Chapter Seventeen
The queen and the hives demanded more time of Vector than he had counted on. Kolosolok and Manam had confronted his queen with demands for expansion since their worlds were becoming so populated that resources were becoming increasingly hard to find.
Vector broached the argument that perhaps a less aggressive breeding program would help ease their burdens, they simply could not continue to produce the thousands of young each year that taxed their environments to the brink of total depletion.
What he proposed was akin to heresy and a denial of the old ways and only the word of his queen prevented another trial by combat between him and the Dawn Heralds of both nests. She agreed to help them find new places of settlement if they agreed to maintain their populations accordingly. It was something she had done herself on Alderaan and it had proved beneficial to Oroboro. She further stated that the Kind were not here to devour the universe but to enhance it.
Vector was sent out to assist in finding suitable planets and Tus went with him more and more on his missions for the queen or to find word of Rey'elle. The Hassuun was actually learning a few words of common although his mouth structure struggled with pronunciations. What little laughter graced Vector's days came from their friendship.
Vector had requisitioned the Oroboro artisans to construct a staff very similar to his and offered it as a gift to Tus who honored it as his most cherished possession. They often sparred together each teaching the other new tricks and movements, sometimes coming away with cuts and bruises and a sense of comradery he had not felt since Lokin.
In his search for Rey'elle and opportunities for the hive, Vector beheld wonders in the unknown regions. A crimson nebula that resembled flames licking at the surrounding blackness, a world where long dead and forgotten architects had built great fortresses and castles from solid crystal. He visited a planet where tiny fireflies banded together in swarms so immense they could be seen from space and a water world where giant waterspouts danced together to music only they could hear. Each of these things he memorized with great care and brought back to his queen as a gift in the sharing.
He and Tus found three worlds suitable for Kolosolok and Manam but had to discard one since it was too close to Chiss space and the Chiss had no patience for encroachment. He led the two nests on their first expeditions to these new worlds and expanded his star charts to something even the Claatuvac Guild on Kashyyk would envy.
One of Vector's most treasured memories was when he had come out of hyperspace amid a hive of the enormous killiks who roamed the deep places of the universe. He, Tus and the fingerlings sang and cast their song out into space to commune with these giants of the Kind.
They filled a vast region of space and sang back to the tiny ship that was dwarfed by their size. Vector learned that they were called Tanetenat and had come together in a breeding swarm. They were graceful and supple in their movements as they came together and pulled apart in a delicate dance belying their enormity.
They lived in space by scooping gasses like oxygen, hydrogen, and methane into great vents in their bodies that they could open and close as they skimmed the atmosphere of planets. An internal mechanism enabled them to recycle these gasses throughout their systems feeding organs, replenishing fluids and using methane as a food source.
They were solitary and nomadic and the queens would lay their eggs at a spawning place hidden among the stars, leaving as soon they finished, abandoning the young to live or die as the universe willed. Genetic memory being the only hope for the newborn's survival.
Vector and Tus stayed for hours observing and communing until the great swarm dispersed and only the emptiness of space remained. Vector wished that Rey'elle could have been there with him to witness this miracle, he would remember to tell her when he saw her again.
Six years came and went, he had helped his queen bring peace to the Colony. He had found worlds and negotiated trade with the help of Saras and their natural penchant for such endeavors. He had found sources for parts for their dartships, bartered for schematics and set up crude but efficient manufacturing stations and averted conflict when hive groups had split into factions that bordered on civil war.
Every place that he had gone, he searched for her, opened himself to the universe and still, nothing. He needed to widen his search but his duty to the hive never ceased and as the months passed he had less and less time to devote to his quest.
He was as lost in the hive as he had been before they met and only his stubborn determination drove him to seek someone who was merely a face in his memory. His individuality allowed him to remember this and he continued without reason or cause and accepted this truth as simply a matter of course. He blindly followed a calling possessed of only a name; Rey'elle.
Seven years, two months was hallmarked as the time when fortune changed. He was on his way back from Gravis 5 to Finas Eth when his private holo began to chime. He had received no messages on that device since he had left the core worlds, he had even forgotten that he had it and it was a wonder that its power core was still working.
The call was from a being he had never thought to hear from again.
"Scorpio?" he gasped.
"I do not have much time, Vector and do not know how long I can keep this communication open, you must listen carefully. I know where she is. Buried in this signal are the coordinates to a planet called Odessen, she is there."
"Why now?" asked Vector.
