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Jaime heads back to the human world and gets to see a lot of Moaciq details along the way.

The Long Gift 9--Heading Home By Zmeydros AKA Lucien Quinn AKA Alexi Tishen.

A few seconds later, the door chimes a lower tone and slides open to reveal Gill in his unitard. "Greetings. Come in and have a seat." He steps back and motions for them to enter.

They walk in arm in arm to a couple of chairs in front of Gill's shiny metal desk. Letting go of Leneth, Jaime sits down. The chair is made of metal wrapped in shiny grey mesh and is surprisingly comfortable. It has only one thick support for the back that comes out of the left side, making it very tail-friendly. "This is a great chair. I wish I could buy one of these."

Gill sits behind his desk in a similar chair that has a higher back. "You can, actually. These were made by one of the corporations that we own."

"Cool, so umm, all I can think of to say is to thank you again." Jaime's tail twitches as he thinks about the fact that he's going to be a herm for the rest of his life.

Leneth leans forward and taps her finger on the desk. "Spill the beans, Gill, what didn't you want to tell us out in the open?"

Jaime looks at Gill expectantly; he almost forgot about Gill's secret.

"Your bluntness almost outshines your curiosity. And that's part of why I like you." He puts his elbows on his desk and entwines his fingers. "I was in the bunker where the genetic combination technology was developed. I was only..." A look of concentration forms on his face before he nods slightly and speaks. "Fifteen in human years at the time, but I helped with some of the biochemical calculations. If I had known back then that I would still be alive five thousand or so years later, I probably would have gone manic and kissed every person within reach. At the time I wondered what would become of this technology and my race. I even dreamed of living long enough to see it all play out."

Leneth and Jaime gape at each other and then turn back to Gill with no idea what to say.

"Don't look at me like that. You both are familiar with space travel and suspended animation, right?" Gill twitches his ears.

Putting a paw on Gill's desk, Leneth says, "You spent thousands of years in suspended animation?"

"Not technically. You see, when I was growing up, some of the other scientists were looking for a way to preserve those among us who didn't want to have their DNA spliced with other species. I was around thirty at the time and I had been working on suspended animation for a..." One of his ears folds down as he thinks. "Well, on this planet, you would call it a doctoral thesis, and one of my professors got inspired by what I was working on. He suggested that we put people who didn't want to change into suspended animation so that we had more time to find a way to deal with the genocide machines. For some reason that's beyond me, our government launched a huge research project to explore my professor's idea and drafted me to work on it."

Jaime tilts his head. "If you were working on it, why would you end up suspended? Scientists usually don't test things on themselves."

"No, they don't, but I had a bit of bad or good luck depending on how you look at it. You see, I outshined my professor so much that he started to become jealous. So jealous that he convinced the government that I should be one of the first test subjects for the procedure. I still think, to this day, that he was upset that my hybrid mind was superior to his pure-blooded one. I have no idea what strings he pulled because no matter what arguments I made, including one where I questioned whether this technology could even save anyone from the plague, no one would even return my messages." Annoyance and frustration are clear on Gill's face.

"Wasn't there some way you could refuse?" Leneth holds up a hand, exasperated.

"Our government was a mess back then. All the different bunkers had gotten different ideas on how to run things, and fought constantly. Some were plotting to overthrow the dictator, while others were trying to appease him, some were arguing that we were polluting our genome. Plans to overthrow him were never carried out because he had the ultimate doomsday weapon. Genetic purity eventually lost to our need to survive, and appeasing the dictator was impossible because he was insane. The only goal that wasn't futile was transforming as many of our countrymen as possible into genetic hybrids. Anyway, I couldn't get anyone to pay attention to my plight long enough to see the treachery of my superior. The simulation that I and a few other scientists made, showing how ineffective it was to try to save someone from the plague by freezing them, didn't even get one response from the idiots who had been convinced by my superior." Gill looks even more upset.

"That really sucks. So, you got frozen in the end?" Jaime offers.

