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7. Hardheaded
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Mora seated himself at the desk in his study and synced his PADD with the computer console. Behind him, Odo sat on the day bed, watching the rain blow against the window.
"Why choose a Bajoran appearance?"
"Excuse me?"
Mora gestured to his own face. "You have nose ridges."
Odo reached up and lightly touched the three primitive ridges on his nose. "I can pass for a human if I want to." He frowned and the ridges disappeared, making him look completely human- save for the lack of defined eyebrows. Then, with a blink, the ridges reformed. "But I prefer to look Bajoran. Everything I know began on Bajor."
He faced the window again. Mora took a moment to admire Odo's ears. They looked so complete now. He had a defined helix, antihelix and even an antitragus. Tiny details he couldn't even grasp twenty years ago.
No matter how Odo changed, his eyes remained the same shade of blue. Much paler than Mora's own.
"Am I distracting you?" Odo asked coldly.
"Not at all." Mora answered.
"You can't resist studying me, can you?" He turned his head. "Do you think I don't feel your eyes boring a hole in me?"
"I wasn't studying, Odo. I'm admiring. It's truly remarkable how far you've come."
"You always say that."
"Because I mean it." Mora tapped on his desktop. "You know, sometimes, I still miss having you over my shoulder."
"Mm. What do you intend to write about?"
The question took Mora's memory back so many years. To the times when Odo was young and curious and sticking his nose into everything.
"I plan to write about a question. What makes life become life, Odo?"
Odo snorted at the inquiry. "DNA is the foundation of life."
"True..." Mora swiveled in his chair to fully face the window. He held up his hand and pinched something invisible between thumb and forefinger. "But what tells that DNA it's alive? What happens within the molecules to turn on life? What lights up a brain into a thinking machine? What really animates us? Is it chemicals, or is it truly something else? Some call it a spirit, a pagh, or life-force. What if life is governed by something we can't measure yet?"
"I don't know. Kejal almost broke down into nothing. My body restored him using pieces of itself. It's why he looks like me."
"Exactly!" Mora snapped his fingers. "Something happened when you conceived him, Odo. Something incredible and intangible enough to make me question life itself."
"Doesn't the same thing happen in the womb when two parents mate to produce a child?"
"Yes. The genes mix and multiply. Still, even then, what brings that mass of cells to life? What is behind that force?"
"I always thought it was the chemical reactions. Neurotransmitters, proteins and so forth. Cells die if their processes are interrupted. Kill enough of them and the life form can't survive."
"And what happens to the life, Odo?" Mora didn't know whether he asked for his sake or for Odo's input.
Odo slowly shrugged his shoulders without taking his eyes off the window. The subtle stiffening of his posture gave away his discomfort at the subject matter.
"I don't know, Doctor Mora. The electrical activity in your brain is energy, and energy changes form. Perhaps the energy behind the electrical impulses in your neurons becomes the heat energy that dissipates as a dead body cools. I...apologize if that sounds cruel."
"No, no, I respect your hypothesis." Mora couldn't help but smile. "And where do you think the consciousness goes?"
"Nowhere." Odo deadpanned. "It's electricity. Once it transforms into something else, you're gone. Poof. Like you never existed at all."
"Strange...I have a hard time believing it's so simple. What is the point of life, of learning, if it all comes to nothing after we die?"
Odo lowered his head and let his hands fall into his lap. "You're asking the wrong person, Doctor Mora. Kejal and I...we will never die unless we are killed. We aren't as transient as you." He grunted, looked up again and started to chuckle. "Perhaps that is why most of my people prefer the Link over solids. Less grief, less loss. Heh, no wonder the Vorta still think we're gods."
Mora leaned forward in his chair.
"Odo, I'd like to make a pact with you."
"Why?"
"I want to." Mora peered up at him. "I told Kejal the same thing I'm about to tell you. When I die, Odo, and if there is something afterward, I will reach out and prove it to you."
"Spoken like a scientist." Odo's voice had enough sarcasm in it to drown a Ferengi. "I'll make a note to look up the nearest medium when it's all over. So, when should I start? Right after you die? After the funeral? Tch. Signs from beyond the grave...hah! I think you're going senile."
"Oh my! I'm so wounded!" Mora coughed a laugh at Odo's biting remarks. "You never change, do you?"
"Hmph. You brought it up." Odo stood. "I'll let you get to work."
"I enjoyed the conversation."
"I'm glad someone did."
With that, he left the room in silence. Thunder rumbled outside to fill it in.
