"Who do you want to be then, David Grant?" Janad asked carefully.
It was a very good question. He sure as hell didn't like who he was now. "I
. . .
I want to be the man I was before. Not the man I was when I first meet RJ. Then I was just a green kid who didn't understand anything. No, I think I want to be the man I was before RJ and Topaz turned me into the mouthpiece for the Rebellion and I began to get full of my own power. I want to return to the me I was when I truly only cared about making my world a better place and freeing my people." David smiled. "I was happy then, and they were all happy with me."
"Then be him," Janad said. "
Be
that man."
"How? Too much has happened
. . .
"
"Just remember what it was that you liked about him and imitate it. Before you know it, you'll be your old self again, but you'll know all that you know now."
RJ had overestimated the resilience of her human counterparts, and when Levits' bitching reached a crescendo, and even Janad started to stumble in her stride, she knew they had to stop and make camp. They had just come to one of the many shelves they had encountered during their climb, and RJ decided this was as good a place as any to put down.
"That's it!" Levits flopped to the ground like a rag doll. "I'm not going to take another step. Leave me here for the lizards to eat; I just don't give a damn anymore. I am sick to death of
. . .
"
"All right. This is as good a place as any," RJ said deciding to let Levits think he had won the argument they weren't actually having. She took off her pack, and saw Janad gratefully drop hers to the ground.
"Freaking mountain climbing! I'd rather stay on this damn planet forever than climb one more inch. In fact, I would have just as soon we all stayed on Earth in the first place," Levits said continuing his angry prattle. "But, oh, nooo! Let's all fly across the vastness of space to try and make the Argys our allies. Oh! But no! Wait a minute! Let's stop and make a side trip to a third class planet where we can eat all the lizard we want and go freaking
mountain climbing
!"
RJ moved and flopped on the ground beside him laughing.
"Now what's so damned funny?" Levits asked hotly.
"I said we'd stay here. You already won," she said turning to look at him.
Levits smiled back then. "I know, but you can't just cut a man off in the middle of his bitch like that. It could do irreversible damage."
"I don't know why you're bitching in the first place," David said flopping to the ground. "This climb is every bit as bad for me as it is for you. It's not like we're having to use ropes and picks. You make it sound like we're clinging to the side of a rock face hanging on by a thread."
"Bite me, David," Levits said. "Look me in the eye and tell me you could have taken one step more."
"I didn't say that I could. I'm just saying that I wasn't bitching about it and everything else," David said. "The way I understand it the gravitational pull of this planet adds about twenty-five pounds to you and me. I hate to be the one to point it out, but Janad is carrying more than that in her pack, so except for RJ we're all basically in the same boat. While I admittedly did my fair share of bitching, I didn't hear Janad complain even once."
"Perhaps I should give you a gold star," RJ said to Janad.
"What does that even mean?" Levits asked pulling a face.
RJ looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know exactly. It's something I've heard Topaz say. In the context in which he uses it, it means you've done very well."
"Thank you," Janad said.
"How about a little praise for me?" Levits asked lightly.
"She could give you a gold star for bitching." David laughed out.
"And give you one for being a shit slinging moron," Levits snapped back.
RJ took Levits' chin in her hand and forced him to look at her. "I could think of something I could give you a gold star for," she said huskily then she kissed him. Within seconds they were rolling around in the dust, Levites apparently forgetting how tired he was.
"Chain, RJ, chain," Levits said, and unbelievably the thing went flying through the air like a discarded piece of clothing.
David got up and dusted his hands off. He looked at Janad, "Ah, maybe we should go get some fire wood now."
"Huh?" Janad asked, her eyes riveted on the couple ripping at each other's clothing. David walked by her and with a laugh grabbed her by the shoulder, hauled her to her feet, and started pulling her along after him.
"Come on, you perve," he said. He didn't feel like walking another foot, but he didn't feel like sitting there and watching Levits and RJ screw either. It was enough to know they were doing it without actually having to watch.
Janad was dragging on his arm, turned as she was to watch RJ and Levits till the end.
"Would you come on, Janad?" David said. "I can't believe him! He bitches all day about being so tired he's going to die, and now he's
. . .
Well, you know what he's doing."
Janad sighed and started to walk to match his stride. "Why does it bother you so much to see them together?"
"Because
. . .
It isn't our custom to watch other people having sex," David said.
Janad laughed. "It isn't our custom, either. That doesn't mean it isn't entertaining."
David laughed then. "Yeah, I would imagine that RJ and Levits can put on quite a show." David stopped laughing then, remembering another time and place, and another friend who wanted to watch RJ do it. "People shouldn't intrude into affairs between two people. It should be private."
"Then they should go someplace private to do it," Janad said with a shrug bending down to pick the top out of a plant that she started sucking on.
"True enough," David said with a laugh. "Still, RJ has an Argy's libido, and when she gets turned on
. . .
Well, I think she just sort of forgets where she is or what she's doing."
"What about your
. . .
libido?" Janad stumbled a little over the word, it apparently being new to her Reliance vocabulary. She picked one of the plants and handed it to him.
"It's healthy enough," David said. He sucked on the end of the plant as Janad had done, and a sweet liquid covered his tongue. He smiled approvingly and continued. "I've sort of had to put it in dry dock if you know what I mean." From the look on her face she didn't.
"You know
. . .
When I first met you, and I punched you in the nose
. . .
I thought all Reliance people were repulsive looking. With your pale, fish belly skin you looked disgusting to me. But now
. . .
