IREV

XILTRI SECTOR WARRIORS: BOOK THREE

AVA YORK

STARR HUNTRESS

CONTENTS

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Petra

Irev

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Petra

Irev

Epilogue: Irev

Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?

Opening Move: The Alien Games

Rogue Mate

Kazan

PETRA

Lazy Friday nights are the best.

My head was buried in a fascinating linguistics book, Dad snored on the couch, and Mom was happily enthralled in the latest episode of As the Galaxy Churns. We all still wore our pajamas and the most important thing we had done all day was order pizza.

I looked down and wiggled my lilac glitter unicorn slippers. The little googly eyes spun around. They were the only impractical thing I owned and I loved them.

Moms’ soap broke for commercial and I heard the familiar intro music of the lottery broadcast begin. My unicorns looked up at me cross-eyed.

“All right, buddies. Do your unicorn magic thing and keep me and my friends out of this round of the lottery. You and I got lives to live! Things to do. and even…”

I heard glass smash against the floor in the living room.

This doesn’t sound good.

“Doug! Doug! Wake up this instant!”

Mom sounded hysterical. Dad wasn’t snoring anymore, either.

“What’s going on Phoebe? Did your soap opera lose signal or something? Why are you crying!”

I walked into the room and Mom ran up to me. She grabbed my wrists and started to shake them in time with every syllable.

“Petra, you don’t have to go. Go, get your things and Dad and I will drive you to Mexico. We’ll all hide there until they don’t care anymore.”

“Mom, why…what? What are you even talking about?”

Mom was sobbing incoherently now, leaving Dad and me staring helplessly at each other. Dad came and pried Mom’s hands off my wrists and held her until she calmed and hiccupped.

“Phoebe. Phoebe, my little love, what is wrong?”

Mom sniffled and rubbed her nose on Dad’s shirt.

“And why are we going to Mexico, Mom? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh, my sweet angel. It’s just the worst news! The very worst news!”

“Come out with it, my love. We can’t solve the problem until we know what the problem is.”

“But, Doug! We can’t solve it at all!”

“Of course we can, every problem has a solution.”

“Mexico. That’s the only way, Doug. They will never find us there.”

I rolled my eyes and shrugged. Dad frowned at me, then rolled his eyes, too.

“Mom, why would they be looking for us? Whatever they’re saying, it must be a mistake.”

Mom swung her arms across each other in the air in front of her, punctuating her words.

“No, Petra, no. This is out of our hands, there is no one who can help us now.”

“Mom, please…”

Mom threw her hands up so fast Dad and I flinched out of reach just in time to avoid getting smacked by accident.

“All we can do, Petra, is run and hide. Then they can’t take you.”

What the what?

“Who is taking me? Where am I supposedly going?”

“No one is taking you. They will have to kill me first.”

The theme music from Mom’s soap played in the background at that exact moment.

Dad winced. I kept a straight face and stifled my laughter. We both knew we wouldn’t get anywhere, if we didn’t play along a bit longer.

Mom’s flair for the dramatic had always made it really difficult to communicate with her with anything approaching efficiency. I was more like my Dad, calm and coolheaded, which bothered her to high heaven. Mom had always wanted a daughter as…passionate as she.

“Petra, get this glass swept up for me? I’ll get Mom settled. Then we can talk about this, ok?”

Don’t have to ask me twice.

I walked-ran to the kitchen and leaned against the counter. I took a few breaths and shook my body till the nerves disappeared.

I gathered all the things I needed to clean up the mess and walked back into the living room. What I saw next would be burned into my mind the rest of my life.

Dad stared at the television, mouth open, white as a ghost. Mom was talking to him and rubbing his hands between hers.

“Doug. Honey? My love?”

“Dad?! What’s wrong?” I dropped everything and ran to kneel in front of him.

Dad scared is terrifying. Dad’s never the dramatic parental unit…

“Dad? Daddy?”

His kind eyes looked into mine. His were full of tears and bittersweet regret. He gulped down a knot of emotion and smiled. He brushed my cheek with his hand.

“Petra, I’m so sorry.”

“What’s going on?!”

Dad pointed at the screen behind me. At first, all I saw was the soap opera playing. Then I looked at the crawl ribbon scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

“In accordance with the terms of the Treaty… Those women of eligible age born on March 15 should report to the nearest testing facility within the next 24 hours, or will be punished accordingly.”

I looked at my parents’ tear-streaked faces. I didn’t understand why they were crying.

So, the lottery happened, so what? It wasn’t as if March 15 isn’t my birthday.

Then my brain acknowledged reality.

Oh, shit. March 15 is my birthday!

“NOOOOO!!”

I threw my hands into the air and turned into my mother.

“My life! My plans, my…my LIFE!”

Mom and Dad rushed to me and hugged me tight. It was my turn to be a blubbering mess and they held me until I got my druthers back.

“We can’t go to Mexico, Mom. They have the lottery there, too, and when they check my I.D., they will take me and arrest you and Dad. That would be worse. I don’t want all that, Mom.”

“Then what do we do, Petra?”

I looked into my mom’s beautiful hazel eyes, the same she had given me. I held my parents’ hands in mine.

“I have to go get tested and get it over with. The odds of me matching are so small, we are probably overreacting anyway.”

Mom wasn’t convinced. Dad was being stoic, but it was costing him.

“I will go and get ready so we can go now and get it over with as soon as possible, ok? Then we can come home and laugh about it.”

We were on our way a few minutes later. We were all making small talk, pretending to not be terrified of what could happen.

And I was angry. So, very angry.

This whole treaty business is a load of crap. No one bothered to ask Earth women for their consent to participate in the treaty and no one had bothered to negotiate a way to opt out.

I sucked in a breath on the theory that thinking became difficult without oxygen.

My birthday was chosen. If I match, any goals or dreams I have been stolen from me. The future I chose, and worked so hard for…will be gone in an instant.

My knees trembled. I searched for a way out, though I knew the effort wasted what little time I had left on Earth.

Keep calm, woman. Remember infinitesimally small odds. Infinitesimally small.

The line at the drop-off point was no help.

We watched in horror as woman after woman was herded inside. Some screamed. Most cried. One kicked an orderly in the crotch, before trying to make a run for it. She was physically taken into the building, cursing the whole time.

I had never cheered harder than when she kicked one of her burly captors in the balls.

When my turn came, I didn’t make a scene, as much for my parents’ sakes as for the sake of my dignity. I just wanted to get this over with so I could get off the hook and go home.

I was so certain the odds were in my favor, I had even arrived still wearing my unicorn slippers, instead of actual shoes.

That turned out to be my first mistake.

The instant I was inside, I was surrounded by chaos. There were women and orderlies everywhere, in all manner of emotional states. It was like Mom…times a bajillion.

The emotions were so contagious I couldn’t stay calm. Everything that came next became a blur.

Someone took my arm and led me through some doors, down a hallway and into a cold room. A second later, the short man in the white coat came, he poked my finger and put my blood in a machine.

A green light came on, then a bell.

He said I needed to do another test. He looked in my eyes with his pen light, and then my temple exploded with pain. I slapped my hand over the side of my head and hissed through the stabbing sensation and tried not to hurl.

He walked me over to the wall, patting my hand, muttering gibberish. He made sure I held my bag with both hands and smiled.

Then the world was spinning and I thought I heard someone speak.

“Such great luck...”

IREV

“Hey, Irev! Can I talk to you?” A young Mahdfel, who I had stupidly let buy me a few beers over a game of Kertzav, intercepted me.

By all the holy suns! How do I make this stop?

“So, I was thinking about our talk the other night and now that you are pretty much running your team, you would have an open spot and I thought that…”

“Don’t think, it’s not your forte.”

“Aww, Irev, my friend. You barely know me.”

“I know enough to know you aren’t kissing my ass because you’re interested in the mission.”

“Aww, c’mon now. Of course it’s about the mission. Glory and honor stuff, am I right?”

Time to stop this foolishness. It’s wasting my time.

“You are absolutely correct. Once we return from the bug-filled swamps with our targets fully anesthetized, we can finally bring them to the Honor. Then High Command will send them to the white coats for dissection and analysis. Along with any of us unfortunate enough to be made hosts for their larvae.”

The youngling gulped.

“Yyyyeahhh, sounds like real badass Vaznik mission type stuff.”

“I can’t wait to slog through the quagmire, filling my lungs with the stench of decay, fighting off new types of poisonous and carnivorous predators, testing the limits of my endurance and skill, while we track this unknown species that has ravaged the planet.”

My new friend looked paler by the second. I leaned in close, curving a hand around my mouth, and whispered.

“I really shouldn’t tell you this, my young friend, but the beast’s excrement contains an element that could provide a new source of energy. It’s only there in small amounts, so we will have to collect and transport a great many of the creatures…to ensure the white coats have all they need for analysis.”

He looks like he’s about to run. Just need to push a little more.

“I am sure with a new teammate, like yourself, we could probably get it all done in about fourteen standard days.”

I watched the young Vaznik warrior try to swallow the lump suddenly clogging his throat.

“Give or take a week.”

“A week?”

“Well, for everyone who gets infected with larvae, you have to add 3 days or so, see. Since they have to exit the feral stage before cocooning.”

“Cocooning?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry. That part only lasts as long as the larvae can eat, so once the cocoon is set, we need to move fast, so they don’t hatch before extraction.”

I laughed, raising my eyebrows as high as they could go on my forehead.

“Believe me, no one wants things to get that far before the proper medical intervention. Anyway, I know I can count on you to do your very best, though, so I am not worried at all.”

I patted his shoulder with a hand hardened by years of training. His youthful form quivered with the impact of each pat.

“You know, Irev, now that I think about it, I had offered to jump on another mission on the Sunder, and…would you believe it? They called this morning...”

I had managed to, with practiced skill and patience, ratchet up the power of each successive pat. The young warrior now released a small oof with each firm contact of my hand, but he refused to show any definitive reaction.

“Oh. How disappointing. I thought you had come to volunteer to join our expedition.”

Finally, he caved and stepped away, just out of reach of my hand. I suppressed a chuckle, but my eyes stung.

“I’m afraid just the opposite, Irev, sir. And I am just as disappointed as you are.”

“I understand. Honor and glory, warrior, if you must be on your way.”

“Yes, honor and glory be yours, too.”

The youngling turned to walk away, but I couldn’t resist one last shot.

“Hey friend. Could I ask you a favor, before you run off to the Sunder?”

“Sure, Irev.”

“Would you, discreetly, of course, put out the word about our new mission to any of your friends who might be interested in joining my expedition? Good, honorable types, like yourself, are just what I am looking for.”

It was difficult not to laugh when the young warrior’s eyes went wide. He held the rest of his composure pretty well, though.

Rookies. Gotta love them.

“Oh, sure, Irev. I will definitely spread the word around. Discreetly, of course. Haha.”

The young warrior began to twist in the most amusing way.

His toes are already pointed away from me. Looks like his body is already leaving…and his face hasn’t quite caught up.

“I knew I could count on you. Good hunting, friend.”

“And to you.”

I turned and entered my office quickly, so I could finally let out my laughter. It made my belly hurt to think what the looks on other younglings’ faces would be when they heard about my new expedition.

Maybe that will slow enrollment in the Human Women 101 course long enough to let me work.

None of what I had told the young warrior had been true, of course, but this new obsession with our team had begun to interfere with our ability to plan and mobilize. The Mahdfel were not, by nature, superstitious, but with two of our crew having been recently matched, everyone felt that their odds of getting a mate for themselves would increase if they joined my team.

I bore no ill will against Kavok or Raxor, but I didn’t envy them, either. Being mated was a huge responsibility. Though I cared deeply for Helena and Amelia, and would protect them with my life even, I knew that humans were a peculiar species and could not be deciphered based on interactions with only a few.

Mahdfel were simpler. We had been bred and reared to be warriors. Our existence was based on the tenets of excellence, honor, strength, and duty.

I looked over what intel we had so far. Journals, ciphers, broken equipment and some kind of artifact that didn’t have any matches in any of the galactic directories, recent or past. All we knew for sure is that Dr. Garcia was either leading us on a merry chase, or leaving us breadcrumbs to follow.

How is any of this related? How can it be related? What the hell are we up against?

I put every image we had along the wall and ceiling of my office. I moved them around like puzzle pieces, using the partial codes Amelia had been able to decipher to look for patterns. I turned off the lights and looked at them in negative.

Nothing. Fuck it.

How can I plan and protect my crew when I don’t know what I am up against?

“Aaaarghhh! This is so frustrating! Why does this have to be so complicated?”

I was about to start all over when my comm rang.

“Irev, you have been summoned to the teleportation deck. Report immediately.”

“Roger that. Right away, Sir.”

I really hope this is the deluxe bacon I ordered a few weeks ago, or I am going to need a barrel of Earth gin.

I left my office and headed to the teleportation deck. The closer I got, the more smiling Vaznik clustered around me, getting in my way.

I scowled at or ignored all of them.

Then someone shouted “Congratulations!”

Gin it is then.

PETRA

The room stopped spinning and I realized that I wasn’t passing out. I had been teleported to God knows where, without even the courtesy of a congratulations or a phone call to my parents.

Oh. Fuck. No.

This is some full-on, crazy-ass, no way, now how, straight up bullshit!

I steadied myself enough to push myself to my knees. When I looked up, I knelt on a teleportation deck. I had used one a few times before, for school when doing immersion clinics.

This one was fucking huge, double-sided, and about as long and wide as basketball court. There wasn’t a ceiling, probably in case anything went amiss upon arrival. I could see several floors above me with railed walking paths overlooking where I was kneeling.

There are so many people looking down here and smiling. Whatever they are expecting must be pretty amazing.

I looked around, but aside from a couple of crates across from me, nothing else was on the deck yet.

Whatever is happening here must be about to arrive any second. I should figure out where the fuck I am so I can find my way back home.

Thankfully, having some teleporting experience meant I wasn’t sick or dizzy. I would have hated to have been the opening act for the upcoming show. I stood up and tried to get someone to talk to me.

“Excuse me. Could I…”

“Hello, could I bother you for…?”

“Excuse me, could you tell me…?”

No one even bothered to look at me, much less answer any of my questions. I could feel my temper rising now. I didn’t expect to be treated like royalty, but a little common fucking decency would’ve been nice as fuck right about now!

Breathe Petra. You are a stranger in a strange place. Better not to piss anyone off yet. Fine, but this is still a giant load of horseshit.

I crossed my arms and huffed. I bit my lip and started tapping my foot on the floor. Some people paced when they were thinking. I was a tapper.

Ok. Think. What do we do in these situations? Remain fucking calm.

I looked around, hoping at least someone’s face looked like they expected me.

And then what? Make sure you are in a safe location.

I shushed my thoughts. Out loud.

And then? Oh, just shut the fuck up already. I noticed the teleportation chamber had gone oddly quiet. There were even more smiling faces on the decks above me now, and no one else on the deck with me. At all.

I guess the show must be about to start. Best get the fuck out of the way. Where the fuck should I go, though?

There were exits at either end of the platform. Both seemed to be filled with people wanting to see the show. The crowd in the exit to my right parted, and a very large, purple alien with horns and tattoos strode in.

Vaznik maybe? I don’t typically go for big guys, but this one is kinda hunky. Whoever this performer is, they chose their security detail really well.

He must be walking over to me to tell me to clear the platform.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and looked him in the eye.

Vaznik don’t respect weakness. Be assertive, but gentile.

The closer he came, the more my stomach fluttered.

It’s just nerves, Petra. Just do what you do best and you will be fine. This is literally what you want to do with your life!

My gaze scanned him from head to toe and sighed.

Yeah, but he’s hot. Oh my God. Shut up already!

I straightened my posture and crossed my arms, ready to make a worthy first impression.

“Petra Michaelson?”

Weird. How does Hunky Purple Dude know who I am?

I narrowed my eyes into a suspicious glare.

His voice is sexy though.

Another wistful sigh escaped my lips and I set my shoulders for business.

Yeah, it is. Don’t mess this up! “Who’s asking?”

Hunky Purple Dude looked as happy about me being here as I felt. He shook his head and sighed.

“I really don’t know. Whoever made the stupid treaty, I guess.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand.”

“Perhaps this is not the best place to have this conversation.” He looked around, scowling deeper. He started to reach for my shoulder, then stopped.

“Do you want to change your footwear? The Honor is quite clean, but, umm…those may not be comfortable to use on the decks.”

He’s dreamy.

“I’m sorry, my what?”

“I am inquiring if you brought alternative footwear. If not, we can acquire you some as soon as we leave this platform.”

I looked down and saw my bright-as-fuck unicorn slippers. I had been tapping my foot the whole time, so the eyes were still swinging a little.

So much for assertive and gentile. Can I just die now?

I eyed Hot Purple Guy for an entire breath.

No. Fuck it. I will wear these with dignity and hold my head high. For all they know, these are the height of luxury on Earth.

“Thank you, umm… I didn’t catch your name.”

“Irev.”

“Thank you, Irev. I can walk quite fine in these.”

“Suit yourself. Shall we get out of here now? I would rather we talk privately.”

“I am one-hundred percent ok with that. Which way?”

IREV

I pointed to the exit at the left and waited for Petra to pass me and enter the corridor before turning to join her. I knew we were being watched and scrutinized.

If we were fated mates, I felt it was important we kept the intimate details of our relationship private. I deliberately did not touch her yet, so that the bond-glow confirming our match wouldn’t be up for public consumption.

Maybe some small talk to break the silence?

“Irev, where am I?”

“You are aboard the Honor’s Blade, an Explorer-class starship of the Vaznik fleet. I don’t know what our exact coordinates are, but we are currently en route to another planet in the Yimïk quadrant.”

“I’ve never heard of it.”

“That is not unusual. This quadrant is so remote, it hasn’t been explored, so even we have little information about it.”

“Interesting.”

“How so?”

“There are still places left to explore in our galaxy. New worlds to find, new people and species to discover and learn from.”

“That is one way to look at it, I suppose.”

We entered a part of the ship that looked like a giant outdoor market. People of all sizes, shapes, and colors thronged to and fro.

Petra seemed overwhelmed at first, but gradually, I saw her begin to understand them as her translator caught up with the languages spoken in the crowd. While this was a Vaznik ship, as an Exploration fleet, the Honor housed scientists and merchants of many species.

“I can see your translator implant is adjusting quickly. Welcome to the Bazaar.”

“My what is what? Did you just say ‘implant’?”

“Yes. They are standard-issue technology administered at the time that confirmation of a match is made, and should be done before teleportation.”

The look of shock and outrage on Petra’s face was unexpected. I had been told human women were informed of the mandatory translator implant long before they were matched. From her expression, it seemed no one had told Petra anything about it.

Petra fumed right before my eyes. She touched her temple gently. “So, that’s what that was.”

“Most likely. Did they not explain? At the Testing Center?”

She shook her head. “Everything was such a blur. Everyone talks about the testing centers, but no one really talks about what happens inside one when you get matched…”

“They did not tell you any of this before sending you here? Before sending you to be with me?”

“If I had been prepared, do you think I would have shown up wearing these ridiculous unicorn slippers?! I thought I would at least have a chance to go home and pack a bag or something. I just never really thought I’d match…”

Fuck.

“That’s absolutely vile. I am so sorry, Petra. I did not know you were unaware of the details.”

“Irev, I’m sorry for being so abrasive. I usually keep my temper better controlled. I didn’t mean to hurt or offend you with my outburst.”

“I am sure I would be just as furious, were I in your position, Petra.” I reached my hand to her chin, trying to ignore the jolt that ran through me as my tattoos flashed. “Let’s try again. It’s my understanding that humans can become more agitated if they have not had regular sustenance.”

“Hangry. It’s called hangry.”

“Yes! That is the word I was thinking of. Would you join me for a meal? We can discuss things without distractions or interruptions.”

Changing the subject wasn’t always the best course, but a little misdirection to get us someplace where she could privately express herself might help. Petra didn’t strike me as the type of person to enjoy being the center of attention, and it was important to me to try to make her feel better.

She sighed and looked deflated.

“Me being angry isn’t going to change anything or make anything easier or better. For either of us. A bit to eat in a not-so-crowded place is an excellent idea. Please, lead the way.”

I offered my arm. She accepted and I led her through the Bazaar, matching my stride to hers and pausing whenever anything caught her attention. It was so strange to feel so naturally at ease, even in sync with…someone I had barely met.

We finally arrived at the restaurant and sat in a quiet booth under a soft amber light. The golden glow complemented her skin tone, amplifying her already gorgeous features. I felt my pulse quicken.

“Do you have any allergies, Petra?”

“Not really, but I do despise cilantro or anything like it. I also don’t like food that mixes sweetness with anything.”

“That is good to know. I also prefer that my desserts remain uncomplicated and simple.”

Over dinner we talked about our lives, educations, goals, and dreams. It became very apparent neither of us were looking to be matched, although we suited each other well.

It was fascinating and peaceful all at the same time.

“Irev, there is something I am dying to know.”

“Yes, Petra?”

“What was the event everyone was waiting for at the teleportation deck? Was there some big show or something going on? I felt like I was in the way or something.”

If I could wring every neck on those decks right now.

“Petra, I’m just as insulted by the actions of my fellow Vaznik as you are. I know that matches are spectacularly rare, but that sort of voyeurism is uncalled for.”

“Irev, are you telling me that you and I were the entertainment?”

“I believe their intention was to have a little hope for themselves, by seeing this...” I took her hand and placed it on my bare arm. My tattoos glowed white.

Her eyes went wide and her inhale was audible.

“That’s beautiful, Irev.”

“It only happens when we find our true mate.”

I held my breath, waiting for her rejection.

“Irev, I…”

“Petra, there are things neither of us can avoid having to do, since we are both bound by treaty, but whatever you choose to do, I will honor your choice without complaint or ill will.”

Even if it kills me.

Her thoughtful expression told me she was processing her options carefully. This was something neither of us had expected, or wanted. But here we were, and I had never craved anything so strongly in my life as a deep connection with her.

“Irev, you are right that I am angry. But I am not angry at you. Regardless of what either of us want, we are bound to each other for a year, correct?”

“That is my understanding, yes.”

“We seem to have compatible natures.”

I nodded, acknowledging and agreeing with her assessment.

“I agree.”

“We enjoy each other’s company.”

“We do.”

Petra’s eyes flicked to the remnants of her meal. She drew in a deep breath and offered up a solution.

“Perhaps we just continue to enjoy each other and see what happens.”

She smiled and my tattoos glowed a little brighter.

“It would be my greatest honor, Petra.”

PETRA

Is this guy for real?

I couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious about my entire experience, since my birthday came up in the lottery. Irev hadn’t given me any reason to not trust him, but I still felt leery.

A year is a long time to wait to get back to my life and plans, while his life really won’t change much.

“Petra? Are you well?”

“Yeah, I’m just not used to reaching understandings so quickly.”

“Why not? What you propose seems very reasonable and practical.”

It was his turn to look confused and suspicious. We glared at each other for a long minute. When no other proverbial shoe dropped, I broke the silence.

“Typically, there is some kind of catch-22 lurking in the background when someone agrees so quickly.”

“So, you are wondering if I am trying to trick you in some way?” Now he looked offended and angry. I instantly regretted my words and looked at my slippers. My cheeks burned a little.

Stupid unicorns. Stop mocking me.

“Petra, look at me,” Irev lifted my chin to look into my eyes. “I also had plans for my career and life before you arrived. I never even thought I would be matched.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“So this is as crazy to you as it is to me?”

Irev barked a laugh and shook his head.

“Being matched based solely on genetic viability in order to help an alien race sounds about as good to me as it does to you. Is it practical? Yes. Humane? Right? Not in the slightest.”

“You don’t agree with the treaty, then, Irev?”

“I think leaders on both sides failed their people by thinking only of the ends and not considering how the means would affect them.”

“No shit. It’s like they took another step to reinforce the idea that women are primarily broodmares and not actual people.”

“I don’t know enough about human culture to speak about that, but I know that Mahdfel do not feel the same way about women.”

“What do you mean?”

“Women in our culture are revered, respected, encouraged to explore their interests and education. This is beneficial to our children and the evolution of our species and the men of our society understand this.”

“That’s refreshing and all, but what does that have to do with it?”

“It means that the leaders at Mahdfel HQ, who made the treaty, thought about human women the same way when they were negotiating. They were not seeking them out solely as breeding stock, but as people who would further enrich our lives and society.”

“Oh. When you put it that way, it’s way less degrading.”

“Petra, I also believe that you are a whole person with gifts and talents and interests. And while I do not agree with the reasons behind how you got here, I am happy that you are and look forward to getting to know you.”

Oh, man, that’s a good line. I think he means it.

I searched his face with my eyes, detecting no hint of deception.

Yeah. I think he does.

“You are? What about the plans you had for your life before I was teleported here?”

“I am. And my plans have not changed, only been added to.”

“How so, other than the obvious?”

“Well, first I must get to know what your interests and goals are, then I can give you some ideas as to what that correlates to out here, in space, so you can start making decisions about what you want to do.”

“And then?”

“And then what, Petra?”

I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes while the words tumbled from my lips.

“What happens if I make a decision you don’t like?”

Irev blinked, then smiled. He chuckled. I wanted to melt into his arms right there.

What is happening right now?

“Do all human couples agree all the time?”

I tried to laugh and answer at the same time, but choked on my own spit, instead. After I finished coughing and wiped my eyes, I answered Irev’s question.

“Oh, hell no! It’s actually the cause of a lot of heartbreak.”

“That is wasteful. Petra, if the day comes where we disagree, I would expect we would be able to discuss our differences of opinion. The choices you make for your life, your wants, are just as important to me as my own, as is your happiness.”

“They are?”

“They are.”

Well shit. How can anyone say no to that? I could tell he really, truly meant it and felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders.

“Irev, you say all Mahdfel believe what you do about women?”

“As far as I know. If there are some who think otherwise, I have not met or heard of them. Vaznik warriors strive for honor, Petra. I can see no other way.”

“That may take a while for me to get used to.”

“Take as long as you need. In the meantime, I must tell you that we are about to have our first discussion about things we do not agree on.”

Well, that was fast. I knew it was coming. Here we go.

“Your footwear is not at all suitable for walking about the ship.”

