Chapter 6
Kenji stared up at him with such desperation in his eyes that it nearly broke his heart. Qylar sensed only anguish and a thirst to know where he fit in the universe. He couldn’t imagine feeling that alone and adrift.
Who are your people?
It was clear the underlying question really was—who are my people?
Qylar slapped the panel beside the forcefield and shut it down. Kenji scrambled past the opening of the cell, never turning his back to Qylar. He pushed as far away as he could in the narrow space, wide-eyed and feral looking as he pressed his body against the metal wall.
“I come from a planet called Nefyria.”
“An alien,” Kenji said, seemingly more to himself than Qylar. His gaze drifted around the small room a moment before it landed back on Qylar. “Is that what I am? I’m like you, right?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“My monster looks a lot like yours. Just smaller.”
“You’re not a monster. It’s your Cephalopoda side.” Qylar paused. “If you’re part Nefyrian.”
“Cephalopod? So—we are part octopus?”
“We share a percentage of our genetic material with those in the Earth genus Cephalopoda. Octopus, squid, nautilidae, and the like. We share even more with humans, though.”
“How is that even possible? The two are so different. Cold-blooded yet warm. Aquatic versus terrestrial. Invertebrate and vertebrate. It makes no sense.”
“Most humans have two sets of DNA in their system, one set inherited from each parent. Nefyrians have four. A Cephalopoda set and a mammalian-like set from each parent. We can switch which set is in control at will. Think of it as turning a coin. One set faces outside while the other faces in.”
“You look human now. I would never know you weren’t.” Kenji searched him up and down, his eyes widening on a certain part of him before he dragged his gaze away. “Is that an illusion or is this really you?”
“It’s really me. Just as you look completely human in this form, too.”
“How far away is your planet?”
“Light years,” Qylar answered. “And before you ask, no, we have no idea how we’re related or why we look so much alike other than the prevalent theory that the same cosmic dust dropped into Earth’s cosmic soup that dropped into ours.
We aren’t exactly the same, but there are more parallels than not.
Our planets also have similarities. Comparable atmospheres and ocean compositions, though vastly different in size. ”
“Can Nefyrians have babies with humans?”
Qylar’s head whipped up. “Why do you ask?”
“I shifted for the first time when I was about eight. My foster parents took us to Half Moon Beach one day. It’s one of the few times I’ve ever left San Francisco.
” Kenji smiled, appearing a bit lost in the memory.
“The water was really clean, especially compared to beaches around the city… and I went out really, really far. Too far because I got sucked down by the undertow. I panicked. I thought I was going to drown, but suddenly… I shifted and I could breathe. I swam and swam and swam, never needing to break the surface. And I was so fast.” Kenji’s smile grew.
“I pretended I was a super hero. Psylocke, flying through the air instead of the water.”
“Sorry, but I don’t know who Psylocke is.”
“She’s a Japanese character in X-men, one of only a few.
When I was young, I used to tell the other foster kids that she was my real mom.
” The smile faded from Kenji’s lips. “And one day, she was going to come and take me home with her. In my young mind, being able to shift only confirmed my mutant status.” He chuckled, no real humor in the sound.
“I considered staying in that form and never going back to that foster home, but as the sun fell and the waters grew darker, I got scared. Even if my foster parents could be assholes, they were better than no one to turn to in an inky black ocean. I shifted back with no idea how I’d done any of it and walked out of the ocean, about a half mile down the beach from where I’d gone in.
I saw a bunch of cop cars and firetrucks with their lights flashing down the beach, so I walked that way.
I had no idea they’d been looking for my body for hours, assuming I’d drowned.
” Kenji lifted a hand to his cheek, rubbing it.
“When I walked up very much alive, my foster father smacked the shit out of me in front of everyone. Not one of those cops said a word. Well, one did call me a little fucking asshole under his breath. I hadn’t meant to worry anyone…
I’d just felt free swimming the day away. ”
Kenji looked so incredibly lost in that moment.
It broke Qylar’s heart even more. He wanted to move closer and pull Kenji into his arms—but given he’d just chased, imprisoned, and interrogated the guy, he wasn’t sure his touch would be welcome.
But fuck, if anyone needed a hug in that moment, Kenji did.
