14. Thestle Part I A Warning and a Welcome

Auren woke early,for once getting the drop on Lupo and surprising him with espresso and pastries when he groggily emerged into the bridge.

"Ten minutes before we fall out of hyperspace," Auren said, tossing Lupo a berry-filled pastry that had looked particularly good on the ship's menu.

"Mmmf, that's delicious," Lupo mumbled, chewing.

"Is Thestle a busy planet?" Auren asked, realizing he knew nothing about the place.

"It's not an ecumenopolis like Obila," Lupo replied. "But it gets more than its fair share of ship traffic. It's a resort world," he explained. "I left Terra at eighteen and lived on Thestle from then on. It's a special place; I think you'll like it. Plus, I get to show you my little spot there. Assuming Bartie hasn't found it and burned it to the ground, that is."

"What's the draw?" Auren asked.

Lupo's homeworld was a single, limitless city that engulfed the entire planet. It was urban hell. And he'd grown up in one of its many seedy underworlds. Of course, like anyone in human space, he knew that other populated worlds existed, but he'd never been able to afford stellar transit. The thought of finally visiting one that wasn't imminently awaiting invasion intrigued him enough to distract him from reuniting with his brother for the time being.

"It's a tidally locked ice planet. The resorts there are all built in the perpetual twilight along its meridian. It's beautiful—and deadly. Some of the galaxy's most dangerous fauna live in the dark of its forests. Hunters from across human space come to test themselves against them," Lupo explained.

He spoke of it like a man missing his found home, and Auren was touched by how much the place meant to him, surprised that someone lucky enough to be from Terra would ever leave. The original human world, above all others, was still a legend.

"I can't wait to see it for myself," Auren said. "How's Ophion?"

He hadn't been able to force himself to check on the alien, still struggling with his mixed feelings for the being despite Lupo's better example of being open-minded.

"Still holding on. The ship nurse has worked out some of the toxins, but that spider was a nasty little prick; some of his poisons are apparently totally novel. Ophion's stable for now, though. Or as stable as he can be, given what happened."

He became distracted by the flight control screen as he readied to bring them out of hyperspace.

"Approaching: Thestle," the shipboard computer relayed. "Five… four… three… two… one… Arrived."

Auren braced for the incoming nausea and sat down.

"Home sweet home," Lupo whistled as the Fortunato ripped out of the hyperlane and fell into orbit around a silver-blue orb.

About it, a glittering disk of ice crystals flickered in space. Half the planet was steeped in perpetual night, the other blinding day—and along the boundary of the two, an unending ring of lights twinkled out at them, the enormous resort complexes of Thestle glimmering like the jeweled necklace of a frozen aquamarine gemstone as it hung suspended in the void.

To Auren's shock, a trio of human navy carriers were passing into view from the far side of the planet, similar to the one that had brought him to Vesperion.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Lupo muttered grimly.

He had been guiding their ship around the planet's icy asteroid belt, directing them toward one of the brightest concentrations of light on its surface.

"Approaching vessel: identify yourself immediately," a curt voice crackled out of their speakers.

A terse woman appeared on their viewing screen. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and she scowled at them as she spoke.

"State your business in this system," she demanded.

"I'm a dual citizen of Terra and Thestle," Lupo answered, bewildered. "I've been away some time; is there a problem?"

"Same problem as everywhere," the officer chided. "The Keth have begun a widespread assault on human space. No planet is safe. Terra, you say? It fell last week. Don't you watch the news? Where have you been that you don't know this? You should be aware that Thestle is on a list of planets with a high probability of imminent attack. Evacuations are under way on the surface. I suggest you leave immediately, or remain at your own peril," she finished bluntly, cutting off the transmission before they could reply.

Auren panicked. Terra had fallen. It was the last thing he'd expected to hear. Now, or ever. He immediately began imagining his worst nightmares coming true: involuntarily picturing planet after planet falling to the pale green glow of the lizard's disintegrator weapons, the aliens cutting and slicing with their vicious claws as they gnashed their way through all of human civilization, reducing it to ruin.

"Hey, it'll be okay. We'll get in, we'll get out, the rest will fall into place. I promise," Lupo said from the command chair.

"But your world? Your family?" Auren asked, aghast.

"I didn't have any left. Cancer. It's common on Terra; some of the old pollutants have stuck around. And I know. It's a loss. But I don't think I can feel anything that I need to until I finish this with Bartie. Are you with me?"