Damn my stupid pride.

My foot started tapping in the air, and I could hear the googly eyes spin.

He’s right, you know. Yeah, yeah.

“I love them, but you’re right. They are not meant for walking around a ship.”

“If you would allow me to, I could take you to purchase what you need. I know they don’t allow you to bring much with you.”

“Did you just offer to take me…shoe shopping?”

Irev’s eyes darted side to side, as if looking for a nuance he suspected he may have missed.

“I think that would be the first thing to do. I noticed while we were walking that the bottoms of your…very elaborate footwear…are soft and would not want you to injure yourself.”

“You were looking at my feet?”

“In all truth, I have never seen such footwear before. They are…quite fascinating. The eyes, in particular, are very curious.”

The tortured way Irev delivered that sentence tickled me and I started laughing.

“Irev, that is the kindest thing anyone has ever said about my slippers. Everyone else thinks they are ridiculous.”

“Do they make you happy?”

“Oh, yes. It’s precisely their ridiculousness that makes me happy.”

“Then they are not ridiculous at all. Impractical, but not ridiculous.”

If we had been standing, I would have thrown myself against him and hugged him tight. I squeezed his hand and smiled at him instead.

His tattoos glowed, almost warm, as if they were responding to my emotions. When I looked at Irev’s face, he was smiling, too.

“Ok. Let’s go find me some proper shoes. Lord knows when I would be able to replace these, if they get ruined.”

IREV

Will she ever trust me?

The thought pressed on me. Being matched was a rare thing and all of the couples I had met were quite happy. More important than loving each other, they trusted each other without question.

This was not the case with Petra and I. It was maddening to want to make her happy, knowing she would be suspicious of my motivation to do so. I desperately hoped she just had a skeptical nature and that it wasn’t just me she didn’t trust.

What a thing to hope for, Irev.

We were walking through the Bazaar again. I saw her eyes wander from new thing to new thing, full of wonder and curiosity.

One of these days, I want her to look at me that way.

What’s wrong with me? I’ve barely known her half a day and-

Suddenly worried that Petra could read my thoughts on my face, I darted my eyes to her. She turned her head, noticing my gaze. A little jolt ran through me and I tore my eyes away.

I am bound by honor and duty to-

I blinked my eyes, trying desperately to regain control of the thoughts ricocheting around my mind.

You know you want her to like you, maybe even love you.

I grunted. She glanced at me for just the briefest of moments. I do not know what she was thinking, but her expression held no cynicism. At first, that lightened my heart.

“Here we are then. I am told this tailor, Bok’choi, is the merchant most familiar with human fashion and merchandise.”

“Did you say ‘bok choy’?”

“That is his name. Or, so I am told.”

She bit her lips and looked down. Her shoulders shook, but she remained silent.

“Petra? Are you well?”

She looked up, chewing on her bottom lip, trying to hold back a smile. The impish sparkles which danced in her eyes told me there was some nuance I had missed.

“I’m so sorry, Irev. I just…I just need a moment… to… snort… to gather myself.”

She walked past me and into a nearby alley. I followed her and turned the corner in time to see her bent over with laughter.

She recovered and turned to look at me, face flushed and slightly breathless. Voice raspy from laughing so hard, she managed to choke out a question.

“Irev. Irev. Just please forgive me. I just… his name is really Bok’choi?”

“That is what I am told. I have never purchased anything here, so I cannot be sure. Why do you ask?”

“Oh… kayyy.” She inhaled deeply. “I have so much to learn, I know I do. But on Earth, we have a vegetable called bok choy and it’s this kind of green, leafy thing that’s kinda got a sharp, peppery flavor to it, so when you said ‘bok choy’…well, the mental picture it made in my head was...”

Petra’s explanation faded off into a series of sounds which reminded me of drowning. I had never met the merchant, but his appearance had been described to me before. The image of Petra’s face when meeting the man was too delicious not to savor.

As it turns out, she has a streak of child-like humor. Maybe she’s not always so mature after all.

I laughed out loud. She smiled back. We weren’t laughing about the same thing, but it didn’t matter one bit. We were laughing together.

We finally recovered and stared at each other for a moment. She was smiling at me and the rest of the universe didn’t exist.

The spell was broken by a loud crash followed by yelling. The door behind Petra flew open and a kehppû ran out the door, headed directly for Petra.

Instinct had me lifting her with one arm and scooping the juvenile kehppû with the other. I was holding both when Bok’choi stepped out of the open door.

Petra gasped and buried her head into my shoulder. I could feel her shaking again.

The kehppû decided my armpit was the place it wanted to snuggle, and wriggled itself into position.

Bok’choi muttered as he walked towards us. He was uttering curse words so exotic and fast, the translator couldn’t keep up.

“Get a kehppû, they said. It’s all the rage, they said. They don’t tell you about the rain of chaos and mayhem they bring down upon you!!”

“That thing looks like a tentacle-faced Earth cat. Hi, I’m Petra. I assume this creature belongs to you then?”

“Call me Bok’choi. No, to answer your question. I merely feed it and bathe it and try to train it and care for it. In return, it destroys my shop!”

“I feel your pain. It’s aggravating to get what you waited so long for, just to have it fight you every step of the way.”

“Yes! That’s exactly it! Heyyy… you’re not as dumb as your fashion sense says you are.”

“Excuse me?”

Bok’choi tapped tentacles to his lips as if considering some new invention.

“Yessss… kind of you to admit it. Not everyone who puts function before form does so.”

“If you could just take your pet, we have purchases to make.”

I had to redistribute my weight to extend the arm holding the kehppû, though it held on by its mouth tentacles. As I did, Petra whirled around and met eyes with Bok’choi.

Their gazes locked and they quietly took each other’s measure. Neither spoke a word. Then Bok’choi extended his hand.

“My dear, please come with me. I have something in my shop that would be perfect for you.”

I was shocked when Petra wriggled out of my arms to take his hand and began walking toward the door with him. The kehppû’s expression was just as confused as mine.

“Well, of course you’re matched. It’s a dreadful treaty. So inhumane. Treating women like breeding stock.”

“Thank you! It’s like no one else understands.”

“Precisely. Precisely, my dear. No one understands these days. Compatibility is more than genetic.”

“Precisely! Bok’choi? I have a confession to make?”

“To me? Dear child, whatever could you need to confess to me?”

“When I heard your name, I thought you were a talking vegetable. Like puppets I used to see on television as a child.”

“You thought I was a vegetable? Like the Earth vegetable?”

“Yes, I am afraid I did, and that was wrong for me to do.”

Bok’choi was biting his lip and shaking. I was ready to pounce and protect Petra, when he let out a screech of laughter.

“Whoooo! Hahahaha. Oh, my sweet…bahahahahaha... I can’t… Oh, my…do you know how long? Hahaha haaaaaaaaa!!”

Petra looked at me and shrugged.

“Oh, my sweet, beautiful girl. I knew I liked you.”

“You forgive me then?”

“My darling, darling girl, do you know how long I have been waiting for someone to have the guts to tell me? One does not have such a name as mine and not know what people think. You are the first person who’s ever been honest enough to say so.”

“Are you kidding me? No one has ever made fun of you to your face?”

“Believe it or not, the answer is no. I haven’t the foggiest idea why, though. It’s not like I’m going to toss poison spikes at anyone. That feels like an overreaction.”

“Well, of course not. That tongue of yours is probably a weapon of mass destruction, though.”

He smiled devilishly. “My dear, come with me and I will tell you tales of pettiness you would not believe!”

The two walked into the building happily chatting away. They closed the door behind them, leaving me in the alley holding the kehppû. It had snuggled itself into my arms and gave every impression it intended to stay there.

A few moments later, Bok’choi opened the door and poked his head out.

“You there. Yes you. Large, kehppû sitter. Hurry up. We haven’t got all day and Petra needs a wardrobe fit for her.”

I started walking toward the door. I could swear I heard Bok’choi muttering something about brains in muscles, which made no sense to me at all. Petra said something and they both laughed.

Yay. Shopping.

PETRA

I have never had so much fun shopping in my entire life!

We’d just begun walking to my cabin. Irev was carrying what seemed to me like a mountain of bags full of things I needed, and others Bok’choi convinced me I should have.

“You don’t fool me one bit,” he’d told me. “You had my fashionista heart the moment I saw your slippers! I knew, right then, you were special.”

Bok’choi had more energy and wit than the Fab 5 combined. Bok’choi, in his element, was a whirlwind one could not avoid getting swept up in. Even Irev joined in on the fun eventually.

Irev had been the only attendee at our fashion show. Bok’choi handed me clothes to change into, then waited with Irev for the outfit reveal. By the time we were done, Irev and Bok’choi were thick as thieves in their combined appreciation and insistence that I purchase much more than was practical.

I feel like a princess.

I looked at Irev’s smiling face while we strolled through the corridors.

I even got a prince and a fairy fashion father.

“Petra, are you sure this is all you want?”

“Irev, this is much too much already! I promise to pay you back for it.”

“You will do no such thing. It makes me happy to see you smile. There is no cost too great for such a gift. Besides, I too had a surprisingly enjoyable time.”

Irev’s eyes sparkled like a mischievous child caught with a face full of chocolate after eating all the cookies. He turned that grin on me. My heart skipped a little.

Good Lord, those dimples look like trouble. Really wonderful trouble.

“My first impression of Bok’choi was quite incorrect. He is the very definition of kindness and charisma, with an eye for making beautiful things spectacular. A true connoisseur and gentleman.”

It was my turn to be shocked. Irev didn’t seem like the type to lavish praise, and this was a high compliment indeed.

“He doesn’t look at all like the Earth vegetable you described, either.”

I gasped out loud.

“Why you cheeky little!”

“Large. Cheeky and large my dear.”

I narrowed my eyes and scrunched my nose at him. Irev laughed.

“You are adorable when you pout, Petra.”

“What?! I do not pout!”

“Your foot is tapping.”

I looked down at my, still-tapping foot. It mocked me a couple more times before finally obeying my brain’s command.

Busted.

“Well shit.”

“I still think it’s adorable.”

His voice was like melted cinnamon butter on fresh bread. Smooth and earthy, with just enough zing to keep you on your toes.

I wonder what his voice sounds like when he’s turned on?

“Petra?”

“Mmhmm?”

“Petra. Would you open the door so we can take your things inside?”

I turned and realized I stood in front of a door. Apparently, my door.

How long have we been standing here?

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry about that. I was trying to figure something out.”

I slapped the door’s access panel, and apparently it really was mine, since the door slid up. I motioned him inside, but he shook his head and waited for me to enter, following me inside and closing the door behind us.

The cabin was very warm all of a sudden.

“I understand. The mission I am assigned to also has me zoning out from time to time.”

“Did you just say ‘zoning out’?”

“Yes. Did I use the phrase incorrectly?”

“No. Not at all. I was just surprised that you said it. It doesn’t strike me as something you would normally say, or even admit to happening.”

“I only learned it recently and it is suitable to describe the situation. And as we are building trust, I see no reason to keep secrets from you.”

Irev sat across the room after placing the bags he carried on the floor next to my bed. I began unpacking each bag, refolding items and sorting them into their correct categories.

“How do you know I won’t betray your trust, though?”

“Bok’choi.”

“He told you that?”

“No. You did. The moment you confessed to him that you had laughed about his name. It takes a great deal of integrity to make oneself accountable to someone you just met.”

“You heard that?”

“I did. It confirmed my previous deduction about your nature. His reaction was most unexpected though. I do not think I would have been so amused in his place.”

“Neither would I.”

I handed him my unicorn slippers.

“Could you put these in the refresher on the delicate cycle for me please?”

“Certainly.”

“Thank you. Can we go back to your zoning out, though? I’m dying to know what has you so stumped.”

“We are trying to find a scientist, who may be in possession of an artifact.”

I handed him a stack of boxes with shoes.

“These go on the closet floor, please.” Irev nodded and took them. “Tell me more about the artifact.”

“Well, that’s part of the issue, we don’t know what it is. The scientist has left us a journal.”

“A journal? That’s helpful.”

He came back with grav-hangers. “I thought you might need these.”

“Thank you. Please go on. This journal?”

“The journal is not as helpful as one would hope. It’s written in code. Likely several types of code, intertwined on every page.”

“The whole thing is written in code?! How does that even happen? Here, these are ready to be hung.”

“Right. In the same order?”

“They should be sorted by color. If I missed one, please feel free to fix it.”

“Very well. That’s yet another mystery. Amelia, Raxor’s mate, was the one who realized it wasn’t a single code, but several, overlapping each other. She has been able to partially decipher the journal, but we seem to find more questions than answers.”

“Curiouser and curiouser, indeed. These shirts go in the middle drawer. So what do you know for certain?”

Irev looked questioningly at the colorful stack of shirts he was holding. It felt good to have these little domestic moments come so organically.

“Not in the top drawer?”

“No. that’s for my bras and panties.”

Silence. Irev nodded and walked to the drawers, although it looked like he didn’t agree with how I organized my shirts and panties.

Did I just say ‘panties’? It’s fine. It’s not like everyone doesn’t wear underwear.

Oh God. What if he doesn’t wear underwear? Hmmm… what if he isn’t wearing any underwear right now?

“Then we made our report to the captain. As my teammates have each been sent on leave, the primary responsibility for the mission is now mine. Once we reach the coordinates, my team and I will head out on expedition.”

He was talking while you were thinking about him not wearing underwear, you hussy!

“I see. What do you think you will find, Irev?”

“I am not certain, Petra, but I suspect whatever it is will bring more questions than answers.”

IREV

Petra stashed the last of her purchases under her bunk and straightened up. Her forehead shone with sweat. Our labors had caused her to perspire enough that her clothing clung to her body. I tried not to stare, focusing my gaze on her face.

“Whew,” she said, checking around the quarters and nodding as if satisfied. “That’s all done. So…what’s the plan?”

I caught myself staring at her chest again and quickly raised my gaze to where it belonged. I admonished myself for my failure.

I represent the entire species, curse it all.

“Ah, the plan is effusive until we reach the coordinates uncovered during the search for Dr. Garcia.”

My eyes darted to her face. She didn’t seem to have noticed my lapse. My eyes darted away, before she could detect my gaze.

“I will likely lead an away team, but I’m still awaiting orders to that effect.”

“And I’ll go with you on the away team?”

I nodded, remembering Helena and Amelia, both of whom had accompanied the team on missions at the Admiral’s behest. He took his wife’s visions quite seriously, as did we all. Besides, the earth women always proved their worth before. Petra seemed to be a bit of a dilettante, and I wondered what her unique skills and keen intellect would bring to the team.

These Humans are always surprising me and Petra is no exception. I didn’t think it was possible to feel such a magnetic pull toward a member of another species before. Or anyone for that matter.

I came to realize I’d been staring for a long moment, and pretended to adjust the shade on a light panel for no reason other than to break the awkwardness.

“When are we going to arrive at the coordinates, then?” she asked.

Thank goodness, I had a question to answer.

“I’m not certain. I believe the route is still being calculated. This area is largely uncharted, after all, and we must rely upon probes and sensors to plan our vector.”

“So, what you’re saying is, we have some free time?”

I thought about it for a moment. I was on-call for duty, once we reached the coordinates, but until then, my main mission was directly related to spending more time with Petra. It was one of the rare circumstances where I had no objections to my orders whatsoever.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. Is there something you wanted to do?”

“Um, I don’t know,” she shrugged, getting herself a cold, Human, juice drink from the mini-coolant unit. She popped it open and took a long swig before continuing to speak.

“Maybe…do you guys have movie theaters, or something like them?”

“We do,” I said excitedly. “The Honor’s Blade is an Explorer class vessel, which means that it’s as much a cultural envoy and mobile scientific campus as it is a military frigate.”

“Oh, yeah?”

I nodded enthusiastically.

“Oh, yes. The Honor must dedicate so much space to providing support for the Science decks and support personnel, she has little room for weapons. That’s why she gets a military escort with lots of guns and troops. We’re on the move so much, and so far into unexplored space, it can be difficult to get a reliable long-distance teleport lock.”

“For important stuff, right? Like importing Human mates?”

I nodded, a thoughtful look on my face.

“Yes. DNA-matched mates are important, of course. I just meant to explain how we got lucky enough to have the extensive Agriculture and Entertainment decks. On the Honor. The other ships are filled with warriors, weapons, and ammo.”

“Reminds me of a dream I had once.”

“Uhhhh…so…the fleet is self-sufficient.”

“So, you have a movie theater on board, but it only shows arthouse movies?”

I cocked my head to the side.

“Forgive me but ‘arthouse’ did not translate.”

“I mean, are they pretentious?”

“I don’t think so. Beyond the fact that the actors are, usually, acting… Why don’t we go see what’s playing?”

I gestured toward the door. Petra finished her drink and fed the can into the fusion intake port atop the coolant unit. The unit glowed blue to show it had accepted the matter transfer and successfully transmuted it to energy.

We headed to the entertainment deck, passing by a pair of long-legged aliens as they recited Earth’s Hamlet in the language of the toad-like Blorches.

“Blooooorch blooorch blorch Yorick, bloooorch bloorch Horatio. Bloorch blooorch kissed bloorch—”

Petra clapped her hands over her mouth and started walking faster. I quickly caught up with her, concern knitting my brow.

“Petra, are you all right? Do you need to vomit?”

“No,” she said, her eyes squeezing shut, her lips trembling. She laughed so hard, tears ran down her bright red cheeks. She leaned on me for support and shook her head, trying to recover.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I don’t want to start a cultural misunderstanding and declare war on another species or something. I just—that was too much.”

“I hope that the films available are more to your liking.”

The choices were from three different holo-films, and I excitedly explained each one to Petra.

“In Deeds, not Tentacles, famed action star, Dephnu Deez, makes a turn into drama. Everyone has been excited for it, since his guest appearance on As the Galaxy Churns went so well.”

“Hmm. I don’t know if I’m in the mood for a drama.”

“Well, there’s the acclaimed documentary about one scientist’s quest to find a rare species of arthropod on the jungle moon of Ubetcherass, AAaah! Ow, ow, these little fuckers can sting, ow.”

She stared at me for a long moment, and I cleared my throat.

“Ah, that was an attempt at a joke.”

“Was it?”

Petra’s eyebrows sat very high on her forehead, but her face looked more non-threatening than I had ever seen a face look, so I persevered.

“The film is actually called Journey of Discovery.”

“Hmm. I’m not feeling a documentary, either.”

“Well, then I hope you like the final choice.” I pointed at the holo display outside the theater for the last film. It featured a member of the Darlux species, who resembled an Earth jellyfish with the ability to levitate. Most of the creature’s tentacles were holding onto a blaster weapon of some sort.

“What’s it called?”

“From Gostobulax Seven with Love. It’s the 335th holo film in the Agent Infinity series about a secret agent who stops nefarious plots with a mix of keen wit, one-liners, and a healthy dose of seduction.”

“That thing seduces people?” she asked, pointing at the holo display.

“That ‘thing’ is Sh’Wan Kh’anari, and he was voted the Sexiest Sapient in the Galaxy two cycles in a row.”

“Okay,” she said, smiling. “I’m willing to give this a shot.”

I smiled back. If only she still didn’t have the haunted, homesickness clinging to her lovely eyes.

Maybe I could make her happy enough that it didn’t pain her so much.

PETRA

The jellyfish-man alien on the holo screen pointed his pistols—like, seventeen of them—at the villainous vegetable-crocodile…being.

“I know what you’re thinking,” the jellyfish ‘said’ through a series of pulsing lights, which the translator turned into audible speech. “Did I fire one-hundred-and-forty-six shots…or one-hundred-and-forty-seven?”

The alligator-plant guy looked over at his own blaster weapon. The Jellyfish stopped him with a series of pinkish-purple lights—which translated as a snicker.

“Oh, do you believe that the cosmic probability laws currently fall in your favor? Well, do you, person who exchanges sexual favors for better treatment while incarcerated? Please proceed, and make my day feel both complete and highly enjoyable.”

“He’s going to go for the gun,” Irev whispered to me.

“No, he’s not,” I said, because I had seen this exact moment happen in a movie before. Well, a remake of a remake in holovision, but you get the idea.

The alligator man chose not to go for his weapon, and Irev gaped.

“How did you know that?”

“Let’s just call it a woman’s intuition.”

He nodded sagely as if that made perfect sense to him.

“Are you not enjoying the film?”

“Are you kidding? I love this movie! There’s explosions, and dramatic music, and torrid romance. How can you ask for anything more?”

“I’m glad.” I could tell it really did please Irev that I was enjoying myself. Oddly enough, the ‘borrowed’ elements from Earth films actually provided a kind of comfort. As if to say that, no matter how far I got from home, there were some things which would always remain the same.

We went back to watching the flick. The jellyfish spy character was a riot. All of his lines were delivered in monotone because of the translators. However, I noticed a few members of his species in the audience, and it was like they were watching a different movie.

The translator let us know what they were thinking. They laughed, they cried, pretty much everything you’d want from an award-winning movie back home.

When the end credits rolled, I couldn’t stop smiling.

“That movie was ridiculous. I absolutely loved it.”

“Petra, that movie was as ridiculously whimsical as your slippers.”

For a moment, Irev looked terrified, as if he worried he had gone too far and ruined the moment…but I could hold in my giggles no longer. As he relaxed, a grin slowly spread across his face.

He offered me a hand up from my seat. I accepted it, and an electric thrill ran through my nerve endings as our skin touched for a brief moment. I had to admit, Irev was attractive on more than just a physical level. Though...

How can anyone keep their eyes off those arms? Or those thighs! I think they’re thicker than my head. Pay attention before you stumble into someone.

We filtered out into the lobby with the other moviegoers and found ourselves back in the main thoroughfare. He led me toward the lift which would take me back to quarters. Irev glanced over at me as we moved to the side to allow a heavily laden cargo lift to pass.

“You know, the film we just saw has been spun off into a galactic soap opera which has proven quite popular. It doesn’t have anyone from the films of course, as they are too big of stars, but it’s still interesting.”

“If you have popcorn, my friend,” I said, stifling a yawn. “I’ll be more than happy to watch that with you. Tomorrow. It’s been a long day, and this ship is so big, I feel like I’ve walked around the Earth twice.”

“Of course, Petra. You are entitled to rest. I could use some time in bed, myself.”

I chuckled, and he grew embarrassed.

“That is, time in my own bed. To rest. One cannot be at one’s best without an ample amount of slumber.”

I patted his tree trunk of an arm.

I wonder if this arm is thicker than my head. I should look for a tape measure…

“It’s all right, Irev. I know what you meant.”

He relaxed, those massive shoulders going back, instead of cringing forward. When he stood up to his full height, Irev was an impressive specimen.

Seven feet of twisted steel and lavender sex appeal.

I had come to be impressed even by his horns, which just seemed right on him, rather than jarring.

What surprised me most of all was how comfortable I felt around him. I was never good at forcing things, or trying to pretend things were anything other than what they were, as far as I could tell.

Many prospective boyfriends back on Earth had been unable to stomach my penchant for brutal honesty. I wasn’t trying to be cruel, but it seemed to me that too many problems began with people putting up with something that bothered them.

Maybe that’s why I wound up in communications, after jumping around to so many different majors.

Getting the point across wasn’t just valuable and essential, it was almost an obsession for me.

I always tried to balance my brutal honesty with open-minded fairness, though. Not very many people saw that. I had the feeling Irev might be able to ‘get’ me, the more we hung out. Attraction is great. Attraction is nice.

Being appreciated for who I am, though? That’s the ultimate aphrodisiac, no matter how many bare-chested pirates on the covers of romance novels may have tried to convince me otherwise.

So far, Irev had seemed very appreciative of me. Not just in a physical way, either…though I did catch him ogling my chest earlier. We talked and joked on our way back to my quarters, replaying moments in the film with pantomimed performances.

“So, then he pulls the trans-modulator frequency matrix out of his mucus sack, and I was like, okay, this is the greatest movie ever.”

I sighed as I wound down, and we reached the door to my quarters. Sudden awkwardness gripped me like the first touch of a frozen river. My heart waffled between choking me and trying to drag my stomach through the floor.

“I’m glad you had a good time, Petra.”

I looked up at him and sighed. It wasn’t this guy’s fault that there had been a lottery. He was just as much caught up in the stream as I was. I couldn’t be happy about it, not yet, but I was glad for his company if I did have to be on that ship, millions of light years from home.

“Hey,” I said, dropping my gaze for a moment as I spoke. “Thanks for making this whole ordeal a lot more bearable.”

His face stretched in a smile, softening around the eyes in a way I wasn’t yet ready to admit I kind of adored.

“Anytime. Good night, Petra.”

“Good night, Irev.”

I entered the door to my quarters before I started something, surprised to find myself still smiling.

IREV

The next day, I went about my duties in a bit of a haze, though not because of the late night I’d had with Petra. Rather, I found myself distracted by Petra’s predicament.

Vaznik warriors are trained in the arts of rudimentary empathy during our mandatory classes on Human women. It still presented a struggle to put myself in her socks, as the humans like to say.

I put myself in her place, and thought about what it would be like to be her. To be torn away from all she’d ever known, her family, her home, and teleported all the way across the galaxy. Then, to be told she’s been matched to a total stranger—and an alien at that. Well, to our perspective, she was the alien. I supposed that it could get quite confusing, indeed.

In the Vaznik warrior traditions, finding your mate is a sacred thing. It is literally written into our cultural consciousness to venerate our matches. It’s considered bad form, and even dishonorable by some, to be seen as dissatisfied with being mated.

On the other end of the spectrum, we had humans and their complex courtship rituals. From my limited understanding of human culture, I knew that mating with them was purely a matter of choice. But of course, it seemed like a great many of them chose wrongly. Many human relationships ended in failure.

Still, that’s the culture that Petra had grown up in. She had been accustomed to the idea she would be able to choose the person she was lifemated to. Married, the humans call it. Instead, that choice had been made for her by virtue of her genetic code.

No wonder she’s not satisfied with this situation. My poor Petra.

Honor is very important to a Vaznik Warrior. Back in my training days, the commander in charge of our unit told me that doing the right thing usually hurt, and doing the easy thing was usually the wrong thing.

