Swytch's parents would be here in like 15 minutes and Max was having a panic attack, he checked to make sure all of the ingredients for the dinner were there for the fourth time. He checked his appearance for the 12th time and continued to pace in the living area. That, of course, is when his PADD alerted him that there was a data storage failure in module 12 that needed to be replaced ASAP.

"Of course! I knew it was too good to be true," he exclaimed and he continued to mumble about it until Swytch stepped in.

"MAX! Stop panicking," hy laughed. "Go take care of the issue and come back when you're done. It's not that big of a deal. It will give me a little time to talk to my folks and maybe explain a few things before you all meet."

Max stopped pacing and nodded, "I'll be back as soon as I get the module replaced and the array rebuilt." And with an about face, he marched off to the C&C.

Seeing the time getting nearer, Swytch put hys regular everyday shields back up but left the link to Max wide open, hy wouldn't make that mistake again. Right on time, the transporter made its warning warble as it scanned the immediate area for obstructions and with a whir of energy hys folks were standing on the transport pad looking around curiously. "MOM! DAD!" Swytch exclaimed and hurried over to hys parents giving them both huge hugs of welcome. "Welcome to ARCS Station 2! Mom! You're in male phase! Does this mean?"

Jynxy smiled and nodded, "That's right; your dad is with cub! We started right after you left!"

"That's wonderful! Finally, a sib I can teach how to get into trouble!" hy said grinning impishly.

"Don't you dare!" hys dad teased. "You were a handful enough without teaching this one all of your little tricks." Riot looked around, "Where's your workmate?"

"He's repairing an issue that just popped up in the storage arrays." Then hy grinned at hys parents with a goofy expression hys eyes lost as hy linked back to Max checking on him. Max was listening to his music and singing as he worked on the system and Swsytch giggled then blinked as hy came back to hys folks who were both staring at hym with speculative looks.

Hys mom gave hym a shrewd look, "I knew you would look great in that top, but what is that around your neck?"

Swytch's ears pinked. "Well, that is a bit of a long story, maybe we should sit down first." Hy lead hys folks over to the living area and settled them on taur pads. "Would either of you like a drink?" hy asked hopefully.

"No, I think we'd like to hear what's been happening to our cub in the past few months. Especially before your dad pins you to the ground and tickles it out of you like shi used to do when you were a cub." Sure enough, Riot's tail was twitching like mad.

"Well... Mom, dad, I have a denmate now," hy said.

Both parents looked at hym for a minute. "Wait, where did you find a denmate? Is there someone else here besides your workmate?" hys mom asked.

Swytch shook hys head in the negative.

Jynxy looked at hys cub. "You're denmated to a human?" hy asked incredulously. "OK, I have a feeling this is going to be one hell of a story."

Swytch sat down by hys mom. "It would be easier if I showed you, I give you permission to read me." hy said ritually. And with that hy bowed hys head to hys mother.

Jynxy nodded and twined hys tail with Riot's so that they could share the experience and gently places hys hand on hys cubs head.

Several minutes passed in quiet as Swytch shared everything with hys parents. Eventually, Jynxy removed hys hand blinking rapidly coming out of the reading. "So, he is one of the ones that's been all over the news. You believe he's innocent?" hy asked seriously.

Swytch looked hys mom in the eyes. "Yes, with my whole heart I believe he's innocent. You saw the state he was in; do you really think he could have been able to commit such acts? He was dying inside! If I hadn't intervened, his sanity would have slipped away and he would be gone now." The last few words made Swytch's voice catch a little.

Jynxy looked at hys cub and said in an exasperated tone of voice, "And you decided to create a full mental bond with him to save him? You know what the laws say about that; you may not have broken them outright but you bent them nearly to breaking. The council will want to know about this and appraise the situation themselves."

Swytch looked shaken, "Mom, you can't do that. They won't care if he is innocent or not, they will hand him over to Fleet and he'll be punished for something he didn't even do. He has already punished himself to the brink of insanity for what he perceived was his fault. It could break him completely... and me as well... I don't know if we can be that far apart for that long anyway. I've never bonded with anyone like this and I don't even really know how I did it, I just knew I had to save him, mom."

Jynxy looked at hys cub with something akin to compassion mixed with cold steel in hys gaze. "What you did was keep his mind together with yours and in doing so, you've permanently bonded him to you and vice versa. I don't even know if the council could separate the two of you without harming both. I wouldn't be surprised if the two of you couldn't be more than twenty or thirty kilometers from each other without side effects. I'm not even sure how this is possible with a human at all, the chances of a human being an empath or a telepath is VERY slight," hy exclaimed in disbelief. "I AM in agreement that whatever they used on him to change his appearance and DNA profile triggered something. The question is, was it on purpose or a complete accident? He needs to be tested and examined. The Maker only knows what that gene therapy also did to him that we can't see." Hy looked thoughtful for a bit before making a decision and saying, "I want to talk to him and see if he will let me scan him as well. I need to see his mental state for myself."

