Excerpt

"Ok everyone, on the count of three: pull One, Two, THREE!" Nigel pulled upon the rope of twisted ferns and the school-bus-sized mollusk shell that was at the edge of the shore, shifted an inch and stopped. Straining, Nigel willed his butler suit to action, and the living symbiotic suit formed augmented muscles around Nigel's thighs, back and shoulders. He doubled his efforts and strained. As his feet sought purchase in the brick-colored volcanic sand, he risked a glance over his shoulder. The group of Krolkeok stood in a line behind him, the rope slack in their webbed hands, not one of the frog shaped faces would meet Nigel's stare.

Nigel closed his eyes and let go of the rope and plopped down into the warm red sand. Leaning on his elbow, Nigel opened his eyes, blinked against the harsh sun that the planet orbited and gave the Krolkeok a lopsided grin.

"Come on gang, I thought we were a team here?" Nigel dragged himself to his feet and brushed the warm sand from his butler suit.

Turning his back to the ocean, Nigel stared at the blue-green sky of a world not too dissimilar from his native earth, though a planet still in the throes of early organic life. He was told it was named Braapha, though no one apparently knew why, and Nigel knew that it would take a Consensus bureaucrat weeks searching the archives for an answer. It made no difference to Nigel.

It's the people who make a planet, not what someone named it, thought Nigel as he looked upon his most recent charges. Refugees from their native planet, this contingent of Krolkeok were being given guardianship of this chain of islands, and the first order of business was shelter. Nigel's initial plan of dragging the abandoned mollusk shells from the shallow volcanic vents offshore and turning them into robust dwellings wasn't going as planned. Getting the Krolkeok to help drag the shells onto dry land and settle them in the shadow of the mountain had, thus far, been a disaster.

Ok Vivian. I admit it, I should have let you take the lead in this. But with their powerful hind legs, this shouldn't be an effort.

<> Vivian said within Nigel's mind.

This would be so much easier if they understood me.

Nigel felt what he called Vivian's giggle roll through his body, as the tips of his fingers and toes tingled where her nerve endings and his intertwined.

Yes, I know. But I thought I had this well in hand. Looking at the Krolkeok's webbed hands as the group of aliens drifted away from their efforts on the shore. Fine, you take the lead. Are you ready?

<>

Nigel smiled and surrendered himself to Vivian. He felt his sense of self fall backwards within his mind, knowing that Vivian, the Nabui alien that shared his body would catch him. For a brief instant while the alien held him and lowered him gently to the back of his mind, Nigel and Vivian flowed around one another, and Nigel caught brief flashes of Vivian's memories.

Even after all these years together, so much of their nature was alien to each other even though they shared the same body. He's caught brief flashes of Vivian's time on Earth, and while barely more than a preschooler from Nigel's point of view, she remembered swimming down the Nile while the great pyramids were being built. The lifespan and experiences between the short-lived human and the jellyfish resembling Nabui were more alien than would be described, but it worked.

This time during the brief merge as Nigel took up residence in the back of his own mind, he only experienced the usual connectedness, which he called the Bloodsong, that all Nabui felt with each other. Vivian had tried to explain it countless times to Nigel, how it worked, something less than direct communication, more of a genetic web where if one string were tugged, others could feel it like a synapse firing in a cosmic-sized brain.

Mentally shaking his head, Nigel took up the role of passenger in his own body and watched Vivian go to work.

He saw the throats of the frog-like Krolkeok balloon in surprise as they stared at his face, knowing that his icy blue eyes were now a rolling thunderstorm of color as Vivian was in the driver's seat. He felt his throat and mouth move and his ears heard Vivian speaking to the Krolkeok in their native tongue and the host gathered around, excited at this revelation. Before long, Vivian had the situation sorted, and the team got to work pulling the gigantic shells out of the shallows and above the high water mark on the black sand, the line of Krolkeok with backs to the shell used their powerful legs to haul the shells from the water, and Nigel idly wondered if Vivian had seen a similar sight while the pyramids were being built and made a mental note to ask.

The chore finished, the young Nabui surrendered her control and Vivian flowed back to her passive place within Nigel as he asserted control of his body once again. The feeling of pins and needles faded in seconds.

<>

I learn something new every day while I'm with you.

Even with a system worked out, it took Nigel and the team of Krolkeok until sunset to get the semicircle of shells arranged as the communal living setup the aliens wanted.

Laying in the warm sand, panting from the exertion that taxed man and butler suit, Nigel watched as families of Krolkeok gathered up their meager belongings and moved into the spherical shells. The scent of wood smoke from a central bonfire tickled his nose and he hoped that supper wasn't too far away. Smiling as he watched the young Krolkeok, who until this time had been kept out of the way playing around their new home, Nigel wondered how this disruption of leaving one home for another would affect the children. Not for the first time of late, Nigel cast his thoughts to Earth and the life he might have had there. Would it have been better than this one?

Nigel mentally shook his head as he felt the familiar stirrings of Vivian reaching out with her mind, listening to things his human senses couldn't perceive.

<> Vivian nudged Nigel to look down the beach.

Running with the setting sun behind her, Nigel watched as Asa, a fellow human and Consensus agent ran up the beach, her butler suit clad feet splashing through the incoming tide. He could see her smile as their eyes met and her pace quickened.

Nigel felt his heart rate speed up, a flush rise to his cheeks, and the familiar sensation of blood flowing to another part of his body whenever Asa was around.

<>

We're not having this conversation again, Vivian. Asa and I are just friends and it's going to stay that way. Sometimes being alone is easier, besides I'll always have you. Nigel felt an odd withdrawal within Vivian, like waves were thrown up between their thoughts, but just as he went to press upon the issue, Asa slid to a stop throwing black sand into Nigel's face and plopped down beside him, her hand briefly touching his in a caress.

"Why the long face, sour puss?" Asa said and tossed her damp auburn hair over her shoulder then traced a finger down her jaw as she caught Nigel's eye.

Pulling away slightly, Nigel levered himself up onto his elbow. "Where in the heck did you learn that expression?"

Smiling, her tiny white teeth shining in the fading light, she replied. "From your planet of course, fool. Only Earthers would come up with such nonsense. I learned it on my last sojourn there."

"Earth is your home too, Asa, you know that."

"Just because my grandparents from thirty or forty generations back lived on your planet doesn't make me an Earther. Your people have lost their connection to your planet, they eagerly are killing it." Her ready smile faded for a brief instant, then reemerged with a wink and a wave in Nigel's face.

"Hi Viv, how are the feelers today? I can't imagine you have much room in there with this brute."

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