"Yes, I was the first in line. They froze me and the process didn't go how they expected it would based on the animal tests--which is exactly what one would expect from the first trial of a new technology. They were afraid to thaw me or to test on the others in my group after how badly things went. It took them over twenty years to feel confident enough to try it again, but even after those tests succeeded, they didn't thaw me. I had cell damage that they couldn't repair." Gill's face softens. "One of my best friends started an initiative to have me put in long-term storage in case a cure for my condition wouldn't be available for many years, and he was successful."

"How long did you end up in storage?" With a flick of her tail, Leneth holds the edge of Gill's desk, anticipating the rest of his story.

"About a thousand years. My pod was powered by geothermal energy and was deep underground. A minor dark ages occurred when the dictator died and the plague killed my professor and every non-hybridized member of our race, whether they were in stasis or not. It took our civilization a long time to recover, but then it surpassed any that came before it. By the time they discovered me, it was no problem to repair and thaw me. My liberators treated me like a lost archive and had me speak at major events. I hated the spotlight and got on the first sleeper ship that I could. I wanted to get far enough away that no one would know who I was." He smiles.

"How'd that work out for you?" Jaime asks.

"Not that well. My ship wandered for over two thousand years, finding no sentient life on any of the planets on its course until it found a planet near the enigma cluster." Gill stops talking for a couple seconds. "I don't think any of your original race know about the enigma cluster. Earth doesn't even have a clear view of it... I'm trying to think if it's near something you'd be familiar with."

GilI looks off into the distance for a moment. "I don't know what the people of earth call that area of space... Anyway, as you can probably guess, I was not very amused when I woke up to find that faster ships had already made it there. After they thawed me they checked my records and found out who I really was. Again I was a relic from years forgotten and again I had people swarming me for autographs, nuggets of wisdom, and tales of their ancestors. After a couple years of that, I asked the government on Enigma-25 to give me a new name and re-hybridize me for a mission to earth. My yellow spots and red color come from a species of salamander, but I have scales that are like a lizard's. When I got to earth, I finally had what I wanted, anonymity. The respect I get is for being good at my job, not for being from an era no one even remembers. If you want anyone else to know my story, let me decide if I want to tell them. I do not want to have to flee this planet as well." He looks sternly from Jaime to Leneth.

Putting a paw on top of Gill's hands, Jaime smiles. "You're awesome for telling us. I'm glad you're finally in a place that you feel comfortable and I wouldn't do anything to destroy that."

"Same here." Leneth stretches. "Is there anything else we need to do before I get us back to our non-alien lives?"

"Thanks to both of you..." Gill furrows his brow for a moment. "I think all that's left is for you two to take on your non-Chimera shapes."

"How?" Jaime retrieves his paw.

"Jaime, just think about changing into your other shape." She turns to Gill. "Is that all he needs to do?"

"Yeah, but I have to interface with his machines to make sure they can correctly interpret his desire." Gill opens the laptop on his desk. "Jaime, think about shrinking your horns."

He thinks about his horns going back into his head for a moment and then he starts feeling them do so. It tingles and itches slightly as they disappear.

The moment they're completely gone, Gill speaks again. "Now think about changing your tail back."

Nodding, he starts thinking about having a normal feline tail. A spark of pleasure runs up his tail as the end shrinks and gets covered by fur. He's relieved to find that his tail is less sensitive when it changes fully. The sensitivity is nice, but it would feel awkward when he's amongst non-Chimera.

"Do the same for your legs and then after that your coloration, your tongue, and lastly your muzzle." Gill counts to four on his fingers as he names off items.

His legs feel really weird when they change. He feels a buzzing sensation as they take on a more human-like shape. When he thinks about his coloration changing, he's surprised to see it normalize within ten seconds. There must be a lot of microscopic machines inside him. Thinking about his tongue causes it to change, but he almost stops it because the sensation is so strange--especially when the forks at the end fuse. It takes him a moment to get used to the way his now-rough tongue tickles the top of his mouth.

Leneth is watching him intently with a cute grin on her face. He sees her start to change along with him. When her slit starts to disappear, he frowns slightly. His muzzle is all that's left. As it changes, he opens and closes his mouth. The sensation is like a static charge zapping him all over his face. He's glad when it's finally done. "How do I look?"

