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It's been a year since we first met Karth and Rowan in First Contact. It's time I fix that.

In the immortal words of the SCII trailer: "Hell, it's about time!"

Rare Earth, Common Ground

Oasis of the Stars: Part I

2011 by Eldyran

Deep into what the extinct Terran species called the M1 Crab Nebula sat a silent planet of rock, snow, and ice.

Because of its far orbit circling binary KV red giants, a mean diameter of only 7,000 km, and unusual axial tilt, only small sections of the planet thawed once every 243 Standard Galactic Days. Constant blizzard conditions scoured its rocky surface during its cold season. On the rare days when those ice storms abated, rays from the distant red suns glinted off its glare ice plateaus. As it spun through the gaseous remains of a supernova, it glittered like a shimmering diamond in a sea of desolation.

Every thaw, the upper layers of permafrost melted, giving way to germinating spores. While a dark red fungal bloom spread across its surface, gargantuan lakes filled lowland depressions. In turn, mammoth sized, six legged tusked cynodonts dug themselves out of their hibernating furrows to graze the shrub like fungal tubes.

Pygmy cycadian parasites emerged from their ice cocoons once every three thaws, keeping the cynodont population in cyclic check. A myriad of smaller keystone species comprised the bulk of the planet's delicate life web, enough to keep Xeno-biologists busy cataloging for a good portion of their careers.

A non-indigenous species of bipedal wolves sat at the apex of the ecosystem's food chain, hunting the cynodonts during the short thaw, and rationing their stored meat during the long stretch of dark winter. Their influence on this insular ecology, as far as geologic time went, was relatively recent, approximately seven thousand years.

This planet, bearing several names to several civilizations both risen and fallen, exemplified the known universe as a whole.

A life bearing oasis between the desert of stars.

A lone expeditionary vessel of the Second Imperium, third to discover the mineral poor planet, almost passed it by without a second sensor sweep. Initial long range scans indicated no signs of life, intelligent or otherwise. Only after detecting a weak sensor anomaly located near the planet's equator did Imperium Expeditionary Force vessel Lompo make a course correction to investigate the otherwise uninteresting ball of rock and ice, designated M1-o2-432.

The predecessor to the Second Imperium had no name for this planet. Had the First Imperium known, it would have also been aware the exact nature and origin of the 25 kilometer long geographic anomaly. In orbit, unusual radiation emitting from the anomaly disrupted IEF Lompo's scans for indigenous life.

The Second Imperium could not foresee the presence of the thirteen wolven tribes who had settled around the anomaly.

They, however, had been waiting for a tribe to come down from the stars, looking for the Broken Sleeper, as their wandering ancestors foretold.

Seven thousand years ago ...

* * * * *

An ice flake fell across Karth Moons-Song's black, thick eyelashes. The arctic wolf's breaths came shallow and even in deep slumber. Another deep rumble dislodged another flake from the blocks of cut snow above him. That one fell across his cheek, to become lost in the downy white fur covering it.

More distant rumbles shook Karth's snow cave, more intense the the closest rolling thunder. Karth's black muzzle lips twitched. During the seasonal thaw, as underlying sheets of ice melted and snowdrifts collapsed, avalanches became common. Here on the ice plateau, created when the Sleeper Broke and Fell from the Stars, such dangers were slim.

For two seasons now Karth had made his home here, waiting for his mate stationed aboard the strange star traveler calling itself Lompo to return. Karth had built his ice cave within sight of the Broken Sleeper despite his ancestors warning. Even the youngest pup in his tribe understood the reason why. While the dreams of the Broken Sleeper hid them from the sight of passing star travelers, they also caused loss of vigor.

Most importantly, in their genes.

Despite the risk, Karth's mate Rowan might never find him again if he didn't stay close to the Broken Sleeper.

Drawing close to the Sleeper, Tribal Elders often described waking, interactive visions that kept their lore tellers on track despite a hundred generations of oral tradition. In sleep, Karth embraced the most sinister of these visions, a nude coyote. Shorter and more slender than Karth, with ruddy fur, the semi-transparent canid laid in the white wolf's arms, content in adjourning hibernation.

A sudden concussive boom knocked a patch of snow loose from the ceiling, which broke across the side of Karth's muzzle.

The white wolf shot awake, shaking the crumbling bits of packed snow from his muzzle in startled surprise. He pushed himself up on one arm, his white ears now perked. They twisted about, listening to the unusual booms and persistent roars outside his ice cave. Karth's sudden movement disturbed the semi-tangible coyote, who blinked up to the handsome, albeit shaggy white wolf.

Small diamond textures dotted the mesh of Karth's gray thin suit. Despite Karth wearing it now for two seasons, it sported no rips, tears, or even smudges. Aside from all four paws and and head, the self heating, self repairing second skin covered the wolf from neck to ankles. The blue sapphires of Karth's Universal Translator Receiver and Transmission Modules, one planted on his Adam's apple, the other two planted at the tips of his white ears, still twinkled as brilliantly as the day Lompo first implanted them.

The rest could not be said for the rest of him. Karth had not groomed the tufts of fur poking out from his wrists and collar in two seasons. His undercoat looked dingy with little clumps of dirt trapped inside. Karth's once well cared for decorative head fur braids had grown long and tangled, drooping past his broadened shoulders. The beaded strap of the raven skull necklace looked mended several times over.

Karth lived in solitude now, growing into adulthood alone. As decreed by the fiery herald of Lompo's initial re-entry two thaws ago, the thirteen wolven tribes migrated away from the Broken Sleeper, to seek shelter in nearby caves. Karth missed out on several critical rites because of this, but his was a different path than a typical Moons-Song scout.

His destiny lay among the stars, just as their own ancestors had, so many generations ago.

Karth extracted himself from the nude coyote callously, as if their relationship over the past two seasons had been an essential but thorny one. The wolf ignored the crude tools and decorations dotting the curved walls of his snow cave and instead plucked up a small synthetic jewel stashed away among some carved bone trinkets. Once he retrieved the only item of sentimental value worth taking with, Karth crawled down through the narrow entrance leading outside. If he was correct, he'd never have to return to this temporary shelter again.

The wolf clawed at some drifted snow piled up around the entrance, digging himself out with restrained anticipation. His head poked out and shook some clumps of snow free before glancing up to the pink sky above. In the far distance, the top parts of twin red suns peeked from the western horizon. Two huge moons hung closer in the sky, faded now in his birth planet's long dawning.

Karth rose, his strong shoulders breaking through the crusty layer of ice melting around him. He didn't bother to shake the ice fragments off, instead lurching toward the Broken Sleeper in dumbstruck awe.

