered, a great feeling of discomfort knotting in his chest that he did not like in the least.

“Then it is as I suspected,” Ruth the Elder said somberly.

“Offspring, you are a great and significant being. Whether it is within this rotation, or the next, or in many rotations to come, you will find a mate who is as impressive as you are, and once you do, I will forever tie you together in your own bonding ceremony. You need not feel sadness. Your time will come. Any being would feel much luck indeed to be selected as your mate.”

“I know this.”

“I am sure you do, yet your heart is heavy, so I must remind you of it.”

A twinge surged inside Titan where his discomfort had once been.

There was no need to remind him of something so obvious!

He was great. He had always been gre at.

Greatness was so intrinsic to his being that it had manifested in his markings, and that greatness would lead him to happiness.

Ambassador Ezra would see it in him eventually, and once he did, he would realize what a fool he had been to rebuff Titan as he was currently doing.

He would come to Titan, and be his mate, and mate with him freely, and when Titan brought him to the dais to be bonded, no Burrow Worm would dare stir, as there would never be a better union.

Their bonding ceremony would be celebrated throughout many galaxies.

No, throughout the known universe.

All beings would know that two beings alike in dignity and valor had come together, and been made greater for it.

If Titan’s heart was heavy, it was only that way because of the weight of his glorious future. Ambassador Ezra would come to see the folly of his ways, and he would be Titan’s.

It didn’t matter that he had left without a word.

It didn’t matter that he was embarrassed to bear the mark of Titan’s teeth.

They would be mates. Titan would make it so.

He did not need to be reminded that he was great.

“Thank you, Ruth the Elder,” he said anyway, to be polite. “I assure you, I will remember all you have said and continue to live life exceptionally.”

Ruth the Elder nodded solemnly. “Yas, king. Slay.”

Titan did not know the meaning of these human words, but through context clues, ascertained they had to be a form of heartfelt encouragement. “Slay to you as well, Ruth the Elder.”

She gave him one last look, secrets glimmering in her eyes, and said, “All day, every day,” before hobbling away.

Ezra d id not reappear following the bonding ceremony, so when the time came for the gathered guests to raise their middle fingers in the human gesture of goodbye and depart Earth, they did so without the ambassador present.

Titan was amongst them. He took to his ship with both fingers held high and settled in for what would prove to be a long and pensive flight.

There was much to consider if he was to be successful in his endeavor to make the ambassador his.

For example: how would he prove he was a great and worthwhile being when Ezra was on planet Earth and Titan was on Darvrok 6?

As his ship shaved a path through the cosmos, Titan reclined in his comfortable seat and reflected on that thought.

He would not be able to return to Earth easily.

While he had special permissions from the government to travel wherever he pleased, Earth was considered a hostile planet, and until its leaders completed their anger management programs to the satisfaction of the intergalactic council, it would stay that way.

Visiting often would lead to questioning, and should that happen, Titan would then have to admit that the purpose of his travel was to woo Ambassador Ezra, and that would not do.

It was imperative the council—and all other beings, Darvrokian or not—continue to consider him incapable of failure.

This was not only a matter of pride, but of professional security.

While Titan was content with his humdrum position within the Darvrokian government, all who knew him knew he was destined for better things, and many had told him that one day, they expected to see him rise to the highest governmental ranks or perhaps even onto the intergalactic council itself.

If he were to admit a respectable and dignified being such as Ambassador Ezra had rejected him as a mate, it would sway their opinions of him and ruin their trust in him as a future leader.

This could not be allowed to happen.

He would need to find another way to prove his worth to Ezra.

But how ?

Human technology was very bad. Al had almost been stranded on Earth due to its lack of technological resources, and the brief time Titan had spent on the planet reaffirmed this sad reality.

He would not be able to contact Ezra, as Ezra did not possess a device capable of intergalactic communication.

He would not even be able to send written correspondence, as Earth would not be zoned for deliveries until its governments learned how to behave.

It was—to put it mildly—a conundrum.

One Titan brooded over for the equivalent of several Earth weeks.

Each morning, when the first Darvrokian sun rose in the south, Titan would rouse from unconsciousness, alone, and would lie there in thought until Darvrok’s second sun rose in the southeast and the light became too bright to ignore.

He would then exit his bed. It was not similar to human beds, and he often found himself missing the soft blankets and thick mattress he’d been treated to in Ezra’s room.

His bed was a sleek cylindrical black tube with a cushioned interior and an air filtration system that kept out dust and other debris when the nighttime winds picked up and blew sand in from the dunes.

It wasn’t as necessary to have such protection in the city where he lived, but every now and then there would be sandstorms that made the tube’s exorbitant price worth it.

Next, he would have his first meal of the day.

The time of the Great Trade, during which the Aquatic Beasts left their homes to exchange Darvrokian goods for fresh produce and seafood, was not yet here, so this meal was comprised primarily of dried meats and edible succulents that were only somewhat palatable.

Titan had never remarked on how unappetizing these things were before, but now he found himself wishing for flavorful Earth foods, such as the pudding known as “ketchup” and aerosolized cheese.

Was Ezra eating those things now?

How long would it be before Titan could taste them again ?

After his mediocre breakfast, it was time to report for his position within the government.

The flight there was short and allowed little time for contemplation, but the air shuttle to the top of the towering building allowed for some thought.

Titan typically spent the trip conversing with his colleagues, all of whom were eager for his attention, but he found no joy in engaging with them now.

Instead, he endlessly plotted his next move in the privacy of his head to ensure that when it came time to act, he would not arouse suspicion.

He would need to make it appear as though travel was his hobby, he determined, and he would need to visit many planets between each trip to Earth.

How many would suffice was the question.

He did not want to waste more time than was necessary, but he was also acutely aware that should he make a misstep, his future could be at stake.