Awoken from a Long Sleep
Andros looked down at the sleeping form of Selene within her nest. Andros had taken Selene from Tommy's stunned arms, leaving his mate to deal with the Alpha Sentinel Prime as he rushed the other half of the pair to her nest. Andros was impressed that the blankets and pillows within the nest were still intact. He would have thought they would have disintegrated after so long. However, as far as he could tell, they were still soft and comfortable. The only thing that would be distressing would be the lack of scent.
It had taken him less than a second to realize that Selene was a shaman-level guide from the moment she awoke, and a couple of seconds later, he caught the scent of omega. When she fell into Tommy's arms, Andros felt the Sentinel Guide Prime pair of Earth come together on the psionic plane. In fact, Andros was sure that every Shaman and their Prime felt it as it rippled through the psionic plane. Andros was now shielding Selene; it wouldn't be good for anyone to figure out they were in Antarctica. That's not to say the other Shamans of Earth hadn't tried to locate them. There had been several polite knocks on his shields, but so far, the other Shamans were behaving themselves and not trying to force the issue.
'How is she?' Zhane asked telepathically.
'Sleeping. Her body temperature is slowly rising. I would say that it will be a couple of hours before she is awake, though. How is the new Alpha Sentinel Prime of Earth?' Andros inquired.
'Stunned at first, it took him a couple of seconds to realize that you had taken her. I had to stop him from rushing down, and now he is just pacing and growling. You know that we can't keep them apart right.' Zhane stated.
'I know that, and I don't think that Tommy will do anything dubious, but I didn't want her to wake and immediately have to deal with a territorial Alpha Sentinel. She is already going to feel adrift; I didn't think she needed this on top of having to deal with the fact that it's been 10 million years.' Andros explained.
'I don't know. It could be exactly what she needs, an anchor within this storm.' Zhane argued.
'Or it could be worse." Andros retorted.
Andros looked over his charge and noted the extremely long hair and nails. It looked as if the stasis didn't stop all biological processes, only slowed them down to an extreme degree. Still, after 10 million years, her hair pooled on the ground; it reminded Andros of the fairy tale that Ashley had told him about. The one with the princess with the long hair, trapped for years in a tower, there were some scary parallels to this situation.
'Zhane, can you bring me your grooming kit, as well as some food and water. Simple foods that are easy to swallow." Andros requested.
'Sure.' Zhane agreed.
It was several minutes before there was a soft knock at the door. Andros went to the outer door where Zhane was waiting with the requested supplies. Tommy was looming near the door but making no attempt at entry; Andros was sure he was there to ensure that Zhane didn't enter the room. While Tommy was okay with another omega with his presumptive mate, he wouldn't be able to tolerate another alpha in with her if he was not allowed within the room.
"Thanks. I'll let you know if there is any change." Andros said, mainly for the growling alpha in the corner.
Andros closed the door and went back to the nest room. Andros carefully started cutting her hair back to about midback. He believed that was the length that she had had in the hologram. He knew some cultures never cut their hair, but this amount of hair was crippling, and he would apologize to her later if needed. He started on her nails after the hair was to a reasonable length. Andros didn't really care about his hair or nails, but it was something that Zhane enjoyed. Zhane liked taking care of Andros's hair, which was why Andros kept it long, and Zhane ensured that Andros knew the benefits of a manicure. Andros cut back her nails so that she could use her hands. It was basic, but if it was good enough for Zhane when he cajoled Andros into giving him a manicure, then it would be fine.
'Any change? I've been told to ask.' Zhane asked with some amusement.
'I've fixed her nails and hair. I'm going to give her a bath and change her clothes.' Andros said, then thought about it for a second. 'Maybe you shouldn't tell him that last part.'
'Hahaha, I'm not suicidal.' Zhane answered. 'Are any other Shamans giving you problems?'
