by Laurel Night
Mick cleared his throat. “No, Lucy, you’re fine. I think Todd and I will have this conversation alone with Jakob. Would you mind remaining here with Emily for a few hours? We shouldn’t be longer than that.”
I understood. They either didn’t know how this would go or didn’t think it would help to have us near. Either way, we weren’t going anywhere for now.
“Okay,” I shrugged. “Em, you want to watch a movie or something?”
“Sure,” Emily agreed. “Let’s see what’s on Austrian cable.” She grabbed her mug and shuffled to the living room, her bare feet making soft slapping sounds against the stone floor.
I grinned at Mick then followed with my mug, scooping up the remote from the side table and aiming it at the flat screen mounted above the fireplace.
Emily found a romantic comedy we’d watched together since college. The film was still in English but had Austrian subtitles on the bottom. Assuming this was the best we’d get, she settled back into the couch and I curled up next to her, sipping my coffee.
The guys took a few minutes, gathering things and planning before they walked over to say goodbye.
Mick had pulled on a black peacoat, complete with a blue scarf that hung open. He leaned over to kiss me on the forehead, and I inhaled his spicy-citrus cologne deeply while he whispered in my ear. “We’ll be back soon. If you need anything, just text me. See you soon,” He repeated, before kissing me again and walking away.
I grinned, warm and glowing on the cozy white couch, cuddled up with Emily. When Todd walked away she smiled too, and we shared a grin over our mugs before turning to the movie.
***
MICK
This was not going well.
Jakob was polite, but I could see the anger flash in his dark golden eyes. He was going for a middle-aged look distinguished, with salt-and-pepper hair and a sleek grey suit. I sensed the only reason he hadn’t turned rude was because of his allegiance to my family, or more correctly my mother.
I tried again. “Jakob, I know you are holding out hope about this other ship. It would be amazing to have any of our Lost Warriors back. Even if it’s just a fraction of them, that’s families made whole again. I hope you are right, and this drifting rock turns out to be our people.”
Jakob nodded, but his arms remained crossed. “Then you see why you must wait, why we all must wait until we know for sure. If there’s a chance for a true brashule in your future, you shouldn’t settle for such a poor substitute.”
Todd shifted beside me, clearing his throat with an angry grunt. Out of respect, he had not yet given Jakob a piece of his mind. However, Jakob didn’t know just how closely Todd was bonded with Emily. Most vimpiri, it seemed, didn’t realize they had actually paired.
“Jakob, I understand your sentiments, but I think there’s something you don’t understand: Todd has paired with Emily, a human. It is a true pairing, a true brashule. They are bonded for life.”
Jakobs eyebrows shot up and his arms dropped to his sides, one resting on the leather chair before him. “That's… not possible,” he hissed. His response was encouraging. He appeared to be considering the possibility.
“I promise you, it is. I witnessed it myself, as did the queen and future queen. It happened in front of The Records.”
Jakob paused another moment, thinking. Todd looked down, scuffing his foot against the carpet. He didn’t enjoy letting everyone into his personal business; it made him uncomfortable. He’d always been very private. While he knew we had to explain the situation to our people and help them understand, that didn’t mean he liked it.
Jakob appeared to have reached a conclusion and his tawny eyes snapped to my face. “Even if this is true, you should still wait. All the Lost Bachelors should wait until we know the truth. There is no harm in waiting, if we are wrong then you can try to pair with a human after we know for sure.”
He was being deliberately obtuse, and I struggled to keep my calm. “You know we can’t, Jakob,” I said in a low voice. “At the rate it’s traveling, it will be decades before we know if that ship is even ours. More years to determine if there is anyone on there still alive, and then even more until we can safely retrieve them. That is two, maybe three human lifetimes. Any potential mate we have would be dead.”
Jakob nodded. “Certainly you’d rather wait and be sure? What difference would it make, if you’re just going to throw your life away anyway? What is the rush?”
Todd’s voice was menacing beside me. “Is that what you think? That I’ve thrown my life away?” The edge to his tone sharpened. “Emily saved my life. She is what I live and breathe for. I was nothing before her. How dare you call her ‘throwing my life away!’”
Jakob smiled, a sinister tilt to his lips. “Yes, I’m sure you feel strongly about her. You must have, to bond yourself to her life form. However, she has such a pitifully short life, 80 human years, maybe 90? And then what? When she dies, if it’s really a true brashule, you will die as well. You’ve got what, 60 years left? What a waste.”
Todd stepped forward angrily, but I stopped him with a hand on his chest. I met his gaze to silence him, a warning in my eyes. Not yet.
“I appreciate your perspective on this, Jakob, but it appears we are not in agreement. However, it is not typical of our society to enforce opinions on others. What matter is it to you if some of the Lost Bachelors pair with humans? Would you not want happiness for them?” I purposely kept my relationship with Lucy out of this; I didn’t need to add more fuel to the flames.
“I don’t care about their happiness, I care about the continuation of our species,” Jakob spat. “They should, too. When we arrived here, you were all genetic dead-ends and set adrift like seeds in the wind. That was a mistake, we should never have indulged your whims in that way. The Lost Bachelors should have remained here until they found a way to benefit our society. Now they might have the opportunity to do so, and you think you can just ignore it? This is more important than momentary happiness.”
