Chapter 12 - The Kikorangi

"Do you think this is connected to whatever G.I.A. wanted with my blood?" I asked.

"It seems like the most logical conclusion, doesn't it?" replied Keleon.

"Yeah," I conceded. "How are we supposed to kiss each other now, without risk of injury?"

Keleon propped himself up too.

"That's what you're concerned about?" he asked. "We think there could be something in your blood that can create gravimetric distortions, and you're worried about how we should deal with the kissing?"

I felt like my priorities were reasonable, so I nodded and smirked a little.

"You're incorrigible," he responded, pushing me playfully, and I pecked him on the lips to prove where my priorities lay. "So, the kissing itself didn't seem to set it off. Nothing happened in the cockpit. So maybe it's not the actual kissing that's causing the distortions. Can you feel any kind of connection to it?"

"Um, not really," I confessed. "It's not like I knew what I was doing. I wasn't trying to get anything to float. I didn't even really believe it could have been me doing it until now. I haven't got the first idea how to connect to it or control it."

"OK," said Keleon, thoughtfully.

"I did notice that the floating didn't kick in until the kissing got ... intense. So maybe it's linked to my emotional state rather than the actual kissing?"

"It sounds like maybe it is," he agreed. "In which case we probably just need to be careful about your emotional state until we have a bit more time to figure it out."

"Shame," I pouted playfully. "I don't really want to be careful when I'm around you."

"Me neither," he said sincerely. "But it's just until things settle down, then we can take some time to investigate it more, OK?"

"Hmph." I kept pouting and pretended to sulk by crossing my arms and rolling over, but he rolled me back and pinned me to the bed.

"Damon?" he smirked at my antics. "We'll work it out, OK?"

I felt myself go weak at his promise to make things work with me, and I couldn't fake being grumpy anymore. He leaned down and kissed me gently, and then stood up.

"Until then, we have a ship to fly," he declared. "It's getting close to when we need to land, so if you want to land the ship, why don't I start talking you through what's going to happen?"

He took my hand and led us both back to the cockpit, with me in the pilot's seat and him in the co-pilot's seat. True to his word, he talked me through what was likely to happen as we entered the planet's atmosphere, and how we were going to land at the right coordinates by entering the orbit of the Kikorangi planet before adjusting course. Keleon reminded me that he had some of the controls on the co-pilot side and was able to take over some of the functionality if needed.

It wasn't long before we were approaching the blue planet, and I successfully took the ship onto the required flight path. We didn't need direction from a contact from the planet this time, because we planned to land in an open space, rather than in a hanger or docking bay. I lowered the craft gently towards the specified coordinates and was delighted when it ended up right where we'd agreed. Now I'd managed a full flight on my own (albeit under instruction), and I was proud of the achievement. I knew it has been a relatively simple journey, and I would need more training in order to do anything more complicated, but still, it was a good start. I smiled at my boyfriend who looked pleased with me too.

"Nicely done," he said genuinely.

"Thank you for the guidance," I replied. "You're a good teacher. You make everything simple and understandable."

It was true.

We stepped out of the craft and into the crisp air. The temperature was cooler than I was used to, but not unpleasant. The landscape was blue and white as far as I could see, with dips and rises like valleys and mountains, that glittered where the sunlight fell.

"Wow, this is pretty," I commented as I took it all in.

"This part of the planet is mainly composed of sodalite and white quartz," replied Keleon. "This is usually where the tourists and traders come, because of its beauty. The blue skin of the Kikorangi is thought to have evolved from a need for them to blend in with the sodalite for camouflage. The need for camouflage has now gone, of course."

We started walking towards the coordinates of the meeting point.

"I think the Kikorangi will like the fire opals I brought," Keleon continued. "They like gemstones with red and orange hues. As you can see, it's a rare colour around here." He gestured to the blue and white environment we were in. "I've heard they like fire opals, anyway."

"You know a lot about them," I noticed. "Have you been here before?"

