Xenrai sat alone in the media room, watching three movies at the same time, all with the sound off. None of them were even of the slightest interest to him, but his attention span was just barely long enough to keep every detail in mind.

"You are bored," said a voice from the doorway, it was Kalkin. "Come on into my office and you should talk to me."

Xenrai groaned, though he was in his twenties he sometimes seemed rather like an annoyed teenager. Kalkin was patient with him for more than a few reasons - he loved having the spotted half-cheetah around. He was ostensibly his grandson, anyway. So of course, he had to be patient for that reason too: he'd be a Sanger whether he knew it or not. And Sangers could be quite contrite and stubborn.

Just look at Baeris, Kalkin thought to himself, as he waited by the door. Xenrai finally picked himself up and ran his fingers through his rumpled fur. "Fine, fine. Are you working on something?"

"No, I'm not," Kalkin said, and noticed the pause in Xenrai's approach, "I just thought you'd want to talk."

They went in silence, and Xenrai knew that the older man didn't have to even spare a sideways glance to see him as they walked. His own eyes had a wide field of view, wider than normal anyway. Xenrai prided himself on being able to spot a bug in the corner of his eye and snatch it out of the air without killing it. That was a trick he'd picked up from Kalkin. Though Xenrai respected his grandfather, he was also aware that sometimes, Kalkin just went on tangents that made no sense.

Not at the time, anyway. There was usually some punch line a few days later, or during dinner or something. He had a weird sense of humor, that man did.

Cynonix was in the office too, and Xenrai sighed. He set himself down into one of the big leather chairs and leaned back, closing his deeply blue eyes and folding his fingers across his chest.

"You have been moping considerably more than usual," Cynonix said, "and don't think we haven't noticed."

"I didn't think it was something you'd need to worry about," Xenrai said. His eyes closed, he didn't see the smirk on his human grandfather's face. Oh how alike they all were.

"Well we are concerned," Kalkin said, after a moment. "You need to keep yourself busier."

"Why hasn't she even sent word? Why hasn't Cryten?" Xenrai said suddenly. This startled both Cynonix and Kalkin, and Xenrai was leaning up in the chair glancing at both of them with urgency. "Why hasn't someone gone to check?"

Not quite knowing what to make of this, Cynonix allowed his eyebrows to shoot up. He noticed Kalkin's doing the same. "We don't really think it's time yet, to worry about it." Cynonix finally said. This didn't seem to calm his son any.

"But they're out there, unprotected, in the wilderness!" Xenrai said, an edge to his voice.

"With a ship full of immortal Zekirans to watch over them, and a dozen dragons added to that," Kalkin pointed out. "I would hardly say they are unprotected."

"Your sister can in fact take care of herself," Cynonix said. "And your little brother is perfectly able himself. Why didn't you choose to go along with them?"

"Because Tyssix thought I wouldn't be accepted - because I'm a male, and older than Cryten." He sighed. "It makes a certain sense."

"Well you could have gone anyway," Kalkin said. "With the Zekirans, you could have helped them set up."

"They don't need help," Xenrai said, rolling his eyes. "They've colonized hundreds of planets in their time, and I don't think this one will give them any problems."

"Well then you're just going to have to sit here and live with that," Cynonix said, and got out of his chair. "I'll be in the flight zone, if you need me. Ishioth wants to fly a bit."

"Tell Sixth to get some exersize too," Kalkin said, smiling and escorting his furry son to the door. But he blocked Xenrai from leaving just yet. He saw the grind of Xenrai's jaw, but the young half-cat said nothing. Wordlessly, they both went back to their chairs.

They sat in silence, until Kalkin opened up a drawer in the big black desk he sat behind. He opened a scroll that had a blood red ribbon wrapped around it. "You know, you could do something useful for me," Kalkin said.

"And what would that be?" Xenrai said, interested but not really wanting to know what he'd be getting into.

Kalkin opened the scroll and there were strangely familiar lines drawn on it along with a couple diagrams. "You could go to Vella Crean for me, and donate some genetic material. I'm sure that Shy would want your genes as much as mine. And I'm tired of scraping him off me when I go there."

The look on Xenrai's face was precious, and the older man broke into a full laugh at the sight of it. Poor Xenrai's ear went half down, part of his lip went half up, and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. His tail twitched, and he tried to stop it by clutching it between his furry knees.

"I ... could do that," Xenrai said, quietly, "I suppose."

Kalkin's smirk went all the way ear to ear at that.

***

Disruptor was happy to oblige her science teacher's request to take the cute furry guy to Vella Crean. It meant extra credit in his class, and any time she could squeeze more than a B average onto her report card she got to do something special with her mother. So, off they went.

Of course, Baeris was shocked that Kalkin would send two kids into Shy's offices alone. Kalkin assured her that they would be just fine. It was time he cornered Baeris without the hassles of the younger units anyway. They always looked at the adults funny.

Disruptor's big blue-green-black dragon handled the trip perfectly well, and they landed at Vella Crean without hassle.

"Where is this guy, then?" Disruptor asked, "and why didn't Doc Sanger want to go?"

Xenrai rounded his shoulders and glanced at the girl. "Because Shy apparently wants him to breed full time or something."

"Doesn't he already?" Disruptor said, offhand having noticed that the guy had children of every possible description in every corner of the multiverse. Xenrai gave a chuckle at that thought.

"Here, this way." He looked at the map that Kalkin had provided, and then ducked when a pale grey-white flitter swooped down and landed on his shoulder. After the initial shock wore off, he noticed it was a familiar flit. "Tsuki, what do you want?"

The white flit handed off another scroll, which was labeled clearly to Shy, and then took off.

