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Prologue, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three

Prologue

*Time: 2358 AD

*Place: Twain 4, an earth-like planet in the Sagitariun star system

*Civilization level: Early Earth Twenty-first Century

*Technological level: Deep planetary to intermediate star travel

*Specific technological devices:

The skimmer, a passenger car with gravity drive enabling it to travel across the ground in its own gravity wave.

The flyer, a skimmer that can also fly.

The comwatch, a powerful computer the size of a wristwatch.

*Time units: Units are metric. One hectosecond is 100 seconds, a time unit almost twice as long as one English minute. The phrase "Give me a hectosecond," or "Give me a hecto," is equivalent to the English phrase of, "Give me a minute."

*Life-forms: Twain 4 is a water planet with forms of life much like Earth's. But reptiles have evolved to human intelligence, making the planet reptilian based, although mammals, fish, and insects are part of the web of life as well.

She didn't want Raphael to know how afraid she was. If they would come for him, there would be nothing she could do to stop them. Her Raphael, her life, would be taken from her.

Raphael stood quietly at her side. He was a tall man, confident in bearing. His shoulder-length blond hair cascading in perfect waves across the back of his head. His features were finely chiseled, like a Greek sculpture, and his blue eyes sparkled in the afternoon sunsshine.

Trill didn't consider herself that pretty, although others had told her she was. She was a slender woman with dark hair that fell down her back. Her petite face was graced with a strong mouth she considered too severe, and black snapping eyes. Her hair framed her face beautifully. At least, that's what Raphael said. Raphael had told her many times that he loved her and that she was beautiful, but she knew the comments were coming from a most unusual man, a man who loved her unconditionally. He could say things like that to her and mean them. Raphael was perfect and only perfect comments came from him.

Trill felt warm at the touch of Raphael's perfect hand on her imperfect shoulder. "You're not telling me everything, Trill." Raphael's face looked all-knowing as he looked deeply into her eyes.

Trill felt herself panic. "What do you mean?" She tried to sound innocent and unconcerned. "I just wanted us to take a long weekend off. That's all. We deserve this, don't you think?" But then something snapped inside her. She couldn't hold it in any longer. She began to cry.

You've run out of money, haven't you?" Raphael said gently. Now his blue eyes were piercing into her soul. "They're taking me because you've finally run out of money." It was almost a question.

"No...I..."

Raphael looked at her in his gentle, questioning way.

"Raphael, they've...they've increased the lease payments. I can't keep up with them anymore. They're going to..."

Raphael kissed her softly on her lips. The immense comfort in that kiss was not enough to calm her. "It's all right, Trill," he whispered. "We knew this day would come. We knew it would come."

Trill gripped the front of his shirt and sobbed into his chest.

Trill didn't know how long they stood there with her face buried in him, but it ended when he gently, lovingly pushed her away from him. They were standing in a garden- a garden specifically constructed for tourists. Birds--birds more closely evolved from reptiles than those of Earth--hissed their songs from the huge, lush trees surrounding and enclosing them. A fountain bubbled near them. Twain 4 was a water planet, and Earth tourists came here in droves. Trill pulled Raphael to a stone bench and then sat down. "Sit with me," she whispered.

Raphael sat down and looked at her in the affable and understanding way so characteristic of him. "Talk to me," he said, as he put his arms across her shoulders. He leaned against her and took her hand, idly caressing it with his long, perfect fingers.

"I have a plan," she said tiredly. She dared not let her desperation show.

"Trill, it's all right..."

"No!" she said. "It's not all right. We're not giving up without a fight."

"Trill, I'm not..."

Trill quickly put her hand over Raphael's mouth. "Stop. Don't finish the sentence. I don't ever want to hear you say that again...ever."

Raphael sighed and cuddled her to him.

How did they ever get to this point? Trill now wondered. They had been so happy. Living with Raphael for the last three years were the happiest moments of her life. She loved him. She couldn't just give up on him. She desperately wished, now, that she didn't love him; that she had never met him. She turned to him, now, looking squarely into his face. She framed his face with her hands and kissed him gently on the side of his nose.

"Do you have a plan?" Raphael whispered.

Oh, God, why couldn't she just walk away from him? Any fool would just walk away from him and let the repo man do his work. A tear spilled from her left eye. She dabbed her eye quickly, then said, "I have enough money to get us on a salvager. I made sure I kept enough back for that."

