Homecoming: The Labors of Darius Linard, #4

By Leah Cutter

Life for Darius changes completely when he meets Lulu, an alien, living spaceship.

Now they must run far from her home systems. Dare they return to human-operated space?

What sort of homecoming awaits them? Particularly since no one apparently knows about the aliens?

Be sure to read all the labors of Darius Linard:

The Claim Jumper
Wild One
Runaways
Homecoming
Hero

• Language: English
• Publisher: Knotted Road Press
• Release date: Aug 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386070818

Leah Cutter

Leah Cutter--a Crawford Award Finalist--writes page-turning fiction in exotic locations, such as New Orleans, ancient China, the Oregon coast, ancient Japan, rual Kentucky, Seattle, Minneapolis, Budapest, etc.  Find more fiction by Leah Cutter at www.KnottedRoadPress.com. Follow her blog at www.LeahCutter.com.

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Homecoming

Homecoming

The Labors of Darius Linard: Volume Four

Leah R Cutter

Contents

Homecoming

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About the Author

Also by Leah R Cutter

About Knotted Road Press

Homecoming

Darius gave a great whoop as he and the great space flier Lulu hopped out of jump space and back into regular space. Then he stretched his jaw wide a couple of times, trying to pop his ears. Different people reacted differently to jump space. Though Darius had never been submerged in a pool or lake, having been born and raised in space, he believed that for him, the experience of jump space was similar to being underwater: all his movements slowed and became languid, sounds grew muffled, and pressure built up in his sinuses.

Are we there yet? Darius teased as he unstrapped himself. While Darius might have been more comfortable sitting in a chair, he knew it made Lulu feel better when he sat on the floor and had his back pressed up against one of her walls so they were in close contact. The straps he used were grown by Lulu specifically for the purpose of keeping him safe in case the ship had difficulties.

Darius lived in the compartment that Lulu had originally built for him when he’d first encountered the Veelu ship and her crew of Kinethka. Since Darius and Lulu had escaped the Kin the month before, Lulu hadn’t added space to Darius’s quarters: they were still roughly twelve by twelve, with eighteen foot ceilings. A long table that served as Darius’s bed lay against the wall.

Lulu had grown Darius a short, square table, as well as a cube he could sit on, where he took his meals. Communication filaments hung from the ceiling every couple of feet or so, so Darius could easily reach up and directly communicate with Lulu. The rest of the time, they spoke out loud, either in Veelu, English, or Greek.

While Darius had tried personalizing his quarters, getting Lulu to tint the pink skin walls with its barely discernable veins in different colors, they’d finally agreed that her natural coloring suited them both the best.

The bond between Lulu and Darius had grown stronger during the past six weeks since they’d first started the pikali—the sharing of senses between a Veelu flier and his or her captain.

When Darius was pressed against one of Lulu’s walls, he could detect her heartbeat if he listened closely, feel the slow pulse pressing against his skin. Even when they weren’t in close contact, he frequently sensed her mood now. They still needed one of the communication filaments when they wanted to share a sensation, such as the tickling feeling of the solar winds, or to directly communicate an emotion, some shade of extra meaning.

Maybe some year they’d be able to share such things without the filaments. Lulu had told him that the Kin and the Veelu could do such things. As Darius was human, neither of them knew exactly where the limits of their partnership lay.

As Darius stood and stretched out his back, Lulu painted a map on the wall across from him, rendered from the stars just outside of the ship. They’d worked together to learn each other’s iconography so she could display maps that they both could understand.

Then Lulu superimposed one of the star maps Darius had shared with her, from his original, fully mechanical ship, Orion.

Darius gave a low, long whistle. Home sweet home, he said after comparing the two maps. Out of habit, he kissed two fingers and pressed them against the Jason of the Argonauts medal that Lulu had grown for him on the wall, just above where he regularly strapped himself in.

Or, as Dad used to say, sector sweet sector. Darius missed the ability to display the maps in three dimensions, as he was used to seeing them, as well as being able to spin them around, but Lulu hadn’t figure out how