Page 120 of Return of the Nine

She shuddered. “Not one you want to hear.”

He nodded. “Accepted. I reserve the right to ask again.”

“Fair enough.” She smiled and entered the R and D section of the mother ship with a sense of anticipation.

Today, she was going to play with big toys, and she couldn’t wait.

Four hours later, Deniir appeared at her side.

“Ula, what have you figured out for that portable healer?”

“It’s done. On the edge of the table there. It now generates a beam that works on the clotting principal. It identifies the proteins in the tissue by doing a calibration analysis of stable tissue and then the beam can be used to encourage the generation of healed tissue.” She flapped her hand at the unit.

“Already? Trull has been working on that for two years.” Deniir picked it up an examined it.

“Well, that is why you asked me here, right?”

She felt a touch on her shoulder, and she turned, blinking up at him. His features were calm and sober. “I brought you here to see how your mind worked, to see if you could inspire the engineers working here. I didn’t bring you here to drain your brain.”

“You are touching me.”

He nodded. “You need to be touched. I am getting the feeling that contact is a thing you left behind when you moved to your aerie.”

His wings shielded their conversation from the other engineers, and his hand moved from her shoulder to cup her neck.

She could feel the warmth of his fingers, and her heart stuttered in her chest. “It was my choice. My people or my self-respect. I chose me, I always choose me.”

“There doesn’t have to be a choice between doing what you love and being with someone. You can have socialization and job satisfaction.” His thumb skated along her jawline.

Ula stared up at him, and she was completely hypnotized by the warm, seductive scent of Deniir with the blend of a wild storm. It made her want to cuddle close for safety, and she guessed that it was a genetic ploy to have a female do just that.

“How did the planet do that?” She asked him softly.

“Do what?” He was leaning toward her.

“Key my species to respond to yours.”

“No one knows, but I am not complaining.”

His lips made contact with hers, and she felt an electric jolt of energy and a sparking of ideas that she had never even thought of involving technology that she hadn’t heard of. Thoughts that were not her own.

Her eyes widened in surprise, but Deniir’s hand tightened on her neck, keeping her lips pressed to his. Her mind organized the new information as it streamed into her thoughts, and she could only imagine that the same was happening to him.

She heard a throat clearing, and Deniir continued their kiss for another minute before leisurely lifting his head, a dazed look in his eyes. He smiled softly and caressed her cheek. “Hello.”

Ula blinked. “Hello. Learning to fly looked like fun.”

He grinned and grimaced a moment later. “And I understand your reasoning for your life of solitude. We will deal with that another day.”

The sound of Darthuun clearing his throat was repeated. “My son, as much as I enjoy the thought of you finding a partner, the pheromone cloud you two are producing is distracting the other engineers.”

Ula blushed. “Sorry, Darthuun.”

“My apologies, Father.”

The master engineer was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, his wings flared out to frame him. He wore the same type of clothing that Deniir wore. A sleeveless shirt slit up the back to allow for the wings’ free movement and tight trousers that tucked into knee-high boots.

His sandy hair was caressed by silvery strands, which hinted at the changes that Deniir would eventually undergo.

---