"Missing?" La'ala said shaking her head. They had arrived at her apartment after leaving the bar prematurely. She lived high up in a tower complex, a large semi circle of windows surrounded them as she and Kikata sat on two large chairs, a table between them held some human furniture where Issac and Richard had been settled in. "I don't understand...how can someone like her just go missing?" 

Kikata sighed, "That is what we were trying to figure out...according to Atrix you were the last known friend to have seen her."

"You don't think..." La'ala spoke but choked herself off while her brown eyes darted between Kikata and Richard.

"We have good reason to believe she is alive." Kikata said, doing her best to hold her voice steadily and confidently. 

La'ala nodded, "I just don't understand."

Richard shrugged his shoulders, "We thought at first maybe she had finally succumbed to the pressures of her position with the Cho, you know, piled in with her condition...but that is just not like her."

"Yes, she was always the most calm and collected of all of us." Kikata said softly. "I'm sorry, La'ala, to spring this on you. But you must understand this must remain quiet until we know more. No messages about it over the net. We suspect that perhaps there are some people with high connections. Connections that would make monitoring us very easy. If they think we are onto them, they might strike family and friends first." 

La'ala bit her lip, "I understand...I will be careful. Not a word." 

"So...when Prila was here last. Was there anything strange about her?" Kikata asked.

"She seemed normal to me." La'ala replied with a shrug, "Happy, going on and on about Atrix and the ceremony." She shook her head, "It certainly wasn't nerves about the ceremony that drove her away."

"Was she with anyone else?" 

La'ala sat back in her chair, biting her lip hard as she thought, "No...no one new...but...Wait! She did also go on about a certain girl."

"A girl?" Richard asked with an arched brow.

"Yes. Someone she had met on Teralist was supposed to meet her here. I never saw her, Prila went off to be with her after she left my place. She stayed for a few nights and then they went off somewhere. She never told me where." 

"Does this girl have a name?" Kikata asked. 

"Sharal? Sharalis? Shar- something." La'ala shrugged, "Prila only spoke of her name a few times, and never more than her first name."

"Damn." Richard said, rubbing his chin with his fingers.

"But...But you know she is alive?" La'ala asked, her chest heaving, "You know for sure?"

"Well...we can't know for sure. But I don't think someone would be out to kill her, she had no enemies. And if there was an accident we would know."

"Is there anyway to know?" La'ala continued, "Can't you check...a database or something?" 

Kikata shook her head, "She left the Guard, there is no way to track her vitals." 

"That's not true." Issac said, nearly startling everyone with his sudden revelation, he had not spoken a word since they had left the bar. 

Richard looked towards his brother sternly, "What do you mean, Issac?"

"I mean, I could be wrong. But as far as I know anyone who had been in the Guard should have had a biological tracker installed. It's so tiny that they aren't going to bother removing it from the body just because you quit the job."

Kikata thumbed over the skin of her forearm where they had given her an injection early on in her training, "But, once you are out of the Guard they stop tracking you. Your file is completely shut off."

Issac shrugged, "Terminated from the main pool of data sure. But the device still exists and you can't simply turn it off." 

"But they can't track it...right? If they terminate the account? Or whatever..." Richard argued. 

Issac shook his head, "It's not so simple. Her signal still exists and still functions as it should, sending messages to the Alliance database. The messages just go unread. We would have to reactivate her account manually and then the messages will become readable again." 

"How can we do that? Something like that would require authorization that we don't have access too...and we can't risk asking." Kikata said.

Issac shrugged, "I mean. I could do it, unauthorized, but I could do it. I just need access to a computer. The security for stuff like that is way too high to simply hack our way in from the outside. I can get a direct line into a main alliance computer and from there it wouldn't be so difficult."

Richard grinned, "I like the sound of this plan."

"It sounds risky." Kikata said, folding her arms.

"I know, right!" Richard boasted. 

"How do we get in, then?" Kikata asked.

"What about Kina?" Richard said.

"What about her?" Kikata said, seemingly fighting off a snarl.

"She would have access to something like that." Richard said, "She's our closest friend to the top." 

Kikata sighed, but nodded, "Fine. I guess we'll need to make another call."

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Johnny sat at a small round table, a few of his old classmates sat around him and their partners sat scattered around the larger scale seating spread out through the mostly Marlek bar. They had stopped off at a small moon in a predominately Marlek solar system named Valenth. 