Well now I find that I have an appreciation for you. I find you to be
. . .
very beautiful," Janad said nervously.
He wouldn't have put it exactly that way, but he'd had the same feeling. When he'd first seen her all dark and wild looking, he had thought her completely alien and her appearance horrid and even frightening. Now seeing past his initial fears he saw a dark, beautiful creature whose intellect was far from inferior to his own, and who had a far superior grasp on who she was in relation to the universe than he ever had or probably ever would have.
"I think you're beautiful, too," David said.
Janad moved to stand with her chest pressed against his, blocking his way. She looked up at him expectantly, and he kissed her. She kissed him back, and they kissed for a long time. When their lips separated they looked at each other for a long moment then David grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards a wooded area. She followed him laughing.
RJ stirred the coals under the spitted lizard. She looked up at David and smiled as he walked back into camp with Janad close behind him.
He sat down across the fire from her. Whatever energy he'd had after their climb he had just spent. Janad knelt down behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
RJ smiled broadly. "I thought you were going to get fire wood?" RJ said.
"We had sex instead," Janad said bluntly.
"Yes, I had figured that out," RJ said grinning at David.
"What?" David said feeling suddenly very vulnerable and exposed.
"Nothing," RJ said with a shrug.
Levits walked back into camp zipping up his fly. He looked at Janad and David with a smug, all-knowing smile that made David want to slap him more than he normally did.
David untangled himself from Janad, jumped up walked over and grabbed RJ by the arm. "Come on. I need to talk to you."
RJ shrugged, got up and followed him a little way away from the camp. "What's wrong? I figured after you got your winky taken care of
. . .
"
"My what?"
"Your winky. That's what Whitey used to call his
. . .
I would have thought you would be in a better mood than this," RJ said. "Was the girl not any good?"
"Too good," David said. He lowered his voice. "Remember how when I was with Kirsty you told me that I had to have known it was different. That I should have known she wasn't human."
"Yeah, but we already know that this girl is some sort of hybrid
. . .
"
"Yes, but I've been with Kirsty, now, and I know why she was different. And
. . .
that girl
. . .
it's the same
. . .
her
. . .
well, you know. . . If I didn't know better, RJ, I'd swear that girl was an Argy hybrid."
RJ looked thoughtful and started pacing. "Now that makes a certain amount of sense. We know that the Argys and humans evolved at about the same pace, the Argy being only slightly ahead of the humans. A couple of hundred years at best, but that would be enough."
David snapped his fingers. "Damn! In the infirmary Topaz said that there was something familiar about Janad's DNA. That must be why
. . .
"
"Because, except for the obvious trappings of my genetic engineering, my DNA and Janad's are the same," RJ said thoughtfully. Then she added, "And we know that this planet wouldn't get around to making humanoid life on its own for another billion years, if ever
. . .
"
"How do we know that?" David asked.
"Because this is a
class three
planet," RJ said, the words
dumb ass
being implied by the tone in her voice. "The flora and fauna are very primitive, and there is nothing here that could have evolved into anything remotely humanoid. If the ship we find
. . .
"
"If there is a ship," David said skeptically. He had been looking through the binoculars all day, and while he could clearly see their ship in the valley below, he could make out not even a lump that looked ship-like on the mountain above them.
"Oh, there's a ship all right. Whether we can get to it is another story," RJ said. "But if it is an Argy ship, that would explain everything – including Janad's Argy-like vagina
. . .
"
"Damn it, RJ! Do you have to be so uncouth?" David said making a face.
RJ laughed. "If I live to be a thousand – and in all likelihood I will – I will never understand men. You can stick your winky in it, but you can't talk about it, at least not to a woman who has all the parts you apparently find so embarrassing." RJ smiled then. "So
. . .
Did you enjoy her?"
"Don't be stupid," David said with a stupid grin. "I said she was like an Argy woman. Of course I enjoyed her." He looked thoughtful then. "RJ
. . .
" He decided to let it go.
"What?"
"Nothing," David said quickly.
"Nothing me no nothings. What!" RJ demanded.
"You
. . .
What about the big picture, RJ? I mean what the hell are we doing here? Are we still trying to get to Argy? It's not like you to flip from one plan to another. It's not like you to be so
. . .
"
"Relaxed?" RJ supplied for him. "Screwing in the middle of camp and all. Going off on what is basically an archeological expedition and will probably yield nothing of value, when we are on a strange world far from Earth and far from our intended destination. Giving an alien prince robotic hands when I don't really know how I'm going to use him yet. You figure that it's not like me to do anything without a damn good reason, so you figure that as usual I have figured out everything and I'm just keeping everyone else in the dark."
"Well, yeah," David said.
"Want to hear something really scary?" RJ whispered.
"Not necessarily," David answered honestly.
"Well, too bad, because here's the truth. The truth is that my mind doesn't work as well as it used to, and calculations I used to make easily have become difficult. At this point in time I don't really have a game plan," she said plainly. "We haven't been able to make contact with Marge or Mickey since the first day we got to the surface of this planet. I haven't been able to tap into the Reliance's communication systems back on the station or pick up any of their transmissions to this planet if there have even been any. So I have no idea what the Reliance is up to. This planet has no communications more sophisticated than village runners. I can
guess
at what the Reliance is doing. I can
guess
at what the locals are doing, but I can't really know. So taking all those things into consideration, I'm not looking at the big picture right now. I'm playing things out as they are thrown at me and hoping for the best."