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( So, okay, the important thing to do here is not to panic. Terasu would come running, for one, thing, which is the exact opposite of what Chiela wants her to do. So don’t panic, and, um. Okay, don’t panic is as far as she’s gotten because, seriously, what the hell? What. The. Hell. )

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( The room smells of wood smoke and incense; the scent’s so buried in the room, in the carpet and the draperies that even when Chiela isn’t burning it, the scent’s still there, strong and heady. She’s had clients who don’t like it, claimed it gave them headaches, but it’s never bothered Chiela. )

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( Chiela’s standing in the kitchen, rifling through the cupboards, trying to determine if there really is nothing to make dinner with and if she really does have to go to the store, when the front door swings inward, bouncing off the wall, and Terasu walks through with a, “We’ve actually got mail.” )

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( Chiela always feels so awkward at these events. )

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( Then came a thump from out in the hall, which at first Chiela thought was a thump from within the room because, honestly, who could tell the difference when the ship’s rocking was knocking everything sideways and off surfaces and into walls? )

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Chiela had to watch the newscast three times through before she could accept that yes, one of those kids from the orchard had a cell phone, and yes, he’d gotten a perfectly in-focus video of her transforming into a freaking lizard while Terasu floated beside her and, yes, the media had gotten a hold of it and aired it, which probably never would have happened if there also hadn’t been reports of a freaking spaceship hovering over the Earth and beaming them up. Which the video also showed, directly after the freak storm that, apparently, Terasu had caused. And seriously, that had to be one expensive phone because the feed wasn’t even grainy. CNN had apparently tracked down who Chiela and Terasu were, and there was an interview both with their next door neighbor and Neavah, who was a complete and total traitor and had told them all they’d cared to know about Chiela, and then gone on to ruminate on whether Chiela’s psychic abilities were the result of her being a dragon or an alien or an alien dragon.

“Jesus Christ,” Chiela said.

“So you see,” Nikolao said, killing the recording and valiantly ignoring how Pipra was hanging off his shoulder making kissy faces, “why we can’t send you back,” and, yeah, Chiela saw why, but that didn’t mean she was thrilled about it.

Chiela scrubbed her hands across her face - the scales and talons had finally retreated, although the wings still refused to disappear - feeling utterly fucking overwhelmed.

“What the hell am I supposed to do, now?” she asked, and she was perilously close to whining. But, hell with it, she’d totally earned some whining.

“We could drop you on another planet,” Nikolao said, and his tone made it clear he wasn’t going to do that - behind him Pipra was making a series of increasingly ridiculous faces which - actually, Chiela wasn’t sure what that meant; maybe he was making fun of Nikolao, or possibly just that plan, or maybe he just wanted to make faces, “but you’d likely fare no better,” not to mention the fact that she wouldn’t know anyone on another planet - granted that here she only knew Terasu, and apparently she didn’t know Terasu very well, after all - and she doubted there was Catholic Relief Services in space. Also, she wasn’t wild about having to learn a whole new culture and, probably, language.

Nikolao looked as if he were about to say something more, but Terasu stopped him by the expedient measure of punching him in the back of the head.

“I hate to agree with this asshole,” Terasu said, and Nikolao was rubbing his head and looking aggrieved, “but you’re probably better off with us,” and while Chiela wasn’t sure she agreed - she hadn’t missed the part where these guys were being tracked down by people who’d nearly wiped out their entire species - she didn’t see how she had any other options.

“Yeah, okay,” she said, heavily. “Why the hell not?”

“Oh my gosh,” Pipra said, giggling, “You are so totally going to regret saying that.”


Chiela had found the commissary - and look! they had cafeterias in space! - while wandering dazedly around the ship half trying to orient herself, and half avoiding any more conversations that’d make this real. If she were alone she could go on pretending that this was one trippy=ass dream, one she could wake from any time now. That’d be great.

She dropped onto a bench and let her head fall down onto her folded arms.

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Nikolao comes up with the plan to get Chiela’s memory back, which makes it seem stupid right from the get-go. Chiela’s really not sure about it; she doesn’t even particularly like the set-up: Pipra’s sitting in front of her, looking about as calm as he ever gets - which, honestly, isn’t very - and Nikolao’s fiddling with the controls on a seriously complicated looking machine, one Chiela doesn’t particularly want to be hooked up to, but one that she’s going to, regardless. She sitting, with her legs crossed, as still as she can while Terasu - Terasu - attaches electrodes to her head in a way that makes Nikolao look approving, and Chiela’s not even sure why Terasu is helping, being that she usually disapproves of anything Nikolao-related on principle or whatever. Maybe she just wants Chiela’s memory back as much as everyone seems to, although why Chiela still doesn’t know. She supposes a dragon who remembers how to… well, be a dragon is more useful to a bunch of space flunkies on the run than one who doesn’t. She’s not totally sure she wants to remember. She’s still not particularly happy about being a dragon, let alone being one with her dragon-ness.