"So there we were-" A human male started, his name was Eric, and to Johnny it seemed oddly strange to hear a human speak, he had spent the past weeks interacting exclusively with Sangela. "Off on this moon that was pretty much uninhabited. We had picked up on a distress signal from this shipments carrier." 

The others around Johnny sat forward in their seats, but Johnny only felt an annoying sense of envy at the fact that he had no real story to tell. 

"Well, then what?" Another member of the table asked. 

Eric shrugged. He was a slightly heavy set man with short brown hair and a beard that clung closely to his chin, "Turned out they had lost power to their main thrusters and didn't have the fuel to make it to Toth." 

"So...that's it?" Another member asked, a woman with short brown hair. 

Eric laughed, "Basically. They had been stranded for a few days and the dumb asses hadn't the supplies for it so we gave them some food and water as we waited for the repair ship to roll in. About the most action we've seen so far."

There was a murmur of agreement among the young guards. Everyone had expected to meet something exciting throughout their first few weeks, but it would seem that everyone experienced just about the same amount of action, or lack of it. 

The short haired brunette, Ashley was her name, leaned her cheek into her palm, "We spend most of our time just coasting. Waiting around. Our net transmitter went down our second week...you cannot imagine the boredom." She sighed, her hazel eyes scanning out over the human balcony towards the larger scale bar where her partner sat, a white furred Trugon female named Thana. "Makes me wish I got hooked up with one of the Neko boys." 

There was a rumble of laughter. "Not a fan of your partner?" Another man, named Mike asked, he had shaggy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. 

Ashley shook her head, "Oh no, Thana is great. But when you have no entertainment you get bored, and when you get bored you get horny." She sighed again, "They don't teach you that stuff in class."

Eric scratched at his beard as his eyes shifted towards Johnny, "I know what you mean. Say Johnny, you got hooked up with that red head right?" He nodded across the bar towards where Sangela sat by herself. 

"Mhm." Johnny replied.

"So?" He continued leaning forward, "Has curiosity gotten the better of you two yet?" 

Johnny smirked as he lifted his glass to his lips. "No. I don't think that's going to happen." 

"Oh come on. You have to be curious!" Ashley said with a laugh. 

Johnny shrugged, "I think I have a good idea of what it would be like. Not sure if that would really be that great. Besides, you don't want to throw that sort of drama into this." 

"Hell I'd still do it." Eric said. 

"Be my guest to go and try. Just don't get all hurt when she turns you down." Johnny replied. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Sangela sipped idly on her drink, her ears pushed downwards as her gold and blue eyes traced lazily from one face to the next. She recognized many of her old classmates who had all agreed to meet here at one of the several of locations that their routes intersected. She had attempted to socialize at first, but still she found them mostly annoying. She felt someone staring at her, her head turned to the left to where she saw a rather large Fanacta male sitting with his back to the bar, his elbows propped up on the counter. He nodded his head towards her, to which she rose her eyebrows. She withheld a sigh as the Marlek walked towards her. 

"You are a hybrid right?" He asked, quietly. 

"Mmm." Sangela hummed nodding her head. She eyed him suspiciously, trying to figure what angle he was coming from. 

"I've got something that might interest you." He continued. 

"This should be good." She said before taking a long drink from her glass, closing her eyes as the last of the green liquid flowed over her tongue. The drink had gotten warm and left a bitter stinging in her throat.

"I'm serious." 

"Okay. What is it?" 

The dark furred Fanacta leaned closer, Sangela grimaced but did not shrink away, "Human slavery. On a planet not far from here. But we cannot act forcefully, there are many lives at stake." 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Issac stared out across the flat, oversized table towards the windows of La'ala's apartment. He felt guilty for not sharing the same grief and anguish of his brother's friends disappearance, if anything he was extremely curious about it. His brother and Kikata had been shown off to a guest room, but Issac wasn't tired. He was already going through the motions of hacking into the alliance computers in his minds eye, the thought of it sending excited shivers down his spine. It would be a chance to put his secret toy to work. There was a gust of wind, a large shadow looming over him as La'ala sat down in a seat beside the table. He glanced up towards her, her eyes fixated outside the window for a few brief seconds before they lowered towards him. 

"Are you okay?" She asked. 