“How can you take the knowledge of this incredible advancement, pairing with another species, as a momentary happiness?” Now I was getting angry. “We don’t have enough members of our society to continue as we have. The Vimpiri, as we know it, are bound to fizzle out as they spawn fewer and fewer new generations. We simply don’t have enough females to carry and birth enough young to rebuild our society.”
“Exactly! That is why you and all the Lost Bachelors must wait for the Lost Warriors to arrive-”
“No, Jakob! You’re not listening. What we need to do is what the Vimpiri have always done—adapt—and continue on. We are being pushed into it, with the lack of mates, but you know this would happen , anyway. Eventually, we would be forced to mingle with humans, or go extinct.” My breath was heavy now, my chest heaving, at having to dredge up this painful subject. “We all know it, our scientists told us we’d only survive a few generations before we reached critical decline. Somehow we found peace with it or thought we did. Some apparently held on to a crazy legend about the unexpected arrival of females that would restore the balance and save our people. Some rationalized that with our lifetimes so much longer than that of humans, we were really living several lifetimes anyway and began to treat it as such. Still others held on to the hope that we would continue to adapt and find a way around it.
“I confess I was not one of those that hoped to adapt. I sought merely to enjoy the lonely existence I was stuck with, to find peace with it, and accept that there was no future for me.
“But now there is. She is living, and breathing, and waiting for me right now back at my home. I know, if I pair with her, we will have brashule. I can feel it, deep in my heart and in the depths of my mind. I feel her already, and we haven’t even mated once. What is that, if not a sign that we should look at this as an option for continuing our race?”
Jakob's eyes narrowed and an angry flush crept up his cheeks. “I knew it!” He accused, pointing his finger at my chest. “You aren’t here
for the rest of the Lost Bachelors, you’re here for yourself. You want this girl, this human, and have lost sight of what is best for your people.” Jakob’s face fell into an expression of utter disgust. “I would never have expected such selfishness from a son of Shaline. You dishonor her.”
“How DARE you-” I stepped toward him menacingly but was stopped by a hand on my chest. Todd jumped between us and pushed me backward, whispering, “Enough, Mick. Enough! We will not win this way.”
I ground my teeth, fists clenched in frustration. Jakob had gotten me to admit something I didn’t want to share, and he knew it. His lips curled into a sinister smile. “The other members will be interested to know why this is even a debate. If you weren’t entangled with a human yourself, Shaline would have no issue with commanding the Lost Bachelors to keep their hands off of humans and wait for their true mates to arrive. It all makes sense now.”
I glowered at him, a low growl rumbling in the back of my throat. This was a threat. If my mother didn’t carefully consider all aspects of this argument and show beyond a reasonable doubt that she had decided based on the needs of the people, he would accuse her of bias on my behalf. That would be an even deeper hole for us to dig out of.
Todd spoke up again, his voice low. “Mick, I think we’re done here. Let’s go home.”
Sucking in a deep breath, I nodded. “Yes, you’re right. I’ve said all I came to say.” I turned and headed for the door, back out of the darkened office building.
Jakob’s voice trailed after us, an audible smirk in the tone. “Give your regards to the queen for me, will you?”
I stuffed my hands in my coat pockets and marched out without answering. Todd followed, walking alongside me silently.
This was bad. Mother would have to be even more careful to consider the argument now. And not just the argument, but the appearances of the argument on both sides. It was certain Jakob would use Lucy against me, saying that Shaline only wanted to grant the Lost Bachelors the opportunity to pair with humans for my sake. His argument had plenty of valid points, that sounded reasonable to the long-living vimpiri. Why couldn’t we wait for a few decades to make sure? It wouldn’t be a hindrance to anyone.
Anyone except…
I paused suddenly as the thought hit me. Todd took a couple of steps before he realized I had stopped, then turned and looked at me curiously.
Maybe I was thinking of it too traditionally. Maybe I needed to stop thinking like a regular vimpiri male, smug and secure with my mate, and instead needed to remember who I was fighting for:
The Lost Bachelors.
THE CAMPAIGN
LUCY
“So you’re going to… campaign?” My voice rose at the end like I was questioning his idea, even though that wasn’t my intent.
“Sort of,” Mick answered, grinning. “If Todd went through this, and I’m going through it, we can’t be the only ones. The Lost Bachelors have been out among human society for centuries, interacting, blending in, and mating with humans. They are the ones that know the value of the society, as primitive as it may seem to vimpiri that have locked themselves away in this little town, hiding out on our ship. Surely there are other Lost Bachelors out there who want the chance to pair, and maybe even have a human they feel a connection to, but are afraid because they’ve already been told it wouldn’t work. The knowledge of what happened here a few months ago has not spread like I imagined it would.” His green eyes sparkled, the glow within his irises flickering blue and gold with excitement. “Jakob thinks he can control the information, control the perception, using that ignorance and misunderstanding to manipulate our people.”