“Anyway…” Kenji said, shaking himself. “The next time I saw my mother, I told her all about it and asked her what I was. She stared at me like I was completely mad and then after a few silent, awkward seconds, she deadass asked me what drugs I was taking and if I was carrying. At eight.” He shook his head.
“Her cluelessness made me assume I didn’t get this from her.
Which led me to believe my sperm donor might have.
So… can your people get humans pregnant? ”
Qylar nodded, his mind going back to the eggs he’d never found. “They can.”
Kenji speared both hands through his damp hair, looking like he was struggling to hold on to his sanity. “Add that to the list of what I know about my dad. He was Japanese, someone fine paying for sex with an obviously unwell woman, and quite possibly an alien. Cool, cool.”
“There are no Nefyrians who appear Japanese, so that might be a sign you’re not one of us.” Qylar considered that a moment. “Or… your father was half Nefyrian, half Japanese himself.”
“Questions beget more questions,” Kenji muttered.
“I’d be surprised if you were only a quarter Nefyrian going by your ability to shift and the speed you swim.”
Kenji searched his face. “Why’s that?”
“My friend Cryss is married to a man whose father was Nefyrian. His mother was human. He was raised here on Earth with her. He had no idea that he was half alien until a few years ago.” Qylar eyed Kenji.
“He can’t shift, so learning what he was came as quite a shock.
At least you had an inkling you might not be fully human.
” Qylar chuckled. “Well, Alex has figured out how to shift his fingers into baby tentacles that look more like garden snakes but that’s as far as he can go. ”
“Is it only the three of you here on Earth? Or are there more of your kind?”
“There are many Nefyrians on Earth. Probably numbering in the thousands.”
“Thousands?”
“We’ve been coming to this planet for a long, long time,” Qylar said. He leaned against the wall as he faced Kenji. “A few centuries ago, Earth became our protectorate. We keep you safe from other races who wish to ravage your planet for its resources.”
“We do a fine job of ravaging them ourselves.”
“True,” Qylar said. “But trust me. It could be much worse. There are other empires out there who would’ve destroyed this planet years ago, simply for the raw materials.”
“It’s kind of hard to imagine there are empires on other planets when I’ve barely left San Francisco my entire life.”
“We can change that,” Qylar said.
“Oh?”
“We are on a star cruiser and can go anywhere we want.”
Kenji eyed him. “First I’m jailed and called a spy and now you offer me the stars. Quite the red flag, Qylar.”
“You’ve been hovering around my ship for months and also landed in my bed.
Coincidences are rarely that. It’s my duty to safeguard Cryss and his family.
I assumed you were a threat and went into protective mode.
” Qylar felt terrible for the way he reacted.
“I’m sorry for assuming the worst, but it kind of comes with the job. ”
“If the roles were reversed, I suppose I might’ve reacted similarly.” Kenji sighed. “Honestly, I had no idea this ship was yours. I didn’t target you in the bar, either.”
Either he was an incredible actor, or Kenji was being honest. Qylar felt no sense of deception—and hadn’t the entire time.
“Why were you hanging around the ship?”
“The ocean is my meditation. It’s where I feel calmest. I go swimming nearly every morning.
I go into deep ocean where there’s little chance anyone will see me.
A few months ago, I was drawn in this direction.
I found your ship. I had no idea what it was—only that it pulsed with this strange energy that felt…
oddly comforting. It felt familiar, if that makes any sense. ”
“It could be the magnetic field protecting the ship. It’s formed by an incredibly rare Earth mineral that’s abundant on Nefyria. There, the ocean floors are full of it, making the seabed one vast magnetic field. We use it to help us swim even faster than we can on Earth.”
“I noticed I seemed to swim faster closer to it. That’s part of the reason I kept coming back.”
“What was the other reason?”
“I wanted to see who this thing belonged to. Maybe find out why it felt so familiar. Maybe it was tied to whatever I was.” Kenji met his gaze.
“I found the hole in the bottom, and I did try to get inside, just so you know. But I didn’t.
It was like the water was made of steel and I couldn’t get past, no matter how fast I tried to swim through it.
I wasn’t trying to steal anything… or mess with anything. I just wanted answers.”
“I’ll do my best to answer as many as possible. Starting with your DNA. The ship has a biolab. We can take a blood sample and see if you’re Nefyrian or not.” Qylar searched his face. “If you want to do that.”
“Right now?”
Qylar nodded.
“How… how long… before you’d have the results?”