Issac shrugged, "I'm fine. Are you?" The liquor in his veins made speaking with La'ala a little easier. 

She sighed, "I guess so...At least I know that you guys are on the job. Now I just need to keep convincing myself there is nothing to worry about." 

Issac nodded, "You and Prila are good friends?" 

La'ala nodded, "I've known her for a long time now. Though rarely ever see her anymore. You know I thought it was odd when I stopped receiving messages, but sometimes that's just how she is. She will go off the map for a while, like when she and Atrix were doing their training." She sighed again and leant back in her chair, "We were internet friends, oddly enough, before we met in person. In case you hadn't noticed I'm sort of into tattoo's." 

"Oh really? You have any?" Issac said.

La'ala laughed softly, "No, I just have lot's of colorful birth marks." She bit her lip as her eyes drifted off into space for a few moments, scanning her minds eye for memories, "So yeah. I met her online on a tattoo forum and we shared art and techniques and eventually agreed to meet up. Of course I was never allowed to give her a tattoo since her skin was reserved for the Cho, but I got quite a few from her." She lifted her hand from her lap and placed it several feet from Issac, "This one was my first." She said pointing towards her wrist where a jagged, tribal looking design lay painted in dark blue ink. "It is the Cho symbol for life."

"It's...really cool looking." Issac said, standing so he could look more closely at her wrist. 

"I was surprised how badly it hurt. Prila was all about needle work, no lasers for her. The lasers kind of burn, especially for the more intricate stuff...but not like the needles. And the needle ink is more permanent. Prila insisted that the needle makes it more meaningful, you can't simply erase it away." She lifted her hand, "She gave me a few more of those small symbols, then I finally had her commission something on my side. A larger piece." A small smile creased La'ala's lips as she turned away from Issac and slowly lifted the side of her loosely fitting shirt that resembled what people on earth might call a tube top. "This one here." She said, nearly pulling her shirt over her chest. Her fingers stroked along a colorful picture of a Neko female, one hand held over her head, the other curled around her waist. "It's a dancer, specifically a Tolusa dancer. My mother was one and I thought that someday I might be one too." 

Issac did his best to not stare lustfully at the small sliver of breast exposed to him, or the taunt stomach that shifted in and out ever so slightly as La'ala spoke. "It's really...beautiful." He spilled out.

"I agree." La'ala said with a smile, her hands releasing her shirt before she faced him again. "But I'm sure I'm boring you."

"No, not at all. I find this all very interesting." Issac assured her. 

"Well, I am getting bored talking about myself...tell me about you?" 

Issac swallowed, he was not very keen on self description, "Well...uh...what do you want to know?" 

La'ala shrugged, leaning towards him so she could rest an elbow on the table. Her cheek nestled against her hand, "Well, Kikata tells me you are smart? Like really smart."

Issac felt his cheeks grow warm, "I-I don't know about that. I mean everyone is smart about something. Like I couldn't tell you the first thing about making a piece of art or-"

La'ala giggled, "Modest. Okay, I won't make you talk up your genius. But what about schooling, you just graduated correct?"

"Right." Issac said with a nod.

"With two degrees?" 

"Both in engineering, computer and mechanical." 

La'ala rolled her eyes, "I haven't even met anyone who could pass through an entry level engineering class...let alone master two entire schools of thought in it." 

"I guess I was just always good with that stuff. Not so much anything else, though." Issac forced a laugh, "Like, I could never play sports like my brothers...or socialize very well in school."

"You seem to be socializing fairly well right now." La'ala said. "So what exactly are you doing with the ships computer that's got everyone so excited?"

"Oh...well...you'd probably find it boring."

"I doubt it." La'ala assured with with a curious smile, her canine digging into her bottom lip. 

"Oh, well. Basically the ships computer is a new model of artificial intelligence. It is seeking to learn and act sentiently rather than mimic based off of mathematical equations. Like, so far computer intelligence has basically been preprogrammed intelligence with preprogrammed learning. It could never really learnto make it's own decisions, or even as far as learning to have it's own opinions." 

La'ala blinked, "So...basically...you are trying to tell me that." She smiled and shook her head, "Well dumb it down for me. What are you trying to do?"

Issac scratched his head, "Um. I guess basically we are trying to make a computer personality that is alive. Rather than just mimicking life." 

"Wow." 

"Yeah, it's kind of exciting. And I've actually been making some progress."

