Between Friends
Part Six

	Lantis walked through the halls of Accord University, thinking.
	He seemed to be doing that a lot recently.
	Eagle, smiling, filled his mind.

	Eagle sat in his Advanced Mechanical Engineering class, listening 
to his professor with only half of his attention, possibly less.  It was 
really unneccesary for him to take the class although he generally did well 
in it.  If he ever needed to know anything or to fix anything, he could ask 
Zazu for advice and help.  That was what friends were for, and Geo, Zazu, 
and he all planned to remain friends for a long time, and to be stationed 
together wherever they ended up.  Lantis, of course, was the completely 
random factor in that he was not from Autozam, and in many ways did not fit 
in with the neat organization of its inhabitants' lives.
	His disquieting way of looking at a problem and coming up with an 
unusual solution that was entirely feasable and often better than the ones 
the professors expected of their students had made Eagle take a good look 
at his own life.  It was a good life by Autozam standards, and he had been 
told for as long as he could remember that he was "a bright young man with 
a promising future."  However, once he had begun to examine that future in 
greater detail, Eagle had realized that he really didn't *want* to settle 
down and raise children, slowly growing older until one day all traces of 
cream were gone from his hair and it was left the stark white of an old man.
	The onset of his illness, several months before, had made him 
confirm this decision.
	Eagle had a fear of dying, and he was scared that that was exactly 
what the disease was doing, slowly killing him.  The tests the doctor had 
run showed that there was no explainable cause for the coughing attacks.  
Genetically, his body was sound, and there were no traces whatsoever of the 
illness.  Without a determined cause, even Autozam's best physicians would 
be unable to fathom a cure.
	Eagle had come to the conclusion that he wanted to live as full a 
life as he could for however long he did live.  What he felt for Lantis was 
only part of it.  Eagle had decided that he wanted to learn everything he 
could learn and do everything he could do.  Over the past few months, he 
had felt more alive than he could ever remember being before.  And if it 
was paid for with the constant reminder of his mortality, it was almost 
worth the price.
	It was only a few days until the first break, and the four of them 
had planned a trip to the deep forests, farther from the cities than any of 
them had ever gone before.  Zazu's parents had agreed to it, as had 
Eagle's.  Geo was a full adult, twenty summers old, and did not need to 
consult with anyone to go his own way, and Lantis was also twenty, and had 
no one on Autozam to dictate his actions in any case.
	Eagle sighed under his breath, his attention brought back to the 
seminar as the teacher listed off chapters they needed to read by the next 
test.  Eagle entered the data into his personal screen and drifted off 
again, wondering what the cafeteria's synthesized specialty would be that 
day.  He checked his chronometer.  Only half an hour until the class was 
over and lunch began.  Lantis and Zazu should both be there today, as 
neither had a study group during that hour....

	Geo smiled to himself, sitting a few seats behind and to the right 
of Eagle.  Eagle was daydreaming, and the odds were ten to one that he 
would need to borrow Geo's notes to make up for it.  Geo covertly keyed a 
message into his screen and sent it to Eagle.
	/Need to borrow my notes?/ it read.  /You're drifting./
	It took Eagle a few minutes to actually notice the message, but 
when he did, he replied /Yes.  Thank you, Geo!  I suppose I really am 
drifting, aren't I?/
	/You are,/ Geo wrote back.  /Just don't let him notice, or he'll 
freak out./
	/Professor Civic?/
	/No!  Lantis!/
	Geo could practically see Eagle blush.  It took a few minutes, but 
eventually he responded /I guess I am rather obvious, aren't I?/
	/Like a space cruiser, but that's only because I know you so well.  
Now quit wasting energy and pay attention to the lecture./
	/..../
	<I really need to have a talk with Eagle later,> Geo grumbled to 
himself as he downloaded information into his personal notes screen for the 
class.  <It's all well and good to fall in love, but he's overdoing it.>

	Zazu looked warily at his three friends before taking the first 
bite of his huge sandwich.  Something had changed.  What?
	Zazu pondered to himself as he munched on his meal.
	Eagle was looking at Lantis more obviously now, not just watching 
him covertly as he had been doing before.  Lantis was ignoring the fact, 
just as he had before.  Geo, interestingly enough, looked amused at both of 
their behaviors.
	Zazu took another bite and wondered some more.