"Stunningly sexy." She grabs his arm.

Gill nods. "I agree, but you forgot your cock and balls. I believe you wanted a bumpy cat-like one in this form."

Looking down at his large package, Jaime smirks--maybe he should just leave it this way... Nah, he can show Kurt what it feels like to be penetrated by a shaft nearly identical to his own. Concentrating, Jaime shrinks his balls. The pleasant tingling this causes makes him shift his legs. Then he watches as he makes his sheath a bit smaller and feels his flared horse shaft shrink and get bumpy inside him. He nibbles on one of his paws to keep from moaning. "All done."

After standing up, Gill offers his hand to Jaime. "I expect to see you back here in one week; you'll need to schedule the appointment online within the next two days. I'll make sure a psychologist is available just in case you need one."

Jaime shakes Gill's hand. "Sounds good to me."

Pointing at a case on the wall, Leneth says, "Aren't you forgetting something, Gill?"

Gill lets go of Jaime's hand. "Oh, right." He opens the case and pulls out a brand new iPhone. "I could get you another model if you like."

"No, that is an awesome phone." Jaime grabs the phone and admires it.

Leneth licks his ear. "Yeah, I might switch to one from my Android phone later. I like both types for different reasons."

Gill touches the door of the case and it closes automatically. "Leneth bought your phone and a full data plan, which is good because we would have had to figure out a way for you to pretend to pay for it otherwise."

"Heh, me just suddenly having an expensive, top-of-the-line phone for no reason would look pretty odd." He looks away from his new phone, not wanting to get overly distracted. "Thanks Len!" He gives her a hug.

She hugs back. "Merry Christmas or Happy New Year! I completely forgot about what time of year it is until just now."

"Ditto, I think we were too distracted by everything that's happened."

"Yeah, we don't celebrate earth holidays in our facilities unless someone requests it. Most Chimera look forward to leaving the rest of the world behind when they visit our facilities." Leneth stretches and stands up.

He gets up as well. "So now I have a tricorder."

"It's way cooler than a tricorder, trust me." Looking around, she giggles. "I was so busy not wearing clothes that I completely forgot about my phone. I think it's still in my coat pocket."

"Let's go get our clothes." Jaime waves at Gill and then grabs Leneth's arm. "See you later."

"I look forward to it. Goodbye and safe travels to both of you." Gill waves and smiles broadly.

Leneth waves at Gill and then lets Jaime guide her out of the room. Once he's in the hallway, Jaime stops. "I was going to lead you, but I have no idea where our clothes are."

"They're a ways from here at the entrance for this facility. When you check in you can either wear a unitard or go naked. Your clothes get put in a secure locker." She starts guiding him down the hall.

On the way to their clothes, they pass a wall of panels that are completely transparent, and on the other side of the panels is a subterranean hangar for spaceships. Most of them have the same glassy metallic grey color as the inside of Leneth's ship and some look like they could easily easily have ten times the interior space. "Oh wow, where are we?"

"A Maociq facility a thousand or so feet underground the middle of nowhere in Alberta Canada. To get here you can take a high-speed tram from one of our CZ care centers or just fly here in a spaceship." She points at the back of the hangar. "There's a shaft at the back that leads up to a giant door that has a holographic forest over it. There's another door at the back of the hangar in case something Biblical occurs above us. If that isn't enough protection, the shaft has explosives that will collapse it. I love our underground facilities; they're safe, secure, and awesome."

"You sound like a commercial." Jaime says as he watches a huge ship come in.

"That's a defense ship. See those areas that are slightly concave?" She points at a few spots on the ship's glassy exterior.

"Yeah."

"Those are advanced lasers that can cause explosions by focusing on tiny spots on the enemy's hull. My ship only has four little lasers like that. This ship has hundreds of big ones." She bounces with excitement. "I'll take you inside one of those ships sometime."

"That would be great!" He gets even closer to the window and looks in wonder. Then he notices an extremely aerodynamic white train stopping at a station that's in the hangar about two stories below them.