'No, but I have had a few curious knocks. They want to know who the newest shaman is, though now that I think about it, I could always feel her. She was in the background of the natural noise that any planet puts off. I'm sure that it won't take long before the other shamans realize this.' Andros said.
'Is that going to cause any problems?' Zhane asked.
'It might. They are probably going to have to reveal themselves as Rangers to at least some of the other Prime pairs. Though we might be able to play it off that she is female, and that's why she feels like the planet, Mother Nature and all.' Andros planned.
'I didn't think that female Shaman's existed.' Zhane said.
'They do, but they're exceedingly rare, just like Female sentinel primes. I've only read about female shamans in some of the oldest Eltarian archives, they used to be more commonplace, but they've slowly disappeared. I heard a rumour that there was one about a millennia ago, but those rumours were never confirmed. Female sentinel Primes are more common than female shamans. I read several research papers on it, and the agreed-upon theory is that the Ancient genetics that passed down the Sentinel-Guide gene weakened when it became more socially acceptable for Alphas and Omegas to breed with Betas. And due to this genetic weakening, there have been fewer high-level Sentinel Guide breeding pares. Statistically, Sentinels and Guides are more likely to be male, and once Betas breed into a bloodline, the number of Alphas and Omegas born into that line drop significantly.' Andros told him.
'Huh, I never really noticed, but you are right. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two Sentinel Guide pairs on KO-35 that can have children without bringing in a surrogate.' Zhane contemplated.
'There are actually six, including us, out of the 108 Sentinel Guide pairs in the colony. The rest are homosexual pairings; many are too possessive to add a third. And statistically, less than a fourth of bonded pairs will have children. That's not even bringing in the fertility issues that Betas have.' Andros explained.
While some wrote it off that most Sentinal Guide pairs were men and betas at that because they were there to protect the tribe, and men were better at that. One only had to look a the historical data to see that in the past, most Sentinel Guide pairs were Alpha and Omegas. Only when Beta genetics were added those pairs quickly dwindled out. It was something that had been concerning him for a while, but he hadn't had time to focus on it until recently once the colony was safe. Andros wasn't alone in those concerns; nearly every scientific community on the planets they had visited had the same concerns.
Now that he could properly focus on their colony, he was worried about KO-35's future. With KO-35's population size, especially after their losses at the hands of Dark Spector, it was quite possible they would lose their Sentinel Guide genetic lines within the next three generations. He was hoping that with Earth's larger gene pool, they would be able to fix their problem.
There was also an apparent decrease in the number of Alphas and Omegas born each year, which was clearly linked to breeding with betas. Unbroken Alpha and Omega lines only produced children with Alpha and Omegas dynamics. Still, once Betas bred into those lines, the Beta dynamic became dominant, with the other dynamics becoming recessive. The problem with KO-35 was that about 150 years ago, their government pushed for equality between dynamics, and it became legal for Alpha and Omegas to marry and breed with Betas. It was now they were feeling the effects.
Andros was pulled from his ruminations when Zhane spoke up again.
'I can feel your mind racing and have the sudden feeling that we will be very busy when we return home.' Zhane said.
Andros only rolled his eyes and felt Zhane's amusement over their bond before returning to his charge, still unconscious in her nest. Andros got up and made his way toward the bathroom. Unlike on the first floor, there was no water shower or anything that resembled a bathtub. Instead, there was only a cubicle in the wall with glowing panels on the floor and ceiling. He assumed this was a washing station of some kind, but he had never seen anything like it. When he stepped in, a panel lit up on the wall. The lettering was in Ancient script before changing to Kalori. The panel had options for temperature, pulse duration, and frequency. There was also an option to repeat the last selection, so he pressed it experimentally. Andros shuttered as he felt a warm pulse come over him; it lasted approximately 20 seconds before stopping for five seconds before repeating. Andros stepped out of the cubical and watched as the pluses continued. It was a form of waterless washing using sonic pulses, according to the scanner on his Morpher, he had seen something similar on Triforian ships, but they use a chemical mist to clean themselves. Triforians believe it was wasteful to use water for bathing because they came from a desert planet.