Several colossal obsidian shapes hung in the sky above him, rays off the far suns glinting off their featureless, angular hulls. Though they sat motionless and silent above the Broken Sleeper, the booms and roars Karth's keen lupine ears picked up came from other ships burning down through the atmosphere.

The sky became filled with them. Twenty or more so far, and growing. Karth's amber eyes widened at their scale; a few of them kilometers long. Still, the shape buried beneath seventy centuries of snow and ice dwarfed them all. Karth flinched when fingers of light sprang from some of the smaller ships clustered above, slicing down through the snow before him. Lines of steam shot up from their searing touch.

The nameless coyote materialized out of thin air to hang on one of wolf's muscular arms. His ghosted projection flickered as the lines of light cut back and forth across the snow covered monolithic shape before them. Karth looked down at the coyote, a mixture of both obsession and sadness pleading in the smaller canid's eyes.

Don't forget your promise to me. The coyote snarled out, demanding.

Before Karth could renege on the dark promise, rippling lines of force shot from the underside of the five largest ships hanging above them. The air around them thickened with unseen strain. Karth's stomach twisted about as the gravimetric beams tugged on the titanic mass buried beneath the snow. One five kilometer section broke off and lifted, small avalanches sliding off its curved, dark red sides.

Shattered hull plates and ropes of electrical conduits dangled out from exposed gashes in the section lifting off the ground. Sparks flickered about within the ancient scars. The concerted groan of tortured struts giving way filled Karth's perked lupine ears. Karth's amber eyes widened as snow and ice fell off one part of that section's red and black hull. It exposed white runes similar to his tribes' language, but more angular and stylized:

Sleeper Ship - GCS-Lup - Far Dreamer

Another five kilometer section broke free from its icy prison, lifting high into the air. The hologram of the coyote next to Karth stuttered violently as power conduits leading from the damaged reactor ripped apart. Before his projection blinked out of existence, the coyote cupped the side of Karth's cheek in an unexpected show of tenderness.

Karth blinked at the now empty spot. So many conflicting feelings sloshed about inside of him. Ultimately the wolf was both relieved and saddened at the coyote's absence. It was a hard thing to explain to himself, let alone to anyone else.

The white wolf turned his eyes back up to the sky and stood there, watching the Imperium task group cut apart and salvage his ancestor's star traveler. He felt nothing for its design, construction, and now, destruction. His right thumb claw flicked an inset cut in the the clear jewel.

Rowan appeared out of thin air, the three dimensional image flickering. The short Jovian smiled as he held Karth's paw for the first time in front of one of Lompo's view ports, his icy birth planet spinning below. Karth's amber eyes trembled as he searched the dawning sky for the one called Lompo. All Karth cared about now was seeing his mate, Rowan, and returning to the stars ...

* * * * *

While salvage vessels hauled segments of the derelict colony ship into orbit, IEF Lompo descended to the crude snow habitation below. Now that the derelict's leaking reactor went silent, Lompo located the individual known to |01-Prime| as | Karth Moons-Song | without incident.

Rowan stood in Lompo's primary cargo bay, biting his lower lip. The past 486 days had gone by far too slowly for his liking. For almost two standard galactic years he had carried on with his duties to the Imperium Expeditionary Force, discovering new species, charting new star systems, stepping out across strange alien planets.

Not a single day went by that Rowan didn't think about Karth.

Thoughts of the white wolf sent flush of excitement welling up inside him. His boots shuffled about on the grated loading deck with excitement. A meter tall, blue plumed bird pecked his hand as it went to run itself through his short cropped, dirty blond hair.

"Rowan, stop preening!" Dey-Jay chirped out. Her small schute covered arms flailed about before tucking back in close to her puffed out chest.

"I'm sorry Dey-Jay, it's just I havent seen in ..."

"Going on two years ... we know ... we know!" She tweeted out, shaking out her tail feathers in annoyance. "It's not like you've reminded us every day ..." Rowan draped an arm around the feisty bird. He didn't have to stoop much. Rowan's stocky, heavily muscled build came from his Jovian heritage.

"Oh come on. You still jealous?" Rowan smoothed the ruffled feathers of his friend back down. Dey-Jay tucked herself up under Rowan's warm arm.

"How long have we been with the IEF? Four years now? How many friends, crew, have we lost?" Rowan was about to say something when the hyperactive avian cut him off. "So yeah, I have a right to be jealous. We've been under each other wings for what seems like forever, and this ... stowaway ... steals you from under me. You've known him for all of what ... a day?"

"Danger is part of our job." Rowan sighed, stroking the bird's wings while continuing to stare at the closed loading hatch. "Its why we signed up for the IEF. Otherwise I'd be back on Ganymede, and you'd be back ..."

"With my clutch? Don't make this about my nesting." Dee-Jay let out a clipped chirp, her large avian eyes seeking Rowan's crystal blue ones. He smiled down at her with warm compassion and squeezed her light frame up against him.

"Its been twice as bad since we discovered M1-o2-432."

"Noooo ..." She pecked at the thin material of his gray textured thin suit, knowing it soften the sting. "That interloper has been nothing but bad luck."

"Now you are bringing superstition into this, Dey-Jay?" Rowan ignored her hen-pecking, as he always did, and looked back at the loading hatch. They must be getting close to the planet's snowy surface by now. Unless he looked out one of Lompo's view ports or the ship turned off inertial dampening fields, it was hard to tell. Lompo's gravimetric drive had little issue with steady acceleration or deceleration. "You are still going on about that rouge asteroid, aren't you?"

"Didn't you think it was the least bit odd that Lompo never saw it coming until it almost wiped us off that Centauran Research Station?"

"No. It didn't see Karth or his species in this star system either. Sensors aren't perfect. What's your point?"

Rowan wanted this conversation to be over. He didn't feel like fighting over his best friend's jealously so close to this moment. The grating under his boots vibrated ever so slightly. Rowan hoped they were Lompo's landing struts unfolding. He looked at few nondescript metallic containers dotting the near empty bay, secured with clamps. A pallet of spare parts rattled some. They'd have to stop and pick up more supplies soon. Despite the presence of Lompo's matter replicator, some specif alloys could not be duplicated easily.

"My point is Lompo has never explained |03|'s sudden shutdown during the assignment." Dey-Jay hopped some, agitated. Rowan rolled his blue eyes and shook his head. He turned it to look over to the machine mantis next to them, one of Lompo's mobile processing adjuncts.

"Oh-Three, care to reiterate again what happened?" Rowan smirked as the compound eyes of the unfeeling machine regarded the two organics standing next to it. He knew what |03|'s answer would be. The same it had given them since being reconstructed a few days after the accident.

| This unit's former shell encountered an unexpected processing error. | The mechanical mantis chittered out in base trinary. | The log that contained the exact nature of the error was lost along with the former shell during the destruction of the Centauran Research Station. |

"Real convenient, bucko!" Dey-Jay whistled out. She wiggled from under Rowan's arm and hopped at the machine, twice her height. |03| looked unfazzed by the all too familiar and quizzical display of organic aggression.