"Not specifically," said Keleon. "I listen to stories people tell whenever I get the chance, so I can learn about different species. Isn't that part of being an explorer?"

"It is," I agreed. "So, the information you have ... you hear this stuff when you're gambling?"

"Well, sometimes," he nodded. "Or sometimes just talking to people that I meet in different places. I don't gamble all the time you know. I only take what I think I'll need to get by. Look," he continued in a softer voice, as we rounded a corner. "I believe this is the traders' area. This is where I'm supposed to meet Aryk."

In front of us opened up a large outdoor area, where there were a number of Kikorangi eating, drinking and talking. We were mainly obscured from their view by a large blue monument with a pointed tip. I looked back to Keleon, who was scanning the area.

"Do you have some kind of strategy?" I whispered.

I couldn't immediately see anyone that wasn't a Kikorangi and that worried me.

"Mia would call it 'winging it,' but relying on my instincts usually works for me," he replied.

"You don't have a plan?" I whispered incredulously.

It sounded like these Kikorangi weren't violent, but we could really do with that disrupter module, and leaving it to chance seemed a bit risky.

"Aryk said he would be wearing a green bracelet, so that I'd know who he was," he said thoughtfully, and blatantly ignoring my question. After a few seconds, he pointed and continued, "I think I see him. Next to where it looks like they're serving drinks."

I looked back towards the area and spotted a blue-skinned male with a green band around his left wrist. I studied the rest of the crowd. It looked like the males had no hair and the females had green hair, and I guessed that from this kind of distance, that was how you told them apart. I also looked harder and noted that there were no other species obviously in the area – it did look like it was purely an area for the Kikorangi.

"You'll need to stay here," said Keleon. "Try not to draw attention to yourself. The Kikorangi don't like outsiders."

I couldn't understand why Keleon thought he would fare any better than I would.

"So you keep saying," I started, as I turned back to face him. "You don't exactly blend ... Oh my God."

Standing beside me was a Kikorangi female, with long, grass-green hair, deep blue eyes and a shimmering aqua-blue outfit. Keleon was nowhere to be seen. I took a step back and, wide-eyed, looked her up and down.

I was about to ask her what she had done with Keleon, but then she outstretched her arm and examined it, turning it over so she could see the underside of it. She then looked down at the rest of her body.

"Interesting, I've never been blue before," she said in a feminine voice, looking up and beaming at me. "Wish me luck Damon."

"Keleon...?" I breathed.

'She' moved out from behind the monument, gracefully gliding over the courtyard of Kikorangi to where Aryk was sipping his drink, as I tried to process what was happening. My boyfriend currently looked like a female Kikorangi and I had no idea how. I concluded that the most likely explanation was that he must have some kind of holographic technology that I wasn't aware of. I'd have to ask him about it later because it was very realistic, and I wanted to have a go.

Aryk bowed low to Keleon when he saw 'her,' and 'she' returned the gesture. They talked for a while, exchanging bows every so often. I saw Keleon bring out a couple of the opals and pass them to Aryk, who held them between his fingers and looked at them against the sun. Aryk nodded, and shortly afterwards, it appeared that a bargain had been struck and an exchange had been made.

Keleon took the item and bowed to Aryk as 'she' departed, gently drifting back through the sea of blue towards me. I could see Aryk watching 'her' as 'she' disappeared from his view behind the monument to join me.

"One disrupter module," 'she' said, proudly displaying the piece of equipment in front of me. I glanced down at the module and then up to 'her' face. It looked so real. So authentic. The detail was incredible. I knew holograms could be quite lifelike, but I'd never seen a hologram this elaborate before. Perhaps technology had moved on while I'd been out of the picture for three years.

"Damon?" asked Keleon's feminine image, and then, as I watched, the shape morphed back into the version of Keleon that I was more familiar with. "You OK?" he asked, his voice back to the masculine version I was used to.

"Yeah," I managed, although it felt like it was a reflexive response rather than a reflection of my true feelings.

That transformation hadn't looked like a hologram.