"I can't endanger you, Trill. It's best for us both if we just go our separate ways."

"No!" She clung to his shirt, desperately holding him to her.

"How would we make our way through the rainforest, Trill? This is Twain 4's national rainforest. It's a huge area." He swept across the space with his hands, emphasizing the vastness of it. "It's unfamiliar territory," he said, his tone maddeningly logical. "We don't have supplies. We have no shelter to take with us. We're not even comfortable in the wilderness."

"Raphael..."

"Trill," Raphael interrupted, "this is a reptilian planet. There are life forms that can devour us if we get off the beaten tourist paths. We need more than just ourselves to travel through the forest and then make it to a spaceport. Do you even know where the nearest port might be?"

"Yes," she answered. "Yes, Raphael. I've planned this for weeks. I wouldn't have brought us here if I hadn't made at least some kind of plan. You know me better than that."

"Yes," Raphael said. "I know you better than that." He put his head down, as if he were surrendering to an unseen force.

"Sweetheart, we can do this," Trill said, a curious mix of desperation and hope suddenly siezing her. We just have to keep our heads." Trill was beginning to feel more confident now. She was beginning to believe they could actually pull it off.

"Trill, we have markers in us," Raphael said patiently. "They can satellite track us. We can't escape the authorities. No one on this planet is lost for very long. We'll never make it to the spaceport before they track us down."

Trill rummaged in her bag, the bag that she had brought on the pretense they were taking a weekend outing, carefully feeling with her long fingers to the bottom of the bag until she felt the cold, steel handle in her fingers, and pulled it out. She pulled the sheath off the blade and carefully laid them both on the stone bench.

"That's a scalpel, Trill," Raphael said, astonished. "A knife," he said aghast. Where did you get that? Scalpels haven't been used for surgery for at least three hundred years."

"You have to do this for me, Raphael. It's the only way."

"I'm not going to go digging into you with a knife, Trill," Raphael said. "Besides, we're not sure where the marker is in me. Or where it is in you, for that matter. Or even how many there are in each of us. We could kill each other with that thing," he glanced quickly at the scalpel, then back at Trill, "before we even find the markers."

Trill looked levelly at Raphael. "My tracking marker is in my chest. My mother was there when the doctors inserted it. Yours is in your back. You have a second in your left arm and a third in your left foot."

"How do you know all this, Trill? How do you know where my markers are?"

"Someone loaned me an instrument that allowed me to find them. He also gave me the scalpel..." Her voice trailed off.

"Someone took quite a chance for you, Trill."

"Also for you."

"Well, I won't ask who it is."

Trill sighed. "It wouldn't matter if you did. I don't know who it is that helped me. I didn't even learn his name. A trusted friend told me to contact him. That's all I really know about him."

Raphael looked confused. "Did he require a fee from you?"

"Yes."

"Expensive?"

"Very," Trill answered, growing frustrated with Raphael's sudden interrogation.

"But..."

"Raphael," Trill interrupted, "it's enough that I know where your markers have been placed in you. The man--this stranger--leased me an instrument that enabled me to search for them in you. I searched for the markers one night while you were inactive. I know exactly where they are."

Raphael grimaced. "I can't dig into your chest with a knife, Trill."

"Raphael, if you don't cut the marker out of me, I'll do it myself."

"You can't do..." Raphael stopped in mid sentence, then looked up at the bright blue sky. Trill didn't know if it was in frustration or sorrow.

"Raphael, my beautiful healing angel, Raphael," she murmured. Trill slipped the knife back into her bag. Then she looked at Raphael, squared her shoulders with new resolve and said, "Sweetheart, here is my plan; we are going to buy supplies to travel through the forest. When the sun sets, we will go back to the inn, cut the markers out of each other, leave them behind, then escape into the darkness. The satellite tracker will think we are still at the inn and we can run all night. That will at least give us a head start. If you have a better plan, I'm open to it."

"Run through the forest in the middle of the night?" Raphael stood up now. He pushed his perfect fingers through his perfect hair, then looked at Trill. "It might work," he said. "It just might work. But we have to plan every step carefully. We can make no mistakes. For example, we dare not use an electronic compass. They would spot that immediately." She was relieved that Raphael was beginning to at least consider success as a possibility.

Trill dug down into her bag again and pulled out a magnetic compass.