It had confused me to no end at the time. Which might have had something to do with the fact I was doing ten-thousand pushups with my full gear strapped to my back and hadn’t had a sip of water in forty-eight hours.

Now I understood perfectly. I had to do the right thing by Petra. Anything less would be dishonorable. If I had to end our year together prematurely, it would make me very…sad. Depressed, even.

But I had no intention of forcing myself on anyone, ever. As much as I’d enjoyed Petra’s company so far, I knew that I wanted her to be happy.

Even if her happiness came at the expense of my own.

What would happen next had to be entirely Petra’s choice. And I would have to display true integrity to respect whatever choice she made.

“Hey, Irev.”

I turned around and took a plasma torpedo to the chest. Literally, since Drayk had shoved the warhead into my chest. Of course, it would have taken a far greater impact to detonate, but I was still a bit perturbed.

“Think fast,” Drayk said with a chuckle.

I took the torpedo off his hands with a scowl and handed it on to Taxan, who stood next in line. The anti-grav tools couldn't be used so close to one of our starfighters, so we had to muscle the payload of eleven plasma warheads on board.

“Why do you think the Admiral is ordering us to get these ships ready for deployment?” he asked.

“Probably just wants to be prepared.”

“Nah, it’s busywork and you know it.” Taxan huffed. “The Admiral thinks if he keeps us busy then we won’t start problems during these long, boring parts of the voyage.”

“I prefer not to conjecture about our command staff.”

My communicator went off. I removed myself from the line and answered it. The others grumbled as they now had to spread themselves thinner to cover the gap I left behind.

The Admiral’s identification code flashed on the screen. I hastily answered, trying to keep my breathing level as I could.

“Irev reporting, Admiral.”

“Irev, I have some news concerning the upcoming mission. Our fleet scientists are making strides toward verifying the habitability of the unknown planet located at the coordinates Amelia puzzled out.”

“That’s great news, sir,” I said, wondering why he had bothered to contact me in person over something so comparatively trivial. Surely one of his underlings could have accomplished as much as could an automated message.

“Yes, indeed. I’ve decided to make the move of dispatching the Sunder to the coordinates.”

“Does that mean Petra and I will be transferring to the Nova, then?”

“Affirmative. You catch on quickly.”

I grumbled internally, thinking about the fact we had just finished unpacking her stuff, and now we would have to do it all over again on the Sunder.

“By the way, have you grown closer to Petra yet?”

“I, um.” I swallowed. “I believe I have made some strides in that regard, though she remains reluctant, and more than a little homesick.”

“It’s your job to see to it that she doesn’t feel that way. This is an even higher priority than finding Dr. Garcia. Is that understood?”

“Sir, yes, sir.’

“Excellent. I knew I could count on you, Irev.”

The comm ended, and I hoped the Admiral’s confidence in me was well placed. I reminded myself that the decision was Petra’s.

As long as I conduct myself with honor, I will have nothing to be ashamed of.

PETRA

After Irev walked me to the door of my cabin, I got ready for bed and crawled under the covers of my bunk. I lay awake for a long time, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling of my quarters on the Honor’s Blade. It often took me a while to really get used to a place before I could just drift off to sleep.

Plus, I’m hung up on Irev.

It was really screwing with my determination to dislike everything about the lottery situation.

Part of me almost wishes he were a jerk, so I’d have an excuse to hate him. Liking him is going to make everything worse, as far as I’m concerned.

My mind became clouded with impending slumber. With my defenses down, I was unable to deny a simple truth.

I like Irev. I’m attracted to him, even.

I think that influenced my dreams. In my dreams, Irev and I spent a lot of time exploring the different shops on the Honor, enjoying ourselves and having a great time.

Only when I went to pay for a dress, the proprietor of the shop had my mother’s face.

How dare you be happy here? Think about your father and I. Being happy with that horny alien is the same as betraying your parents.

I’d awakened in a cold sweat, chest heaving with heavy breaths. I looked at myself in disgust. I’d soaked not only my nightshirt, but the sheets, too. I checked the time and found it was shortly after the first duty call. The equivalent of dawn on Earth. I thought perhaps Irev would ask me to breakfast—maybe hoped for it, even.

I was brushing out my hair when the sound of my door chime went off.

“Enter,” I called.

Irev stepped inside as the door receded. I cocked an eyebrow at his outfit. Unlike the simple garment he had worn before, this one appeared to be a dress uniform, with fancier accouterments and shiny medals dangling from him massive pecs..

“Is it a holiday and nobody told me?”

“Hmm?” He cocked his head to the side.

“Your uniform. It’s a bit fancier than normal, that’s all.”

“My uniform?” he looked down at himself, and the light of realization dawned in his eyes. “Oh, I see, yes. I am wearing my dress uniform because you and I are temporarily transferring over to the Nova.”

“The cruiser escort, you mean? One of the ones filled with hot, horny Vaznik warriors, great big guns, and loads of huge rounds of explosive ammo?”

Irev froze for a moment. Though he continued to blink, I watched him not breathe for far longer than I had expected possible.

These Vaznik warriors can really hold their breath for a long time…

“Yes. It’s being detached from the main fleet to take us to the coordinates.”

His voice sounded wooden, but I counted it as a win. I looked around at my quarters and frowned.

“Wait a minute, I just got settled in here. Are you telling me I have to switch quarters to another ship now?”

“Not exactly. These quarters are for your use as long as you need them. You may even store some of your things here while we transfer temporarily to the Nova.”

“Okay, I get it. Like a vacation.”

Filled with giant, muscly men…

I looked around and sighed. “I guess I need to take it all.”

“All?” he didn’t sound convinced. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. I don’t have a whole lot of stuff with me anyway.”

“But it is only temporary.”

“True, but if we’re going to be based out of the Nova for the rest of this mission, then it would be best to have my things on hand. In case I need them.”

He looked around, no doubt remembering the unpacking process. I saw him steel his resolve.

“All right, fair enough. I’ll help you pack.”

“You still haven’t said why you’re wearing your dress uniform.”

“Oh, that’s just tradition for anyone who wants a promotion. You wear your dress blacks when you transfer to a new ship. Even if it’s temporary.”

Irev helped me to pack up my few things. It didn’t take us very long. Once we had it packed away, he turned to me, eyes filled with curiosity beneath his curling horns.

“We may be away from the Honor for some time. Would you like to get one last fancy breakfast before we transfer to the Nova?”

My belly gurgled, and I laughed.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

We visited a restaurant on the promenade which featured something I can only describe as seafood pancakes. They were not as vile as they sounded. In fact, they were like gourmet crepes with shellfish similar to shrimp and some kind of salty, preserved fish diced into small, tangy flakes.

All of this mixed into a kind of bright, golden batter, savory rather than sweet. That, the chefs grilled on a flat, iron device heated by jolts of electricity. The resulting char caramelized the ingredients into a flat, crispy surface similar to a grilled cheese sandwich.

“This is delicious,” I said. “Thank you.”

I remembered my dream, and shrank in on myself just a little bit. I missed my parents, I really did, but part of me truly enjoyed the adventure. Even more so, I enjoyed spending time with Irev. The great, purple, horned warrior was growing on me, and not like a fungus.

He was a two horned, flying, purple pussy eater—oh, stop it, Petra. This isn’t helping your situation.

“What’s so funny?” he asked around a mouthful of breakfast.

“Nothing.” I put my fork down and sipped a glass of cool juice. It was hard not to like Irev. He had just the right amount of awkwardness about him. He was so handsome, well built, and skilled, that he would have been insufferable had he not been so…relatable.

The more he opened up and talked to me, the more I liked him and the more I liked my life with the fleet. This made me feel guilty, and seriously cramped my grumpy, anti-zen thing.

Irev escorted me back to my quarters on the Honor. We loaded my things onto a hover cart and made for the teleporter.

Soon, we would be on board the Nova, en route for the coordinates. What would we find when we got there? I could only speculate. But in the meantime, I looked forward to spending more time with Irev.

In spite of my resolve, I was starting to have fun.

IREV

The rest of our team greeted us at the Nova’s teleportation bay. Drayk, the behemoth of a green-skinned warrior, and All Fleet wrestling Champion, smiled and took over the hover cart from Petra.

“Here, Irev, this is what you’re supposed to be doing.” He gave me a dirty look. “Making your match carry her own luggage. How dishonorable.”

“Actually, I tried to—”

“Cut him some snacks, Drayk.” Zaen, a red-skinned warrior, turned to face me and grinned. “Irev barely knows how to speak, based on our prior experience.”

“The line is ‘cut him some slack,’ not snacks,” Petra said between peals of laughter.

“Oh,” Drayk said, his eyes going wide. “See, Zaen, I told you that you were saying it wrong.”

“I heard what I heard. I think I picked it up from Bok’Choi.”

I ignored their banter, and glanced around the teleportation bay to see if the rest of our team had also arrived on the Nova. It was critical I take a headcount before we jumped to faster than light.

I saw Vrako, a yellow Vaznik who’s best described as happy-go-plucky.

At least, I think that’s the human phrase.

Having the optimistic Vrako around is either a ray of sunshine in dark times, or an annoyingly cheerful presence, depending on the individual’s mood.

Jakar, the blue, self-proclaimed ‘greatest pilot in the fleet’ was there as well. Nobody’s sure if Jakar is really as good as he says. I do know that, up to that point, he hadn't made a landing we couldn’t walk away from.

I looked around for the final member of my team, Taxan. I didn’t see him, though there was another burly, red-skinned Vaznik present. His skin was so clean, it positively gleamed, and his horns had been recently polished. The uniform he wore had the most perfect creases I had ever seen.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“Taxan? Is that you?”

“Who else would it be?”

“Of course,” I said, then turned around to find Petra chatting happily with both Zaen and Drayk. They were grilling her on different Earth phrases and what they meant.

“Where’s Doctor Bildeploop and his assistant?”

“They’re already in the Nova’s science lab, I think. They had a ton of equipment.”

“Curse it all, I have to do a physical headcount before I can tell Captain Datgouy we are good to engage the light-speed engines.”

I moved over to Petra and took her by the arm.

“If I could borrow her for a moment?” I asked stiffly of Zaen and Drayk. “Petra, I need to confer briefly with Dr. Bill and his assistant. Would you like to come with me?”

“If it’s all right, I’d like to stop and talk to these guys some more.”

I didn’t like the sound of that one bit. I could only imagine they were going to tell her embarrassing things about me that I’d rather keep private. Like the time I accidentally hooked up my environmental suit to a sewage line instead of an air line.

No, surely they won’t be that cruel.

I nodded and squeezed her arm gently.

“I’ll be back soon.”

I stopped at the doorway and gave one last longing look back. I knew my fellows would never dream of trying to hit on Petra, but I still felt jealous they were getting her attention.

I hope I can break her of the notion that everything about this situation is terrible. But, if I could not, I will honor her wishes. It is the only truly honorable path, even if it leads to heartache and longing.

I was familiar with the Nova’s layout, having served there several times before. I found the science lab ensconced in the middle decks. Dr. Bill stood out from the other scientists present by virtue of his mechanical servo suit. The good doctor himself was, in fact, the tiny mollusk swimming around in the glass bowl ‘head’ sitting atop the roughly Vaznikoid mechanical suit.

“Dr. Bill.” I came up beside him as he carefully poured a purple compound into a graduated cylinder. “Are both you and your assistant accounted for?”

“Indeed.” The mollusk swam over to stare at me with its pea-sized eyes, while the mechanical suit continued to work. “It is good to see you again, Irev. Congratulations on your recent promotion.”

“Why, thank you—”

“I mean, your career has likely peaked here, but still, you are to be commended—”

A voice raised in apoplectic anger sundered the calm of the laboratory.

“The compound didn’t combine? How could it not—how DARE it not combine!”

We turned to see a six-and-a-half-foot tall rainbow-skinned scientist, whose lab coat could ill conceal the lump of muscle which comprised his body. He put his face within inches of the beaker in his massive hand and shouted at it.

“Let me TELL you something, molecules! If you don’t combine right this minute, I’m going to—”

He straightened up.

“Oh. They did combine.”

“Don’t mind Dr. Treigho,” Dr. Bill said, rolling his mollusk eyes. “Apoplexicans are known for their dramatic tendencies.”

I left the doctors to their business and went back to the teleportation pad. To my chagrin, all of my fellow Vaznik warriors accompanied us all the way to the quarters.

And I do mean our quarters, because…there was only one. For both of us. With one bed. I offered to take another cabin, but the others gave me such a hard time, Petra refused to allow it.

Now I was going to share quarters with her…

I never prepared for such an eventuality…but I can’t say I dislike the idea.

The only problem was, the quarters on the Nova were a bit smaller than those on the Honor. I began to feel awkward in the tighter confines. My shoulders and head accidentally banging into random things bolted to the walls helped my awkwardness not in the least.

We talked for a while, then she became engrossed in a computer pad. I got called away for a meeting with Captain Datgouy and his senior staff, which dragged on and on forever. When I returned to the shared quarters, it was well after the dinner hour.

Faced with the prospect of that awkward space sharing again, I immediately invited her to dinner at the commissary.

“Sounds great,” she said, putting away the computer pad at last. “I’m starving.”

My heart skipped a beat when I met her gaze. I was looking forward to this journey more and more all the time.

PETRA

The corridors of the Nova seemed tighter, and more confusing in their layout. I was determined to learn to navigate the ship on my own and carried my computer pad with me as I followed Irev to the Nova’s mess hall.

In spite of my using the map to navigate, I quickly grew lost. On an Explorer-class vessel, like the Honor’s Blade, there’s plenty of room for an easy-to-follow layout. As a smaller Cruiser-class, the Nova gave up a lot of tonnage to armament and systems related to battle and had less space overall.

Not that it felt claustrophobic, like our quarters after Irev managed to stuff himself inside. The Nova’s hallways still dwarfed what I’d seen of human vessels. They were designed for seven-foot-tall aliens, after all. And wide enough to accommodate five of those warriors abreast.

“The Nova is one of the newest Cruisers in the fleet,” Irev said proudly. “She has three times the firepower of her predecessors, and five times the range, thanks to recursive fusion drive.”

“It’s sure a confusing layout,” I muttered as I joined him on what I hoped was our last trip up a ramp.

“It’s meant to be that way. The Suhlik and any other enemies we might encounter will have a hard time navigating their way to critical systems or the bridge.”

“What about the Vaznik?”

“Oh, you get used to it after a week or two of bumping into walls and such.”

“Swell,” I grumbled as the corridor doubled back on itself again.

At last, we reached the mess hall. Roughly a dozen long tables, with half that many smaller ones dominated the room. Along one wall, a group of Vaznik worked to serve freshly prepared, hot food to the hungry soldiers.

The smell wasn’t as exotic or interesting as the restaurant section of the Honor’s Blade had been, yet I found my belly rumbling. It smelled good. Hearty, balanced meals. I was glad that Vaznik and human digestive needs had so much overlap.

The Vaznik warrior dishing out ladlefuls of some kind of wonderful-smelling, grayish brown stew saw me and stared for a moment. He shook his horned head, then gave me a scoop of the gloop.

“Sorry,” he said. “You’re like the third human I’ve ever met. Is it true that, on your planet, people drink from the teats of livestock?”

I burst into laughter and shook my head.

“No, we do drink the milk produced by our livestock, but we milk them first.”

“Milk?” his eyes blinked. “Oh, I get it. Like when I milked the Vagron Dung beetle’s sperm sack to make the roux for tonight’s stew. I got you.”

I swallowed hard and tried not to think about what else might have been in the stew. It smelled really good, and I wanted to eat.

I soon found that the mess hall worker wasn’t the only Vaznik with a question about Earth. When Irev and I settled in at one of the smaller tables, we soon found ourselves surrounded by our ship mates.

“Hey, is it true that your planet is almost completely water?” asked Zaen.

“No, not completely. It’s about three-quarters water, though.”

“And intelligent life didn’t evolve in all that water?”

“Well, there are dolphins,” I said, then my eyes narrowed. “Of course, once we learned to communicate with them, we found out they were a bunch of dicks.”

“Hey,” Vrako interjected “I heard that on Earth all humans go through a period of madness where their bodies change shape, and their skin erupts in boils and sores.”

“Stop being disgusting,” Irev snapped. “She’s trying to eat.”

I shook my head around a mouthful of biscuit dipped in the weird but tasty gravy.

“It’s fine.” I turned to Vrako. “It’s called puberty, and I think your description is the best one I’ve ever heard.”

“How do you deal with it?” he asked, aghast. “It sounds awful.”

“We muddle through somehow. Puberty is actually harder on the people around you than it is on you.”

“Wait a moment,” Drayk said with a frown. “I thought humans underwent their sexual metamorphosis while in the womb?”

“It isn’t a metamorphosis, you ignorant cretin,” Dr. Bill snapped with audible contempt.

“Let me TELL you something, Drayk,” Dr. Treigho sputtered, deluging Drayk with spittle. “You’re so stupid, if you magnified your intelligence score out to an infinite coefficient it would still equal zero.”

“I don’t know what you just said, but it sounded like fighting words to me,” Drayk snarled.

“Not in front of the human,” hissed Zaen. “Remember what the Admiral said about our best behavior. I don’t want to clean the lavatories with a finger brush.”

Things calmed down a bit, but the questions kept coming. I sort of felt like a celebrity. Everyone wanted to come and speak to me. I was having a lot of fun.

Somehow, we got onto the topic of Human drinking games.

“So,” Zaen said, his face drawn into a frown, “you’re telling me that drinking games do NOT involve trying to imbibe a flaming brew without getting third degree burns?”

“No, Zaen, as awesome, and not to mention dangerous, as that sounds.” I chuckled. “I guess the ultimate drinking game is probably beer pong.”

“Beer pong?”

I looked around and saw more than thirty pairs of eyes looking eagerly my way.

“I have a feeling I’m going to regret this in the morning.” I drank a full mug of water to hydrate myself for what was to come.

“Okay everyone,” I said, “gather around. This is what we need to play beer pong…”

IREV

Petra grabbed the small air-filled spheroid she’d fabricated for the game of Beer Pong in her thumb and forefinger. She’d been defeating all comers for almost a dozen games so far, but the other Vaznik were starting to catch on.

When Petra tossed her ball onto the table, she wobbled a little bit. The dozen or so beers she’d drunk in the last hour probably had something to do with that. In fact, I was starting to root for someone to beat her, so she wouldn’t have to drink anymore.

“Ha! Consume!” she pointed at blue-skinned Jakar and laughed. He picked up his mug and drained it.

Jakar made his shot, which meant that Petra had to drink. She eagerly reached for her cup, but I carefully took it out of her hand.

“Hey,” she said, slurring her speech badly.

“I think maybe you should slow down on these for a bit.”

“But what about the game?” Jakar asked.

“You win,” I said, “she forfeits.”

“I do not forfeit,” she said as I pulled her away from the beer pong ‘arena.’

“Here,” I said, sitting her down. “Just relax. I’m going to get you one of those stimulant drinks. Toffee, they’re called.”

“Coffee,” she said, holding her nose. “And I think maybe I’d rather just go back to our quarters.”

“Why?”

“Because if anything else even touches my stomach, I think I’m going to puke.”

“Oh, no! Let me get you to Medical…”

“No! Don’t you dare! I refuse to wear one of those half-gowns. No one is seeing my ass…hey, did you notice how cute my ass is?”

“Let’s get you home, then. I have already imagined the poor med staff trying to wrangle you and that’s more drama than I was looking for tonight.”

“Deal. You dodged my question.”

I offered my arm and she took it. I helped her walk to the door, steadying her when she seemed on the verge of falling.

I pulled her close against me and hugged a wall while troops cavorted past. She leaned heavily into me, her lips stretched in a sly grin.

“You’re so big,” she said. Her hands squeezed and kneaded my chest. “I mean, you’re built like a comic book superhero, only for real.”

“Thank you, I have a top tier physical fitness regimen.” I moved out into the corridor…or tried to. She whimpered up at me and put her arms around my neck. I realized she wanted me to carry her.

I swept her up into my arms. Petra laughed, tracing a line across my cheek with her forefinger. She released a long vibration on her lips like a faulty air condenser unit. Her spit misted my cheek with tiny droplets. It tickled a bit and I flinched.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess I get handsy when I’m this drunk. I haven’t been this drunk since college. But, you have to understand, I made friends with the dorm bartender. Residents would call up his room and put in the order and I would run the drink to their room. Good money and I met a lot of people…”

She kicked her legs and giggled as she tickled me in the ribs. I laughed, almost dropping her, moving as if I were drunk, too.

I had to set her down for a moment so I could enter the code to open the door to our quarters. I set her against the wall. She whimpered and made as if to cling to me but I firmly removed her hands from my neck.

“Just rest here a moment,” I said, “try not to fall over.”

I had punched in about half the code when I heard a swishing sound. I turned to see Petra sliding down the wall. I yelped and went to catch her, falling onto my back in the process. She wound up laying on top of me, her landing cushioned by my body.

Of course, her knee drove right into my joy department. My voice went up a few octaves, when I spoke.

“Are you all right, Petra?”

“Why, Irev, why wouldn’t I be all right?” she giggled. “Oh, look at what a compromising position we’re in.”

I hastily got us both to our feet. This time, I held onto her while I punched in the door code and finally got her inside.

I sat her down on the bed and took off her boots.

“Most guys try to take off my shirt first. You’re not one of those foot guys are you?”

“What?” I asked.

When I looked up to her face, I found Petra’s eyes closed, her mouth slightly open as a light snore emanated from her perfect lips. I sighed, and lifted her legs, arranging them on the bed in, what I hoped was, a comfortable position. Petra made little noises and patted the bed as if looking for something.

I covered her up and her hand stopped randomly flopping. I fluffed the pillow before gently pushing it under her head and arranged a pallet on the floor with extra linen where I drifted off to sleep myself.

My intention had been to awaken before her the next day. Instead, when I wrested myself free from slumber’s grasp, I discovered breakfast had already been delivered.

“Hey there.” Petra gave me a sheepish smile as she offered me a platter of steaming, unborn, baby birds and dead, burnt, animal flesh. Ham and eggs, the humans called it. “I’m sorry I got so sloppy drunk last night.”

“You didn’t vomit on my boots, so there’s that.” I laughed, accepting the platter of food. “You have nothing to apologize for. Everyone had a grand time playing your Pong of Beer game.”

“I guess I was in need of a good time,” she said with a laugh. “I’d been so dismal, I guess it was kind of fun to have everyone fawning all over me in the commissary. I may have gotten carried away…”

We chatted while we ate breakfast. I’d never felt so lively so early in the morning before. I began to imagine what it might be like to be around Petra that way, every morning. Sharing food and swapping stories and just enjoying each other’s company.

I admonished myself for such thoughts. Petra had hardly made up her mind as of yet, and I knew I had a hard way to go, were I to convince her this was where she belonged.

With me.

Still, I did allow myself to enjoy the moment of domestic bliss.

Let the future take care of itself for a little while.

PETRA

While the Nova lacked the Honor’s three-ring circus atmosphere, I seldom found time to be bored during the three days it took us to reach the destination laid out by the coordinates.

Much of the time got consumed by my training with one of the exo-suits. I’d used exoskeletal systems before, in college, but only the armature variety used in experiments and industry.

It was my first time wearing a military-grade encounter suit, with all of the bells and whistles that entailed. First, and foremost, the thing was heavy. The joints featured a durable, semi-flexible material which became nearly impervious to weapons fire when an electrical charge ran through it. That component would have been heavy enough on its own.

Then there were the wide, ceramic-alloy plates with their glossy, red shine, and both gauntlets and a helmet. Wearing the whole affair was like strapping seventy pounds of dead meat to my body.

The servomotors helped, but there was a certain amount of extra mass I just had to deal with. It took some practice just to walk with some amount of grace, let alone do more complicated movements. You know, like walking up stairs or using a door panel.

Irev was a big help during that time. Endlessly patient, and never had an unkind word…even when I made the same mistake for the umpteenth time. At one point, I grew petulant over my lack of progress and got snippy with him.

Irev just called for a brief break in the training, and the next thing I knew, I had a cold beer and a bag of nutrient sticks—which tasted like peanut butter pretzels coated in chili powder.

I eventually got to a skill level where Irev believed I would be unlikely to hinder myself…or the rest of the team. I counted this as an important milestone when I could keep on my feet longer than five minutes. Our next task was teaching me how to use the laser beam on my exo-suit’s gauntlets.

Originally intended for mining purposes, the laser only had an effective range of about fifty feet. On the other hand, it was incredibly accurate, with computer-assisted targeting and predictive software, making a miss unlikely. I considered us all very fortunate I had so much assistance.

The only problem I had with it was holding it on a target for the necessary half-second the laser required for full effect. I found this was a lot more difficult than it sounded. I traced a lot of meandering paths on target discs Irev launched into the air before I learned how to control it.

Many targets at the practice range sacrificed their lives teaching me that control.

When Irev wasn’t training me for the upcoming field mission, we spent a lot of time in the commissary or on the observation deck. Many Vaznik came around to hear stories of Earth, or to clarify some of the outrageous stories they’d heard.

I recall Drayk being aghast at one of the things I’d said.

“Wait a moment,” Drayk said, his maw gaping wide. “So, you humans detonated thermonuclear devices…within your own atmosphere…on purpose?”

“No, of course not,” Zaen groaned. “Don’t be stupid. No sane species would ever detonate radioactive bombs in their own atmosphere. Humans aren’t that savage.”

“Actually, we were,” I said with a laugh.

“That’s just awful,” Zaen said. “You, of course, did so to win a brutal war, right?”

“Um, maybe one of those times,” I said, cringing a little. “Most of the time, it was to intimidate the other nation states.”

“You poisoned your own environment so you could intimidate the enemy?” Zaen shook his head in dismay. “That’s like shooting yourself in the foot to prove to the bad guys how tough you are.”

“I didn’t say it was a good idea. I only said that’s how it happened. Look it up. It’s public record.”

“Hey, enough pestering her about the bombs,” Irev scowled. “Humans have a rich history outside of war, you know. In fact, Kavok was telling me the other day about this dance move called the ‘Vague’ which only the most sophisticated of Terrans perform.”

“The Vague?” My brow furrowed, because something about that didn’t sound quite right.