Andros returned to the nest, picked Selene up, carried her to the bathroom, and set her down on a blanket he had laid on the floor. He then began to clinically strip her of her clothing. Andros was alarmed as he pulled away the uniform, and skin came with it, leaving behind angry red, weeping wounds as the top layers of skin sloughed off.
He thought back to the hologram and realized that these were the burns from long periods of stasis they had been warned about. He removed the clothing as carefully as he could, but her skin had fused with it, making it impossible to remove without taking the skin with it. Andros was glad she was unconscious because it had to be excruciating. As he finished his task, he looked over the skin that hadn't been clothed and noticed it had begun to crack painfully. It didn't take long for Andros to realize why this was; if her hair and nails grew in stasis, so had her skin. It had encased her in a thick layer of dead skin that was now drying out and cracking, leaving behind painful, slow-bleeding lesions.
Andros stripped so that his clothes wouldn't become stuck in her open wounds; as it was, she was already stuck to the blanket he had laid on the floor. Then carefully picked Selene up and moved her into the sonic shower, having to hold her up. If it were anyone other than a Ranger, he would have been worried about infections, but he knew from experience that her skin would have healed within half an hour. Andros turned the sonic shower on and watched as the pulses dissolved the hard, cracked skin leaving behind more weeping flesh.
They were in the shower for 45 minutes and had gone through the pulse cycle thrice. Andros had waited until her skin healed before removing her from the sonic shower. He hadn't wanted to move her back to the nest with open wounds that would have stuck to the sheets causing more damage than he had to separate her from them. Her skin was now bright pink and shiny as new skin healed rapidly. Andros set her back down in her nest before partly redressing, only putting his underwear back on. He looked through her drawers and found a pair of matching tank tops and shorts to dress her in.
After he had redressed her, he rearranged her nest, grabbing more blankets and pillows to make it bigger so that he could join her. Andros pulled her to his chest, knowing skin contact would help settle her as he released calming Omega pheromones.
'Is everything okay?' Zhane asked now that he felt his mate relax from his focused state.
Andros sent him the mental image of Selene's raw and weeping skin.
'By the holy rings!' Zhane exclaimed.
'The stasis caused burns that fused her skin to her clothes.' Andros explained. 'I think that they were so severe because she had been in stasis for so long. Thankfully they have healed now. I think that they could have been fatal for anyone, not a Ranger. She was completely covered in second-degree burns. Thank the goddess that she is unconscious because it had to have been excruciating.'
'We will not be telling Tommy this until they have settled in their bond.' Zhane shuttered mentally as he watched the pacing Alpha.
Andros returned a feeling of agreement as he settled farther into the nest. He dozed for several hours, only rousing every 30 minutes when Tommy demanded an update from Zhane. Selene's body temperature slowly returned to normal as her skin lost the pink as it finished healing completely. They were nearing the six-hour mark when he noticed Selene was becoming flush and had begun releasing heat pheromones. Andros scanned her with his Morpher and quickly grew concerned. Her body had gone into overdrive and was producing excessive heat hormones.
Usually, the hormones that triggered their heat would slowly rise over several days, known as pre-heat, which gave the body time to prepare. As the name implies, the Omega's body temperature would rise to low fever, they would become lethargic and have an increased libido. Most Omegas would spend several days in their nests cuddling with family to stave off their libido, or spend it with a partner or knotting dildo if they didn't have family close, and be perfectly fine. However, there was a condition called Fatal Heat Disorder, when the hormones built to last, throwing the Omega into heat before their bodies were ready. This caused their temperature to rise dangerously, causing confusion and, in extreme cases, seizures. Without treatment, it would quickly get to the point where the heat would become fatal. No one with FHD ever came out of it on their own; those that tried would die because their bodies won't stop producing heat hormones until the biological imperative was met. The only known remedy was a combination of Alpha pheromones and an enzyme that was only found in the saliva and semen of Alphas.