A giggle comes from her as she gropes his ass. "Come on, sexy, we need to get back home and that train might be the right one."

When she grabs his hand, he takes one last look at the hangar before letting her pull him toward a row of doors. A little waterfall and a nice fern garden is on the opposite wall from the doors. This area reminds Jaime of an elevator lobby. Just as he finishes that thought, one of the doors open and a skinny ferret with Chimera traits steps out.

He's preoccupied by a speck of something on his shoulder and almost walks right into Jaime. "Fesrudi va." He says as he bows slightly.

Leneth puts her paw on his shoulder briefly and smiles. "Jeshin demondei."

The ferret smiles and walks off, but not before he checks Jaime and Leneth out.

"What did he say?" Jaime asks as she leads him into the elevator. The doors close behind them and he marvels at how beautiful the fern garden looks through them. The slight rainbow effect from the doors is making the garden look like something out of a fairytale. Jaime swears that little sparkles are being added to make it even more surreal.

Moving her hands in front of a panel near the door, Lenneth activates a holographic map of the facility. Before Jaime can ask what she's doing, she selects their destination and the elevator starts moving. The map shows the elevator's movement. "He said 'clumsy me' and I replied 'graceful words.' It's an old custom. If someone admits a mistake, you say 'graceful words' because the fact that they are admitting their mistake is a graceful way to act.

The feeling of the elevator turning a corner causes Jaime to feel a bit off balance and he grabs Leneth's arm. "That actually makes a lot of sense."

"I think it does, but it sounds weird to me when I explain it in english."

The elevator comes to a stop and opens to reveal a diamond-shaped room with six hallways leading out of it. She walks out of the elevator and pulls him along as she walks down the left-center hallway.

Jaime is about to say something when the train leaves. "Was that the right train?"

She points at one of the signs in the hallway. "No, we need the next one."

He follows her into a large room with a podium in it--there are at least six more of these rooms further down the hallway. The transparent wall in the back of the room shows hundreds of shimmery grey cubes on a lower level stacked so closely together that no one could walk between them. The cubes are beautiful because each one shimmers in a slightly different range of hues. The glowing alien symbols on each of them also have their own unique colors.

"Do this." She touches the podium with her hand and he sees some motion amongst the cubes as a chime sounds.

After he does the same, he sees even more movement. A ding is accompanied by a glowing holographic arrow with alien symbols in it. The arrow points at a spot on one of the side walls. An opening forms in the wall and Leneth's cube slides through it. She walks toward it and he goes with her.

Another arrow forms and points to a spot right next to her, and his cube comes through the wall. The cubes are even more beautiful close up. He can vaguely see his clothes through the slightly transparent cube walls. When Len touches the side of her cube, the side closest to her flips open. His opens when he copies her.

"Nice and clean. I thought of bringing all my dirty laundry here, but I decided carrying a bag of laundry from the university all the way to Alberta, Canada just so I can get it washed for free would be overdoing things." She giggles at her own thought as she gets dressed.

He chuckles until something catches his attention. "Hey, these pants and boxers are different. There's a strap with a button... For my tail? Awesome!" As he listens to her reply, he starts getting dressed.

"Yep, they altered them for you while you were being changed. It's part of the program. We try really hard to make the transition as easy as possible. I had them pick up your entire wardrobe and fix it. Oh, and I made sure a note was left in your dorm telling Kurt that you got CZ. I said I had your permission to do all that. I hope that's okay." She puts on a cute long-sleeved white blouse with a low-cut laced v-neck.

"That was a good idea. I was so distracted by all this that I didn't think about what Kurt would think when he realized I was nowhere to be found." He kisses her on the cheek and continues getting dressed. "Thank you for getting all my clothes fixed too."

"You're welcome." She helps him button the button for his tail strap. "There, now grab your coat and follow me. The next train just arrived."

As he walks down the hall, he looks through the transparent wall and sees tons of Chimera walking down the center-right hallway. He can see them stopping at the many locker rooms. They get undressed when they are only a foot or so from each other. "There's no privacy?"