The ship began to rumble as they passed into the planet's thin, cold atmosphere, and ice crystals crept across the viewing pane as they raced through a layer of wispy clouds.

"I told you, I'm in this with you no matter what happens," Auren assured him blindly.

Inwardly, he struggled to believe his own words while they rocketed toward the landing hub of a vast series of domed resort buildings. As they lowered toward the ice-blue ground, Auren got his first glimpse of what made Thestle unique amongst all other known planets: the horizon from within their band of twilight was a perpetual mix of the setting and rising sun, the sky painted on one side a brilliant pastel blush and on the other the softest of powder blues. Above them, an aurora danced neon across the star-flung sky, glinting and glimmering in an endless dance. Auren gasped as the Fortunato set down.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Lupo grinned, already out of his chair.

"Incredible," Auren agreed.

And it was. He'd never imagined the surface of a planet could look this beautiful. Outside, a gentle snow fell, blowing across the bridge's viewing pane and the ship's windows as they made their way to the airlock.

"Do you think Ophion will be alright without us?" Auren asked as they cycled through.

"The ship will take better care of him than we can," Lupo replied.

Auren drew the collar of his flight suit up around his neck, and they hurried across the deserted landing pad toward one of the resort domes. From what he could see, this area had already been largely evacuated. He glanced nervously at the sky as though expecting a flotilla of lizard vessels to appear any moment. The human naval carriers had just swept back into view, and Auren wondered how many craft it would take to repel the full-scale Keth incursion. He doubted that what he saw would be enough, though.

"What is this place?" Auren asked as they passed into one of the dozens of enormous glass domes.

To his amazement, it housed a vast boreal forest that sprawled out for many thousands of acres all around him. It was dotted with woodland lodges, and many townships peeked out of the trees. The rustic styling of the architecture was in stark contrast to the high level of technological sophistication required in engineering the dome.

"Fendhall," Lupo answered. "My cabin is just over here."

He led Auren off toward a dense section of woods. A herd of elk sprinted across the path ahead, and Auren started at the sight of them. He'd never seen wild animals before, and even though he recognized they weren't predators, their foreignness unsettled him almost as much as Ophion.

"It's quite alright," Lupo laughed. "They don't bite."

"Are they real?" Auren asked stupidly, watching as the creatures bounded off into the dense foliage.

"Oh, it's all real—each dome on Thestle is a different ecosystem from one of the settled worlds. There are thousands upon thousands here. The planet is a living sanctuary for life from across the galaxy."

They'd turned off onto a side path leading up a little hill.

Auren looked around, dumbstruck. The dome was a world within a world. He'd never fathomed anything like it, not in his wildest dreams. They reached the front door of a rustic stone-and-wood cabin. Lupo searched above the doorframe with his hand, letting out a little whoop as he withdrew it, palming an old-fashioned key.

"High tech," Auren laughed.

Lupo opened the door to his odd little domicile and took a deep and appreciative breath of the air within. He beckoned Auren to follow him into the dark.

"Just the way I left it," Lupo said with relief as Auren joined him.

Lupo turned around and grabbed Auren by the shoulders, squeezing him excitedly as he had in the galley aboard the Fortunato. His enthusiasm was palpable, and Auren grinned back at him despite his nerves.

"I always kept this place a secret from Bartie. It looks like it stayed one, or that Terran Chianti would be long gone." Lupo beamed, nodding at a bottle on his counter.

"That just became the most expensive bottle in the universe," Auren joked darkly.

"It would be a shame if someone happened to drink it," Lupo replied.

He bent in and kissed Auren before passing through the cabin and digging around in some drawers. Before long, Lupo was presenting Auren with a wine key.

"You do the honors," Lupo said, passing Auren the bottle and the key.

"Are you sure?" Auren asked.

He regarded the fancy green glass bottle. The label was ornate, written in an intricate scrawl in some language he didn't recognize—the vintage appeared ancient, nearly two centuries old by the date printed on the bottle.

"This seems… special or something?" he wondered curiously, noticing that Lupo was looking at the bottle rather sadly.

"You know, I used to have this fantasy long ago that I'd feel safe enough with Bartie to bring him here, to make this place ours instead of just mine. But some part of me always knew to hold it back. I never trusted him. Call it intuition, bad judgment, or just being young and stupid—but I feel like I knew better and made him my mistake anyway. I bought that bottle the day I left the navy. I always imagined sharing it with him here when I finally trusted him how I wanted to…" He sighed, then grabbed the bottle from Auren and opened it abruptly. Lupo took a long, mournful swig before handing it to Auren, who did the same.

