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CHAPTER TWO
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"One man cannot summon the future."
"But one man can change the present."
(The mirror Spock and Kirk – Star Trek - "Mirror, Mirror")

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Night was the most difficult time for Nurdan and he suspected it was the same for Paran. They'd chosen that cave for the ambush of the traitor because it was low and narrow enough that a Thanagarian couldn't fully spread her wings. The confines of the cave would keep the traitor on foot once the trap had been sprung. Now this cave was their home, but it also restricted their movements as well.

It was cold at night outside the cave, which is where Nurdan slept. Paran offered to sleep outside on the fifth night, giving Nurdan the cave, but he wouldn't have it. She wouldn't offer to sleep outside again.

He often wondered to himself why, when Paran asked if they were mated, he didn't answer, "Yes." It would have so easy to do so. Sharing a warm woman would have been so much more preferable to sharing a cold tree.

Still, there wasn't much to life if he didn't have his honor. And he felt that in time, Paran would realize how important that was to him and appreciate him all the more. He wasn't going to kid himself. Their relationship up to this point, since their mission assignment, had been purely professional and despite what he'd done to improve their odds of survival, it had been based on wanting to live, not wanting to mate. She had demonstrated that she was the smartest of their team of seven. His survival would depend on her knowledge, not on her gender.

It was the eleventh night. He'd just finished firing a missile into the sky and watching it explode in the heavens, hoping that a passing ship would notice the explosion and investigate. Paran tapped him on the shoulder, startling him. He would later reflect that she was very good at sneaking up on him.

"Hi," she said.

He answered her with a grin. "Hey."

"Think anybody saw that?" she said pointing to where the missile had exploded.

"Well, if not tonight, maybe tomorrow night," he answered. The chances that anyone saw anything on this moon were remote, but there was always hope and he felt he had to convey that to her.

She nodded. "Nurdan?"

"Yes?"

"I counted our remaining rations."

He'd counted them too and knew what was coming. "We need to go on half-rations starting tomorrow," she continued. "And be prepared for quarter rations by the end of the week."

He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "Okay. Maybe, we'll be rescued before we get to the point of being on one-eighth rations." He paused, knowing how stupid what he'd just said sounded. "I'm going to turn in." He smiled at her as he continued. "Good night."

"Good night," she answered. He turned and flew up to a branch of a nearby tree he'd made his bed in. From that location, he had an unrestricted view of the cave mouth and the clearing.

He positioned himself on the branch and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he heard a guttural coo and felt a breeze. He thought he must be dreaming except he wasn't asleep yet. He opened one eye, then both. His jaw dropped.

Paran was hovering next to the branch. Her wings were fully spread, displaying their magnificence as she slowly, teasingly flapped them to keep herself aloft. She'd removed her mask and held it at her side.

"Nurdan, I want you to sleep in the cave tonight," she said. His eyes widened.

It wasn't what she said that shocked him. It was the way she said it. She didn't say it using the formal gender-neutral Thanagarian language as she had done since the mission started, but rather she used the informal and very personal feminine noun for herself and the masculine one for him. There was no mistake in his mind. She was talking to him as she would her mate.

His mind raced a thousand kilometers in a nanosecond. Maybe she was doing this because she knew they were facing starvation and wanted to mate before they were too weak. Maybe she wanted to thank him for saving her. Maybe it was her time of the year. Maybe she just took pity on him. He didn't know.

He stood on the branch and spread his wings fully, stretching them out as far as he could. "I will. Tonight. With you," he answered. His speech was purposely clipped as he also used the informal masculine and feminine nouns of a mated couple. She nodded and he thought he saw a smile of approval in her face. She slowly turned, so that he had plenty of time to drink in her form, and then floated back to the cave, keeping her wings fully extended, flapping them just enough to control her descent and direction.

Nurdan watched her land at the mouth of the cavern. She glanced back at him, set her helmet at the cave entrance and entered. He followed and placed his helmet next to hers. As he entered the cave, he didn't care why she was doing this. He just knew that his days of sleeping in tree branches were over.