"Come off it, Dey-Jay. For once, will you just relax?" Rowan's smile widened as the grating under his boots rattled with the slight jar of planetary touch down. He could feel his mate through the cargo hatch, just outside. "And can you be happy for me? I know you are just being protective ... and while I've known Karth for only a day ... I feel like ... we are meant to be together ..."

Dey-Jay ruffled her feathers, but by the way her neck dipped between her wings, she'd let the matter rest. For now.

Dim red light seeped through the edges of the hatchway as the whine of its servos filled the cargo bay around them. The door fell away from them, turning into a loading ramp. A tear slipped down Rowan's soft cheek, crossing a new scar around the right corner of his lips. He sensed his mate's own excitement. The sudden eruption of Karth's howl replaced the pneumatic whine as the lip of the ramp touched the snowy ground, revealing the two meter tall white wolf.

His muzzle pointed up to the hazy twin moons hanging in the pink and purple sky above.

Rowan ran down the ramp, passing a retrieved autonomous mining robot making its way up. As his boots sank into the deep snow, Rowan flung himself into Karth's waiting embrace. Karth had to stoop down to meet Rowan's kiss. The shape of his muzzle lips, like always, found some difficulty in molding themselves to the human's own. The way the Karth's whisker pad tickled the bare skin of Rowan's sensitive cheek made him want to laugh.

Despite their physiological differences, growing up on different oases, and the vast stellar and cultural differences attempting to keep them apart, they were in love.

Rare Earth. Common Ground.

* * * * *

| 03 | observed the two mated organics with impartial callousness. Lompo, or | 02 | in its internal designation, assigned it the difficult task of overseeing every organic on ship and micro-managing the complicated inter-web of interpersonal coefficients.

It recorded the spike in certain vitals coming from the mated organics, directly observing the subtle nuances of limb arrangement and matched ocular positioning after the pivotal maxilla contact. It was just one of many things the processor clusters within | 03 | analyzed.

The machine mantis also noted a marked decrease of personal coefficients between shipmates | Rowan Irskirt | and | Dey-Jay-Twil-Dee |. The imminent presence of | Karth Moons-Song | seemed a precursor to sudden dip in personal coefficients. This antagonistic factor opened up more queries for Lompo to pursue.

Despite its long existence and yotta-flops of available processing power available to it, | 01-Prime | found many aspects of organics uncertain or poorly understood.

For example, | 01-Prime | did not understand how exactly the Sleeper ship Far Dreamer came to crash on this unexplored planet. The First Imperium had presumed it lost during the incident that spawned the M1 Crab Nebula. Despite his cultural origins, a single member of Karth's species posed little threat to the Second Imperium.

Where the remainder of this kind had gone to was a mystery as well, but their disappearance allowed the Second Imperium to deal with more pressing galactic issues, such as the inevitable expansion of the K'thal. Their inorganic numbers exceeded several trillion. In | 01-Prime |'s calculations, the presence of a few thousand banned Eng-Orgs discovered on an isolated planet deep within a rarely visited nebula warranted little immediate response.

Instead, | 01-Prime |, the collective processing power of trillards of AI spread across the galaxy, had agreed with IEF Lompo in allowing the organic passage during its explorations. The Jovian | Rowan Irskirt |, had shown remarkable interpersonal co-efficients with organic | Karth Moons-Song |. After spending just a few hours with the bipedal canidae, Rowan had displayed his first breakthrough in maturing his natural telepathic mutation.

| 01-Prime | lacked the coding language to fully appreciate the irony of a Mutant and Eng-Org relying on each other for maximum biologic potential.

Such irony mattered little to Rowan, who didn't even know about his mate's engineered origins. In fact, the only individual who suspected as much was Lompo's primary organic physician, the unconscionable Martian Dr. Chako. He at this very moment, prepped his infirmary to re-examine the thorny arrival ...

* * * * *

As Lompo climbed back up into high orbit, Karth bobbed gently in the examination ring's stasis field. Though he felt weightless, his gut flopped about as the ship's gravimetric drive charged for a Null-Shunt.

| Attention all hands. | The genderless falsetto of Lompo chittered out across the ship from unseen speakers. | Prepare for Null Space entry. Operational State is now Rho. | Karth's white ears perked up at the announcement.

"What is Null Space?" He asked, looking around the infirmary to the small shelves of unsecured medical tools which tucked themselves away autonomously. The tall, rail thin Martian poking about a holographic render of the suspended wolven scout scoffed, but never took his light green eyes off his work.

"What is it with your incessant need to disturb me with your endless and pointless questions?" Dr. Chako's green thin fingers stroked his black, well trimmed goatee as he examined several new minor injuries on his patient. "All will be explained to you during Expeditionary Training. That is, of course, if your primitive brain can fathom the intricacies of Unified Field theory. Now, please, remain still."

Instead of biting back, Karth just relaxed into the free floating feeling. He had never liked the medicine male, but he suspected that few of Lompo's crew did either. His amber eyes looked around as the last of the larger carts of mobile medical equipment scattered about the infirmary sank into the floor or even melded to the walls.

| Now entering Null Space. | Lompo chimed out again. Dr. Chako paused the scans before stepping back and folding his arms behind his back. An intense feeling of lateral vertigo swept through Karth, as if something pulled at the ends of his body and twisted like taffy. His eyes sealed themselves shut, stomach heaving. He thanked the Stars that he hadn't foraged yet that morning.

Just as soon as it began the twisting sideways motion left, and Karth found himself panting.

| Null-Shunt complete. Secure from Operational State Rho. | The infirmary rearranged itself again, banks of mobile equipment rising out of the floor and their shelves opening up. Dr. Chako resumed the scans, pausing at the indication of cybernetics implanted at the base of Karth's skull.

"I don't remember these remote interfacing devices on the last scan. Where did you get them?"

"Lompo implanted them before I left the ship last time."

Karth's answer left the good doctor nodding after thinking about it. It wasn't unheard of for the Imperium to implant such interfacing into less technologically advanced species. Instead of explaining everything, it could simply download whatever information the creature in question asked for.

"Well then, aside from a few new knicks, you are as healthy and smelly as the day you first stepped on board." The Martian Physician's grin was not entirely pleasant. The yellow stasis field lowered Karth to the floor before dissipating altogether. "However, Asclepius has detected small mites in your fur which may be parasitic. It asks for any left over hairs the next time you groom for addition scans."

Karth rubbed at the tufts of fur sticking out from his thin-suit's sleeves. His wrists itched from the old fur buildup, but living in isolation, he lacked the proper tools on his birth planet to adequately groom himself.

