That morning, the sky rolled in steel-gray and pushed a chill ahead of it that raised a mist from the lagoon the color of old cotton. The peach-colored sand and blue-green tallgrass lay blanketed with sparkling dew, tiny birds and lizards huddled under the long silky strands licking the dew from their feathers and pebbly skins. Miles beyond the chalk-cliffed archipelago a low head of darkening clouds muffled the horizon like a hand over a mouth, and before the sun rose on Dreenai that morning the air was tense with signs of the first autumn storm.
Crossing the footbridge between the university and its community of apartment buildings Ardus felt the subsonic rumblings of thunder and smelled salt-tinged rain coming in from the sea. He raised his head, nostrils flaring as he took in the electrified air and the ends of his barbels and his thick skin registering the change in atmospheric pressure and environmental moisture. "There will be a storm tonight," he said to Nina as a gust blew her dress tight against her legs, "you may prefer to spend it with me rather than alone." The corner of his mouth drew into a smile at the thought of Nina clamping herself to him with the first cracks of lightning while the building shook under the onslaught of rain and the waves assaulted the shore.
"Storms don't scare me," Nina hitched her bag higher, "I grew up on an island in the middle of the Pacific, it'll take more than a hurricane to upset me. But I'll stay another night if you can't handle being alone." She grinned up at him, walking at his side past the dropoff to the beach. The surf was already whipping, sea foam and salt spray throwing itself high enough to dampen her hair and the hem of her skirt.
They passed a long stretch of red-brown shrubs growing along the path and the whistling of the wind through the woody stems, rattling and clicking, added to the grumbling of the water and low squeaking of sand beneath their bare feet. Overhead black divers and white wave-streakers struggled against the incoming front, their long necks tucked close to their bodies as their wings beat furiously against the strengthening gale – at the height of these autumn storms one would barely be able to hear himself think over the noise.
Indoors, the university's thick stone walls muffled the hiss of sand and the resulting quiet played an eerie contrast. It would be another hour before students and the teaching faculty arrived, and the halls echoed with the soft slap of feet and the rustling of printouts and quieted voices. Overhead lights hummed and flickered, and the pinpoint flashes of emergency lighting on battery power signaled they were on standby. In the shared office Ardus found Athe applying protective steel coverings to his office windows from the outside – it was easier to remove the panels than it was to clean up broken glass and install new windows. "They say it's going to be a bad one," the younger brown Dreen leaned inside the window to announce.
"As they always do," Ardus replied as he settled into his desk. "How is Boda?"
"Could be worse, but he's got his arm in a sling now – he can't use that hand at all. The specialist said that as long as he isn't in pain he should try to go about his day as normally as possible. Nia's making the necessary adjustments to his schedule."
Nodding, Ardus booted up his terminal. Nina settled in at her tiny desk and pulled a thermos of black kelp tea from her bag, sipping on it while her tablet downloaded and uploaded from the university network in its docking station. Athe finished his task and returned inside before long, taking up a polishing cloth and rubbing the wood shelving with preserving oil. Ignoring him, Ardus made a mental note to draw his own panels closed when he returned home and used a weather map to calculate how much time he had before that job became absolutely necessary.
Watching a storm come in off of the ocean had been one of Timam's favorite autumn pastimes, and doing so had become a comforting habit of his own. Taking one last look at the beach before shuttering the apartment's broad seaward window and opening again to a new scene was exciting, and the storms always carried with them odd and interesting things from the sea floor – fossils, shells, bits of driftwood from distant shores, artifacts from ancient sailing ships, and on occasion the remains of creatures recently killed by the elusive, almost mythic starfish. Ardus imagined Nina's excitement when he showed her the changed landscape and wonderful new things that washed up, her eyes wide and silver-bright as she turned over the sand and uncovered sea glass, fossilized sea creatures and cone-shaped shells in a hundred colors. Already he was imagining her finds cast in Meem's crystal-clear resins, on display in the office and-
His thoughts were interrupted by a rapid knock on the frosted glass door, shattering his ideas of holding Nina through the night as she jumped at booms of thunder and making him crease his forehead in a frown. "Who could that be?" he asked no one in particular, though Athe and Nina both shrugged in response. Before Athe could rise from where he knelt before the desk, oiling the decorative carving along the front, Ardus was on his feet and he slid the door aside without pausing to check the screen. Dean Reda stood before him, her red skin dotted with faint yellow and white pores. A human he did not recognize, dressed in what looked to be a military uniform (Omi knew how long it had been since Dreenai had employed a true military) posed stiffly beside her, his hands tucked behind him so that his elbows stood out at uncomfortable-looking angles. "Reda?"
"Is Doctor Ma'atanoa in?" Reda took care to look steadily into Ardus's eyes, indicating with muted flashes around her throat that something was amiss. She nodded towards the human below. "This, er, fellow wants to talk to her, I think."