Lupo laughed. "Tastes like shit."

"It does," Auren agreed readily.

He took another drink anyway before handing it back.

"I'm so sorry for what you went through; we'll make this right. Lupo, I owe you my life. Whatever comes next, I withhold judgment. Besides, Bartie has it coming—whatever you decide to do to him, he deserves it. And then some. He did murder you, after all."

Lupo looked at him forlornly.

"I really thought this wine would be something special," he said after a time.

"It's special because we're here drinking it together," Auren offered. "It's special because we're alive. We're here. Look around. We made it."

"Thanks, Auren. After we've finished this wine, we have a date with an old friend, and you'll need some more fashionable clothes than that Keth armor. Let me find you something that might fit…" Lupo rambled, trailing off as he went over to an old-fashioned wooden wardrobe against one wall and began rifling through its contents.

Auren watched him, feeling the wine's haze begin to dull his fears about what he'd just been conscripted into—committed to doing whatever it took to help Lupo get whatever form of justice he desired.

"Perfect," Lupo announced, tossing Auren a pair of sleek neutral trousers and a cream-colored shirt.

The fabric was soft, the clothes fashionable. It wasn't what Auren had expected from the man who had seemed so at home in a flight suit.

"You'll look handsome in those," Lupo said.

Auren looked down at his stained, beleaguered flight suit and realized he hadn't changed or bathed in days. A quick sniff under his arm told him what an offensive choice that had been, and even before he could ask, Lupo offered.

"Over there," he chuckled, pointing to a washroom set off in one corner of the cabin.

"Thanks," Auren laughed. "And thanks for these, too. It'll be nice to dress like a civilian again."

"Any time, bello," Lupo said warmly.

Auren crossed to the bathroom, feeling a fluttering in his chest that made it impossible not to grin. Something about getting this peek into Lupo's life was riveting, and the intimacy of seeing his inner world drew him closer than Auren had ever expected.

As he shut the door to the bathroom behind him, he took one last look at Lupo sitting in the kitchen. He was staring at the label of that bottle of wine. The handsome man had a warmth—a unique brand of patient paternalism and convivial humor—that made Auren feel safe for the first time he could remember. Despite all they'd been through, he was beginning to feel at home in his new life. The excitement of it all was almost enough to drown out the horror.

Auren unzipped his flight suit. The chill of the little tiled bathroom caused gooseflesh to form on his artificial skin, and the sensation exhilarated him. The metal tap burned cool in his hand as he turned it on. Before long, a stream of steaming water was cascading down from the ceiling, and after testing the temperature, more out of habit now than necessity, Auren slipped under its rippling current. He turned his face up into the near-scalding water, and a certain kind of thrill at being so far from where he'd come from passed through him as the comfort of showering allowed him to relax.

His thoughts drifted as he bathed. A carnal part of him began wishing desperately that he'd let Lupo ravage him the way he'd seemed to want to the night before. As Auren stood there in the man's shower, a part of him wished he'd open the door to the bathroom and join him. But another part of him recoiled from that closeness, as though to allow himself intimacy with another might trigger a primal wound, and the conflicting thoughts and urges made it hard for him to focus on just enjoying the moment.

The thoughts had made him hard, too, and he looked down at his cock and couldn't help but imagine Lupo's thick lips wrapped around it, his big brown eyes staring up at him while he?—

"You okay in there?" Lupo asked from the other side of the door. "No rush, but I don't want the Keth to arrive before I get a chance to catch up with Bartie."

"Almost done!" Auren squeaked, his voice cracking as he looked down sheepishly at his raging boner. "Five minutes."

"You got it," Lupo said.

Auren did his best to scrub up quickly. He hopped out of the shower and toweled off as fast as possible. He grinned at himself in the foggy mirror, and then got dressed in the fashionable and soft clothes Lupo had provided. They fit perfectly. Auren eyed himself uncertainly in the mirror. Back on Obila, his clothes had mostly been second-hand. Later, in the military, they'd been standard-issue fatigues. He'd never dressed up, and he almost couldn't recognize the young man staring back at him now.

"Here goes nothing," Auren murmured.

And then he emerged from the momentary comfort of the bathroom out into what would become the longest night of his life.