Mora arched an eyebrow at the doorway Odo went through. How could a simple sentence carry so much bitterness?
Odo wasn't always that way. Sitting back, Mora stared at his computer console and remembered...
He hummed to himself all throughout setup. Scanners and recording equipment were trained on the unknown sample's bucket. Last night, it did something remarkable without the recording devices running, and he hoped to capture its activity on record.
Yes, last night, the creature showed it had some understanding of language. He asked it to shape shift a cube, and it did without any electrostatic prompting.
Mora stated the date and time. Then he poured the unknown sample onto the table.
"I know you understand some of what I say." Mora said to the inert liquid. "Become a cube."
The gelatinous mass abruptly formed into a tan cube. He tapped on it, and it felt spongy.
"A note for the log: The unknown sample responds to verbal commands." He looked down at the cube. "Liquefy."
Nothing happened.
Mora frowned.
"Liquefy," he said again.
Finally, the goo obeyed.
Mora turned away to pick up his tricorder. He heard the swish indicating the life form was changing shape. Only this time, it lasted far longer than normal. He faced the table again.
The sample was growing. It rose higher and higher, and suddenly it broadened. At the top, it grew rounder. Four tentacles sprouted off the sides and transformed into webbed hands and feet.
Mora gasped and leaned forward.
It had eyes! Primitive, colorless, but eyes nonetheless! And they were looking right at him!
He waved his hand. Its eyes followed the movement- it could see!
After a moment, it lifted its hand and imitated the gesture.
"Oh!" Mora barely contained his delight at capturing this on his recording devices.
He touched his nose with his fingertips. The unknown sample did the same on itself. He reached out to touch its hand, and it let him. Its surface felt like warm, shifting ballistic gelatin. Fluid, but formed enough to maintain its shape.
Suddenly, the alien tried to stand up. Its legs couldn't support it and it abruptly splattered like a broken egg. Before Mora reacted, the creature oozed into its bucket, which he had placed on the floor earlier.
Over the next week, Mora encouraged the life form to use its new shape, but it didn't seem to understand facial expressions at all. Mora noticed it mimicking his facial and body movements. It did not appear capable of speech, but it responded to verbal commands approximately half the time.
The specimen improved upon its humanoid appearance more each day. Mastering its limbs became a struggle Mora hadn't anticipated. It lacked many of the reflexes humanoids took for granted.
Mora held his arms out to the creature. It was sitting on the table, looking at him.
"Come on," he said, wiggling his fingers. "Take my hands."
The specimen grasped his hands. He took care not to grip them too tightly.
"Remember now, your legs have to be very solid to handle your weight."
Looking down, the unknown sample concentrated on its legs. Mora gave a tug and suddenly it was standing on its two feet for the first time. The creature's clear eyes widened. It appeared frightened by this new posture.
"Good...good! You're standing up! Now I'll be right behind you. All right? I won't let you fall." Mora slipped behind the alien and grasped its upper arms. "Whenever you're ready. Take it slowly."
The alien's posture stiffened. It glanced over its shoulder as if reassuring itself of his presence. Then it moved one foot forward.
"That's it." Mora said. He gave the creature a nudge. "Now balance your weight on that leg and bring the other foot forward."
The specimen obeyed and took its first wobbly steps.
They practiced this for days until, one morning, the unknown sample shook Mora's hands off and stumbled ahead by itself. It walked all the way to the far wall.
And Mora swore its colorless eyes twinkled.
Time began to pass.
Mora stepped into his lab early one morning and spotted the alien completing a shift. It stared at itself in a full length mirror. He noticed it mimicked his slicked back hairstyle and that it was very, very naked. There were no external genitalia and it lacked the cleft in its buttocks. It had extremely basic facial features like a sculpture ready to be fleshed out.
The creature stood there, poking at its own skin and moving its lips. No teeth yet, but there appeared to be something resembling a tongue in its mouth.
"Hello," Mora whispered, conscious that it still wasn't used to hearing with its ears.
Startled, the specimen turned completely around to face him. Its eyes were vivid, electric blue.
Mora smiled and folded his hands in front of him. "You're looking well this morning. How do you feel?"
The unknown sample imitated his stance.
"Use your mouth," Mora pointed to his own lips. "Just like we practiced."
Suddenly, the alien frowned! A spontaneous expression without prompting! Then it blinked its eyelids and spoke its first words as if it had been speaking its entire life.
"What am I?"