Ardus looked down at the human who stood barely to his chest, a little taller than Nina but with hard features and an unpleasant look on his face. The human returned the look, and Ardus detected the slight pulse in his throat that gave away a swallow of fear. "Did he say why?"
"I think it has something to do with the Port. He doesn't speak any Dreen, maybe Doctor Ma'atanoa can translate." Reda shrugged and the human gave a minute flinch. The way his eyes, small and dark below heavy brows spiked with coarse hair, darted between the two Dreen showed he was not comfortable around anyone larger than himself, and that any authority superseding his offended him.
The little man took advantage of the pause and spat out a string of hard, clipped words that sounded demanding and impatient. Appearing behind him, Nina placed her hand on Ardus's hip and spoke another string back, her voice not as harsh but no less firm. The man cleared his throat and gave the Dreen another cautious look before speaking again, this time with a touch less attitude and a furtive glance at Ardus. He looked up at the Dreen and Ardus returned a cool, blank stare with one eyebrow raised. You have some nerve, coming to my office and being sharp with my Nina.
The two went back and forth for a few more exchanges, Nina shaking her head and growing more impatient the longer the man talked. She made gestures that Ardus recognized as her usual shows of irritation, rolling her eyes and huffing frequently. At one point she held up three fingers in the man's face and spat something that made him scowl. Finally she slashed her hand through the air in front of herself and crossed her arms, fingers tucked in and thumbs out, pink nails contrasting with her brown arms.
The man glared at her for a moment before opening his mouth to say something, and when he leaned towards her Ardus produced a rumble that stopped the man cold. When he looked up Ardus flashed his dirks in an unfriendly grin. The human's eyes widened and his attitude towards Nina improved tremendously, and before long Nina's frosty expression turned to victory. She inclined her head, tossed her hair and made a point to look at the tag on his uniform, printed in a script Ardus could not read but was sure was the man's name, rank and probably some indicator of who Nina would be contacting later that very day to report her displeasure.
When the man left – and once his back was turned Nina raised her middle finger at him and muttered something Ardus thought humans only said during sex – Nina turned to Dean Reda and began to apologize profusely for taking so long. "His skull's about as thick as these walls," she commented, "he didn't seem to understand what a three-year contract meant or that I'm beyond the Federation's reach." Ardus watched the man turn down the far hall and pause to let a group of laboratory workers pass. He looked up at the smock-clad Dreen with cautious distaste, as though he expected them to make way for him.
"Why did you bring him, Madam Dean?" Ardus asked, "Is Duni unwell?"
"I tried to get him to go with Duni, but he made a lot of noise and pointed at me. He kept saying Doctor Ma'atanoa's name over and over, and the more I pointed at Duni the noisier he got."
"He thought you were the secretary," Nina explained sourly. "Typical, the Fed are a bunch of chauvinists. Probably couldn't believe that a woman was the dean of a whole university." She gave Reda a look as if to apologize for the man's behavior.
"What did he want?"
"Would you believe he came all this way to tell me the Fed was considering packing us all back to Earth? Not that they were going to, but that they're thinking about it. Imagine, sending some Fed bootlicker a hundred million miles just to tell me something that won't even happen."
Ardus let slip a short, sharp growl at the mention of his Nina being taken away. "Absolutely not." He knew his Collar of Aku was probably boiling orange, dangerously close to red, but he caught himself and pulled a breath in through his nostrils. Even indoors, the air smelled ionized and judging by the constant hiss of sand blowing against the window the wind had continued to strengthen its assault on the shore. "There is no reason for it, it is a gross overreach of authority-"
"Ardus," Reda put a hand up, her red eyes meeting his firmly. "This program is as important to the university as it is to you. I understand your concern and I understand your..." She looked down at Nina, her expression gentle but not entirely clear. "...attachment to Doctor Ma'atanoa, at least as much as I'm able to. I assure you, she remains under the protection of the administration as long as Dreenai authorities will permit, which is to say as long as they deem it safe. As she said, the Federation has expressed the idea of returning the humans but no plans have been made. I would tell you if there were."
It took everything in Ardus's power to not squirm uncomfortably at the mention of their relationship, though he ought to have expected word to get around by now. Either way, Dean Reda didn't seem to be disapproving or disgusted with the idea. She continued, "While I'm not worried about the Federation, I am concerned about this paralysis affecting Dreen. Have you felt anything unusual lately? Vomiting, headache, muscle weakness or paralysis?"
"No, none of those."
"And you, Doctor Ma'atanoa?"
Nina shook her head. "No ma'am, I feel fine."
"Good. If anything changes, I want it reported immediately. I've asked all departments employing humans that they cooperate with the Port however possible. I'll be sending out further instructions this afternoon." Reda smoothed the front of her tunic and tucked a brick-colored barbel behind her ear, studded with tiny pearls. She added, "Also, the weather is looking rougher by the hour – I'm told we should expect sustained gusts and low visibility. I see Athe has already installed the window covers, I have other maintenance crews doing the same. Anyone who feels unsafe is welcome to return to their homes as they see fit."