Callim's Challenge Read online

  “Be fair, you guys.” Hannah is moving towards Bren and Matthias who are still studying the tablet. Atticus hands her uniforms. “They have had little time to learn how to control it. Today is probably the first time?”

  I nod my agreement as she hands me a uniform. When she hands Forohn one, I drop my lineage attire and study the latches on the clothing. I glance up when I hear laughing. Hannah has her face pressed into Bren’s chest.

  Shelly moves in front of me. “Want help?” Her eyes rake over me and I stiffen more.

  “I don’t think you are helping.” I gesture to my now fully engorged cock. Holding up the uniform, I ask curiously, “Will it fit in here?”

  “Hurry. I don’t need my female seeing your naked ass.” Matthias moves to block Susan’s view across the room.

  “Not big on modesty?” I shrug. This is the the first occasion I’ve been in mixed gender company to change. There was Mila in the last few days, but no one before that. Just my pod. It seems silly to worry about it when the pants I was wearing were decorative only.

  Shelly demonstrates the fasteners on the uniform, and I take it from her and step into it. “Everyone could see me through the lineage attire.” I hand her the purple pants I’d been wearing. “I’ve been raised in a dormitory. The past few days are the first time I’ve had privacy. And I’m positive they were monitoring me with cameras. It was similar to where they took us for the study.”

  Shelly steps forward and fixes the collar fastener. Her hands running down my chest send a shock of sensation through my body. I want her with every part of me.

  “Have we left Quasar? Are they coming after us?” Surely, they will come after us? They won’t let us get away that easily, will they?

  Bren’s head turns. “We have. As soon as the shuttle bay doors closed.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. They won’t be happy that we got away. I realize how excited Mila was about her Mating Re-emergence study.

  “We planned on showing you two around before heading back to your rooms but now you’ve all been drugged…” Hannah’s voice trails off.

  “I'm okay.” Shelly’s looking at Beth who nods her agreement. She looks up at me. “Are you up to it? A quick tour? Are you hungry?”

  Oh, I’m starving, but not for food.

  CHAPTER NINE

  - Shelly

  Callim looks—well, edible. Lickable. The uniform he’s put on is tight and it stretches across his slabs of muscles perfectly. I have to stop imagining him like that though! It’s distracting.

  I hate being at the mercy of my hormones. It reminds me too much of my mother. She gave up and succumbed to numerous narcotic addictions. Her loss of control destroyed our lives. Being so sick recently has been the first occasion I’ve noticed my own self control slipping.

  When we talked about getting his nanos in me with Atticus, I assumed we were going to go right back to our room and hit it. I’m so grateful to Hannah for her idea of a meal and tour. It will be dinner and a show first then. At least we’ll get to wine and dine before we sixty-nine…

  Hannah and Bren lead us out. Susan and Matthias have taken off already—of course. That little horny bitch.

  “What’s your background, Callim? If you don’t mind me asking,” I add.

  “I've lived at the Emissary Training Sanctuary my entire life.” As if that tells me everything. I'll have to be more direct.

  “That’s like me telling you I was going to college to earn my Juris Doctor degree. Does that tell you anything?” He looks puzzled.

  Yeah, exactly. “I’ll go first.” I can tell we’re heading towards the cafeteria which is fine with me. “On Earth, we go through twelve years of education that are required. Then, you pick your voluntary education pertaining to what you’d like to do with your life for a job. So I wanted to be an attorney. That’s someone that represents others in court when they break the law or want to defend their rights. I was in my second year of extra schooling and studying for the first degree for becoming an attorney. Does that make sense?” It sounds confusing when I spell it out like that, but he’s listening intently.

  “Yes. You wanted to be an advocate in your justice system?”

  Close enough. “Yes. So, what about you? What is ‘emissary training’?” Using air quotes, I emphasize the words.

  “Emissaries represent Quasarians on other planets. Quasar negotiated agreements with two other species, the Marel and the Sinth. I was being trained to leave for the Marel home world at the end of the season.”

  “The Marel?” Bren swings around when he overhears our conversation. “You’re sure it was the Marel?”

  “Yes. Very sure. Although I didn’t find that out until the Sacred Mother came to inspect me. That was the same day my marks appeared.” He rubs his neck where his mating marks peek out above the collar on the gray Discovery uniform.

  Bren looks puzzled but turns around to continue leading us with Hannah.

  “So, you were getting ready to leave for another planet. That sounds exciting! Have you always wanted to travel to other worlds? What got you into that?”

  Callim looks confused for a moment before answering. “I didn’t choose. I’m an orphan that was sent to the Sanctuary before I even remember. As I said, I wasn't informed of where I was to be sent until I overheard the Sacred Mother and Funjim discussing me.”

  I’m confused. “So, you didn’t want to be an emissary?”

  “I was chosen. My desires were not taken into consideration.”

  Well, fuck. I guess we have something in common after all. I know exactly what it’s like to be passed around with no choice in the matter.

  My mother flitted through my life just like all the foster family’s homes. I lived with her, then I lived with a new family. Back and forth. None of them were good.