"That's something alright." She shook her head, "So why the ship? Why not do this in some laboratory."

Issac shrugged, "The computer needs to learn by doing things in a real environment, not just a simulation. And the power it takes...a ship is basically just a giant engine running to help power the computers brain."

"Oh." La'ala said, scrunching her lips as she thought it over. "Well at least you are keeping busy." She laughed, "So um, about this little plan of yours to hack the Alliance computers. That's kind of exciting, huh?" 

Issac could not hide a smile, "Yeah, I'm looking forward too it." 

"Are you afraid?"

Issac shrugged, "I don't know. Mostly just excited."

"How are you going to do it?...or is it too complicated for me to understand?"

"Well uh, have you heard much about Quantum computing?"

La'ala laughed, "No. Let's not go down that road I will have a major headache in like two minutes." She sighed, "You are interesting, Issac. I will give you that."

"Oh. Uh, thanks." Issac said shrugging his shoulders. 

"You know, you don't fit the mold of those computer geeks. But you're not like your brother."

"I think the girls in high school would disagree with you." Issac said with a laugh. 

La'ala shrugged, "Okay well. You're like, a computer nerd but with a sense of adventure. I mean, you're young and look where you are!" 

"I guess I like to travel...stay busy." 

"And do exciting things?"

"Well who doesn't?" 

"You would be surprised." La'ala said. She licked her upper lip, "So...I've got something I'd like to share with you."

Issac felt his heart race, almost unable to withstand the power of her deep brown eyes that looked down upon him, her full lips curling upwards and just barely parting to reveal the white shine of her teeth. "Yeah?" He asked, trying to maintain his composure as best he could. 

"Well, first of all...do you ever do anything, like other than drinking?"

"Like drugs?" He asked.

"Sure...nothing intense. It's legal here...but are you...or would you want to smoke?" 

Issac nodded, "I mean I don't do it often...but I can try." 

"Okay, be right back." She said, rising from her seat. 

Issac watched as she disappeared into a distant hallway, he wiped his palms against his pants and cleared his throat. He had smoked marijuana in college and experimented with LSD once but he never got too into it. His eyes rose as La'ala appeared with a large box. 

"It's called Gu'joon." She explained as she pulled out several pieces that created a device that looked something like a hookah. "It doesn't make you see things or hear things, but it relaxes you...stimulating the mind while easing your muscles. It's great for doing art because you just start to see things differently, your mind gets so curious."

"Oh. Sounds cool...but uh, how do I do it? You know, is there a human-"

"That's the exciting part." she said, her smile broadening. "I have only shared this with one other human...it's kind of a special thing...but I like you. And I think you will enjoy this."

"S-So?" Issac stammered. He was nervous, but excited. 

La'ala held out her hand, palm facing upwards before him, "Do you trust me?" She asked.

"Well sure." He said. 

"Okay. Well I've got this tattoo on the roof of my mouth, it glows in the dark. No one really ever gets to see it."

"Right." Issac said, having a faint idea of where this might lead.

La'ala fiddled with the device and produced a long hose. She laughed, almost appearing to blush herself, "So um...do you want to see it?" 

"Well...I..." Issac's heart was certainly racing by now. A slight twinge of fear gripped him as he was unsure if this was a good idea. 

"I won't swallow you, or bite. I promise. I just want to share with you this experience. Trust me, it's worth it. You'll never find anything like it anywhere your travels take you." 

Issac swallowed nervously, but stepped towards her hand and climbed up onto her fingers, "Okay...yeah. Let's do it." He said.

"Great. So when I breath in, you breath in." She said, "We get to share our breath and breath in the same smoke." She bit her lip again, "And um, you might want to strip down do your underwear." She smiled. 

"Right." He said, blushing intensely as he unbuttoned his shirt, tossing it aside before fumbling embarrassingly with his belt buckle and pants. When he was finally nearly naked he turned towards her again. He was surprised when she leaned forward, her soft lips suddenly enveloping him, easing him onto his back as she kissed him. He wasn't sure what his reaction was supposed to be but he enjoyed it. 

"Good." She said as she pulled away, "Now, climb onto my tongue and lay out by the stud." She said, opening her mouth and pointing towards her tongue ring which glowed yellow, "It glows too but will eventually dim. I will do my best not to drool on you." She said with a wink. She lowered her chin to her palm, her tongue slipping over her lower lip. 

