SITN6

Disclaimer: As if!

Author's note: This one is for Cherubino, the Nietzchean of beta readers, or should that be alpha readers?

Diane shut down her monitors and gave Tyr a considering look. "Why don't you get cleaned up? You're wearing so much of Regina's blood that any of our people who see you are likely to get the wrong idea."

Regina chuckled a little as Callisto rolled her eyes before saying to Tyr, "Follow me, I think we can find a clean shirt for you while we're at it."

"You're such a tyrant Diane." Regina could be heard teasing the doctor as Callisto and Tyr left the sickbay. Whatever response was made was lost as the door closed, leaving them in the empty hallway.

"This way please. You can clean up in the guest quarters. I'll leave you whatever I can scrounge up on the counter. Oh, please note that several of our crewmembers happen to be human, and they do not care overmuch for the advances of Nietzchean males. On this ship they do not have to tolerate that sort of behavior. Do I make myself clear?" Callisto gave Tyr a warning look.

"Since the Kodiak do not share the views of the Dragan or Sabra Prides, I doubt I will encounter any difficulty regarding my behavior. I crew with several humans, and two nonhumans." Tyr replied rather coldly.

"Kodiak? We have not been introduced, but I think I know whom you must be. My brother speaks highly of you, Tyr Anasazi. He thinks to have your DNA improve the Jaguar someday. He tells me you have refused his suggestion to display for my sisters, but he is willing to wait. Since you are far from being Elsbett's favorite person, your standing is subsequently higher in his." Callisto was surprised, although after Charlemagne's descriptions, she shouldn't have been. Tyr was everything he had said, and his DNA was excellent. It was too bad the Prides shunned him because the rest of his clan had died. Like her brother said, the fact that he survived when all others fell simply proved he had excellent survival instincts.

"Your brother is Charlemagne Bolivar? But why is your last name Varrus?" Tyr asked as they took the lift to another deck.

"When it was discovered that I could not bear children, the best thing I could do for the Pride turned out to be captaining a trading vessel. We decided that Captain Bolivar would attract too much attention. Negative attention. So Captain Varrus was born. It is an excellent forgery. No one outside the Pride knows I am a Bolivar, so I have never been a target. Besides, it is easier to ignore the fact that one of the Bolivars is barren if she's never around." There was a little tinge of bitterness coloring her words, no matter how Callisto strived for neutrality.

"I can see where that would be true," Tyr nodded. It was easier to ignore a Kodiak with no Pride as well. He imagined an infertile female from so proud a clan would have been made unwelcome in her own Pride. They walked the rest of the way to the lift in silence as Tyr absorbed the realization that the woman next to him was sister to Charlemagne. Truthfully he found it difficult to believe.

Callisto was doing her best to get control back over her temper. It had been a hard thing, losing the support of the other women. She had become a pariah almost overnight. Only her brother Charlemagne had stood by her in those dark days. He helped her plan a way out of a place that was no longer her home. For that, she would always be in his debt. Of course, Charlemagne traded on that debt shamelessly whenever he needed something Callisto would rather not do. It was how she'd ended up hauling Elsbett around the known universe. Well, that and the fact that no one had informed her of Callisto's true identity. If you were not highly placed in Jaguar Pride, there was no real way to discover that she was not Varrus. Besides, most of her clan was still too embarrassed about birthing a woman who could not bear children to discuss it openly. Quite the little family secret she was. The only way Elsbett would learn of her true relationship to Charlemagne was if she waded through the family property records

The entry: Callisto Bolivar, owner of the trading vessel Boadicca, would take an idiot not to connect to Callisto Varrus. Elsbett may be a hussy, but she was not stupid. Callisto sincerely hoped that she would be far too busy to dig in old financial records.

They entered the lift and Callisto told the computer, "Deck four."

Since she had broken the silence, Tyr asked the question that had been plaguing him. "So, why did you tell me about your true identity if it is a secret?"

"You deserve to know whose gratitude you have earned tonight. You saved my daughter's life, and I will not forget. Nor will my brother, when I tell him. Charlemagne is very protective of Regina." Callisto said with a grimace. She knew Charlemagne was going to be coldly furious. He considered Regina to be his favorite niece, and felt it was only an accident of fate that she wasn't born with bone blades.

"Daughter?" Tyr asked. He had distinctly heard Regina say she was from Seward Colony, and that Callisto was infertile.

"I knew her parents, they were our trade liaison for Undine. I was… close to her mother. Undinians were very Nietzchean in their outlook. It was like being back among my sisters, before the tests proved I would never have children. When Julia gave birth, I was there. We visited Undine six times a year for heavy metals shipments. I watched Regina grow and spoiled her on my visits. Julia felt that it was never too early to learn, so she was always around, even when we were working. If the Magog had not come, Regina would have been their next clan matriarch. Instead she was her clan's only survivor. When we found her she was near death. Perhaps it would have been kinder to let her die, but I was selfish. Here was my only chance to have a child. I bent the rules to the breaking point to save her. She may not have been born Nietzchean, but make no mistake, she's mine now." Callisto's voice was firm, a shade away from challenging.

"I was not objecting, merely curious." Tyr said, his voice very neutral. He knew better than to antagonize a mother jaguar protecting her kit, however unusual that kitten may be.

The lift doors opened as Callisto said, "Since we are appeasing curiosity, why did you turn down Charlemagne's offer? I thought all males wanted to further their line."

"It did not suit my purpose to mate with the sister of a fop. No offense." Tyr said as they walked down several meters to a red door.

"None taken. The Jaguar stopped breeding so rigorously for the physical and started pushing the intellectual. It has its benefits and problems, just like any selective breeding decision. It is part of the reason Charlemagne offered one of his sisters. He would like to combine the two programs so the best of both can continue together in the next generation." Callisto shrugged. It had been so long since she had anything to do with safeguarding the genetic future of her clan that it was easy to be objective about it now.

"Only part? What other reasons does he have?" Tyr asked suspiciously.

"Charlemagne never has just one reason for doing anything. I think mother encouraged him to read Machiavelli at far to early an age. Here's the guest quarters, I will leave you to it while I find you a shirt." Callisto said as she spun on her heel and returned to the lift, leaving Tyr and his questions behind.