"How will we see that in the dark, Trill? If we turn on any kind of light, we'll alert satellite sensors."

"But they won't know it's us, Raphael," Trill said excitedly. "Our markers will have been removed. We might even be able to get by with an electronic compass. Our markers will be at the inn so there would be no reason for them to suspect anything amiss."

"No...no...," Raphael said thoughtfully. The magnetic compass would probably be safer."

The reptoid stood quietly behind the counter. Reptoids looked somewhat human: they were bipeds; they had two arms and two legs. But their bodies were reptilian. When they spoke, their muddled English speech was punctuated by quiet hisses, characteristic of a reptile. When Trill first came to Twain 4 she was revolted by the sight of the reptoids, but years of living here helped her adjust somewhat to their appearance and mannerisms.

The reptoid reached up behind the counter at the display of camping equipment on the back wall, clutched a small camouflage green and brown package, then laid it on the counter. A yellow cord with a ring attached to its end stuck out of the package. The reptoid looked at them, it's tan-gray reptilian face, its hooded eyes and nonexistent nose a mask of terror. It opened its mouth and said, "Yuhsss. Thiss iss whud you need...Puhll da rung and thiss opensss..." The reptoid tugged the yellow ring with its three-fingered hand and the package began to expand until a tent for two sat on the counter, its suddenly expanded width pushing Trill and Raphael away from the counter. They began to laugh. "You likess diss...?"

"Yes," Trill said. "We like it. But before we buy it you will have to show us how to put it back into its package."

Night had fallen and they were in their room, making preparations for their escape. The room was cheap, and it smelled of dirt and decidedly human sweat, remnants of previous occupants. Reptoids, although tolerant of humans, especially since humans had greatly improved the economy on Twain 4 with their coming, seldom bothered to clean up after their human guests. Tolerate, yes. Accommodate...? Humans accepted this, and the diversity of life on Twain 4, its alien environment, its unusual intelligent reptoid beings, attracted Earth tourists, regardless of the accommodations. Trill was simply thankful she wasn't a half-breed. Hated by reptoid and human alike, the half-breed, a mixed species of human and reptile, didn't fit anywhere. To rent a room such as the one they were in now--this room foul with the filth of others--would not be rented to a half-breed.

Trill took the scalpel from her bag and handed it to Raphael. The light in the room was dim, the room's interior lit only by a very small lamp next to the bed.

"Take the markers out of me, first, Trill. Since I feel no pain, I can endure the procedure. Then when I'm clean, I will take the marker out of you." Raphael shuddered as he spoke.

"Lie down, sweetheart," Trill said. Raphael stretched himself on top of the bed, face down. Trill pulled the scalpel from her bag. She felt deftly with her fingers along the right side of Raphael's back. A small nodule appeared under her delicate touch. "I think I've found it."

"I thought you knew where it was?" Raphael commented, his voice muffled in the bed covers.

"I do. I know where it is but I couldn't remember the exact location. I believe I've found it." She held the scalpel like a writing stylus, then made a cut just to the side of the nodule. She reached into her bag again and fumbled for a tweezers she knew was in the bag. She found it and probed for the marker in the incision. "I found it!" she whispered excitedly. She gripped it and pulled it out.

Raphael rolled onto his back and looked at the marker that was barely the width of his little fingernail. Trill carefully laid it on the bed pillow. In only a matter of minutes Trill had similarly removed the markers from both his leg and foot.

"Lie down," Raphael whispered to Trill. "I will do the best I can not to hurt you."

"I know you will," she whispered in return. "There are wound dressings in my bag. Hand me my bag." Her hand was shaking as she took the bag from him. "Now get me a towel."

"The towels are filthy, Trill. Why do you...?"

"Please," she said. "Just give me a towel."

Raphael went to the cleansing room and brought her one of the towels hanging there. Trill folded it into a wad. "Cut quickly, sweetheart," she said. She put the towel into her mouth so its filthy wad would keep her from screaming. She felt the cold touch of the blade, bit down on the wad, and writhed with pain as the piercing steel of the scalpel severed her flesh. "Unghh!"

"I'm so sorry, Trill. I'll work as fast as I can."

Trill felt the tweezers as Raphael forced it into the wound. Her arms thrashed uncontrollably at the pain but the wad of towel in her mouth effectively muffled her screams and gave her something to grit her teeth against.