"So, I can say no to it's request?" The wolf rumbled, suspicious.

"It is not a medical order. A sonic shower however, is." Dr. Chako's slender nose scrunched, the green skin around his bald head wrinkling. "And on that note, I believe Rowan is waiting for you."

Karth nodded and left, the interlocking doors leading to the outer corridor ring opening with a loud hydraulic hiss. Dr. Chako's thin smile faded when the doors closed behind the latest recruit. He'd have to be pretty shrewd to get a clandestine DNA sample from Karth without arousing Asclepius', and by extension, Lompo's, suspicions. For the past two years Dr. Chako had made several inquires to outlaw genetic designers, trying to put a match to Karth's ancient linage.

And if the Second Imperium found out about any of it, Lompo would not hesitate to disintegrate him on the spot.

* * * * *

The corridors of Lompo were as crowded and bustling as Karth remembered them, if not more so. He sidestepped several bizarre organics on the way up from central engineering and infirmary. Besides a four legged red plant with retractable purple flowers, another looked like a wriggling mass of seaworms. He passed by a few bipedal creatures, one a type of horned reptile, discussing some maintenance reports to their paired synthetic analogues.

The fast chitter of translated burst trinary made some sense, although Karth didn't immediately infer the technical specifics.

Karth found himself stuck behind a huge hulking maintenance synthetic halfway up to Lompo's primary outer habitat ring. More spacious ships would have made the plodding mechanical titan, whose heavy servos shook the narrow, grated ramp leading upwards with each thunderous stomp, take an engineering elevator. Small scout ships like IEF Lompo, despite its maximized voluminous octagonal design, had no such luxury.

The white wolf fell in stride with the noisy metal beast taking up the entire slopped corridor. Despite his tribe's misgivings and natural enmity towards synthetics, he respected his mate's traditions. As long as these unfeeling hulks kept Rowan from harm, he saw no reason to harbor a grudge. Still, that didn't mean he needed to implicitly trust AI, despite Lompo's tireless efforts to cull Karth's favor.

After the titan entered the outer habitat ring and swiveled one hundred twenty degrees to make its way up another ramp leading to the primary hanger, Karth stepped aside as well. He paused to let the crowd gathered at the outer habitat ring juncture make their way down into the bowels of the ship. The white wolf caught a flash of spherical blue, and his amber eyes widened in awe. He made his numb way to the closest view port, accidentally bumping his bare furry shoulders into various species numerous extremities.

His paw touched the clear ice of the view port in disbelief. Just outside, a series of colossal decagonal rings, each hundreds of kilometers wide, spun in alternating sequence around a cylindrical maze of docking clamps and dry dock facilities.

Below this supply outpost, a blue ice giant spun on near 90 degree axial tilt. Karth noticed a few bands of sea green swirling about parts of the planet's thick murky atmosphere. Two thin rings circled the planet, running parallel to each other. From this distance, Karth couldn't make up the individual rocks or ice chunks that made up their multicolored bands.

Multiple streams of star travelers spiraled down to gas mining platforms in the planet's lower atmosphere. From the distance, Karth had issues determining their size. He cranked his neck around the edges of the view port to peek at the lines of star travelers directly behind and in front of Lompo. The vertigo of high orbit and the thousands of ships swarming around the station sent his perception swimming.

"Where are we?" Karth whispered, more to himself than any of the organics or synthetics walking right past him.

| We are currently awaiting permission to dock at Supply Outpost 001 Zeta Tauri. | The ship answered out to him from unseen speakers.

Karth looked at the distant twin suns that slipped out behind the outer edge of the ice giant. One of them looked larger than the other, giving off a glaring white light that dazzled the white wolf. Where these the stars circling above his birth planet? Karth wondered how long it took them to get here. The trip up to the outer habitat ring didnt take that long.

Karth had so many questions. His stomach fluttered. For once, it wasn't a manipulated gravity field causing it.

It was the thrill of the unknown.

* * * * *

As the interlocking doors to Rowan's quarters slid open, Karth blinked at the curved walls of ice and snow. Rowan's quarters had changed from a mussy single bunk room with framed by angular steel and linen to a more elaborate recreation of Karth's crude snow cave. His amber eyes flicked back over to the glowing blue runes inset at the door's control panel. They read: 'Karth and Rowan Moons-Song'. He was at the right place; the white wolf was just taken aback by the change in decor and its named occupants.

The constant bustle of the outer habitat ring seemed distant to him despite the throngs of indistinct chatter. Karth stepped inside gingerly, as if testing the sharp crunch of snow under his hind paws. It sure felt real. But why would Rowan change his quarters?

"Make yourself at home." Rowan's voice sang out unseen from around a curved corner. The delicious scent of cooked meat and savory species filled the air. Karth stepped over to a small shelf cut into the frosted wall, the door closing behind him automatically. His paw paws felt over the familiar trinkets, most collected during his mate's travels. He wondered if the ice would damage any of the frailer items: some replica pulp serials from Rowan's inaccessible home world, Sol.

Rowan appeared from around the corner, crude stew pot in mitted hands. His strong biceps had little issues with the bulky contents sloshing inside, but his boots slipped about a little in the powder lining their living room floor. He set the steaming pot down onto a rock cradle supported by a carved ice table. The corners of Karth's black muzzle lips curled up as he watched the ice supporting the cradle begin to melt and drip.

"I take it you are still getting used to a den made of snow." Karth's coy smile sent a hot blush falling across Rowan's soft cheeks.

"Maybe." Rowan rubbed the back of his neck. "I just wanted you to feel at home. Better eat up before the stew gets cold." The Jovian left for a moment before returning with two stone ladles. They stooped by the pot and dipped them into the steamy contents before bringing it up to their lips.

"What is ... this flavor?" Karth sniffed his ladle after taking a small slurp.

"The spice is from a shrub grown only on a desert planet in the Deneb system. No one can quite tell why, but it seems to enhance the flavor of just about anything." Rowan slurped some more stew as Karth fished out a chunk of cooked meat from his ladle and squished it between his fingers.

"Even Rag-nu." The humor in Karth's words seemed lost on Rowan, who didn't know how grisly and tasteless the cynodont flesh tasted fresh, let alone when cured.

"This was Lompo's suggestion. Its a rough guess based on what little we know of your planet. I'm sorry if you don't like it." Karth's ears perked for a moment at Rowan's misguided apology, tail flagging a little in alarm.

"It is a kind gesture. But I don't understand." Karth dipped the ladle again and ate, trying not to offend his mate's efforts. Rowan swallowed and let the greasy broth slide down his throat.

"What about?"

"Why Lompo cares at all."