“Alright,” Nikolao said, “I’m ready.”

“Same here,” Terasu says, as she attaches one last electrode. She leans back to look down at Chiela, an expression on her face Chiela doesn’t know how to read - she likes to think she knows Terasu better than anyone, so that’s a little off-putting. Disturbing. Something. Terasu leans down and kisses here, once, on the forehead, which, hey, that’s sweet but no less worrying.

“Oh my gosh,” Pipra says, just about bouncing in his seat, “Let’s do it!”

Terasu nods to Nikolao, who darts a look between Pipra and Chiela before turning back to the machine he’s McGyver’d from, like, space trash, which totally isn’t comforting, flipping several switched in sequence and throwing a final lever.

The room goes dark all at once, and a deep, throbbing hum starts up. Chiela feels… strange, definitely strange, as if she’s suddenly become over-stimulated; not really a bad sensation, just not one she’s used to. Across from her she can hear Pipra shifting back and forth, then going still, and she actually feels as his mind makes a first tentative brush against hers. She tries to relax, although relaxing your psyche’s a little more complicated than just relaxing your body, and she’s not sure she’s managed it before Pipra makes a second stronger attempt at a connection. Chiela has apparently managed to lower her barriers enough for it to stick, and she feels as Pipra’s mind overlaps hers, sinking in, deeper and deeper. Already she can feel memory’s dredging up, not anything she’s forgotten, just memories of her and Terasu on Earth, of Terasu performing on stage, of her and Terasu snuggled up on the couch under blankets in winter, walking through the park, cooking dinner and bumping in to each other in their tiny kitchen, Terasu tasting sauce from the spoon Chiela holds, Terasu laying in bed, just-woken, with that cranky befuddled look that just makes Chiela want to kiss her.

The first memory that she’s not sure is a memory comes fast on the heels of those memories: a picture of an open field, cratered, with her lying at its center, a man stooped over her, trying to help her to her feet, wrapping a blanket around her naked, newly transformed body, giving her his shoes, which slop back and forth on her feet, overlarge, and walking across the field, with his arm holding her carefully upright. She knows the story of her arrival on Earth - and a small, freaked out part of her balks at the term arrival because she still doesn’t like the thought that she’d come from somewhere else - told to her by the nurses at St. Cloud, though of course they didn’t refer to it as an arrival, just as how she was found, but she’s never seen any of it before.

She doesn’t even have any time to freak out over that one, before the next comes, a memory of outer space, for real, and even knowing that had to be coming, it was weird, no question, but there it is, herself in a cloud of comets, claws digging deep into rock, her body a quick contraction of muscle, her mournful voice a steady background noise, and there, there, more voices responding. Another: a sole comet streaking through space, her wings tucked tight against her body, the Earth a blue and green smudge in the distance. The memories keep coming, some before those and some after, the final she sees before opening her eyes one of the atmosphere burning around her, crumbling a comet down and down, and her body hurtling toward the ground with it. She comes back to herself hearing the machine humming steadily, feeling Pipra pulling away from her mind, hearing him say, “Stop! Stop!” and realizing she was fully transformed, her body one long contraction of muscle, rearing up, her wings flaring behind her, and fire stoked in the belly, ready to be exhaled. She breathes in cool air and breathes out smoke as the lights go up, and she hears Terasu saying, “Chiela? Chiela!” voice muffled as if she were underwater. She stretches, luxuriating in the feel of her own body, her claws scraping over metal, rumble of her voice deep in her chest, reverberating in her belly.