"I owe her a great debt, she allowed me to come home, to see the faces of my creators, to, at last, find peace. I am no longer a slave, I am finally free. I planted algorithms deep within the systems of this planet and it has taken months for them to calculate a way to establish a signal strong enough to span all the lengths of space. Even had she destroyed me, the program was self perpetuating, self learning, nearly sentient and would have completed its directive regardless. She waits for you, go to her and my final debt is paid.
"Quickly, connect this to your navicomputer while I can still hold on to the signal, go Vector. Now!"
Vector ran to the cockpit, pulling wires out of the console to attach to his holo. Scorpio's image began to flicker as the data was downloaded.
"Goodbye Vector, tell her….." was the last thing he heard as the communication terminated.
Vector refreshed the navicomputer screen and beheld a new dot on the galaxy map, it shown like a beacon, it shown like her face.
He sat down in the pilot seat as a feeling he had dismissed a very long time ago swept over him; hope.
When he landed on Finas Eth and went to his queen she already sensed the change in him.
"You would leave us now, Dawn Herald? There is still much to do."
"Yes there is much to do, there will always be much to do, but we hold you to your word that you would not prevent our leaving when the time came. We have found her at last, after all these years, we have finally found her.
"We will leave Tus as your protector and you must now rely on Saras for negotiations. The new Dawn Herald of the Iesei hive can be the enforcer of your laws, it might be good for the Colony to work as a unit for a while. We believe it will give the Kind a strength that has been missing for too long and we will return as soon as we can. We would like for her to hear the Twilight Song as only Oroboro can sing it."
"Then go, Vector, we keep our word to you. However, you must return to us if you are called, we must have your word on this before you take your leave."
"You have our word and our thanks, " said Vector as he went to one knee and extended his arm. He felt the light pressure of her forearm against his armor and rose to begin the final stretch of his long journey.
Acosta Prime to Ilum, two stops in between then Bakura and nearly eight more days to Odessen. Time passed in its own set way neither faster nor slower than the pace given, and Vector watched each second tick into oblivion.
He neither paced nor fretted but merely settled in and felt the universe spin, as it always had and always would while his ship cut through hyperspace on a course given as a gift from one no longer chained.
As he came out of hyperspace over Odessen he was broadcasting the shuttle's transponder code, hoping it was enough to keep him from being shot down. He was instructed to follow a very specific trajectory and not to deviate until he came to rest in a large hangar cut into the side of a mountain.
As he walked down the exit ramp he was greeted by both imperial and republic soldiers, their guns at the ready, and watched as a Bothan approached.
"Your name and purpose for landing," demanded the Bothan.
"Wait! Wait! I know this man," came a very familiar voice as Vector saw Doctor Lokin practically running toward him.
"My stars, Vector, I never thought to see you again. How did you find us?" the doctor asked as he grabbed Vector's hand and pulled him in for a half embrace and hearty back slapping.
"Where is she?" asked Vector as he retracted the ramp, closed the door and locked it.
"Of course, my boy, this way." Lokin said as he motioned for everyone to lower their weapons and led Vector across the hangar.
"She's in the new war room, she let her hair grow, she has been through a lot," Lokin tried to explain but Vector was too single minded to respond.
As soon as the elevator stopped and Vector stepped off the platform, he saw her, standing next to a man in a red jacket looking at something on a data terminal. Her back was turned to him and as he began to walk forward the room went quiet and nearly everyone turned to stare.
"Well, I'll be damned," someone who sounded like Kaliyo said.
Rey'elle and the man finally turned around and all Vector saw was her face. He saw the look of shock and disbelief cross her eyes, watched her legs give way, watched the man catch her as she fell.
He sprinted forward pushing the man away as he knelt by her side pulling her into his arms and when she reached out to touch his face it was as if an electric shock drove into his brain. His song opened and it all came rushing back. Her touch was the key he had so lovingly made, the secret to unlocking all of him.
He shut his eyes against the searing pain and felt his chest tighten as his heart hammered against his ribs. He had heard of this thing happening in the seconds before people died where their life flashed before them, scene after scene, in rapid fire. He must have died and was being reborn, was being remade into something new, brought back to life by the touch of her hand.
"Vector?" she said, concern in her voice as she stroked his cheek.
"We can hear your song again, my love," he responded as he rose to his feet and lifted her into his arms, noting the staring faces scattered around the room. "Please, someplace where we can be alone."
"I can walk, Vector," she said but lay her head against his shoulder and hooked her arms around his neck.
He kissed the top of her head. "We can carry you across galaxies. Where?"