"It's out," Raphael said with relief in his voice. He held the tweezers in front of her eyes so she could see the marker, covered with blood, that had been in her since the day she was born. All citizens of Earth had markers in them. It was not a choice: it was mandated by a government that was nearly totalitarian in nature. Removing a marker--one's own or another's--meant death. And the laws of Earth governed the humans on Twain 4 as well.

With alarm, Trill looked down at her chest to see blood oozing from the wound. "The blood!" Trill said, her voice on the edge of panic. "Stop the blood!"

Raphael quickly put a wad of gauze against the wound. He held it there while he put his other hand on Trill's forehead to comfort her. "Shhh, Trill. Shhh."

Trill took several deep breaths, then deliberately concentrated on slowing her breathing. She knew that panic would just make her bleed all the heavier. "I love you," Trill said as she gripped his wrist in pain. "I love you."

"Yes, I know," Raphael whispered. "I love you, too." He smiled at her in the dim light of the bed lamp. Then he reached for the tube of healing gel Trill had already laid out for him. The incision was just to the left of Trill's breastbone. He took the gauze away, then quickly dabbed the healing gel over the wound. Blood seeped through the gel in some places where he hadn't coated it heavily enough and Raphael dabbed on more gel to plug the leaks. "Now rest, Trill. In a very short time the wound will be healed."

"We don't have time for me to rest." She pulled herself up. Raphael looked at the bandages on the nightstand. "I don't believe I know what to do with this, Trill?"

"That's because this kind of material hasn't been used for hundreds of years. It's as primitive as it can get." She took the rest of the gauze and folded it into a pad. Then she pulled off a length of adhesive tape, groaning as she did so as the physical effort traveled into her new wound. Raphael looked alarmed. "I'm all right, Raphael," Trill said assuringly. "I just need you to fasten this patch over my wound with this sticky material."

Raphael quickly made the connection. He dabbed on more healing gel to make sure it would completely stop the bleeding, then taped the gauze pad over the wound. Then he helped Trill put her shirt back on.

They laid the markers on the bed mattress in the approximate locations of where they would be should they be lying together. Then they covered them with the coverlet. Raphael helped Trill put on her backpack. Then he put on his own. They smiled at each other in the garish sodium glow of the bed lamp. Trill kissed Raphael on his perfect lips. He caressed her and murmured that he loved her very much. Then they switched off the lamp and quietly steeled out the door into the night.

They had been lucky so far. The moon was out and they could see at least a short distance in front of them. Although walking across the forest floor was tough going at times, by holding onto each other as they walked they managed to stay together as well as keep their spirits up.

Trill was an Earther and had lived on Twain 4 for only the past 10 years. At 36- years-old, she was determined to set out on a new life for herself. When she left Earth at 26, her friends thought she was making a mistake, but they also knew that when she got something in her head she would follow it through, even if that 'something' meant leaving everyone behind. Her parents were no longer alive, she had no siblings, she hadn't felt close to any of her relatives, so there was little on Earth to keep her there. She came to Twain 4 by intergalactic shuttle, paying her way while working as a waitress on board. She knew she could have made more money during the ride if she had made her sexual services available to the businessmen who frequented the Earth/Twain route, but she didn't. She wasn't about to give herself to strangers. She had been taken by a stranger in the night when she was too young to even know the attraction her body held for men, and her attitude towards them had been dangerously twisted as a result of that unspeakable encounter.

Seven years after Trill arrived on Twain 4, Raphael entered her life. She was intensely lonely and she needed him. He appeared at just the right time because she could afford him then.

Trill had earned a degree in psychology when she was still living on Earth, and she took that knowledge with her. It turned out that Earthers living on Twain 4 were very much in need of counseling. Living shoulder to shoulder with intelligent reptilian life forms was a considerable strain on many humans. Soon she had built up a sizeable clientele of Earthers, and with it a considerable income.

She felt a tug on her arm as Raphael pulled her to a stop.

"What?" Trill whispered.

"See the lighter patch of sky?" Raphael pointed. "The suns are going to be up soon." Twain 4 had two suns, both approximately half the strength of Earth's sun, but both in the same cycle with barely two degrees of distance between their edges. He gripped her upper arm. "We'll have to stop soon and set up our shelter."