"Well," Rowan began, stirring the stew some before continuing, "Your happiness makes me happy. When I am happy, I work harder. When I work harder, the Imperium learns more."

"About?" The warm contents settled in Karth's stomach. It had been a long time since he his last warm meal.

"Us. Organics. The Universe. Itself." Rowan's blue eyes skirted about, locking on to Karth's amber ones. Karth found himself smiling again without realizing it. "Do you have a problem with Lompo?" Rowan didn't realize how accusatory his words came out until after he noticed Karth's white ears fold back.

"No." Karth mumbled as he looked down at the pot, finding comfort in a warm meal and loving company. "As long as it keeps you safe. That's all I care about."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before Rowan reached over to cup the side of Karth's muzzle. Karth's eyes locked back on Rowan's as a thumb ran across his white fur tenderly.

"Wolfy, I hate to break this to you, but danger is part of my job." A small scar cut the corner of Rowan's smile, given to him by an enraged Grall nesting in the shrub Rowan spoke of earlier. "What matters now is that we are here together, looking out for each other."

"I know." Karth admitted, small tears forming up at the corners of his amber eyes. "But I almost lost you once. I can't imagine going through that again."

The ice table holding up the stone cradle broke without warning, and the pot crunched through the melted remains. The sudden commotion startled them, wide eyes staring at the remains of their dinner, now melting its way through their floor. They looked back at each other before bursting into their own species' equivalent of laughter.

Rowan wiped away his own happy tears, still laughing. The bite of frigid air hurt his huge lungs.

"Well, now that dinner can be officially called a hazard, what do you say about getting cleaned up?"

"Are you going to melt our entire den to make a waterfall?" The teasing way that the tip of Karth's tongue poked just outside his closed muzzle made Rowan want to tickle the bipedal wolf into submission.

"Noooo." Rowan folded his arms in mock annoyance. He stepped up to his taller mate, tilting his head upwards to peck the wolf a kiss on his back nose. "You are hilarious, you know that? Screw the IEF. I should take you on tour one of these days. The Venusians would love you."

Karth wrapped his arms around the shorter Jovian, their lips meeting again. Their eyes closed at the sensual contact. They took their time, hands and paws feeling the contours of their thin suits. Heat started to build between them as they rubbed against each other, the textures of their gray thin suits slipping against one another. Rowan opened his eyes again to find Karth panting a little.

"Seriously though. Steam from the sonic shower is going to turn our quarters into slush. What then?" Rowan tapped a finger on Karth's shoulder.

"You didn't have to change your den just to please me, Rowan."

"I just want you to feel at home."

"I am at home. Wherever you are. That is my home now."

The two smiled at each other for a little longer, swaying a little. Their foreheads rested against each one another. It was pretty clear neither wanted to let go of the other. This was going to make Rowan's next production shift rather difficult, all things considered.

"Did you want me to change it back to what I had before?" Rowan asked, smoothing the fur around his love's ear down. He scratched a little, pleased at the change in Karth's expression. His huge eyes closed, a soft whine escaping from that cute muzzle. The comforting sensation made Karth think of paradise. Or, at least the oral history of it handed down from his tribe's lore master.

The base of Karth's skull tingled as the cybernetics implanted there interfaced with Lompo's matter generation systems. His heart seemed to beat faster from the hot surge of blood coursing through him. The nerves of his extremities buzzed with imagined sensations.

With little warning the ice cave around them sank into darkness. Rowan's fingers clutched bunches of Karth's shaggy scruff in surprise as distant clatters and bangs resounded from far away. The outer edges of the habitat room expanded, folded, scooted from them, making space in response to Karth's imagination.

In the darkness, Rowan clung to Karth, breathless. He didn't know what was going on. It wasn't like Lompo to just change an organic's environment without fair warning.

Rowan's lungs froze as he heard a burbling. Gentle at first. Then building in crescendo till it sounded like a raging river. The scent of pine needles and moss slipped into his nostrils. His lungs burned with the tingle of fresh ozone. The thermal strips in his thin suit switched off as the temperature climbed. It evened out somewhere between chilly and refreshing, at least according to the sensitive hairs on the back of his neck. Somewhere, rumbles of thunder echoed in the distance.

"Karth?" Rowan whispered in the darkness. His heart thundered. Somehow he knew nothing bad would happen in Karth's arms. But it had been a while since he felt truly powerless and exposed.

"Yes Rowan?"

"Its dark. Why is it still dark?"

"Because. Its a cloudy night. And the moons are hidden. It just got done raining."

Rowan looked up as a sliver of light parted the dark clouds above him, bathing them both in a silver glow. The Jovian's heart stopped with the sight of five moons peeking through dark patches of sky. A final flash of lighting in the distance revealed the tops of conifers swaying in the aftermath of the storm racing away. A drenched lean-to built near a stone lined fire pit stood just a few meters away.

The Jovan's jaw dropped slightly at the scene. His heart skipped a beat when Karth's huge reassuring paws crept their way over his back. Rowan pushed away from Karth's taller frame, looking up into the reflection of several moons in his lover's deep pupils.

"Where ... are we?"

"My home world." Karth whispered, the soft words almost lost in the gentle rustle of pine needles scraping against each other. The scent of ozone scrubbed the thin gritty soil of its eroded limestone origins. Brilliant pins of distant stars peeked out from behind the dissipating storm clouds.

"But ... I don't understand." Rowan looked around as the moons above lit up the endless taiga around them. Recent run off sent rushing water spilling down a nearby waterfall. Its roar drowned out the gentle breeze blowing across the pine tops. Rowan knew it was all an illusion. But despite his extensive travels, it was also the most beautiful illusion he had ever seen. "Where is all the ice? What happened to your home world?"

"It was swept away when our star went nova a long time ago. The ice planet that you found me on was my birth planet. All that remains of my home world now is our tribe's memory." Images exploded into Rowan's mind. The passing of several millennium muted the echo of sadness. Karth's huge paw cradled the back of Rowan's skull. "We both lost our home before we were born. But we have found another." The tall wolf leaned forward, his breath moist and hot. Rowan relented into his mate's insistent kiss. The canid's whiskers tickled his flushed cheeks.

It took Rowan's breath away. Being in those furry, warm arms. It felt so right.

The Jovian stood there numbly as the white wolf stepped back and hooked a claw in the neckline of this thin suit. He ran it down the zip seal, the two halves of the thin suit falling away from his neckline to dangle loosely around his arms. Karth slid the sleeves off slowly, teasing. Despite the white undercoat, Rowan could see new ropes of muscle crossing Karth's chest and shoulders.

Rowan stared on, wanting nothing more at that moment than to feel about that masculine chest with his bare hands. The Jovian's heart thundered back to life as his mate pushed the second skin down past his furry waist. The wolf's heavy sheath popped free of its second synthetic skin. Rowan had a hard time pulling is eyes away from the ring of darker fur at its tip.

