Delivered by the Defender (Kindred Tales)

Well, he would take it with him to remember her by, he decided, tucking it into the pocket at the back of his device. Maybe reading it would give him a window into the strange desires of human females.

If nothing else, it ought to be entertaining.

6

Free at last!

Selena hurried out of the shuttle and took a deep breath as she searched the crowd of faces for Jess, who had promised to come meet her. What an awful trip—how totally embarrassing!

She was sure she would probably laugh about it later, but right now the humiliation was still too fresh. She just hoped she never had to see the big Kindred, whose crotch she had inadvertently dived into, again!

But though she looked everywhere, she couldn’t see Jess or her husband, Tolern, the tall, blond Blood Kindred who was the Ambassador to Ma’shorka Centra. Where were they?

All right, don’t panic, Selena told herself sternly. They’re bound to be here somewhere and in the meantime, this is just like any other airport back home.

Except, it really wasn’t. There was one long, wide, central corridor which branched out into waiting areas around gates where ships departed and docked. But the crowds of people—and there were a lot of them—walking back and forth along the main concourse, put even the strangest airport back home to shame.

Most of the people had skin that was various shades of blue and green, or pink and purple, mixed together in a patchy, camouflage-type pattern. Selena assumed they must be the native Ma’shorkans, since Jess had mentioned they had interesting skin colors. But some of them had much stranger attributes than just camouflage skin.

On more than one alien face, Selena saw a second face, staring back at her. It was difficult to catch a glimpse of this, since everyone was moving so quickly, but she finally saw a woman who was standing still, who exhibited this odd, double face. Selena studied her with great interest, though she tried to act like she was looking at something over the two-faced woman’s shoulder.

The woman had a normal-looking face from the eyes down. But above the bridge of her nose, there was a second bridge and a second, upside-down nose, right in the lower half of her forehead. Further up, was a second, upside-down mouth just below her hairline. This second mouth was painted with the same lip-stain as the first mouth.

There was no second pair of eyes—both faces—the top one and the normal, bottom one—seemed to share a single pair, which were located in the regular place on the woman’s head. But the extra, upside-down nose and mouth on the forehead were so odd, Selena couldn’t help staring. Was this some kind of Ma’shorkan trait? If so, why didn’t all of them have it? And why hadn’t Jess told her about it? It seemed like something she would mention. And where in the world was her friend, anyway?

She wished she had a cell phone and could call her, but of course it wouldn’t have worked here. She had a hard enough time getting good service back home—let alone on a whole other planet!

Selena looked around some more and then realized she had to pee. She didn’t want to get lost or go too far from the gate she’d arrived at, in case Jess was looking for her, but luckily, she saw a public restroom right across the wide, busy corridor from her.

At least, she assumed it was a public restroom. It had a pink hologram of a curving, female, hourglass figure hovering above the door and women of all races and species seemed to be going and coming from it in a steady flow.

I’ll just pee really quick and then come back and wait in one of the chairs, Selena told herself. Hopefully, Jess is only running late.

Which would be just like Jess—she had nearly been late to her own wedding! Selena and the other members of her string quartet had been forced to play Pachelbel’s Canon through twice before she’d finally showed up, panting and red in the face, in her antique lace wedding dress.

Gripping her violin case tightly in one hand and her little luggage cube in the other, Selena dashed across the busy corridor and directly into the bathroom.

Inside were a number of women, many of them aliens, milling around. There was also a long row of doors, which must be the restroom stalls. Finding one that was open, Selena hurried inside and shut it behind her.

But once she was inside the small, enclosed room, she wondered if she had gotten the right place. There was no toilet or anywhere else to sit at all. Instead, there were number of small shelves on one wall—she assumed for personal belongings—and a large drain with a metal grate, about the diameter of a man-hole cover—in the middle of the floor.