"Yes," she whispered in agreement. Their plan had been to travel by night and hide by day. Traveling by day and risking detection would have been a suicidal escape plan. And since some of the more dangerous life forms in the forest were reptilian to varying degrees, their cold blooded metabolism rendered them nearly inactive in the cool evening. The rainforest also harbored warm blooded life forms-- birds and mammals--but Trill wasn't overly concerned about them. The danger was from the reptiles that lay in heavy cover and swamp areas.

They shucked off their back packs under the shelter of the trees. It would still be dark enough to lend them cover while they went about setting up the tent. Trill was relieved that her wound didn't hurt anymore. She knew that under reasonable circumstances the healing gel would have knit her flesh back together in an hour or less. It had taken somewhat longer, but she knew that was because she wasn't resting and letting her body help in the healing process.

Raphael pulled the ripcord on the tent and it slowly, almost magically expanded itself. They dragged the tent as far under the trees as they could. Then they threw their backpacks and themselves inside.

The last thing Trill remembered before falling into sleep was cuddling into Raphael's arms. "I love you so much," he had whispered to her.

When they awoke it was mid afternoon. Trill stretched, playfully ruffled Raphael's hair until he awoke to her teasing, then realized she had to pee. "Ahhh..."

"I told you, you should have gone before we fell asleep," Raphael said sleepily. "Didn't I specifically tell you that last night?"

Trill smiled. "Yeah, you told me. I didn't have to go then."

"But you..."

"...really have to go now," Trill finished. "I really really have to go now!" She slowly pushed the tent flap back, well aware of where they were and how terribly careful she had to be. She slowly poked her head out and looked around. They had put the tent in a good place: they were completely surrounded by overhanging tree branches and brush.

She crawled the rest of the way out of the tent. When she was far enough away from it she pulled off her pants so she wouldn't get them wet and then relieved herself. Suddenly her heart burst with fear. A sharp hissing sound came from the bushes near her. She stood stock still, not wanting to alarm whatever predator might be there.

The source of the hissing showed itself soon enough. A lizard--Trill estimated it to be a full meter and a half in length from its nose to the end of its tail--came out of the brush and glared at Trill with its unblinking eyes. Trill froze on the spot. A low, involuntary "Unnnh," came from her throat. She had never seen a skinks in the wild before. It was one thing to look at them in closed cages in a zoo, but it was another experience all together to be confronted by one in the wild.

She saw a slight movement on her left. "Don't move," Raphael whispered. "Don't move."

Trill had no intention of moving. In fact, she was so terrified she knew she probably wouldn't have been able to put one foot ahead of the other if it should come to flight. And she hadn't yet had time to pull her pants up. Conditions were not good for running.

Raphael slowly reached for Trill and slowly pulled her to him. The skinks didn't move. It behaved as if it was a stuffed animal in a Twain 4 museum. Trill slowly reached down and slid her pants up to her waist, the skinks immobile at her movement. "Ohhh...kay...," Trill whispered. "Let's take this very slow, Raph."

When they got back inside the tent, Trill felt herself begin to panic. "It's all right, Trill," Raphael comforted. "You just disturbed it and it was investigating the disturbance."

"I know, I know," Trill said, head in her hands. "I know," she said again.

They stayed in their tent until nightfall. Then they stuffed the tent back into Raphael's backpack and set off again. Once again the moon was up and the stars were out. It was Twain 4's summer season. The weather was humid and warm, much like an Earth rainforest would be.

"We should be more than halfway to the spaceport by morning," Trill said, puffing as they pushed their way through a close stand of trees that seemed to impede every step."

"Yes," Raphael agreed.

They said little more until the rising suns began to lighten the horizon. Raphael looked at the compass. "We are right on target," he said, his voice hopeful.

Trill put her arm through his. "We'll make it," she said. "In another day and a half we will be on the salvager."

"But where will we go, Trill?" Raphael asked. "You know that it's a high crime to live on either Twain 4 or Earth without a tracking marker. You could be executed for what you've done." She felt him grip her hard as the reality of what they'd done sank into them both.

"Well," Trill said almost desperately, "We can live on the salvager for awhile. Maybe we could even work for them. We could make it our world until we have decided where to go. Salvagers travel all over this sector and there are many inhabitable planets in this sector. Many...many places for us to live." She hugged him briefly. "We are two very bright people. We'll figure something out."

"You're not bright enough, I'm afraid," a strange voice called from the trees behind them.

A sharp sting blasted across Trill's back as a fugitive net snared her and Raphael in its web.

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