Best-Solution - 2. Chapter 2

I pushed the cubes around that Miah wanted to set up his lab. A few others stayed in place in empty tack stalls. I’d asked Miah where the tacks were, but that made him laugh and explain that gear for animals was called tack. No one had kept horses for a long time, though. They didn’t stand up to the ravages of the land that happened during the war, and the few left were kept in zoos.

A long counter ran the length of the front half of the barn. We’d cleaned every speck of dust off it and then Miah sprayed it with something from one of the cubes he’d already opened. “This will repel dust,” he said.

He handled each bottle and vial carefully, as if they were explosive matter. Maybe they were. I lifted the full boxes to the counter and took the empties away, and let him deal with the contents.

“What the hell?” Miah had opened an opaque bottle, peering inside.

“Something wrong?” I paused, holding a cube in one hand.

“This isn’t right.” Miah was scowling, tipping the container back and forth.

“What is it?” I peered inside. It looked like a pale powder with a lot of clumps.

“The fertilizer compound I’ve made from past grain experiments. This is what will allow the wheat to take root and survive, even in the poor soil in the fields. I broke everything down to the chemical components—added a few things—and came up with my special formula. If the grain doesn’t get this additive at the right time, then the hybrid cattle won’t be able to digest it. I’ll lose the new stock, and I’d never be able to afford to resupply to feed the adults I already purchased.”

“So what’s wrong with it?”

“It shouldn’t be clumping like this.” He tilted the tub and shook it, exposing more balls.

“Is there a way to fix it?” If Miah made the powder in the first place, surely he could fix it.

“I don’t know. I can’t even find that out until I get everything set up, and that’s taking forever.” Miah carefully screwed the lid back on and set it down. He clenched his hands into fists, and I moved to cover them. He had to relax before he hurt himself.

“Let me get Lisco. He’s strong enough to lift the cubes, and he knows more about this stuff than I do. He can help you set everything up. Plus this way I can shift for a while; I need to move around.”

Miah took a deep breath and let it out. “Yeah, okay. Thank you, Moshe. I’m sorry I’m being so short with you. It just seems like it’s been one thing after another; getting hurt, missing my tram, Gorseman deciding to drop off his cattle early, the canal getting blocked and then the fences failed—and I checked every damn inch of those before I purchased the stake, so that shouldn’t have happened—and now my fertilizer compound is messed up. We have the bulls coming next week, and I have to go back to the city so Dr. Connor can check my leg. Nothing else can go wrong, Moshe. I have to make this work.”

His voice was even tenser after he finished reciting the litany of everything that had gone wrong. I was glad he didn’t add meeting me and Lisco to it, even though we’d been the cause of so many of those things happening. Neither of us had interacted with humans much, but when we smelled his interest after he mentioned Nature’s Fury, we thought setting up a courting hunt be a good way to approach him. A shifter would’ve loved it.

A shifter wouldn’t have been hurt in the Dome from the pilltock plants, though. We’d failed to factor in human behavior. It was easier now that we’d gotten to know Miah. He was far more like shifters than the other humans who lived in the city. They were often dishonest and untrustworthy creatures who were only looking out for themselves—always willing to sell one another if it made their lives better.

Just like the cattle man had done to Miah, hoping he wouldn’t be able to get to the stake and accept delivery.

I stood up slowly, carefully schooling my features. “So these cubes came ahead to the stake before we met you, right?”

“The day before, yeah. My parents picked them up and delivered them here. You know that; you saw the stacks piled up when we got here.”

“And before that?”

“They were in my room. I’d lost my lab the week before, so I’d stored them in the closet on my side of the room I shared with Keon during our last year. There was little enough in there, so I had plenty of room.”

I nodded, rubbing my jaw.

“Why?”

“Just wondering if these… uh… came in contact with some sort of moisture. Not out here, of course, but maybe in the city. It is a lot wetter on the other side of the mountains, since they’re so close to the coast.”

Miah shook his head. “Not possible. The lids on the containers create a vacuum seal, and the crates were locked down, compressing everything. It shouldn’t be possible for the powder to clump, but it did.”

“Well, let me go get Lisco. Maybe together you two can figure out a way to salvage the powder; he’s good with our technology, too. If there’s something we can do to help, we will.”

Lisco was more than happy to take a break from fixing up the place to go help Miah. “Try to think before you speak, Lisco. Miah’s under a lot of strain right now; I think he’s worrying a lot about making this place a success. If you’re flippant, it’s just going to make things worse.”

“I’m not always spouting off at the mouth,” Lisco protested.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Well…” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. What are you going to do while I’m working with him on his lab tests?”