“Hey, I know how to do that dance. Check it out.” Jakar stood up and pranced around like…I’m not sure any other creature in the known galaxy could prance around quite the way I witnessed that day. Jakar’s interpretation was like…joyful frolicking mixed with a dead, expressionless face…punctuated by moments of utter stillness.

This may be the most tragic example of a telephone game gone wrong I have ever encountered. Something went very, very wrong here.

“Hey, Jakar, who does that dance?” Zaen asked.

Jakar stopped and scowled at Zaen.

“The Humans.”

“Yeah,” Zaen snorted, “let’s keep it that way.”

Jakar cursed Zaen, and we all fell about the place, laughing.

The more time I spent with Irev, the easier being around him became. I’d dated before, especially in college, but getting along with someone had never felt so…instinctive.

We shared quiet meals together as well. Sometimes we ate together in the commissary and sometimes in our own quarters. Eventually we moved a cot in there so he wouldn’t have to make a floor pallet every night.

Our lives took on a kind of routine, a domestic sort of vibe where we ate together, trained together, and hung out with friends together. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I really didn’t have any problems with Irev at all.

That Admiral sure was smart, insisting we do everything together.

I grinned and chuckled, realizing I only had problems with the way we’d met.

It still rankled that we’d been tossed together because of the lottery. I still had my reservations about the entire system. I felt as if it were a deal, brokered by men who would never have to have their name come up in the lottery.

None of that, however, was Irev’s fault. In fact, I got the impression that, of all the Vaznik, he appreciated my plight, and my grumpiness, more than anyone else.

If only we’d met under different circumstances…

I might have been able to relax and really enjoy myself in those three days before the shit really hit the fan.

IREV

I had never considered three Vaznik standard solar cycles to be a very long length of time. Yet, it seemed as if a lifetime passed while we were en route to the coordinates.

The more time we spent together, the more I became convinced that she really was my mate. If I looked out of the corner of my eye, I swore I could see golden threads threatening to gather about us.

I grew keenly aware of this when we sat on the observation deck one evening, staring at the stars as they streaked past as beams of light. We were nearing the end of our faster than light journey and would be at the coordinates in a matter of hours.

Petra stared out the observation deck viewing port, her eyes full of a wistful, almost melancholy light.

What does she think about?

I wanted to know, yet I did not want to intrude on whatever reverie she had.

I had found myself staring at Petra a lot during those last three days. My feelings for her had blossomed into something…utterly beyond my understanding. Whenever I looked at Petra, or even just thought about her, my mouth dried instantly. My palms would sweat and my heart would race at a higher tempo.

I found my ears thirsted for the sound of her sweet, melodic voice. My hands longed to caress her midnight black hair.

We passed by a distant galaxy, its spinning disc stretched into a psychedelic display, catching Petra’s gaze. She turned slightly away from me, eyes full of delighted wonder, sweeping her mane of lustrous hair over her shoulder. I stretched my hand out toward it on instinct

I hesitated with a sigh, lowering my hand and admonishing myself harshly.

Petra, after all, had made no indication she wanted anything more from me than simple friendship. As much as it hurt, I intended to keep my budding feelings in check, even as they deepened for her.

Is this feeling…so complex, varied, and strange… Is this love? I’ve never known anything like it. How will I know when it’s love?

When I called and asked my former commanding officer, Kavok that question during a few minutes between my duties and spending time with Petra, he shrugged and said…

“I can’t tell you. But it lasts forever.”

Well, a fat lot of good that did me.

Thanks for nothing, jerk.

Petra turned back to me, jolting me back into the moment.

“This is so lovely,” she sighed. “It’s almost enough to make me forget how much I miss Earth.”

The timbre of her voice, the slight parting of her lips, the glow of wonder-tinged melancholy in her gaze made my heart stop. Every moment I spent with her felt timeless. Wondrous. I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be able to keep my feelings contained. It was as if my love—if indeed that’s what it was—wanted to shoot up my throat and erupt from my lips like a burst of hot magma.

And keeps trying to choke me on the way out.

I would have lost my mind in that situation, no doubt, if it were not for a single consolation. Even if nothing further than friendship developed between myself and Petra, at least I could still enjoy the time we spent together. I felt almost greedy, and petty, for wanting more when it felt so obvious we could hit it off as such good friends.

I’d learned that I had to make space for her to exist in her own way, rather than trying to think of her as an extension of myself. Through my diligent efforts, Petra had begun to relax into that space, letting herself exist just as she was, without filter or pretense.

And I love that.

“So,” I said, shattering the long silence. I almost lost my nerve to speak when she turned that perfect hazel eyes gaze my way.

“Yes?”

I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat.

“Now that you’ve had a couple days to settle in, how are you liking the Nova? Actually, how are you liking fleet life in general?”

She exhaled through her lips and frowned, a thoughtful look settling across her brow.

“It’s been… Well, it’s been different. A lot more different than I may have anticipated it would be.”

Her eyes sparkled, but grew distant as she lost herself in her thoughts. I gave her the time and space she needed to work things out.

“I guess…if I’d known what kind of possibilities would be waiting for me out here, I might have chosen to test them all on my own.”

Her gaze hardened. Her voice dropped an octave or two. “But being forced to abandon my life against my will? Well, that makes me question everything.”

“Everything?” I prompted.

“Yeah. It makes me question myself most of all, you know? I’d like to enjoy myself, and I do enjoy the time we spend together, but still…”

Her shoulders heaved in a heavy sigh.

“Having my choices taken away makes me feel like a commodity, rather than a human being. Rather than a person. Sentient species, you know what I mean.”

I nodded.

“I do know what you mean, Petra. It’s totally unfair to you. I hadn’t considered it much before we met, but I guess I wouldn’t appreciate the same thing happening to me.”

A smile blossomed on her face.

“Thanks, Irev.” She put her hand on my shoulder and patted it gently. “I don’t have a lot of choice about how my life is going to go for the next year, but at least I get to spend it with someone who listens.”

I smiled back.

“Anytime you need me—”

An all-ship hail interrupted my assurance.

“Attention all hands,” Captain Datgouy’s voice boomed loudly. “Attend your duty stations. We are approaching the coordinates.”

Petra and I exchanged glances. It was finally time.

What awaits us when we finally arrive?

PETRA

I grimaced as the seals for my exo-suit tightened down with a hiss of escaping air. Pressure suits were far less bulky than other varieties of survival gear. That didn’t mean they were comfortable.

I felt very, very small surrounded by a team of Vaznik warriors. The big, horned aliens towered over me to begin with. When wearing their full, heavily reinforced battle gear, the effect was exacerbated. I felt like a child around them.

At least Dr. Bill was roughly around my size. Dr. Treigho was taller, but he eschewed anything but the most basic survival suit. Apparently, his species was fairly durable and didn’t need them.

I looked around at our team and realized that they all had a good reason to be there. Me? Well, I was a communications major. Maybe I was a bit more skilled with translator circuitry than most, but I began to feel a bit redundant on a mission which already had smart people on it.

We took one of the cruiser’s armed, torpedo shaped shuttlecraft while the Nova remained behind in a distant orbit of the planet. I was struck by the similarity to Earth, only there was a lot more green than blue visible on this cloud-obscured marble.

“We’re close enough for scans, Irev.” Jakar’s hands danced over the control console.

“Any sign of that alien energy signature?”

“It’s hard to tell. There’s a lot of meteorological activity on this planet and it’s interfering with our sensors.”

“Let me tell you something, Jakar,” Dr. Treigho said. “I haven’t met the interference I couldn’t wrestle into submission. Let me at the controls.”

Treigho punched the console so hard, I winced. He flipped levers and slammed down buttons with such determined vigor, I thought for sure he would break something. Instead, the telemetry coming in cleaned up considerably.

“That’s what happens when you mess with me,” Dr. Treigho growled, giving the console one last glare.

“I can’t believe it, but it worked,” Jakar said. “I’m picking up the alien signature, all right. It’s coming from the second largest continent in the southern hemisphere.”

“That looks like a rather mountainous region,” Irev muttered.

“Yes, old mountains with lots of vegetation.” The images on the screen grew increasingly more zoomed in as the shuttle drew into orbit around the green/blue/white marble. “Looks like there’s nowhere decent to land within miles…wait, I spoke too soon. There’s a clearing…”

His eyes widened and he turned around to face Irev in the back of the shuttle.

“What is it, Jakar?”

“Irev, you’re not going to believe this, but this planet is inhabited.”

“Of course it is. This is where the unknown mercenary force and Dr. Garcia have gone.”

“No, Irev.” He shook his head, jaw set hard. “That’s not what I mean when I say inhabited. There are native life forms here.”

“Native life forms?” Dr. Bill almost knocked me over in his haste to run to the cockpit. “My word, you’re right!”

The little mollusk inside the glass globe swam around in excited circles.

“There are structures, evidence of agriculture…even some primitive technology. Why, there’s an entire village down there.”

Dr. Bill’s mollusk swam around in even faster circles.

“Oh, I can’t wait to meet them.”

Dr. Treigho stood up and loomed over Dr. Bill.

“Let me tell you something, Dr. Bill,” he sputtered, leaving gobbets of spit on the glass dome covering the mollusk’s liquid environment. “We can’t violate the Alpha Edict. Nobody’s talking to the aliens.”

“Don’t you quote the Alpha Edict to me, dear boy, I wrote the Kruelian Amendment personally.”

“Let me tell you something, Dr. Bill,” Treigho said, his whiskered face growing truly gruesome. “Do you want to go and blow up their entire culture by letting them know that intelligent life other than themselves exists? You could be damaging their development for centuries to come.”

“I hate to interrupt this intellectual debate,” Zaen said, pointing at the telemetry we were getting back from the planet, “but do those look like laser scorch marks on their clay huts?”

I squinted at the screen. He was right, those types of scoring couldn’t have been made by any tech the natives appeared to have at their disposal. I wondered what they looked like. So far, we hadn’t gotten a good look at any of them on remote scans.

“Those are weapon marks,” Irev said, his voice grim. “It would seem that they have already made first contact with another faster-than-light-capable entity.”

“Do you think it was Dr. Garcia and her maybe abductors, maybe allies?” I asked.

“I’m not sure who else it could be. This is uncharted space, after all.”

“Then we might as well go down there,” Dr. Bill said. “I nominate myself to be the official ambassador to this new species.”

“Slow down, glory hound,” Irev growled. “You’ve got many scientific doctorates, but not one of them is in cultural studies or first-contact protocols.”

Irev turned to Dr. Treigho. “I don’t suppose you can help us out in that respect?”

“Him?” Dr. Bill scoffed. The mollusk inside of his helmet sank to the bottom of the globe and looked dejected. “As if.”

“Let me tell you something, Irev,” Dr. Treigho said. “I’ve got super smarts in Chemistry, Biology, Quantum Physics, and Applied Mechanics—but I don’t know nothing about no cultural studies.”

“Curse it all,” Vrako said with a sigh. “We’re going to have to go back to the ship and see if there are any big grains with the right skillset.”

“No, we don’t,” Irev said. “We have someone who happens to be a specialist in communications on board this very shuttle.”

He turned to look at me. Actually, everyone was looking at me.

“Um, I was studying it… I don’t know that I’m an expert.”

“You’re the closest thing we have.” Irev said. “Why do you think you’re on this mission? Admiral Ausym thought it was appropriate for you, given your skill set.”

“Oh.” I felt a lot better about myself. “Well, when you put it that way, I’m glad to be of service.”

I just hoped I could pull it off. First Contact was known as one of the most dangerous of all situations in galactic exploration.

“At least we don’t have to go back to the cruiser,” Zaen said, utterly deadpan.

IREV

Jakar put our shuttle down about ten miles from the village, which was maybe half an hour to where the alien signals were the strongest.

The unnamed planet turned out to be humid in the extreme, raining frequently enough for streams and ponds and lakes and rivers to riddle the terrain. The mountains seemed old, rounded off and covered in verdant forests. Normally, that would make them easier to traverse than more jagged, rocky mountain ranges.

With all of the water carving up the mountainside, however, my team found ourselves constantly doubling back and searching for a way over the latest water-related hazard. In some cases, we had the tech to handle it.

“There’s another ravine up ahead, Irev,” Zaen said into my earpiece. His griping had earned him the forward scout position, my old job, before I got promoted to command.

“Will the auto-spanner cover it?”

“I think so. Let me test it out.”

I paused and let my voice ring out over the rain-dappled forest.

“Company, halt!”

The line stopped moving. Dr. Bill looked the most annoyed, even though he didn’t get to be the first person to contact the natives, he still wanted a front row seat.

“What’s going on?” Petra asked.

I turned to face her. Her lovely face looked out of place when surrounded by the encounter suit.

“Zaen found another ravine in our path.”

“Again? Are we going to have to double back?”

“I don’t know—”

Zaen chose that exact moment to contact me.

“We’ll have to jump five feet to the other side, but yeah, the auto spanner’s got it covered. This time.”

“Hopefully that will be the last waterway we have to traverse.” I sighed. “It’s never taken so long to cross a mere ten miles of terrain in Vaznik history.”

All of that rain led to a lush, verdant environment. There was little in the way of bare rock. Every available surface had something growing on it. Many of them looked a lot like Vaznik and Earth plant species. There were green, furry mosses growing on trunks and boulders, bushes and vines clustered near every copse of trees, and groves of mushrooms clustered near every pool of placid water.

The tree-like dominant species appeared to be the standard air scrubber, which exchanged carbon dioxide for oxygen. I opened my face plate both to conserve my air supply and to take in the rich variety of scents the planet had to offer.

There was life other than plants and vegetation as well. Every time the rains ceased, a veritable plethora of insect and animal life came out to play. Many of them had iridescent exoskeletons or scales, which appeared to be waterproof.

“This place is amazing,” she said as a shelled, quadrupedal creature ambled by us. “That looks like an Earth turtle, but with…barnacles growing on it.”

“It’s amazing, indeed.” I enjoyed the planet that much more for being able to see it through her eyes. While the terrain was inconvenient, the planet itself had a wild beauty unique to my experience.

We reached the ravine, where Zaen had deployed the auto spanner. A series of flat metal plates hung suspended over the fissure. Crackling lines of electromagnetic energy connected them to each other, creating an instant bridge—so long as one didn’t have to go more than a hundred feet or so.

It had become a running joke, ever since we landed, that the auto spanner was useless. The first two ravines we’d come across had been so vast and deep there had been no choice but to try to find another way.

“Oh, man,” Petra said anxiously as she stepped out onto the bridge. Only then did I notice Zaen had it set for our stride. Petra had to stretch her legs out very far just to reach the next metal plate in the span.

“Zaen, adjust the plates to make it easier for her.”

“I can’t do that,” he said. “It’s at maximum length as it is. If I make the steps closer together, it won’t be long enough.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, flashing me a smile. “I have the electromagnetic tether on.”

The tether would draw her back up to safety should she fall—assuming it functioned correctly. I looked down at the deep ravine. A mist-shrouded, white-water river sluiced hundreds of feet below. I did not relish the idea of her falling for even one moment.

Petra carefully moved across the bridge. I was grinding my teeth the entire time. When she made it all the way across, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Once our team was across the ravine, we made much better time. We were drawing near the settlement, and the terrain became much flatter and easier to navigate. I began to see signs of the natives. Fishing nets had been set up in ponds, and bridges made of twisted vines crossed some of the surprisingly deep brooks and streams which crisscrossed the mountain.

These twisted brides were so sturdy and well-made that we used them ourselves. I had to admire the efficiency.

“Look,” Dr. Bill said, pointing at a tapered structure made from the shells of the barnacle turtles. “That looks a lot like a grain silo. These natives are past the agrarian stage and all the way to genuine agriculture.”

“That’s great. Do you think they’ll help us find the Doctor?” I asked.

“I have no clue.”

Zaen summoned me to the front of the line when he spotted our quarry for the first time. My mouth gaped open when I first saw the natives.

“What in the—is it just me, or do they look like mushrooms?”

“Seven-foot-tall walking mushrooms,” Zaen said grimly. “With caps for heads. Though, if you look closely, you can see eyes and what might be a mouth slit under the cap in the front. See?”

The natives moved about their village, doing things vital to their survival. It looked as if many of them moved with difficulty, and some even had splints on their limbs.

“They look like they were in a fight recently,” Zaen said.

“No,” I shook my head. “They look like they lost a fight recently.”

Zaen glanced over at me.

“What do you want to do? They might not be too keen on strangers right now.”

“We have to try diplomacy first. That is the Alpha Edict.”

I fervently hoped Petra would be safe. If the natives turned out to be hostile…

A chill streaked down my spine. I was afraid to even think about it.

PETRA

I observed the mushroom people—because I didn’t know what else to call them—for several minutes as Irev hemmed and hawed and fussed nearby.

“If you don’t want to go through with this, it’s totally understandable,” he said. “Totally. No one would blame you if you turned back now.”

“I’m not going to turn back. I can do this.”

“But we’ve been observing them for some time and they have yet to utter a single word. The translation circuits have nothing to work with.”

I nodded, my eyes still keenly focused on the village scene below.

“I’m aware of that, Irev.”

“Well, you’re not going alone.” He hefted his energy rifle, and I gave him a look.

“You can’t bring that thing.”

“What?” He looked at me as if I’d grown a second head. “How can you say such a thing? Of course I need to bring my weapon.”

“No, you really don’t.” I sighed. “As you’ve said, these people have already been attacked once by outsiders. It stands to reason they know what our weaponry looks like. If you go in there waving that thing around, it could start a fight. That’s the last thing we want, since these people might be the only ones who can tell us how to reach the source of the alien energy signal.”

“I don’t know if I’m prepared to leave my weapon behind,” he said stubbornly.

“Well, you don’t have to come. You can wait behind with the rest of the crew, if you want.”

He grew tight-lipped.

“No, I will do no such thing.” He turned to Zaen and handed over his rifle. “Please take good care of this, and observe what happens to us when we try to initiate contact.”

“What happens if they’re hostile?”

“Why you open fi—”

Irev looked over at me and closed his mouth for a moment.

“That is, you will wait for my signal before you take any action. These diplomatic, first-contact situations are very complicated and we don’t want to be trigger-happy.”

The two of us left our covered ridge and tramped down the road leading to the village. We intended to announce ourselves, so that they were not surprised or shocked by our entrance.

“Do you think they’ve noticed us yet?” Irev asked, scanning ahead with a scowl.

“I don’t know if they have or not.”

Something arced over the hill before us and lanced down toward the cleared path. It was some kind of spear, the tip bearing an unusual, glowing crystal. The spear sank to the leather thongs holding the tip in place, the staff quivering in the wet wind.

“I’d say that they’ve noticed us, yes.”

I carefully held my hands up in the air and walked around the spear. I continued to walk up the hill with my hands held up and out, trying to make my movements as non-threatening as possible.

“What are you doing? They just attacked us.”

“I don’t think so.”

Irev cursed and joined me.

“Put your hands up like this. Make sure they know we’re not a threat.”

“Why are we doing this? They threw a spear at us.”

“No, they threw a spear near us.”

“A spear, Petra. A spear.” The message seemed clear to Irev.

“There’s a big difference, Irev. Trust me.”

He grumbled but kept right on walking beside me.

“I think the spear was a warning not to come any closer.”

“Yet here we are, walking closer. I’m not sure I understand the way humans study communications, you know. A come-no-closer spear isn’t exactly welcoming, as far as I am aware.”

I laughed.

“I’ll admit, this situation never came up in a lecture or a textbook.”

At least no more spears came arcing in our direction. I was grateful for that much, at least. A group of six mushroom people came over the hill, each of them wielding the strange yet familiar weapons.

They surrounded us and a pained, worried expression overtook Irev’s face.

“I sure hope you know what we’re doing, Petra” he grumbled as they took us prisoner.

“I think it’s going quite well.”

The mushroom people were humanoid, in that they had two legs, two arms, and generally walked upright. They had eyes as well, dark, glassy things concealed in the fins beneath their multicolored caps. They didn’t appear to have need of clothing, and the slit-like openings below their eyes seemed to be mouths, though I could detect no teeth.

“I think this one might be the boss.”

Irev referred to a mushroom man a good foot taller, and considerably stouter, than the rest. The purple spots on his cap seemed faded, and I wondered if he were a very old example of their kind. It would make sense that their longest-lived individual would also be their leader.

The mushroom folk herded us toward him. They allowed only me to approach the elder directly, though. Irev cried out in protest as they separated us.

“It’s all right, Irev. I’m supposed to be good at this, remember?”

He piped down, but I heard him cry out when the elder mushroom man suddenly blew out a cloud of grainy spores. I coughed on reflex, but after a moment I realized that I could breath normally. The air had a slight spice to it, similar to clove, but other than that, the cloud didn’t seem to be poisonous or toxic to humans.

Can you understand me now, mammal?

“EEEP! Yes,” I said, my eyes wider than saucers. “I can hear you inside my head. How is that possible?”

Once you have breathed our spores, telepathic contact is possible. The others, the ones who came before you, believed our attempt at communication was an attack and responded accordingly.

“The others? You mean Doctor Garcia ?”

Yes, the image of the one you call Garcia, which we saw in your companions’ minds, is known to us.

“We’re not like them.”

I can tell. Come, you may join us in the village. Tell your belligerent friend his fellows may come as well.

“What’s going on?” Irev asked. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Irev. And I think I just brokered a peace deal.”

* * *

The mushroom folk called themselves the Rie. I had never been so fascinated to meet a people before in my entire life. The Rie were so similar to us in many ways.

They ingested water, moved about on ambulatory limbs, and created things with manipulatory appendages. They had a written tongue, which the translator circuits were still puzzling out. The Rie’s eyes were their primary means of perceiving their world.

In other ways, they were utterly alien. For one thing, they had no sense of hearing. None. They more than compensated for this with incredibly keen senses of smell and touch. They could sense changes in air currents, making them next to impossible to sneak up on.

Which meant they’d been aware of us spying on them from the ridge the entire time.

The Rie village was roughly equivalent to the technology level one would find in pre-Renaissance Europe. They had basic tools and machines, like a wheelbarrow, but no advanced tech.

When the rest of our team filtered into the village, I thought we would have to re-enact my encounter with the elder en masse. Instead, the entire group of adult mushroom folk let loose a cloud of their spores. The spores glittered in the air, catching the rays of the dying sun and lending a magical surreal aura to the proceedings.

Part of the problem with communicating with the Rie was the fact they didn’t have names as we understood them. Remember, no sense of hearing. So they used smells to differentiate each other.

The Eldest Rie I had so far met, for example, was known to his people as Smells-like-damp-humus. I abbreviated the concept in my mind as Humus. The warrior who had initially cast his spear was known as Smells-like-Angry, so I thought of him as Angry. You see where I’m going with this, right?

So when I say that Irev and I sat in a circle with Humus, Angry, Rotten Slug, and Skag Urine, it makes a bit more sense.

The others who came from the sky were not so agreeable as you. Humus gestured toward the largest of the mushroom folk’s huts. Our Elder lays dying from wounds their terrible weapons inflicted.

“Wait, I thought you were the elder?” I leaned forward and scrutinized him.

I am the sub-elder. If the Spirits are unmerciful, I may be the elder before the next moon.

“Isn’t there anything that can be done for your elder?” Irev turned to me. “Maybe Dr. Bill or Dr. Treigho could take a look at him?”

“Maybe, but to my knowledge, the Rie are the first sentient fungal life form ever encountered in the galaxy. The doctor would be as apt to kill him as treat him. Just imagine what Dr. Bill would try to do…”

The water of life could cure He-who-smells-like-maggot-ridden-driftwood.

“The water of life?”

Long ago, the Rie grew from a magical spring in a hidden valley near Yǎjkïz, our sacred mountain.

I knew from the telepathic imagery he meant the mountain peak where the alien energy source was strongest. The exact smell didn’t translate well into English, so the circuitry substituted an alien word in my mind.

It began to make sense to me. The Rie must have been ordinary mushrooms at one point, until they interacted with the energy-infused water. It kick started their evolutionary process somehow, and they apparently still relied on it for healing.

“Why can’t you get some of the water from the spring and feed it to him?” I asked. Technically, none of us had to speak out loud—they couldn’t even hear us—but it was easier to speak than wordlessly ‘think’ at Humus and the others.

The ones you call ‘mercenaries’ entered the sacred caverns beneath Yǎjkïz. They left a terrible beast guarding the spring. It spits death and has a harmful vibration which tears our bodies apart.

While the Rie couldn’t hear, their sensitive bodies still gave them a concept of sound, which they thought of as vibration. I wondered what kind of ‘beast’ it really was. I guessed perhaps a soldier in powered armor could look like a monster to the uninitiated.

“I think my men and I can help you with this problem.” Irev bowed his head toward Humus. “If you’ll allow us, we will slay this beast for you, and ensure that the mercenaries never bother you again.”

Your words match your thoughts. It is forbidden for strangers to set foot on our sacred mountain, however.

“Oh.” Irev looked frustrated. But Humus wasn’t done.

However, we cannot turn down your generous offer. There is only one thing to be done. You must join the People and become one of the Tribe.

“How do we do that?” I fearfully recalled some of the initiation rituals of tribes on Earth. A lot of them involved cutting, wearing gloves full of poisonous ants, or other unpleasantness.

We have…the concept is difficult to explain, even with telepathy…I believe that the closest word in your language would be ‘party.’

The Rie all stood up as one, letting loose with clouds of spores. Some of the Vaznik appeared alarmed, but Irev calmed them with a gesture. The spore cloud spread out to cover their entire village.

“Whoa, what was that?” I gaped as a colored streak like an earth-borne comet flashed through the cloud.

“I think that the spores are having a psychedelic effect.” Irev’s eyes were as wide as the moon, his mouth gaping open. “I’ve never seen so many colors.”

“As initiation rituals go, this one isn’t bad.” I laughed as a rippling, colored wave washed over me. “I think these colors are emotions, or thoughts from the Rie’s collective consciousness.”

“At least they’re all pleasant,” he said. “You know, this is the most unique party I’ve ever been to.”

His face grew somber for a moment.

“Thank you for establishing communication with the Rie, Petra. You really saved the day.”

I beamed a smile at him. It was nice to be appreciated.

PETRA

There ain’t no party like a Rie party cause a Rie party don’t stop. Not even when the first pink heralding of dawn painted the horizon.