Issac wiped his hands again on his boxer shorts before making a few small steps towards her tongue. He took hold of the metal bar sticking from the soft, moist flesh and pulled his feet upwards. He gripped the tongue ring tightly as she lifted her tongue from her hand and curled it slightly before she brought it back into her mouth. From then on they did not speak. He watched her lips pass over him as he had to lay backwards to avoid knocking his head against her teeth. He looked back over his shoulder to see her lips now forming an oval from behind the rows of massive white teeth, the oval shrank until it was just a sliver of light that shone through just slightly. Soon the light disappeared completely from the outside world as she shut off the lights in her room. Issac's eyes adjusted quickly to the yellow light that shone from the ball on the tongue ring, the saliva coated walls, ground and ceiling all shimmered strangely. Her tongue continued to shift, he wondered how he must have tasted. Her throat in the distance, mostly cast in shadow, shivered, the occasional strand of saliva dripping from her uvula into the darkness below. The jaws surrounding him finally moved, opening slightly to allow the nozzle of the hose between her lips, it's metallic tip now also shining yellow.  

There was a gust of wind accompanied by a thick, yet not burning smoke. It was almost more like steam. It washed over him in a cloud and he breathed in through his nose. The smoke smelled of something that he could not pinpoint, but it must have been some sort of fruit. He watched the smoke travel down into her throat, her mouth becoming clear again for a few brief moments before the smoke funneled back up her throat and back between her lips. He breathed in again as it washed over him. 

His body began to tingle and his mind stopped analyzing the situation, rather it simply observed. He laid back, feeling the tiny bumps of her tongue against his back and the warm spreading of saliva across his body. Her breaths washed in fresh clouds around him and the yellow light of the ball began to dwindle. His eyes stared upwards intently now at the curved roof of flesh. The image of a galaxy, one that seemed so familiar filled his gaze. The odd night sky twinkled, the pink flesh of La'ala soon fading into black as the last of the yellow light disappeared. Now he could only feel her, and hear her, his eyes only peering upwards into the galaxy that was contained within her. It looked like the Milky Way. The galaxy that he had left behind. He wondered which spot of light was supposed to represent his sun. The Gu'joon worked its way through his system, relaxing him to the point where he could not feel himself anymore. It felt as though he had melted away, melted into La'ala's flesh. He imagined himself pooling out like a piece of chocolate. Melting under the warmth of her breath and flesh, trickling down across her tongue and then into her throat where it would be dissolved and spread throughout her body until eventually becoming so disconnected with it's old form that it was merely single atoms that would find there way beyond the confines of her skin and back out into the universe. He would be reduced to only the stardust that had formed him into a single entity. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Issac shook his head as he stared downwards at his hands. His hands pressed against soft flesh that had been colored red. He looked up, surprised almost to see two large mounds of flesh, brown eyes peering at him from behind them. Suddenly his location rushed into his mind. After they had finished smoking an odd curiosity overtook him. He had been exploring La'ala's body, examining her tattoo's, talking with her all the while wanting to know more about her. 

La'ala smiled warmly towards him, "The Gu'joon wear off?" She asked. 

Issac averted his gaze from her bare breasts, he could hardly believe that he had been able to put himself into this position, "Yeah, I guess." He said. 

She giggled, "Yeah it happens kind of sudden. They call it the reality rush." She gently cupped her hand behind him and laid him out on the floor in front of her, her bosom pressing down as she rested her chin on her folded hands. "So? How did you like it." 

"It was awesome." Issac said, nodding his head.

"Well I am glad you liked it." She leaned forward again, her lips pressing against his torso. Though she pulled away and sighed, "I'm sorry to be such a tease...but I can't take this further with you. I've got a strict policy about it." She frowned apologetically.

"Oh...No, I mean I wasn't...you don't need to feel pressured...sorry if I kinda forced it." He said, stumbling over his words.

She shook her head, "Oh no, I love to play around if I like someone. But the next step is a little more meaningful." She helped him back onto her palm, "You can sleep with me, if you want. Or on the couch out here?" 

"I uh...With you would be nice." 

She smiled, "Good." She lowered herself to pick up her shirt which she clutched to her chest with a free hand as she walked them to her bedroom, "You've got a lot of promise, Issac."