After the Blood Flowed Like Rivers, Part 7 Synopsis: In Part 6, Terra receives a priceless gift from the worker caste leader, Satai Relinn After more meditation (actually she was looking into the globe the whole time, joyfully exclaiming as she saw something new everywhere she looked), she readied herself to go to dinner with the Shi Alyt. She decided to wear the aqua outfit she already had on instead of dressing up, after last night’s fiasco. The only concession to the formality was that she took down the braids in her hair and wore Relinn’s globe, as he had requested, well, ordered actually. Exactly at 6:45 EST the door chime sounded. Alyt Neroon was standing outside waiting for her. "Are you ready to go to the Shi Alyt, Doctor?" "Yes, Alyt Neroon. I am." Neroon noticed the globe necklace. His jaws creaked as he gnashed his teeth, but he didn’t say anything. An amazing amount of control, for him. When the Shi Alyt met them at the door, he saw the globe immediately. "Where did you get that?" He demanded. "It was a gift from Satai Relinn, Shi Alyt. He asked me to wear it tonight. "That clever old Casah! I’m sure he did." "I beg your…..uh, I don’t understand that last comment, Shi Alyt." "Did anyone mention the value of that ornament to you, Doctor?" "Yes. Rathenn told me about its history. I was extremely honored to receive it." The chagrin and envy she was sensing finally gave her a glimmer. "You were one of the people who offered for it, weren’t you?" "Yes. And to see its loveliness go to a human is very…disturbing." "From what I’m sensing, ‘disturbing’ is putting it a little lightly. I’m getting the feeling that it is now your turn to wish you could thrash me soundly, Shi Alyt." He smiled at her. "It would be too undignified for the Shi Alyt of the Warrior Caste to be struck down on the floor of his own quarters by a human female almost half his size. I am not that stupid." This came with a sidewise look at his Alyt. "Besides, it is not your fault that Satai Relinn used you to make a point to me." "I apologize that I can’t take it off, Sir, because that would be disrespectful to the Satai, but if it upsets you too much and you would like to cancel our engagement, I would be happy to conform." His wise eyes took in her expression. "Yes, I am sure you would. But no, we have set up a demonstration of our caste’s talents for you after dinner, and I’m sure you would be disappointed if you didn’t see it." Oh God, a warrior caste demonstration! Help! Dinner was ritualistic, with each course being served with the proper respect. Terra knew from the vids that the Religious Caste’s dinners were much more detailed, including prayers before the meal, before each course, after each course, and after the meal. It seemed that the Warrior Caste did take shortcuts in the rituals now and then. "So, Doctor, did you really tell your government that Minbari reproduce by fission?" Damn jungle drums, she thought. Blushing hotly, she answered, "Well, not exactly, Shi Alyt. Technically, fission is when atoms are sundered, creating two or more different ones. I told EarthGov that your people reproduced similar to the way single cell organisms do. By breaking off a piece from two people and forming a new individual. It was quite a creative effort on my part. In my report I used a lot of detail, thinking that the military minds reading it would focus on the erotic details and not look any further." "You mean the human military mind." Said Alyt Neroon, his hot dark eyes boring into her. The resentment and dull anger coming off of him was extremely strong. She had been trying to ignore it all evening. "Uh, yes, the human military mind. From my observations, though limited, Minbari warriors don’t appear to have that particular weakness." Probably had to get through too many rituals to feel lust, she thought unkindly. "Why did you lie to your government, and misrepresent the facts?" The Shi Alyt asked, enjoying her discomfiture immensely. Her face became serious suddenly. "Because In my researches I did find a significant biochemical weakness in your people that could be exploited by an unscrupulous government. My people were desperate, and if they even thought there was a chance to create a biochemical agent that would hurt you, they would have thrown ethics and morality aside and done it." "What did you do with any records of this, so called weakness, Doctor?" For the first time since she had met him, the Shi Alyt had removed his velvet glove of charm. And she was absolutely terrified, pinned under his hard blue gaze like a butterfly on display. "I destroyed them, Sir. There are no copies in existence anywhere. Except, of course, in my mind." "Perhaps we should root those notes out of your mind as well, Doctor. If you truly did find a weakness, then you are a significant danger to us." Alyt Neroon said in a similar deadly voice. Her eyes narrowed at him. "That would not only be extremely difficult for you to do, Alyt, but would also be unproductive as well. Not to mention painful for me. If you doubt my ethics and morality on this, then I will be glad to share my findings with your biochemical experts. They were fairly basic, which was why no one else discovered them, I think. Your researchers should be able to easily synthesize a counteragent that would protect your people. In fact, I would be happy to offer to assist them in doing so, should they wish me to." Shamed, Neroon looked down at his plate. "You would do that for a people that almost destroyed your species, Doctor? Why?" His need to know the reason screamed out to her. "Because it is the only ethical thing to do is why, Alyt, though I’m beginning to wonder if you would believe good of any human." The Shi Alyt spoke sternly. "Let us have peace at this table. I feel that I am being forced to referee between the two of you. Doctor, if you would assist our biochemists in this effort, we would be in your debt. Neroon, apologize to the Doctor for doubting her integrity. With her empathic gift, if she had been an unethical person, she would have volunteered to use it against us in the war, which would have caused the death of many more of us. The fact that she did not shows her true soul." "I apologize, Doctor McClare, if I doubted your integrity. It