That was my cue to inform Humus of one of the peculiar things about us humans and Vaznik. We needed sleep. They understood the concept, having seen the fauna on their planet engaged in ‘hours of uselessly laying about’ as their smell for it translated in my mind.

My dreams were filled with strangeness and surreal imagery. The aftereffects of inhaling all that mushroom people spores, no doubt. The only one who hadn’t been tripping balls last night was Dr. Bill, who lived inside a contained environment in his suit.

In my dreams, I walked through a vast, deep cavern. I followed a narrow path adhered to the side of a sheer rock wall, a fissure which cut deep into the earth’s crust. There was someone on the opposite side of the fissure, less than five feet away, walking on their own narrow path. I couldn’t see them for a sheet of clear water sluicing down the fissure, blurring their features.

When I grew tired of being unable to see him, I used my hand to create a gap in the curtain of water. I only caught a glimpse of him moving past, a horned form with purple skin I knew to be Irev.

“Hey, Irev, wait.”

He vanished up the path. A moment later, I detected the return of movement. I leaned as far over the fissure as I dared, trying to see his return.

“Irev?”

A black monster which spit death and shrieked my skin off my bones appeared through the curtain of water. I didn’t even have time to draw in enough breath for a scream before what was left of me plummeted into the fissure—

I awoke from the dream in a sweat. I looked about, feeling fuzzy, almost hung over but without the headache. The afternoon sun dappled the Rie village. Irev and I slumped against a bale of straw-like material, shaded from the sun by a lean-to type structure. All around us, the mushroom people either stood in place in the sun, or moved around attending to essential tasks.

“I see that you are awake, She-who-thinks-like-sunshine.”

The voice sounded strange, rasping and dry with a reedy quality. I looked up to see Humus standing near the lean-to.

“Wait,” I said, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. Nearby, Irev stirred from his own slumber. “Humus, is that you? You can talk?”

“I can now,” he said, his voice sounding a bit more even. He had the look of a child learning to ride a bicycle for the first time. Unsteady, but growing more confident. “It was part of the par-tee ritual.”

“The party?” Irev frowned. “The party made you able to talk?”

“And hear.” He pointed to the flanges near his eyes, which had formed into seashell-like structures similar to human ears. “For us, the Party is an exchange of ideas, thoughts, and genetic material.”

My blood ran cold.

“Wait, we’re not pregnant, are we?” Irev gasped. “We’re not going to grow spores are we?”

“No,” Humus said. “But from time to time you might crave a dark, moist place to dig your bare toes into.”

Irev looked horrified, but I laughed.

“Humus is just kidding,” I said. “Um, you are kidding, right?”

Humus turned about toward the rest of the village.

“Your people are beginning to rouse themselves. It will be some hours until sunset.”

“You didn’t answer her question,” Irev pointed out.

I felt, in a word, grody. The thin under suit I wore beneath the exo armor had soaked through with my sweat. I needed to wash it, and myself for that matter. I could smell my own BO, and you know it’s bad when you notice your own.

“Humus, is there anywhere we might, um freshen up? I’m downright rank.”

“Ah, much like feathered avian, you must bathe yourselves. Of course. Might I recommend the Grove of Pure Souls.”

He gave us the directions to a small, spring-fed lagoon with a gorgeous curtain waterfall, which in turn spawned numerous smaller waterfalls. Some of the smaller ones were gentle enough to make showering beneath them a pleasure.

I hadn’t brought any swimsuits, and neither had Irev. As I’d expected, Vaznik warriors lacked a nudity taboo, so Irev stripped down without apparent thought. He cut a cake of soap from his survival bag in half and tossed the other end to me. I carefully kept my gaze on his face, but his body was spectacular in its symmetrical musculature.

I stripped down as well, and that’s when he got nervous. Irev struggled not to look at my naked body, but he was obviously torn. I stepped beneath one of the smaller waterfalls and let the water glaze down my head and shoulders. I tilted my head back and let it wash through my hair. The water was gloriously cool in comparison to the steamy rainforest air.

I opened my eyes and saw Irev sheepishly turning his back on me. I caught a glimpse of his manhood, just a flash of the tip as he turned around. Watching me bathe had an effect on him, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

“Irev,” I said, a tinge of frustration in my tone.

“What?” he said, pretending to be really into washing his arm.

I heaved a long sigh.

“Why are you turning away?”

“I…just prefer to stand facing this direction.”

I decided to try a different tactic, all the while not allowing his perfectly formed buttocks to distract me.

“Why haven’t you pushed for more out of me?”

“I am confused.” He peered over his shoulder, his gaze narrowed. “Are you dissatisfied with my friendship?”

“No, I’m not dissatisfied, I just…I think you want more from me, but you haven’t tried to get it. That’s what I mean.”

“You were very uncomfortable from the moment you stepped on board the ship.” He turned to face me, massive shoulders slumped. His eyes were swimming with meaning. “I listened to what you had to say, Petra. Regardless of what I want, I have to respect your wishes.”

I didn’t know what to say. I had been open and honest about how I felt over the whole lottery situation, and my lack of perceived choices in the grand scheme. How could I fault Irev for respecting the words coming out of my mouth?

He swallowed, eyes growing intense and inquisitive beneath his curling horns.

“Irev, I haven’t wanted to make you uncomfortable, but I have to know…”

His eyes fairly screamed at me to stop. Oh no. Don’t you do it. Don’t you dare ask that question, Petra—

“Irev, how do you feel?”

IREV

Time stood still as I gazed at Petra. Her ebony mane lay plastered against her skull like a tight-fitting cap, accentuating the delicate curvature of her cheekbones. I swam in the rich pool of her dark eyes, longing to drown myself in their depths.

I’d been so focused on being selfless and honorable, I hadn’t wanted to think about what might happen if this moment came…the moment when Petra asked how I felt about her. My mind roiled with conflicting impulses.

I still had a strong desire to protect Petra if I could. I didn’t want her to suffer in any way. Yet, I was suffering in the purgatory of my unrequited feelings. I had stewed in my own juices so long, I was downright pickled in them.

I could have lied to her, just to keep her from feeling pressured. That didn’t seem to be the honorable path. More than that, though, I just didn’t want to tell Petra any falsehoods. Her brutal honesty was contagious, it seemed, though I enjoyed the honesty more than the brutality of it.

Her brows climbed higher on her face. Petra awaited my answer. I couldn’t keep her waiting any longer or she might grow angry and leave before I could tell her anything.

“The truth is, Petra…” my voice bore a slight tremble. I tried again, managing to sound a bit more level. “The truth is, I do feel a powerful attraction to you. I have enjoyed this time we have spent together in all its platonic glory. But you were right about me. I do want more. You were right.”

I stood there, literally and figuratively naked before her for the first time. Petra’s eyes swam with a complicated morass of emotions. I could not keep up with the ever-shifting tide. She seemed by some degrees both angry and flattered, anxious and relaxed. I supposed, like me, it was complicated to navigate.

There’s an old Vaznik saying that enemies born of outside sources are never so fearsome as those you face within your own mind. I was beginning to appreciate the old sayings more and more.

Petra abruptly stepped toward me, close enough I could feel her body heat. She leaned in and her fingers touched my chest.

I gasped, an electric thrill traveling through my entire body. The golden threads, long since neglected, came roiling back. They snaked about us like forest vines.

Her naked breasts touched my skin as she got on her tiptoes. Her lips met my own, and she kissed me. Only a brief touch of our lips, an exchange of breath, and the littlest bit of tongue lashing, but a kiss more electric than I ever dared dream of.

For a moment during that kiss, I had felt connected to everything in the universe, and yet somehow detached from it.

I can see everything…I am everything…no, we. We are everything. Petra and I. We are everything…

It was as if my mind were catapulted across the cosmos, bearing witness to the births and deaths of countless stars. Grand maws of pure ebon hunger devouring all they came across. Gamma-ray explosions, so brilliant, they brought light to the darkest parts of the galaxy…

She pulled away from me, and went to her own stream of water once more. I stared at her long and hard, my heart thumping like mad in my chest.

“Wha…” I cleared my throat.

What were words again?

“What was that for?”

“I just don’t want you to give up on me.” She turned her back on me, washing the remaining soap from her lovely skin. I was taken aback by her naked form anew. “I think that whatever this is…it might be worth working for.”

She stepped out of the stream of water and draped herself in a towel. I watched as she moved into a patch of sunlight warming a cushion of moss atop one of the boulders surrounding the pool.

Once she dried herself, she donned her sun-soaked undersuit and slipped it on. I dried myself off and joined her on the hike back to the village.

Petra retreated to the tent I’d helped her pitch last night, the one she’d wound up not using because we passed out under the lean to. Strangely, I almost felt relief at the loss of her presence. It had become so intense just to be around her, I wasn’t sure I could handle it.

I felt as if I’d been struck by lightning. The idea I might actually be able to make things work with Petra was new. New, and terrifying.

The entire situation thrilled me more than I could have imagined. I wanted this, I realized. I wanted it more than any promotion or staffing position or bridge certification that ever existed. My desires weren’t just physical, either. I wanted to wake up to Petra every day.

I ventured into new territory, and I really didn’t want to blow it. I never had any expectations I would actually find my genetic match. It just didn’t seem worth worrying about, before.

Now, I realize Petra enriches my life with her every breath. Even mundane things feel fresh and new and multifaceted…when viewed through her eyes.

I didn’t just yearn for her. I didn’t just want to be with her. I treasured Petra, in every sense of the word. I don’t think anything had ever been more important to me before, except perhaps my integrity.

I can’t see Petra asking me to sacrifice that.

It hit me then, as I sat outside my tent cleaning my rifle.

I love her. I am in love with Petra.

I loved her with an effortless, soothing ease. I relaxed. My shoulders dropped as the tension knotting my neck unwound. I sighed as my heart rose on a bubble of hope.

I will always love her, no matter what. Even if she decides to return to Earth.

At that moment, I prayed to my ancestors…but not to make sure I wound up with her heart. I prayed I could be the kind of man Petra could be proud of.

PETRA

I retreated inside my tent to be alone. I could get away from Irev physically, but I couldn’t hope to escape my feelings for him. Those stuffed themselves into the dome shaped instant tent and made themselves quite comfortable in my head.

I hated that the lottery had torn me from my life with my mother and father. I hated that I had been teleported away from Earth onto a starship filled with aliens on the other side of the galaxy. I hated the very notion that my life and freedom could be compromised so easily.

Regardless of how I got on board that star ship, however, I couldn’t deny one thing. I was positively drooling at the mere thought of Irev.

When he confessed his feelings to me, I believed every word which tumbled from his sensuous lips. Each word he had spoken, each inflection, rang true.

I needed to hear every word, too. They were just the right words. I had to hear him say that in order to believe him. In order to believe it was true.

Of course, I’m not saying that the thought didn’t cross my mind that he could be some kind of galactic player, some kind of alien pick-up artist who knew just the right things to say to make you think he really cared, and was truly interested in me as a person.

Could Irev really be that smooth?

I thought about it a little bit further. Irev, the Awkward? The guy who had stoically hidden his feelings all this time, just so I wouldn’t feel influenced by them? That guy? A smooth lothario with a silver tongue?

Yeah, and I’m a Galfian jet pilot.

I laughed out loud.

A Mahdfel? Sneaky, duplicitous, and callow enough to romance me just to break my heart? No way. Satan will ice skate to work before that ever happens.

I believed Irev. I knew that for a fact. I knew it to be as real as the pointy rock somehow jabbing through many layers of bedding into my back.

Now, I felt perched upon the precipice of the first drop of a roller coaster. It was equal parts thrilling and terrifying. I also felt as if there were no going back now. I had sealed his interest with a kiss.

And, oh, what a kiss. I used to scoff at romance novels and their ‘stealing my breath away with a kiss’ nonsense. Until I’d kissed Irev under the waterfall. I blushed when I realized our first kiss was done totally naked. That’s a story for the grandkids.

I shuddered at the thought of grandkids. That reminded me of the purpose of the lottery in the first place, which set me on a recursive loop of resentment and desire.

I yearned to see him again. Already, I missed hearing his laugh. My heart missed the way it felt when I saw his warm smile.

Yet at the same time, and just as strongly, I was abjectly terrified to want Irev.

If I admit I want him so much, then everything is all too real.

I couldn’t reconcile this conundrum in my head. I think I drifted off to sleep for a while, and my dreams were fiery indeed, even if I couldn’t recall them when Irev woke me later.

“Petra?” His voice sounded gentle, questing. “Are you asleep?”

“Not anymore, why?” I said, a huge yawn stretching my face.

“I’m sorry to wake you.”

“Don’t be, I had a nice nap. What's going on?”

His looming shadow appeared in silhouette on the side of the tent. He shuffled about awkwardly, as if not sure what to say.

“We will recon on the sacred pool soon. I wish to see this beast with my own eyes, if possible.”

“I understand.”

“I wanted to ask if you wanted to come along?”

“I would, yes.”

I could tell by the tightness of his voice Irev wasn’t sure what to make of that. He was probably worried about me being hurt. Anything that could spit death and ‘roar’ the mushroom folk to pieces had to be nasty business.

I came out of the tent and began the arduous process of putting on my encounter suit. I grimaced as the pressure plates tightened down. Irev noticed and chuckled sympathetically.

“I know that some people say you get used to it,” he said, “but I never do. It’s uncomfortable every time. At least, for the first ten minutes or so. Eventually, you will learn to ignore it.”

I laughed and adjusted the seal on my left knee’s servo joint.

“Impossible.”

I gave him a worried look, trying to figure out how best to ask the question on the tip of my tongue. I didn’t want to sound like a chicken, but I was worried what would happen when we got to the sacred water.

“What do you think we’re going to find up there?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed with intense thought.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of modern weapon and not a ‘monster.’”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

“I could be wrong, of course. Maybe the black-suited soldiers who are…with Dr. Garcia have decided to breed attack pets.”

“Ha, maybe. Or maybe it’s some kind of indigenous life form stirred up by all the activity. Who knows?”

He smiled, and I think he was trying to do so in a reassuring manner. Irev clapped a gauntleted hand onto my armored shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” he said with a wink. “There does not exist the monster which does not fear a squad of fully trained Vaznik warriors.”

I smiled, but the pit of fear remained in my stomach like a stone.

IREV

Hiking through the woods outside of Yǎjkïz proved an arduous ordeal. We were beset with the same problems as before. Frequent water hazards, unscalable peaks, and densely packed trees which defied navigation.

“This is murder, Irev.” Vrako glanced over his armored shoulder at me as we trudged through the rain forest. “Why not just fly the shuttle over the stupid jungle to reach the sacred pool?”

“We’ve already been over this.” I extended a metal blade from my exo-suit gauntlet and used it to sever a dead branch in our path. I held the heavier bits aside so Petra might pass.

Once Petra was through, I turned a glare on Vrako.

“First of all, and most importantly, the Rie don’t want any of our heavy machinery near their sacred pool. I can’t say as I blame them. Number two, there’s nowhere to land a shuttle, the terrain just won’t permit it—”

“Jakar could turn off the thrusters and just hover with antigrav while the rest of us rappel down.”

“Into the jaws of whatever ‘beast’ is guarding the entrance to the sacred pool?” I shook my head. “We’d be stranding ourselves here if the shuttle were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Not to mention what might happen to the sacred pool if our shuttle leaked into it.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Drayk hopped over a fallen log and landed in a mud puddle with a great splash. “Look at all this natural splendor.”

“This natural splendor can make out with my mule,” Vrako muttered.

“Wait, what did you say?” Petra asked, her eyes wide, expression inscrutable.

“I said, this natural splendor can make out with my mule. You, of all people should know it. It’s an Earth saying.”

Petra laughed so hard she had to un-pop the torso seals on her pressurized exo suit. She wound up sitting down on a rock, trying to contain her mirth.

“It’s ‘this natural splendor can kiss my ass’, not’ make out with my mule’,” she explained between pants when she finally calmed down.

“Don’t they mean basically the same thing?” Vrako asked. I was confused as well. Everyone knew that ‘ass’ translated to ‘mule’, in addition to other more sexual contexts.

“No,” she said emphatically. “They do not mean the same thing at all.”

She stood up.

“Sorry to hold us up. We should keep going.”

I looked at the tired faces of my fellow Vaznik and realized we could all use a break.

“We will, but everyone take five minutes to get off your feet and drink some water.”

“Oh, thank the ancestors,” Jakar said, plopping down on a moss-encrusted log.

I opened up the seals on my exo-suit, allowing a breeze to reach my skin. I felt almost grateful for the rain storm which had blown through earlier in the day. While it had swollen the creeks and rivers over their banks in some cases, it had also cooled off the air considerably.

Drayk approached me, glancing about as if nervous.

“I’ve got a bad feeling, boss man.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know. Just feeling itchy.”

Drayk’s shoulders twitched like something pricked at his skin.

“Try to take a few minutes to relax. Zaen’s on point. If there’s anything dangerous around, he’ll let us know.”

Drayk nodded and went to sit on a stump. He didn’t lose his anxious look.

I took the brief respite to teach Petra the finer points of recon missions.

“Your exo-suit has reactive camouflage,” I explained, pointing at the toggle near the neckline where it could be activated. “It works best when not moving, or moving very, very slowly.”

I flipped my own on, and the armor’s crystal film coating displayed a reflection in real time of our surroundings. Petra gaped as she watched the change.

“It’s not like turning invisible, obviously, but if you pick a good hiding spot and turn this on, you can remain undetected for so long as they don’t literally step on you.”

I turned it back off.

“The only problem is that it eats up a lot of power. You’ve got about three hours of use per charge, so use it wisely.”

“This is so cool.” She turned her armor’s camouflage on, staring at her hand as it slowly morphed hues to match the terrain. Petra moved her hand very quickly, in a blur, and the camouflage took a moment to catch up.

“I see what you mean about moving too fast.”

“The camouflage armor is only one tool in our recon arsenal.” I was enjoying myself, mostly because Petra was having so much fun. She took in each new piece of equipment or sneaking technique with gusto.

“What else have you got?”

“We have our surveillance drones.” I showed her the two varieties. The larger was perhaps the size of a laser pistol, with four rotor blades to keep it afloat. The smaller variety fit in the palm of the hand and had no obvious means of locomotion.

“The big one features a camera, providing visual intelligence. The only problem? It’s not silent, and can be spotted. This little guy, on the other hand, you can’t control directly. It zooms along an algorithmically determined flight path, taking ‘pulses’ of sensory data and sending it back to a computer. Unfortunately, that computer is being used at our base camp at the moment, so we’d have to go back to the village to decipher the data.

“So which one is your favorite?”

“The one with the camera, obviously. You can use a remote control to pilot it directly if you want, and you get to see what it sees.”

She laughed softly.

“I bet Dr. Bill would give you a hard time, since the other drone sounds more useful.”

“It probably is.”

I stood up and stretched, closing up my armor once again.

“The break is over. I want to reach that sacred pool by midday.”

“Tyrant,” Zaen grumbled.

PETRA

The time came for us all to put on our serious faces. According to Zaen, we were less than a quarter mile from the sacred pool’s entrance .

“It looks like it’s going to be hard going the rest of the way, Irev.” Zaen displayed a holo map of the terrain. “But on the plus side, the lake is stable enough that there’s no water hazards between us and the peak.”

Irev nodded grimly.

“Let’s move up, slow and careful.” He stepped forward and manipulated the holo image before him, blowing up the approach to the peak. “It looks like their sacred lake is in the caldera of an extinct volcano. The easiest approach would be East, here…”

He zoomed in on that area.

“The grade is less than fifteen percent. Not at all difficult. But I think we should choose a different route.”

“Why?” Zaen’s red face stretched into a frown. “You just said it’s not a difficult approach.”

“We’d be exposed,” I said, pointing my finger into the hologram. “See? There’s not a strip of cover for us on that approach. Theoretically, someone could be holed up in the caldera and just mow us down as we entered.”

Zaen’s eyes went wide.

“She’s right. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you were tired of slogging through this damp, sodden, stinking rain forest,” Irev said. “We all are. But I’m afraid we need to make our approach here…the trees will provide plenty of cover, even if the terrain is less forgiving.”

I was so into all the running around and playing commando in the woods, I’d forgotten to be upset about how I got here in the first place. I was having a blast being with Irev and the others as we sought out the quasi-mystical pool we hoped would save the Rie elder’s life.

We moved into a slow line, spaced out by several feet. Irev came at the end, monitoring his team. Zaen was up ahead somewhere, trailblazing for the rest of us. That left. Jakar, Vrako, Taxan, and Drayk ahead of me.

I did my best to mimic their movements. I noticed Drayk stepping on roots and rocks whenever possible, and I did the same. I found the footing more stable than the wet ground, which could sometimes be a slimy morass more akin to water than dirt or even mud.

We reached a place where a four-foot section of reasonably flat ground overlooked the sacred pool. My mouth gaped open at the sight of it.

“I thought their sacred pond was going to look different,” Irev said.

I understood what he meant. For one thing, it was hard to even see the pond. The banks of the stream-fed, miniature lake were so densely clogged with growth, it was hard to make out where it began and ended. A layer of thick muck lay on the surface of the lake. A fog of insects buzzed about. Small avian species and tiny mammals, roughly the size of rats, preyed upon the buzzing insects, but they barely made a dent.

“It makes sense.” I nodded to myself. “If the sacred water of this pool is somehow life-sustaining, then it stands to reason that life forms would treat it like an oasis.”

“Hey,” Zaen said, staring at his scanner with a scowl. “I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m pretty sure this is just a really swampy pond. The real pool is underground, through there.”

He pointed at a fissure between the high, sheer cliff overlooking the swampy pond. It appeared to vanish within the earth.

“I’m detecting traces of Rie, um, matter in that fissure.”

“You think there’s mushroom folk in there.”

Zaen shook his head grimly.

“No, too small to be alive.”

I shuddered, realizing the implications.

“I sure don’t see any beast guarding the entrance,” I muttered.

Irev glanced over at me.

“Let’s release a drone and see.”

He deployed the propeller-powered camera drone and watched through a display on the control device. The drone zipped over the surface of the lake, scaring away the cloud of insects as it went.

“Make it go higher,” Jakar said, reaching over Irev’s shoulder to try and push buttons. “Higher, you can’t see shit from this low down.”

“I know what I’m doing, Jakar—”

I felt the hackles on the back of my neck stand up a split second before a whistling filled the air. The camera drone’s telemetry suddenly vanished to static.

“I told you I knew what I was doing,” Irev growled. “We know there is a creature who ‘spits death’, and I was trying to fly low enough as to not be spotted.”

“Here, try again.” Drayk offered his own camera drone. This time, they kept the drone hugging the terrain. It made it all the way to the tunnel entrance before a thunderous sound exploded from the tunnel.

The drone disintegrated into jagged fragments. I could see the shock wave traveling across the lake toward us, swelling the muck up into a miniature tsunami.

“Down!” Irev shouted as he pushed me below the cliff. The other Vaznik scrambled to safety, but the time Irev took to save me cost him.

The shockwave hit—I could feel it emanate even through the rock, and set my ears to ringing—and Irev suddenly wasn’t there. I looked about in confusion, thinking he had squatted down, but I didn’t see him on the slope at all.

Then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A dark shape tumbled down the steep slope, snapping tree limbs as it went. It took me a moment to recognize it as Irev.

I screamed his name, but I didn’t hear anything over the ringing. Even when his careening form snapped a branch thicker than my torso in half, I heard not a sound.

I could feel my screams, turning my throat raw, even if I could not hear them, as his body tumbled over the side of a cliff and out of sight.

IREV

I tucked my limbs in against my body and just rode out the jarring trip down the slope. My armor would protect me from the worst of it.

Besides, Vaznik are nothing if not tough.

Of course, that was before I landed just perfectly with a leg on either side of a branch, which took a good extra second to break. My shouts of pain went up an octave or two after that.

I landed with a bone-rattling halt in a pool of brackish water. Groaning, I dragged myself up out of the water, little, squirming, fish things falling off of me.

I tried to stand, but found the whole world continued to spin rapidly. I sat down on the edge of the pool and waited for it to subside.

“Irev, Irev can you read me?” Zaen blared at me over comms.

Petra burst out the tree line and ran to my side.

“Irev, are you hurt?”

“Only my pride,” I lied. My whole body hurt with minor aches and pains. I had no major injuries, however, and that was good enough for me. “I am a bit dizzy, though.”

“I can imagine.”

“Hey, everyone,” Jakar said, rushing to my side. “Look at this. I caught Irev’s entire tumble down the slope on my camera drone’s video feed.”

“Your drone was supposed to be doing recon,” I said with a growl.

“I had it set to track unnaturally fast movement,” Jakar said with a shrug. “Look at this—it's even funnier in slow motion.”

“Hey,” Taxan said, crowding in over his shoulder. “Run back to that part where he racks himself on the branch. That was hilarious.”

“Did any of you idiots capture any telemetry of use, or did you all just make videos of my humiliation?”

“I did both.” Jakar gestured to his empty drone slot. “I sent the unmanned drone into the fissure, too. I had hoped your big camera drone would distract it. My drone lasted about three more seconds before that sonic wave took it out.”

I decided to forgive him, this time. We returned to camp and worked with our fellows there to determine what we had to work with.

“Our most likely candidate,” I said, displaying a holo image of the lake and fissure, “is a Mark VII automated gun emplacement. The main rail gun automatically targets anything that attempts to penetrate the fissure and reach the sacred pool.”

I zoomed in on the image and gestured at a secondary component of the emplaced turret.

“Here, you see the directional sonic cannon. There’s no way to avoid triggering it on any approach to the cavern.”

“Then it’s hopeless.” Zaen shrugged. “Oh, well, can’t say we didn’t try. Guess it’s back to base for some hot food and a shower.”

“Think again, Zaen.” I glared at him, then returned my attention to the holo-display. “Fortunately, the Mark VII’s have one huge drawback. Some might even call it a design flaw. They consume an enormous amount of power.”

“Didn’t the drone pick up signs of a fusion reactor net?”

I nodded at Drayk.

“Indeed. Judging from the one tiny frame of visual data we were able to glean from the wrecked drone’s memory banks, the fusion net is approximately ten feet to the right of the emplacement.”