She watches, calmly, as Pipra approaches her, running one hand, reverently along her flank, and with that touch comes memories of another world, a stranger world, forests birthing animals from fruit trees, air heavy with pollen, yellowing Pipra’s hand as he touches the flowers, humidity prickling at the back of his neck, and Nikolao’s hand on his shoulder, turning Pipra to face him, and there, Terasu in the distance with another girl (and she’s only just a girl, not a woman yet, though Chiela can see the shape of the woman she’ll become) with snakes writhing atop her head and flowers growing from the arms and hands, a Shaman and a Voice. She realizes she’s closed her eyes and opens them again, to see Terasu bent down to look at her close up, and even she looks impressed, mouthing a “Whoa,” that Chiela can see but can’t hear. Chiela shakes herself once, then abandons her body, shifting back to a her mundane form, the feel of calm and eternity going with it. She’s left as just Chiela, feeling stunned herself, and, “Whoa,” she says because seriously. Whoa.

“Oh my gosh,” Pipra says, his hands tucked under his chin, then he throws his hands up in the air, and gushes, “That was so totally cool!” and Chiela smiles and says, “I know!” because it so totally was, and for the first time, she not so much freaked out at the thought of being something so alien as she is psyched. She can breath fire! And fly! There is no world on which that is not cool. She notices Nikolao standing behind Pipra, still poised over the machine, and he looks pretty damn smug, which Chiela’s willing to overlook, just this once, since his space-trash McGyvering actually worked. She also realizes she still got a bunch of electrodes attached to her, although half of them had come unstuck when she transformed. She starts pulling them off, and she totally wouldn’t turn down a shower now or at least a running sink because she’s got sticky stuff all over from were they were attached.

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( Chiela and Nikolao are standing in the middle of the market, at a stall that Nikolao claims isn’t selling jewelry, though Chiela can’t think of another use for all that dangling glass and polished metal and glittering jewels - she’s 95% certain he’s trying to buy something for Pipra; the other 5% is trying to figure out whether Nikolao’s the kind of guy who wears jewelry when no one’s looking - hemmed in by the crowds and hot under the beating of twin suns. )

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( “That’s )

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( Chiela makes her way down into the bowls of the ship, towards the holding cell, with something like trepidation in her step. )

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( Chiela knocked briskly on Nikolao’s door, then rocked back on her heels to wait. Inside she could hear someone shifting around, softly, someone giggling, murmuring too low for Chiela to make out the words, and footsteps padding towards the door, which slid open to reveal Nikolao, morning-ruffled, hair in unruly licks atop his head, cheeks creased where he’d lain on the sheets, mouth bitten-red, bare-chested and wearing only boxers. )

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( The green curve of the planet beneath them almost reminds Chiela of Earth, only Earth had never been that green, and there were few bodies of water to be seen. )

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( Morning rolled gray over the horizon, heavy with clouds, bringing a soft misting of rain and the shining-through of weak, diffuse sunlight. )

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( Chiela paused in the open doorway of the lodge, a bit overwhelmed by the sight in front of her. Even from this distance, the green mantle of the jungle was staggering, thick and lush and likely populated by thousands of different species - it made her a bit homesick for earth - though, comparatively, Earth had been her home for very little time - despite the fact that she’d never seen these sorts of sights on Earth personally, only through photographs. )

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( Venka makes the smoothest landing Chiela’s seen from her on Abern, a planet composed almost entirely of salt-seas and deserts - Chiela doesn’t know exactly how people survive on a planet like that, but Pipra assures her that they manage just fine; or rather, he says, “They can drink salt-water, it’s totally cool!” - probably because they’re not under fire or riding out some unstable atmospheric conditions or falling apart, which Chiela totally still blames Nikolao for. )

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( The inner doors now sealed, the bay doors hiss and disengage, opening to reveal the edge of the comet cloud, her people only sparks of potential among them, too distant now to make a true connections. )

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( They went in cloaked past the Xenomorphs ships, all sitting stiffly in their seats, gripping their harnesses in both hands. Even Venka was silent, at the controls, none of the garbled cursing that had become almost soothing to Chiela on reentry. )

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( Footsteps came clomping down the hall and soon enough Nikolao was standing in front of their cell with a couple of the Big Brass - or who Chiela assumed were the Big Brass based purely on their uniforms. Terasu stood up from where she’d been slumped against the wall, pressed her hands against the cell’s shielding, leaned her face in close, and shouted, “Nikolao, you asshole. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” )

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( “Sprita,” Nikolao says, placing one hand upon her shoulder, voice firm and even, commanding, “Call the others down. We’re ready for them,” and Chiela seriously expects Terasu to punch him in the back of the head and take command of the situation like she seems to enjoy doing, but she just remains quiet, smirking slightly, watching Nikolao intently for a moment, then Sprita as she nods and walks over to the communications console, and whether that’s for show or not, Chiela doesn’t know. )