"What are you?" Mora mumbled to himself. His mind returned to the present and he whispered the same response he gave so many years ago. "Good question. Let's find out."
For the next few days, Mora went right to his study upon waking and hardly came out to eat or socialize. The treatise and the question it asked of him clung to his mind like a vine, and he wanted to make sure he finished it before he became too sick to write.
On the fourth night, Mora fell asleep at his desk. His dreams took him back to the accretion disk he remembered from before, and there he bore witness to the new star shining inside its nebular shell.
.o
Noisy space ports weren't Odo's favorite place in the universe. However, he tolerated it on this sunny mid-morning. He'd been awaiting the appointed day since he arrived on Bajor a week ago.
Thirty years, and their love survived.
Odo looked down at the Rigelian chocolates clutched in his hands. He never imagined Kira remaining single after his departure. In fact, at their parting, he silently wished her well with the hope of her finding someone else. Learning she never married surprised him.
That woman never ceases to amaze me.
"Shuttle one-nine-nine-five now disembarking."
The announcement brought him back to full alert.
Kira was the fourth person off the shuttle. She wore a sleeveless maroon jumpsuit with a flowing purple vest held in place by a thin gold belt. A matching barrette kept her hair bound in a loose ponytail.
At her brilliant smile, Odo stopped noticing the disorder in the space port. He hurried to greet her near one of the large, decorative domed windows. The sunlight shone in her auburn hair. Her brown eyes almost melted him on the spot. Age had not touched her beauty at all as far as he was concerned.
"I brought you something," they said at the same time.
Kira chuckled. Odo smiled and handed her the box of Rigelian chocolates. She offered him something wrapped in cloth.
"How was the trip?" Odo asked while he untied the twine around his gift.
"Pretty quiet. I think I slept for half of- oh! Delicious!" Kira ate one of the chocolates. "Mm, thank you...the trip wasn't too bad."
Odo set aside the cloth and looked curiously at the four PADDS held together by large rubber bands. Without separating them, he switched on the top one.
Detective novels, all written by Tixom. His favorite author.
"Ah, he finished the Shaarlek series. Thank you," he said, his eyes lighting up. "Nobody writes a mystery quite like a Talaxian."
Kira leaned against him, grinning. "I thought you might like that."
"I do. Very much." Odo turned his head and kissed her forehead. "Where will you be staying?"
"Ah, about that. Doctor Mora told me he has a guest room available." She shrugged. "I took him up on the offer. It'll save me the hotel credits. Plus, it means I'm right there with you. No traveling back and forth into the city."
Of course Doctor Mora would meddle with that. This time, though, Odo realized he didn't mind it so much.
"I see your point." He picked up Kira's travel bag. Its weight didn't hinder him at all. They walked casually towards the hover tram pickup dock.
Kira looped her arm around his. "How has Doctor Mora been since he left the station?"
Odo accepted the gesture. "Better. At the moment he is working on a scientific treatise. Don't be surprised if he jumps up and disappears to write something in it."
"That's how scientists are." She squinted in the sunbeams streaming through the trees. "How about Kejal?"
"I think he's over the shock of Doctor Mora's collapse. However, I wouldn't discuss death around him if I were you. He still gets upset."
A tram pulled up at the dock. Odo told the driver the coordinates to Doctor Mora's house. He held the door open for Kira, and didn't climb in until she properly settled in her seat. Her travel bag found a nice home near their feet.
Kira reached for his hand again. "How have you been handling all of this?"
"I just...have." Odo shrugged, interlocking their fingers. "I am surprised to see him dying at such a young age for Bajorans. I think his father lived to be a hundred and fifty, and his mother a little longer. They were already getting older when he was born. As he says it, he was a happy surprise."
"How old is he?"
"Ninety-five."
She shook her head. "Kejal seems so attached to him."
"Yes," Odo answered. Disguising his annoyance took all his willpower. "He is."
"It bothers you."
He bit the insides of his lips to stop the sharp retort. Were his features really so easy to read now? He looked down at his leather boots. That day, he felt a little lazy and didn't bother to shape shift actual feet inside his footwear. It certainly saved him the pain after a careless person ran over his foot with a luggage cart!
"Seeing things through the Great Link, and actually seeing them are just as different as observing a romantic relationship versus being in one. I see what could have been for me, and I know Doctor Mora will never care about m- oh...these feelings are ridiculous. I should be past that now. It is what it is." Odo frowned and gazed out the side window.
"Odo," Kira said, "It's okay to feel hurt."