I pointed at the junction box.

“One shot here will cause a cascade failure in the fusion reaction, and the gun will be without power.”

“How are you going to get close enough to hit it, though?” Zaen shook his head. “I mean, even with a sniper rifle, and moving very low and slow, you’d still set off the sonic cannon when you take your shot.”

“The sonic cannon takes a full three seconds to charge up and fire.” I pointed at the tunnel. “After I take my shot, I’ll run back out this way, and take shelter under the water of the lake.”

“You’re going under all that muck and scum floating atop the water?” Petra laughed. “Gross.”

“Are you sure you’re fast enough to do that, boss man?” Zaen asked.

I looked at the tunnel and grimaced.

“I’m going to have to be, because there’s no other way to take that emplacement down.”

I opened up the case to my sniper rifle and began assembling the various components. This might be just a recon mission, but there was no point in taking chances.

Petra hovered over my shoulder, anxiously watching the proceedings. “Are you sure you can do this?” she asked.

“Of course I can.”

“That’s a lot of ground to cover in three seconds.”

“I know, but if I didn’t think it was possible, I would not try.”

“Couldn’t you rig up your sniper rifle to a drone or something?”

I laughed.

“No doubt someone like Dr. Bill could. Alas, he is not here.”

I took the liberty of kissing her on top of the head.

“Don’t worry, Petra. I’ll be fine.”

I looked up at the top of the ridge. I vowed to return with the long-distance rifle. Then the ‘beast that spits death’ and the ‘sound that rends bodies’ would be no more.

Then we’d just have to see who or what came to repair the gun emplacement, wouldn’t we?

PETRA

Once our recon mission had been completed, it was decided we should return to the village to rest and prepare.

The men debated about the details of what we knew and bantered about alternatives. Irev listened, sprinkling in his two cents every so often. I found myself analyzing the dynamics of their communication.

I realized that the Irev I knew was very different than the Irev the team knew. Irev and I talked often, about anything and everything. We had conversations within conversations and our own inside jokes.

Though all these men were his teammates, he did not open himself up to them quite as much. There were plenty of jokes and teasing, but he didn’t share a lot of his private thoughts. It wasn’t impersonal, just not as intimate.

I was immediately fascinated by this realization. Historically, teams who fought in the trenches together typically had no filters or limits on what they shared.

Or maybe, I’m just special. He did kiss me after all. I doubt he runs around kissing his teammates.

You kissed him. He didn’t even get a chance to kiss you back.

Well maybe I should change that.

Maybe you should and get it over with already.

I sighed. That kiss had changed so much…and made things so complicated.

Now that I knew we both felt something more, had seen so much more of life than I had ever dreamed, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted anymore.

Would my original plans for my life on Earth even be enough anymore?

Thankfully, we reached the village just before I traveled down that rabbit hole. Humus had had his people prepare us a meal, anticipating we would be tired when we arrived.

“Friends. Come. Rest. You are weary from your journey and require respite.”

“How does he know what we need?” Drayk asked Irev.

“Friend Drayk, I speak with my mouth for your comfort, but we are connected by the Holy Spora, and we each know your mind.”

“By all that is unholy. You know everything in my head?”

Humus chuckled. “We do. And I must admit, I am most curious about a few of the images you have conjured.”

If the ground had swallowed Drayk up at that very moment, I don’t think it would have been enough for him. He looked positively aghast.

Humus put a hand on his shoulder. “Fear not, friend. Your secrets are quite safe. I’m not even sure our bodies are quite capable of that feat.”

Drayk groaned. Taxan, Irev, and Zaen cracked up at his expression. I had yet to learn all their names. There were so many and Irev’s fine muscles kept distracting me.

“Humus, does that mean you know what we found?”

“Friend Irev, you have our trust. Your aim will be true and the scourge will cease to defile our holy place.”

Irev opened his mouth to speak, then stopped. Long moments passed in silence, then Humus came forward and clutched Irev’s forearm the way Vaznik greeted each other.

“Honor and glory be yours, Friend Irev.”

“Thank you, Friend Humus.”

After Humus and his entourage left, Taxan broke the silence.

“Irev. Ummm… Can you explain what just happened there?”

“I could, but then you couldn’t hound Drayk about what Humus wants to know about. You haven’t forgotten about that, have you?”

Taxan guffawed.

“As a matter of fact, I had.”

“I’m not going to tell you.”

“Ohhhhhh.. so you do know what Humus was talking about.”

Drayk assessed his options and ran off. Taxan and Zaen quickly gave chase, leaving Irev and I alone.

I felt an image nudge my mind.

Humus, you sly fox.

I felt something like laughter and then it was gone.

“I don’t know about you, Irev, but a bath sounds fantastic right now.”

“The sun is starting to set, Petra. It will be dark soon.”

“Well, if you came with me, you could show me how to use my utility drone.” I took his hand and started leading the way. Irev didn’t resist and I didn’t stop.

The springs were empty when we arrived. The sun was beginning to set over the summit of the falls, and the insects began to emerge from their nests, glowing and floating along the surface of the water.

Thank you, Humus.

It was now or never time.

I undressed in front of Irev, mentally willing him to strip, too. Something must’ve gotten through his massive, thick Vaznik skull because he started to remove his armor.

I waded into the still-warm water and reached out to him. He took my hand, and we walked into the spring together.

The light bugs opened a path which led to a gentle waterfall with a grotto nook behind it large enough for both of us.

Irev stood on the landing while I bathed in the falls. One glance told me he was definitely enjoying the show. My heated pussy slicked when I imagined how good he would feel inside me.

“Irev, are you not going to bathe?”

The poor man was just standing there, staring at me. I didn’t know if he was breathing, but his cock was fully erect and paying very close attention. I ran my hands down the sides of my breasts and watched his perfect cock bob up and down in response.

I had never felt so powerfully feminine before.

“Petra… I… ummm…”

I took a step closer.

“Yes, Irev?”

I let my eyelids droop just a little and batted my lashes knowing full well Irev had no chance.

Why give him a chance? He had plenty of chances…then he turned out to be adorable and now, here we are. Aren’t we?

“Hey. I forgot to tell you about the Golden Meridian trial…”

He was having trouble forming the words.

“What about it?”

I blinked my heavy lids, dreamy and soft, then laid the most innocent, wide-eyed expression on his I could recall from my misspent childhood.

“Well… the one on trial is the father of a human woman who was matched with a Vaznik warrior.”

Another step closer.

“Fascinating, Irev.”

Irev seemed to choke and struggled to continue. Sweat poured down the sides of his face. His body quivered ever so slightly.

“And the woman, her name is Chloe, I think.”

I was so close, I could feel his body heat. The tip of his cock beaded with precum merely a breath away from my skin.

“What about her?”

“She said something about… ummm…”

I couldn’t resist anymore. I closed the distance between us so we were skin to skin.

“Irev?”

“Yes, Petra?”

I pressed my body against his shaft, loving the electricity it sent through me. Irev barely breathed.

Good.

I ran my hands up the side of his head till my fingers circled the base of his horns.

“Shut up and kiss me.”

IREV

By all that is sacred.

Petra bathing in the falls at twilight, backlit by the fading dusk, lights flickering over the surface of the spring, was the most seductive thing I had ever experienced. My will had remained honorable. My body, on the other hand, had no such reservations.

When her skin touched my cock, it had taken all my strength to resist my baser urges. When she pressed against me, the caged beast inside me raged against the cage where I had locked it away, demanding to be freed.

When her delicate hands encircled my horns and pulled me to her, I lost my mind. I met her breathless whisper with a feral growl. Her gentle invitation, I met with ravenous desire.

A taste would not be enough.

I deepened the kiss and plundered her mouth. Her little raspy breaths fanned the flame which consumed me.

I abandoned reason for mad bliss.

My hands explored the hot silk of her skin, caressing each curve and hill. I lifted her body to mine and she wrapped her legs around my waist.

Her breasts crushed against my chest. I could feel her desire dripping down my belly, a whip of liquid fire.

I lifted her higher, devouring her neck, trailing my mouth along her collarbone to the valley between her breasts. The sounds she made urged me on.

I suckled one glorious breast and she moaned my name. I released it and took the other nipple in my teeth and she gasped.

More. I need more.

She was writhing her hips, trying to press herself onto my waiting cock. I could feel the heat of her velvet folds brush the tip of my hardened rod.

“Not yet, my love. Not yet.”

“Irev.”

“I’m going to taste you first.”

The ragged moan which escaped her throat was all the encouragement I needed.

I turned and pinned her body against the wall of our private nook, maneuvering her hips so she could rub against my rigid manhood. The temptation to sheath myself inside her heat nearly overtook me.

I would not be denied the feast I had craved so long.

I threw her legs over my shoulders and began to kneel. She cried out when she couldn’t rub herself against my thick rod.

I silenced her with a kiss while my thumb teased her folds. Her nails dug into my back.

I used my thumbs to open her flower, pressing into its bud and stretching its petals open. Her hot juices flowed down my wrists.

I kissed the flat of her stomach and slowly slid one thumb inside her. Her hands clawed into my neck.

Fully immersed, my other thumb rubbed small circles around her clit. The sensitive nub grew hotter to my touch.

“Irev. Please!”

I moved both thumbs, playing with tempo and pressure, discovering which combinations rewarded me with her sexy moans, little squirts of hot nectar, or both.

Her hips found a rhythm against my hands. My temptress’s ragged moans turned into hoarse, measured breaths. Each thrust of her hips against my thumbs drenched me more than the last.

Her eyes were glassy with arousal, mouth swollen and rosy from my kisses. Her anticipation built.

I would not deny her.

“Just a little faster. Yes, Petra. Just like that.”

She was breathing heavier, faster, reveling in my touch.

Mine. Mine alone!

Realization unleashed the beast within me.

I lowered my head to her sweet center, some guttural noise escaping me as I tasted her essence for the first time. My tongue and lips moved in concert with my thumbs.

More. I need more.

I replaced my penetrating thumb with two fingers. Her body arched and bucked wildly. Her juice drenched my face and dripped down my chin.

“Faster Petra. I want to see you. I want to make you come.”

She surrendered to desire and became lust incarnate. She wrapped her legs around my neck, and used my horns to ride my face and hands.

My wild woman. My gorgeous wild woman.

I felt her walls start to clench around my fingers. I delved harder, faster, deeper.

Her body wound itself tighter and tighter. She barely breathed, waiting for the inevitable explosion.

I suckled her clit and pressed my fingers against the pleasure spot within her.

She shattered and screamed my name.

Her body wracked with convulsions of pleasure. Each one drenching me in her nectar.

I gratefully lapped up each delicious drop, reveling in the carnal joy that pleasing her gave me.

Her little body went limp beneath me. I gently unwound her legs from my neck and her fingers from my horns. I leaned back, pulling her against me so she lay on top of me.

Her naked body against mine stoked the fire I had held at bay while I feasted. Her nails trailed soft circles on my skin, scorching it with her touch.

“Irev?

“Yes, Petra?”

“That was really intense.”

“Yes. Yes, it was.”

“Why didn’t you? I mean…you enjoyed it, right? You wanted to?”

“Wanted to…what?”

“Everything we just did and well, also…the other stuff.”

“Very much so.”

That must’ve triggered her second wind, because she was pressing herself against my stiff cock again. Her rocking motions made me harder and slightly delirious.

Her eyes had a wicked sparkle. Everything around us faded, as if her mere gaze enchanted me.

Everything about her enchants me and I would not have it any other way.

She slid her body up mine just far enough so that the tip of my cock was held down. Liquid desire dripped onto me.

“Oh, good. Because I was thinking.”

“Yes?”

“I was thinking that, if you were enjoying yourself so far, that we could just keep going.”

She leaned forward and slid onto the tip of my about-to-burst dick. Her velvet lips surrounded the sensitive head, causing it to pulse and swell.

She slid back a little, taking just the very tip against her entrance. She reached back and rubbed it against her. I couldn’t breathe.

“Should we keep going, Irev?” She slid further back, just enough to let me feel her body begin to stretch open for me. She moaned.

“That’s so good, Irev.”

“Petra. I want you so badly, Petra.”

“Irev. Please.”

She pushed herself back, slowly taking me inside her, inch by maddening inch. She sat up, fully sheathing me inside her. Her body pushed to its limits around me.

Hot and tight and so incredibly wet.

“Mmmmmmmm. I need you, Irev.”

All sense deserted me then.

In a second, she was on her back. I pulled out of her slowly.

“Mine.”

“Yours.”

I eased in, deeper this time. Her groan of approval destroyed my last vestige of reason.

I pulled back and slammed into her harder. Her honey seeped onto my balls.

We went wild.

I thrust into her over and over. She raised her hips to meet me. I was grunting, she was moaning. I turned her over, took her from behind. She pushed back into me.

I wanted her to come with me. I turned her to face me and grabbed her waist. She arched to receive me. Our bodies crashed against each other. Over and over. Faster and deeper.

I felt her walls start to pulse and heard her scream my name. I kneaded her clit and the intensity of her convulsions triggered my own release.

We collapsed together and laid in each other’s arms afterward, filled and soaked in each other.

It was then, in our sated contentment, I realized I was as much hers as she was mine.

PETRA

Soft golden light warmed my skin.

Five more minutes.

I hadn’t slept so well since the day before the lottery.

Bird calls and the sound of nature stirring in the glow of dawn gently drew me from my slumber. I yawned and stretched my arms and legs, took a long deep inhale, and tried to sit up and get the day started.

Except I couldn’t sit up. Irev’s arm was draped around my waist. I tried wriggling away, but he just pulled me closer and nuzzled my neck.

His warm breath tickled my ear.

What’s the harm in waiting a little longer anyway?

I wriggled around until my body slid into place. It was like his body had been built for me to fit. He was so warm and he smelled so good.

“Keep wiggling like that and we may scare the natives.”

The low rumble of his voice on my neck sent little electric shocks all over my body. It was sinfully decadent to languish against my lover’s naked body the morning after I had given him mine.

Your lover’s naked body?!

Reality hit me like lightning. We were naked. Together. Behind the falls. At the spring where the natives gather daily.

“Oh, no…”

“What’s wrong, Petra?”

“Irev, uhh, we are naked. Like naked naked.”

“I’m painfully aware.” Irev pressed my backside against him. He was hard as steel.

“Irev! We can’t!”

“Who says?”

“Well… umm… there could be Rie children about. Or your men, or…”

He stopped nuzzling my neck. I turned to face him and found his expression serious.

“Petra. Do you regret what happened between us?”

“No. I wanted it. I started it because I wanted it.”

“Why are you pulling away from me then? And don’t pretend it’s the Rie children. We both know that’s not true.”

“I’m scared, Irev. Scared and confused.”

“About us?”

“Yes and about me. I promised you a year. I promised to let things happen naturally. I hadn’t counted on having such deep feelings for you so quickly. And now”

“Now what?”

“Everything has changed, Irev. I’m having all these doubts and I don’t know what I want anymore.”

His arm released me and I felt the cold of his body moving from mine.

“I see.”

“No, you don’t, Irev. This is coming out all wrong. Just let me explain.”

He tossed me my undersuit.

“Petra, we have a mission to complete today. Best hurry and get dressed before the Rie children arrive.”

He looked calm, was even acting calm, but there was an undeniable bite in his voice. I’d hurt him deeply with my ill-worded outburst, and he wasn’t going to try and fix it.

And he’s right. It isn’t his job to fix it. It’s yours. Or do you want to end up like Mom and Dad?

The weight of that statement was a hard slap in the gut. It’s exactly what I had done and Irev was doing what I had always prayed Dad would do.

I loved my parents, and they were happy, but I hated the imbalance of emotional labor it required. It just wasn’t what I wanted for myself. And here I was, repeating the cycle anyway.

We dressed in silence then left the nook to meet the team at the Rie village. Irev was right, the Rie needed our help and we didn’t have time to waste sorting out my feelings. The holy spring was far more important right now.

Doesn’t make me any less of an asshole for vomiting feelings all over him.

I know.

He’s a good man, Petra. Don’t fuck it up just because you don’t like how you got here.

I hate it when I’m right.

Well, I’m you, so maybe start listening, instead of being so stubborn and you won’t have to. One day, I have to get all these thoughts sorted and stop arguing with myself. Or I will always win and lose every argument.

The truth was, I wanted my life and I also wanted a life with Irev. I just didn’t know if one was possible with the other, and I wasn’t willing to commit until I was sure about it.

I wouldn’t risk breaking both our hearts until I was.

He’s just too good and kind and wonderful to risk it.

Then stop denying what you feel is real and get going already.

Yeah. Yeah. I know.

PETRA

The silent walk back to the village was excruciating.

I have to fix this, but how?

Outwardly, Irev gave no indication that anything was wrong, but there was no denying the tension between us. What had been easy and natural before was now cold and polite.

Oh, no, you don’t. Mess makers don’t get to indulge in pity parties.

I would have argued with myself but we had reached the village and Humus and his tribespeople were waiting for us. Drayk, Taxan and Zaen were sitting around a blue fire in the center circle.

Everyone was smiling at us.

Not creepy at all.

I felt the brush against my mind again and instantly looked at Humus. He nodded, then tilted his head.

Another touch of the mind. Lighter than before, and gone just as quickly.

“Friends, it is customary that our warriors receive a special blessing before they engage in battle. As you are now tribespeople going to save our holiest place, you shall now receive the same.”

“Friend Humus, you honor us with your blessing.”

“Please, take your places with your fellow warriors and we shall begin.”

Irev and I took our places around the blue fire. I marveled that it gave off no heat.

The tribespeople closed the circle behind us and began to sway. It wasn’t long before they were moving in sync.

The men began softly stomping on the ground. The women raised and lowered their arms while turning in their places.

This is the most beautiful ballet I have ever seen.

As they quickened their pace, the air started to hum. I knew the Rie weren’t speaking, and looked for the sound. The only ones not swaying were Irev and myself.

We looked at each other for the first time since we’d left the falls. I shrugged and let myself relax and sway. The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was Irev.

I lay in a pool of pure, warm, golden sunlight. The movement of the liquid light thrummed and resonated through my body. My heartbeat and breathing synced to its tempo without any effort at all.

My body became fluid and the boundary between myself and the light faded away. I was the light then. Formless and fluid, flowing in time to the song reverberating through me.

No worries. No fear. Just the sound of something so old and sacred it made me cry tears of joy to be connected to it once again.

I opened my eyes and my tears became little sparks of light, flitting about joyously in the air above me. Every time a pair touched, they multiplied, until there were thousands of glittering specks of light dancing together.

I reached up to touch them and they playfully moved just out of my grasp. Their happy twinkles felt like giggles.

I laughed and started to chase them. Up into the sky, over and around the clouds, through the luminescent forest, and into the mountain, where they disappeared into the rock.

I searched and searched, but could not find a way to the other side. My heart wept and its tears formed little sparkly jewels. I dropped them on the floor of the cave and cried out, but no sound came out of my mouth.

I screamed again and heard nothing. Even the thrum had left me. Confusion and despair overcame me and I felt my soul scream in agony.

My guttural cry shook the mountain and cracked the rock. Glimmers of blue and lavender light danced in a crystal cave on the other side of the wall. My joy was there, frolicking around a giant white flower bush.

I was too large to pass through and too afraid to shake the mountain.

I felt my name being whispered from the cave. I looked in and saw another being, formed of blue-white light, staring back at me from inside the cave.

Help me! Help me be with my joy!

Its arm reached through the stone wall and waited. I touched it and my light began to flow into it. When I surrendered, I flowed through the blue-white light and into the cave.

I could feel the thrum again!

My joy felt my presence and came back to me. I thanked the blue-white figure and my joy made a twinkling whirlwind around it.

I felt a rumble of laughter.

The figure pointed to the great white flower bush in the center of the cave and disappeared, but I was not afraid. I felt peace.

I walked closer to the flower bush. Its stems were tall and strong, each flower uniquely shaped and fragranced.

I walked around it and my joy surrounded and kissed each flower. I touched it and the space between the stems shimmered purple and became solid. My joy pulled strings of golden light from my form and wound them around the flower bush, pulling me toward it.

The more intertwined we became, the more I knew this was where I belonged.

The thrum blended with the sound of my joy, playing the golden strings like a harp.

I was contentedly bound to my flower bush. I breathed in deeply, inhaling the taste of pleasure and contentment.

My heart joined the thrum and my joy, harmony and melody and the tiniest bit of silly discord.

The flower bush called my name and my soul answered.

Irev.

We illuminated and became one with the song.

“Petra. Wake up, Petra.”

No. I want to go back.

“Petra. Sit up. Drink this.”

But it was so beautiful there…

I did as I was told, but I was trying to go back, to feel the feelings.

Everything felt coarse, even the sunlight.

“Open your eyes, friend. You cannot go back.”

Humus’s gentle voice rumbled in my head like the blue-white figure I had seen.

Could it be? Nah. No way. How could he?

I opened my eyes to Irev’s worried face and Humus’s amused one.

“Ummm… Hi. I’m ok, now. Really. Can anyone tell me what just happened?”

Humus used his mouth to say something. A sound came out that the translator could only translate as “Blessing Luck Ceremony.”

Well, that didn’t help at all.

I looked suspiciously at Humus, who still smiled delightedly. He took my closed fist and opened it. When I looked down, there was a cluster of sparkly little metal cubes hung on intertwined golden threads.

My eyes went wide.

“Now you are ready for the holy place.”

All I could do was nod.

Holy, indeed.

IREV

The dying sunlight flashed off of the strange necklace around Petra’s neck. I wondered again at the significance of it. Petra seemed quite fond of her new jewelry.

My squad bore enough equipment to deal with almost anything. We had plenty of rations, medical supplies, and each man on the team carried a personal communicator which would—hopefully—be able to deal with the alien interference and get a signal to the Nova as she orbited the, as yet unnamed, world.

I carried the sniper rifle disassembled in a case across my shoulder. Long considered to be a dishonorable weapon, the Vaznik only adopted the use of long-distance shooters in recent history. The Suhlik employed them, and we had little choice but to mirror their tactics.

I had trained extensively with the long-distance rifle.

My enemy is just as dead, no matter how I kill them. A knife in the back is pretty much the same as a bullet, no matter the distance involved.

“You’re really sure you can make this shot?”

I turned to face Petra and nodded confidently. I pounded my chest with a fist, showing her my strength.

“I’ve hit far more distant targets than this, Petra. And with less expensive weaponry.”

“Yeah,” Drayk said, “but you neglect to mention most of those shots were made on a practice course. Doing it in actual combat is different.”

I gave him a look, and he shrugged.

“I’m just worried, is all. That sonic shield is no laughing matter, even assuming you can stay low enough to avoid the rail gun.”

“I can make the shot,” I repeated more firmly.

“If you say so.” Petra was trying to sound supportive, but I could tell she was not entirely convinced, after Drayk’s doubts.

“There are many techniques I have been trained in especially for this situation.”

She chuckled. “You don’t have to get defensive, Irev. I believe you. I’m just worried, like Drayk.”

“I’m not defensive,” I snapped…defensively, then sighed. “I’m just worried about you being here. There are skills that we have, that you have not been trained for.”

“Like what?” Petra asked.

“Like, for example, maintaining a low profile, and making sure there are physical obstacles between you and your target’s line of sight.”

“So…” she cocked an eyebrow. “Stay low and don’t get seen, use the ‘cover’, as it were?”

“Um, yes. But, how…”

“There’s this game on Earth called paintball, Irev. Let’s just move on, ok?”

“But, there are other techniques, such as holding your breath—”

“I know, sweetie. Paintball covered that too.”

“And shooting between your own heartbeats,” I muttered to myself. Despite my fears, she was here. There was no way around it. No way to train her for something that was more than just a game. “Come on, let’s get going.”

Petra couldn’t stop grinning, but everyone grew somber as we approached the entrance to the sacred pool, putting on their ‘serious face.’

I smiled as the memory of Petra explaining the phrase played in the back of my mind. Among one of our many conversations over meals together, Petra had managed to say so many of the most delightful things I may ever have heard.

“The most important thing you need to accomplish anything is a serious face. As long as you look like you know what you’re doing, people assume you actually do. Even when you don’t.”

I had on my serious face, most of all. Despite my bravado, there’s no such thing as a guaranteed shot. I was likely to make the shot. I knew it was well within my capabilities to make the shot. But Drayk was right. Things look different on the battlefield.

I had to trust that my training, instincts, and many years of practice could carry me through. I had done the math in my head.

I bet I can get two shots off, if I have to. Assuming the first one misses. I can accomplish that in the time it takes the sonic canon to charge up.

A third shot would be risky. The overload would take a moment to build up, and in that split second, the sonic wave might be able to activate. It was a risk I had to take.

I called a general halt and left my unit on the lee side of the caldera’s pond. I didn’t relish having to take a dip in the brackish water, but I would do what I had to do to accomplish the mission. The Rie’s elder needed the sacred water to recover. In a first contact situation, anything could tip the balance between peace and war, enemies and allies. As we were in uncharted space, allies were in short supply.

I crept up to the ridge, keeping close to the rocky wall. I saw the sundered remnants of drones littering the pond and the rocky terrain as I went. It reminded me of what would happen to me if the rail gun spotted me. I would likely be dead before the two halves of my body hit the ground.

Then there was the sonic cannon to consider. It wouldn’t tear me apart as badly as it had the Rie, but it still represented a potentially lethal threat.

I reached the edge of the fissure. I could smell dankness and an unusual aroma coming from below. I took a deep breath, dropped to my belly, and slithered along the tunnel floor.

I shimmied up to a place where I could stuff my barrel between two stalagmites. I got a good look at the emplaced gun at last.

Ooh, that’s ugly. At least ten feet tall, and bereft of the slightest bit of charm.

It looked like what it was…an instrument of death.

I took aim at the power junction nearby. I grimaced when I realized that I couldn’t quite get my shot lined up. Try as I might, I couldn’t move behind the stalactite mounds in the way I needed to.

At last, I took a steadying breath, and stood up to take the shot. My first shot missed, and I adjusted my aim for the second shot. The sonic cannon unit below the main turret lit up. My second shot also missed.

The turret began to fire, blindly belching rounds into the jungle.