Todd jumped in, equally excited. “But if we can spread the truth, that Emily and I are truly paired, and we show the other Lost Bachelors that they might find a mate as well, it’s bound to drum up some enthusiasm. We need this to be more than Mick and me since our motivation appears biased and selfish. If the others join their voices to ours, we might drown out the others who think we should wait for-”
“Wait for another time,” Mick spoke over Todd. I watched them exchange a look, briefly holding a silent conversation. There was something Todd was about to reveal and Mick didn’t want him to. What could they possibly wait for?
“Anyway, we will start reaching out to some of the others, telling them what’s going on, and hoping they will turn up to join us at the hearing.”
Alarm spiked in my chest. “Hearing? Are you on trial for something?” I glanced at Emily, who was sitting on the couch looking worried. She hadn’t heard about this hearing either.
“No, it’s nothing legal,” Mick answered quickly. “It’s like… a town hall meeting. Because there have been members of our society that have voiced opposing opinions, the queen is inviting everyone to speak, together, in three days. That gives everyone time to get back from whatever corner of the planet they are on.”
Emily spoke up. “Oh, then that sounds promising. How are you going to contact them all? Does she send out a mass text or like a Facebook meeting or something?” She giggled at her own joke.
“Haha, very funny,” Mick raised one eyebrow in her direction, then turned back to me. “No, we rely on a communication network. The queen communicates to her family, they reach out to the heads of the other vimpiri families, and so on until they contact every member. You’d be surprised at how efficiently it works.”
“Cool. So is that how you will get ahold of them, too?” I was genuinely curious now. Can anyone tap into this vast phone tree?
Mick rubbed his hands together, suddenly a little uncomfortable. “No, we don’t want to alert all the families about what we’re doing. They may choose not to send the word out to their own Lost Bachelors, and we wouldn’t have any way of knowing whether they got the message.”
“So, what is your plan, then?”
“Well, between myself, Todd, and the rest of Mortal Heat, we probably have about half of the numbers we need, around 250. Once we make contact, we’ll ask them for the others.” He shrugged.
“You guys all have each other’s numbers? Is it like a club? ‘Meet in Ibiza at 3:30 for happy hour!’”
“No,” Mick replied, chuckling. “Not exactly. But we are a unique group, as far as vimpiri are concerned. We’re the Lost Bachelors because we never expected to find a mate. That left us without the hope of a true partner, and the knowledge that the rest of our lives would lack that other half. So we vowed to help each other and be our own support network.”
“But what about your parents, or siblings?” Emily piped up again. Her voice was sad as if she felt sorry for them. I imagined she was thinking of Shanii.
Mick shook his head. “They don’t understand. If they’re paired, they don’t get it. That’s part of the problem. That’s why we need the Lost Bachelors here. They are the only ones who can attest that we are speaking the truth.”
“And what is the truth, exactly?” I understood what he was trying to get at, but it seemed to rely on a good deal of nuance for them.
“We can successfully pair with humans and create the brashule. This means that no vimpiri should stand in our way if we choose to pair. They should celebrate with us. Hopefully, the data from Emily’s tests will help us, although I’m still not sure if it will do more harm than good. We have to tread carefully either way.”
“What do you mean? How would it cause harm?” Emily got up from her spot on the couch and joined us in the kitchen.
“Well, I’m not sure if the fact that the pairing changed you also will help, or just create more problems. One concern is that by pairing with a human we are drastically limiting our lifetimes since we are tying our lives to our mates. If the human female is altered to have some vimpiri qualities, it may extend her life. This could be a potential weapon against that argument, but it could open a new argument as well.”
“How so?” Todd asked. “Surely, if Emily and I live a longer life together, that would make that a moot point and weaken their position?”
“Well, such a drastic alteration of both races would mean a potentially new species, neither vimpiri nor human. You see the problem?”
“You think they would object because we’re creating a new species?” Todd still didn’t understand, but I did.
“They’re concerned about the preservation of your race,” I breathed. “If there are nearly 500 Lost Bachelors, as you say, and less than 300 full-blooded vimpiri—if all the Lost Bachelors paired with humans there would be over 1000 of the new vimpiri-human hybrids.”
“Exactly. They’re already struggling to find a solution to our imminent population decline. They don’t want to waste any full-blooded vimpiri males while they work on the problem. They figure they have centuries to research and come up with a solution since our lifetimes are so much longer.
“But the sooner Lost Bachelors pair with humans, the faster the hybrids will multiply. Jakob said something about throwing our lives away, and while he said it regarding a shortened lifespan, I think this is really what he was getting after.”
“So the results of the testing… when will we know more?” I was struggling to dredge up distant memories from middle school biology classes. Offspring could take on the characteristics of either parent A, parent B, or a mix of the two. But that was science as I knew it here, on Earth. If pairing with Todd changed Emily’s DNA, did that mean they are the same, too?
Mick rubbed his jaw. “I’m not sure. I’ve been trying to wait patiently, but I can’t help suspecting that the testing is done and they are holding back the results. I have already asked my mother when we can expect them, and she said she would notify us herself. I can’t ask again without appearing as if I don’t trust her, and we need to have her on our side. I think right now we should focus on getting support from the Lost Bachelors and hope that will be enough to win our case.”