Karth's thighs bulged as the wolf leaned over, tugging the last of the thin suit off his ankles. He tossed it aside, standing nude in the moonslight. In all of its adult glory, Karth's shapely body looked sculpted by the finest artist.

In truth, it had been.

A hint of a smile touched Karth's muzzle before he abruptly turned, walking the short distance to the waterfall. The wolf stepped into the pool's steaming edge, small ripples moving out its mirrored surface to meet the waterfall's turbulence. Rowan wondered if a hot spring feed its upper crest. This was their quarters now, and Lompo would re-create it in any way the occupants desired, within reason.

The dark water swallowed Karth legs as the white bipedal wolf waded out into the mist near the falling curtain of steamy water. He stepped under the fall, water splashing off the top of his long canid skull and running down his braids. Karth shook himself out a little, letting the warm water soak into his undercoat.

Under the moonslight, Karth eyes offered a quick seductive glance over to Rowan before running his paws through his head fur, untangling the braids there. Rowan smiled at the unspoken, implied invitation. His fingers hooked themselves into the seal of this thin suit near his neckline. With little effort, he pealed off the warm synthetic second skin in much the same way Karth had.

Goosebumps prickled Rowan's exposed pink flesh. Aside from the short cropped, wavy hair style on his head, the human offshoot was otherwise hairless. His hands rubbed at the small bumps covering his sensitive soft skin, feeling the contours of his pronounced musculature. Despite his soft features, Rowan's build was more pronounced that Karth's. Adapting to high gravity, most Jovians looked like professional bodybuilders.

The wolf continued to wash up under the falls, coyly pretending not to sneak subtle peeks as the Jovian stepped naked over to the edge of the rippling pool. Rowan's looked down as the bottoms of his feet slipped on the small smooth stones lining the pool's edge. The Jovian stuck a big toe into the steaming water, testing it.

Karth grinned, allowing his paws to roam down across his fur matted body. He couldn't help the flush of desire building inside him. Despite the differences in their outward appearances, Karth found the shape of his mate's dangling sex both exotic and arousing. He found Rowan's pink furless skin sensitive to his touch in a way that would strike others of his species curious. But most of all, it the muscular definition of Rowan's body and his empathic personality that cinched the wolf's attraction and love for the Jovian.

Rowan stepped into the pool, letting the warm water wallow up first one bare ankle, then the other. He waded in closer to Karth, letting his hands dangle by his waist to let them glide through the clear reflective surface. Though it only came up to the bipedal wolf's navel, the soothing pool came up to the stocky human's well defined chest.

The two lovers almost disappeared in the swirling haze of mist and steam at the fall's bottom. Karth stopped his faux wash up when he sensed the nude Jovian wade up to him. The wolf stepped closer to him, the constant downfall of the fall now splashing at his back instead of crashing on his ears.

Rowan's hands made first contact, touching the slicked down fur of Karth's chest. They slid up those hardened pectorals just as Karth's paws slid past Rowan's slick wrists. The rough paw pads felt their way down past Rowan's elbows, around the bend and over the thick biceps there. Karth's paws stopped to feel about the hard lines of definition around his mate's shoulders and chest. They felt over one another's masculine forms, taking their time and exploring the mature features adulthood bequeathed on them.

Karth's muzzle dropped in a whimper when Rowan's hand fell to his navel, feeling about the taught abs there. The roar of the waterfall drowned out his pleasured gasp, but Rowan felt the wolf's stomach quiver just the same. His hand rubbed in teasing circles for a moment before slipping down past the surface of the turbid foam.

Karth threw back his head in ecstasy, white ears pinned against his skull as Rowan's hand squeezed his sheath underwater.

Rowan rested his head into Karth's chest, spray pelting his face. His let his hand feel along the long contour of Karth's sex, feeling the slight swell at its base. He felt something soft and spongy bump into his wrist. It took Rowan a moment to realize it was the tip of Karth's pink sex slipping out of its sheath.

A devious grin formed on the Jovian's lips as his hand moved lower in the swirling pool. He cupped the wolf's furry sacs, rolling them around in the palm of his hand. Despite their size they felt light and buoyant under the water. Karth's paws gasped his lover's shoulders, panting as he clung for dear life.

No one had ever touched him like that before.

Without hesitation Rowan knelt slowly into the frothy water. It rose past his ears and above his head. He held is breath as best he could, the swirling bubbling water tickling his nostrils. Undaunted, he let his lips search about the dark turbulence until they touched the spongy tip of Karth's sex.

They parted, allowing the thick tapered length entry. Rowan continued to tug and play with Karth's balls, feeling the wolf's claws dig gently into his shoulder. It didn't stop the Jovian from teasing even more of Karth's length into his mouth. Karth's hips bucked as his swelling knot pressed against his lover's lips, begging for entry.

As much as Rowan loved taking Karth's knot, doing so underwater probably wouldnt be such a good idea, especially if he couldnt get off it without drowning. He had other things in mind. His tongue slipped out into the water, running along the sensitive underside of the bulbous flesh. As one hand clenched his lover's ass cheek, the other hand slipped past the wolf's sacs to run a finger up and down Karth's ass crack.

Karth tensed for a second, his soaked tail straining to raise under the hard downpour at his backside. Had no one seen Rowan's head submerge, sight of the blissed, hip thrusting wolf might have been a strange sight indeed. Karth's eyes sealed tighter as Rowan's finger tip pressed its way up into his hole. It didn't take long for the experienced Jovian to find the hardening lump of Karth's prostate and start rubbing away.

Rowan licked at the underside of Karth's knot, lungs burning now. He could feel his mate drawing closer to the cusp of orgasm. He slipped another fingertip into the wolf's ass, pressing harder now into that pulsing mass deep inside Karth. The wolf gritted his fangs, panting hard as he felt his lover's probing digits push him over the edge.

A salty flush filled the back of Rowan's tonsils. Through the roar of the water rushing past his ears, Rowan though he heard Karth's distorted howl fill the night.

Rowan raised up off his knees, the top of his head pushing through the foamy waters. He took in a deep breath of fresh air. His mate's paws still clung to his shoulders, the wolf wobbling a little from the climax. With a cheeky grin Rowan dragged Karth a little back towards shore, enough so that Karth's heavy sex swung clear of the rippling water.

The Jovian wasted no time in grasping the wolf's engorged knot. He stroked it back and forth almost sending Karth to his knees.

It the past two years, Rowan had researched a lot on Karth's biology with Vos' help.

And he planned on using every bit of it in their mutual favor.

Karth's dangling sex stiffened again under Rowan's relentless touch. The Jovian squeezed Karth's knot gently over and over again, drawing his hard body closer to his lover. It didnt take long before another thin spurt of wolven seed shot from Karth's length to coat the devious human.