"Well, I guess we're delivering this now too." Xenrai said. They went down corridor after corridor, and then finally appeared at a lift.

Disruptor was always amazed to see such things at dragon locales. She'd always assumed that they were future-worldy things, like electric energy and gas power. But many caers, weyrs and nexus sites seemed to be fully functional with computers and everything. Why not? It made finding dragon partners much quicker.

They exited the lift after having gone down quite a ways. The rooms were bathed in red trim, black walls had Japanese-style lanterns hung over windows that looked out upon places that could not be reached by conventional means. There were silken tapestries draped down from the ceiling and around pillars, and incense burned in large copper basins. It was both calming and eerie. Noises of animals could be heard, but not from any particular direction.

"Are you totally creeped out?" Disruptor asked, and Xenrai nodded. His eyes showed white around the blues they were so wide. "It'll be okay. We can give this to him and leave, right?"

"Uh..." Xenrai said, glancing at the girl. "Well, you know I'm here to um..." He hemmed and hawed. Well, she had Kalkin as a teacher so she must know - "I'm here to donate, you know, like, donate."

"Oh! Cool. That takes the mystery out of things, doesn't it. And chances are you'll get paired off with something cool anyway, right?" Disruptor seemed to take that way too easily.

Xenrai and she continued to walk until they saw a brightly lit white-walled room where a tall slender man wearing an elegant silken cheongsam stood looking at beakers and bubbling tubes. He barely turned his head, looking at the pair of furry (well, one was naturally furry and the girl...?) kids. A narrow smile went over his sharp lips.

"Ah, welcome," he said. His voice was willowy and soft, yet had a tone to it that put Xenrai on edge. Disruptor walked right up to the guy and handed him the scroll.

"This is for you, I think it's from Doc Sanger." She said, and Xenrai looked around the room. There were ... things... in beakers everywhere. Animal parts, things that just looked like jello, eyeballs, organs... While he had been raised around science and breeding rooms, this was far beyond what Kalkin ever really showed off.

He didn't know that Doc Sanger's lab looked just like this, on Twoarth.

With glee, though, Shy plucked the scroll from the girl's hand. He opened it rapidly and read it silently, eyes narrowing in places, but then pressed by his high cheeks in a smile at the last.

"It is almost time for tea, would you like to sit down?" Shy asked, holding his pale hand toward another room away from this scary lab.

Disruptor nodded, and grasped Xenrai's limp hand. "Come on," she said, "don't be so unfriendly," she whispered to him more quietly.

"I can see that your reaction runs in your family," Shy said, pronouncing everything so clearly though it all seemed to sound as if English was not his native tongue. "Do not fear, young Xenrai," he addressed the cat man, "I will show you anything you desire to know, I only keep my projects secret until they are ready to be unveiled. And so very rarely are they kept secret forever."

"I'd want to know what you do with my ... samples," Xenrai said, flat out.

With a faint pause, Shy sipped at his tea. "Your tea is getting cold."

Disruptor sat and watched the two men. Shy was certainly a mature guy, but he hardly looked an hour older than 'stunning'. Of course he was a lot more girly-guy than she liked. But he was pretty and anyone could appreciate the guy's appearance. Apparently, anyone except a Sanger like Xenrai.

"I'd want to know too, but sheesh - he's a mad scientist," Disruptor said, "there's a class at Carramba High for mad scientists in training. In fact I think there's a whole wing of the Science building for it."

Shy leaned back a little, and tipped his head to her. "Yes, I have seen the facilities there. They are not quite to my liking."

"Well, they're publically funded, what do you expect?" Disruptor said. "Even Doc Sanger has to hide the bodies somewhere, when it's open house."

Xenrai nearly choked on his tea. He put the cup down and sat stiffly in the beautifully embroidered overstuffed chair. He busied himself by looking at the stitchery under his fingers.

When Shy had finished his tea, and Disruptor and he had had quite the interesting discussion about what might constitute a failure in terms of breeding, and how her own powers would pass if she were to breed 'normally' with someone, they both stood and seemed to expect Xenrai to do the same.

"I still want to know what happens." Xenrai said.

"Xenrai," Shy said carefully - and a bit coldly - "your grandfather and I have an agreement. Of course you will know what happens. I have certain ... genetic needs here in my lab. And far from ruining your family's beautiful genetics, I intend to ... enhance them. I understand that you are the eldest of your siblings?"

"Leave my sibs out of this," Xenrai said, his tone a warning.

Shy's eyebrow went up, under a sheen of his smartly cut hair. "If they arrive here, they are under their own free will. As are you. I was merely asking. I understand as well that your sister has gone to this Planet Twenty place. Is that correct?"

"It is, and ..." Xenrai sighed and made himself say, "I don't like her there. I wouldn't want her here either."

"Either way, she will be entertaining the same experiments that I have in store. Only she must carry the burden of her choices herself. If she ever has need for an artificial-"

"I said leave her out of it," Xenrai snapped. "Let me make this perfectly clear, Shy. I don't like it here. I know my father stays as far away from here as he can, and Kalkin doesn't want to be here if he can help it. And I know Grandmother really doesn't like you. I'm not going to change anyone's mind, and you're not changing mine either. So let's just get this over with, and then let me go home."

Shy stood, rather stunned. "My my," he said quietly, turning to hide the flush of amazement (and anger? fear?) on his white cheeks. "You are rather a lot like your grandmother Baeris aren't you. Come along then. We shan't keep you long. Disruptor? Are you coming?"

Without pause, the fur-clad superheroine said, "not right now, but I'm sure I will be - I vibrate, you know."

***