Swytch nodded, "I thought you might so I spoke with him about it first. He said he trusts my judgment... Just be careful, his mind is still very fragile, I think."

Jynxy nodded to hys cub and then hys dad spoke up. "So the necklace is kind of like a human engagement ring then?" shi asked curiously.

Swytch beamed at hys dad and nodded, "Isn't it beautiful? And it's over 500 years old. It's been handed down from mother to daughter, or daughter in law, for hundreds of years. He said it's the only thing he had from his past that he could give me. Of course I don't think he really understood exactly what being Denmated meant until today," hy said with a goofy grin.

Riot's tail twitched more, "So? Don't keep us in suspense! Was he any good?"

In another part of the station Max sneezed violently. Must be the filters needed changing, he would mention it to Swytch later. He turned up the music playing through his headphones and started to work on scripting the rebuild of the arrays now that the faulty module had been changed out. Without really thinking, he started to sing with the music.

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone

Narrow streets of cobblestone

Neath the halo of a street lamp

I turned my collar to the cold and damp

When my eyes were stabbed

By the flash of a neon light

That split the night

And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more

People talking without speaking

People hearing without listening

People writing songs

That voices never share

And no one dare

Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools, " said I, "you do not know

Silence, like a cancer, grows.

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you."

But my words like silent raindrops fell

And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon God they made

And the sign flashed out its warning

And the words that it was forming

And the sign said,

"The words of the prophets

Are written on the subway walls

And tenement halls."

And whispered in the sound of silence

(Sound of Silence by: Simon & Garfunkel, remade in 2015 by: Disturbed)

He always enjoyed singing with his music, preferably when no one could hear him of course. That would be mightily embarrassing. Then he received an amused mental ping in his mind and curious, he turned around to see Swytch with hys hand over a grin on hys muzzle. Beside hym was a chakat who could only be hys father. Hir colors were so vibrant they almost seemed to glow from hir white fur and beside hir was a skunktaur in a smart vest with hys head cocked slightly watching him. They all were trying with varying degrees to hide smiles. Max stopped singing mid-word and managed a very lovely shade of maroon in his face as he sank down lower in his chair. To his embarrassment all three started to clap. He took his headphones off and bobbed his head in thanks to the impromptu audience.

"Sorry about that, I don't normally inflict my singing on others if I know they are there," he said giving Swytch a bit of an amused glare.

It was Riot who spoke up first, "Actually, you sing quite well, I don't think I've ever heard that song though. What was it?"

"It's pre-war. A group called Disturbed did a cover of an even older song called Sounds of Silence. Would you like to hear?" he asked quickly to take the focus off his singing. When they all nodded, he spun around plugging the player into the computer and called up the external speakers and pressed play. He then turned to watch them as the ancient song rolled out of the speakers and didn't miss it when they all took turns shivering at certain portions of the song. When the song was over, they all opened their eyes again. "I have terabytes of this kind of music, most of it handed down through the family so it wasn't lost. If you'd like I could make you copies?"

Riot trotted up to him and pulled him into a huge chakat style hug of greeting. "I would love that very much, thank you for sharing it with us. Finding music like that all dating from pre-war is super rare. Have you ever thought about adding it to the cultural achieves so everyone can share it?" shi asked.

Max opened his mouth to reply then stopped and closed it blinking. "Actually no, that didn't even cross my mind," he said sheepishly. "I would rather remain anonymous though." He looked thoughtful and spun back to his console and pulled out a blank data chip plugging it into the reader slot. With a couple of keystrokes, a status window appeared and quickly counted its way to 100. Max then removed the chip and spun back around and offered it to Riot. "Would you be my proxy? Share this with everyone on Chakona," he asked.

Gravely, Riot took the chip and placed it in hir waist pack and gave him another hug, this one much more familiarly. "I'd be happy to; you're a good person, Max. While other people would have thought about how they could make money off it, you just want to share it." Shi turned to look at hir cub, "I approve."

Shi had read no maliciousness from Max empathically even if hir talent was modest. Shi'd only sensed embarrassment from being caught singing and a nice duh moment when he realized he could have just shared the collection of music with everyone at once instead of a person at a time. He was genuinely happy with the idea and shy about being found out. He wasn't one to be in the spotlight.

Jynxy and Swytch both understood the subtler meaning behind Riot's approval and Jynxy stepped forward. "I am Jynxy of House Redpaw and this is my mate, Riot. I'll give you three guesses how shi got hir name and the first two don't count," hy said grinning fondly at hys mate. Riot just stuck hir tongue out teasingly at hir mate. Hy gave Max a direct look before saying, "I have a serious question to ask you. Swytch has shared what you both have been through so far and I have many questions still. Technically, what hy has done is a fairly big no-no. But if what hy shared with us is true, and what I can read from you matches it, I can make a better decision on what to do. I ask your permission to read you, all of you."