The wolf moaned out from the erotic sight. His watery cum glinted in the moonslight as it trickled down Rowan's thick pectorals. Another stroke sent more running down well cut abdominals. Rowan gasped slightly at the feeling, using his free hand to rub his lover's cum all over his well defined musculature.

"What ... are you ... doing?" Karth panted out, letting the shorter Jovian continue to milking his knot.

Taking a shower. Rowan planted his words into Karth's mind, winking at the speechless wolf. It was clear the Jovian had his own surprises in store for his wolven lover.

"How did you ...?" Karth panted out, but Rowan cut him off with another gentle tug on his knot. The wolf whined in pleasure, another stream of thin lupine cum spurting all over the Jovian's lower belly.

Karth panted, watching his seed leak down and drip off Rowan's sheathless sex. He refused to let the shorter male handle him like this. Besides, the wolf loved this playful give and take they had over sexual dominance. His tribe had an established hierarchy, even between mated pairs.

This Jovian's idea of sexual equality was both interesting and full of exciting possibilities.

His paw grasped Rowan's dangling sex. It caught the human offshoot off guard, and the Jovian almost lost balance in the water. He stumbled backwards a little with a surprised gasp, knees making small wakes before Karth could catch him around the waist with the crook of his other arm.

"Enough of these mind tricks, human." Karth stroked Rowan's hard shaft with a commanding rumble. Rowan's sex was so hot and slick now with Karth's seed, it almost brought the Jovian to his knees now. Rowan groaned out, a sudden wave of helplessness ... no ... relinquishment ... into Karth's furry arms sending a shudder of need through his body. Karth refused to give Rowan any quarter, stoking the throbbing erection back and forth between his rough paw pads. "Do not forget your place."

Rowan gave a questioning look up into Karth's eyes at the dark, dominant growl. The moons above glinted off his irises, but it the amber fires around them that spelled out this racy game. Even though Rowan could physically overpower the wolven scout with brute force, what fun was that?

"And ... where is my place then?" The corners of Rowan's lips curled with sassy relent. Karth continued to pump his paw over his sensitive flesh, making Rowan's blood pressure build. His insides clenched. His lungs tightened. If the wolf wasn't careful, this game might end abruptly. But unlike Karth, Jovians weren't intrinsically capable of continual orgasm.

"Here." Karth threw Rowan toward shore, the Jovian sloshing to catch himself before falling face first into the water. He pushed his upper body back out, lungs taking in a deep, surprised inhale. Despite the sudden, and not altogether unpleasant, roughness, Rowan was fine aside from some scuffed knees. Steaming water dripped off his ripped body, knees digging into the smooth stones lining the edge of the pool.

A large paw clamped down on the back of his neck. Rowan's first instinct at feeling the sharp claws dig into the back of his neck was to gasp and pull his head back. A furry knee parted his legs farther apart. Karth completed the mock subjugation by reached around and clamping his paw back on Rowan's hard rod poking just under the water's dark mirrored surface.

"Are we understood?" Karth put his free paw on Rowan's hip, guiding his swollen, still leaking tip to his mate's puckered, exposed entrance. Without a tail to grasp and orientate himself, it was the best Karth could do. The claws digging gently into Rowan's hip got the point across however.

"Yeahhh ... Ugh!" Rowan grunted as he felt Karth's fleshy tip push up against his tight hole. It had been a while since he had been with someone, but he knew Karth would take it gentle despite the rough role play. The careful pressure of the claws at his nape increased. Rowan grunted when Karth's sex parted him, slipping inside his tight ring.

The Jovian's own throbbing length twitched, shooting a small jet of pre into the steamy waters. It swirled about, lost within the turbulent slosh of their heated rut. Karth drove his length into Rowan, who tensed at the sudden sensation. Karth paused when his half inflated knot pushed up against Rowan's dripping ass.

The white wolf withdrew, dragging his length over the top of the human offshoot's balls. It made Rowan cry out as his insides tightened on reflex. He shot more pre into the water lapping at his flexing belly. Warm water cradled Rowan' tingling junk, its rod slapping against his belly as Karth drove himself deep again. Rowan's hands clenched the silt under the stones lining the pool's edge.

If Karth wasn't careful, his thrusts alone would send him over the edge early.

No, Rowan wanted his wolven mate to tie him. To lock his canid knot deep inside him, and never take it out. It didn't help when Karth started pumping Rowan's shaft from behind. The wolf started full on thrusting now, sending a rhythmic splash across the pool. The Jovian's moans drifted across the small clearing, joining the choral call of insects under the conifers in the distance.

The human offshoot looked up to the moons hanging in an unfamiliar starry sky, taken from behind by a furry alien lover. His gut flopped with so many hard to place feelings. He may have been a stranger in a strange land, but he was loved.

And Karth would die to keep him safe on the unexplored fringes of trans-species romance.

Rowan's face flexed with strain, his insides tightening at the dual assault. He wasn't going to last much longer, and Karth knew it. The wolf pulled out abruptly and let go of Rowan's throbbing need, much to his dismay. A small amount of watery seed dripped out of Rowan's ass into the water's surface just a few centimeters below.

Karth instead stroked himself, aiming his near constant spurts right at Rowan's stretched pucker. Rowan shuddered at the sensation. The white wolf slathered his tapered tip around the Jovian's hole, getting it prepared for what was to come. Without asking, Karth guided himself deep into the relenting human offshoot. His knot mashed against Rowan's well lubed entrance, compressing.

"You want it, human?" Karth rumbled out, placing lurid emphasis on the last word. Rowan could tell Karth was only staying in character for this torrid scene. Deep within the growl, Rowan heard tender enjoyment out of this mock subjugation.

"Oh Karth!" Rowan cried out at the sudden pressure building around his ring. "Please ... do it!"

Karth growled at the erotic sight of his knot pushing its way into the squirming furless creature under him. Rowan's entrance stretched to accommodate the swollen orb like the mouth of a snake swallowing an egg. It plopped in with a loud slimy slurp. Rowan's pleasured cry echoed across the waters despite the roar of falling water behind them.

The wolf had to plant both of his paws on either side of the Jovian's hips to steady himself. Karth's pants came even and deep. His mind swam with sensual vertigo. It was only when Rowan pushed back against the tie did his wolven mate remember to continue where he left off. Karth's chest huffed as his hips bucked back and forth.

The scenery was romantic. The company was splendid. The situation was erotic. The tie bonded them together physically and spiritually.

Karth claimed Rowan. Forever and always.

The Jovian felt a sudden hot flood fill his sore insides. The knot pounding back and forth deep within turned slimy. It drove his quivering body over the edge. He shot thick ropes of jism shot into the water, congealing and spinning about the shallow mirrored turbulence.