Fiddling with tiny things and precise mixtures and experiments was not my forte, but I could focus on detail. “You wanted that garden planted, right? I can tear up the ground, water it, and put the vegetables in quick.”

“Not too quick; I want orderly rows and evenly spaced plants.”

Rolling my eyes was a human expression I loved; it was a silly expression but conveyed so much emotion with the features I’d acquired in this form. Besides, Lisco deserved the look quite often when he needed to be reminded that I was slow on purpose—that did not mean I was stupid. I wasn’t the biggest shifter to have survived the purges, but I still had a lot of muscle and bulk in both forms; I had to be careful to never forget that.

“Just go.”

Lisco sauntered out of the house. He grimaced at the dirt swirling around outside and made sure he closed the door firmly behind him.

The moss we’d grown in the dome maze had spread very fast and required very little care; it was a very hardy plant native to Earth. If we kept it trimmed down, it’d make a good covering over the dirt ringing the house at least, and wouldn’t be able to trip anyone up. I’d have to suggest it to Miah later.

I had some digging to do; Lisco would be unbearable if he didn’t get his garden. He was tired of relying on friends to buy our produce and stock our pantry back in the apartment so he could teleport it in.

But first I had digging of a whole other sort in mind.

I’d finished the garden and made a run out to the main canal to check the walls were holding, and take a look around. It’d been nice weather since we got to the stake, but now clouds were rolling in.

“Sometimes they’re dry storms. Lots of lightning and wind can make a hell of a mess, but sometimes gully washers appear suddenly, and the land floods. The soil just can’t handle that much saturation; there’s not enough vegetation to hold it together. Then the sun comes out, and boom! The water’s gone. The Interlands is a place of extremes.”

“Well I repacked the canal walls and smoothed them,” I said. “If it clogs again, I’ll just fix it again.”

“And the house is tight as a drum.” Lisco smiled. “So I say we have an afternoon in. Clothing optional, of course.” His smile morphed into a leer.

There wasn’t much more I wanted than to be naked and intimate with my bonded, but if Lisco and Miah knew what I did, the mood would go out the window. But I should tell them; it should’ve been the first thing out of my mouth when I saw the clouds appear on the horizon and went to ask Miah how bad storms got here.

But I was still trying to figure out how to say it.

Miah, your roommate was a spy.

Miah, your roommate sabotaged your experiments.

Miah, your roommate is—

“Hey! Big guy!” The storm wasn’t dry. We’d just finished locking the cattle in the barn and headed back to the house. Lisco and Miah were on the porch, right at the edge of the ramp. I’d stopped at the foot, staring down at my toes. In just seconds, I was wet to my skin.

“Sorry.” I waved them on. “Go in the house. I’ll just strip down out here so I don’t track in any water or mud.”

I really didn’t need to piss Lisco off, and if I got his floors dirty? He just might do something mean in return. I cupped myself. “Never again.” I’d learned my lesson once.

Damn. It got cold fast. Extreme indeed. I shivered and headed into the house. Miah was waiting with a towel, and Lisco had hot drinks for all of us. “Be right back,” I muttered. I hurried into the bedroom for something to put on.

Sweats and a soft t-shirt were no armor, but it was better than being naked. When I went back into the living room, Miah had gotten out of his hover chair and was sitting on the couch with Lisco snuggled under one of his arms. They’d left room for me on the other side of Miah.

“How about a holo vid?” Miah asked after I sat down. I opened my mouth and then shut it. What could they do about it, if I blurted out the truth? It wouldn’t fix anything; maybe I could keep it to myself? We were here now, and Keon was long gone. His efforts to ruin Miah’s life would not be successful. Miah had already made progress purifying his samples so he could filter out whatever that little shit did to the fertilizer compound.

I just wouldn’t let anything else happen.

“Moshe? Moshe!”

“Huh?” I looked down at Miah. He was rubbing my chest; I rumbled my pleasure at his touch. Miah’s cheeks turned pink.

“None of that now. I asked if you wanted to watch a holo vid. Lisco hooked up a screen from your shuttle, and I have some classic vids that I watched in the rare times between studying at college. Any preferences on genre?”

“Whatever you like.” I just wanted him to keep touching me. This snuggling thing was nice. I liked having hands and fingers. Plus eyes.

Miah was definitely coming out of his shell; I snorted when the title of the movie came on. “Cowboys versus Aliens? And what is this? Two-dimensional?”

He nodded. “It’s really old. Before the war, even. A guy at school was a total techno genius, and he came up with a way of converting the old records into holos. He got snapped right up by the government, of course.”

