Chapter 1

When the healer was done examining their son, he called the parents aside and said, “The good news is that there’s nothing wrong with your son. The bad news is pretty much the same. What you are smelling is his natural scent.”

“But he smells so bad!” exclaimed his mother.

“I understand. It is very rare, but this does happen, and it usually means a lonely life. There are others out there, somewhere, who will probably appreciate his scent, but most of those with this condition end up remaining unbonded.”

“Dear, he seems to be doing fine for now,” his father said. “I think we need to visit the Temple and seek the aid of the Goddess for Fendirillen.”

Over the ensuing cyankas, Fendirillen grew very tall, a full five foot, four inches, and became an accomplished hunter, both in the style of his ancestors and with modern weaponry. His scent continued to stifle his social life, and he and his parents continued to pray.

And then, when he was twelve cyankas old, the Imperium annexed the human worlds of Tau Epsilon, Eckleston and Berringer after they revolted from the Protectorate.

Virginia — Ginny to her friends — Johnston was seventeen standard years old when Eckleston, her home world, revolted against the Protectorate that had ruled it since it was first settled. A lot of the people were scared, but the consensus was that it was better to fight than be trod upon. All of the older people who had been in the fleets said the same thing, though: they needed help.

When help finally arrived, it took them all by surprise! In exchange for help winning their freedom from the Protectorate, the local governments of Eckleston, Berringer and Tau Epsilon had agreed that their worlds would become part of the Dizyntk Imperium!

The saving grace was a message from a princess of the Imperium. The message, broadcast to all three worlds, was the first time that most people had seen a dizyntk. All of the Protectorate’s propaganda couldn’t obscure the fact that the cat, or woman, or something, who was talking was small, and cute and non-threatening.

Virginia and her best friend, Cheri Hanson, watched the video together, just as they did most things together. When it was over she turned to her friend and echoed the other’s thoughts.

“That was a dizyntk? Um, she was nothing like what I thought.”

Cheri said, “Oh, yeah! And did you notice? She was speaking English, said her mate taught it to her. There’s more going on here!”

“It’s still scary, though. I think we were all hoping we’d be independent or something like that.”

“Yeah, but we’ve all heard people talking about our chances, and I think they just went up a lot.”

A couple of weeks later, Ginny ran to Cheri’s home carrying a paper. Once they were alone she put the paper down and jumped up and wrapped her arms around her taller friend’s neck before giving her a resounding kiss!

“Ginny?! What’s gotten into you?” Cheri quickly looked around, even though she knew they were alone.

Ginny scooted down and retrieve the paper to show her friend. “Right here! Check it out!”

Cheri swiftly scanned the article and her eyes went wide. Going back and reading it more thoroughly, she said, “So, since they’re now the government, it means that we can be together?”

“Well, almost,” said Ginny. “It means that we’re not under Protectorate laws anymore, so we can’t be arrested for loving each other. I think they’re still trying to work out the other details. But still...” Here, she stepped back and tilted her head back, so she could look Cheri in the eye. “Cheri Hanson, I love you. I want to be with you for the rest of our lives.”

Cheri then picked the shorter girl up to eye level and kissed her before saying, “Virginia Johnston, I love you. I always will.” She then hugged Ginny to her, while Ginny wrapped her legs around Cheri’s waist.

After a few minutes they separated and got busy searching for anything they could find about the dizyntk, and the relationships which were allowed. They were still at it an hour later when Cheri’s mother came home.

“Hi, Ginny. I saw something today that you two might be interested in.”

“Is it about this, Mrs. Hanson?” Ginny held up the paper that had brought her running to the Hanson’s home, an hour earlier.

Beth Hanson took a quick look and smiled. “Yes, very much about that. The other thing is that some civilian dizyntk are supposed to be visiting town in the upcoming weeks, along with an interpreter, so we can all learn more about our new alien overlords.”

The last was said with a grin. Cheri’s father was in the fleet, fighting for their freedom, as she spoke. Beth had her own apprehension about the news that they were being absorbed into the Imperium, but through her job she had access to information that wasn’t normally available and that had quelled most of her fears. She also had a note that she’d just gotten from her brother, who had been part of a group that tried to escape the Protectorate earlier.

“Cheri, today I got a message from Bobby...” that was as far as she got before her daughter’s squeal stopped her.

“Is he okay? The princess said that they had taken in a group of refugees. Was he one of them?”

Ginny started to withdraw to let them discuss their family matters, but Beth just caught her arm and redirected her back into the room. “There’s no need for you to leave, Ginny dear. In fact, you’ll probably be interested in what my brother had to say.”

“Dearest Beth, Tom and Cheri,” she said as she started to read the note. “We made it! We wouldn’t have except for the dizyntk, though. They intercepted the Protectorate ships, and helped us to limp to one of their worlds, a planet they call Elishen. It was pretty crazy for a while, but their ambassador to, well, humans was able to get it all ironed out.

“It turned out the ambassador is human and is married — or, as they say, bonded — to a princess. That’s where things get really strange. The ambassador and the princess have a daughter, and you can see that she’s got some human and some dizyntk in her. I think the doctors are going nuts trying to figure that out. Still, she knows English, and she’s been going around talking to people. Her father may be the official ambassador, but his daughter, Ariarisha, is doing a lot to smooth the way. She’s really the goodwill ambassador. I think we’ve all gotten to talk with her at one time or another, and she’s just charming.

“Lately she’s been bringing her, I guess you’d say, girlfriend around. We had all learned that dizyntk are okay with those types of relationships, but it still seems strange sometimes to see it so openly. The last time she was here someone asked about it, and she said that since we had all agreed to become part of the Imperium that we could all expect to see more of it on our home worlds as well. That got me thinking and, unless I’m badly mistaken, as soon as that news gets out I expect Cheri and Virginia Johnston to become inseparable.”

As soon as she read that, both girls gasped and blushed. Beth just chuckled indulgently before continuing on. “I’ve heard a couple of other things about the dizyntk that you might want to know. First, never piss one off. Someone on the other side of the camp did that, and he’s going to have three scars across is his face for his stupidity. People who were there say you could barely see the dizyntk move. She was just standing there, then the guy was on the ground with blood on his face. The other is that they can run like the wind. Ariarisha says that she’s not as fast as a pure dizyntk, but she’s untouchable on the soccer field — if she turns it on, no human ever born could hope to catch her.

“Anyway, they told us that now that the Protectorate has been beaten back we can get messages back and forth, so I whipped this up. If you want to get a message to me, send it in care of Ambassador Michael Christopher, and it should get to me.”

“Okay, ladies! First things first,” Beth said. “While you haven’t done anything that would’ve caught the eye of the Protectorate’s people, those who know you have known you were in love for years, and we’ve had time to get used to the idea. A lot of people out there are just learning about all of this, though, and I expect some friction, so please keep your heads down.”

“I’m sorry it has been so hard on you, ‘Rillen,” Ingradina Grindlien said to her son as he finished getting his things in order to be loaded.