Max paled slightly as he looked at Swytch and hy nodded to him. Max licked his lips and nodded nervously at Jynxy. Jynxy padded over and reached out putting the tips of hys fingers on either temple and closed hys eyes. After a couple of minutes, hy removed hys hands and looked at Swytch slightly annoyed, "Swytch, you have to stop shielding him, I can't read him if you do."

Swytch looked confused, "But I'm not mom."

Jynxy sighed and muttered something about untrained talent then said, "Yes, you are, you just don't realize you're doing it. You've taken it so firmly in mind that you're his protector that you're automatically shielding him. Remember your shielding exercises and imagine taking your shields down but around Max instead of yourself."

Swytch nodded and closed hys eyes while Jynxy placed hys fingers lightly on Max's temples again. Then hy nodded absently in the direction of hys cub. "Much better. OK, Max try to relax and let me in, I'll try to make this as painless as possible."

Max nodded jerkily and closed his eyes concentrating on being open. Everything blurred as he saw what Jynxy saw and hy went all the way back to first memories. Max had to relive his entire life as a passenger while Jynxy watched everything. Max got to relive the bombing again and the guilt and despair in their full glory when he held the skunk morph in his arms. Hy examined that guilt and those feelings and moved on and continued through and stopped again examining Swytch's subtle seduction and their subsequent mating after and then it was done. Jynxy removed hys hands from Max and looked at him for a moment with the penetrating gaze only a parent can really give while Max felt his face get hotter.

Jynxy murmured low enough to really only be heard by Max, "Now I understand why my cub bonded with you so easily. You've been afraid to let anyone in and it took your subconscious proximity for two like souls to find each other." Jynxy stepped closer and hugged the startled human, "I know you don't need my approval Swytch but you have it. Be gentle though, everything is still brand new to him and he doesn't have the same danger marks someone who's had a regular life does. When he decided to trust you, it was 100% all the way and that's one reason your bond and link is so strong."

Swytch walked up to Max putting hys arm around him and leaned hys head on his shoulder. "I will. I love him, what else would I do?"

Max started visibly. "You love me?" he asked in an amazed voice.

Swytch sighed and looked at hys mom saying in exasperation, "He is a bit slow to catch on to everything."

Jynxy chided hys cub, "Be nice, he really doesn't understand what Denmating really means." Hy looked at Max, "Denmating is a bit like human marriage except it can be dissolved later if both parties decide it's best for the both of them. Other than that, you are a mated pair. Husband and wife, you'd call it. We don't choose to do that with someone we don't love Max."

Max lifted a hand and cupped Swytch's face in it and tilted hys to look at him. "I honestly didn't know, hon. I love you, too," he said trying the words out and found they felt right on his tongue and with those words he leaned down to kiss Swytch which, after a stunned moment, happily returned.

A smirking chakat was heard complaining. "I thought someone promised us a home cooked meal?" shi asked plaintively.

The rest of the visit was spent pleasantly enough; Max was even invited to a communal sleep with the family which wasn't half bad actually. When the weekend was over, Max was invited to the birthing of the cub and invited to visit anytime, especially seeing as that he was their "son-in-law" so to speak. Jynxy mentioned hy had a friend who was a geneticist and asked for a blood sample to take back with hym, so they could see what all the 'gene therapy' had done to him.

Max agreed with this request, he also promised that as soon as their stint was up in the arctic, he would go with Swytch and get tested to see if he warranted an E or T rating with his now awakening abilities.

Life and work continued as normal. In the mornings, they would make breakfast and hit the gym to stay in shape. Then they would work back to back in the C&C until the afternoon. No matter where Swytch went inside the building or out, hy had a continual companion and hys own radio station playing in hys head for company. This time, hy didn't mind the extra noise. Their evenings were spent over dinner and various other activities whether relaxing in the holosuite or reading or watching movies together. Neither one saw any reason to use their vacation weeks so far and declined the offer of relief for a break; instead, bargaining it to be able to go to the birthing ceremony of Swytch's soon to be sibling. Their nights were spent learning about each other and making love and if not that, in each other's embrace in deep slumber. Then one morning Max woke up to a new scent in the air which had a quick effect on his libido. It seems Swytch had gone into heat during the night. So, Max woke hym to gentle sex play which hy enthusiastically participated in as soon as hy was awake enough. Life really couldn't have been better for the two new Denmates, but that's normally when things go wrong. Murphy, it seems, had his own ideas on what should happen in their lives.

>>>

Robert had been many things in his long career as well as many different people. The list of aliases he had gone by in his life was longer than his arm and none of them had ever been traced back to him. He'd always been good at fixing problems for his employers and that's what kept him in the lifestyle he preferred. Pretty women, expensive toys, and the finer things in life were normally at his beck and call due to his proficiency.

It wasn't long before a genetics company with strong leanings towards H1 sympathies recruited him into their fold. They resented the harsh rules and regulations that were placed on genetic research and the pathways that they wanted to make in raising man back up to the level where they felt man should be, at the top, with all others below. From what we've been able to decipher and determine after the events of this journal, has shown that a one Thomas Keates Jr. was not a very nice person.