Wolf Boy, Chapter 5, Part I

Rhys was heading into the chapel to prepare for communion when a messenger from station control stopped him at the door.

“Priority call from Earth,” the messenger said.

So many electronic messages floated between the station and incoming ships, the station and the planet, the station and various necessary services, private communications relied on hand-to-hand contact. Rhys accepted the plastic sheet and peered at it as the messenger sauntered off, likely to stop in the café now that the message was delivered as ordered.

Lider said, “About the case?”

Rhys tried not to start and did anyway. Odd how Lider surprised him more now than when Lider had been a voice, no more. Back then, Rhys always assumed that Lider was near him. Now that he could make out the ghostly shape of Lider, he was surprised when Lider—like any human—approached Rhys from behind.

Luckily, Lider chuckled, though the strain was there.

“Francesca,” Rhys said, holding up the sheet. “Why would Francesca be calling us?”

“Let’s hope another religious conference isn’t in the offing,” Lider said.

Lider accompanied Rhys to station control. As they stepped out of the lift, the station master nodded, his eyes pausing on Lider.

“He’s younger than you, huh?” he’d said the first time he saw Lider’s sometimes opaque, sometimes translucent form.

Rhys had laughed in surprise. Lider had been his companion and lover for nearly ten years now. In the beginning, he appeared as a young man in his early twenties. He’d aged himself, but Cubi aging never quite resembled mortal corporeal aging with the latter’s hunches and wrinkles and spots. But Lider took the demands of corporeality seriously. He looked near thirty now, so the age gap in appearance was still about the same.

Not in reality, of course. In reality, Lider’s sentience traced back several hundred years before regular space travel, before Earth nations turned back into kingdoms and city-states. Lider wanted corporeality. He also wanted to know what he was signing up for, to fully understand the human condition. Lately, he had admitted to being present at a dig in the 1970s when thefts occurred.

“Think Francesca has more questions about archaeological misappropriations?” Lider said acerbically when he and Rhys entered the communications alcove. “Maybe Earth Cubi decided on some retroactive punishments. The human is dead but I’m still around to rebuke.”

The pessimistic streak in Lider was new. Rhys restrained an impulse to hug his shoulders or kiss the side of his head or any of the hundred gestures he used with Lider in their dreams when he would still touch Lider.

He said, “Weren’t you given amnesty when you became a canon? For any behavior previous to your arrival on the station?”

Lider gave him a half-smile. Rhys clicked on the video and sound feed and waited the few seconds while Francesca’s face floated into focus. He adjusted the sound and motioned to Lider to step closer. Francesca wouldn’t be able to see Lider—Cubi and human technology were not entirely compatible—but she would be able to hear him.

“Hullo? Monseigneur? Canon Lider?”

“We’re here,” Rhys said and then grimaced since he tried not to answer for Lider, now that Lider could be heard by others.

Lider gave him a real smile this time, wide mouth splitting so one side went up. “Hullo, Francesca.”

She looked as smooth and unruffled as ever, sleek dark hair groomed into a careful bob. She didn’t pause for pleasantries, however. Her position required some level of diplomacy and usually she asked pre-selected (Rhys suspected) questions about her subject's activities and health.

Today, she said with unruffled directness, “Is it true that Panfilo, the young Anthros man, was attacked by another Anthros?”

“Yes,” Lider said and gave Rhys one of his quizzical looks: raised-brows-with-a-slight-frown.

Francesca was head of a Congregation that investigated potential sainthoods. Assassination attempts did not fall within her purview.

She said, “Will has given me information about Panfilo.”

Will, Arysllwr, was Francesca’s Cubus.

“Will?” Lider said sharply. “What does Will have to do with Panfilo?”