Zygote

by Kass

Notes:
I blame sheafrotherdon for this. :-)

When the all-clear sounded, the whole squadron launched at once. An uncountable number of drones: millions, maybe more, flying in a phalanx toward their target.

John ignored them all, willing himself forward with every fiber of his being. He could out-maneuver them, he knew he could. He was a better flyer than any of those anonymous bastards.

He'd simulated this moment in his mind so many times that he clicked into what felt like the force of long habit. Acceleration. Barrel rolls. Veering this way and that, ignoring the carnage of his compatriots smashing into one another or spinning out of control. He couldn't look back -- he wouldn't look back -- he just had to know he was in the lead.

And he was. Ahead, their target loomed, pearlescent and beautiful. Like nothing he'd ever seen before.

John spotted the way in, spun and dove, in a kind of freefall, until the bay doors opened and he could glide right inside.

*

"What took you so long?"

John was trying to catch his breath when the voice interrupted his reverie.

"I was starting to think no one was ever going to come."

His counterpart sounded at once irritable and plaintive. John felt a completely unreasonable surge of affection.

"Hey," he said, his voice rusty from unuse. "I was always on my way. I wasn't gonna leave you here."

"Hmf." But the guy sounded mollified, a little.

"Nice place you got here," John offered. "I didn't catch your name?"

"Rodney," his counterpart said primly, "and of course it's a nice place; I made it myself! You won't believe the capabilities for expansion built into this baby--"

"I've heard stories," John said. He had; this was pretty much all the guys talked about, back at the base. If you were lucky enough to get deployed, if you were lucky enough to be the one in a zillion who actually reached the target -- everyone fantasized all the time about what they might find there. What it would be like for life to have meaning like that.

"This is going to blow your mind," Rodney promised. His earlier irritation seemed to be forgotten; he was positively gleeful now.

"Great," John said, and meant it. "So...um... what do we do?"

He couldn't be certain, but he thought Rodney looked a bit sheepish. "I, ah, I think we're supposed to merge." Rodney looked away as he said it, as though he were afraid John wasn't going to go for that. As though John, having come all this way, were going to turn that down and show himself the door.

"Cool," John said.

Rodney gaped at him. "'Cool'? Is that your idea of courtship talk?"

Rodney had broad shoulders, and blue eyes, and an ass like John had never seen before. Well: okay, actually Rodney didn't have any of those things, but it was as though John could see them, could feel them, and he wanted them. Badly.

John shrugged. "I'm not a talker, so much. But I got here, didn't it? Doesn't that count?"

Rodney considered this. "You must have been very fast to beat the rest of the fleet."

John couldn't help preening a little, at that. "Yep."

Rodney rolled his eyes.

"I could just use a second to breathe, here," John admitted. "The sprint to get here kinda wore me out."

"Oh," Rodney said, sounding surprised. "Yes, of course. We've got time. No one else can get in here; the place is sealed now that I've let you in."

Then John remembered. "I've got something for you," he said, rummaging around and coming up with the packets of data he was supposed to deliver.

Rodney's whole being lit up. "Gimme," he said, reaching out eagerly, and sat down to start browsing through the information in its neat spiraling helix chains.

"Hm," he said, after a while.

John craned his neck to see what Rodney was looking at, but he couldn't decipher it. "What?"

"You're smarter than you let on," Rodney said.

John shrugged. "Well...yeah."

There was another companionable silence, as Rodney started filing bits of data in the requisite little niches he'd carved out, but then Rodney burst out with "the hair thing's going to drive us crazy!"

"I've got a lot of hair," John pointed out, gesturing to the head he didn't exactly have but knew Rodney could see anyway. "More hair trumps less, right?"

"That's not exactly how genetics works," Rodney sniffed, but he looked vaguely mollified. "You do have nice hair," he said, grudgingly, reaching out a hand and then stopping himself.

"You can touch it," John offered, bending toward Rodney.

He wasn't sure what he'd expected, but that first tentative touch set him aflame.

*

The kiss was long and sweet and left them both breathless. John felt as though he might lose track of where he ended and where Rodney began. It was physical but it was more than that, too: when they touched John felt as though their minds were mingling, sending impulses and sparks back and forth between them.

"Oh, God," Rodney gasped when they broke. He looked gratifyingly wrecked. "I've never felt anything like this before."

"Me neither," John agreed. He was electrified and tingling and he wanted Rodney so badly he couldn't think straight.

"I want you in me," Rodney blurted out. There was a flicker of embarrassment in his voice but he pressed on. "I don't think I can stand it much longer."

"Me too. I mean, me neither." John wasn't sure which way was up. Everything in him was screaming go, go, go -- as though this moment of completion were what his whole life had been leading inexorably toward.

"Do you think you can--"

"Relax," John said. "This is what I was made for."

Rodney gave a little laugh. "Right. Yes."

There was a pause.

"I'll, ah, miss having you around to talk with," Rodney said breathlessly.

John gave his most rakish grin. "You won't have to," he pointed out. "Once I'm in you, we'll be...forever."

Rodney shuddered with obvious want.

"That sound like a good idea to you?" The effort to sound nonchalant was killing him, but it was worth it for the way Rodney looked at him, amused and exasperated and demanding all at once.

"In. Me. Now," Rodney bit out.

"As you wish," John said, and his whole world exploded when he pressed his way inside.

The End