Rey'elle glanced over Vector's shoulder to see Lokin grasp Theron's arm to keep him from following, they appeared to be arguing. She turned her head away and placed her lips against the side of Vector's neck feeling his quickened pulse in the vein that throbbed beneath her mouth.
She directed him through the base and across the metal walkway that led to their ship, their home and felt his embrace draw her closer and closer as if he were trying to pull her under his armor and into his skin.
Inside the ship he gently lowered her legs to the floor and turned her to so that he could cup her face between his hands.
"We never thought to see your face again," his voice was barely above a whisper. "We never thought to hold you again."
She took his hands in hers and kissed the palm of each then led him to their room and closed the door.
His voice was urgent and almost shy. "We must see all of you, Rey'elle. Take our breath away and let us lose ourselves in you as if it were the first time."
He held his breath each time an article of clothing slid to the floor and restrained himself from extending his hands to touch the pale softness of her skin. Her aura glowed around her form as frost and spices settled on his tongue, whetting his appetite and awakening the hunger that had lain unsated for too long.
"Our dreams of you are inadequate to this moment," he breathed as he began to undo the straps and buckles of his armor.
She tried to walk forward to help but he held up his hand to stop her. "If you touch us now we will be undone and melt like snow in the heart of a sun."
Totally exposed, they stood for a few moments staring at each other as if caught in a bubble of time that neither wanted to burst. Vector took those few steps across the chasm of space and time that had kept them apart and lifted the Ukinuo gem that she wore on a chain about her neck.
"We had forgotten the gem," he said, sadness and remorse sending a tremor through his voice.
"I never could," she said as she ran her fingers through his hair and pulled his face toward hers. He willed the universe to stop as their mouths united, but the second her body met his, he was consumed.
His fingers explored every plane of her existence, the angles, edges, curves, peaks and valleys of her landscape. There was no expanse of him that escaped her hands as she rediscovered the byways and passages that ran the length and breadth of his being.
His mouth floated along her senses and murmured endearments that penetrated to her soul, her mouth whispered secrets against his skin that echoed to his core. Their sweat mingled like exotic nectar and they sipped from the divine brew, licking the salt from their lips and thirsting for more.
The bed became a silent audience to their union, the pillows were mute bystanders and the sheets a canvas where they painted a mural of grief and longing and joy.
She opened herself to the promises that only his body could keep, he poured the long years of yearning into the waiting chalice. She sighed his name as he brought her to the brink of climax and gently tipped her over the edge. Her hips rose and fell to the tempo of their song as her legs folded across his back, binding him to her, urging him to the shuddering release of all he had endured.
Rapt with wonder and certainty that she would not vanish into the stuff of dreams, he looked down into her face and kissed her lips before rolling to his side and pulling her close so that their faces were mere inches apart. She placed her leg over his hip and toyed with the sparse hairs on his chest as he absently stroked her thigh. She could barely hear him as he began to speak.
"We spoke to you in dreams and every word was chiseled into our heart. We loved you in our dreams recalling every line of your body, every sound, every taste until it seemed that dreams were all we would ever have.
"We held you in our song but dared not sing it and went mad for a time, then numb and then dead inside. We surrendered love so that we might save love and your touch redeemed us. You are more beautiful than we remember and we love you. We will never leave your side again, we do not think we would survive."
She smoothed his hair back from his forehead, her voice was close to a whisper. "When I was in carbonite, Valkorian, the Sith Emperor showed me visions of your lifeless body lying on countless worlds, sometimes with the crew, sometimes alone. And then when I found Kaliyo, Lokin and Scorpio I hoped you were alive as well but so much time had passed and hope became so fragile.
"I lived in this horrible realm of not knowing if you were dead or alive. I felt like a shadow drifting through life, walking with one foot in dreams of you and one foot in a world where I no longer fit. I searched for you and waited for word that never came. I never wish to experience that depth of despair again."
He moved his hand and caught a tear that had started to slide from her eye and over the bridge of her nose then surveyed the moisture before it evaporated away. "These hands will never release you again, Rey'elle, they are strong enough to hold what is ours….no, what is mine. The universe has given us a miracle, my love, and we will not squander the offering."
She put her fingers to his lips, "hush, beloved, you are home now, the long nightmare is over for both of us and I am not going anywhere. Hold me and sleep, this time of peace will not last forever, it never does and we have a lifetime to talk."
He rolled to his back, pulling her on top of him. "We did not know if we would ever feel this way again. Sleep can wait and conversation is not what we desire."