	Eagle sighed as he looked at the notes Geo had just sent him.  He 
was already regretting not paying attention in class.  He would need to put 
in several extra hours at the simulator just to make up for it, not to 
mention the extra time he would need to do the assignments.
	"Problems?" Lantis asked.
	"My A.M.E. class," Eagle explained, looking up.  "These assignments 
and reading sets look like they're going to take a while."
	"Professor Civic?" Zazu asked around a mouthful of whatever his 
mother had sent with him that day.  Eagle nodded.  "If you get stuck, I can 
probably help."
	"Thank you, Zazu," Eagle said, smiling.  "I hope I can get through 
them on my own, though."
	An airplane made out of data paper sailed neatly through the air 
and landed in front of Eagle.  He glanced around, hoping to catch sight of 
its sender, but was disappointed.  Every student within sight was quite 
thoroughly involved with their meals.  That meant that the note could only 
contain one message, if no one was willing to admit to sending it.
	Eagle unfolded it, already knowing what he would see.
	/Barbarian/ was the only thing on the page.
	Eagle angrily crumpled the paper before anyone else at the table 
could see what was written on it.  It was never subtle, what the other 
students said about Lantis.  It didn't need to be.  There was quite a large 
faction on Autozam that felt that Lantis' mere presence contaminated their 
world.  That he should be enrolled as a legitimate student at Accord 
University offended and infuriated them to no end.  Only the facts that 
Lantis' friends were fellow Autozamians, quite willing to protect him, and 
his own demonstrated ability to defend himself, both with his fighting 
skills and his superior usage of mental energy, kept him out of their reach.
	Still, the harrassment never ended.
	Eagle suddenly wished that the four of them were able to leave 
Autozam far, far, behind them, and go somewhere where there were no bigots.
	The other night he had gone home to find, painted on the door of 
his parents' home, /Barbarian Lovers/, in large red letters.
	The crumpled paper in the middle of the table silenced all 
conversation between the four of them.  Geo's face hardened.  "Jerks," Zazu 
mumbled.  Lantis merely looked at the paper, his face impassive.
	Suddenly Eagle felt sick to his stomach.  "Excuse me," he murmured 
quietly, standing.  "I don't feel well.  Please continue with your meals."  
He took his tray and the paper, dropping the latter into a vaporizer bin on 
the way to returning his dishes.

	Lantis caught up with Eagle half-way across campus in the direction 
of their next class, which they shared.  "You shouldn't let them bother 
you, you know," he said.
	"I know," Eagle said, sighing.  "I just can't stand to think that I 
live on the same planet as people like that.  It makes me sick."
	"Wherever you go, Eagle, there will be people who don't like you 
just because of where you come from, or what you are," Lantis consoled 
him.  "You simply have to be better than them, and not give in.  That's all 
you can do."
	"It doesn't make me feel any better," Eagle murmured.
	"It doesn't have to," Lantis corrected.  "It's simply the way it 
is, and it will take a lot more than one person to change it."
	Eagle was silent for a long moment, then asked "What do you really 
think of my world, Lantis?"
	Lantis pondered for a second.  "Autozam is highly advanced," he 
said slowly, trying to vocalize what he felt for this world, a difficult 
task, given his mixed emotions.  "In some respects, it is far more 
magnificent than Cephiro.  However, the air is harder to breathe, and 
blocks off the raw energy of your world; it feels 'distant' to me.  The 
magic does not flow as strongly here, and I miss that."
	"I would like to visit your world someday, Lantis," Eagle said, 
looking at him.  "Your 'magic' is the most vibrant form of mental energy I 
have ever seen.  I would like to learn more of it, since you refuse to 
elaborate on it in class."
	"I can't elaborate on something that is instinctual and out of your 
range of experience and expect you to understand it, Eagle," Lantis 
replied, going over what they had already covered.  What annoyed him was 
that he would be more than happy to teach Eagle what he knew, but that it 
was impossible.
	Eagle stopped suddenly, in the middle of a patch of trees.  Lantis 
followed suit and looked at the boy curiously.  "Lantis," Eagle said, his 
voice now serious and completely lacking in any of his usual degrees of 
self-deprecation, "what do you think of me?"
	"Eagle..." Lantis said, stalling.  For various reasons, he did not 
want to give Eagle a comprehensive answer.  So instead he gave the simplest 
version of the truth he knew.  "I don't know."
	"I see," Eagle said slowly.  "If I had asked you a week ago, would 
you have been able to give me a more complete answer?"
	"Yes," Lantis replied, seeing no reason not to give an honest reply.
	Eagle closed his eyes for a long second, then opened them again.  
"You have changed my life, Lantis.  Even had I not felt for you what I do, 
my life would be different because of you.  I want to thank you for that."
	"Eagle...."
	With a touch almost as strong and direct as telepathy, Eagle Vision 
of Autozam opened his mind to Lantis, not drowning him in the images and 
sensations, but rather surrounding him with them, showing him everything he 
felt and thought.  :This is what I am, Lantis.  A large part of this is due 
to you.  Thank you for entering my life and changing it.:
	Lantis stood still, unsure of what to make of all this.  Eagle's 
contact with him was the strongest of any he had felt since leaving 
Cephiro, possessing a vividness and sharpness that made Lantis almost able 
to feel the magic of his homeworld around him.  This vivacity... was 
Eagle?  Amazing....