Their shared climax lingered for a few brief moments, bodies plummeting down from the precipice they had shared. They fell forward in spent exhaustion. Rowan sputtered when the water's surface broke across his down turned face. Karth picked up the compact human offshoot from the pool's bottom and half dragged him out. They collapsed on its gritty shore in a clumsy heap, still tied at the hips.

They spent a few minutes in an awkward embrace, panting, caressing each other's limp forms. Once Karth's knot softened and pulled out of Rowan's sore ass with a soft slurp, they made for the small lean to and its fire pit. The night's chilly air stole their shared warmth, prompting Karth to build a fire in the earthen pit. Much to Rowan's surprise Karth pulled out a woven moss blanket. The Jovian wondered how it stayed together as Karth pulled it over them.

Rowan never felt this connected to nature. Though the soil underneath him felt gritty and clammy on his naked body, a strangle tingling sensation crept through his body. Raised in a sterile home of alloys, polymers, and pressurized compartments, it was a far contrast to this holistic, almost spiritual communion with the planet around him.

Rowan began to see the appeal of Karth's so called primitive ways. The Jovian had yet to question how or why an ancient, derelict sleeper ship had been found on M1-o2-432. He still wasn't sure why Centaurans had set up a research outpost to study Karth and his birth planet. So much about Karth seemed shrouded in mystery.

But cradled in Karth's furry embrace, warm and safe, Rowan found himself unable to question such things. Under the moss covering, they exchanged light kisses and reassuring squeezes until idleness drove Karth to untangle his gnarled head braids. After a small amount of good natured henpecking, Rowan convinced Karth to produce a crude comb made of carved bone from somewhere within the lean to.

As Karth laid halfway under the moss blanket, the upper part of him exposed to the silvery rays of the moons above, Rowan lovingly groomed out his mate's fur. Karth's amber eyes watched shooting stars streak across they starry night sky above, distant clusters giving his relaxed mind a sense of mild vertigo. He felt comfortable, his mind adrift among the universe of empty thought.

Though they both lay back in relaxed repose, their respective scents still stirred their senses. Intertwined, their close physical proximity kept them at stirred arousal. Rowan's swollen semi hardness burned across Karth's furry thigh. Karth's own pink member drooped out of its sheath, half flaccid.

When Rowan got down to the itchy tuffs of old fur near his wrists, Karth found himself contemplating the ball of shed accumulated by the small crude pick. Rowan seemed more preoccupied with grooming his white wolf to immaculate perfection, and didn't seem to notice.

"Rowan?" Karth asked, a query to a query.

"Yes love?" The Jovian tugged at some more strands of fluff coming off, discarding them to the side. Karth's paw reached up to caress Rowan's pectorals, admiring their hard definition, then continued.

"Do you trust the leader of your tribe?" He asked, thinking of what he thought Lompo's medical adjunct, Asclepius asked of him.

"Leader?" Rowan paused his grooming to stoke those adorable snowy white ears. They felt so fuzzy and warm to his delighted touch. "The Imperium doesn't have a leader per say ..." Karth had to think a moment on how best to describe what he wanted to convey. A light breeze rustled the tops of the pines nearby, carrying a light and refreshing north wind.

"Do you trust the elders of your tribe? Those who make your pack's decisions?"

"You mean the one voice I mentioned when we first met? Of course I trust | 01-Prime |. Implicitly. Without the Imperium ..." Rowan's hand moved down to cup the side of Karth's muzzle tenderly in reflection. "... the remnants of my species would have died out hundreds of years ago."

"They saved you, keep you safe?" Karth took Rowan's hand and pressed it to his black muzzle lips.

"Of course. As best it can. The galaxy can be a dangerous place." Rowan smiled, the scar near his mouth flexing a little. He squeezed the paw holding his hand. "That is the whole point of the Imperium. Organics. Synthetics. Together, we are stronger than when we are apart ..."

"So your tribe will accept me?" Karth's white ears perked, questioning. The moonslight glinted off his seemingly naive irises.

"Provided you survive Expeditionary Force training, that is ..." Rowan's face turned dour, delivering the somber omen with perfect deadpan.

Karth's amber eyes widened. A terrible moment of suspense passed.

Gotcha! Rowan whispered into Karth mind, springing the prank with a devious wink. Karth's amber irises widened even further with the realization that he had just been had.

"You bitch!" His paws latched on to Rowan's thick biceps, lips touched with a playful growl. He flipped the devious Jovian onto his belly, throwing off the moss stitched blanket in the process.

Prove it. Rowan thought, sharing it openly to Karth. The sultry look the Jovian flashed back at his lover said it all. Karth's eyes narrowed at his mate's haughty dare. His blood surged. Though he had been merely a scout in his previous tribe, the pounding in his lupine ears now screamed as a warrior.

And he would quell this rebellion.

Lompo monitored a sudden spike in vitals between the mated organics. The synergy of their interpersonal co-efficients catapulted during stage one arousal. The ship even captured footage of Karth's sudden erection for later analysis.

Karth's muzzle lips tightened in a satisfied growl as he lowered himself into position and guided himself into Rowan's waiting body. The Jovian's puckered hole swallowed the lupine tip greedily, slicked from the last load Karth shot inside of him. Rowan moaned out as Karth pushed his cock deep inside him with one smooth thrust. Their balls touched when Karth hilted him. Rowan's fingernails dug into the gritty soil as Karth bred him full on.

As the two organic bipeds proceeded with the unexpected and abrupt copulation, a cleaning remote appeared from underneath a nearby rock. In the back of Karth's mind, which tingled with cybernetics, he decided to allow Dr. Chako the sample of shed he had requested earlier. The cleaning remote picked up the ball of discarded fur in response to the unconscious will generated by Karth's remote interface. It disappeared back under the replicated rock, heading straight for infirmary and the shadowy intentions of the good Martian doctor.

Karth had no idea that such a benign gesture might bring down the galaxy spanning Second Imperium. Just as Karth's own ancestors had to its precursor.

Seven thousand years ago ...

~ Fin - Part I ~

First of all credit where credit is due:

CoyoteOld1 - For continued inspiration, comments, and sometimes random late night, drunken emails. They touch me deeply. Among other things. *Winks* If you like Space Opera, be sure to check out his excellent Farren's Fixers.

CrankyCoyote - For suggestions on reading material relating to Strong AI and for putting my amoral musings into technical, non-fictional context.

Lamb - For allowing me to investigate white wolf mating habits. This novel needs more data.

SnowSong / Azelis / Loki - For (albeit unintentional) inspiration in all things smutty, certain gifts that see extensive use, and continued access to his skydrive chocked full of tasty M/M smut.