  When my mother was around, she usually had some deadbeat who pimped her out and molested me on the side. Then, the foster homes I inevitably landed in weren’t much better. But I had finally gotten out on my own.

  Does he feel as trapped by this situation as I do? He seems chipper and is always smiling. I peek up at him again as we round the corner.

  Entering the cafeteria, I’m shocked by how crowded it is. Almost every table is full and there are guys I’ve never seen before. I mean, yeah, I don’t recognize everyone, but there are less than a hundred of them. Over the last couple weeks, their faces have become familiar.

  “These are the males that came up… from the underground.” Hannah whispers the last words. It’s our code for the underground railroad that Matthias set up with Chevepak.

  Wow! There are so many. And they're all staring at us with hungry eyes.

  Callim growls next to me, his eyes locked on a male across the room. That guy gets the drift and takes off out the door immediately. What the hell? But then, many of them seem to be winding down and leaving.

  Ignoring everyone, Bren leads us up to the serving area, and it only takes a few minutes before we settle in at a table. Most of the guys finished up in the last five minutes and we’re able to sit together.

  “There are so many! I thought… I don’t know what I thought.” Beth’s observation echos my impression exactly.

  “We couldn’t turn them away.” Hannah’s sitting across from me and Beth. “We’re going right back to Dactyles and our hope is Selas has things well in hand there so they can be set up with him.”

  We all get quiet as we eat. I’m trying studiously not to stare at Callim, but it’s hard. I don’t know how to ask him the tough questions. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own anger and self pity at the situation, I haven’t considered how he might feel.

  Maybe he doesn’t want to complete the mating? It’s not fair to use him for his nanos and isn’t that what I’m about to do? Can I skirt around the issue somehow to ask the tough questions?

  “When they discovered your mating marks, where did you end up going? Did they pull you out of the Emissary Training Sanctuary right away?” Callim smiles
and swallows before answering.

  “They did. Right away. By Mila Fortane the scientist heading up the program.” I nod so he realizes I remember her. “She came and took me to where she was working. I stayed in her lab until we met you today.” He takes another big bite of the stew I fixed him. It’s the closest meal to a version of Earth’s chunky beef stew. Supposedly it’s made from all beans and vegetables from their planet.

  “So, you’ve been living in a lab?” Hannah is looking at us as I glance over. She’s seems as into his story as I am.

  He nods his agreement.

  “Was there a bed?” He laughs at Hannah’s question, and I realize it’s the first time he’s done that.

  Throwing his head back, his deep voice chuckles. “Of sorts. It wasn’t bad. It was the only time I’ve been in a sleeping room alone. It’s been… quiet.” I sense something then. Loneliness.

  I suspect I’m not getting the big picture on this. He’s been living in what sounds like a church getting ready to go to another planet as an “emissary.”

  Was he going to be a missionary or something? Did I get hooked up with some kind of religious cult member from Quasar?

  CHAPTER TEN

  - Shelly

  “So, what specifically were you planning on doing on the other planet as an emissary? Would you be a teacher? Where were you going to stay? I guess I’m confused about that?” Bren and Hannah are both listening to my questions from across the table.

  Callim shrugs. “Exactly what we would do there wasn’t determined yet. They would inform us when we left, but it would depend on what they needed at the time. We never questioned the visions and decisions of our Sacred Mother.”

  “It sounds like a monastery orphanage,” Hannah comments.

  I murmur an agreement as I speculate the odds of it being a cult. "How religious was it? You talked about the Sacred Mother? Now visions? I wondered if you would try to convert the Marel to your religion or beliefs? Like a missionary?”

  “Not on Marel.” Everyone looks at Bren since his words sound so final. “Marel’s sentient beings are different. We can communicate with them through translators. But physically, we're unable to pronounce their speech patterns. It’s impossible with our mouths and tongues. I don’t know what they were planning to send you there to do, but it wouldn’t be to teach or spread our Sanctuary beliefs.” Callim looks puzzled at Bren’s statement. “In fact, I wasn’t aware we have any kind of agreement with them. They have a hive mentality, and their own convoluted religion.”

  “Do they ever come to Quasar? Have you seen or dealt with any?” Hannah asks Bren and I wonder if Callim has ever met one of them too. I glance at him before looking to Bren as he answers.

  “No. We ran across them in the past but came to a tentative treaty. They stay on their side of the Truthea Galaxy and we stay on ours. They’re so different from us that there really isn’t anything we want from each other—that I’m aware of. Can I see your tablet?”

  “Sure.” Callim hands me my bag he’s been carrying for me and now has between his feet. “Thanks.”

  Passing it over, Bren only takes a minute to pull up a picture of the Marel. Hannah gasps before handing the device to me quickly. “Nightmare creepy.” She shivers as she passes it across the table.

  Sure enough, they are ugly. They look like insects with dark, glossy skin with little familiar-looking details. Instead of ears, they have long antenna. Their eyes and noses blend in and seem nonexistent in their shiny, dark head. A sharp jaw juts out with an under-bite mandible. They’re wearing clothes but their body is narrower in parts. It accentuates their different segments that are totally foreign from a human or Quasarian anatomy. There are two on the page and one has wings.