He looked at her. She met his eyes with such tender caring that he nearly liquefied inside. In her presence, he felt as naked and vulnerable as he used to thirty years ago.
"You were traumatized as a baby, Odo." She squeezed his hand. "You told me yourself that Doctor Mora didn't know you were a life form at first. You said he never set out to maliciously hurt you. But you were still traumatized. That isn't something you 'get over.'"
"It wish it didn't bother me like it does." Odo replied bitterly. "It's in the past. It should stay there. Then I see how they act together and- hm, Nerys, let's change the subject." He lightened his tone and kissed her nose ridges. "I have you here. I should be celebrating this moment, not mourning what I can't have."
"Odo," She gave him a serious look. "You can't run from this forever. Eventually, you have to turn around and face it."
"I know, but I can't do it right now."
"I understand." Kira patted his hand. "Don't wait too long, okay? You'll never forgive yourself if he dies before you talk about this."
"I know...I-I'll talk to him soon. Once I find the right way to bring it up."
"Okay. I'll hold you to that."
She started to say something else after that. Then she paused and lowered her head, chuckling quietly to herself. Her cheeks turned a lovely rosy hue.
Odo blinked. "What's so funny?"
"I just remembered an old Earth proverb."
"Oh?"
Still smiling, she scooted closer and laid her head on his shoulder. "If you love someone, let them go. If they return, they were meant to be yours."
He wrapped his arm around her as the tram pulled up to Doctor Mora's house. The softness of her form fit so well against his side. She'd put on a little weight over the years, he noticed, yet it didn't detract from the beauty of who she was to him.
"I will always be yours, Nerys." Odo whispered in her ear. He let his brow rest against hers and dropped his voice to a low rumble. "I was yours the first time I set eyes on you."
Kira brushed her fingertip across his bottom lip and the physical desires he used to feel for her sprang to life again.
"I'll be yours as long as you remember me." She kissed the end of his nose and nodded towards Doctor Mora's house. "Let's head inside."
Odo completely forgot they were still sitting in the hover tram. "Of course. I'll get your luggage."
They reached for the bag at the same time. Their heads smacked together.
"Oh!" Kira grabbed her eyebrow.
"Ack!" Odo rubbed forehead. "Nerys, are you all right?"
"I'm fine." She started to giggle. "Ooh, your head is harder than it looks."
At that, Odo heard himself join her mirth. "Thanks...I think."
.o
Kejal's green clothing blended in perfectly with the leaves of his beloved deka tree. He'd scurried outside to climb it the moment he heard Mora tell Aleexa about what a nice day it was and that he felt like working outside.
Kejal morphed into bark on a branch when Aleexa placed a folding chair under the tree. A short time later, he sensed Mora settling himself down.
He silently regained his humanoid shape. Mora kept his head lowered, his focus intent upon the two PADDS in his lap.
Too easy.
Kejal pulled a nearby seed pod off its branch and let it fall.
CRACK!
"Gah!" Mora nearly leapt out of his skin.
"Target obliterated!" Kejal shouted, laughing.
"Kejal!" Mora chuckled, picking up the offending seed pod. "I missed having you do that."
Kejal dangled himself upside down and crossed his arms. "All work and no play makes you grumpy anyway."
"Old men are supposed to be cranky." Mora made a face.
"You're only as old as you feel."
"Mm...I used to climb trees when I was a child." He sat back, his eyes faraway. "I broke my left knee falling out of one. That is probably why it's arthritic now. I don't think it ever healed quite right." Then his eyes widened and he peered at the PADD on his left knee. "Ah...nucleotide sequencers, where did I file y- aha!"
Kejal liquefied and reformed after he plopped onto the ground next to Mora's chair. At that angle, he realized Mora had lost weight. Or was it an illusion caused by his baggy shirt and pants?
Mora grew intent on his work. Kejal stood up and glanced at his hands. The bones in his wrists and knuckles were obvious under his skin. His fingernails had a slight blue tint.
Kejal sat down hard on the swing. Pretending his father wasn't sick was easier when he couldn't see it so clearly.
"...sub-nucleotide sequencing..." Mora muttered under his breath. "Kejal, your species is a wonder. You can choose which genetic markers you turn on and off." He glanced up, smiling. "Your genetic profile suggests you should have blue eyes like Odo."
"I can make them blue." Kejal said. "They wouldn't match the rest of me." He scuffed his feet on the ground. "What do you think Olan would've looked like?"
"Mm..." Mora leaned back in his chair. "I always imagined Olan having Leruu's eyes."