is …difficult to forget our grievances so soon." She sensed his sincerity, and smiled at him. "You are doing just fine, Alyt. The fact that both of you can sit here like this with a human shows that we have all made great strides." Most of his anger misted away in the light of that smile, and nervousness and embarrassment crept in. She politely took no notice of these. "Well, it is time for our demonstration." The Shi Alyt got up from the table, helped her up, and continued, "Let us go to the training room for our show." The training room was only a few feet away down the corridor. Like every martial training room in the galaxy, it smelled like sweat, blood, and old angers. The two men sat her on a low divan, and apparently went to change to more informal fighting outfits. When they returned, they carried their fighting pikes in their hands. They bowed to her, bowed to each other, then proceeded to pound each other. It was beautiful, and deadly, and awesome as she watched those metal sticks move in the air faster than the eye could follow. Only by milliseconds did both men avoid death blows. And they were not pulling the force of the blows, she could tell. She figured they must have sparred together so often that their mutual trust was ingrained. At the end, when she was at the point of dropping in fatigue from the tension of the battle of skills, they stopped fighting and bowed to each other. Next they started in sync to perform several katas, or pike dances. Suddenly all that deadliness and danger became a stark loveliness, beauty seen in flowing liquid moves. The two men and their weapons were as one sinuous beast. It was almost sensual in its purity. By the end of it, she felt like she was tempted to become a warrior caste groupie, just to be able to watch them move like that again. They left her to shower and change, and she just sat there and let her heartbeat slow back down to normal. As the Shi Alyt and Neroon came back into the room, again dressed in full armor, he just asked, "Well?" She got up off the divan, looked both males in the eyes one at a time, projecting her admiration so that they both were bathed in the heat of it. Then she bowed deeply to each, and said, "I am honored with the treasure you have just given me, sirs. I will keep the memory of it with me always. Thank you." From the glow of pride coming from the Shi Alyt, she could tell he was pleased. Neroon’s emotions were more mixed, but pride and pleasure were there also. "Doctor, I have enjoyed this time getting to know you better. But I understand that you have a rendezvous tomorrow with Satai Relinn, so I will say good bye." He looked at Neroon, who nodded. "Doctor, I will escort you back to your quarters if you like." "That will be fine, Alyt Neroon." Once they entered the lift, Neroon surprised her by pushing the override/stop button on the lift control panel. She looked at him, puzzled. "Alyt?" "I wish to ask you something, and I wish you to tell me the truth." "I always try to tell the truth, Alyt. What is your question?" "When you called me that name yesterday, did you mean it?" "Mean it?" She asked. "Yes. Do you really think that I am…an animal?" He snarled the words, but the fragility of the emotions she sensed told her that he had been very hurt by her thoughtless words. She couldn’t help it. She did what she would do to a human who was hurting so badly. She reached up and touched his face lightly. He was surprised, but stopped himself from pulling away. "I should never have called you that. It was very wrong of me, no matter what you did to provoke me." Brown eyes looked down into blue. "Did you?" She shook her head. "No. I’ve never thought of you as anything but a handsome and brave warrior who is having a difficult time dealing with the changes you’ve been through. You’ve made me angry, that is true. But I never thought poorly of you. When I called you that, I was using a human figure of speech, nothing more. It wasn’t meant to be taken literally." She dropped her hand down to her side, feeling that touching him was just causing him confusion. "Why is it so important to you, what I said?" "Because the Shi Alyt respects and likes you." He dropped his eyes from hers, continuing in a lower voice, "And so do I." He turned and started the lift again. As they walked back to her quarters, she asked him, "Alyt?" "Yes." "May I ask you for a favor?" "What kind of …favor?" "I am arranging to take Satai Relinn down to Earth tomorrow, and I need a very good pilot to fly the shuttle. The landing area I’ve picked is very small and somewhat primitive, and will take great skill to land the shuttle in. Also, since he is going to be under my protection, I would feel better if one of Minbar’s best warriors acted as his bodyguard. I don’t expect anything to happen, and Earth Force personnel will be there as additional protection, but it would make me feel better." "I…I must check with the Shi Alyt, but if he has no need of me, then I can go. May I let you know tomorrow?" She nodded, never taking her eyes off of his. "I’m to meet the Satai at 10:00 ETS. Thank you." As she turned to go into her quarters his voice, very quiet, stopped her. "Terra?" "Yes Neroon?" "Did you actually call me handsome?" "Yes, but don’t let it go to that already inflated ego of yours." "Do you really think I am?" Talk about fishing for complements. She smiled her brightest smile, then said, "Actually, Neroon, after that performance you and the Shi Alyt did tonight, I think you’re both as sexy as Hell, if you want to know the truth. And if you continue to stand near my quarters asking any more questions like that, I may have to make the same interpretation I would if a human male did it. And I’m afraid that doing that would only frighten you. So good night." The look of absolute terror on his face as he realized the meaning of what she had obliquely said was almost as priceless as Satai Relinn’s sphere. She bowed and went into her rooms. God, what an exit speech, she thought gleefully. Outside her door, Neroon’s face turned from fear to confusion to speculation. Then he shrugged his shoulders as he thought, What did the word "sexy" mean? He would have to look it up. The Shi Alyt is right, though. She is magnificent. Too bad she is human.