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It had been twenty days since the ambush failed. For almost ten years, Paran had put her life on hold, never looking for a mate, never thinking about anything but work. After all, when the Gordanians were defeated, she'd reasoned she'd have plenty of time to enjoy the pleasures of life.

There'd be no pleasures, no rewards, no parades now. She knew. They both knew. They were going to die on this rock. What she found most frustrating was that she'd gambled on her knowledge of the traitor and had lost.

Again.

On the fifth day, Nurdan had suggested that they gather their accumulated supplies and move out to look for a better camp site.

Paran squashed the idea.

"The traitor knows how and where she left us," Paran said. "She'll send someone here to get us."

"Why do you think that?" Nurdan replied. "I wouldn't rescue someone who just tried to kill me."

"That's right. You wouldn't … and I wouldn't either. But she will because they would and they are important to her."

Paran knew Nurdan was skeptical, but he raised no further objection. So they stayed put at the initial ambush site. Now, after twenty days, Paran knew there'd be no rescue party from the Justice League. The betrayer of Thanagar had shown them that she was more Thanagarian than they'd given her credit for.

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As had been his routine for the last twenty-nine days, Paran watched Nurdan fire a missile into the sky. Rations were low and they had six missiles left.

They'd found edible plants, but there was minimal nutritional value in them. They'd used the plants to further extend their meager meals as much as they could. They hadn't found any wildlife and that had troubled Paran the most. More than once, she'd second guessed her decision to stay put.

She'd tried to sort out the bits of electronics and melted circuit cards that Nurdan had recovered from the human ship. Most of it was useless. There weren't any parts that she could assemble into anything that they could use to send a signal, even if she'd had the tools. She knew that they didn't have enough missiles to fire them in a manner that would indicate any intelligence behind the explosion intervals. Random explosions were not likely to attract the attention of space travelers the way a signal beacon would.

She'd just drifted off to sleep when she felt the rumble.

"Nurdan, wake up! Did you hear that?" she said as she shook him awake.

"Huh?" he replied trying to wake up. The ground shook again, they both jumped up and race to the entrance of the cave. She pointed to her left and Nurdan flew off in that direction. She flew off to the right.

In the bright moonlight the two could see each as they circled the land below looking for the cause of the noise. Nurdan saw it first.

A ship. A mining ship. Paran almost laughed out loud with the irony of it all.

Four Altairians debarked the ship and made their way through the forest toward the cave. Nurdan and Paran raced back ahead of them. Paran removed her upper armor. The Gordanians had agents all over the universe. There was no need to advertise their affiliation with the fallen Thanagarian Empire. Not yet.

Nurdan moved to the tree that overlooked the entrance of the cave and waited for the Altairians to approach. Paran stood at the cave entrance, her pistol holstered, and her shield within easy reach.

"Ahoy," one of the Altairians called out in the universal language of space-faring races in this galaxy as they approached the clearing and Paran.

"Hello," Paran yelled back. "Over here. Thank goodness you found me. I didn't think I'd ever be rescued. I've been stranded here for a month."

The four came out into the clearing. "That's what we were told," said one of the four who she would later come to know as Mori-Bor, the first officer of the ship.

Paran's eyes narrowed. "Who told you I was here?"

"The Green Lantern did. She asked us to check out your situation here. She said she got a report that you were in trouble here."

"She?" Paran snapped. "The Green Lantern is a man. What are you trying to pull?" She grabbed her shield, drew her pistol and pointed it at the four.

"Put that thing down," Mori-Bor answered. He waved his upper and lower right hands at her. "I'm here to help you."

Nurdan landed behind the four Altairians, his pistol drawn. "You heard her. The Green Lantern is male. Who sent you here?"

Mori-Bor turned his head slightly so he could see Nurdan, then shook his head. "I don't know anything about the Green Lantern being a man. Our Green Lantern is a woman named Droxelle who lives on Altair IV. That's where we're heading. Back home. She said she got a report. We said we'd check it out and saw your signal rocket. If you want to stay here, then stay. We'll be on our way to Altair IV."

"Suppose we just take your ship instead," Nurdan growled.