"Green like this." Kejal caressed a nearby leaf. "Wouldn't the trait for blue eyes be more dominant in his genetic sequence?"
"It might have been." Mora shrugged one shoulder. "Then again, genes love to play tricks on us. My maternal grandmother had green eyes and so did my mother, but my grandfather's eyes were blue. My father had hazel eyes. The blue skipped a generation. It's rather amusing- except for my eye color, I look almost exactly like my grandfather did at my age."
"I saw an image of him...you do look like twins, except he combed his hair different."
Mora snickered. "A good forehead is a terrible thing to waste."
Kejal pushed off with his legs, pumped once and let the swing slow naturally. All around him, the completed garden shimmered.
"I missed this. Us, talking about silly things under this tree."
"It wasn't the same without you here." Mora looked up and squinted.
"Oh, that's a charming expression." Kejal pulled out a holo-imager and snapped an image.
Mora chuckled at that. "And why are you wasting space with pictures of me making ridiculous faces?"
"Because they're funny?"
Mora snatched the device out of Kejal's hands. "Give me that." He turned it around.
Kejal crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue. He heard the imager beep.
"Nice, Kejal. That one will please the women."
"That's right, father. I'm irresistible! Even when I look ridiculous." Kejal looped his arms around the swing's ropes and leaned forward. "I have every intent to take one of mother kissing mom."
"I wish you luck in that regard. Odo doesn't normally like having his picture taken."
"The trick is catching him before he blocks your view with his hand." Kejal started to swing again. "I don't try it very often. He gets angry."
"You can thank me for his hatred of image capturing devices." Mora shut off his PADD and set it aside. "Where is Odo? I heard him say he was leaving, but I didn't catch the last part of it."
"He's picking mom up from the space port." Kejal hopped off the swing and sat on the ground by Mora's feet. "They'll be back any minute."
"Odo in love." Mora shook his head, smiling. He leaned forward and rubbed the left side of his lower back. "I never thought I'd see the day."
"He gets all starry-eyed if somebody talks about mom. Like you do when someone mentions Leruu."
Kejal's words were rewarded by the exact starry-eyed look he described.
"I'll never not love her, Kejal. She was the only woman for me, and it is the reason I never remarried. I have a sneaking suspicion Kira says the same about Odo. If that isn't love, then I don't know what love is."
Kejal leaned his head against his father's knee. "You never told me how you met her."
At that, Mora's eyes lost focus. He touched Kejal's hair and gazed off into the distance.
"We were children...I was twelve, and she just reached her thirteenth year. I had a scuffle with a much larger and stronger boy named Kartal Lem. I was scrawny compared to him. He beat me bloody, let me tell you!" Mora chuckled and wiped his nose. "So there I was with my nose bleeding and a black eye, and Leruu just appeared there. I'm sure she saw the whole thing. She wiped the blood off my nose with her sleeve, chased down the bigger boy and beat him to a crying pulp!
"She came back afterward and told me, word for word, 'I know you didn't start that fight, and I hate idiots who don't fight fair.' Then she introduced herself as Shalla Leruu. I was shocked that such a delicate looking girl had the ability to knock down someone so much bigger than herself. We became friends on the spot, and my life changed forever.
"That was the thing with Leruu. She had the sweetest personality, but-heh, heh! -she had quite a temper, too!"
Kejal's face lit up when he watched Mora reminisce. "Did you ever fight?"
"Oh, yes!" He winked one eye shut. "And we made up every single time."
"How?"
"Er...we...well..."
"Ohhh, you had sex!" Kejal laughed. "I know how these things work."
"Argh! Kejal, that's personal." Mora cleared his throat.
Kejal snickered and breathed in the cool almost-spring air. "I still wish I could have met her."
"Me, too." Mora sighed. "I have no doubt in my mind that she will be the one to take me into the Celestial Temple when the time comes. I'm looking forward to it."
The subject dulled Kejal's lively mood. He almost resented it. The response leapt off his lips before he could stop it.
"Don't forget about me."
"Never." Mora leaned forward until they were almost face to face. "I'll tell her all about you and Odo. I promise."
"And will you visit? Even if I can't see you?"
"If such becomes possible, yes. Most definitely." Mora pushed himself up out of the chair. His frown betrayed his pain. "Here, help me get everything inside. Brrr...I'm getting chilly."
"Sure." Kejal scooped up the PADDS and folding chair. He handed Mora his cane. "Good thing it's going to be a long time before you have to go anywhere."