The human’s government was not the best place to work; they were dishonest and deceitful, not only with us, but with their own kind. If the masses knew half the things we’d discovered, they’d revolt. Of course, if they did that, their society would collapse and reclaiming the lost portions of the globe would never be possible.

We kept our mouths shut.

That didn’t mean we didn’t milk their system for ourselves. Shifters had resources far beyond what humans knew about, and we could always come up with more. Patents, businesses owned by shell companies, investments done in dark corners… they all allowed us to slowly send out feelers into the economy until the sub-standard housing and lack of the comforts of home could drive us mad.

An incessant beeping pulled me from my musings. Miah frowned at the holo; the vid had stopped, and an older couple appeared before them.

“Mom. Dad. Umm… hi.” All three of them scrambled to sit up straight. Miah was rigid between them. “I didn’t expect you to contact me.”

“Clearly. Is the rumor true?” his mom asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what rumor you’re talking about, Mom. We’ve been rather busy here, so we haven’t had time to socialize.”

“You got hurt.” Her gaze roved over the visible parts of him. “You don’t look hurt.”

“I’m not, really. I never was. I just needed some help, so Moshe and Lisco volunteered.”

“And is it true that your two… men”—his father stumbled over the word—“are actually shifters.”

I stared between Miah and his parents. Lisco stayed silent for once, not even kissing Miah on the cheek or holding his hand, both of which I just knew he desperately needed, even if he didn’t want them to see that. Miah’s lips were pressed tight together, just like his dad’s. His eyes glittered like his mom’s.

Did he get his personality from them? Or were they prejudiced? Were they upset Miah brought two men home to the stake? Upset they were shifters?

Miah nodded sharply.

“Damn it, Miah!”

Miah’s mom sucked in a breath. “Nathan!”

“Pardon my language, Sarah, but the boy doesn’t need two green city-slickers helping him; shifters know even less about the land. You want him to get killed out there on his own?” He turned his gaze back to Miah. “I told you to get the Dravisson boys to help you this year.”

“I don’t need the Dravisson boys. Moshe and Lisco are great at helping me. Things are right as rain around here. Speaking of, there’s a large storm raging overhead, and we were up early.” Miah’s innuendo laden voice made me react, even if I didn’t want to come aroused while one of my bonded’s parents were staring at us. “We’ll speak to you later.”

To my surprise, Miah didn’t shut down the holo until his parents said goodbye and he did as well. We quietly chimed in when Miah reached down and grabbed both my and Lisco’s hands, squeezing them. Lisco turned, tucking one knee up under his chin when Miah turned off the holo.

The vid began again, but Miah shut that off too. “That was unexpected,” he said.

“And strange. I have no idea if they object because we’re gay, we’re shifters, we got you hurt, or if it’s because we don’t know anything about ranching and aren’t from the Interlands. Or maybe all five together.”

“Out here, there’s nothing much to do, so everyone always knows everything about everyone else. Rumors are treated as currency, and I bet we’re the hot thing at the moment. I brought home, not just two men, but two alien shifter men who know nothing about what I’ve made my life’s work.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. I didn’t want to, but I had to ask. “Does that embarrass you, people are talking about you being with aliens?”

“What other people think about my desire for you, both in my bed and in my life? Hell no!”

Lisco smiled. “If your mom heard you, I bet she’d be using your full name right now and pinching your ear off. No wonder you almost never swear.”

Miah sighed. “My parents are very conservative in their ways, but they love me. I know they’ll learn to appreciate you guys too, in time. We’re just going to have to be patient. In the meantime, they’re not here… and we are. Nothing we can do outside, nothing we have to do inside.” He winked.

“How about we go to bed? We can finish the movie later.”

The next morning was bright and clear. After we finished feeding, I was going to plant the garden. I’d held off on putting in the seeds, which was a good thing, since they would’ve all been flooded away from the small rows of hills I’d carefully crafted.

The garden was a muddy bog still, but began drying as the sun came out, even though it was still cold.

“We’re going to head to the barn to take a look at the fertilizer and water the seedlings. Meet us out there when you’re done, and we’ll go feed the cattle. Take your time, but don’t dawdle. An hour or so will give the corral time to dry before we scatter the feed, but we don’t want hungry critters going looking for food. We still need to reinforce some of the fence.”

I nodded. “Will do.”

Planting left me a mucky mess, and then little bits of hay from the bales stuck to me when we went to feed Miah’s herd of cattle. Lisco managed to walk the entire time instead of shrieking and landing in Miah’s lap, which was a good thing.

Because his parents were standing on the porch watching us when we turned to head back to the house to clean up.