FHD is where the stereotype of Omegas becoming mindless and sex-starved in heat came from. It was also why Omegas would be betrothed as young as possible before modern medicine, though, now there were treatments if they could be taken to a hospital soon enough. There was also a paradox regarding modern medicine and FHD. Due to modern medicine and the rise of suppressants, there was a dramatic increase in FHD cases. In the past, one in every fifty thousand Omegas presented with FHD on their first heat; for some, their next heat would be normal, or they would be unfortunate enough to have Fatal Heat Syndrome, and every heat could potentially be fatal. However, once suppressants became popular, the rate of FHD increased alarmingly due to suppressant abuse. While using suppressants, one had to wean off them at least once every 6 months because if taken too long, it would assure an FHD heat, also known as a critical heat. With long-term abuse of suppressants, an Omega also ran the risk of a critical heat being triggered by other Omegas' heat.
Andros pulled up his own vitals on his Morpher and swore softly. He, too, was quickly falling into a critical heat, trigged by Selene. Andros had been on suppressants since the attack on KO-35 almost three years ago. In the attack, Zhane had been injured to the point that he had to be kept in stasis for nearly two years to heal. It was odd for a Ranger to take that long to heal, but it was frankly a miracle that Zhane was even still alive.
In typical Alpha and Omega pairs, they could spend heats and ruts separately. However, when they are a bonded Sentinel and Guide pair on top of being mated, it is near impossible to be separated. Andros had gone through only one heat without Zhane knowing he couldn't do it again. It had been too painful, and he had been forcibly sedated by Alpha-5 after he started clawing and biting himself. It had taken him over a week to recover after his heat had ended. It had taken out of commission for just over two weeks instead of the three days his heats usually took with Zhane.
He began to abuse suppressants shortly after, knowing full well the dangers. Between Zhane being in stasis and working to stop Dark Spector, he hadn't had time to deal with the debilitating aftermath of his heats without his bonded mate. Zhane had not been happy with him, knowing that he had been gambling with his life, but they had made plans for him to go off suppressants once they returned to KO-35. Those plans how were now thrown out the window.
'Zhane, we have a bit of a problem.' Andros said.
'What going on?' Zhane asked.
'Selene is going into a critical heat, and it has trigger mine as well.' Andros said.
Zhane let out an impressive string of swears before calming. 'How far along?'
'Selene is around 3 hours from a full heat, and I'm maybe about 6 hours. It might be sooner for her. I think that it was brought on by the extended time in stasis, and I can only speculate how it will progress.' Andros conjectured.
'If she isn't awake within an hour, I'll inform Tommy because we will have her medical attention if she isn't awake to consent. I don't want to have to deal with a panicking Alpha Sentinel Prime.' Zhane planned.
'Are you sure that it's a good idea to wait?' Andros asked.
'No, but if Tommy knows something is wrong, he'll go into protection mode, and we will lose access to her. For now, we will hold off telling him until we don't have a choice but to try and transport her to the Mega-ship for medical. If we leave here, it will be at least a year or more until we can return.' Zhane reasoned.
Andros knew that Zhane was right. If Tommy knew her status, he would become unreasonable and would be challenging to move Selene. Andros hoped that she would wake soon; he didn't want to leave before they had a chance to investigate the base. They didn't really have a choice. Even though there seemed to be a medical area in the base, none of them knew how to operate the equipment, and any medicine would be expired.
Thankfully that didn't happen because not even 20 minutes later, Selene started to rouse. Grey eyes opened, and she looked around, confused, before turning on Andros.
"Quam diu est quod fui?" Selene whispered, but her voice cracked from disuse.
"My name is Andros. I'm sorry, but I don't understand you." Andros said as he reached for a canteen. He helped Selene take small sips of water until she was ready to speak again.