"Nope, we believe that if you want to hide your body, you need more exercise or more counseling. There's nothing wrong with being naked." Pointing at a particularly attractive female gazelle with a rather large sheath, Leneth licks her lips. "I had sex with her on the train once."

"How many Chimera have you fucked?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Over fifty. I tend to pass the time on the train by having sex with a complete stranger. I'm satisfied today, though. Oh, and I had most of that sex before I met you." A nervous expression forms on her face.

"Well, you told me we could do other people really early in our relationship. I don't mind if you don't." He holds her hand tighter.

With a nod, she stars walking again. "I'm a bit of a slut, aren't I?"

Swishing his tail, he says. "You're my herm slut and I wouldn't change a thing about you. Now that I'm in this body, I feel like being a slut too."

"I love you." She kisses his cheek.

"I love you too." He licks her nose. They reach a bunch of turnstiles. At least he thinks they are turnstiles; they are a bunch of shoulder-high translucent doors that have little pads on the side. Each door has a glowing orange horizontal dash in an asymmetric glowing white diamond shape. The doors are flashing in intricate patterns. He counts eleven doors. "What does that dash mean?"

"This is a traffic signal. The diamond shape gives you something called 'absolute orientation,' which is really important in space. The sharpest point is always pointing straight up so you know which way the dash is going and how to level your ship if you're supposed to dock. If the dash is horizontal, it means 'stop,' if it's vertical, it means 'go,' and if it's diagonal, it means 'slow down.' Colors are also used a lot of the time. Orange means stop, cyan means go, and purplish-pink means slow down. I think that covers Moaciq traffic signals." Her face brightens as she sees the last few people leave the train. "Only a couple more minutes."

Jaime is too busy thinking about flying Leneth's spaceship to respond. There must be a huge number of rules for flying a spaceship. If Len guides him through it, he should be fine, though. He sees her looking at him with one ear folded down. "What's wrong?"

"I was wondering how much of that you actually heard."

"Oh, I heard everything. I was just thinking about flying your spaceship." He smiles.

She shakes her head. "It doesn't need anyone to fly it, but I'm sure Addex will let you take him for a spin."

"Addex?"

"That's the name of my ship. It has an AI that's very skilled at piloting and doing everything else a ship needs to do. If we ever get into a battle, we'll let it do most of the fighting. It can aim and fire its lasers faster than I can think." Her smile widens as she talks about her ship.

His ears perk up. "Can you converse with it?"

"No, my people are afraid of computers that can have conversations. We have had some bad experiences with sentient weapon technology... Well, we might be okay with thinking computers by the time your planet develops them. Many Maociq think we need to get over our fears. That movement has grown a lot in the last ten years. I'm not sure which side of that argument I'm on, though." She looks at the turnstile expectantly.

"Well, I'll have to think about that more. I've read a lot about AI..." The dash on the sign becomes vertical and glows cyan before he can finish his sentence. Leneth puts her hand on the pad and the door opens by shrinking from all sides into its doorway. When Jaime does the same as her, the door opens for him.

She's frowning when he gets to the other side. "I was worried that we might get separated if your DNA didn't open the door. I've heard stories of new hybrids not being recognized randomly for a couple days after their change. I should have had you go first."

He hugs her. "It's okay. We would have figured it out."

With a nod, she takes his hand and leads him to the train. He looks around, puzzled. "Why isn't anyone else getting on?"

"People tend to leave this complex in the morning or in the evening. It's in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday. Most people are working right now. I'm surprised that so many people came in on the train, but there could easily be some event going on that I didn't care about enough to remember." She leads him through two sets of doors. The first set is part of the train station and the second set the train's doors.

The train's exterior has a pearlescent gleam to it that catches his eye. "That makes..." When his eyes switch to the inside of the train, he can barely believe what he's seeing. "WOW!" It looks as though the entire interior of the train is like the inside of Leneth's ship. 3D displays cover the walls and holograms project into the interior of the train. There are two red-panda females playing a game where they are throwing different holograms at each other. A cute male gazelle is working on a fold-out console he pulled out from the back of his chair.

