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The eclipse has started, bringing out one of the worst storms yet.

Key stands near the cave's entrance watching the storm. Avy sits beside him, her tail wrapped in a giant sleeve to protect her from the asrukes, holding Key's hand. She'd normally be in a chrysalis right now, but she has chose to postpone that to be with him.

Both are lost in their own thoughts.

Two nights ago, they were intimate. Two nights ago, they spent nearly four hours in the throws of ecstasy. Neither could believe it was that long, Drudge and Pond both had confirmed it though.

In that time, Avy's body tried to absorb Key's arm.

If not for the efforts of the AIs, it would have succeeded.

Behind them, nearly a dozen trakkats patrol the cave, catching and eating the remaining asrukes as they try to burrow into the eggs. Right now, those are the only creatures still stirring in the cave.

Avy referred to those trakkats as "guardians." She indicated that they are the oldest, and most likely will die before the eclipse is over. They're aware of this and choose to stay awake and protect the egg clutches. With the eggs all mixed together, the trakkats protect them all, and even try to reseal any cracked ones with their own secretions.

Outside the cave, the temperature is dropping with the storm. Aside from the high winds, lightning and thunder, it's also raining, hard.

Key's never seen it rain this hard on Earth, and he's sure that the flash flooding, and wind driven rain are causing major damage.

Feeling Avy shiver, he looks at her. "Cold?"

She shakes her head. Afraid.

"Want to go back inside?"

She nods, so they walk the narrow path between eggs back. The trakkats ignore them, focusing their efforts on the asrukes.

Once inside, Key checks the power readings and prepares a pack. He puts a few charged power cells in, as well as some items he won't need anymore. Now that the temperature's dropping, the cooling system in the com shelter won't be able to draw as much power from the air.

He also grabs the other, empty pack, planning on filing it with whatever he finds on his walk there. The more he can feed a converter, the more energy that system will have.

Hearing Avy slide the sleeve off, he turns to look. Her tail is wider yet, nearly wide enough to fit him inside. Avy said it's already bigger than she thinks it supposed to be. Key seems to think that's because her body has adjusted to him, and there have been times he's caught himself thinking about sliding his whole body inside her cnolee-a.

Avy is still adamant that she does not want that. She is sure that she would absorb him, but not sure if it would result in them successfully becoming one. She doesn't want to loose him, she's been alone too long.

Key heads back out to the cave's entrance and starts collecting loose rocks and debris, putting it all in the empty pack. Once it's full, he sits to wait for the storm to pass. While he waits, he tries to understand the want he has, to climb into Avy's tail, to become one with her. He's never felt this way before, not with Alice, and not with his wife.

Avy sits in the shelter. She knows of Key's desire. She's feared he'd want that. The process of becoming one can be very intoxicating. When she was little, her progenitor had told her a story of a male that had been expelled from a female's cnolee-a. He had climbed back into her, only to be expelled again. This had enraged the male, who then tried to kill the female.

She doesn't want Key to be that way. She knows he's strong. He's proven that already. She just hopes he strong enough to resist those urges.

With the storm passed, Key sets out to the pods. It's dark, there's standing water everywhere, and a lot of the trees have been blown over. Most of Key's landmarks have been moved, so Drudge helps him navigate his way there.

The marsh where the com shelter is, is full. Wading through chest deep water, he reaches the pods, only to find that he can't open the door.

"Drudge, is there enough power to open the air vents?"

"Yes."

"Flood it."

The sound of rushing water fills the air for a short time. When it stops, Key opens the door and steps inside.

He closes the door, and says, "Pump out the water."

"I have a better idea," Drudge states. "Please set out two portable drains."

Realizing what Drudge's idea is, Key gets, and then tosses two drains into the water at each end of the small room. The water level soon starts to drop.

When it's near empty, Drudge announces, "Charging successful, power reserves at 65%."

Key smiles. The flood just gave them an easy way to recharge the pods' batteries.

He starts putting the charged cells in a cabinet inside the pod with the working transmitter. "All right. Status of transmission."

"Online, transmitting. 4235 loops completed."

"Any response," he asks.

"None yet."

He leans back against a chair and sighs. "Well, let's see if we can fully charge this system using the water."

"Acknowledged."

As the vents open back up, the water flows in and starts to swirl around the two drains. "Is there a way you can set this to automatic to keep the cells charged. I also don't want too much water in here at any given time. It's gonna start to freeze soon."

"Done. I would also recommend setting up roof access. If the water doesn't recede before the freeze, you will not be able to get in."

"Good point." Key walks to the end opposite the pod with the good comm. "Let's put it here, along this wall. Sliding type hatch."

He watches as lines appear and a ladder forms from the wall. At the top, a square sliding hatch appears, and manual release levers form so he can open it, without power if needed.

"Good. That ought to cover it. Better put a ladder outside too, right next to the door."

"Acknowledged."

Key notices that the water flow has increased. Having the shelter create a new access and ladders from its panels used a considerable amount of power.

With a heavy sigh, Key looks around. "Everything set?"

"Yes. Transmission is still set to repeat every five minutes, ten if power gets low. Water drain charging set. I can think of nothing else we can do right now."

As he turns to the ladder, he sees one last thing. He returns to the map and makes some updates, correcting for the change in terrain from the last storm.