The male’s somewhat smaller mandible clicked in agitation, his vibrissae puffing up and moving erratically.
“Ever since Kaylar pledged his service to get offplanet, my mother has been quick to see me mated.”
“Males and females are encouraged to mate young. It is our way,” Veral reminded him.
“Yes, so I am aware. I do not object to a mate. I know it is necessary. I just cannot endure another mate trial. I am only just now seeing thirty revolutions and have had no less than six of them.”
Veral’s eyes widened ever so slightly, betraying his surprise. Six mate trials at the age of thirty? That was unheard of! The age of mating among young Argurma typically began at thirty-five revolutions, when their bodies completed the maturations processes and their cybernetic systems settled. Dreth spread his hands wide in acknowledgment.
“Six times I have endured being locked in a room with a female under contract in hopes that her pheromones will start the bonding process in me, and each time it has failed. The medic has reported to Featha that she must discontinue them, but she is desperate to continue her line, enough so that she has made arrangements to give me a hormone injection to artificially start the mate bonding. I know she desired that I sire a daughter of the line. If I did and you failed to, it would put our direct line permanently as the head of the mother-line of the household complex.”
Veral frowned at the idea of a young male being injected with the hormone. It was more often than not used as a last resort and never on a male so young. Terri’s hair tickled his face as she turned her head to look over at Dreth.
“Why not just refuse?” she asked.
Veral chuffed at his mate and tightened his embrace in a show of affection. Naturally, his independent female would think the matter to be that easy.
Dreth gave a baffled shake of his head, his vibrissae snapping around him. “Impossible,” he rebutted quietly. “After the cybernetic implants are completed, we are turned over to our mothers for training and placement within our line’s households. My programming will not allow me to dismiss my mother’s governance. If it could, then sending newly enhanced males and females to their mothers would be reckless. We have no bonds and no memory of our lines if we were even raised among them—which I was not. I still have my identification numbers from where I was reared. Our programming conditions us to be obedient and loyal to our mothers. Only the family head has more authority.”
He inclined his head toward Veral.
“She would have no option but to listen to his orders.”
Veral growled quietly to himself. “I did not wish to come here to stir conflict with your mother or any of the mother-kin of our line. What you ask could bring Featha’s displeasure against me.”
“But she would yield,” Dreth argued, his voice never rising over the soft volume in which they conversed despite the fierce tension in his expression.
Veral inclined his head in agreement. The younger male was right on that score. Featha would not argue for her offspring.
“I do not like this. I have my own mate to think of. My own offspring to consider,” Veral growled unhappily.
“So it is true. You have succeeded in breeding your mate. I assure you that I do not contest your offspring’s right to the head of our line. I do not wish for it. I would prefer to leave Argurumal as you and Kaylar have done.”
“Why leave?” Terri asked, voicing the question that rose to Veral’s mind.
Dreth hesitated, his expression uncharacteristically vulnerable and expressive in his unguarded moment for an Argurma. “It is unwise for me to remain. My malfunctions are more severe than anyone, but the medic knows. He keeps my confidence at my request, but I am prone to great lapses in control of my emotions. Enough that I must lock myself in my chambers until I regain enough control to be able to be among kin.”
“It is a crime for an Argurma to have malfunctions, but our line overlooks this tendency within our mother-kin with the provision that we control them so that the council does not find out,” Veral explained to Terri who was listening to their exchange wide-eyed. “This prompted my departure, because I knew that they expected I would malfunction to the degree of my mother and be unable to control it.”
Dreth nodded. “My mother condemns Harahna’s suicide as a lapse from her greater malfunctions that made her unable to control her grief. She claims that Harahna disgraced our line and house. She would say this of me if she knew, and any mate I have would report me if she discovered it. I need the freedom and safety of retreat from Argurumal. If you declare me ganshar, my mother will not object if I decide to leave.”
“I will not speak untruths. I will say that you desire this… but… I will support your decision and make the decree,” Veral reluctantly agreed. “If your mother peacefully gives me control, that is. I cannot promise that she will not attempt to withdraw the ganshar status when we eventually depart and prevent you from leaving the planet.”
The younger male’s expression hardened. “Then it is an adequate reason for me to leave the planet when you do.”
Veral gave a low, rattling growl. He sympathized with his cousin but worried that making such a decision might make his aunt a greater adversary. His decision would effectively terminate her attempts to extend her own direct line and any efforts to keep her claws into the honorable seat of the head of the line.
“I give an oath to remain by your mate’s side and assist in protecting her,” Dreth offered as he correctly surmised Veral’s misgivings. “I can do little directly against my mother, but I can be of assistance against any threat. The Great Dunes of Argurumal forge many alliances out of such necessities.”
Veral grunted in agreement. They would likely be on the planet surface for a half month at least, if not longer. There was a sixty percent chance that the medic would wish to supervise the remaining period of gestation and delivery. Not only because theirs was the first Argurma interspecies offspring, but also the first to deal with unknown tech.
He cast a disgruntled look toward the symbiont but the soft touch of fingers in his vibrissae helped settle him. Terri rested against his chest, breath fanning his neck as she spoke.
“It wouldn’t hurt to have more help. We help him—he helps us. It’s a good trade,” she murmured in a barely audible voice pitched for his ears alone. “I think I would feel better knowing that we have someone undeniably in our corner—someone, unlike Navesha, who has something to lose as well—if you think you can trust him.”
It was not in Veral’s—or any Argurma’s—nature to be trusting. An Argurma by design was a solitary creature who owed no allegiance to anyone accept the council. They followed the minimal directive programming that was implemented to establish order within the households and condition them to following the strict hierarchy within their society, but that made most of their kind unlikely to otherwise form close relationships. After so many revolutions of looking in from the outside, Veral could clearly see that it was intentional.
With the loss of the memory of early emotional bonds established in their youth, it proved difficult to forge such bonds as adults. This was part of the purpose of the memory wipe. The programmed allegiance to their maternal households kept interbreeding low and order among citizens while maintaining a level of isolation that kept their people from unifying in any way. Not as he had seen among the humans and other species. Among any of them, they might have easily claimed trust of their kin. But it was not so easy a matter for him.