Paran put her shield down and holstered her pistol, looked at Mori-Bor and smiled. "Forgive me and forgive my mate. We're very tired and hungry and will gladly accept your offer of transportation. We just need to gather a couple of things and then we'll be ready. Can we meet you at your ship in fifteen minutes?"

Mori-Bor nodded. "Ten minutes. We're on a schedule. No weapons other than your sidearms. And I'll lock those up once you're on-board. You'll get them back at the end of the voyage. How many of you are there?"

"Two and we'll be at your ship in ten minutes," Nurdan replied. The Altairians turned around and headed back to their ship as Nurdan landed beside Paran. She was grinning and wasn't sure that Nurdan fully understood why.

"You know we could've taken that ship away from them and gone back to Thanagar," he said when he was sure they were alone.

She didn't stop smiling as she started gathering their meager possessions. "No, we couldn't have. It's called ergonomics. A race of four armed people would never design a ship to be flown by humanoids with just two arms. All of their controls would be designed for four hands per person. Once we get to Altair IV, we can arrange transport to Thanagar."

Nurdan nodded in agreement. They stashed the remaining rockets and launchers in the rear of the cave, figuring once they had transport, they'd come back, get the weapons and take them to the resistance.

Paran reflected how few possessions they really had that they should take with them. She retrieved her shattered white mask, stared at it for longer than was really necessary and decided to pack it with the other things they were taking. She was sure the ship would have tools that she could use to fix her helmet or at least adjust the one she was currently wearing so it'd fit better.

Nurdan removed his upper armor and packed it with Paran's. They packed the last of their rations and flew off to the ship.

"Okay," Nurdan said as they winged toward the craft. "Share. You haven't stopped grinning since we accepted transport. I mean besides the obvious reason of our not starving to death, why are you so happy?"

"Because," she answered as she landed near the ship's gangplank. "I finally was able to outthink the traitor. I was right about her. She rescued us."

Nurdan cut her off. "No she didn't. You heard that Altairian. They saw the signal flare."

Paran laughed. "They saw it because Hol told her Green Lantern boyfriend where to look and he told the one who sent the ship. Don't you see? It had to be like that."

Mori-Bor met them at the foot of the walkway. "Your weapons, please." He extended his hands to them both. Nurdan gave up his pistol after Paran turned hers over. Mori-Bor visually inspected both weapons and said, "You can board now."

Paran knew she surprised Nurdan when she said to Mori-Bor, "Could we have just a minute together to remember our friends … the ones who died here?"

Mori-Bor nodded, but said sternly, "Keep it short."

She led Nurdan a few meters away from the ship and kept her back to Mori-Bor while she looked Nurdan in the eye. "Put your arms around my waist and bend your head down so that our helmets touch." After a small hesitation, Nurdan did as she asked and she put her arms around his waist and wrapped her wings around him.

"You know I like doing this," Nurdan started, "but this isn't the …."

Paran cut him off in a sharp whisper. "This isn't for you. It's for the Altairian. Don't look up. Watch your expression and look only at me." Nurdan looked into her eyes.

"I told you a long time ago," she said, "not to ever assume I'm stupid." She paused as his eyes widened.

"Thank you for saving my life," she continued. "I know you sacrificed much to keep me alive and I'm guessing, and it's only a guess, that you also ensured others sacrificed on my behalf as well."

Nurdan started to say something, but Paran cut him off. "Just look at me and listen. What's done is done and can not be undone and we shall never speak of this again. But know this: I will not kill for you and I don't want you to ever kill for me again except for Shayera Hol and her bloodline. She and hers will forever be a gr'dn'let a blood enemy to me and mine. Do you understand what I'm saying?" She paused and said softly, "Can you accept that?"

Nurdan was visibly shaken knowing that she knew what he'd done, but he whispered, "Yes."

She was silent and then said softly, "I'd like for us to remain as mates … if you don't object … at least until we get to Thanagar." She smiled as she added, "After we reach Thanagar, who knows what our future will be?"

Nurdan lifted his head from hers. "Until we get to Thanagar, then," he said softly. His smile matched hers.

They turned and walked up the gangplank together without looking back. Mori-Bor followed the Thanagarians into the ship and a few moments later the spacecraft lifted off.

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