Giggling, Leneth goes up to the wall and pretends to grab a 3D picture of a pineapple with her hand. Then she pretends to pull it off of the wall and it becomes a hologram. She throws it at the opposite wall and it pops back into the 3D display. "See, you can treat the images like actual objects. I once saw a group riding on a train like this have a virtual food fight. They actually got holographic stains on their clothes. They could even brush food off of themselves as if it was real. The only thing that limited the effect is that you couldn't feel the food."

"This is amazing. If I could manipulate objects like that, I'd be able to build much better 3D models." Looking at the wall, he chuckles at the random objects on it. Near him, there's a turtle, a wind turbine, a buckyball, a turnip, and a tiger. There are also articles and other publications written in Maociq. He pulls the tiger off of the wall and tosses it at Leneth.

She catches it and gives it a kiss before letting it walk back toward the wall. Grabbing Jaime's hand, she guides him to a pearlescent white bench with slot where the back of the bench and the seat meet. "Sit right next to me." As she sits down, she pulls him with her.

When he sits next to her, the bench forms into a love seat for her and him. "Cool."

"Yep! Now we can cuddle all the way home. That is if you don't want to have a fake food fight instead." Her fluffy tail wags.

Leaning against her, he gives her a kiss. "I want to cuddle."

They spend the entire ride cuddling and staring into each other's eyes. When they reach their destination, they reluctantly leave the train. The station on this side looks like a normal subway station, but it does have architecture that reminds Jaime of the other Maociq designs he's seen. When he looks at the train, he is surprised to see that it has lost its pearlescence and is just a dull white. "I guess this side is more low key just in case someone makes it down here?"

She nods. "Yep. Notice the cracks and flickering lights? This is supposed to be a closed subway station."

"But there are no subways in Minneapolis." He tilts his head.

"True, this is supposed to be a station for a failed subway project from the seventies."

"But there was no failed--"

A smirk appears on her muzzle. "According to public records there were. There are even some Moaciq that pretend to be the investors for that failed project. We have trains that go to secret locations all over the world. The entrances are disguised as dead-end caves, failed subway stations, impenetrable metal doors in the basements of old buildings, et cetera."

The scale of the secret the Moaciq are keeping from the general public hits Jaime hard and he just looks at the old flickering fluorescent lights with a slight frown on his face. "How can people not notice that aliens are living amongst them?"

Holding up a finger, she chuckles. "Out of all the conspiracy theories out there, how many sound more plausible than my people living secret lives on this planet?"

"Okay, you have a point. I could tell someone all about this and they'd never believe me. I'd have to show them proof." He kicks a small fragment of concrete. "I couldn't even tell them, though, and I doubt someone without Maociq DNA can get into any of the secret places without coming down with CZ."

"Exactly. You'll get the same pain I did if you try to tell anyone we haven't cleared about any of this. Oh, and before you start thinking about conspiracies that might be true, Roswell was a weather balloon. We've had only five or so of our ships crash since we came to this planet, and they did so in the ocean or in the middle of nowhere. We retrieve the pieces immediately." She takes his arm in hers and walks to a dilapidated concrete stairway.

"Only five?" He walks with her up the stairs.

"Space ships should never fall from the sky. Who would buy them if they did that?" With a giggle, she swats his tail with hers.

The feeling of her tail hitting his causes him to smile. It feels so soft against his fur. "Planes fall from the sky a lot."

"If a space ship falls from the sky, it usually falls a lot further and causes a lot of damage when it lands. Companies that make them can get shut down for just one of their ships failing like that, and people can lose their license permanently for missing an inspection." When she gets to a very thick steel door, she touches it and it opens to reveal more steps with another heavy-looking door at the top.

"I can see why they are so anal about that. If space junk falling from orbit can leave a crater, I'm sure a large spaceship could level my dormitory if it fell on it." He gets startled when she touches the door at the top of the stairs only to have the door at the bottom close, but then he realizes that this is like an airlock--it separates the world of the Moaciq from the rest of the planet. The door at the top opens the moment the door at the bottom locks.