  When I glance at Callim, he looks stunned. “Cuties, huh? You never saw a picture of them?” Shaking his head slowly, he takes the tablet I’m holding out to him.

  “The males have wings. That one is female.” Bren taps the device in Callim’s hands, pointing to the wingless one. “They vary in height but they’re about the same size as us. A little smaller than our females on average.”

  “So, no idea what they were what they were arranging to have you do for them? No one has ever come back to report in?” Callim hasn’t said a word. He’s still staring at the device with a strange look on his face.

  Reaching out, I grasp his forearm and squeeze until his head swings to me. “Are you alright? I didn’t mean to pry. I was just trying to get to know you better.”

  He visibly starts. “No. No, I appreciate us talking about this. I can’t help wondering…” His voice trails off weakly. “There have been so many of my older companions that have been sent. I’ve never seen any of them again. We don’t hear from them either. We get general updates from Funjim if someone specifically asks. Things like, ‘They’re doing well and serving their purpose bringing glory to the Sacred Mother.’”

  “Well, I’m extremely interested in learning more about this place you were raised. Matthias will be very excited too. Especially since there are so many males there that are not claimed by females. How are you treated?” Callim seems surprised that Bren has taken an interest in him. It makes me wonder if he’s ever had anyone just chat with him before.

  Hannah leans forward on the table to interject. “Yeah and didn’t Mila spend some time quizzing you over the last couple of days too? I’m curious what she was working on in her fancy lab.”

  “Every day was the same. We awoke and spent time in daily reflections. After our morning meal, we had studies. Then, we would have the afternoon meal and our assigned duties. Our duties were anything from cleaning floors to working in the kitchen to help with meals. After dinner, we had group daily reflections until sundown. Nothing special or different ever happened to me until the mating marks appeared on my skin.” He smiles warmly at me. “Our pods didn’t change much over the years. Any rebellious, young males were shuffled quickly. I had a brother who was always high-strung. He was moved into an older pod and shipped off the planet quicker.”

  “Did you ever consider that? You know? Get bored and think it would be worth it to be bad just to break out of the monotony?” I can pretty much guarantee that’s what I’d do. I couldn’t wait to get out of the system. I took all the extra credit in high school I could to prepare for my escape to college.

  Callim laughs at my question. “No. I cared about my brother Temkel too much. We were together our entire life in the same pod.”

  His voice softens but trails off as he finishes. He misses him. How sad. I understand exactly what that’s like.

  Of course, I don’t miss my mother and I don’t have any siblings, but I miss fast food. French fries, and nachos.

  It’s the young ones in the foster care system that haunt me. With their big, frightened eyes, they arrived with hope to a home. They're the ones I miss now.

  “I'll talk to Matthias about your Sanctuary. Let’s see if Chevepak is familiar with where it is and where the orphans raised there go—and do.” Bren looks suspicious about the whole thing.

  “Do you suspect they do something to them? Maybe they don’t even make it off planet?” Hannah must think the same thing. That hadn’t even crossed my mind but now they seem to be having their own conversation about it.

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” Bren takes a long drink while we each eat in silence. “It seems that everything we uncover leads to more secrets. Whatever we find out most likely won’t be good. Did they let you tell your friends goodbye?”

  I'm not aware of why that’s important, but Bren’s question makes Callim stiffen before he answers. “No. They wouldn’t even let me talk to Temkel and tell him where I was going. It was very unusual for us to learn any news of the outside world. Now in hindsight, I believe they monitored that too. They only let us hear what they thought was appropriate. I knew nothing about mates or the mating trial you and Hannah went through. Mila told me after I left the Sanctuary and spent time with her. They definitely kept us uninformed
.”

  Bren is nodding his head.

  “What does that mean?” I can’t help the aggravation creeps into my voice. I hate feeling like I’m not keeping up, but Bren almost looks like he has a hypothesis.

  “I now realize that the more they keep you in the dark, the more they can use you for their own twisted means. That’s why Matthias was so careful to make sure the media was informed of everything going on with Hannah and me. If they manage to keep it a secret, you can disappear.” He scrubs a hand over his head and rubs the back of his neck. “How many males have disappeared? This is only one facility we know of now. Where are they going?”

  “And why?” Hannah adds.

  It sounds so ominous.

  Callim looks upset at our speculation. It’s the most serious I’ve seen him yet. I can sense the stress he feels both in my emotions but also in the stiffness of his body next to me.

  I feel for him, but there isn’t anything we can find out from here right now. I’ll have to make a point of getting together with Matthias and Susan so we can all discuss it. Like Bren said, Matthias may be able to learn more through Chevepak on Quasar.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  - Callim

  Their questions give me more questions. Could my life be a political pawn in some kind of elaborate intergalactic trade?

  The Marel species are hideous to look at! There’s no way we could go to their planet and meet with them and not be appalled. We would need training to prepare us specifically for their appearance. I’m frightened just viewing a photograph. In person, with them as large as we are, it would be horrifying.

  If they were sending us up to work at Marel, it must have been something we wouldn’t need to interact with the locals to do. Otherwise, they’d have prepared us differently. If what Bren says is true, we’d need to be trained on communicators and visually prepared for our tasks.