Endosymbiosis

22. Evolution

The ship was so gigantic that an entire wing of the palace could travel inside it, and it was filled with armed fageine soldiers prepared to protect Doxy as if she was the rarest gem in the universe. From the way Bleine treated her, maybe she really was... Why was a human so important to ending this disease? I still didn't understand... But maybe the answer wouldn't matter, since I would protect her more than any one of those soldiers. Because of my medicine, of course.

After I verified that the Hasta was inside the new ship, I entered the main hall. At the far end was a window with a control panel I'd never seen before, surrounded by peach-colored armchairs. The floor in the center of the room had organic designs made of something natural that had grown there and had long since been petrified, and the walls were covered in waves of warm tones like beach shells, converging on the ceiling, from which dripped a chandelier with pseudopods that moved. This was definitely an alien ship; but I was already used to them. So I dropped into one of the armchairs.

Doxy's face loomed over me, blocking the light.

"It amazes me how fast you make yourself at home." She teased.

"I'm an adaptable man."

"This all sounds too good to be true..."

"Do you think they are trying to deceive you?" I leaned forward as she stared at her clenched fingers. She couldn't trust Aulics, however much she wanted to; and I didn't think that was a good idea either.

"They need me." Doxy muttered, not answering the question. So I turned back to the comfort of the armchair.

"So this is all good enough."

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

"I'll convince whomever."

And then I crawled into the upholstery, trying to be swallowed up by it.

Doxy tried to make herself comfortable too, but failed, trapped in her own mind as she always seemed to be. I leaned forward again.

"Let's take a tour of the ship."

"Do I look that bored?" She looked defeated; as if losing a bit of control was already the end of it.

"A little..." Then I stretched out my hand in an invitation and almost recoiled when I realized she might not accept it... But Doxy did it before I ran away.

• • • ֍ • • •

We explored the ship's environments until we came across one that stretched beyond. Its ceiling and walls were of glass, and on the floor a pool of transparent walls gleamed beneath the galactic glow. The room seemed to float between the stars, the stars and galaxies dancing in the water as if we could hold onto them before sinking.

"I haven't seen a pool in so long..." Doxy muttered, circling the water as if she couldn't escape it. And in the next instant, she kicked her shoes off her feet and dove headfirst.

Over the years I had found and swam in a few nontoxic lakes on abandoned or as-yet-unexplored worlds, but a pool like this one, so crystal clear I could see Doxy's body beneath the surface, was an alluring rarity. I took off my blouse and also surrendered to the waters.

When I crossed the border and the silence drowned my ears everything that disturbed me was abandoned outside. In the depths everything seemed so much clearer that I could have stayed there forever... But then I missed the air and went back to the surface. I shook my wet hair sideways as Doxy watched me with a smile.

"Loving water is in human nature." She whispered, approaching slowly. "Stories tell that our ancestors only became intelligent after moving close to the seas."

"It must be true. I feel smarter by the minute." I opened a smile and Doxy splashed water on my face.

"You would have to spend millions of years living on the beaches and eating seafood for that. So I guess you're going to have to make do with the size of your brain."

"I think it's big enough."

She lifted an eyebrow, tearing her face apart with a feline smile.

"You're the first man I know who's satisfied with his own size..." She teased. "Confidence or conformism?"

"Aren't they two sides of the same coin?"

"And both are to make up for when what you have isn't as good as you think..." She hissed. "I've never met a man who was proud of one that even came close to be like mine."

"We're still talking about brains, right?"

She laughed, warming me with her laugh.

"Why? If we were talking about something else, would your answer be different?" Then, not wanting to know what I had to say, Doxy dove away, like a mermaid that drowned fishermen... And I followed her to the bottom.

We were swimming among the stars, an entire interstellar ocean between us painting us with light. Doxy's smile glowed in the dark, like the lamp of a fish from the deep that drew prey into a sharp embrace of teeth. Her black hair floated in a curtain of paint as she swam away, calling to me. I pierced the water like a spear and stretched my fingers in an attempt to touch her calf, until at some point I managed to reach her. Doxy let out a submerged squeal and shot back to the surface.

When we emerged once more, she plastered her back to one of the walls, just glass separating her from the starlight outside and the universe that would devour her in the blink of an eye if she let it. It was as if she could collapse into emptiness, but she didn't fear; and the courage in her eyes pulled me close, just inches of water separating her from something else that might as well devour her. Her skin glistened and drops of water dripped from her lashes, weighing her eyelids like a half-open door where mystery hid, tempting me with the desire to enter and surrender to those depths. Her chest rose and fell, watching my body move closer as if it were waiting for me, inviting me. I braced a hand beside her body on the back wall and brought my face within inches of hers, as close as we had ever been before.

Her breath panted against my skin and I saw the waves created in the water by her heartbeat. She whispered, fragile as if she could fall apart:

"I could tell you what's in the medicine... And let you go back to your life..."

"You don't want me to come back."

"It's not my decision."

I watched her eyes. Doxy was freeing me from the deal now that the Empire was paying my share... But it wasn't so impersonal anymore.

I moved even closer, feeling her body heat warm mine.

"I don't want to go back either..."