My third shot did not miss. I took out the junction box, and the fusion reaction turned off. The gun powered down—a split second after it sent a shockwave of pure sound screaming down the tunnel at me.

I reached the mouth of the cave and hurled myself at the water just as the shockwave hit. I bounced along on the front of the wave, skipping like a stone until I sank beneath the surface at last.

A moment later, I hurled myself free and raised my fist in triumph. The emplaced gun was no more.

Of course, I would never get the swamp smell out of my armor, but these are the sacrifices a Vaznik warrior must make.

IREV

I clambered out of the swampy water and joined the crew on the verdant shore. The inert gun turret felt like a blot on the landscape, a malignant tumor that still presented at least an existential threat.

“All right,” I said, trying to regain some of my dignity. “Let’s move in on that turret. I want that thing completely inoperable—but do it quietly. If they haven’t noticed us yet, let’s not go knocking on the door.”

We spread out along our usual lineup. I deeply admired the way Petra had handled the whole affair without complaint. In point of fact, she complained less than some of the other Vaznik did.

The tunnel resembled a massive crack in the side of the mountain bedrock. I could well imagine a tremendous seismic event causing such a fissure. It must have happened long ago, leaving a settled tunnel in its wake.

Zaen and Vrako went to work unscrewing an access panel off the automated turret. While they worked to sabotage the circuitry within, the rest of us spread out and secured the area.

“It looks like they made a camp here.”

I came to join Drayk, who stood near the pool of radiance cast by his light drone. I crouched down beside a pile of ash and pinched some of the feathery substance between my fingers.

“No trace of warmth. It’s been some time since anyone was here.”

“Why not leave someone here to monitor the auto cannon?” Drayk shook his head. “Sloppy.”

“We’ve already established that this mysterious crew’s training does not match the quality of their equipment.” I shrugged. “They probably figured all they had to worry about were the Rie, and the turret would do the job.”

“It’s still sloppy.”

“Agreed. But let’s not question our good fortune too much, all right?” I slapped him on the shoulder. “Keep searching. We might find some clue as to what they’re after”

I shone my light into a low tunnel. Sharp, brightly colored crystals thrust from the ceiling. I didn’t think anyone could navigate past them, but to be sure, I sent the light drone down the tunnel.

A moment later, the drone returned. I checked the footage the drone had gathered.

Nothing.

I glanced over at Zaen, who stood guard watching the tunnel. We had no idea how deep it wormed its way into the mountain. I did know I didn’t want anyone sneaking up on us.

“How’s it looking, Zaen?”

“All quiet here.” He showed me the telemetry from his unmanned stealth drone. “I got about three-hundred feet in, when the feed went dead.”

“Interference from the alien energy signature?”

“Could be.” He shrugged. “Or, it could be that it got stuck somewhere. Or triggered a cave in. Or some indigenous life form tried to prey upon it.”

He stopped speaking, and I cocked an eyebrow at him.

“You’re leaving one out.”

“Or the enemy could have shot it down.”

“That’s the one.” I nodded firmly. “I want you to send another drone, but program this one to remain fifty-feet distant from where you lost the last one. Maybe we’ll get lucky and see them coming.”

“Are you sure someone’s coming?”

“We took out their autocannon. Surely they had some way of monitoring it.”

Unless they really are that stupid. Whoever this outfit is, they don’t impress me much. Except with their ruthlessness and military-grade armor and weaponry. And their numbers.

I had the feeling we were dealing with an entire organization, not just a crew or a unit. It could have been a mercenary group, but I wasn’t getting that vibe.

“Irev.”

I turned to see Taxan coming my way. He held an all-weather case by the shoulder strap. There couldn’t have been anything dangerous in it, or he wouldn’t have brought it right up to me.

“What is that, Taxan?”

“I think it’s a clue as to what this outfit we’ve been chasing all over the galaxy is all about.”

He set the case down and opened it up. The first thing he removed appeared to be a rounded stone, covered in a layer of algae. It took me a moment to realize it was some kind of carved statue.

“Wait, is that? An artifact?”

“Yes,” he said, removing a similar structure, as well as a piece of circuit board similar to what we found back on Timik III.

“Smugglers.” I shook my head in disgust. “There are collectors, and even some galactic governments, which will pay a lot of credits for things like this.”

“That explains where they get the financing for their fancy gear.”

I snorted derisively.

“They should have spent less money on their gear and more on their training. I get the feeling, whoever is at the head of this organization isn’t a professional at all. Just someone who throws money and manpower around like they’re inexhaustible.”

“Could that be Dr. Garcia?”

I pursed my lips.

“Maybe. We still don’t know if she’s a hostage, or in league with the smugglers. As much as I hate to admit it, I guess it does make sense that she might be working with them.”

“It does.”

“Yes, think about it. She has the expertise to find, identify, and appraise the value of these types of artifacts, ensuring the best possible price.” I sighed. “On the other hand, that could be why they pressed her into service. It points to both possibilities.”

“The mystery just refuses to be unraveled.” He shook his head. “Kavok and Raxor had the same problem.”

“Maybe we’ll be the lucky ones.”

“Say.” He looked around, face contorted into a frown. “Where’s Petra got off to?”

“She was just here.”

I looked around, trying to fight down a stab of panic. Then I heard a piercing shout.

“Irev!”

“Petra,” I gasped, and turned to run toward the sound of her voice. As I careened through the tunnel, I heard her cry again.

“Irev!”

PETRA

I plastered myself against the rough, rock wall of the tunnel. The metal plates of my pressurized suit crushed the crystals lining the cave wall into fine, crunchy powder which sifted, lazily into the air.

I never before realized how terrifying a cloud of glass dust could be. The mere thought of inhaling it sent shivers down my spine.

Without our suits’ air filtration, that cloud of crystal dust would have killed us, lungs first.

It was no use. Even if I could escape my terror, the images burned into my mind would remain for the rest of my life. The twisted, mangled thing before me was stamped onto my cerebral cortex, perhaps forever.

“Petra!”

Relief flooded through me as Irev came running around the corner, his face knit with concern. He fell to his knees beside me, hand gently sweeping my hair back out of my face.

“Are you all right? What's wrong?”

I still couldn’t muster the ability to form coherent speech. All I could do was point to the other side of the tunnel. His gaze followed my shaking finger, and then his eyes went wide.

Irev swung his rifle toward the mess, but I shook my head.

“I don’t think he’s going to hurt anyone, anymore.” I sighed. “Sorry, I guess I panicked.”

“It’s quite all right. I think I would have panicked, too, had I come across…this.”

By this, he meant the mangled corpse I’d discovered. It was clearly one of the band of mysterious soldiers who had been vexing the investigation from the start. I recognized the design of their ebony armor and tinted faceplates.

Seeing a dead body would have been traumatic enough, no doubt, but this one was particularly gruesome. The entire torso from groin to gullet lay wide open, excavated with surgical precision. It literally looked as if someone had cut a chunk out of his middle.

Irev’s face contorted into a disgusted grimace as he moved closer. The smell was almost unbearable from across the tunnel. I could only imagine how awful it had become for Irev, as close as he was to the wrecked carcass. Irev worked until he got the man’s faceplate helmet off.

“It’s a Malukian,” he said. “A species very similar to humanity, physiologically. The last smuggler we unmasked was a different species.”

“Smuggler?” I drew a bit closer, forcing myself to drag my gaze past the red trench in his middle to the corpse’s face which had frozen into an agonized, lip-stretching rictus. “How can you be sure?”

“For one thing, we found some artifacts which suggested there is a financial motive at play here.” Irev pulled the alien’s head to the side and showed the neck. “See this mark on his skin?”

I leaned in, and saw what looked like a tattoo on his neck. The tattoo looked to be a picture of a skull with long hair, three eye sockets, and a spiked crown on the skull.

“It’s the mark of the Queen's Brood, a notorious criminal outfit. Smuggling is their main stock in trade, though I’m told they’ll readily accept other, more vile assignments, if the money is good enough.”

My beautiful, strong, awkward, and thoughtful Irev stroked his fingers over his mouth, and shook his head.

“I wish I knew what kind of weapon caused this grievous wound.”

“Maybe one of those booby traps?” I asked. “I mean, the other teams ran into them a lot, right?”

“Yes,” he said, laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“Sorry, it’s the name ‘booby trap’. Plus, I believe I’m trying to distract my mind from this poor fellow’s fate.”

I couldn’t help but take another look at his gruesome remains. My eyes widened when I realized that there was something eerily familiar about the way it looked.

“Oh, no.”

“What?” Irev turned to me, his face knit with concern. “Are you feeling ill?”

“Irev, I think I know what caused this wound.” I patted the gauntlet of my exo-suit. “It looks like a finely tuned photonic beam, similar to the mining laser on my exo-suit, but more precise. Like a scalpel.”

Irev’s eyes darted to my face, a small grin on his face.

“Whatever gave you that idea, Petra?”

I shrugged and hoped my helmet covered my sudden blush.

“As the World Churns.”

“The Episode where Tallallagala gets a tentacle lift!”

I chuckled and nodded.

“Exactly. I mean, she’d probably have a scalpel, right? What scientist doing field research doesn’t have a scalpel?”

“Standard issue equipment for someone on an expedition like hers.” We exchanged glances. I could tell we were both thinking the same thing.

“Did Dr. Garcia turn her equipment on one of the smugglers in a fit of rage? Does that mean she’s in charge, after all?”

If that were true, then Garcia was a criminal responsible for the deaths of dozens of innocents.

“Let’s not be too hasty.” Irev stood up and shook his head. “I mean, one of them could easily have taken the scalpel from her.”

“Right. Or she could have been trying to escape, maybe? And it’s just a hunch.”

I watched as he searched the body. Irev used a tarp to cover the body’s more gruesome elements, leaving only the feet exposed. I sighed my relief when the singed, what I guessed were, intestines disappeared from sight.

He called the crew together, except for Zaen, who kept watch. I filled them in on my gruesome discovery, with Irev providing emphasis to some of my points.

“That body had the Queen’s Brood mark upon him.” Irev took in their grim gazes and nodded. I decided then and there that I had probably underestimated how dangerous this smuggler outfit really was.

“We should expect heavy resistance. The Brood consider themselves to be among the most elite warriors in the galaxy. In reality, this belief just makes them hyper and deluded into heroic idiocy.”

“Is that why they just keep coming, when we shoot them? I thought they were part robot, or something.”

Irev shook his head at Jakar.

“Sometimes, you say something that makes me wonder how you’re even still alive. Jakar.”

The company laughed, and Irev stood up.

“All right, let’s move out. Whether or not Doctor Garcia is a captive or a villain, our job is to find her and bring her back.”

I gave one last look at the shrouded body before we left. It was a reminder of the very real stakes we were all facing.

I just hoped I would be up to the challenge, for Irev’s sake, as much as anyone.

IREV

Deeper and deeper, we walked into the darkness. The further we ventured, the more anxious I became. The cavern walls hemmed in closer, adding to the claustrophobic feel. I tried not to think about the tons of rock hovering overhead.

“The path remains clear up ahead.”

Zaen’s voice held a slight tremble over the comms…as if he could barely hold himself back from blurting out what we all thought at that moment.

It has been all too easy. Surely, there must be something else in our path to slow us down.

Along the length of the tunnel, we ran across more evidence that the smugglers had passed by already. Here and there, we found broken stalagmites, spent casings or other bits of cast off or broken equipment strewn across the floor of the cave.

The deeper we trekked into the cave system, the more worried I became. The great fissure’s top halves had long since sealed overhead. Not even the merest crack or line of light made it down to the floor of the tunnel formed by the fissure.

The two halves seemed to grow closer together all the time. The ceiling hung low, less than fifteen feet overhead, by that point.

The walls were moving closer, as well. I began to worry, until I remembered that somehow the Rie managed to get down to the pool. The tunnel couldn’t grow that much narrower.

I glanced ahead at Petra’s back. She carefully followed along behind Drayk, making as little sound as the rest of us. Though she lacked the years of stealth trading that we had, she made up for it by having a smaller overall mass.

Plus, I had to admit, humans knew how to design pressure suits. Even through her suit, I admired her grace. And maybe the curve of her hip. Maybe.

“Irev.”

I raised my hand and called for a company halt.

“What is it, Zaen?”

“There’s geothermal activity in the tunnel ahead. The sensors are going haywire and I can’t get a decent visual.”

“Then we proceed with utmost caution. If the steam were harmful, the Rie would have told us.”

“Proceeding with caution.”

The company resumed their journey. We soon reached the area of which Zaen had warned me. The mist did, indeed, obscure everything further than five feet away.

We tightened up ranks, making sure to keep visual contact with the person ahead. The tunnel walls vanished, replaced by porous caverns that honeycombed the mountain. It would be very easy to get lost in such a place.

“Irev!”

A moment later, I heard a crumbling sound, followed by a distant rumble. The line came to a stop around a hole in the cavern floor.

“The ground here is tricky. Porous.” Zaen dragged himself out of the hole, with Drayk’s help. “Watch your step.”

I relaxed slightly, and used a telescoping rod as a walking stick. We carefully poked the floor ahead of us, slowing our movement to a crawl.

We passed by several holes in the floor…recent ones from the look of them. I figured that it must have been the smugglers. Maybe they had just as much trouble getting through as we had. More, if they’d actually lost a man.

“Hold up.” Zaen raised his hand in the air, then crept slowly toward something on the floor.

“What is it?” To my eyes, it looked like a rock in the middle of the floor. The surrounding mist made it difficult to tell for certain.

“Military-grade explosives,” Zaen said. “Rigged with a tripwire. I can disarm it, though, just give me a moment.”

“Wait,” I said. “Don’t touch it. Let’s just move around it—”

“Too late.” Zaen used his wire cutters to slice the trapline. It fell slack and he picked up the explosive. “Looks like a perfectly good grenade. Be a shame to waste it.”

“Put it down, it might be booby trapped—”

Only then, did I realize that two wires trailed from the device he held in his hand. I heard a snicking noise, and then another, larger grenade dropped toward us from the ceiling.

I cried out, slapping it with my palm. The grenade sailed through the air, struck the far wall, and careened away, blowing up a safe distance from us.

In my haste, I’d forgotten how close Petra stood to me. I struck her with my shoulder. She flew back, landing hard on her rump.

“I’m sorry,” I said, turning to offer her my hand. Her fingers no sooner clasped my gauntlet than the floor gave way beneath us.

I barely had time to cry out before we plummeted into ineffable darkness. I grasped Petra and pulled her to my body. I tried to twist in midair, so I would land first and take the brunt of the impact, but I was only halfway there when we landed in a deep pile of ash.

I still held Petra’s hand. I frantically dug through the ash until I was able to pull Petra to her feet.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m a little banged up inside the armor, but nothing is broken.” She leaned on me, her hand resting upon my bicep. The light drone caught up with us, and I sent it down the corridor ahead. Meanwhile, I tried to make contact with the others, to no avail.

“Damn this interference,” I cursed, slamming my communicator back into the holster on my waist.

“Irev,” Petra said “never mind that now. Look.”

I followed her pointing finger. The natural rocky cavern gave way to sleek, metal walls. The strange, black metal absorbed most of the sound of our footsteps as we explored our new situation.

“This looks a lot like the alien ruins we explored on Yimïk.”

“Amazing.” Her eyes, wide as dinner plates, scanned every inch of the corridor. We moved with greater caution, worried there might be trouble at any moment.

Then, I saw something familiar, and yet strange…something akin to the consoles we’d found in the other ruins, but more elaborate. It was mounted onto the wall so low, Petra had to crouch to examine it.

“What do you make of this?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, running her fingers along the sleek metal. “But I aim to find out.”

PETRA

Irev patiently waited while I pored over the console, trying to come up with some means of activating it.

“Are you making any progress?”

His head on a swivel, Irev searched up and down the corridor in both directions.

Okay, so maybe he isn’t as patient as he may seem.

“I can’t tell, but I don’t think so.” I sighed. “How did you guys activate the ones on the other ships?”

“They sort of turned themselves on. The globe in the center is both a display screen and a tactile manipulator.”

“I’m trying, but nothing’s happening. I don’t think this console has power.”

“Perhaps not, but this hallway does.”

He gestured about. A thin strip of lighting panels flanked both sides of the hallway where the wall met the ceiling. The soft amber glow they provided was enough to keep you from tripping over your own feet, or a stray power conduit. It was not, however, enough to make out details on the console.

I had the light drone hovering right overhead, making maximum use of the illumination the device provided. Still, it seemed like there was nothing I could identify as an on switch. I was starting to grow frustrated. I knew Irev was worried, and grew more so with each passing second.

I can’t blame him. The longer we wait, the greater the chance that a smuggler patrol might happen by and find us.

I didn’t relish the thought. Especially after having to see the man with a trench dug out of his middle. I had no illusions that a real-life battle would be anything but gruesome. I was prepared to do what I had to do, for both my sake and especially Irev’s.

That doesn't mean I want a fight.

About ten seconds from giving up and suggesting we move on, I noticed a small aperture on the bottom, where the globe adhered to the base. The aperture thrust from the onyx metal wall. The slot looked oddly specific, a line with a series of squares and rectangles built along the length.

I fingered the necklace the Rie had given me—and then it hit me.

“What are you doing?” Irev asked as I doffed the necklace.

“Playing a hunch. I hope I’m right, or it’s going to offend some mushroom God somewhere.”

I thrust the necklace against the opening, arranging it so it matched the line. I let out a squeal of delight as the necklace slipped right through. The globe blinked to life, and a display in the alien language appeared.

“It looks like the translation circuits have deciphered more of the language.” Irev peered closer, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

“Yes, thanks to the hard work of Amelia and others.” I squinted at the screen. “I wish the print weren’t so tiny.”

My mouth gaped open when I realized what I was looking at.

“Irev, I think this nodule accesses a greater network, like a giant database.”

“What's it say?”

“Well, this junction is in the maintenance section.” I glanced over at him and grinned. “Which is useful to know. Most of the recent inquiries from this console pertain to mechanical queries.”

“Can you access the other consoles from this one?” Irev asked hopefully. “Maybe see if anyone else has made inquiries recently?”

“I can sure as heck try.”

The translator the people at the testing center had injected into my brain before teleporting me into Irev’s life had deciphered enough of the alien language for me to make out simple sentences.

The power junction on sub level three needs a diagnostic.

That was easy. The more difficult passages involved a lot of context the translator just didn’t have a handle on, yet. It often substituted approximate alien, or even English words, when it couldn’t make a decent translation. These ‘questionable’ translations were flagged in my mind.

What must all this be doing to Dr. Garcia? If her experience is anything like mine. Is this all more intense for her? Is she the mastermind or is she just a scared Human, swept away in the greater universe?

“How are you progressing?”

I grimaced.

“About as well as I was twenty seconds ago, when you asked me before.”

“Sorry. I grow concerned. That’s all.”

Irev took his communicator out and tried to reach the others again. After a few tries, he grew disgusted and jammed it back into its pocket on his utility belt.

“Useless,” he sputtered. “So much for being able to defeat the alien interference. I intend to have words with Dr. Bill when we return to the ship.”

“Don’t get mad at Bill. This is a different type of ship than the others.” I frowned. “I think…I think this is a warship. There’s a ton of power running to certain areas that only makes sense for weapons systems and shield generation.”

“It could be for engines.”

“No, that’s where we are.” I smiled when I finally broke through to another directory. “Jackpot.”

“What? That didn’t translate. Do you need a chamber pot?”

I laughed, shaking my head but not taking my gaze from the globular display.

“It means, I just figured it out. I can check other consoles…there’s only one that’s had a recent inquiry.”

“What does it say?” he asked.

“Shhh. Let me think…”

I took out my tablet where I stored all the various files collected for the investigation and transcribed what I saw on the screen.

Maybe writing it out will make things clearer.

It didn’t help much, but at least I had a record of what was on the screen.

“Okay,” I said. “It looks like someone…and I can only assume that someone was Dr. Garcia, recently looked at several entries involving some sort of…the best the translators can do is ‘holy word’.”

“Holy Word?”

“As I said, that’s the best the translator can do at this particular moment in time.”

“So what does it do? This Holy Word? I assume it does something, or they wouldn’t be looking for it.”

I frowned with concentration as I finished transcribing what I read on the screen.

“The Holy Word, when spoken, will unlock the…Forlaka.”

“Forlaka?”

“The translator says this word meaning death, but also rebirth. I wonder why she would use that word…”

“Oh,” he sighed, “that’s not confusing at all. Great. At least my translator is catching up with yours.”

I barely heard Irev as I focused on what the translation could mean.

“It’s something in the future, some kind of great event—but I don’t know what.”

“Good or bad, Petra?”

“I don’t know, yet, Irev, if it’s supposed to be good or bad. It’s a huge event, there is danger, lots of…beings involved…”

“Does that mean Dr. Garcia doesn’t know if it’s good or bad, either?”

I looked at him and shrugged.

“Your guess is as good as mine—”

A blast of energy flashed through the air close enough to sizzle the hair on my nose. The console exploded in a shower of sparks. I fell backward, scrambling for any cover I could find. I barely heard Irev’s shout over the chaos.

“They found us!”

IREV

I dropped into a crouch, a battle cry ripping from my lips. I spun about, toward the attackers and tried to use my body as a shield to protect Petra. Blaster fire struck my armor at the shoulders, chest, and thigh. Fortunately, that’s where the armor was thickest, and I suffered only mild discomfort.

I flipped the safety off my pulse rifle and set it to three-round bursts. My eyes picked out three attackers, all of them standing in the middle of the hallway and blasting away. No attempt at gleaning cover, our attackers didn’t even bother behind a boxy circuit junction nearby, which would have provided excellent cover.

I calmly took aim near their center mass and fired a burst at each of them. Their armor took the brunt of the damage, but it was enough to make them think twice about their foolhardy tactics. They stumbled backward, fleeing my wrath.

The retreating smugglers crashed into more of the smuggles. Again, their amateurish ways were costly as pandemonium reigned in the hallway. I saw an opportunity and took it.

“Petra, can you stand?”

“Yes,” she gasped as I yanked a grenade from my belt.

“Then run,” I said, shoving her on ahead.

“Run where?”

“Anywhere but here is good.”

I held the metal orb of a grenade in my hand. The grenade’s upper hemisphere featured a series of petal-shaped lights, each roughly corresponding to an Earth second. I streaked my thumb along seven of them, then tossed the grenade into the thick of the smugglers..

I turned and fled, running hard after Petra. I saw her ahead of me and put my hand between her shoulder blades, pushing her along.

The grenade detonated right about the moment the smugglers got enough control of themselves to return fire. A few, stray blasts sizzled through the air. We heard a dull whump. The following shockwave hit us so hard, it drove us to our knees.

“Come on,” I said, pulling her to her feet. “That only got a half dozen of them at best.”

We ran, me practically dragging her along behind. We reached a junction with three different branching tunnels.

“Um,” she said, confused. “This way.”

“Are you sure?”

A laser blast ricocheted off the onyx wall near my head.

“Good enough for me,” I said. We found ourselves running into a room with a series of consoles along one wall, a thirty-foot, domed ceiling, and what I instantly thought of as an alien examination table.

There was a door on the opposite side of the room. As much as I wanted to take in the wonder of the chamber, and guess as to what it might be used for, I knew that I had to get Petra and myself to safety.

“Irev!”

I turned to see her pointing her fist at the exit across the room. She depressed the trigger stud on her mining laser. A beam of pure, white light shot out. It struck the lead smuggler in the thigh, searing a line across his limb and severing it in twain.

Petra continued to scream as she fired. She swept the powerful beam back and forth across their front ranks. The smugglers fell over themselves in an effort to get out of range.

The white line petered out, but she kept jamming the trigger stud anyway.

“What’s wrong with it? Why did it quit?”

“It needs to cool down,” I shouted above the din of gunfire. I cursed as another group of smugglers convened from the opposite end of the large chamber.

“Table,” she shouted, rushing to the center of the room. Petra dove toward the floor and skidded along, sparks shooting up from her armor where it ground against the metal plating.

I followed suit, taking a few more shots. One of them hit the seam between my shoulder blades. My flesh seared beneath the armor and I hissed at the sudden sting. Though minor, the wound still hurt a great deal.

I slid under the table with her just as Petra’s laser came back online. At first, I thought her aim was panicked and terrible. She aimed the laser at the ceiling. A moment later, a huge, cylindrical piece of machinery came swinging down on chains, smashing four smugglers to pulp against the far wall.

The damage done to the corridor set off an alarm. Amber lights flashed brightly in the corners of the room, and a series of globular monitors activated.

The table under which we hid lit up, and began rising into the air—exposing us to enemy fire. I shoved Petra toward the other exit, since the enemy’s forces seemed lighter there. I fired wildly with one hand as we went, scoring a few hits and mostly just trying to keep the smugglers at bay.

Once we reached the chunk of wrecked machinery, we found cover again. I shot the last struggling smuggler in the throat, putting him out of his misery.

“Cover me,” I said, bracing my rifle on a bit of rubble and laying flat on my belly. Petra turned around, arming her mining laser and aiming it down the corridor.

I switched my rifle over to single shot mode and stared down the scope. As the smugglers entered the room, I gunned them down. I aimed carefully for the seams where their necks met their helmets, which appeared to be the most vulnerable spot on their armor.

Soon, they either stopped coming, or I killed the last of that wave. The floor was littered with my victims, some of them still twitching.

No matter, they aren’t a threat to me or Petra any longer.

I turned to her, and felt my heart ache. She was bedraggled, her armor scored all over with blaster marks. Yet she was determined. I saw the golden threads entwining us further, and knew that I would die before I saw her come to harm.

“We should get moving,” I said.

“Wait.” She pointed at one of the globular monitors. “Look, isn’t that Dr. Garcia?”

I looked at the globe and gaped in astonishment. She was right. Dr. Garcia huddled in the midst of a group of smugglers.

“Oh, no.” Petra worked the controls, switching the views between the different monitors. “This isn’t good.”

“What isn’t good?”

“If my calculations are correct, they’re headed for a teleportation device.”

I cursed under my breath.

We’re about to lose them. Again.

“We must hurry.”