"How long?" Selene asked, sounding out foreign words that had been imprinted in her mind by the nanites.
"I'm sorry, but it has been 10 million years since you went into stasis," Andros said softly, knowing he was delivering devastating news.
Selene closed her eyes as tears streamed down her face as she mourned. Andros felt like an intruder as he watched her silently cry. The moment was broken when Selene moaned in pain as her body was cracked with cramps. Andros held her until the cramp released before handing her some pain pills and helping her sit up and with the canteen so that she could swallow them.
"I'm sorry, but you don't have time to morn. You are entering a fatal heat." Andros said as he helped her back down in the nest.
"Stasis sickness," Selene said, her voice still hoarse, even with the water. "The body only slows, doesn't stop."
Andros nodded in understanding. It was as he thought; the stasis was the reason for the critical heat.
"Excruciation, but not fatal with the nanites." Selene moaned as another cramp rocked through her.
Andros looked at her in bewilderment. She couldn't be thinking of going through a critical heat without some sort of intervention. Andros knew that Rangers were hardy, but he had never heard of one trying to go through a critical heat without intervention. Over the years, the Pinks, the healers of the Rangers, had theorized that a Ranger going through a critical heat probably wouldn't kill them but would lead to brain damage, even brain death. As miraculous as the nanites were, it didn't make them invulnerable. In truth, they had only had a theory, but no one was exactly volunteering to test it.
"We have a couple options. We can leave and get you medical attention or try more traditional methods. My mate and I can help you through it, or we have an unmated Alpha with us." Andros explained her options.
Selene was confused about why she would need medical attention for a heat. The nanites in her blood would keep her alive; they wouldn't let their host die from a natural biological process. Her mind was muddled from the stasis sickness, and she wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but her answer soon came along with a weight on her chest. On her chest was her spirit guide. Her guide had changed, and even though their appearance had changed, it was no longer the colossal avian that would have crushed her if it had sat on her chest. Now her spirit animal was a much smaller white predatory avian who stared into her eyes with yellow-rimmed black eyes. The white avian shuffled to the side and was joined by a smaller avian. It also looked predatory, with grey wings, a white belly, and the same yellow-rimmed black eyes, but smaller.
"Oh," Selene exclaimed softly; she hadn't expected this.
The two spirit animals disappeared back to their home in the psionic plane, but Selene could still feel their weight on her chest. She looked up at Andros with a cautious wonder.
"The Alpha that you spoke of, he is a Custos?" Selene asked.
"Yes," Andros answered honestly after he was able to place the Ancient word for Sentinel. "Do you want to meet him?"
"I do," Selene moaned as she curled up on herself in pain.
"If anything happens that you don't want, reach out to me and my mate, and I will intervene," Andros told her.
Selene nodded in understanding.
Andros slipped from the nest and pulled on his pants and shirt before heading to the door where he knew Tommy and Zhane were waiting in the hall. Andros stepped out of the room and fought to keep his face straight under the barrage of aggressive Alpha pheromones coming off Tommy. Andros nearly sighed in relief when Zhane stepped in front of him, angling himself to possibly protect him from the aggressive Alpha, his own pheromones warding off Tommy's.
"Your spirit guide paid her a visit, and she wants to meet you," Andros said calmly, fighting against his own raising instincts that told him he would be nesting with Zhane to prepare for his heat and not near this aggressive Alpha who was close to falling into a primal state.
Tommy closed his eyes, took a deep breath and clenched his fists as he centred himself, thinking back to all those sessions at the SGC. He wasn't controlled by his instincts; he was better than those low-life Alphas that used pheromones and instincts as an excuse.
When Tommy opened his eyes, Zhane and Andros moved to the side and away from the door. Zhane was still protectively standing in front of Andros, which was understandable from the pre-heat scent coming from Andros. Tommy stepped past the bonded pair and into the room where his Guide was.