PETRA

I struggled to keep the layout of the ship in my mind as we reached along the labyrinthian corridors. From time-to-time, Irev would attempt to make contact with the other Vaznik. Once, he got Zaen to respond, briefly, but then another contingent of smugglers arrived and sent us fleeing back the way we had come.

“We have to get through there,” I shouted above the sound of combat rifles searing the air with sizzling bolts. The temperature had increased by at least ten degrees just from the excess energy weapons fire.

“I know.” He plucked a grenade from his belt, this one with blue lights instead of red ones.

“Careful you don’t bring down the entire ceiling on us with that.”

“This isn’t an explosive. It’s a smoke grenade.”

He turned on his infrared Hud. I did the same, and we exchanged nods.

“I’ll take the left side; you concentrate on the right.”

He stroked his thumb across four of the lights on the grenade and tossed it down the hallway. The sounds of alien voices raised in alarm, heralded a soft thump. Thick smoke billowed from the room, making normal vision impossible.

Irev went first, pulling a shock baton from his kit. He activated the club-like weapon and raced into the hall, slicing the baton through the arm of the lead shape. I saw everything through the gridwork reconstruction on my Heads-up Display screen. It led to a bizarre feeling of detachment from the violence Irev and I perpetrated.

The HUD showed me no blood when Irev decapitated one of the smugglers. Nor did it show me any intestinal spillage, when I cut a smuggler in half with the mining laser. I knew the horror was there, though, because my boots slipped about on something slick and slimy.

The smugglers fell, one by one. I took a nasty shot near my rib cage which stole the breath from my lungs. I fell to one knee as Irev finished off the man who had shot me.

“Are you all right, Petra?”

The smoke cleared away some as the ruin’s air scrubbers worked overtime. My Vaznik mate opened his face panel and looked at me, concern radiating from him.

“I’m fine,” I gasped out as he helped me to my feet. “I think I’m going to have one hell of a bruise, though.”

“Let me see.”

He checked my side, wincing when he saw the armored plate had cracked and warped.

“It didn’t penetrate, but your armor is weak in this area. Best not to take any more hits there.”

“Sure, the next time people are shooting at me, I’ll try to present my other side,” I snapped.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“You didn’t,” I said, holding my side. “I’m in pain, and feeling a bit overwhelmed. We didn’t cover running gun battles in my communications classes back home.”

We moved on, me still holding my side. It hurt to breathe, but not that bad. Of course, the harder I had to breathe, the more it hurt. I hoped we wouldn’t have to run.

Irev called for a halt when we reached a set of interlocked blast doors.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“The translator thinks it’s a waste disposal bay,” I said. “A garbage dump, basically. It should be inert, so we just pass through to the other side.”

“How does your translator figure this stuff out so fast?”

I looked back at him and smiled.

“I read all those journals, Irev. Really studied them. My translator had a lot to work with.”

“Maybe you’re just good at this. I don’t know why I’m surprised, with you having tried so many things in life, from the sound of it.”

I chuckled and turned back to the console.

“Good to know my misspent youth turns out to be a strength, Irev.”

I punched a few commands on the console beside the doors. They cracked open with a hiss of steam, slowly drawing back on aged, barely functioning servomotors.

The interior appeared to be a chamber not much bigger than two sets of crew quarters put together. Ankle deep water covered the floor, with the sickly, iridescent sheen of oil floating on top.

The other set of doors were right across the room. I moved into the water and Irev followed a step behind.

When I had splashed halfway across the chamber, a heavy lurch almost made me lose my footing. I heard a loud clank and I stumbled. The water sloshed, forming whitecaps.

“What’s going on?” Irev looked around in alarm. “I thought you said this disposal unit was inert.”

“It was. Unless someone activated it… Dr. Garcia. Either by her own choice, or by force, she had the knowledge to trap us in here.”

I turned. As I had feared, the other set of blast doors slid shut.

“What happens now?” Irev searched for an exit, his rifle in one hand and his energy baton in the other.

A pure white beam of energy exuded from the ceiling at the front end of the room. It was joined by another, and another, forming a crisscross webwork of sizzling hot energy beams.

“That looks designed to slice the larger bits into more manageable chunks, Irev.”

The gridwork moved toward us. I was on the verge of a panic.

There’s nowhere to go where the laser grid can’t reach us.

“Fire!” Irev bellowed. He opened fire on the emitter array on the ceiling. He scored a hit or two, but they were shielded. Only one of the emitters went down, weakening but not destroying the net.

I took aim with the mining laser and swept it across. One by one, the laser emitters on the ceiling overheated, ceasing to function.

“Nice shot,” he said, an appreciative smile on his handsome purple face.

I kissed him, pinched his cheek, and then ran to the console, happy to be alive. I got the second set of blast doors open and we raced down the corridor beyond.

“How much further?” he shouted above the sound of our pounding feet.

“Just around the corner,” I shouted back.

I careened around the corner just in time to see the teleportation pad activate. Dr. Garcia and a group of roughly a dozen smugglers became a bright white reverse silhouette as the teleporter took effect.

Irev shouted, racing forward like a mad man. His hand reached for Dr. Garcia’s wrist. I had no idea what he thought he was doing.

She jerked her hand away at the last moment, but something fell out of her grasp, dropping below the teleportation effect’s event horizon and clattering to the metal floor below.

Then they vanished, leaving Irev and me alone in the room.

“They got away,” Irev groaned. “And we’re left empty handed. Again.”

“Not completely empty handed,” I said, scooping up the device she’d dropped. “Look, it’s a computer tablet.”

His eyes widened.

“Does it still function?” he asked, voice hopeful.

I turned the device on, and smiled.

“Yes, it does.”

“Is there anything important on there?”

I looked up at him and cocked an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, how important do you consider the coordinates they just happened to teleport to when we first walked in here? If I’m reading this right, these are the only teleport entry in millennia. One could assume that’s where Dr. Garcia went.”

I turned the tablet around so he could see the screen. Irev’s mouth dropped open and I smiled in the face of his stunned silence.

IREV

The moment we set foot off the shuttle onto the Nova, I insisted Petra immediately report to the infirmary.

“Only if you get yourself checked out, too,” she said, staring distastefully at the battle damage to my armor.

“Indeed,” I nodded, realizing that adrenaline would only keep me going for so long and I really did need medical attention.

“I can’t believe you hogged all the fun,” Drayk muttered. “I wish I’d have been the one to fall into a hole in the ground.”

“You could have just as easily wound up in a lava pit,” Jakar commented casually.

I left them to it and headed for the shuttle bay exit, but Petra grabbed my arm.

“Shouldn’t we take the exo suits off first?”

“No, we should let the doctors remove them.” I swallowed hard, looking at the side she still favored. “There have been cases of the pressurized armor holding catastrophic injuries together. If we remove the armor in the infirmary, our odds of survival go up a great deal.”

She looked down at her side and shrugged.

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is a catastrophic injury. I’ve had worse, like when I fell off my bike as a kid. I do agree that what you say makes sense, though.”

Together, we limped into the infirmary. I helped support her, but in a way I leaned on her as well. Her mere presence helped me keep myself moving forward.

I insisted that the med bay staff deal with Petra first. I held my breath when they depressurized her exo suit. She gasped, face contorting in pain. Her side was a roadmap of bruising, but the doctor decreed she had no broken bones or internal injuries.

Petra got treatment while they removed my armor. A bit of a support strut had wedged its way in my shoulder, but they were able to dig it out without resorting to surgery. The nano gel they smoothed over the wound felt ice cold on my skin, but that’s the way the machines liked it. When the nanobots in the gel completed their healing task, they would dissolve in the natural temperature of my blood.

Before we left, Petra and I went back down to the mushroom village. Humus was happy with their restored access to the water of life, their elder healthy and restored. We barely got away without another spore party.

We had a brief reprieve for the next four days, as the Nova caught up to the Sunder and the Honor’s Blade. We spent most of this time resting and recuperating from our arduous journey, as well as speculating whether or not Dr. Garcia was a hostage or a client of the Queen’s Brood smugglers.

When we rejoined the fleet, Petra and I were summoned to the Honor’s bridge for a debriefing with the command staff. Admiral Ausym was there, as well as Captains Soanzo, Datgouy, and Thadood.

Kavok and Raxor joined us, along with Amelia and Helena. When we pooled our knowledge of Garcia and the smugglers, we were left with frustratingly little to go on.

I couldn’t have been prouder of Petra as she recited her findings on the alien database. She spoke clearly and with a purpose, never deviating from her point.

“And we still have little to go on as to what Event this Holy Word is supposed to unlock. It could be either a disaster or a boon. Or it could be nothing at all, just a legend Dr. Garcia is chasing in some vain quest.”

Amelia nodded to Petra.

“Yes, that jibes with what I was thinking. Dr. Garcia wrote about recurring nightmares in which she saw a monstrous, floating disc in the sky. If her delusions were strong enough, it could turn her into a killer.”

“And the smugglers wouldn’t care if she were crazy or not, as long as they were getting paid.” Soanzo’s face creased in a grim scowl. “This whole affair has grown most tiresome. We still don’t know if we’re on a rescue mission, or attempting to apprehend a dangerous, possibly insane criminal.”

I wondered if it might be a little of both.

After the debriefing was over, I was asked to remain behind. Petra squeezed my hand and smiled, lighting up my universe.

“I’ll be outside. Good luck.”

“Thank you.”

I turned to address the three Captains and the Admiral, my belly twisting in knots.

“First, allow me to apologize for failing to apprehend Dr. Garcia—”

“Relax, Irev. This isn’t a court martial.” Captain Thadood grinned widely. “Far from it.”

“Sir?” I cocked my head to the side in confusion.

“We’re promoting you, you daft fool,” Captain Datgouy said with a laugh. “Your work in the field has been exemplary. Besides, a nice cushy officer job will keep you free for working on the most important mission of all—making your human mate happy.”

“I see, sir.”

“Don’t get that look on your face, you earned this promotion.” Captain Soanzo looked me up and down and harrumphed. “You think we just fling out promotions like candy to any Vaznik who gets matched up, hmm?”

“Ah, no, sir.”

“Good, then chin up, chest out. You’re the man of the hour, so act like it.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Now, before the ceremonial toast, did you have anyone in mind to replace you as Away Team Commander?”

“As a matter of fact, sir, I do.”

Later, Petra and I caught up with the rest of the squad in a tavern on the Honor’s entertainment deck.

I sought out Drayk and drew him aside.

“Oh, shit,” he said with a groan. “You’re taking me aside. Are you going to promote me to Squad Commander?”

“Yes.”

“Damn it, Irev, you just had to go and ruin my night.”

“Congratulations.”

“Fuck you.” He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. “Congratulations to you, too.”

“Fuck you.”

We laughed, and rejoined the others. I caught Petra smiling at me. I knew I would live or die for that smile.

I knew I loved her more than anything.

PETRA

The promotion party ran on into the night, or so I’m told. Sometime around the twelfth hour, Irev and I stole away from it all.

I pulled him out into the corridor, where we could still hear the music. The ship was running at low light due to the hour, lending an air of intimacy.

“Here,” I said, taking his hand and putting it on my hip.

“What are you doing?”

“Teaching you to dance.”

“But I already know how to dance,” he protested, pointing at the party through the open door. “Did you not see me doing the broken dancing, and the Vague?”

“I did see you doing those things, as much as I might wish for amnesia at the moment.”

I chuckled and took his hands, moving them back where they belonged, onto me. “Here, now we just kind of sway to the music.”

We danced slowly in the corridor. Gradually the big stiff relaxed, and held me against him.

“This is nice,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Petra…” he stopped, his hands grasping me at the elbows as he withdrew a bit. Our gazes met, and he swallowed hard before speaking again.

“I love you. I have come to decide I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I don’t care what the DNA match has to say about it. But I only want that if you want it, too.”

“Irev.” I put my hand on his cheek, then ran my fingers up to caress the base of his horn. His eyes squeezed shut, and a little gasp came out of his lips. “That’s what I want, too. I’m sorry if I made you ever think after we were together that I didn’t. Back of my mind I knew from the very beginning. I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for. I love you.”

With sudden relief, he grabbed me and kissed me hard. I surrendered to his embrace, his tongue moving against my own. I loved how he tasted. I felt my heartbeat kicking into overdrive. A tingle ran through my clitoris and spread through the rest of my body.

Oh, yeah. It was time. The chemistry was perfect, and we’d just exchanged the L word in a meaningful way.

“So,” I said when we came up for air. “Are you going to take me to my quarters or what?”

We went to my quarters., Before the door had even slid shut, we were kissing again. He took me to the bed, his hands gentle as they unzipped the front of my jumpsuit.

“I just love the way you feel in my arms,” he cried, eyes wide and exultant. I fished my breasts out of the jumpsuit and offered them up to him.

“Go on,” I said. “I want you to explore my body, but only because you appreciate the rest of me so much.”

He moved his face in close. I could feel his breath hot on my skin. Goosebumps raised on my body as he extended his tongue. I gasped as he traced a circle around my nipple.

Irev engulfed most of my breast into his giant maw. I moaned, grasping his head, caressing his sensitive horns with my fingertips…caressing with my palms.

He moaned into my skin, his hands coming up to squeeze my pliant flesh as he saw fit. Irev intensely suckled both my nipples, before kissing his way across my belly.

Irev pressed his cheek against my belly, sighing softly, before continuing his journey downward. I shivered when his kissing lips moved inches below my navel.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured against my skin. I cried out as he mashed his lips on top of mine.

Then he darted to my swollen pussy lips. His mouth suckled on my labia, one after the other, drinking in my juices.

Irev pushed his lips upon my clitoral mound, kissing it. I cried out. My hands tightened on his horns. He grew more enthused, if that were possible, licking and suckling on my clit. I threw my head back and sucked in a ragged gasp of air.

I let it out in a piercing scream, thrashing about on the bed. My jumpsuit still trapped my legs, limiting my movements. He peeled the jumpsuit off fully, his face glistening with my juices, as I shivered with electric pulses of ecstasy.

“You taste so good,” he purred, kissing my inner thigh. He stood up, doffing the rest of his clothing. His body was chiseled, purple perfection. The base of his horns, engorged with blood, had taken on a color similar to an eggplant. Speaking of eggplants…his cock was also a darker purple than the rest of him, and a very pleasing shape.

I reached out and stroked his member. He grinned, and gently pushed me back onto the bed.

“I love you so much,” he gasped, climbing between my thighs. I splayed them wider, looking up at him in adoration.

Irev, who had worked so very hard to make me comfortable. Who had never tried to take more from me than I was willing to give. The perfect man is real. I just had to leave planet Earth to find him.

He pushed the head of his cock between my swollen, quivering folds. My eyes rolled back in my head as he stretched me open, inch by inch, filling me up with his member. He leaned into me with the first thrust.

My mouth flew open in a cry which had nothing to do with pain or fear. It felt so good, having him inside of me. I never thought it could be this good, never in my wildest imaginings.

Our bodies interlocked, as did our hearts and dare I say, our souls. For a moment, I felt what it was to be truly connected to another living being, and the universe at large. Golden threads I’d never noticed before, but had always kind of felt, wrapped about us, binding us tightly together on a metaphysical level.

I knew what it was to be with your fated mate, with the one person who could complete you. I raked my nails down his back as he thrust into me. I flew over the precipice of a thunderous orgasm that left me a shivering, writhing mess.

He held me close and whispered sweet words while I floated on a golden cloud of pleasure. If there was a heaven, surely it would pale in comparison to this.

IREV

I looked down upon Petra’s naked perfection. Her wonderfully curvy body lay spread out on the bed, shivering with the aftershocks of our recent lovemaking. Her scent intoxicated me, dripping still from my face and filling my nose.

Her smell was all over me, as well. I felt truly complete, connected in a way I never had before. The golden threads were back, binding us so tightly it looked less like threads and more like a nimbus of light.

“I love you so much,” I said, stroking her hair. “You’re brave, resourceful, intelligent, and hilarious. I didn’t know what it truly meant to be happy until I met you.”

“Oh, god,” she gasped.

“I’m sorry, am I talking too much?”

Her eyes fluttered open, and a sublime smile peeked out on her lovely features. She reached up to caress my cheek.

“Oh, no, you’re not talking too much. It’s just that what you’re saying is so sweet, and yet so hot at the same time, I feel myself getting all worked up again.”

“Oh?” I felt my cock twitch at the prospect of more lovemaking with the woman I loved above all else.

“Indeed, as you might say.”

She rolled over onto her stomach, leaning her forearm on my thigh. Her gaze met my own, and then she reached out and grasped my semi-flaccid member. She fondled my rod, slowly moving her face inexorably closer.

Petra licked the crown of my cock. I was hardening fast, the blood rushing into my cock so quickly I felt a bit lightheaded for a moment. By the time she crawled up and engulfed the tip in her mouth, I was hard as a rock again.

I grasped her hip and pulled her lower half toward me. She caught on quickly and pivoted into what the humans delightfully call a ‘69’ position. I’m not sure why they feel the need to number their positions, or what the other sixty-eight are, but I was looking forward to learning them all.

Her gloriously rounded ass presented itself to me. I followed a path down the groove, over her starfish-shaped, taboo opening to her dripping wet lips. I buried my face in her pussy, exulting in her scent and taste. My tongue slipped between her folds, lapping up the delightful juices I found there.

She moaned around my cock. It felt great to have her curvy body perched on top of me. Her breasts felt amazing as they swept across my belly. I reached up and pried her cheeks apart, exposing her more to me. My eyes watered as I struggled not to cum. Petra used such varied and powerful suction, I didn’t know how long I could hold on.

But I’d give as good as I got, my lower lip dragging across her clit. I suckled hard, and she squirted in my face. It was so hot I couldn’t hold back any longer and I came inside her mouth.

She drank my seed as if it were ambrosia, not wasting a drop. I gasped as she licked my member clean, then smiled up at me.

“You’re amazing,” I gasped. “I look forward to trying the other sixty-eight oral sex positions.”

“The what?” she said, tilting her head to the side.

“Never mind.” I found myself wanting more, more, more of my love. It was as if too much wasn’t enough. “I want you.”

“Again?” she laughed and her eyes lit up with delighted wonder. “I guess we do have some pent-up sexual tension to work through.”

“Ever since you kissed me, my heart has been yours.”

“You say the sweetest things,” she purred.

“I feel I must take you again.” Looking at her curvaceous form, my cock grew painfully hard.

“Then what are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?”

I could hear the jesting tone in her voice, even if I didn’t quite understand the reference. I climbed back into the bed and kissed her hard and deep. Her limbs wrapped around me and I smothered her with kisses.

She cried out as I kissed my way over to her neck. I kissed her tenderly, licking and basking in her scent. I swept my hand up through her midnight black mane, exposing more of her neck to my lips and tongue.

Petra ground her body against me. I lifted my haunches and maneuvered myself into her dripping wet opening. Her eyes squeezed shut as I glided inside of her. My hands went to either side of her head as I thrust into her. Her pussy felt divine, slipping around my rod and squeezing it like a glove.

“I love you so much,” I swore to her between heavy, panting thrusts.

Her mouth flew open in a gasp, which grew to a moan, which morphed into a scream as I rocked my hips into her. We rolled about on the bed, winding up with her on top of me. She put her hands on my chest and swiveled her hips like the sea at storm.

I grasped her magnificent breasts, feeling blessed to be so deeply connected with her on every level. Her dark hair framed her lovely face, caught in that most beautiful of moments, when she floats on the verge of orgasm. Her eyes flew open and she let out a long, undulating moan, grinding her body against me.

I rolled her over onto her side and thrust into her until she came again. Only when she writhed in my arms did I let myself cum, too. I wondered if we would make a child this time. If not, we will try, try, and try again.

Later, we lay together as our sweat mingled and cooled. Her head rested on my chest, and my arm wrapped around her shoulder.

“Irev,” she said softly. “Do you think we can go back and visit Earth sometime?”

“Of course we can.”

“Not now, just someday…” she sighed, and snuggled up closer. “Thank you for loving me.”

“Thank you for letting me.”

We kissed, and it turned out that neither of us was as tired as we thought.

EPILOGUE: IREV

A shooting star streaked overhead as the twin moons of Thriadice set over the gently lapping maroon ocean. Pink and bright blue coral thrust out of the water along the cove, shining in the moonlight.

With the Fleet parked in a stationary orbit, the Admiral deployed a long-distance teleportation buoy and Irev and I had been able to long-distance teleport for our honeymoon.

I trudged across the lime green sands, kicking up the occasional tiny crustacean. The crab-like creatures were harmless, but they would stand on their backmost legs and sway back and forth in an intimidation display. Anytime I went walking across the beach, there were dozens of them in my wake swaying and staring at me with beady little black eyes.

I reached an adobe with peeling paint. It may have looked like a hovel, but the massive power conduit thicker than my leg which snaked into the rear of the building belied that story.

I made my way inside the darkened interior. A line of people sat against the far wall scribbling on computer tablets. I could skip the line, because I’d been here before.

I nodded at the proprietor, a Galfian whose mollusk was dark green and significantly fatter than Dr. Bill.

“Do you have my merchandise?”

“Indeed, I do.”

He didn’t move to get it. I waited a long moment and then sighed.

“Will you get it for me, please?”

“No, I will not.” The mechanical suit remained stationary, but the little mollusk on the inside crossed its tentacles over its…body? Head?

“And why not?”

“It was a much longer teleport than I thought, from here to Earth. I need more credits.”

“How many more do you need?”

“A thousand.”

I gave him a long look.

“I’m going to give you three hundred more, and you’re going to be damn grateful for the opportunity. Now give me my merchandise.”

The eyes on the mollusk scowled, but the mechanical body turned around and retrieved a vacuum-packed tin can.

“Here. I would say ‘pleasure doing business with you’, but it wouldn’t be true.”

“Yes, it must really ruin your day when customers refuse to get ripped off.”

His attitude had bothered me. I’d have gladly paid three times what he tried to extort out of me to make my mate happy. I just didn’t like bullies.

I made my way back across the sandy beach—leaving more disturbed, dancing crustaceans in my wake—and returned to the beach house Petra and I had rented for our honeymoon.

I stepped inside and found her on the communicator. Again. It was supposed to be a vacation, but the Rie delegation preferred dealing with Petra. She wound up on conference calls a lot.

I wasn’t angry at her. Far from it. I was proud of her work ethic, and had decided that she deserved a special treat for all her hard work.

I opened the tin and took the contents out. Just the smell made my belly rumble. Of course, how was I supposed to know if they were good, or not? Maybe what smelled good to me would smell awful to her palate?

I wonder if the little weasel at the teleporter swindled me. Well, it’s too late to back out now.

I set out the contents of the tin, and added a big scoop of an Earth treat called vanilla ice cream. I like it a lot, but if a Mahdfel eats it too fast, his horns feel like they’re going to explode.

I brought the platter into our living space just as she was wrapping up the conference call. I took a moment to bask in her loveliness. She wore a diaphanous, brightly colored body scarf covering her from sternum to mid-thigh. The moonlight shimmering off the water in the background could not hope to compete with her mesmerizing charm.

She took my breath away. I just stood there like an idiot when she finished her call and turned to face me.

“Um, hello?” she chided gently, adding a laugh to punctuate her words.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Here, my love, I got these for you.”

Her eyes winded when she saw the proffered platter.

“Are those…” she swallowed, hard, “are those chocolate chip cookies? Because if that’s oatmeal raisin, I’m going to be very disappointed.”

“They are chocolate chip. Teleported directly from your Mom’s kitchen on Earth. They are still warm, in fact.”

She took one and bit into it. Her eyes fluttered closed with an almost orgasmic bliss.

“Oh, god, they are still warm. It’s wonderful.” She opened her eyes and kissed me. “Thank you so much.”

“Your kisses taste like melted chocolate,” I said with a laugh.

“You’re welcome,” she said. She took another cookie, and I decided I had to try one, too. The crispness of the cookie contrasted with the sweet, runny chocolate on the inside. I found the taste to be equal to the smell, at the very least.

“This is awesome,” she said, spooning a bit of ice cream onto the cookie. “But what’s the occasion?”

“I just wanted you to know how wonderful you are,” I said, kissing her on top of the head. “And how much I appreciated having you in my life.”

She smiled at me, redness coming to her cheek.

“Thank you. I love you, Irev.”

I sighed, taking in her unimaginable beauty.

“I love you, Petra.”

We kissed, our shared heartbeat rivaling the pounding surf as our passions collided.

Not just a match.

Mates.

Bound together by love as eternal as the sea and stars.

* * *

A Vaznik warrior's life is one of duty, training and discipline.

My pretty human mate has spent her life running from one thing to the next.

She should be no match for me.

And yet every glance of her eyes sets me on fire, her smiles taunting me in my dreams.

Have I lost the battle between us with the first touch of her skin on mine?

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AVA

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OPENING MOVE: THE ALIEN GAMES

This surly, arrogant giant blue gladiator says he needs me to survive. Say what?

I've been ripped away from Earth to play a lethal alien game.

If we win, we get our freedom.

But my sister won't make it out alive.

My alien partner is a savage wall of muscle. But with every dangerous obstacle in our path, I'm beginning to see a different side of him hidden behind the violence.

He's brave. Unexpectedly sweet. And soon its not just the effort of winning the game that has me hot and bothered...

Read this hot alien abduction romance and let the games begin!

Welcome to the Alien Games! Each book features a HEA for the couple, but please note -- there's an overarching storyline that carries through all five books!

Click here to get it now!

ROGUE MATE

Science fiction romance is the destination of the Rogue Star…. Hop on board!

Our rescuers are a group of pirates. Or smugglers. They're not exactly answering questions, either.

More importantly, they're giant, golden skinned aliens...

And their rogue of a captain seems very interested in the little human commander.

Me.

Rogue Mate is the first in the Rogue Star science fiction alien romance series. Click now to start the adventure!

KAZAN

A mate is the last thing on my mind.

Especially one as sassy as the human female they say is my match.

Even if her lush curves call for my touch, and her fiery spirit is equal to my own.

I will endure the thirty days demanded by the Protocol.

But with every look, every word, I can feel us bound closer together.

Will I be able to leave her, even for her own safety?

Kazan is the first book of the Jorkan Protocol Mates. Click now to spend the night with this perfect steamy, funny science fiction romance escape. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each alien warrior and his mate!

Copyright © 2022 by Ava York

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.